A Regular Caller?

The following was posted on the now discontinued Resurrect Dead message board in September 2011 by user:  3fingerpete. It’s reposted here for posterity.

I’m afraid I can’t offer any proof for what I am about to write. All I can say is this is my first hand account of how and when I first heard the “resurrect the dead on Jupiter” theory. I heard a man call in to Larry King’s radio program advocating the theory at least twice back in the early 1980’s.

My hitch in the military ended in 1980, and I started college at the start of 1981. In July of 1981 I moved into a ratbag duplex just off campus. During my stay there, from July 81 to January 85, I was in the habit of listening to King’s radio show nightly as a way to fall asleep. King usually had an hour or so of open line calls after his guest interview segment concluded. On at least two separate occasions, possibly three, I heard a caller get through to discuss the Toynbee theory, although I can’t recall if the name “Toynbee” was specifically mentioned. I do specifically recall Kubric (sic) being mentioned and the need to resurrect the dead on Jupiter.

I remember these calls after all these years for two reasons. First, I’m a fan of this sort of stuff, and the Toynbee theory was so uniquely bizarre as to get my attention. Second, Larry King is infuriatingly incurious, and rather than let the caller expound on Toynfbee (sic) King wasted little time moving on to the next caller, leaving me cursing King in the darkness of my room. I can’t recall the approximate dates of the calls but I can say with certainty they occurred during the time I lived in that duplex, between 7/81 and 1/85, and that more than one call took place. However, my recollection is that at least one of the calls was placed prior to 4/83.

I did not hear of Toynbee again until running across an Internet article about the tiles sometime in the 90’s. That was the first I had heard about the tiles but I instantly recognized the theory they propounded as the same I had heard on King’s show. I have been totally unaware of Mamet’s play or this movie until this morning when I ran across an online review. That review led me to Google, and hence my joining this message board.

So that is my story, as unsubstantiated as it is. I hope that if you are still searching for tapes of those calls that you don’t focus exclusively on 1980. I am disinclined to believe Mamet is the origin of this phenomena based upon my personal recollections, finding it more likely he, too, either heard the King calls directly or heard of them second hand.

AND

I don’t want to give the impression that I heard a call around March/April of 1983. I reference that time because it marked a transition in my personal circumstances, particularly going from night shift to day shift work, that affected the frequency with which I was able to listen to the late night open line segment of King’s show. So I have a high degree of confidence of having heard one of the calls in the 7/81 – 4/83 window. Beyond that I’m pretty useless.