The adventure takes place in an estate called Inverness, and the action focuses upon a mysterious and (at first) illusory extra tower of the mansion, which many visitors have attempted to reach, ultimately vanishing in the process. The program was originally broadcast in 7-minute-long episodes; collectively, these run a total of seven and half hours.
History
The Fourth Tower of Inverness was written and directed by Meatball Fulton. The initial story concept was created while he was staying at a farmhouse outside of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The farm was called Inverness, and was named and designed after a house the original owner had owned in Inverness, Scotland. It had been abandoned for ten years, but was being looked after by an old caretaker. The initial characters were written for other guests at the farmhouse, who were friends and acquaintances of Meatball Fulton, although the series was not produced at this time.[3]
In June 1970, Meatball Fulton moved to Fort Edward, New York to help found ZBS Media, with a focus on producing commercials for various musical acts such as Billy Joel, Little Feat, Jefferson Airplane and Captain Beefheart. After about a year and a half of this, he became bored with writing commercials, and had an uncomfortable experience producing an album for Abbie Hoffman.[4] Remembering the radio play he had written back in Montreal, he decided to produce his own script. The story was fleshed out, actors were cast, and the episodes were produced periodically whenever new scripts were written. Some of the featured actors cast were Robert Lorick in the lead role, Murray Head, and Dave Herman as narrator.[5] The relaxed nature of the production can still be heard, with occasional breaking of character by the cast, and laughing when lines are flubbed.
Eventually a backer was found, Augie Blume of Grunt Records,[5] who helped shape the series down to 7-minute daily episodes, and half-hour weekend episodes. The Fourth Tower of Inverness played on 397 college radio stations[6] between 1972 and 1973. A poster created by David Byrd helped promote the series. More than 10,000 posters were distributed in lots of 20-25 to participating radio stations. "The poster provided space, integrated into the 'Lotus Jukebox' (a key element in the plot and one of the focal points of the poster), which permitted stations to insert their call letters, frequency, and time of broadcast."[6]
The series was a hit on college radio stations,[3] and has since been broadcast in several different formats, such as on NPR Playhouse and The Watt from Pedro Show. It has also been available for purchase in many audio formats including record, cassette, CD, and MP3.
Story
Jack Flanders, a hitchhiker and drifter, is invited to the estate of his aunt, Lady Sarah Jowls. As Jack approaches the estate, he sees an outline of the mansion silhouetted against the night sky, with four distinct towers reaching up to the sky, though his aunt and everyone else who lives there insists there are only three towers.
Jack slowly becomes familiar with the strange inhabitants of Inverness, including the mansion's caretaker, Old Far-seeing Art, who can listen to the aum sound emanating from the center of the Universe, and tends to the estate's hedge maze, a place that only he can enter without going insane. Others include Dr. Mazoola, an alchemist of the first order, Jives the Butler, who is an old quick-change artist with a dry sense of humor, the Madonna Vampyra, an energy vampire who lives in the mansion's hollow walls, Wham Bam Shazam, a young man with a penchant for the 1950s whom Chief Wampum is teaching to fly, and Little Frieda, a Venusian who is a "million and a half" years old, but looks like a small girl with no pupils in her eyes, large pigtails, and a penchant for smoking huge Havana cigars.
The group teaches Jack what he needs to know in order to successfully enter, and, more importantly, return from, the Fourth Tower, ranging from an explanation of the Tibetan Wheel of Life to a past-life regression and a lesson on how to draw energy from trees.
Lord Henry Jowls, the husband of Lady Jowls, vanished without a trace into the mysterious Fourth Tower some years ago. Lady Jowls is disturbed by the recent happenings at the mansion, in particular an old jukebox somewhere in one of the mansion's towers, that plays 1950's songs whenever an accident is about to occur. Accidents have been on the rise in Inverness recently, and range from simple misunderstandings involving an aroused kundalini to a fire-breathing dragon.
Jack realizes that the mysterious jukebox must be playing in the invisible Fourth Tower, and is determined to find its source. It is said that in the past, eight people have seen and entered the fourth tower of Inverness, and none have returned alive. Jack Flanders is the ninth.
The performer playing Jives the Butler was uncredited; he was the husband of Valerie Mamches, who played Meanie Eenie and Lady Jowls.[7]
Special thanks to Robert Durand, The Jefferson Airplane, John Romkey, Michael Roach, Augie Blume, Max & Miles and all the gang at ZBS.
Dedicated to Rango, his vision made all this possible.
"The Fourth Tower of Inverness has been recorded on adhesive tape"
Intro
Each episode of The Fourth Tower of Inverness begins:
High upon a mountain, above the pines and mist that surrounds the bay of Inverness, there stands an incredible mansion. Its three towers appear to pierce the sky, its windows are like a thousand eyes turned inward, and its doors, hinged on time, open into endless space. The Fourth Tower of Inverness!
Jukeboxes
During his adventures, Jack Flanders encounters several jukeboxes, each with a different theme.
Whirlitzer of Wisdom– This is the first jukebox discovered, and the only one outside of the Fourth Tower. For the price of a dime, it plays various wisdoms by people such as Ram Dass and Don Van Vliet (billed as the Venerable Van Vliet). Its name is based on the classic Wurlitzer jukebox.
Great Green Jade Jukebox– This is the second jukebox discovered, inside the Fourth Tower. It is able to bring a city to life, replaying encounters in the order of the tracks on the jukebox, starting with track #1. In order to reach the next step, track 2 must be played, and so on.
Bodhisattva Jukebox– This is the final jukebox discovered inside the Fourth Tower. It features the song "Kirtan" by Bhagavan Das, and listening to it brings understanding. The characters' heads and arms expand, in a way similar to a story of the bodhisattvacanon.
Lotus Jukebox– Source of the haunting music (1950's songs). Although this is what he is searching for in The Fourth Tower of Inverness, Jack Flanders does not find it until The Ah-Ha Phenomenon.
The idea of a jukebox that plays whenever an accident was about to occur was based on and paying homage to an episode of the radio show I Love a Mystery, which featured an organ playing in the basement whenever an accident would occur. The name of the lead character, Jack Flanders, was also in homage to the hero on I Love a Mystery, Jack Packard.[2]
The past life regression sequence is taken from a real life experience, and shows the actual past life relationships between series author Meatball Fulton and actress Laura Esterman, who plays the Madonna Vampyra.[2] The technique of regression was developed by William Swygard, adapted from the pamphlet Multi-Level Awareness and was available as a booklet by mail.
Sequel
The Fourth Tower of Inverness is the beginning of the Jack Flanders series, and several of the characters introduced continue to appear in later adventures. Jack briefly returns to the mansion of Inverness in Moon Over Morocco (1973), and the quest for the Lotus Jukebox continues in The Ah-Ha Phenomenon (1977). A direct sequel was produced in 2000, Return to Inverness, which re-united most of the original cast. A related series "Steam Dreams of Inverness" was cut short when funds ran out.
Related Research Articles
ZBS Foundation, a small non-profit audio production company, was founded by Thomas Lopez in 1970 with a grant from Robert E. Durand as a working commune, located on a donated farm in Upstate New York. ZBS stands for "Zero Bull Shit". The commune's purpose was to raise consciousness through media, specifically full-cast audio dramas. The foundation is "one of the most prolific producers of contemporary radio drama."
Jack Flanders, full name Jonathan L. Flanders, is the protagonist of a series of audio dramas produced by the ZBS Foundation. He is the creation of writer and sound artist Thomas Lopez and is played by actor Robert Lorick.
Laura Esterman is an American actress, known for portraying Ruby the Galactic Gumshoe in contemporary radio dramas, and for her Drama Desk Award and Obie Award winning performance in the 1992 original stage production of Scott McPherson's Marvin's Room.
Moon Over Morocco is a 1974 radio drama, the second in ZBS's Jack Flanders series. Originally broadcast as fifty twelve-minute episodes, the serial was written and directed by Meatball Fulton.
The Incredible Adventures of Jack Flanders is a radio drama produced by the ZBS Foundation and Meatball Fulton. It is the fourth of the Jack Flanders adventure series.
Return to Inverness is a 2000 radio drama, the twelfth in ZBS's Jack Flanders series. The serial was written and directed by Meatball Fulton, as a sequel to the 1972 story The Fourth Tower of Inverness, the first in the series.
Midnight at the Casa Luna is a radio drama, produced by the ZBS Foundation. The two parts of the story were released individually in 1998 and 2000; part two has the title The Hungry Ghosts. It is the eleventh of the Jack Flanders adventure series, and combines elements of Americana and Old-time radio with metaphysical concepts such as Sufi wisdom and Tibetan Buddhism.
The Ah-Ha Phenomenon is a radio drama, produced by the ZBS Foundation. Released in 1977 this is the third of the Jack Flanders adventure series, and combines elements of Americana and Old-time radio with metaphysical concepts such as Sufi wisdom and Tibetan Buddhism.
Dreams of Rio is a radio drama, produced by the ZBS Foundation. It is the fifth of the Jack Flanders adventure series, and combines elements of American culture and Old-time radio with themes of lost cities, jungle exploration and shamanism. It immediately precedes but is not part of the "Travels with Jack" adventures, each of which is entitled Dreams of ...
Dreams of the Amazon is a radio drama, produced by the ZBS Foundation. It is the sixth of the Jack Flanders adventure series and the first of the Travels with Jack sub-series. It combines elements of American culture and Old-time radio with themes of lost cities, jungle exploration and shamanism. It is a loose sequel to Dreams of Rio and while it is not necessary to have heard that story first it will help to understand some of the references.
Dreams of India is a radio drama, produced by the ZBS Foundation. It is the seventh of the Jack Flanders adventure series and the second of the Travels with Jack sub-series. It combines elements of American culture and Old-time radio with themes of Sufism, Hindu mysticism and poetry.
Dreams of Bali is a radio drama, produced by the ZBS Foundation. It is the eight of the Jack Flanders adventure series and the third of the Travels with Jack sub-series. It combines elements of American culture, Old-time radio and Sufism.
Dreams of Sumatra is a radio drama, produced by the ZBS Foundation. It is the ninth of the Jack Flanders adventure series and the fourth of the Travels with Jack sub-series. It combines elements of American culture, Old-time radio and Sufism.
The Mystery of Jaguar Reef is a radio drama, produced in 1996 by the ZBS Foundation. It is the tenth of the Jack Flanders adventure series. It combines elements of American culture and Old-time radio with themes of pirates and aliens.
Dreams of the Blue Morpho is a radio drama, produced by the ZBS Foundation. It is the thirteenth of the Jack Flanders adventure series and the first of the Travelling Jack sub-series. It combines elements of Old-time radio with psychic phenomena, supernatural beings and energies.
Do That In Real Life? is a radio drama, produced by the ZBS Foundation. It is the fifteenth of the Jack Flanders adventure series and the third of the Travelling Jack sub-series. It combines elements of Old-time radio with psychic phenomena, supernatural beings and energies.
The Eye of Van Gogh is a radio drama, produced by the ZBS Foundation. It is the sixteenth of the Jack Flanders adventure series and the fourth of the Travelling Jack sub-series. It combines elements of Old-time radio with psychic phenomena, supernatural beings and energies.
Orchids and Moonbeams is a radio drama, produced by the ZBS Foundation. It is the seventeenth of the Jack Flanders adventure series and the first of The Fantastic Voyages of Captain Jack Flanders sub-series. It combines elements of Old-time radio with psychic phenomena, supernatural beings and energies.
The White Castle is a radio drama, produced by the ZBS Foundation. It is the twentieth of the Jack Flanders adventure series and the fourth of The Fantastic Voyages of Captain Jack Flanders sub-series. It combines elements of old-time radio with psychic phenomena, supernatural beings and energies.
The Ghost Islands is a radio drama, produced by the ZBS Foundation. It is the eighteenth of the Jack Flanders adventure series and the second of the Fantastic Voyages of Captain Jack Flanders sub-series. It combines elements of old-time radio with psychic phenomena, supernatural beings and energies.
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