I’ve always been a voracious reader and loved being alone. I still am and do. As a boy my favorite books had a commonality of “being alone” storylines (often combined with running away and sometimes being around lots of books) – “I Am Legend”, “Robinson Crusoe”, “The Velvet Room”, “From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler” and especially “My Side of the Mountain”.  I still have the original books from my youth. 

Enjoying reading and solitude as much as I did, I was fascinated by the book “My Side of the Mountain” and how the main character just ran away and moved to live in the wilderness.  That sounded pretty good to me.  Except that I hated camping, had/have zero wilderness skills and certainly couldn’t have trained a pet falcon.  However, the concept of escape and solitude was intriguing. Having read the novel so many times as a kid, when I finally got around to seeing the movie, I thought it was pretty satisfying and true to the book. Teddy Eccles played the main character and I felt like I already knew him, and he was “perfect for the role”.  Confirmation bias since he’s on the cover of the book – duh. 

The only other movie that I’ve seen Teddy in is “Bad Ronald” which is a fun and creepy TV horror movie from 1974 that I loved!  Kim Hunter plays the mom of Scott Jacoby … until she dies.  The IMDb summary is spot on: “A perverted teenage boy who lives in the walls of a house finds the house sold to a family after his mother dies, then falls for one of the new residents.”  As you can see from the scene I’m showing here, Teddy Eccles character is unfortunately bound and gagged by “perverted” Scott Jacoby. Zipped lip emoji about the real “Bad Ronald” in my own life! 

Here's a great recap and scenes of the movie narrated by fellow fan of the movie, Adam Carolla

Scott Jacoby is a hard autograph to get, especially now, through the mail But I've bought and added a vintage signed card to my collection until he responds to my friend, Michael's persistent letter writing!

I've also got a couple of autographs in my collection of Teddy Eccles. He is still a generous autograph signer through the mail as of 2024. 

As for the original 1st edition paperback that you see in my collection? Try finding THAT for less than a hundred bucks.  $250 for the VHS on ebay (huh?) even though you can watch it for $1.99 Amazon Prime Video. Creepy "Bad Ronald" is an obsession for collectors that want the original pieces!

Personal P.S. – My mom said it was useless to say “Go to your room!” as a punishment when I was a kid, since that’s exactly what I wanted to do, in order to read and be alone. And write to celebrities for autographs …