Joseph Lawrence Greene (August 1, 1914 – 1990) was an American author of science fiction novels and short stories whose most familiar creations are Tom Corbett, Space Cadet which, in 1951, became a television series popular with young audiences, as well as Dig Allen Space Explorer, a series of six books published between 1959 and 1962, which focused around the adolescent hero Dig Allen and his interplanetary adventures in the genre of boys' juvenile literature.
He apparently acted as "a ghost writer for the some of most famous comic characters of the era", including The Green Lama, Spunky and Golden Lad (for Spark Publications).
[2] In 1942, he is believed to have begun working for DC Comics on their All-American line of characters including Aquaman, Boy Commandos, Green Arrow, Hawkman, Superman and Wonder Woman.
[2] On October 2, 1950, at the start of TV's third full-schedule season, drawing on the unpublished newspaper strip, and undergoing a last minute name-change, Tom Corbett, Space Cadet premiered on CBS.
[5] Distributed by Field Enterprise Syndicate, it drew heavily on the unpublished 1949 Tom Ranger strip, itself recycled and adapted into the first TV episode.
[6] Written under the name "Carey Rockwell", the series' authorship is not nearly as well documented as that of the Stratemeyer Syndicate's output, but suggestions naturally include Greene himself as editor (an association made by Jerry Bails[1]) if not also writer.
[7] Technical advice was provided by Willy Ley, one of the leading rocket experts of the 1950s, and also a writer of science fiction who not only "helped design the Marx Tom Corbett Space Academy playset" for the character, but was known for years as a key voice urging the development of U.S. space exploration and as author of myriad journal articles and books, including contributions to Collier's Man in the Moon series.
Grosset & Dunlap published its eighth "Tom Corbett" title (Robot Rocket) in 1955/56, marking the effective end of the series on radio, television, and in books.
[5][7] Following an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service in 1965 over delinquent taxes, Rockhill's rights to Tom Corbett were purchased by a new entity, Direct Recordings, Inc. while papers owned by Stanley Wolfe were later donated to the University of Southern California.
[5] In 1984, Greene gave his personal "kinescopes" of the television episodes to TV nostalgia merchant Wade Williams, who subsequently assumed some rights to Corbett.
"[2] Joseph Greene's son, Paul, in a letter subsequently reprinted online, indicated that his father died in 1990, the year of his 76th birthday, but the date and circumstances have not been indicated.