Dying of Fright from The Creeping Unknown (1956)

One of the ten best horror movies I ever saw was The Creeping Unknown (1956), also known to many as The Quatermass Experiment. The film concerns three astronauts who have been launched into space aboard a single stage to orbit in a rocket designed by Professor Quatermass. It crash lands with only one of its original crew, Victor Carroon, still aboard. No one knows whatever became of the rest of the crew, so Professor Quatermass begins investigating. The survivor, however, has a strange fungus under his fingernails, which slowly spreads on his hand, then his arm. It does not take long for the good professor to figure out the survivor is mutating into an alien organism, which, if it spawns, will engulf the Earth and destroy humanity. The survivor, driven mad from the ordeal, escapes the hospital and flees the British countryside where the manhunt involved Inspector Lomax of Scotland Yard. The finale, obviously, involves a fully-developed creature of true horror and an ending that ranks up there in popularity as the destruction of the Washington Monument (Earth vs. the Flying Saucers) and the destruction of the San Francisco Bridge (It Came From Beneath the Sea).

 

The Quatermass Experiment was originally a six-part TV serial telecast live over the BBC in 1953. Regrettably, preservation was not applied over the years and only the first two chapters of the television serial exist in recorded form. Written by Nigel Kneale, the television serial was an enormous success with critics and audiences alike, later described by film historian Robert Simpson as “event television, emptying the streets and pubs.” Among its viewers was Hammer Films producer Anthony Hinds, who was immediately keen to buy the rights for a film version. Incorporated in 1934, Hammer had developed a niche for itself making second features, many of which were adaptations of successful BBC Radio productions. Hammer contacted the BBC on August 24, 1953, two days after the transmission of the final episode, to inquire about the film rights and a motion-picture was produced with American actor Brian Donlevy playing Professor Quatermass.

 

Timed to coincide with the broadcast of the television sequel, Quatermass II, the motion-picture went on general release in movie theaters in the United Kingdom on November 20, 1955. In the United States, Robert L. Lippert attempted to interest Columbia Pictures in distributing the film but they felt it would be competition for their own production, It Came from Beneath the Sea, which was on release at the time. Because The Quatermass Experiment was unknown in the United States, Lippert renamed the motion-picture Shock!  

 

Unable to secure a sale, Lippert retitled it again, this time to The Creeping Unknown. United Artists eventually acquired the distribution rights in March of 1956 for a fee of $125,000, and the movie was packaged in a double bill with another horror movie called The Black Sleep, starring Basil Rathbone, Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney, Jr. Four minutes, mainly of expository material, were cut from the runtime of the film, which means there are two versions of the movie, each with a different title and four minutes difference in length. Whichever version you watch today, however, does not affect the impact of the film’s emotional pull. 

 

The Creeping Unknown opened in theatres in the United States in June of 1956 and was so successful that United Artists offered to part-fund a sequel based on the second television series. Ultimately the Quartermass series became a franchise with additional sequels (including a big screen movie starring Barbara Shelley titled Quatermass and the Pit). 

 

This film easily ranks as one of my top ten favorite horror/science fiction classics and is a must-see. The film also includes a bit of trivia: The Guinness Book of World Records subsequently recorded this movie as the only known case of an audience member dying of fright while watching a horror film.

 

Variety magazine, November 7, 1956

 

John W. Campbell's Frozen Hell

Few science fiction tales have left as lasting an imprint as the 1938 novella that later inspired the films collectively known as The Thing. Though the original title may not be familiar to everyone, the story’s cinematic legacy has endured through three major adaptations: the 1951 The Thing from Another World directed by Howard Hawks with James Arness, John Carpenter’s 1982 version starring Kurt Russell, and the 2011 prequel directed by Matthijs van Heijningen.

The tale originated from one of early sci-fi’s most influential figures, a writer-turned-editor who, after 1938, shifted from authorship to shaping the future of the genre through his magazine Astounding Stories—later retitled Astounding Science Fiction and finally Analog. Under his guidance, rising talents such as Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, L. Sprague de Camp, Lester del Rey, and Theodore Sturgeon found their voices. They say a magazine is only as good as the editor and Campbell was among the best of the editors for science-fiction magazines.

For decades, readers assumed they knew the complete story—until a longer, forgotten version surfaced in the archives of Harvard University. This expanded manuscript, running nearly forty-five pages beyond the published novella, was finally released in 2019 under its original name, Frozen Hell, by Wildside Press. The edition features a preface by Alec Nevala-Lee, an introduction by Robert Silverberg, illustrations by Bob Eggleton, and editing by John Gregory Betancourt. Nevala-Lee and Silverberg recount the discovery of the manuscript, its relation to an earlier tale titled “The Brain-Stealers of Mars,” and the editorial decisions that streamlined the shorter version for faster pacing.

In Frozen Hell, the isolation and tension unfold more gradually. A team of scientists working in the Antarctic unearths a buried spacecraft composed of an unknown alloy. Within the wreckage lies a grotesque life form locked in ice—an ancient being unlike anything on Earth. When the researchers bring the specimen back to camp, intending to thaw and examine it, the situation spirals into horror. The creature revives—and worse, it possesses the terrifying ability to imitate any living organism it touches.

At its core, Frozen Hell is a cautionary meditation on curiosity and consequence: a stark reminder that some discoveries are better left entombed beneath the ice. If you are a fan of the story, this extended version is worth reading.

THE WITCH'S TALE (1933 - 1938) Clipping File

One of my favorite radio programs is The Witch’s Tale, a weekly horror program that aired from May 21, 1931, to June 13, 1938. The program was created, written, and directed by Alonzo Deen Cole, who also wrote for such programs as The Shadow and Casey, Crime Photographer. Cole's spooky show was hosted by Old Nancy, the Witch of Salem, who introduced a different terror tale each week. She was among the earliest of radio horror hosts and, ironically, for a time played by a 13-year-old actress names Miriam Wolfe.

 

The majority of the scripts were original stories, but there were literary adaptations as well, such as adaptations of Dracula and Frankenstein. But the best of them are some of Cole’s originals such as “The Devil’s Mask,” which featured a flaming skeleton running around screaming maniacally, and “The Entomologist,” about a mad scientist who planned to rule the world with giant vampire spiders. What I enjoy even more are the productions -- even the music is similar to the type you hear on Universal Studios monster movies.

 

In November 1936, Alonzo Deen Cole edited The Witch’s Tales (plural, not singular), a pulp magazine with short stories which were adaptations of his radio scripts. There were a total of two issues published. Those two issues go for huge prices when available for sale.

 

In the ongoing process of scanning newspaper clippings and magazine articles, enclosed is a clipping file in PDF for The Witch’s Tale, with a surprise included.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/i3z1964q112qd6d/Witch%27s%20Tale%20%28clipping%20file%29%20%231.pdf?dl=0

More TV Guide Trivia from 1959

During the 1950s and 1960s, TV Guide featured a minimum of two pages of news blurbs related to television programming and television personalities. Many of these blurbs were word through the Hollywood grapevine, some reprinted from Variety and Broadcasting magazine. While these items are of historical note, sometimes providing the reasoning for programming changes or unusual casting, a number of blurbs provide us with fascinating trivia.

Reprinted below are a number of those news blurbs from 1959, for programming decisions that never happened. Information in Italics is from me, clarifying what did happen during the course of events.

 

July 4, 1959

Sherry Jackson will be in Japan making the test film for an around-the-world series, ADVENTURES OF SHERRY.

 

June 13, 1959

MGM and Peter Lawford are planning a feature picture, The Thin Man, based on Lawford’s television series of the same name, which is based on the old MGM feature, The Thin Man.

 

June 6, 1959

CBS Films still trying to sell the Clare Boothe Luce series, THE DIPLOMAT, even though Mrs. Luce has resigned as ambassador to Brazil. (April 11) Clare Boothe Luce set as hostess and narrator for THE DIPLOMAT, new CBS Films adventure series about foreign service officers. If Mrs. Luce is confirmed as ambassador to Brazil, her introductions will be filmed there. Sponsor must be approved by her and the State Department.

 

May 9, 1959

Actors Arthur Kennedy and Nick Adams have plans to produce, but not appear in, an anthology series, Conquerors on Horseback, with a theme: horsemen.

 

October 3, 1959

Andy Devine, long-time Jingles in the WILD BILL HICKOK series, has plans for a new show of his own, BIG JAKE.

 

April 4, 1959

Series based on the Beetle Bailey comic strip being submitted to comedian Mort Sahl.

 

October 3, 1959

NBC has financed the test tape for a planned hour-long series, THE WITNESS, based on characters brought before various investigating committees in these and other times.

 

October 3, 1959

Another hour-long series, based on the 1947 British movie, GREEN FOR DANGER, is in preparation.

Assorted Trivia from TV GUIDE

While cleaning out digital files this week, I came across a bunch I snapped with my digital camera from the pages of TV Guide. Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, there were yellow pages for Dan Jenkins's TV Teletype column, which provided the inside scoop on television programs and television personalities. Today, many of those nuggets of trivia are gold for historians. I am sure you will find some of these fascinating, too. But unlike similar postings I have shared in the past, these come from pages that I failed to note the date. These could be from 1957, 1958, 1959, or other years. Please excuse my oversight. I doubt the unknown date for these nuggets will take away from your pleasure in reading these.

(circa November 1957) Claudette Colbert has incorporated herself, now plans to produce TV films.    

(circa November 1957) A ghost-story series, One Step Beyond, is in preparation at Screen Gems, with Boris Karloff, one of Hollywood's kindlier ghosts, pencilled in as the ghost-host.

(circa November 1957) Following her something-less-than sensational appearance on the opening Frank Sinatra Show, Kim Novak has been banned from further TV appearances by her studio.

(circa early 1959) Brigitte Bardot is coming to the United States for television guest appearances. The Steve Allen Show is one that wants her. 

(MG Trivia: Dave Garroway at The Today Show was able to secure her instead) 

(summer 1961) The long-time radio show, Johnny Dollar, is to be turned into an hour TV film series by producer Blake Edwards. 

(early 1958) Dragnet will use an actual case witness in an upcoming episode, a Los Angeles nurse's aide who identified a killer by the appearance of his eyes. She will play herself.

(early 1958) Still another new Western series, this one to star Michael Rennie, is not in the test-film stage. Title is The Tall Man. 

(early 1958) Warner Brothers has a new Western series in mind for John Russell, will have him test the character in an upcoming Cheyenne episode. Probable series title: Lone Star.

(early 1958) Cy Howard may produce and write a series for MGM based on the studio's 1950 hit, Father of the Bride. 

(early 1958) Orson Welles will receive $7,500 for tomorrow's Steve Allen Show, but Gale Storm keeps her asking price at $15,000 per guest shot.

(early 1958) Bette Davis, whose Suspicion show was postponed when she suffered a fall in her home, is now set for April 21 in "Fraction of a Second."

(early 1958) There will be no private-eye series for Mickey Rooney at CBS, as previously thought, and the network show is looking around for a new format for him. 

(early 1958) The new Warner Brothers Western series for star John Russell will be titled Laramie. Peter Brown will be co-star.

(early 1958) Charles Bronson and Angie Dickinson will be regulars in a planned new series, Man with a Camera, based on the experiences of newsreel cameramen. 

(MG Trivia: Angie Dickinson co-starred with Bronson on the pilot episode, which was sold to the network, but she was never a series regular and never appeared on the program beyond the pilot, which consequently aired as the fourth episode of the series.)

(early 1958) Plans fell through for June Lockhart to become the permanent romantic interest on Have Gun-Will Travel, but she'll do one more episode, now scheduled for May.

(early 1958) Tales of Frankenstein, new series of telefilms, takes on ABC's Saturday night ay 10 period in the fall. The show, produced by Screen Gems, has no permanent cast.

(early 1958) Frankie Laine has registered the title and format for a series called Dressing Room "A", a behind-the-scenes story of a singer. He would star.

(circa early 1959) Danny Thomas is trying to sell CBS a new program idea titled "Variety Workshop," to develop new comedians for television.

(autumn of 1957) Warner brothers next season will do a 39-episode, hour-long film series called The House of Wax, with a mystery-intrigue format. No star as yet selected.

(early 1961) The Defenders, written by Reginald Rose as a two-part Studio One presentation, is planned as a weekly hour-long series, with Lloyd Nolan penciled in for the role. 

(MG Trivia: E.G. Marshall was the lead for the series, not Lloyd Nolan.)

(early 1958) Marilyn Monroe, who has shrugged off television, now reportedly saying :maybe" to producer Robert Saudek for an Omnibus appearance in the fall. Perhaps in something written by her husband, Arthur Miller?

(early 1958) NBC already has scheduled Gunn for Hire, starring Craig Stevens, for Mondays at 9 p.m. next season. He plays Pete Gunn, a private eye. 

(early 1958) Jack Wrather (Lassie, Lone Ranger, Sergeant Preston) is making a test film for a series based on the files of "Tom Swift."

(early 1958) Nellie Lutcher has a featured role in Jack Webb's test film for Pete Kelly's Blues.

(early 1958) Helen Humes has replaced Nellie Lutcher in the Pete Kelly's Blues test film. Meanwhile, Jack webb is set to shoot a second test film this month, The D.A.'s Man, to be turned out by the Medic producer-writer team of Frank La Tourette and Jim Moser.

(early 1958) Jack Webb will soon start production on a test film for the Pete Kelly's Blues series he's been planning for four years, possible with Bob Crosby starred. Only hitch: Crosby is still under exclusive contract to CBS.

(early 1958) The Adventures of McGraw got a little too adventurous for Frank Lovejoy. The script called for him to dive through a window, but didn't say anything about breaking his leg -- which he did. The cast comes off next week.

(early 1958) One Man's Family may return to TV, turning up in its new format as an episode on The Loretta Young Show. If the audition is successful, a new series would probably be produced by Miss Young's Lewislor Productions.

(early 1958) Gerald Mohr, once of Foreign Intrigue, who has played the notorious "Doc Holiday" for the Maverick series, may now play the character in a projected Warner Brothers series to be titled Doc Holiday. 

(early 1958) Singer Frankie Laine will do a straight dramatic role in an upcoming Cheyenne episode.

(MG Trivia: He never appeared on the show.)

(summer 1958) Preston Foster of Waterfront has completed a test film for his planned new series, Iron Trail, a Western dealing with trains rather than horses. 

(summer 1958) Warner Brothers, adding a ninth series to its TV schedule, will make Public Enemy, based on the 1931 James Cagney movie.

(early 1958) All plans for a Tarzan TV film series, starring Gordon Scott, now have been dropped in favor of continuing the property as a once-a-year motion picture schedule. Scott will continued in the lead.

Thrillers, Chillers and Killers by Frank Krutnik (Book Review)

Frank Krutnik’s "Thrillers, Chillers and Killers: Radio and Film Noir" is an absorbing exploration of how noir sensibilities seeped across mediums, particularly from Hollywood films to the golden age of radio. What struck me most is how Krutnik dismantles the idea of noir as just a cinematic style, showing instead how it functioned as a broader cultural mood of paranoia, desire, and fatalism. His comparisons between hard-boiled detective fiction, shadow-soaked film aesthetics, and radio thrillers like "Suspense" and "The Whistler" really help illustrate how noir adapted to the intimacy of sound—where voices, music cues, and silence itself could achieve the same dread that chiaroscuro lighting did on screen.

I have always believed certain crime programs for radio such as "Broadway Is My Beat" is pure noir. I enjoy watching film noir and have said many programs (not just adaptations of film noir movies on "Lux Radio Theater") are enough to wet the appetite of those who cannot get enough of film noir but feel they have seen it all. Radio drama from the 1940s and 1950s explores that alternative. Krutnik proves an academic feel but connects the dots between the various aspects that make up film noir to remind us how much fun these radio dramas are. 

While some sections veer into academic theory, the book never loses sight of the pulpy entertainment value that drew audiences in the first place. Krutnik does a fine job of balancing cultural analysis with detailed case studies—whether tracing Barbara Stanwyck’s archetypal femme fatale across both visual and audio storytelling or noting how wartime anxieties shaped the narratives. For anyone fascinated by how noir became a shared language of mid-century America, this book delivers both scholarship and readability. It’s a rewarding read for cinephiles, radio buffs, and anyone curious about how popular culture built and recycled the darker corners of its imagination.

INTERVIEW WITH MICKEY MOUSE

Amidst the two decades of research at various archives across the country, I would frequent across an obscurity from time to time. Normally I would be at a specific archive for a specific subject, but those obscurities raised my curiosity and prompted me to make a quick copy. The thought often crossed my mind that another historian may be interested in this factoid, but more often than not the curiosity fell into my filing cabinet. 

As I now clean through my research files to scan and digitize those obscurities, I realize that those bizarre unexplainable curiosities would be best suited for my blog. So allow me to share this one for your amusement.  

In March of 1935, Julius Selig wrote a brief stage play titled "Interview with Mickey Mouse." It appears to be a stage play of sorts. This only spans a few pages so if you are a Disney fanatic, enjoy this historical amusement.

Link to download:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/c98ovx9s1gzj3pm/Interviewing%20Mickey%20Mouse%20%28March%201935%29.pdf?dl=0

LIGHTS OUT: Radio Horror "The Phantom Meteor"

In the summer of 1942, Sterling Products bought Lights Out to replace its current series, Board of Missing Heirs, for Ironized Yeast. CBS at that time had always banned horror stories, being more stricter than NBC in that regard, but the network decided to relax their position because playwright Arch Oboler was involved. Having made a name for himself as one of the top ten playwrights on network television, his stock in trade as a "stream on consciousness" style often first person singular applied. Oboler was scripting for weekly patriotic programs and wanted to return to his favorite genre -- horror. And because Oboler was already providing scripts for Everyman's Theater over NBC for Procter & Gamble, and just signed with NBC Blue for To the President, CBS wanted to compete.

 

The Continuity Department (the official name for the censorship department) at CBS looked at a handful of the radio scripts proposed and stamped them “acceptable” before the premiere on the evening of October 6, 1942. The series was contracted with the sponsor and the network for a total of 52 weeks. Many of the radio broadcasts that exist in recorded form originate from this 1942-43 series, which is one of the reasons why the playwright has been unjustly labeled as the creator of Lights Out. 

 

Lights Out premiered over NBC Chicago in January of 1934, created and scripted by Wyllis Cooper. NBC, under a specific term in the contract, owned the program and when it was decided to take the late-night horror series coast-to-coast in 1936, Cooper lost control of his own program. A number of authors began submitting radio scripts, including Arch Oboler, who was at that time writing brief sketches for such prestigious programs as Rudy Vallee and Edgar Bergen. Cooper had no objections; he still owned the rights to his own scripts and he was being lured to Hollywood. But with Cooper leaving in 1936, new writers were necessary. Enter stage left: Arch Oboler. 

 

For Arch Oboler to broadcast a weekly primetime horror series of the same name, he had to secure permission from NBC. Executives at NBC had no objection, considering they did not want horror programs and they wanted to retain first option on Oboler for future patriotic programs. CBS was delighted to have their first weekly program written and directed by Arch Oboler, described in the trades as “experimental drama.” The price tag was a reported $1,325 a week. Arch Oboler was able to get by with that figure by not only writing and directing, but hosting as emcee and confining himself to small casts and covering the absence of any music by elaborate sound effects. For many of the episodes, the cast consisted of only two people. 

 

Oboler always felt his Lights Out series was never horror, but was instead a “psychological chiller.” Wyllis Cooper, who created the program, always described his stories as “fantasy” (with a slight touch of horror). 

Cooper’s 1934-1936 concepts, incidentally, would be expanded from the 15-minute format to 30 minutes and a number of them repeated for some of the 1936-39 national run, then recycled for use on the 1945, 1946 and 1947 summer revivals of Lights Out on NBC, then again under a new format, Quiet, Please, from 1947-1949.

 

As for Cooper's Hollywood career... that was short-lived. After arriving in Hollywood in 1937, he found work at 20^th Century Fox and Universal Studios, contributing for such classics as Think Fast, Mr. Moto (1937), Thank You, Mr. Moto (1937), Mr. Moto Takes a Chance (1938), The Phantom Creeps (1939) and Son of Frankenstein (1939). His experience with brutal last-minute re-writes at Universal for Son of Frankenstein gave Cooper sour grapes – he promptly left Hollywood after production concluded and returned to script writing for radio. (He expressed his displeasure for Universal and production of that movie very specifically, including references to Boris Karloff, in the Quiet, Please episode, "Rain on New Year's Eve.")

 

Beginning in 1946, some of his Lights Out and Quiet, Please radio scripts were adapted for television for such programs as Quiet Please: Volume One, Lights Out, and Escape.

 

Thankfully, the 1936-1939 radio scripts for the NBC national run of Lights Out was recently scanned into PDF. This allows us to enjoy such dramas as “The Blood of the Gorilla,” “Satan’s Orchid,” “Queen Cobra,” “The Legion of the Dead,” “Black Zombie” and “One Day it Rained Blood.”

Enclosed below is a link for you to download a copy of the April 19, 1939, broadcast titled “The Phantom Meteor.”

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5dj9fvsmqgbmo64/Lights%20Out%20%28April%2019%2C%201939%29%20The%20Phantom%20Meteor.pdf?dl=0

The Phil Harris and Alice Faye Digital Collection

The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show, was a comedy radio program which ran on NBC from 1948 to 1954 starring Alice Faye and Phil Harris. Harris had previously become known to radio audiences as the band-leader-turned-cast-member of the same name on The Jack Benny Program  while Faye had been a frequent guest on programs such as Rudy Vallee’s variety shows. After becoming the breakout stars of the music and comedy variety program The Fitch Bandwagon, the show was retooled into a full situation comedy, with Harris and Faye playing fictionalized versions of themselves as a working show business couple raising two daughters in a madcap home. But what few do not know is that the comic adventures were – in some aspect – based on their real-life family adventures. The season opener of 1952-1953 had the narrator open with an explanation that Phil Harris had just returned from England with his new automobile and was working on the engine in the drive-way. Turns out Harris really was in England that summer and he did buy a roadster.

 

A few years ago over 2,000 photographs were scanned from an archive containing Phil Harris and Alice Faye’s family and publicity photos, including awards and achievements. We have been digitally restoring the images for a future book project. Below, for your amusement, are a few of those photos chosen at random. (Almost random. I did select the one with the roadster so you can see what it looked like.) The photos, by the way, were the initial scan and not the digitally restored renditions.

Thelma Lou: Betty Lynn, Joi Lansing, Grant Williams, Virginia Gregg (Book Reviews)

Not a month goes by that I do not received a package at my front doorstep containing a book that the author or the publisher asked me to review. Somehow I feel obligated because they went to all the time and expense to ship it to me, and write the customized letter requesting the favor. The most recent box came from Bear Manor Media and contained four biographies about actors and actresses that are long overdue. 

GRANT WILLIAMS

By Giancarlo Stampalia

An accomplished actor in film, theater, television, and old-time radio, Grant Williams, best-known for playing the title role in The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957), gradually shrank away from the world. His film work reads like a Who’s Who of Hollywood’s Golden Years, with such famous filmmakers as director Jack Arnold, writer Richard Matheson, and producer Walt Disney. 

 

After gaining experience in theater and studying with Lee Strasberg, Grant graduated to live American television, and then to small roles in film, such as Written on the Wind (1956) and dozens of television series, such as Gunsmoke (1959), Hawaiian Eye (1960-1963), The Outer Limits (1965), Bonanza (1960-1965), and Perry Mason (1964-1965), among many others. A melancholy loner despite being surrounded by Hollywood hullabaloo, his gradual fade from films and fame left him as an enigma . . . until now. 

 

Through archival and personal documents, the author now divulges details never known by the public and dispels the myths about the man that were created by columnists of the 1950s and 1960s, such as Rual Askew, Emily Belser, Harrison Carroll, Mel Heimer, Hedda Hopper, and Bob Thomas. 

 

I recall his role in The Monolith Monsters (1957) when I grew up, not The Incredible Shrinking Man, but I do hear his name credited on Suspense and Johnny Dollar radio shows from time to time. Grant Williams may be known today only as the Incredible Shrinking Man, but his legacy now finally enlarges again through this titanic tribute to a tallest of talents. Illustrated with 122 photos, many never before seen, including portraits, candid or personal photos, behind-the-scenes photos, publicity and production stills, and frame captures from films and television shows. Bibliography, a List of Film and Television Credits, and an Index. 

 

Giancarlo Stampalia did an excellent job with this book, helping to preserve the life and career of Grant Williams, who might otherwise have fallen into obscurity by now. 

 

 

UNCREDITED: THE LIFE AND CAREER OF ACTRES VIRGINIA GREGG

By Lona Bailey

She had one of the most recognizable faces and voices in American media for over 40 years. On the Have Gun - Will Travel radio program, she was Missy Wong. On I Led Three Lives, she was a villainous Comrade of the Communist Party who kept close eyes on Herbert A. Philbrick. But her voice remains largely uncredited and it seems unlikely all of her radio work will ever be fully documented. Consider her legendary performance as the voice of "Norma Bates" from Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 classic Psycho, who provides the closing narration of the movie but is never credited on screen. 

 

In radio she was a semi-regular on classics like Dragnet, Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, and Richard Diamond, Private Detective. On television she made guest appearances on Gunsmoke and The Twilight Zone. In film she gave her most memorable performances in productions including Operation Petticoat, and Spencer's Mountain.

The character actress was well-loved by those who worked with her and I was pleased to see someone went to the trouble of documenting her career in a book.

 

GONE TOO SOON: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF RISING STAR STEVE IHNAT

By Linda Alexander

In 1967, Steve Ihnat was on top of the world in Hollywood, an actor on the precipice of true stardom. He was seen as both a heavy and a leading-man type, an actor who could fit into any role that came his way. He was making excellent money as a guest star on virtually every episodic show on television, seen on the screen most every night. Star Trek, The Virginian, The Outer Limits, and many other shows were already part of his resume. He’d branched off into movies, finding himself up against heavy-hitting superstars. Casting directors rang his phone constantly, and he never wanted for work. He was moving into writing and directing movies, and his personal life was turning the page into a deeper, more meaningful story. He was just beginning to live the life he’d always wanted for himself. 

 

Five years later, Steve Ihnat was dead. He was a man of international mystery, from the country of his birth, Czechoslovakia, to his home country, Canada, to his adopted country, the United States. His existence proved to be one of intrigue, not only in a great many of the roles he played, but in some of the underlying tones of his personal life. This was the late ‘60s and into the early 1970s. The world was in great turmoil with much change going on. Certain things were happening behind the scenes that would alter the direction of Steve Ihnat’s story, one which became a tale not even Steve could have imagined. Not even he could have written such a script if he had been trying to put together a movie with him in the starring role ... and that’s exactly what he had been doing. To this day, Steve Ihnat stars in a mystery which continues to develop.

 

Linda Alexander contacted his family and thus scored what is always essential for writing a biography: going directly to the source. She also interviewed people who worked with him. Through exclusive never-before-published photographs to exclusive recollections from colleagues, her biography about Steve Ihnat will be the quintessential book you ever need.

 

WHEN A GIRL’S BEAUTIFUL: THE LIFE AND CAREER OF JOI LANSING

By Richard Koper

Joi Lansing made a career in Hollywood at a time when being blonde and curvy was much appreciated. Although she never became as successful as Jayne Mansfield or Mamie Van Doren, let alone Marilyn Monroe, she carved out a path for herself, appearing in several iconic television shows. In the 1960s, she took a new route by becoming a singer, earning praise for her newfound talents.

 

Insecurity about her looks and talent plagued her all her life. In growing older, she did everything to stay young and beautiful. Nevertheless, Joi was also acute enough to know that it had taken more than good looks to become famous. In 1965 she stated that, “Looks are important, of course. But after the looks go, what does a girl have? What I mean is, a girl has to have more than just looks to succeed in Hollywood.” 

 

“When a Girl’s Beautiful” — The Life and Career of Joi Lansing tells the story of a vulnerable, sweet and talented woman, who gave her all to become famous and struggled to survive in the harsh world of show business. With an overview of Joi Lansing’s film and television appearances, it also contains rare pictures and many never-before-seen photographs from family albums. It’s enlivened with quotes and anecdotes of people who knew and worked with her. If you wanted to know anything about the actress, this book covers her entire life and career and is illustrated heavily with lots of photographs.

George O'Brien and The Lone Ranger Mystery

Seems I have a photograph in my archives that remains a mystery. Correctly dated 1936, cowboy actor George O'Brien posed outside the Strand Theatre, in East Los Angeles, California. The actor was playing cowboy heroes on the big screen so it seems unlikely he played the role of the famed radio masked man on stage, but rather one of his movies was being screened at the theater that week. But the mystery resolves about who played the role of The Lone Ranger on stage. Was this a performance? Was this a brief stage play? 

It is a known fact that had producer George W. Trendle, back in Detroit, learned about this, he would have thrown a fit. He was adamant about having anyone masquerade as The Lone Ranger on stage without his permission. The Lone Ranger on stage was more than likely unauthorized and slipped through the cracks without being observed by Trendle.

So... who was that masked man? 

ORCHIDS AND ERMINE (1927) Movie Review

A number of years ago I saw a 1927 silent comedy, Orchids and Ermine, starring Colleen Moore as a 1920s flapper girl, “Pink” Watson, a switchboard operator at the Ritz Hotel, who abandons her dream of wearing orchids and ermine after numerous disappointing experiences with real and fraudulent millionaires. Richard Tabor, an unassuming but wealthy young oil tycoon, arrives at the hotel and switches identities with his valet Hank to avoid notoriety. Richard and Pink proceed to fall in love, while Hank wins the heart of Ermintrude, a gold-digging flower girl who believes him to be the real millionaire. After a series of amusing misadventures, each lands in jail. When all is resolved, Pink finds herself married to a real millionaire.

 

While the plot sounds cute (and perhaps zany) I have to admit the film not only had charm (thanks to the performance of Colleen Moore) but was highly entertaining. Now, I do not watch a lot of silent films but I manage to view about half a dozen every year and after decades of movie watching I can say this film is easily on the top ten list of must-see silent classics. So entertaining that this film made it on the American Film Institute’s 2000 list of the “Top 100 Funniest American Movies.” 

 

Exteriors for the film were shot on location in New York City, helping to preserve what was part and parcel of the roaring twenties on camera. Shortly after the arrival of the troupe in the city, from Los Angeles, the weather turned cold and rainy. This gives the film the distinction of being one of the first major motion pictures to show the streets of New York in the rain (the studio, making the most of a bad situation, chose to say they had planned for it to rain, and it was the lack of rain that had kept the troupe from returning to Los Angeles from New York on schedule). Cameras were placed in hidden locations so scenes could be shot with unsuspecting pedestrians, however when viewing the rushes of scenes just show, one news boy was seen staring directly into the camera in every shot; the sharp-eyed boy had noticed the hidden cameras in every instance.

 

But the child who really steals the film is Mickey Rooney, at the age of four. A number of reference guides and websites will claim this was Rooney’s film debut, but he did appear in a short subject prior. Naturally, this film pre-dates his popular Mickey McGuire series. And Rooney has a larger-than expected role as a millionaire midget.

 

I recommend you do yourself a favor and find this movie to watch. 

 

 

 

FOUR BOOK REVIEWS: Peter Mark Richman, Peter Marshall

Once again I feel obligated to provide a number of brief book reviews for a box that arrived on my front door, from Bear Manor Media publishing. I am posting stars to rate my opinion of the books, from one star to four stars, but do not let my opinion sway your purchase decisions. If the subject matter is what suits you, consider one of these as beach reading material. I know I took all four with me to the beach last week to read.

GOMER SAYS HEY!  **

By Denny Reese

While several books have been written on The Andy Griffith Show where the Gomer character premiered, this is the first tome devoted to the spin-off series, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. Here is an insider’s look at the sixties’ TV show from creation to analysis. Marine history is provided and the author’s viewpoint of Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.ranked high with the service. The book also includes in-depth reviews of select episodes. There is career-spanning bios of the show’s main stars, recurring characters are featured, and there is a bounty of hand-picked photos throughout.

 

Included is an exclusive interview with one of the last remaining stars of Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C., Ronnie Schell. The Mayberry franchise is extremely popular to this day. Now here’s a humorous and informative record of the years a hayseed recruit went toe-to-toe daily with his sergeant—invariably saving the day—and enriching the lives of everyone around him through side-splitting, sometimes heart-tugging life lessons.

 

 

 

DEANNA DURBIN: A HOLLYWOOD FAIRY TALE  *

By William Harper

Never has a “star” blazed more brightly across the Hollywood silver screen world as did Deanna Durbin. Without any stage or movie experience she flashed on the screen with a box office smash in 1936, at the age of fourteen, and continued with financial successes year after year – movie after movie to become Hollywood’s highest paid actress. In 1949, at the age of 28, she walked away from all of it too take up housekeeping and raising children with her third husband in the environs of Paris, France - stepping out of the spotlight into anonymity. However, when she died April 17, 2013 obituaries from around the world loudly proclaimed – Deanna Durbin was not forgotten.

 

In the pages of this book you will find biographical information as well as a look at every movie she starred and co-starred. 

 

I have a policy not to review a book if it is bad, avoiding the uncomfortable means of writing a negative review. But Bear Manor Media sent this to me and I feel obligated so I do want to put this out. I read the book in two hours. I truly expected a lot more about Deanna Durbin, and I suspect spending a few hundred hours browsing newspaper archives online, cinema magazines and even Variety’s online database would have provided me with so much more about the singer-actress. That is not to say this is a bad book, but when an entry for a movie devotes more time providing me with a plot summary than the behind-the-scenes trivia related to background production, adding newspaper reviews of the movies, I was slightly disappointed. A good read? Yes. Could there have been a lot more? Yes. If I spent money buying this book, I would have really been disappointed.

 

 

BACKSTAGE WITH THE ORIGINAL HOLLYWOOD SQUARE  ****

By Peter Marshall and Adrienne Armstrong

With a Foreword by Alex Trebek, this is one of those books that is quintessential for fans of television quiz programs. Peter Marshall, influenced by brother-in-law Dick Haymes, started his career as a big band crooner. Shortly thereafter, he hooked up with Tommy Noonan to form the comedy team of Noonan and Marshall. They appeared in major nightclubs and theatres throughout the country and made a number of appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show which established them with television viewers nationally. 

 

Later, Peter starred in Bye-Bye Birdie on stage in London and Skyscraper on Broadway. He has returned to the stage many times during his long career in such shows as The Music Man, 42nd Street and La Cage Aux Folles among many others. Peter has starred in films, television series (dramatic, variety and game shows), nightclubs and concerts. He now hosts a top radio show on The Music of Your Life radio network, and continues to perform in concerts all over the world and has released two acclaimed CD's. 

 

This is his book, Backstage With the Original Hollywood Square, is certain to be a big hit with game show afficionados and fans.

 

 

I SAW A MOLTEN WHITE LIGHT…  ****

By Peter Mark Richman

Peter Mark Richman is a true Renaissance man: actor, writer, director, producer, and painter. He is also one of those character actors that did almost everything. A star of film (William Wyler's Friendly Persuasion), theatre (A Hatful of Rain, Albee's The Zoo Story) and more than 500 guest star roles on TV including The Twilight Zone, Bonanza, The Love Boat, Mission: Impossible, Three's Company, Dynasty, and many others. He is instantly recognizable to millions, but his legion of fans haven't heard his extraordinary life story… until now.

From his childhood in South Philadelphia, to leading roles on Broadway and in Hollywood, Peter Mark Richman took time to tell many stories about the luminaries he encountered during his six decades in show business and about the spiritual quest that was the main influence in his life as a father of five, grandfather of six, and as a husband married to the love of his life for 65+ years. He recounted the production of a fantastic film often overlooked, The Dark Intruder (1965), how the cast and crew caught walking bronchitis during filming of an episode of The Outer Limits, and other fascinating recollections.

I SAW A MOLTEN WHITE LIGHT… is not just another celebrity autobiography but a highly personal work from a very public figure. This is his story.