East Coast Jitters

On this date in 1938, the infamous radio drama of H. G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds" (1898) was broadcast. The program allegedly caused a nationwide mass panic. Not quite. Though millions of Americans huddled around their radios nightly, relatively few were listening to CBS when the broadcast began. Most of the country was tuned to NBC’s popular, Chase and Sanborn Hour, featuring Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. Perhaps during a commercial break, some switched to CBS. At any rate, on the heels of The Great Depression, it would not take much for some to panic. Immediately following 9/11 brought a similar sense to NYC residents every time an airliner flew overhead.

The brilliant, all-too-realistic radio broadcast, was a Halloween episode of the CBS Radio series, The Mercury Theatre on the Air, directed and narrated by Orson Welles. He converted the story into a "breaking news" style of storytelling that described a Martian invasion of—perfect location—New Jersey. Some gullible listeners may have mistook those fake bulletins for the real thing. The New York Times, not waiting for the rest of the nation to report, plastered headlines indicating the broadcast had caused a nationwide hysteria. Few in Iowa were that concerned. 

Note: Working with Welles's concept, composer Bernard Herrman conducted the live orchestra as if they were a dance band, but interrupted by news bulletins. Welles credited Herrman's work as a major component of the production's suspense. The Mercury’s attempt to make the show believable succeeded far beyond their expectations. Above, Welles conducts the broadcast as Herrman handles the orchestra.

A more in-depth history can be found HERE

Synopsis: Thrust Into Television

Many movie character actresses found steady work and arguably more exposure with the advent of television. 

JULIE ADAMS (1926-2019)

Julie Adams, born Betty Adams, moved to Hollywood to start an acting career at the age of twenty, using her given name until 1949. She was very busy on the big screen for a little more than a decade with numerous Westerns to her credit throughout the 1950s. Pale in comparison to her four decades in television, however.

She co-starred in films opposite some of Hollywood's top leading men, including James Stewart, Rock Hudson, Tyrone Power, Glenn Ford, Charlton Heston, and Joel McCrea. In the middle of all these famous actors was Ricou Browning and Ben Chapman, both playing the Creature from the Black Lagoon whether underwater or on terra ferma, respectively. The 1954 science fiction film was a popular offering for mid-century audiences and brought notority to Adams.

Her television roles are too numerous to mention, here. A few notable guest-starring roles were for The Andy Griffith Show, in another attempt to find a love interest for the sheriff of Mayberry, five episodes of 77 Sunset Strip, three roles for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and four episodes of Perry Mason as she sailed into the 1960s. Adams starred opposite Hollywood royalty for twenty-four episodes of The Jimmy Stewart Show, and two episodes of The Doris Day Show. She guest-starred on many popular shows of the 1970s and 1980s including, Code Red, with nineteen episodes and ten episodes of Murder, She Wrote, before winding down here career in the early 2000s.

The Go In Esso

The Esso name was primarily used by its predecessor Standard Oil of New Jersey after the breakup of the original Standard Oil company in 1911. The name Esso is the phonetic pronunciation of the initials 'S' and 'O' in the name Standard Oil. Standard Oil of New Jersey started marketing its products under the Esso brand in 1926. In most states the company used the Enco (Energy Company) brand name, and in a few, the Humble Oil brand name. Esso Gas Stations were primarily found in the eastern United States and some states in the midwest. By 1972, the name Esso was largely replaced in the U.S. by the Exxon brand after the Standard Oil of New Jersey bought Humble. The Esso name remained widely used elsewhere. In most of the world, the Esso brand and the Mobil brand are the primary brand names of ExxonMobil, while the Exxon brand is used only in the United States alongside Mobil. The Esso brand name was discontinued in the U.S. by 1977, yet Europe continues the brand name. Today it is a trading name for ExxonMobil.

Note: Above, an Esso gasoline tanker, pulled by the bulldog of trucks, Mack, filling the tank at its namesake station in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1943. 

Photo by John Vachon via shorpy dot com

When It Positively Has to Be There

A dramatic staged photo illustration of a 1940s Mack semi pulling a Fruehauf Corporation (1918-1996) trailer near Greenville, Alabama. Mack Trucks gained a reputation for dependable service. In the early Thirties, their famous icon and logo, a tenacious Bulldog, began appearing on the hood of the trucks. "Built Like a Mack Truck" became common slang for anything indestructible. 

In 1900, the three Mack brothers opened their first bus manufacturing plant to complete an order from a sightseeing company. The first "Mack bus" was delivered. Two years later The Mack Brothers Company moved to Brooklyn and in 1905 moved their headquarters to Allentown, Pennsylvania, remaining there for over a century until their relocation in 2009 to Greensboro, North Carolina, home of its parent company, Volvo. 
 
Photo by John Vachon via shorpy dot com

Synopsis: Thrust Into Television

Many movie character actors found steady work and arguably more exposure with the advent of television. 

PETER BROCCO (1903-1992) was an American film, television, and stage actor. He has over 300 credits during his sixty-year career. Typically uncredited in his pre-television roles, it was in this medium that he became a frequent actor in Westerns, dramas and comedies. 

Brocco kept busy from the late 1930s through the 1980s with various ethnic and supporting roles as a clerk, a shop owner, a bartender, a doctor, or a villain. There was always a spot in films where he could fill a scripted character. His supporting role in Spartacus (1960) is of note as is One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) as the wheelchair-bound patient.

But Brocco was most visible on the more intimate small screen, like displaying a comedic talent portraying Peter The Waiter for eight episodes of The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1955–1956). He was cast in criminal roles for The Adventures of Superman, as an Organian council member in a Star Trek episode. He appeared three times in the police drama, Adam-12, and three times in The Rockford Files. For the television miniseries, The Winds of War (1983) he played the father of Ali MacGraw's character. He kept working until 1991, a little over a year before his death.

Synopsis: Thrust Into Television

Many movie character actors found steady work and arguably more exposure with the advent of television. 

BARTLETT ROBINSON (1912-1986) 

Robinson was an American actor who performed on radio, stage, film, and television for five decades. The mustachioed Robinson and his recognizable voice were often cast in mostly serious roles of authority such as military officers, wealthy ranchers, sheriffs, corporate executives, doctors, and judges whether in Westerns, dramas, or playing the straight man in comedies.

Despicable Them

There is a long list of villains in Western films. They represented the timeless battle between evil and good. The mainstream popularity of television beginning in the mid-fifties offered a daily or weekly dose of characters deserving of a house slipper thrown in their direction. Several women were cast as rotten individuals, of course, but my focus centers on bull-headed male characters and the actors who portrayed them.

These villains "owned" the townsfolk by intimidation. They were self-centered, devious, narrow-minded, and filled with hate. They ignored truth and refused to acknowledge facts: selective deafness. They could rouse a bunch of spineless citizens---likely after an extended saloon visit----into hanging an innocent man.

I have chosen six of the most widely recognized television Western "bad guys" who worked the small screen about the same era. Their careers are indelibly etched as villains though each had their turn in modern dramas and as decent men. 

Beginning clockwise from the upper left:

Robert J. Wilke  (1914-1989) was considered the best golfer in Hollywood during the 1950s. His demeanor on the links changed completely, however, when given a script, and was likely television's most hated Western villain. His grizzled voice, rustic dental grille, and curling lip made him the villain's poster child. Wilke could be a disgruntled rancher, a leader of outlaws, or just looking to start trouble.

John Anderson (1922-1992) portrayed President Abraham Lincoln three times due to his overall facial resemblance. The versatile actor was more repetitive when it came to the Western, however. Anderson might play a widowed patriarch who takes Bible passages out of context to justify his actions. One of his errant sons may be accidentally killed in a shoot-out and he is dead-set on getting his own justice, refusing to listen to reason.

Harry Lauter (1914-1990) devoted much of his later life to his own painting and the operation of an art gallery. He knew how to perform routine stunt work, learning from a master, stuntman/actor, Jock Mahoney. Lauter sort of set the groundwork for Myron Healey who advanced the belligerent, smirking trouble-maker for the Western genre. He might come off initially as a sweetheart but his ulterior motive soon reveals his true persona.

R. G. Armstrong  (1917-2012) was a frustrated writer and playwright but found the better-paying job of acting much easier. Armstrong might portray a land owner, often with limited education, with a singular purpose: keep strangers off his land. Whether a crooked sheriff or a Bible-toting townsman, he refuses to hear another point of view. His mind is made up. 

Leo Gordon (1922-2000) was a screenwriter when he was not acting. He was typically a hired gun or essentially the same as a ranch foreman. The towering Gordon, with his furrowed brow, slit eyes, no lips, and an angry baritone delivery, was a force to be reckoned with. Especially in black.

Myron Healey (1923-2005) continued his WW2 airman duties to retire as a captain in the United States Air Force Reserve in the early 1960s. But that discipline of cooperating with his fellow airmen disappeared when playing rotten characters behind studio cameras. Healey could be despicable as the town bully, double-crosser, or stirring up trouble with an easily swayed crowd. His condescending attitude was his trademark.