Wednesday, November 13, 2024
Synopsis: Thrust Into Television
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
East Coast Jitters
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.
Wednesday, October 16, 2024
Synopsis: Thrust Into 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.
Thursday, October 10, 2024
The Go In Esso
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.
Wednesday, September 25, 2024
When It Positively Has to Be There
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
Wednesday, September 18, 2024
Synopsis: Thrust Into Television
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.
Wednesday, September 11, 2024
Synopsis: Thrust Into Television
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.