Richard Kimble's Brief Encounters

 

Tuesday Weld plays a sculptor with hysterical blindness and hard-to-fathom mood swings in Dark Corner (1964), her single appearance on the popular show. Kimble, innocently working as a farmhand soon recognizes her condition which is treatable. She is not interested. Weld puts the man in manipulative. She likes getting what she wants. The bust she creates of Kimble gets the attention of the local sheriff. Kimble is just a Weld phone call away from being visited by the police. Weld's character is quite annoying. Crahan Denton, Paul Carr and Elizabeth MacRae add authenticity to this episode.

House of Horrors (1946)

 

On this date in 1946, House of Horrors had its US premiere. The most notable stars were Robert Lowry and Virginia Grey who were [over] shadowed by Rondo Hatton as "The Creeper." A struggling sculptor saves Hatton from drowning, taking the disfigured man into his care. The artist makes him the subject of his next sculpture but critics denigrate his work so he plans to eliminate any differing opinions by having the Creeper attempt to kill them all. The artist's unfaithful behavior does not sit well with Hatton for his final comeuppance. The lightning coming from The Creeper's eyes is offered only for the gullible.

Though normal-appearing when he was young, Hatton's unusual facial features developed during the early 1920s, the result of acromegaly, a syndrome caused by a disorder of the pituitary gland. Though he acted occasionally in the 1930s, his most unique place period was in the 1940's horror films under shadowy lighting. The film's release was about a month after Hatton's death by a heart attack due to his condition. It was his next to the last film. 

Toward The Unknown for Test Pilots

 

On this date in 1956, the first of two prototype Martin XB-51 three-engine attack bombers crashed on takeoff from El Paso International Airport which shared runways with Biggs AFB. The pilot, Major James O. Rudolph, survived the crash although he died the next month from severe burns. Staff Sergeant Wilbur R. Savage, engineer, was killed instantly. 

This XB-51 had finished its flying sequences the month previous for the movie, Toward The Unknown, 1956. Read my comments at Unknown Hollywood. “Gilbert XF-120” was the fictitious name given to the bomber in the film. Pieces of the wreckage were still marked as such. The second prototype had previously crashed at Muroc Army Air Field (now Edwards AFB) in 1952. The XB-51 was a serious competitor to Boeing's B-47 but the Air Force contract was awarded to Boeing. Pilots have said the XB-51 was nimble, innovative and fast but casting a pall on the whole program was the crashing of both planes.

Cutting It A Bit Close

 

Founded in 1915 in Akron, Ohio by William Francis O'Neil, along with his business partners, formed The General Tire & Rubber Company, an American manufacturer of tires for motor vehicles. Prior, O'Neil had a Firestone franchise in Kansas City but became dissatisfied with Firestone as it began reducing the territories of its earlier franchises. He decided to be a competitor. During the depression, as competitors failed, The General Tire & Rubber Company bought out Yale Tire and Rubber, and India Tire and Rubber. By 1933, their market share increased to 2.7%, a relatively large number considering the company's limited production. Commonly referred to as simply General Tire, in 1987 the Continental Tire the Americas, LLC sold its tire division to Germany's Continental AG.

Note: Rather than pay General Motors or "run into" legal departments for the use of a 1949 Buick, the art department did numerous alterations to the car by hand painting over the photo. Most notably is the modified grille, the removal of Buick's famed portholes on the fenders but adding a chrome piece on the hood and the removal of the Buick emblem, etc. Also note the ball the boy is chasing has also been painted or airbrushed into the photo. Click or poke to enlarge.

Belle of The Broadcast

 

On this date in 1932, actress and singer, Belle Baker (1893-1957), hosted a radio variety show, the first such from a moving train. She was the first person in the USA to do so. The program came from a Baltimore and Ohio train that made its rounds of the New York area and was aired over WABC, New York City. She talked about the weather then local news regarding hometowns or the train stations. 

Eddie Cantor once called her “Dinah Shore, Patti Page, Peggy Lee, and Judy Garland all rolled into one.” Baker was a regular on Jack Denny's radio program on CBS. She performed on stage and in film. She was featured in "Atlantic City" 1944, "Charring Cross Road" 1935, and "Song Of Love" 1929. She made her final television appearance in "This Is Your Life" 1955.

Beetleware Not Made by Volkswagen

 

In the 1930's, Beetleware, a thin plastic-type material---thinner than the later Melmac or Melamine plastic ware---was used for just about everything in the US. Beetleware was a division of American Cyanamid (not cyanide) Company, a leading American conglomerate that became one of the nation's top 100 manufacturing companies during the 1970s and 1980s. The "urea formaldehyde powder" had technically originated in London (called Beatl, or Beetleware) around 1925. While traveling in England, Christian A. Kurz, Jr. (Kurz-Kasch Company, Dayton Ohio) convinced American Cyanamid to start the licensing and import the formula to the US. 

Universal Space Command

Co-founded by Ralph Matthews and Karl Hassel in Chicago in 1918, Zenith was a manufacturer of radio and television receivers and other consumer electronics, headquartered in Glenview, Illinois. The company was a small producer of amateur radio equipment with the name "Zenith" coming from ZN'th, a contraction of its founders' ham radio call sign, 9ZN. Joined in 1921 by Eugene F. McDonald, the Zenith Radio Company was formally incorporated in 1923. For many years Zenith used the slogan "the quality goes in before the name goes on," a phrase lifted from the Geo. P. Bent Piano Company, also of Chicago. 

Today, Zenith Electronics, LLC is an American research and development company that develops digital rights management technologies. It is owned by the South Korean company LG Electronics, formerly known as GoldStar. Zenith may be best known for the first practical wireless television remote control, Space Command, from 1956. Then again, they were the first company to experiment with subscription television, known as Phonevision. When a preannounced broadcast was ready to begin, viewers would call an operator at Zenith who would send a signal with the telephone leads to unscramble the video. 

Landing Anything Anywhere

 

On this day in 1956, while carrying the U.S. Navy’s Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket, problems developed aboard both the research rocketplane and the “mothership.” The modified Boeing B-29-95-BW Superfortress had a runaway propeller on the Number 4 engine, outboard on the right wing. The propeller broke apart, slicing through the Number 3 engine, the fuselage, and striking the Number 2 engine.

Research test pilot John “Jack” MacKay, in the cockpit of the Skyrocket, had called “No drop!” because of problems with the rocketplane, but he was jettisoned so that the mothership could maintain flight and make an emergency landing. McKay dumped the Skyrocket’s propellants and glided to the lake bed. The Superfortress pilots, Stanley Butchart and Neil Armstrong landed the plane safely on the lake bed at Edwards AFB. Even more monumental, Armstrong would safely land on the Moon thirteen years later.

Using Television to Teach by Telephone

 

In 1963, a single teacher could personally instruct thousands of pupils in dozens of schools over special TV telephone lines. General Television & Electronics brought this modern form of educational television to the nation's schools through its own subsidiaries in 32 states. This advanced system used inexpensive TV cameras and receivers. Today, Zoom, for one, comes to mind.

Began in 1936, General Telephone & Electronics Corporation (later GTE Corporation), was the largest independent telephone company in the United States during the days of the Bell System (later AT&T). The company operated from 1926 until 2000, when it was acquired by Bell Atlantic with the combined company adopting the name, Verizon.

Cementing a Vacation Plan

 

When this 1960 Ford convertible was new, the Lehigh Cement Company had fourteen plants in eleven states producing cements for the use in paving applications, concrete pipe, masonry products, oil and gas drilling, precast concrete structures, soil stabilization, and farm silos. While the terms concrete and cement are often used interchangeably, they are not the same. Cement is an ingredient of concrete. It’s the fine grey powder that, when mixed with water, sand and gravel or crushed stone, forms the rock-like mass known as concrete. Cement is a small percentage of a concrete mixture, acting as the binding agent or glue in concrete.

Lehigh began as a single-mill operation in 1897 in Ormrod, Pennsylvania, producing Portland cement. By the mid-Seventies, Heidelberg Cement, one of the world’s leading producers of cement and ready-mixed concrete, acquired Lehigh to become today's Lehigh Heidelberg Cement Company. 

The Sweet Smell of Success

 

As a rallying point for the troops in World War II, enlisted men sheared their hair to the scalp, called crew cuts. This barbering trend made it possible for nearly anyone to cut hair and display a barber pole. Around 1954 the crew cut became a phenomenon called the flat top haircut. The style left about an inch of hair sticking straight up. It took Butch Wax to make it so. A thick, sticky paste that kept the hair on the vertical. The sweet-smelling gel came in both jars and tins. Long winter walks to school revealed, however, Butch Wax could freeze solid, creating a small table of sorts. During class time, the thaw might make the student near you dream of their county fair's cotton candy.

The legend began in the 1920s in the basement of Benjamin Clarke, an amateur scientist and barber from Kansas City, Missouri. He created the Lucky Tiger Manufacturing Company and soon a new hair tonic called, “Lucky Tiger Tonic.” Lucky Tiger became the most popular brand of men’s grooming and barbershop products in America. Today their headquarters are in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After four lads from Liverpool performed on The Ed Sullivan Show, hairstyles started a new phase which left Butch Wax out in the cold. 

Short Haul Airliner from Convair

 

On this date in 1947, the Convair CV-240 made its initial flight from Lindberg Field, San Diego, California. It all began with American Airlines' requirement to replace their fleet of Douglas DC-3s. Featuring a more modern design with cabin pressurization, the 240 series was a success. The 240 had a long development cycle that produced many variants during a twenty-plus-year period for civil and military use worldwide. The final 600 series used Rolls-Royce Dart turboprop engines with four-blade propellers, replacing the piston engines with three-blade propellers. 

This is Jim Rockford

 

Jim, it's Shirley at the cleaners. You know that brown jacket---the one that looks so great on you---your favorite? We lost it.

The Rockford Files Message: The Real Easy Red Dog, 1975. 

Stefanie Powers guest stars.

Seven-Month Lifespan of a Phantom II

 

On this date in 1967, McDonnell Aircraft Corporation, St. Louis, Missouri, delivered the 2,000th F-4 Phantom II to the United States Air Force. It was assigned to the 40th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 33rd Tactical Fighter Wing, at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. 

By mid-September, the Phantom II was being flown by Major Lloyd Warren Boothby and 1st Lieutenant George H. McKinney, Jr., of the 435th Tactical Fighter Squadron. Following a Rolling Thunder attack on railroad sidings at Trung Quang, the plane's wing was hit by anti-aircraft cannon shell. Boothby fought to keep it under control for as long as possible, but ultimately both pilots were forced to eject some 35 miles from their base. For their airmanship in trying to save their airplane, Boothby and McKinney were each presented with the Distinguished Flying Cross in a pre-dawn ceremony at Korat Royal Thai Air Force Base by President Johnson.

The Cutting Edge of Power Mowers

 

REO built the first lightweight personal power lawnmower but the engine was not quite so powerful as this advertisement suggests. REO ran a series of humorously illustrated advertisements suggesting mowing was fun for everyone at any age. One's dad or grandfather may have been the proud owner of these first-generation, self-propelled mowers. 

REO got its name from the initials of Ransom Eli Olds, involved in many enterprises in and around Lansing, Michigan until his death in 1950. Reo Motors became well-known for its trucks, supplying many trucks and engines during World War II. Reo started the Lawn Mower Division in 1946 with the common push-type reel mower and slapped an engine on top to create a power mower. But by the early 1950s, the mower industry was rapidly changing to the rotary-blade mower, which was much cheaper to produce and easier to operate than the reel-type unit which Reo continued to sell, hurting sales for the next few years. Reo eventually marketed a rotary mower, but their design was a mechanical disaster. In 1954 Reo sold their lawnmower division to Motor Wheel Corporation of Lansing, and continued the Reo line. But the "writing was on the wall" and Motor Wheel sold their entire Reo line to Wheel Horse Products in South Bend, Indiana in 1963. Wheel Horse continued the Reo line for several years before dropping the Reo name.

Sir, That Will Be $6,700,000,000

 

You would probably just drive away if your service station attendant (that is not Roy Rogers) presented you with such a bill. Yet, according to the advertisement, that is the amount the American motoring public spent on gas and oil in 1953. Motorists are naturally interested in getting more mileage for their gasoline money. American Cyanamid Company was also interested and did something about it through the development of Aerocat Synthetic Fluid Cracking Catalysts. Sounds bogus. They should have left out the "cracking" part.

Founded by Frank Washburn in 1907, American Cyanamid Company was a leading American conglomerate---one of the nation's top 100 manufacturing companies by the 1970s and 1980s. The same company that made Beetleware kitchen and household items. The company was a pioneering leader in the field of catalyst manufacture. Their research in cooperation with the petroleum industry illustrated how chemistry helped make more miles per gallon and power at a lower cost. With a catalytic merger in 1994, the company ceased operations. The Cyanamid compound in Wayne, New Jersey later served as the headquarters of Toys R Us, also defunct, as Wayne's cyanide...er...cyanamid curse continued.

The Typical Time to Drink Coffee

 

The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (known in the twentieth century simply as A&P) created the Eight O'Clock Breakfast Coffee brand in 1859. Originally established as Gilman & Company, they began selling bags of whole-bean coffee on their own. But their coffee was not given a true official name until 1919. From 1915 through 1975, A&P was the largest grocery retailer in the United States and, until 1965, the largest US retailer of any kind. The Walmart of their day with popular low prices. Their survey reported that the majority of those typically drank coffee at 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. A&P then took out the word "Breakfast" from the name, rebranding its signature coffee as simply Eight O'Clock Coffee. It became the most popular brand of coffee in the United States by 1930. A&P began closing their original, narrow, inner-city stores in the 1950s, and started opening modern supermarkets instead.

A&P continued to sell Eight O'Clock Coffee in its family of stores until the supermarkets closed in late 2015. Eight O'Clock is now sold in other supermarkets across the country. The Eight O'Clock Coffee Company is a subsidiary of Tata Consumer Products, which is headquartered in Montvale, New Jersey with its production plant in Landover, Maryland. Tata Global Beverages has owned Eight O'Clock Coffee since 2006.

Operation Meetinghouse

 

On this date in 1945, the XXI Bomber Command, Twentieth Air Force, began launching 325 Boeing B-29 Superfortress from airfields on Guam and Saipan on a two-night incendiary bombing of Tokyo, the capital city of the Empire of Japan and the most populous city on Earth. Under Major General Curtis LeMay's command, the Superfortresses would bomb at low altitude at night. As the construction of Japanese cities made them vulnerable to fires, the bombers would carry incendiary bombs rather than high explosives. Operation Meetinghouse was the single deadliest and most destructive air attack in history. 279 airplanes reached Tokyo. 12 were shot down and 42 damaged with 96 crewmen either killed or missing in action.

Making Early Television More Significant

There were a few significant films, Butterfield 8 (1960), A Rage to Live (1965), and Sounder (1972), but Carmen Matthews (1911–1995) spent the majority of her career in front of television cameras. Mattews began her acting studies in the States before studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Her professional acting appearance began with the Stratford-on-Avon Shakespearean Company before moving back to the United States. Her alto voice quickly became a fixture on American television, appearing in six episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Depending on its screenplay, she displayed her full range, handling dramatic or comedic roles with aplomb. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, she appeared on many of the era's popular series as diverse as The Fugitive to M.A.S.H. The next decade found her in a significant role as Mamie Eisenhower for five appearances in the mini-series, Kennedy (1983).

A Royal Wedding and Then Some

 

On this date in 1951, Royal Wedding premiered. The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical comedy is set in 1947 London and starred Fred Astaire and Jane Powell with direction by Stanley Donen. Astaire and Powell play siblings, echoing the real-life theatrical relationship of Fred and Adele Astaire, who are persuaded to take their Broadway success to London to coincide with the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten. The highly influential event leads to two additional marriages with fellow cast members, Sarah Churchill, and Peter Lawford, respectively. 

The film features Astaire's innovative set design idea from the 1920s which has him "dancing" on the walls and ceiling singing, "You're All the World to Me." Other signature dance routines by Astaire, along with a competent performance by Powell helped make the film one of the top box office hits of the year with an MGM profit of $584,000.

Keeping Your Whities Tidy

 

S.O.S Soap Pads were invented in 1917 by Irwin Cox of San Francisco, California, an aluminum pot salesman. The pre-soaped pad was intended to clean pots. Cox soon found out that the S.O.S pads had many more uses beyond pots and pans. Like white-wall tires in 1956, above. Cox introduced the soap-encrusted steel wool pads to potential new customers as a business card. His wife was responsible for the name with the S.O.S acronym standing for "Save Our Saucepans." The name was registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office simply by removing the last period, becoming unique and not to be confused with the international distress signal. The business was eventually bought by General Foods and by the late 1960s it was sold to Miles Laboratories who then sold the brand to Clorox.

A Mississippi River Icon

 

The SS Admiral was a famous excursion steamboat operating on the Mississippi River from the Port of St. Louis, Missouri until 1978. From 1938 to 1940 Steamers Service Company rebuilt the metal hulled SS Albatross into five decks, two of which were air-conditioned---an unheard-of luxury at the time. The exterior and its interior furnishings and decorations were designed in the Art Deco style. The futuristic outward "casing" hid the side paddles and "gingerbread" details of traditional steamers under sleek steel designed and fabricated by Banner Iron Works. The largest passenger vessel on US inland waterways at the time, the 374' Admiral departed on her first excursion cruise from the St. Louis waterfront in June 1940. The steamer could carry as many as 4,400 passengers. Among the ship's many amenities included food service, a large ballroom, and a lido deck. Steam power gave way to diesel power by the early Seventies. The ship was briefly re-purposed as an amusement center in 1987, then converted to a casino in 1990. The boat was dismantled for scrap metal in 2011.

Rolling on The Deegan

 

By 1956, drive time from the New York Thruway to Manhattan was nearly cut in half by the eight-mile stretch of the Interstate Highway System, designated the Major Deegan Expressway after William Francis Deegan. Known officially as Interstate 87 by 1957, the highway now extends over 333 miles along the eastern edge of New York State becoming a major thoroughfare between New York City and Montreal. 

According to a Portland Cement Association advertisement, the expressway was a dramatic example of the benefits of the Interstate Highway System then being built. Their "new-type concrete" became 20% stronger in the first five years. What happens after five years is up for debate. Concrete may break apart under stress or sections may rise or lower due to winter freezing and thawing. Given the advancements in paving machinery and materials, it would seem today the preferred highway paving material is [new-type] asphalt offering quieter travel and less expense to produce per mile.

A Noted Television Theme

 

Based on a 1966 television movie, Fame is the Name of the Game, starring Tony Franciosa, The Name of the Game (1968-1971) was a groundbreaking 90-minute television series with three rotating stars, Tony Franciosa, Gene Barry, and Robert Stack. They never appeared together. The program had the largest budget of any television series at that time. It was part of NBC's "wheel" series which went on to spawn other rotating series, a few of which were quite successful. The Name of the Game rotated each week among the three characters who all worked for a large publishing empire in some capacity. 

The trendy late Sixties opening graphics were accompanied by a jazzy, pulsating theme by the multi-award-winning, Dave Grusin (1934-), American composer, arranger, producer, and pianist. Audio link at theme.

The Creation of Lake Mead

On this day in 1936, Boulder Dam was fully completed. It was officially renamed Hoover Dam after President Herbert Hoover by a joint resolution of Congress in 1947. Hoover Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River on the border between Nevada and Arizona. The dam created Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States by volume when full. Construction began in 1931 during the Great Depression and was dedicated in 1935 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The heavily traveled US 93 ran along the dam's crest until October 2010, when the Hoover Dam Bypass opened (above).

Danger Man Begets Secret Agent

Drake, John Drake. Patrick McGoohan's distinct, clipped delivery, intensity, charm, coolness and physicality was a winning combination for his American television debut in 1960. Drake utilizes intelligence and quick thinking instead of a gun. Series strove for realism with inventive plots, and exotic locales during the Cold War. Edwin Astley's jazz themes add era coolness. The short-lived but popular thirty-nine-episode series set the stage for the longer-running US revival as Secret Agent. My full assessment at Unknown Hollywood.