A Game-Changer

 

On this day in 1964, the last of 732 Boeing KC-135 Stratotankers was delivered to the United States Air Force and assigned to the 380th Air Refueling Squadron at Plattsburgh Air Force Base in January. The KC-135 was developed to replace Boeing's slower, piston-engined KC-97 tanker and improve efficiency with Boeing's B-52 bomber. The Model 367-80 “Dash Eighty served as proof-of-concept prototype and is very similar in appearance to the Model 707 and 720 airliners but is structurally a different aircraft. It is also shorter than the 707 and has a smaller diameter fuselage. The newest Stratotanker in service is KC-135R 64-14840 at 56 years old. It is presently assigned to the 121st Air Refueling Wing, Ohio Air National Guard.

Noted Television Themes

 

Bruce Broughton (1945-) is an American orchestral composer of television, film, video game scores and concert works. He has composed several highly acclaimed soundtracks over his extensive career. Broughton has won eleven Emmy Awards and has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score for Silverado. He won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series, Hawaii Five-O, Dallas, and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, to name three. Boughton won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Main Title Theme Music in 1995 for JAG and was nominated for the same award in 2002 for First Monday.

JAG theme

First Monday theme 

Bruce Broughton bio

On The Precipice of Stardom

Marsha Hunt (Marcia Virginia Hunt 1917-) is an American actress with a career spanning over seventy-five years. As of this writing, she is the oldest living and one of the last surviving actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood. She is also the oldest living member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Unable to find a suitable college for her drama training, the Chicago-born native found work modeling for the John Powers Agency and began taking stage acting classes at the Theodora Irvine Studio. She was one of the highest-earning models by 1935. She appeared in popular films including Pride and Prejudice (1940), in which she was quite amusing, Cry 'Havoc' (1943), The Human Comedy (1943), and one of her last noted films before the advent of television was, Raw Deal (1948). Hunt's 1941 contract with MGM kept her busy for six years, providing strong supporting characters.

Television offered mostly dramatic guest-starring roles from the Fifties through the Eighties. She played everything from grandmas to judges. Notable early performances were for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, two anthology series, Climax! and Zane Grey Theater, and numerous, well-hidden roles on detective or drama series during the Sixties and Seventies. She was a cast member for the fourteen-episode, Peck's Bad Girl (1959). The versatile actress never found superstardom yet her longevity proved valuable to many casting directors. Semi-retiring in the early Sixties, television and the stage remained her focal points.

The Western Gone Wrong

Tumbleweeds is a satirical perspective on the American frontier. The comic strip ultimately ran in over 300 newspapers from September 6, 1965, to December 30, 2007. Writer-artist Tom K. Ryan (1926-2019) offered deadpan humor to poke fun at all the clichés and stereotypes of western movies. Set in and around the town of Grimy Gulch with a population that hovered up or down of 50, it was one of the longest-running western comics made continuously by the same author. Ryan had a large following among Native Americans because of his respectful use of those characters. 

The comic strip was remarkable for its large cast of 50 wacky-named characters. The title character (above) got his namesake from the dried-out pieces of plants that tumble away in the wind. It symbolized the laconic cowpoke who has no real ambition to do anything. Much of the comic's humor came from its silly dialogue and the artist's over-the-top stylized characters for both humans and animals. Tumbleweeds is sometimes compared to Johnny Hart's popular B.C. or Wizard of Id strips. The comic strip's dry humor had a target audience, but aside from a nostalgic return, the strip has lost much of its relevance today. Good examples can be found at Tumbleweeds.

Note: From 1969 until 1978, Ryan's assistant was Jim Davis, of "Garfield" fame. Both men worked in Muncie, Indiana. 

Ignoring The 8th Commandment

 

On this day in 1974, Louis Clark Brock (1939-2020) was named Sportsman of the Year. The El Dorado, Arkansas native began his major league career with the Chicago Cubs in 1961 but spent the majority of his big league career as a left fielder for the St. Louis Cardinals as an outfielder. Brock is best known for his base-stealing record, once the major league career and single-season record-holder. Brock and his wife, Jackie, were both ordained ministers serving at Abundant Life Fellowship Church in St. Louis. 

It's Durward Not Durwood

 

Durward Kirby (Homer Durward Kirby, 1911-2000) was an American television host and announcer. Born in Covington, Kentucky, his family moved to Indianapolis, Indiana when he was 15. He graduated from Arsenal Technical High School in Indianapolis before entering Purdue University to study engineering. The lure of being a radio announcer won out. 

Though Kirby appeared as a host, announcer, or guest on other television programs, most notably as co-host on Allen Funt's show, Candid Camera, his tenure as a regular on television's The Garry Moore Show brought him national attention as did another regular, Carol Burnett. The versatile performer acted in sketches, sang, and danced, transitioning with ease from slapstick to suave product pitchman. He and Moore joined forces for humorous skits, spoofing a historical event, or portraying any number of comical characters. The 6' 4" Kirby's mellow personality served him well, often becoming a foil in skits. Kirby authored three books: My Life, Those Wonderful Years; Bits and Pieces of This and That; and a children's book, Dooley Wilson.

A Noted Television Composer

 

Jerry Goldsmith (Jerrald King Goldsmith 1929-2004) was an American composer and conductor known for his vast work in the film industry but also for television scoring and concert works. He composed scores for five films in the Star Trek franchise and three in the Rambo franchise, as well as for Logan's Run, Planet of the Apes, Patton, Chinatown, Alien, Poltergeist, Gremlins, Hoosiers, Air Force One, and many others. His 1997 opening fanfare for Universal Pictures debuted with the release of The Lost World: Jurassic Park. His silver screen compositions continued into the Twenty-first Century. "Among his many other works" is synonymous with Goldsmith. His film scores were not always identified with him, ranging from light and melodic to very dissonant scores in a style where the melody is nearly non-existent, like many of his influences of early 20th-century composers.

Goldsmith found early work at CBS in 1950 as a clerk typist in the network's music department under director Lud Gluskin. There he began writing scores for radio shows, later progressing into scoring live CBS television anthology series. As the decade progressed, he scored multiple episodes of the television series The Twilight Zone and Dr. Kildare. Goldsmith composed the theme for The Man from U.N.C.L.E. in 1964 and later added his touch to the James Bond parody, Our Man Flint, 1966, and its sequel In Like Flint, 1967. His military/action flare with snare drums was sometimes a giveaway during this period. His most notable television theme in the Nineties was the theme for the UPN series Star Trek: Voyager in 1995. He won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Main Title Theme Music. It is the most beautifully constructed theme of any Star Trek television series. His score and theme for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, 1979, was later used on the popular television series, Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987 with an arrangement by Dennis McCarthy.

Note: Goldsmith was good friends with fellow composer, Morton Stevens, of Hawaii Five-O theme fame. Stevens also wrote the theme to television's Police Woman. Goldsmith confessed he used that theme for his Derek Flint character film series. He turned Steven's theme "inside-out" but the melody is lifted intact. Both composers were amused by the reuse.

Approved by Dale Evans

Penny Edwards (Millicent Maxine Edwards 1928–1998) was an American actress on stage, film, and television. The particularly obscure actress was performing on Broadway at twelve before being cast about a decade later in her first film, My Wild Irish Rose in 1947. Around this time, during Dale Evans' pregnancy leave, the vivacious blue-eyed blonde filled Evan's role opposite Roy Rogers in several B-movie western films, Trail of Robin Hood, Spoilers of the Plains, Heart of the Rockies, and In Old Amarillo, among others. Evans specifically requested her. She took a break from the saddle with two 1951 crime noir films, Missing Woman and Million Dollar Pursuit.

Though Edwards announced her retirement in 1954, she returned to appear in a number of television shows, among them were Cheyenne, The Restless Gun, Bachelor Father, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and Perry Mason, before ending her career with two appearances on Death Valley Days in 1958 and 1961. Her main focus after retirement was devoting herself to Christian service.

Last Lunar Footsteps

On this day in 1972, the Ascent Stage of the Apollo 17 Lunar Module Challenger lifted off from the landing site in the Taurus-Littrow Valley, The Moon. Onboard were Mission Commander Eugene A. Cernan (above) and the LM Pilot, Harrison H. Schmitt. The Command Module was piloted by Ronald Evans. Cernan and Schmitt had been on the surface of the Moon for 3 days, 2 hours, 59 minutes, 40 seconds. During that time they made three excursions outside the lunar lander, totaling 22 hours, 3 minutes 57 seconds. Apollo 17 was the last manned mission to the Moon in the Twentieth Century with Cernan as the last man to stand on the surface of the Moon. Apollo 17 was the first mission to have no one on board who had been a test pilot. X-15 test pilot Joe Engle lost the lunar module pilot assignment to Schmitt, a geologist.

More details at Apollo 17

Public Transportation for The Isolated

 

The Union Traction Company of Indiana (1897-1930) operated 410 miles of interurban trackage making it the largest interurban system in the state. Charles Henry, a prominent attorney and politician from Anderson, acquired the “mule car” streetcar system in Anderson in 1891. The interurban lines alleviated the isolation of rural Indiana, running first from Anderson to Alexandria, then to Indianapolis, Marion, Muncie, and Kokomo. The company also ran 44 miles of streetcar lines in Anderson, Elwood, Marion, and Muncie. The UTC was acquired by Indiana Railroad in 1930. They also purchased several other interurban lines creating a new system, running for an additional ten years. By the end of 1941, interurban service was abandoned.

Not Aiming for Subtle

Robert Strauss (1913-1975) was an American Broadway and film character actor arguably best known for his prolific television work. But he hit instant stardom in 1953 on the big screen as Stanislas "Animal" Kuzawa in Stalag 17 —a role he created in the original Broadway production two years earlier—for which he garnered an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. His character set the stage for numerous quirky military roles to follow, like Kelly's Heroes or M.A.S.H. The year before he played CPO Lardoski in Sailor Beware and Sgt. McClusky in Jumping Jacks, for the Martin and Lewis comedies. In 1954, he was back in the military for The Bridges at Toko-Ri, then joined Mickey Rooney as half of the lame-brained duo in the wacky comedy, The Atomic Kid here. By the late Fifties, mobster roles became more common. Even in comedies.

For being such a bombastic performer, it seemed logical to spread his work all over living rooms in America where he made the small screen seem bigger. From television's early days of anthology series such as Studio One, or The Alcoa Hour, viewers found him difficult to forget. He made appearances on Medic, hosted and sometimes starring Richard Boone, and was naturally in uniform for The Phil Silvers Show. Westerns somewhat broke any Strauss stereotypes, and he guest-starred on Wanted: Dead or Alive, Stagecoach West, Bat Masterson, and Wagon Train, to only name three. By the Sixties, silly comedies included Strauss in The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, and others. He was a cast member on Mona McCluskey, opposite Juliet Prowse and Denny Miller, as Sgt. Stan Gruzewsky. Strauss finished out the decade guesting on comedies in the likes of Get Smart, Mr. Terrific, and The Monkees.

By 1975, it was back to the silver screen for the post-apocalyptic film, The Noah. Not only was it his last performance it was also a rare starring role as the last human on earth, the title character. Strauss is the loan performer in this incredibly forgotten film. A tough assignment any way you slice it. However, his career had long since solidified him as one of the most famous and polarizing character actors of his era.

Note: Above photo of Robert Strauss, William Holden, and Harvey Lembeck in Stalag 17.

Richard Kimble's Brief Encounters

Lt. Gerard tops off his gas tank for a cross-state journey after Kimble's fingerprints show up on his office wire. Kimble has been arrested following a minor traffic accident but he and a cellmate, Fatso, break jail before Gerard arrives. The friendly, slightly mentally challenged cellmate may have been falsely accused of a past crime he did not commit. Something that resonates with the pediatrician.

Fatso, 1963

Guest star Jack Weston as Fatso

Man Cannot Predict The Future

 

Anticipating this date in 1959, Lawrence Earl Flint, Jr. must have been astonished by the advancements in aviation in less than twenty years. Entering the United States Navy he was soon designated a Naval Aviator two days before the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor on December 7. Farthest from his mind at the time would be his future opportunity to set three FAI World Altitude Records by flying to the edge of space in a McDonnell YF4H-1 Phantom II.

Accelerating from level flight at 47,000' with afterburner to Mach 2.5, Commander Flint pulled up into a 45° climb and continued to 90,000'. He had to shut down the Phantom’s two jet engines to prevent them from overheating in the thin atmosphere. He continued on a ballistic trajectory to 98,556 feet'. At the time, this was just short of the 100,000' feet that delineated the beginning of space. Diving back through 70,000', Flint restarted the engines and flew back to Edwards AFB, California.

A Christmastime Tradition

 

On this date in 1964, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer premiered on NBC in the United States. The stop motion animated special was produced by Videocraft International, Ltd., later known as Rankin/Bass Productions. It was sponsored by General Electric under the umbrella title of The General Electric Fantasy Hour. Burl Ives narrated the film as the animated Sam the Snowman and the music was written by Johnny Marks. The adventure classic still captivates young children thanks to a swift pace and the encounters with a variety of characters. Since 1972, the special has aired on CBS. More at RUDOLPH.

A Noted Television Theme

 

Robert David Grusin (1934-) is an American composer, arranger, producer, and jazz pianist. He has composed scores for feature films and television and won numerous awards for his soundtrack and record work, including ten Grammy Awards. Grusin has scored nearly 100 films, including his Oscar win for best original score for The Milagro Beanfield War, as well as Oscar nominations for The Champ, The Fabulous Baker Boys, The Firm, Havana, Heaven Can Wait, and On Golden Pond.

His television work is equally expansive with music for numerous series from the Sixties through the Eighties. His themes for The Name of The Game and It Takes a Thief, both 1968, were particularly cool in their day. Though not the arrangement heard on the series, Johnny Gregory aka Chaquito is the definitive version for the Robert Wagner series here.

16,000 Hours of Flight Time

 

Lieutenant Colonel Fitzhugh Lee "Fitz" Fulton, Jr. (1925-2015) stands next to fellow test pilot, Colonel Joseph Cotton, with the North American Aviation XB-70A Valkyrie in the background at Edwards AFB, California in the Sixties. Upon his retirement from NASA, Fulton had flown more than 16,000 hours in 235 aircraft types. But his flying days started much earlier during World War II. 

In 1946 Fulton participated in Operation Crossroads, the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll. He made 225 sorties flying a Douglas C-54 Skymaster four-engine transport during the Berlin Airlift, and then the Douglas B-26 Invader light attack bomber during the Korean War. Fulton graduated from the Air Force Test Pilot School in 1952. He served as project test pilot for the Convair B-58 Hustler supersonic bomber and flew it to a World Record Altitude of 85,360.66 feet during 1962. He flew the B-52 “mother ships” for the X-15 Program from Edwards, AFB.

Fulton continued as a research test pilot for NASA, flying as project pilot for the YF-12A and YF-12C research program. He flew all the early test flights of the NASA/Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft that carried the space shuttle prototype, Enterprise.