Word Origins

*THOROUGHFARE

New York perhaps thought it had created a new word when it opened its first section of cross-state toll road in 1954, the Throughway, which quickly became known by the non-standard, shortened spelling of Thruway. Beyond the temporary distinction of applying Throughway to a single highway, there is nothing in it that did not already exist in the six hundred-year-old word thoroughfare. Thorough is the ancient spelling of through; fare, used for “passage money,” formerly meant “passage, way.” And thoroughfare has long indicated a “through way between places.”

*Inspired by Charles Funk (1881–1957)

Famous Twentieth Century Ians

 

To American moviegoers and television viewers, the name Ian conjures up a number of English actors: One responsible for a famous actor, another as the lone American actor. The name is of Scottish Gaelic origin and Scotland’s version of John. It was one of the top 10 names in the United Kingdom throughout the 1960s. As of 2019, the name has been in the top 100 in the United States every year since 1982.

Arranged upper left to lower right:

Ian Wolfe (1896-1992) Prolific uncredited American actor
Ian Hunter (1900-1975) English actor; The Adventures of Robin Hood
Ian Fleming (1908–1964), British novelist, creator of James Bond
Ian Holm (1931-2020) English actor; Time Bandits, Lord of the Rings
Ian McKellen (1939-) English actor; X-Men, Lord of the Rings
Ian McShane (1942-) English actor; Lovejoy, Deadwood
Ian Ogilvy (1943-) English actor, novelist; The Return of the Saint

This is Jim Rockford

 

It's Shirley at the Plant and Pot. There's just no easy way to tell you this, Jim--we did everything we could. Your fern died.

Jim's answering machine: Coulter City Wildcat, 1976
Guest star: John Anderson

Peanut Butter Comics

Skippy is an American comic strip written and drawn by Percy Crosby, and published from 1923 to 1945. A highly popular, acclaimed and influential feature about rambunctious fifth-grader Skippy Skinner, his friends and his enemies, it was adapted into an Oscar-winning 1931 film starring Jackie Cooper, a novel and a radio show. An early influence on cartoonist Charles Schulz and an inspiration for his Peanuts, Skippy is considered one of the classics of the form. Nothing like it had ever been seen before in the comic strips. The brilliance of Skippy was that it was the first kid cartoon with a definable and complex personality grounded in daily life.

Today, the most well-known extension of the Skippy name is peanut butter. When the California food packer Joseph L. Rosefield began to sell its newly developed hydrogenated peanut butter in 1932, it was labeled "Skippy" without Crosby's permission, resulting in Crosby invalidating the trademark in 1934. Rosefield persisted in using the name. After Crosby was committed to a mental institution and after the passage of the Lanham Act in 1946, Rosefield was granted rights to the trademark.

Rosefield sold the brand to Best Foods in 1955. Its successor companies claimed rights to the trademark over the objection of Crosby's heirs, and much litigation has occurred on this point over the decades. Skippy is currently manufactured by Hormel Foods, which bought the brand from Unilever in 2013. Skippy is the second oldest leading peanut butter brand after Peter Pan (1920).

Word Origins

*BIGWIG

Although humorously used to designate a person of real or self-fancied importance, the start of the allusion was in fact indicated by the size of the wig a man wore, back in the times of Queen Anne of England and Louis XIV of France. Wigs had been courtly fashion for a half-century or more, but by the beginning of the eighteenth century, they attained exaggerated proportions, some covering the back and shoulders and floating down the chest. The status of a man was marked by the style of wig he wore, and the more important in state or occupation, the more imposing his wig. Eventually, the fashion passed, though the wig or peruke is still retained in British courts of law.

*Inspired by Charles Funk (1881–1957)

Richard Kimble's Brief Encounters

A fellow worker (acquitted of an actual murder) appears to help Kimble escape the local sheriff but he puts the doctor in more danger of being apprehended.

Flight From the Final Demon, 1964
Guest stars: Ed Nelson, Carrol O'Connor

Reel Character Series

 

DORO MERANDE (1892-1975)

Whether a dowdy small-town snoop, a maid, gossip, a terse secretary, or a sour neighbor, Merande's dry wit, high nasal warble, half‐opened eyelids, a smile of childish innocence, or a bewildered look, made her one of the most endearing characters of stage, film, and television. It might have been overkill to have her in lengthy roles, but she pops up delightfully in small doses. I offer a couple of her performances in film and television plus a film of considerably less obscurity.

Prior to television's rising popularity, she could be captured in all her comedic glory in 1949's, Cover Up. Merande's character, Hildy—the maid to end all maids—with her casual asides suggests she is completely out of touch with reality. Far from it. She is a walking encyclopedia of everything that goes on in town, delivering astute, cutting opinions as if they were compliments. It is absurd to Hildy that the prime suspect in an assumed murder is her trusted and kind employer. She takes it upon herself to deliberately set fire to his old college coat—a key piece of evidence—in the backyard. She nonchalantly confesses to him in passing, "I had a little accident with your beaver coat. I was cleaning it and it caught fire—burned up completely."

One of Merande's memorable television performances was in a 1958 black comedy episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents entitled, "Mrs. Herman and Mrs. Fenimore." Merande is a poor widow who has devised a fool-proof plan to kill her crotchety live-in uncle, Russell Collins, for the inheritance money. Merande is delighted when a struggling actress, Mary Astor, becomes her new tenant. Through feigned empathy, Astor elevates Merande to a new level of sophistication and they agree to work together on Collin's demise. But the gullible Merande is unaware she has been duped. Her dumbfounded big-eyed stare at the end seals the episode.

There are many other roles of varying length for Merande, but she was never quite so visually funny in her sporadic appearances in the Cold War paranoia spoof, The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming (1966). Merande is one of the few things that has remained timeless about the film. Dressed in pajamas and robe, she is the ever-vigilant beacon during the assumed invasion. In a burst-out-laughing scene, we see Merande—about four feet off the floor still seated in a chair—placed upon the wall by the Russians to keep her away from the telephone. Her stone-deaf husband, Parker Fennelly, not only cannot hear her screams behind her knitted muzzle, he is completely unaware that she is on the kitchen wall. The Russians were thoughtful enough to include her knitting needle, though not an easy reach. When a friend arrives to rescue her, he finally turns around to ask what she is doing hanging up on the wall. It is a hilarious cartoon moment.

Note: Merande's final role was in the remake of The Front Page (1974). The actress was attending a "Honeymooners" anniversary special in Miami when she suffered a stroke and died at a local hospital. 

Television Talkers

 

Winston Conrad "Wink" Martindale (1933-) is an American disc jockey, radio personality, game show host, and television producer. The Jackson, Tennessee native became a disc jockey at the age of seventeen earning $25 a week. While a college student at Memphis State University, he hosted mornings at WHBQ in Memphis. Martindale's rendition of the spoken-word song Deck of Cards went to No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and sold over a million copies in 1959.

Martindale's first break into television was at WHBQ-TV in Memphis, as the host of Mars Patrol, a science-fiction-themed children's television program. His first game-show hosting was on the show What's This Song? In his six-decade career, he is best known for hosting Gambit from 1972 to 1976 (and again from 1980 to 1981), famously for Tic-Tac-Dough from 1978 to 1985, High Rollers from 1987 to 1988, and Debt from 1996 to 1998. in 2021, Martindale began hosting the nationally and internationally syndicated The History of Rock 'n' Roll, a two-hour weekend look back at music from the 60s, 70s and 80s.

Word Origins

*SKEDADDLE

The earliest recorded use for the American skedaddle, “to flee precipitously,” that has been found is 1861. It is perhaps an alteration of British dialect scaddle to run off in a fright, from scaddle, adjective, wild, timid, skittish, from Middle English scathel, skadylle harmful, fierce, wild, of Scandinavian origin. Some have claimed Swedish and Danish origins, but no one really knows for sure. Thus various writers claim to have traced it to the Greek skedannumi, “rout”; the Welsh ysgudaw, “to scud about”; and the Irish sgedadol, “scattered.”

*Inspired by Charles Funk (1881–1957)

Television Transition

 

Christine White (1926-2013) was an American actress almost exclusively known for her television work in more than 50 television series. She retired from acting in 1976. Prior, White was active in summer stock theatre, being named Most Outstanding Actress at Cape Cod Playhouse for her portrayal of Millie in Picnic. A native of Washington, D.C., she attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she earned an undergraduate degree in English and then began acting in stage productions. She also earned a master's degree in speech and drama at Catholic University. She also studied at the Actors Studio in New York City where she became friends with James Dean. She eventually moved to New York to further her theatrical career.

Though White appeared in a few feature films, her 24-year career was spent in television for such series as Bonanza, Have Gun–Will Travel, The Rifleman, The Loretta Young Show, The Untouchables, Father Knows Best, The Fugitive, and in three episodes of Perry Mason. But White is probably best known for her second appearance on The Twilight Zone in the episode, Nightmare at 20,000 Feet (1963) as the wife of a terrified William Shatner who seems to be the only witness of a furry creature tampering with the airliner's wing. No one believes him until the plane is inspected after landing. 

Note: In 2011, she was the honored guest speaker at the annual James Dean Memorial Service in Fairmount, Indiana.

Word Origins

 

*MADCAP

From its earliest use in 1591, as in Shakespeare’s day, this meant simply one who was crazy, a maniac. Cap, just because it covered the head, was sometimes used for “head,” and mad, used literally, meant “crazy.” Of course, it was also used, and still is, somewhat playfully, in describing one who acted absurdly, silly, or recklessly, in much the same manner as, “He’s got bees in his bonnet,” or like the films of the Marx Brothers.

*Inspired by Charles Funk (1881–1957)

Either Rain Or Gloom Of Night

 

Motor Cargo Industries, Inc. is one of the largest less-than-truckload carriers. The Utah-based company provides transportation and logistics services to shippers primarily within the western region of the United States. Motor Cargo transports general commodities such as consumer goods, packaged food, electronics, computer equipment, apparel, hardware, industrial goods, and auto parts.

Dating back to a sparse 1922 Utah and only "two trucks and a guy," the Barton Truck Line was finally incorporated in 1954. During the 1950s and early 1960s, the firm shipped to several Utah cities. After Barton acquired Bonanza Trucking Company, it became a regional carrier. Upon close inspection of the fabulous 1959 illustration above for Goodyear Tire's Hi-Miler Cross-Rib tires, the trailer appears to have a Motor Cargo logo emblazoned. Odd, in that Barton did not change its name officially to Motor Cargo until 1973.

FWIW: The tractor depicted is a late 1950s Diamond T COE.

Locomotive Salesman

Tom Fawell (1929-2019) dazzled a generation with his colorful, rakish artwork depicting Electro-Motive Division diesel locomotives on the move. Indeed, he was EMD's illustrator of choice from the early 1960s to 1980. Many of his paintings were featured as the center spread in Fortune Magazine for 25 years. He wanted to portray the feeling of the dynamic power created by a locomotive. His first submission was literally laughed at by the execs, sighting no wheels and the engine appears to be tipping over. But Chicago-based ad agency, Marsteller, convinced GM to run a test and follow up with a readership poll. The results were so favorable that they were ranked "off the charts."

Fawell attended the Chicago Art Institute and later graduated with honors from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, in 1953. 

Click or poke the image for a large view.

Word Origins

 *SHENANIGAN

Many sources have suggested this Americanism originated in California during or soon after the Gold Rush. The first recorded use was in that state in 1855. As the word has the sense of “trickery, deceit," specifically for an underhand purpose, possible sources suggest it has had similar meanings, such as the Spanish chanada, “a trick,” and the Irish sionnachuighim, “I play tricks.” However, a derivation from the German schinnagel, means "the nail holding the rim to the wheel" (schinageln, "to work," and Schenigelei, "a trick.")

*Inspired by Charles Funk (1881–1957)

Reel Character Series

 

Walter Burke (1908-1984) is a New York native character actor of stage, film, and television whose career spanned over a half-century. Burke's 5' 5" stature, distinctive stone-grinding voice, and craggy face made him easily recognizable to television audiences no matter the size of the role. Burke's Irish ancestry often arose when being cast as an Irishman or Englishman. He could play anything from a jockey, a thief, a gangster, or a leprechaun.

Burke kept busy in film from the late 1940s to the 1970s in uncredited and minor roles. He debuted in the film, The Naked City, and the following year had a memorable role as Sugar Boy in All the King's Men, 1949. Burke would appear in twenty-two more films and numerous Broadway productions before transitioning to the diminutive screen with more than 103 different chameleon roles in the 1950s and 1960s. As a representative of his multiple television appearances, his versatility cast him on 77 Sunset Strip, The Untouchables, Perry Mason, Death Valley Days, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, and The F.B.I. as well as comedies like Bewitched, The Munsters, or Hogan's Heroes. Burke could not be pigeonholed.

This is Jim Rockford

 

Jim, thanks for taking little Billy fishing. He had a great time. Turns out he wasn't even really seasick...Have you ever had chicken pox?

Jim's answering machine: Drought at Indianhead River, 1976
Guest star: Robert Loggia

Note: This stellar episode has Angel unknowingly involved in a real estate fraud with tax felons, and Jim experiences one of the strangest golf games ever: for his personal safety, one criminal tax felon doesn't play the holes near the highway.

Danger Man

Francis Gary Powers entered United States Air Force in 1950, trained as a pilot and was commissioned in 1952. In 1956, 1st Lieutenant Powers was released from the U.S.A.F. to participate in the Central Intelligence Agency’s Project Aquatone. His CIA position soon made Powers world famous when his Lockheed U-2A was shot down over Russia, in 1960. Powers was captured and held prisoner at the notorious Lubyanka Prison where he underwent sixty-two days of interrogation. 

But it gets worse.

On this day in 1977, Powers was killed, along with his photographer for KNBC, while piloting a Bell Ranger "Telecopter." Powers had 7,193 total flight hours, with 381 hours in the Bell 206. Unfortunately, Powers did not stop at two airports for refueling opportunities. Starved of fuel, the copter nose-dived into the ground, killing both instantly.