Word Origins

 

*FLABBERGAST

Someone whose identity will never be known dreamed this up about the year 1770. At least it was reported as a new word in 1772: "Now we are flabbergasted and bored [another new word] from morning to night." Possibly the inventor coined it by joining forcibly the two words flabby and aghast, but there are no notes to furnish a definite clue. The word may be best visually described by Harold Lloyd, above.

*Inspired by Charles Funk (1881–1957)

Bartholomew Richard Fitzgerald-Smythe

 

In 1916, a young schoolboy, Antonio Gentile from Suffolk, Virginia, submitted drawings for a "Mr. P. Nut" in a design contest and one of his drawings was chosen the winner. Seeing the potential of the concept, commercial artists added the monocle, top hat with a modified cane to create the iconic image. Legend suggests he is of British heritage and has the proper name of Bartholomew Richard Fitzgerald-Smythe. The boy's family received five dollars for winning the contest. However, Planter's founder, Amedeo Obici befriended them and paid for their four children's college education. Afterward, Obici then paid Antonio's way through medical school. He became a doctor in Newport News, dying in 1939.

Planters Peanut Company was founded in 1906 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and incorporated two years later as the Planters Nut and Chocolate Company. See Antonio's original drawings at:

https://acmemorylane.tumblr.com/post/152293213378/mr-peanut-in-1916-planters-nut-and-chocolate

This is Jim Rockford

 

Tompkins of Guaranty Insurance. About your burglary claim...major loss, all right. Funny...you remembered to file, but you didn't pay your premium.

Jim's answering machine: Return to The Thirty-eighth Parallel, 1976
Guest star: Ned Beatty

Word Origins

 

*FANFARE

The word has nothing to do either with a fan or a fare, but when trying to bring a foreign word into English, a syllable or two might get lopped off the original word some three centuries ago, and the meaning was altered. That is, the original was the Spanish word fanfarria, meaning "bluster, presumption, haughtiness." And because persons of that sort demanded attention, their approach had to be announced by the blast of a trumpet or the like. So, in the progress of the Spanish term through French and into English, it came to mean the flourish of a trumpet or the call of a bugle or a noisy demonstration.

*Inspired by Charles Funk (1881–1957)

A Television Full of Mavericks

 

Bringing back the old western, Maverick, into an era when westerns were not as popular, seems like a long shot for success. It was. The first attempt was a 1978 TV-movie, The New Maverick, reprising James Garner as Bret and Jack Kelly as Bart. It served as a pilot movie for The Young Maverick, starring Charles Frank as Ben Maverick. The movie was not a rousing success. The new series even less so, running from November 28, 1979 to January 16, 1980. The lack of the Garner's sardonic style was obvious. After The Rockford Files shut down, even Garner could not revive his popular series in, Bret Maverick, only running from December 1, 1981 to May 4, 1982.

Television Talkers

 

Hugh Downs (1921-2020) held the certified Guinness World Record for the most hours on commercial network television from 1984-2004. The congenial Downs was adept as a radio and television broadcaster, announcer and programmer, television host, news anchor, television producer, author, game show host, talk show sidekick, author, and pilot. A television presence from the mid-1940s until the late 1990s, Downs was one of the most trusted voices on television.

Downs made his first television news broadcast in September 1945 in Chicago and moved to New York City in 1954. He became popular as announcer and sidekick for The Tonight Showing starring Jack Paar from 1957-1962, the host of the game show Concentration from 1958 to 1969, the co-host of the NBC News program Today from 1962-1971, and the anchor of the ABC News magazine 20/20 from 1978-1999.

Details of Down's amazing career can be found at https://wikimili.com/en/Hugh_Downs

Word Origins

 

*THESPIAN

Apparently, in the sixth century B.C. there lived a Greek playwright whose name was Thespis, “Thadeus Thespis.” None of his plays or poems have lived to the present, and his name is remembered almost entirely because of the generally accepted view that it was he who invented the Greek tragedy. From his name, the adjective thespian was coined to describe, first, a tragic play, then, a tragic actor. By now the word is used as a name for any actor, tragic or otherwise. Not to be confused with SNL comedian, Jon Lovitz.

*Inspired by Charles Funk (1881–1957)

Richard Kimble's Brief Encounters

Kimble medical training saves the life of a young boy with a serious medical condition unknown to the kidnappers.

Never Stop Running, 1964
Guest stars: Claude Akins, Joanna Moore, Wright King

This is Jim Rockford

 

Gene's 24-Hour Emergency Plumbing. Your water heater's blown? We'll have somebody out there Tuesday -- Thursday at the latest.

Jim's answering machine: Rattlers' Class of '63, 1976
Guest stars: Elayne Heilveil, James Wainwright

Note: Angel nearly gets married but chickens out after a past scam on his potential inlaws when the truth is revealed.

Reel Character Series

 

Henry Daniell (Charles Henry Pywell Daniell 1894-1963) was an English actor who had a long career in the US on stage and in cinema. He came to prominence for his portrayal of villainous roles in films many classics in the Thirties and Forties but it Is unfair to limit him to these roles.

Daniell made his first appearance on the stage 1913, and a year later on the London stage at the Globe Theatre in a walk-on role. By the 1920s he was appeaaring on Broadway which led to film roles in the early talkies. MGM cast him a few late Thirties films. But it was at Warner Bros where Daniell found fame in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939) and the following year as the treacherously slimy Lord Wolfingham in The Sea Hawk (above). It proved to be a seminal year for Daniell with a small tole in the comedy/satire The Great Dictator, then it was back to MGM for The Philadelphia Story.

He had a lead role in The Body Snatcher (1945), with Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, and many swashbuckling roles finished out the decade and into television in the early Fifties. He appeared on numerous popular series during this decade. Daniell was in countless dramatic roles of varying ethnicity and as a straight man in a few comedies. His last role was a small uncredited appearance as the British Ambassador in the 1964 film My Fair Lady.

Television Talkers

 

Peter Marshall (Ralph Pierre LaCock 1926) is an actor, singer, TV host, and radio personality on television, movie, and Broadway. He is the brother of actress Joanne Dru (Red River, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and All the King's Men).

Born into a show business family, he came by his Broadway credits and singing career naturally. By the 1950s Marshall earned his living in a comedy act with Tommy Noonan, appearing in nightclubs, on television variety shows, and in three forgettable films. The team attempted to capitalize on the popularity of Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis with Noonan as Lewis to Marshall's Martin.

But he is best known to television viewers as the unflappable host of some 5,000 episodes of The Hollywood Squares from 1966 to 1981. When his tenure expired, Marshall continued as a game show host and actor in various television shows. For cable subscribers, Marshall, along with co-host, singer Debby Boone, was featured in a successful infomercial presented by Time Life, the Music of Your Life Collection. Featuring hit songs from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, the infomercial was re-released in 2016. Marshall retired in 2021.

Word Origins

 

*LOOPHOLE

In the late Middle Ages a loop was a narrow window, in a castle or other fortification, through which an archer could direct his arrows, but so narrow as to hinder the accuracy of an opposing bowman. The masonry of the window widened inwardly to permit a wider range for the defending archer. Possibly to avoid confusion between loop, “window,” or “a fold,” the former became identified as loophole. The term today is commonly discovered by an attorney or a politician.

*Inspired by Charles Funk (1881–1957)