Synopsis: Thrust Into Television

Many movie character actors found steady work and arguably more exposure with the advent of television. 

MYRON HEALEY (1923-2005) 

Healey's characters may be despised more than others in film or television during the 1950s, thanks to his condescending delivery as a villain. When Healey was "bad," he could be despicable. He somewhat carried the torch from actor Harry Lauter, nine years his elder. He appeared in some 140 films, including more than 80 westerns, frequently for Monogram Pictures. But it was television that brought him intimate exposure. Healey served in World War II as an Air Corps navigator and bombardier, flying in B-26 Martin Marauders in the European Theatre. After the war, he continued military duties, retiring in the early 1960s as a captain in the United States Air Force Reserve.

Discover more about Healey's career at IMDB.

Endorsed by Marcus Welby

As one of the earliest decaffeinated coffee varieties, Sanka (derived from the French words sans caféine) was first marketed initially in 1923 only at two Sanka Coffee Houses in New York. They soon went into retail and over decades their advertising soared to new heights. From 1976 to 1982, veteran actor Robert Young, coming off his popular character on Marcus Welby, M.D., was a Sanka television spokesman. During the mid-1980s, Lena Horne was featured in Sanka's television commercials. More about Sanka's ad campaigns and product placement here.

Broadcast Pioneers

Harry Reasoner (1923-1991) was an American journalist for CBS and ABC News. Known for his artful use of wording as a television commentator, he won three Emmy Awards and a 1967 George Foster Peabody Award.

The Iowa-born Reasoner developed an interest in journalism while attending High School in Minneapolis. He also started developing a dry wit that got him into a bit of trouble for an original class reading. He studied journalism at Stanford University before serving in the Army during World War II. Reasoner resumed his journalism career with The Minneapolis Times and wrote a novel, Tell Me About Women, written partly during his war service, and was first published in 1946. In two years he was working in radio for CBS. In ten years Reasoner was working for CBS News in New York. 

Reasoner teamed up with Mike Wallace to launch 60 Minutes in 1968. Reasoner was hired away from CBS by ABC as an anchor on the network's evening newscast alongside Howard K. Smith until 1975. He eventually took the sole anchor position while Smith moved into a commentary role. It was back to cohost status with the hire of Barbara Walters away from NBC. Her celebrity status did not sit well with the die-hard journalist. Perhaps by request, he was hired back at CBS in 1978 and returned to 60 Minutes in what would turn out to be his most memorable role. Reasoner retired in 1991.

Twentieth Century Talkers

 

Bob Barker (1923-) was born into a modest home environment in the state of Washington. Barker spent most of his youth, however, on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in Mission, South Dakota, enrolled as a member of the Sioux tribe. Somewhat typical of his generation, as a youth he enlisted for military service in WW2. After the war, he returned to Drury (College) University to finish his education, graduating summa cum laude with a degree in economics.

Baker worked part-time in radio while attending college. He moved to California in 1950 to pursue a broadcasting career. He was given his own radio show, The Bob Barker Show, which ran for six years. He began his television game show career in 1956, hosting Truth or Consequences until 1972. He hosted the Miss Universe and Miss USA pageants from 1967 to 1987, giving him the distinction of being the longest-serving host of those pageants. Barker is best known for hosting CBS's The Price Is Right from 1972 to 2007, making it the longest-running daytime game show in North American television history. His popular 1987 decision to appear without black hair dye was immediately accepted by a cheering audience. Considering his salesmanship, it is no wonder he was destined to be a "barker."

Though officially retiring in 2007, Barker continued to make occasional public appearances until 2017. One of his best received was a 2015 April Fools' Day appearance on The Price Is Right, taking Drew Carey's place at the beginning of the show. 

A Household Face

 

Allan Melvin (1923-2008) was a versatile actor, voice-over artist and a surprisingly good impressionist of some mega-stars of Hollywood's "golden age." He was also adept in “tough guy” roles, further showcasing his range as an actor. The Kansas City native developed a nightclub act and broke into radio winning Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts radio show competition. His big break came in 1955 as a regular on The Phil Silvers Show as Corporal Henshaw. He was back in the Army as Sgt. Snorkle in Beetle Bailey, 1963.

Melvin's characters ranged from comical to obnoxious with equal success. He worked extensively with Sheldon Leonard and Aaron Ruben on CBS where he became a household face. Still in the television Army, he had the plum role as Staff Sgt. Hacker on Gomer Pyle, USMC. His devious set-ups with Frank Sutton, aka Sgt. Carter, was a highlight of both characters. He was the "go-to" actor for several episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show (as an old Army buddy) and The Andy Griffith Show. By this time, Melvin added to a long list of voice-overs for various cartoon characters which continued into the Nineties. 

Melvin is also remembered for supporting roles as Sam Franklin, the owner of a local butcher shop and boyfriend of the Brady's housekeeper, played by Ann B. Davis on The Brady Bunch, and Barney Hefner, Archie Bunker's neighbor and friend on All in the Family.

Pictured above with Melvin is fellow co-star, Ronnie Schell, on Gomer Pyle USMC.

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).

Not Your Average Flight

 

On this date in 1923, First Lieutenant Lowell Herbert Smith and First Lieutenant John P. Richter, Air Service, United States Army, flew a DH-4B from Sumas, Washington, to Tijuana, Mexico, non-stop. The 1,280-mile flight was made possible by two air-to-air refuelings from tanker airplanes pre-positioned over Eugene, Oregon, and Sacramento, California with the flight taking approximately 12 hours to complete. The DH-4B tanker over Eugene was flown by First Lieutenants Virgil Hine and Frank W. Siefert. The Sacramento tanker was flown by Captain Robert J. Erwin and First Lieutenant Oliver R. McNeel. At both locations, Smith and Richter made two refueling contacts before proceeding on their route. 

Note: Technically, the first American aerial refueling took place two years earlier with a wing-walker stuntman physically transferring to the other plane with a 5-gallon tank of gas on his back.

HIS brand. Your Body.

H.I.S. company was founded by Henry I. Siegel as Honesdale Manufacturing in 1923. Headquartered in New York but with production in Tennessee, the company specialized in private-label work clothes and jeans for men and boys. Honesdale's homefront contribution to America's World War II effort included the manufacture of field jackets for the armed forces. After Henry's death in 1949, his 19-year-old son, Jesse, assumed control, being the first to take khakis---an old work clothes favorite---put a buckle on the back, and aimed them toward the youth market. The shift doubled sales from $9 million in 1949 to over $18 million by the mid-1950s. In honor of his father, in 1956 he created the H.I.S. brand from his initials and evolved into an American label for sportswear for young men. Beginning in 1964, the company also developed women's jeans at the suggestion of Jesse's wife. HIS was the first jeans manufacturer to offer custom-fit leg lengths and widths. Since the 1970s, the brand has also been represented on the European market and became a leading manufacturer of women's jeans on the German market by the early 1990s.

For the 1970's advertisement above, HIS highlighted their Modnicks line of apparel for the guy needing attention.

An American King

Wright King (Thomas Wright Thornburg King 1923-2018) was an American stage, film and television actor with a career spanning nearly thirty years. His lengthy career placed him in stage productions on both sides of the Atlantic as well as a prolific supporting actor on numerous television series. After serving in the Navy in WW2, he continued his studies in New York at the Actors Studio and the American Theatre Wing. He garnered critical acclaim in the original Broadway production of “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1947-49). He was quite visible in his one-season role on “Wanted Dead or Alive” (above) and co-starred in two classic “The Twilight Zone” episodes, "Shadow Play" (1961) and “Of Late I Think of Cliffordville” (1963). He was “unseen” in the original “Planet of the Apes” as the chimpanzee veterinarian, Dr. Galen. 

Not Your Average Joe

 

Joseph Raymond (Joe) Maross (1923-2009) was an American actor of stage and a few notable films in a career spanning over four decades. From 1952, he worked predominantly on television in supporting or guest roles, often with intensity as an authority figure or criminal, in westerns or military dramas. His versatility made it impossible for him to be typecast. It would have been hard through the 1970s to turn your television on and not find Maross guest-starring. Just do not expect him to ever show up on The Tonight Show. His list is endless but perhaps known for one of two The Twilight Zone episodes, "Third From the Sun" (1960) or his two appearances on Alfred Hitchcock Presents. He essentially had only three recurring roles, however, for Peyton Place (1968-69), Code Red (1981-82) and Dallas (1983). After his stint in the Marine Corps during World War II, the Pennsylvania native attended Yale University earning his theater arts degree in 1947.