Synopsis: Thrust Into Television

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

JULIE ADAMS (1926-2019)

Julie Adams, born Betty Adams, moved to Hollywood to start an acting career at the age of twenty, using her given name until 1949. She was very busy on the big screen for a little more than a decade with numerous Westerns to her credit throughout the 1950s. Pale in comparison to her four decades in television, however.

She co-starred in films opposite some of Hollywood's top leading men, including James Stewart, Rock Hudson, Tyrone Power, Glenn Ford, Charlton Heston, and Joel McCrea. In the middle of all these famous actors were Ricou Browning and Ben Chapman, both playing the Creature from the Black Lagoon, whether underwater or on terra firma, respectively. The 1954 science fiction film was a popular offering for mid-century audiences and brought notoriety to Adams.

Her television roles are too numerous to mention here. A few notable guest-starring roles were for The Andy Griffith Show, in another attempt to find a love interest for the sheriff of Mayberry, five episodes of 77 Sunset Strip, three roles for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and four episodes of Perry Mason as she sailed into the 1960s. Adams starred opposite Hollywood royalty for twenty-four episodes of The Jimmy Stewart Show and two episodes of The Doris Day Show. She guest-starred on many popular shows of the 1970s and 1980s, including Code Red, with nineteen episodes and ten episodes of Murder, She Wrote, before winding down her career in the early 2000s.

The Go In Esso

The Esso name was primarily used by its predecessor, Standard Oil of New Jersey, after the breakup of the original Standard Oil company in 1911. The name Esso is the phonetic pronunciation of the initials 'S' and 'O' in the name Standard Oil. Standard Oil of New Jersey started marketing its products under the Esso brand in 1926. In most states, the company used the Enco (Energy Company) brand name, and in a few, the Humble Oil brand name. Esso Gas Stations were primarily found in the eastern United States and some states in the Midwest. By 1972, the name Esso was largely replaced in the U.S. by the Exxon brand after the Standard Oil of New Jersey bought Humble. The Esso name remained widely used elsewhere. In most of the world, the Esso and Mobil brands are the primary names of ExxonMobil, while the Exxon brand is used only in the United States alongside Mobil. The Esso brand name was discontinued in the U.S. by 1977, yet the brand name continues in Europe. Today, it is a trading name for ExxonMobil.

Note: Above, an Esso gasoline tanker, pulled by the bulldog of trucks, Mack, filling the tank at its namesake station in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1943. 

Photo by John Vachon via shorpy dot com

Ohio to Colorado

Beginning in 1926, the US Highway 36 route began expanding into western Ohio from Indianapolis, Indiana. At the same time, the route was expanding westward through Kansas and eventually terminating in Colorado by the late 1930s. Today's eastern terminus was extended in the mid-1970s to Uhrichsville, Ohio with a western terminus at Estes Park, Colorado. After rerouting and adapting to the Interstate highway system over the decades, the approximate distance today is slightly more than 1,400 miles. Underway by at least 1912, the transcontinental Pikes Peak Ocean to Ocean Highway laid the groundwork for approximately the middle-third of US 36. The photo above was taken in Urbana, Ohio.

An excellent detailed history at US 36

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.

An East Side Kid

 

Stanley Clements (Stanislaw Klimowicz 1926-1981) was an American actor and comedian. While at Monogram Pictures, his nickname offscreen was "Stosh," but Clements adopted the nickname "Stash" for the ensemble-cast film series, East Side Kids, starring Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall. When Gorcey left the East Side Kids in 1945, he and his teammate developed a new comedy gang series called The Bowery Boys. Because of personal tragedy and subsequent alcohol abuse, Gorcy was replaced by Clements as Stanislaus "Duke" Coveleskie in the final seven films, co-starring with Hall.

He appeared in numerous films in the 1940s and 1950s. His most famous role was as the uncredited teenage street-wise-turned-choirboy in the 1944 Bing Crosby Oscar winner, Going My Way, with some excellent comedic deliveries. (above with Carl Switzer) He had great success portraying a jockey in the 1945 Alan Ladd feature, Salty O'Rourke. He soon transitioned to television guest spots but small film roles were a staple into the late Seventies. 

A more complete filmography at https://wikimili.com/en/Stanley_Clements

A Noted Television Composer

 

Richard Markowitz (1926-1994) was an American film and television composer. After composing for numerous low-budget films in the late Fifties and a hand full in the Sixties and Seventies, it was television that provided him steady work, composing for popular series between the Sixties to the Eighties, everything from Ben Casey, Mission: Impossible to Murder, She Wrote in which he received the ASCAP Film and Television Music Award for 1988, 1989, and 1990. But it was his unusual western theme for an unusual series, The Wild Wild West, for which he is best remembered. Prior, he wrote the theme for, The Rebel, most notable for it being sung by Johnny Cash.

Main Street of America

 

U.S. Highway 40 (US 40) is a major east–west United States Highway extending across the United States from the Mid-Atlantic to the Mountain States. As with most routes ending in a zero, US 40 once traversed the entire United States. It is one of the first U.S. Highways created in 1926 spanning from San Francisco, California to Atlantic City, New Jersey. The route was built on top of several older highways, most notably the National Road/Cumberland Road. Built between 1811 and 1837, the National Road was the first major improved highway in the United States built by the federal government. In the western United States, US 40 has been replaced by Interstate 80, resulting in the route being truncated multiple times. US 40 currently ends at a junction with I-80 in Silver Summit, Utah, near Salt Lake City.

A High Altitude of Himself

 

On this day in 1926 at McCook Field, near Dayton, Ohio, First Lieutenant John Arthur Macready, Air Service, United States Army, took off in an experimental airplane, the Engineering Division XCO-5. He was attempting to exceed the existing Fédération Aéronautique Internationale world altitude record of 39,587', but he did establish a new United States national altitude record of 38,704'. Macready reported, “My watch stopped at 30,000' and I believe it was frozen, because just before landing it started again.” He observed a temperature of -79.6 ° at 34,600'.

The official observers of the National Aeronautic Association were Orville Wright (co-inventor with his brother Wilbur, of the airplane); George Smith of Dayton; and Levitt Custer (inventor of the stratoscope, the original barometric altimeter). Macready is pictured above with his wife.