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.

Iconic Disruption

 

Completed in 1963, the Pan Am Building (currently the MetLife Building) is a skyscraper at Park Avenue and 45th Street, north of Grand Central Terminal, in Midtown Manhattan of New York City. Though it was just a matter of time before a building would obscure the Central Park view, many Manhattan "lifers" were initially upset at its location, shutting off Park Avenue to create a canyon of sorts in glass, brick, and steel. 

Westinghouse Electric Corporation manufactured 65 elevators and 21 escalators for the Pan Am Building, which at the time was the largest order of elevators. One bank of 6 elevators was able to travel 1,600 feet per minute, the fastest elevators in the world at the time of their installation.

Richard Kimble's Brief Encounters

 

Kimble is nearly killed by a car driven by a young stewardess. She was otherwise mentally occupied with the devastating realization that her "sweetheart" is a married man with two children. While recuperating in a hospital, Kimble's delirium audibly recalls the night of his wife's murder.

The Girl From Little Egypt, 1963
Guest stars: Pamela Tiffin, Ed Nelson

Richard Kimble's Brief Encounters

 

Working as a stock clerk, Kimble witnesses his boss's manslaughter of an associate, and the doctor's anonymous phone call is misinterpreted by his wife as blackmail. She contacts the store detective to resolve the issue, who eventually has questions for Kimble.

Glass Tightrope, 1963

Guest stars Leslie Nielson, Edward Binns

Richard Kimble's Brief Encounters

 

After saving children from a burning school bus, Kimble is nursed back to health by a sheriff and his wife, a nurse. His heroic rescue garners publicity, something always on Lt. Gerard's radar. 

Nightmare at Northoak, 1963
Guest stars: Frank Overton, Nancy Wickwire 

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

Richard Kimble's Brief Encounters

 

This an old fashioned murder mystery episode that has Kimble aboard a freighter, Alaskan Star, a few hours out of Seattle. There are many familiar television faces in this episode and most seem to have their own secrets. Among the eleven intertwining passengers, and a crew of fourteen, is an FBI agent in search of a Korean War criminal and traitor. The viewer logically narrows this down to a male passenger. The agent does not live to pin the crime on the killer, however, and Kimble must use his medical degree to diagnose who committed the murder. 

Ticket to Alaska, 1963
Main guest stars Geraldine Brooks, Tim O'Connor, June Dayton

Richard Kimble's Brief Encounters

 

While working at a gas station in the southwest, Kimble and a customer are taken hostage. The doctor sucks the two violent thieves in on his own fabricated big robbery. The girl gets help from Kimble but she freaks out after seeing his photo on the newspaper's front page. And the criminals have their own plan for her future.

See Hollywood and Die, 1963
Guest stars Brenda Vaccaro, Lou Antonio, Chris Robinson

Richard Kimble's Brief Encounters

 

Working as a migrant farmworker, Kimble gets drawn into helping fight a forest fire. The situation prevents access to a hospital, yet the doctor recognizes a fellow worker's wife must give birth by cesarean. Worksite nurse, guest star Beverly Garland, castigates Kimble's supposed lack of urgency. Only as a last resort, he provides her his medical credentials. Credentials Gerard can spot from miles away in spite of the smoke.

Smoke Screen, 1963

Richard Kimble's Brief Encounters

 

Kimball is employed as a "cut man" for a boxer, James Edwards, who suffers from memory loss. Suspecting brain damage, he advises Edwards not to box again. Also going for a knock-down is a detective, posing as a reporter, who suspects the boxer has mob ties. Kimble is in his element for this episode until the detective uncovers the identity of Kimble. 

Decision In The Ring, 1963

Ruby Dee, James Dunn guest star

Richard Kimble's Brief Encounters

 

Eight months a fugitive, Kimble encounters Sandy Dennis, guest-starring as a young woman who wants a future outside her West Virginia roots. The doctor is fortunate she knows the region well enough to help him escape a sheriff's posse and the single-minded Lt. Gerard through a mine tunnel that exits on the other side of a mountain. But Dennis must remain "trapped" in her depressing world.

The Other Side of The Mountain, 1963
Frank Sutton, R.G. Armstrong, and Bruce Dern also guest star

Richard Kimble's Brief Encounters

 

Spying on her teacher, played by Patricia Crowley, one of her young students, a pathological liar played by Gina Gillespie, accuses her of inappropriate behavior with Kimble. Her myopic mom finds it difficult to accept the truth. The townsfolk want Crowley out of town. Kimble's pediatric brat counseling comes into play, saving him from a lynching. 

The Witch, 1963

Madeleine Sherwood, Arch Johnson, and Crahan Denton guest star

Richard Kimble's Brief Encounters

 

Brian Keith's character puts the fear in Tucson to begin the series. His volatile nature is threatening to his wife, played by Vera Miles and their son. Keith is first-rate as a wealthy businessman with a disturbing level of jealousy and an ego the size of Arizona. Once again, Keith is always on the verge of exploding. He calls the police about Kimble who quickly buys a bus ticket. Miles and her son plan to escape with him. She should know it is not possible since this is the very first episode, Fear In A Desert City, 1963. This has all the elements needed to establish the series and probably the best episode to launch the series.

Richard Kimble's Brief Encounters

 

Dr. Kimble nearly settles down with Susan Oliver, as Karen Christian, except the series just started. Besides, with the one-armed man said to be in the area, it throws a wrench into their plans in this first two-part episode of the series, Never Wave Goodbye (1963). 

Jackie Ward, Anonymous Alto

 

In the early to mid-1960s, Jackie Ward (Jacqueline McDonnell, 1941-) was one of the singers on The Red Skelton Show, The Danny Kaye Show, The Carol Burnett Show, and later singing on The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour and The Partridge Family. Ward lent her voice to numerous television commercials and to someone else's hit records. All heard but not seen. A studio musician's life. But she had her own hit record, "Wonderful Summer," as Robin Ward (taking her daughter's name) in 1963. Her voice was sped up slightly, giving it a higher, teenage sound. Perhaps best known as one of two smooth altos (the other being B.J. Baker) with the Anita Kerr Singers quartet during their 5-year Los Angeles recording period (Anita Kerr, Gene Merlino, Ward, and Bob Tebow, above). During the 1960s, she provided the singing voice for a number of famous film actresses.

Using Television to Teach by Telephone

 

In 1963, a single teacher could personally instruct thousands of pupils in dozens of schools over special TV telephone lines. General Television & Electronics brought this modern form of educational television to the nation's schools through its own subsidiaries in 32 states. This advanced system used inexpensive TV cameras and receivers. Today, Zoom, for one, comes to mind.

Began in 1936, General Telephone & Electronics Corporation (later GTE Corporation), was the largest independent telephone company in the United States during the days of the Bell System (later AT&T). The company operated from 1926 until 2000, when it was acquired by Bell Atlantic with the combined company adopting the name, Verizon.