The Aubuchon Way

Jacques Aubuchon (1924-1991) was an American character actor who kept busy from the 1950s through the 1980s. He is primarily known for his roles in a wide variety of television series.

Though Aubuchon spent most of his career on the small screen, he was in a handful of films, including Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953), The Silver Chalice (1954), and Thunder Road (1958) to name three. His roles varied from Westerns to modern-day dramas to comedies. His first television appearance was on the comedy Mr. Peepers (1953). He could play an informant, an outlaw, or a criminal. He somewhat specialized in untrustworthy individuals, even in comedies. His mastery of dialects made him a popular casting choice. Aubuchon perhaps is best known for his seven appearances on the wacky comedy McHale's Navy (1962-64) as the hilarious Chief Urulu.

Above, left is Jacques Aubuchon with actor J.D. Cannon 

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.

The Airline of Firsts

During this month in 1927, the United States Post Office requested bids on a contract to deliver mail from Key West, Florida to Havana, Cuba by mid-October. Pan American Airways, Incorporated was founded as a shell company by United States Army Air Corps officers Henry "Hap" Arnold, and Carl Spaatz. They drew up the prospectus for Pan American after they learned that German-owned Colombian air carrier SCADTA, hired a company in Delaware to obtain air mail contracts from the US government. A contract was awarded to a former World War I naval aviator, Juan Trippe, to fly mail between Key West to Havana. The airline’s first passenger service between these cities began the next year.

Pan American World Airways established seventeen firsts in airline travel, including the first transpacific flights (from San Francisco to Manila) in 1936, using the famous China Clipper; the first transatlantic flights from New York City to Lisbon in 1939, aboard the Yankee Clipper; the first round-the-world flights (New York to New York, eastbound) in 1947; the first transatlantic jet service in 1958 with the Boeing 707, and by 1970 the first airline to use the Boeing 747.

In the Jet Age, Pan American, now referred to simply as Pan Am, faced growing challenges as international travel grew and U.S. airlines deregulated in the late 1970s. It competed with airlines expanding into foreign markets from extensive domestic routes by acquiring National Airlines in 1980. It did little to invigorate the airline with Pan Am ending in bankruptcy by the end of 1991.

Read much more about Pan American at these sites: Pan Am or Simple Flying

Twentieth Century Talkers

 

John Charles Daly (John Charles Patrick Croghan Daly, 1914-1991) was an American journalist, radio and television personality, ABC News executive, TV anchor, and game show host. 

Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, by eleven his home was in Boston, Massachusetts where he attended Tilton School, eventually graduating from Boston College. He became a reporter for NBC Radio and, later, CBS and was the first national correspondent to report the attack on Pearl Harbor and the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt. 

With television on the brink, by 1950 he became the host and moderator on the CBS panel show produced by Goodson–Todman, What's My Line? The show lasted 17 years, with Daly hosting all but four episodes of the weekly series. During this time, Daly became the vice president in charge of news, special events, public affairs, religious programs and sports for ABC and won three Peabody Awards. There was no conflict with What's My Line? because he was employed by Goodson-Todman Productions, not CBS. Daly's closing line on the ABC newscasts was "Good night and a good tomorrow." In 1959, along with the Associated Press writer John Scali, Daly, above far left, reported from Moscow on the infamous "Kitchen Debate" between First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev and Vice President Richard M. Nixon.

He filled in occasionally on NBC's The Today Show, making Daly one of the few people to work simultaneously on all three networks. One memorable broadcast during the show was when Harpo Marx was promoting his book Harpo Speaks. Marx caused such on-camera chaos for Daly, he became completely convulsed in laughter during the live telecast. 

Note: He provided the voice of a CONELRAD for a 1954 broadcast of The Motorola Television Hour on ABC titled Atomic Attack, which showcased a suburban family dealing with the aftermath of a hypothetical H-bomb attack fifty miles away. It was later reflected in the 1962 film, Panic In The Year Zero. CONELRAD (Control of Electromagnetic Radiation) was a method of emergency broadcasting to the US public in the event of an enemy attack during the Cold War.

Television Transition

 

Don Dubbins (1928-1991)

The television medium offered a career shift for some movie character actors. Many were kept busy, becoming a household face if not a name.

Don Dubbins was an American television actor in westerns and dramas from the early days of the medium throughout the 1980s. His film credits after signing with Columbia Pictures are sparse but James Cagney took a liking to him and he garnered roles in two of his films, one being, Tribute to a Bad Man. He made a quick transition to the small screen where his boyish good looks provided the best benefits. As he matured, his roles were varied, working non-stop throughout his forty-year career.

The Brooklyn-born Marine veteran typically made single appearances on most shows in such classics as Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Wanted: Dead or Alive, The Twilight Zone, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Rockford Files, and Murder, She Wrote. Additionally, he also appeared in other popular series ranging from the comedy Mork & Mindy to the police drama Hunter. However, Dubbins spent extra time with Perry Mason for seven appearances, and five roles each for Dragnet 1967 and Barnaby Jones.

Entertaining Renaissance Man

 

Robert Q. Lewis (Robert Goldberg 1921-1991) was an American entertainer of radio and television, a game show host, commercial pitchman, and part-time actor in film. If that were not enough, Lewis had a very popular nightclub act as singer and comedian. Aside from his wit, he is famously recognized by his bold-rimmed glasses, which became his trademark. In fact, for his second Robert Q. Lewis Show, they became a logo for the show's title card. 

Already a fixture during television's early years, Lewis is perhaps best known today for his game show participation, regularly appearing as a panelist on Goodson-Todman-produced shows. He first settled into his enduring game show role as host of ABC's The Name's the Same (1952-54). Lewis was often recruited to fill in for performers who were ill or otherwise unable to perform. He frequently sat in for Arthur Godfrey, whom Lewis credited for giving him his first big breaks in show business. He hosted and appeared on a multitude of television shows and sitcoms through the 1970s. By far, he was most visible as a panelist on What's My Line? with forty appearances. Lewis had a sketched pair of glasses amusingly applied on his blindfold that was used during the final celebrity guest segment. 

The "Q" was simply part of his professional name. Lewis added the middle initial accidentally on the air in 1942 when referencing another radio comedian's character, Colonel Lemuel Q. Stoopnagle, saying, "and this is Robert Q. Lewis." He retained the unique moniker by telling interviewers that it stood for "Quizzical."

Note: Lewis scored his biggest hit song in 1951 with the Italian dialect humorous novelty song, Where's-a Your House?, (a parody of the Rosemary Clooney hit, Come On-a My House) about a guy who cannot locate Rosie's house. You can hear it here.