Television's Leon Friedman

Lee Philips (Leon Friedman 1927-1999) was an American actor, and film and television director. The New York City-born Philips acting career started on Broadway, which led to a starring role in the film adaptation of Peyton Place. The handsome actor possessed versatility and intensity in his roles. His most visible presence was in television, guest starring in numerous popular shows from the early Fifties through the Seventies. His credits include The Fugitive, The Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone, and I Spy, among many others. He guest-starred in a few series that he would also direct at some point. His twelve appearances as the title character in 1959's The Further Adventures of Ellery Queen were his most lengthy. 

By the early to mid-Sixties, his career included directing, with a wide range of television credits including Peyton Place, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Room 222, and The Waltons to name a few. As a director, Philips and Dick Van Dyke worked together numerous times beginning with The Dick Van Dyke Show, The New Dick Van Dyke Show, and Diagnosis Murder. By far his longest tenure as director was his sixty episodes of The Andy Griffith Show. In between he directed several television movies throughout the Seventies and Eighties.

Television Talkers

 

As an aspiring actor and opera singer, Gene Rayburn (Eugene Peter Jeljenic, 1917-1999) made the move to New York City but was unable to find stage work. He landed a job as an NBC Studios page and tour guide at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Before television fame, Rayburn was a radio performer, announcing at various radio stations before enlisting in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. He chose the stage name "Rayburn" by randomly sticking his finger in the phone book.

Making use of his talent, Rayburn took the lead role in the Broadway musical Bye Bye Birdie after Dick Van Dyke left to star in The Dick Van Dyke Show. He began a long association with game show producers Mark Goodson and Bill Todman in 1953. After hosting several game shows, he hit pay dirt with The Match Game in 1962-1969. The show was revived in 1973 simply as Match Game and ran for another decade. During this time one of Rayburn's trademarks was his long, skinny microphone that he was able to hold near his waist. 

Note: Rayburn's last game show hosting duties were on Break the Bank in 1985.

The Chesapeake Roller Coaster

 

On this date in 1964, the original 2-lane northbound Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel (officially the Lucius J. Kellam, Jr. Bridge-Tunnel) was opened after 42 months of construction in the state of Virginia. The 2-lane southbound lanes were opened in 1999 making it a four-lane 20-mile-long vehicular toll crossing of the lower Chesapeake Bay, replacing the long-standing ferry system as the primary channel crossing. The crossing consists of a series of low-level trestles interrupted by two nearly one-mile-long tunnels beneath two Atlantic shipping channels, Thimble Shoals and the Chesapeake Channel. The manmade islands, each approximately 5.25 acres in size, are located at each end of the two tunnels.