A Nutty Putty Affair

Silly Putty was introduced to the public in 1950. Initially, the substance was an attempt to create a synthetic rubber substitute during World War II. While working for General Electric in 1943, James Wright combined boric acid and silicone oil in a test tube to create a new rubbery substance, an intriguing “nutty putty.” As he began to play with it, his accidental discovery bounced higher than rubber, stretched to great distances, snapped with sharp tugs, and could pick up ink from any printed matter. 

Without a practical purpose, the putty was passed around among friends. In 1949, it eventually found its way into the hands of a toy store owner whose marketing consultant, Peter Hodgson, identified the putty potential and purchased the rights from General Electric to sell the stuff himself. Hodgson packaged it in small plastic eggs and named it Silly Putty. After being featured in a New Yorker article, sales surged to 250,000 in just three days. Since its introduction, more than 300 million Silly Putty eggs have been sold.

More silly details at THOUGHTCO. and how to make it yourself.

Synopsis: Thrust Into Television

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

FRANK FERGUSON (1899-1978)

Frank Ferguson was a character actor who made his film debut in 1940. In that decade, he appeared in modern-day dramas as a detective, a father, and a reporter, as well as being cast in the occasional comedy. Based on his distinct barrel voice, his ever-present mustache, and an everyman's face, Ferguson was a natural in Western films, nearly two hundred. A few of those are quite notable, but Ferguson was often uncredited. He could play anything from an outlaw, a sheriff, a disgruntled farmer, or a friendly, though maybe dishonest, store clerk. He was a very valuable and natural performer whom many directors found a character worthy of his talents. 

However, the bespectacled actor was most seen from his frequent television appearances over twenty-plus years. In a wide variety of roles, Ferguson was often a public servant. He might be a doctor, a military officer, a bank teller, a police officer, or a businessman. With little surprise, he even played a hobo on the Leave It To Beaver comedy. He was the familiar face of many popular dramas, and of course, nearly every television Western. His final appearance was on the pioneer era series, Little House on the Prairie, in 1976.

Synopsis: Thrust Into Television

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

BARTLETT ROBINSON (1912-1986) 

Robinson was an American actor who performed on radio, stage, film, and television for five decades. The mustachioed Robinson and his recognizable voice were often cast in mostly serious roles of authority, such as military officers, wealthy ranchers, sheriffs, corporate executives, doctors, and judges, whether in Westerns, dramas, or playing the straight man in comedies.

Unique Across America

Cadillac was famous in the 1950s for its slogan, "Standard Of The World." Disregarding styling, overall quality, or the intended customer, the Nash Ambassador might have used a similar slogan based on their innovations that were "Unique Across America." Regarding the advertisement above, my research focuses on the Nash Ambassador after their complete restyle for 1952 in celebration of Nash's 50th anniversary. The design looked like nothing else on the road. Interpret that any way you like. 

The 1954 Ambassador was the first American automobile to have a front-end, fully integrated heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning system. While other manufacturers in America at the time offered A/C on some models, their air conditioning units were driven by a large and heavy, trunk-mounted expander and heat exchanger that carried the air into the car via clear plastic tubes and out through ceiling-mounted vents. Nash's unit was inexpensive, compact, fit under the hood, and could either circulate fresh or recycled air. Other innovations can be found in the ad above.

The aero-designed 1955 versions, above, now had the "Scenaramic" wrap-around windshields and an entirely new smooth front-end styling featuring a new oval grille that incorporated the headlights. The front fenders featured raised wheel arches contrary to what was a Nash trademark since 1949. For 1956 the Ambassador models featured a re-styled rear with larger round taillights sitting atop a large chrome "pedestal." The models were offered in a variety of two- and three-tone color schemes. The 1957 models were the first cars equipped with vertical "quad" headlights in the front fenders. Way before Pontiac started this trend some eight years later.

The Ambassador would be completely redesigned for 1958, with increasingly awkward and busy styling. The Nash marque would be dropped to become the Rambler Ambassador and by the fourth generation, would be known as AMC Ambassador. The Ambassador line from 1963 through the Sixties was one of the more attractive automobiles on the market from a design standpoint, though nothing groundbreaking when one considers the "Big Three" designs. The AMC Ambassador models would struggle on until 1974. Except for a few select models, it was the beginning of an ugly decade for all American automotive designers.

Anonymous Versatility

Norma Crane (Norma Anna Bella Zuckerman 1928-1973) was an American actress on stage, in film, and a frequent performer on television. She had the ability to transform into multiple characters to the extent one might not readily recognize her. Her supporting roles in television never made her a household name, however. Throughout the 1950s, she appeared in a variety of live television dramas. One of her earliest appearances was a five-episode stint as a fellow teacher on the live Mr. Peepers comedy show starring Wally Cox in 1952. In 1956, she appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Gunsmoke, and four times in Have Gun - Will Travel. Crane found steady work on nearly every major television series in the 1950s into the 1970s such as The Untouchables, The Fugitive, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and The Flying Nun, just to name a few. Most were single appearances. Though she did little on the big screen, she landed roles in the films, Penelope (1966), They Call Me Mr. Tibbs! (1970), and most famously as Golde in Fiddler on The Roof (1971).

You Be The Judge, Mr. Quinn

Bill Quinn (1912-1994) was an American film and prolific television actor. He appeared in more than 150 roles over seven decades, starting in the 1920s in silent films. He was the father-in-law of comedy legend, Bob Newhart.

The versatile Quinn acquitted himself in every role, whether uncredited or supporting in dramas or comedies. Viewers could often find him in court as a judge, in a police uniform, or in other service-related occupations. It is his television appearances that brought him the most attention. By far it was his thirty-eight appearances as a cast member on The Rifleman as Frank Feeney and eighty-eight appearances on Archie Bunker's Place as a blind patron. Though his single appearances are too numerous to chronicle here, his other multiple guest star roles in a series include, Wanted: Dead or Alive, Perry Mason, Hawaiian Eye, McHale's Navy, Bonanza, Ironside, as the father of Mary Richards for The Mary Tyle Moore sitcom and four various roles on The Rockford Files. True to form, Quinn played Judge Tomlinson on Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law, and as Judge Tesman on Arrest and Trial. 

An Actor With a Busy Agent

 

Robert Hogan (1933-2021) was an American actor best known for his prolific career in American television. Viewers were never quite sure where handsome Hogan would show up next, whether in a sitcom or police drama. He was one of the most in-demand and versatile actors in Hollywood.

Hogan portrayed numerous recurring characters on many daytime soaps with over sixty appearances on the primetime soap, Peyton Place. More primetime shows were in store for Hogan throughout the 1960s on Cheyenne, Bonanza, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., Hawaiian Eye, I Dream of Jeannie, Hogan's Heroes, and Twelve O'Clock High, among others. There were no lulls in the 1970s with appearances on everything from The F.B.I, Hawaii Five-O, and played Sgt. Coopersmith on The Rockford Files, a role he would revive for Richie Brockelman, P.I. Hogan fit right in for numerous sitcoms like M.A.S.H., Mork & Mindy, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and many more. His agent was constantly busy as Hogan made appearances on similar shows in the 1980s. By the 1990s, his career became more centered on theater with his Broadway debut in 1989. Hogan continued his television work until 2018.

Mastering Radio and Television

Virginia Gregg (1916-1986) was an American actress known for her many roles in radio dramas and prolific work in television from the Fifties into the mid-Eighties. Gregg's versatility as a voice actress on radio cast her in the major programs of the day, including Lux Radio Theatre, Dragnet, Dr. Kildare, Gunsmoke, The Jack Benny Program, Let George Do It, and Mutual Radio Theater, to name a few. During the Bob Bailey years in Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, she was exceptional, often cast as his sexy potential love interest yet ultimately her true nature arose by the episode's end as a two-timing criminal. Gregg was equally effective as Richard Diamond's girlfriend, the wealthy Helen Asher, on the Richard Diamond, Private Detective radio series starring Dick Powell. In addition, Gregg made more than forty-five films from 1947 to 1981.

But she made her indelible mark on television. Roles that somewhat typecast her as a homely, disgruntled housewife, belligerent individual, or a condescending co-worker. Her ability to appear in these roles thanks to no makeup and an angry countenance. A face that eventually was made for radio. But she was much more than this. She appeared in nearly every narrative television series in the late Fifties through the mid-Seventies, including Bourbon Street Beat, Hawaiian Eye, 77 Sunset Strip, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Perry Mason, Wanted Dead or Alive, The Virginian, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Wagon Train, Mannix, Make Room for Daddy, My Favorite Martian, The Twilight Zone, and The Rockford Files, just to add a smattering. Gregg perhaps is best remembered for her many appearances in Jack Webb's Dragnet television series, but she and Webb had a long working relationship since his radio version.

Note: Before going into radio, Gregg played the double bass with the Pasadena Symphony and Pops. She was a member of the Singing Strings group heard initially locally in Los Angeles in 1937 and later on CBS and Mutual.

Peter Haskell: Made for Television

 

Peter Haskell (1934-2010) began his career on American television in supporting roles, as both good and bad guys. Though he acted in the occasional film, the 6' 2" actor is best known for his forty-five years frequenting many popular series, often in an authority role as doctor, Senator, or an unscrupulous businessman. His deviously good looks and strong presence before the cameras began during television's second decade with The Outer Limits, Dr. Kildare, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Fugitive, and 12 O'Clock High. He played Dr. Anson Brooks in two episodes of Ben Casey, then Mission: Impossible, with appearances on Medical Center. Haskell had a forty-one-episode run as lead character, Kevin Grant, for the one-season drama, Bracken's World in 1970. He was so familiar during the Seventies on television he was expected on the police/crime shows so popular of the era such as McCloud, Mannix, Cannon, and The Streets of San Francisco. In 1976, he played ruthless billionaire, Charles Estep in, Rich Man, Poor Man - Book II. As the Eighties dawned and his hair switched to white, he continued with mostly single appearances on television's schedule with recurring roles on three daytime soap operas. His last recurring role was in sixteen episodes as Tyler Chase on, The Law and Harry McGraw. His final performance was, appropriately or not, in 2009 during the final season of the medical drama, ER.

Transition to Television

There were solid performances by numerous B-movie actors but they never became major film stars. The new medium of television offered a career shift and kept them busy. Some became a household face if not a name. 

PAUL RICHARDS (1924-1974) 

Richards may be best known to television viewers for his roles as a criminal or using his distinctive voice and monotone delivery as a psychologically disturbed individual. The versatile actor may be most familiar in the saddle, however. Throughout the Fifties and Sixties, he appeared on nearly every Western series in the likes of The Rifleman, Have Gun–Will Travel, Bonanza, and The Virginian. Richards performed four times on Gunsmoke. In the very first episode, he is cast as a near-sighted, unemotional gunfighter who outdraws Matt Dillon, nearly ending the series.

His transition to television seemed to be an easy one give his dynamic and realistic performances on the small screen. Between three or four stealthy film roles, he had a minor role as a prisoner in the high-profile film, Demetrius and the Gladiators. He played an unsuccessful mugger to Ralph Meeker's character in Kiss Me Deadly, then a competing oil industry driller framed by Gene Barry in, The Houston Story. Beneath the Planet of The Apes (1970) is probably the worst of the original franchise but Richards, as the skinless mutant leader, makes a creepy impression. Only his voice can be identified.

It was not all Westerns, of course. He starred as Dr. McKinley Thompson in the medical drama Breaking Point (1963) then an appearance on The Fugitive. He later appeared as a villainous lawyer in a 1968 episode of Hawaii Five-O. The early Seventies provided gigs on Burke's Law, I Spy, Mannix, Banacek, McMillan, and Wife, with three appearances on The Mod Squad.

Notes: A native of Hollywood, Richards earned a psychology degree at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a master's degree in drama, also from UCLA. He gained additional acting experience at the Theatre Wing in New York. For several years, Richards served as the commercial pitchman for General Motors' Pontiac Division. He was also the spokesman for Braniff Airways. In 1967 he was the narrator for a documentary on the building of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis called, Monument to the Dream. American Express hired him in the early 1970s as their commercial spokesman. Richard's single twenty-one-year marriage ended with his death in 1974.

My TV TRANSITION series has moved to Thursdays. Check out these earlier Monday posts from the previous site:

Merry Anders          Steve Brodie        Beverly Garland       
Jack Hogan         Peggie Castle       John Bromfield      
Dane Clark

A Noted Television Composer

 

Patrick Williams (1939-2018) was an American composer, arranger, and conductor who worked in many genres of music for film and television. The Missouri-born Williams grew up in Connecticut and received a degree in history from Duke University. However, music being his first passion, he went on to Columbia University to study music composition and conducting, making a career of just that. His music accompanied episodes of Columbo, every season of Lou Grant, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, and Monk among many others. He wrote a great theme with trumpet lead for the Bill Bixby's series, The Magician, and the funk-soul theme to Quinn Martin's The Streets of San Francisco with an unheard of twenty seconds of intro music before the melody and title voice-over begins. With all the extra commercials today, a full theme can be all of twenty seconds long.

Beyond an Ingénue

 

Jacqueline Sue Browne (1930-2003) known professionally as either Kathie or Cathy Browne, began her career with an appearance in one episode of the film series Big Town, 1955. Her films were few but noticeable in her brief role in the movie, Murder by Contract, 1958, as a secretary and a for-hire party girl. The following year she did City of Fear. Both films starred Vince Edwards. The blonde-haired, blue-eyed actress was nearly typecast in ingénue parts, which kept her a very busy television actress in the Sixties and Seventies in numerous westerns, dramas, and comedies. Her first marriage was to actor, Sherwood Price, from 1953 to 1961. She appeared in four episodes of Perry Mason, 77 Sunset Strip, and Bonanza as the prospective bride of Pernell Roberts character. Star Trek fans will know her as Deela (above) in the episode, Wink of An Eye, 1966. She guest-starred with her second husband, Darren McGavin on his series, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, and in The Rockford Files for Pastoria Prime Pick, 1975, as a blackmailing mayor of a crooked town. Her last professional appearance before retiring was for a two-part episode of The Love Boat, 1980. Browne and McGavin's thirty-four-year marriage lasted until her death.

The First of Sixty at Forty-One

 

On this day in 1980, the first McDonnell Douglas KC-10A Extender made its first flight from Long Beach, California. Based on the DC-10-30CF commercial transport, this aerial tanker can carry 356,000 pounds of fuel. Using a “flying boom” to refuel Air Force aircraft in flight, it also is equipped with a “hose and drogue” system to refuel U.S. Navy and Marine airplanes. Both systems can be used simultaneously. The tanker can also carry cargo pallets or a combination of personnel and cargo. Sixty KC-10s were built for the U.S. Air Force and two similar KDC-10s for the Netherlands. Forty-One years later, that first KC-10A 79-0433, above, is still in service.

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. 

Keeping Your Whities Tidy

 

S.O.S Soap Pads were invented in 1917 by Irwin Cox of San Francisco, California, an aluminum pot salesman. The pre-soaped pad was intended to clean pots. Cox soon found out that the S.O.S pads had many more uses beyond pots and pans. Like white-wall tires in 1956, above. Cox introduced the soap-encrusted steel wool pads to potential new customers as a business card. His wife was responsible for the name with the S.O.S acronym standing for "Save Our Saucepans." The name was registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office simply by removing the last period, becoming unique and not to be confused with the international distress signal. The business was eventually bought by General Foods and by the late 1960s it was sold to Miles Laboratories who then sold the brand to Clorox.