Transition to Television

Karen Kay Sharpe (1934-) is a former actress of film and television, appearing on screen consistently from 1952 through 1966. The attractive Texas-born actress studied ballet and dancing as a child and was a model for magazine covers in her teens. By eighteen, she was cast in a small role for The Sniper, produced by her future husband, Stanley Kramer. Director William Wellman then cast Sharpe in the airline disaster classic, The High and the Mighty, for which she garnered a Golden Globe Award as "New Star of the Year—Actress." She appeared in two "man-titled" films back-to-back, The Man With a Gun (1955) with Robert Mitchum and a B-movie the following year opposite William Campbell, in The Man In The Vault. Before these films, she had already established herself on television by appearing on Racket Squad, Lux Video Theatre, Playhouse 90, General Electric Theater, and The Millionaire, and more. Her only recurring role was in the television western, Johnny Ringo, for eighteen episodes (1959-60). She got noticed on such popular shows as 77 Sunset Strip, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., I Dream of Jeannie, and The Wild Wild West. In between, she also was cast in the Jerry Lewis comedy, The Disorderly Orderly.

She is the third wife of producer/director Stanley Kramer. The two were married in 1966 with Sharpe soon leaving acting to devote full time to her family and serve as assistant to her husband in the film industry. After his death in 2001, she took her married name, Karen Kramer, as an executive producer for a number of video shorts and documentaries from 2005-2008.

Television's Patricia Breslin

 

Patricia Breslin (1931-2011) had a prominent career in television. The New York City-born actress made the rounds in the early days of television before garnering a recurring role as Amanda Miller for 104 episodes of, The People's Choice (1955–58), starring Jackie Cooper. She guest-starred on many popular shows such as The Millionaire, Maverick, The Rifleman, The Donna Reed Show, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents, to name only a few. The Twilight Zone provided her two appearances, her most famous being, Nick of Time, as the wife of William Shatner. The couple visits a diner that has a fortune-telling machine/napkin holder at their booth. Shatner's obsession with the bouncing devils' head atop it nearly controls their future. Her final recurring roles were on Peyton Place for thirty episodes before ending her acting career with twenty-five appearances on the daytime soap opera, General Hospital.

Breslin left acting in 1969 after marrying her second husband, NFL mogul Art Modell, and became a well-known philanthropist while living in both Cleveland, Ohio, and Baltimore, Maryland. In Cleveland, she helped start the Hospice of the Western Reserve at the Cleveland Clinic and supported the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. She was also active in the Make-A-Wish Foundation, the Cleveland Musical Arts Association, the Cleveland Ballet, the Playhouse Square Foundation, and the Cerebral Palsy Association.

Besting Professor Quiz

 

On this date in 1936, broadcasting's first ever quiz show, radio's "Professor Quiz." Hosted by Arthur E. Baird, as Dr. Craig Earl, with future CBS broadcast journalist, Robert Trout, as the announcer. Limited to Washington D.C. area at first, it was broadcast weekly on CBS Radio from 1936-1941, then weekly on ABC Radio from 1946-1948. Unlike later quiz shows, the contestants asked the host questions. If the host couldn't give the correct answer, the contestant won $25. Later broadcasts selected six contestants from the studio audience, and the winner of the session received, $25, with $15 given to the runners-up. On these broadcasts, listeners would send in six questions, and if they were used, they also won $25. 

Competition soon followed in 1937 with, Uncle Jim's Question Bee, hosted by Arthur Godfrey.

A Noted Television Theme

 

MacGyver is an action-adventure sleeper television hit series created by Lee David Zlotoff, with Henry Winkler and John Rich acting as executive producers. A relative newcomer, Richard Dean Anderson, became an international star as Angus MacGyver, an undercover agent for the Phoenix Foundation armed with remarkable scientific resourcefulness to solve almost any problem in the field using mundane materials at hand. The series went through miles of duct tape. The series was so popular, "to MacGyver" something was a phrase that worked its way into the American lexicon. Prolific film composer, Randy Edelman, wrote the dynamic and memorable theme song.

Note: A five-season reboot began in 2016, with Lucas Till well-cast in the title role. But MacGyver was now part of a typical television team of experts, reducing the title character's uniqueness. In addition, the visuals of Mac doing his wizardry were so fastly edited that it challenged the gullibility of any viewer familiar with the original. A token element better left out of the series altogether.

One of The Three Kings

I can readily think of only three classic Hollywood notables using the first name of King: director King Vidor, B-movie and television actor, King Caulder, and the subject of this overview, King Donovan. After a long string of uncredited film roles, typically as a reporter, a buddy, salesman, clerk, or manager, Francis King Donovan (1918-1987) was primarily seen on television screens across America in a variety of occupational roles or as a neighbor. Even blindfolded, he was instantly recognizable by his distinctive, upper-register voice that seemed fitting for an animated character or perhaps better described by a somewhat raspy tone as if he needed to clear his throat for a more clear projection. Whether drama or comedy he each role with self-confidence. With a few years of television roles already in the can midst of the budding new medium, he had a leading role in the sleeper hit film, The Invasion of The Body Snatchers, 1956 (above). Always a slot for him in any film, he continued working on the occasional film throughout his career, usually uncredited, for such 1963 classics as The Thrill of It All, as a television executive, and for the blockbuster, It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, as an airport official.

Notable recurring television roles include the deadbeat relative, Jake Clampett, on two episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies, as Roger Baker for eight episodes of The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, and as Harvey Helm in a seventeen-episode run on The Bob Cummings Show. He then played the inquisitive neighbor on Please Don't Eat the Daisies. His singular roles are too numerous to mention but Donovan was visible on several notable series like Richard Diamond, Private Detective, as Joe Baker on the western Cheyenne, a petty thief on Shotgun Slade, a western detective series with an unusual jazz score theme. He played Mark Dawson on Maverick and as a gun dealer, Sheridan Appleby, on Wanted: Dead or Alive, and Rod Serling's, Night Gallery.

Note: Donovan married comedienne Imogene Coca in 1960 and they remained together until his death.

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

First Across The Pond By Jet

 

On this date in 1958, the first regularly scheduled transatlantic passenger service with jet-powered aircraft began. Two British Overseas Airways Corporation de Havilland DH.106 Comet 4 airliners left nearly simultaneously from London Heathrow Airport to Idlewild Airport New York, and from New York to London. The westbound flight took 10 hours, 20 minutes, including a 1 hour, 10-minute fuel stop at Gander Airport, Newfoundland. Benefiting from favorable winds, the eastbound flight, commanded by Captain Thomas Butler Stoney, D.F.C., took 6 hours, 12 minutes, and averaged 565 miles per hour. Both airliners were delivered to BOAC on 30 September 1958 and configured to carry forty-eight passengers.