John Hanley, Scale Model

Jo-Han was a manufacturer of plastic, scale model promotional cars and kits founded in 1947 by tool and die maker John Hanley (Jo-Han). Originally called Ideal Models, Hanley's first products were mid-1950s model aircraft and other promotional items including scale model kitchen sets and a training model of Chrysler's fluid drive transmission, resulting in a contract to produce models for Chrysler. Contracts with General Motors soon followed. American Motors Corporation was another common client, producing mainly 1/25 scale promo models in the 1960s. The decades of the Fifties and Sixties are considered the golden age for promotional models and kits. Most were known as "annuals" by hobbyists and followed the bigger business of promos for the new cars introduced at the beginning of each model year. Some models featured friction "motors" which could be reversed to wind up the friction gear to self-propel the models. Other companies that made promos for the automakers included Revell, Monogram, Lindberg, and MPC. Most of the original Jo-Han molds were scrapped or stolen over time as no kits have been produced in over twenty years. The last Jo-Han promotional model made was in 1979.

A Prolific Independent

Edward Small (1891-1977) was an enormously prolific independent film producer for over 50 years, holding his own against the likes of David O. Selznick or Samuel Goldwyn in spite of his low profile. 

A former actor and talent agent, Small began producing films in 1924. He formed Reliance Pictures in 1932 and Edward Small Productions in 1938. Working with moderate budgets and talent borrowed from other studios, he oversaw a number of commercially successful films, including I Cover the Waterfront (1933), The Count of Monte Cristo (1934), The Man in the Iron Mask" (1939), Raw Deal (1948), and Kansas City Confidential (1952). He reached a peak of prestige with Witness for the Prosecution (1957), which was nominated for seven Oscars, only to lose it to the expensive box office dud, Solomon and Sheba (1959). Until his retirement in the early  1970's he was active mainly in television projects. 

Broadcast Pioneers

Roger Mudd (1928-2021) was an American broadcast journalist who was a correspondent and anchor for CBS News and NBC News. He was the recipient of the Peabody Award for his interview with Sen. Ted Kennedy, the Joan Shorenstein Award for Distinguished Washington Reporting, and five Emmy Awards. His smooth, comforting delivery added credence to his long-standing career of accurate and unbiased reporting. 

"Journalists, who are skeptical to begin with, simply do not like to be lied to or made fools of." ~Mudd

The Washington, D.C. native graduated from Wilson High School in 1945, later earning a Bachelor of Arts in History from Washington and Lee University. Mudd began his journalism career in Richmond, Virginia, as a reporter for The Richmond News Leader and for radio station WRNL. In the late 1950s, Mudd moved back to Washington, D.C., to become a reporter with WTOP News, the news division of the radio and television stations owned by Washington Post-Newsweek. Mudd quickly came to the attention of CBS News and joined the Washington bureau in 1961. For most of his career at CBS, Mudd was a Congressional correspondent. He also was the anchor of the Saturday edition of CBS Evening News and frequently substituted on the weekday and weeknight broadcasts when regular anchormen Douglas Edwards and Walter Cronkite were absent.

"The relationship between press and politician - protected by the Constitution and designed to be happily adversarial - becomes sour, raw and confrontational." ~Mudd

After losing the CBS sole anchor position to Dan Rather, Mudd went to NBC in 1980. He was co-anchor for the NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw until Brokaw became the sole anchor. Beginning in 1987 Mudd was an essayist and political correspondent with the MacNeil–Lehrer Newshour and a primary anchor for over ten years with The History Channel. Though Mudd retired from full-time broadcasting in 2004, he remained involved with documentaries for The History Channel.

Consider This

Few would consider that there was facial confusion during the 1960s between Mike Nichols (left), a famous director, producer, actor, and comedian (1931-2014), and the lesser-known William Redfield, an actor in theater, film, radio, and television (1927-1976). The multi-talented actors were from the same era, and both died in NYC. The photo comparison may solve any confusion. 

Likewise, few would compare these two actors, and not brothers. From left to right, introvert Robert Young (1907-98) and extrovert Richard Denning (1914-98). They had a facial resemblance at certain ages; both were 6' tall and died the same year. Denning was in radio, television plus numerous low-budget films. Those of a certain age may remember him as the Governor from his recurring role on the original Hawaii Five-O televison series. Young was an A-list and second banana actor in both high and lower-budget films and had huge success with two successful television series.

Chameleon Actress

Virginia Gregg (1916-1986) was an American actress known for her many roles in radio dramas, television series, and as a voice artist. Gregg made more than forty-five films from 1947 to 1981 in supporting roles or bit parts. Not exactly Lana Turner in the looks department, with Gregg's great vocal work in radio she could illicit the same attractiveness and in turn, shame Turner's acting ability.

As a prolific radio actress, Gregg could handle a wide range of characters from a sultry temptress to a deranged business owner. Listeners would hear her regularly on such programs as Dragnet, Gunsmoke, The Jack Benny Program, CBS Radio Mystery Theatre, and Mutual Radio Theater, to name a few. A distinction was her role as Miss Wong, Hey Boy's girlfriend, in Have Gun–Will Travel, starring John Dehner as Paladin, and in Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, as the title character's girlfriend.

The chameleon actress whom many could not associate a name with, Gregg was certainly the most visible on television for over twenty years in supporting or bit roles from any vocation. She could be an angry old bitty, a revenge-filled wife, or not above committing murder. Among her notable series were 77 Sunset Strip, Bonanza, Perry Mason, Maverick, Wanted Dead or Alive, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Twilight Zone, Bewitched, The Waltons, and The Rockford Files. But she is probably best remembered for her many appearances in Dragnet, starting with the 1954 film. Jack Webb hired her many times to play any number of characters, but usually someone sarcastic or comedic. In the 1970s, she continued in Webb's creations, Adam-12 and Emergency!. 

Note: Before Gregg's radio career launched, she played the double bass in the late 1930s with the Pasadena Symphony and Pops. She was a member of the Singing Strings group heard initially on KHJ in Los Angeles and later on CBS and Mutual. 

Frisbee Frenzy

The story of the Frisbee had humble beginnings in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where William Frisbie opened the Frisbie Pie Company in 1871. Kids would tosh the pie tins around (without pie filling, of course) but their flight could not be controlled. In 1948, Walter Frederick Morrison and Warren Franscioni invented a plastic version of the disc called the "Flying Saucer” that could fly further and more accurately than the tin pie plates. After going their separate ways, Morrison began marketing a plastic flying disc called the "Pluto Platter" in 1955. The name was an attempt to cash in on the public craze over UFOs. He sold the design to Wham-O in 1957. By 1959 Wham-O marketed a slightly modified version, and renamed it the "Frisbee." It was a huge success and a college campus necessity by the mid-1960s. Wham-O sold over 1 million in the first year. 

Put A Tiger In Your Tank

The Humble Oil Company can trace its origins to an oil gusher strike in 1901, initiating the Texas oil rush. Humble was founded in 1911 in Humble, Texas with a confusing array of names for different areas of the United States thanks to the break up of Standard Oil Company by The Sherman Antitrust Act. Forty-eight years later, Standard Oil of New Jersey acquired the company. Humble struggled for decades with what single brand name to use until 1972 when they chose Exxon. 

Humble first began marketing gasoline nationwide under two different names. First was Enco, a secondary retail brand in certain parts of the United States from 1960 to 1977, and a second brand, Esso, a concocted name for ExxonMobil, brought about by the merger between Exxon and Mobil (Standard Oil of New York) in 1999. The Enco brand was introduced by Humble in the summer of 1960 but the brand was not used in Ohio because of trademark infringement claims made by Sohio (Standard Oil Company of Ohio). Exxon later withdrew from Ohio entirely by the end of the decade except for Southeast Ohio and Columbus.

Humble's Esso brand had a successful advertising campaign in the 1960s and 1970s with, "Put A Tiger In Your Tank" featuring an oversized, illustrated tiger sitting upon or beside an automobile. Some fans took to placing a small, cuddly tiger tail under their gas cap filler door. For a thoroughly confusing Humble history, you might want to read this.

Note the 1959 Chevrolet and 1960 Dodge Dart above