This is Jim Rockford

 

Hi, Sonny. It's Rocky. I got the bill---I've been trying to figure out what everybody owes on L.J.'s birthday party. Tell me, did you have the Pink Lady?

Jim's answering machine: The Girl in The Bay City Boys Club, 1975
Blair Brown and Stuart Margolin guest star

A Movie Star's Premiere

 

On this date in 1946, The Killers premiered. The American film noir stars Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner in her career booster, Edmond O'Brien, and a host of B-movie stalwarts. The opening scene is one of the most captivating in noir history. Under the footsteps of two assassins, Charles McGraw and William Conrad is Miklós Rózsa's pounding theme. The "dum-de-dum-dum" motif would soon be adapted as the Dragnet theme by Walter Schumann. Although the same notes were used, Rózsa's theme had a faster tempo with no rests. 

Partly based on the 1927 short story of the same name by Ernest Hemingway, it centers on an insurance detective's investigation via flashbacks into the execution of Lancaster's character by the two aforementioned killers. In this respect, not unlike a Columbo or Monk series, the viewer sees the end at the beginning. 

Note: Not many get top-billed in their screen debut, but Lancaster or his contract pulled it off. 

Reel Character Series

 

Brad Dexter (Boris Michel Soso 1917-2002) was an American supporting actor and film producer. Known for his tough-guy crime drama or western villain roles, he was credited under several names early in his career. At the advice of actor/director John Huston, he became Brad Dexter, landing roles in Huston's film, The Asphalt Jungle (1950) followed by a breakthrough role as a smarmy villain in RKO's The Las Vegas Story (1951), starring Victor Mature and Jane Russell. RKO cast him in a similar part in the weaker, Macao (1952), also with Russell, with RKO signing him to a contract. Dexter was the villain to John Payne in the hard-hitting, 99 River Street (1953) followed by the captivating, though rather implausible, Violent Saturday (1955) and Between Heaven and Hell (1956), both for director Richard Fleischer. Television kept him busy in bit parts on numerous popular shows during the late Fifties and early Sixties.

His most famous film is probably the gunslinger in The Magnificent Seven (1960). Dexter will forever be overshadowed by the big box office competition dominating the film. His friendship with Frank Sinatra reached its peak when he saved 'Ol Blue Eyes from drowning during the production of None but the Brave (1965). Dexter was later awarded a Red Cross medal for his bravery. Grateful, Sinatra made him vice president of Sinatra Enterprises. Dexter joined Sinatra in, Von Ryan's Express (1965) but a friendship with Sinatra could be fleeting. He produced Sinatra's espionage film, The Naked Runner (1967). Speculation surrounds his clashing with the director and Sinatra over creative differences. Their two-year friendship possibly came to a screeching halt. It was back to television for Dexter in the Seventies to help finish out his career.

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.

Facsimile, Where For Art Thou?

Scottish inventor Alexander Bain is credited with inventing the first technology to send an image over a wire in 1843. The text-only image projected to and from a cylinder and was of very poor quality. Giovanni Caselli's "Pantelegraph" was an early precursor to the fax machine for transmitting images over telegraph lines and the first device that could send handwriting, signatures, and drawings during the 1860s. Pantelegraph translates into a combination of “pantograph” (a machine used to copy drawings and words) and “telegraph” (a system for transmitting messages over long-distance wires). Not to be outdone, British inventor Shelford Bidwell, developed the “Scanning Phototelegraph” in 1881 that was the first machine to replicate two-dimensional images, unlike Bain’s, that made the facsimile transmissions viable for commercial use. The fax machine kept getting smaller (above) but it was not until 1948 when the first fax machine could comfortably fit onto the top of a normal desk. Produced by Western Union, their new “Desk Fax” model signaled the beginning of widespread adoption of faxing technology. 

Online usage has not diminished the fax machine in the corporate world as a multi-functional tool thanks to current technology. And, unlike sending sensitive information online, it is hack-proof.

Ordinary Appearance. Extraordinary Talent.

 

Though a few notable supporting roles in major films made their way into Edward Binns (1916-1990) resume, 12 Angry Men (1957), North by Northwest (1959), Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), the B-52 aircraft commander in Fail Safe (1964), Patton (1970) and The Verdict (1982), it was the mass audience of television of which he was most associated. The American stage and television actor often portraying competent, dedicated, and purposeful characters in various roles.

The Philadelphia native's theatrical career began shortly after his 1937 college graduation when he participated in a repertory theatre in Cleveland. He followed that with a year as actor and director of the Pan-American Theatre in Mexico City. He was involved in television productions early in its infancy, appearing in over 500 television programs, either live, taped or on film. Binns had his own series, Brenner (1959-62), playing the title character as a police lieutenant. His casting calls were endless as a sought-after actor in most of the popular series of their day such as, Perry Mason, The Twilight Zone, The Untouchables, The Fugitive, M*A*S*H, a recurring role on It Takes a Thief, The Rockford Files, and many others.

Some sources say he was somewhat peeved that he was often mistaken for the actor Frank Lovejoy who shared a similar career path and sandpaper voice. Binns also was employed as a narrator, voicing commercials for Amtrak and United Way. He served in the Army Air Forces in 1942.

World War II Unofficially Continues

On this date in 1946, Step by Step had its full US premiere. It is a rare good guy role for Lawrence Tierney as a Marine veteran. His love interest and co-star, Anne Jeffries, works as a secretary for a senator on a case of national security. The suspenseful drama deepens when three German spies infiltrate the senator's house, knocking him unconscious, bind and gag Jeffries, leaving behind a murdered associate. Jeffries is rescued by Tierney who both met earlier during more pleasant circumstances. However, they both become the chief suspects in the senator's beating and the associate's murder. While attempting to elude authorities and the spies, they become convinced the Germans were unable to find a top-secret document that implicates them and others as spies. Rest assured, they locate the documents in the nick of time.