Spark Of A Champion

Albert Champion (1878-1927), was a French-born bicycle racing champion with major wins in Paris in 1889 and 1904. After retiring from competitive cycling in 1905, he incorporated the Albert Champion Company in Boston, Massachusetts to make porcelain spark plugs and import French electrical parts and components made by the Nieuport aircraft company. Two years later, the Champion name was stamped on the side. He incorporated the Champion Ignition Company in Lansing, Michigan in October 1908. General Motors founder, William Durant, was impressed with the spark plugs and persuaded him to move to Flint and supply his spark plugs for Buick automobiles.

In 1922, he changed the name to AC Spark Plug Company, utilizing his initials, to settle out of court with his original partners in the Albert Champion Company. In May of 1927, Charles Lindbergh flew his Spirit of St. Louis nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean to Paris, France, powered by AC Spark Plugs. Champion died in October of that same year while vacationing in Paris. Today, his initials survive as ACDelco (owned by General Motors) and Champion spark plugs sold by the Federal-Mogul Corporation.

Note: In the 1961 advertisement above, a family has just gotten gas for their 1959 Chevrolet when the service station attendant brings out a spark plug. It sounds to him like they need a new one. He will know better once he gets under the hood, but it is best to replace all of them simultaneously. Not happy about the sales pitch, the son throws a 1961 Oldsmobile promotional model at the attendant's head.

The Roy Huggins Affair

Screenwriter, novelist, and producer Roy Huggins had a significant influence in Hollywood, most notably in television. Below are three who were indirectly and directly impacted by Huggins.

IRVING BACON (1893-1965) was an American character actor who always had a role to play, no matter how small, in nearly five hundred films. He often played comical everyday men and was singled out by his trademarked surprised expression. He is perhaps best remembered as the soda jerk in the comedy, Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941), or the musical, Holiday Inn (1942), as the cagey wagon driver. In later years, Bacon would also be cast in serious roles, whether in Westerns or modern-day dramas. Bacon had roles on television's Maverick and 77 Sunset Strip. Both lead characters from those shows, Bret Maverick and Stu Bailey, were created by Roy Huggins.

VICTOR JORY (1902-1982) was a Canadian-American actor of stage, film, and television. He was initially cast in romantic leads. In Shakespeare's fantasy play, A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), he portrayed Oberon and eighteenth-century costume dramas. His career would turn one-hundred-eighty degrees, becoming most identified as a sinister villain in Westerns. A case in point is Dodge City (1939), a ruthless outlaw gang member. His mid-career creased face brought him a wide variety of roles as a Native American Indian or a detective in modern crime dramas in film and television. Nearing the end of his career, Jory had a definitive role to use his trademarked tight-lipped delivery as an old-school FBI agent from the 1930s in "The Attractive Nuisance" (1977), an episode of Huggins's The Rockford Files.

ADELE MARA (1923-2010) was an American actress, singer, and dancer who appeared in mostly forgettable films. She was most prolific in the 1940s with such average films as The Tiger Woman (1945) and Exposed (1947) before turning to the new medium of television in the 1950s through the 1960s. The beauty was married to Roy Huggins from 1952 until his death in 2002. Born Adelaide Delgado, her brother, Luis Delgado, was frequently cast in The Rockford Files series. He was James Garner's long-time personal assistant, as well. By the way, that's Rod Cameron above. He guest-starred as Jack Chilson on a 1976 episode of The Rockford Files. 

On This Date

Ride On The Peace Ship

In 1915, Henry Ford's peace ship, Oscar II (commonly the Peace Ship) sailed for Europe to get the boys out of the trenches by Christmas.' The peace mission was deemed unsuccessful, producing only inconsequential meetings with less-than-official representatives from several European governments. Nevertheless, Ford asserted that the Peace Ship's expedition was successful because it stimulated discussions about peace. And Oscar II.

I Like It Like That 

In 1961, the New York Museum of Modern Art finally hung Henri Matisse's picture, a paper cut from 1953, "Le Bateau" (The Boat), the right side up. Only one person, stockbroker Genevieve Habert, among the 116,000 visitors to the exhibition, "The Last Works of Henri Matisse,"  noticed that one of Matisse's elegant late-career cutouts (his Rorschach test?) was hanging upside down for the last forty-seven days.  

 
Note: Some may have said they preferred it upside down. Maybe sideways.

1887 Was A Good Year

Raymond Walburn (1887-1969)

Walburn was an American character actor on stage and screen, appearing in dozens of Hollywood movie comedies and the occasional dramatic role. He made his splash in both "A" and "B" movies in the 1930s, with continued success with his more famous rotund physique in the 1940s. Noted for his trademark bulging eyes, arched brows, and pompous attitude, few could compete with his windbag characters, demonstrated so perfectly in Preston Sturges's Christmas in July (1940), or Hail the Conquering Hero (1944). Walburn was the perfect choice for any bombastic bumbler of words or haughty stuffed shirts, often as a mayor, judge, or business owner. On the other hand, a few of his butler portrayals could be quite reserved and properly knowing his place.

Eric Blore (1887-1959)

Blore was an English actor and writer. After numerous stage plays during the 1920s in London, he made a career move to New York City in Broadway revues and musical comedy productions. He made over sixty Hollywood films, becoming best known for playing butlers or superior domestic servants. His over-the-top British accent was always impeccably precise, with lines delivered with barbed irony. In addition to his sometimes condescending attitude were his facial expressions, most notably with one incredulously raised eyebrow. Blore gained notice in the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musical comedies, The Gay Divorcee (1934), as a waiter with an astounding knowledge of obscure subjects, and in RKO's most profitable film of the 1930s, Top Hat (1935), in which Blore plays a sarcastic personal assistant named Bates. However, he introduces himself as if he were a corporate entity, graciously stating, "We are Bates." He provided levity as the not-quite-reformed jewel thief and sidekick to Warren William in three Lone Wolf film series in the late Thirties.

Note: Both actors were born in the same year and died one decade apart.

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.

East Coast Jitters

On this date in 1938, the infamous radio drama of H. G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds" (1898) was broadcast. The program allegedly caused a nationwide mass panic. Not quite. Though millions of Americans huddled around their radios nightly, relatively few were listening to CBS when the broadcast began. Most of the country was tuned to NBC’s popular Chase and Sanborn Hour, featuring Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. Perhaps during a commercial break, some switched to CBS. At any rate, on the heels of The Great Depression, it would not take much for some to panic. Immediately following 9/11 brought a similar sense to NYC area residents every time an airliner flew overhead. 

The brilliant, all-too-realistic radio broadcast was a Halloween episode of the CBS Radio series, The Mercury Theatre on the Air, directed and narrated by Orson Welles. He converted the story into a "breaking news" style of storytelling that described a Martian invasion of—perfect location—New Jersey. Some gullible listeners may have mistook those fake bulletins for the real thing. The New York Times, not waiting for the rest of the nation to report, plastered headlines indicating the broadcast had caused a nationwide hysteria. Few in Iowa were that concerned. 

Note: Working with Welles's concept, composer Bernard Herrmann conducted the live orchestra as if they were a dance band, but interrupted by news bulletins. Welles credited Herrmann's work as a major component of the production's suspense. The Mercury’s attempt to make the show believable succeeded far beyond their expectations. Above, Welles conducts the broadcast as Herrmann handles the orchestra.

A more in-depth history can be found HERE

Synopsis: Thrust Into Television

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

JULIE ADAMS (1926-2019)

Julie Adams, born Betty Adams, moved to Hollywood to start an acting career at the age of twenty, using her given name until 1949. She was very busy on the big screen for a little more than a decade with numerous Westerns to her credit throughout the 1950s. Pale in comparison to her four decades in television, however.

She co-starred in films opposite some of Hollywood's top leading men, including James Stewart, Rock Hudson, Tyrone Power, Glenn Ford, Charlton Heston, and Joel McCrea. In the middle of all these famous actors were Ricou Browning and Ben Chapman, both playing the Creature from the Black Lagoon, whether underwater or on terra firma, respectively. The 1954 science fiction film was a popular offering for mid-century audiences and brought notoriety to Adams.

Her television roles are too numerous to mention here. A few notable guest-starring roles were for The Andy Griffith Show, in another attempt to find a love interest for the sheriff of Mayberry, five episodes of 77 Sunset Strip, three roles for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and four episodes of Perry Mason as she sailed into the 1960s. Adams starred opposite Hollywood royalty for twenty-four episodes of The Jimmy Stewart Show and two episodes of The Doris Day Show. She guest-starred on many popular shows of the 1970s and 1980s, including Code Red, with nineteen episodes and ten episodes of Murder, She Wrote, before winding down her career in the early 2000s.