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 Publisher
Stan Lee

Editor:
Volume 2 Number 5

inosTfiiLGifii mm
Alan LeMond PAINTED MINI-DESERT
Art Director Sandpainting, a craft created by
Marcia Gloster desert nomads at the dawn of
history, is enjoying a resurgence
Associate Editors:
in American homes.
Jean Guck, Ruth LaFerla
As practiced by the Navajo
West Coast Editor: Indians of the Southwest, sand-
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624 S. LaBrea Ave. The Navajos painted spirits and
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Art Assistants: the Indians to help effect cures in
Mark Wethli, Nora Maclin ailing tribe members. The paint-
Barbara Altman ing ceremony, accompanied by
chanting and prayer, may last for
UP OUR ALLEY
Contributing Editors: who
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Assistant Production Manager: layers with a pointed object, such assortment of nostalgia buffs, in-
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Front Cover-Movie Star News,
Photoreporters, David D. Alber Assoc, for Parker Bros. Fans of D.W. Griffith and those of you with aphilatelic passion will be
{see legal notice with article pp 56 * ) ; pp 6-10, 14-23- John happy to hear the Postal Service is issuing a commemorative stamp
Chilly, Movie Star News; pp 11-13, 32-35, 11-43- Wide
honoring the famed silent film director.
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Lillian Gish, star of the Griffith classic, The Birth of, a Nation,
Holland; pp 364, 59-61 -Woody Gelman; pp 44-47- Wide
World Photos, New American Library; pp 48-50-RCA
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pp 62-67- Movie Star News. She told those present at the unveiling, I'm grateful to the people
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father of the movies.
NOSTALGIA ILLUSTRATED is published iiy Magazine
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Volume Number 7, May

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 ; .

NCST/tLGI/t
ILLUSTRATED
The Measures ofthe Fhst

Nostalgia News
Updating the past.

Cecil B. DeMille : Master of Spectacle . . . Leonard Maltin 6

He was the greatest showman
the movies ever had.
Bobby Thompson's Home Run Thomas Kiernan 11
He had an ordinary baseball
career in every respect but one.
The Delightful World of Ann Miller William Christopher. . 14
The talented toe-tapper
from Texas.
The Great Comedians Bette Martin 19
They made us laugh then . . . and now.
Naughty French Postcards
The changes the Turn of the Century
brought are reflected here.
The Video Exploits of Flash Cordon R.T. Allin 27
He didn 't last long on the tube
the Monster Critics got him.
Mickey Jelke and the V-Girls Tad Richards 32

\f ' The poor little rich boy

and his stable of girls.
The Other Life Penelope Ross 36
Back when Life was funny.
Remember When Dan Carlinsky 41
A TV Trivia Quiz of the 50s.
Mike Hammer's Mastermind Ron Fry 44
Mickey SpUlane's fictional detective
and how he grew.
Dolly Parton Livin' On The
: Land Linda Solomon 48
A great country singer
is a pretty country girl.

Paper Cowboys Ron Goulart .51

Riding through the pages
of the Sunday funnies.
Monopoly Big Boss of the Board Games Bob Abel
: 56
The game that seems to
hold a monopoly on sales.
Gum Cards of the 30s Woody Gelman 59
Buy 'em for a penny and
trade 'em for a fortune.
Gary Cooper Tall In The Saddle
: Walter H.Hogan 62
A —
—
distinctive actor
a warm and friendly man.
;

o
 ; "

CICHLILKmULil::
mflSTER Off SPCCTRCl*
By Leonard Maltin

He was larger than life, and his pictures were larger than life. He always chose
subjects of that nature .... He made pictures like Mount Rushmore.

Hasmoviemaker —
there ever been another
past or pres-
massive project was awe-inspiring
even to those associates who
—
ent to compare to Cecil B. thought they knew DeMille inside
deMille? It seems unlikely. out.
No other director so consistently But in truth, very few people
put his finger on the pulse of really knew what made him tick.
American moviegoers and de- In scores of interviews and
livered exactly what they wanted critiques, the dilemmas continue:
to see. was he a great director or a
No other director mastered the showman who pandered to public
art of self-promotion so completely, taste? Was he a deeply religious
with the possible exception of man or a charlatan? Apparently,
Alfred Hitchcock. Cecil Blount DeMille was a striking
Few directors enjoyed his combination of all these things.
long-running success, producing Born into a theatrical family, he
hit movies for five decades. tasted the appeal of show business
But when you come right down quite early. His father, a college
to it, there's one category where professor and preacher, was also a
DeMille outshone them all, and DeMille Dean oj Hollywood
: directors.
successful playwright; he died
continues to hold the world's when Cecil was 11. His mother
record; there was no director more 'I want to use a big boom now, son, then ran a successful theatrical
colorful than he. do you mind if I take the net agency, and gave her blessing to
Cornell Wilde, one of his stars in away?' I would say 'No, sir, fine Cecil's theatrical ambitions by
The Greatest Show On Earth, once with me,' and even if I had said, sponsoring his tuition for the
told me, "He was larger than life, 'No, I want the net,' he probably American Academy of Dramatic
and his pictures were larger than would have taken it away. Arts. But he also attended a
life. He always chose subjects of "That was typical of him. He military school, an experience that
that nature, that would give him himself would do all kinds of crazy gave him the bearing that so
enormous scope. He made pictures things ; he would hang upside distinguished him throughout his
like Mount Rushmore; he never down from a ladder or a low life.
wanted to do small canvases. trapeze to see what a shot looked He worked as an actor,
"He was also a hard taskmaster like upside down. It was hard to playwright, and stage manager,
he didn't care what you felt like, or say no to him, because he would do before finding his niche in the early
if it hurt, or if you might fall down all kinds of things. motion-picture business,, teaming
and break your neck. If he wanted Indeed, even after suffering a with two other novices, Jesse Lasky
a shot, he wanted that shot, and severe heart attack, the director and Samuel Goldfish (later known
that was that. Frequently, when continued to work himself mer- as Goldwyn). Together they
we were at circus winter quarters, cilessly while filming The Ten journeyed westward to make the
and I'd be up on the trapeze or the Commandments in 1955. That this pioneer feature-film The Squaw
balancing bar, standing on the 74-year-old was able to summon Man in 1913, with Dustin Farnum
damn thing forty feet up, he'd say the strength to complete such a as star. Although there was a
6
DeMille, top, with camera that he used
shooting
in his first film. Right, top,
Male and Female. Scenes from Madam
Satan (center), and Fool's Paradise.

"co-director," it soon became

evident that DeMille had a genuine
instinct for the film medium that
produced very effective results.
While other stage-oriented profes-
sionals expressed disdain for the
movies, DeMille committed him-
self to film and became one of the
leading practitioners of his art
within a few short years.
His greatest skill, evident in his
earliestmovie work, was his ability
to tell a story clearly and
dramatically. It remained De-
Mille's strong suit for the rest of his
career. He also knew the impact of
visual ideas, even after sound came
to the movies; a sign in his office
read, "Say it with props."
The late Mitchell Leisen, a fine
director who started as DeMille's
assistant, recalled, "He always used
camera has no ears. If
to say, 'The
you want to say it, get it on the
That is advice I've used
screen.'
throughout my career, in talking
pictures as well as silents. No
matter what, get it on the screen.
The visual image carries more
impact than the dialogue."
This is verified by an anecdote
told by the director's long-time
associate, Henry Wilcoxon, who
became a star when DeMille cast
him as Mark Antony in Cleopatra,
and then as Richard the Lion-
Hearted in The Crusades. "You
know," he muses, "I've been in
show business now for almost half
a century, and I've talked to many
thousands of people, and it's
 '

each other in this scene. Then you

have this beautiful girl who is
Richard's Queen, and he uses her
scarf. And it's so visual — seeing
him cut this thing in half."
DeMille movies are full of such
memorable images— including the
notorious bathtub scenes that
shocked silent movie fans in
DeMille's "naughty" romantic com-
edies like Male and Female and
Old Wives For New. .the elabor- .

ate train wrecks in films like The

Road To Yesterday, Union Pacific,
and The Greatest Show On
Earth and of course, the parting
. . .

of the Red Sea from both versions

of The Ten Commandments.
Visual imagery was not the only
lesson DeMille learned quickly; he
also developed the art of self-pro-
motion during his first years of
DeMille's vision of The Last Supper from his biblical epic. King of Kings. filmmaking. He actually appears
on-screen at the beginning of his
amazing that there is one scene in
The Crusades that almost in-
variably causes people to say, 'I
remember that scene when
—
"That's the scene at the Council
of Kings when you have these two
very strong men pitted against each
other. Richard makes some crack,
and Saladin says, 'The English
King's wit is as dull as his sword.'
And Richard says, 'What! My
sword dull? Bring me an iron
mace.' They bring this massive iron
mace, and he says, 'Now set it
between two stools,* and they take
these two huge oaken stools and set
the mace across. Richard draws his
sword and wham, he cuts it in two.
Then he says, 'My sword dull, eh?'
"Saladin looks at him and says,
'The Lion King has shown the
strength of his arm, not the sharp-
ness of his sword,' so he goes to
Richard's Queen, and very gra-
ciously borrows a flimsy scarf
that she has. He balls it up in his
hand, throws it in the air, and as
it's coming down, he holds his
sword with two fingers, almost like
a lady holding the handle of a
teacup, and draws it across this
thing floating down, and the two
pieces fall on either side.
"Everybody remembers that
scene. It's a good scene, because
you have the conflict of these two
powerful men; one who's a rough,
tough blackguard, which Richard
was, the other a cultured magni-
ficent man like Saladin. You have
this terrific conflict between them, Center, the circus comes to town in 1951 DeMille spectacle, The Greatest Show
and yet there's an admiration for On Earth. In scene at bottom. The Ringling Brothers face disaster.
Cecil B. DeMille was unquestionably one of the greatest showmen the movies
ever had. He had no peer at manipulating mobs or armies or planning a battle.

'\*V kkM

« •?m p \

'
*^M(5j£

'If

mm

Left. Baby Moses discovered in the rushes. Right. Charlton H est on delivers (he law in The Ten Commandments.

third film. The Call Of The North, cocted the idea of inserting a Virginia (1915) a story with a Civil
made in 1914, shown introducing flashback sequence of a Roman War background, when General
the members of the cast to novelist orgy into his silent film Man- Griffin tries to convince Lieut.
Stewart Edward White, from slaughter, which dealt with a Burton (House Peters) that his
whose book the story was adapted. reckless young socialite with no mission —
which involves betraying
Thus, C.B. DeMille's name and morals. Yet this was the director's the friendship of the Warrens is —
face were before the public at a formula for success, and it seldom of vital importance to preventing
time when the only other failed. He relied strongly on his further warfare, the corner of the
"recognized" director of note was chief scenarist Jeanie Macpherson film-frame dissolves into the
D.W. Griffith. DeMille continued for such ideas. vignettes of the General's words,
to attract personal and profes- Even his silent version of The showing men dying in the trenches,
sional publicity over the years, Ten Commandments paralleled a and an aging mother reading a
promoting and appearing
his films contemporary story with the letter telling of her son's demise.
in his own coming-attractions ancient Biblical tale of Moses Other memorable silent produc-
trailers in order to speak directly to leading the Jews out of Palestine. tions likeThe Cheat (1915), with
the public. In later years, he The modern-day yarn dealt with Ward
Fannie as a foolish society
further reinforced his image as the two brothers, one a kind and woman who sells herself to a
dean of Hollywood directors by devoted woodworker (Richard wealthy Oriental Sessue Hayaka-
hosting the long-running Lux Dix), and the other an ambitious wa) in order to replace charity
Radio Theatre. And of course he and conniving wheeler-dealer (Rod funds she has squandered; and The
portrayed himself in a memorable LaRocque). With typical lack of Whispering Charm (1918), with
scene with Gloria Swanson in Billy subtlety, DeMille showed Dix's Raymond Hatton as a small-time
Wilder "s Sunset Boulevard. Is it mother reminding him that "some crook haunted by the chorus of
any wonder that DeMille's name mighty fine men have been car- voices that command his con-
on a movie meant as much to the penters," and later depicted La science, were superbly structured
paying public as that of any star? Rocque's downfall as he tries to and intelligently conceived fine —
DeMille's films were as unique as escape from the police on his yacht examples of filmmaking then, and
the man who made them. What- called "Defiance." still impressive today.
ever the subject, it was always But the fact remains that While DeMille never lost his
treated on a grand scale. DeMille was a very talented moviemaking skill, his style
"DeMille had no nuances," his skill and versatility
director, changed, as he began to paint with
commented Mitchell Leisen. "Ev- most evident in his earliest feature increasingly broader strokes. The
erything was in neon lights six feet films. These pictures are filled with turning point was apparently his
tall: LUST, REVENGE, SEX." ingenious and even innovative series of so-called "bathroom"
Only C.B. would have con- visual ideas. In The Warrens Of pictures, the chic society romances
9
 are going to pick up your little
son." That's why DeMille's crowd
scenes, and spectacles, are in a class
by themselves.
It seems incredible, then, that a

man who could lavish so much

attention on details like these— and
elicit such rewarding results-
could at the same time be so sloppy
in tending to other aspects of his
films: the utter phoniness of the
"process-screen" backgrounds in a
film like The Plainsman, whose
plot was supposed to take place in
the wide open spaces. .the .

ludicrous fight between -Victor

Mature and a patently stuffed
animal in Samson and Delilah. . .

or the reams of just plain silly

dialogue that filled his movies over
the years.
In the 1915 Warrens of Virginia,
the heroine says (via card-title)
"Father, I can't betray an
important secret of the man I'm
going to marry."
In Dynamite (1929) burly,
brawny miner Charles Bickford
tells aristocratic Kay Johnson that
he loves her "from the top of your
pretty head to the tip of your
dancing feet."
And in Samson and Delilah, 20
ndments.
years later, the hero's mother
moans, "Oh Samson, Samson,
that were so popular in the late armies. He could stage and plan a what's to become of you?"
teens and early 1920s, leading to battle better than Clausewitz. At But then, C.B. never invited
ever more ambitious, more ornate, spectacle he was the master. But he intellectual examination of his
and more commercial screen didn't know a damned thing about work. He never counted on
stories. acting." meticulous-minded film buffs in-
Then, after making The Ten Henry Wilcoxon disagrees. "It is To him, there
specting his films.
Commandments, DeMille was true that when he was handling was only one judge-and-jury — the
faced with the problem of what to very large, vast numbers of people, audience that paid to see his
do for an encore. It wasn't easy to he did assume almost the quality of movies. And that's just what they
top Cecil B. DeMille, even if you a general in the field (but) as a did, in the teens, in the 1920s, in
happened to be Cecil B. DeMille. result, he got better results out of the 1930s, in the 1940s, and in the
So his pictures tended to get bigger those guys than any other man on 1950s. The titles are sure to evoke
and more elaborate, even though earth. He would always address fond memories: The Squaw Man,
the stories and characterizations the entire group of extras and say, The Virginian, Male and Female,
didn't always warrant that kind of 'Ladies and gentlemen, I want you Forbidden Fruit, Adam's Rib, The
treatment. all to realize one thing: I don't King oj Kings, The Sign of the
It got to the point where DeMille want any extras on my set. I only Cross, Cleopatra, The Crusades,
hardly directed his actors at all. want actors amd actresses. During The Plainsman, Reap The Wild
After initially discussing the role the making of this picture, if I Wind, Samson and Delilah, The
when casting the part, he usually come up to you, and I say, 'What Greatest Show On Earth, The Ten
let his players fend for themselves, are you doing, and where are you Commandments.
preferring to concern himself with going?' and you can't tell me, Times changed, trends changed,
the externals instead. either you, or the assistant director and while DeMille didn't always
Ray Milland writes in his auto- who is responsible for your change with them, his films some-
biography, "Cecil B. DeMille was segment, will be fired. I want you how appealed to a basic naivete in
unquestionably one of the greatest to think, and act. When you're allof us that enabled us to sit back
showmen the movies ever had. The crossing the square, I want you to and enjoy. If any one man in film
industry is much the poorer for his be able to tell me that you're history could have his name
loss. He could utilize a camera crossing the street to the sandal equated with the word "entertain-
better than anyone. He had no maker's to get your sandal ment," it would have to be Cecil
peer at manipulating mobs or repaired. Or I want to know if you B. DeMille. H
10
 oiiiY iHomsorrs
iHiomi Run
By Thomas Kiernan

In 1951, Bobby Thomson became a national hero; he hit a three-run homer in

the last of the ninth to give the pennant to the Giants over the Dodgers.

met Thomson in New York a got real challenges and respon- permanently when in
settling there
days after Henry Aaron's —
1957 he was traded again of all
I few
historic 715th home run. The
sibilities.
Thomson's voice was rumin- back to the Giants.
places,
irony of it all had not been lost on ative, gently sarcastic, but good- The return to the Polo Grounds
him. I made reference to the army natured. It contained none of the didn't take, however.It was a ploy

of newsprint, radio, and television bitterness of most old-timers who by Horace Stoneham to restore
media that had been concentrated offer the traditional the-game- some life to the gate after an-
in Atlanta, turning the event into a ain't-played-the-way-it-used- to-be nouncing that it was the club's last
garish promotional circus that had complaint. year in New York. When they
little to do with baseball. As he continued to talk about moved to San Francisco, Thomson
"Imagine," I said, "if the media himself, I discovered that he had a was dumped to Chicago. He'd
had been able to pre-set the stage strong, abiding belief, if only lately always liked Chicago as a city, so
in 1951 for your home run the way arrived at, in the old-fashioned he didn't mind his two-year tenure
they did for Aaron's. Why, the American work ethic. He had with the Cubs. However, in 1960,
Democrats probably would've run remained with the Giants through when he was traded to the Boston
you for president instead of 1953, returning to center field Red Sox, he was 36 years old and
Stevenson." while Willie Mays put in his two his skills were diminishing rapidly.
"Well, thanks," Thomson said. years of Army duty. Upon Mays' Let go by the Red Sox, he was
"I thought they overdid the Aaron return in 1954 Thomson was picked up briefly by the Baltimore
bit. But you know, times've abruptly traded to the Milwaukee Orioles and then given his outright
changed. Baseball's changed. Tell Braves. At first it was like being release.
you the truth, I don't follow it cruelly turned out of the fold for It was the endof a curious base-
much any more, Oh, I check the the young man who had originally ball career, one that was in Thom-
papers once in a while. But you chosen to sign with the Giants son's words, "Ordinary in every re-
see, after I gave up the game I rather than the Dodgers because he spect but one." Over a span of
found there was more to life than had always been a Giant fan. But fifteen years in the major leagues

baseball. Work, for instance. Daily he learned to like Milwaukee after he compiled a lifetime batting
nine-to-five work, where you've a while, and was even thinking of average of .270. The highest he
11
 . —
But it was the exception to the his new trade and today, fourteen
ordinariness of his career that years later, is a high-level sales
defines Robert Brown Thomson, executive with the same company,
known variously during his playing which is now known as Westvaco.
days as Bobby, the Staten Island He works out -of comfortable
Scot, the Hawk, and around the corporate offices on New York's
club, Hoot Mon. As a man, a Park Avenue, lives in a pleasant
human being, there is something New Jersey suburb with his wife
about Thomson that marks him as and three children, and views his
exceptional —
that persuades one lifewith modest philosophical
upon meeting him that probably satisfaction.
only he, among all the members of "So now," I said, "about that
that team, was capable of home run."
executing the exceptional feat that Thomson laughed as he lit his
constituted the miracle at Coogan's pipe. "I thought you'd never ask."
Bluff. As I sat across from him in "You must be fed up to the teeth
the restaurant booth, listening to talking about it."
his wry, humorous, often self-de- "Well, you get to the point
precating answers to my questions, where you think, what more can
this wisp of an idea began to spin in you say about it? But you know, it's
my mind. there, it's out there for all the
At 51 he hadn't changed a great world to see. I don't have any
deal. His face was fuller, his neck private claim to it. And I don't
thicker, his shoulders denser, his mind talking about it. Sitting here,
hair graying. But he was instantly reminiscing like we've been doing
recognizable, and his familiar —I always get a kick out of it.
plodding walk, which had always "Did you have any premonition
belied his considerable speed as a when you came up to bat? Any
runner, underscored the recog- feeling whatsoever of what you
nition. were about to do?"
After leaving baseball in 1960, "Not a one." he said. "I wasn't
he told me, he began to cast even thinking about a home run.
around for a new career, not un- All I was thinking about was
mindful of his residual popularity getting a base hit."
among New York's business com- "All right," I said. "I feel I'm
munity. He finally joined the West within a whisker of an answer. Let
Virginia Paper Corporation as a me reconstruct things with you."
salesman. He worked hard to learn "All right."
"First, the season." We went
over the early part of the season,
the losing streak, the Loekman-
Irvin switch, the advent of Willie
Mays. "Yeah," he said, "the
coming of Willie lost me my job,
but it enabled Leo to play with his
line-up until he got the right com-
bination."
"He sat you down for a while
through there."
"I wasn't hitting."
"But then he gave you another
chance, this time at third base."
Whack! went one of the must famous
"It was a last-ditch shot for me."
home runs in history as Thomson hit it
out of the park. Thomson said, and went on to tell
me the story of his summons to
ever hit for a full season was .309 Durocher's office.
in 1949, the only year he hit over "How did you feel about going
.300. The most home runs he ever to third?"
hit in a season were 32 in 1951, the "Well, I was willing to play
last two coming in the postseason anywhere. Remember, I came up
playoffs. His home-run average as a third baseman. They turned

over 15 seasons was slightly under me into an outfielder at Jersey

18 per year. He batted in more City, but when the Giants called
than 100 runs four times, but his me up in 1946 they were thinking
career RBI average was 68 per
Manager Leo Durocher of the Giants of me as a third baseman.
had a hig hug waiting for his hero.
season "Were you an aggressive hitter?"

12
 I

"When I got home that night, it finally began to sink in, what it really was. So
I went to bed and wondered what I had ever done to deserve this."

New York Giant players and Jans converge on Thomson (head being rubbed) ajter his fantastic hit.

"Well, that's another thing. I you and Mays in the batting the ninth inning started?"
suppose it's because 1 wasn't that I order?" "Total dejection." Thomson said
was able to hit that home run. If "Vaguely, yeah, I remember." with emphasis. "I didn't think we
I'd been an aggressive hitter I "You had been alternating with were good enough. It was the way
would've gone after that first pitch, Mueller between third and sev- I'd been thinking most of the way
but I just let it go by." enth, and Mays was batting sixth through the comeback. I didn't
"OK," I said, "toward the end of all the time." think we were good enough to
the season you're playing third "Yeah, against left-handers he'd catch the Dodgers."
base, and you start hitting like move me up to third and move "But largely because of you, you
there's no tomorrow." Mueller to seventh. Then reverse it did."
"Yeah, I did start swinging the against right-handers." "Well, it wasn't only me, there
bat. I figured, like Leo said, it was "That's right. But then — were a lot of other guys doing their
my chance. Leo had ways of
last suppose because you and Mueller bit, too."
getting you psyched up. I guess I both had hotter bats than Mays "I know, but you can't deny
began to feel it was all or nothing. I —
about then he dropped Willie yours was the biggest bat down the
just went up and started swinging, back to seventh and moved you to stretch. And you hit the home run
and the base hits and home runs sixth,depending on the pitcher. that won the first playoff game.
began falling in." For the rest of that year you were Also, you drove in the run that tied
There's one other ingredient in batting sixth against right-handers the last game up —
in the sixth."
that season I'd like to ask you instead of seventh." "Yeah, but I did that goofy bit of
about. Not many people are aware "So I came up instead of Willie." base-running in the second, and I
of it, and I wonder if you are. Do "Right," I said. "Of course no cost us a couple of runs in the
you remember back there it was — one knew it then, but of all the eighth by misplaying two balls hit
right after the end of the 16-game crucial moves Durocher made that at me. I was totally dejected. Even

winning streak, toward the end of year, that was the most crucial. after Lock hit his double and I was
August — when Durocher switched "What were your feelings when (Continued on page 68)
13
 TIHII DCUGHffUL UUOIttP
Off fiM millLffl
By William Christopher

Ann Miller has been accused of having beautiful legs, a naive innocence, and
the brain of a butterfly that flitted on its toes. What a combination!

44TWT hat day

ds t is Christmas on "I'm the one who ordered that Sullivan and Herbert Marshall,
*V
™ "
this
hairei
ired,
year?" the raven-
y
kewpie-faced
phony birth certificate— when I
was only thirteen and had to be
and
Anne
in Anne of Green Gables with
Shirley. But the luck of those
beauty asked. The editor of her eighteen." Thank you, Miss Miller, two early breaks was fleeting; she
autobiography replied, "I'm not but 13 from 18 is five, and 1919 flunked two screen tests, one at
sure." Musing, the woman asked, from 1923 is four. How did you get Metro, the other at Warners.
in that pre- resignation year 1972, tobe ... well, sorry I asked.
. Back to Houston and to one date
"I mean who decides what day Whatever her age, Johnnie Ann Miller has no difficulty
Christmas will be? Is it Nixon?" Lucille was a child when her remembering: the day she walked
The editor, normally an un- mother decided that the girl should into her parents' bedroom and
shakeable man, slowly explained take ballet lessons to strengthen found her father in bed with an-
that Christmas was always on and straighten legs that had been other woman. Ann and her mother
December 25th because, by tradi- slightly affected by rickets. But returned to Hollywood determined
tion, Christ was born on that date. ballet was definitely not little to win more than a dead marriage
"Is that so?" gushed the beauty. Annie's metier. She was a mess, she and small-time Texas dance gigs
"Well, I always knew Jesus was a says today. But one day— in the could offer. According to Ann's
Capricorn," she added happily. manner of movie star biographies figures, she was still 11 years old.

But Ann Miller wasn't happy when — her mother took her to see a Money was too tight for Ann to
she found that that year Christmas performance at Houston's Majestic continue at Fanchon and Marco.
would fall on a Monday. "What a Theater; Bill "Bojangles" Robinson But William Morgan, owner of a
dumb day have Christmas on.
to was dancing, and Mrs. Collier took Sunset Boulevard dance shop, gave
Nobody Hollywood goes any-
in her daughter backstage to meet the Ann both a place to practice and
where on Monday!" great master of the tap shoes. her "first pair of professional tap
Ann Miller, it seems, has always According to Annie it was destiny. shoes." According to Ann she
been confused about dates. Take She and Bojangles did an learned her tapping "on the little
her birthday for example; in her impromptu tap number to "Bye, tap board which he set up for me
autobiography. Miller's High Life Bye Blues", Annie copying Robin- right there in the showroom where
published a couple of years back, son's every step. "I took to tap they showed the shoes. This was
she claims to have been born on dancing like a duck to water," she where I learned to develop that
April 12, 1923. Almanacs and such later wrote. quick machine-gun-style tap that I
would have it otherwise; they sug- When Annie was 11 (or 15) her later became known for, and that
gest that the future star was born mother, battling with Ann's father, was to help me get started in
Johnnie Lucille Collier on April 12, took her to Hollywood to study at movies."
1919. And Ann still can't seem to the Fanchon and Marco Dancing But first came the amateur con-
Two publicity shots of the beautiful Annie
keep it straight. On a recent talk School where Rita Hayworth's testsand lunch time jobs entertain-
from her MGM days, MGM iea» the best
show appearance, Annie told Merv father taught. Annie met Rita ing Elks, Rotary and Lions clubs.
studio to be with in Hollywood during the Griffin that she'd soon be 50; then Marguerite Cansino Jane — (The name changed at about this
40s and 50s. depending on whose date you Withers, Judy Garland then — time; Johnnie Lucille Collier
accept, the lovely tapper was either —
Gumm and Helen Rose. She also vanished to be replaced with
51 or 55 at the time. got her first movie work, bits in Anne— with an E— Miller. The E v
Ann explains the mix-up deftly: The Good Fairy with Margaret was trimmed later.) And.trueto f
 "

an almost stereotypical Hollywood mother and daughter were off to

success story, Annie didn't have to RKO, papers in hand. It was 1937.
wait too long. She was 12 the night And whether that birth certificate
she won an amateur contest at the was real or phony, RKO bought it;
Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles. Ann Miller, super tapper, was on
One of her prizes was a two week her leggy way.
booking at a Keith Theater in New Faces of 1937 was Ann's
downtown Los Angeles. An agent first picture atRKO. Milton Berle
saw her there and within months starred in the film and it is an in-
Annie, having told people she was dication of the size of Ann's part
18, was headlining at a posh San that managed to shoot her
she
Francisco nightclub, the number in one day. But no matter,
Tabarin. she was making $150 a week, and
At this point in the Ann Miller despite her small part, Annie got
story, it would perhaps be wise for noticed. She was put first into Life
hardened cynics in the audi of the Party —
this time she got two
leave the room. Are you ready? We —
numbers and then Stage Door,
are backstage at the Bal Tabarin. her first "acting" part. But she
Ann is now 13. She has just finished almost lost this first real shot at
her big number when there's a stardom before shooting started;
knock at the door. Why, my good- she was taller than Ginger Rogers.
ness, it's Lucille Ball, Hollywood Ginger, however, liked the skinny
Star, and Benny Ruhin, big-time newcomer, and a solution was
Hollywood Agent and Talent finally worked out Anne wore
;

Scout!"We want to make your lower heels and a shorter top hat in*
daughter a star," they say to little their dance number together. Stage
Ann's mother. "But she looks a bit Door, which starred the cream of
young," says Miss Ball, the back- the RKO
stock company Rogers, —
ground music growing ominous. Lucille Ball, Katherine Hepburn,
Rubin warned that Annie couldn't Constance Collier and Adolphe
work in pictures unless she was of Menjou —
didn't exactly make a
age. Mama to the rescue: "I could superstar out of Annie, but people
hardly believe my ears," Ann liked her work. RKO
gave her a
wrote, "when I heard my mother part in Radio City Revels and with
calmly say, 'Don't you worry about the part came Ann's first screen
a thing, Mr. Rubin. I'll bring kiss. In fact, according to Annie, it

Annie's birth certificate with me was her first kiss ever: "I was so
. '

The scene at the top is when you arrange the screen test embarassed I could have died." But
from Columbia's Go West, The enterprising Mrs. Collier got the picture didn't die, and Annie
Young Lady which starred one last favor from her estranged got a raise: "$250 a week —
not bad
Penny Singleton. Glenn husband, a lawyer; the birth cer- for a 14-year old kid."
Ford and Ann Miller. tificate arrived, special delivery, Her next part wasn't bad either;
specifying that Lucy Ann Collier Scene at top from Reveille With Bev- Ann got the plum role of the daffy
had been born in 1919 in Chireno, erly With Ann, William Wright. Boh would-be ballerina, Essie Car-
Texas. And when Ann finished her Crosby. Duke Ellington and Frank michael,in You Can't Take It Withs*
lone Bal Tabarin engagement. Sinatra, among others. You. In her book, Annie proudly/
 : —. —
then announced he was going to
starAnn in her first "A" picture, a
big-budget musical called The
Petty Girl, based on the famous
George Petty drawings in Esquire.
—
Ann was ecstatic for a while. "On
the surfaceit all seemed kosher but

wheels had started turning in

Top from Hit Parade Harry Cohn's head. He had used
of 1941 with Kenny me as a sometime threat against
Baker and Frances Rita Hayworth, Now he was
Langford. Middle hatching up another plot to use me
shot also from same as a bargaining tool with Louis B.
movie. Bottom from Mayer. .Up to this time I had
. .

Hit the Deck. only been in B pictures. By starring

me in an A picture, especially one
quotes director Frank Capra's as expensive and important as The
description of her performance Petty Girl, my contract asking
"She played Alice's sister Essie, the pricewould go up. Like maybe to
awkward Pavlova; played her $250,000 or $300,000."
with the legs of Marlene, the Ann Miller was furious. "So, as
innocence of Pippa, and the brain they say in Texas, I jumped the
of a butterfly that flitted on its corral and blew the whole scene
toes." Many students of our Annie's the MGM contract, the Columbia
magnificent legs, ineffable inno- contract, L.B. Mayer, everything.
cence and gauzy brain might sup- I blew it all." She married Holly-

pose Capra didn't have to do a wood playboy Reese Milner and

thing to get that kind of gave up her career. Within weeks,
performance out of Miss Miller. Milner had beaten her savagely.
But he won best director of the And Annie was pregnant. Ac-
year at the Academy Awards; it cording to Ann the marriage was
was a further boost to Miller's (Continued on page 70)
career when You Can't Take It
With You also won Best Picture of Annie got back to Hollywood her
the Year. salary for Too Many Girls with
But things quickly turned sour Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz was
at RKO, and after making two $3,000 a week. But two dreary
films that did little for her, Room Republic programmers, Hit Parade
Service with the Marx Brothers, of 1941 and a musical oater with
and Tarnished Angels, Annie was Gene Autry called Melody Ranch
out of work. Like later stars whose almost took the Broadway-bought
careers were in trouble in sparkle off Annie's return to town.
Hollywood, she took to Broadway. Fortunately, she got the reviews in
To this day, Annie thinks she was her next picture, Time Out for
done in by her agent, William Rhythm for Columbia, and Harry
Morris. The Morris Agency also Conn, the tyrant of the Columbia
represented the other monster lot, signed her to a seven-year
tapper of the 30s, Eleanor Powell; contract
according to Miller, MGM, Pow- Despite the fact that Ann's
ell's studio,wanted the competi- pictures weren't the studio block-
tion out of town. Whatever the busters Reveille With Beverly is
reason for Annie's exile, it rapidly not the classiest title in Hollywood's
paid off. Producer George White history —
they all made money.
hadn't had a success in years, but And, having made it past the age of
when George Whites Scandals of consent at last— at least according
1939 opened, Ann Miller gave him to her calculations —
Ann started
a hit. She was a smash. Every dating. Before long, she had
review praised her. Every review hooked herself the biggest fish in
noted that she'd stopped the show, town. L.B. Mayer, chief executive
She made the cover of Vogue. Life of the grandest studio of them all,
did a feature. Look took notice. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, was after
The show ran for a year on Broad- little Annie Miller. He proposed.
way, and did just as well on the Ann refused. He offered to buy her
road. Ann Miller was a star contract from Columbia. Harry
•n. throughout the country. Cohn refused, but urged Ann to
\RKO had to eat crow. When marry Mayer. Ann refused. Cohn
 tihii Giifiii comnniwflins

By Bette Martin

Their antics made the world laugh. Their high-spirited clowning, pie-in-the-
face gags, and dizzy-paced chase scenes are still scoring box-office nits.

crowd as being the father of her

KEYSTONE COPS child. The camera filmed the
action. Soon police started to un-

Onecameraman day in 1911 Sennett,

and Mabel Nor-
a tangle the ensuing melee. Sennett
and his troupe made a hasty re-
mand got off a train and treat.The next day he studied the
walked square into a Shriners' film. The absurdity of police
parade. The situation inspired maintaining their dignity while
Sennett. He told Mabel to wrap a pursuing minor offenders was a
doll in a blanket and go over and natural for comedy. And so the
accuse a dignified man in the Keystone Cops were born.

Mack Sennett comic Bathing Beauties.

MACK SENNETT
Sennett, an ex-actor and screen
writer for D.W. Griffith struck
out on his own in 1911, and for
ten years his films were Number
One at the box office. He was king
of slapstick and the originator of
the pie in the face routine, the
hectic chase, the rapidly propelled
policemen, and the comic but un-
cultured bathing beauties. Origin-
ally the girls were a part of a
publicity stunt to get greater
coverage for his films in the news-
papers, Later, he incorporated
them into all his movies. Gloria
Swanson, Jean Harlow and Carole
Lombard began their film careers
as Mack Sennett girls. The Keystone Cops For years
; their frantic capers drew outsized crowds.
Harold Lloyd (above) "stops" the clock
in a harrowing scene from Safety Last.

wealthy man until his death. became a top film personality. One
HAROLD LLOYO Lloyd, like the character he day in 1920 it looked as
Lloyd's career and life would come
if both
played, was an Horatio Alger.
Born into a poor family, his first to a horrible end. A bomb prop he
On Lloyd played the
screen
average American
cheerful,
boy who always got in
acting jobs were with traveling
stock companies. He broke into
was holding turned out to be the
real thing. Lloyd was hospitalized
trouble because he was so trusting. films as an Indian extra. Another for six months and suffered the loss
Privately he was a polished extra, Hal Roach, inherited some of his right thumb and forefinger.
businessman and because of that, money and formed his own film When sound came in, Lloyd
his films grossed over 30 million company making Lloyd the main retired. He had been married to
dollars, he was the highest paid star. During the next five years Mildred Davis for over 50 years
actor in 1926, and remained a Lloyd made over 100 films and until his death.

A forlorn Harry Langdon with Joan

Crawford (right) in Tramp, Tramp,
Tramp.

and assigned Frank Capra to write finally let him go. Langdon. re-

HARRY LANGDON plots forhim and Harry Edwards turned to vaudeville and filed a
petition of bankruptcy in 1931.
to direct. The turned out hil-
trio
Two years later he tried to make a
He played the role of an inno-
cent lost in a world that was
too complicated for him to
arious films. 1925 Langdon
In
went to work for Warner Brothers
for $6,000 a week and 25 per cent
comeback but Hollywood wouldn't
He was known as a dif-
cooperate.
deal with, and the fans loved his of the profit. Taken with his own and autocratic actor and he
ficult

baby face and childlike attitude success, Langdon felt he no longer had made more important enemies
enough to make him one of the needed Capra or Edwards and in the film colony than friends. He
biggest stars of the 20's. Langdon decided to direct himself.. The had bit parts in films but never

started out in vaudeville. Mack results were disastrous. His movies made it to the top again. He died in

Sennett brought him to Hollywood lost money and Warner Brothers 1944, 60 years old and broke.
 a .

CHARLIE CHAPLIN
e call him a comedian be-

w; use he made people

laugh, but Chaplin was to
the art of film what Einstein was to
science or Freud to psychology —
a pure genius. His peers cannot
praise him enough, although the
public has never given him the
recognition his talent deserves.
Chaplin's parents were English
music hall entertainers, and
Charlie made his first appearance
on the stage at the age of five. At 17
Luncheon with the boss in Modern
he joined Fred Karno's company Times.
and came to the U.S. with them.
Mack Sennett invited him to join including The Vagabond, The
the Keystone company for $150 a Pawnshop, The Rink and Easy
week, During 1914 Chaplin made Street.
35 films! In Kid Auto Races in
After completing his contract
Venice, Chaplin wore his famous with First National, Chaplin
"tramp" costume for the first time. formed United Artists with Mary
Always the artist, Chaplin was Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks—
not content to just act in films he — now he could finally produce his
wanted to write and direct also. own films. For two years he
Sennett gave Chaplin $25 a week worked on the script of The Gold
more and let him write, direct and Rush ("This is the film I want to be
star in such films as Tillie's Punc- remembered by," he said). He
tured Romance and His Prehistoric worked behind the cameras,
Romance. These movies brought designed the costumes, wrote the
him fame and an offer from musical score, directed all the
Essanay Studios for $1,250 a week actors and produced what is con-
which Chaplin accepted. sidered one of the finest films ever
made.
When sound came in Chaplin
still continued to make silents. The
fans remained faithful and his films
grossed high profits. Chaplin did
speak in Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
and Limelight (1952) but he no
longer played 'The Little Fellow,'
and although critics wer" im-
pressed with these pictures, fans
were not
Off screen Chaplin was a hard
Chaplin warms his toes in Gold Rush.
man to live with. Highly eccentric
and temperamental, three wives
divorced him complaining that he
With Essanay, Chaplin made A loved himself too much to make a
Night Out, The Champion and marriage work, His fourth mar-
The Tramp (considered to be his riage to Oona, Eugene O'Neill's
first masterpiece). His leading lady daughter, has lasted many years
for the next eight years was Edna and produced eight children.
Purviance. Chaplin made sure that In the 50's the American public
she received a weekly check from turned against Chaplin. His refusal
his studio until she died. to become an American citizen was
The country by this time was seen as evidence that he was a
Chaplin-crazy. He was widely Communist. Disheartened by the
imitated, and there were numerous ingratitude of a people he had
songs and cartoons about him. given so much to, Chaplin left the
Next, Chaplin went to Mutual U.S. in 1953 and never returned.
who gave him $10,000 a week plus He is now in his 80s, living in
a $150,000 bonus. He made 12 Switzerland and working on the
films for them in one year script of a new film.
LAUBEL6HABDY
On screen, Stan Laurel was the
weak one who almost seemed
stupid at times. In reality he 9
was the creative genius behind the
successful team. Born in England
St
to an actor, Stan started per-
forming when he was 13. He came
tp America with Chaplin in 1910.
By 1926 he was directing his own
films. In 1927 while making Get
em Young he was directing a bit
player named Oliver Hardy. The The familiar mugs of Stan Laurel and
two hit it off and Hal Roach de- Oliver Hardy. In picture on far right.
cided to pair them permanently. Buster Keaton does his famous strut.

They made many box office hits

until 1935 when they started to
have personal difficulties. They
broke up and reconciled many
times. Near the end of their careers
they were doing so badly finan-
cially that they had to go back to
doing personal appearances in
music halls. Hardy died in 1957 at
the age of 65 after a heart attack.
Laurel died in 1965 at the age of 75
in poverty.

BUSTER KEATON
Keaton parents
s
and
were circus
performers by
the time
he was three Buster had be-
come a member of their acrobatic
troupe. Whenhe was 20 Buster
and his mother left the senior
Keaton because his drinking was a
threat to all their lives. In New
York, Keaton was offered a Broad-
way role for $250 a week and was
just about to take it when Fatty
Arbuckle invited him to join his
film company at only $40 a week.
Buster turned down the more fi-
nancially attractive offer in favor
of the excitement of films. By 1920
Keaton was the head of his own
studio; he directed and wrote, and
starred in hundreds of films. The
appeal of his character— the digni-
fied impressively grave young man,
who was always completely unem-
otional and dead pan no matter
what happened to him — was
universal. In 1928 he went to work
at MGM and soon after, his career
and personal life took a turn for the
worse. His movies stopped making
money, his wife divorced him and
he had taken to the bottle. During
the 40's Keaton made a successful
comeback. He died at the age of 71
in 1966.
ABBOTT CCOSTELLO
Bud Abbott was
man, Lou
the straight
Costello was the
funny one and they were the
comedy team of the 40's and 50's.
Costello started out as a salesman,
then became a prizefighter and
finally a stuntman at MGM. Un-
happy with Hollywood he went
into vaudeville. Abbott was selling
tickets at the theatre where
Costello was appearing. One day
Costello's straightman didn't show
up. Abbott filled in and the act was
formed. During the next seven

Stale room scene in the Marx Brothers' dizzy A Night at the Opera. Groucho, the
family wit, is shown on bottom right with the cigar that was his trademark.

Dudes Bud and Lou in Ride

THE MARX BROTHERS
't

Cowboy.
Groucho, Chico and Harpo
years they played Broadway and owe their success to their

did some stints on radio, Their film mother Minnie. She pushed
career began in 1940 with One
them into show business and
Night In The Tropics. In 1942 they managed their vaudeville act. In
were top at the box office. In 1957 relatively short they were
time
playing Broadway and soon after
the team split after some TV
work. Abbott announced he was went to Hollywood. The public
loved them— together the three
retiring,but Costello went out as a
single.He died of a heart attack combined all the comic elements,
in
1959 and Abbott died last year.
Groucho was the wit, the insult —
ment such as a high society
man; Harpo was the great pan- party —
and then completely de-
tomimist; and Chico the dialect stroy and poke fun at everything
comedian. Some of their movies and everyone around them. Chico
such as A Night At The Opera are and Harpo are dead, and Groucho,
still making money. Fans loved the now 84, was presented with a
way the Marx brothers would put special Oscar at last year's
themselves into a strange environ- Academy Award ceremonies.

Outrageous doings in The Big Store.

>*•' R.14+7
 UGIHITV
ffiffiCH POSTCARDS
"lady's" freedom were
The Gay started
Nineties
it all with a loosened and the women
new spirit of joie de began to make their own
vivre, but the actual rules for living. One change
naughtiness was much less was that more and more of
than appearances. Perhaps milady's pink and rosy flesh
it seemed more risque than came into public view and
it was due to the vivid con- the history of the bathing
with the preceding suit became a story of less
trast
more hidebound Victorian and less. In the Victorian
days. In any event, the word Age, when a woman wished
to bathe publicly, she was
for the day was "Naughty
but Nice." It was a swaddled in so much cloth,

sentimental and romantic it was a wonder she survived

period and the popular a dip into the water at all.
songs were of love lasting,— By the 20s the pantalettes
short-livedand unrealized. had been torn away and in a
The world was still a quiet few more years, one-piece
place and the booming guns suits would cause scandals
of World War I had not yet on the beaches. Most
shattered the peaceful Americans found the change
silence that most of the bewildering, even if it was
world would never experi- enjoyable in a wild, heady
ence again. The War (and slightly sinful way.) It

brought the farmers of wasn't only the war, of

America into contact with course, which brought such
the belles of Paris and they vast changes in public
— neither group— would morals and private deeds,
ever be the same again. It for it was also the age of

meant an end to the age of Prohibition and the openly

innocence and the twilight flouted law gave a sense of
of small town living. lawlessness to the decade. If
Suffrage for women began one law was so silly the —
and with it came a new people reasoned then —
sense of freedom The old
.
maybe others were, and a
restraints which girdled a new liberation was born.
25
 TIHII
m VIDIO©croon (Plibisihi
IXPILOITS

By R. T. Allin

Flash Gordon reflected the American sense of destiny, a sense that recognized
outer space as the future challenge to the country's pioneering instincts.

From
world
singers
record
to soldiers
holders,
to
the
pantheon of American myth-
ology is as rich and varied as the
nation itself. A rapid glance down
the lengthy roster is evidence
enough. Our first heroes were, of
GORDOi
course, natives of other lands, such
as Christopher Columbus and
Captain John Smith, each of whom
carved his niche in history and
folklore by thwarting adversity and
conquering the unknown. Smith,
in turn, owed his life and legend to
the brave and beautiful Indian
princess Pocahontas, who was both
the first native American and the
first female to achieve heroic
stature in the New World. The
Revolutionary War Period pro-
vided a plethora of god-figures;
Washington, Hamilton, Paul Re-
vere, Nathan Hale, Jefferson and— "*T^flf* .

perhaps the greatest American of

all— Ben Franklin, who packed Promotional ad for the Flash Gordon TV series, which debuted in February, 1953.
lightning bolts into both his
legendary rod and his beloved
young mother country. As the ett and Dan'l Boone were products the population's eager fancy. As
nation expanded, so did the dreams of the 19th century's earliest Indian with all young countries or
and awe of its imaginative pop- wars, as was Andy Jackson, who commonwealths, heroes arose out
ulace, and myths were drawn swashbuckled his way into the of a reverence for the mythical
about such characters as Johnny White House on a wave of roman- destiny of the land and its masses.
Appleseed and Paul Bunyan, those tic adulation. America's idols were, for the most
odd, adventurous sorts who From Nat Turner to John Brown part, real men and women who
symbolized a virtuous pioneer toAbe Lincoln, from U,S. Grant to vanquished real foes en route to a
spirit seeking to inhabit and inherit Stonewall Jackson, then from real and universal fate. When this
the wild, plentiful land. With the Black Jack Pershing to Alvin York fate is finally realized, however,
advent of technology came the tall to young Jack Kennedy, American the myth becomes jaded and new
tales of blustery John Henry and mythology cascaded down crimson ones must arise to maintain the
his futile bout with Captain torrents of conflict and war with popular union and its flow. In this
Tommy's steam drill. Davy Crock- gallant war heroes who captured country, the old myth rode beyond
27
^=f
 Kingpin of the galaxy gang for 17 years, wild carnivores fell to Flash's slashing
and uncharted planets became cosmic dust in the wake of his fury.
fists

itsCalifornia destiny to Honolulu, outer space as the future challenge the production to such locales as
then Guam, then Saigon. The flow to the country's pioneer instinct. Berlin and Marseilles for various
became a flood, and Americans When the comic strip was episodes. A young West Coast actor
took to higher ground in search of a brought to the movie screen in named Steve Holland starred as the
brighter mythology to believe in. 1936, Flash Gordon was played by dashing space hero, with Irene
Which, of course, was Hollywood. muscular Buster Crabbe, national Champlin as the comely Dale and
Amid the glamor and glitter of hero in his own right by virtue of Joe Nash playing the role qf the
the Gables and Harlows and his gold medal exploits in the 1928 wise and mysterious Dr. Zarkov.
Lombards and Leighs, all of whom Olympics. Universal Pictures co- The first installment of the serial
represented the new American starred Jean Rogers and Priscilla found Flash and his cohorts flying
folklore, only Flash Gordon, a Lawson beside the blond-tressed through .space to the kingdom of
:
.

comic striphero transposed to the Crabbe, and the combination pro- Mongo, a place ruled by Ming, a
silver screen, continued the older vided the company with as huge a ruthless gentleman who has ambi-
tradition of American mythology. smash success as the earlier cartoon tions to conquer the universe. Ming
Flash was conceived by cartoonist version had been. Director Fred- discovers the intruder from Earth
Alex Raymond in the early 1930s, erick Stephani created a series that and throws Flash into a wire-en-
and his public acceptance was ultimately consisted of 13 exciting closed arena that harbors fierce
gargantuan and immediate. The episodes in the inter-galactic saga, ape-men bent on tearing their
character was the ideal human each of which was pure, pre-war prisoner apart. Somehow, Flash
form a strapping athlete's torso
: science fiction utterly devoid of survives, thanks to Ming's daughter
brimming with irrepressible an- true anxiety, or anything threat- who, smitten by the attraction of
imal energy, steely eyes that ening to the starry-eyed crowds an "Earth man," rushes to his aid.
pierced like the modern laser, the hungry for romance and ad- The liberation is short-lived,
monumental, indestructible jaw,- venture. however, as a trap door is sprung
legs as strong and quick as coiled In February of 1953, the old and the pair hurtles down a tunnel
springs — he could have been DuMont Television Network took into a black pit, There they witness
created only by an illustrator's the Flash Gordon legend and re- the "dragons of death," which emit
fertile Flash Gordon re-
mind. created it for the nascent American eerie whines and screams in anti-
flected a universal sense of destiny TV audience. The new series cipation of consuming their meaty
imbued in large segments of our possessed every earmark of a sure- feast.
population in the pre-World War fire hit. The show was produced Flash again manages to escape
II era, a sense that recognized the overseas by the German producer by way of a secret ddor, but at the
innocent, unexplored realms of Wenzel Luedecke, who brought same time the blonde heroine Dale

Flash {Steve Holland) and Dale (Irene Champlin) attempt to escape the clutches of the intergalactic fiend of the week.
 "

is in the process of being "de- the show in general for its of- fists, uncharted planets became
humanized" so that she may fensiveness to certain standards of cosmic pebbles in the wake of an
become the slave bride of Ming. tasteand its violation of established offended Flash's fury. When Flash
While caught in the web of notions of privacy. Gould offered smashed an android robot in the
hypnosis, she is to be married in a such comments as these: "...the gut, not even a TV repairman
ceremony consisting of 13 blows on DuMont Television Network pre- could do anything about its busted
a gigantic cymbal. As the first few sented a macabre and sordid half tubes. But Jack Gould? The New
blows are heard, Flash fights to hour which had for its sole purpose York Times? Flash Gordon had
reach the subcellar where the cere- a stimulation of horror, fright, and finally met his match. After 26
s
mony is taking place, only to run ghoulish suspense. It was an utterly traumatizing episodes, the legend
into a cave-like hole where still deplorable abuse' of television's of Flash and Dale and Dr. Zarkov
more monsters are on the loose. A welcome in the homes, one which descended from the heavens to bite
giant, apparition then appears on would make any reasonable parent the proverbial dust.
the screen, which resembles a sea- anxious to shake some sense into Steve Holland, now a successful
horse with a tail and has the the heads of video broadcasters." illustrator living in New York City,
mammoth claws of a crab. It picks Gould further stated that, "The recalls his part in the old television
up Flash and starts to squeeze him. deliberate presentation of this type series with mixed feelings. "Sure it

Close-ups of Flash's face indicate of program just before bedtime, was fun, at times — we shot 'Flash
his extremely pained and agonized with a hero a state of hor-
left in Gordon' in places like West Berlin
state. The monster squeezes him rifying peril, is an instance of and Marseilles, and I have no bad
some more and begins to carry reckless social behavior that is memories, really. Generally speak-
Flash Gordon away. The gong wholly inexcusable. There are ing it seems like I only did three
sounds once more and tune in — many ways of entertaining child- shows, because from then on they
next week, the DuMont Network ren, even in serials, without all ran together as far as I was
tells the quaking viewers in the conjuring up images of cruelty and —
concerned Flash Gordon was
living rooms of 1953 America. torture which, particularly when saving somebody, somebody was
The episode succeeded on many conveyed in figures that both move saving Flash Gordon, Dale was in
levels. Steve Holland performed and talk, so easily can have an trouble, Dr. Zarkov was lost on the
particularly well, Wallace Worsley unhappy aftermath in the minds of planet so-and-so— and that was the
directed ably, and Irene Champlin youngsters." worst thing of all, the repetition,
.

fainted right on cue. The critics, Flash Gordon had been kingpin the boredom
however Jack Gould of the New
— of the galaxy gang for 17 years. When asked as to whether or not
—
York Times especially attacked Wild carnivores fell to his slashing he condoned the show's effect on

One of the scenes that critics found objectionable on the grounds that they would give younger viewers nightmares.
30
Television critics were not terribly receptive to Flash in 1953. Jack Gould
called the program "a deplorable abuse of television's welcome in the home."

about movie stars as human. ."

the minds of impressionable so sure .

youngsters, about whom Jack heroes —they're so. unreal, so "As far as the show was con-
Gould was so protective in 1953, superficial, they should only be cerned," Holland continued, I
the thoughtful, personable Holland taken on the level of entertain- suppose it was as good as any of
replied: "I don't think it was bad ment, I think. Real heroes and — them at the time. Maybe it was just

for the kids, even back then in even fictional heroes can be real- —
average I really can't say. My
those innocent days. Heroes are do something, they set out to ac- kids never watched Flash Gordon,
necessary, they always have been complish something good and they though, if that's any indication—
—
and always will be as long as the do it. Movie stars only look the they always preferred the come-
hero represents something positive, part, which is great, so long as dians who ran around and beat
something active and good. I'm not they're not considered super- themselves up ... S

Relaxing on the Flash Cordon set between takes are {from lejt) Steve Holland, two space people and Irene Champlin.
 !

the assault of those photographs on in the New York Post, "if Little
their morals and eyeballs and Orphan Annie could blow smoke

PUB TIHII V-GI1IL8 promptly

socialite as a
arrestedthe young
"common pimp," who
provided a stable of call girls for his
society friends.
out of her eves, those eves would
look like Fat' Ward's. But she still
has her youth, and no man can
resist a good-looking chick when he
By Tad Richards Thus began one of journalism's knows she's a tramp."
"finest hours," an episode of Pat came to court looking more
American history that brought a like a sober, pure-minded high

Really good scandals seem to Brooks, the "Spanking Mayor of vast oleomargarine fortune. To all new word into the language one — school business and secretarial
have died with the papers Chelsea," recently sued the British outward appearances, he was your that lived and died with the Jelke student than the most celebrated
whose existence was built newspaper Sunday People for typical, red-blooded young play- trial, to be sure, but a splendid V-girl of her generation, and she
—
around them papers like the old printing a story which called him a boy-about-town. He was listed in word while it lasted; V-girts. was ready to be "the best witness
New York Daily Mirror and the "menace to young girls," saying he the Social Register and drove a Mickey Jelke and his stable of you ever saw," she told reporters.
Journal-American. Or perhaps it had lured them onto his yacht and brand-new blue Cadillac. V-girls. The core of her testimony was
was the other way around, and the spanked their bottoms. He sued not He also carried a couple of guns. V was for vice. '

that she had fallen in love at first

papers died when the forbidden because the story wasn't true, but But more explosive than that was The queen of the V-girls, and the sight with Mickey, and moved in
fun went out of juicy scandals. At because he contended the practice the revelation Assistant District star witness for the prosecution at with him, fully expecting to
any rate, the name of Hearst now- did not make him a menace to Attorney Anthony J. Liebler un- the Jelke was 19-year-old Pat
trial, become his blushing bride. Mickey
adays conjures up guerilla politics young girls. And he won. leashed at a dramatic press confer- Ward, born Sandra Wisotsky, who gave her a ring, took her to dinner
rather than The Girl In The Bed What romance can there be in a ence after Jelke 's arrest: the walls had worked her way up from New at his mother's, and promised her
Velvet Swing or Dorothy Kil- callgirl scandal today, when of Mickey's apartment were lined York's Lower East Side to the they would be married in a few
gallen's coverage of the Dr. Sam happy hookers, mirthful madams with photographs of naked women bright lights of Broadway and cafe months, as soon as his brother's
Shepherd murder ease; the Na- and contented courtesans are Photographs of naked women. society, thence to a stint as Jelke's inheritance came through and he
tional Enquirer has switched from rushing head over round heels to, That was enough, in 1952, to call top call the tune of $15,000
girl, to could borrow $20,000. (Mickey's
"MOTHER EATS HER BABY" to er, kiss and tell in print? forth a special announcement from
in five months, at $50 to $100 a own trust fund would not be his for
heartwarming stuff like "TIERRA None like the romance of the old the D.A.'s office. trick. a few more years.) Pat wanted to
DEL FUEGO SEXTUPLETS EAT days.None like the romance that But of course, it wasn't Mickey's Pat's youth, attractiveness, pro-
"Mickey" Jelke adjusts his lie, above.
get married right away, "even if it
THEIR PABLUM FROM SILVER began on August 16, 1952, with the only transgression. The police who fessional qualifications and flair for
Top oj pages, from left : Pat Ward and meant living in a cold-water flat,"
BOWL SENT TO THEM BY sensational arrest of the Playboy burst into his apartment on that
the dramatic quickly made her the
her little red book in which she kept
but Mickey was horrified. "I
CONNIE STEVENS," and Confi- Procurer, the Whoremongcring fateful evening in 1952, finding names oj "friends". Pat and her at-
show. Everyone wanted
star of the torney, Roland Sala chat with an couldn't allow my wife to live like
dential is what Nixon put on his Heir, Mickey Jelke. him with what was variously to write about her. After all, as
J.
that," he told her, and countered
acquaintance as Mickey passes by.
memos to Chuck Colson. Minot Frazier ("Mickey") Jelke described as "a stunning blonde" or
pundil Murray Kempton, one of Two Assistant District Attorneys, Ryan with the suggestion that Pat take
Things are so bad that John III was the 22-year-old scion of a "a lush blonde," heroically braved
her more unlikely Boswells, wrote and Liebler enter the court. up prostitution for a while. Pat
32 33
wasn't so sure about the idea, but
when Mickey assured her "there the ladies' room of the court-
was nothing improper about Mariorie Farnsworth stationed herself inside
of intimate toilette interview.
it,"
she went along. For five months, house and began running an exclusive series
she handled customers provided by
—
Mickey and while Mickey vaca-
tioned in Florida by New York —
madam Erica Steel, to whom
Mickey's parting orders were,
'keep her busy." After five months
Pat and Mickey split up, and she
retired.
There was all this and more to
her testimony, but the problem
was getting hold of it. When Pat
took the stand, her attorney, J.
Roland Sala, who looked discon-
pudgy Joel Grey in
certingly like a
Cabaret, asked Judge Francis
Valente to close the court to
and public during her testimony,
out of consideration for Pat's youth
and public morality.
There were those who thought
that the decision might have some-
thing to do with protecting
important people whose names
might be bandied about in court
REPORTS PAT ON STAND
("D.A.
HAS NAMED 12 TO 20' CLI-
ENTS," & Journal-American head-
line read)but the innocent youth of
America was his real concern, the
judge declared.
"For weeks," he said, announ-
cing his decision, "I have watched
with growing uneasiness the
mushrooming public anticipation
of lurid and salacious details. .In- .

discriminate release of the obscene Walter Winchell {left) objected to the press ban at
and sordid details. .might well be Mickey Jelke (above) being led away after sentencing, and Pat Wardts
.
the trial.
a positive disservice to our youth." show n after testifying Jelke gave her a fur coat. . _

Lawyer Sala was no less protec- of the McCarthy 50s

was pallid by comparison. Mickey, the spirit
tive of the nation's youth.He told a utterly unimportant. .The issue is
. room became the news center of characterized Pat as a "Fifth
his lawyer said, was a "poor little
reporter, in an emotion -filled whether ANY defendant in ANY the trial. From it came titillating
Amendment prostitute with croco-
intimations of the identities of some rich boy," led astray by un-
voice, "Ifthought only of Pat
I criminal case can be tried uncon-
scrupulous V-persons. His mother dile tears."
Ward and not of others whose stitutionally, and the exclusion of of the biggies being bandied about
testified that she gave Mickey a The verdict? Guilty as sin.
morality might be influenced, I the press is only one feature of the inside, and wonderful new possi-
handsome allowance of $1500 a The case was appealed, and the
would have the trial opened to unusual court in progress. As far bilities for scandal journalism.
verdict overturned by the appellate
. .

month, and there was no truth to

reporters She would arouse such as this reporter is concerned, Pat MICKEY ROONEY "JUST MET" division of the State Supreme
the story that he needed to pimp in
. . .

compassion that tears would come Ward's story is of no conse- PAT WARD, the Daily News Court, on the grounds that Judge
order to stay out of cold-water flats.
into the eyes of every human quence. . .the Constitutional issue bannered, the type twice the size of
Valente's press ban had prevented
She also admitted sadly, that
—
being even you reporters." is." the day's other headline: ROS-
several of her son's V-friends had Mickey from getting a fair public
The press ban unleashed a storm Other reporters were more ENBERGS MUST DIE, IKE count of carrying an unlicensed
been guests— in her home— in- trial. The Journal-American inter-
of indignation in the New York enterprising. Marjorie Farnsworth RULES." preted the decision to mean that it deadly weapon. The charges
cluding, of course, Pat Ward. "I
papers, all of it high-minded and of the Journal-American stationed Another ladies' room exclusive,
could now publish the court tran- carried a maximum sentence of
thought she was just another girl he
principled as all get-out. Walter herself inside the ladies' room of in the New York World-Telegram and started a page one ser- forty years. The all-male jury-
liked," added Mama plaintively. scripts,
Winchell, who had reported daily the courthouse, and began running and Sun, was Pat's disclosure that
and ialization of Pat Ward's testimony, eleven married men and one
an exclusive series of interviews she had agreed to write an "Advice
Mama had not liked Pat at all,
bachelor— recommended clemen-
on the more salacious aspects of the but the other papers didn't
had finally asked Mickey to stop
case, suddenly realized after the with Pat from the intimacy of her to Teenagers" column for two
bother"— the coverage from the cy, and the judge set sentence at
bringing her around, but, of
ban that "Pat Ward is not the issue. toilette. "Pat was humming a gay metropolitan dailies, a column ladies' room had been so complete three to six years. Mickey entered
course, she had never dreamed. . .

Nor is her testimony. Neither is the song while combing her hair and which, sadly, never materialized.
that there were really no more Sing Sing on June 21, 1955, and
Pat was on the stand for two
Papa Jelke, for his part,
defendant, Jelke. Their sordid applying lipstick during a recess was released in April, 1957.
dismissed the whole escapade with secrets.
stories have been running, with late yesterday," she noted for a weeks, and was followed by other
good- A retrial ended with the same And, as the crowning indignity.
a cavalier, "Mickey just likes
different names, since the first man touch of authenticity in one story. V-girls, madams and procurers. he was dropped from the Social
looking girls." verdict: guilty on three counts of
learned to write. The name Jelke, The idea quickly caught on with The court was then reopened to compulsory prostitution and one Register.
the press for the defense, which Mickey's lawyer, in keeping with 35
and his guilt or innocence, is the other papers, and the ladies'
34
 tihii ©THii um
By Penelope Ross

No institution, however hallowed, was safe from the barbs of Benchley, Par-
ker and Sherwood. Their outrageous satire was the soul of the shocking 20s.

Before Life magazine became then 30, had had a varied career
synonymous with photojour- that included a stint as President of
nalism, another Life maga- the Harvard Lampoon (class of
zine flourished —
one that was '11) and leading writer and per-
founded in the 1890's and was former of the Hasty Pudding
dedicated to humor of the brash, Shows, both credits that immedi-
irreverent college variety. As a ately endeared him to Martin,
matter of fact, the first editor, Since leaving college, he had
Edward S. Martin, had been co- worked as a reporter for the Herald
founder of the Harvard Lampoon, Tribune, translated French cata-
and, just as the National Lampoon logues for the Boston Museum of
of today has its roots in that ven- Fine Arts, written advertising
erable college magazine, Life in its copy, and been a theatrical press
time drew heavily on the work of agent. Since 1914, he had also been
writers who had first appeared in a regular contributor to Vanity
the Harvard Lampoon. Life and Fair, and in 1919, he had been
today's Lampoon shared other hired by Frank Crowninshield to
qualities,good and bad. Both re- be its managing editor. One of the
lied extensively on special issues, first people he hired was another
both could be heavy-handed and Harvard graduate, recently re-
insensitive in their satire, (more the A Maxfield Parish sentry guards cover. turned from the war, Robert E.
result of naivete than genuine vi- Sherwood, Benchley hadn't known
ciousness) and both used the Sherwood at college, but the
scatter-gun technique in lam- younger man had idolized him at
basting targets, blasting away with stance. To their credit, the editors Harvard, and, as a result, he, too,
fervor at the reasonable as well as recognized the need to re-vamp had done extensive writing for the
the pompous, bombastic and their magazine to meet the Harvard Lampoon. A third staff
purely awful. Pointed humor demands of a newly sophisticated member was Dorothy Parker and
aimed against corrupt politicians audience that had been educated the three soon became close
and profiteers mingled with em- and toughened by World War I. friends.
harassing ethnic jokes based on The owner and publisher at that They also became collaborators
black, Irish and Jewish stereotypes time was Charles Dana Gibson, in the running inter-office warfare
while the editors busily denounced creator of the "Gibson Girl" between the office manager and
as "radical" and "un-American" all drawings that had been appearing the staff. Hemmed in by petty re-
the seminal movements of the early in Life since the 1890's and he and strictions, the three enjoyed
20th century — labor unions, wom- the editors set out to restore the demolishing the rules in ways that
en's suffrage and socialism. magazine by hiring new talented were sometimes exuberant, some-
By 1920, Life was a creaking old young writers. One of the first of times subtle. When it was an-
institutionof 38 years that des- this breed to join was Robert nounced that no staff member was
perately needed new direction Benchley, who became Life's allowed to reveal his salary to any-
away from this too-mindless drama critic in 1920. Benchley, one else in the office (Crown-
36
ElTKMliKH 1, 1921 I'JilCE IT. CEVPj

<4

Rivals
 )

1920s to secure the services of Robert Benchley, Robert Sherwood, and Dorothy
Parker (left to right.
Life was lucky in the

inshield loved discovering new all three. audience.

writing talent and then seriously In 1920, Robert Benchley was Even hiswork as a drama critic
underpaying it), the three showed already a respected critic and couldn't dim the affection people
humorist. He was also a beloved felt for Benchley, since his hall-
up wearing large sandwich boards
announcing their weekly stipends. man, inasmuch as he could be mark in reviewing was a notable
The rule about keeping salaries witty without being malicious, a lack of viciousness. Even when he
secret quickly disappeared without self-deprecator who liked to say he disliked a play or actor, he was
a trace. didn't know much when in fact he gentle in his disapproval in print.
Another rule that irked the perr knew a great deal about many Occasionally, though, even Bench-
petually tardy trio was the one re- things, and a man of conscience ley's patience would snap, as it did
garding lateness. Employees had to who often put his beliefs on the line on the opening night of "The
provide a written excuse for their (both Benchley and Parker were Squall," a play whose^dialogue was
lateness on small file cards vigorous protesters of the Sacco/ done entirely in pidgin English.
distributed for that purpose. That Vanzetti trial). And for the next When the heroine said, "Me Nubi.
bit of petty tyranny went the way nine years, he was not only drama Me good girl. Me stay," Benchley
of the Salary Disclosure Rule when critic and humorist for Life, but a rosefrom his seat, announced "Me
Benchley arrived at the office seven major factor in giving the maga- Bobby. Me bad boy. Me go" and
minutes late one day and zine its last chance to survive the left the theater. He never did
proceeded to fill out the front, back competition that was springing up review the play which is memor-
and margins of his card in tiny all around it— those literary and able only because of his classic
writing explaining that, on his way humor journals like Vanity Fair, put-down.
to work, he passed the Hippo- American Mercury and the New Robert E. Sherwood joined Life
drome (a theater that housed Yorker that were luring away Life's in 1921 as the book's first movie

spectacular revues) just as a herd of

elephants had escaped and were
rampaging in the street. Needless
to say, he stopped to help round
them up, and by the time he had
chased them up Broadway, down
Riverside Drive and back into the
Hippodrome, he was seven minutes
late for work.
It was therefore no surprise that

their employment at Vanity Fair

was abruptly terminated. Sher-
wood and Parker were fired at the
beginning of 1920 (he for general
reasons, she for her too scathing
drama reviews that drove away
advertisers) and Benchley, in a
characteristic gesture of sympathy,
resigned in protest. It was a lucky
break for Life, who within two
years would secure the services of

38
FEBRUARY
VOL. 77
IO.10?
Life PRICE 15 CENTS

'Bints ofa Feather

 ; —
According
critic. to his biographer, the magazine it satirized was Life. pected it to close in a matter of
John Mason Brown. "Sherwood's He had developed the idea while days. To his dismay and horror,

approach, like Benchley's, was the enraged over a particularly bad the play attracted a large audience
winning talent of being exceptional issue. The parody was an artistic and ran for years, thereby
and sounding average! .Abstrac-. and financial success. Now Life requiring him to write a new
tions were not his concern had its Burlesque Issues, which capsule comment every week for a
particulars were. His tone was poked fun at other popular period- work he detested.
down to earth; his point of view icals of the day Saturday Evening His comments started out
personal and his style conversa- Post, American Mercury, National simply ; the first week he said,

tional in its ease. Although he had Geographic, Photoplay, New "Something awful," the second
the self-assurance of anyone who Masses and Time. These were "One of the season's worst" and the
thinks his opinions are worthy of written in collaboration with Marc third, "Eighty ton fun." And from
print, he was almost belligerently Connelly, and once again, proved then on, his statements veered
without aesthetic pretensions." to be artistically and financially between distaste and boredom and
Sherwood's taste in film stands sound. One of the from
classic lines seta record in the annals of long-
up remarkably well, even today. those issues was a Daily News time feuds. Some of the more
He enthused over the great silent parody which showed a photo of a memorable were:
comedians —Chaplin, Harold gilded coach being drawn through "Just about as low as good clean
Lloyd, Buster Keaton —
the athletic the streets by men, for which fun can get."
grace of Douglas Fairbanks, and Benehley provided the following "In another two or three years,
the more difficult works of Eric caption: "Convention Crazed we'll have this play driven out of
Von Stroheim and Fritz Lang. He Dentists Parade Through Streets of town."
recognized the debt the whole London, Dragging Largest Gold "All right, if you never went
movie industry owed to D.W. beyond the fourth grade."
Griffith at a time when that great 'The Phoenicians were among the
pioneer was falling out of favor for earliest settlers of Britain."

being "old fashioned." Throughout "There is no letter "w" in the

his reviews, there runs a thread of French language."
delight at extolling talent wherever "Four years old, this week. Three
it showed itself, as well as a distaste
ounces of drinking iodine, please."
for the shoddy or sensational. "We might as well say it now as
By 1924, Sherwood had become later.We don't like this play."
indispensable to Life and, at the "Closing soon. (Only fooling.)"
age of 28, he was named managing Eventually "Abie's Irish Rose"
editor. The magazine was once did close, to Benchley's relief.
again having difficulties. Its However, relief did not arrive until
circulation had fallen to 100.000— 1927. By that time, Benehley had
half of what it was in 1921 when it made his own debut as a performer
was at its peak. Sherwood, with in the Music Box Revue for Irving

the aid of Benehley. came closer to Berlin, doing his "Treasurer's

making the magazine work than at Report." That job had happened
any other time since its founding. because Benehley, Sherwood and
He attracted his friends from the some other critics had decided to
Algonquin Round Table to write put on their own one-night-only
for Life— a group that included A deft cover design announces spring. show to amuse the actors and
Marc Connelly (author of "Green writers whose work they criticized.
Pastures"), George S, Kaufman Benchley's spot was written, as was
(co-author of over 40 plays, many Tooth In The World." most of his work, at the last
of them comedy classics). Franklin Besides their overall contribu- moment, arising from his lifelong
Pierce Adams (known as FPA and tions to the magazine, Sherwood inability to cope with his own
Benchley's boss at the Herald and Benehley continued in their finances. He was seen by Berlin,
Tribune) and Frank Sullivan, not respective columnist jobs of film who offered him $500 a week to
to mention Dorothy Parker. They and drama reviewers. This work repeat his performance on Broad-
were joined by cartoonists John included, besides the new reviews way. Benehley needed the money
Held, Jr., who created the flapper, each week, capsule comments of — he was always in debt but he —
Gluyas Williams and H. T. the films and plays currently on also wanted to keep his drama
Webster. view in New York —a horrendous critic'sjob. Therefore, a compli-
In addition, Sherwood gave the task since 40 plays or more were cated timetable was constructed to
magazine a new format and typo- often playing at the same time. allow him to do both. Every night,
graphy (designed by William Benchley's life was further compli- he went on stage at 8:50 and was
Dwiggins), letter contestsand the cated by that indestructible won- off at 8:58, thereby allowing him
Special Issues, which did so much der of the 1920's theater, "Abie's to see the beginning and end of Act
to keep the magazine going. One of Irish Rose." When it opened in I of whatever play he was re-
the best ideas was a relic of May, 1922, Benehley had rightly viewing. His wife, Gertrude, filled
Benchley's Harvard days, when he dismissed it as a badly written, him in on the portions he missed,
had presented the first Burlesque simpleminded re-hash of ethnic and the reviews duly appeared in
Issue of the Lampoon. Ironically, stereotypes and confidently ex- (Continued on page 71)

40
 MmcmMRWHcn ?

By Dan Carlinsky

If you watched the small screen in its youth or wished you had these 30— —
questions are guaranteed to tickle your memory and drive you bananas.

closing his show with these words "Glad we

;

could get together." (Extra credit for knowing

who said farewell by raising his palm and inton-
ing "Peace" long before it became fashionable.)
What was the big payoff on The Big Payoff? Who
displayed the prize each weekday afternoon?
Who was always hounding Dobie Gillis and
trying to sell him on marriage?
Who was known as Mr. Wizard?
Who played Lt. Jacobi on Peter GunnP
Complete this introduction: "And now, here he
is — the one, the only

Everyone knows Uncle Miltie, but do you know his sponsor?

Here's No. 2 in a series of trivia tests designed to

tickleyour memory, tug at your heartstrings
and drive you bananas.
The subject of this quiz is television of the '50s, and
a mere 30 questions don't begin to do justice to the
wealth of memories shared by anyone who watched
the little screen in its youth. The first 15 are easy— you
should get at least 10 of them. Then w#tch out the —
rest are a bit tougher.

1. Who sponsored Uncle Miltie?

2. With what smash show do you associate "the iso-
lation booth?"
3. Name the newscaster who became famous for The isolation booth was a fixture on what quiz show?
 h^o*

Kukla, Fran and Ollle delighted both kids and grown-ups for years. What teas the last name of the human third oj the trio?

9. what these three men have in common: Al

Tell 15. Who was Teddy Nadler?
"Jazzbo" Collins, Steve Allen, Jack Lescoulie. 16. Girth aside, what did Jackie Gleason and William
10. Jack Paar's musical director was: A. Skitch Bendix have in common?
Henderson, B. Jose Melis, C. Mitch Miller, D. 17. What perky little comic star of the early 50s wore
Doc Severinson, E. Dody Goodman. a super-long scarf as a trademark? (It regularly
11. What was Sgt. Joe Friday's badge number? unrolled to his feet as he opened his coat.)
12. Finish this opening cry: "Would you like to 18. Complete the couple and identify them Blanche :

be...?" and Morton.

13 What did George and Marion Kirby (the ghostly 19. Who played Joan's husband in I Married Joan and
friends of Cosmo Topper) call their dog? And what was his occupation?
what was the dog's chief vice? 20. In J Remember Mama, Mama was a housewife.
14. Complete this slogan, associated with TV boxing: But what did her husband Lars do— when he
''How are you fixed for .
?" could find work? And who played the role, op-

Whatdid "Steverino" and Al Collins have in com His trademark was a long scarj that unrolled to his feet.

42
Lucy and Ricky Ricardo were the First Family of television during the 50s. Do you remember their exact home address?

posite Peggy Wood? being "brave, courageous and bold?"

21. Who played Danny Thomas' son in Make Room 28. What children's show encouraged the kiddies to
for Daddy? place a plastic shield over the TV screen and draw
22. Who was Gunther Toody? on it?

23. Quick— give A. the last name of Fran in Kukla, 29. What was thename of My Little Margies land-
Fran and Ollie and B. the first name of Mr. lady's cat? (The landlady, of course, was Mrs.
Conklin, Our Miss Brooks' principal. Davis.)
24. Who was orchestra leader on Your Hit Parade? 30. Give Lucy and Ricky Ricardo's exact home
25. Whatdid Ernie Kovacs call his zany musical ag- address.
gregation?
26. Who was John Beresford Tipton's secretary and
(Answers on page 68)
messenger?
27. What man was described in his theme song as

Whats-His-Na?ne conducting on Your Hit Parade. What did Ernie Kovacs call his zany crew of musicians?
 mm iHifiimmiR's
mnsTiiirniinp
By Ron Fry

The astonishing thing about Hammer's success is that nobody likes him but the
public; no major reviewer has ever had a kind word for author Spillane.

"/ snapped the side eventually managed to manhandle

of the rod
across his face and opened the flesh more people per chapter than any
to the bone. He dropped the fictional character in history (and
sap... with a scream starting to remember— he's on our side!). It
come out of his throat only to get it wasn't until The Big Kill (1951)
cut off in the middle as I pounded that he eventually uncovered a
his teeth back into his mouth with —
trustworthy ally a year-old baby
the end of the barrel. The big guy who blasted the killer with a .45
. got so mad he came right at me
. . that just happened to be lying on a
with his head down and I took my low table.
own damn time about kicking him Although the Spillane novels
in the face. He smashed into the were originally published in hard-
door and lay there bubbling. So I cover by E.P. Dutton and Co.
kicked him again and he stopped (with respectable sales), it was the
"
bubbling. . . 25ef Signet releases from New
American Library that made both
Mike Hammer and Mickey Spillane
1952, Mickey Spillane was the household words,
In undisputed master of detective A great many explanations have
fiction and his star — Mike Ham- been advanced for Spillane's astro-
mer —
the latest great American
Mickey Spillane in 1953; at the time
his five novels sold 1 1 million copies.
nomical success, but the key ingre-
hero. In five short years, Spillane's dients remain: sex and sadism.
Hammer thrillers sold more than Spillane, of course, points to his
11 million copies in English and Mike Hammer has been trying to imitators and comes up with a
had been translated into French, clean up New York since 1947, as a different explanation: "(They)
Portuguese, Finnish, Danish, Swe- self-appointed dispenser of crude can't succeed because they write
dish and Dutch. His five novels justice. In his first appearance (/, for todays market instead of to-
went through 72 printings, more The Jury) he belatedly discovered morrow's." As for sex, he really
than one a month. that his then-current girlfriend doesn't think his books have been
Mike Hammer is not exactly murdered his best friend. His anger very sexy, when compared to other
what you would expect in an all- —never held in check, for very writers. "What kind of sex is there
American hero. He's loud, pushy, long— led him to quietly shoot her in /, The Jury? So a girl takes off
very violent, a paradigm male in her stark naked belly (just a little her clothes and gets shot. That's
chauvinist— and not a little insane. above the belly button) as she sex?"
He is not the most gentle of men plaintively whimpered, "Mike, The girls don't always get shot
when crossed, attacked or even re- how c-could you?" His classic right away, but their luck with
motely displeased. In fact, he answer: "It was easy, baby." Mike Hammer isn't going to make
might just pummel you for the hell That one scene should have told them wealthy. Two of the first five
of it if he decides to go, as he put it, us something about the way Mike novels open with a chance meeting
"a little kill crazy." Heroes can be Hammer does things. In the five between Hammer and a woman.
strange, at times. books published up to 1952, he Both women die immediately, one
 J-06ia6-95e^Q
SIGNET. 451 Q6347

Mickey Mickey
Spillane Spillane
THE BODY
BIG KILL LOVERS
Tht- scon-kilty bhii:khn.-:tn- fail urintj Mike Hammer

Mickey

JURY
 terrier behind whose amiable bark
lurks a strong urge to bite.
Spillane started writing in high
school, but had little success. He
spent the late 30s doing odd jobs,
drifting west in 1939 for a brief
flirtation with Hays State College
in Kansas.
The turning point in his career,
however, came not at college but
in Gimbel's basement in the fall of
1940. There he met Joe Gill. The
two were quickly drawn together
by a mutual fondness for beer. Joe
soon introduced Mickey to his
brother, Ray, who was then an
editor of Funnies, Inc., a group
that produced freelance comic
books for a variety of publishers.
Spillane soon left Gimbel's and
went to work for Ray, soon
producing one eight-page comic
story per day; most authors,
efrom My Gun Is Quick {1957) with Robert Bray as Mike Hammer,
according to Ray, took a minimum
of three days, others a week.
by murder and one by suicide. Of thing from a slightly insane para- After a stint as an instructor in
the seven intimate encounters he noiac to a completely insane sado- the Air Force (it always irked him
has, six end in murder (three masochist. .but no one ever com-
. that he never got overseas to see
shootings, one strangulation, one pared him to Thomas Wolfe, action), it was natural that Mickey
drowning and one slit throat). Of which is why he remarked, "If would drift back to Joe and Ray.
the three he really likes, he shoots Thomas Wolfe sold, I'd write like This time the three started a larger
two, (one of whom turns out to be [him]". comic book factory and made it

a man) and the third is shot for Spillane often proclaims that he successful in record time.
him. writes only for money— and only But Spillane wasn't happy, and
The only significant female when he needs it. With his sales one day, in the spring of 1946, he
character who manages to stay approaching the 60 million mark, walked into the factory and
alive in the novels is Mike's he obviously doesn't need it very announced, "I'm going to write a
secretary, Velda, for whom he much. novel." It took him just 19 days,
maintains a constant but furiously Despite his millionaire status, working in the hurly-burly of the
restrained affection. The only book Spillane goes out of his way to factory, to complete J, The Jury,
in which he treats her at all prove to friends that success has not He invented the name Mike
tenderly, has her kidnapped by spoiled him. He owns only two Hammer (women love the name
Communists, stripped, hung up by suits and two pairs of shoes— he Mike, he's certain), but most of the
her wrists and beaten with a knot- orders the $12 kind out of cata- other characters were named for
ted rope. Luckily she has been logues. He is quite content with actual people, a practice he never
spared Mike's lovemaking. fifty-cent ties. discontinued.
Mike kills 48 people in five A bantam-sized, slightly edu- The manuscript eventually found
novels. Yet statisticians who have cated, self-professed roughneck, its way to E.P. Dutton Editor-in-

made a kind of box score of his kills Spillane is not the epitome of your Chief Nicholas Wreden, who
have concluded that of these 48 common, everyday author. Al- recalls telling the first editorial
people, 34 —
all innocent of the though he now owns a farm in conference, "It isn't in the best of
original crime —
would have prob- South Carolina and a townhouse in but it will sell." That's a
taste, bit of
ably survived if Mike had stayed New York City, he grew up in an understatement to say the least,
out of their way. Spillane's —
Brooklyn and still talks like it. A Of the top ten fiction best sellers in
lightning storytelling technique one-time lifeguard and trampoline the last fifty years, seven belong to
manages to cover up the ineptitude artist (for Singling Bros. Circus) Spillane. He is second onry to Erie
of his man. But his readers don't Spillane proud of his muscles and
is Stanley Gardner in total sales.
seem to mind. usually wears T-shirts and tight- When was set up by Signet
a booth
The astonishing thing about fitting jeans to show them off. In at a meeting of the Modern
Hammer's success is that nobody contrast to the brooding, ominous Language Association, professors
likes him but the public. No major appearance he presented as the would often stop to complement
book reviewer anywhere has ever model for the book jacket of The their publishing of the Iliad and
had a kind word for Mickey Big Kill (mouth set, eyes squinted, the Odyssey, then ask: "Do you
Spillane. He has been called "an biceps swollen, gun cocked), have a Mickey Spillane I could
inept vulgarian'' (by the now-de- Spillane in person gives an impres- read on the train?"
funct New York Herald Tribune), sion of eager, nervous affability. Many fans worried in 1952 when
and his hero has been called every- He resembles a high-strung fox Spillane announced his conversion
46
Bantam-sized, slightly educated, a self -professed roughneck, Spillane was not
the epitome of a common, everyday author— and success did not spoil him.

to the Bible-thumping Jehovah's

Witnesses sect. Despite his dis-
claimer— "I'll continue to write.
More Mike Hammers are in the
works"— his fans waited nine years
until his eighth book, The Deep,
was published in 1961. They
needn't have worried. Eleven
books have been published since,
including The Erection Set (1973)
which featured his second wife,
Sherri,on the cover— nude. ("That
can't be Mickey Spillane's wife\"
gasped an on-the-air Dick Cavett.
"Why not," said Sherri. "I told him
I wanted to be naked on his next

book."
With so many best sellers behind
htm, most of which have already
been made into movias (or were
profitably optioned out), Mickey
Spillane doesn't have to worry
about writing another book for the
money. Maybe he'll just sit on the
South Carolina beach and wait to
catch up to Erie (135 million sales)
Stanley Gardner. And maybe he'll
iron a T-shirt.
SpiQane, himself, played Hammer in The Girl Hunters (1963) above. Below, Not bad for a 57-year old comic
L.
Biff Elliot played Hammer in I, The Jury (1963). R. Spillane in 1973.
,
book writer from Brooklyn. H
 DOUV PflRfOn:
uvirron tihii und
Bv Linda Solomon

"We was country people and we lived on our land . . . We were a long ways
from the nearest doctor. Six of us were born at home ; I was one of them ."

» a
i-

>d. We
SI
people lived 200 or 300 years ago.
moved out later, in my high
them in her stage show and
records.Other singers have pici
i

One of the few country artists school vears." up on her material Ma —

"-'-, Unlike, say, John-Boy of The Muldaur, Linda Ronstadt, Tina
j Waltons, Dollv disliked high Turner, Ei
ot. Merl<
. I Dolly's former singing, touring and
it the determination television show partner, Porter
with nothin' to wear Wagoner.
\ well, I'll have the A major influence on Dolly,
well as her kinfolk and m-

•
did play :

nd. Dolly's band. "II

ral things." she ot

ically. "W-
people," she family. P
<7 on when you re poor, inodo ed LittleLight of Mine," "Will the
r had to understand me hac I Circle Be Unbroken" and "I Shall
;
because I wasdiffe: as Not Be Moved."
Much later, Dolly and an aunt
Dollv has been writing s on Id write songs about the
J 1 w Jake Ov>
dies, rhv: II so hot that
t." A few years

f ago one of the songs depicting i

 —
music charts as one of the ten She collects dogs (pronounced 'em under a tub until you decide
biggest sellers in the nation. "I "dawgs"), but they're all "outside" what to do with them. It's just
would love to sing more church dogs. "We got yard dogs and fun," she giggles, "and then you let
songs," Dolly confessed, "but I hound dogs, and there's a little red 'em out!"
don't ever get the chance." dog that just wound up at our Ah, but are they eatable? "Well,
She did record a sacred album, place. I got two little brother and yeah," she replied somewhat dub-
The Golden Streak of Glory, and sister Eskimo spitz. I call him Mark iously, "we eat about everything in
her aunt and grandfather contri- Spitz and she's Lickety Spitz. I the country. I wouldn't do it now,
buted some of the songs. Dolly still don't have any house dogs, but we used to eat groundhogs,
writes poignantly of churchy although I sometimes bring the coons, squirrels, rabbits and all
that stuff. And I still like rabbits
and squirrels. Every now and then
we go home and Mama makes
squirrel gravy and fried squirrel.
You can catch squirrels real easy.
They're everywhere. You just take
your gun and go set under a tree
and get 'em! It's no big thing. Just
comes natural. In the country,
nobody thinks anything about it.
"We used to go frog giggin'
you know, when you gig frogs?
Like you take a tobacco stick and
drive a nail through the bottom of
the stick. You'd drive it down the
side where it would make a point,
and then you go over to the creek
bank or the pond and 'gig frogs'
(translated see what you can
:

catch). I never did this myself, but

I used to go along. You stick 'em,

and then pick 'em up. And they

you have frogs'
start hollerin', but
legs for dinner.
"You throw away the rest of the
frog. I never would eat frogs' legs
because they jumped in the skillet,
and that always bothered me. It
was the flexing of the muscles or
somethin', but when you're fryin'
Dully sings to her fans on one of her railway whistle-stop tours. She often sings them, they jump around! And it
" looks kind a weird.
hymns and spirituals such as "I Shall Not Be Moved.
"I won't eat much stuff fhat I

didn't eat when I was growin' up. I

leanings. "Sacred Memories," from dogs in and let 'em tromp through
guess everybody's like that to a
her latest album, Love Is Like A the house and look around— es-
degree. We'd catch fish in the river
Butterfly, illustrates her indelible pecially when I've taken 'em to the
regard for "the songs we used to vet and gotten 'em cleaned up. and the lake; that's about the only
things we'd eat that came out of
sing" and even mentions her Then I'll let 'em come in before

mother's "loud and clear" ren- the water, bass, trout and catfish.
I put 'em back outside!"
Catfish can get really big— pounds
dering of "Power and the Blood." To most city-bred folk, hound
Still waters run deep in Dolly's dogs conjure up images of possum
and pounds! I don't remember the
musical memorabilia. biggest one we ever caught, but
hunting, which apparently comes
"I love livin' on a farm," she
sometimes they get to be like 50
as naturally to country girls as it

said, touching on those roots again. does to country boys. "I never
still
pounds (Florida catfish). Most of
"I never got used to not bein' on a would kill nothin'," said the glam- the ones from up home are
farm. See, I never had been away orous Ms. Parton with a shrug of between three and ten pounds on
from home moved Nash- the average. But I never did even
until I to her lemon meringue bouffant. "I
1964." She lived in a sub- like to eat catfish! 1 guess 'cause
ville in don't even like to swat flies. I'm too
they had whiskers. Just the way
division until her new house was tenderhearted We used to go
.

things looked always bugged me.

built and she could get back to the possum hunting with Daddy. You
"I love to cook, and I'm a good
country, where there are horses, don't them; you don't have to.
kill
cook. I cook things that Mama
cows, chickens and a garden. They getup on persimmon trees
When asked if she possessed a green taught us to cook, things we used to
and the dogs get up against the
eat back home. But I don't cook no
thumb, Dolly laughed and said trees and you knock 'em down and
exotic dishes. I do everything my
that she has a black one when she they play dead. You pick 'em up by
works in the garden. the tail and take 'em home and put (Continued on page 73)
50
 PfilPli COtJBOVS
By Ron Goulart

During the first big wave of adventure strips in the 20s, it was not at all sur-
prising when the cowboy showed up on the pages of the Sunday funnies.

In his Minute Movies Ed Wheelan had been using boys. A sample of Ed Wheelan s Minute Movies continuities. Copyright,
1923, by George Mathew Adams Syndicate.

sturdy a hero is the cowboy in such Desert Danger,

serials as scouts. O'Neill's idea of suspense
So that he can thrive almost any- Way Out West, The Great Open was to have some innocent, a hap-
where. He has galloped Spaces, etc. By the late 1920s there less infant or a golden-haired little
across movie screens since the were several fulltime Wild West girl, about to fall over a cliff or be
century began, in Westerns filmed strips. Among the early arrivals eaten by a grizzly bear. He inked in
everywhere from New Jersey to was a lad known, eventually, as a flowery Old World style which
Tokyo. He's jingled his spurs Broncho Bill. He was no relation to didn't quite hide the strange out of
through tons of novels, shot it out Broncho Billy of the silents, and kilter drawing beneath it.

with owlhoots on the rough pages he'd done business under a couple Just as there were aviation comic
of innumerable pulp magazines. of other names before settling on strips drawn by men who'd
There's never been a television that one. Harry O'Neill's strip, one actually piloted planes, there were
season without at least one cow- of the first offered by United cowpoke strips by artists who'd
boy. And there were even radio Features, came into the world as actually been up on a horse. Fred
cowboys, their fiery horses' hoof- Young Buffalo Bill. By the early 30s Harman was one, having grown up
beats produced by chest-thumping it was Buckaroo Bill, changing to on his dad's ranch in Colorado.
soundmen, spilling out of the Broncho Bill for its final decade or After a brief spell in the National
speakers at all Cowboys, not
hours, so. A
graduate of the Landon Guard during World War I,
surprisingly, also turned up on the mailorder cartoon school, O'Neill is Harman went back to the cow-
comic pages. A few landed during one of the few professional puncher's life. In the middle 20s he
the first big wave of adventure acrdbats ever to draw a comic wandered to Kansas City and got
strips in the 20s, and a larger batch strip. The stories in Broncho BUI into newspaper work as an artist.
arrived in the 30s deluge. came around the acti-
to center He and his brother Hugh got in-
In his Minute Movies Ed vities ofa Bill-led group of youthful' terested in the burgeoning art of
Wheelan had been using cowboy vigilantes calling themselves the animation, and for a time Fred
continuities from the early 1920s, Rangers, sort of gun-toting boy Harman was in partnership with
51
 Kansas City's other cartoonist,
Walt Disney. But when Walt
moved out to Hollywood, Harman
didn't follow. He did go there a
few years later, after having
acquired a wife and son. Deter-
mined to become the Will James of
the funny papers, Harman created,
in the early 30s, a cowboy strip
called Bronc Peeler. He used to
"travel up and down the West
Coast in a car, drawing and selling
his strip at the same time." Fred
Harman Features, as he called
himself, also peddled Bosko, which
was based on the animated cartoon
character concocted by Hugh
Harman and Rudolf Ising. Bronc,
who hung around with a mous-
tached galoot named Coyote Pete,
was a gangling red-headed youth.
As the strip progressed Harman, a
redhead himself, added a few years
to Bronc's age and some inches to
his shoulders, making him less of a
mooncalf. In the Sunday page, still
under the spell of Will James,
Harman gave his readers not only
it was Young Buffalo Bill, then Buckaroo Bill and finally Broncho Bill. ©
First 12 panels of Western adventure but
United Features Syndicates, Inc. Red Ryder was drawn by Colorado cowboy Fred a scenic view of the West as well.
Barman. © 1943 by NEA Services, Inc. The panel, titled On The Range,
ran underneath the Peeler half-
page and was always accompanied
by a few paragraphs of Harman's
best aw-shucks prose.

History books tell us about wild

Injuns an' how they killed white
people. When they weren't killin'
cowboys an' soldiers, they were
fightin' other Injun tribes. But
shucks, ya can't blame them fer
^ all the massacres. They were
pikers compared to us folks.

Did ya ever come face to face

with yerself at a waterin' hole?
No foolin' it'll give ya thoughts
ya never stopped to think about-
A feelin' of humbleness . . .

Bronc Peeler was a hard-riding

fast-shooting hombre, good with
his fists and attractive to the ladies.
He dropped Gs as often as he
could, called his horse a hoss and
referred to Coyote Pete as m'pal.
Harman drew in a gruff forceful
style, having no fear of depicting
horses, cattle and other cowboy
objects which often defeated dude
cartoonists. His stories, though,
came not out of the West but out of
the pages of the pulps and off the
movie screens. Bronc dealt with
rustlers, Mexican bandits, crooked
 There were cowboy strips drawn by artists who'd actually been up on a horse.
Fred Harman who created Red Ryder was a sure 'nough cowboy.

lawyers and tinhorn gamblers. At gettum carbine like Red Ryder's John Wade
in the East. Others, like
the suggestion of his wife, Harman heap soon!" Harman appeared in Hampton and Edmond Good,
gave Bronc a boy sidekick in hopes the ads along with his characters. actually spent time at the famous
of winning a larger juvenile "Fred Harman, famous cowboy rancho.
audience, The kid was an Indian who draws NEA
artist the popular After he had been with NEA for
named Little Beaver (after his late newspaper cartoon RED RYDER many years, Harman switched to
father Chief Beaver). For a man COMIC STRIP, was a sure 'nough theMcNaught Syndicate. When
who professed to love Injuns, Colorado cowboy before hittin' the Stephen Slesinger died in the early
Harman made Little Beaver the trail to New York City. Fred 1950s most of the subsidiary uses of
worst kind of Uncle Tomming helped Daisy design this genuine the Red Ryder property had ended.
Hollywood Indian. Harman ad- Western-style saddle carbine an' The strip itself hung on a few more
mitted that his clothes were not hopes you get your RED RYDER years. During its last days Harman
authentic. And his conversation CARBINE right away!" By now deserted his cowboy, possibly to
was a triumph of Poverty Row Harman had settled on his Red devote full time to his paintings,
patois— "Me sneakum away to Ryder Rancho near Pagosa Springs, and the strip was credited to Bob
trailum ... Don't telfum nobody!" Colorado. Daisy ran several MacLeod.
About this time Fred Harman's contests which offered as first prize An even more marketable
work came to the notice of New 2 FREE TRIPS to the ranch where cowboy was the Lone Ranger. He
York entrepreneur Stephen Sles- you could "SEE Fred Harman was the joint creation of a Detroit
inger. Slesinger was
an agent, DRAW his famous Cartoon Strip." radio station owner and a Buffalo
merchandiser and promoter. He Slesinger, never missing a bet, was pulp writer. George W. Trendle,
controlled, for instance, all United active in the Boys Clubs of America who owned station WXYZ, wanted
States merchandising rights to and he saw to it that the winner of to compete with the networks. He
Winnie the Pooh. He was also into the Boy of the Year contest run by decided to do it with a show about
comic book publishing and the the organization always won a trip a cowboy with Robin Hood and
production of comic strips. Inviting to the rancho. Zorro tendencies. He hired Fran
Harman East, Slesinger had him Publicity releases and interviews Striker to write the scripts. The
convert Bronc into Red Ryder. always stressed the fact that half hour show, heard three times a
Little Beaver remained Little Harman was a compulsive artist week, went on the air in January of
Beaver ("You betchum!") and be- who loved nothing better than 1933. Success was immediate, and
came Red's constant companion. drawing. the masked man was soon heard all
Stephen Slesinger, Inc. sold the across the country, sponsored by 17
renamed cowboy to NEA in 1938 He has no assistants, which different bread companies. Before
and subsequently promoted Red _ among strip cartoonists is un- he'd even moved onto the network,
Ryder movie serials (starring Don usual. He is a perfectionist tem- Trendle offered a free pop gun to
"Red" Barry), B-movies, comic peramentally incapable of work- the first 300 kids who wrote in.
books, novels and a radio show ing with a helper. An assistant That offer pulled 25,904 responses.
("From out of the West comes might not know the difference By 1940 a Lone Ranger premium
America's famous fighting cowboy between a California, single or offer would draw letters from a
— Red Ryder!"). Red also sup- center-file rig and that, of million listeners. Realizing this was
planted earlier cowboys as spokes- course, would be calamitous, a property to reckon with, Trendle
man for the Daisy Manufacturing formed the Lone Ranger, Inc. and
Company and throughout the Actually Red Ryder was written merchandised like crazy. There
1940s he hawked BB guns on the and drawn by divers hands. Some were Lone Ranger guns, Lone
back covers of comic books. Little of the ghost artists, like Jim Gary, Ranger costumes, Lone Ranger
Beaver helped out, too— "You worked out of the Slesinger office books, Lone Ranger movie serials

e Lone Ranger strip reached the early 70s before breathing its last. © King Features Syndicate, Inc
 KING OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED

Technically a Northern and not a Western, King of the Royal Mounted came from Zone Grey 's book of the same name. ©
King Features Syndicate, Inc. Skull Valley (c) 1935 by Chicago Tribune-Daily News Syndicate.
and, from the fall of 1938 onward,
a Lone Ranger comic strip.
The earliest Lone Ranger re-
leases, both daily and Sunday,
were credited to Frank Striker and
artist Ed Kressy. Kressy worked in
a somewhat cartoony style, and
often had trouble getting the
masked man's eyes to look right
behind the mask. Sometimes the
pupils would be little black dots,
sometimes tiny circles with a dot'in
the middle.No matter what Kressy
tried, the Lone Ranger's eyes
always looked funny. There must
have been other dissatisfactions
with Kressy's weak-looking Lone
Ranger and bland Tonto very soon
after the strip commenced. Al-
though his name was left on for the
rest of the year, it was apparent
that other men were obviously
doing the drawing. The best of
these temporaries was Jon Blum-
mer, who had a more forceful
style. He began working in comic
books a year later, when he created
Hop Harrigan. For some reason
Blummer wasn't kept on. When he
left in early 1939, King Features,
distributors of the strip, turned to
the bullpen and old reliable
Charles Flanders. Flanders was
still doing his Alex Raymond act as

best he could. The Lone Ranger

became immediately more virile-
looking, better matching the im-
pression given by the radio voice.
Although Flanders' mask covered
most of the Ranger's nose, he didn't
have any trouble with the eyes.
Tonto gave the impression he'd studied English at the same reservation school
as Little Beaver
— "Me hearum talk! You try killum Lone Ranger!"

The stories in the comic strip were in. The strip, growing ever more Grey material in one shape or
pretty much like those of the radio feeble, surprisingly managed to another. A goodly number of
show, but with more pretty girls in reach the 1970s before breathing its people were kept occupied in con-
sight, Tonto gave the impression last. verting Grey novels into new and
he'd studied English at the same Zane Grey, of Zanesville, Ohio, even more palatable forms. The
reservation school as Little Beaver gave up his dental practice in 1904 silent movie folks loved Zane Grey.
— "Me hearum talk with BartonI to follow what he thought of as a Tom Mix starred in adaptations of
You try killum Lone Ranger!" literary career. By 1915 his the novels, as did Richard Dix and
Charles Flanders peaked on the woodenly written, but action- Jack Holt, When the talkies came .

Lone Ranger in the middle 1940s. packed, Western adventure novels almost everything Zane Grey had
From then on, partly due to were hitting the bestseller lists. written was turned into a movie,
personal problems, his work Throughout the 1920s Grey's some of which were grade-A pro-
steadily declined. He took to clumsy works were continually on ductions, but most falling into the
drawing everybody from the back, the lists, often at the very top. B category. Newspaper syndicates
to save himself the trouble of "After a Zane Grey reading public had discovered Zane Grey fairly
having to worry about faces, and had been found," says Frank early. His novels were frequently
always cut a figure off as high up as Luther Mott in his history of best- serialized in the 1920s. In the 1930s
he could. Whole Sunday pages "one of
sellers, his books could be several of the books, Nevada, for
toward the end seemed to consist of expected around half a
to sell example, were turned into short-
nothing but the backs of heads and million over a series of
copies run comic strips. It took Stephen
a few scraggly trees in the distance. years." Somesuch as Riders
titles, Slesinger to come up with a longer
There were periods when he was of the Purple Sage, sold several lasting Zane Grey strip. He sold
apparently unable to do the feature times that figure. For a while, it Grey's King of the Royal Mounted
at all. Tom responsible for the
Bill, seemed as if one of the chief acti- toKing Features in 1935. 1 suppose
comic book version of the Lone vities of the country from World thisis technically a Northern not a

Ranger's adventures, usually filled War I on was consuming Zane (Continued on page 6

".,,.;,. TOM MIX STRAIGHT SH PROGRAM |

«•* fc) *•"#« tnkji* »nn <if

NBC -'"., anil WMAQ Chlcaoa

A comic strip version of Super Cowboy Tom Mix sold Ralston Wheat Cereal in 1 938.
 —

mOflOPOIV:
111© IOSS Of TIHII
HOARD OAmiS
By Bob Abel

The game was invented by an out-of-work Philadelphian in 1930. His idea

was to let players amass money and real estate through speculation.

44T have invented a game outselling Monopoly. And, if immediate appeal was the vicar-

-I better than Monopoly!"

This is the would-be
flattery is indeed a form of compli-
ment a game called Anti-Monop-
ious experience of acquiring
property and great wealth at a
mating call of the game inventors oly ,was attracting a lot of time when the country was falling
around the country con- who, attention— and sales from game — apart. And of course there's no
sumed by their inability to stop in- afficionados, not to speak of legal denying that Monopoly appeals to
venting games, persist in creating action from Parker Brothers, the people's often submerged com-
them and sending them to game publishers of Monopoly. petitive instincts— to the most
publishers, who, in turn, keep re- Anti-Monopoly looks like the ruthless belong the spoils of Park
jecting them. Parker Brothers game, but its
For one thing, pretty hard to
Place and Boardwalk precisely —
it's message is surely different, and because it plays so ruthlessly. Nice
invent a game that'sbetter than decidedy anti-capitalist. Monop- guys, remember, don't win at
Monopoly — at least in sales terms. and illegal, the
olies are antisocial Monopoly.
Since the game was invented in game and the object is to
declares, Clarence Darrow, on the other
1930 by an out-of-work Philadel- go out there and bust the trusts. hand, was a nice guy (he died in
phian named Clarence Darrow (no Parker Brothers, for its part, the 1960s.) He had lots of time on
relation to the lawyer of the same declares that the name of the game his hands, being an unemployed
name) it has sold 80,000,000 sets in this instance is Monopoly and heating engineer, and he liked to
and doubtlessly ranks as the that its trademark rights have been try hishand at inventing games to
One oj the original 30s Monopoly games. Drawings were added to the cards, but little else changed.
all-time best-selling copyrighted infringed upon by the same-name help pass the time and make life
game. (Games like checkers and game. Either way you look at it, more bearable for his family and estate through speculation and, friends, someone invariably wanted object of Monopoly— get all the
chess hail back to an era before the Monopoly — Anti-Monopoly friends — all of whom were feeling somewhat illogically, he called it a copy of Monopoly. Darrow had property you can Landlord was a
products were trademarked and struggle has become a capitalist the effects of the greatest economic Monopoly. based his game on a 1924 game kind of ironic model for Darrow to
—
games like books protected by — issue, and one for the courts to crisis to hit America, In 1930, he His first game board was quite called Landlord, which had been have based his game-upon. But the
copyrights.) Scrabble, invented in decide. created a place in game history for crude, painted on a disc of invented by a woman named first real message of Monopoly
1931 , is probably the only real sales Interestingly enough, Monopoly himself by putting aside his exper- linoleum — Monopoly
the first VirginiaM. Phillips, a Virginian proved to be— Buy It!
rival to Monopoly, although last debuted at a time when capitalism iments with a beach bat and board was round, because that was who was an avid proponent for a Word -
spread — first around the
fall Milton Bradley, one of the two had fallen on its nose— the Great turning his attention to an invest- the shape of the family dining single tax —
that is, abolishing all immediate neighborhood, and
game publisher giants, claimed —
Depression and it's my own ment game. His idea was to let room table — but whenever the taxes with the exception of then throughout the City of
that its Yaktzee game was now theory that part of the game's playersamass money and real Darrows played the game with property taxes. Considering the Brotherly Love and beyond —

Monopoly » and the distinctive design ot the game board and playing pieces are trademarks ot Parker Brothers Division, General Mills Fun Group, Inc., for its real estate game equipment
ed by permission.
 about the joys of Monopoly, what a for complete printing, packaging account, Robert Barton himself
neat game it was, and soon Darrow and delivery services for Monopo- purchased a copy of the game from
was producing two sets a day, his ly- F.A.O. Schwarz, took it home to
absolute production limit at the It was now
1935, and Monopoly, play, stayed up until the wee hours
time, and selling them for the despite —
or perhaps because of — passing Go as frequently as pos-
rather nifty (for Depression times) the Depression, was selling 20,000 sible, and then contacted Darrow
price of four dollars a game. No copies a year. Darrow recognized to come and talk real money.
brotherly love, there,- but then, that he was both in over his head Parker Brothers wanted the game
that's not what the game inspires in and onto something very, very to play faster,but there was no
its players. good, and he approached Parker more talk about 52 fundamental
Since Darrow realized that the Brothers (lucky Salem entre- errors.
demand for his game was far preneurs!) once more, and this In either case, it was a very good
beyond his ability to keep time the word was Go. deal for both parties. The acquisi-
producing it by himself, he decided Parker Brothers president Robert tion of thegame, Barton later ad-
to try and interest Parker Brothers, B.M. Barton, who couldn't ignore mitted, "was the biggest thing ever
a Salem, Massachusetts, firm that a game success story of the magni- to hit Parker Brothers ... it was like
was one of America's oldest game tude of Monopoly, played it three trying to cap six oilgushers at once.
publishers (games are published, nights running. It still broke, he We got so many telegraphed orders
like books, in copies and editions) later said, "every rule we'd ac- we had to file them laundry
in
in his creation, but the company cepted as gospel." But once he baskets."
rejected it as too complicated. started playing the game, he was a At one point in late 1936 there
"Your game," a Parker executive convert— so, the hell with the was some fear among Parker
informed him, "has fifty-two rules, he decided —
and Darrow Brothers executives that the game
fundamental errors." Which 52 and Parker Brothers finally joined was yet another fad, but after the
fundamental errors did Monopoly forces. Christmas sales rush on the game,
it became manifestly clear that
Monopoly '
was on its way to
becoming as American a tradition
as Mom and apple pie.
Edward Parker, another execu-
tive of the company, once gave a
writer his own view of why'
Monopoly proved so successful:
"During the Depression people did
not have enough money to go out
to shows," Parker said, "so they
stayed home and played Monopoly.
It also gave them a feeling of
wealth. But what kept it going is
the chance for individual gain. It
appeals to the competitive nature
of people. The player can always
say to himself; "I'm going to get the
better of the other guy. People can
also play Monopoly without it
being the end of the world. Sort of
a release from the tensions of
everyday life."
perpetrate? Well, Parker felt that But that's only one version of the
God knows it released Clarence
the game was too cumbersome, Darrow legend.
Darrow and family from the
took too long to play, and violated In The Monopoly Book, pub-
tensions of everyday life. Monopoly
another 50 rules for successful lished last fall, author Maxine
catapulted its inventor to million-
board games. Brady reports that Parker Brothers'
aire status, but it didn't blunt his
Oh well, not back to the consciousness was raised once
enthusiasm for inventing new
drawing board but back to the —
again or lowered once more to — games. However, and maybe just a
Darrow home workshop. When a the game's existence by the
littleunhappily, they all proved
friend offered to do all the printing response of East Coast department
duds. So he had to content himself
on the games in 1933, Darrow's stores ordering the game for the
with collecting royalty checks
daily production output zoomed to 1935 Christmas season. Barton's
(games, like books, reward their
sixgames a day. But by now there wife Sally received a phone call
successful creators with royalty
were inquiries from toy depart- from a friend who'd bought checks) and raising orchids on his
ments of department stores as well Monopoly at Manhattan's famous farm in Bucks County, Pennsyl-
as the ever-mounting individual F.A.O. Schwartz, and was now vania. But he remained philoso-
orders, and Darrow found himself raving about it. Tell Parker
phical about the nature of life in
gainfully employed by his "creation. Brothers about Monopoly, the
the game world. "I hit the jackpot
No longer an entrepreneur-in- res- friend suggested, and Sally Barton
idence, he was forced to contract did just that. According to this (Continued on page 72)
 sum cfiiR
©IP THd ao
By Woody Gelman

Trades and deals that would challenge an Onassis were transacted daily in
schoolyards and street corners. To a boy,his cards were his Las Vegas.

Gum cards are among

the most poignant re-
fifteen Yankees for your
Babe Ruth card. Whatta
minders of youth. ya say?" "Hey, did you see
They portray in vivid that war card with the
colors and unsophisticated bloody arm stump hangin'
drama the world of action onto the steering wheels.
that has so much meaning Boy, that's a good card!")
to the young in heart. To a boy, his cards were
To the youngster of the his Las Vegas.
30s it was an exciting time Flipping and tossing
for gum cards. The became adroit skills that
rumbles and threats of war are still remembered with
were still almost too much pride by the nostalgia-
to imagine, but they were struck grownups. No
real and very exciting. Dil- millionaire prized his
linger and his il k were fortune more than the boy
racing across the headlines who stacked his treasures
in a never ending battle in the old worn shoe box
with the G-Men and the no business reverse or
great Babe Ruth was still market loss matched the
the hero of heroes, giving feeling of losing your stack.
baseball unsurpassed So your eyes on
feast
glamour (and still these reminders of your
available on a gum card youth, They are the
for only apenny ) The .
collector's items of today
gum card ranked with the And you'll never guess
movies, radio and comics where we found these vivid
as a major medium of —
examples in the staid
communication with the New York Metropolitan
kids' world of violence and Museum of Art!
action.
And not only were they
a source of endless pictorial
delights and vicarious Here are two examples
thrills, but they were also a oj gum cards from the
medium of exchange and
—
30s and like some pos-
tage stamps, some gum
barter. Trades
that
and deals
would challenge an
iJA^BI ^HARVEY cards are worth money.

Onassis were transacted

daily in schoolyards and
G-MEN £ .

UW
G-MEN RUN BOW'S A
OARING KIDNAPPER
HEROES OF THE
street corners. ("I'll give ya
 I*b»M am
w>
J»** i^2*s|P

tat**
INDIAN
R\
CHEWING GUM

— No. 55 —
WEAVING
No white man knew the date at which the
TRAPPED IN THE AIR Pueblolndian learned the art of WEAVING.
25.
We do know that the early Spanish ex-
Eddi* and Tommy Gray weren't bad boy*. It was just thalr
plorers of southwestern United States found
lova of advantura that lad tham into 10 much mttchlaf. That's
how thay happanad to find themselves trapped in the atrial
them wearing rudely woven garments. In
trapau artist's balloon at tha County Fair. Thay had cast off later years wool from their own sheep,
tha mooring ropes whila nobody wai looking. Clark Kant wat commercial yarns, and ravelings of gay
wandering around tha Fair grounds whan ha haard tha boys' cloths purchased by them were made into
volcai screaming for halp. looking up ha saw tha gat filled soft, durable rugs and blankets in patterns
bag rising swiftly skyward. Woman screamed and men stood characteristic of themselves and the coun-
helplessly by. Unnoticed by tha crowd which was watching tha try in which they lived.
balloon become smaller as tt rota higher and higher, Clark Kant
changed to SUPERMAN. Lika a rad and blua comet, SUPERMAN
loomed in pursuit of tha gas bag. In a moment ha had reached
it. Grasping the balloon basket In a grip of steel, he started
downward, bringing the bag and its human cargo safely to NY
earth. Before ha left them, both boys promised SUPERMAN OTS
never again to tamper with things they couldn't control.

SUPERMAN GUM
Join the Supermen of America Club
Valuable Prizes! See Wrapper
Made by GUM, INC., Phila., Pa., U.S.A.
Makers of BLONY, SUN Gum. and other favorites
ricrure nlHl Te\l ConyrJKhl l!l4lt, Superman. Inc.

— No. 32 —
U JAMES
DOOUTTLE JAMES H. DOOLITTLE
One of the nation's fines! pilots, James
H. Doolittle has made many worthwhile INDIAN CHEWING GUM
contributions to modem flying. He was
the first person to lake off, fly and land a

No. 75 —
plane with a covered cockpit. He was
- -
Ihe first to fly a plane in an outside loop.
In 1929 at Cleveland hie plane lost its
wings in a power dive while only 3,000
MANY SHOTS
feet above the ground; he leaped and A famous Blackfoot Indian. He is a
by the use of his parachute he landed brother of the famous Chief of the
safely.
Blackfeet, "Crowfoot", who was re-

One of alcHcs of 144 cants sponsible for the signing of the treaty
SKY BIRDS in 1S77.
NATIONAL CHICLE COMPANY
Cambridge, Mass., V. S. A. Many Shots is, it is said, to be the only
Makers of Quality Chewing Gum
Copr. I88i Indian to go through the terrible tortures
of the Sun Dance seven times.
 Gum cards are among the most poignant reminders of youth. They portray in
vivid colors and unsophisticated drama the world of excitement and action.

No. 26 Shells Splinter Deck of Tender with U. S. Refugees

paw through Preside!)

Tati which v, e them from war-torn Shaneh
torn Shanghai
tender was w. B for the Whanapoo R
Suddenly Chin
argct ihe tby Japanese w rship The ined passenf
ie tender rushed get decks.
detonating exjdosi of bombs and the crash of
guns in reply! S< ral splinters of shrapnel came
deck into the cro< ;d cabin, leaving jagged holes
in tne planning, sailors irom tne U. S. S. Augusta, anchored
close at hand, came to the assistance of the crying women
and children and told them to stay below. Several women had
tiny babies Some had left so hurriedly they carried no bag-
gage. It was an experience filled with anxiety and dread which
persisted throughout the journey.

To know the HORRORS OF WAR is to want PEACE

["his is one of a series of 240 Picture Cards. Save to get therr
ill. Picture and Text Copyright 1938, GUM, INC., Phila., Pa.

MICKEY MOUSE— CARD NO. 65

GUESS I'LL 'KNUCKLE'
DOWN TO WORK.

H
Wi • Ays***!!

UT A /

23 "
HEROES OF THE UW g-ang or

HERE'S the ANSWER to QUESTION on CARD No. 64 ihe Famous Penna. State Police.
Dynamiting murder gang.
11a 91 Trooper* of the Ptno-
TO lend. A third attack snuffed out
' *" aylvani* Slit* Polite the life of Trooper Zebringer.
have rought many haltles with Then it was discovered that the
Can you answer this question? desperate bands of crimmaU- body ol Trooper Henry lay in the
open before thehide-outt
OM .iay word •Time that Unmindful of danger, Trooper
Mickey had been fishing and hat! caught a whole heavily aimed gang af murderer*
had taken refuge in a barricaded
Chamber* darted toward the
Eroatrate form. A bullet struck
basket full of fish. He was about to go home when a hide-out. A dita.il ;>f trooper* was im . he sUfxered
. . kept on
. . . I

ruahedtotheplaiwami A He reached his fallen comrade,

wrrenJer, which au refused. •wung him across his ahouiden
"constable" came along and pointed to a great, big and crawted to safety. :

the door, but a deadly Are trotn Through the night tat
sign which read, "No Fishin' Here!" Mickey looked in
.
rifle* and revul /era morning the fight raged on. Then?
drove the trooper* b*.:'n, itropi it aa a last resort, sticks of dynamite-
at him in astonishment and then said something in Serjeant lAgan with five oullet* were tossed against the hide-out'^
in hi.body. walla, and it and its murderous
reply. He-enforcements were sent for. occupants were blown to piece*. £
Again the plaee was rushed but Treacherous criminals meet this
What did Mickey say? dropped hi
u Trooper Henry
withering hail of
they deserve when defyinsL,
Heroes of the Law!
For the answer to this question see Card No. 66 u«l, i

GET A MICKEY MOUSE ALBUM

These gum cards from the 30s are collector's items today.
from the store where you buy your Mickey Mouse Bubble And even back then, no millionaire prized his fortune
Gum, for 5 wrapiwrs and 5 tents. All questions printed more than the boy who stacked his treasures in the old
and a place for the picture card answers. worn shoe box— no business loss matched the feeling of
losing your stack. [g]
 GAIN COOKR:
toll intihii snwii

By Walter H. Hogan

"Of all the men who have acted in motion pictures, none has come as close to
portraying the embodiment of the American male as Gary Cooper."

Back
Nine
home the Seven-Bar-
at
Montana he'd spent
in
shuddering jolt. I went head over
heels —then lay quiet, playing dead
The Eagle, with Rudolph Valen-
tino, inThe Vanishing American
hours and hours on horse- as a mackerel." with Richard Dix, and in The
back after the doctor had suggested The director rushed up and said, Lucky Horseshoe with Tom Mix. It
intensive riding as treatment for his "Great! I want you to do it again." was Tom Mix's $17,500-a-week
hip injured in a car accident, So he It meant more money : five salary that convinced Cooper
really knew how to ride. What he dollars a fall. And at the end of the "there was a good deal more
didn't know how to do was fall. day he was paid fifteen dollars money in the movie business than
And that's exactly what he had extra, twenty dollars in all. And the few bucks I was drawing."
to do now if he were to be a stunt that was the start of the screen Then his salary went to fifty dollars
man in Hollywood. Wearing a career of Frank James Cooper (re- a week when he was hired as
beard and costumed as a cavalry named Gary by his first agent after cowboy extra for Samuel Gold-
rider in the Boer War, he waited her home town in Indiana) a career wyn's 1926 production of The
with the others for the cue. It that spanned thirty-five years from Winning of Barbara Worth, to
came. And the charge was on. the silent days of 1925 to the talkies $150 a week when he started
"In the middle of the dash across to Technicolor to Cinemascope and making Zane Grey westerns at
this field," he recalled, "I threw my stereophonic sound. It was a career Paramount, and by 1933 he was
rifle into the air just like the that racked up perhaps fifty films making $6,000 a week. And in
director told me to do and slid off as an extra, in Wild Horse Mesa 1939 Gary Cooper became the first
my horse. I hit the ground with a with Jack Holt and Billie Dove, in movie actor to lead the list of wage
earners in the United States when
the U.S. Treasury reported that his
COMMENTS ON COOPER $482,819 that year was the top
income. Cooper was one of the top
"That fellow is the world's greatest actor. He can do, with no effort,
ten moneymakers in films for six-
what the rest of us spent years trying to learn: to be natural. In his
" teen years, and at the time of his
heart he is pure. He believes in it.
death it was estimated his films had
—John Barrymore grossed over $200 million.

knew he'd got something I should never have

Cooper first came to the notice
"I in a flash that boy. . .

" of moviegoers when Director

hasn 't the least idea how well he acts. We try, but he is.
—
Charles Laughton Henry King, who'd had him
doubling in the role of Abe Lee in
"Now, Cooper doesn have the reputation as a great actor except with
't
The Winning of Barbara Worth,
finally assigned it to him. In her
us who knew him as an actor. But he was great. People used to
review, Hollywood columnist Lou-
comment on what they called his idiosyncrasies, his little foibles. But
ella Parsons wrote that stars Vilma
Cooper never made a move that wasn't thoroughly thought out and
planned. He is probably the finest motion picture actor 1 ever worked Banky and Ronald Colman "share
with."
— Robert Preston For his understated performance as
Sheriff Will Kane, Cooper won his
second Oscar in High Noon (1952).
 duction to his future public" was
Paramount's Arizona Bound in
1927. Cooper had his first starring
role as the cowboy in Stetson and
leather chaps.
Realizing his potential star-
power, Paramount put Cooper in a
small but important role in one of
their biggest pictures that year,
Wings, which won the very first
Academy Award as the best picture
of the year for the 1927-28 season.
It was a brief scene, and as
Wings director William A. Well-
man wrote in A Short Time for
Insanity, "To be remembered
Coop not only must salute and
smile but he must have something
unusual about him, that inde-
scribable thing called motion
picture personality, to make it that
effective that quickly .Cooper . .

had it.
"The next day we shot it, just
once. It was perfect. I yelled, cut,
print it, and Coop's face dropped. I

thought it was because he knew

"
this was his finish in Wings.
It wasn't. Cooper later came to
Wellman and wanted to do the
scene over. Why? "Because I, I,
just, just think I could do it better."

Cooper as Abe Lee, with Vilma Banky "I didn't want to hurt Coop's

inThe Winning of Barbara Worth all the men who have acted
"Of feelings," wrote Wellman, "but I
(1926). in motion pictures," writes Homer told him quite frankly I was the
Dickens in The Films of Gary director and supposed to know my
Cooper, "none has come close to business, and I thought he had
honors with Gary Cooper, whose portraying the embodiment of the done it beautifully and asked him
portrayal of Abe Lee, the other American male as Gary Cooper." just what there was about it he
man in love with Barbara, is some- He was also, said Bob Hope, "an didn't like.
thing one remembers even after the ambassador of our business who "And then he told me— 'Well,
last reel fades from the screen." brought us a lot of friends all over you know right in the middle of the
With that review Cooper could scene picked my nose, and,
feel he was no longer an extra, he
the world." George Carpozi, Jr. in
and
— I, I

The Gary Cooper Story tells of the

was an actor at last. And in the time 'Cooper was on a trip to "'Just a minute, Coop. You keep
camera, which Thelma Todd Venice and his boat docked in right on picking your nose and you
called "the enemy" when they co- Algiers: "A group of little Arab will pick yourself into a fortune
starred in Nevada, he had found a children suddenly gathered around and just one more thing, always
friend. It seemed to know and the towering actor, chattering in back away from the problems,
show his thoughts. Sam Wood, French. He caught the word from the heavy and, above all,
who directed Cooper as Lou 'cinema.' Then they went charging from the girl. Make them pursue
Gehrig in Pride of the Yankees, off. In a few minutes they were you. Never be the aggressor."
said, "He does nothing on the set. back— with 50 more kids. They "He stood there for a hushed
You are sure it is the worst grinned at Coop, and some of them, minute, and then gave me that
performance ever, but then you see contorting their fingers into pistols, goddamned funny little smile and
the rushes and it is all there". pointed them at Gary, and yelled said, 'Thanks, Mr. Wellman, for
And for a man who
never took a 'Boom! Boom!'" And Life maga- everything.'"
formal acting lesson, never passed zine reported that in Vienna in The next year, 1928, Wellman
a regular screen test Cooper left his 1957 a mob of 5,000 gathered directed Cooper and Fay Wray in
fans a legacy of memorable per- outside hotel room to
Cooper's The Legion of the Condemned.
formances as The Virginian, chant : "Gary,
Gary, schoner Cooper played a World War I flier
Longfellow Deeds, John Doe, —
Mann komm doch an das Fenster again, as he did when he co-starred
Robert Jordan, Will Kane and as 'ran." (Gary, Gary, handsome man with Colleen Moore in Lilac Time.
such real-life heroes as Sergeant — come to the window!") Cooper's career was furthered
York, Billy Mitchell, Lou Gehrig, The picture that Variety said with his romance with the "It" girl,
Dr. Wassell, and Wild Bill Hickock. gave Cooper "a respectable intro- Clara Bow (a romance first con-
64
 :

wrote that she would "yield to no

one in finding Cooper the most at-
tractive man that's ever been in
Hollywood." And Oscar-winning
screenwriter Frances Marion in Off
With Their Heads told of joining
Tallulah Bankhead's party at the
Stork Club, "arriving just as the
subject of whether Gary Cooper
could or could not act was ex-
ploding like a string of Chinese
firecrackers. 'You call that acting?
All he can say is —'Yup.'
'"His casual charm appeals to
me. It's more effective than
watching you hams emote.'
"'Dry up, Tallu, you're not
thinking about his acting!'
"'You're damn right! I'm only
one of the million gals who'd like to
hear their most personal question
answered Yup!"
Jordan noted that "Director
Victor Fleming. .tinged Cooper's
.

proverbial innocence with some

bravado, and Wolf Song first hints
at Cooper's sex symbol potential".

Cooper with Franchot Tone in The

Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935).
Below, Cooper plays Wild BUI Hick-
cock in The Plainsman (1936).

ceived of as a publicity stunt by

Bow and Hedda Hopper). Tagged
the "It" boy by magazines, Cooper
* lutf&i
p» J
frf partem fc*&
*3fe *G3*s**£A
^^^ imV&.Ja
said of Bow, "I'd never known an
actress before. We fell in love. We
went out." Then later there was his
tempestuous two-year romance
with Lupe Velez ("Lupe takes the
"1
same joy out of primitive things as )
I do"), with whom he co-starred in

Wolf Song. There was talk of a

nude swimming scene (yes, back
then in '29), but it was not clearly
discernible in the picture when
finally shown in long shot. That
same year he made his last silent
picture, Betrayal.
Then came: Cooper's first all-
talking picture and a milestone in
his career —
The Virginian, the
third remake of the famous Owen
Wister novel with Cooper's famous
line to Trampus (Walter Huston) players in Paramount on Parade. He also called 1930's Morocco a
"If you want to call me that, And as Rene Jordan reports in the powerful shot in the arm for his
smile!" Randolph Scott, a native of book entitled Gary Cooper, "his star image. His co-star was that
Virginia, coached Gary for the musical sequence was photo- fascinating import from Germany,
proper accent a Virginian would graphed in color and showed his Marlene Dietrich. "Cooper was to
have. It was a great success. And light blue eyes to devastating effect be endowed with new magic,"
Cooper's reign in talkies was among the ladies. The studio's mail wrote Jordan, "by the unlikeliest of
assured. His fan mail grew. department chalked up a 40 per sorcererswhen Josef von Sternberg
And the next year his mail in- cent increase in the fan mail he was refurbished him as a fascinating sex
creased even more. Cooper lent his getting from love-struck females." symbol in Morocco... ." The
name as one of the many contract Columnist Adela Rogers St. John director, said Jordan, "treated his
65
 socialite who'd gone to Hollywood
^ *
Jfl i to break into pictures as Sandra
Shaw, with the help of her uncle,
Cedric Gibbons, MGM's famous
set designer. They were married
Dec. 15, 1933, and their daughter
Maria was born Sept. 15, 1937.
Cooper's film career has its peak
period from 1935-45. Henry Hath-
away, who'd directed him in Now
and Forever in '34 (co-stars:
Carole Lombard and moppet
^^H LIT*
-

Ml. '^
Shirley Temple)
Cooper in The Lives of a Bengal
now starred

Hfl Lancer, one of the all-time great

screen adventures.
In 1936 there was Mr. Deeds

^mE
Goes to Town. In his The Name
Above the Title, Director Frank
3 A 1m Ht' '

Capra said, "And who in Holly-

wood could play honest, humble
corn tassel poet' Mr. Deeds? Only
one actor Gary Cooper. Every
s*f ~*^ iji
:

line in his face spelled honesty.

"Tall, gaunt as Lincoln, cast in
the frontier mold of Daniel Boone,
ijH Sam Houston, Kit Carson, this
silent Montanan cowpuncher em-
bodied the true-blue virtues that

l^^^jkSi l^L li won the West: durability, honest,

and native intelligence." Mr.
Deeds was selected by the New
Cooper with Walter Brennan (who directed by Ernst Lubitsch, who York Film Critics as the best film of
won his third Oscar) in The Westerner
said Cooper was the most photo-
'36, won the Oscar for best film
(1940).
genic of performers and "like wax director, and garnered Cooper his
first nomination for an Oscar (won
you could mold in front of the
camera." If Cooper seemed as at by Paul Muni's Pasteur).
actors as objects and Cooper was home in white tie and tails as in His Deeds co-star, Jean Arthur,
being classified as a phallic symbol. Stetson and chaps, there was a also was with him as Calamity Jane

All through the film he is as in- reason. "Cooper was the product of when he was Wild Bill Hickock in
scrutable and mesmerizing as the two cultures," writes Jordan, The Plainsman, his first film with
idol Greta Garbo dances around in "melding within him the tangle of Cecil B. DeMille. North West
Mata Cooper does not per-
Hari, dual personality. The rough, Mounted Police (1940) was the first
form in Morocco— he is performed laconic rustic could also be a mild- Technicolor feature for both
against." Even so, Picture Play mannered, almost finicky gentle- Cooper and DeMille.
said, "The success of Miss Dietrich man. .He was a living paradox:
.
For the title role in Meet John
is vastly aided by Gary Cooper, as the Montana cowboy with English Doe (1940) Capra "had but one
the American, perhaps his best breeding." choice: Gary Cooper. I wouldn't
performance so far." Cooper was born on May have made the picture without
7,
Cooper refused to work with von 1901, the second son of English him."
Sternberg again, but he'd liked parents who had met in Helena, Cooper, who'd turned down the
role of Rhett Butler in Gone With
Dietrich from the first and the two Montana. His father, Charles
co-starred in 1936's Desire. Cooper from Birmingham, was a the Wind, (he didn't feel right for
it), almost turned down the role
In 1931 he co-starred with Sylvia lawyer who became a judge in
Sidney in City Streets. In '32 there Montana, then later had a seat on that won him his first Oscar; he
were The Devil and the Deep with the Montana State Supreme Court. didn't think he could do justice to
Tallulah Bankhead and Charles His mother, Alice Brazier Cooper, Sergeant York. When he went to
Laughton, then A Farewell to was from Kent, and she returned Tennessee to visit the World War I
Arms with Helen Hayes in his first with her sons to England for part hero, Alvin York finally persuaded
film based on a novel by Ernest of their education there. him to take the role. Later York
Hemingway, who later requested When he was 32, Cooper said: "I wouldn't have anybody

he play Robert Jordan in For married. His famous romance with elsedo it. He was the only man
Whom the Bell Toils ("43). In "33 he Countess Dorothy Di Frasso was who could have done it right."
co-starred with Miriam Hopkins now over, and he chose for his wife And he did. The picture had its
and Fredric March in Noel 20-year-old Veronica ("Rocky") world premiere at the Astor
Coward's Design for Living Balfe, a beautiful Southhampton Theatre in New York on July 2,
 .

1941. Cooper was chosen best actor

of the year by the New York Film
Critics and then received the
Academy Award. When he ac-
cepted it, Cooper said, "It wasn't

Gary Cooper who won this award.

It was Sergeant York, because to
the best of my ability I tried to be
Sergeant York."
Cooper was nominated for an
Oscar for his work in Pride of the

MAJOR FILMS OF GARY COOPER

1926: The Winning of Barbara Worth
1927 : It, Children of Divorce,
Arizona Bound, Wings,
Nevada, The Last Outlaw
1928: Beau Sabreur, The Legion of
the Condemned, Doomsday,
Half a Bride, Lilac Time, The
First Kiss, The Shopworn Angel
1929: Wolf Song, Betrayal, The
Virginian
1930 ; Only the Brave, Paramount on
Parade, The Texan, Seven Days
Leave, A Man from Wyoming,
The Spoilers, Morocco
1931 : Fighting Caravans, City Streets,
I Take This Woman

1932: Make Me a Star, Devil and the

Deep,A Farewell to Arms
1933: Today We Live; One Sunday
Afternoon, Design for Living,
Wonderland
Alice in
1934: Now and Forever
1935: The Wedding Night, The Lives Yankees (1942) and For Whom the Cooper starred with Patricia Nea! in
of a Bengal Lancer, Peter Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead (1948).
Bell Tolls (1952). But
it wasn't until
Ibbetson
1936 : Desire, Mr. Deeds Goes to
he played Sheriff Will Kane in
Town, Hollywood Boulevard, High Noon (1952) that a second
The General Died at Dawn, Oscar was his. A picture of Cooper
The Plainsman The and dimmed. A
as Kane: the symbol of integrity. frolic glitter
1937: Souls at Sea
1938: The Adventures of Marco Polo, In The Movies, Richard Griffith few days later a Hollywood cor-
Bluebeard's Eighth Wife, The and Arthur Mayer noted that "the respondent wired his New York
Cowboy and The Lady lines which settled in Gary office:'T have never known this
1939: Beau Geste, The Real Glory Cooper's face seemed imposed by town to be so depressed."
1940: The Westerner, North West Cooper's last public appearance
the physical and emotional climate
Mounted Police, Meet John Doe
1941: Sergeant York, Ball of Fire of his native Montana rather than was on Jan. 8, 1961, when he was
1942: Pride of the Yankees of Hollywood. Made out of the guest of honor at a Friars Club
1943: For Whom the Bell Tolls most ordinary materials of the dinner in Hollywood. An AP report
1944: TheStoryofDr. Wassell, Casa- "Mr. Cooper wept un-
familiar western formula, High said,
nova Brown
1945: Cloak and Dagger Noon achieved the shape of a ashamedly at the Friar's dinner,

1947 Unconquered, Variety Girl

: democratic allegory which reached after speeches recounting his 35
1948: Good Sam, The Fountainhead people years of stardom— a record un-
1949 It's a Great Feeling, Task Force
:
Cooper's third Oscar was a matched by any other."
1950: Bright Leaf, Dallas
1951: You're in the Navv Now, Star-
special one "for his many Cooper said (ran a report in. the

lift, It's a Big Country, Distant memorable screen performances New York Post) "Never has so
Drums and the international recognition much fuss been made by so many
1952: High Noon, Springfield Rifle he, as an individual, has gained for over so little. The only achieve-
1953: Return to Paradise, Blowing ment am proud is the
the motion picture industry." The I really of
Wild
award was accepted by James friends I have made in this com-
1954: Garden of Evil, Vera Cruz
1955: The Court Martial of Billy Stewart, and as he voiced Cooper's munity." Then he added Am I the :

Mitchell thanks there was a sudden break in luckiest guy alive tonight? And he
1956: Friendly Persuasion his voice. Then, as Life reported on answered his own question with
1957 Love in the Afternoon the one word that has become his.
April 28, 1961, "the word spread,
:

1958 : Ten North Frederick, Man of

the West and everyone knew what Gary "Yup."
1959: The Hanging Tree, Alias Jesse Cooper has known and bravely On May 14, 1961, seven days
James, They Came to Cordura,
The Wreck of the Mary Deare
—
accepted for weeks past that he after his sixtieth birthday, Gary
has cancer and is far down the road Cooper died. Pope John XXIII was
1961: The Naked Edge
Humphrey Bogart once walked. one who sent condolences @
67
RcmcmKR ioiiiy Thomson's "1 thought I had a home run. I

icim...? Home Run really laid into

wood on
it, really got good

it. But then as I got away

(Continued from page 13) from the plate, I began to wonder.

Texaco It started out high and then looked
going up there to the plate, 1 was
The $64,000 Question like it was sinking. Well, I'd never
still sulking. I wanted to hide my
John Cameron Swayze (extra hit a ball like that in my life, It
head in the nearest hole. When I
credit answer Dave Garro-
: started up high and then began to
think back on it, it was lucky for
way) sink. So I began to think, at least
me Mueller hurt his ankle and the
A mink coat, as modeled by I've got a base hit. I figured it'd be
game had to be stopped. At least it off the wall, enough Whitey
Bess Myerson to get
gave me time to come back and in with the tying run. And then the
Zelda Gilroy, the gal with the
begin thinking about the present
twitching nose ball disappeared into the lower
instead of the past."
Don Herbert, the science- stands. By that time I was halfway,
minded gentleman "Did have any idea of
you three-quarters of the way to first.
Herschel Bernardi the — well,
the significance of the Of course this was what I saw in
"Groucho!" moment?" I struggled for the right the pictures afterward. I really
Each had a turn at hosting The words. "I mean, did it ever occur didn'tknow where I was. I re-
Tonight Show before Jack toyou what a home run would've member, my first thought was, it's

Paar and Johnny Carson took meant? To the Giants, yes but — a home run, and then, no, a base
over.
especially to you?"
.
hit, and then —bingo!"
B. Jose Melis
"Nope. Never thought of it
"And then what?"
714 "All right." I said. "What about "Well, it was pure pande-
"Queen For A Day?" the famous Durocher statement? monium. There was just this
Neal; he liked, as W.C. Fields I've heard about sixteen different fantastic mob scene at home plate,
might have said, to take a nip versions of that inning, but every- and then it kind of turned into a
at the sauce now and then, one agrees that Durocher came to riot. The next clear thing I remem-

"...blades?" you while Branca was finishing his ber was people trying to rip pieces
The walking, talking encyclo- warm-ups and said, If you've ever of my uniform off. I thought, hey,
hit one, kid. hit one now."
pedia of minutiae who an- I could get killed. Those fans were

swered his way to $264,000 on "My recollection is, 'If you've absolutely out of their minds. So I
The $64,000 Question and ever hit one, hit one now." And I
— took off for the clubhouse. Never
The $64 MOO Challenge. the thought ran through my ran so fast, I guess, weaving my
Both played Chester A. Rilev —
mind 1 didn't even answer him. I
way through all those people, all of
on The Life of Riley. (The was on my way back to the plate them trying to get a piece of me."
Great One was the original; after the action was about to begin "And then?"
BillBendix, of course, had the again after the Mueller thing. As I "Well, it took some time to sink
long run.) recall, he came up from behind in. I went out there that day
Red Buttons, the "Ho-Ho" and put his arm around me. and thinking about getting my RBI
"
that's when he said it.
man total over a hundred. I think I had
Harry; they were the TV "Were you aware of Mays being 97 up to that last game, and the
friends and neighbors of on deck, that he might be able to playoff statistics were going to
George Burns and Gracie do something if you didn't." count as part of the regular season.
Allen wasn't aware of anything."
"1
So one of my ambitions was to get
Jim Backus did the job, "Rube Walker was catching for over the hundred mark, and I guess
the Dodgers, do you recall that?"
and he was a judge Judge — "I couldn't tell you who was
I was sort of happy about that.

Bradley J, Stevens. And of course I was happy we'd

He was a carpenter, played by catching." won the pennant. But at first I
Judson Lair. "Well. talked to him in Florida
I wasn't able to digest it all, connect
Rusty Hamer a few weeks ago. and he said it to me. Later that evening they

A police officer in Car 54, Bra ilea's second pitch the one you — had me on the Perry Como show,
Where Are You? hit — was not a strike. Do you feci and I got a standing ovation. Then
Osgood
A. Allison; B. that way?" everywhere I went people were
Mark Warnow was the origin- "Itcould very well not have cheering me, That's when it started
al leader but Raymond Scott is been. Yeah, up and in. A good to sink in. And when I finally got
the best known. pitch though, it would've been home that night, my brother Jim
The Nairobi Trio close. I can remember just getting a was waiting up for me. And he
Michael Anthony, who weekly glimpse of it. And of course you've said, 'Bob, do you realize what
handed out a check for a mil- got to remember. 1 was pretty you've done?' We talked about it,
lion dollars to some unfortu- quick inside, quick with the bat." about how it was more than just a
nate soul on The Millionaire "Was there any hesitation on home run to win a ball game, to
Wyatt Earp vour part? '
1 asked. win a pennant. That's when it
Winky Dink and You "None at all. I just got a glimpse began to sink in, what it really
Minerva of that ball — in— and I reacted." was. So I went to bed that night,

It was 623 E. 68th St., New "When you hit it, did you know and I wondered what I had ever
"
York City. El it was gone, as a hitter often does?" done to deserve this R)
From The Miracle at Coogan's Bluff 1975 by Thomas Kie man. Reprinted by of Thomas Y. Crowell
 —

mm couuiovs The best drawn, and least seen,

Western strip of the 30s was
Garrett Price's White Boy. This
week was getting to be a grind, the
episodes harder and harder to
think up. Things at New Yorker
were picking up, the depression
Sunday page began in the early
1930s, distributed by the Chicago- was easing. Still I made one last
(Continued from page 55) new looked for a
Tribune-New York News Syndi- try. For material I

Western, but we'll stick it here cate. Employed in the Tribune art new went
field, Mexico." to When
anyway. department, he thinks it was the he returned, rather than go on
The first artist on the strip was syndicate which came to him with with Skull Valley, Price quit to
Allen Dean, who drew in a stocky the idea of doing a strip. "I was concentrate on magazine cartoon-
dry brush pulp style. While the test hampered by authentic knowledge ing and illustrating, something
of a man's mettle in a Lone Ranger of the West," Price told me. "My much closer to his heart. Price, a
strip was drawing the mask, with folks (Papa was a doctor) left small modest man, would just as
King the big challenge was his Kansas when I was a year old. well let his Sunday page remain
wide flat-brimmed Mountie hat. Until was nineteen we lived in
I unsung and unremembered. "If

Basically, what you had to do was Wyoming, Oklahoma and South there is anything I wish to be
draw a plate with an inverted bowl —
Dakota mostly in Wyoming." Or- remembered for, it is not for being
sitting on it, and show it from iginally set in the past, the page an unsuccessful comic strip artist."

every possible angle. Dean, how- dealt with an adolescent boy who Funny paper cowboys had
ever, never could get the hat right. is captured by the Sioux and then become movie and serial heroes,
Since none of the survivors of the rescued by a rival tribe. White Boy but the process could be worked
1930s King Features bullpen with is befriended by an Indian girl the other way as well. This resulted
whom I've talked can remember named Starlight, and by two in comic strips about such screen
anything about Allen Dean, it's young braves, Chickadee and cowboys as Tom Mix and Gene
probable that he worked directly Woodchuck. The pages were Autry. In the middle 1930s Tom
for Slesinger. For a brief spell he drawn in a gentle style, quite dif- Mix, who had been playing cow-
also drew Tex Thome, a Sunday ferent in appearance from what boys in the movies since 1911, was
page credited to Zane Grey, In the Price was doing for the New a declining screen hero. He still
spring of 1938 Dean left the Yorker. "A style at once decorative, had his Rolls Royce and his cowboy
Mountie strip for good (He'd tender, and with a true feeling for style tuxedo, but things were not as
dropped the Sunday in 1936) and the open air," is how Coulton good as they had been. Then the
dependable Charles Flanders drew Waugh described it. "the stories Ralston Company of Checkerboard
it until he changed horsemen and had an imaginative, dreamy Square, St. Louis, Missouri,
assumed the Lone Ranger. Jim character." Price was continually bought Tom Mix. They created a
Gary then became the King of the experimenting, breaking up the club, and named it the Tom Mix
Royal Mounted artist. page into all sorts of patterns. Ralston Straight Shooters. They
Thirty-four when he became re- Sometimes he used the conven- put on a Tom Mix radio show, with
sponsible for Sgt. King, Jim Gary tional 12-panel layout, but more an actor playing Tom, and got a
had led the sort of life all rugged often he tried things like using one cartoonist todo a comic strip. Tom
novelists used to claim in their dust huge panel bordered by two or Mix was popular again.
jacket autobiographies. He'd been three long thin ones. His rendering Gene Autry, a Texas boy, had
a merchant seaman, worked as a got bolder, poster-like. His use of been singing cowboy songs over the
dishwasher, herded cattle in color, alternating harsh basic reds radio when he was given the lead
Arizona, taken flying lessons in with subdued autumnal pastels, in a serial entitled Phantom
Australia and ridden across Amer- was unlike anything being done on Empire. The serial, one of the few

ica on a motorcycle. In the late the comic pages. The feature did cowboy science fiction stories ever
1930s, Gary settled down and not collect a sizeable audience filmed, brought Autry to the
began draw for the Whitman
to however. By 1934, White Boy had attention of Republic studios, who
line of comic books. Working in a moved to the present, to a place cast him in Tumbling Tumble-
style that was an inadequately called Skull Valley. The title was weeds. Besides shooting his gun
blended hash of Raymond and changed shortly thereafter to Skull and riding his horse, the double-
Caniff, Gary turned out pages Valley, the dreamy stories and chinned cowpoke also sang. The
about G-Men, cowboys and detec- Indian folk tales giving way to box office reaction to this
tives for Crackajack Funnies and galloping outlaws and masked phenomenon led to the quick
Popular Comics. He'd improved heroes. In spite of the new story emergence of a new type of hero
considerably, however, by the time material, Price was incapable of the singing cowboy. A fairly
Slesinger gave him his turn with doing a conventional job. His shrewd business man, Autry soon
the Mountie. Eventually the melodramatic pages, rich with went into the business of merchan-
combined burden of doing his own thick black and villainous greens dising himself. One of the by-
strip and ghosting Red Ryder now and yellows, still stood out from products was Gene Autry Rides! A
and then was too much for Gary The Gumps and Winnie Winkle. Sunday page, it was written by
apparently, so he got other artists In 1936 the page was dropped. Gerald Geraghty and drawn by
to ghost King for him. Among "Captain Joe Patterson thought the Till Goodan. Goodan, another
them was Rodlow Willard, one- story was not carrying over from cowboy turned cartoonist, was
time gag cartoonist, who later week to week," recalls Price. "It better at horses and saddles than he
served eight years on Scorchy was suggested that I make it a was at people. Gene Autry never
Smith. daily, too. As it was, even once a sang in the strip, SI
mn miLLCR every
dated
Hilton International.
the Aly Khan, Prince
She it. Cameron bought her diamonds
and gave her cell therapy at Dr.
Rainier, Aristotle Onassis, and The Neihan's famous Swiss clinic. (Ann
Shah of Iran. On the home front says Cameron made her do it; he
her beaux were also tycoons and wanted to make sure the shots
{Continued from page 18)
heirs: Jim Kimberly, Ernie Byfeld, didn't hurt before he'd take them.)
incredible. When Milner threw her Jack Seabrook, Gilbert Swanson. He bought her clothes, including
down a flight of stairs, causing her She may have made a lot of B $10,000 worth of nightgowns. But,
to lose herbaby, Ann crawled out pictures, but her men were all from as was becoming a habit with An-
of the marriage. She was also out of the A list. But the one man she nie, the marriage was a mess. Cam-
work. And according to her wanted she couldn't have; Bill eron claimed, in fact, that no mar-
doctors, out of luck forever; they O'Connor, a lawyer and politician, riage had ever taken place, in
told her she'd never dance profes- was, according to Ann, a Roman Mexico or anywhere. However,
sionally again because of injuries Catholic and unable to divorce his when Ann agreed to drop a multi-
she had sustained in the fall. wife. And in 1958, on the rebound, million dollar law suit, Cameron
Wearing a back brace Ann Annie married a Texas oil mil- owned up to the marriage and the
managed to make it through a test lionaire, Bill Moss. "It was doomed couple split via annulment. It was

to replace Cyd Charisse in Easter from the start," says Annie. May 10, 1962. The next day the
Parade (Charisse had torn a tendon Ann again gave up her career. L.A. Times reported "When :

in her leg). Incredibly, she won the But within three years, on May 11, reminded by newsmen her final
part, dancing with Fred Astaire in 1961 Ann was granted an inter- divorce from Texas oilman William
her A picture since You Can't
first locutory decree of divorce from Bill Moss would not be final in Califor-
Take With You 10 years earlier.
It Moss. Despite the fact that, nia courts until today (May 11),
And now Annie was an MGM
star, according to California law, the Miss Miller said: "Heavens, does
the best thing to be in Hollywood decree would not take effect for a that mean I'm still married to
during the 40s and early 50s. She year, Annie says she was persuaded him?'"
made Texas Carnival with Esther by a new beau and old friend to Back to work, this time on tele-
Williams, Lovely To Look At with marry him in Mexico, both armed vision shows: The Hollywood
Kathryn Grayson, Small Town with Mexican divorces. This Palace. Can-Can in Houston. Glad
Girl, Kiss Me Kate and Hit The millionaire, Arthur Cameron, was Tidings in Chicago. The Red
Deck. Ten years, and, according to reputed to have at least $100 Skelton Show. And then, Mame.
Annie, ten fabulous years. She million to lavish on Annie. And she Angela Lansbury had opened the
dated Conrad Hilton, dancing the finally got to live in L.B. Mayer's Jerry Herman musical on Broad-
varsoviana at the opening of almost palatial house; Arthur now owned way. It had been a big hit. When
 Holm,
Lansbury left,

Paige and Jane Morgan had

Celeste Janis
all
TIHIi Of HCR lift
here's
carried the show for a while. But (Continued from page 40)
when Annie show
got the offer the entertainment
Lije. This continued for nine
was wobbly. The producers were
months on Broadway in 1924, and
selling two-fers, two tickets for the
proved to be the foundation of
price of one. With some new
Benchley's later career as an author
COLLECTORS
choreography, notably a tap
of movie short comedies and actor
number, Ann Miller opened in
in a variety of feature films.
Mame on May 26, 1969. It was a A couple of years later,
triumph, with standing ovations
Sherwood made his big break-
and rave reviews. Ann ran the
through in the career that he
show for eight more months,
would follow so successfully for the
closing it only because she came
down with pneumonia. She was a
rest of his life — playwriting. He
had his first Broadway hit, "The
star all over again.
Road to Rome," The writing and
She toured Mame and Hello,
producing of this show made him
Dolly. She made a commercial for
spend even time on his editorial
less
Heinz Soup that may be the most
duties (never his favorite part of
expensive, most talked about TV
magazine work, although he did it
commercial ever made. And she
excellently) and grieved the pub-
got whacked on the head by a piece
lishers no end. So once again,
of scenery in St. Louis. It almost
Sherwood was fired from a period-
killed her, but she came right back
ical in December, 1928. He later
with her own dizzy, delightful
claimed, and rightly so, that the
vision the world. When a
of BOTH SIDES OF UNO H08BY t

firing was the biggest favor ever Comedy & song with Blng. Sinatra
musical version of Exodus was Garland. Hope* n^ie $5.50
done for him, since it at last freed ALICE FAYE: This
planned, called Ari after its hero
him to devote full time to his duplicate others, these songs ap-
Ari ben Canaan, Ann was on the on LP for ;tu- fir-i Mine $5.50
serious work, work that would ul- JASE POWELL: The songs here
phone to her agent; according to are from TV and [Urns and have
timately include the Pulitzer Prize
Broadway she gossip, insisted that never been previously ih.v,lc;I $S 50
winning play, "Abe Lincoln in
she be put up for the part of Jackie
Illinois" and place him firmly in
Onassis. The woman can't be
the ranks of first rate American
dramatists. BABES IN ARMS & BABES ON
Annie is going to be either 52 or BROADWAY: Complete musical
In 1929, Benchley also departed soundtrack with Rooney fi Gar-
56 this year— she's probably not "
(2 records)
from Life for the tougher, more THANK YOLR LUCKY STARS:
too clear herself, but, frankly, who
sophisticated New Yorker, which Bene Davis, Errol Flytin, John
ever wanted Ann Miller to be all Garfield, Ann Sheridan. Eddie
had been started in 1925, and & others. $5.50
that aware? She's got more brains GIRL CRAZY A STRIKE LP THE
where he remained until the BAND: Two complete soundtracks
in her feet than any tapper Holly-
1940's. With the departure of on 2 LP's including Garland,
wood ever gave us. H Sherwood and Benchley (and their
Rooney, the bands of Tonimv litr.
sey .v Paul vVriilerr.an. $11.00
friends, including Dorothy Parker, STAGE DOOR CANTEEN &
NOSTALGIA QUIZ HOLLYWOOD CANTEEN; Fea
who once again joined Benchley as turlng the talents of the Andrew
Jack Benny, Ray Bolger,
a regular contributor to the New
SistiTs.
RAYMOND BURR, M051 Eddie Cantor, Ethel Merman,
Known fob. hjs law anc Yorker), coupled with the Depres- Ethel Waters, Count Basle, Guy
orpeiz roles in tv's Lombardo & Benny Goodman.
•S&rtiyMAfOAS" ANP sion , people were more
when til .00
'/aoA/f/pe" was a #£avv concerned with survival than col- YANKEE DOODLE
IN -TH£M4*XS#0$. COM£W Starring Joan Leslie, Waller Hous
legiatehumor, Lije's last chance ton, Francis Langford. & James
Cagney. >5.50
and Golden Age were over. The WEEKEND IN HAVANA 4 THAT
magazine limped along for another NIGHT IN BIO: Starring Alice
Faye, Carmen Miranda. Don
few years, until it finally shut
down in 1936. Time, Inc. bought
the title to use on their new photo ZIEGFIELD FOLLIES OF 16:
Starring Fred Astaire, Gene Kclh
magazine. But the old Life left Judy Garland. Fanny Rrice and
behind memories of a brilliant others on 1 LP's. $11.00

array of contributors and spawned

a whole series of competitors who TAX WHERE APPLICABLE

may have surpassed it, but still

owed it a debt to its pioneering
CURTAIN CALLS BOX 4;
o:
work in the field of American
humor magazines. And it finally,
established reputations for the two
men who did so much to make the ling Rate!.
anal LP All
PARCEL POST Canai
Foteign Countries!

QUIZ: magazine as good as it was— lal LP AIRMAIL CYkuUSA !"

Bi1.it. Ei, hi IP. 13 50 eac
WHOPLAY£P*TH?7WA/S" Robert Benchley and Robert E, , !-:3i-v. 58 1st LP. $4 eac
//V THE SC/ENCE F/CT/ON
MQV/E Of THE SAME f/AME T Sherwood. H
I ANSWER NEXT
PAGE;
 dramatic examples. Item : Play money aside, the
monopoly Item: Parker Brothers likes
more Monopoly
to most serious game of Monopoly
probably involves Robert Q. Lewis
boast that it prints
(Continued from page 58)
money each year than the U.S. of television game show fame.
once," he declared some years ago. According to Lewis, he once
Treasury prints dollars, but more
"I don't expect to hit it again." received a call from the late Billy
impressive is this little yarn: during
If Darrow was to meet failure in
Rose, the Broadway producer,
create another the Depression, when the banks
his attempts to
asking him "if I could afford to lose
— were still closed, Parker issued
winning game anyhow, his fa- $3,000 in cash." Lewis' accountant
Monopoly money to its employees
vorite game was contract bridge, advised him that no, he couldn't
not Monopoly— his first creation and the scrip money was honored
by the local townspeople and afford to lose $3,000 in cash, but
was destined to become a diversion Lewis went ahead anyway and
merchants.
on many levels and in many lands. played a game of Monopoly with
Under the Parker Brothers' fran-
Hem: Monopoly marathons are
a favorite, if peculiar, youth Rose and some other financial
chise, thegame has been published heavyweights for real dollars-
activity. A decade or so ago, high
in 15 languages in 25 countries. three grand being the starting stake
school students in Henderson,
Atlantic City, to be sure, becomes for each player. He came out "a bit
Kentucky, played the game for 700
the local equivalent in each ahead," Lewis later recalled, with
hours and around the same time
—
country Marvin Gardens, which
two gentlemen from Bermuda the big loser being ironically Wil-
has already inspired one movie liam Zeckendorf, the real estate
logged 60 Monopoly hours as a
title, undergoes transformation to
twosome. There have also been man.
Picadilly, Goethestrasse, Rue La-
record-dripping underwater Mon- Item: In American business,
fayette and Plaza de Espana in success breeds attempt, and imita-
opoly marathons (144 hours), but
other countries,and dollars get
the most imposing Monopolistic tion is the most predictable form of
devaluated— or inflated—into the Monopoly, itself based on
flattery.
no feat to date, at least as of this
local currency. Monopoly, to
writing, took place last June in another game, has helped bring
one's particular surprise, is not
Denver, where 34 students an- into business numerous offspring
published in Russia but there is
nounced that they had nothing dedicated to the proposition that
some interest in the game among
better to do than break the existing fantasy wealth is better than real
the citizenry. (At least we do know
Monopoly marathon record— 820 life. Some of their names: Acquire,
that all six sets of Monopoly on
hours, set in 1971 by students in Tycoon, Easy Money, Broker,
display during the 1959 American
Danville, California— and settled Stocks <b Bonds, Ticker Tape,
National Exhibit in Moscow were
down in a local department store to Merger, Investment Club, Square
ripped off by the end of the ex-
do just that. Playing two at a time Mile, The Advertising Game,
hibition.)
for four-hour shifts, they began to Influence (a Washington, D.C.,
However, the special affection in "political" game) and on and on.
toss the dice and move around the
which the game is held has been And the predictable variants: in
famous game board with the same
demonstrated in these far more Squander and Go for Broke, the
determination as Sir Edmund
Hillary climbing Mount Everest. object is to get rid of a million
Onlookers came and gawked, or dollars, which is still a capitalistic
NOSTALGIA QUIZ come to think of it.
stayed to kibbitz, but the game fantasy,
THETHINPW continued through days and weeks Well, no arguing with it — des-
SCIENCE' FICTION MOVIE OF Sherman Anti-Trust laws,
THE SAME hlAME, WAS PLAVEtf and the month of June. The old pite the
Bi JXA4ES ABA/BSS. record was practically ignored as Monopoly is a fact of life in this
the determined players pressed country, and despite the intrusions
ever onward, and when the last upon its hegemony represented by
cast of the dice was duly recorded Scrabble and Yahtzee, it will
before admiring TV cameras, a probably sell forever. So if you
feat worthy of The Guinness Book can't bust the trust, why not admit
that in lust (for wealth) we trustl
of Records had been wrought out
of the blood, sweat and Monopoly Or perhaps New York Times' book
mania of these 34 game nuts: 1,008 reviewer, Christopher Lehman-
hours of continuous play. That's 41 Haupt has the best idea. Reviewing
days and 41 nights an achieve-— The Monopoly Book last Decem-
ment of almost Biblical propor- ber, he wrote:
tions. "Now all we need is a Broadway
Item: In 1961, at the time of the musical based on the game. I've
goods price-fixing scan-
electrical always thought the possibilities
dal,James Carey, president of the rich. -The game is full of found
.

Electrical Workers Union, sent poetry that would suit itself to the

giftsets of Monopoly to seven lyrics:Go directly to jail; Do not

electrical company executives rest- pass go; Do not collect $200, or
WHAT FAVORITE TVtiCTOa ing behind bars. Were they Take a walk on the Board Walk;
(WfTH HIS OWN SERIESJ/MXH?
/UA0SMAL C/LtOM OW shocked? No, they were probably Advance token to Board Walk. The
jGUWr (AHWEHNeXT MONTH grateful, and oblivious to the hero would be Marvin
."
sarcasm of the gift. Gardens. g
 — . . !

length, and when she's home she when I was a kid I always thought
wears it down. ("I don't like to butterflies were me. They just

have to worry about goin' out in seemed to do whatever they

(Continued from page 50)
the yard without somebody seein' pleased and go about it in their
me if I want to go without my own way. Didn't bother nobody.
own way, and I like to start from makeup or half my clothes or Didn't harm anything.
scratch. I don't like to bake. I can whatever.") Many country per- "When I was a little girl I used to
bake cornbread and biscuits and formers wear wigs or hairpieces get so wrapped up in things around
chocolate cake, but that's it. One because they are convenient. "A lot me that I'd try to catch 'em as
time I baked a pound cake and it of people say 'I don't see how you they'd fly from place to place, and
weighed 25 pounds! can stand to fool with yourself, I'd run with them. Then I'd
"Grits? There's nothin' to grits. crimping, and all that,' but I can wander plumb off to the woods
That's just meal and salt and water get completely dressed in 30 and be lost! And in lots of my songs
and pepper. We
call it mush. And minutes." I've talked of butterflies."

grits you buy in a box. Red-eyed Many of Dolly's best-known If the butterfly is one of nature's

gravy is just the drippings off any songs are bleak narrative ballads most perfect designs, surely Dolly
piece of the ham. It's the grease with socially realistic overtones Parton qualified to represent it!
is

you pour over it. But you don't suicide, adultery, mental illness, She continues to sustain and
ever put that over regular ham. It seduction and abandonment, il- gracefully stand sentinel over the
has to be real cured country ham. logical or antisocial passions, and timeless, always relevant way of
They're sugar-cured or salt-cured always in there somewhere, and regard for existence that
life

or smoked. We used to have ham poverty. But her alter -ego writes makes "country" worth keeping for
country-cured with salt. We cured sunny songs of considerable wit even the most jaded of citified
our own, sure. We always killed and warmth with a flip of the same palates. As Newsweek once said of
hogs back home." two-sided golden coin. her, "There's a mind behind the
To listen to her stories and the She has always liked bright make-up." Heart and soul, too.
slight lilting twang of her voice, no colors and happy songs. "I'm a "And what's a butterfly? At best,
one could doubt Dolly's back- lover of pretty things," she ac- he's but a caterpillar, drest." A

woodsy beginnings. If her vocal knowledges unnecessarily because cynic named John Gay wrote that
mannerisms aren't enough, how- she knows you know. "Butterflies in his Fables in 1727. He didn't

ever, Dolly's physical presence will are my specialty. All my life I've know any better. Dolly Parton
turn you around to the days when been crazy for butterflies. Even does, and we do, too.

women looked the way men

thought women were supposed to
look before they were knocked
from their pedestals. Although her
MOVIE
KISON
COME
STAR NEWS
IN • MON.-FM. 11-6 • SAT. 1-5 (Moll Onter)
appearance resembles a cross
between Mae West and Marilyn
Pin-Ups Portraits Press Books
Monroe, "Diamond" Dolly Parton
is obviously nobody's dumb blonde,
Physique Poses 50 years of
'
despite the five-foot-one hourglass Scenes from Motion Pictures.
figure, the copious towheaded Westerns Horror Musicals etc.
mane and the generous amount of
dainty but highly visible jewels RUSH 5M for our brochure
that sparkle from her ears and
Dept. N, 212 East 14th Street
carefully manicured fingers. The
New York, New York 10003
appearance, like the gems, has
been hard earned. (The little lady
has sold more records for RCA than
David Bowie.)
When she was young she always
AUTHENTIC NOSTALGIA
wanted to experiment with make- Old, Original, Popular Sheet Music
up but there was no money for
such extravagant games. "So now, Each comes complete as published.
I'm just like a kid," the pretty lady tramed to show nostalgic cover
Attractively

says, looking me straight in the eye. graphics.

"I love to play with makeup. Every From private collection. Money refunded if

time they come out with something not satisfied.

new, I'll run out and get it, and sit
and play with curlers, eye shadow, Music of the 20's& 30 s. . $20 each
all of it. I never had anything when Selections from the 40's .$15 each
I was a kid."
Send check or money order to: Marilyn Stein
Dolly has a complex about being P.O. Box 804, Forest Hills, New York 11375
short and feels that wearing wigs
helps compensate for her lack of (Allow 2-3 weeks for delivery)
height, Her own hair is waist-
 .

NOSTALGIA
PREVIEW BRINGING OUT THOSE
Coming next issue OLDIES
Heartened by the success of recent
revivals of 50sTV fare, network
honchos are putting their money
on recycled oldies like "You Bet Groucho freaks will be happy
Your Life," the Groucho Marx to learn that "You
Bet Your Life"
quiz show popular in the last half reruns have no less appeal. The
of the decade and "The Mickey show's audiences, say some, are
Mouse Club," another 50s favor- swelling to the size of those for
ite. NBC's "Tonight Show."
Mickey Mouse returned to Reflecting on the phenomenal
home screens in 54 cities recently, success of the "Life" revival,
in a late afternoon slot. If New Richard Ballinger, a program
York and Los Angeles ratings executive at WNEW, observed,
mean anything, the show can "There is nothing like Groucho 's

compete with many first-run wit in television today, and no

prime- time programs. real humorist on the scene."
While unwilling to forecast a With Marx and Mickey Morse
cult following for the "Mickey drawing such enthusiastic re-
Mouse^Club," experts admit there sponse, there is every reason to
are signs there will be one. expect a rash of revivals.
A promotional coloring contest Also scheduled for a comeback,
created by New York's WNEW- according to reports, are two
—
TV has received some 12,000 other oldies "Your Show of
SIRENS OF THE SILVER entries to date, many from college Shows," the famed Sid Caesar-
students. Imogene Coca comedy hour, and
SCREEN Stanley M. Holger, Executive the Jack Benny Show, several
From Clara Bow to Marilyn
Vice President of the SFM Media episodes of which were shown to
Monroe, a pictorialparade Service Corporation, distributors New Yorkers in the week fol-
of beauties from the past. of "Mickey Mouse," said the lowing the comedian's death.
program seems to appeal to the Ratings, said Ballinger, were "ex-

PEOPLE ON THEIR original generation of Mickey ceptional."

What next, we wondered. Will
viewers well as to today's
WAY UP youngsters.
as
the Lone Ranger ride again?
Featuring Congressional
Candidate John F. Kennedy
War Veteran. Also: Ex-
PEERLESS PIPES
Marine Captain Joseph R. We're hearing again from the 1942, a shortage of funds put it

organ— the Morton Pipe organ, out of commission

McCarthy and 39-year-old
Harold Stassen running hard
—
that is rescued from backstage It didn't see the light of day
oblivion at the Ohio Theatre in again until recently, when the
for the presidency. Columbus. Columbus Association for the
The nearly half-century-old Performing Arts, appointed 23-
DISNEY'S FOLLY theatre, once a gilded movie year-old Dennis James, an Indi-
palace, and now a performing ana University graduate, official
Who were Nifty, Sniffy,
house organist.
arts center, has dusted off the
Lazy, Puffy, Stubby, Burpy Says CAPA Executive Director
grand old relic and restored it to
and Gabby? And why did its former splendor. Donald Streibig, "Dennis is a vital
Walt Disney spend two Originally played to accom- young performer maintaining an
million dollars and three pany silent movies of the old tradition. I know he'll attract
years on a cartoon feature? twenties, the Morton, some young people to come to the Ohio
claimed, could reproduce every Theatre the way their parents did
sound from birdsong to the in the 1920s and 30s."
ALSO: John Garfield,
thunder of horses hooves.
Gershwin's Rhapsody in It remained a popular attrac-
Blue, The First Man In tion in the 30s and early 40s,
Space, Street Games, Art while house organists Bill Dalton
Deco, Houdini, Trivia Quiz and Roger Garrett teased har-
monies from it to accompany
and more. their sing-along sessions. Then, in
 Sold everywhere for $22.50 (and a
good buy at that price)

Captured in a
magnificent
volume worthy
of his giant
talents
by Stanley Green &
Burt Goldblatt
e* Lovely to Look At— 845 photographs, many from
the private collections of Fred and Adele
* 'S Wonderful-501 huge Wk x 8V2 pages
j-* exhaustive listing of radio & TV appearances
v complete stage career c 35 film chapters
* massive 1 5-page, 2,200-entry index v 1 Vt " thick
e* CAREER AT A GLANCE: chronological listing includes all

productions, dancing partner, director, etc., etc.

v complete list-Fred's own songs ** gorgeous jacket

f 6-page discography (beginning 923!) in 1

e 2-color headbands v gold-embossed 2-color binding

v luxurious crimson endpapers f weight: 4 pounds
SAVE $20.00 when you join the Nostalgia Book
Club (the happy Club) and agree to buy 4 more books or
records over the next 2 years

1CSTADEIA BCCK CD il
525 Main St., New Rochelle, N.Y. 10801
enclose 52 50. Please send Stirring Fred Mill!) by Stanley Green and Burt
r cost and accept my membership In the Nostalgia Book
el tD buy Club books and records about our happy yester-
les. music, radio, early TV. show biz, lads, fun— always
discounts of 20% to 89% plus shipping. I get a tree subscription to the
lb bulletin, Reminiscing Time, with data about new Club books & records
5 news about fellow members and their hobbies EXTRA! Personal service—
t like 1939.No computers! My only obligation Is to buy 4 books or records
ir the next two years, from some 150 to be offered— after which I'm free
resign at any time. If t want the monthly Selection. do nothing; It will
I

iout a month later. If 1 don't want the Selection, or I

prefer one of the many Alternates. merely let you know on the handy lorm
I

always provided. I'll be offered a new Selection every A weeks-13 per year.
NI-104