The Classic/Retro Pop Culture Thread

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70 Years Ago Last Year (Part 4)

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Timeline entries are quoted from Wiki pages for the month or year. Sections separated from timeline entries are mine.

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October 2, 1950

• The comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz, was published for the first time, in seven U.S. newspapers, including the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Minneapolis Star Tribune and the Seattle Times....Schulz's final installment would appear on February 13, 2000, the day after his death.

https://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1950/10/02

• Tom Corbett, Space Cadet began a three-season run on CBS television, as a competitor to the DuMont network science fiction program Captain Video and His Video Rangers. With a larger budget than Captain Video, the 15-minute segments appeared on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 6:45 in the evening. The show was inspired by the Robert A. Heinlein science fiction novel, Space Cadet, and starred Frankie Thomas in the title role.
• Lux Video Theatre, a television adaptation of the popular anthology, Lux Radio Theatre, began a seven-season run. Telecast live for its first three years, the show premiered on CBS with a 30-minute adaptation of the Maxwell Anderson play Saturday's Children.

October 3 – Beulah, the first television series to star an African-American, premiered on the ABC television network, with actress and comedienne Ethel Waters as the title character, the Negro maid for a white family, the Hendersons. Beulah [is] now considered an example of the stereotype of African Americans that was popular prior to the 1960s, although Beulah herself was portrayed as smarter than her employers. The show had been adapted from a radio comedy series of the same name, and would run for three seasons.

October 4 – Snoopy, the most famous dog in comic strip history, made his first appearance in the comic strip Peanuts. He would not be identified by name until May 22, 1951. His thoughts would become a regular part of the story starting on May 27, 1952, and he would begin walking upright starting on January 9, 1956.
https://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1950/10/04

October 12 – The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show premiered on the CBS television network after the husband and wife comedy team became the latest to make a transition from radio. The radio program had run for 13 years as The Burns and Allen Show. Gracie Allen reportedly was "petrified" during the initial live broadcast because she had never had to memorize her lines before; on the radio, she was always able to read from her script without being seen by the home audience.

October 13 – The drama film All About Eve, starring Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, and Celeste Holm, was released.


October 16 – C. S. Lewis's novel The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the first of The Chronicles of Narnia series, was first published, released by British publisher Geoffrey Bles, followed by Macmillan Publishers in the United States on November 7. Lewis had completed the book at the end of March, 1949.

October 19

• United Nations troops won the Battle of Pyongyang, as American troops from the United States Army's 1st Cavalry became the first U.S. forces to march into Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. After fighting a final battle with North Korean forces at Chunghwa, the cavalry drove the remaining ten miles to find that the city was nearly deserted.
• Hours later, General Peng Dehuai, accompanied by an assistant and two bodyguards, traveled across the Yalu River between Dandong, China, and Sinuiju, North Korea, then ordered the bulk of the People's Volunteer Army. As dusk fell at 5:30 p.m., the mass invasion of North Korea from China got underway, with 255,000 Chinese troops crossing the Yalu River over three different bridges.

October 22 – On the day that the Internal Security Act of 1950 (popularly known as the McCarran Act) went into effect, the United States Department of Justice began a series of "midnight raids" across the nation, arresting resident aliens who were suspected of subversive activities.

October 23 – Died: Al Jolson, 64, American musician once known as "The World's Greatest Actor", best known for starring in the first sound film, The Jazz Singer. A month earlier, Jolson had become the first major entertainer to travel to Korea to boost the morale of U.S. soldiers there. Reportedly, Jolson was playing the card game gin rummy with friends at his suite at the Hotel St. Francis when he suffered his fatal heart attack.

October 28 – Radio and film comedian Jack Benny brought his show to television with the premiere of a live broadcast from New York of The Jack Benny Program, opening with the one-liner "I'd give a million dollars to know what I look like on television." He and his supporting cast would continue the radio show for five more years, and his TV program, sponsored by Lucky Strike cigarettes, would run until 1964, winning eight Emmy awards along the way.

[Brought to you by Lucky Strike, with that rich, cool, carcinogenic taste!]

October 31 – Earl Lloyd became the first African-American to play in a National Basketball Association game. One of four black players in the newly integrated NBA, Lloyd played for the Washington Capitols in the opener for the league's fifth season, at Rochester, New York, in the only game scheduled that night. Lloyd scored two field goals and two free throws in the Caps' 78–70 loss to the Rochester Royals.

November 1 – Two Puerto Rican nationalists attempted to assassinate the U.S. President, Harry S. Truman. At 2:15 p.m., Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo, aware that President Truman was staying at the Blair House while the White House was undergoing repairs, attacked the residence at 1651 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W. in Washington, DC. Collazo tried to break in through the front door, and shot U.S. Capitol police officer Donald Birdzell in the knee, but was wounded by three other Secret Service agents. Torresola fired multiple shots at White House police officer Leslie Coffelt and mortally wounded him, but Coffelt returned fire and killed Torresola instantly. Coffelt died several hours later. Collazo would be sentenced to death, but Truman would commute his sentence to life imprisonment. On September 6, 1979, Collazo would be released after his sentence was altered to time served by U.S. President Jimmy Carter, and pass away on February 21, 1994.

November 2 – Died: George Bernard Shaw, 94, Irish writer, 1925 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate

November 5 – Hour of Decision, a weekly radio broadcast by evangelist Billy Graham, was heard for the first time. Graham's sermons, both live and pre-recorded, have been heard every Sunday since then on the ABC Radio Network, then in syndicated form, and online.

November 8 – Flying an F-80C jet fighter, United States Air Force Lt. Russell J. Brown intercepted a North Korean MiG-15 near the Yalu River and reported that he shot it down, in the first jet-to-jet dogfight in history.

November 9 – The adventure film King Solomon's Mines, starring Deborah Kerr, Stewart Granger, and Richard Carlson, premiered at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

November 10

• A U.S. Air Force B-50 Superfortress bomber, experiencing an in-flight emergency, jettisoned and detonated a Mark IV nuclear bomb at 2,500 feet above the Saint Lawrence River, near Saint-André, Quebec. Slightly before 4:00 p.m., the explosion rocked the town and caused a thick cloud of yellow smoke. The plutonium core had been removed before transport, so the blast was limited to a conventional chemical explosion used to destroy the weapon, but 100 pounds of uranium were scattered in the river, and the weapon was never recovered.
• U.S. Navy Lt. Commander William T. Amen, flying an F9F Panther jet fighter, struck a Russian piloted MiG-15 jet fighter in Korea. Although Russian historians dispute whether Russell Brown had downed a MiG-15 two days earlier, it is agreed that the Amen scored a kill, with the Russian MiG crashing into a small hill.
  
• The Interstate Commerce Commission ordered the end of racial segregation in the dining cars of trains that traveled interstate routes, effective December 15. In response, the Southern Railway said that it ceased the practice four months earlier, on July 1, and the Louisville and Nashville Railroad had discontinued the practice of barring black passengers from sitting in dining cars previously reserved for white travelers. The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, however, said that it would wait until the order was received and studied by its legal department.

November 14 – Jack Mullin, working on an investment by Ampex and Bing Crosby Enterprises, filed the first patent for a videotape recorder. U.S. Patent 2,794,066 would be issued on May 28, 1957.

November 18 – "Harbor Lights" by Sammy Kaye and His Orchestra topped the Billboard Best Sellers in Stores chart.


November 19 – At its annual meeting, the American Red Cross board of governors voted to discontinue the endorsement of putting racial designations on blood donations. "It has long been known that human blood is all alike, from whatever race it comes", the press release noted.

November 21 – A rocket launched from Los Alamos, New Mexico, snapped a picture of the earth below it after it reached its peak altitude of 107 miles. At the time, it set a record for the highest altitude from which a photograph had been taken.

November 24

• An unusually strong winter storm, that would eventually kill 383 Americans, began east of the Appalachian Mountains. With hurricane-force winds, the storm affected 22 of the 48 United States, primarily in the northeastern U.S. The storm had first been noted at 7:30 pm Eastern time, with temperatures plummeting during the afternoon, and the collision of cold and warm air masses produced winds of more than 50 miles per hour. Within two days, there were 211 deaths in 21 states, the majority of them heart attacks that had been brought about by shoveling snow.
• The Frank Loesser musical Guys and Dolls premiered on Broadway, at the 46th Street Theatre, and would go on for 1,200 performances, winning the Tony Award for Best Musical. Among the songs written for the play were "Luck Be a Lady" and "A Bushel and a Peck".

November 28 – The 723 residents of Ellenton, South Carolina, were notified on a noon radio broadcast that their town was going to be relocated so that construction could begin for the Savannah River Site, a plant for the making of plutonium and tritium for hydrogen bomb construction. The E. I. du Pont de Nemours Company had concluded that cooling pipes for the Savannah River nuclear reactors would need to run through the land occupied by Ellenton. The Atomic Energy Commission would agree on December 28 to the measure. Subsequently, the homes and buildings in Ellenton, and of another 5300 people in Aiken County and Barnwell County, were moved to a site 14 miles away, and the city of New Ellenton, South Carolina was created.

November 30 – At a press conference, U.S. President Truman frightened many when he answered reporters following up on his statement that the United States would "take whatever steps are necessary to meet the military situation in Korea". When Jack Dougherty of the Daily News of New York asked, "Will that include the atomic bomb?", Truman replied, "That includes every weapon that we have." Paul R. Leach of the Chicago Daily News then asked, "Does that mean that there is active consideration of the use of the atomic bomb?", and Truman said, "There has always been active consideration of its use." A third reporter, Merriman Smith of United Press, asked Truman "Did we understand you clearly" about active consideration of atomic weapons in Korea, and the President reaffirmed that it "always has been. It is one of our weapons." Concern was so strong that Prime Minister Attlee of the United Kingdom flew to Washington for an emergency meeting with the President.

December 1 – The Federal Civil Defense Administration was created by Executive Order 10186 by U.S. President Harry S. Truman. In 1958, its functions would be assumed by the Office of Defense Mobilization.

December 2

• The Battle of the Ch'ongch'on River ends with the Chinese People's Volunteer Army expelling United Nations forces from North Korea.
• The science fiction short story collection I, Robot by Isaac Asimov was published.
• The novelty song "The Thing" by Phil Harris hit #1 on the Billboard Best Sellers in Stores chart.

December 4 – A Pan American World Airways Boeing 307 Strato-Clipper set a new record time for a commercial flight from Honolulu, Hawaii, to Los Angeles California, making the trip in 7 hours 20 minutes.

December 8 – The Mersey ferry, MV Royal Iris, was launched at Dumbarton. Originally painted in a green and cream livery, the ship was distinctive in having a forward dummy funnel near her bridge and two exhaust stacks amidships, on both sides. Onboard amenities would include a dancefloor and stage, tea room, buffet, cocktail bar, and a fish and chip saloon, later earning the ship the nickname "the fish and chip boat".

December 9 – The catalytic converter for gasoline combustion engine automobiles was announced by French-born American mechanical engineer Eugene Houdry. At a press conference in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, Houdry explained that "we have found a way to change deadly carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide, and said that "the streets and highways will smell a lot better, and accidental deaths of motorists from carbon monoxide in vehicles should be eliminated."

December 11

• The Hungnam evacuation started and continued for fifteen days, allowing 105,000 troops (mostly from the U.S. X Army Corps and the South Korean 1st Army Corps) to be evacuated from North Korea, along with 91,000 civilians. All serviceable equipment was taken out, including 17,500 vehicles and 350,000 tons of cargo. The evacuees from Hungnam harbor were protected by U.S. Navy air support from seven aircraft carriers, and by shelling from 13 ships. Fortunately, China and North Korea did not seriously interfere with the process, which would end on December 26.

• For the first time, the United States Atomic Energy Commission established rules for the maximum measurable level of exposure to radiation.

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On December 11, 1950, All-Star Comics #57 (cover date Feb.-Mar. 1951) hits the stands, featuring the last Golden Age appearances of the Justice Society of America and all of its remaining members except Wonder Woman--including the Golden Age Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, and Atom. With issue #58 (cover date Apr.-May 1951), the series will be rebranded as All-Star Western. This, more than any other milestone, marks the end of the Golden Age of Comics. (Note that when All-Star Comics is revived in the 1970s, it ignores All-Star Western's ten-year run and picks up at #58.)

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December 12 – Announcing an early version of sending printed materials to subscribers electronically, RCA Laboratories unveiled what it called "the first atomic facsimile library". The press release noted that it would give scientists "quick access to any scientific information anywhere that telephone lines can reach". The collection of nuclear science information was located at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. RCA reported that the first test of what is now referred to as "faxing" a document was when a scientist at the Y-12 electromagnetic separation plant needed a two-page report from the library and that "He had it complete in four and a half minutes."

December 17 – Lieutenant Colonel Bruce Hinton shot down a Soviet MiG-15 fighter while flying one of four F-86 Sabre jets that the United States Air Force was using in combat for the first time, going up against four MiGs in a battle involving eight jet fighters. The downed MiG-15 was piloted by Major Yakov Efromeenko, who ejected safely before his plane crashed. F-86 pilots would shoot down another 791 Soviet-built fighters during the war.

December 18 – President Truman ordered the establishment of the Nevada Proving Ground so that nuclear weapons testing could be performed within the continental United States, and the American stockpile of atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs could be rapidly increased during the national emergency. There were five proposed locations, all of them federally owned, and the other four choices were at White Sands in New Mexico; Dugway Proving Ground in Utah; a fifty-mile strip of land between Fallon and Eureka, Nevada; or Pamlico Sound near Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. Three days later, the Atomic Energy Commission would lease a 350 square mile portion of the U.S. Air Force's Tonopah Bombing and Gunnery Range in Nye County, Nevada, 65 miles away from Las Vegas. The ground, renamed the Nevada Test Site, would be added to over the years. The desert site itself was relatively unpopulated, 25 miles away from the towns of Indian Springs and Cactus Springs. Six weeks after the selection, an atomic bomb would be detonated at Frenchman Flat on January 27, 1951.

December 20 – By a vote of 247-1, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Federal Civil Defense Act of 1950, providing three billion dollars of funding for fallout shelters nationwide and for other preparations for a nuclear war.

December 21

• One of the most well-known articles of clothing in comic strips was introduced, when Charlie Brown was first seen in his "zig-zag T-shirt". Cartoonist Charles M. Schulz had added the distinction in order to set Charlie Brown apart from the rest of the strip's characters.

https://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1950/12/21

• The comedy-drama film Harvey, starring James Stewart and Josephine Hull, was released in the United States.

December 22 – Napalm was used for the first time in war in Vietnam, when High Commissioner de Lattre ordered the French Air Force to bomb a concentrated group of Viet Minh guerillas in the Tiên Yên District. Over the next several decades, the highly flammable petroleum compound of napalm would burn thousands of Vietnamese people to death in carpet bombing campaigns.

December 23 – The United States made its first commitment to aiding a war in Southeast Asia when it joined France, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos in signing what is referred to as the pentaleral agreement. The U.S. would support France's war against the Viet Minh guerillas by loaning 1.2 billion dollars worth of tanks, aircraft, and small arms and ammunition for four years. Under the agreement, the title to the equipment was to revert to the United States "at the conclusion of hostilities". After France departed from Vietnam in 1954, the United States would use the goal of recovery of the materials as "a convenient pretext to place more American personnel in Vietnam".

December 30

• After a successful run on Los Angeles station KECA-TV, Space Patrol made its national television debut, on the ABC television network. The setting of the half-hour-long science fiction adventure series was 1,000 years in the future, in the year 2950 of the 30th Century, with Commander Buzz Corry and his sidekick, Cadet Happy, flying for the United Planets Space Patrol. The maiden episode was "Treachery on Mars". Live telecasts were made in Los Angeles at 6:00 pm Pacific time, and kinescope recordings were sent to other ABC affiliates.
• The comedy film At War with the Army starring the team of Martin and Lewis (in their first starring feature) premiered in San Francisco.
• "The Tennessee Waltz" by Patti Page topped the Billboard Best Sellers in Stores chart.

December 31 – Seoul was invaded for the third time in seven months as the Chinese 13th Army attacked the Republic of Korea Army's 1st, 2nd, 5th and 6th Infantry Divisions along the 38th parallel, breaching United Nations Forces' defenses at the Imjin River, Hantan River, Gapyeong and Chuncheon in the process. China's "Third Phase Offensive" began at dusk on New Year's Eve, and would reach Seoul by January 4. The First Phase had been halting the advance of UN Troops toward China, and the Second Phase had been the retaking of North Korea.

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They left that much to the imagination. There was a bit about how the cast's costumes hadn't arrived yet, and the Chief not being able to tell the difference.

Sally's was more of an athletic shirt.

The IMF would trick them into losing their sense of day and night and expose them to sunlight.

I'm taking their word for it, but what they're basically saying is that this was the start of the Wal-Mart/K-Mart/Target-type discount store.

 

What about Snoopy!?!

That's one of the things that I'm looking for in choosing which news items to include...famous firsts. ("We just snapped a picture from 107 miles up!") In the context of the '50s, though, I'd say that civil rights improvements were relative baby steps...saying at least as much about how things still were as how things were changing.

BTW, I looked up Hazel Scott...no footage of her show exists, as it was on the DuMont Network, whose archives were destroyed in the '70s. I found this video essay about her on YouTube:

Which struck me as very radioesque...having the commercial performed as part of the show.

Somebody needs to tell Archie Bunker twenty years later.

 

55 Years Ago This Week

May 15

• Indonesia asks Malaysia for peace negotiations.
• The South Vietnamese army besieges Da Nang.
• Tens of thousands of anti-war demonstrators again picket the White House, then rally at the Washington Monument.

May 16

• The Communist Party of China issues the 'May 16 Notice', marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.
• A strike is called by the National Union of Seamen in the United Kingdom.
• The legendary album Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys is released in the United States.
• Bob Dylan's seminal album, Blonde on Blonde was released in the U.S.
• In New York City, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. makes his first public speech on the Vietnam War.

May 17 – Bob Dylan is called "Judas" during his performance at the Manchester Free Trade Hall in England.
May 19

• Murder of Sylvia Likens: Gertrude Baniszewski is found guilty of torturing and murdering 16-year-old Sylvia Likens in Indiana and is sentenced to life in prison (she is released on parole in December 1985).
• At EMI recording studios, the Beatles begin making promotional films for 'Paperback Writer' and 'Rain', to be included in British television programmes, and in colour in the USA in The Ed Sullivan Show. (The latter transmits the films on 5 June.) A plan for Sullivan to fly to London to appear in the films is abandoned at the eleventh hour.

May 20

• Making of the promotional films switches to Chiswick House, West London.
• A narrow annular solar eclipse occurs, the 33rd solar eclipse of Solar Saros 137; greatest visibility is in Turkey and Greece.

Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week:

Leaving the chart:

• "Daydream," The Lovin' Spoonful (12 weeks)
• "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry," B. J. Thomas & The Triumphs (13 weeks)
• "Rhapsody in the Rain," Lou Christie (8 weeks)
• "A Sign of the Times," Petula Clark (8 weeks)
• "Together Again," Ray Charles (8 weeks)

Recent and new on the chart:

"My Little Red Book," Love

(Apr. 30; #52 US)

"Opus 17 (Don't You Worry 'Bout Me)," The Four Seasons

(#13 US; #20 UK)

"Don't Bring Me Down," The Animals

(#12 US; #6 UK)

"You Don't Have to Say You Love Me," Dusty Springfield

(#4 US; #8 AC; #1 UK; #491 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time)

"Red Rubber Ball," The Cyrkle

(#2 US)

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Timeline entries are quoted from the Wiki pages for the month or year and Mark Lewisohn's The Beatles Day by Day.

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50 Years Ago This Week

May 16

• A coup attempt is exposed and foiled in Egypt.
• The price of mailing a letter in the United States increased by 25%, with a price rise from 6 cents to 8 cents. The new 8¢ stamp had a portrait of the later U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower similar to that of the 6¢ stamp issued in 1970.

May 18

• The U.S. Congress formally votes to end funding for the American Supersonic Transport program.
• The Montreal Canadiens win the Stanley Cup against the Chicago Black Hawks. The Canadiens became only the second team in NHL history to win the Cup in game 7 on the road, and did so after the home team won each of the previous six games in the series. This also marked the last NHL game that the late Jean Béliveau played.

May 19 – Mars probe program: Mars 2 is launched by the Soviet Union.
May 22

• An earthquake lasting 20 seconds destroys most of Bingöl, Turkey – more than 1,000 are killed, 10,000 made homeless.
• The Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum, more commonly known as the "LBJ Presidential Library" was dedicated in Austin, Texas on the campus of the University of Texas, with U.S. President Nixon and former U.S. President Johnson attending.

Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week:

Leaving the chart:

• "Eighteen," Alice Cooper (14 weeks)
• "Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)," The Temptations (15 weeks)
• "One Toke Over the Line," Brewer & Shipley (13 weeks)

Recent and new on the chart:

"Never Can Say Goodbye," Isaac Hayes

(May 15; #22 US; #19 AC; #5 R&B)

"High Time We Went," Joe Cocker

(#22 US)

"Never Ending Song of Love," Delaney & Bonnie and Friends

(#13 US; #8 AC)

"I've Found Someone of My Own," The Free Movement

(#5 US; #7 AC; #20 R&B)

"Don't Pull Your Love," Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds

(#4 US; #4 AC)

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Timeline entries are quoted from the Wiki pages for the month or year.

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I wonder if the plan was to have him tape an on-location intro/interview to accompany the videos; I just can't picture him actually appearing in them.

The one I got because a later Love song came up via the Rolling Stone list and this was one of their couple of other charting singles. It does have a forward-looking sound. Were you already familiar with this one?

The one that I can never remember how it goes just looking at the title, but when I put it on, it's "Oh, that one!"

The one that I sometimes get mixed up with "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," but both are good ones.

The one that Elvis later did.

The one that's kinda like a red, chewy gumball, and not the red hot type...but enjoyable for what it is.

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Check out these times-signy strips from 50 years ago this past week:
Peanuts by Charles Schulz for May 10, 1971 - GoComics
Peanuts by Charles Schulz for May 12, 1971 - GoComics

 

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50th Anniversary Viewing Revisited

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Hogan's Heroes
"The Kamikazes Are Coming"
Originally aired February 21, 1971

An underground contact leads the prisoners to a V-3 rocket that he's camouflaged in the woods; but not having the means to disassemble it, they're at a loss for how to get it to England. Back at camp, Marya (Nita Talbot, in her last of seven appearances in the role) is accompanying Dr. Otto von Bornemann (Henry Corden), who's there to find the rocket, and she's sold Hogan up as somebody who can help them. In private, she threatens to expose Hogan if he doesn't cooperate. He capitulates, claiming to have seen the rocket in flight, and the prisoners are placed in full confinement. After the V-3 is retrieved, Marya brings Hogan into her scheme to steal it. She sneaks the prisoners in to take the rocket, and lets Hogan tie her up...though he leaves her to knock herself out with a gun butt. When she's found, she uses fake hazily remembered clues to divert the search to various locations besides the barracks. Eventually the prisoners manage to get the rocket to the rec hall and set it up in firing position. Marya brings von Boornemann and two assistants in and persuades them to fire the rocket at London...and, because it's a manned rocket, for the three scientists to ride it! In the coda, Hogan gives Hochstetter the notion that the scientists were traitors who chose to commit suicide by riding the rocket to England.

This was a case where Hogan and Marya's snowjobbing of the Germans throughout the episode was absurdly weak to the point of being nonsensical...they may as well have been using the Jedi mind trick.

DIS-missed!

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Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
Season 4, episode 23
Originally aired February 22, 1971

Edith Ann opens the episode.

The Mod World of Psychiatry

Part Two

The Fickle Finger of Fate goes to some unknown genius in the United States Army.

The news segment:


The Quickies

A Washington's Birthday segment:


Another Joke Wall with a distinctive visual gag:


Edith Ann closes the episode.

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Ironside
"The Riddle in Room Six"
Originally aired February 25, 1971

The episode opens with the Chief in superior court, Judge Andrea Kline (Marsha Hunt) presiding...where the defendant, racketeer Harry Barbosa (Paul Stevens), is benefiting from a hung jury. His lawyer, Everett Ward (Andrew Duggan), moves that the jury be considered hopelessly deadlocked, so the judge allows 24 hours for the juror to change his mind. The Chief suspects that the holdout juror has been bribed, and has to prove it within that deadline. Meanwhile, he has to reassure panicky witness Nick Kirby (Bruce Kirby), who doesn't get to leave the country until the jury reaches a verdict; and without whom they have not case for a retrial. The Chief believes Ward to be honorable, and thus that he wants to win his case the right way. To that end, he persuades Ward to share some private detective reports that he thinks were used to learn about the jurors, but then tampered with. D.A. Bill Turner (Joe Maross) doesn't approve of the tactic, hopeful of getting a last-minute conviction; but Ironside declares it an official investigation to obtain his evaluations of the jurors. In what, as I recall, is not the first such instance, Ward tells Ironside that he could have been a good trial lawyer--Yuk, yuk!

While Barbosa is trying to find Kirby, Team Ironside goes to work looking into jurors of interest. Eve tries to find the wife of one of them, Mrs. Molina (Anna Navarro). Mrs. M later shows up at the courthouse desperate to talk to her husband, and tells the judge of phone calls leaving threatening messages for him. The Chief now has Turner's cooperation, but thinks this development smells fishy. Ed talks to Laura Harwell (Karen Bouchard), the ex-fiancee of stockbroker Howard Benson. She's willing to share that Howard acted especially motivated to serve on the jury. Ed tracks down Benson's physician, Dr. Gregory (George Petrie), who gave him inoculations for leaving the country the day he was selected, and turns him on to a beach house address of Benson's, where they confirm he was at on the day he was selected. Back at his hotel room, Kirby acts sick as a diversion to grab his guard's gun and take off.

The Chief talks to Barbosa to feel him out about Benson. Barbosa's henchman, Norm (Wayne Heffley), bends a matchstick after lighting a cigarette for the Chief (who isn't normally shown smoking, though apparently he did at the time of his shooting), matching a clue found at the beach house. The team Tries to decipher a telegram that Benson received, which appears to be about the stock market, but the Chief deduces that it's coded from one of the numbers being the wrong type of fraction. They eventually decipher that it's about a transfer to an account of a specific number, and verify that $250,000 were transferred into said account two days prior to Benson's selection. The judge considers this to be prima facie evidence only, but the Chief and D.A. connect the circumstances with Kirby having been Barbosa's accountant.

Ed scopes out a pawnbroker (Robert Osterloh) whom Kirby may have gone to for money, and intercepts Kirby there just as Norm and another hood arrive...following which the baddies are scared off by the arrival of a couple of uniformed officers. Benson (Anthony Eisley) is brought to the judge's chambers and confronted with the evidence against him. Furthermore, the Chief accuses him of having been the one who approached Barbosa with the proposition of being his inside man. Back in court, the judge declares Benson incompetent to serve, and has an alternate juror put in his place, against the dutiful objection of Ward; who then leaves Barbosa to stew while the jury deliberates, and joins Team Ironside for lunch.

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Adam-12
"Log 164: The Poachers"
Originally aired February 25, 1971

The officers are assigned to a grand theft auto at the police garage, from which the suspect is driving Code 3 (with the siren on). They find the vehicle being driven recklessly and pursue; it eventually pulls over, and a very pleased-looking young man gets out, Chick Wheelock (Scutter McKay), who tells them that he ran out of gas. He also volunteers that he's been working at the garage, and recognizes Adam-12 as a unit that he'd just washed the day before

Next the officers are assigned to see a storekeeper (Ralph Neff, I presume; the character is cutely billed as Mr. Gower), who's stalling a young woman (Pegi Boucher) whom he suspects of forgery, as she's trying to cash an old age benefits check. She admits to note being the woman whom the check was made out to, and tells the officers that she found the check in a purse with some gas credit cards that she was trying to use as ID. She then tearfully pleads with them, but is informed that she's committed a felony.

Following a request from Mac, the officers go to take a look at some warehouses that have been getting robbed, where they run into Wells and his partner, Officer Norm Green (Claude Johnson), whose patrol area the officers are in. Hence the episode title, though not much is made of the issue.

Next the officers investigate a 459 report from a parking garage proprietor (Harry Hickox) who tells them of how items were stolen from various cars, along with his closed circuit camera...the thieves having cutely marked his sign to indicate that the area was protected by closed circuit TV.

After dark, the officers go to the home of Mrs. Sarah Pierce (Marjorie Bennett), who swears that she's had a prowler; they reassure her that they'll keep an eye on the area. In private, the officers indicate that she does this regularly, apparently out of loneliness.

Following that, the officers respond to a 459 silent at a mortuary, arriving with another unit. They find a door with a busted lock, go in, quietly look around, and find the office rummaged through, with no sign of the suspects, but some conspicuously displayed coffins give the viewer a good idea of where they might be. The officers get the same idea and start quietly opening them. Then they see one across the room start to open, announce their presence to the man coming out, and take him in.

The next day they go back to the warehouses to find some men at a drug warehouse loading boxes into the back of an old pickup. After they call for backup, the suspects drive out, crashing through the gate. The officers pursue, the truck quickly runs off the road, and Malloy nabs one of them on foot. The officers frisk the suspects and take a number of items, including a stolen bottle of codeine.

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The Partridge Family
"Road Song"
Originally aired February 26, 1971

The family are approached at a roadside eatery by a young woman named Maggie (Laurie Prange), who asks them for a lift to Albuquerque. She pretends not to be hungry, but pockets some bread after they leave the table. On the bus, she regales the family with tall tales of her travels with her archaeologist father, and when they get to their motel, she insists on parting ways. Later a police officer (Stuart Nisbet) comes to their room asking about her. The next morning they find her waiting for them on the bus, and take her along, but at their next stop the adults find out from the local sheriff (Harry Hickox) that she's a runaway from her maternal grandparents in Nebraska, though she does have a father in Albuquerque. Returning to the hotel, they find that she slipped out the bathroom window.

Shirley, Reuben, and Keith go out looking for Maggie, while Danny uses Maggie's M.O. to get out on his own. A small Western town search sequence ensues to the accompaniment of "Point Me in the Direction of Albuquerque":

Unable to find her, they decide to proceed to the city in question, and Danny manages to slip back in the bathroom window in time, though he looks a bit too dirty to have been taking a long shower. The search sequence resumes, with the family finding Maggie outside of town and agreeing to take her to see her father (Sandy Kenyon), who's surprised and happy to see her.

Shirley goes to the airport to meet Maggie's grandpa (Ian Wolfe, also otherwise too occupied for that LAS segment). Maggie's father and grandfather argue over what's best for her, with Shirley intervening in the father's favor, and Grandpa reluctantly accepts the majority's decision. In the coda, we learn that a custody agreement has been reached in which Maggie will live with her grandparents during school but spend summer and holidays with her father.

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That Girl
"Stag Party"
Originally aired February 26, 1971

Um...no it doesn't. Not even for a brief plot beat.

In another bit of shoddy TG continuity, Jerry says that he's been married to Ruth for seven years! Recall that he was single in Season 1, and originally married a different girl entirely! [Cue sci-fi/horror explanation.] The subject of a girl coming out of the cake at that night's stag party comes up over dinner with the Baumans, which makes Ann insecure and sets up her title card shot.

At the party, it's said that the wedding is going to be in a few weeks. Over a toast, Donald drifts into a fantasy sequence of him and Ann having their first marital squabble on a surrealistically minimalist set (much like the sets used as literal locations in Batman Season 3). Mr. Marie shows up while Donald's chugging, and reacts in his usual disapproving manner. One of the guys there, Frankie (Jerry Fogel), makes things awkward by asking Lew for details about Ann in a between-guys way. After Donald goes into another fantasy sequence on the same set in which he's older and has a young adult daughter who looks like Ann but is named Lew and refers to him as Hollinger, he sets Frankie straight about who Lew is, and Lew storms out in anger over the quality of Hollinger's friends.

Meanwhile, back at Ann's place, Ruth talking about what she heard of Jerry's party only makes things worse. After Ruth leaves, Ann goes to bed, gets a drunken call from Donald, and finds out about Lew leaving. In his condition, Don doesn't explain the situation very well, so Ann has Ruth come back over and frets about the situation. Meanwhile, Don has another fantasy in which the surreal set has been redressed as a church on the day of the wedding, which Lew escorts Ann into only to send her home at the sight of Hollinger. Returning to the real world and feeling miserable about what happened with Ann's father, Don's about to leave the party when the cake is wheeled in, and the party's host, Maury (George Furth), plays up how something extra has been added to the confection. Striptease music is played, a pair of gloved hands appear from the top of the cake, dancing about in a seductive fashion, and out comes...Lew Marie in drag, smiling from ear to ear! (No sci-fi/horror angle needed here...I just wish I had a screencap!) As Donald relates to Ann afterward, the entire incident between Frankie and Lew had been staged for that moment. The still-drunk groom-to-be then proceeds to babble about Ann in a romantically flattering fashion.

In the coda, Ann and Donald try out an expensive camera that the guys, including Lew, chipped in for.

I'd have liked it if we'd seen more of this side of Lew earlier in the series, but it was an excellent comic twist, and a great note on which to leave the character.

"Oh, Donald" count: 7
"Oh, Daddy" count: 0 (Oddly for his last appearance, he didn't have any scenes with Ann other than Don's wedding fantasy.)

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Love, American Style
"Love and the Heist / Love and the Love Potion / Love and the Teddy Bear"
Originally aired February 26, 1971

In "Love and the Love Potion," Polly (Tammy Grimes) goes into a shop run by the unfortunately named Ah So (Pat Morita, playing Chinese) for something that will help the man she's been seeing for a year to fall head over heels in love with her. He presents a potion that will produce that effect for the first person its drinker sees after they imbibe it. Polly gives it to Freddy (Dick Sargent) in his beer while he's watching TV...which she feels the need to turn off when he starts realizing how attractive Ed Sullivan is! Then a knockout of a new neighbor named Beverly (Carla Borelli) comes to the door looking to borrow ice cubes, and as Freddy hasn't been paying any attention to Polly, Beverly's the one who triggers the effect. Beverly complains to Polly the next day about how Freddy's been driving her crazy, and they hatch a scheme for Beverly to send him to formally break up with Polly, so that Polly can give him more of the potion and switch his passion from Beverly to her. But when he comes over, Freddy's too busy obsessing over Beverly to drink his beer; and when she finally gets him to, she has trouble getting him to look directly at her. Eventually she succeeds, and the potion produces the desired effect, which is proven when Beverly drops in and Freddy takes Polly out to propose to her at the bowling alley where they met. Polly tells Beverly to make herself at home, so she sits down and starts drinking Freddy's beer. Then Mr. So comes calling at the door...

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And...we're finally done with the '70-'71 TV season. On to belated 55th anniversary viewing for the '65-'66 season!

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It's got a decent little soul vibe going.

Is it? I found my mind wandering to the far reaches of the universe, then returning to ask, "Is this still on?"

As did oldies radio, apparently. It's underwhelmingly OK.

This one was unavailable for purchase, though in this case there's an excuse...I read that the group's material was destroyed in a 2008 fire at Universal.

The only one among this pack.

Apparently it's a Bacharach & David composition that was originally done by Manfred Mann and used in the film What's New Pussycat?

 

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70 Years Ago Last Season

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Timeline entries are quoted from the Wiki page for the year. Sections separated from timeline entries are mine.

For some reason, the more detailed by-month pages aren't available for 1951 and 1952, so I've got a lot less to work with, and filled in the movie releases and chart-topping singles myself.

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January 4, 1951 – Third Battle of Seoul: Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (they had lost Seoul in the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950).

January 15 – In a court in West Germany, Ilse Koch, The "Witch of Buchenwald", wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, is sentenced to life imprisonment.

January 27 – Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site begins, with a 1-kiloton bomb dropped on Frenchman Flat, northwest of Las Vegas.

_______

On February 15, Bedtime for Bonzo, starring Ronald Reagan and Diana Lynn, premieres in Indianapolis.


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February 27 – The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, limiting Presidents to two terms, is ratified.

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On March 3, "If" by Perry Como tops the Billboard Best Sellers in Stores chart.

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March 3 or 5 – Jackie Brenston "and His Delta Cats" (actually Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm) record "Rocket 88" at Sam Phillips' Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, a candidate for the first rock and roll record (released in April). It is covered on June 14 by Bill Haley and His Saddlemen.

[#1 R&B. Oddly, this wasn't honored with a spot on either the Rolling Stone or Rock and Roll Hall of Fame list, though it routinely comes up in other places as a leading contender for being considered the first rock & roll record.]

March 9 – United Artists releases the sci-fi film The Man from Planet X in the United States.


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On March 10, "Be My Love" by Mario Lanza tops the Billboard Best Sellers in Stores chart.


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March 12 – Hank Ketcham's comic strip Dennis the Menace (U.S. comics) and Davey Law's Dennis the Menace (U.K. comics) appear for the first time.

March 14 – Operation Ripper: For the second time, United Nations troops recapture Seoul.

March 29

• Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. On April 5 they are sentenced to death.

• Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I opens on Broadway, and runs for three years. It is the first of their musicals specifically written for an actress (Gertrude Lawrence). Lawrence is stricken with cancer during the run of the show, and dies halfway through its run a year later. The show makes a star of Yul Brynner.
• The 23rd Academy Awards Ceremony is held; All About Eve wins the Best Picture award and five others.

March 31 – Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau.

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You got me...nothing in the episode made sense, and I went back and rewatched some parts multiple times to see what I wasn't missing.

Nope. Justice was being done fairly, one way or the other.

New employee from out of town, I think it was.

"*Huff* *Puff* Hey, no fair, wait up...!"

[Ginger saxophone]

Indeed.

Quantum Leap?

Mind you, I knew it was coming because I'd seen the episode before, but I remembered it knocking me over with a feather then, and you've gotta see it to believe it.

The question is, have you finally accepted Donald?

Hey, it's the '70s, Sgt. Friday!

And it's nothing compared to the untold story of when he was transformed from Dick York...

Cumulative probably would have been too much for the censors.

 

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55.5th-ish Anniversary Viewing

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The Ed Sullivan Show
Season 18, episode 1
Originally aired September 12, 1965

This episode was not represented in The Best of the Ed Sullivan Show, but came to my attention back when tv.com had their episode guide up. It's of historical interest for two reasons. First, you'd think that this was the show's first color season and that would be that, but they actually opened it with one final black and white installment. Second would be the main guests...taped on August 14 when they were in town for a certain gig, but appearing on the show's stage before a live audience for the first and only time after their legendary three consecutive appearances in February 1964:

In addition to introducing Americans to that soon-to-be chart-topper, which was being released as a single the day after the broadcast, the Fabs also performed "I Feel Fine," "I'm Down," "Help!," "Act Naturally," and "Ticket to Ride". Other guests that night included Cilla Black, Soupy Sales, the comedy team of Marty Allen and Steve Rossi, and magician Fantasio. This info has been brought to you courtesy of a metacritic.com entry for the episode. I may have found a new source for info--and hey, look, more clips!



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Branded
"Judge Not"
Originally aired September 12, 1965
Season 2 premiere

IN COLOR!


Jason intercepts a coach to catch a ride, and two of the passengers turn out to be old acquaintances, Major Tom Rock (Tom Drake), who was one of the officers at the court-martial, and his wife Laura (Kathleen Crowley), whom Jason and Todd were once rivals over. The other two prisoners are a Texas Ranger (Willard Sage) and the prisoner he's got chained to him, Pierce Crowley (Warren Oates), who's got a date with the hangman for having killed four men, including two Rangers. The coach is attacked by riding bandits working for Pierce's identical brother, Frank (same actor, natch). Jason fires back at them, but Major Rock, a desk officer, freezes up when the Ranger is shot. Nevertheless, Rock is eventually persuaded to cover for Jason as he goes out to take the downed shotgun rider's place. Jason ends up then having to take the driver's, and rides the coach into the station. But while all this is going on, Crowley nabs the Ranger's gun, and he takes Jason and the others prisoner, including the elderly but tough-talking station master (Harry Harvey Sr.).

When Crowley taunts the major for cowardice, Laura plays at taking his side, getting him outside so the others can work at their ropes; but Crowley goes back inside in time to catch the station master grabbing a gun and shoots him; then Laura gets the station master's gun on Crowley, just as Frank's boys arrive outside. The major goes out to parley and is shot at, apparently only stunned by a near miss. Jason makes his way out to where the major's taken cover and covers him so they can both go back inside. Pierce tries to sneak up on Jason with a branding iron, but the major stops him. Jason and the major bond a little under fire as Rock sets the record straight that he voted honestly at the court-martial. Then Frank tries to rush the house and is shot down. After Pierce goes outside and cries over his brother, the four survivors continue on the stage, Pierce chained at shotgun, while Tom and Laura reconcile inside.

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12 O'Clock High
"The Loneliest Place in the World"
Originally aired September 13, 1965
Season 2 premiere

Still in black and white! I did a pretty thorough review of this one previously...

I guess it was all in the name of giving our two new leads the opportunity to bond under pressure, but they certainly didn't go out of their way to make us like Komansky. He was pretty much in asshole mode here...including when Gallagher chooses him to fill in for his flight engineer and he tries to get out of it by holding the threat of pressing the assault charge over the colonel, but Gallagher doesn't blink.

Another item that I didn't mention is how Britt and Gallagher bond over the general telling Gallagher how he lost his leg in the previous war. There's also a cringily awkward moment when Britt comes to the base to inform Gallagher that he had an American crew shot down. Suzanne, Longet's character, is with the general, so Gallagher acts pretty glib about the incident before Britt busts his bubble and gives him the news.

I've tended to give this episode heat for the way that it handled Savage, but it was in service of giving us a new origin episode for Gallagher, as a lot of water had gone under the bridge since he played out the Gately arc from the film in the series premiere.

Gallagher's brother Preston who's serving in Africa is mentioned by Britt, setting up Jack Lord's appearance early in the season.

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Gilligan's Island
"Gilligan's Mother-in-Law"
Originally aired September 16, 1965
Season 2 premiere

IN (REAL) COLOR! Now with opening credits for Russell Johnson and Dawn Wells...and presumably no more green tongues.


The native chief (Russ Grieve), his wife (Henny Backus), and his daughter (Mary Foran) canoe onto the island. Upon spying on Gilligan, the daughter declares that she wants him for a husband.

Mr. Howell: Of course we'll get off the island...you don't expect Thurston Howell III to spend the rest of his life on an island without a ticker tape machine, do you?​

What, he forgot to bring his ticker tape machine?

The castaways see the family and get the impression that it's Skipper that the girl is interested in marrying...and for some reason Mr. Howell gets the idea that they may have a radio transmitter on their island. The Professor understands their language, but only clarifies the girl's intent after Gilligan has told the Skipper that he'd marry her to rescue them. When he learns the truth, he runs into hiding but is found by the natives. Gilligan then has to undergo a series of tests, which the others persuade him to do on this questionable notion that it's their ticket to civilization. The tests include being the assistant in a knife-throwing act, and somehow Gilligan passes.

Next there's a party to be thrown, for which the men don grass skirts over their pants. Gilligan's engaging in a marriage dance when a native warrior named Harouki (Eddie Little Sky), the daughter's old suitor, appears. His challenge involves combat by spear-throwing, which the chief insists upon against the Skipper's objections with the point of a knife. While Gilligan practices, Ginger makes some moves on the warrior, but he objects on the basis that she's not the kind of girl he'd take home to mother. Gilligan gets to throw first, doesn't want to do it, and ends up missing Harouki by quite a bit...causing some coconuts to fall from a tree onto the warrior's head. But then the daughter declares that she wants to marry Harouki, and the castaways aren't invited. When Harouki comes to, however, he picks Gilligan as his best man...but Gilligan bows out when he learns there'll be a poison dart-throwing test involved.

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The Wild Wild West
"The Night of the Inferno"
Originally aired September 17, 1965
Series premiere

IN BLACK & WHITE! Also different to me, in the Season 1 opening credits, West tips his hat to the lady who has a knife to his back; I'm accustomed to him punching her out.

The episode opens with Artie undercover as a drunk Army officer as a train delivers West as a prisoner for deserting the Army. He's taken in chains directly to see Pilot President Grant, upon which he drops his cover, making it clear that he's already been working undercover for the chief exec. He's briefed by Colonel Shear (Walter Woolf King) on his new cover, that of a rich dude with a private train. West's first assignment using this M.O. will be looking into a series of raids led by a Juan Manolo, who's stocking enough arms to threaten all of the Western territories. Traveling West, the train stops to pick up Artie, whom we learn Jim has already been working with, from a peddler's wagon. As Artie boards, we get a look at some of gadgetry in the train that will come into play in the climax. Then we get the scene from that preview that I posted back when, showing Jim going into a separate compartment with a hidden closet and arsenal to suit up and arm himself, after which he rides off on a horse.

Jim proceeds to the town of Quemada to find it burned to the ground and the populace leaving ("Quemada" means "burned"), and visits the shop of Wing Fat (Victor Buono)--whom he observes is large for a Chinese man--for information. Fat points him in the direction of Lydia Monteran, with whom Jim is already acquainted and who can arrange a meeting with Manolo. As they ride a wagon together to her estate, believed to actually belong to Manolo, we see that Artie is embedded in town as a beggar. At the mansion, Jim and Lydia (Suzanne Pleshette) get reacquainted, Jim having foiled a previous criminal scheme of hers. Her response to his request is to fire a gun at him, sending him out of the room.

Colonel Shear pops by for a clandestine outdoor meeting with Jim to offer him a chance to get out, as vague intel indicates that he's onto something ten times bigger than they'd thought...all while an unnamed henchman watches from afar. Jim stays on the job, of course, and meets with Artie at a cemetery behind Lydia's place, where they find camouflaged wagon tracks leading into a crypt with an Indiana Jones welcome mat (a pit of snakes), and find a passage leading to Lydia's cellar, which is full of Manolo's supplies. He confronts her with what she's an accomplice to, and drags her down to the cellar to see the arms for herself, where they find themselves surrounded by Manolo (Nehemiah Persoff) and his men.

Manolo has Jim roughed up by his men, who find many of his gadgets, including his sleeve pistol; and then shares his scheme over a game of chess. Jim afterward uses some gadgets they didn't find to bust out of his cell and assemble a new gun; Artie pops up in the cellar and helps him subdue Manolo and his men, and they take Manolo back to the train...where Fat pops up, his men taking over the train. Jim identifies him as the real Manolo, having been clued in by some calling cards that I didn't catch in the story; and the real Manolo admits that his impostor is a crony named General Cassinello. Jim pretends to be interested in going into business with Manolo, and wagers his train car over a game of pool...which gives him the opportunity to use gadgets we'd been introduced to earlier, including an exploding ball and a cue with a blade in it, to lethally overcome Manolo...all while Artie and Lydia take out his men from the outside, having been clued in by a signal Jim set for them. As Manolo lies dying, Jim removes his Asian disguise and Manolo questions what Jim was getting out of ruining his scheme...scoffing to learn that he's just a hero.

In the liberated train coda, Jim and Artie entertain Lydia in their compartment, telling her that the train belongs to a friend named Sam...which a quick bit of Wiki research tells me isn't an anachronism in general, though the now-popular image of Uncle Sam originated in WWI.

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Hogan's Heroes
"The Informer"
Originally aired September 17, 1965
Series premiere

The opening sequence is very much like the regular series opening credits, but takes place as part of the story. Leonid Kinskey is in the opening credits as Russian prisoner Vladimir Minsk. A non-lead prisoner named Olsen (Stewart Moss) escapes the camp to swap places with Carter (Larry Hovis, who isn't in the opening credits), who's waiting for him in the woods, and is new to "Camp 13" as its un-iconically referred to here. "No one escapes Camp 13" just doesn't have that ring to it. Here Carter, who's being smuggled back to England, serves as a POV character via whom we learn about Hogan's operation. Minsk is the resident tailor (a duty that will later fall to LeBeau), while Newkirk is introduced as a trained magician. Unlike Carter, another newcomer, Wagner (Noam Pitlik), doesn't pass Hogan's test, pretending to know a fictitious Air Corps officer. The prisoners subsequently listen in on him calling COLONEL Burkhalter from Klink's office to inform on Hogan's operation. There's a bit of bickering between Kinch and LeBeau over the latter actually using the coffee pot listening device to make coffee...a gag that recurs at least in the next episode as well.

The prisoners take Wagner into the tunnel blindfolded via the dog house (which is played as the main entrance) and show him their operation, which includes a German bill mint, an assembly line for making Luger-shaped cigarette lighters, a sauna, and a barbershop, which Klink's Season 1 secretary, Helga (Cynthia Lynn), works at! I read that this is the only time the prisoners are depicted as having this elaborate underground setup, and that it was done away with for the regular series deliberately. Wagner exposes Hogan to Klink and Burkhalter at assembly. But the Luger he swiped turns out to be a real one; and having been led to think the entrance was under the water tower, he pulls a chain and dumps water on Burkhalter's head. When he releases guard dogs from a truck, thinking that they're a phonograph record, Olsen and Carter use the diversion to swap places in the truck.

The closing credits play over stills from the episode...though we actually saw Hogan putting his hat on Klink's helmet in one scene.

DIS-MISSED!

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Get Smart
"Mr. Big"
Originally aired September 18, 1965
Series premiere

An opening voiceover introduces us to Max, who's at a symphony getting a call on his shoe phone, which he takes in a broom closet...and gets locked in. Once again, the opening credits sequence is actually worked into the episode. As the Chief briefs Max about the kidnapping of Prof. Hugo Dante and theft of his destructive Inthermo device, we get our first demonstration of the Cone of Silence, which even affects the ability of the Chief's receptionist to hear him on the intercom when he wants to raise it. Max is sent to meet 99 at the airport, but his code phrase, "New York Mets Win Double-Header," turns out to be a current headline, so he tries making contact with a young boy. Then 99 approaches him, dressed as a chauffeur. Max has brought Agent K-13 with him (a dog), and Agent 34 (actor uncredited) is also present, in a locker, from where he helps Max shake a tail by slamming the door in his face.

Max and 99 ask questions at Cravehaven Laboratories, where they find a clue written inside a rubber banana peel. After Mr. Big makes a radio threat to demonstrate the Inthermo's power, they proceed to the South Street Novelty Company, where the clerk has Max stand in a certain spot so the Inthermo can be used on him through the window...but Fang knocks Max out of the way and the clerk is disintegrated. At this point 99 takes off her hat and there's a moment of attraction between her and Max. Out the window, Max notices a garbage scow loitering around and deduces that they're using rubber trash as camouflage. Checking out the boat, Max and 99 are captured and taken to see Mr. Big, and learn that the laboratory assistant they talked to, Zelinka (Janine Gray), is an accomplice. Getting free below deck, the agents see that the target is the Statue of Liberty. Max and 99 take on Big's goons while the freed Professor Dante (Vito Scotti) sets the Inthermo to self-destruct. He and the agents then swim for it, and the boat is blown up with Mr. Big inside. In a rowboat, Max attempts to report his success to the Chief using flowery oratory, only to realize that he's gotten a wrong number.

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Let's form a subcommittee and get to the bottom of it!

Yep...and brought to us by Ike Turner no less!

I'd been catching some '50s films in previous hiatus seasons, but this one I haven't seen.

I'm not terribly fond of it either.

That's a little evil for Bewitched.

 

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70 Years Ago This Season

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Timeline entries are quoted from the Wiki page for the year. Sections separated from timeline entries are mine.

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April 11, 1951 – U.S. President Harry S. Truman relieves General Douglas MacArthur of his Far Eastern commands.


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On April 21, "How High the Moon" by Les Paul and Mary Ford tops the Billboard Best Sellers in Stores chart.

(Listed in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll)

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April 29 – RKO releases the Howard Hawks sci-fi film, The Thing (from Another World).


May 9 – Operation Greenhouse: The first thermonuclear weapon is tested on Enewetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands, by the United States.

May 25 – The first atomic bomb "boosted" by the inclusion of thermonuclear materials, is tested in the "Item" test on Enewetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands by the United States.



May 28 – The Goon Show is first broadcast on BBC Home Service in the U.K.; the first series is entitled "Crazy People".

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Also in May, "Sixty Minute Man" by the Dominoes is released.

(Charts Aug. 25, 1951; #17 US; #1 R&B; listed in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll)

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June 14 – UNIVAC I is dedicated by the U.S. Census Bureau.

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On June 14, Ace in the Hole starring Kirk Douglas premieres in Albuquerque.

On June 23, "Too Young" by Nat King Cole tops the Billboard Best Sellers in Stores chart.

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And that catches us up to our intended 70th anniversary point.

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From what I've heard, they were very much guilty of espionage, but they were relatively small fry in that department.

I've less direct exposure to him than his influence. I vaguely recall him being imitated in Bug Bunny cartoons and such.

I find that insightful. I was actually concerned when posting that clip that the Rochester part might be considered offensive by current standards.

That's either a typo or a very interesting story...

I never did watch the full video myself...watched the first few minutes, then skipped through it to get to the part about the show and the blacklisting and her life after.

I'm unclear from the isolated clips if it was all a pretaped episode like the Beatles segment, which would probably explain it.

Only on film.

It was entertaining enough...there was a lot going on, squeezed into the half-hour format.

We'll put it this way...it was a lousy-ass Savage episode, but a strong Gallagher episode.

Yeah, they didn't do a lot with the bride's mom.

There ya go.

I think the gals were wearing them...they had no-navel-cut bare midriffs, but we never got a good look at them. And something about the Skipper in a grass skirt kind of grabs all the attention.

He doesn't look as much like the guy on the $50 bill as the other guy.

And apparently the one he rode in on.

"Hello? Who's this? It's Bob? You say you want to talk to that guy who's been mooning over your wife?"

The episode listing page had a longer description of the pilot, above the listing for the episode itself. The actor who played the Russian didn't want to come back, and they asked Stewart Moss but he declined. They liked Hovis, so they slipped him in as a prisoner with no explanation, which included demoting him from lieutenant to sergeant, so he'd be more of a likeable everyman.

If we'd gotten more Mr. Big, we might not have gotten as much Dr. Loveless.

 

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55.5th-ish Anniversary Viewing

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The Ed Sullivan Show
Season 18, episode 2
Originally aired September 19, 1965
As represented in The Best of the Ed Sullivan Show

IN COLOR! And live from Television City in Hollywood; Ed's wearing a tux for the occasion.

Princess Leia's other dad sings a medley consisting of "My Favorite Things" and "A Wonderful Day Like Today".

Polly does a torchy rendition "What the World Needs Now Is Love"...a good portion of it in an awkwardly close head shot. If they hadn't eventually gone back to a longer shot, I might have thought she was doing something that the censors found objectionable.

Opening with a logo reading "Tokyo Olympiad," artily edited color footage is shown of various athletes, including track runners, a weightlifter, fencers (shot so close you could barely tell), male and female gymnasts, swimmers, and cyclists...including some injuries. Ed says that the film will be premiering the next day at the New York World's Fair. This appears to be the full movie:

According to the Metacritic listing, Eddie's performance of "Sunrise, Sunset," from that hot current Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof, was originally part of the same medley as the previous songs. His rendition is lacking in the pathos that I'm accustomed to from the Broadway and film versions...not to mention the awkwardness of him doing a song that includes parts for multiple characters. "Is there a canopy is store for me?" Um...not in the way that line was intended, no.

From the same broadcast, but not included in Best of:


(Trek connection: their drummer is the boss's kid!)


Also in the episode:

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Branded
"Now Join the Human Race"
Originally aired September 19, 1965

A cavalry unit is scouring the wilderness for Red Hand (Burt Reynolds), who's hiding with his wife (Anne Morell) and infant child. Jason walks into the saloon that's serving as the field headquarters of Major Lynch (Noah Beery) and tries to talk some sense into him about the war he's likely to cause; the major isn't inclined to listen to Jason once he identifies himself, but takes an interest in Jason's offer to talk to Red Hand when he learns that Jason knows him. Jason finds Red Hand and talks him into going with the major so that he can tell the governor about the deplorable conditions at the reservation that he escaped from; but the major goes back on their deal and takes Red Hand into custody.

At his hotel, Jason runs into another old acquaintance, Judge Markham (Jon Lormer). They talk about the situation, and while Jason wants to see that Red Hand receives due process, the problem is that he isn't considered a person under US law! The judge comes up with the strategy of proving that he's a human being in court, taking it all the way up to the Supreme Court if necessary. To this end, Jason approaches the major and requests a writ of habeas corpus, maneuvering him into taking the matter to Markham's court.

Red Hand complicates matters, however, by escaping from his cell and attacking a couple of guarding officers. The major and his men find Red Hand, whom the major shoots as he's walking away. At that moment, Jason arrives with Red Hand's wife and child, having brought them with the intention of convincing him to surrender again; but instead he dies in front of them. Lynch argues that it wasn't murder because Red Hand was an animal. But Jason and Markham declare their intention to have Red Hand's wife request a writ so that the legal challenge can proceed as intended.

As I'd vaguely recalled, there was a Season 1 episode in which Jason befriended some Apaches, including one named Red Arm, played by a different actor. I have to wonder if this was meant to be the same character.

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12 O'Clock High
"R/X for a Sick Bird"
Originally aired September 20, 1965

This one I didn't do such a thorough review of previously...

Brig. General Dave Creighton from G-2 (J.D. Cannon) brings Ilka Zradna (Gia Scala) to Gallagher's office. She's referred to as their "prime target," as she's a resistance leader who needs to be dropped behind the lines. Gallagher, however, isn't flying the mission himself, though Komansky will be serving as flight engineer...a combination that usually spells trouble for the pilot. Captain Langgaard (John Crowther), we'll hardly know ye. We learn that the 918th has been suffering maintenance issues, and see that they're actually the result of nighttime sabotage.

After the mission commences, Gallagher chews out his discount maintenance chief of the week, Master Sgt. Tony Podesta (Tige Andrews), believing that his ability to keep the planes in the air is less than mod. What I missed the first time around is that Captain Zoller (Hans Gudegast) is introduced as a Polish liaison officer, which explains the obvious accent. He's a German spy conspiring with the saboteur, Sergeant Hansen (Don Quine), with whom he discusses whether Gallagher himself needs to be offed or just made to look ineffectual. Meanwhile, the bird used on the mission experiences engine failure and its crew has to bail. Only three crewmen--including Komansky--and Ilka make it back to Archbury.

Tensions are running high in the NCO's club between the bomber crews and maintenance personnel when Komansky returns and ends up in a fight with Podesta, which Gallagher breaks up. Ilka tells Gallagher how Langgaard sacrificed himself to keep the plane high enough for the others to bail. Gallagher tries to arrange a date with Ilya, to find that she's been very busily booked with other officers. Komansky is busted down to private, but Gallagher offers to restore his rank if he patches things up with Podesta. Sandy goes looking for him late at night and gets stunned by an unseen figure in a shed, where he finds that ammo was being tampered with, and items have been left behind that belong to Podesta. Gallagher immediately reports this to Creighton, who brings in Major Adams from counterintelligence (Paul Comi) to share that they've already been working on intel that twenty German agents have taken the identities of US personnel in England, and are trying to root them out; as well as that Podesta is actually one of Adams's men. They persuade a reluctant Gallagher to stick with the mission and not share this info with his men. Meanwhile, Sandy's continuing to look for Podesta late at night, and finds him dead.

The death has been made to look like a suicide, and Creighton and Adams maintain that illusion; but against their wishes, Gallagher brings Stovall and Komansky into his office to share the truth out in the open. Attempting to fish out exactly how important Zradna is and why, Zoller goes into Gallagher's office while she's there and shares his speculation on the matter, pretending to be concerned for her. Gallagher remains tight-lipped, but realizes that Zoller knew something about Adams, who's on the base undercover, that he shouldn't have. Creighton pretends to bring Zoller in on things to entrap him...using the mission with Zradna as bait. Unable to keep his mouth shut, Gallagher brings Ilka in on what's really going on the night before the mission. She's willing to take the risk, and expressing her philosophy of living for today because you don't know what tomorrow will bring, she acts on the mutual attraction between her and Gallagher.

On the day of the mission, Adams busts Hansen, and some MPs go to Zoller's place and blow him away in an exchange of fire while he's trying to escape. But the thermos of coffee is still brought to the plane via a third man, Sgt. Pierson (Tom Stern). This triggers alarm bells with Gallagher because of his association with Hansen and whereabouts on the nights of the sabotaged missions, so Gallagher has him taken into custody and shoots the thermos outside with a rifle, causing the explosive to detonate.

In the Epilog, the mission to drop Ilka in Warsaw commences, and succeeds, with Gallagher seeing her out the hatch.

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Gilligan's Island
"Beauty Is as Beauty Does"
Originally aired September 23, 1965

The castaways are enjoying dinner when Ginger is upset about a radio report concerning a rival having won a beauty contest. This motivates Skipper to propose a toast to Ginger as the most beautiful castaway. Mrs. Howell then fishes for some attention, and Thurston proposes a toast to her. Finally, the Professor voluntarily proposes a toast to his bottom-credits buddy; so Gilligan proposes the contest...which he comes to regret, as the others expect him to be the judge.

Each of the toast-proposers attempts to prepare his nominee for the contest, with mishaps ensuing. Gilligan takes a walk in the jungle, during which we meet Gladys, with whom Gilligan is already acquainted. Then the three parties compete in employing various tactics to woo and persuade him in judging the contest. The night of the pageant arrives, and some underhanded attempts to sabotage rival contestants ensue during the makeshift versions of familiar segments. But when it's time to choose a winner, Gilligan pulls out his Gordian knot solution, arguing that Gladys is the only contestant who's native to the island. Nevertheless, in the coda the other male castaways try to get Gilligan to tell them who really won.

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The Wild Wild West
"The Night of the Deadly Bed"
Originally aired September 24, 1965

Jim attempts to rendezvous with a Captain Jackson outside a cantina, but is attacked by a guitar player with a garotte fashioned from one of his strings, who's accidentally stabbed in the melee by a second attacker. Jim proceeds to meet with Jackson, but there's an explosion as Jim's entering the warehouse. Jackson's last word is "Flory".

Jim meets up with the train, where Artie's been preparing dynamite disguised as coal with a temporary heat-resistant coating at Jackson's request. Jim goes back to the cantina to find no girl behind the bar this time and and a different guitar player; but there's also a flirty dancer, Gatita (Barbara Luna), who knew Jackson and says that he was looking for treasures of art. She invites Jim up to her room to tell him more, but slips him a drugged drink, leaves him on the canopy bed, and, before she leaves, pulls a rope that activates exactly the sort of trap that you'd expect a deadly canopy bed to be equipped with--a spiked panel that lowers at a suspenseful pace.

Jim wakes up in time to escape. Outside he sees peasants carrying coal, and follows them to a mission. After meeting up with the train again, he goes back to the mission to snoop around. There he sees a girl, Roxanne (Danica d'Hondt), being chased by dogs inside the walls and begging Monsieur Flory (J. D. Cannon) for mercy. He then sneaks into an underground cavern where the peasants were taking the coal, and sees them shoveling it into fires. But he ends up trapped in a small room and knocked unconscious. He wakes up in another canopy bed, this time with Gatita begging him for help. Before she can explain, they're taken downstairs, where Flory is dining while Roxanne is starving. Gatita tries to help Roxanne and takes her away, following which Flory tells Jim that by tomorrow he'll be dead. Flory's plan is to reestablish Napoleonic control in the Western Hemisphere via Mexico; and to prevent the Army from stopping him, he intends to cripple the US railroad system. He demonstrates a scale model version of his means of doing this, his Engine of Destruction, an armored railroad vehicle designed to derail trains via battering. He then shows Jim the battering ram of the real McCoy.

Flory takes Jim outside and has him tied to gong, with a trap set to crush him against it via the ram-thingie that rings the gong. Jim escapes in the nick of time by using a mirrored ring to burn the ropes on his opposite hand via sunlight, while Artie, who's shown up in disguise with his customized coal, provide a distraction. Flory shoots Artie's sleeping gas-filled flask, and he and Jim end up as prisoners underground, with Gatita being held in a cage. While Flory offers Jim and Artie a ride on the front of the battering ram, Artie brings Jim's attention to the sack of coal that he planted. While Artie provides another distraction, freeing Gatita and inciting the peasants with her help, Jim gets out of his irons using a cutting tool in the ring. Flory goes back in to confront Jim while he's shoveling the coal in the furnace, but Jim manages to take him down and batter his way out of the chamber in time, before the whole place blows sky high.

In the coda, Jim spends some quality time with Gatita on the train.

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Hogan's Heroes
"Hold That Tiger"
Originally aired September 24, 1965

IN COLOR! And now with regular series opening credits that include Larry Hovis.

The prisoners learn of the tanks when Klink's attempting to lower their morale with news of how well Germany's doing in the war. Newkirk poses as a Gestapo officer first to get out of the camp (when nobody remembers letting him in), and then to drive the tank in under cover of there having been a report of prisoners rioting. The Tiger is quickly hidden in the rec hall, which the prisoners have prepared with a hidden garage-size entrance. LeBeau was supposed to exchange clothes with their underground contact, Tiger, to get them in the camp, but he brings the contact in via the tunnel (now with the barracks bunk entrance) because the contact turned out to be Arlene Martel (in her first of five appearances in the role, and seven appearances in the series altogether). Hogan is upset with this operation-endangering development, but the rest of the guys are more enthusiastic.

Klink gets a visit from the tank division commander, General Hofstader (that's not confusing; Henry Rico Cattani), but is at a loss to explain where the tank went during the faux escape covering the prisoner switch. While the general's there, Newkirk sets the tank to roll out of the rec hall toward the gate, which serves a diversion for Tiger to get out with blueprints. Sparks have ignited between her and Hogan along the way, so she departs with a kiss.

As in the pilot, Schultz is portrayed as a sort of unwitting co-conspirator rather than somebody the prisoners have to fool. This includes seeing Newkirk in his Gestapo uniform and knowing about Tiger's presence among the prisoners.

Dis-MISSED!

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Get Smart
"Diplomat's Daughter"
Originally aired September 25, 1965

Max is within sight of one of the kidnappings, obliviously getting his shoes shined, when he takes a call on one of them.

The Chief: This is the Chief! Who else would be calling you on your shoe?​

When the Chief informs Max that he's being given a kidnapping case...

Max: Oh, good--who do you want me to kidnap?​

The Chief hands Max some contact information, which Max burns before reading it. The Chief tells Max of how a series of blondes abducted from the area (because, as it turns out, all Americans look alike to the abductors). Max is assigned to protect the kidnappers' likely intended target, a princess (Inger Stratton), because he saved her father's life years previously. 99 acts jealous of the flirty attention that the princess pays to Max.

At a tour of the Smithsonian, Max accidentally wings his tail with a cigarette lighter gun. They tail him to the kidnappers' hideout, where Max meets the Claw. This episode has aged particularly poorly just in the past year, with all of its Asian-themed gags...chief among them, the villain pronouncing his name "The Craw". Max and 99 escape into a discotheque that serves as the lair's front, the Shaghai-a-Go-Go...

Max: The poor devils, what have they done to them?
99: They're dancing, Max, that's the style now!​

Max defeats the Claw by tossing a tray of silverware at his magnetic hand, which is weighed down by the heavy ball that forms around it.

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I was looking for an opportunity to get a Truman clip in! Alas, we didn't get a month-level explanation of the sacking of MacArthur...there was some set-up of it in the 1950s entries, which I didn't include, waiting for the main event. I read that he was under orders to clear all of his public statements.

Les did invent the electric guitar.

And one I watched last year, I think it was.

It definitely doesn't sound as rock & roll as "Rocket 88," which is basically Chuck Berry without the guitar.

Eh.

Ten in four seasons! And Max will have Siegfried to keep him busy.

(Ah, now an explanation for Jerry Bauman's marital continuity discrepancies that involves him secretly being Siegfried...that would be the ticket!)