Movies 'Til Dawn Blog

MELINDA MARX, DAUGHTER OF GROUCHO

Groucho Marx had three children, a boy and girl from his first marriage (the boy, author Arthur Marx, wrote two books and two plays about Groucho) and one girl, Melinda, from his second marriage to Kay Gorcey, ex-wife of ‘Bowery Boy’ Leo Gorcey. (Now there’s an odd case of indirect

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R.I.P. ARTHUR DUNCAN, TAP-DANCE MAESTRO

When I was a young’un I took great pleasure in watching ‘The Lawrence Welk Show’ on Sunday evenings. My parents and their contemporaries found this strange since Welk was way to square for them. (I can’t imagine what people my age thought of my devotion to the show). There were

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THE RICARDO’S IN WESTPORT, CT.

After his star turn in MGM’s ‘Don Juan’ (1956), Ricky and Lucy Ricardo left Hollywood and returned back east. Ricky now was able to open his own club (the ‘Club Babalu’) and, being good mid-century citizens, they decided to flee the city and move to suburban Westport, Connecticut. A wonderful

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GINGER ALE IS FOR KICKS (AND TRIX ARE FOR KIDS)

Here are two mid-1960s Ginger Ale commercial spots, both of which use the same hipster narrator and Heffner-esque ‘Penthouse After Dark’ tone. The campaign line here is ‘one gulp is for thirst, the other gulps are for kicks’. We are deep in groovy mid-century party-land, with sexy chicks wearing striped

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PETULIA CLARK, HARRY BELEFONTE, STEVE BINDER AND ‘THE TOUCH’

The director behind the great dance show ‘Hullabaloo’ (see yesterday’s post) was Steve Binder. After the shows untimely (and unfathomable) cancellation, Binder went on to direct many high profile TV music specials, including Elvis Presley’s famous ‘comeback’ show. In 1968, NBC gave Petulia Clark her own special–she’d been a guest

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HONEY WEST (Part Deux)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL6129bC4Ek In yesterday’s post about the forgotten but groundbreaking female detective show ‘Honey West’ I posited that perhaps the reason for the shows short one-season run was that audiences weren’t yet comfortable with a powerful female in a leading role doing work that typically is the province of men. Then

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HONEY WEST

Above is the title sequence from ‘Honey West’, a groud-breaking American crime drama that aired on ABC for only one season–September 17, 1965 to April 8, 1966. It was executive produced by Aaron Spelling and starred Anne Francis as TVs first female private detective. (Spelling’s first choice for the role

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THE CANCELLED SHOWS OF THE MID-60s

To close out this weeks series of 1960s TV series promos (and revisitations of forgotten items) here’s a nine minute reel of forgotten and cancelled shows from the years 1963-67 roughly. Did you know there was a ‘Blondie’ TV series that flopped? I didn’t. ‘O.K. Crackerby’ is a famous flop

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THE 42 SHOWS OF CBS (in the 1962 season)

This terrific compilation video shows the teaser/intros to an astounding forty-two shows that comprised CBS’s 1962 season line-up. How was it possible that there were so many shows in one season? For one thing prime-time was defined more broadly then than it would be now–7PM to 11:30 PM. Also, most

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THE ART OF THE TV LOGO

Here’s a three minute video containing about twenty or so TV production company logos from the 1960s and ’70s (with a little bit of 50’s and 80s spillover). The intended effect of logo watching tends toward the nostalgic–they really do bring your television watching of the past back to you.

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