Three Coins in the Fountain 1965/1970

Just watched the failed pilot of THREE COINS IN THE FOUNTAIN on the Internet Archive. Originally planned in 1964 and shot on location in Rome in late 1965, it was for a time considered a shoe-in for the 1966-67 TV season but was eventually dropped. The pilot finally aired five years later in early August of 1970.

The series was to star Joanna Moore, Cynthia Pepper and Yvonne Craig. Ms. Moore was then married to Ryan O'Neal and was, in fact, the mother of Tatum and Griffin O'Neal. Apparently their marriage was already on the rocks as he was already seen around town with other women while she was in Italy. They divorced soon after she returned to the US and her life sadly went downhill from there.

Cynthia Pepper was coming off a pleasant little series called MARGIE and was doing several pilots around that time. She gets the most screen time in the pilot. She's still around today at age 85.

Yvonne Craig, of course, would soon be kicking special guest villain butt as the balletic Batgirl. She had been acting since the late 1950s and was a familiar face on TV and in teen-oriented films around that time. In her memoirs, she writes at length about THREE COINS IN THE FOUNTAIN and what an enjoyable shoot it was. Afterwards, she and Cynthia went on a "Europe on 5 Dollars a Day" tour.

Based solely on the pilot, any series would have been similar to the earlier HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE with Barbara Eden, also based on a movie. The male guest star in COINS was Nino Castelnuevo, star of one of my favorite films--THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG. Also in the cast was child star Antony Alda, half-brother of Alan Alda. In her book, Yvonne misremembers him as "Robert" which was his father's name. She wrote that he grew up to be a rock performer.

Although shot in color and aired that way in 1970, only a black & white print is available. Produced, co-written (with Mel Shavelson), and directed by veteran Hal Kanter, the scenes of room are, of course, lovely, and presumably why the series ultimately did not get picked up as shooting had to be expensive there. The unrelated later sitcom TO ROME, WITH LOVE, was shot entirely in Hollywood with stock footage of Rome.

Beast Boy and Alfred E. Neuman-1967

 

Kentucky's Comic Book Scare

I just discovered this well-done Lexington Herald-Leader piece from last year on the 1950s comic book scare and how it affected Kentucky. You'll have to embiggen the pages to read them.

 

New Additions to Booksteve's Library

 

Today was the start of the quarterly used book sale in the next county. I always try to make that one as I've always gotten the best books there. Of course I have 13 books to read for review already, and 3 new books I just got in the mail. But hey, I'm BOOKsteve, right? 

So here's today's six buck haul:

Oh, and here are the three I got in the mail.

To find out about the review copies, follow my column at FORCES OF GEEK!

The Great Masquerade-1974

Last night I discovered this 1974 movie on the Internet Archive and it is another contender for worst movie ever made. 

One funny scene, though, comes when Johnny Weissmuller, the movies' greatest Tarzan (in his penultimate picture), who plays a beauty contest judge, is confronted by a guy in a gorilla suit who says, "Remember me?" Johnny smiles and says, "Cheetah!" I laughed. Even that was problematic though, as Johnny is playing a character (a cameo, really), with a character name, and not himself. 

 

Ten Obscure '70s TV Shows Quiz

Drives me nuts to see those clickbait posts "Bet you can't identify these 1970s TV series!" and it'll have a thumbnail of Charlie's Angels or Three's Company. Aaargh!

Okay, you wanna prove you know your obscure TV? Bet you can't identify THESE 1970s TV series!

Answers in a later post.

Bat-Proof!

Those of you who have been around a while might remember this post from 2013. 

https://booksteveslibrary.blogspot.com/2013/05/published-in-batman-1989and-i-never.html

Here's the letter in question.

 

Today, in 2026, I ran across a sketchbook from 1989 and it has a draft of that actual letter! I'm thinking what happened was I didn't even remember it because I never bought or even saw that issue! 

Turns out it was in response to THIS letter, from a few issues earlier. 

DC requested responses so I responded, and then promptly forgot all about it. BUT...now, 37 years after I wrote it and 13 past when I discovered it, we have PROOF that it was, indeed written by me! My fourth and final published letter to a comic book.