The Princess and Me--1968

Found some nice photos from THE PRINCESS AND ME, an unsold Screen Gems TV pilot that ALLLLLmost made ABC's slate for fall of 1968. Based on, or at least inspired by, the hit Audrey Hepburn movie ROMAN HOLIDAY, this small screen version starred 19 year old Barbara Hershey (just after the cancellation of THE MONROES and a few years before she changed her name to Seagull). Shot in late 1967, her co-stars included Anna Lee, an actress with very few online credits, British actor Ivor Barry, and hunky Jeremy Slate--perhaps best known for his roles in violent motorcycle gang flicks (including THE BORN LOSERS, the first Billy Jack movie). During the shooting of the pilot, Slate was bitten on his face by a black widow spider while asleep at his home and didn't realize it until the next day when his cheek swelled up on the set!

THE PRINCESS AND ME was written by Bernard Slade, who would soon create THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY, and directed by E.W. Swackhammer, a veteran TV director later married to actress Bridget Hanley, whose HERE COME THE BRIDES series DID make the ABC Fall schedule that year!

Connie Francis as the Siren?

 

Seen above is singer/actress Connie Francis, who died this past July at the age of 87. For years, I've seen gossip column reports that she and Batman creator Bob Kane dated back in the '60s. Today I ran across this piece, which outlines Kane's plans to create a Bat-villain for his new friend to play--THE SONGBIRD. 

Kane acts like he actually had something to do with the hit series, which he did not. In fact,on the sole occasion he convinced producers William Dozier and Howie Horowitz to allow him to write an episode, he farmed it out to Bill Finger (getting Finger, now known to be the character's co-creator, his only credit for writing the character in his lifetime).

It's the description of Kane's Songbird that struck me as particularly interesting as it's a description of Lorelei Circe--THE SIREN!

Created by writer Charles Hoffman in a third season Riddler episode, sexy Joan Collins played the Siren as a solo villainess in the following episode, written by Stanley Ralph Ross. 

Coincidence? Or did Bob Kane get a new character in there after all?

Life of Pat Buttram (So Far) by Pat Buttram 1941

By all accounts one of the funniest men in show business, here's the future Mr. Haney from a 1941 issue of RADIO VARIETIES.