Aurora Models 1966-67

I never had the patience to piece together model cars or model planes but I did try some of the Aurora "pop" model kits. Turns out I didn't have the patience for them, either. Here, though, are three cool Aurora ads I haven't seen anywhere else recently. I wanted all three of these but never got them. The LOST IN SPACE ad dates from 1966 with THE GREEN HORNET and the Astronaut ad from 1967.

More Marlo

I couldn't find the signed photo that Marlo Thomas sent me some twenty-five years ago when I wrote my piece on THAT GIRL yesterday. This afternoon, though, as I was cleaning up for company coming by (always the best way to get cleaning done--invite company) I simply ran across it without looking for it. I lifted up a stack of papers and suddenly I saw...you guessed it...THAT GIRL! Actually, this is clearly Ms. Thomas herself, not Ann Marie. You can tell by the expression. In case you're wondering about the inscription, as I said in the earlierpiece we exchanged several letters. In one, I politely requested an autographed photo and she wrote me a nice letter about the photo...but neglected to send a photo. I rather sheepishly wrote again and mentioned that little fact and this was what turned up in my mailbox soon afterwards. Thanks, Marlo.

Persis Khambatta

I keep meaning to write more about it but I am and always have been a big STAR TREK fan. I attended my first STAR TREK convention in the mid-seventies, Don Rosa’s Omnicon in Louisville, Kentucky, where I got to stand next to DeForrest Kelly as he was interviewed by the local TV news. All through that period, I eagerly followed reports of a new TREK series. Finally, it seemed as though everything had fallen into place. Paramount would start a "fourth network" using the new STAR TREK as its flagship program. The new series would reunite many of the original cast along with a new Vulcan character and a bald, female Deltan crewmember. Shatner and Nimoy, both working steadily, would not return. The special effects would be accomplished using a new process called Magicam which, if I recall correctly, involved making everything on a miniature scale and then making it look full-size onscreen. Scripts were commissioned , Gene Roddenberry gave optimistic interviews and everyone was excited. This was around 1976. Delays due to the effects testing became regular news in the fanzines, though, and it began to look as though it was never going to happen. Then Paramount decided to do it as a feature film—no, never mind, a series…hmm…well, maybe a feature film. They waffled like politicians for what seemed like light years before finally making it official. STAR TREK would return as a major, STAR WARS-type motion picture directed by Robert Wise, the man who gave you THE SOUND OF MUSIC (Okay, fine but he also gave you THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL!). Because of the increased budget, William Shatner would be returning as Kirk and eventually even Leonard Nimoy agreed to re-don the pointed ears that he’d been trying to put behind him for a decade. The additional characters created for the aborted TV series would be squeezed into the new Roddenberry script. Thus we come finally to the real subject of today’s piece—Persis Khambatta.
It’s been said that TREK guru Gene Roddenberry found bald women sexy. It’s also been said that he just found women sexy in general. Persis Khambatta was Miss India of 1965 and a familiar fashion model but had only a few small film credits to her name when she was cast as the Deltan Lt. Ilia. She had not really been all that familiar with STAR TREK at the time. The part called for her to shave her head. She was expected to be the breakout star from the film but while the picture made a mint off of fanboys like me it was considered dull and ponderous. The fact that her character was taken over by a space probe with delusions of grandeur and eventually kind of became one with the universe didn’t help. The folks that made her an action figure hadn’t been told about that part.
I saw Persis Khmabatta on THE MERV GRIFFIN SHOW, either in late December of 1978 or early January of 1979. Figuring that she probably wasn’t getting that much fan mail yet, I wrote her in care of Merv’s show and, in early February, received the postcard response seen here. On the one side was a line drawing of Persis as Ilia, on the other a brief, signed note in her fractured English indicating that she had just finally finished her role on ST-TMP the previous Friday. Sounding as though she didn’t really know what else to say, she then pointed out more talk shows she was scheduled for along with the fact that she really liked being on talk shows.
Her unusual and certainly beautiful clean shaven look in the film apparently turned off a number of folks but it got her a lot of press. For awhile it looked as though she might actually be successful in Hollywood…but then she grew her hair back and looked just like any number of other foreign actresses trying for parts in the US. She was cast as a terrorist in NIGHTHAWKS, to this day Sylvester Stallone’s best film, but her career stalled soon afterward. It didn’t help that she was in a nasty motorcycle accident in the early eighties, followed not long afterwards by needed heart by-pass surgery. She acted occasionally, mostly on television, but was never again given a major role in a feature film. Her last acting role was on an episode of LOIS AND CLARK in 1993. She returned to India and published a book for charity but soon fell on hard times herself. In 1998 (in spite of some initial reports that it was a suicide) Persis Khambatta died of a massive heart attack. The image remains, though, and her unique role in the rich tapestry of STAR TREK history ensures that she will be remembered.

That Girl

Continuing in a television vein, one of my all-time absolute favorite (if pressed I might call it my very favorite) sitcoms is finally coming to DVD. THAT GIRL ran from the mid-sixties into the early seventies and presented the comic misadventures of one Ann Marie in her struggle to make it on her own as an actress in New York City. It has been rightly hailed as a feminist forerunner and certainly went a long way toward implanting the equality of women in my young male mind but beyond all of that, it was a damn funny show about some very likable people. Marlo Thomas stepped out from her father Danny’s rather extensive shadow as Ann and former bit part actor Ted Bessell developed a unique style as her writer boyfriend, Donald. More than most shows, Donald and Ann were both portrayed as equals with him getting into as much trouble as she…sometimes more. Ann’s parents recurred throughout the run with vaudeville veteran Lew Parker as her father (played New York Jewish for some reason. In the original pilot even moreso by Harold Gould!) and Rosemary DeCamp as her understanding mother. At various times there were neighbors, friends and agents played by, among others, LOVE BOAT’s Bernie Kopell, Ruth Buzzi, Reva Rose and a beardless George Carlin! Ann’s career tended to take the fore in plots that dealt with auditions, plays, commercials and model shoots. The standard joke was that she lived in a pretty nice apartment for a struggling actress (who took odd jobs between acting gigs) and never seemed to wear an outfit more than once. Donald (Ann always called him that, not "Don" or "Donny" or even "Bobo") was a successful magazine writer who wanted to be a novelist. He was quite square by sixties standards and straight-laced perhaps beyond all reality but it fit in with this show. In the show’s final season, the pair got a little hipper with new hairstyles and more "with it" clothing. They actually got engaged and even the theme song got words! The series ended with them still unwed as Marlo has said (and rightfully so based on the track record of other series) that their marriage would be the kiss of death for the relationship and the series. While Ted Bessell was alive, there was talk of a possible reunion. Marlo had gone on to a marvelous career as an author and a humanitarian and Ted had become a successful director. In fact, at one time, he was set to direct the big-screen version of BEWITCHED (as released, the film is dedicated to him). I exchanged several letters with Marlo Thomas in the early eighties by writing her in care of Phil Donahue (figuring—apparently correctly—that husband Phil could just hand her the letter and she was more likely to see it) and continue to admire and appreciate her. There was a great book about the show (see above) andI bought the 3 tape VHS set a few years back. Hopefully I’ll soon be able to afford the new DVD box set. I can’t wait to renew my acquaintance with Ann Marie, television’s first liberated woman…you know…THAT GIRL!

The Television Years

THE TELEVISION YEARS, published by Popular Library (and James E. Galton, later the head of Marvel for many years) in 1974, is a book masquerading as a one-shot magazine. At the time it came out, however, it was just about the only book, magazine or anything else on television history. At age 15 I purchased this at Woolworth’s and sat down for the first time to learn the rich and varied history of Newton Minnow’s so-called "vast wasteland." From Paul Winchell and Mary Hartline to Molly Goldberg and Chester Riley to Archie Bunker and Richard Nixon, it’s all here in brief snippets that either trigger memories or make you want to learn more.
Laid out year by year, each section is labeled (as in 1961’s "Year of the Surly Surgeon" and 1971's "Year of the Bigot")) with little one-liner bits of nostalgia and a few pages of pertinent pictures. The cowboys, the kids’ shows, the detectives, the doctors, the game shows, the monsters, the spies, the heroes-all the trends are here. Within the pages of this book, though, I also met for the first time Edward R. Murrow, Dave Garroway and Ernie Kovacs. I first heard here of the quiz show scandals, the McCarthy hearings and the Amos and Andy controversy.
Considering its price of 98 cents, THE TELEVISION YEARS may well have been the best bargain any budding pop culture buff could have bought in 1974. With television evolving and becoming ever more important in real world issues during that period and since, I remember speculating on just where it would end up by the turn of the century. If you had told me we would have more than a hundred channels and still not be able to find anything worth watching most of the time I simply would not have believed you. Let’s get a couple channels that just rerun 1947-1974. Now THAT was good television! MY MOTHER, THE CAR and THE PRUITTS OF SOUTHAMPTON may have seemed stupid at the time but then we’d never seen JACKASS or FEAR FACTOR. Sigh.

Movies That Fell Through the Cracks # 11

This wasn't originally intended to be a movie that fell through the cracks but a check of the 'Net found it described as "obscure," "little-seen," "unknown" and "ready to be rediscovered." Thus, it seems, 1982's HOUSE OF THE LONG SHADOWS has more or less fallen through the cracks. The actual reason I was planning to write about it is that it ties in to this morning's post in that it stars Lucie's brother, Desi Arnaz, Jr. Desi's performance got very mixed reviews but I found him entertaining. The film is the umpteenth reworking of Earl Derr Biggers' SEVEN KEYS TO BALDPATE in which an author makes a bet with his publisher that he can write a book in 24 hours. The publisher gives him the one and only key to his closed up mountain home. The author arrives and finds his attempts at working constantly interrupted by folks with keys and stories that get more and more complicated...and potentially deadly. In my opinion, Desi carries the lighthearted plot just fine, abetted by the true scene-stealing stars of the film-Vincent Price, John Carradine, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee all appearing for the first and only time in the same movie. Someone on IMDB says the early VHS release was reedited to emphasize the horror aspects at the expense of the comedy. If that's the case, then the theatrical release I saw must have been edited for just the opposite reason as, horror film buff that I was, I found it hilarious. Price and Lee looked great while Carradine and particularly Cushing seemed sadly aged but still enthusiastic. In a way this was a last gasp for the great horror stars whose mantle had been passed to faceless killers like Michael Myers and Jason and they all looked as if they were enjoying every scenery chewing moment of it. I'll bet Desi, having grown up in Hollywood, was having a great time being there with them as well.

Lucie Arnaz

In an attempt at lightening the weekend mood after suddenly finding myself unemployed, I spent much of the weekend revisiting yet another old crush by watching the HERE’S LUCY DVD set seen here. Lucie Arnaz was tall, loud and had gorgeous black hair on this sitcom which started when I was 9 and ran into puberty. Basically a fourth variation on Lucille Ball’s I LOVE LUCY, this version featured both of the famous redhead’s children, Lucie Arnaz and TV GUIDE’s famous first cover boy, Desi Arnaz, Jr. as well as the ubiquitous Gale Gordon (one of the greatest of all radio stars) this time as "Uncle Harry." Watching some of these episodes "Little Lucie," as she was called in spite of her height, obviously had a lot to learn but this was certainly a good place in which to learn it. HERE’S LUCY frequently featured guest stars and this DVD highlights this well, presenting episodes with Ann-Margret, Johnny Carson, Ginger Rogers and the famous Richard Burton/Elizabeth Taylor episode. Jack Benny appears in two episodes as well as a long clip from his own TV special, JACK BENNY’S CARNIVAL NIGHTS guest-starring Lucy. Perhaps the best part of this superbly compiled DVD set is that many episodes feature illuminating, nostalgic commentaries by Lucie (who has long-since become the keeper of her mother’s flame) and Desi. Wayne Newton and Carol Burnett even contribute commentaries to episodes in which they appeared. HERE’s LUCY offered old-fashioned, family-friendly sketch comedy that lasted well into the ALL IN THE FAMILY years. Desi left the show before it ended. Lucie stayed but then spread her wings on stage and in TV movies such as one in which she portrayed the ill-fated Black Dahlia.
Our paths crossed in 1977 when I was 18 years old. Lucie, by then an established stage star, was appearing in summer stock in Dayton, Ohio in SEESAW, a musical version of the Shirley MacLaine/Robert Mitchum film, TWO FOR THE SEESAW. I had previously had some success with writing to celebrities appearing on tour at the theater so I tried it again. Honestly, I don’t recall one word of what I said to Lucie in my letter but apparently it was enough to make her blush (and yet not enough for her to get a restraining order). I talked my parents into going with me to a matinee and I loved it! It was only the second professional stage play I had ever seen! To this day I sometimes get the big show-stopping number, IT’S NOT WHERE YOU START, IT’S WHERE YOU FINISH stuck in my head (and this week, that might actually be encouraging!). A few weeks after we saw her, I received a big gray envelope in the mail from Lucille Ball Productions containing the picture seen here and the brief note on Lucie’s cardboard stationary.
Lucie’s attempts at big screen stardom were stalled that same year when BILLY JACK GOES TO WASHINGTON was barely released (after premiering in Cincinnati. Seems to have been a lot of that going around.). When Neil Diamond’s JAZZ SINGER remake sunk, Lucie’s career took a dive along with it. Over the years, she became the family archivist, producing and/or overseeing numerous projects dedicated to preserving the memory of her famous parents. Lucie has also continued working with choice roles in a number of TV series and even a brief run with her own sitcom in the eighties (I may have been the only one watching). At this writing, IMDB lists two potentially major releases featuring Lucie Arnaz in various stages of completion. Given the chance, I’ll definitely see them. Perhaps more than just about any other celebrity, seeing Lucie Arnaz is like spending time with an old and dear friend. If you'd like to spend a little time with her she has a marvelous website , Lucie Arnaz -- The Official Lucie Arnaz Website. With any luck, as she says in her note, we will meet still. I’d like that. I love Lucie.