Random Events from very big and heavy book I bought in Australia last January and had it shipped back home – I have picked out some of the film related articles from the fifties

ABOVE – The Grand Opening of his Never Never Land childrens and adults park on July 17, 1955 in Anaheim 22 miles outside of Los Angeles which cost a whopping 17 million dollars.

 After years of planning, Walt Disney’s very first theme park Disneyland opened its gates at 2:30 pm on Sunday July 17, 1955 in Anaheim, California. Television crews, Art Linkletter, Ronald Reagan, Bob Cummings, the Mouseketeers, Thurl Ravenscroft, California Governor Goodwin J. Knight and over 28,000 guests witnessed the opening of Walt’s dream.

Broadcast on ABC at 4:30PM, it was the biggest live telecast to date. 

Actor Ronald Reagan (who would later become president of the United States) introduced 53-year-old Walt Disney – “And now, Walt Disney will  step forward to read the dedication of Disneyland.” Walt then opened his 160-acre park : 

ABOVE – January 23 rd 1956 – The death of Alexander Korda – film giant that built Denham Film Studios.

ABOVE Arthur Miller – in a non too flattering pose – with his wife Marilyn Monroe who looks lovely as always. I think this was taken when they came to England for Marilyn to make ‘The Prince and the Showgirl’ with the pompous Laurence Olivier who had nowhere near the screen presence of Marilyn much to his annoyance. I have a feeling that had another actor taken the male lead, that this would have been a much more successful film.

He was the Director on this film

On July 19, 1956 Marilyn joined Olivier and the rest of the cast at Pinewood Studios for a read-through of the script. It did not go well.

Introducing her to the others, Olivier explained it would take her a while to get used to the way they all worked because her acting technique was so vastly different.

Shocked by what she considered his snobbish attitude, Marilyn was immediately on edge. This didn’t bode well.

However as always, she turned out very well in the finished film – he didn’t fare so well in my opinion.

New Releases 1952 – I have been flicking through a Picturegoer Magazine of August 1952 and picked out these pages featuring the films on release or imminent release.

The Sound Barrier is a film that is quite well known and has been on Television many times over the years. It stars Ann Todd, Nigel Patrick and Ralph Richardson

Doris Day just reaching the top of her career- and what a career it was is here to be seen in ‘Ill See You in My Dreams‘

At the time of the release of ‘Something Money can’t Buy’ Patricia Roc and Anthony Steel had been in a very close romantic relationship – in fact Patricia gave birth to a son by Anthony Steel during 1952.

The son called Michael Roc Thomas –   was child born of the union between the famous British film stars Patricia Roc and Anthony Steel. He was Patricia Roc’s only child

Born in Paris, Michael was barely nine months old when his mother took him to Rome, where an Italian nanny cared for him.

Years later after studying at Stowe, Buckinghamshire, he became a fashion photographer working in Cape Town, London and Madrid.

A few years earlier Patricia Roc had gone to Hollywood and starred in ‘Canyon Passage’with Ronald Reagan who fell in love with her
Pat, as she liked to be called by everyone, from tea-boy to fellow actors and Directors, was a big star and a huge box-office attraction.

Movie mogul J Arthur Rank described her as “the archetypal British beauty, the goddess of the Odeons”.

On August 19, 1945, two days after completing her work on The Wicked Lady, Patricia Roc was Hollywood bound.

Her first and only production in America was Canyon Passage, which cost $2.3million and was a great hit.

She certainly seemed able to attract the opposite sex

‘Untamed Frontier’ with Joseph Cotten and Shelley Winters was a Technicolor Western – the reviewer above says that normally counting sheep is a way of falling to sleep but seeing this film with cattle stampedes he thought it would have a similar effect.

However a much less ambitious film was ‘Thief of Damascus’ again in bright Technicolor – a film that gives us fun and doesn’t take itself too seriously – and one of it’s stars is none other than Paul Henreid

Back to Patricia Roc – she was in the very first episode of The Saint

I am copying BELOW an earlier article I wrote on this episode of the Sainy entitled:

‘The Talented Husband’ is the first episode of the iconic ‘Saint’ television series, based on the novels by Leslie Charteris and starring Roger Moore

The first couple of series were shot in crisp black and white with Roger Moore Moore playing Simon Templar

In this the very first episode, we have an unusual to-camera introduction by the Saint himself before we get into the story of an invalid wife at the mercy of her husband’s sinister and devious plotting. There are twists and turns from the very beginning and Roger Moore doesn’t really appear much at all until the final 20 minutes, but along the way he is helped by the lovely Shirley Eaton playing an Insurance Investigator.

Derek Farr is extremely good value as the twitchy husband, who at first seems to be very caring towards his wife Patricia Roc. Gradually though, we see what he is up to

ABOVE – A shot outside Cookham Railway Station

This first episode of ‘The Saint’ had two top line actors of the forties and fifties, namely Derek Farr and Patricia Roc.

Patricia Roc, whose last screen appearance this was, had in 1945 gone over to Hollywood briefly and made a Western ‘Canyon Passage’ – a successful Technicolor film – and during her visit she met and had a romance with Ronald Reagan who fell in love with her and wanted them to marry.

Back in London, where she was now one of Britain’s top ten box-office stars, the lovers were ­reunited at the Royal Command Film ­Performance at the Odeon, Leicester Square, in November 1948, at which Patricia Roc and Ronald Reagan both appeared on stage.

‘Ronnie seemed heartbroken and bitterly hurt,’ said Patricia. ‘His wife had told him: “You’re a bore! Get out! I want a divorce.” He was so damaged that often he was drinking and not able to perform sexually. He spent a lot of time at my London flat in Hallam Street, and ­repeatedly asked me to marry him.’

Reagan presented Patricia Roc with ‘the most beautiful ruby ring’. British sex symbol Christine Norden, who also appeared at the Royal Film Performance, heard Roc announce: ‘I love rubies, they are so hot, just like sex.’

But Patricia Roc by then had become engaged to the French lighting cameraman, André Thomas, who was to become her second husband in 1949, and with whom she set up home in Paris.

Reagan, divorced and again disappointed in love, began a brief affair with Patricia Neal, his co-star in the British film The Hasty Heart. In 1952, the year in which he married actress Nancy Davis, Patricia Roc co-starred with the Rank Organisation’s ‘Mr Beefcake’, Anthony Steel, in the film Something Money Can’t Buy.

Succumbing to what she described as Anthony Steel’s ‘animal magnetism’ — ‘I’m afraid he was very, very good in bed’ — they began an affair which resulted in the birth of a son, Michael. Her husband André, although knowing the child could not be his, accepted paternity, but suffered a massive stroke in 1956, and died at the age of 45.

Patricia was very good in ‘The Talented Husband’ and it was thought that , after this, her film and TV career would kick back into gear, but alas this did not happen for whatever reason. Although she was excellent, she spent most of the time being ill in bed – maybe that didn’t endear her to film producers – I just don’t know. It does seem strange

Once dubbed the world’s most beautiful woman, Hollywood major film star and legendary inventor Hedy Lamarr spent her last years in her home in Florida keeping herself very much to herself.

She had turned her back it seems on the Hollywood glitz – and maybe she realised that her time in the world of films was over.

Despite being one of the most important inventors of the 20th century, she lived her last days in solitude, far from the Hollywood glare, in a three-bedroom home in Casselberry, 20 minutes outside Orlando.

She has been described as a recluse during her last years but maybe she just wanted to live her life away from the inevitable glare of publicity.

Hedy Lamarr died at the age of 85 in January, 2000, never having been fully recognised for her invention that helped change the world.

Hedy Lamarr, born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, was a Hollywood film star, and more importantly, an inventor. In 1981, she retired to Miami Beach, Florida and later spent her final years in central Florida.

At the age of 28, Hedy Lamarr designed and patented a radio controlled, frequency hopping system called the Secret Communication System that was intended to keep U.S. Naval torpedoes from being detected by German naval fleets. Lamarr donated the patent to the U.S. Naval war effort, and although the Navy didn’t employ it during WWII, it proved to be invaluable during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Over the course of the next six decades, her groundbreaking invention went on to serve as the foundation for a multitude of communication technologies, including fax machines, top-secret military and diplomatic communications, GPS, internet, Wi-Fi, satellite communication systems, and wireless communication, spawning significant advances in cyber security.

Despite having never been formally educated in math or science, Hedy Lamarr paved the way for advancements in communication technologies that will continue to be used worldwide for years to come.

In 1997, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) was the first to publicly acknowledge Hedy Lamarr for her invention by presenting her with the EFF Pioneer Award. She later went on to be the first woman to receive the BULBIE Gnass Spirit of Achievement Bronze Award, and in 2014 she was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Her home in Casselberry, 20 minutes outside Orlando

The Florida home is a far cry from the Hollywood mansion Lamarr once lived in at 2707 Benedict C

• 
• Hedy Lamarr is credited in a total of 35 films, but the actress was reportedly bored of the roles she was given that were often light on lines and focused on her looks

Hedy Lamarr had three children

The 2017 documentary film Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr story re-told the story of the film star’s incredible life.

You have got to hand it to Jess Conrad – he freely admits that he wasn’t a great singer nor a great actor but he carved out a very good and long career not to mention lucrative – mainly in the acting field both in films and on Television. He made money early on and to his credit, bought a spacious house in Denham Village with neighbours like Roger Moore, He was always seen and photographed around in the company of top stars. He was in such films as ‘Konga’ and ‘The Boys’ and even to this day regularly appears in Pantomime – a very lucrative job for an actor.

He appeared in this episode of The Human Jungle – what an excellent series this was with Herbert Lom as Dr Corder

‘The Flip Side Man’, was directed by Sidney Hayers, with Jess Conrad cast as ‘Danny Pace’, a pop idol loved by millions, but with a major mental health problem. He thinks he is being stalked by a double; firstly, at a concert, and then in a recording studio. Pace’s manager, ‘Laurie Winters’ ( the late Annette Carell ) calls in Corder. The psychiatrist eventually learns that Pace is plagued by demons of guilt after his pregnant wife ( Maureen Davis ) died as the result of a domestic accident on the night he triumphed at a local talent contest.

Tracking Danny Pace down to the dance hall he won the contest at, he finds the singer reacting in horror to the sight of himself in a full-length mirror. He smashes it, before driving away in his sports car – he collides with an oncoming ambulance, and is killed. Pace’s manager asks Corder to tell the police that Danny died trying to avoid the ambulance, in order to make the tragic news look good in the press. A disgusted Corder tells him to “go home and think!”.

‘The Human Jungle’ was produced by Julian Wintle and Leslie Parkyn, whose film credits include ‘The Fast Lady’, ‘The One That Got Away’, and ‘Unearthly Stranger’. Wintle went on to produce the Diana Rigg episodes of ‘The Avengers’.

A few years after this, Jess Conrad made a guest appearance on ‘Are You Being Served’

ABOVE – With Captain Peacock

ABOVE – John Inman admires Jess Conrad’s golf stance

What a Red Letter day it is for us Film Fans – This afternoon May 25th 2024, Talking Pictures will be showing this classic Walt Disney film.

Don’t Miss It !!

I am repeating BELOW an earlier article on this FILM which covers much of the story and scenes from the Technicolor print.

Much more about this film on www.disneysrobin.blogspot.com

A Story Book Opening

This was only the second live-action Disney feature film!  Treasure Island (1950) was first – and that too, was made in England at Denham Film Studios as this one was.  It is a favourite film of mine and always has been with it’s stunning Technicolor and beautiful sets and locations perfectly evoking the age which we all probably have in our mind’s eye.

At the beginning of the story, our hero (Richard Todd) is doing some target practice in Sherwood Forest – actually filmed in Burnham Beeches Buckinghamshire which looks the part in every way.

He is joined in this scene by Maid Marion – the lovely Joan Rice – who proves to be somewhat mischevous

She’s been teasing him by moving his target all the time so he misses.

ABOVE A scene in Sherwood – Burnham Beeches in reality or could be one of those first class Studio Sets at Denham

ABOVE – A ‘live’ scene with additional painted Matte by Peter Ellenshaw the master of this fascinating art.

He has never been bettered.

ABOVE –  Queen Eleanor (Martita Hunt) has a major role in the plot. She is a force to be reckoned with.  King Richard (Patrick Barr) CENTRE and Prince John (Hubert Gregg) FAR LEFT

As soon as Richard and his troops have left in one direction, and the Queen Mother and her retinue (including Maid Marian, her newest lady-in-waiting) have departed in another, Prince John starts to plot.  He begins by appointing a new Sheriff of Nottingham (Peter Finch)

This Prince John brilliantly played by Hubert Gregg ABOVE

ABOVE – Another scene which marries a ‘live’ scene with a beautifully painted Matte by Peter Ellenshaw

We hear lots of songs from Allan-a-Dale (Elton Hayes), a traveling minstrel who serves as a narrator linking the story episodes together.

The Archery Contest – This must have been filmed quite early on in the production because the trees are nowhere near in full leaf.

Filming started on 30 April 1951 for ‘The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Man’

Maid Marian presents Robin with the Golden Arrow ABOVE – however the Sheriff of Nottingham does not look pleased BELOW

ABOVE – One of the Sheriff’s henchman Red Gill murders Robin’s father in the forest.

Robin tests the Whistling Arrow before unleashing it – right into his Camp pictured BELOW in order to alert his fellow outlaws

ABOVE – Robin Hood’s Camp deep in Sherwood – actually a superb studio set covering one of the enormous sound stages at Denham

ABOVE – Little John (James Robertson Justice) challenges Robin on the bridge over the deep stream in Sherwood – another breathtakingly good set from designer Carmen Dillon – in my view she was at her absolute peak with this film – and in terms of set design she was just about as good as you could get. Walt Disney certainly knew that – and the results proved him right

More action on the bridge – ABOVE and BELOW

BELOW – Robin takes a ducking

BELOW – Friar Tuck played by James Hayter comes into contact with Robin – in the period and in fact in this year 1952, he played the title role in ‘The Pickwick Papers’ and took a lead role in this one – a big film with a Worldwide release courtesy of Walt Disney

BELOW – Peter Ellenshaw with another Matte Painting – the riders shown approaching the gate are the only real part of the scene – cinema magic from a Master of the Art

BELOW at Windsor Castle, word has arrived that King Richard has been captured while on his way home from a failed crusade mission, and ransom is being sought.

The Archbishop of Canterbury (Anthony Eustrel) and Queen Eleanor discuss how to raise the ransom money Above Scene

ABOVE Marian looks troubled and a little angry until she hears the truth

She accuses him of stealing things, and he insists he’s an honest outlaw who only steals to give money to the poor.  Also, he learns from her that Maid Marian is missing, and he the hurries off to rescue her (she’s been locked in a dungeon by Prince John and the Sheriff of Nottingham ).

Marian is so happy and relieved to be rescued.  However when they escape from the Castle Robin is wounded but he manages to fight off the Sheriff of Nottingham who perishes

Doesn’t she make a pretty outlaw?

Marian and Friar Tuck nurse Robin back to health in his woodland stronghold.  ABOVE

Enter a stranger – the Black Knight ABOVE

The Black Knight is not initially well received by the outlaws but they soon discover who he really is

The Black Knight is actually King Richard, and he pardons Robin Hood and all his Merrie Men. He then he orders Marion and Robin to get marry

Happiness ensues.

A romantic embrace

Allan-a-Dale skips away into the sunset – still singing his songs

If you really want to read more about this wonderful film I can thoroughly recommend that you go to www.disneysrobin.blogspot.com

I know that these films were made very much ‘on the cheap’ but I have a liking for them. Ford Beebe Directed and I have seen an article somewhere where Johnny Sheffield gave his thoughts on Ford Beebe – he rated him highly and was impressed by his ability to be able to see the film in his head as he shot it – stating that he almost edited the film as he went on- so he shot the scenes and usually printed what he got in one take. Very efficient no doubt.

These were simple little films but enjoyable for us young lads at the time – I must admit that I haven’t seen a Bomba film for a long while

Bomba and The Lost Volcano – This is not a film that I have seen but seen some of the others in the series

Bomba

Bomba and The Lost Volcano

Bomba and The Lost Volcano

Bomba and The Lost Volcano

Bomba and The Lost Volcano

Bomba and The Lost Volcano – even a Colour still from the film

I have copied this very interesting interview with Johnny Sheffield BELOW – I must admit that reading it, he does come over as an intelligent and perceptive person – and even in his very young days, he seemd to get an angle on events :-

From a Johnny Sheffield during our interview, in the garden of his Chula Vista home, in 2000 

Johnny Sheffield was the son of British-born character actor Reginald Sheffield (1901-1958). Born in Pasadena, California, in 1931, Mr. Sheffield still resided in California when I met him in the summer of 2000 on a terribly hot Sunday afternoon, but the shade, a few cold drinks, the nearby pool and most of all the company of this generous, intelligent, and humorous man made it all the more worthwhile and interesting. He still had the charisma he had when he was a child star, in the days when he influenced several generations of youngsters while exploring and surviving the dangers of the jungle.

Mr. Sheffield, how do you remember your father, a child star who became a stage and screen character actor and who started his screen career in 1913 with “Lt. Pie’s Love Story”?

Well, he never attained great fame, but he was a highly respected character actor. He started on the London stage and came over to the United States in a company with George Arliss [1868-1946, one of the most popular and distinguished stage and screen actors of his era and Academy Award-winning actor in 1930 for his role in “Disraeli”]. I was brought up in a theatrical family and was always around theatrical people, so learning lines was just second nature. To me, there was nothing difficult about it. There’s only some technique involved in learning. When I was seven, my father went over my lines with me, but normally children don’t have any problems with memory or fantasy. As a child, he’d take me out to the theatre. He’d talk to the stage manager and ask permission for us to use the theatre. It would be dark, except for the stage lamp, I would get up on the stage by the stage lamp, and he’d speak to me all over the theater, on the balcony, down underneath the balcony, ask me questions, teaching me to speak so I could be heard without shouting. I guess they teach those things in acting schools, but everything I did, also on the screen, wasn’t difficult for me as a child, because at the studios, we also had the best writers, costume designers, set directors,… All I had to do was step into this fantasy, which is very easy for a child. The children and the young people who watched the Tarzan movies couldn’t wait to get out of the theater and get the ropes over the trees, do the swings, have the fun and play Tarzan themselves. To become Boy when I was a child, was very rewarding to me. I was Boy, and I later on was Bomba.

So not only learning your lines but also acting and the whole concept of making movies was like a second nature to you?

When I was young, I never made a conscious choice like what I wanted to do—how can you, at that age. It was all very natural to me. It’s like a carpenter who teaches his son to be a carpenter. The son is offered the opportunity to learn a trade. I think all fathers are that way; they’re interested that their children know how to take care of themselves one way or another, through education, a trade or some other activity. Many fathers pass on what they have learned to do to their children. Today the young people are terribly caught up in the culture of setting goals and fulfilling them in their lives, which may be very good, although it may present a lot of pressure on children to work hard to obtain those goals. There’s certainly a time in your life when that’s important, but at five years old, I didn’t set a goal to have the largest legitimate stage part ever written and to be on Broadway two years later, starring in “On Borrowed Time,” playing the role of Pud. It just happened. My father taught me his business, and he was very good at it. He trained me and placed me in a position where I could take advantage of the opportunities. Nor did I make a goal to be a star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer by the time when I was nine, playing with Olympic and world champion Johnny Weissmuller. So all of this just happened for me, and that’s how I got in the acting business.

Did you realize as a child what was happening? The stardom, the attention, the privileged world you lived in, was it something that you took for granted?

Oh no, I didn’t know the effects of that at all. It took me about fifty years to look back and try to understand what happened to me as a child when I became famous in the first few years of my life. I was the youngest in my classroom at MGM. Mickey Rooney sat right here, Judy Garland sat right up there, there were many of us, and some had difficulties all their lives, handling what was made to be special. For me, it was a natural day when they said, ‘Go play with the lions or the elephants’—or being driven in your own car, travelling across the country in your own train, that was routine for me. So when others make something special out of that while you’re still a child, you don’t understand that. Even today, people still come up to me and say, ‘Aren’t you Johnny Sheffield? Tarzan Junior?’ There’s still something recognizable because it happens wherever I go. It has been that way all of my life, and I have been out of this business for such a long time now. So it takes a long time to understand what that influence does to you. The abnormal attention you get is attention you do not choose to have. It happens in a normal course if you learn how to be a carpenter, but then, people don’t stop you in the street and ask, ‘You remember that house you built in 1942 at 221 South Bundy Drive? How did you put the wall into the bathroom? How did you pound the nail in the third stud over in the bathroom?’ They don’t do that, but if you’re a motion picture star, they do ask about this or that movie you made fifty, sixty years ago. And yet, when making that film, you come in, you read your script, you learn your lines, and you shoot it. You pound the nail. Later on, you never see that nail again, except maybe on the screen. But it is made to be so special; when you’re very young, you don’t understand that, so you’re set apart.

What about the fans who wanted your attention? How did you cope with that as a youngster?

The fans, or those who are interested, become the enemy unless you decide that you want all that attention. It takes a certain amount of maturity to make a decision like that, but when it just comes, there’s a lot of pressure from the fans. It had quite an effect on the life of the young people that I have seen in this business. When I got to the age where I would be making decisions about my life and what I was going to do, I was getting out of the business, that’s for sure. I didn’t need that, even though I loved the motion picture industry, the people in it, and all the fun we had. But there was the pressure from the fans, or from that pain from being set apart because of that particular thing that you do—which doesn’t take any more talent than being a very good carpenter, for example, in his field. You understand the analogy I am trying to make? It is a very interesting medium that is really making something out of the people who are in it, beyond what a child would even begin to understand or even make a decision. So I was retreating in getting away.

So it was by choice.

Well, you got to learn to hit first or decide if you want to be there at all. So that’s the reason I didn’t continue in the motion picture business. Even though I could have made a lot of other pictures at that time, but I never turned back, and I have had a wonderful life so far. So I never regretted that decision. There’s an old saying, ‘When one door closes, another door opens.’ That’s the way my life has been. When I was too big to play Boy, that door closed. Then producer Walter Mirisch had the idea for the Bomba series, and when that door closed, I was twenty-four in 1955—pretty old to play Bomba. I then said, ‘Well, I’m out of it.’ But my father wanted me to do one last thing, a series for television because that was a terrific medium and we could do something very entertaining for the young people, called “Bantu, The Zebra Boy.” Both my father and I knew about making pictures, so we made the pilot, but we didn’t know about selling it to the sponsors and the agents who were in the business. That was something we didn’t really know about, and we turned it over to some agents to sell it. But it never sold, and it has been sitting over here in my vault for nearly forty-five years.

It’s still there?

I know some people on the Internet and I told them, ‘I’d like to sell a Bantu collectors package.’ And they said, ‘Well, sure!’ So I offered an authenticated copy of the original TV pilot that was unsold and unexhibited—a collector’s item for those who have the Tarzan and the Bomba pictures, and if they could have one that has never been seen, I thought that would be unique. The package included a certificate of authenticity, a couple of stills, also of Johnny Weissmuller and myself. I thought, if I get one or two replies, it would be interesting. I think we got about twenty. The first one came from Brazil [laughs]. I also took some of those collectors kits with me to film festivals—I went back to motion picture-related things after fifty years—and they were very well received.

And what about now? Are you in any way involved in the motion picture industry?

I still attend events in Hollywood. Mostly they are charitable events to raise money for the Hollywood Motion Picture Relief Fund or those kinds of things. The first one I went to, I saw Maureen O’Sullivan [also a former classmate of Vivien Leigh and the mother of Mia Farrow] was there too. I hadn’t seen her for maybe forty or forty-five years. I was talking to Milton Berle, she tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘Hello, Boy, how are you? How have you been?!’ Her voice hadn’t changed a bit. It was just like when I was a kid. You can be away from each other for a long time, and when you come back, you just pick up wherever you were. There was a lot of chemistry with all of us involved in the Tarzan films; we all loved each other, we were like a family. Johnny, though, wanted at one time to do something else, but it never worked out. Later on, he played Jungle Jim, but the tragedy with Johnny was that his business manager lost all his money—too bad, of course, for a guy who shouldn’t have had any financial worries at all. Maureen O’Sullivan had left the series because she wanted to play more serious roles. When I saw her again at that event, she said, ‘You know, I have come to reconcile myself with the Tarzan films, and as it turned out, I was very fortunate. I was a working actress all my life.’ Up until her seventies, she was still working. She told me that her appearances with Johnny Weissmuller in the Tarzan films, along with being a part of that series and the fame because of it—it is a classic series now—it is what she will always be remembered for, not for any other screen or stage role she played. I knew at the time it was something that would be going on for a very long time after I was out of it.

What happened to all of you after she had left the series?

When Maureen O’Sullivan left the series [after her third Tarzan film, “Tarzan’s New York Adventure,” 1942]. She was replaced by Brenda Joyce [first of her five Tarzan films was “Tarzan and the Amazons,” 1945]. She was very well accepted, but we don’t make any comparisons. People always like to make comparisons, like, ‘There will never be another Tarzan like Johnny Weissmuller,’ or ‘There will never be another Jane beyond Maureen O’Sullivan.’ There have been other Tarzans and Tarzan films, but I don’t think there has ever been another family situation like we had with Tarzan, Jane, and Boy. Brenda Joyce is about eighty-five right now; I tried to get in touch with her again, and wrote her some time ago when she had moved to Monterey, but I never got any answer from her. As far as I was concerned, she was a fine Jane, just as Maureen O’Sullivan was fine in portraying her role of Jane. But I don’t compare them. It’s like asking me what’s my favourite film; I wouldn’t know and if I would be forced to give a title, I would probably say “Tarzan Finds a Son!” which was my first film, that was my introduction to film when I made the change from the legitimate stage to the mechanics of working with a camera and film.

How do you look back now to your Tarzan era?

After all those years, I felt I had lost a lot of my life, withdrawing from having so much success and fame through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and this wonderful idea from [author and Tarzan creator] Edgar Rice Borroughs [1875-1950] as I stepped into it at a very young age. If you’re in show business at age thirteen or fourteen and you tell everybody about what you’re doing, you’re a show-off. And if you don’t say anything, you’re conceited. So there’s no relationship you can have, based on being a star at MGM or having your own series in motion pictures. There’s no common ground; the only common ground I had, was intellectually and in sports, on the football field or something. So I had lost a lot, I couldn’t talk about it. Back then, I couldn’t say, ‘I was in the commissary at MGM and had lunch with Wallace Beery.’ You can that now because people are interested, but not back then. You can understand there’s a conflict there. So later on I thought, ‘I am finally going to accept an invitation to attend film festivals and confront what to me was the enemy. The first time, when I hadn’t made any public appearances in years, I had a very nice time talking to fans and admirers. I reconciled myself with the fans who turned out to be normal people, not crazies. Some were school teachers or film collectors, you know. The main thing they wanted to say, was just to thank us for the good times they remember as children, going to the movies back then.

What kind of contract did you have at MGM?

When making the Tarzan films at MGM, I never had a contract of more than one picture. I had a picture-to-picture deal. I was not in the system like many of the younger people who went to dance class and took singing lessons. I was either making a picture or I was in the public school system. When I was making a picture, I was in the school system I described. When we weren’t making a picture, before and after—when I was still at the studio—I was in the studio school. Miss MacDonald was our teacher; she taught the whole class. A lot of people who were under contract, had regular schedules of training and teaching. You know, it takes a long time to find out what it’s like to be brought up and spend your formative years in a position of fame which is what MGM did with their stars. You could go anywhere in the world, and they would recognize you. To me, that’s fame. To work with an undefeated Olympic champion—those people don’t think like other people think. I was brought up from eight years old till about fourteen in that environment with Johnny Weissmuller. My father recognized the advantages and the importance of that, and he let me go with Johnny all the time. I’d go to swimming or diving events with him and his other champion friends. Pretty soon, they’d start thinking you were a champion too! I also had the best teacher in the world; he learned me how to swim. Johnny Weissmuller was always encouraging, he didn’t want to do anything with any negative attitude at all, he wouldn’t be around those kinds of people. Champions don’t have time for any of that. They’re always upbeat, positive, happy, joking, and they got a little clock ticking inside. I also got that same kind of attitude, that’s where I got it. In your life, there are bad things and good things going on all the time. It’s up to you to decide how much time you want to spend on both—you certainly shouldn’t spend too much time on your problems.

Is there any difference between child roles back then and now?

Children now have more access to screen roles than we did. There’s no studio system now, but the total number of roles has increased. There’s more opportunity—in everything. People sometimes say, ‘This is the worst time to live.’ My God, I can’t believe what they’re saying, this is the best time you could possibly ever live. There are more opportunities, there’s more access, more things to do. There’s a downside too, of course; society has problems, but we always had that. There are a lot of people watching too much television and not living enough life themselves. There’s also too much reportage of what’s going on everywhere, so people lose focus on things. It’s gotten to the point where if somebody falls down in the street out here, I might be more concerned about the Somalians than going out and make sure this guy gets picked up and is taken care of—or because of some news report, we think, ‘No, we can’t touch him or we’ll be sued.’ We lose track of human values of what we should be doing in this life. There’s a lot of distraction. People are agonizing over, let’s say, something that’s going on in Germany or in Pakistan, but if everybody makes sure everything is okay where they are, the whole world would be fine. When I retired from acting at age twenty-four, I didn’t really like the entertainment business anymore because it took the audience away from what they ought to be doing—it sounds funny, but somebody who is looking for distraction by watching TV twenty-four hours a day is sick. And if I am the guy on the TV screen, I don’t like to be part of that, just like I couldn’t be a bartender selling alcohol to a drunk. That’s the reason why I got involved in agriculture and became a farmer in Arizona: you can’t hurt anybody or can’t get hurt too badly yourself in agriculture. You just put the seed in the ground, God gives us the light and the water, the plant is going to grow, and you can feed people. Then I got involved in construction and had my own construction company. I like to build things, put things together, then walk away from it, and you haven’t really hurt anybody. I still build, I can’t stop—it’s like the guy on the corner, he has five apples for sale at five cents a piece, a man approaches him and says, ‘Here’s twenty-five cents. I’ll take them all.’ Now he sold them all, what would he do? He wouldn’t have anything to do! [Laughs.]

Has your life in films been more or less rewarding than your life outside motion pictures?

Well… what is rewarding? Staying alive, which is having your needs met, and being able to experience life. Today most people talk about what’s rewarding, and they mean material rewards. It’s rewarding to me that through the years I’ve always done something for somebody else if I could do it, although it hasn’t always been easy. But I do the best I can. That is rewarding because the command is to love one another and you can’t do that by yourself without being with others. You got to have an intercourse with your fellow human being. Just like there are certain physical laws in this universe, I think there are certain spiritual laws in this universe as well. I can stand on top of that roof and deny the existence of what we put together into a law of gravity—you even don’t need to have a law for it; gravity exists. I can be against that and not in agreement with it, but as soon as I step of that building, I’m going down, whether I agree with it or not. I think the spiritual laws are the same way. You can be in agreement or disagreement, it doesn’t matter. If you’re a lying bag of shit, as we say in America, or a thief or a drunk, you’ll go down. Somewhere you’ll be going against some spiritual laws, and they will take you down. Various religions tell us and point us in directions of a higher plane of life, of living. That is the total reward. What we have to strive for is get in touch with these spiritual laws, try and follow those. So it doesn’t really matter what you’re doing: if you do it in a certain way and try to follow certain principles, you can have a full and happy life.

That is the end of the interview – interesting and it gives us an insight into the life a child actor had in those days – an insight from his own point of view I should add !

Having just seen much of this on Talking Pictures, it struck me that much of the later part of the film was shot in darkness – and I thought that disappointing.

City Of Bad Men is yet another 50s Western, with a good script, great cast and good looking production values.

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It is said that Dale Robertson stayed away from acting classes in the early days of his career, but that doesn’t show – he comes over very well in Westerns. We all know him for  Tales Of Well Fargo on TV, however  City Of Bad Men is well worth seeing.

Jeanne Crain looks lovely as always – she is a good actress with many films to her name – particularly at this time in the mid fifties. I recall her well coming to England – and location in Africa – for ‘Duel in the Jungle’ 1954 and that great Western ‘The Fastest Gun Alive’ with Glenn Ford. Both of these came quite quickly after this Western

Harmon Jones didn’t direct many features before heading to TV. His five Westerns — The Silver Whip (1953), City Of Bad Men, A Day Of Fury (1956), Canyon River (1956) and Bullwhip (1958) — are a credit to him. 

City Of Bad Men was produced by Leonard Goldstein, who produced films for Universal and 20th Century-Fox.

Much of the film was shot on the Fox lot, with the titles and opening scene making good use of Vasquez Rocks. This was a common location for Goldstein’s Westerns — his Cave Of Outlaws (1951) and Duel At Silver Creek (1952) also used them.

One of the utility stunt men on the film was Jack Young.

Jack Young recalls: “I doubled Lloyd Bridges on that. I did the saddle fall when they shot him. I doubled Richard Boone for the fall into the boxing ring — and that hurt! It was a fake ring and they didn’t have any give in it. It was only about eight or nine feet, but it hurt!

The above comments just underline what goes into the making of a film such as this – particularly a Western – where such happenings must have been on regular occasions

The Technicolor in the film is as impressive as you’d expect

I am a couple of days late this year – normally on 30 April I do an article on this film story – at least on the start of filming

It is 73 years ago as of 30 April 1951 that Richard Todd opened the curtains at his home at Pinkneys Green Nr Maidenhead, before heading off to Denham for the first day of filming for Walt Disney’s ‘The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men’, only to see that the garden and countryside around was covered in a blanket of snow. The Walt Disney organisation had not accounted for such a possibility and things had to be quickly re-adjusted to suit.

The snow went within a few hours but the following cold days were spent at Burnham Beeches with outdoor scenes being shot.

During the filming at Burnham Beeches Alex Bryce, the Second Unit Film Director on this production did virtually all of the outside action scenes for the film.

Often on location there , braving the cold in those early filming days at Burnham Beeches were Perce Pearce who was in charge of production and Carmen Dillon the Art Director and Set planner – probably the very best in the business- Walt Disney gave Carmen Dillon full licence to do pretty much as she saw fit with this film because he trusted her judgement – and he was, as usual, proved right. Her sets were superb and the studio sets so realistic

I always think that April 30th was a bit too early to film outdoor scenes for such a film. The trees and foliage are not well enough in leaf normally at this time and I think that was noticeable.

BELOW – these scenes were filmed more likely in late June or early July – and these were at Denham at the rear of the Studios on the banks of the River Colne on the slope down to the water.

Dramatic Scenes

ABOVE – The large and seemingly antiquated – by today’s standards – Technicolor Camera – but the results were superb – see the top picture of that same scene

Much more about this film on www.disneysrobin.blogspot.com

A Story Book Opening

Richard Todd’s Home at Pinkneys Green

Mention is made above of Richard Todd waking up at his home ready for filming – this is his home ABOVE and BELOW

This was their first home – Wayside House in Pinkneys Green Nr Maidenhead before they purchased a large house and farm – Haileywood House at Shiplake close to Henley on Thames

Film Stars of the day – or even today – must always be available to sign autographs for their fans and most do so, after all it is the fans that put them where they are and most appreciated that

I have come across these pictures from the very early fifties that I found interesting

ABOVE – Enid Blyton signs for John Howard Davies

ABOVE – Maxwell Reed signs – not a good look with that cigarette drooping from his mouth

ABOVE – Probably my favourite of these photographs shown the lovely Natasha Parry using this very lucky man’s back in order to sign. She is smiling too – he must be pleased !!

ABOVE – J Arthur Rank no less, signs for children at the Children’s Club Choir Festival. He came from Hull and was a staunch Methodist – he has my admiration for the way he built and sustained the film industry in this country over the years.

Talking, as we are, of Autographs, I came across this fascinating piece from an Australian newspaper :-

Teenager’s autograph book captures big names of 1950s Australian radio, film

Long before selfies with celebrities or following someone famous on Twitter, fans hounded stars for their autographs — often scribbled in a little leather book.

As a Sydney teenager in the 1950s, Lesley Cansdell collected dozens of signatures of her favourite Australian radio and film personalities.

Her autograph book, recently acquired by the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA), includes more than 90 signatures and handwritten comments from the big names of the day.

They include Chips Rafferty, Ruth Cracknell, John Meillon and Muriel Steinbeck.

I often think back to the days when, certainly in our village, an entrepeneur of the time would hire the local village hall and put on a full programme of films much as any cinema would offer.

There would be the normal supporting picture, then maybe a Pathe News and trailer for the Coming Shortly ones – I loved these trailers – then on to the ‘big picture’

They were wonderful evenings – maybe once a week and usually in winter.

The films shown had been major releases but after only a few years they came available for hire for shiows such as these. I do remember seeing ‘Distant Drums’ and ‘Angels One Five’ in maybe 1954 or 1955 so they were not that old.

Anyway I have come across trade advertisements of the time for film hirers which are fascinating as below :-

Many of these above are well known and well remembered but I am very much intrigued by the company ‘Warner Bros. Sub.Standard Division – I can’t imagine any company advertising anything with the term ‘sub standard’ let alone the film world.

ABOVE – Ron Harris of Maidenhead had some really interesting ones- for instance ‘Kiss of Death’ with Victor Mature is a good film

These advertisements came from a very interesting little magazine from March 1950

BELOW – I am repeating an article from this same magazine that I did a couple of years or so ago which deals with a particular Village Film Show from Little Shelford in Cambridgeshire – this is NOT my village I hasten to add but a very similar operation to what I would remember :-

We are now going back to the very early fifties – At that time a visit to the Cinema was a big event and when the Cinema came to your village What a thrill that would be. I can confirm that because in the Village where I live in the mid 50;s we had a ‘once a week’ professional film show with a full programme including Newsreel, Advertisements, Supporting Picture and the ‘big’ film.

However I have come across this article that centres on two brothers who, after the War, purchased equipment and set up a travelling cinema – this is the one at Little Shelford Nr Cambridge.

ABOVE – Russell Oddy is setting up the ‘film stills’ board outside of the entrance. This evening the ‘big’ picture will be ‘Mrs Miniver’ plus supporting programme

Russell hen went inside to set up the projection room and make sure that all was ok there/

The projection room was made in such a way as to eliminate the projector noise from the main hall

Russell Oddy was born in 1916 and at the age of 11 he had his own hand-cranked projector and held little shows in his father’s woodshed

ABOVE Russel’s brother Douglas was busy at the other end of the hall setting up the screen and the curtains that he made to open and shut professionally when the film programme was about to start

Outside a large crowd gathered – the Hall is next to the local Pub ‘The Chequers’ and the Pub Landlord Mr Beebe is very supportive of the venture – in fact his wife had attended and enjoyed the first house showing

ABOVE – Tickets Please !!

The audience were all given a brochure / programme on the film

ABOVE: Ice Cream is served just before the main feature

ABOVE – The queue for the ‘second house’ in the cold and rain – the rain later turned to snow

ABOVE – The second house audience is seated and ready. Just a view also at the back of the Hall of the small box like projection room which was soundproofed. Also a Poster for ‘Mrs Miniver’ on the side wall of the Hall

Much of the material above was taken from a magazine article dated March 1950 – so the pictures would have been taken just before then – maybe January or February 1950 – or even March 1950

A footnote about Russell an d Douglas Oddy

Russell had been in the forces during the War in the RAF on flying duties uin the Middle East. Later after being grounded, he worked in the Entertainments branch and after a while he was put in charge of setting up and running an open air cinema in the desert. This gave Russell the insight and interest in 16 mm films and after the War, with a budget of savings of £ 50 he and his brother Douglas who had been a Prisoner of War and had also some savings teamed up to set up the type of operation there now was at Little Shelford, Nr Cambridge.

Their first venture was at Bourn, Cambridgeshire where the programme was ‘Rainbow on the River’ and ‘Beau Chumps‘

After that the films steadily were more ‘up to date’ and they operated at least at a couple of locations including Little Shelford

I find this a fascinating and inspiring story