More Unsung Hollywood Stalwarts
Last night Movies!, channel 5–2 on over the air antennas in NYC, continued its recent run of fresh titles, airing two movies with which I was unfamiliar: Affair in Trinidad (1952), starring the delectable Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford, a re-teaming several years after their smash success in Gilda (1946), and The Threat (1949), starring the superb supporting player Charles McGraw as an escaped con out for revenge on those who sent him upriver. In researching the cast of the latter, there was interesting info on Michael O’Shea, who played a detective. One of six brothers, the others all of whom became cops, he dropped out of school at twelve and went into vaudeville, and later did standup and worked as an emcee in speakeasies. His film career was modest. IMDb lists 30 titles under his name. His greatest success was as the star of the TV series It’s a Great Life, which shot 76 episodes that ran from 1954-’56. His second wife was the bodacious Virginia Mayo, with whom he did several summer stock productions. The most impressive part of his resume` came after he retired from show business. He was a plainclothes operative for the CIA in the 1960s. Sadly, he died suddenly of a heart attack in 1973 at 67. Here are husband, wife and daughter:
The Threat was directed by Felix Feist, a name unfamiliar to me, despite a great career. He produced 63 episodes of Peyton Place and 61 of The Californians, the latter of which began in ’59 and I do not recall. There are 73 titles listed under his name as director. Like many of his contemporaries, he moved into TV and helmed multiple episodes of such fare as Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Adventures in Paradise. He also wrote 14 screenplays, most of them shorts, and a teleplay for The Revlon Mirror Theater in 1953. He even has three composing credits. He accomplished all that in a short time. He was struck down by cancer in 1965 at 55. Kudos, sir. Here he is:
Also in the cast was Julie Bishop, born Jacqueline Wells Brown to affluent parents. Her career spanned 1923-’57. There are 92 titles listed under her name. Most are films. She made appearances on popular TV shows in the latter part of her career. She started as a silent movie child actress, working with such legends as Clara Bow and Mary Pickford, and went on to girlfriend parts opposite the likes of John Wayne, Errol Flynn and Humphrey Bogart. More impressive is appearances on stage in Hamlet and The Merchant of Venice. She had two long term marriages, the first ended in her husband’s death, the second in hers. She bore two children, one of them actress Pamela Susan Shoop, who logged 49 credits from 1969-’96. Bishop passed away at 87 in 2001. Here are mother and daughter:
The floating book shop was again hampered by the weather. Just when it seemed the rain was moving out in late morning, patches of blue visible, a deluge swept in. Luckily, I was waiting for a parking spot to clear and hadn’t set up shop. Anything I put out would have been ruined. No sense complaining about the weather — it’s not cold and snowy. Fortunately, I had something to do to fill time constructively. A few days ago a fellow trading floor alum gave me a copy of the journal he kept during his dad’s last few years. It’s handwritten. I’m transcribing, putting it into a Word file. The prose is rough. I have to resist the temptation to make changes, although it may be the type of book that works best in unpolished form. Since I don’t have the stamina I used to, I expect it to take two months.
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