77 Sunset Strip / Hawaiian Eye, etc. (8 Viewers)

[Flashgear]

Efrem Zimbalist Jr. and a sinister looking John Van Dreelen as the "Padi Shah of Benar" in the third season episode "Tiger by the Tail" (Mar. 3, 1961). Original ABC press photo. Van Dreelen was always sinister wasn't he? Excellent as a slick, arrogant and evil Nazi in so many episodes of 12 O'clock High, Combat! and Rat Patrol for instance...

Efrem and Byron Keith checking under the hood for tampered brakelines, a car bomb or some other such clues...a press photo for season one?

The stunning Yvonne Craig with our hero...probably for season six, "Lover's Lane" (Jan.3, 1964) or less likely season two's "Family Skeleton" (June 10, 1960)

Original ABC publicity photo for season six, "Deposit with Caution" (Nov. 29, 1963), Nancy Malone and Efrem with pirate Ted de Corsia providing the table service...Virginia Gregg or Barbara Wilkin in left background?

The lovely Diane McBain with Burgess Meredith as the unscrupulous art dealer in the first 3 parts of "5" (Sept. 20 - Oct. 3, 1963)...

 

[Flashgear]

Popular Electronics Magazine for November, 1961, featuring a story on our heroes use of the new fangled CB radio as seen on the show...I guess Radio Shack had all the parts you would need to build the Nuclear Radiation Ratemeter and the Slave Flash Gun...

 

[criblecoblis]

Efrem Zimbalist Jr. and a sinister looking John Van Dreelen as the "Padi Shah of Benar" in the third season episode "Tiger by the Tail" (Mar. 3, 1961).

(. . .)

Efrem and Byron Keith checking under the hood for tampered brakelines, a car bomb or some other such clues...a press photo for season one?

John Van Dreelen's role in "Tiger by The Tail" was actually one of his rare good-guy roles. And I think the photo of Stu and Lt. Gilmore looking under the hood is from season 5's "Falling Stars."

 

[criblecoblis]

Feature article on the wonderful and lovely Jacqueline Beer as seen in a 1961 TV GUIDE...

Do you happen to have the rest of the article?

 

[criblecoblis]

Joe DeSantis was a popular dialect actor and a fairly well-known sculptor. We would see him often in the "Mexican" and international capers of 77 SS. Generally sported a moustache. A heavy smoker his whole life, he died in Provo Utah at age 80.

Hey, Russ, I didn't know Joe DeSantis was a sculptor! In one of the last episodes of The Name of The Game, S03E21 "Appointment in Palermo," he plays an amateur scupltor. Here's a screen capture of a bust of Glenn Howard (Gene Barry) he's been working on throughout the episode:

I never realized that DeSantis himself was actually sculpting that bust!

 

[Flashgear]

Do you happen to have the rest of the article?

Here is the rest of the Dec.16, 1961 TV Guide article on Jacqueline Beer...local Philadelphia edition...what a great photo of her, and these magazines are a terrific time capsule for the era in general...although the written "copy" itself is sometimes derisively sarcastic and sexist, being right out of the fevered minds of Hollywood publicists, hacks and tabloid scandal mavens...click on any photo to enlarge...

This is smack dab in the middle of my favorite television era...77 Sunset Strip and all the WB detective and western shows...in the fall of '61, three great drama series in debut...Dr. Kildare, The Defenders and Bus Stop...the great Jack Benny at the height of his powers, with the great composer Dimitri Tiomkin (High Noon, Giant, Guns of Navarone, Rawhide) as his guest!...Jack Paar, Make Room for Daddy, LITB, Car 54 and Dick Van Dyke also debuting, Andy Griffith, Robert Taylor's The Detectives, Perry Mason, Roaring '20s, G.E. Theater (Red Buttons for a holiday musical), U.S. Steel Hour with a Christmas special, Twilight Zone (Five Characters in Search of an Exit!), Bonanza (with Vic Morrow!)...so many others...that Saturday features Syracuse vs. Miami in the Liberty Bowl...Kansas vs. Rice in the BlueBonnet Bowl...Colts vs. 49ers in an NFL tilt...

I'm off on a little bit of a tangent from our beloved 77 Sunset Strip, so please forgive me...I have been enjoying this thread immensely, very appreciative of Russ and Rob's fascinating and entertaining posts... Gary, Lutz, Ponset, Martin, Richard, Bob and so many others for their deep knowledge and enthusiasm for the WB shows and stars...

 

[Rustifer]

Popular Electronics Magazine for November, 1961, featuring a story on our heroes use of the new fangled CB radio as seen on the show...I guess Radio Shack had all the parts you would need to build the Nuclear Radiation Ratemeter and the Slave Flash Gun...

Holy Moly! Love the articles: "Stereo Headphones"--who'da thought such a thing would ever exist?? And "Lab-Style Power Supply"--two double D batteries? I would have loved to seen the expressions on Roger Smith and Efrem Zimbalist's faces when told by their agents they needed to show up for this mag photo shoot--"We're posing for WHAT??"

 

[Rustifer]

Duplicate reply. Sorry.

 

[Rustifer]

Another damn duplicate. Jeez...

 

[Rustifer]

Here is the rest of the Dec.16, 1961 TV Guide article on Jacqueline Beer...local Philadelphia edition...what a great photo of her, and these magazines are a terrific time capsule for the era in general...although the written "copy" itself is sometimes derisively sarcastic and sexist, being right out of the fevered minds of Hollywood publicists, hacks and tabloid scandal mavens...click on any photo to enlarge...

This is smack dab in the middle of my favorite television era...77 Sunset Strip and all the WB detective and western shows...in the fall of '61, three great drama series in debut...Dr. Kildare, The Defenders and Bus Stop...the great Jack Benny at the height of his powers, with the great composer Dimitri Tiomkin (High Noon, Giant, Guns of Navarone, Rawhide) as his guest!...Jack Paar, Make Room for Daddy, LITB, Car 54 and Dick Van Dyke also debuting, Andy Griffith, The Detectives, Perry Mason, Roaring '20s, G.E. Theater, U.S. Steel Hour with a Christmas special, Twilight Zone (Five Characters in Search of an Exit!), Bonanza (with Vic Morrow!)...so many others...that Saturday features Syracuse vs. Miami in the Liberty Bowl...Kansas vs. Rice in the BlueBonnet Bowl...Colts vs. 49ers in an NFL tilt...

I'm off on a little bit of a tangent from our beloved 77 Sunset Strip, so please forgive me...I have been enjoying this thread immensely, very appreciative of Russ and Rob's fascinating and entertaining posts... Gary, Lutz, Ponset, Martin, Richard, Bob and so many others for their deep knowledge and enthusiasm for the WB shows and stars...

Great post, Flash! Love the old crossword puzzle with retro TV clues. You must have taken a page out of my book and had a few martinis, then started posting on this site like crazy. Great to see! We're almost up to 50 pages of posts. When I came aboard in October, only 14 pages! Progress! AND...interesting stuff!

 

[Flashgear]

Yes, Russ, I am enjoying this thread and all it stands for...the effortless and natural cool of the WB detective series! Oh, yeah, and the comforting warmth of nostalgia in general and a fleeting lament for lost youth...and all that Jazz, ha, ha...

I might do the crossword puzzle too...check out 38 down and 17 across...

 

[Mysto]

Here is the rest of the Dec.16, 1961 TV Guide article on Jacqueline Beer...local Philadelphia edition..<SNIP>.

Sure - post the TV guide. Now, not only does this thread have me going back to watch 77SS - but I'm finding stuff in the TV guide and going "gee I remember that - I haven't seen that in a long time" - Now I gotta go lookin' You are a trouble maker sir

 

[Flashgear]

You're welcome, Marv! I'm right in there with you...it's a time machine!

 

[Rustifer]

Yes, Russ, I am enjoying this thread and all it stands for...the effortless and natural cool of the WB detective series! Oh, yeah, and the comforting warmth of nostalgia in general and a fleeting lament for lost youth...and all that Jazz, ha, ha...

I've said it before a few times...I will often pause the opening credits of 77 SS and freeze frame the shot of Dino's and the Mary Hill Davis building and just sigh.

If there is such a thing as reincarnation, I'm hoping to come back as a 30 year-old with beaucoup bucks and living on the Strip near that address. Maybe also employed as a writer for Warner Bros.TV.
If you wish the same afterlife, meet me at the bar in Dino's (after Kookie parks your Thunderbird) and I'll buy you a drink and we'll light up a Lucky Strike. Be sure to leave a dollar in the tip jar on Frankie Ortega's piano...

 

[Rustifer]

Yes, Russ, I am enjoying this thread and all it stands for...the effortless and natural cool of the WB detective series! Oh, yeah, and the comforting warmth of nostalgia in general and a fleeting lament for lost youth...and all that Jazz, ha, ha...

I might do the crossword puzzle too...check out 38 down and 17 across...

I'm especially fond of the 49 across clue -- 'Mrs. Kovacs', which of course is Edie Adams...

Whew-ie! I always thought this lady could make a bulldog chew through its chain.

 

[Richard V]

Efrem Zimbalist Jr. and a sinister looking John Van Dreelen as the "Padi Shah of Benar" in the third season episode "Tiger by the Tail" (Mar. 3, 1961). Original ABC press photo. Van Dreelen was always sinister wasn't he? Excellent as a slick, arrogant and evil Nazi in so many episodes of 12 O'clock High, Combat! and Rat Patrol for instance...

Efrem and Byron Keith checking under the hood for tampered brakelines, a car bomb or some other such clues...a press photo for season one?

The stunning Yvonne Craig with our hero...probably for season six, "Lover's Lane" (Jan.3, 1964) or less likely season two's "Family Skeleton" (June 10, 1960)

Original ABC publicity photo for season six, "Deposit with Caution" (Nov. 29, 1963), Nancy Malone and Efrem with pirate Ted de Corsia providing the table service...Virginia Gregg or Barbara Wilkin in left background?

The lovely Diane McBain with Burgess Meredith as the unscrupulous art dealer in the first 3 parts of "5" (Sept. 20 - Oct. 3, 1963)...

The girl in the L background you refer to, actually looks more like Carol Ohmart

 

[Flashgear]

I'm especially fond of the 49 across clue -- 'Mrs. Kovacs', which of course is Edie Adams...

Whew-ie! I always thought this lady could make a bulldog chew through its chain.

Russ, I too want to escape into the streetscapes of vintage TV... and yes, I share in your appreciation of the talented and lovely Edie Adams...I assume you have this wonderful DVD boxset of her variety show specials?

Not to be a downer, but It's rather sobering to think that when that TV Guide was on the news stands in December 1961, poor Ernie Kovacs himself had only a few weeks to live...killed on January 13 in his brand new 1962 Corvair, not a car that performed very well in crashes...sad, he would have been in "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" with Edie had he lived.

 

[Flashgear]

The girl in the L background you refer to, actually looks more like Carol Ohmart

Could be, Richard...she's not listed in the cast on IMDB for "Deposit with Caution", Nancy Malone's only 77 Sunset Strip appearance, having just come off of Naked City... but the cast list might be wrong on IMDB and I don't have this particular episode in my collection to check it against...Virginia Gregg and Barbara Wilkin are shown to have been in this one...another thing about so many of these lovelies, both then and now, is how dramatically they can alter their looks with hair, makeup and wardrobe...it's amazing...and then any number of lookalikes really complicate identification.

 

[Rustifer]

Russ, I too want to escape into the streetscapes of vintage TV... and yes, I share in your appreciation of the talented and lovely Edie Adams...I assume you have this wonderful DVD boxset of her variety show specials?

Not to be a downer, but It's rather sobering to think that when that TV Guide was on the news stands in December 1961, poor Ernie Kovacs himself had only a few weeks to live...killed on January 13 in his brand new 1962 Corvair, not a car that performed very well in crashes...sad, he would have been in "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" with Edie had he lived.

I did not remember that she had her own variety show.

With Edie, I always thought it was...
a) ironic
b) suggestive
c) humerous
d) all of the above
...that she was the spokesperson for a cigar company.

 

[Rustifer]

The Tiffany Theater was actually a modified version of the same building. IIRC, they added a complete second floor and reconfigured the interior. There may even have been a third story.

I was in the Tiffany a number of times when it was a revival/art house, but I didn't know then its true historical significance.

The Tiffany (Actors Studio) looked like this when I came by in 2004. Note that the parking drive-thu that provided a portal between Dino's and the Mary Hill Davis building still existed (photo on right), albeit somewhat updated--but at least in the same place. Although it didn't much resemble the original area, it sure as hell was better than the godawful Millennium Project that now squats there.

The commemorative 77 SS sidewalk plaque was still in place at that time, too. I stood on it while humming "you meet the highbrows and the hipsters..." and channeling images of Kookie parking Stu and Jeff's cars while they darted into Dino's for cocktails. I believe that's gone now, as is ANY trace of that section of the block.

Thankfully, we have this Forum for those few of us who fondly remember the show and can unashamedly fling out trivia facts and remembrances, no matter how miniscule, that most folks wouldn't know or care about. Their loss, our gain.