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

[Gary16]

Oh, so you expect to look at her face, then?

Hahahahaha

 

[Rustifer]

Funny you should mention it. Follow The Sun is one of the shows that I want to see, because of its pedigree and cast.

You know, every year there are more and more diginets. I keep hoping that eventually we will reach critical mass, and every show we want to watch will be available somewhere.

Like most people, I try not to display my ignorance in any public forums if I can help it, although god knows I do it enough in here. When I first read Rob's note above, I breezily passed over the word "diginets" without having any understanding what it meant. Days passed, then I suddenly woke up one night with that word ping-ponging in my brain like an unforgiving earworm. I had to look it up immediately if I was to ever get back to sleep.
For those of you who may be in the same technical quandry as I am (although I suspect I stand alone in this regard), Wikipedia defines diginets as "a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station".

I'm not entirely sure I'm any better off being now armed with the definition--but thanks, Rob, for continuing to teach this old dog new stuff.

 

[criblecoblis]

Wikipedia defines diginets as "a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station".

I didn't mean to be obscure. Bu "diginet," I meant a programming service, such as Me-TV or Decades, that is designed to be carried on a subsidiary channel. When enough local channels carry it, it forms a network.

Speaking of Me-TV, their Fall schedule is out, and 77 Sunset Strip is still there at 4 AM. Whew!

 

[Rustifer]

I didn't mean to be obscure. Bu "diginet," I meant a programming service, such as Me-TV or Decades, that is designed to be carried on a subsidiary channel. When enough local channels carry it, it forms a network.

Speaking of Me-TV, their Fall schedule is out, and 77 Sunset Strip is still there at 4 AM. Whew!

Ah, I see. And yes...good news that 77 SS will be continuing. I probably still have a 100 or so more episode commentaries to write, which means I can use my prodigious spare time working on those instead of mindlessly watching the squirrels in the back yard shamefully rob the bird feeder.

 

[Gary16]

Oh, so you expect to look at her face, then?

Well I don’t recognize her face but here are a couple of screen shots in case anyone else does.

 

[Rustifer]

Well I don’t recognize her face but here are a couple of screen shots in case anyone else does.

View attachment 48775 View attachment 48774

Atta Boy, Gary! You captured a bit more than just her face...

 

[criblecoblis]

Atta Boy, Gary! You captured a bit more than just her face...

Russ, I think I'm going to start calling you Rex!

 

[criblecoblis]

Ah, I see. And yes...good news that 77 SS will be continuing. I probably still have a 100 or so more episode commentaries to write, which means I can use my prodigious spare time working on those instead of mindlessly watching the squirrels in the back yard shamefully rob the bird feeder.

We actually put peanuts out expressly for the squirrels. It keeps them from eating our pomegranates!

 

[criblecoblis]

Well, I asked for corrections to my Episode Guides, and here's one already: I erred when I said, in my guide for S1E15 "The Secret of Adam Cain," that it was the first appearance of Montgomery Pittman's mythical South American country, San Dede. It was in fact only the first appearance of San Dede in 77 Sunset Strip.

Pittman had visited there previously, in his third produced teleplay, for the Schlitz Playhouse: S1E39 "Little War at San Dede," which aired 5-28-54. And perhaps he touched down there again in the interim.

 

[Rustifer]

Russ, I think I'm going to start calling you Rex!

Trust me--at my age it's all talk. And dim memories.

 

[Rustifer]

Well I don’t recognize her face but here are a couple of screen shots in case anyone else does.

View attachment 48775 View attachment 48774

Good to see that Kookie kept his iphone in his jacket pocket. Further proof the lad was wayyyy ahead of his time.

 

[Rustifer]

Casino chips. Now here's a subject of which I am completely ignorant. Never been to Las Vegas, never gambled--the closest I've ever gotten to a 'chip' is in the form of a thinly sliced potato. Oh, I guess when I was a kid I'd get out my Dad's plastic poker chips and use them as mini-Frisbees, but never as betting currency. That being said, I don't mean to imply that Season 1's "The Bouncing Chip" held no interest for me.

The Meteor Casino on the Vegas Strip has a problem. Somebody's counterfeiting their chips and cashing them in for real money. The gambling council is not even remotely amused and hires Stu Bailey to investigate. Where does one start? Why, Acme Plastics (preferred Amazon-type choice of Wile E. Coyote) of course, since they've been the honorable manufacturer of the chips for years. The foreman, Johnny (Jimmy Lydon) explains the complicated process of assuring no chip leaves the plant before its time. We also find out that their former foreman, Antoine Kreiger (Otto Waldis), left the company to start his own plastics firm. Tell me that doesn't raise a red flag for Stu.

Ruta Lee, Brad Dexter, Jimmy Lydon, Otto Waldis

There's an unforgettable scene where Stu visits Kreiger's operation in the guise of a buttoned-down vacuum cleaner salesman. EZ's "But wait--There's more!-voice inflection and slightly effeminate mannerisms are priceless. With Kookie posing as his helper, they clumsily vacuum up dust from the plant's floor which later proves to contain the same materials used in the real chips. Bingo! We have a connection. Now it's just a matter of finding out how and when the counterfeit chips are moved from the plant to the distribution source.

Stu stakes out a house where one of the runners live--an ex con who apparently subsists daily on "two quarts whiskey and one pound hamburger", which I accept as a perfectly reasonable ratio. Stu assumes a new identity as a card sharp from Miami, and runs into pretty Diane Adams (Ruta Lee) who works as a chorus line girl (a Meteor Maiden) at the casino and is reluctantly associated with Frenchy La Tour (Brad Dexter), a notorious Chicago gangster. In those days, all "notorious" gangsters had to come from Chicago. Places like Boise were simply in the dark as being able to produce anyone "notorious". Frenchy and his gang are, of course, the source of the counterfeit chip distribution.

After introductions to Frenchy as Larry Costigan from Miami, Stu gets involved in the Frenchy's daily poker game with "the boys". Stu's identity involves constantly smoking a cig in the tough guy trait of either holding it in two fingers and thumb, or the always-classy dangling from the lower lip. Thrown in is a nifty plot to steal and rig Stu's fancy silver-plated lighter to blow up upon flicking. There's a nail-biting sequence of Stu relaxing in his hotel room about to light a cigarette, only to be conveniently interrupted each time. With Diane's help, he later uses the lighter to intimidate Frenchy and the boys to the affect of their capture. Where were the counterfeit chips being stashed? In the hanging lamp over the poker table. We are left to assume that Stu and Diane spent the remainder of their Vegas stay in radiant contentment together.

A well written (Leonard Lee) and directed (Leslie Martinson) early episode with a fine cast of notable character actors and a terrific soundtrack.

NOTES: A young Dyan Cannon has a tiny throw-away part as a flouncy blonde, and is noted as "Diane" Cannon in the closing credits.
Jimmy Lydon will always be (to me) the screechy-voiced teen from the 1940's Henry Aldrich movie series--a kind of poor man's Andy Hardy. He later went on to a rather proficient career as a TV producer for many WB properties. Jimmy's still with us at age 95.

A very young Dyan Cannon, and a rather aged Jimmy Lydon

 

[Rustifer]

TIDBIT

Brad Dexter often played the burly tough guy in many supporting roles in TV and films. "I love playing heavies," he said in an interview. "It's the best-written character. The hero is always so bland."
Dexter studied acting at the Pasadena Playhouse under the name of Barry Mitchell, changing it to Brad Dexter when cast by John Huston in "The Asphalt Jungle".

In 1953, he married singer Peggy Lee for about 7 minutes before getting divorced, later to hang with Marilyn Monroe--which most of us would consider to be a reasonable swap. He was also close buds with Frank Sinatra, and actually saved Frank from drowning while they were filming "None But the Brave" in Hawaii. Saving Frank certainly didn't hurt his career, although later they were no longer on speaking terms. "Frank can be such a dick", reported Brad--more or less in those words.

He eventually tired of acting and began producing--his biggest credit being "Lady Sings the Blues" with Diana Ross in 1972. He also produced the short-lived TV series "Skag" with fellow Serb Karl Malden in 1973.

Brad Dexter left us in 2002 at the age of 85.

 

[MartinP.]

"Frank can be such a dick", reported Brad--more or less in those words.

Ain't that the truth! Frank is lucky there was no #MeToo movement during his days of wine and roses.

Or #MoiToo as Miss Piggy would say.

 

[Rustifer]

Ain't that the truth! Frank is lucky there was no #MeToo movement during his days of wine and roses.

Or #MoiToo as Miss Piggy would say.

Apparently the falling out between Brad Dexter and Frank Sinatra was over Mia Farrow. To this day, I still can’t fathom what was the attraction in her. By anyone.

 

[criblecoblis]

VIEWER’S GUIDE
S1E23 “Pasadena Caper”
March 13, 1959

Stu employs a Man Who Came to Dinner ruse in order to investigate a fishy life-insurance claim, and soon finds the actual situation to be more like Arsenic And Old Lace.

Directed by Montgomery Pittman · Written by N. B. Stone, Jr.

Guest cast: Hallene Hill, Rachel Baker · Elizabeth Patterson, Lavinia · Murvyn Vye, Peter Baker (Harry Diamond) · Carol Kelly, Kim Diamond · Pat Comiskey, Leo · Olan Soule, Mr. Garrett.


CAST & CREW NOTES

N. B. Stone, Jr. (real name Norris Briedwell Stone; his father was Norris Bywaters Stone) was born October 20, 1911 in Portland, Oregon, and remained there for at least the next twenty years. He made his way to Honolulu by the time of his draft registration in 1940, and served in the Merchant Marine for the next decade or so.

Not much more information is available on Stone, other than his writing credits, the earliest of which is in 1955. For the next decade, he was fairly active as a writer for television, most frequently for the series Zorro, for which he wrote nine teleplays, and additional music for one episode. He almost always worked in the Western genre.

His biggest credit is for the screenplay of the Sam Peckinpah film Ride The High Country, with which he reportedly ended up having little involvement, according to Garner Simmons, author of the biography Peckinpah.

A screenwriter friend of the film’s producer referred Stone because he knew he desperately needed a break. The problem was that Stone needed a break because he had become a chronic alcoholic who never left his apartment, and had lost his ability to write well.

His finished script was reportedly so unusable that the screenwriter who had referred Stone ended up substantially rewriting it without credit, along with the producer. Peckinpah himself then re-wrote much of the dialogue, leaving Stone with little to show for his effort but the credit, and the payment.

Stone eventually returned to Oregon, where he passed away on September 27, 1967.

Hallene Hill and Elizabeth Patterson make a delightfully dark pair here, and are perfectly cast. Victorians themselves, both had been making a career of playing older ladies since the mid-Thirties. Patterson, of course, will forever be remembered as the dear Mrs. Trumbull, the perfect babysitter, in I Love Lucy.

Murvyn Vye is perhaps not as well-known nowadays as he deserves to be. His career began on Broadway, where in 1945 he got his big break, originating the role of Jigger Craigin in Carousel. He rode that wave all the way to Hollywood, where he made his debut in 1947, third-billed after Ray Milland and Marlene Dietrich, in Golden Earrings as Zoltan, a gypsy king who sings the haunting title song.

While his career cooled down after that, he continued to work steadily in films and television, usually as a heavy; but when given a chance at it, he could bring a subtle comic touch to such roles, as is evident here.


EPISODE NOTES

Opening: preview.

Smokes: Stu smokes a Barling 3599 straight bulldog, a classic design that Bing Crosby also smoked. I have a bent version of this model (and so does Stu). Later, Stu and Kookie share a cigar. Jeff smokes his usual unfiltered cigarettes (upon which the Kim Diamond character comments in the first Cedars bar scene).

Pittmanisms: Where do I start? While Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. cites Pittman’s first episode, S1E15 “The Secret of Adam Cain,” as the one that irrevocably transformed 77 Sunset Strip from a straight detective drama into what it so gloriously became, I humbly submit that, at least from this side of the screen, it is evident that this is the transformative episode.

“Pasadena Caper” is the first truly comedic episode of the series, the first where the danger and action take a back seat to the laughs. In fact, most of the danger and action are part of the laughs. And while we certainly must give credit to Stone for the plot, we nevertheless see the action through Pittman’s bemused eyes.

It was after this episode that comedy began to be included as a substantial element of the show, and not just as a device to leaven the drama.

Often, when watching a Pittman-influenced episode, I find myself wondering which came first: the plot, or its main location.

According to EZ, Pittman loved to explore—both the world at large, and the WB lot—and I suspect that he found inspiration in some of the places and sets he discovered.

Either he would write an episode around a location, or he would choose a story (e.g., S4E12 “Reserved for Mr. Bailey”) based upon his knowledge of a perfect location for it.

While I of course can’t reverse-engineer the creative process behind “Pasadena Caper,” it’s safe to say that it was at least guided by the settings used for the Baker house. Stone’s script was either modified to take advantage of the distinctive features of the interior, or it was written with these features in mind.

I could write thousands of words on these settings alone, but I’ll spare you the architectural details and simply state my conclusions:

· The exterior is on the backlot, although I can’t find it now in the Googlemobile
· The interior is a real house, not a backlot structure nor an interior set.

A minute examination of the filmed evidence proves conclusively that all of the interior rooms shown communicate with each other, but the windows seen in the interior shots are conspicuously different from the windows of the exterior. The exterior windows have a twelve-light pattern with wood separators, and those of the interior mostly have a arts-and-crafts leaded pattern. It is true that the front doors of both aspects match remarkably well, but that may be why this particular house, among the several Victorians on the back lot, was chosen.

I am as sure as I can be that the interior is not simply a standing set in one of the lesser-used sound stages, because there is one exterior shot of the house used for the interior, looking in through the bay window of Stu’s room, in which the interior of the room can clearly be seen; it is daytime, and the shadows indicate only one elevated source of light.

In the first photo above, the recognizable interior of Stu’s bedroom is visible; the second photo shows the uniform angle of the shadows clearly. As has been pointed out here previously, fake exterior scenes shot on a sound stage are almost always easily detectable by the multiple shadows that come from the multiple sources that are characteristic of interior lighting. Note also the windows, and compare them to the establishing shots of the house’s exterior.

Based upon this evidence, I can only conclude that the interior is a real house, and that the distinctive features of this real house shape the script. I strive to avoid spoilers, so I won’t be specific, but I will point out that the plot depends upon Stu’s ability to enter the locked downstairs bedroom undetected by the other occupants of the house.

I believe that this episode is a clear example of how Pittman was inspired by locations he encountered in real life.

Moving on to other Pittmanisms: The Rachel Baker character uses the term “apple-pie order.” This is decidedly not a common phrase hereabouts; I’d never heard it in my life until this episode, and Pittman uses it again, in S2E16 “Switchburg.”

I have noticed, in the Pittman-involved episodes featuring Stu, that Stu talks with his hands conspicuously, to great comedic effect. I have not noticed this as a typical Stu character trait, so I am citing it provisionally as a Pittmanism.

Occasionally, one sees actors in Pittman episodes who are seldom if ever seen anywhere else. In this episode, we have the lovely, anonymous “Erin O’Day” (that’s Irish!), whose voice is so awful that it strains credulity, considering that it is mostly in tune. Get that girl a voice teacher!

In any event, I’ve never seen this actress in anything else, and more significantly, neither has my wife, who has an eerily infallible memory for faces. If anyone can identify her, please do!

Telephony: Phones are for once front and center in this episode, and for a Victorian that doesn’t even have electricity, the Baker house is well-provisioned in this regard, having 302s upstairs and down. I would have expected this house to have 202s with F1 handsets, the kind with a bell box on the wall.

This is what my grandparents had well into the Seventies. It’s a very user-friendly setup, easy to carry around with one hand. Plus, the dial purrs like a kitten.

Product placement: Kim Diamond has a Zenith Consol-Tone radio, clearly and lingeringly shown, in her apartment.

Not product placement: Rachel Baker has a Victrola XVI, with the lovely inside-lid decal covered up or (shudder) removed.

After all, at the time of the show, RCA Victor owned NBC; why advertise the competition, however tangentially?

Credit where credit is due: Jacqueline Beer appears uncredited in this episode. Also, my wife and I believe, although I won’t swear to it, that the uncredited role of the wharf rat Stu speaks to in the first scene is played by Jack Carr, who definitely plays the uncredited bartender in the bar fight scene in S1E20 “Lovely Alibi.” I’ll stake my reputation on that.

One more observation upon the opening scene: no doubt many if not all of you recognize the shots of the car being pulled out of the ocean as being taken from The Big Sleep.

Backstory: Jeff has a sister in Ojai, a scant 90 minutes away. You’d think she’d visit once in a while.

Address watch: Two addresses are given: 468 Sherwood Street, Pasadena for the Baker house, and 1648 Beachwood Blvd., Hollywood 28 for Kim Diamond’s apartment. I rate both as fake but accurate.

The street number of the Pasadena address would indicate that the house is in the fifth block either east or west of Fair Oaks Ave., where the east-west street numbering starts at zero. Of course, we don’t know how far north or south of Colorado Blvd. it is, but in any event the address is quite plausible, because a Victorian may be found anywhere in that corridor. Then again, maybe the number was chosen because it’s what was on the back-lot house already.

There is a 1648 North Beachwood Drive in Hollywood, near Sunset and Gower, but is in the 90026 ZIP code, and it is inside the campus of Sunset Gower Studios. In any event, it is not far from Kim Diamond’s job at The Cedars Bar (as far as I can tell, a fictitious location, but within easy walking distance of the Bailey & Spencer offices), and that is likely what the writers wanted to convey.

* * *

On a personal note, I dig this episode the most because it literally hits close to home. Not only is it set in my town, it is set in an unelectrified Victorian occupied by an elderly lady who has obviously lived in it for a very long time. Our own home was occupied by one lady from 1900 until her passing, at age 104, in 1969, and it was not electrified—and then just barely—until 1950. It didn’t even have any heating besides coal-burning fireplaces until 1943. I can’t help but get a kick out of the parallels.

Then again, our lady had a much better relationship with her children, and theirs, and theirs.

“Pasadena Caper” next airs at 4 AM PDT Saturday morning, 4-25-18, on Me-TV.

 

[Rustifer]

Rob---love, love, love your insights on Pittman and the attention to architectural detail! Another great viewer's guide, dude!

 

[Lutz Koch]

I couldn't say it any better than Russ did... Pure genius, Rob!

 

[criblecoblis]

Rob---love, love, love your insights on Pittman and the attention to architectural detail! Another great viewer's guide, dude!

Thanks, Russ and Lutz! I do enjoy writing them.

 

[Rustifer]

Thanks, Russ and Lutz! I do enjoy writing them.

I'm so glad you enjoy writing these, Rob. I know how much time I put into my little "commentaries", but how you compose your viewer's guides is just uncanny. I've seen attempts from other writers on various sites applying their knowledge on 77 SS episodes that pale to your efforts. I truly believe you are beginning to create the most definitive treatise on this series that has ever been compiled. I've read your stuff on your own personal blog, and you are nothing less than an out-an-out talented author. I'm a dilettante by comparison.

My only hope is that we don't pick the same episode on the same day to post our reviews--you'll blow mine away. And I'm okay with that. You've really done a great job at elevating this thread to historical relevance, my friend. Keep enjoying what you're doing--and don't stop.