Tag: Television

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Dear Reader

Dear Reader #214

Dear Reader,

My latest translation, the Spanish version of Tula.

Clara Bow’s fifty-third movie was Her Wedding Night, produced between July 24 and August 15, 1930, and released on September 18, 1930. Clara played Norma Martin in a racy comedy about a young woman with a hyperactive love life. 

Once again, Clara was playing a version of herself, and the fan magazines were not impressed. Suddenly, they’d discovered morality and were not happy with Clara’s personal life.

Photoplay climbed into the pulpit with this editorial: “She disregards all laws of convention and hopes to get away with it. She has no regard whatsoever for public opinion. Clara, we are afraid you are on a toboggan!”

Despite the bad press, Her Wedding Night was a great success. Despite the scandals, Clara Bow was still Hollywood’s #1 draw.

A Hollywood Murder

At 7:30 am on Thursday, 2 February 1922, Henry Peavey walked through the affluent neighbourhood of Westlake, Los Angeles towards a bungalow in the Alvarado Court Apartments. His destination was 404-B South Alvarado Street, the home of his master and employer, movie director William Desmond Taylor. Peavey opened the door and screamed – at some point during the previous twelve hours someone had shot Taylor; the movie director was dead.

The murderer had shot Taylor with a .38 calibre pistol. The bullet had entered his body low on the left side, travelled through his lung before reaching his neck. The trajectory of the bullet suggested that the murderer had been either around five feet tall, stooped in a crouched position, laying on the floor, or holding the gun at an unusual angle.

Taylor’s valet, Henry Peavey (pictured below), had a penchant for wearing outlandish clothing and talking in an affected manner. Three days before the murder, Peavey was arrested for “social vagrancy” and charged with being “lewd and dissolute” while ingratiating himself to young men. In 1931, he died in a San Francisco asylum where he had been hospitalized for syphilis-related dementia. One is tempted to ask, why did Taylor employ such a dubious character as his most trusted servant? Hopefully, the answer to that question will present itself as this series of articles unfolds.

The police interviewed Henry Peavey, but never seriously considered him as a suspect. At that stage in Los Angeles a curfew was in place for people of colour, enforced at 8pm, and Peavey was on his way home before the murder was committed.

As the investigation unfolded, Peavey accused actress Mabel Normand of the murder, and I will consider the case against her next time.

*****

Columbo

Season One, Episode Three: “Dead Weight”. Eddie Albert starred as the murderer while Suzanne Pleshette (pictured) featured as an unreliable witness. 

All the episodes in series one, except one, ran for exactly 72 minutes. In series one, the murder was often committed early on, sometimes in the first scene. Later series included a longer build-up to the murder.

Social media https://toot.wales/@HannahHowe

As ever, thank you for your interest and support.

Hannah xxx

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Dear Reader

Dear Reader #213

Dear Reader,

My latest translation, the Afrikaans version of Tula.

Clara Bow’s fifty-second movie was Love Among the Millionaires, produced between May 9 – 29, 1930, and released on July 19, 1930. Clara played Pepper Whipple.

Around this time, Al Jolson wisecracked on national radio that Clara slept “cater-cornered” ie that she was promiscuous. Clara certainly lived for the minute (understand her upbringing and you will understand why). This was a cheap joke aimed at a fellow artist and, given the nature of Jolson’s career, in historical terms does not look good.

Jolson’s audience laughed. Clara fumed. The reasons for Clara to remain in Hollywood versus the reasons for her to leave were stacking up on the leave side of the scale.

Columbo

Season One, Episode Two: “Death Lends a Hand” was written by Columbo’s creators, Richard Levinson and William Link. This episode starred Robert Culp (pictured) as the murderer and Patricia Crowley as the victim. Ray Milland also guest-starred as the victim’s husband.

Robert Culp played the murderer in three Columbo episodes: this one, episode twelve, “The Most Crucial Game”, and episode twenty-one, “Double Exposure”. He also appeared as the father of the murderer in “Columbo Goes to College”.

The denouement with Columbo finding a stray contact lens in the boot of Culp’s car was not convincing. The scene setup implied that the contact lens would belong to the victim, and the case against Culp would have been stronger if the script had followed that path.

A Hollywood Murder

Film director William Desmond Taylor was murdered in Hollywood on the night of February 1st/2nd, 1922. Over the coming weeks, I will focus on the cases for and against the main suspects: a burglar, a drug-related hitman, Mabel Normand, Mary Miles Minter, Henry Peavey, Edward Sands and Charlotte Shelby. First, some background on William Desmond Taylor.

William Desmond Taylor (born William Cunningham Deane-Tanner, 26 April 1872 – 1 February 1922) was an Anglo-Irish-American film actor and director. Regarded as a “gentleman” by members of the Hollywood community, Taylor led an unconventional life before arriving in Hollywood. He deserted his wife and young daughter, went gold prospecting in Canada and acted with travelling players.

Taylor created a new persona for himself when he arrived in Hollywood and it’s possible that elements of his background – for example his education in English colleges – was fabricated to match his new identity.

In Hollywood, Taylor appeared in twenty-seven films between 1913 and 1915, and directed fifty-nine films between 1914 and 1922. He was preparing to direct his sixtieth movie when a person armed with a revolver entered his home and murdered him.

A newspaper report from February 11, 1922 that features the subjects at the heart of the Taylor case: cover-ups and corruption.

Next week, the first suspect.

Through historical records and DNA I’ve established that Barbara Aubrey of Glamorgan and Pennsylvania is my 9 x great grandmother. Barbara is a “gateway ancestor” – her lineage connects to noble pedigrees. Here’s the story of one of our ancestors, Eleanor Holland.

Eleanor was born c1405 in Woodstock, Kent, the illegitimate daughter of Edmund Holland, 4th Earl of Kent, and Constance of York. She married Sir James Tuchet, 5th Lord Audley, on 14 February 1430, and the couple produced seven children, three sons and four daughters, including my direct ancestor Constance.

Eleanor brought action in Court Christian to disprove her bastardy, but lost her suit. 

Her husband, Sir James Tuchet, was slain by Sir Roger Kynaston at the Battle of Blore Heath, Shropshire 23 September 1459, while in command of the Lancastrian forces during the Wars of the Roses. Audley’s Cross still stands on the battlefield marking the spot where Sir James died.

Social media https://toot.wales/@HannahHowe

As ever, thank you for your interest and support.

Hannah xxx

For Authors

#1 for value with 565,000 readers, The Fussy Librarian has helped my books to reach #1 on 38 occasions.

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Don’t forget to use the code goylake20 to claim your discount 🙂

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Dear Reader

Dear Reader #212

Dear Reader,

Clara Bow’s fifty-first movie was True to the Navy, produced between February 28 and March 25, 1930, and released on May 31, 1930.

Clara didn’t need good material to sell a movie – her personality did that. Once again, the studio failed Clara with this sub-standard production. Variety stated: “the studio didn’t strain themselves looking after her interests.” Slowly, stupidly, the studio was killing the goose who was laying their golden eggs.

Columbo

Season One, Episode One: “Murder by the Book”. This episode featured Jack Cassidy as the villain, was written by Steven Bochco, and directed by Steven Spielberg. For me, Barbara Colby stole the show as victim #2, Lilly La Sanka. Tragically, Barbara was murdered in real-life, in 1975.

Favourite Movie Quote of the 20th Century Poll

Quarter-Finals

Result: 52% v 48%

Result: 47% v 53%

Semi-Finals

Result: 36% v 64%

Result: 56% v 44%

Final

Result: 49.5% v 50.5%

Social media https://toot.wales/@HannahHowe

As ever, thank you for your interest and support.

Hannah xxx

For Authors

#1 for value with 565,000 readers, The Fussy Librarian has helped my books to reach #1 on 38 occasions.

A special offer from my publisher and the Fussy Librarian. https://authors.thefussylibrarian.com/?ref=goylake

Don’t forget to use the code goylake20 to claim your discount 🙂

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Honey West

Honey West

Honey West ran for thirty episodes, from September 17, 1965 to April 8, 1966. The series, which starred Anne Francis, was historic in that it marked the first time a woman played the lead character in a network TV series with her character’s name as the title.

Honey West was one of the first female private eyes to appear on television. Anne Francis initially played her in a second-season episode of Burke’s Law, “Who Killed the Jackpot?”, broadcast on April 21, 1965. That appearance led to Honey West being commissioned as a spin-off.

Honey West was created by Gloria and Forrest E. Fickling under the pseudonym G. G. Fickling. Forrest wrote the stories while Gloria developed Honey’s character. Initially, they envisioned a combination of Marilyn Monroe and Mike Hammer (that’s some ‘love child’).

Anne Francis (September 16, 1930 – January 2, 2011) was perfectly cast as Honey West. Her movie breakthrough arrived with Forbidden Planet (1956) one of the first colour, big-budget, science-fiction-themed motion pictures. In the 1960s she made the transition into television appearing in a large number of popular series. However, her signature role remained Honey West.

The thirty episodes of Honey West were written by various writers including Richard Levinson and William Link, creators of Columbo. They wrote three episodes, including the series finale. The main writers were husband and wife team Gwen Bagni and Paul Dubov who wrote ten episodes and co-developed the series.

Gwen Bagni and Paul Dubov wrote episode three, “The Abominable Snowman”. The plot centred on cocaine being smuggled inside snow globes, and is one of the earliest references in popular TV culture to cocaine as “snow”.

This comic book addition to the Honey West canon is a curiosity in that some of the scenes are sexually explicit taking the innuendo implied in the TV series, and certainly in the novels, to another level. The drawings vary in quality and Honey is based on Anne Francis. 

Honey West appeared in many formats, including a radio play, but I reckon the TV series was the best.