Old TV: Blake Edwards and Bond

 

It's the second Sunday of the month, so we're taking a break from audio to cover the second topic of this blog, the Old TV Guys and Gals who can be found, pending recognition, at your local internet aggregator.

Even after a lifetime of spotting these characters, a routine dip into archival television can yield one or two faces, still unnamed, recognizable on the fringes but barely acknowledged- up to now.

I was watching Billy Wilder's The Fortune Cookie for maybe the tenth time, and realized I'd seen that TV director before-

Maybe some flash of recognition, from him being cranky?  Have I seen this guy getting mad?  Maybe even playing a TV or movie director?  Being really irate at somebody?

Well, yes-

Herb Ellis, as the irate movie director in Blake Edwards The Party.  A look at Mr Ellis's resume made me surprised I hadn't caught his name before, in the last 60-some years; he started in 1950 and was regularly on the programs I watched from infancy. 

I think it's because he belongs to a special class of Old TV Guys, who possess a mastery of obscurity.  A few weeks ago, I discussed Tony Regan, the silent bystander in scores, hundreds of productions.  Mr Regan is an exemplar of the craft, but the industry is full of actors who could modulate their sparkle down to a dull glow, and pass basically unrecognized for their entire careers.

It's not quite the same group of actors who, while also playing secondary (or lower) characters, stand out and sometimes rise into full-fledged celebrity- the Burt Mustins and Katie Freemans, instantly recognizable, adeptly playing the same character each time.  

This group is almost as anonymous as the ones who never speak.  It's their faces that stand out, and a director who casts for faces will usually find interesting ones for these jobs- interesting to us because of where else we might have seen them,

Another Blake Edwards' film of that era, A Shot in the Dark, has a few of these guys, who turn up, farther in the background, in James Bond films.  (Of all places.)

Cato (Burt Kwouk)

is the Chinese Guy in Goldfinger

 

The Butler

is also in Goldfinger, Mr Solo of Chicago-

And the desk clerk at the nudist colony

is some sort of government expert in Thunderball.

Also, the second butler is in an Avengers episode, but now that's really getting obscure. My point is, I've seen all these films many times.  It might seem like there's no surprises.  But these are all recognitions I've caught only in the last few years.  There's always, it seems, more to be made.  Keep watching the Shows.

Audio Fractals

 

(3:55)  A fractal is an image made up of copies of itself.  Not sure how that applies to audio.  Maybe it happens on this piece but I suspect not.  

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America's Musical Frontier Heritage, Part 2

 

(8:09) Continuing to burn through the backlog, as we seek a self-sustaining creative process, fired by its own interminable silliness.  (Success isn't assured, but I still trust that, Radio God willing and with enough time and TLC, it will emerge.)

This week's post is another bit which was pulled off the site when I thought a collection was upcoming on Bandcamp.  (The first one is here.)  I don't know how many of these Ken Nordine "Ding!" filmstrip records there are, but rest assured. we will remain watchful.  

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Solstice: "A Text For Nothing"

 

(16:30)  Happy Solstice.  When I was getting today's picture from the Internet, it was accompanied by discussions of what it "means", if you see faces or a vase.  As a symbol of solstice, the two faces pointed in opposite directions are good enough, but the additional commentary, seeking meaning in the merest accident of light and dark, lends the image a poignancy we find in our questions at this time of year- drawn as we are through the needle's eye of the shortest, darkest day.  

This week's piece is an old-fashioned audio collage incorporating Samuel Beckett's "Text For Nothing" with whatever seemed appropriate.  It was originally made four years ago, when I was doing podcasts on this site, and has been brought back by popular demand-- mainly, mine!  

It's kind of an inconclusive, rambling piece, like the text at its core.  The other bit I was looking at for today was a lot shorter and snappier; I'm thinking that might be the general rule here, if we can.  But these longer collages are also part of the audio scene, and will be popping up from time to time.

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The Handler, by Damon Knight

 

(8:18)  That's show biz!

A reading accompanied by music from George Gershwin, Concerto in F.

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Tony Regan: Now You See Him

 

And now, That Guy...in color!

You always have to watch out in this face-spotting game; try to make sure it's who you think it is.  Especially if your comments are going out to some historic forum which may be archived and studied hundreds of years from now.  

(For example, the IMDB's mis-identification of Guy Raymond as an extra on Wild in the Streets (1968)-- that was mine.  I know, now, it was Norm Leavitt.  Sorry about that.  I can't log on and change it.  I hope to make it up with a subsequent series on Telling One Guy From Another Guy.)  (Especially if he's actually named "Guy".)

So I won't say for sure that Man Waving up there (from the Doris Day film, The Thrill of It All) is Tony Regan.  I think he well might be, though.  (Editor's note: the IMDB says it is.)

Anyone acquainted with the Desilu-Universal Studios galaxy of Old TV Guys, which spans this world like the Milky Way, has probably seen Mr Regan a couple dozen times.  I first noticed him as Surprised Diner in Columbo: Now You See Him,

still surprised after watching Jack Cassidy pull the whole thing out of a pocket in his cape.  Like Mike Lally and all the other people sitting back there.  "Did you just see him pull that ashtray out of his cape?  Wow!"

Here he is, tending to Rockford's dad-

 

(dig that room number)

And a few years earlier, as a THRUSH agent in Man From Uncle.

I first tagged him "the Robin McNeil-looking guy", due to his resemblance to the great Canadian newsman.

Precisely because he was so anonymous.  Although the IMDB counts 249 appearances over a 29-year career in movies and TV, 8 or 9 a year,  I'm not sure he ever spoke a word.  Actors like this are extremely hard to identify.  There has to be some kind of cult appeal (a flame I'm hopefully fanning, here).  I gave up expecting to ever know his name.  But thanks to fans.  

According to the IMDB, he was also a casting director.  Nice job for this sort of gig.  Probably a factor in the sheer volume of his work.  But for someone like Mr Regan, who appeared as an assortment of party guests, spectators, butlers, police officers, patrons, pall-bearers and passengers-- he could be basically any kind of non-speaking, clip-art-type of bystander, appearing quickly in the glimmer and then gone.  And you would never say "Who was that guy?", until you'd seen him do it a few dozen times.  Then, you have to ask.  

 

 

 

D-Day Trout

 

(4:21) Late-nite radio foolishness, c 1944.

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