Monday, February 20, 2017

Pop Quiz: Happy Presidents' Day

Can you guess the Presidents and the performers depicting them in this photo from the 1979 miniseries Backstairs at the White House? I got the better part of the performers, but I'm afraid I had almost no inkling of which Prez and First Lady was which....! Never fear, the second, smaller photo has the caption with all the answers. Be back soon!

3 comments:

Gingerguy said...

LOL Lee Grant doesn't look very period there, it looks like she is doing "Lee Grant" love her!

joel65913 said...

I LOVED this miniseries!!! The book was excellent as well. It’s been a while though since I’ve seen it but I’m going to take a whack at this without looking at the cheat sheet to see how I do.

Victor Buono & Julie Harris as Howard & Helen Taft
Robert Vaughn & Claire Bloom as Woodrow & Edith Wilson
George Kennedy & Celeste Holm as Warren & Florence Harding
Ed Flanders & Lee Grant as Calvin & Grace Coolidge
Larry Gates* & Jan Sterling* as Herbert & Lou Hoover
John Anderson* & Eileen Heckart as FDR & Eleanor Roosevelt
Harry Morgan & Estelle Parsons as Harry & Bess Truman
Andrew Duggan* & Barbara Barrie as Dwight & Mamie Eisenhower

*-missed

Okay so I did pretty well, just missed four. Now that I see it was Jan Sterling I can’t believe I didn’t realize but the others are the kind of fine actors that you say “I love that guy…what the hell is his name again?”

Very fun!!

Poseidon3 said...

Ginge, at least Lee doesn't have the full-on, blown out feathered 'do she often sported during this period! She's at least a teensy bit matted down for authenticity's sake. LOLOL

Joel, you did amazingly well, especially in identifying the Presidents & First Ladies! I failed to recognize Celeste Holm (!) and I often have trouble coming up with Ed Flanders' name (somehow always wanting to say Richard Dysart, even when I know it isn't he! Ha!) I also had trouble with Larry Gates and had no idea that was Jan Sterling... You know, '60s & '70s TV had this fraternity of supporting actors/guest actors whose very names were distinctive and unusual... think Malachi Throne, Salome Jens or Nehemiah Persoff. The leads would have marquee-friendly names like Robert Horton, Raymond Burr, Clint Walker or Gene Barry and then the guests names would be so eye-catching! Thanks for playing.