Friday, September 3, 2021

Fun Finds: TV Radio Mirror, October 1975

This Fun Find is almost a Poseidon Quickie because, as I went to scan it, I found that the original owner had torn out some of the color pages (pinups!) and cut out coupons, etc...! But I went ahead with what was left in the interest of sharing the occasional bit of pop culture within its pages. The cover of this magazine was to me rather startling for a 1975 grocery store rag. Adrienne Barbeau looks like she's posing for the cover of Penthouse Pet or something! The owner of this mag must have rolled it up and beat the family house cat with it, it was so damaged (or who knows what he was beating! LOL), but I tried to clean it up a little. I also removed as much of the mailing label as I could so that we could see Sally Struthers' face a teensy bit better in her two-piece getup. Ahhh, the problems we face... Now on we go!

Lord, the whole Sonny & Cher breakup and their subsequent relationships, marriages, etc... were big tabloid fodder back in the day. Then there was the severing of their TV show partnership, with individual series to follow, then back together again, rather uneasily!

Sadly, one of the pages removed must have been a large pic of Cher.

Hands up if you know who Diana Trask is... I had never heard of her in my life! The Australian jazz vocalist-turned-country singer had already at the time of this magazine seen her last Top 40 country hits. Returning to her homeland in the late-'70s, she was caretaker to her husband who'd suffered a stroke. There were married close to 50 years until his death. She's still alive today at 81.

The gal in-between David Soul and Paul Michael Glaser is actress Lynne Marta, who appeared on Starsky & Hutch three times. She and Soul had an "open relationship." An unfortunate footnote with regards to her is that she is the person who heard the shots and called the police when fellow actress and apartment neighbor Rebecca Schaeffer was killed by an obsessed fan. Rock Hudson's "nude" scene was very dimly lit, from the rear and brief. And I'm sorry, but from what I've seen recently of Telly Savalas' singing, those patrons had one looonnng night ahead of them!

Nancy Marchand had to wait until Lou Grant to make a real name for herself. Tony Curtis was not able to make McCoy a success. But he did later pop up on several Vega$ installments. And Lee Grant's concerns over Fay only grew worse! Barry Manilow and vague lookalike Wesley Eure hangin' out... Someone tell!

Randolph Mantooth didn't marry until 1978. Helen Reddy neither had, nor adopted, any more children. Bruce Fairbairn spent two seasons on The Rookies, followed by a healthy amount of guest roles on other series up through the early-'90s, yet doesn't have a single photo - even a profile one! - on imdb.com. I don't know how, but I had no clue that Clifton Davis wrote the oft-recorded "Never Can Say Goodbye." In 1979, Beau and Lloyd Bridges would appear together in the negligible The Fifth Musketeer.

Check out Loretta Swit's "Hot Lips!" Here, we get a decent glimpse of Sally Struthers in her outfit.

I had to chuckle at the "Unsuspecting Viewer" suddenly being turned on by these "bad girls" of the small screen... I can only guess what the people who objected to these ladies would make of today's television landscape...!

You know, I still have yet to see Upstairs, Downstairs (or Downton Abbey for that matter!) But I've always liked Jean Marsh, who's still with us today at 87.

For the record, Bill Hudson married Goldie Hawn in 1976 (and is Kate Hudson's dad), which lasted until 1980. Once the divorce was final, he wed Cindy Williams in 1982, divorcing in 2000. Brett married only once, in 1992, and it's still going. Mark was married once, from 1979-1985. The "zany" singer-comedians were nephews (by marriage) of actor Keenan Wynn, who wed their paternal aunt in 1954.

Mr. Beradino lived 21 years past this article, so he did at least get to see these two children grown. (Two prior girls had been born earlier during his first marriage. Despite what this article says, they divorced. It was a second wife who died! Marjorie was his third.)


Say what you will about the way it went down, but at least the Peter Simon/Courtney Sherman union is still going even today! Ryan's Hope was noted for the quality of its acting when it was in its hey-day. Wesley Eure made no movies at all until 1978. I'm not so sure that Peg Murray was "starring opposite" Burt Reynolds in W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (1975)! She had a role in it...

Get a load of George Reinholt's open shirt. Long live 1975! Ha ha!

"No man can replace Jeff Hunter"...God, I should think not! I just love him. And I really could never quite picture him with Nurse Jessie. Hunter died of a massive cerebral hemorrhage only months after he and Emily McLaughlin wed. He'd been injured by a stunt gone wrong while filming a movie in Europe (and had also suffered another head injury just after!) A tendency toward drinking in those last years didn't help matters.


Just as trivia, the reporter who penned this story is pictured with Jamie Lyn Bauer three photos back. Jeanne Cooper played all sorts of roles in movies and on TV before becoming a daytime TV icon as Kay Chancellor on The Young and the Restless (a role that only came to a halt upon her death in 2013 at 84.)

Readers of a certain age could never forget her son Corbin Bersen, who made a huge splash on L.A. Law. He's the one in the t-shirt that says "FUN" on it.

Band leader and pioneering TV icon Ozzie Nelson died on June 3, 1975. He and his wife of 40 years were the stars of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet and their two sons, David and Ricky emerged as stars in their own right.

Ozzie was, as opposed to his laid-back image, a rather controlling workaholic. He was busy up to 1973 when malignant liver tumors plagued him.

Ricky acted and enjoyed a considerable career in music. David acted, but did more directing and producing than Ricky.

The family legacy continued on with actress Tracy Nelson and the music duo Nelson.

You really have to hand it to Ron Howard and his wife. I mean, he was raised in crazy Tinseltown and yet his one marriage (to his high school sweetheart) has lasted from 1975 to this day. Many other men who went on to the sort of considerable success he's had, primarily as a director, have later offloaded their initial spouse for another model!

Neat that Howard's old costars from The Andy Griffith Show, Don Knotts and Mr. Griffith, could be there on the big day.

"Who loves ya, baby?"

George Savalas appeared in all but 3 episodes of his older brother's show Kojak. He died of leukemia in 1985 at age 60. Telly passed away in 1994 at age 72 of bladder cancer, the same disease that took their father.

Sally Struthers married only once. In 1977 she wed psychiatrist William Rader, with whom she had a daughter, but it was kaput by 1983.

I never mention it, but I happen to really love The Drowning Pool! It's considered by many to be inferior to its predecessor Harper (1966), but I have trouble turning it off if I come across it. And even though I wish it were a little raunchier (after all, the poster shows two nude lovers on it!), I adore the deliciously bad Once is Not Enough!

I close with this PERTinent information. God only knows who all sent in $10.00 to get a rack like this gal...

::::Bonus Pics::::

There can NEVER be enough Jeffrey Hunter. I think he is such a seriously underrated actor and example of male beauty. Those eyes! He had a pretty considerable movie career, but nonetheless is mostly remembered for playing Jesus in King of Kings (1961) and for being the initial starship captain in Star Trek's first pilot. But I nearly always enjoy seeing him in virtually anything he did. Since this Fun Find was relatively short, I'll fill out the post with some portraits of Mr. H.

Gussied up in costume for Princess of the Nile (1954.) (No, he was PRINCE Haidi!)

Hunter wanted badly to play Mike Brady on The Brady Bunch, but Sherwood Schwartz didn't think an architect would be that handsome...! (After all the battles with Robert Reed, I wonder if he ever reconsidered his position.)

Even dirty, those eyes stood out.

No Man is an Island (1962) - Hey, I'd have gone to one with him.

At, perhaps, his peak of beauty.


11 comments:

BryonByronWhatever said...

Totally agree, there can NEVER be enough Jeffrey Hunter! Keep up the great work.

Dov said...

Star Trek would have been vastly different if Jeff Hunter had signed on to play the Captain for three years.

hsc said...

Jeffrey Hunter is *always* a treat!

And so is even *part* of one of these vintage mags you dig up! I particularly enjoy having my memory jogged by the junky ads in them.

In this case, the ad for the Mark Eden bustline developer, which was a chintzy, pink plastic clamshell sort of thing with a big coil spring between the halves.

You squeezed the thing closed and it built up your pecs, which were supposed to get so big they boosted your boobs out further.

(Or at least it would in theory, because it never really had enough resistance to build much of anything.

And even if it had, your boobs wouldn't have looked like the model in those ads, anyway. Your chest would've looked like a guy with pecs topped with little gyno moobs.)

You can actually find the original vintage Mark Eden gadgets for sale on various sites; Google it for a chuckle.


But it's not nearly as crazy as the "Beauti-Breast" system Joe Weider was hawking around the same time-- which was a sort of basket-shaped "hydrodynamic" doohickey with an attached hose that you attached to a faucet.

You then placed it over your undersized mammary to spray it with little jets of water that came out of holes in the basket when you turned on the tap. Somehow, spraying them with water was supposed to stimulate them and make them grow.

(Since you were probably doing this in the shower, anyway, you'd think you could do as much good just by holding your boobs under the shower spray.)

Like Dame Anna Russell describing the Ring Cycle, I am NOT making any of this up:

https://facty.mblycdn.com/uploads/fh/2019/09/6a00d8341c8c6253ef00e54f28a8318834-800wi-1.jpg


I also enjoyed the spread on Jeanne Cooper, with an early peek at future TV sex symbol Corbin Bersen, ironic for the theme of the issue.

But between Corbin's "FUN" days and L.A. LAW was an appearance in J.C. Penney catalogs-- modeling work clothes!


Great fun post as always, Poseidon!

SonofaBuck said...

Gotta echo the Jeffrey Hunter love. Oh how I would have viewed The Brady Bunch differently had he been cast! Florence Henderson must have been livid.

A said...

Hi Poseidon,

Really enjoyed this post. Those magazines contained so much stuff. I remember first noticing Jeanne Cooper on The Young and the Restless (I had afternoon job and I'd watch when I was getting ready for work. Then I noticed her on Perry Mason - she was on five times!

Jeffery Hunter is always great to see.

Thanks again!

rigs-in-gear said...

I love your taking us with you down these pop-culture rabbit holes. As for Mr. Hunter, Myra Breckinridge said it best, how could the actual Christ have possessed the radiance of Jeffrey Hunter in King of Kings? As for the Bernsen brothers, I always liked Collin (who looks to be channeling Farrah in the photo). He did a lot of erotic thrillers in the 90's.

Poseidon3 said...

Hello loves. I am remiss yet again with my responses to all your comments. This latest fun wrinkle is that workers from my city managed to dig into the ground and sever the connection to my home wi-fi! So I ahve no laptop, no smart TV and so on... Fun.

BryonByron, I'm glad you like Jeff as I do! Thanks!

Dov, I've often wondered if it would have soared or sunk without The Shat doing his thing. His theatrics are an easy target for ridicule, but he was very invested in his performance and was a more vivid presence overall than the more sedate Mr. Hunter. Hard to say...!

hsc, thanks for the extra info (padding? lol) on Mark Eden and his device. That's a scream about the "Beauti-Breast." Almost sounds like a lesbian version of Beauty and the Beast. LOL I appreciate it.

SonofaBuck, isn't that funny how Sherwood Schwartz had a preconceived idea that architects couldn't be handsome? Wasn't Paul Newman one in "The Towering Inferno?!" I didn't think Robert Reed was UNattractive. He ended up hating that gig so much, he probably would have happily done something else (even though, ironically, it's almost all he's remembered for now!)

A, I have such memories of Jeanne Cooper on "The Big Valley." Once very mousey, but another time a real shrew and fascinating to watch. I was viewing that ep one time and my mother was in the kitchen behind me. Jeanne was so venomously angry at her husband and began screaming, "Half a man! HALF A MAN!" and I said, "Hey mom, how did you get on TV?" LOLOL She did not see the humor....

rigs-in-gear, Hunter caught so much heat over Jesus. It was the first time JC's face was shown clearly and for a prolonged time. Tough gig. I thought he was fine. I always enjoy watching the movie in any case for Rita Gam's OTT theatrics and the costumes. Somehow Hunter just couldn't ever seem to catch a break...! Thanks!!

Unknown said...

As always I appreciate your work. I love any posts about Jeffery Hunter. To me he was one of the literal trinity (not including the many runners-up) of gorgeous teevee males: Hunter, Robert Conrad, and Van Williams.

Startlingly handsome and talented but what bad luck. Also I always wondered: "Emily McLaughlin?" But if the poor soul had problem with drink, she had that steely-eyed look that could handle him.

I also have one snarky comment: did Andy Griffin get the suit he wore to the Howard wedding at Ronald Raygun's garage sale?

Poseidon3 said...

Unknown, thanks for the compliment. We have pretty similar taste in '60s men, it seems. Of course, Clint Walker is my main one, but the others you cite have been paid tribute here many times. I had to chuckle over Andy's suit. Maybe I didn't study it enough, but it didn't seem markedly hideous to me! Then again, my taste in everything else pales in comparison to my taste in TV and movie hunks. ha ha ha!!

FoxVerde said...

izzy mandelbaum from seinfeld (with all his macho headgames...) was in the bottom picture of page 7!

David Kenilworth said...


Trivia:

Eleanor Parker's last film was "Dead on the Money"

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101671/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

featuring Corbin Bernsen.

Corbin Bernsen was the son of Jeanne Cooper, who played Grace Douglas on Bracken's World, which starred Eleanor Parker as Sylvia Caldwell in the first season for 16 episodes (credit only in the episode "The Stunt").