Poseidon Quickie: This Really Took Some Balls...

Eight years ago (really that long?!) I did a little tribute to the rather obscure 1970s game/sport show Celebrity Bowling. Some of the photos from that post were snapped off my kitchen TV (!) and, thus, the quality was extremely poor. Thanks to the ever-inviting Tubi, many of the shows episodes are now available for viewing (free with ads) and they are easier on the eyes (and in some ways more revealing.)  Seen here is host Jed Allan, who always talked up that episodes foursome of guest bowlers (and the woman just behind him certainly seems thrilled...!) 

I actually bought a DVD eight years ago with quite a few installments of this show on it, but was dismayed that it didn't include the one shown here. On the left are Julie London and her husband Bobby Troup from Emergency! On the right we have Chuck Woolery and his wife JoAnn Pflug. Right from the get-go I could see a hint that I was going to like these jeans on Chuck. (My original caps were so blurry I mistook them for slacks!)

Lantern-jawed Woolery was cute as could be and, though they eventually split, he and Pflug made an attractive couple.

At this time, Woolery was best known for his work as the host of the original Wheel of Fortune. His letter turner was Susan Stafford and together they got the ball rolling on a show that remains a huge hit even now. (Albeit, this was the daytime show. The enduring version is the syndicated program which began in 1983.)

Handsome, genial, rubber-faced Woolery was popular with fans (the show had a 44 share!), but departed in 1981 when salary requests that he felt were comparable with the ratings (and with other well-paid hosts' salaries) weren't met.

Thankfully, he landed on his feet before too long. He hosted the popular dating show Love Connection, which ran for eleven seasons. The easily-tickled host won over a whole new raft of fans with this show and continued on to various other game shows thereafter like Scrabble, Greed and Lingo.

But back to the matter at hand... I could not believe my eyes when I finally got a good look at this episode of Bowling from 1975.

Typically clad in suits for Wheel, he showed up for the day in the most eye-popping faded jeans fathomable.

As I say, this took some balls... Ha ha ha!

Sometimes it difficult to choose between looking at that smiling face or the skin-tight torque of those trousers...!

He was in good form that afternoon.

He surely did better than my beloved Lee Meriwether, who went ass-over-tit down the lane during one of her turns on the show...!!! LOL

Till next time!

Poseidon Quickies: Summer Swim Meet

Every conceivable roadblock or let-down has gotten in the way of my posting as much as I would prefer, but in the meantime I give you a brief foray into summer fun. Just a few photos and two photo collections. Not much, I concede, but you may enjoy what there is. In this pic at right is Mr. Rock Hudson, showing costar Gina Lollobrigida some water-skiing moves during downtime on Come September (1963), which was filmed in part on the Italian Riviera. It's, um, what's between Hudson's legs that is the most eye-popping part of the photo, and I don't mean his clingy trunks...!  Perhaps a patient pal of his, awaiting his turn with the star once Lollo was finished? 

This pic (taken during his physical peak around the time of Staying Alive, 1983) features John Travolta in a minuscule white swimming brief.

Sometimes a still photo or lobby card will contain a visual that leads me to seek out the movie in question. This blog is littered with examples of this. Recently, I saw a card for a rather obscure movie called Five Finger Exercise (1962) and realized I just HAD to watch the movie. This is the photo that caught my eye (for obvious reasons...) -- 

The promise of Austrian hunk Maximilian Schell in a pale, snug swimsuit on the beach was altogether too much to resist.

You can imagine my abject horror when I located the movie and settled in to watch it only to find out the hard way that the photo I saw much have been one taken during a run-through... The finished scene in the film had Schell dressed like this! --

False Advertising! I want my money back...

It doesn't usually take a lot of convincing for me to watch any vintage movie that takes place around a pool or at the beach. There just always seems to be the potential for some charming beefcake or some eye-catching swimwear. Thus, I tuned in to A Swingin' Summer (1965) to see what its star James Stacy was up to. (And also to catch Raquel Welch in a very early role.) However, when it came to revealing trunks, it was lower-billed Michael Blodgett (the blond seen in the pic here on the right) who offered up more of it.

As one of several beach buddies of Stacy's (he's far right), Blodgett sports some very adherent green swim-trunks.

You might recall Blodgett from a variety of cult-ish projects from the mid-'60s to the early-'70s including The Trip (1967), The Velvet Vampire (1971) and The Carey Treatment (1972), but undoubtedly his most notable credit was Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970.)

The reason he and his buddies are laughing here is that Stacy has crept up behind a long-haired lovely on the shore and attempted to make his move, only to find out that it's a guy with long hair! Blodgett ultimately turned to writing for a living and was married for five years to Meredith Baxter prior to her coming out. He passed away of a heart attack in 2007 of a heart attack at age 68.

Lastly, we have another movie that I was drawn to due to a still photo taken on set. Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation (1962.) I enjoy Maureen O'Hara enough to have checked it out sooner or later anyway, but with John Saxon (seen here with on-screen wife Lili Gentle) and Fabian around it seemed promising. 

In the course of the story, Saxon (sporting a cute li'l beach cover up) joins star James Stewart out in the sand and become acquainted with curvaceous Valerie Varda.

In a flash, he's shucking his cover up to reveal a skimpy black swimsuit.

At first, Varda doesn't take particular notice...

...but she comes around soon enough.

Before you know it, they are frolicking during private play-dates at the beach!

And who can blame her?!

Eventually, he has to be guilted into resuming his duties as a husband and father.

Thankfully this time there was no "bait & switch" in the movie's advertising. We were promised John Saxon in an abbreviated swimsuit and that it what we got! 

Designer Double-Dip: Bye Bye Bewitched!

Most of us of a certain generation were reared on endless reruns of the popular sitcom Bewitched, which enjoyed its initial run from 1964-1972. Among many of those viewers, any episode with Uncle Arthur is usually a particular treat. Amazingly, though he is often associated with the role and the show, Paul Lynde only showed up as Arthur ten times out of the 254 episodes broadcast! (He also had a one-time role early on as a frazzled driving instructor.) In the 1966 episode "Twitch or Treat" (season three, episode seven), Lynde is on hand with star Elizabeth Montgomery as her mother decides she is going to throw a Halloween party for various witches and warlocks... in Montgomery's living room!

Montgomery's mother, played flamboyantly by the marvelous Miss Agnes Moorehead, transforms her daughter and son-in-law's home into a colorful party room with flowing drapes and a fog-producing fountain.

That evening at the soiree, Moorehead sports a jeweled brooch in her hair and a funky, '60s, Pucci ensemble.

In attendance with her ever-tormented husband Dick York, Montgomery is sporting an unusual hairstyle for the occasion.

Her sleek, strapless gown is also rather unusual for the series and she looks quite elegant alongside the men in their tuxedos.

The passed hors d'oeurve are meted out by an invisible helpmate!

But you know we're here for reasons other than that. Take the couple dancing behind this floating tray of champagne saucers...

When we're able to score a closer look, the gentleman is clad all in gold lamé with a sort of East-Indian style hat atop his head.

The guy is not featured within the episode, but appears from time to time (badly) dancing in the background as the episode unfolds. The get-up that he's wearing, regardless of the ethnic headgear, has nothing at all to do with India or anyplace like it.

The outfit first saw the light of day a few years prior when it was featured in Bye Bye Birdie (1963), a movie musical which also happened to costar Lynde!

The title character, Conrad Birdie, was portrayed by Jesse Pearson. Upon his arrival in town, he proceeds to sing, bump & grind his way around the courthouse steps and grounds, thrilling his fans and causing the ladies to wilt in their high heels.

Here Ann-Margret, who's been chosen to receive a kiss from him on national television, gazes at her object of affection.

Pearson had played this role during the national tour of the stage version. Though to the naked eye there may not appear to be too tremendous a difference between them...

...there's no way that Pearson could begin to compare with the Broadway Birdie, my beloved Dick Gautier, if you were to ask me (which no one did! Ha ha!)

As seen here, the costume had a monogrammed belt, which was not used, for obvious reasons, for the background extra on Bewitched. Pearson was not able to sustain a movie career and after working for a while in television guest roles he ultimately began writing X-rated scripts, even directing one, before developing cancer and passing away at only 49.

In this pic, you can see that his outfit came with matching gloves. He wore them for his arrival in town, which was on a motorcycle.

In the photo above, you can see that our party guest has Pearson's gloves folded and hanging over his brown belt/sash. (In the very first pics of him, he's wearing them. Must've gotten hot under the lights after a while...!)

Still later in the episode, Moorehead is attempting to deliver a Halloween poem. Just behind her, Not Not Birdie has now removed his hat! Now he's displaying a head of hair not unlike that which could've been seen on Pearson or Gautier. Unfortunately for Moorehead, Lynde keeps interrupting her oration with a bunch of ad-libbed wisecracks so she finally can't take anymore and exacts her revenge...

Lynde is turned into the centerpiece of the fountain and even has a pigeon resting on his noggin...! And with that, this truly is bye, bye birdie, till next time!