Guest Who: "Chrysler" Billing!

If you're like me, you know almost nothing about the show I'm about to provide pictures from. Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theater aired from 1963-1967 and thereafter was only seen in occasional reruns.  I was born in 1967, so I certainly never saw it in its initial run and it never came my way in syndicated repeats either. So it's all new to me. Each week, Bob Hope would briefly introduce a (usually) hour-long story, featuring skilled, well-known performers in a contained story. Sadly, the series (brimming over with familiar - and often very famous - stars) has yet to be given any sort of proper home video release. So all there is at this moment are a collection of YouTube uploads of widely-varying quality, most quite horrible... One can only imagine how wonderful the participants would look if seen in crisp, cleaned-up copies of the installments.

Though it sounds bizarre to have a legendary comedian introducing often-gripping tales of suspense and deep drama, Hope was so popular that it must have seemed a good gamble. He made a small fortune filming the intros (and was VERY handsomely paid for the ones in which he acted himself!) Every so often, in between airings of Chrysler Theater, a splashy Hope special would occupy the time slot. I'm about to take you through a photo essay of some of the names and faces that stood out to me as I recently took the ten-cent tour of this program. All of the episodes featured are easily found on YouTube, so I'm not going to link them directly. You may (or may not) wish to check them out yourself.

Lauren Bacall, the widow and costar of Humphrey Bogart in some classic films, popped up in a 1965 episode.

It was unusual to see Bacall with an up-do like this as she was far better known to have a bob with a wave coming down one side.

Turns out she was playing a dual-role (which merited a fair amount of media coverage at the time.) Bacall had done Sex and the Single Girl (1964) and would soon film Harper (1966), though she'd been making a handful of TV appearances in the prior couple of years. This would mark her last foray in scripted TV, though, until a 1979 episode of The Rockford Files. 

 

Just this one episode provides a whole gallery of favorite faces. As Bacall's mother, we have a grayed-up Fay Wray, who I adore.

 

Do you know this cutie, wrapped in a towel?

That's Poseidon's Underworld favorite and former Miss America Lee Meriwether, just before becoming a regular on The Time Tunnel.

We're always happy to see glorious Diane McBain.

And then last, but not least, Miss Zsa Zsa Gabor. And that's only some of the women in the episode. Maverick's Jack Kelly was the lead (and even Tom Poston appears, too.)

One of our favorites, Hugh O'Brian, made a few appearances on CT, though his then-arresting physique was kept under wraps. (You'll recall, or if you don't, you'd better check it out, his skimpy turn in Love Has Many Faces, 1965, around this same time!)

This pic is from an earlier appearance. Can you recognize his young costar?

That would be Joey Heatherton, sporting the usual pouty snarl that was her trademark at the time.

How 'bout this platinum blonde gal-pal in the same episode?

 

Does this expression help at all?

This is frequent TV guest star Ellen McRae before she later emerged as Oscar-winning actress Ellen Burstyn.

Pretty Suzanne Pleshette showed up on CT.

The years during which this show aired comprise much of what is my favorite era for female hair, makeup and clothing, so very often the women look terrific.

Look who showed up as Suzie's male costar! It's recent profile subject Stanley Baker.

He's cocky, athletic and brazen, coming into her bathroom while she's soaking. 

He even places his foot upon the edge of her tub.

One of my favorite actresses ever to appear on the planet figured heavily in this installment. She played a distraught widow, holding police detectives Tige Andrews (later of The Mod Squad) and Jack Kelly hostage.

It's Miss Lee Grant!

This one is a "can't miss" for fans of hers as she runs the gamut and in some ways recalls the atmosphere of her film debut Detective Story (1951) and even In the Heat of the Night (1967.)

She was fresh off her Emmy-winning work on Peyton Place and was diving in whole-hog to the screen acting opportunities that had been denied her during the McCarthy era blacklist.

You'll see a number of "eyes closed" shots of the gals in this post because I loved the way many of them applied their makeup at this time.

Her Peyton Place and Valley of the Dolls (1967) costar Barbara Parkins seemed a bit derisive over Grant virtually always wearing a wig, but... this was a look that really suited her. Whenever I see a Lee Grant project from the mid-'60s to the early-'80s, I pretty much know I'm going to enjoy her appearance.

Here's an ep we dearly wish was in better viewing condition. It wasn't completely foreign, but nonetheless unusual, to see a little male pulchritude on the show. Here we have a college student/track star trying to balance his life.

Said student was played by physique model turned actor Glenn Corbett.

Maybe I need to go back to school (although at this point I'd be more like Rodney Dangerfield in Back to School, 1986! LOL) because Corbett is given a hand getting dressed by one of his handsome dorm-mates.

Corbett had earlier served as George Maharis' replacement for the final season of Route 66, but that show was in black & white. Here we got to see his handsome features in color.

Incidentally, he had a glamorous girlfriend in the ep played by starlet Joanne Medley. Can you imagine? A fur stole for college date night?!

You may have already thought it, but, yes, Corbett was hardly the correct age for a college student. He was 33 (!) at the time. They've apparently tried to disguise a tattoo he got as a U.S. Navy Seabee as a dirt smudge?

But he was still in good condition.

Norman Fell has a guest in his office whose appearance may startle you.

It's Janet Leigh, sporting a pretty short 'do.

Leigh had a tendency when playing comedy to bug her eyes out.

In this episode, less heavily dramatic than many of the others, she reluctantly marries Peter Falk in order to resolve tax situations of theirs.

Almost a decade later, Leigh would star in one of Falk's Columbo mysteries.

I've mentioned this before in the comments of some of my older posts, but even though this era was one of HEAVY eye makeup, I somehow much prefer it to the somewhat similar styles now in vogue. I think the combination of really bad eyebrows and all the fillers/Botox that are prevalent now just give many performers an unappealing look...

Does this bride look at all familiar to you?

This is yet another of our faves, Miss Vera Miles. It is very atypical to see her with hair such as this!

These scenes are part of a flashback (to her married life with Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) Her eyes are filmed to look so dark here!

In her closeup, we can better recognize them.

As the tale's time-line progresses and her look shifts, she begins to resemble the Miles we know and love.

One can usually count on some dramatic waves of hair from Nancy Kovak and here (with Jeffrey Hunter) she doesn't disappoint.

Later, during a dress fitting, she sports an unusual (for her) up do.

There are worse ways to earn a paycheck than canoodling with Hunter on set...!

In this show, he plays a con man, which is a departure from his typically forthright and even heroic parts.

This is one of his potential targets... Recognize the nun?

It's Sally Kellerman! In six years, she'd bring Hot Lips O'Hoolihan to life in M*A*S*H (1970.) Star Trek fans may enjoy seeing Hunter, who starred in the series first pilot, and Kellerman, who was a guest in the second pilot, working together here.

Seen here is actor Stephen Boyd, famed for his work as Messala in Ben-Hur (1959.)

After this appearance, it would be 13 years before he acted on American TV again. He spent the interim starring in a long string of international movies.

Boyd often had a weathered look to him, even in his early 30s as here, but with good lighting, as in his closeup, his appearance could be softened.

The aforementioned Peter Falk had a different love interest in this installment.

Many of you will have recognized movie actress and episodic TV stalwart Diane Baker.

You'd never know to look at it, but this love story takes place during WWII! It has all the period detail of, say, 1967 - the year it was made....!

Note the period hat on Baker's work associate. It couldn't be any more 1960s. Do you know the actress, though?

It's Miss Arlene Dahl!

I don't know if the overly-expressive Dahl was gunning for Lucille Ball's job or what...

She parades through the episode in a wide variety of eye-popping get-ups.

The colorful actress certainly kept one's attention.

Such care was taken then to ensure that an actress's hair framed her face and made for interesting angles. Just like the earlier Lee Grant, Baker found a basic style that very much suited her and kept it for some time.

The gal on the left here was not known for twirling up dos, but as part of the story line, she begins the show with one.

It's Miss Carol Lynley. She plays a girl living in the whirl of the big city who opts to head back to small town, beach-side, living.

Lynley's glacial, doll-like beauty is featured in loving closeup.

Of course, sulking on screen was one of her trademarks...!

One of her love interests in the program was Robert Wagner, looking a little rougher around the edges than he typically did at this time.

It's fun for a disaster movie aficionado like me to see future stars from The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and The Towering Inferno (1974) playing opposite one another.

Also on hand, as Lynley's rather tawdry mother, is Lola Albright, with a close-cropped hairstyle.

Later on, she's given a dressier sequence than the first one, which has her only in that blue robe.

The episode featured another one of our favorites, James Franciscus.

As much as we adore him, we prefer projects of his that include wearing fewer articles of clothing! Ha ha!

With apologies to Ryan Gosling, when it comes to Ken dolls, this would be my own preference...!

Here we find Mr. Perma-tan George Hamilton.

Channel-surfers could be forgiven if they briefly thought they'd stumbled upon some long-forgotten project of his and future date-mate Elizabeth Taylor, but they would be wrong...

His costars is one of Taylor's old castmates from Little Women (1949), Margaret O'Brien. She's got Liz's violet clothing and her same basic hair!

It's not unusual for child actors to falter as they grow up into adulthood. Only a select few really make it big time as grownups. O'Brien was such a popular and renowned kiddo that it's surprising that she really never caught on to any great degree as a woman. 

I didn't exactly detect electric chemistry flying off the screen between Hamilton and her. In this shot, she's gone for a different hairstyle, a popular choice of that time.

Just two years before his highly-successful show Hawaii 5-O, Jack Lord worked on CT. (He did three in all.) The Irish Catholic Lord was cast as assistant district attorney named Abraham Lincoln Perez! Though it was certainly difficult to readily spot, Lord did have some Spanish ancestry in his genes.

Cast opposite him as an old (and very wealthy) girlfriend on trial for murder was the lovely Dana Wynter.

Wynter's icy reserve worked well for the "Did she or didn't she?" aspect of the story.

I actually suspected that Wynter was older than Lord, but in reality she was 11 years his junior...!

Also on hand for this one was former platinum sexpot Sheree North as Lord's weary secretary. 

Hollywood chewed up blonde starlets and spit them out like garbage, but North emerged as a very skilled actress over time. She did well here (and I liked her look, seemingly patterned after Peyton Place's Dorothy Malone.)

Lastly, we come upon a pair of unlikely lovers on the beach.

Are you ready for Captain Kirk and Mrs. Partridge?! William Shatner and a brunette Shirley Jones.

 

 

This is but one example of the rare and unique combinations of stars who appeared together on Chrysler Theater. I've long been intrigued by the combinations that come up in various TV and movie projects.

Jones was only very rarely seen with dark hair like this, much less teased up into a bouffant bun.

On that score, note this publicity still which I just found and belatedly added to this post on 10/4/23!

Shat was at or near the peak of his handsomeness. This was in 1964, just two years before he became Kirk in the career (and, for him, life) changing series Star Trek.

Fans of his will want to see this as he spends a certain chunk of the episode in a tight little swimsuit. Again, for this and other instances, we WISH this program was available in better condition.

Though even this example isn't pristine, it shows to a degree how great the program would look if it were shown in it's original splendor. This is marvelous Dina Merrill with soon-to-be husband Cliff Robertson (who won an Emmy for this appearance.) They met during this!

And with that, Glenn Corbett and his tattoo and I bid you adios, till next time!