Fun Finds: TV Radio Mirror, January 1976

Okay, kittens... I'm finally back after a lengthy hiatus. Just too, too many things interrupting my usual service to the blog and nothing you'd want to be bored hearing about. After 16 long months, I am now ensconced in the office again. This means I have access to a scanner once more and can share with you some of the Fun Finds I have come across during my time away. Today's find is one of 7 vintage magazines I picked up at a huge flea market for $5.00 total. The cover story on RJ Wagner & Natalie Wood caught my attention. (Oh, and thank you to Mr. Paul Pelasky of Bellefontaine, OH for not throwing this out once he'd read it! Ha)

We start off with a color shot of Miss Valerie Harper of Rhoda fame. If you have the opportunity, I can heartily recommend the Reelz Channel documentary on her: Valerie Harper: Behind Closed Doors.

The story is really more about her husband at the time Richard Schaal. her spouse from 1964-1978, he was appearing on Phyllis at the time (another spin-off of The Mary Tyler Moore Show.) His daughter from a prior marriage, Wendy Schaal, later was disastrously cast on Fantasy Island as Julie, a co-host to Ricardo Montalban.

This 1976 magazine reports friction in the Lee Majors-Farrah Fawcett house, though they remained wed until 1982. Oh Lord, I remember my mother going on and on about how Glen Campbell "stole" Mac Davis' wife! As to the photos, I had no clue that one of the Hee Haw Hager Twins was engaged to Karen Valentine. And for those curious, the man in the bottom photo is the father of one Lenny Kravitz.

This is NOT in the magazine, but it seemed an opportune time to remind everyone that at one point during their Hee Haw hijinks, circa 1973, The Hager Twins posed semi-nude for the centerfold of Playgirl magazine! Ha ha!

Here's a version with the creases and staples removed.

Note that the blurb on Jimmie "J.J." Walker spells his name as "Jimmy" in the text! Lee Grant was not pleased about the cancellation of Fay and publicly referred to NBC's "mad programmer." Critics liked When Things Were Rotten (and I loved it as a 9 year-old!), but it was canned due to ratings after just 13 episodes. Dick Gautier's marriage to Barbara Stuart ended in 1979 after a dozen years. And, hey, those towheads in the bottom photo grew up to become the music act Nelson!

Jack Albertson and Sandra Gould were both in Teacher's Pet (1958) and an episode of Ensign O'Toole, but another connection is that Jack's older sister Mabel played Darren's delightfully cranky mother on Bewitched, Gould's popular show! All photos of Robert Conrad should be shirtless (and many were!) Janet Lennon and her husband did divorce in 1976. She remarried later in the year.

Lloyd Bridges died of natural causes in 1998 at the age of 85. About a decade after this, when she'd remarried another man, Valerie Harper did adopt a daughter. George Peppard, while always maintaining a career, managed to piss off scads of people along the way with his attitude, demeanor and demands.

Some folks ask themselves, "What Would Jesus Do?" I suspect that some of you might be more inclined to ask, "What Would Adrienne Barbeau Do?" and now you know...! LOL

David Janssen's marriage to Dani was a happy one, though the workaholic actor and very heavy smoker dropped dead of a heart attack in 1980 at only age 48.

"Who loves ya, baby?" Yep, this is Telly Savalas, enjoying some fan interaction while on location in New York to film parts of his hit series Kojak.

It never dawned on me that Kojak was principally filmed in L.A. with only some exteriors done in NYC. It seemed very gritty for the time.

I noticed when reading this mag that the profiled celebrities seemed to skew older than we may be used to these days (and for quite some time!) I mean, '40s actor Glenn Ford?! It's a testament to his enduring popularity with readers as he was 60 at this time. And, as you may guess, I prefer to read slightly (?) geezer-ish magazines myself these days like Closer and Remind because at least the subjects of the articles are ones I give a hoot about usually.

Ford, who was married four times in all and banged most every gal of note in Hollywood, did marry Cynthia, his third wife, but it only lasted until 1984. A fourth union barely made it from 1993-1994.

Over the last year, I had the chance to (for the first time ever) check out some episodes of The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour. He was so amiable and talented and fun. But as the '70s dawned, he began to fall increasingly under the spell of alcohol and drugs and eventually became quite a mess. This wife was his second. He married Mac Davis' ex and that only lasted until 1980. Then came the Tanya Tucker phase, followed by a fourth marriage which he credited with helping to get him turned around again. He died of Alzheimer's disease in 2017 at age 81.

I don't guess "Hollywood" wrecked Robert and Natalie's second marriage, but it was still wrecked when she died tragically at sea in 1981. At this time, Wagner was taking an occasional supporting role in the movies while starring on Switch. Wood had deliberately slowed her career to focus on motherhood, but still enjoyed the occasional TV or movie role.

Wood's mother was a dominant force in her childhood and attempted to be the same in her adult life. She was a fascinating creature; very dramatic and driven. For once, I went ahead and scanned the whole story because it seemed rare to me that TVRM landed an interview with her and offered up her alleged opinions about her daughter and son-in-law.

Bursting onto the scene in the mid-1950s, Franciosa enjoyed a string of successes (and an Oscar nomination for the film version of his Broadway hit, A Hatful of Rain, 1957, though the award went to Alec Guinness for The Bridge on the River Kwai.) By this time, he'd mostly segued into TV on shows like The Name of the Game (from which he was fired due to his temper) and Search, which floundered.) Matt Helm was likewise washed up after 14 episodes.

Rita was his fourth wife (his second had been one Shelley Winters!), but it lasted until his death in 2006 of a massive stroke. He was 77 at that time. I don't know if he was TV's Sexiest Man, but I like that he could frolic around in an abbreviated swimsuit so comfortably!

This magazine devoted quite a bit of space to daytime TV. Some of the stars mentioned here have been touched on here in Poseidon's Underworld before for one reason or another. In another, prior, Fun Find, there were stories and pics on Kathryn Hays, Susan Flannery and George Reinholt that I went into some more detail about.

Longstanding All My Children viewers will recognize the lady shown here, Mary Fickett, who played Ruth Martin for many years. Fickett held the very unusual distinction of having been granted an Emmy Award for her work on the soap before there was such a thing as the Daytime Emmys! She was tossed into competition with MacDonald Carey, a scenic designer and several directors for a single daytime drama category.

Despite all the demonstrative lovey-dovey, she and this second husband divorced later that year. She wed for a third and final time in 1979.

Fickett passed away in 2011 at age 83 of Alzheimer's complications.

Here's a little manspread on another All My Children star who was once hot in the press, Nick Benedict, who played Phil Brent.

He was the son of busy Italian-born supporting actor Richard Benedict. Phil did marry Michelle, but it was all over and done with during 1976... He proceeded to a long career in various other soaps.

I have never seen an episode of Love of Life, which was really popular in its day. Nevertheless, I always disliked seeing these old warhorses get canceled and this one bit the dust in 1980.

You'll surely recognize young Christopher Reeve, who was soon to take the world by storm as Superman (1978) or perhaps Ray Wise, who made a splash on Twin Peaks. Then in the bottom-middle photo is John Aniston, who went on to a big success with Days of Our Lives (and sired a daughter named Jennifer, who carved out quite a career for herself.)

The successful, but short-lived, star of Chico and the Man, Freddie Prinze.

Prinze had parlayed a stand-up comedy career (and a significant appearance on The Tonight Show) into a starring role on the sitcom. But personal demons such as depression and the overuse of tranquilizers loomed. His wife looks happy enough here, but she was a few months pregnant during the nuptials, which helps explain the rather sudden union. By January of 1977, Prinze had committed suicide by revolver, leaving behind an already estranged spouse and a baby boy named Freddie Prinze Jr. He was only 22 when he died.

Beacon Hill is another show I never saw. An Americanized rendition of the highly-successful British series Upstairs Downstairs, its pilot cost nearly $1 million; a fortune for 1970s TV. And while it had a lot of viewers that first night, it fell off soon and the show was canceled after only a dozen installments. McGuire soon headed back to daytime on a variety of soaps.

Alongside this continuation of the Maeve McGuire piece is a trio of movie reviews. I LOVE Three Days of the Condor (1975) and can never understand how I have resisted profiling it over the last dozen years...!

Finally, we have a story on Alex Rocco, then 40 and playing in what would be yet another failed series that happened to be mentioned in this issue. Three for the Road had him as the father of two young boys (one played by Leif Garrett) who travel all over the U.S. in an RV. You might recall Rocco as one of Bea Arthur's lovers on The Golden Girls. Mr. Rocco passed away in 2015 from pancreatic cancer at the age of 79.

This is a little bit light for a Fun Find, so I'm going to end with a few photos of RJ & Natalie during their relationships, early and later, in which they seem happy.

Showing off the pearl engagement ring she received way back when. Note her slightly deformed wrist, which she always obscured with a thick bracelet of some sort.

The ring (and her freckles) are seen in color here. I love his brush-cut hair at this time (for a movie role.)

The then-stringbean is positively swimming in his tuxedo jacket!

Wood made a brief appearance on Switch in 1975 and again, as seen here in a publicity shot, in 1978. She later popped up for a cameo in the Hart to Hart pilot as well.

I doubt we'll ever know the full extent of what exactly happened on the night of her death. What's certain is that she had many more performances in her that we never got to see (and left behind the daughters she adored so much.)

Poseidon Quickies: I'm "Banning" This Today.

Yet another in a long string of films that I yearned to see for many years but which proved unavailable, 1967's Banning is all but forgotten by most people. I just love anything made in 1967 (as well as most any Universal Studios film from the 1950s-1970s) so much that it had been beckoning to me for decades. Marketed as a squalid sex romp, there is a certain amount of seduction going on here and there, but at its heart, the movie concerns itself with building suspense over a climactic game of... golf!

Yes, Banning is set at a hoity-toity country club where golf is king. Notice the titles are all in lower-case versus the capital B on the poster.

Robert Wagner is the man of the title. I love titles that show the performers along with his or her name, though that only goes for three of the cast this time out. He plays a golfer who's come to the club on a mission.

Anjanette Comer, then in the midst of a brief run at movie stardom (The Loved One, 1965, and The Appaloosa, 1966, under her belt) costars as the club's social director.

Jill St. John is a wealthy, and voracious, divorcee, who fills her boring nights with a series of conquests.

Wagner appears on the course to meet an old pal, requesting - or basically demanding - a job from him as assistant pro at the club.

Said pal/club manager is played by Guy Stockwell. He is reluctant to take Wagner on, especially since the spot has been promised to another employee, but he's left with little choice.

Making her feature film debut as Stockwell's pretty wife is Canadian actress Susan Clark.

As the man whose job is shafted in place of Wagner, we find James Farentino, who you might recall from our recent post about Ensign Pulver (1964.) In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it bit part, we see hunky Don Stroud, who would proceed to a busy career of his own.

The movie is a great time capsule of a particular moment in time (glossed up to be certain!) All the gals are made up to the hilt, hair pouffed and bouffed and sporting snappy clothing. As this is a "Quickie," I'm not going to bore you with the specific details of the plot-line, a surprisingly banal situation for a feature film, though the pleasure is assumed to be found in the elegant settings, the sometimes saucy remarks and the machinations of the upper crust in their native habitat. I'm just going to present you with a few things that interested me.

I thought this style of up-do paired with drop earrings really suited Ms. Clark. She, like all the gals in the film, is dressed by Jean Louis.

St. John spends part of her time (the earlier bit of the evening, not the shank!) amid a couple of lavender gents and they trade catty barbs to one another or about other club members.

One of St. John's objects of ridicule is a glitzy matron played in a bit role by Lucille Meredith. (Meredith was the real-life wife of Emmy-winning -- for Columbo and Barney Miller --  TV writer Roland Kibbee.) She presents her nephew "Chilton" and one can only imagine what went through St. John's buddies' minds...! The actor, Michael Brown, only has one other credit, a role in a Robert Downey Sr short film.

Clark isn't the only one with a swell up-do and chandelier earrings. The party scenes are brimming over with the same.

Staff member Comer is saddled with far plainer clothing and a sort of matronly wig, which she often sticks a pastel headband onto.

This is the moment when Wagner meets St. John. As you likely know, they later ended up married in real life. At this time, he was divorced from Natalie Wood and married to Marion Marshall. He'd later wed Wood a second time and then connect with St. John a little while after. At this time she was preparing to wed her third husband, singer Jack Jones, but that would last less than two years. Married now since 1990, Wagner and St. John's union has outlasted all of their previous six marriages combined!

Hardly strangers, they'd known each other since the mid-'50s. In fact, they'd just costarred earlier in 1967 in the television movie How I Spent My Summer Vacation, as shown here. I've always found it fascinating that Wagner's first (and third!) wife Wood, his fourth wife St. John and his longstanding TV wife from Hart to Hart, Stefanie Powers, were all in the very same small dance class as children...! What are the chances? I guess in Tinseltown, not so slim after all. (By the way, he is photographed better and shows much more chest in that TV movie than in Banning.)

St. John's unusual seduction methods include having Wagner arrested and turned over into her custody! Once back at her place, which has the damnedest looking decor you're likely to see in a movie, he discovers who she adores more than anyone else...

Still, she's hungry for a new notch in her belt, so she does everything she can to nab her man.

It seems like she had this same hairstyle in practically every movie I have ever seen her in, but maybe it's because I so often seek out mid-'60s flicks. In any case, she saunters off to slip on something more comfortable and Wagner bolts!

She's not one to give up too easily though. Later on, he returns to his quarters at the club to find her installed in his bed. And this time he gives her what she's after.

Though Wagner gets snagged by St. John, he is also pursued by Clark (see why I prefer her hair piled up?)

But ultimately, he's most interested in more practical Comer. I guess there are worse problems a guy could have than juggling the three!

Now to note a couple more moments which grabbed my attention. Here we find Farentino, all steamed about being passed over for the assistant golf pro position he was promised.

He pleads his case to the resident pro, who's taking a steam bath. The guy is played by none other than a pre-stardom Gene Hackman!

Hair-greyed, his character is a struggling alcoholic past his prime. This was the year things took off for Hackman after close to a decade of working on TV and in movies. It began with his supporting part in Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and continued on from there with The French Connection (1971) earning him an Oscar (with the leading role in The Poseidon Adventure, 1972, directly following that.) 

For the longest time, it feels like Hackman is the only man we're going to see shirtless in Banning.

Even when Stockwell, who'd shown off his chest the year before in Beau Geste (1966), comes into the steam room, he's cloaked in a giant sheet.

Farentino gives us a plunging neckline from his damp shirt, but that's it for the steam room.

All of these discussions would have been more arresting had there been fewer coverings on the men.

Fortunately, we're treated a bit later to a shower sequence.

While not especially revealing, at least it's a nice male-bonding moment between Wagner and Farentino.

I do admit I was a little startled when Wagner wrapped a towel around him, which would then have been sodden with water, before he stepped on a nearby scale...! Good lord, I trim my fingernails and sometimes eyebrows before stepping on a scale! LOL But I guess he could afford the added water weight.

Ultimately, and surprisingly considering his billing and some of the rest of the cast, it is Farentino who winds up providing the most on-screen beefcake. And he looks great.

Farentino had just married Michele Lee the year before this, in the wake of a three-year marriage to Elizabeth Ashley. He and Lee stayed together until 1983. Characterized as a fiery personality, two more marriages and a troubled engagement to Tina Sinatra would follow. 

Banning is glossy studio fodder, straining to be spicy, but I am nonetheless drawn to movies like this with all-star casts looking great. And as an added bonus for me, there are a few 1970s disaster movie veterans on hand. Wagner of The Towering Inferno and The Concorde... Airport '79, Stockwell and Clark from Airport 1975 (and she was in City on Fire, too) and Hackman from The Poseidon Adventure. I wanted to link the movie here, but it's already gone that fast...! The best I can do is the trailer, which makes the whole thing seem even more sordid than it actually is.