Rolling Around in the Gutter!

My love of old time TV & movie stars is well-known among my regular readers, particularly when oddball combinations of them are tossed together in various formats such as The Love Boat, Murder, She Wrote, Battle of the Network Stars, Night of a 100 Stars and the like. Thus, you can imagine my heady delight when, out of nowhere, an over-the-air TV channel suddenly brought out a vintage program I had no knowledge of beforehand: Celebrity Bowling (1971-1977)!
  


Don't ask me why I'd never seen it or even heard of it before. Chances are that when it was on, I was under ten and the idea of watching ANY bowling on television would have been anathema to me. I still wouldn't watch bowling on TV by pros, but there is something quite comforting in watching total amateurs doing it and since I feel I know these people, it's like spending a half-hour with family at the old bowling alley! The host of Celebrity Bowling was Jed Allan, an actor who had just portrayed the latest owner of Lassie (1968-1969), but who is better known as a star of many daytime soap operas such as Days of Our Lives and Santa Barbara.
  
The show featured two, two-person teams who would share each frame using a "Best Ball" system. Each player would take a stab at ten pins. Whoever took down the fewest would swap lanes and try to pick up the spare of his or her partner, who'd done better. Then the teams would proceed back and forth through the tenth frame and, depending on the scores, lucky audience members would win a terrific prize. If somehow a decent bowler happened to accidentally show up and the score exceeded 210 points, the winner would receive a car! Thanks to the hapless, often skill-free, way the stars played, this only happened one time in all those years! More often, a bowling ball and bag or maybe a watch or a microwave wound up as the top prize.
  

But the fun of Celebrity Bowling is in the shock of discovering various stars placed together, such as the day that John Saxon, Angie Dickinson, Howard Duff and Susan St. James were all playing. They throw gutter balls, but sometimes luck out on a strike. It's fascinating to see these people unguarded and doing their best, sometimes at a sport that completely defeats them.
 

Few of the participants approached the game without a degree of intense concen- tration, not that it did all of them any good!  It's also amusing to see all the different stances, swings and follow-throughs. (My apologies that the quality of many of these pictures is, for the most part, quite poor because these are just snaps I had to take from a small kitchen television, the only one in my house that receives these obscure, over-the-air channels that are not offered on my satellite.)
  

The show was broadcast for 48 hours straight and I am so ashamed of how much I watched. I left the TV on and would continually come in each half hour or so to see who was playing. You can imagine how agog I was to step into the kitchen in time to see Jed Allan introducing The Lennon Sisters comprising the two teams!
  

This was historic in itself for it was practically the first time I have ever seen The Lennon Sisters when Kathy Lennon didn't possess my favorite hairstyle (she's the one with the long ponytail and ears showing.) On this day, by far my favorite hairdo went to Janet, whose blonde locks were curled and fluffed up into a big, bouncy confection that offset her snappy '70s outfit (with chain belt!) perfectly.

I adore The Lennon Sisters and truly enjoyed watching them attempt to bowl, many times with an utter lack of success, but with the occasional small victory. And, true to form, even when in competition they were encouraging and supportive to one another.
  

Like most game shows, several of these were filmed over the course of one day only to be broadcast weekly at a later time. Thus Peggy Lennon was on hand (but in the same outfit) for a subsequent episode. This one had her pair with John Davidson opposite Gail Fisher of Mannix and Ed Asner. I should mention that at this time, these people were still enjoying active careers. Their hit shows were still running. So it must have been a treat for fans to see them off duty.

By the way, John Davidson's beige pants fit like a second skin to an almost science-fiction level!

He did something I really appreciate (which few others appeared to do, but which I would have!) Even though he filmed more than one episode during his visit, he didn't wear precisely the same outfit. He changed shirts, while ladies like Peggy Lennon, Gail Fisher and Diane Lennon kept the same thing on the entire time! I once filmed two episodes of a local variety show back-to-back (twice in fact) and brought two shirts and ties so that I'd look different for one instance and added a jacket on another. (A lot of good it did me! On one of the shows, I was billed as "Don" instead of Jon!!  LOL) Anyway, shown on the far right here is Richard Long of The Big Valley and Nanny and the Professor, who Allan continuously and amusingly called "Dick Long" throughout the program!

Other stars included the children from The Brady Bunch. (Is Maureen McCormick braless?? "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!")

William Shatner and Hugh O'Brian (along with, not pictured, Fran Jeffries and Michele Lee.)

The unique conglomeration of Rory Calhoun and Frankie Avalon (!) versus Kate Jackson and Edward Albert!

Many, many, many others were on who I don't have photos of including: Leslie Nielsen, Ernest Borgnine, Lloyd Bridges, Michael Douglas, Brenda Vaccaro, Elizabeth Ashley, Greg Morris, Cornel Wilde, Edie Adams, Christopher & Lynda Day George, Dick Gautier and Jack Cassidy, to name a few. By far, the one that sent me over the moon, though, next to The Lennon Sisters, was seeing childhood crush Chuck Woolery! He's seen here with his then-wife JoAnn Pflug and opponent Julie London (who made frequent appearances with her husband Russ Conway.)
  

I fell in love with Chuck Woolery the first time I ever saw Wheel of Fortune, of which he was the host back in the day (1975-1981.) Always a rather dim child, I thought Elvis Presley was the host!  LOL  Looking at him now, there's more of a Jay Leno thing going on, but no one had heard of him then. Most people think of Woolery now, if at all, as the popular host of Love Connection (1983-1998.)
  

Seeing Chuck again (and his straining, flimsy slacks!) from this era brought utter joy to my day.  I adored him so much that I once dated a girl in high school a time or two simply because I knew that her mother had gone to prom with him when they were kids in Kentucky and a framed portrait of the two was positioned in the living room!  Never let it be said that I'm not aware of my own craziness. 
   

Precious few episodes of this show are on youtube.com and I can't figure out why. It's a hoot and a half and features so many famous names! (Many of them, sadly, no longer with us.)  I'm almost glad it's not on regularly or I dare say I'd hardly leave the house!

Mini Pop Quiz: Brats R Us

Recently, a television series dedicated to movie memorabilia attempted to unearth some significant cinematic props and in the process unearthed a couple of performers who most of us know, but who we haven't seen in eons! They are best known to us as particularly unruly children.

1. Up first is this salt 'n pepper daddy with the pretty eyes. Despite being a key part of a blockbuster movie, the guy was scarcely ever seen again on screen afterwards. He did pop up for a nanosecond when the movie was remade several years ago, but has otherwise had only one TV/movie acting credit.

2. Conversely, this lady has been working almost non-stop since her rather unforget- table debut film, but nearly always in her homeland (i.e. - not the USA!) Residents of her country will likewise have an easier time guessing her identity than the rest of you.

I'll be back soon with the answers! Poseidon.





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Well, that was quick!  I tried to be vague about the clues, but it wasn't enough for our sharp reader James Munn.

Harvey Stephens was Damien in The Omen (1976), a whopping success that led to sequels and a remake (in which he played a reporter.) The TV series Hollywood Treasure (2010) had an auction house trying to track down the famed red tricycle he rode (with which he memorably knocked his mother off a step ladder and over a bannister!) As it turned out, he still owns the bike, but let's his own son ride it and, as a result, chose not to part with it.

Julie Dawn Cole, of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971), played Veruca Salt, one of the most astonish- ingly bratty, demanding and indulged children ever to hit a movie screen. The folks from Hollywood Treasure were in contact with her for an actual "Golden Ticket" from the movie and she did have one, which was put up for sale at auction.

Thanks for playing!

Hair-Raising Suspense!

As most visitors to this site know, The Poseidon Adventure (1972) is a Top 5 favorite movie of mine, one that had such an impact on me as a youngster that it impacted my life more than a little. I'm not alone, for the film has inspired many fans to become obsessed with it, holding screenings, events, writing stage versions, making action figures, you name it! And the cast of the film (so long as they have lived, at least!) embraced the hysteria over this beloved disaster flick, with Shelley Winters, Stella Stevens, Carol Lynley, Pamela Sue Martin and occasionally Red Buttons and Ernest Borgnine taking part in many interviews and occasions pertaining to it.

One person, though, has been conspicuous in his absence and has even been reluctant to talk much about a movie that was a tremendous box office hit and a trend-setting pop culture touchstone, that being its chief star Gene Hackman! I've only heard him talk about the film one time (though I certainly might have missed other instances along the way) and that was to James Lipton on a 2001 installment of Inside the Actors Studio. It just couldn't be avoided when running down Hackman's list of career achievements.

When producer Irwin Allen and director Ronald Neame built the cast of Poseidon, they stacked the deck with performers whose acting ability had been validated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Ernest Borgnine had an Oscar for Marty (1955), Jack Albertson one for The Subject was Roses (1968), Red Buttons one for Sayonara (1957) and Shelley Winters the recipient of two! One was for The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) and a second for A Patch of Blue (1965.) (I'm told by someone who knows that Winters was VERY proud of this fact and even had "2Oscars" as her car license plate!) Director Neame had himself been nominated thrice (Yay! I got to use the word thrice!) while Allen had one on his mantle for Best Documentary.

In a brilliant, prescient move, Gene Hackman was selected for the leading role of fiery, driven, heroic Reverend Scott, though he bore almost no resemblance to the character as described in the Paul Gallico source novel. In it, the character was a more athletic, strapping, blond sort of hunk. (This is basically the reverse of what is most often done in page-to-screen adaptations!) Nevertheless, Hackman delivered a committed, at times blistering performance. And, during the filming of the movie, he won an Oscar of his own for the crime drama The French Connection (1971)! Thus, there was now a quintet of winners headlining the film and a cake was brought in to celebrate (with Neame seen here scolding Shelley for wolfing down a piece before anyone else could get his!)

So why, if the movie was a huge success and his acting career was fully validated was the leading man so "Hack"-ed off and resistant to acknowledging it? If Stella Stevens is to be believed, the problem stems from the fact that stylists on the film decided to try to make the most out of Hackman's thinning, albeit lengthy, hair by teasing it into a frizzy bird's nest/SOS pad. In the early-'70s, practically no one was bald except Telly Savalas and Yul Brynner. Every sort of comb-over, toupee and camouflage was enlisted to preserve the illusion of hair for those who were facing premature losses. In 1978's Superman, Hackman refused to be seen more than fleetingly as the legendarily bald villain, Lex Luthor! He had the character wear wigs throughout.

This problem on Poseidon is not something that Hackman could exactly march up to the producer and complain about, for Allen had virtually the same look going on his own pate! It's even possible that Allen somehow saw in Hackman an extension of himself and could imagine vicariously living out this daring, water-logged adventure through the actor with his very own hairdo...

In any case, it's a shame that Gene Hackman feels ashamed of the movie for whatever reasons he has. No, it's not some sort of deeply-meaningful drama or landmark story, but what a crowd-pleaser it was with legions of devotees. Today, of course, the whole male cast could have had shaved heads (and the requisite goatees to go with, of course!) and no one would have batted an eye!

Sarong, Farewell!

When's the last time you went to the movies and saw the leading man in a sarong? It's not a common occurrence, but maybe after a glance at these men you'll feel it ought to be.

The first three photos of this collection are from The Pagan (1929) with Ramon Novarro as the title character, a half white-half native young man in love with Renee Adoree, a native girl under the stern guardianship of white man Donald Crisp.

Of course, King of the Sarong was Jon Hall, famous for a string of adventure epics opposite Maria Montez and for The Hurricane (1939) with Queen of the Sarong Dorothy Lamour. The exhilarating climax of this disaster epic still holds up today!

Also in the film were Thomas Mitchell (who played Scarlett's father in Gone with the Wind that same year) and Mary Astor. (This film was remade in 1979 and you can read all you'd ever want to know about it here and also towards the bottom of the page here.)

Hall followed up The Hurricane with South of Pago Pago (1940), which costarred Frances Farmer.






  
He's seen below with Olympe Bradna, a French dancer and actress who left the biz after a few years to enjoy a seventy-year-long marriage to a California social notable.

Although an obvious cash-in on the prior blockbuster, it lacked the direction of the great John Ford and in spite of any positive attributes is close to forgotten today.

Donald Houston took a turn with this look in 1949's The Blue Lagoon with Jean Simmons. (You didn't think Chris Atkins and Brooke Shields were first at bat, did you? They traded in sarongs for loincloths in their 1980 update.)

Interesting that Houston and Simmons' little newborn baby has the same hairdo that Atkins sported in the remake!

1951's Bird of Paradise featured a rather yummy-looking Louis Jourdan in a sarong opposite the beautiful Debra Paget.

Also wrapped up in the story is Jeff Chandler as Paget's brother (!) and who is caught in a pretty wretched brown wig.
  

This was itself a remake of an earlier film, Bird of Paradise (1932) , which featured Joel McCrea in a sarong opposite Dolores del Rio.  

You can read (and see) more of the handsome Mr. McCrea here.

As evidenced by this lackluster photo of the ordinarily-attractive Jourdan, Paget and Chandler, sometimes spending most or all of a movie's running time in a sarong can wind up making one look like a "boob." Since trotting around shirtless in brightly-colored fabrics would likely be considered corny or campy today, I doubt we'll be seeing any of today's stars giving it a whirl, but who knows. Maybe some sort of story will warrant it again!

There'll Be Some Changes Made!

Hello, everyone! This is Poseidon's Underworld's 500th post. For so long I anticipated what I would do to commemorate the occasion, be it a splashy photo essay or an in-depth feature. For a while I intended to do a lengthy look at the movie that started it all, where my obsession with movie stars began -- The Three Musketeers (1973) and its 1974 sequel, but then I thought maybe that might be too taste specific for the sort of things I tend to showcase here on a milestone post. In the end, I wound up not being able to do much of anything because, once again, fate has stepped in and clobbered my ability to put up frequent posts at The Underworld!

For so long, my job contained decent lapses in free time that allowed me to hammer away at pictures and writings, but increasingly as the market has improved it has become harder and harder. Now I've been informed that a co-worker of mine is extremely sick and will be out for three months and, as a result, I'm doing two jobs basically. So, horror of horrors, I find myself reporting for work and being exceedingly busy from start to finish!  (Imagine?!)

This isn't the end of the website. But... I think that where I most often have done lengthy, in-depth, sometimes encyclo- pedic (or beyond!) posts with as many as 80 photos, I'm going to have to segue to briefer, but hopefully more plentiful, posts. Knowing me, there will still be the occasional mind-numbing, endless read, but in order to keep things bubbling around here, look for more bite-size things coming to the surface.

I love working on Poseidon's Underworld and don't wish to give it up, but feel like I have to pare back on the heavy workload or I will go crazy. So beginning today, I'll be doling out these briefer tidbits and turning to longer posts whenever possible.  Thank you so much to my loyal readers and commentators who never fail to add interesting reflections to the site!

Yours truly, Poseidon.