Richard Irvin - Film Stars Television Projects: Pilots and Series of 50+ Movie Greats, 1948-1985

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina

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e-ISBN: 978-1-4766-2843-1

2017 Richard Irvin. All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Front cover: Joan Crawford as a journalist in a scene from The World and I (authors collection)

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I would like to thank the following individuals for their contributions to this work: Peter Bonerz, Douglas Cramer, John Fink, Paul Gregory, Tom Hallick, Bill Hayes, Stephany Hurkos, Peter Key, Christopher Knopf, Norman Lear, Andrew Lewis, Barry Oringer, Gail Parent, John Pasquin, Austin Pendleton, Roger Perry, Bill Persky, Robert Pierce, Steve Pritzker, Nancy Randle, Garry Settimi, Davey Davison Silverman, Steve Stevens, Gay Talese, Joan Van Ark, Susan Watson, William Wellman, Jr., and Carole Wells.

I am also extremely grateful to the following institutions for permitting access to their archives: UCLA Library Special Collections for access to the Ann Morrison Chapin Papers (19221980s), Mort Fine Papers (19501968), Larry Gelbart Papers, Shirley Jones Papers (19421980), Herbert Leonard Papers (19571977), Norman Lessing Papers (19431982), Daniel Mainwaring Papers (19301970) and Steve Pritzker Papers (19671986); UCLA Television Archives; University of Michigan Special Collections Library for access to the Orson WellesOja Kodar Papers (19101998); Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, Margaret Herrick Library, for access to material in the Bert Granet, Buster Keaton and Mae West collections; Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, the University of Texas at Austin, for information from the Gloria Swanson Papers; the University of Texas at Austin for access to the James Pinckney Miller Papers (19391999); Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research, Wisconsin Historical Society, for information from the Sidney Sheldon Papers and the William Spier and June Havoc Papers (19311963); American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming for material from the William Dozier, Jane Powell and Harry Ackerman collections; Dartmouth College for material from the Harry Ackerman collection; Popular Culture Library, Bowling Green State University, for copies of various television scripts; Library of Congress, Motion Picture and TV Reading Room; Syracuse University Libraries for information from the Ted Key Papers; Thousand Oaks Library for information from the Broadcasting Collection, the American Radio Archives Collection; the Billy Rose Theatre Division of the New York Public Library; and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Script Collection, for copies of various television pilot scripts.

Often overlooked in the biographies of movie stars from the 1920s, 30s, 40s and 50s are their attempts at television stardom. Many film stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood tried to get their own TV series after their movie careers slowed or became virtually nonexistent. This work looks at the forgotten TV pilots and the (mostly) short-lived television series of more than 50 movie stars. Fred Astaire as a horse breeder and trainer, Bette Davis as an Eurasian archvillain, the Marx Brothers as angels, Mae West dishing out advice to help people with their personal problemsthese are just some of the TV projects involving motion picture stars described in this book.

While the list of movie stars described is somewhat arbitrary, they all have in common at least one attempt at starring in a TV pilot that did not result in a series. Golden Age stars like Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn and Clark Gable avoided television series work altogether. As Grant once remarked, I have refused to do TV because I feel I am a part of the motion picture industry and I cant see any reason for helping a competitorand in my opinion TV is a competitor.

On the other hand, several feature film stars enjoyed as much, if not more, success on television as they had in films. Robert Montgomery, Lucille Ball, Dick Powell and Loretta Young ventured into the TV industry in its early days and were not only popular but also became wealthy in the process. Robert Montgomery was one of the first movie stars to enter television on a full scale, hosting and producing his own anthology series on NBC beginning in 1950, and his initial goal was to build a relationship between movies and television by gaining the rights to various movie properties and turning them into episodes of his series. He bought rights to such features as The Letter, Kitty Foyle and Our Town and had stars like Madeleine Carroll and himself as the leads in the TV versions.

The story of Lucille Ball and her then-husband Desi Arnaz is a legendary tale about how both actors came to star on the hit situation comedy I Love Lucy and form their own production company, Desilu, to make their series (and others). Loretta Young followed somewhat the same model with her self-titled anthology show she produced with her spouse. Dick Powell initially signed with Official Films in 1952 to be one of the rotating hosts of Four Star Playhouse. (Originally the other hosts were to be Charles Boyer, Rosalind Russell and Joel McCrea, but the latter two declined to appear and were replaced by David Niven and Ida Lupino. Powell, Boyer, and Niven formed their own television production company, Four Star Productions, to produce numerous series in the 1950s and 60s.)

The television attempts of the motion picture stars profiled in this book fall somewhere between the two extremes of those who avoided television altogether and those who flourished in the new medium. As will be seen, many of these stars had ambivalent feelings about having their own series, but they all tried with varying degrees of success.

During the second half of the twentieth century, many movie stars from earlier decades attempted their own television series. This book details the endeavors of more than 50 such stars. As feature film stars from the 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s were aging and the television industry was having an impact on movies with fewer films being produced, several big screen stars ventured into television. Most wanted to continue their fame in the new medium as well as make money in a venture that could be very lucrative, particularly if a series lasted for a few seasons and could be rerun. Some stars wanted to repeat the successes of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz or of Dick Powell and his partners David Niven and Charles Boyer in forming a production company to make their own series and thus have some control over their careers.

The television series careers of the film stars described in this book took one of four basic trajectories. Most (for example, Joan Crawford, Hedy Lamarr, Myrna Loy and Edward G. Robinson) made one or more pilots but were never able to get their own series. Bette Davis, Joan Blondell and Van Johnson made several pilots that didnt sell but finally prevailed with a project that was picked up (but proved to be short-lived). Still others, like Groucho Marx and Shirley Temple, had some success early in their TV careers but were never able to repeat that success. Finally, actors like Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Orson Welles and Alan Ladd wanted to become television producers