A Blog For Thelma Todd
Thelma Todd was a star of silent movies and later the talkies. She is remembered as much today for her mysterious death as she is for her films. In this blog, we take a look at Thelma Todd, her movies, and various commentaries.
A little more on the subject of something that was supposed to be a universal truth that wasn't.
This time we take a critical look at some of the criticism of Wheeler and Woolsey.
Are Wheeler and Woolsey forgotten? Were Wheeler and Woolsey movies run on Television?
I have records of a few of those movies that were run here in Indianapolis. NIWITS was run here in the seventies, the date is in my files.Two of the videos that I have were recorded in Evansville ( another town ) according to station identification. HIPS HIPS HOORAY was run in Chicago ( which is in the next state ), I just missed it when I went. there in the late seventes.The PBS series "Mainee At The Bijou" began in in the late seventes,some Wheeler and Woolse movies were part of their program.
HALF SHOT AT SUNRISE was also run on a local station in 1990's, as was DIXIANA.
Some prints of Wheeler and Woolsey movies i have been looking at have television credits.
Television credits indicate that these films were released to television.
There's also a problem with invoking Laurel and Hardy and the Marx Brothers while discussing the popularity of Wheeler and Woolsey, because the work of those comedians is not well known to much of the populaion, either.
Some of what we are expected to know about is not well known. Although the media liked to talk about Eddie Cantor and Frances Farmer, none of their movies were ever shown here during that period. Maybe it was something that just didn't get that far. Maybe some of the media's other efforts won't get very far either.
I get tired of being told about what I do and do not know about, myself.
Recently, I came across a news item for an early appearance of Dorothy Appleby on television.
PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE July 18. 1931 - Dorothy Appleby, MGM's ingenue, looking over a bunch of television fan mail from station WGBS-W2XCR New York ... She was the first stage or screen star to televise over that station.
A photo from RADIO NEWS, May 1939:
A little about WGBS.
W2XCR
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
W2XCR was founded in 1931 in Long Island City, NY by the radio station WGBS (now WINS-AM). During the period early part of 1931, but before the call letters were changed to WINS, the station began experimenting with mechanical television broadcasting, operating a Jenkins mechanical scanner through the experimental transmitter, W2XCR. The station broadcast using both 48-line, 15 frame/s, and 60-line, 20 frame/s standards during 1931.
Mechanical TV broadcast in the AM radio band (550–1600 kHz) in 1928 and 1929. With 24 and 30 line systems, only about 10 kHz of bandwidth was needed, so standard radio channels could be used. Some stations also broadcast in the shortwave band. Beginning in 1930, the 2-3 mHz band was used for television, with 100 kHz channel width. 60 line systems required about 40 kHz of bandwidth. TV broadcasts could be identified by their distinctive sound.
The 1940 Three Stooges comedy A PLUMBING WE WILL GO had a gag that involved television.
People watching this film today are sometimes surprised that they had television that far back. But Dorothy Appleby had been on television years before. And Hugo Gernsback, the original publisher of RADIO NEWS, was one of the people who had been experimenting with television as far back as the late 1920's.
A 1960 Dell comic book based on the television show OH! SUSANA, which costarred Gale Storm and Zasu Pitts. The characters in the comics are recognizable as the people who played them on television and there are photos of Gale Storm on the cover.
September 29, 1956 (1956-09-29) – September 22, 1960 (1960-09-22)
The Gale Storm Show is an American sitcom starring Gale Storm. The series premiered on September 29, 1956, and ran until 1960 for 143 half-hour black-and-white episodes, initially on CBS and in its last year on ABC. The Gale Storm Show was co-produced by Independent Television Corporation (now ITC Entertainment) and Hal Roach Studios.
The series was aired under the title Oh, Susanna in syndication.
The series was based on a cruise director, Susanna Pomeroy (Storm), on a ship travelling around the world. A cast of regular characters inhabited the ship and new situations were created by the ship mooring in ports. Unlike her previous role on My Little Margie, Storm's character of Susanna would let out a shrill two fingered whistle to get people's attention. In her previous show, she would make a Trilling sound when in trouble.
Prior to the television series, Gale Storm and Zasu Pitts had worked together in the 1941 movie UNCLE JOE.
Hal Roach went into television production in the 1950s and the half-hour programs he made for television have been compared to the short subjects he previously had made for theatrical distribution. Although the bulk of these had been two-reelers, Roach had made some three-reelers, and those were around the same length as a half hour television program.
The Gale Storm show was filmed at the Hal Roach studio with the same familiar locations that were seen in the old comedies, such as "Lake Laurel and Hardy". The studio and it's lake are no longer there: it was torn down in the 1960's after going out of business.
After the series ended, Gale Storm herself eventually went into something of a decline, which seems to have been due in part to a drinking problem. She eventually made a recovery and said afterwards, "During the 1970s I experienced a terribly low and painful time of dealing with alcoholism...I thank God daily that I have been fully recovered for more than 20 years. During my struggle, I had no idea of the blessing my experience could turn out to be! I've had the opportunity to share with others suffering with alcoholism the knowledge that there is help, hope, and an alcohol free life awaiting them."
The business of making a trilling sound ( something she had done on the series MY LITTLE MARGIE ) was also associated with pulp superhero Doc Savage, who was wont to do it upon making important discoveries, and sometimes on other occasions. It was considered unusual enough in those stories that it was supposed to set him apart from everyone else.
Gale Storm and Zasu Pitts
With Robby the Robot from FORBIDDEN PLANET
"Robby the Robot" of course was really a man in a robot costume.
