The Gale Storm Show (Oh! Susanna)
(CBS, 1956–1959; ABC, 1959–1960)
Cast: Gale Storm (Susanna Pomeroy), ZaSu Pitts (Elvira Nugent), Roy Roberts (Captain Simon Huxley).
Basis: A beautiful young woman (Susanna Pomeroy) finds both romance and mishap as the social director of a cruise ship that sails from New York Harbor to Southampton in England and vice versa.
Susanna Pomeroy
Place of Birth: Los Angeles.
Age: 36.
Los Angeles Address: 6 Melrose Avenue.
Present Address: 11 Randolph Street in Manhattan.
Education: Hillside Grammar School, California State High School (where she was a cheerleader and member of the swimming team), University of California (where she was a member of the Alpha Ro sorority).
Degree: Bachelor of fine arts.
Current Occupation: Social director aboard the luxury liner SS Ocean Queen (owned by the Reardon Steamship Lines).
Talents: Singer and dancer.
First Job: Selling lemonade in front of her home.
Character: Susanna’s jobs aboard ship include giving dance lessons and teaching deck tennis, arranging shuffleboard matches, arranging bridge (card) games, performing songs in the entertainment lounge, and doing whatever else is necessary to keep passengers occupied and happy. Susanna is a bright, cheerful, and bubbly woman who also hopes that she will meet the man of her dreams during one of her cruises. She is also a bit mishap prone, and her efforts to help passengers overcome a problem often get her into trouble with the ship’s captain, Simon Huxley, “for butting in.” Susanna mentioned that once a year, “I treat myself to a bottle of perfume that costs $30 an ounce.”
Other Regulars
Elvira Nugent, called “Nugey,” is the ship’s beauty shop manicurist (later, she is a salesgirl in the souvenir shop). She shares a cabin with Susanna and is just the opposite in personality: shy and timid and always becoming involved in Susanna’s antics. In some printed sources, Nugey has the first name of Esmeralda (Elvira is mentioned in episodes).
Simon Huxley, the ship’s captain, is quite stern and becomes easily angered when Susanna upsets the ship’s routine (as he says, “I know your aim is not to go through life destroying me; it just works out that way”). Simon joined the navy after college and acquired the job with Reardon Steamship Lines after his discharge. He objects to giving his employees bonuses (“It destroys morale among the other crew members”) and was honored with a bust of John Paul Jones for his work by the Anglo Globetrotters.
Cedric (James Fairfax) is the British steward; Eugene Reynolds (Rolfe Sedan) is the ship’s physician.
The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show
(CBS, 1950–1958)
Cast: George Burns, Gracie Allen, Harry Von Zell, Ronnie Burns (Themselves), Bea Benaderet (Blanche Morton), Hal March, John Brown, Bob Sweeney, Fred Clark, Larry Keating (Harry Morton).
Basis: Life with a show business couple (George Burns and Gracie Allen) as seen through George’s eyes as he shares his experiences living with a scatterbrained wife.
George Burns and Gracie Allen
George (levelheaded) and Gracie live at 312 Maple Drive in Beverly Hills. George addresses the audience to establish a story and then permits viewers to see what progresses through Gracie’s involvement in the situation. George and Gracie met in vaudeville during the later 1920s, and on their first date, George gave Gracie flowers (which she pressed between the pages of a book called A Report on the Sheep Herding Industry). In 1930, they eloped and were married in Cleveland (Jack Benny, George’s friend, was a witness). They lived at the Edison Hotel in New York City before relocating to California to star in their first radio series.
George was born on the East Side of New York and got into show business when he was seven years old in a musical act called “The Pee Wee Quartet.” He later became a singer in an act called “Brown and Williams” (“I was Brown”), then in an act called “Harrigan and Friend” (“I was Friend; Harrigan was a seal”). He next ventured into a dancing act called “Goldie, Fields and Guy” (“I was Guy”). The next stint in his thus-far-less-than-illustrious career was an act called “Burns and Gary” (“I was Gary”); this was followed by an act wherein he partnered with Charlie Lowe, a comic who stuttered. It was while in an act with Jack Benny (“Benny and Burns”) and staying at a cheap boardinghouse in Chicago that George met Gracie Allen, the daughter of the landlady, who yearned to get into show business. George fell in love with Gracie and to be close to her devised an act called “Burns and Allen”—wherein George could do his favorite thing, sing, while playing straight man to Gracie as she presented her weird observations on life. The act was a hit, and George and Gracie became famous (as George relates. “In order to have a successful act you have to have something special. I do. Gracie. Without her I’d be selling ties”). Gracie claims that her father is younger than her husband (“I met my husband when he was 30; I first saw my father when he was 24”) and sews up the button holes on George’s shirts “so no one will know the buttons are missing.” Gracie also has a system for avoiding misspelled words: she never uses that word again (“That’s why I don’t make the same mistake twice”).
Gracie believes everything she reads and takes things literally. She has a true knack for complicating things that are seemingly simple and loves “nice things like antiques.” She pickles vegetables with bourbon (believing they need to get drunk [pickled]). Gracie wrote an article for Look magazine called “My Life with George Burns” (wherein she says that George is her husband and she doesn’t think of him as a man; she also had to type two copies of the article. She tried using carbon paper—“but it’s black and you can’t see what you type on it”).
George loves to smoke cigars and carries three cigars with him at all times in his inside jacket pocket. He believes he is a great baritone (but no one else apparently does). He is a member of the Friars Club and famous for “The Pause,” which he developed for Gracie’s responses to his questions. George tries to discourage salesmen from visiting the house: “You heard of the play Death of a Salesman? Well trying to sell something to Gracie is what killed him.” Gracie has a collection of hats that visitors leave behind when they try to talk with her but become so confused that they rush to get out and forget to take their hats. George mentioned that his first girlfriend was Ruby Van Eaten.
Gracie’s stories about her family are the subject of many skits. Her mother, who lives in San Francisco (telephone number Market 1-0048), attended her and George’s wedding but cried through the whole ceremony because she had to miss the premiere of the Rudolph Valentino movie The Sheik (which would place her and George’s marriage three years earlier than George mentioned). Her Uncle Harry is a forger who spends much of his time in San Quentin Prison. Hazel, Gracie’s sister, is only two-thirds married (“Only she and the minister showed up; the groom couldn’t get away from his wife”). Gracie’s sister, Mamie Kelly (Sarah Selby), is the one apparently normal member of the family (not scatterbrained) and the mother of three very pretty daughters (Jerri James, Lynn Plowman, and Kelly Oppenheim, who are credited as “The Kelly Kids”). Gracie also receives letters from her sister Betsy, and Gracie’s activities include being a member of the Beverly Hill Uplift Society (raises money for worthy causes) and the Book Review Club. Their son, Ronnie, a teenage ladies’ man, attends UCLA and appears in later 1950s episodes of the series.
“I just came in [to the house] and I’m already confused,” says Harry Von Zell, George’s announcer, who often finds himself as George’s pawn in an effort to solve the crisis Gracie has created or add to it when the story line needs some uplifting. George’s original announcer, Bill Goodwin, was a ladies’ man and flying enthusiast (he owned “a twin seat yellow plane”).
Blanche and Harry Morton
George and Gracie’s neighbors, living at 314 Maple Drive. Harry is first an insurance salesman, then a real estate salesman, and finally a certified public accountant (Blanche was his secretary before they married). Blanche does not think George deserves a wife like Gracie and feels that revealing her age is unladylike (Harry says “that it is a secret known only to her and her twin brother”). Harry is also a bit confused by George and Gracie’s marriage but, unlike Blanche, rarely questions it. He also says he is not interested in pretty girls—“I gave that up when I married Blanche.” Harry and Blanche have been married for 13 years (1950) and have been George’s neighbors for 12 years. Harry is a graduate of Dartmouth and will drink only one alcoholic beverage—blackberry cordial. Harry considers himself the lord and master of the house and insists that when he comes home from work, Blanche have dinner ready for him.
The hedges seen in the front window box at the Burns’s home were planted by Gracie (she trims them with George’s electric razor). Early episodes are sponsored by Carnation Evaporated Milk, which confused Gracie—“How can they get milk from carnations?”
(Syndicated, 1954–1955)
Cast: Willard Waterman (Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve), Stephanie Griffin (Marjorie Forrester), Ronald Keith (Leroy Forrester), Lillian Randolph (Birdie Lee Coggins).
Basis: Radio series adaptation about Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve, a bachelor caring for his orphaned niece (Marjorie) and nephew (Leroy) in the town of Summerfield.
Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve
Place of Birth: The small town of Wistful Vista.
Address: 1467 Vista Drive.
Education: Wistful Vista Grammar School, Wistful Vista High School.
Occupation: Owner of the Gildersleeve Girdle Works Company (“If You Want the Best of Corsets Its Gildersleeve’s”).
Present Residence: The town of Summerfield.
Present Address: 217 Elm Street.
Present Occupation: Town water commissioner.
Nickname: Gildy and Throcky.
Lodge: The Jolly Boys (Gildy is president; meetings are called “Jolly Boys Night”; their slogan: “All for One and One for All”).
Character: A carefree bachelor and ladies’ man enjoying life in Wistful Vista when tragedy strikes the family: his sister and husband are killed in a car accident. With no other relatives, their children (Marjorie and Leroy) are placed in Throckmorton’s custody, and he is appointed administrator of his brother-in-law’s estate, the Forrester Automotive Agency. Throckmorton takes over the agency and later petitions the court to legally adopt Marjorie and Leroy. He decides to sell his girdle company and makes Summerfield his permanent home (after being appointed water commissioner by the mayor). Gildy, as he is most often called, compares his luck with women to streetcars: “If one streetcar goes by, another one will be along in a few minutes. The tracks are loaded.” He also says, “When you want women you can’t have ’em; when you don’t want ’em you can’t get rid of them.” While Gildy has an eye for the ladies, they also have an eye for him. His romantic encounters (and headaches dealing with them) are Leila Ransom (Shirley Mitchell), the southern belle; Katherine Milford (Carole Matthews), a nurse at Summerfield Hospital’s maternity ward; Amy Miller (Marian Carr), a member of the Summerfield Ladies’ Poetry Club; and Lois Kimball (Doris Singleton), the librarian (who lives at 181 Oak Street). At 217 Elm Street, one will see a house with apple trees, butterflies, flowers, and a green lawn and hear chirping birds. In the back, near the garage, is an area that Gildy avoids, as he has yet to clear the mess that has accumulated with the unwanted items the family has tossed there. Birdie Lee is Gildy’s housekeeper; Floyd Munson (Hal Smith), the town barber, and Mr. Peavy (Forrest Lewis), owner of Peavy’s Pharmacy, are friends of Gildy. Bessie (Barbara Stuart) is Gildy’s secretary.
Marjorie and Leroy Forrester
Marjorie, 15 years old (when the series begins), attends Summerfield High School. She calls Gildy “Unkie” and rarely causes problems for him. She sometimes wishes for a larger allowance (“There is not much you can do on $1.50 a week these days”), as she is starting to become interested in boys and needs more appropriate “young woman” clothes: “He [Gildy] still thinks of me as a little girl.” She is a member of the school’s cheerleading team, hangs out (after school) at Peavy’s, and attends movies with her friends at the Bijou Theater.
Leroy, 10 years old, attends Summerfield Elementary School and receives an allowance of 75 cents a week (although he too complains, he always finds ways to increase his income—from turning in empty bottles for their deposit to conning his uncle into giving him more money when he needs it). Leroy is a bit mischievous, and Gildy believes he takes more after him than his father. While the Leroy character is based on the radio character, here he is not the same wisecracking character who is always getting yelled at by Gildy (who would always yell “Leroy!”) but a much toned down, much less mischievous young boy. He calls Gildy “Unk.”
(CBS, 1955–1975)
Principal Cast: James Arness (Matt Dillon), Amanda Blake (Kitty Russell), Milburn Stone (Doc Adams), Dennis Weaver (Chester Goode), Ken Curtis (Festus Haggen), Buck Taylor (Newly O’Brien), Glenn Strange (Sam), Burt Reynolds (Quint Asper).
Basis: A marshal (Matt Dillon) and his efforts to maintain the peace in Dodge City, Kansas, during the 1860s.
The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad services the area in and around Dodge City, Kansas. Boot Hill is the cemetery; the Dodge House is the hotel, and the Longbranch Saloon is the local watering hole. There is also Ma Smalley’s Boarding House and the Marshal’s Office on Front Street. Matthew “Matt” Dillon occupies that office—a tough but honest U.S. marshal who earns $100 a month. Matt has a horse named Marshall (with two l’s) and pays $35 for a saddle; the office wall has six rifles chained together in a rack, and the famous coffee pot with the rust stain seen in the closing theme over the credits is next to his desk. Matt is fast with his guns but not always quick to use them. He will shoot to kill only if circumstances force his hand. Matt would like outlaws to surrender rather than fight because he believes a fair trial is a just means of deciding fate. Matt is a bachelor (never been married) and enjoys a drink at the Longbranch Saloon.
Chester Goode first served as Matt’s deputy (1955–1961). He walks with a limp (his right leg) and calls Matt “Mr. Dillon.” Chester carries a shotgun with him and enjoys eating lunch with Mr. Dillon at Delmonico’s Café.
Kathleen Russell, called Miss Kitty, owns the Longbranch Saloon and is a woman of the Old West who rose above other females in that she owns her own saloon. Kitty, an auburn-haired beauty, shares a platonic relationship with Matt. Kitty appears at times to be all business and had a hard life; she struggled to succeed in a world where women were never meant to be anything more than dressmakers, wives, or saloon girls. Kitty broke the mold and now fiercely defends her livelihood. Kitty and Matt never kissed; they were more in admiration of each other as opposed to being lovers. Matt’s first kiss appeared in the episode of September 24, 1973 (“Matt’s Love Story”), wherein a widow (“Mike” Yardner, played by Michael Learned) found and nursed back to health the wounded marshal (suffering from amnesia after being ambushed by a murder suspect).
Galen Adams, affectionately called “Doc,” is the town’s lone physician (he drives a horse and buggy). Matt appears to be his best customer, as Doc is seemingly always digging a bullet out of him. Doc is well educated and has opinions about everything. He can be only as helpful as 1870s medical knowledge will allow, and his prognosis is often, “We’ll have to wait and see.” Doc is a bachelor, and his office is on Front Street. He enjoys a drink at the Longbranch, and when puzzled or talking, he has a tendency to grab his ear or nose.
Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness), Miss Kitty (Amanda Blake), Doc (Milburn Stone), and Chester (Dennis Weaver). CBS/Photofest © CBS
Festus Haggen is the deputy marshal to Matt (replaced Chester, who “brewed a mean pot of coffee”). Festus is from a backwoods family and uneducated (although he does have what today would be called street smarts). He is very loyal to Matt, whom he considers his best friend. Festus is a bachelor who also takes whatever odd jobs he can find to make money. He rides a mule named Ruth.
Newly O’Brien is the town gunsmith (later studies to become a doctor); Sam is the Longbranch bartender; Quint Asper is the town blacksmith.