#1940s tv

[countesspetofi]

Today in the Department of Before They Were Star Trek Stars, DeForest Kelley guest stars in "The Legion of Old Timers," episode 5 of the first season of The Lone Ranger (original air date October 6, 1949).

Kelley plays Bob Kittredge, a tenderfoot from back East who's just inherited his late father's ranch. He falls prey to a con man who drives away the ranch's faithful foreman (the eponymous "old timer") and tries to sell the land out from under him. The Lone Ranger, Tonto, and the old foreman ride to the rescue and good triumphs over evil until next week's episode.

Since there are no other Trek connections, allow me to just ramble a bit about The Lone Ranger and me. I've never seen the 1949-57 TV series before, but I'm told it was one of my Grandpa's favorites. I also never saw the 2013 movie, but people assure me I didn't miss much. This was around the time I was thinking, “Gore Verbinski and Johnny Depp could use a break from each other,” and “Tim Burton and Johnny Depp could use a break from each other.”

The 1980 Filmation animated series was part of my regular Saturday morning cartoon experience as a little kid. I don't have a ton of clear memories of it, except that characters from American history made guest appearances/cameos, and it was part of a larger series with Tarzan and Zorro.

Several kids I knew had these Lone Ranger action figures, and they were really high quality. One line from the TV commercial jingle (set to the tune of the William Tell overture that became the Lone Ranger theme) went, “Let him ride in a covered wagon; let him hold a rifle in his hand,” and still gets stuck in my head decades later. One issue with this is that I've never been able to find a recording or video of this commercial ever since it aired in the 1980s. Another is that I, being unfamiliar with the term “covered wagon” at the time, thought he was riding in something called a “cupboard wagon” and immediately pictured the wagon from the Chuck Wagon dog food commercials (which, in all fairness the Lone Ranger action figure could have easily ridden in).

When I was a teenager, one of my mother's best friends married a man who claimed to be a cousin of Jay Silverheels, the actor who played Tonto. I have no idea if there was any merit to his claim. He had a signed picture of them together, but if every celebrity someone had a signed picture with was their cousin, the world would be a big, weird family.

Anyway, season's greetings from Tonto, Tarzan, and Frankenstein.

[busterkeatonsociety]

WIPWednesday Buster Keaton rehearsing for ‘The Ed Wynn Show’ in 1949. It was Buster’s television debut & served him very well indeed!

[wareham-community-television]

Start the week with a fun fact!

The first legal ad cost only $9 and ran for 9 seconds.

[siriuslypoetic]

My beloved Nish, part 2 - featuring Armand.

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Television was a subject of hot speculation for years before it became a reality for most people. The June 1946 edition of Popular Science featured, prophetically, the top of the Empire State Building, where transmitters would indeed be installed in later years. (But they didn't look like that.)

Photo: The Classic Archives

[atomic-chronoscaph]

The Lone Ranger (1949)

[broadcastarchive-umd]

The Pilot TV-37 “Candid” was introduced in 1948 at the then-amazingly low price of $99. Most 1940s TVs sold for hundreds of dollars, the cost of a decent automobile. Pilot made this set for only a few years but sold a lot of them during that time. You could get a magnifying lens to place in front of the picture tube for an additional fee. (Click to enlarge the picture.)

Originally posted January 9, 2014. | Tumblr Archive 

[poppingmary]

Lucille Ball on her wedding to Desi Armaz - 1940

[ecoustsaintmein]

An Ode to Rosie | also known as the YouTube short that made me swooooooooooooooon

[itsfullofstars]

[dinosaurwithablog]

1940s Packard!! I love old cars!! This one was driven by Aunt Sarah in the Perry Mason episode, The Case of the Barefaced Witness

[wordfromoursponsor]

“What is the future of television?” (1945)

[cressida-jayoungr]

One Dress a Day Challenge

July: Blue Redux (+ Green Redux)

Agent Carter (s2e10, "Hollywood Ending") / Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter

Another dress with cutout designs, much like the purple dress from earlier in the season. The bright blue-green edging of the belt, sleeves, and neck really makes the elements pop, and also, it suggests the line work of a comic book panel.

I also notice that this costume incorporates elements of Agent Carter's two most iconic looks (see below), but with a twist. Blue with touches of red is a signature color combination for her. This dress has the double stripe at the waist, but blue instead of red, and interrupted in front. It also has something red on top, but sunglasses instead of a hat. I doubt it is too much of a stretch to suspect this was deliberate.

[mifunebooty]

Bitch, why does Robert Mitchum look so fine in Pursued 1947?

[mydailyvintagephotos]

Remembering Jane Wyatt🌹🕊️

on her Birthday 🎂

✨August 12th 1910✨💫

[citizenscreen]

Lon Chaney Jr. performs a "Of Mice and Men" sketch on “Toast of the Town” in August 1948. Also pictures with host Ed Sullivan.