Monday, February 24, 2014

The Helen Corday Murder, Part VII









 *Alas, the strip from Thursday, August 7, 1952 is missing. However, the good news is that I found a better source for many of the daily comic strips, which are much clearer than the set reprinted here.  I hope to update them within the next week.  Stay tuned, because they really are quite stylish and fun.

*Update, Mar. 23: Still looking for the strip from Aug. 7, 1952.  It's the one where the cartoon Stacy Harris killer goes berserk.  I think we'll get lucky. 

I also missed a very big (and glaringly obvious) inside joke the first time around: the killer of Helen Corday is named Stanley Meyer in the comic strip.  The real Stanley Meyer produced the b&w Dragnet tv series as well as the 1954 film.

I found out some more information about the comic strip, along with some cleaner copies of the first few strips here.  Right as rain, the artist made the effort to depict Barney Phillips as Ed Jacobs, at least initially. 

I also found a week's worth of preview comic strips, which I posted on my other blog, here.  We're treated to seeing Joe Friday at home with his mother and a very clear depiction of Barton Yarborough as his partner.

Friday, February 14, 2014

Just Between You and Me


Meet the cast of Return to Peyton Place, new afternoon serial

The excitement around Hollywood is enormous about Return to Peyton Place.  The actors are scattered all over the globe, and as we go to press, Nicole is tracking down people from Hawaii to St. Louis, New York to Capa San Lucas in Baja California.  And yet in just two days after our deadline the entire cast will have gathered together in beautiful downtown Burbank, where a few stars will be renewing old friendships, but most will be meeting for the first time.  Then husbands, wives, sweethearts will instantly develop, as they fall into the characters we all learned to love or hate on the original Peyton Place.

...Stacy Harris (Leslie Harrington), that eligible bachelor who never stops working, is an old colleague of Nicole's (we necked together "in the line of duty," as we both remembered, as actors on some of the old NBC Matinee Theatres).  Most of the things he told me were "just between you and me," which cracked up us since that's this column!  But we respect this fine actor with the romantic voice, and are pleased to report that he "looks forward to the show, my Dad's farm is paid for, and no, just never yet met the right girl" since his first marriage broke up many years ago.  We know you'll be marvelous on the show, Stacy.

-Afternoon TV, June 1972

Return to Peyton Place aired weekday afternoons on NBC from April 3, 1972 to January 4, 1974.  Every former toddler of a certain age knew better than to disturb their mother while her "stories" were on.  Alas, I do not remember Return to Peyton Place.  My mom was more of a Young & the Restless and Edge of Night kind of girl.