Dragnet, April 26, 1954

Stacy Harris pops up as a used car dealer in the Dragnet comic strip dated April 26, 1954.  

This time the artist is Mel Keefer.  

Actor Moved By Applause

HOLLYWOOD--Sixty cast and crew members on 20th Century-Fox's Return to Peyton Place set paid Stacy Harris one of the highest tributes an actor can earn when they broke into spontaneous applause for his dramatic performance in an emotional scene.

Stacy, playing Leslie Harrington in the daytime NBC-TV drama, was deeply moved.

"I starred as a Broadway actor, won a New York Critics' Award, have 20 motion pictures to my credit and appeared in 350 television shows," he said.  "But never have I received such an ovation from my co-workers."



-Abilene (TX) Reporter News Apr. 8, 1973

This article was published posthumously.

Actor, former Seattleite, dies at 54

LOS ANGELES -- (UPI) -- Stacy Harris, actor, sportswriter, cartoonist and soldier of fortune, died of a heart attack yesterday.  He was 54.

Harris played the role of Leslie Harrington in the television series Return to Peyton Place, and frequently had roles in Jack Webb productions, including the original Dragnet on radio.  He played the lead in This Is Your F.B.I. on radio for several years and was the star of the Doorway To Danger TV series in 1953.

Born in Big Timber, Que., in 1918, Harris was a finalist in the Golden Gloves Boxing Tournament in Seattle in 1934.  He later worked as a sportswriter for The San Francisco Chronicle in the 1930s and as a staff cartoonist for The New Orleans Times-Picayune after World War II.

He left The Chronicle in the 1930s to join the Army Air Corps, but was injured in a crash after winning his wings and was given a medical discharge.

He came to Hollywood and got radio acting jobs, but when World War II broke out he became a merchant seaman and then went to Africa as an ambulance driver for the Gaullist Free French Forces.  On arrival he transferred to the Foreign Legion, won the Croix de Guerre in combat, was wounded and was given another medical discharge.

Harris was the son of David S. Harris, 1421 Minor Ave. in Seattle, who had been a department store Santa Claus here since the early '50s.  Funeral services were pending.

-Seattle Daily Times March 14, 1973

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.

The Helen Corday Murder, Part VI

 

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.

The Helen Corday Murder, Part V

The Helen Corday Murder, Part IV

 

 

 

Radio Player to Debut in New Ladd Picture

HOLLYWOOD -- Stacy Harris, famous for his long-standing role in the radio program This is Your F.B.I. has been signed by Paramount to make his debut as a screen actor in Postal Inspector with Alan Ladd and Phyllis Calvert.

Harris will appear as a hard boiled yegg in the cast which also marks the film debut for another New York radio personality, young and lovely Blossom Plumb.

Harris' career started simultaneously with Burt Lancaster's on Broadway.  They both made their footlight bows auspiciously in A Sound of Hunting.  While Lancaster moved to Hollywood and films, Harris went into radio.

Postal Inspector will be directed by Lewis Allen and produced by Robert Fellows.


-Medicine Hat News (Alberta, Canada), July 22, 1949


A Sound of Hunting by Harry Brown opened on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre on November 20, 1945 and closed three weeks later. A World War II comedy/drama, it was filmed by Edward Dmytryk as Eight Iron Men in 1952.  Barney Phillips was cast as Capt. Trelawny, the role played by Stacy Harris on Broadway.

The Helen Corday Murder, Part III

 

 

The Helen Corday Murder, Part II



 

 

 

 

The Helen Corday Murder, Part I

 

 

 

Dragnet, the radio program, first aired on June 3, 1949. 

 

The Helen Corday Murder was the fifth episode to air on July 7, 1949.  The story revolves around the brutal murder of a young woman, found bludgeoned to death by a piece of steel pipe. With the help of forensic evidence and a lucky break, Joe Friday and his partner Ben Romero (played by Barton Yarborough) apprehend the suspect after a short, but thrilling car chase.  Stacy Harris played the suspect, Frank Phillip Larson.

 

Dragnet, the tv series, made its debut on December 16, 1951.  The first episode was called The Human Bomb with Stacy Harris playing Vernon Carney, a mad bomber who holds City Hall hostage in an attempt to free his incarcerated brother, Elwood (played by Sam Edwards).  Raymond Burr plays the then Assistant LAPD Chief Thad Brown.

 
Shortly after the second episode was filmed, actor Barton Yarborough died of a heart attack on December 19, 1951.  Barney Phillips stepped in to play Ed Jacobs, who became Friday's partner for the rest of the season.  Beginning in the Fall of 1952, Friday's partner was Frank Smith, played by Ben Alexander for the rest of the black & white series.
 
Dragnet, the comic strip, made its debut on Friday, June 21, 1952.  Its first story was The Helen Corday Murder, adapted from the radio play.  Although Friday's partner is Ed Jacobs by this time on the tv show, the artist Joe Scheiber depicts him as Barton Yarborough and not Barney Phillips.  Stacy Harris is depicted as the suspect, albeit with a different name this time.

The Helen Corday Murder was adapted for television as The Big Barrette toward the end of the second season on June 18, 1953, one year after the comic strip version ran.  Olan Soule played Ray Pinker, who was the crime lab technician for the black & white, color, and both film versions of the series (with slightly different character names).  Once again, Stacy Harris gives a truly chilling performance as the psychotically deranged Larson.

A retrospective of Dragnet, the comic strip, can be found here. 

The radio broadcast of The Helen Corday Murder can be found here.

The television episode of The Big Barrette can be found here.

The Helen Corday Murder will be updated here every Monday over the next seven weeks.  The reproduction quality is what it is, but it's fun.  Stay tuned.

This one's about a Metropolitan Police Department.

It starts next Monday in this space.

Harris Plans Orleans Film

Ex-TV Star Here Slates Exploitation Movie

BY JILL JACKSON

 
HOLLYWOOD –After at least ten tries Stacy Harris and I finally set a date to spend a nice, long, leisurely evening to catch up on the last six years.

It’s been that long since Stacy lived in New Orleans for almost two years while he was portraying Lt. Victor Beaujac in the locally produced TV series, N.O.P.D.

The evening arrived, and so did Stacy, looking great, but a bit perturbed because he had just had a call from the studio to report early the next morning for a scene in a show he was filming, which meant learning his lines that night and arising at the crack of dawn.

The evening would have to be much shorter and more hurried than we had planned, but we did have time to chat in a charming little Chinese restaurant over lobster Cantonese, fried rice and sweet and pungent chicken, which Stacy ordered in Chinese.

Then we went to his beautiful hilltop home for coffee, so I could see it.  The house is built on three levels to conform to the hilly terrain.  The living room is large and graceful with a fireplace, comfortable chairs, treasures brought from Europe, piped music, and all the other accoutrements to make a man comfortable.

The study is his favorite room.  Here at a table he learns his “words,” as he calls his lines, and with a short turn of his head, through a large picture window, he can see all of Los Angeles below.

LINED WITH BOOKS

The walls are lined with books, bric-a-brac and boat models.  Sailing is Stacy’s hobby and he’s always out on the ocean at the tiller, time permitting.

Time, however, doesn’t permit too often as he is one of Hollywood’s most “in demand” actors.   He works constantly which is [text missing] limited roles and thousands of actors.

Stacy usually plays the “heavy” and can be counted upon either to get killed, beaten up, or brought to justice.  Recently he has been in The Untouchables, Wanted: Dead or Alive, and is very proud to say that in Wyatt Earp he played a nice guy.

Stacy’s latest plans are to make an exploitation movie in New Orleans.  The title, at this writing, is This Gam for Hire.  He will produce, assist with the writing, and possibly play a part.  In his own words he says, “New Orleans was good to me, I had a love affair with that City.”  He adores it and can’t wait to return.

KNOWS ORLEANS

Stacy Harris probably knows New Orleans better than most Orleanians.  As Lt. Beaujac his screen partner was a real life detective, Capt. Louis Sirgo.  Many was the night, and day too, that Stacy rode with the boys on authentic calls to saturate himself with the feel of the city, and the ways of the police to bring authenticity to his role.

Over coffee, listening to lovely music, we talked over old times, if you can call six years ago old times.  He adored Owen Brennan, and though he lived at the Claiborne Towers, he called the Old Absinthe House and Brennan’s his “offices.”  Stacy said he cannot visualize “our town” without Owen, and Tom Caplinger, Bob Tallant, Papa Celestin, Banjo Annie, and all the other departed characters.

All too soon it was ten p.m.  Stacy had fourteen sides to learn that night, so off we tooted in his T-Bird, down the hill to take me home.  We’re still going to get together to finish the conversation.

-New Orleans Daily Picayune, September 29, 1960

Jill Jackson (1912-2010) was a successful Hollywood-based columnist for many decades.  Originally hailing from New Orleans, she was hired by the Times Picayune to write a celebrity gossip column beginning in 1960.  Her column later expanded to a syndication package of 1500 news outlets.  Tulane University has a nice retrospective of her career here.

Louis Sirgo (1924-1973) costarred with Stacy Harris in N.O.P.D., a television series based in New Orleans.  Patterned after Dragnet, it was a low budget, but fun show.  Thirty-nine episodes were filmed on location in 1954 and it was nationally syndicated beginning in 1956.  Two movies were later compiled from the existing footage, New Orleans After Dark, released in 1958 and Four for the Morgue, in 1962.  He joined the NOPD in 1946 and worked as a homicide detective and later as a police captain before his retirement in 1964.  In 1970, he was reappointed New Orleans Deputy Police Superintendent.  He was gunned down on Jan. 7, 1973, one of nine people killed and ten seriously injured during a horrific rampage by a crazed sniper.  An account of the events can be found here.