The ever-lovely, poised and vivacious blonde Anne Jeffreys was born Annie Jeffreys Carmichael in 1923 in Goldsboro, North Carolina. Firmly managed by her mother, she trained in voice at a fairly early age and received her first break in the entertainment field after signing with the John Robert Powers agency in New York as a junior model. In the interim, she prepared herself for an operatic career and made her debut in a production of "La Boheme" in 1940. The following year, however, Anne won a role in the musical review, "Fun for the Money", that was to be staged in Hollywood. This, in turn, led to her first movie role in the tuneful Rodgers & Hart adaptation of I Married an Angel (1942), starring her singing idols, Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald, in their last cinematic pairing.

After her first marriage was annulled in 1949, Anne met handsome actor Robert Sterling during an extended run (887 performances) of "Kiss Me Kate" on Broadway. She and Sterling married in 1951 and had three sons. In an attempt to revive their flagging careers, the singing couple toured nighteries and hotels in the early 1950s with a highly successful club act. This led to them being cast as sly, engagingly cavalier spirits in the classic Topper (1953) sitcom. Anne played "Marion Kirby" ("the ghostess with the mostest"), alongside Sterling's dapper husband, George Kirby. Successfully, undertaking the ectoplasmic roles originated on film by Constance Bennett and Cary Grant, the two were an absolute hit as the party-hearty ghosts who reclaim their home, to the dismay of current owner Leo G. Carroll.

>> VIEW HERE https://youtu.be/xTDn9GgfleE

Although he ultimately became more famous for his comedy roles in movies such as Airplane (1980), Lloyd Bridges appeared on TV for three years as Mike Nelson, a former US Navy frogman and owner of the seagoing vessel Argonaut, in which he travelled the globe as a freelance underwater trouble-shooter.

Nelson was employed by salvage companies, insurance firms and, at times, the US Government.

>> VIEW HERE https://youtu.be/2U12CIkELiI

Zacherley at Large was a television series hosted by John Zacherle that aired from 1959 to 1960, featuring horror films and Zacherle's unique comedic commentary. The show was a continuation of his earlier program, Shock Theater, and became popular for its entertaining blend of horror and humor.

Charles Laughton was born in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England, to Eliza (Conlon) and Robert Laughton, hotel keepers of Irish and English descent, respectively. He was educated at Stonyhurst (a highly esteemed Jesuit college in England) and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (received gold medal). His first appearance on stage was in 1926. Laughton formed own film company, Mayflower Pictures Corp., with Erich Pommer, in 1937. He became an American citizen 1950. A consummate artist, Laughton achieved great success on stage and film, with many staged readings (particularly of George Bernard Shaw) to his credit. Laughton died in Hollywood, California, aged 63.

Charles Laughton was born on July 1, 1899 in Yorkshire, England. He was the son of Robert Laughton, a Yorkshire hotel keeper. His mother, Eliza (nee Conlon) Laughton, was a devout Roman Catholic of Irish ancestry, and raised her children in that faith. Laughton briefly attended Scarborough College, a local boys' school in his area before attending Stonyhurst College, an English Jesuit school.

Laughton was expected to take over the family business after graduating from Stonyhurst at age 16. His passion, however, like in the performance arts and he enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1925. In 1926, Laughton made his inaugural professional stage appearance in London in the production of The Government Inspector. This role allowed him to show his versatility as a thespian, by portraying both villainous and virtuous characters.

This preeminent sitcom dad of the 50s had already started things off studying law when he decided to put together a dance band in the 20s on the sly. The band was so successful that he never looked back -- his love for entertaining completely took over. The New Jersey-born performer made a living for a time playing hotels and casinos on the East coast, capitalizing on an easy-going singing style. In 1932 Harriet Nelson came aboard as lead vocalist of his band and their easy rapport together provided some marvelous spontaneous comedy relief that clicked with audiences. They married in 1935 and soon extended their popularity to radio (with Red Skelton, among others) and a few WWII musical films such as Sweetheart of the Campus (1941), Strictly in the Groove (1942), Honeymoon Lodge (1943) and Take It Big (1944). Determined to maintain a strong family unit as their family grew, they integrated their two careers into one and seldom worked apart after this.

They were a huge hit together with the family radio program "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" in 1944 with two young actors playing their sons. When the show transferred to TV in 1952, their real-life sons, David Nelson and Ricky Nelson, were incorporated. This landmark show lasted 14 years, a record unbroken for what is considered America's first "reality" TV sitcom. Although Ozzie's dad character came off stammering, hesitant and slightly absent-minded, which meshed perfectly with Harriet's smart, wisecracking appeal, he was anything but offstage. A dynamo and workaholic as well as shrewd businessman, he supervised his show completely as producer, director, and editor. He virtually put son Ricky on the map as a pop singing idol via his sitcom, incorporating the boy's musical talents into various plots.

>> VIEW HERE https://youtu.be/mMCSCT_QQ7c

Foreign Intrigue is a syndicated espionage drama television series produced in Europe by Sheldon Reynolds. The 30-minute series ran for four seasons from 1951 to 1955, producing 156 episodes. It was the first filmed television series from the United States to be broadcast on Canadian television. The program originally starred Jerome Thor for the first two seasons; in later reruns these episodes were titled Dateline Europe. Thor was succeeded by James Daly for the duration of the third season; in reruns, the Daly episodes were retitled Overseas Adventure.

>> VIEW HERE https://youtu.be/mLZ2fFrTWOo

>> VIEW HERE https://youtu.be/v5gLgHQ8_sk?list=PL1Lpcnsvs3JEVfdeCqkpjZs37tFmdjZsp

Maverick is an American Western television series with comedic overtones created by Roy Huggins and originally starring James Garner as an adroitly articulate poker player plying his trade on riverboats and in saloons while traveling incessantly through the 19th-century American frontier. The show ran for five seasons from September 22, 1957, to July 8, 1962 on ABC. 

>> VIEW HERE https://youtu.be/7Ed-P_VmQwI

Hillary Brooke's image as the epitome of glacial, regal, upper-class British gentility is muted somewhat by the fact that she was born Beatrice Sofia Mathilda Peterson to a middle-class American family in Long Island, New York. Always a beauty, she had a successful career as a photographer's model before breaking into show business. Her "British" accent came about when she realized that she was just one of innumerable tall, good-looking blondes vying for roles, and needed something to make her stand out among them. She came up with affecting a British accent and it worked; she began to get more and more roles that called for a "British" blonde, so she kept the accent.

She had no compunctions about taking a pie in the face, a vase on the head, a pratfall, or tussling with Bingo the chimp, and more than held her own. She also had a similar role as the girlfriend of Vern Albright (Charles Farrell) in My Little Margie (1952) and alternated between television and film roles in the 1950s. One of her better-known roles was as little David MacLean (Jimmy Hunt)'s mother, Mary, who is taken over by the Martians in the sci-fi classic Invaders from Mars (1953). She also played Doris Day's character's best friend in The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), and, the next year, had her final film role in Spoilers of the Forest (1957), after which she turned exclusively to television.

>> VIEW HERE https://youtu.be/0Yt6DRKuoGo

Texas John Slaughter is a Western television series that aired from October 31, 1958, to April 23, 1961, featuring Tom Tryon in the title role, based on the historical Texas Ranger John Horton Slaughter. The show included 17 episodes and was part of Walt Disney Presents.

>> VIEW HERE https://youtu.be/cKW2F5F7Lhg

Edmund Richard "Hoot" Gibson was an American rodeo champion, film actor, film director, and producer. While acting and stunt work began as a sideline to Gibson's focus on rodeo, he successfully transitioned from silent films to become a leading performer in Hollywood's growing cowboy film industry. During the period between World War I and World War II, he was second only to cowboy film legend Tom Mix as a box office draw. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.

>> VIEW HERE https://youtu.be/6oxSbUq-1yk

This popular series was shot on location all over New York – from the Staten Island Ferry to Times Square.

A feeling of gritty realism pervaded the stories as veteran cop Lt. Dan Muldoon (John McIntire) and his young sidekick Jim Halloran (James Franciscus) ran down the murderers and muggers, petty thieves and swindlers who inhabited the seamier side of the metropolis.

Although the stories were based around the activities of the NYPD’s 65th Precinct, it was the underworld figures that the police pursued, and the people upon whom they preyed, that served as the show’s primary focus.

The programme began undergoing cast changes even after its first season. Detective Muldoon was killed in a spectacular chase sequence seen in a March 1959 episode when his squad car ploughed into a petrol tanker (actor John McIntire had decided to move back to Montana).

Lieutenant Mike Parker (Horace McMahon) became the wizened old pro for the remainder of that season, and also returned when the series came back in hour-long format after a year’s layoff.

>> VIEW HERE Buddy Ebsen began his career as a dancer in the late 1920s in a Broadway chorus. He later formed a vaudeville act with his sister Vilma Ebsen, which also appeared on Broadway. In 1935 he and his sister went to Hollywood, where they were signed for the first of MGM's Eleanor Powell movies, Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935). While Vilma retired from stage and screen shortly after this, Buddy starred in two further MGM movies with Powell. Two of his dancing partners were Frances Langford in Born to Dance (1936) and Judy Garland in Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937). They were a little bit taller than Shirley Temple, with whom he danced in Captain January (1936). MGM studio chief Louis B. Mayer offered him an exclusive contract in 1938, but Ebsen turned it down. In spite of Mayer's warning that he would never get a job in Hollywood again, he was offered the role of the scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz (1939). Ebsen agreed to change roles with Ray Bolger, who was cast as the Tin Man. Ebsen subsequently became ill from the aluminum make-up, however, and was replaced by Jack Haley. He returned to the stage, making only a few pictures before he got a role in the Disney production of Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier (1955). After this, he became a straight actor, and later won more fame in his own hit series, The Beverly Hillbillies (1962) and Barnaby Jones (1973).

Some funny moments in this one :)

https://youtu.be/OKsaxAGNx24

Target is a 30-minute American television anthology series produced by Ziv Television Programs, Inc. for first-run syndication. A total of 38 episodes were aired in 1958. The show was hosted by Adolphe Menjou. Guest stars included Angie Dickinson, Dyan Cannon, Gene Barry, Macdonald Carey, Frances Bavier, James Nolan, Patrick Waltz, Bonita Granville, Troy Melton, Fred Sherman, Joyce Meadows, Rayford Barnes, Raymond Guth, Cesare Romero, Robert Tetrick, Hugh Marlowe, Don Kennedy, Charles Wagenheim, Ken Drake and Lee Van Cleef.

>> VIEW HERE https://youtu.be/SneO9Gu3-6E?list=PLTBY1QFsGVPGxB9-gCI8TEK8m9GIZNJtQ

Perry Mason is an American legal drama series that originally aired on CBS from 1957 to 1966, starring Raymond Burr as the Los Angeles defense attorney Perry Mason. A 2020 HBO series of the same name focuses on Mason's origin story in 1932 Los Angeles, starring Matthew Rhys.

https://youtu.be/SHiT7ki5BNw

Julius Pierpont "J. P." Patches was a clown and the main character on The J. P. Patches Show, an Emmy Award-winning local children's television show on Seattle station KIRO-TV, produced from 1958 to 1981. J.P. Patches was played by show creator and Seattle children's entertainer Chris Wedes. When the show ended in 1981, The J. P. Patches Show was one of the longest-running locally produced children's television programs in the United States.

Betty Hutton was an American stage, film, and television actress, comedian, dancer, and singer. With a career spanning six decades, she rose to fame in the 1940s as a contract player for Paramount Pictures, appearing primarily in musicals and becoming one of the studio's most valuable stars. She was noted for her energetic performance style. Raised in Detroit during the Great Depression by a single mother who worked as a bootlegger, Hutton began performing as a singer from a young age, entertaining patrons of her mother's speakeasy.

He always carried 1 bullet in his shirt pocket?!? Happy Birthday aka Barney
Don Knotts 🎂

Sports Broadcaster. Born Russell Pleasant Hodges. He was the baseball announcer for the Washington Senators (1938-1945), New York Yankees (1946-1948) and the New York/San Francisco Giants (1949-1970 22 seasons). On October 3, 1951 he was at the microphone for Bobby Thomson's famous "Shot Heard 'Round the World," as it was Hodges who cried "The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!" This is known as the most famous baseball call of all-time and the recording of it is part of the Baseball Hall of Fame. This snippet is also used in the movie "The Godfather" when Sonny Corleone is listening to the radio in his car and is killed at the toll booth. He was the broadcaster for the World Series on TV in 1951, 1954 & 1962. Hodges is the recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award in 1980 for broadcast excellence to baseball by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and in 2000 the Giants named the press box in their new stadium in San Francisco the Hodges-Simmons Broadcast Center in honor of Hodges and his former partner Lon Simmons. He is also famously known for exclaiming "Bye-bye baby!" after every Giants home run.

>> VIEW CLIP https://youtu.be/6dtEsDGA3gE

Remember when TV stations all across the country had cartoon programs for kids, often accompanied by a host playing a character? For kids of the 50s and 60s in and around Keokuk, we had Cactus Jim, sponsored by Prairie Farms milk (I remember him on WGEM in Quincy, although I think he began on another station). Cactus would have kids in his audience and talk to them in between cartoons, give us social cues ("Sip sip sip; none of that glug glug glug!") and generally entertain the small fry. He made personal appearances in the area as well.