TALES FROM THE MULTIVERSE - PAUL BAILEY WON'T YOU PLEASE CALL HOME?

Dr. James Kildare, as immortalized in Toobworld by Richard Chamberlain, is actually a multiversal.

From Wikipedia:

Dr. James Kildare is a fictional American medical doctor character, originally created in the 1930s by the author Frederick Schiller Faust under the pen name Max Brand. Shortly after the character's first appearance in a magazine story, Paramount Pictures used the story and character as the basis for the 1937 film "Internes Can't Take Money". Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) subsequently acquired the rights and featured Kildare as the primary character in a series of American theatrical films in the late 1930s and early 1940s, several of which were co-written by Faust (as Max Brand), who also continued to write magazine stories and novels about the character until the early 1940s.

The Kildare character was later featured in an early 1950s radio series, a 1960s television series, a comic book and comic strip based on the 1960s TV show, and a short-lived second 1970s television series.

For the main Toobworld, Earth Prime-Time, the official Dr. Kildare was portrayed by Richard Chamberlain, but he could be found in other TV dimensions.

Also from Wikipedia:

In 1953, Lew Ayres was approached to play "Dr. Kildare" in a television series, which would feature Dr. Kildare having finally taken over the practice of a retired Dr. Gillespie. After two pilots were filmed, Ayres refused to work further on the project unless the television studio refused to allow cigarette companies to sponsor the program. Ayres later explained, "My feeling was that a medical show, particularly one that might appeal to children, should not be used to sell cigarettes." The studio would not agree to reject lucrative advertising, so the project was abandoned.

Raymond Massey as "Dr. Gillespie" and Richard Chamberlain as "Dr. Kildare", in the 1961 'Dr. Kildare' television series.

A second attempt at a television series was made in the early 1960s with 'Dr. Kildare', a NBC medical drama television series starring Richard Chamberlain in the title role, produced by MGM Television and inspired by the original Dr. Kildare stories and films. Lew Ayres appeared as "Dr. Gillespie" in a 1960 unsold and unaired pilot (with Joseph Cronin as Kildare), but Raymond Massey was cast as Gillespie in the version that finally went to air.

Premiering on September 28, 1961, the series was a top-10 hit with audiences and ran until April 5, 1966, for a total of 191 episodes in five seasons. The first two seasons told the story of Dr. James Kildare (Chamberlain), working in a fictional large metropolitan hospital while trying to learn his profession, deal with his patients' problems and earn the respect of the senior Dr. Leonard Gillespie (Massey). In the third season, Dr. Kildare was promoted to resident and the series began to focus more on the stories of the patients and their families. The success of the show (along with ABC's contemporaneous medical drama Ben Casey) inspired the launch of numerous other television medical dramas in the ensuing years.

In 1972 MGM Television created a short-lived syndicated drama series called 'Young Dr. Kildare', starring Mark Jenkins as Dr. James Kildare and Gary Merrill as Dr. Leonard Gillespie. The series was not a success, and only 24 episodes were produced.

'Young Dr. Kildare' would be relegated to Toobworld2, the Land O' Remakes, while the two pilots made with Lew Ayres reprising his portrayal of Kildare from the movies would go to a Borderland which the Television Universe would share with the Cineverse and those movies which starred Ayres.

One day I think Dr. Kildare will make it into the TVXOHOF, not only as a multiversal character, but as a multidimensional, seen as three different incarnations across the greater TV multiverse.

But that's not why I'm writing this post.  It's actually about the Audioverse portrayal of Dr. Kildare, also assayed by Lew Ayres.

According to an old time radio site, "The Story of Doctor Kildare" radio show was one of the more popular medical drama serializations on old time radio.  It is restricted to that fictional universe of the audioverse, that "theatre of the mind", because the characters who inhabit it are like the people from the Isle of the Blessed as described in the 2nd Century book "True History" written by Lucien of Samosota.  They have no physical presence; they are only voices.  Sometimes they cross over to Earth Prime-Time Such a vocal crossover is a voice-over.  Some voice-overs are the offspring of a union between somebody from the Audioverse and somebody from Toobworld.  (At least in Skitlandia we saw this happen with Don Pardo.)

But that doesn't mean the Audioverse stories of Dr. Kildare couldn't have happened to his televersion as well.  We don't even have to have seen it played out in that classic TV series.

And we don't even have to look to the 'Dr. Kildare' TV show for confirmation of the existence of the radio show characters in Toobworld.

We could find possible proof in another TV show.

First, lets look at this radio show episode:

'DR. KILDARE'

"PAUL BAILEY, INTERN"

(Episode #74)
Friday, June 22, 1951 – 30:00 – MGM Syndication

Dr. Paul Bailey has been failing his duties as an intern.

The episode can be found on YouTube:

As great as Lionel Barrymore, Lew Ayres, and Virginia Gregg are in their roles of Gillespie, Kildare, and Nosy Parker, we're concerned with the intern Paul Bailey.

Acknowledgement of the existence of Dr. Paul Bailey in Earth Prime-Time came in March of 1971, with a simple intercom message heard at the airport:

'COLUMBO'

"RANSOM FOR A DEAD MAN"

Poor Dr. Paul Bailey.  Even after crossing over to the TV Universe, he still couldn't be seen!

Paul Bailey was played on the radio by Lawrence Dobkin who had a very succcessful career as a utility player - ably supporting the lead or sometimes playing the villain in all genres of TV shows and movies.  Westerns, war dramas, mysteries, even sitcoms like 'Gilligan's Island' and sci-fi shows like 'Star Trek: The Next Generation'.

The 'Dr. Kildare' radio episode was broadcast on June 22, 1951, so if the story of Paul Bailey did play out again later in the TV Universe and Larry Dobkin was able to play the role once more, then he would have looked like this at the time:

By the time of that second pilot episode of 'Columbo', however, he would have been more than likely looking like this:

Thanks to the use of toupees, Dobkin was able to easily transition his characters from one look to another.  And it would serve as a good indication of the passage of time, at least a decade's worth.

It's just for the chance to write up such flights of fancy as this one that I always pay attention to the names being paged over the intercom during a TV show.  (The best were in 'St. Elsewhere' as we always heard the names of other TV doctors being called.)

BCnU!

TVXOHOF, 08/2017 - NIXON'S THE ONE! (NOT THAT NIXON....)

September, a rueful month.... Summer is ending, Winter is on the horizon.

It's also the month during which we honor the Powers Behind The Screen who expand the TV Universe - the writers, the directors, the producers, the art designers.

And so it is a memorial month then for our September inductee into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame.  I don't think I could have made a better choice than one of the grande dames of the afternoon stories - the venerable soap operas.

AGNES NIXON

From Wikipedia:

Agnes Nixon (née Eckhardt; December 10, 1922 – September 28, 2016) was an American television writer and producer. She is best known as the creator of the long-running soap operas 'One Life to Live', 'All My Children', and 'Loving.' 

(O'BSERVATION: 'Loving' would later morph into 'The City'.)

Nixon's work as producer and writer introduced a number of new story-lines to American daytime television – the first health-related storyline, the first storyline related to the Vietnam War, the first on-screen lesbian kiss and the first on-screen abortion.

She won five Writers' Guild of America Awards, five Daytime Emmy Awards, and in 2010 received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Nixon was often referred to as the "Queen" of the modern American soap opera.

Ms. Nixon came close to joining the TVXOHOF as one of her characters as well.  In both 'All My Children' and 'One Life to Live' she played the character Agnes Eckhardt.  But unfortunately she only has those two shows to Ms. Eckhardt's credit.  

But as the creator of those three soap operas, she expanded Toobworld with the locations of Llanview, Corinth. and Pine Valley, all located in Pennsylvania.  And since they were relatively close to each other within the televersion of Pennsylvania, naturally characters from one show could show up on one - or both - of the others.  

For example: 

• Angie Hubbard is a future member of the Hall of Fame because of how she moved from Pine Valley to Corinth before she moved to New York City in the sequel to 'Loving', 'The City'.
• A 'General Hospital' character left Port Charles, New York, and moved south to Manhattan in Nixon's 'The City' - the power-hungry Tracy Quartermaine.
• Another two GH refugees had a mother and child reunion in 'All My Children' as it was revealed that Alex was really Anna Devane suffering from amnesia. Her daughter Robin Scorpio journeyed from Port Charles to Pine Valley in order to meet her mother again.
• Starr Manning, Cole and Hope Thornhart moved to Port Charles from Llanview but the baby Hope and her father Cole seem to have died in a horrific car crash.  Starr had to move on in life without them.
• A scandalous baby switch roiled the people in Llanview and Pine Valley.
• One of the very first inductees into the Hall was Gretl Rae Cummings who showed up in all of the soaps on ABC.

And so, Agnes Nixon deserves to take her place in the Hall.  Welcome, Madam.....

BCnU!

TELE-FOLKS DIRECTORY - PRINCESS DIANA

Wonder Woman:

I had more or less the same problem with Napoleon Bonaparte.

Marion Mariposa:
His dream was to conquer the world.  Mine is a little bit more realistic.

Wonder Woman:

You call this realistic? 

I'm beginning to lose my temper with you, Mr. Mariposa.

And it's something I haven't done in 500 or 600 years.

Marion Mariposa:

Then I would recommend a little self-control.

'WONDER WOMAN'
"SCREAMING JAVELIN"

Staying young and beautiful, basically looking the same from WWII* to the 1970s was a walk in the park for Wonder Woman.  She had been around since at least the 14th Century!

I imagine when she mentions that she lost her temper 600 years ago, she was probably just a child at the time.  So she was probably having a temper tantrum at the Paradise Island Day Care....

But once she was a young lady among the Amazons on Themiscyra, we can assume that she was involved in many exploits as a [Toob]world savior (superhero not being a term in existence until the arrival of Superman.)

She gives just one example in that quote above - she met Napoleon.  Diana may have had a hand in his capture and exile to Elba.

This seems like fertile territory for TV fanficcers.  (I'm sure those who dabble in the invented universe of comic books might find it of interest as well.)  Think of all the TV characters she may have met (and sometimes fought) down through the centuries: 

• Rory, The Waiting Centurion ('Doctor Who')
• Sir Thomas Grey ('Covington Cross')
• Endora ('Bewitched')
• Eric Northman ('True Blood')
• Exigius 12½ ('My Favorite Martian') - perhaps during his visit with Da Vinci?
• 'Nicolas Le Floch' and 'The Three Musketeers'
• Angelus ('Buffy The Vampire Slayer' & 'Angel')
• 'Bret Maverick'
• Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry ('Alias Smith And Jones')
• Dr. Miguelito Loveless ('The Wild, Wild West')
• 'Sherlock Holmes' and Dr. Watson
• Detective William Murdoch ('The Murdoch Mysteries')
• Quentin Everett Deverill ('Q.E.D.')
• Superman ('The Adventures Of Superman')
• Trent aka "The Demon With A Glass Hand" ('The Outer Limits')
• 'Batman'
• John Drake aka Number Six ('Danger Man' & 'The Prisoner')
• Admiral Harriman Nelson on board the Seaview ('Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea')
• Markaris (anglicized as "Mark Harris"), 'The Man From Atlantis'
• Bennu ('The Phoenix')
• Buffy Somers aka 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer'
• Jim Rockford of 'The Rockford Files'.  (Now that might seem mundane compared to the others, but here's how I see it beginning: While flying her invisible plane near the island of Mariposalia, that country's dictator, Marion Mariposa, is able to shoot it down.  Wonder Woman manages to hang in there long enough to crash into the ocean just off the beach at Malibu, where Jim Rockford finds her unconscious in the surf while doing some night-fishing.......)

And running throughout her personal timeline could be visiting Time Lords from the planet Gallifrey like:

• The Doctor (Any one or more of his regenerated incarnations would work.)
• The Master
• The Rani
• Professor Chronotis (All from 'Doctor Who')

Oh! The places she'd go!

• The Village ('The Prisoner')
• Eternia ('Secret Empire' & 'One Life To Live')
• The Plateau ('The Lost World')
• The Fortress of Solitude ('The Adventures Of Superman' - assumed.)
• The Island ('Lost') - I can picture her on The Island (in one of its previous locations -back in the 1600s, exploring the mysterious relationship between Jacob and the Smoke Monster....
• 'Downton Abbey'
• 221-B Baker Street ('Sherlock Holmes')
• Warehouses 8 through 13 ('Warehouse 13')
• Perhaps through 'The Time Tunnel'

And along with Dr. Loveless, Princess Diana could have battled against other foes through Time:

• Spike ('Buffy The Vampire Slayer')
• The Cybermen ('Doctor Who') during "The Invasion"
• The Black Oil even? ('The X-Files')

Princess Diana would not have assumed the identity of Wonder Woman until World War Two, and that would include her super-hero finery.  So if we find a young Lynda Carter in some other TV role set in the past, maybe a fanficcer could run with that, claiming that her character was really Princess Diana in disguise.....

It's unlikely we will ever see Wonder Woman in Earth Prime-Time ever again - at least as played by Lynda Carter.  Any other actress in the role would automatically place that appearance in an alternate TV dimension.  (The Arrowverse might find room for her.)  Since Princess Diana is basically immortal, she would still look as she did in the 1940s and the 1970s.  But Time has marched on for Lynda Carter - still beautiful, but definitely older.

However, if certain trappings of the old series were not revived for a remake set in "the present" (whenever that might be) - specifically, the recasting of Steve Trevor - then I would have no problem accepting a recastaway of Princess Diana/Diana Prince/Wonder Woman as being the same character seen in the earlier show.

By this point in History, both Toobworld and the real world, our identities are too deeply locked in - with social security numbers, NSA files, the saturation of surveillance cameras everywhere.  Wonder Woman would have realized that she could no longer get away with passing herself off as some relative of the super-heroine seen during WWII and the post-Watergate era.

And so back on Paradise Island, she would have had to resort to plastic surgery, maybe even magic, in order to change her appearance.  Why would it matter so many decades after the fact?  Because at least from the 1970s, there may have been people in her life as Diana Prince who could still be at risk from enemies of Wonder Woman.  And that would be cause enough to change her appearance......

All of these musings on this particular Amazon were inspired by my cousin Coco, who celebrates her (mumphle mumphle) birthday today.  She's a great fan of Wonder Woman in all of her glory, which explains the topic in this last day of the month meant to celebrate the TV Western.

Happy birthday, Coco!

O'BSERVATION:

I'm sorry if you checked this out, thinking it was my salute to Princess Diana on the 20th anniversary of her death.  The timing just worked out that way.  But I will be setting up her photo album on my TVXOHOF page at Facebook soon.  She was inducted into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame in 2016.

* I would not be surprised if Diana had adventures in World War I similar to those seen in the movie blockbuster of this past summer.  But that's the Wonder Woman of the Cineverse and has nothing to do with Earth Prime-Time.

BCnU!

DEATH VALLEY DENIZENS - MARK TWAIN, YET AGAIN

'DEATH VALLEY DAYS'

"TEN DAY MILLIONAIRES"

SAM CLEMENS

portrayed by 

TOM SKERRITT

From Wikipedia:

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. Among his novels are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), the latter often called "The Great American Novel".

Twain was raised in Hannibal, Missouri, which later provided the setting for Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. He served an apprenticeship with a printer and then worked as a typesetter, contributing articles to the newspaper of his older brother Orion Clemens. He later became a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River before heading west to join Orion in Nevada. He referred humorously to his lack of success at mining, turning to journalism for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise. His humorous story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County", was published in 1865, based on a story that he heard at Angels Hotel in Angels Camp, California where he had spent some time as a miner. The short story brought international attention and was even translated into classic Greek. His wit and satire, in prose and in speech, earned praise from critics and peers, and he was a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists, and European royalty.

Twain earned a great deal of money from his writings and lectures, but he invested in ventures that lost most of it—notably the Paige Compositor, a mechanical typesetter that failed because of its complexity and imprecision. He filed for bankruptcy in the wake of these financial setbacks, but he eventually overcame his financial troubles with the help of Henry Huttleston Rogers. He chose to pay all his pre-bankruptcy creditors in full, even after he had no legal responsibility to do so.

Twain was born shortly after an appearance of Halley's Comet, and he predicted that he would "go out with it" as well; he died the day after the comet returned. He was lauded as the "greatest American humorist of his age", and William Faulkner called him "the father of American literature".

Twain's journey ended in the silver-mining town of Virginia City, Nevada where he became a miner on the Comstock Lode. He failed as a miner and went to work at the Virginia City newspaper Territorial Enterprise, working under a friend, the writer Dan DeQuille. He first used his pen name here on February 3, 1863, when he wrote a humorous travel account entitled "Letter From Carson – re: Joe Goodman; party at Gov. Johnson's; music" and signed it "Mark Twain".

His experiences in the American West inspired Roughing It, written during 1870–71 and published in 1872. His experiences in Angels Camp (in Calaveras County, California) provided material for "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" (1865).

Mark Twain is one of a handful of authors who have been depicted in television almost as often as the characters they created.  (Others include Charles Dickens, Agatha Christie, and of course, William Shakespeare.)  Over the years, I have tried to include as many of the depictions of Twain as possible in the main Toobworld by citing the Perspective Imperative (I'm working on the name) - any facial differences caused by recasting the role from show to show is due to the character - in this case, Mark Twain, being seen from the point of view of a regular character in the series.  Because of this, I've been able to keep portrayals of Twain in the same TV dimension from such disparate shows as 'The Rifleman', 'The Virginian', 'Touched By An Angel' and even 'Star Trek: The Next Generation', despite the actors being Kevin McCarthy, Dabbs Greer, John Cullum, and Jerry Hardin respectively.

Stand-alone movies I shunt off to alternate TV dimensions (which saddened me when it came to James Garner as the author in 2002's "Roughing It".)  And of course, his portrayal in comedy sketches and cartoons are automatically consigned to the dimensions of Skitlandia and the Tooniverse.  A jerkwad portrayal by Vanilla Ice in "The Ridiculous Six" didn't even merit consideration; off to Doofus Toobworld with that Netflix movie!

There are two series appearances which I have had to grapple with, however.  'Murdoch Mysteries' will never be pried out of Earth Prime-Time as I enjoy it too much.  And many of its historical figures can be splained away with that P.O.V theory.  But William Shatner as Mark Twain made no attempt at an historical impression, at least using Hal Holbrook's defining and classic portrayal as the template.  He didn't even bother with adopting the established look with the shaggy white hair and bushy white mustache.  Oh, he had the mustache, but it was a dark brown - too brown for the man at that stage in his life.  (This takes place at some point after 1903, when the Empire Club [where Twain was targeted] was founded.)

The overall effect was that he was Mark Twain in name only; he was simply Shatner... but with a mustache at least better than the... thing he sported on his upper lip in the 'Columbo' episode "Butterfly In Shades of Grey".  For my money (and for the sake of what's left of my sanity), there's only way to splain away his horrible performance: the Mark Twain who appeared at the Empire Club in Toronto was an impostor who fooled even Detective William Murdoch.

The other show that's giving me problems is 'Bonanza', which has seen fit to portray Mark Twain three times over the years, each time played by a different actor.

"Bonanza" 

    - Enter Mark Twain (1959) 

Played by Howard Duff 

    - The Emperor Norton (1966)

Played by William Challee
    - The Twenty-Sixth Grave (1972) 

Played by Ken Howard

I'll have to watch "Enter Mark Twain" and "The Twenty-Sixth Grave" again, to determine how to splain away the discrepancies - the Zonks - generated by not only the recastaway situation but their placement on the Toobworld timeline.  I may have to send Ken Howard's Samuel Clemens to an alternate TV dimension 'Bonanza'.  (It wouldn't be the first time I've had to do that for just a single episode of a series.)

But I don't need to bother with the Mark Twain who made a "cameo appearance" in the episode which dealt with Emperor Norton.  He wasn't Mark Twain; like Shatner's joke of a portrayal, Challee was playing a Twain impostor.  And not only that... he was a time-traveling alien in disguise as a human!

But that's another story which had its beginnings in an episode of 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' surprisingly.

Anyway.....

Let's get back to Tom Skerritt's portrayal of Mark Twain.  After all, that's why I started writing this post!

At the beginning of this month, I said that many of the historical episodes of 'Death Valley Days' would have to be relegated to alternate TV dimensions whenever the historical characters had multiple portrayals from other TV series.  And that's the case here as I've noted.  There were no established regular characters in this anthology series whom we could claim were seeing Sam Clemens from their own perspective.  Had he been the only actor to play the role, then he would have had a lock on the position in the main Toobworld.  But with an author as famous, as popular, and as distinctive in his appearance as Samuel Clemens AKA Mark Twain, it is not to be....

BCnU!

O'BSERVATION:
Even though there is one more day to the month of August, this will be the last TV Western post for the showcase.  (And I couldn't think of a better historical figure to write about from 'Death Valley Days'.)  

For tomorrow, there will something completely different on a topic that has become something of a tradition the last few years......

TWO FOR TUESDAY - LUDWIG, LOVER OF LOLA

'DEATH VALLEY DAYS'

"LOLA MONTEZ"

LUDWIG I OF BAVARIA

PORTRAYED BY GABOR "GABRIEL" CURTIZ

From Wikipedia:

Ludwig I (25 August 1786 – 29 February 1868) was king of Bavaria from 1825 until the 1848 revolutions in the German states.

Ludwig had several extramarital affairs and was one of the lovers of Lady Jane Digby, an aristocratic English adventuress. Another affair was the Italian noblewoman Marianna Marquesa Florenzi. His affair with Lola Montez also caused some scandal.

In 1844 Ludwig was confronted with the Beer riots in Bavaria. During the revolutions of 1848 the king faced increasing protests and demonstrations by the students and the middle classes. The King had ordered to close the university in February and on 4 March a large crowd assaulted the Armory to storm the Munich Residenz. Ludwig's brother Prince Karl managed to appease the protesters, but now the royal family and the Cabinet turned against Ludwig. He had to sign the so-called "March Proclamation" with substantial concessions. On 16 March 1848 it was followed by renewed unrest because Lola Montez had returned to Munich after a short exile. Ludwig had to let her be searched by the police on 17 March, which was the worst humiliation for him. Not willing to rule as a constitutional monarch, Ludwig abdicated on 20 March 1848 in favour of his eldest son, Maximilian.

Ludwig lived for another twenty years after his abdication and remained influential, especially as he continued several of his cultural projects. Most of his time in Munich his residence was the neo-gothic Wittelsbacher Palais, once built for his successor and unloved by Ludwig. He died at Nice in 1868, and was buried in St. Boniface's Abbey, Munich which he had ordered to be built.

As was the case with Franz Liszt, King Ludwig was never in the wild, wild West.  But he did figure in the flashback memories of Lola Montez as she used her serlinguist skills to tell the audience in the Trueniverse about her life.  Therefore, her vision of his televersion would not conflict with these other portrayals of Ludwig I.

"Wagner" (1981) 

Played by Sigfrit Steiner 

Komödienstadel - Die schöne Münchnerin (2008) 

Played by Winfried Frey

BCnU!

TWO FOR TUESDAY - LISZT, LOVER OF LOLA

'DEATH VALLEY DAYS'

"LOLA MONTEZ"

FRANZ LISZT

[ACTOR UNKNOWN] 

From Wikipedia:

Franz Liszt (October 22, 1811 – July 31, 1886) was a prolific 19th-century Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor, music teacher, arranger, organist, philanthropist, author, nationalist and a Franciscan tertiary.

Liszt gained renown in Europe during the early nineteenth century for his prodigious virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was a friend, musical promoter and benefactor to many composers of his time, including Frédéric Chopin, Richard Wagner, Hector Berlioz, Robert Schumann, Camille Saint-Saëns, Edvard Grieg, Ole Bull, Joachim Raff, Mikhail Glinka, and Alexander Borodin.

As a composer, Liszt was one of the most prominent representatives of the New German School (Neudeutsche Schule). He left behind an extensive and diverse body of work in which he influenced his forward-looking contemporaries and anticipated many 20th-century ideas and trends. Some of his most notable musical contributions were the invention of the symphonic poem, developing the concept of thematic transformation as part of his experiments in musical form, and making radical departures in harmony.

Liszt never set foot in the United States, let alone in the wild, wild West.  But he had a connection to a legendary woman whose life story was told in an episode of 'Death Valley Days'.  (In fact, she narrated the flashback, proving her televersion was a serlinguist.)

Also from Wikipedia:
In 1844, Lola [Montez] made a personally disappointing Parisian stage début as a dancer in Fromental Halévy's opera, Le lazzarone. She met and had an affair with Franz Liszt.

I have no clue who played Liszt in this episode.  In the closing credits of the 'Death Valley Days' episode none of the actors listed had a character attributed to them.  And the IMDb had several actors in the same situation.  (If anybody recognizes the actor playing Liszt, let me know.)

Here are a list of the other actors who portrayed Franz Liszt on television from around the world:

"Notorious Woman"
 Played by Jeremy Irons
    - Conflict (1974)
    - Trial (1974)

"Il était un musicien" 
    - Monsieur Liszt (1979)
Played by Jean de Coninck

"Liszt Ferenc" 
Played by Géza Hegedüs D. [7 episodes]
Played by Iván Darvas [8 episodes]

O'BSERVATION: 
There were 16 episodes and these two actors alternated in the role.  Darvas played the elderly Liszt while Hegedüs D. played the younger man.

"La vie de Berlioz" 
Played by Péter Trokán
    - Episode #1.4 (1983)
    - Episode #1.3 (1983)
    - Episode #1.6 (1983)

"Wagner" 
Played by Ekkehard Schall
    - Episode #1.1 (1983)
    - Episode #1.2 (1983)
    - Episode #1.6 (1983)
    - Episode #1.10 (????)

La musique de l'amour: Robert et Clara (1995)
Played by Aleksandr Cherednik

Liszt's Rhapsody (1996)

Played by Geordie Johnson

Szekszárdi mise (2001)

Played by Tibor Kenderesi

Moi, Hector Berlioz (2003) 

Played by Nicolas Cardonna

I'm not going to concern myself with who should be the official televersion of Franz Liszt at this time and in this focused spotlight.  Jeremy Irons was officially the first on a technicality and it is Jeremy Irons.  But I also lean towards the number of times an actor plays a role, which would give the combination of Darvas and Hegedüs D. the edge.  In the end, no matter which Liszt ultimately gets the nod, it doesn't affect this actor, whoever he is.  For he's not really Liszt "as seen on TV".  Instead he's the flashback vision of LIszt in the mind of Lola Montez.  No matter what he actually looked like based on the actor chosen, this was still how Lola Montez remembered him.

(Pictured above is Liszt as he looked in a portrait; not too far off this flashbacker.)

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV - "GENTLEMAN JIM" CORBETT

'DEATH VALLEY DAYS'

"THE FIGHT SAN FRANCISCO NEVER FORGOT"

"GENTLEMAN JIM" CORBETT

portrayed by

JAMES DAVIDSON

From Wikipedia:

James John "Gentleman Jim" Corbett (September 1, 1866 – February 18, 1933) was an American professional boxer and a former World Heavyweight Champion, best known as the man who defeated the great John L. Sullivan. Despite a career spanning only 20 bouts, Corbett faced the best competition his era had to offer; squaring off with a total of 9 fighters who would later be enshrined alongside him in the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

Dubbed by the media as "Gentleman Jim Corbett," he graduated from Sacred Heart High School in San Francisco and was rumored to have a college education. He also pursued a career in acting, performing at a variety of theaters. He has been called the "Father of Modern Boxing" for his scientific approach and innovations in technique.

This fight may have been fictional, despite the episode title.  Instead, they should have depicted this fight instead:

CORBETT vs. JACKSON

1891

From Wikipedia:
On May 21, 1891, Corbett fought Peter "Black Prince" Jackson, a much-heralded bout between crosstown rivals, since Corbett and Jackson were boxing instructors at San Francisco's two most prestigious athletic clubs. They fought to a no-contest after 61 rounds.

I have a feeling there's a reason why this true story was not depicted in 1966......

But of course, I can't prove that........

BCnU!

VIDEO WEEKEND - GENERAL SANTA ANNA MEETS DEADEYE DICK

Here is Santa Anna's appearance in Skitlandia, our last TV Western video showcase for this year.  Just a little bit o' fun as we head towards the end of our traditional theme for August.

BCnU!