Tommy Kirk: Old Yeller Meets Young Feller
Thursday, December 11th, 2008
Tommy Kirk was the quintessential Disney child actor from the mid-1950’s to the mid-1960’s. His first big claim to fame was his role in The Hardy Boys series as part of The Mickey Mouse Club when he played Joe Hardy in The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure (1956), and then followed it up with another Hardy Boys series called The Mystery of the Ghost Farm (1957). Later in 1957, he starred as Travis, the older of the brothers in the Disney classic Old Yeller. Read the rest of this entry »
June Foray was certainly best known for her vocal portrayal of Rocket J. Squirrel in the classic Jay Ward cartoon series The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. So yes, as I said, Rocky was a girl. But she also did regular girl voices too, like Natasha in the same cartoon series. But the more I found out about other projects in which she has participated, the more I think that her career path has roughly followed the path of ‘things I like.’ 
I must say that Monday, October 6, 2008 was shaping up to be one of the best days of the year – if not my life. The first dream of my ‘dream come true tour’ had come true that morning: a visit to the 
Buddy Ebsen is best known for his characterization of Jed Clampett in The Beverly Hillbillies, followed closely by his role as Barnaby Jones in the TV drama of the same name. I frankly never cared for either of them. What interests me the most about Buddy Ebsen was a role that he didn’t play…that of the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz (as seen at left). Originally cast in the role, he had to withdraw after he became deathly ill from breathing in the silver powder-based make-up which the Tin Man was required to wear. Due to time constraints during the filming, he was replaced by Jack Haley…and the make-up was replaced by a liquid-based substitute. 
P.J. Soles was an attractive young actress who made her mark in several notable movies of the the mid-1970’s through the early-1980’s. Among the memorable films in which she appeared were Brian DePalma’s Carrie, the classic John Travolta TV movie The Boy in the Plastic Bubble, Rock ‘n’ Roll High School, and Private Benjamin. The roles that I knew best though were her portrayal of Lynda, the doomed high schooler who had a penchant for saying “Totally!” in the classic horror flick Halloween – and her part as MP Stella Hansen in the Bill Murray comedy Stripes (above right), which I used to watch repeatedly in the early 80’s. Also noteworthy was that she had a part in one episode of one of my favorite sitcoms Cheers in 1984.