William Schallert: More Than Just Dobie’s Teacher
Thursday, August 23rd, 2007
He’s got one of those faces that any TV addict would instantly recognize. I knew him best as playing Leander Pomfritt, the teacher in The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis…but his credits just keep going on. With over 300 different film and TV roles – and still working today, most recently appearing on How I Met Your Mother – William Schallert is the quintessential character actor. His credits include (but are most certainly not limited to) The Twilight Zone, Burns and Allen, Leave It To Beaver, The Untouchables, The Rifleman, The Andy Griffith Show, The Lucy Show, Gunsmoke, Little House on the Prairie, Coach, Lois and Clark, ER…I could go on and on. Not to mention all of his movie appearances. Go check out the IMDB if you don’t believe me. Read the rest of this entry »
My Dad was obviously quite into baseball as he wandered through his pre-teen years. He had quite a vintage baseball card collection, which he still has today – and is probably quite valuable. He also fancied himself a ball player and sometime around 1960 these great photos of him playing baseball with his Dad were snapped. And as today is his 60th birthday, I thought it appropriate to share them. His parents obviously thought these pictures were keepers because they had them printed up in nice, glorious black and white 5 x 7 prints. 
I wasn’t overly-ecstatic to meet Carla Laemmle on October 1, 2005 at the Hollywood Collectors Show. I didn’t even recognize her name…although I should have. She was the niece of Universal Studios founder Carl Laemmle, so there should have been some name recognition. But I was a bit impressed that she had appeared – albeit briefly – in the 1930 Bela Lugosi version of Dracula. I became even more impressed to find that she had appeared in the Academy Award winning Broadway Melody. 
At left and below is a series of shots from the classic horror flick The Exorcist. Truth be told, I hadn’t seen the film in a long, long time (yet I naturally will never forget many aspects of it – like the tried-and-true projectile vomiting scene, for instance). But because it had been so long, I scarcely remembered the classic stairway sequence from the film – although I didn’t have the heart to tell Bob, who was excited to escort me to this location in Washington D.C. on the Georgetown University Campus. But once I returned home and re-viewed the scene where Father Karras plummets to his death outside of Regan’s house, I naturally appreciated the fact that I had taken the picture at the bottom of the page…which is also special because it was the very first one of our Virginia trip taken on August 4, 2007. Enjoy!