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Donny... the OHHH!- Riginal
Sport climber
Boald'r Effin See Oh
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 30, 2005 - 02:38am PT
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Mutha....no one appreciates a good focal mechanism nowadaze.
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nature
climber
Flagstaff, AZ
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Jan 30, 2005 - 03:02pm PT
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You know, I never did understand what Bud Cort saw in Ruth Gordon. Haughtie? I think not!
I think Snoop Dogg was on to something with his tune Lodi Dodi... how's it go..." and wid yer...." oh never mind
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Donny... the OHHH!- Riginal
Sport climber
Boald'r Effin See Oh
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 30, 2005 - 08:46pm PT
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Bud Cort...not much of a slackliner from what I've heard.
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steelmnkey
climber
Phoenix, AZ
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Jan 30, 2005 - 10:43pm PT
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>>I always like the BIG VALLEY too.
>>
>>The matriarch of the family, can't remember her name... >>something Barkley, always wanted to bone that woman.
Nick, Heath, Jared the barn's on fire!!
Jared the eldest, Nick the strongest, Heath, the outsider who fought for recognition. Audra, too impetuous to play it safe. Victoria Barkley...a woman of backbone and bite.
After school re-runs in the early 70's... classic.
Don't take away our reruns Dick! It's the only education we got! (a little warped, but name that movie).
DMT: You were probably drooling a little when Barbara Stanwyk was in The Thornbirds at like age 134? :-)
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Donny... the OHHH!- Riginal
Sport climber
Boald'r Effin See Oh
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 31, 2005 - 11:44am PT
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Hey....don't forget the best part of Big Valley....yup, that's right. Colt an' Howie.
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Lg
Trad climber
NorCaL
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What abouit Uncle Fest? What the hell was he doing through all of this?! I hear he helped design the ten gallon hat though.
Lg
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steelmnkey
climber
Phoenix, AZ
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Huh, huh, huh... Rifleman... coooool. I could never handle that pasty kid he had though.
Also like Steve McQueen in Wanted Dead or Alive.
His gun was as cool as the Rifleman's rifle.
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Donny... the OHHH!- Riginal
Sport climber
Boald'r Effin See Oh
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 1, 2005 - 12:16pm PT
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Howie would've kicked all there asses...hands down. Well...with the possible exception of Highway-to-Heaven-guy.
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nature
climber
Flagstaff, AZ
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Howie..... not much of a slackliner from what I've heard
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Donny... the OHHH!- Riginal
Sport climber
Boald'r Effin See Oh
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 1, 2005 - 12:37pm PT
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No....Jodi was the slackliner in that crowd. Howie is however undoubtedly responsible for Sharma's distinctly Howiesque (nearly plagiaristic?) bouldering style.
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Donny... the OHHH!- Riginal
Sport climber
Boald'r Effin See Oh
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 1, 2005 - 01:07pm PT
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Hey...what the hell? That's the intro from Knight Rider!
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Donny... the OHHH!- Riginal
Sport climber
Boald'r Effin See Oh
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 1, 2005 - 01:37pm PT
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Hey...that picture...ain't that Play's love interest from Kid 'n Play's "House Party 3?"
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steelmnkey
climber
Phoenix, AZ
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As I recall, when I was a kid, the song actually went:
Stranded, stranded at the bathroom bowl,
What do you do when you're stranded,
and you can't reach the roll.
Wherever you go for the rest of your life,
they will know,
You've been stranded.
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Blowboarder
Boulder climber
Sandpoint, Idaho
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Chuck Conners, hell of an athlete before becoming a small screen star. One of two people to ever play in the NBA and play Major League Baseball at the same time.
Name the other one for a ST SOB approved beer.
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Gene
climber
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Danny Ainge (??)
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Blowboarder
Boulder climber
Sandpoint, Idaho
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Sewelymon is the mon.
Danny Ainge played briefly for the Blue Jays but not while he was playing for the Celtics.
Gonna have to go research Chuck Conners now, different take than I remember.
File your BAF (Beverage Aquisition Form) with the ST SOB.
Kodos, you sure have been quiet considering it's your last week here for a year.
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Largo
Sport climber
Venice, Ca
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Born Eugene Orowitz on Halloween, October 31, 1936 in Forest Hills, New York. His parents were show biz people, his father Eli had once been a publicity agent for Gene Autry and worked for RKO in the publicity department. Eli could almost be called a workaholic, young Eugene hardly ever remembered his father being home in the day light hours. When the press agent business slowed down Eli moved the family which, consisted of young Eugene and an older sister named Evelyn, to Collingswood, New Jersey where he took a job managing several movie theatres. Eugene’s mother was a pretty but untalented blonde named Peggy O’Neil. She claimed to have been an ex-Ziegfield Follies girl, but no proof of her ever appearing on the boards exists. Her big problem was she suffered from horrid depression and made life for the entire family miserable. She was Irish Catholic, Eli was Jewish. Their religious differences were electric and they fought constantly about them. Peggy spent a good deal of her time attempting suicide in an effort to drive her family crazy. Mr. Landon jokingly said in an interview once “I was ten before I knew you put anything but a head in a gas oven. She always had a pad under her knees so they wouldn’t hurt and the window was usually open.” He continued by describing his mother as “off her rocker.” On his sixth birthday she told him “Well, now you’re six and I don’t like you anymore because I don’t like little boys.” Peggy lavished all her attention on her older daughter who was truly a beauty. She entered her in endless beauty pageants that eventually won young Evelyn the title of Miss New Jersey. Young Eugene, however was largely ignored becoming a shy and introvert boy who spent most of his time relating to animals and building forts in the woods.
The anti-Semitism in the community was also a strain on the young boys childhood. He was not allowed to play with certain children and once on a date had the door slammed in his face when the father answered and saw it was the “Jew ***” from down the street. To make matters worse he had inherited a condition that exhibits itself in young boys as a bed-wetting syndrome. His mother in her twisted way decided she would cure him of the problem by hanging the wet stained bed sheets out the window each day for the whole neighborhood to see as young Eugene came home from school. Many years latter Mr. Landon would address this issue in his television writing and work with charities. His high school years began to improve however, he began with good grades but his antics as class clown and odd jobs after school to earn money to buy a car cost him dear in grades and he had to repeat his second year. He graduated third to the last! But he did show one true talent and that was at throwing the javelin. He won regional championship as a sophomore, second in the state in his junior year and over all champion in his senior year. His athletic talent appeared to be the ticket out of his miserable family when he was awarded a scholarship to the University of Southern California. He enrolled in February of 1955 as a speech and drama major. He chose that major mostly because it seemed easy academically and he had had a little experience in community theatre and had enjoyed it. Believing there was something to the myth of Samson and his long hair young Eugene grew his thick, curly hair long and practiced endlessly at the javelin.
A group of fellow athletes thought he was a freak not to sport the ever-popular “crew cut” of the fifties and ganged up on him one day, forcibly holding him down as they shaved his head! He went into a slump with his throwing due to the loss of the psychological edge his belief in his hair gave him. The harder he practiced, the worse he threw and then he tore a ligament in his shoulder. The scholarship was withdrawn. Out of school, with no place to go and nothing to do, he rented a small apartment and got a job unloading freight cars. His parents had followed him to “sunny” California and he had them to deal with again. He tried to help his father find work in the fickle movie business, but all the people who had known Eli before had nothing for him now. Eventually, the tired and broken down old man took a job in a run down movie house in downtown L.A. Eugene was 19, down on his luck, unable to shed himself of his abusive family, not able to continue with his education, all he could do was unload trucks for various freight companies. A co-worker had set up an audition at Warner Brothers Studio to try his luck in the movie world. He needed a scene partner and asked his friend Eugene to come along and help out. Young Eugene quite enjoyed the reading, he got more attention than his friend (who did not get the job) and he decided to enroll in the Warner acting school, change his name to something with a better ring to it. He wanted to be Mike Lane, but that name was already taken in the Screen Actors Union so after looking thru the phone directory “Michael Landon” was born.
Part II… The Bonanza Years
Now he was Michael Landon, a handsome curly headed young man making the rounds in Hollywood trying to get work. He was dating a 26-year-old widowed secretary who had a small boy. Their age difference didn’t seem to matter then, but his family was horrified! In 1956 he married Dodie and adopted her young son Mark.
Mark in an interview once said Michael “and I were having a lot of fun…he was like a big brother. We would drive around and make faces at people in other cars and we’d be like monsters and stuff…we were really silly together.” Being like monsters was not a bad thing for young Michael. He read for and was cast in what has become one of Hollywood’s greatest cult films. “I Was a Teenage Werewolf.” His goofy expressions and mannerisms gave the film just the right punch. Even though it was only a B film it had style and it put the young Landon on the road to stardom.
He made several small films, lots of TV roles as walk ons and small bit parts and appeared in an odd film called “God’s Little Acre” He bleached his hair and appeared as an albino able to divine gold! He made many appearances on TV Westerns that were becoming all the rage and was given the top billing in “The Legend of Tom Dooley” based on the Kingston Trio’s song of the same name. It was the second and oddly the last time he would ever make or have star billing in a movie. His career was about to head in a completely different direction. His father Eli had finally had the good sense to separate from Peggy and was living with Michael and Dodie. Michael had just signed a contract for what looked like a steady job…a new western in color when he got word that his father had died. He was devastated.
His new job proved more than steady, it defined his future. He was cast as Little Joe Cartwright, youngest of the three sons of Ben Cartwright, patriarch of the might Ponderosa, a mythical ranch set on the shores of Lake Tahoe in the Comstock Lode days of Nevada, using Virginia City as their “home town.” It took a few seasons for the show to really warm to the public, but it only took one episode for the fans to warm to Little Joe. Playing the part of the high energy, quick-witted younger brother came easy to Landon. He bounced around the set with endless energy, let his quick wit take over at a minutes notice and charmed the most hardened soul with his signature giggle. He was good looking too, which snappy hazel eyes, wild brown curly hair and sporty way of walking down the street and jumping on his horse without ever using the stirrups!
Soon he became a teenage heartthrob sending hoards of teenagers into swooning screams when he appeared at parades, Rodeos and public appearances. But he became suspicious of the press and all the sudden “friends” that appeared out of the blue. His success as Little Joe and the fat contract and money he was making didn’t seem to bring him the lasting relationships he needed. True friends were rare but he found several on his own show. His “big” brother Hoss was played by Dan Blocker who quickly became a dear and close friend of Landon’s until Blocker’s death in 1972. He and Blocker were infamous for their practical jokes on the set usually aimed at an unsuspecting new director who thought he was a little more important than he was. They often would harass each other to the point of total distraction to everyone on the set. He looked to Lorne Greene for fatherly advice both on and off the set and so close the three became that they formed business companies together, a restaurant and real estate deals. It did not take long for Landon and his new found business partners to become wealthy beyond compare. He was an avid reader and astute businessman, always honest and always savvy to someone trying to take advantage of him. He loved to needle the black sheep of the family, Pernell Roberts, who was always so serious about his work and often difficult for directors. According to the show’s producer David Dortort Michael was often called upon to the mediate for his “older” brother when Roberts was giving a new director fits. Michael Landon went to bat for Pernell Roberts however, when in frustration at having no rehearsal time on the show Roberts threatened to walk on his contract.
Landon went to the top brass and negotiated rehearsal time. It was short lived however, and much to Roberts as well as Landon’s sorrow the filming of the show went back to its hectic pace with no real time for development or rehearsal. Itching to director and write Landon begged and pleaded with the top brass for a chance to do so. It seemed as though it would never happen, but he was persistent and he got his chance when shooting shut down in 1962 due to a lack of scripts. Landon went home and wrote all weekend. He appeared with a story he was able to sell to the producers of the show. Both Blocker and Roberts said it would never happen and he delighted in showing them the check he was given for his first script. He was paid scale just like all the other writers. It would open a new chapter for Landon. His desire to write and then direct was on its way.
The success of the show, the busy weekends devoted to appearances that paid well took their toll. There was no time to reflect, enjoy the family or just sit down and put your feet up. Michael began to try and cope with alcohol and drugs. He smoked up to four packs of cigarettes a day and his marriage to Dodie was failing. They had adopted another child, Josh, but did not finish the adoption on a third, as the marriage was over and to bring a new child to it would not have been fair. Single again, but always close to his children, Michael continued to work as hard as ever on “Bonanza”. While on the set one day he met a young model named Lynn Noe. They had a whirl wind romance, she was just finalizing a divorce and had a young daughter named Cheryl. They eloped to Mexico in 1961, but had a small ceremony the following year in Reno. Dan Blocker was best man.
Michael always the family man, tried to adopt Cheryl, but the father was uncooperative. He and Lynn had four children of their own. His mother Peggy finally decided Michael wasn’t so bad after all and she and her daughter Evelyn who stage name was now Victoria King, lived together in a small apartment in LA with the help of the successful young Landon. Michael continued to hound the brass behind “Bonanza” to do more writing and directing. Later in the shows run he got to do plenty and began to learn the real ins and outs of the television business. He directed over a dozen episodes on “Bonanza” and wrote over 20 episodes. When after 14 years of airtime “Bonanza” finally ran its course Michael Landon was ready to move on to bigger and more inviting projects. He was now 36 years old. No longer the starving teenage actor or little brother on the family western he was now mature and well skilled in his craft of creating television.
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Donny... the OHHH!- Riginal
Sport climber
Boald'r Effin See Oh
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 2, 2005 - 01:33pm PT
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Man...this thread rules. I love me.
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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yow, Largo. That was more than I ever knew in that area, but ready for more; Can you get me a tape of Blue boy?
My own contribution was to be that I thought Brick's lyrics "Branded ..." were the ones from The Big Lebawsky.
I feel insignificant before the power of the force.
PS my fave Bonanza was Hoss with the easter eggs.
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