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RIP SALLY KELLERMAN
1937-2022
Sally Kellerman was an actress and singer born in Long Beach, California. Kellerman’s acting career spanned over 60 years. Her role as Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan in Robert Altman’s film M*A*S*H (1970) earned her an Oscar nomination.
“I always wanted to be an actress. My mother told me to get a job as an elevator operator because Dorothy Lamour was discovered that way.”
She made her film debut in 1957′s Reform School Girl. Two years later she made her small screen debut on “Playhouse 90.”
She was on the Desilu backlot to film an episode of “My Three Sons” in December 1963. In “Steve and the Viking” she played a 17 year-old Danish Girl and acted opposite Fred MacMurray and a former-Fred, William Frawley.
A year later, she was back at Desilu in “The Greatest Show on Earth”, a circus-themed series on which executive producer Lucille Ball herself had guest-starred four months earlier. The episode was titled “This Train Don’t Stop Till It Gets There”.
In September 1966, Kellerman played Dr. Elizabeth Dehner on Desilu’s “Star-Trek”. The episode, titled “Where No Man Has Gone Before”, was actually the show’s second pilot, but marked Kellerman’s only appearance on the space series.
In 1969, as Desilu was sold to Paramount, Kellerman appeared on a show that was salvaged from the canceled pile and made into a hit by Lucille Ball: “Mannix”. Kellerman played Diana Walker, the daughter of a newspaper tycoon and Mannix’ old flame in “The Solid Gold Web.”
In October 1970, Kellerman finally shared camera time with her former boss, Lucille Ball, on an episode of “The Merv Griffin Show.” Kellerman and Ball were joined on the couch by Gary Morton, Ross Martin, and Guy Lombardo.
Kellerman and Ball were just two of the glamourous screen stars that were featured on “Happy 100th Birthday, Hollywood” in 1987.
Kellerman died from heart failure at the age of 84. At the time of her death, she had dementia. Kellerman was twice married and had three children.
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In the second episode of season 4 of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”, Susie tries to convince Sophie Lennon, who has had a breakdown, to dissolve their partnership. Sophie begrudgingly signs the agreement.
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RIP GLORIA MCMILLAN
1933-2022
Gloria McMillan is probably best known to the world as Harriet Conklin on the radio and television sitcom “Our Miss Brooks” (starring Eve Arden). She also played the role in a 1956 big screen version of the show from Warner Brothers.
She began playing the role in 1948 on radio. The character was daughter to Osgood Conklin, the Principal of the High School where Miss Brooks worked as a teacher. The series moved to television in 1952, just one year after “I Love Lucy”. It was produced by Desilu Studios. As a production of Desilu, McMillan worked with many actors who also appeared on “I Love Lucy”.
Chief among them was Gale Gordon, who, as one of the busiest radio artists in history, did double duty as Osgood Conklin and Mr. Atterbury on Lucy’s radio show “My Favorite Husband,” which aired concurrently with “Our Miss Brooks”. Despite being busy with other projects, Gordon found time to appear as Alvin Littlefield, owner of the Tropicana, in two episodes of “I Love Lucy”.
McMillan considered Eve Arden a friend and mentor. In turn Arden considered McMillan her “TV daughter” (even though the characters were not related on the show).
As an old friend of Lucille Ball’s from their RKO days, Arden did a cameo on “I Love Lucy” when the Ricardos and Mertzes first arrive in Hollywood.
At around the same time, Desi Arnaz played himself in one 1955 episode of “Our Miss Brooks,” but McMillan’s character did not appear that week.
McMillan did, however, work with Richard Crenna, who played Arthur Morton, a teenage boy who had a crush on Lucy Ricardo in “The Young Fans”. Crenna created the role of Walter Denton on “Eve” and, like McMillan, played the role on radio and television. The two characters (Denton / Morton) were deliberately similar. Crenna also appeared as a similar type on Lucy’s radio show “My Favorite Husband.”
Also making the switch from radio to TV with her character was McMillan’s TV mom, Paula Winslowe as Mrs. Martha Conklin. On “I Love Lucy” Winslowe appeared on the deck of the SS Constitution in “Second Honeymoon”, one of the biggest and most expensive episodes of television to be produced at the time.
Other “Lucy” actors who worked with McMillan on the “Brooks” set include Mary Jane Croft, Frank Nelson, Jerry Hausner, Elvia Allman, Hy Averback, Joe Kearns, Peter Leeds, Maurice Marsac, Nancy Kulp, Herb Vigran, Parley Baer, Gail Bonney, Sammy Ogg, Florence Bates, Arhtur Q. Bryan, as well as many of the Desilu technical and production personnel.
After “Our Miss Brooks”, McMillan appeared on a 1966 episode of NBC’s “Dr. Kildare”; as a judge in the beauty-pageant satire Smile (1975); in the miniseries “Centennial”; and on a 1990 installment of “Perfect Strangers”, her final credit. From 1974 to 2018, McMillan taught acting and tap dancing to kids.
She leaves behind a husband of 49 years, five children, nine grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. Gloria McMillan was 88 years old.
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LUCY & DESI: A DOCUMENTARY
March 4, 2022 on Amazon Prime.
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RIP DWAYNE HICKMAN
1934-2022
Dwayne Hickman was the younger brother of actor Darryl Hickman, with whom he sometimes appeared on screen. They were born in Los Angeles. Dwayne was best known as the title character of “The Many Lives of Dobie Gillis” (1959-63) a show, like “I Love Lucy”, that aired on CBS and was sponsored by Philip Morris.
Prior to that, Dwanye played love-struck teen Chuck on “The Bob Cummings Show” (1955-59), which filmed at General Service Studios, just like “I Love Lucy” originally did. Cummings played Bob Collins, and in 1972 he revived the character on an episode of “Here’s Lucy” titled “Lucy’s Punctured Romance” (HL S4;E22).
A 14 year-old Hickman appeared uncredited with Lucille Ball in her 1948 film Her Husband’s Affairs.
In 1964 he played a doctor on one episode of the Desilu series “The Greatest Show On Earth”, produced by Lucille Ball. She guest-starred in an episode of her own series in December 1963.
On December 26, 1965, the Miami News reported that Hickman and Vivian Vance were coming to the Coconut Grove Playhouse to perform in the Neil Simon play Barefoot in the Park. In August 1965, co-star Darryl Hickman and Vance had appeared on the TV game show “Call My Bluff” together. After the height of his television fame, Hickman (like Vance) often did regional, stock, and dinner theatre plays to hone their craft.
From 1977 to 1988, Hickman served as a programming executive at CBS. He took time out for cameos and guest spots, while also directing and producing. In his retirement, he took up painting.
Thrice wed, Hickman has two children – one by his first wife, actress / model Carol Christensen (1963-1972) who appeared a few times on “Dobie Gillis”, and the other by his present wife, actress / voiceover artist Joan Roberts, to whom he has been married since 1983.
He was 87 years old.
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RIP BETTY WHITE
1922-2021
Lucille Ball and Betty White shared the small screen at least 18 times over three decades on TV’s “Password”, Lucille’s favorite game show, which was originally hosted by White’s third husband, the love of her life, Allan Ludden.
Betty White’s 1957 TV series “Date with the Angels” was filmed at Desilu Studios. It was loosely based on the Elmer Rice play Dream Girl, a play that Lucille Ball appeared in 1947.
“I can still see her. Tall and built and she had a navy blue dress on with white polka dots and this hair that made it look like her head was on fire.”
In 1977, Lucille Ball was ringmaster for “Circus of the Stars II.”
Lucy introduced her old friend, who works with a camel (actually a dromedary) named Little Valentine. Valentine does a variety of tricks. White (a known animal lover) ad libs about Lawrence of Arabia when Valentine refuses to get up to answer the telephone! When Valentine finally does the trick and White hangs up the call (from the camel’s agent), Valentine keeps picking it up again. “You can’t get some kids off the phone!” The show also included Lucie Arnaz taming an elephant.
Back on “Password”, White partnered with Desi Arnaz Jr. in 1981.
On December 3, 1984 Betty and Lucy where both guests of Joan Rivers (guest host) on NBC’s “The Tonight Show.”
White with Lucille Ball, Ann Dusenberry (”Life with Lucy”), and Estelle Getty in 1986 on “Password”.
Also in 1986, Betty White joined those paying tribute to Lucy during “All Star Party for Lucille Ball”. Lucy and Betty were both on hand to pay tribute to Carol Burnett when she was similarly feted in 1982.
In 1987, Lucille Ball and Carol Channing came to a book signing to support their mutual friend Betty White.
That same year (1987) White and Ball were two of the stars in “Happy 100th, Birthday, Hollywood.” Ironically, White passed away just 17 days before her own 100th Birthday.
May 1988′s “Happy Birthday, Bob: 50 Stars Salute Your 50 Years at NBC” brought together celebrities like White and Ball to tribute Hope.
White last shared the “Password” panel with Lucille in November 1988, just six months before Ball’s untimely death.
In 1989, after Lucille Ball’s passing, White was part of “Bob Hope’s Love Affair With Lucy.” To the accompaniment of “Thank You for Being a Friend” Golden Girl Betty White is introduced. She lists three-word TV titles of the ‘50s, “Our Miss Brooks,” “I Married Joan,” “Life with Elizabeth,” “Father Knows Best,” and “I Love Lucy.”
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RIP NICHOLAS GEORGIADE
1933-2021
Nicholas Georgiade was born in New York City on March 25, 1933, of Greek ancestry. After serving four years in the Army, he attended Syracuse University, where he was a heavyweight boxer for three years. Intending to become a teacher, he majored in sociology and psychology, and graduated 1956. A role in a college play convinced him to give acting a try so he moved to California.
Lucille Ball saw him perform as the lead in the play A View From the Bridge at a small Los Angeles theater in 1958 and he was soon asked to become one of the first members of the Desilu Workshop, a troupe of up-and-coming actors that Ball believed showed promise.
One of his first roles on television was in a CBS “Playhouse 90″ adaptation of the St. Valentine’s Day massacre. Which likely indirectly led to his casting in a Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse television version of The Untouchables, based on the real-life Prohibition-era agent Elliot Ness.
Ratings were so high that a weekly series was rushed into production. Georgiade played a thug in Desilu Playhouse’s original broadcast, but producers bumped him up to series regular as Enrico Rossi alongside Robert Stack as Ness (above right). The series ran for four seasons.
Before “The Untouchables” he was also in the Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse production of “Chain of Command” in March 1959. In January 1960, he was seen on the series again in a story titled “Meeting at Appalachia”. Both episodes were crime drama, just like “The Untouchables.”
Not crime drama, but still working for Desilu, Georgiade did an episode of Desilu’s helicopter series “Whirlybirds” that aired in August 1959.
Georgiade appeared in the films It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and Indecent Proposal. He also has credits in “The Rockford Files”, “Hawaii Five-0″, “The Equalizer”, and many other TV shows. His last role was in the 2007 film Three Days to Vegas.
He was 88 years old.
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BEING THE RICARDOS
The Posters
BEING THE RICARDOS (2021)
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RIP ARLENE DAHL
1925-2021
Arlene Dahl was born on August 11, 1925, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Like Lucille Ball, she was a red-haired actress with an association to MGM who achieved notability during the 1950s.
She was mentioned as one of Ricky’s possible “Don Juan” co-stars in “Ricky’s Screen Test”
(ILL S4;E7 ~ November 15, 1954).
Although TV audiences didn’t know it, an article about Dahl and her new husband, Lex Barker, was featured inside the actual Look magazine seen on screen in
“Men Are Messy” (ILL S1;E8) aired on December 3, 1951.
A story about Dahl and her second husband, Fernando Lamas, was part of this January 1954 issue of TV and Movie Screen with Lucy on the cover.
Lamas guest-starred in “Lucy Goes to Sun Valley”(LDCH S1;E5) aired on April 14, 1958. Two years later, in 1960, like Ball herself, Dahl was divorced from her Latin husband. They had one child together, Lorenzo. Dahl has two other children: a daughter Christina Carole Holmes by third husband Christian R. Holmes, and a second son, Rounsevelle Andreas Schaum, by her fifth husband, Rounsevelle W. “Skip” Schaum. She has six grandchildren (including AJ Lamas and Shayne Lamas) and two great-grandchildren.
Desi dines with Dahl and Lamas.
Lucy attended the launch of Dahl’s book “Always Ask a Man” in 1965.
She joined Lucille Ball to be part of “Bob Hope’s Leading Ladies” a “Bob Hope Comedy Special” on September 28, 1966, although the two did not share any scenes together.
In 1987, Lucille and Arlene both were part of “Happy 100th Birthday Hollywood”, a TV special that aired on May 18, 1987.
Arlene Dahl died at the age of 96.
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RIP BILLY HINSCHE
1951-2021
William Hinsche was part of the singing group Dino, Desi & Billy and a touring musician with The Beach Boys. Hinsche was born in Manila, the Philippines, where his father owned a casino. The family moved to the United States and settled in Beverly Hills. Hinsche attended Loyola High School, where he met Desi Arnaz, Jr. and Dean Paul Martin and formed the group Dino, Desi & Billy and signed with Frank Sinatra’s record label Reprise Records.
They had a top 40 hit in 1965 with “I’m A Fool”.
“I like to say, we were a garage band like so many others…the only difference being, we were rehearsing in Lucille Ball’s garage. She had a weekly television show, was so popular and well-loved, and there was nobody like her. So yes, I was definitely a little bit intimidated and a little scared about meeting her, but she was very nice.”
As a musical trio, they appeared on television several times:
- “The Dean Martin Show” (1968 & 1971)
- “The Hollywood Squares” (1970)
- “The Joey Bishop Show” (1969)
- “The Hollywood Palace” (1968)
- “Murderers’ Row” (1965)
- “Sammy Davis and the Wonderful World of Children” (1965)
- “The Ed Sullivan Show” (1965)
~ excerpt from the book “Backstage with the Hollywood Squares” by Peter Marshall, who had guest-starred on an episode of “The Lucy Show” during season one.
In 1967 the trio even did a TV commercial for RC Cola.
Hinsche’s bandmate Dino Martin’s father, singer Dean Martin, was one of Lucille Ball’s favorite performers. He appeared on “The Lucy Show,” and “Lucy Gets Lucky.” Dino (aka Dean Paul Martin) died in a plane crash in 1987.
Ironically, when Desi Arnaz made background appearances on “The Lucy Show” his character name was Billy.
Although Hinsche was never credited as appearing on a Lucille Ball sitcom, he was an offstage character mentioned by Craig and Kim Carter (Lucie Arnaz & Desi Arnaz Jr.) on “Here’s Lucy.”
In “Guess Who Owes Lucy $23.50?″ (HL S1;E11, first aired on December 8, 1968) guest-starring Van Johnson, Kim suggests that she and Craig go over to the Hinsche’s to visit because “Annie’s got a real cute girl visiting from San Francisco.” In real life, Billy’s sister Annie Hinsche was married to Beach Boys guitarist Carl Wilson.
‘Bill’ calls Craig on the telephone in “Lucy and Liberace” (HL S2;E16, first aired on January 5, 1970).
Billy with Lucie Arnaz at Ridgefield Playhouse, Ridgefield, CT, July 27, 2007.
(photo by Joe Luckinbill, copyright © 2007)Hinsche passed away at the age of 70. He was married twice.
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