Bette Davis as a madam. Orson Welles hosting The Twilight Zone. Mae West voicing a cartoon character. Shirley Temple playing a social worker. While Hollywood stars like Lucille Ball, Loretta Young and Donna Reed successfully transitioned to television in its early days, many others tried and failed to become TV regulars. Drawing on contemporary interviews and other sources, this book profiles more than 50 actors—including Joan Crawford, Barbara Stanwyck, Gary Cooper, Alan Ladd and Buster Keaton—and their unsuccessful pilots and short-lived series roles.

Richard Irvin is a self-described documentarian of television history. He lives in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania.

Richard Irvin
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 236
Bibliographic Info: 20 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2017
pISBN: 978-1-4766-6916-8
eISBN: 978-1-4766-2843-1
Imprint: McFarland

Table of Contents


Acknowledgments  v

Preface  1

Introduction  3

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers 7

Joan Blondell 15

Stephen Boyd 22

Claudette Colbert 25

Gary Cooper 28

Joan Crawford 30

Bette Davis 35

Irene Dunne 45

Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald 48

Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. 51

Jose Ferrer 57

Geraldine Fitzgerald 61

Joan Fontaine 64

Janet Gaynor 68

Stewart Granger 70

Kathryn Grayson 73

Susan Hayward 76

Betty Hutton 79

Van Johnson 84

Buster Keaton 91

Alan Ladd 95

Hedy Lamarr 101

Janet Leigh 105

Peter Lorre 110

Myrna Loy 114

Chico, Groucho and Harpo Marx 118

Roddy McDowall 128

Ethel Merman 134

Pat ­O’Brien 137

Maureen ­O’Hara 141

Anthony Perkins 145

Walter Pidgeon 147

Jane Powell 150

Basil Rathbone 153

Edward G. Robinson 155

Jane Russell 157

George Sanders 160

Randolph Scott 162

Zachary Scott 164

Ann Sheridan 166

Alexis Smith 170

Barbara Stanwyck 173

Gloria Swanson 182

Shirley Temple 187

Orson Welles 189

Mae West 200

Esther Williams 208

Shelley Winters 210

Chapter Notes  215

Bibliography  222

Index  223