On this day in television history - The Untouchables (1959 - 1963)

The Untouchables

based on the book by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley,

was released in the United States on October 15, 1959,

and ran for four seasons until May 21, 1963.

The pilot episode was released on January 22, 1959.

Narrated by Walter Winchell.

Music by Bill Loose, Jack Cookerly and Nelson Riddle.

Cast:

Robert Stack, Nicholas Georgiade, Paul Picerni, Abel Fernandez, Steve London, Jerry Paris, Chuck Hicks, Anthony George, Keenan Wynn, Eddie Firestone, Robert Osterloh, Frank Wilcox, Robert Bice, Jason Wingreen, Raymond Bailey, Barbara Nichols, Dane Clark, John Gabriel, Barbara Stanwyck, Ed Asner, Virginia Capers, Bruce Gordon, Oscar Beregi, Jr., Lawrence Dobkin, Robert J. Wilke, Warren J. Kemmerling, Bern Hoffman, Nehemiah Persoff, Lloyd Nolan, Robert J. Wilke, Harry Morgan, Gene Roth, Robert Carricart, Joseph Ruskin, Robert Carricart, Carl Milletaire, Grant Richards, Neville Brand, Frank de Kova, John Beradino, Henry Silva, Joe De Santis, George N. Neise, John Kellogg, H. M. Wynant, Wally Cassell, Richard Benedict, Herman Rudin, Les Lampson, Walter Winchell, Paul Picerni, Nicholas Georgiade.

On this day in television history - M*A*S*H (1972 - 1983)

 

M*A*S*H

developed by Larry Gelbart,

based on the novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors by Richard Hooker

was originally aired in the United States on CBS and ran for eleven seasons,

from September 17, 1972 – February 28, 1983.

Theme music by Johnny Mandel.

Cast:

Alan Alda, Wayne Rogers, McLean Stevenson, Loretta Swit, Larry Linville, Gary Burghoff, Jamie Farr, William Christopher, Mike Farrell, Harry Morgan, David Ogden Stiers, G. W. Bailey, Kellye Nakahara, Jeff Maxwell, Johnny Haymer, Allan Arbus, Edward Winter.

On this day in movie and book history - The Shootist (1976)

The Shootist

directed by Don Siegel,

written by Miles Hood Swarthout and Scott Hale,

based on the novel by Glendon Swarthout,

was released in the United States on July 21, 1976.

Music by Elmer Bernstein.

Cast:

John Wayne, Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard, James Stewart, Richard Boone, Hugh O’Brian, Bill McKinney, Harry Morgan, John Carradine, Sheree North, Rick Lenz, Scatman Crothers, Gregg Palmer, Alfred Dennis, Dick Winslow, Melody Thomas Scott, Kathleen O’Malley, Jack Berle, Johnny Crawford, Chuck Dawson, George Dunn, Duke Fishman, Christopher George, Jonathan Goldsmith, Leo Gordon, Charles G. Martin, Jim Michael, Ernesto Molinari, Ricky Nelson, James Nolan, Nick Raymond, Henry Slate, Bob Steele, Ralph Volkie, John Zimeas.

Recommended reading:

The Shootist

by Glendon Swarthout.

Introduction by Miles Swarthout.

Filmed as The Shootist (1976), directed by Don Siegel.

Published by Bison Books.
First published 1975.

ISBN-10: 0803238231
ISBN-13: 9780803238237

Description:

"Such style...such a strong central idea...the showdown is an unremitting as the build-up." – Sunday Times of London.

"This is an extremely well-written Western and gives the reader vivid insight into the workings of the mind of a wanderer and gunman." – Baton Rouge, Louisiana Sunday Advocate.

"The Shootist by Glendon Swarthout is the taleof the Old West's version of the modern 'hit man'. It is a splendid story, well-told and with a really satisfying ending." – Charleston, South Carolina Evening Post.

The Shootist is John Bernard Books, a man of principle and the only surviving gunfighter in a vanishing American West. He rides into El Paso in the year 1901, on the day Queen Victoria died, there to be told by a doctor that he must soon confront the greatest shootist of all: Death. In such a showdown, against such an antagonist, he cannot win. Most men may end their days in bed or take their own lives, but a man-killer has a 3rd option, one which Books decides to exercise. He may choose his own executioner.

As word spreads that the famous assassin has reached the end of his rope, an assortment of vultures gathers to feast upon his corpse--among them a gambler, a rustler, an undertaker, an old love, a reporter, even a boy. Books outwits them, however, by selecting the where, when, who, and why of his death, and writing in fire from a pair of Remingtons the last courageous act of his own legend. The climatic gunfight itself is an incredible performance by an incredible man, and by his creator, Glendon Swarthout.

 

The Shootist will rank with such classics as Shane and The Ox-Bow Incident, but it is much more than a Western. When, in the final afternoon of his life, J. B. Books crosses a street and enters a saloon to make something of his death, we cross, we enter, with him. He is us.

From a corner of the south window Gillom Rogers spied on the new lodger. The man unpacked his valise and put things in a drawer of the chiffonier, then hung his Price Albert coat in the closet. When he turned from the closet he was in shirt and vest. The boy's eyes rounded. Sewn to each side of the vest was a holster, reversed, and in each holster was a pistol, butt forward. As he watched, sucking in his breath, the man took the weapons out, revolved the cylinders, filled a chamber in one he had evidently fired, and replaced them before hanging the vest, too, in the closet. The pistols were a pair of nickel-plated, short-barreled, unsighted, single-action .44 Remingtons, obviously manufactured to order. The handle of one was black gutta-percha, the other pearl.

Gillom slipped away to take the horse to the livery, letting the breath of revelation out of his lungs. He was seventeen, and spent much of his time in saloons. He was not yet served, but he enjoyed himself and picked up a great deal of miscellaneous information, some of it true, some of it of doubtful authenticity. But the man in corner room was no stranger to him now. He had heard enough scalp-itch, blood-freeze tales to know that only one man carried a similar pair of guns in a similar manner...

On this day in movie history - Race Street (1948)

Race Street

directed by Edwin L. Marin,

written by Martin Rackin,

was released in the United States on June 22, 1948.

Based on the story Race Street by Maurice Davis, originally published in Turf and Sport Digest (1945).

Music by Roy Webb.

Cast:

George Raft, William Bendix, Marilyn Maxwell, Frank Faylen, Harry Morgan, Gale Robbins, Cully Richards, Mack Gray, Russell Hicks, Tom Keene, William Forrest, James Nolan, George Turner, Richard Benedict, Dean White, Freddie Steele.