Do You Have Anything to do With Shoe Wax?

Oldie but a goodie, Reynolds emailed me this one. I haven't watched it in forever! 
From What's My Line, January 13, 1957.

IKE IKE IKE Bob IKE IKE...

Props to Kathy for finding what I would call a fairly obscure movie from May 1958. In both black & white and color, you'll find Bob with President Eisenhower. Topic is pretty bland, but I don't want to ruin the excitement for y'all...

Make sure you stick around for the band and the end. It's second only to seeing Bob in color.

Watch May 22, 1958 - Dedication of Broadcast Facilities in News | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Happy Birthday, Robert Montgomery!

Early Ruth Harriet Louise Portrait

The Big House - 1930

They Were Expendable - 1945

Robert Montgomery Presents: The Lost Weekend - 1955

What's My Line, Ray?

Bob Names the Best

I've seen the debate online a few times regarding which film Bob felt was his best or favorite. Well, in this Jan 7, 1955 New York Journal article, he names a few. Mr. Montgomery also notes his thoughts on best actor and actress.

See if you can spot the fact typo in this article. Clue: a Helen Hayes movie.

Thanks to Tracy for digging this up (a while ago, but not forgotten).

Robert Montgomery Comes to Town

From the New York Times, May 5, 1980. A little bit of a look into the life...

Source: CM Staff Researcher Tracy. And speaking of Tracy, watch for a report on CM next week about her east-coast road trip to find classic Hollywood stars.

Misc. Thoughts on Bombs, MGM, Princesses, etc.

I finished watching Robert Taylor & Eleanor Parker feud in Above and Beyond last night. The story of Col. Paul Tibbets & the atomic bomb, this has to be the only movie that made family life come off as more dangerous than nuclear war. Best scenes: listening to B-29 engines, the nuclear scientist fixing Mrs. Tibbets' kitchen faucet because she thought he was a plumber. Greenbriar Picture Shows has a good writeup if you want to learn more.

Speaking of nuclear bombs, if you're a fan of nuclear history (like me), you may enjoy the PBS special The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer. In between interviews and historical photos, the program recreats the "flogging," I mean "trial," of Oppenheimer via recreations. Best part, David Strathairn plays Oppenheimer.

Think you're a MGM fan? Check out Stars in Heaven: An MGM Blog. Michael & his wife are making their way through the MGM catalog and blogging their thoughts along the way.

Princess O'Rourke: Ahh, what a refreshing romantic comedy from the war years. Robert Cummings, Jack Carson, Charles Coburn, and Olivia DeHavilland make a great combo. Laura has a good overview on her blog - I'll lead you there...

I saw a commercial last night for a new Nicholas Cage movie Knowing. I'm already there. Oh wait, it looks National Treasure-ish, I might even go see it in the theater.

Finaly, your Bob schedule for March on TCM (check your local listings):

Sunday, March 1
4 a.m. Night Must Fall (1937)
A charming young man worms his way into a wealthy woman's household, then reveals a deadly secret. Cast: Robert Montgomery, Rosalind Russell, Dame May Whitty. Dir: Richard Thorpe.

Sunday, March 15
2 p.m. Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)
A prizefighter who died before his time is reincarnated as a tycoon with a murderous wife. Cast: Robert Montgomery, Evelyn Keyes, Claude Rains. Dir: Alexander Hall.

Thursday, March 19
3 p.m. Night Must Fall (1937)
Again?!

Mid Week Laugh

It's been one of those weeks, so I hope I can share some laughter with this clip from What's My Line. John Payne is the guest panelist and Ed Sullivan is the mystery guest in this segment from I believe 1958.

Controversy! Censorship! Johnny Carson?

March 1969: Apollo 9 just splashed down, Crossfire is on tonight at 11, and Bob Montgomery seems to be irritating the TV networks again. Boy have times changed.

If anyone has seen copies of Bob on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, please drop me a note.

Kind thanks to 'CM staff researcher' Tracy for digging this up.

Holiday Leftovers

Leftovers - in the style of Larry King's ol' blurby column:

Watched Hollywood Party: Jimmy Durante is half naked and overly hairy (gah). Thank goodness the many cameos and "pre-codeness" of the film make up for that image. Another insanely catchy tune and a brief appearance by Robert Young make up for Jimmy's Schnarzan (I mean that in a loving way).



Magnificent Obsession is coming out on Criterion Collection DVD in January - both the Rock Hudson and Robert Taylor versions. I've only seen Rock's version and am inexplicably hooked.

Caught a documentary on Irving Thalberg on the History channel the other day. Very interesting - I need to find a good book on him now. I was surprised that in the 30 minutes I watched, there was no film or audio of him - just stills floating by.

Belated birthday wishes to Hoagy Carmichael (Nov. 22). Ahh, Stardust.


The current run of The Name's The Same ends this week. Withdrawal will be setting in, although not for Clifton Fadiman.

One of Lifetime's many channels had White Christmas in HD over the weekend. All queued up and ready on my DVR.

And on this day in history in 1934, Benny Goodman debuted on radio. Ahh, Moonglow...

A LIFE of Photos

Happiness is rarely seen photos: A good chuck of LIFE magazine's photo archive is now accessible via Google. As the site notes:

Search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today. Most were never published and are now available for the first time through the joint work of LIFE and Google.

Search for your favorites, and yes, Robert Montgomery is well represented. The bulk of the Bob photos are from his Eisenhower days, but you'll also spot Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Ride the Pink Horse, and candids.

h/t: Alternative Film Guide

Macy's

Tracy clued me in on this ad for Macy's that's running for their 150th. It's a clever combination of clips with classic stars touting or mentioning the store from way back when to today. What's with the escaping hippo?



Me...I'm a Gimbels girl.

This also got us talking about other ads with classic stars in them. The one that sticks in my mind is the Diet Coke series of ads with Cary Grant and others I can't remember. Argh, and it's not on YouTube like everything else out there.

Know of any other ads?

Montgomery Leaving the White House, Too

On this Election Day, I'm jumping on the politics bandwagon - but with a Montgomery twist.

IKE is leaving the White House in January and so must Bob. Learn more in this New York Times Herald article from Nov. 17, 1960 compliments of CM staff researcher Tracy.

The Great Replacement

I've given up on the Halloween theme this week: it's all been done before. But before it's completely out of my hands lying on the floor in a heap, here's a stretch of a theme post - a few different "costumes."

Guess the actor. If you read this blog with any regularity, you'll figure it out.

Update: A tip of the hat to the anonymous tipster who guessed the name: Robert Q. Lewis. These pics are from his CBS radio days, specifically February of 1948 . . . a few years before his television debut. Unfortunately, I don't know is whether these shots match any specific characters from his radio show or not. Finding copies of any of Robert Q's radio shows is harder to find than hen's teeth.

What's My Line: Robert Montgomery

Bob appears in this episode of What's My Line as the mystery guest. The episode dates from Jan. 13, 1957. He also brought along a few of his past characters...too funny.

Coming Soon to What's My Line

Hot tip from the comments portion of the blog: Robert Montgomery should be showing up on What's My Line on GSN in October sometime:

Episode #345, first aired: January 13, 1957

Game 1: Muriel Fleit, Mary Barber & Myrtle Berne (as Mystery Guests and the panel is blindfolded) - "Secretaries to Arlene Francis, Bennett Cerf & Dorothy Kilgallen)" (salaried; they won $50)

Game 2: Robin Roberts - "President of Frozen Shrimp Company" (he is the President of the Gold King Frozen Shrimp Co; he is also the pitcher of the Philadelphia Phillies baseball team; from Philadelphia, PA; he won $50)

Game 3: Robert Montgomery (as Mystery Guest) Bennett Cerf guessed his identity at $25

If you're really good at figuring out the current episode playing vs. the order 345 is in, you can figure out the air date on GSN. I'm not that talented...

A kind thank you to the tipster!

Veteran Star Started New Life at 50

It's January 1955 and what's Robert Montgomery doing? Producing his television show Robert Montgomery Presents on NBC, working on The Desperate Hours, and advising President Eisenhower on his various television and radio appearances. Busy guy.

This New York Journal-American article by James L. Kilgallen talks about Bob's various roles of the time and offers a number of interesting tidbits of information. For instance, how many actors do you know who had an office in the White House? (and Reagan doesn't count)

The Name's The Same - 1953

Thanks to the kindness of la peregrina, I was able to obtain a copy of the ever elusive episode of The Name's The Same with Robert Montgomery. If I knew what the heck I was doing with video, I'd post this on YouTube, but until then, it's screen caps.

Just to give you a 101 on The Name's The Same, it's similar to What's My Line, another famous TV game show of the 1950s. Name offers a contestant with the same name of a famous person, object, or action. A panel of three asks questions until they guess correctly or time out.

This episode, from February 10, 1953 offers two Bobs - the younger being a Boy Scout:

The panel has to guess the boy's name...

Bob with show host Robert Q. Lewis

Battle of the horn rimmed glasses

They just had to swap glasses. Of all things coming to mind, I'm wonder what color the glasses are. Yeah, probably black.

Name often included a segment with a celebrity - "I'd like to be." In this case, Bob wishes he could be...

Oliver J. Dragon of the kids show Kukla, Fran and Ollie

In the end, panelist Meredith Wilson guessed correctly. The other two panelists - well, they wrote out their checks for $25 to Bob, who donated the funds to young Bob's Boy Scout troop. In the meantime, I keep watching this darned addictive show and have found myself crying in laughter a few times as a result.

Hooked on Old Game Shows

What have I been doing these summer nights? Enjoying the warm weather and watching old TV game shows. Yep, picked up GSN about two weeks ago and have been watching too many of these. I'm also now hooked on Robert Q. Lewis.



And this episode of What's My Line is hilarious:


And...more to come regarding the episode of The Name's The Same with Robert Montgomery.

$400+

I've heard of Robert Montgomery's "Open Letter From a Television Viewer" and honestly thought it was a letter to the editor of some major paper. Turns out it was a book Bob penned in 1968. Some details from ClassicImages.com:

"After leaving television, Montgomery became an outspoken critic of the medium culminating in his 1968 An Open Letter From a Television Viewer. For whatever reason he lashed out, claiming television and radio were controlled and censored by politicians. Montgomery went so far as testifying before Congress on the subject, thus alienating himself from the industry that had given him fame and wealth."

Anyhow, the book is available off eBay. For you book collectors, the description is as follows: "Extremely RARE! Actor-Author, Robert Montgomery, is the father of actress Elizabeth Montgomery of Bewitched. Stated first printing, 1968 -- Good solid softcover -- Clean and tight...NO writing/highlighting/tears! Front cover edge nicked/rubbed; Slight foxing to edged of cover only; Excellent copy!"

Book is also on Amazon.com, used.

Hey Bob - it's 2006 - TV still sucks.