Wednesday, July 29, 2009

The Kelly Pages: In This Corner - JK?



I've read that Jack Kelly and James Garner had a good working relationship while filming Maverick.

But, what's this?

"HOLLYWOOD'S STRANGEST FEUD", the 1959 fan magazine headline blares.

Jack Kelly is shown staring knives at James Garner--who doesn't look too thrilled with JK, either.

Wait a minute: The pix are actually stills from Maverick. And, the article accompanying the headline is pretty strange itself.

The author goes to great lengths to explain that while some Hollywood actors feud, Kelly and Garner are not feuding, no sirree! Why, they're like the brothers they play on TV.

Then, he tells us that Garner supposedly dissed Kelly at a party, and Kelly reportedly fumed that Jimbo was garnering most of the Maverick press buzz.

But, they're not feuding, no way!

The pair has little in common, the author says. For example, country boy Garner craves home cookin'; city kid Kelly fancies fine cuisine.

So, they couldn't possibly see eye-to-eye on anything else, right? They're not feuding, though!

The author ping-pongs back and forth like this for two tedious pages. The only thing really newsworthy he reveals is that the highest-rated Maverick episode up to that time starred Jack Kelly ("Betrayal", 3/25/59).

Finally, the author confirms what we already suspected--he's pretty much clueless about the whole thing. He concludes, 'If there IS a feud, it's a strange one. If there ISN'T a feud--it's even stranger.'

What's strange is how these fan magazines stayed in business for so long with writing like that!

NEXT: Did Wally and the Beaver really get along? ;->