"Maverick" and Moppets :)

Clipart image of kids watching TV courtesy Clipartmag.com; 

image of Jack Kelly from the La Bartista Kellection

Howdy!

Like most of us, I grew up watching television. One of my earliest childhood memories is of eating a messy chocolate cupcake while watching The Lone Ranger on TV. 

So, when I recently stumbled upon a scholarly study about television and children which was published in the late 1950's, I was fascinated. Now, I wasn't around in the Fifties, but I've seen reruns of many of the programs mentioned in the study, including Maverick. 

Which age groups were most captivated by Bart and Bret? Let's find out:

First, a bit of background. The study is titled "Television in the Life of a Child--Implications for the School". It was authored by Wilbur Schramm of Stanford University. 

Dr. Schramm opens his study by explaining, "This paper is concerned with an activity which fills approximately one-sixth of the waking hours of an American child three years of age or over. It is an activity which ten years ago was known to only a few children, but in the last decade has replaced many of their other activities and rearranged their lives on a grand scale. Furthermore, this activity represents an experience so potent and flexible that it not only serves as the source of externally controlled recreation for children, but also is coming to be entrusted with a part of the teaching function of the schools. I refer, of course, to television."

(Naturally, today "television" could be substituted with "computing", "cell phone use", "social media use", etc.)

Dr. Schramm also noted that studies at the time revealed elementary school students viewed two to three-and-a-half hours of TV each day; their use of television began early (he recalls seeing babies in bassinets watch horses run across the TV screen); by age six, 90 percent of children were viewing television, meaning "that the average child brings to the first grade with him whatever adheres to his vocabulary, his values, and his picture of environment from several years of watching television."

Schramm discovered that--surprise!--the kids who were surveyed didn't really watch much educational TV. What did they watch instead? 

"As the child passes through the school years, childish programs are gradually replaced with adventure, crime, family serials and popular dance. Disneyland and Zorro dominate the first six school years; 77 Sunset Strip, Maverick, American Bandstand and Peter Gunn, the second six years."

Maverick was the third most popular program among 5th graders and fourth among 6th graders. It was first with 8th grade boys and third with 8th grade girls. 10th grade boys placed Maverick second in popularity and 10th grade girls rated it fourth. Finally, 12th grade boys put Maverick in second place and 12th grade girls ranked it in third place. Other popular programs among teens included The Rifleman, Sea Hunt and Gunsmoke.

There's some hand-wringing in the study about how all this TV viewing might cause youngsters to imitate things they saw on screen.  Well, I watched a lot of Bugs Bunny as a kid and have never had the slightest inclination to drop an anvil on anyone. And, watching TV led me to Maverick and Jack Kelly, and that's not a bad thing. :) 

Please stay tuned for additional studious dissertations on Mr. John A. Kelly, Jr., er, more fun with JK in the next TDS!

Color Him Ambitious :)

 Hello Everyone, 

In the 1961 feature film A Fever In the Blood, Jack Kelly plays an ambitious district attorney named "Dan Callahan":

Detail from original vintage B&W A Fever In the Blood promo portrait
of Jack Kelly from the La Bartista Kellection. Hand-tinted by La Bartista 

using photo editing software.

Although JK's character isn't mentioned by name in the contemporaneous newspaper review below, the author does provide a cynical but accurate analysis of A Fever In the Blood. In fact, the title of the review sums up the plot pretty well: "All's Fair in Politics and Murder". 

The review begins, "If the men in a movie called A Fever in the Blood had as much blood in them as they have fever, this might be a useful study of professional politicians who have little aptitude for their work."

It continues, "The title of this movie...implies that politics is a disease. But like many films that deal with disease, this one suffers from the symptoms which it seeks to diagnose. Its real conviction is that politics is a fascinating fight for power, that the details of this fight are dramatic and important, that honesty is a doubtful asset which sometimes wins on a fluke, and that 90 minutes in a theater are well-spent if they reveal which one of a group of tricksters finally becomes governor of an unfortunate anonymous state.

"Almost everyone in the movie wants to become governor...In one courtroom scene, during a murder trial, the presiding judge [Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.] is a candidate for governor; the district attorney [JK] is a rival candidate; one of the witnesses [Herbert Marshall] is an ex-governor who is a force in the election; and in the judge's chambers next door is another candidate [Don Ameche] who is waiting for a recess so that he can offer the judge a bribe...Justice fights with politics for the camera's attention and it is hard to say which is more unattractive as presented here. This is a movie divided against itself, as they say in politics. The question becomes whodunnit instead of whowunnit."

The reviewer has several objections to how the trial is depicted, describing it as "bizarre" and noting that "the judge fails to disqualify himself from sitting on the case even though the prosecuting attorney is a close personal duck-hunting friend, and even though their lives are all snarled up in political maneuverings."

He also pinpoints one of the major faults of A Fever In the Blood: "Its style of storytelling seems to be adapted from television. The action always has an indoors and confined feeling, and the shots are tight, close-in, and hurried, as though they must move out of the way of the next commercial...The movie needs more elbow room, and it needs to take a deep breath."

Well, A Fever In the Blood is still worth watching, even if only to see JK.

The original vintage B&W A Fever In the Blood promo portrait 

of Jack Kelly from the La Bartista Kellection from which the color detail above was created.

 Please stay tuned for more about JK in the next TDS. :)