Make Room For JK! (Pt. II)

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

Here's Part II of Zuma Palmer's 1961 interview with JK, conducted in his plush dressing room at Warner Bros. studios:

JK in a screenshot from "The Golden Fleecing" episode of Maverick, which was filming when this interview was conducted. 

“Jack Kelly is one person who ‘loves his job and thrives on work.’

“’I like television when it on the prestige level it is now,’ he said.

“How does the actor look at Bart Maverick, his role in the Maverick series? 

“’[Bart] is not an outright hero and not a bum,’ he stated. ‘He is not a crook. He legitimately earns his living with gambling devices. He backs off from cheating.’ 

“How does [Kelly] classify the series?

“It is sophisticated, high-style comedy,’ Kelly declared. ‘During the [1960] writer’s strike we had to use straight dramatic material. Some viewers noticed the difference and objected. We did not want to do an anthology, that should be left up to Dick Powell who does it so well.’

“’Casting is basically not a problem,’ he continued, ‘Writing is roughly our only problem because where sophisticated comedy is concerned, it is not easy to pick up acceptable material.’

SITS IN

"Kelly sits in on the Monday story conferences with Arthur Silver, (the supervising producer), the director and the writer. ‘I have five years of Maverickian knowledge,’ he remarked.

“The actor likes all the directors under contract at Warner Bros., but the three with whom he believes he can ‘punch out the work better’ are Irving Moore, Michael O’Herlihy and Les Martinson.

“’They are sympatico with the Maverick idea,’ Kelly explained. ‘They know comedic facial values, for instance, and keep me from going overboard in the matter of grimaces to remarks and situations.’

“The actor has a key group on the set, the same gaffer or head electrician, cameraman, wardrobe and prop man. ‘I don’t have so many questions to answer,’ he said.

FIRST JOB

“The first job of Kelly was as a model in a soap advertisement. He was two weeks old. His pay was ‘a finn’, a five-dollar bill which he still has.

“His father, the late John A. Kelly, was a real estate operator; his mother, Ann M. Walsh, an actress. He was not the only member of the family to inherit acting ability. His sisters, Nancy and Carol, are actresses. Brother William chose to be an art student. He is not the only professional in his own home, his wife being May Wynn (Donna Lee Hickey). 

“Kelly was a law student at UCLA when World War II was declared. Sent to Alaska as a weather observer for the Air Force, he was on the first B-29 to fly over the Arctic Circle.

OPINIONS

“Kelly is of the opinion that ‘producers who don’t have responsibility will not make the kind of pictures people will want to watch’.

“He believes that it is the responsibility of parents ‘to instill spiritual values in their children so that will become the type of citizens they should be.’”

***

OPINIONS: JK DID HAVE 'EM! PLEASE STAY TUNED NEXT TIME WHEN HE SPEAKS HIS MIND ABOUT A WESTERN ICON TURNED DIRECTOR AND AN ACTOR HE DIDN'T (BUT DID) LIKE! 

Make Room For JK!

Howdy!

Previously in TDS, I discussed dresses which appeared in Maverick. Now, let’s take a fun and insightful visit to Jack Kelly’s DRESS-ing room at Warner Bros. 

Columnist Sheilah Graham had reported in early 1961 that since JK was now the top star of Maverick he'd been given "a new plush dressing room on the Warner lot complete with hi-fi, FM radio tape recorder, etc., etc.".  Another veteran newspaper scribe, Zuma Palmer, visited JK in his posh studio digs later the same year: 

“There was a guard at the parking lot, a guard sitting at a desk inside the door to the publicity department and a guard in a covered place at the entrance to the dressing room and stage area. 

“In walking to dressing room suite No. 9, Ted Ashton of the Warner Bros. publicity department, [publicist] Eddie Kafafian and I passed a half-marked tennis court. The other half had been used in a scene in Task Force and was pitted by explosives.

“Jack Kelly did not answer the knock so we knew lunch break had not yet come for the Maverick cast. 

“Jack L. Warner’s shuttered private dining room was on the way to the soundstage. Kelly, who is Bart Maverick, was stretched out on a settee dozing while Paula Raymond was before the cameras in a riverboat setting.

“’It is easy to go to sleep when you’re up at 6,’ Kelly remarked.

“For a TV set there seemed to be many costumed actors around. Richard Loo was the Chinese [actor]. Kelly later said there were 40 [extras] for atmosphere. ‘The Golden Fleecing’ by Charles B. Smith is the tentative title for this Maverick episode. [B27- Of course, this was also the final title of the ep.]

JK with Paula Raymond as "Adele Jaggers" in "The Golden Fleecing" 

episode of Maverick, which first aired on October 8, 1961

“The first actions of Kelly upon reaching his dressing room were to tune into music and loosen his shirt collar. 

LUNCH

“The lunch, ordered by Ashton from the commissary, was brought by a man in a spotless white suit. Off the main room of Kelly’s suite is a small dining and kitchen area.

“When the actor saw the steak, the peas, French fries, sliced tomatoes and onions and fruit cup, he remarked, ‘I usually just have milk with Knox Gelatine and that gives me time for a nap or to work on a hobby.’

"Beside the amplifier on which he had been working was a rack of plastic handles for tools. On a shelf was model of the ship Essex.

“Upon returning from making a motion picture in Hong Kong, Kelly learned that Warner Bros. was looking for someone to play Bart.

“Kelly said he told William Orr and Hugh Benson, TV head and assistant top man [respectively], ‘There is no use of your spending $5000 on a [screen] test. I played in a series here ("Kings Row") which flopped and I have been in pictures. You know what I can do. I will ad lib on the set with Garner before the cameras.’

HIRED

“’I am 6 feet and Jim is about 6 feet four,’ the actor continued. ‘I was standing in a hole. I was hired. Jim and I worked well together.’

“Some time later there were contractual problems.

“’Jim had some other things in mind he wanted to do,’ Kelly reported. ‘I wanted to stay. I liked the steady salary, the first time in my career I had had one. I came down in my asking price and Jack L. Warner came up.’

“’I have been studying about real estate,’ he said, ‘and buying up acreage, not to develop, someone else can do that. I am not interested in buying houses. I have had unfortunate experiences with them.'”

MUCH MORE IN STORE IN PT. II--PLEASE STAY TUNED! :)