A Maverick in the Queen City - Pt.II :)

Howdy!

Jack Kelly revisited Cincinnati in June 1963 while gearing up to star in the musical Can-Can in Dayton, OH.

JK was a guest on the legendary Ruth Lyons' talk show on June 26, 1963. He also gave an insightful interview to the television editor of the Cincinnati Enquirer. Although the onscreen Maverick may not have been the best poker player offscreen, Maverick was still supporting JK with hefty percentage/rerun residual payments. He also had the "side hustle" down pat long before it became a buzz phrase:

 "Maverick's Poor At Cards
by James Devane

As TV's Bart Maverick, Jack Kelly earned his living at the card table. In real life he says he may be the world's 'lousiest' player.

'When we have friends at our house for a poker party, my wife has to bail me out,' he admits. 'She's the card shark of the family.'

At the moment, Mr. Kelly is in Dayton preparing for a singing role in Can Can, which begins a week's run in the city's air-conditioned Memorial Hall on July 2. His pretty wife, a former actress known as May Wynn who has reverted to her real name of Donna Lee, is with him.

'Since we have no children, we do everything together,' Jack says. 'We fly, fish, golf and travel. The only thing we don't do together is sleep late. When we married seven years ago I got my wife to agree to give up her career. So now she stays in bed and I go to work.'

As you probably know, Mr. Kelly's Maverick came to an end more than a year ago, but it's still contributing to his support. With 176 films [B27--? Aren't there only 124 Maverick episodes?] rerunning around the country Jack made approximately $20,000 from the series last year due to a percentage deal plus residual rights.

With this income added to money from summer stock appearances and the used-airplane business he and his wife manage in California, he's been able to wait for the right new TV vehicle to come along.

 He thinks he's found it in 'Double Indemnity', a proposed series about insurance investigators. You may have seen the pilot [B27--Titled 'Shadow of a Man'], which ran experimentally on last week's Kraft Mystery Theater. Broderick Crawford co-starred with Jack in the film.

Kelly admits the pilot's story was poor. 'But the story isn't the important thing in selling a series,' he explains. 'A sponsor wants to know if a series has characters the public will like. They keep viewers dialing in. Sponsors seem to believe the characters Brod and I played have what it takes. I feel pretty confident we'll be on regularly during the 1964-'65 season.'

Jack says making Maverick was a lot of fun. 'We got our work done so we'd have time for gags,' he recalls. 'We had hose fights and Jim Garner, who played Bret, liked to loosen my saddle when I wasn't looking. I'd climb on and down the saddle and me would come in a heap.'

Mr. Kelly would eventually like to go into the hotel and restaurant business. As for acting, he feels he's already a great success from one point of view. 'When I started in movies I was known as Nancy Kelly's brother', he relates, 'but now as my talented sister jokes, she often has to introduce herself as my relation.'"

Of course, Double Indemnity never became a series, although years later JK played a baddie in Banacek, which starred George Peppard as, yep, an insurance investigator.

Please stay tuned for a comical column about "Shadow of a Man" in TDS! :)   

A Maverick in the Queen City :)

Hello!

A wonderful book recently joined the Kellection. Titled The Trouble Is Not In Your Set, it examines early television history in general and the TV scene in Cincinnati, OH, in particular. What makes it especially interesting is this fantastic photo of Jack Kelly--and Jack Kelly:

The caption reads "JACK KELLY AND JACK KELLY! -  The one on the left played James Garner's brother in the western TV series Maverick. Bret and Bart! And the one on the right is the former WCPO producer-director who drew a bead on TV shows for WCPO including the Maverick series..."

The photo isn't dated, but the feather on JK's hat is a clue as to when it was taken. This October 1958 story from the Cincinnati Post explains the significance of the feather and shows JK wearing the same vest:

"Brother Bart Maverick--Jack Kelly--rode into town on one of those new-fangled airplanes last night, with a red feather on his Western hat and his beautiful wife, actress May Wynn, on his arm," the article begins.

"The red feather was in honor of the United Appeal fund drive which Kelly is in town to boost and Mrs. Kelly was there because she always goes along on her husband's personal appearance tours..."

JK also visited the Convalescent Hospital for Children, a United Appeal agency, during his stop in Cincinnati:

 

"Fast draw" contests at children's hospitals were actually a recurring part of the Maverick's United Appeal tour:

 


The United Appeal is generally known as the United Way today. And, the Terrace Hilton, where JK is shown dealing a "winning hand" is still in existence, but just barely. Once one of Cincinnati's poshest hotels, the Terrace is now a long-derelict structure whose future--like its famed Gourmet Room Restaurant--is up in the air.

And, if you recall from a previous TDS post, Maverick aired on WCPO until 1961, when station WKRC became the ABC affiliate in Cincinnati.

Finally, The Trouble Is Not in Your Set was authored by Mary Ann Kelly. No relation to JK, though, whose mother was named Ann Mary Kelly!

Stay tuned for more about JK and the Queen City, coming soon in TDS!

A Blast From the Pages of the Past :)

Hello Everyone,

I love delving into vintage magazines and books to learn more about Jack Kelly. I've also enjoyed countless hours scrolling through various newspaper archives to research posts such "All the World's A Stage With JK".

While wandering around these archives, I've also found some great, rare pictures of JK to share. They're PDF images scanned from old newspapers, so they're not the clearest pictures, but I'm sure you'll enjoy them, nonetheless.

Remember my 2009 post about "JK Goes To Rodeo", with photos from a Japanese magazine showing JK at a rodeo? For years, the date and location of this rodeo was a mystery (at least to me--I don't read Japanese). Then, I finally learned that JK was the grand marshal of the annual Palm Springs Rodeo parade on January 28, 1961. The "queen" of the rodeo was actress Barbara Nichols, who'd co-starred with JK in "The Third Rider" episode of Maverick.

But, Ms. Nichols was actually a replacement rodeo queen! Thanks to a newspaper archive, I discovered that the original 1961 queen was none other than Bart Maverick's Charleston partner, Dorothy Provine, pictured here with JK putting a rodeo bumper sticker on a vehicle at the Warner Bros. studio:

Ms. Provine had to abdicate at the last minute due to an eye ailment. So, Ms. Nichols assumed the crown--er, cowboy hat. Below, she's clowning with JK. (He's plugging his ear because she's pretending to shoot at the photographer.) The newspaper story says that "thousands" of spectators were on hand to watch the Palm Springs parade and rodeo.

Now, here's a cute shot of JK getting a friendly smooch from one of his poodles in 1958:

I'd read that JK was a guest at Sammy Davis Jr.'s November 1960 wedding to Swedish actress May Britt. What I didn't know was that JK and James Garner had presented a humanitarian award from the Los Angeles chapter of the Shriner's organization to Davis earlier that same year. (That's JK second from right with his hand on Sammy's shoulder; singer Arthur Lee Simpkins is next to JG.) Strangely, the photo caption IDs JG as "Bart" and JK as "Bret"!

Finally, here's JK (at right) in 1969 presenting another award, this time to an amateur actor in Akron, Ohio. JK was appearing at the Canal Fulton Summer Arena at the time.

  
Coming up in TDS:

• Forget "Black Friday". You don't want to miss "Black Tuesday"! :)
• Part III of "All the World's a Stage With JK".
• And more--stay tuned!