Happy Valentine's Day from JK :)

"This card always brings me luck

...especially on Valentine's Day."

Jack Kelly on TV: Fully Kraeusened?

Howdy!

I found another velvety Jack Kelly voiceover, this time for Heileman's Old Style Beer:

And, if you want to know exactly what "Kraeusening" is, here's the Old Style story.

JK on Screen - Around the World With Jack Kelly II

Hello Everybody!

And, welcome to The Tall Dark Stranger There--deemed a "link to avoid" by Wikipedia!* Oh well, who needs Wikipedia, when Jack Kelly already has some of the most knowledgeble (and nicest) fans around! :->

Anyway, it's time to continue our travels with JK. Since I was awakened by the roar of snow blowers this morning (yep, we received quite a few inches of the white stuff overnight), I thought we should journey somewhere warm and sunny.

How about Southern California? Er, actually, it's pretty rainy there right now, so let's set the Wayback Machine to May 1960. The place: the Yorba Linda Country Club. 

As we know, JK loved to play golf. He was good enough to compete in tournaments, often for charities. One of these charity games was "The World Entertainment Golf Championship", which benefited the Motion Picture Relief Fund. JK was joined on the green by scores of other celebrity golfers, including James Garner, Bob Hope and Jerry Lewis. Here's a peek at JK and JG from a TV Guide story about the tournament:

A closer look at JK: Although JK came in 14th, that's really not bad, considering there were 120 players in the tournament. And speaking of "bad", the winner of the tournament was an actor named Robert "Bob" Wilke, who almost always played the villain in films and TV shows--including Maverick! In fact, Wilke had just filmed the episode "Hadley's Hunters", where the menacing character he portrayed ("McCabe") memorably received his comeuppance from Bart Maverick.

Now, the tables were turned, as reporter Harold Heffernan wrote in the Ottawa Citizen: "'There must be a moral here somewhere,' grumbled Jack [Kelly], who had shot an 82, the best round of his life. 'Only last week, I gave this fellow Wilke the worst whipping of his life--on screen. And now he humiliates me before all my fellow golfers!'" Well, I'm sure there were no hard feelings between JK and RW. They went on to do another Maverick episode, "Epitaph for a Gambler", where Wilke portrayed a more sympathetic character ("Malone").

Hmm...I wonder if JK used his mink golf club covers when he played in this tournament?

Keep watchin'--more travels with JK comin' up! :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *Wikipedia won't accept most blogs or fansites as "external links" anymore, calling them "links to avoid". Apparently these personal sites aren't "accurate" enough and just anyone is allowed to write them. (And, this is different from Wikipedia how?) :0

BREAKING NEWS - JACK KELLY IN GUNSMOKE!

JK on Screen - Around the World With Jack Kelly

Howdy Everyone!

Well, January's almost over, but it's still winter. Our thaw didn't last and the temps plunged back into the teens. Some other folks around the country are getting socked by snow and ice right now. And, I'm sure we've all got a touch of cabin fever.

So, I thought it would be fun to "travel" to different locales with Jack Kelly.

First stop: Hong Kong!

Hong Kong Affair was released in 1958. Although the poster called JK "That Bart Maverick Guy", the film was actually made before he joined the Maverick cast.

I haven't seen Hong Kong Affair yet, but The All-Movie Guide sums it up thusly: "In this thriller, shot on location in Hong Kong, the owner of a plantation that grows Iron Lady Buddha Tea, is perplexed when he cannot make a profit. He decides to go there and investigate the problem in person. There he encounters his British lawyer's Chinese secretary. He and she team up and after many false leads and blind alleys discover that the lawyer has been keeping the profits after he smuggles opium in with the tea shipments. The plantation owner puts a quick stop to the shyster's operation and turns him over to the authorities. "

JK's plays "Steve Whalen", the plantation owner, and his then-wife May Wynn plays the secretary, "Chu Lan". Reportedly, May got the part when it turned out the Asian actress originally cast as Chu Lan couldn't speak English well enough to say her lines.

Hong Kong Affair has a theme song. It's titled (uh huh):


Sample lyrics: "New lotus moon, starlight to wear, this was the start of it, my Hong Kong affair".

Here are some stills from Hong Kong Affair. I know the plot of the film involves tea, but somehow, these photos made me think of JK's cooking talents:

"Would you happen to have a good recipe for chicken,
General Tso?"

"Let's see - I need three pounds of chicken, some soy sauce, some garlic, some ginger root, some dried hot peppers, some cornstarch..."

"Hey, Popeye, this 'ginsu' knife you sold me couldn't cut Jell-o!"

"Imagine, having to take May to this cheesy restaurant instead of being able to treat her to one of my delectable dinners. All because of a stupid knife. That's the last time I buy anything from someone selling stuff out of a truck!"

Next stop on our itinerary? Keep watchin'! :)

The Maverick Report - "The Jeweled Gun" and JK's Lucky Redhead :)

Hello!

It's been difficult to catch Maverick since it was exiled to the early morning slot on Encore Westerns. But, if you can catch it, the episode on tomorrow (Monday) is one of my personal favorites, "The Jeweled Gun".

Jack Kelly's co-star is Kathleen Crowley, who would re-team with JK in several more Maverick episodes. I found a nice story about Ms. Crowley from 1961, when she was filming "Dade City Dodge" with JK.

Describing the shoot, she says, "Working with a professional like Jack is a real pleasure...It doesn't seem like there's been almost four years between my two Maverick shows. And the rehearsals for this one went just as smooth as the other; you'd think we were on-camera instead of just running through the lines and action."

Jack Kelly - January Thaw :)

Hi!

We're having a January thaw in our area. This megawatt smile should help raise the temp even more:

Happy Friday! :->