Well, it happened! Little did Bill DeVoe and I ever think we'd be able to pull off even ONE TZ Convention....
but we did, in 2002. And there have now been FIVE of them! Thanks to The Hollywood Show people,
about 40 TZ actors were brought together on October 10-11 in Burbank, for a 50th Anniversary
Twilight Zone reunion. A good time was had by all. More details will follow. Some new faces
amidst the bunch, who didn't attend our previous cons were: Daniel Kulick (Jo Jo, "On Thursday
We Leave for Home"), Mary Gregory (3 episodes), Linden Chiles (FBI guy "Four O'Clock), Richard Kiel (The Kanamits!), Nancy Malone ("Stopover in a Quiet Town"), Earl Holliman, Jackie Cooper, Veronica Cartwright, Jeanne Cooper ("Mr. Denton on Doomsday"), David Macklin (Bud, "Ring a Ding Girl"), Douglas Heyes, Jr. ("Dust" and son of director Douglas, Sr.), and Bobby Diamond ("In Praise of Pip").
Bill and I, and also Herman Darvick (coordinator of the two east coast Cons of 2006 & 2007), offer our tremendous heartfelt thanks to the following TZ-associated people who appeared at ALL FIVE Twilight Zone Conventions: Mary Badham, Paul Comi, George Clayton Johnson, and H.M. Wynant. You four, in particular,
have helped us keep the Twilight Zone torch burning brightly. Honorable mention goes out to Susan Gordon, who wanted very much to attend the most recent con, but a last-minute conflict prevented her from attending. Kudos to her for 4 out of 5!
...and to some others who appeared at all three Los Angeles-based TZ Conventions (listed in no particular order): Marsha Hunt, Arlene Martel, Ruta Lee, Gloria Pall, Joseph Ruskin, Michael Forest, Antoinette Bower, Joanne Linville, Read Morgan, Michael Vandever, Dana Dillaway, Jacqueline Scott, Bill Erwin, Peter Mark Richman, Shelley Berman, William Schallert, Tom Lowell, and Earl Hamner. Thank you all so much for being with us!
I can't resist giving a salute to the late Jonathan Harris. He was the first actor, back in late 2001,
who accepted the invite to our first TZ Convention of August 2002. To get a 'yes' response so quickly, and from
such a distinguished artist was amazing to us - as we then had no idea that that we could pull
off the event. It was to be Jonathan's last con, and it was probably his last public appearance; he passed away two months later. We also salute the late Beverly Garland and her staff for the use of her wonderful hotel, Beverly Garland's Holiday Inn in North Hollywood, for the first two events. It was the perfect venue.
GLORIA PALL, whom TZ fans know from her appearance opposite Rod Taylor in "And When the Sky Was Opened" as the Girl at the Bar, has a DVD out. Gloria was indeed a cameo queen of the 1950s, and appeared in small parts in numerous films and TV shows, and she appeared on the covers of hundreds of men's magazines. This 68 minute DVD hits the high points of her career on screen. In addition to TZ, she appeared in such films as "Night of the Hunter", "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea", "Crimson Kimono", "Elmer Gantry", "Brothers Karamazov", and of course, "Jailhouse Rock" with Elvis. She also appeared on "Space Patrol", "The Ray Bolger Show", and "People's Choice" with Jackie Cooper. The cost is just $19.99 + $5.00 priority mail shipping. ALL actors who worked in early TV should have a career overview DVD like this!! Please email Gloria direct at glo@gloriapall.com if you're interested in ordering. This DVD comes highly recommended and was directed by Gloria herself! Gloria also has another couple DVDs which include her appearances on local talk shows and also a few game shows including "To Tell the Truth" hosted by Alex Trebek.
If you are looking for something in particular, and you are a "serious entity", please email us at info@twilightzonemuseum.com with your inquiry.
The Twilight Zone props listed on here, including the Mystic Seers, are still all available, and please
inquire to the same email address. We do have some autographed photos for sale, but not many -
if there is a particular TZ actor you're looking for, send us an email.
SPECIAL MEMORABILIA TOKEN ITEM - 5x7 or 8x10 copy:
A limited number of copies of this small memorabilia piece are available (I sold these at the
last TZ Convention but had some leftovers). The 5x7 copies are $5 each and the 8x10's are $8 each. The photo within was taken on the set of episode "A Game of Pool" when Rod was doing his opening narration. Both are
printed on glossy paper. Send email to oceanave@usa.net if you're interested.
Rittenhouse Archives released Series 5 of TZ trading cards! Their TZ cards debuted during the 40th anniversary in 1999-2000. For the 50th anniversary, there are 50 new signers including Morgan Brittany, Mariette Hartley, Camille Franklin, Mary Gregory, Doris Singleton, John Astin, Joyce Van Patten, Read Morgan, Mary Badham, Richard Erdman, and Cliff Robertson. The release date was October 2, 2009. For more info, visit their website.
Richard L. Bare is the oldest person connected with the original show, and he celebrated #100 on August 12th, 2009. Born in a far yesteryear, in 1909, he was responsible for scores of instructional films, with subjects as "So Your Wife Wants to Work", "So You Want to Be a Policeman", and even "So You Want to Give Up Smoking" (in 1942, long before it was known to be dangerous!) He directed seven segments of TZ, which include some of the finest: "Third From the Sun", "The Purple Testament", "Nick of Time", "The Fugitive", "To Serve Man", "The Prime Mover", and "What's In the Box." And many know the horror story where "The Purple Testament" star William Reynolds and Bare were in a helicopter crash on the way back to Miami from Jamaica after making a pilot called "The Islander" for CBS. Bare ended up with two broken legs, as he and Reynolds (who had one broken leg) swam/floated to shore. His most notable credit, of course, was direction of the entire "Green Acres" series starring Eddie Albert, Eva Gabor, and Pat Buttram … and Arnold the pig. He retired in the early 1970s shortly after it was cancelled, but in 2007 he reported that he was working on a remake of the series. Hopefully this will come to pass.
Walter Jameson of "Long Live Walter Jameson - and Dr. Miles Bennell of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", just two of hundreds of roles that the distinguished actor has played on the stage of life since 1914.
Bill was an eminently familiar face on TV for decades - and he really did it all - from a suspect on "Perry Mason" to a sex-crazed senior citizen on "Married With Children" and a WWI veteran on "My Name is Earl" a couple years ago. On TZ, he did "Mr. Denton on Doomsday", "Walking Distance" (scenes with Gig Young were deleted, but he still got credit, much deserved!), "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up", and less than one line in "Mute" (written by Richard Matheson, who also wrote Somewhere in Time, in which he appeared as Arthur the Bellman, his most memorable role.)
Nate Bledsoe of "Dead Man's Shoes" was just one of a large number of roles Warren has done since his career started in the 1940s. Scifi fans also know him for his role in "The Forbidden Planet" with fellow TZ actors Anne Francis, James Best, and Earl Holliman. Warren also appeared at three of the five "Twilight Zone" Conventions.
One of several of the last surviving semi-regulars on "I Love Lucy", Doris played Lucy's nemesis, Carolyn Appleby, on numerous episodes. She was a favorite of director John Rich and he cast her in episodes of "All in the Family", "The Dick Van Dyke Show", and on TZ's "A Kind of Stopwatch."
Jason is one of those actors who has been in virtually everything - "A Stop at Willoughby", "The Midnight Sun", and "The Bard" (uncredited!!!), he did on TZ. But his favorite role was as Harry the Bartender on "All in the Family" and "Archie Bunker's Place". He also did the voice of Boba Fett in the Star Wars films, although he is largely not known for it. He even appeared as the doctor of the ill-fated young girl in the ultraclassic film Airplane (1980)! Jason was to be a regular on the hit series "Mama's Family" in the late 1980s before it got cancelled.
Mr. Persoff is known in TZ fan circles for his fine performance in TZ's "Judgement Night" as the spooked passenger/U boat captain Karl Lanser. He has the distinction of being a first class yet far underrated and generally unknown actor. He appeared in numerous films and episodes of television for over three decades.
George Clayton Johnson celebrated his 80th birthday in July … making him the youngest of the surviving TZ writers.
Joe Maross died on 7 November at the age of 86. In a career that lasted over 35 years, he appeared in hundreds of television shows and occasionally in film ("Elmer Gantry", "Run Silent Run Deep") TZ fans know him for his co-starring roles in "Third From the Sun" with Fritz Weaver and Edward Andrews, and in "The Little People" with Claude Akins. He also appeared in Boris Karloff's "Thriller" in the episode "Knock Three One Two" with TZ alum Beverly Garland, which he remembered very fondly. A fine actor, Mr. Maross knew his craft very well and was an expert in line delivery and diction. He was also on the committee of the Academy and submitted votes as an educated judge for Oscar-nominated films and roles. Unfortunately, he succumbed to ageism in his later years and did not act past his early 60s. He resided in the Westwood area of Los Angeles in his later years and died in Glendale.
Collin Wilcox Paxton passed away on 14 October. Although I never met her in person, I'm glad I will always be able to say that I knew her. She was a magnificent person as well as a magnificent actress. The peak of Collin's career was in 1962-63, when she worked on "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Twilight Zone." She'll forever be known for her roles as impoverished rape victim Mayella Violet Ewell in the former, and Marilyn Cuberle in TZ's "Number 12 Looks Just Like You." She was always grateful that director Abner Biberman hired her for the part on TZ, which was a welcome change from, to quote Collin, "a number of meaningless, undistinguished roles I was offered in the sixties." Although her work in TV and film continued into the 1980s, she eventually moved to North Carolina and returned to her theatrical roots, appearing in and directing plays. She and her husband Scott Paxton ran the Instant Theater Company in North Carolina for many years. Collin was one of our generation's greatest character actors and we'll miss her a lot.
John Furia, who wrote the episode "I Dream of Genie" for TZ, died on 7 May. He was president of the Writers Guild of America from 1973 to 1975, served two terms on the board of directors and chaired or co-chaired its negotiating committee several times, including during the 2004 negotiations. He also received the WGA's Morgan Cox, Valentine Davies and Edmund H. North awards for leadership and guild service. Furia was also a professor and former director of film writing at the USC School of Cinema-TV. John was friends with TZ writer E. Jack Neuman (who also, unfortunately, only wrote one TZ episode, but it was a beaut...) and was old friends with TZ writer Earl Hamner (whose "The Waltons" he penned scripts for). I recruited John to interview for the Definitive Edition DVDs back in 2004 and he immediately agreed and gave us a wonderful interview. John will indeed be missed.
Joseph Wiseman, who played the aristocratic real estate tycoon
Paul Radin in Serling's episode "One More Pallbearer", died on 19 October at age 91. The Canadian-born actor spent most of his career in the New York theatrical community, but Bond fans will always know him for
"Dr. No" in the premiere James Bond Film. According to other actors who knew him, Wiseman
loved the part of Paul Radin that he did on TZ. They also said he was an extremely private individual
who did not socialize much, and was often too shy even to say hello to neighbors who lived in
his apartment building. Nonetheless, his significant work in TV, film, and theater stands on its own.
He retired from TV in the mid 1990s, and one of his last Broadway appearances was in
"Judgement at Nuremburg" in the early 2000s. He was married for many years to choreographer Pearl Lang,
who expired nine months prior to his death.
Frank Aletter passed away on 13 May. We were happy to have Frank at our 2002 Convention, where he reunited with Jacqueline Scott and Paul Comi, who appeared in his episode "The Parallel." He sat next to Jacquie as well as his old friend Lloyd Bochner. Frank was very supportive of the TZ Convention idea when Bill DeVoe and I were coming up with it in 2001-2002 and said he hoped it would be the first of many. He liked "The Parallel" and thought it was a most unusual and interesting story...he also tried to get "The Parallel" star Steve Forrest to attend the convention. Frank's work on TV was quite extensive - he starred in the 1960s comedy shows "Bringing Up Buddy" and "Its About Time". He was married to Lee Merriwether (best known as one of the many Catwomen) for a number of years, and they had two daughters, Lesley and Kyle, who were both in the biz as stuntwoman and model, respectively. He worked steadily from the late 50s until the late 80s, and for a number of years lived with his wife Estella in Tarzana. Frank will be missed!!
James Whitmore, veteran actor of stage and screen, passed on 6 February. He was best known for his role in the superclassic 1994 film "The Shawshank Redemption"; he came out of retirement to play librarian Brooks Hatlen. Of course, his role on TZ as Captain Benteen in Serling's "On Thursday We Leave for Home" was quite memorable too. Mr. Whitmore had a most distinguished career and in his later years, he toured the country giving lectures. The older generation remembers him for his crime drama TV series "The Law and Mr. Jones" from the early 1960s. Whitmore had a seven-year marriage to Audra Lindley, best known as Mrs. Roper of "Threes Company". The Whitmore-Lindley Theater in North Hollywood was so named for them. Whitmore's son, James Jr., is a well-known actor and director.
Pat Hingle, one of the most familiar faces in TV and film, passed away on 3 January. I spoke to Pat a few years ago while compiling data for my "Forgotten Gems from The Twilight Zone" books and he said immediately that he got more comments about "The Incredible World of Horace Ford" than anything else he ever did. Hingle's performance in the TZ episode was indeed one of the best. He climbed inside the body and soul of the man-child Horace and made the character his own. Hingle and Nan Martin, who played his wife Laura in the episode) worked together before and after they appeared in TZ, in the Broadway play "J.B." and in episodes of "The Fugitive" (they played husband and wife again!) Hingle's career began in the 1940s when he joined the drama scene in college. Eventually he made it to Broadway. After losing the title role in the blockbuster "Elmer Gantry" to Burt Lancaster in 1960 (after an accident), his career went a different direction … but he said that his regrets were only momentary. He worked steadily up until his passing. Commissioner James Gordon in the "Batman" films became perhaps his second signature role, after Horace Ford. He had thee children from his first wife, and a 30-year marriage to a second wife. He lived in North Carolina in his later years.
Comments, suggestions, or questions? Feel free to contact us. Thanks for dropping past...and be sure to stay within The Zone!
