Check out this book for the full facts on "Dragnet": http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1581821905/qid=1133501...846&s=books&v=glance

Hey, I can turn this thread back into a Bradbury-related one:

Ray is a friend of Stan Freberg!

Freberg once did a one-minute version of Moby Dick. Ray, of course, wrote the screenplay for the John Huston film of Moby Dick.

In the mid-1960s, Ray wrote his radio play Leviathan 99 (based on Moby Dick) for Norman Corwin to direct, and tried to sell it to NBC Radio. Some fool at NBC asked Ray if he could chop it up into one-minute segments. Corwin pointed out that this would turn it into Freberg's parody of Melville.

Here is what a computer punch card looked like. The first mechanical punch card computer was built by Herman Hollerith in the 1880s, and was used to tabulate the 1890 U.S. census. Punch cards were still being used as data storage devices into the early 1980s. I remember one of our monthly utility bills came with a punch card (presumably containing information about our account) that we returned with our payment. It's funny to think of the tiny amount of data they contained in contrast to today's storage devices -- several million times more data per square inch.

Phil,

Just a side note on Stan. When my wife and I and our daughters stopped by to see Ray in 1996, the phone rang and Marguerite called from another room to Ray that Stan Freberg was on the phone.

I remembered Stan from playing on the Danny Thomas Show. Do you remember Hans Conried? He played Uncle Tanoose. I got to meet him and interview him for a newspaper article while in college. Now back to Ray related topics...

Hans Conreid! One of the great character actors of all time! He was Dr. Terwilliger in the rather bizarre movie "The 5000 Fingers Of Dr. T" which was, if you can believe it, a Dr. Seuss movie. Hans Conreid can also be heard on countless radio dramas, often as a German or Eastern European. He even appeared as (if memory serves) "wrongway Cartwright" on a "Gilligan's Island" episode. OH! And he hosted the short-lived but hilarious Jay Ward TV show "Fractured Flickers", not to mention that he also was the voice of "Snidely Whiplash" on "Dudley Do-right"!
I could go on, but, as you say, back to Ray...

That would be Wrong Way Feldman. (A person whose cats are named Gilligan and The Skipper would know these things.)

You have cats named Gilligan and The Skipper? My cats are named Captain and Skipper. To tie this in to Ray, Captain's middle name is Dandelion and Ray added the surname "McCat," though while we were doing "The Sound of Music" he became "Captain Von Cat" and I'm unsure how willing he is to give that up. Skipper also has a Ray connection as Ray's brother was nicknamed "Skip" and is referred to in one or two of the stories as "Skipper."

lmskipper-
Thanks for the correction! Have you checked out the late Bob Denver's biography? I used to love his "Maynard G. Krebs" character. (We COULD get into trivia here, e.g. what was the Skipper's name (not who played him) and what did the "G." in Maynard's name stand for...}
Dandy, thanks for the "Skipper" tie-in!

I know I'm off the Bradbury topic here, but I can not resist. The Skipper was Jonas Grumby and the Professor was Roy Hinckley. And no, I haven't read Bob Denver's biography, but I hope to check it out soon. And Dandelion, I'm amazed at the parallel between two Bradbury lovers and their cats. I guess it's true that great minds think alike!!

I don't think that Ray would mind if we went off track a bit, especially when it is concerned with trivia amongst us "older" ones.

One day I would like to sit down and make a list of the famous people I have ever met or been in close proximity to, i.e.:

Met: James Arness of "Gunsmoke"
Proximity to: Chill Wills of "Apple Dumpling Ga"
Met: Greg Morris of "Mission Impossi-
ble while in Viet Nam.
Proximity to: Charleton Heston, Ray's good
friend, when he was campaigning
for a fellow in Minnesota.
Met: Richard Bach, through whom I got
to meet Ray in the first place. He
was a neighbor and he mentioned me
in "Nothing By Chance." Also wrote
"Jonathan Livingston Seagull."
Proximty to: Former President Ford campaigining
Met: President Nixon when president
Met: Larry Graham, formerly of Sly and
the Family Stone.
Proximty to: Prince Roger Nelson of 'Purple
Rain" fame, good friend of Larry's
Met: Vernon Jordan (Who remembers him?)
Proximity to: Ralph Nader
Met: Tom Arnold (a couple of times)

etc., etc. I really have to work on this. How inane is this though?

I also saw Nixon and Ford while president (Nixon distantly, Ford closely), Carter at his inaugural parade, and have met an unusual amount of pretty famous people (including Oprah!) for someone in such an obscure small town as mine.

quote:

Originally posted by biplane1:
How inane is this though?

Fairly inane, but fun. Fortunately for you, biplane1, your list is mostly of people who are famous the world over. Most of the famous people I have bumped into are only famous in the UK. (To test my theory, here is a partial list - any of you recognise any of these: Isla St Clair, Neil Kinnock, Christopher Biggins, Jeremy Beadle, Frank Carson.)

Phil,

You bring up a very good point. And celebrity or being famous is relative. After all, I have met Earl B. Olson and no one would really know his name. However, he founded Jennie-O Turkey Company, which was later sold to the Hormel Meat Packing Company. Now Jennie-O is becoming a nation-wide, and perhaps international name.

I forgot about Hubert H. Humphrey (twice) once as Vice-President and once later as a civilian.

But Phil, I hate to admit it, but I not aware of the folks that you mentioned. Now if you have mentioned Tony Blair, Margaret Thatcher, or Freddy Laker it would have been a far different matter.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: biplane1,

I grew up with a father who worked as a letter carrier in Beverly Hills, CA for 28 years. He knew 'em all. We could not watch an old movie without the stories coming out from his memory bank. Sure ruined the movie, but was a store house of movie memorabilia. I too worked for that post office for 4 years in the early '60s and had the pleasure of meeting many famous persons as well. I always found them to be gracious and unassuming, not the personas that they portrayed on the screen. My favourites were Gene Kelly and Betty Davis.

Peter,

Wow! This is almost like Instant Messaging. What a neat story. And what you say is so correct, that the vast majority of "famous" people are just like the rest of us, pretty normal people. But to have been in the proximity of those people--a very neat thing.