[Magdalen] R.I.P. Harry Morgan

[Marion Thompson]

My mother used to speak of someone being a real Vera Vague.  I took that 
to be her imaginative way of describing someone, not a real person's 
name, stage or otherwise.  Well, well.

Marion, a pilgrim

On 12/12/2015 7:50 AM, Jim Guthrie wrote:
> Morgan's first appearance on M*A*S*H was as a loony Major General 
> Barton Hamilton Steele in 1974  -- he came back two years later to 
> take over the role vacated by McLean Stevenson (Col Blake). Stevenson 
> figured he might come back if his other ventures didn’t pan out. The 
> MASH producers were so irritated that they had him killed in a plane 
> crash on the way home from Korea -- and that was that, and led to 
> Morgan's role as Sherman Potter.
>
>>> 96. He also played Jack Webb's sidekick on Dragnet, but that didn't 
>>> really
>>> resonate with me. OTOH, I loved Col. Potter.
>>>
>
> That was the third  incarnation of Dragnet when Jack Webb decided to 
> bring it back to fight left wing hippies and their admirers.
>
> The first Dragnet was on radio, with a variety of actors playing a 
> variety of partners, starting with Barton Yarborough, who was also Doc 
> Long in I Love a Mystery and Clifford Barbour (for 19 years!) in One 
> Man's Family. He was married for a time to Barbara Jo Allen -- who 
> also played on One Man's family and ended her career doing animation 
> voices -- including Sleeping Beauty and Sword in the stone.
>
> She had one of the more interesting stage names, I think - "Vera Vague."
>
> Other actors on the radio series were generally from the NBC radio 
> crew of actors.
>
> To listen to one or more episodes (or download nearly 300 of them):
>
> https://archive.org/details/Dragnet_OTR
>
> Television came along in 1951, with partner Frank Smith played by Ben 
> Alexander.
>
> One of the continuing themes of the earlier TV version was that Sgt. 
> Friday was always studying for his Lieutenant's exam -- that he 
> finally passed with the last year of two (1958-59) Badge 714 was 
> assigned to Lieutenant Friday.
>
> I suppose it was too much to ask between 1959 and 1967 (when the Harry 
> Morgan episodes started) what Joe Friday did to be busted back to 
> Sargent.
>
> Cheers,
> Jim
>