Burke’s Law
In this day and age we’d call it, “thinking out of the box”; nearly fifty years ago, it was considered “a departure from the norm.
“Cops and Robbers” or “Detective Shows “shows were a staple of television broadcasting in the fifties. Several recognizable names from Hollywood’s studio system days were now appearing as TV sleuths. Among those who appeared in such teleplays were Lloyd Nolan, Lee Tracy and William Gargan who played “Martin Kane, Private Investigator”, Ralph Bellamy who played Mike Barnett in “Follow That Man”, and George Raft was cast in a syndicated series called “Man Against Crime”. Academy Award winner Broderick Crawford kept out roads clear of bad guys in “Highway Patrol” and David Brian was “Mr. District Attorney”. Some supporting actors also took a shot at TV crime solving. Reed Hadley the voice of those Louis deRochemont documentaries made at 20th Century Fox was in two of them, “Racket Squad” and “Public Defender” and a minor actor who was a radio personality from San Francisco named Jack Webb parlayed a meeting with the top Brass of the Los Angeles Police Department with a part he played in a film noir called “He Walked By Night” and created “Dragnet”.
These crime solvers were policeman or private eyes who solved crimes in a straight forward method. As the fifties moved on, Warner Bros Television headed by William T Orr, who was Jack Warner’s son-in-law created a new breed of crime solver, The hip, slick, cool P I. It began with “77 Sunset Strip”, moved south to New Orleans with “Bourbon Street Beat”, then Miami Beach with “Surfside Six” finally going Polynesian with “Hawaiian Eye”.
A freelance producer named Blake Edwards came up with a concept of a private eye with a nose for trouble, and Cool Jazz and called it “Peter Gunn”
Enter Dick Powell, no stranger to the crime solver cycle, having played Phillip Marlowe in the breakthrough role of his career, “Murder, My Sweet”. From there Powell went on to create a variety of crime solvers on both sides of the law.
Powell also used radio to his advantage by creating audio sleuths Richard Rogue and Richard Diamond. He would also play the popular Johnny Dollar in the pilot of a series that would later star Edmond O’Brien and John Lund among others.
But unlike the Dick Powell tough as nails character on screen, the real life Dick Powell was one of the most creative people in Hollywood. An excellent businessman with a sense of the contemporary, he moved behind the camera and became a director. From there he with fellow thespians Ida Lupino, Charles Boyer and David Niven created Four Star Productions, which presented a weekly television series featuring one of the quartet along with young up and coming talent. Powell and Lupino, herself an accomplished director, helmed many of the episodes. The Series was called Four Star Playhouse.
From Four Star Playhouse Powell spun off other projects. One was a western series called “Dick Powell’s Zane Grey Theater”, which Powell hosted a la Alfred Hitchcock and featured stars from the silver screen like Edward G Robinson, Robert Ryan and Marsha Hunt and on occasion, Powell himself. When that show ran its course, Powell went modern. His new anthology show was called “The Dick Powell Show”. Once again, Powell hosted and was an occasional star. The first episode to air was a Cops and Robbers show called “Who Killed Julie Greer?” This time the cop was different. He wasn’t cool, or slick, or hip, he wasn’t even young. But he was rich, a multimillionaire who rode around in a chauffeur driven Rolls Royce. His name was Amos Burke.
As this was the first episode of this new show, Powell the savvy businessman, along with producer Aaron Spelling would use all of their tricks to lure viewers. Powell himself played Burke. He called upon many famous guest stars to play parts. Julie Greer was played by the already famous Carolyn Jones(Spelling’s wife). Ralph Bellamy, Lloyd Bridges, Jack Carson, Dean Jones, Edgar Bergen (sans Charlie McCarthy) Mickey Rooney and some guy named Ronald Reagan who would soon fade into oblivion. Powell acumen was right on; the show attracted a significant viewership and the series would go on to break new ground in television
One episode featured comedian Milton Berle in a straight dramatic role. The reviews were excellent. Another episode was called “The Price of Tomatoes” and featured Inger Stevens and Peter Falk. The episode received four Emmy nominations, with Falk winning the statuette. The show was so successful that many Hollywood stars clamored to be a part. Van Heflin, Charles Bickford, Dennis O’Keefe and Rhonda Fleming all appeared. Future First Lady Nancy Davis was in an episode. So were Jackie Cooper and Lloyd Nolan. Ray Milland and Don Taylor directed sequences. As did Ida Lupino.
It is not a stretch to say that had Powell not died of cancer in January of 1963(ironically, on the same day that Jack Carson—who appeared in the “Who Killed Julie Greer” episode) under his guidance and business acumen, this series would have remained on the air for several more years. Suffice it to say, the second and final season of shows proved as popular as the first. After its run, the show would go into syndication some years later under the name of “The Dick Powell Theater” with Powell’s widow June Allyson recording new introductions.
Powell’s passing brought an end to the Powell anthology concept. But the company he founded, “Four Star Productions” had become a major player in television production. Norman Powell the son of Dick Powell and Joan Blondell recalls that the company was a cut above in production values “I had just come over from Revue, and over there it was a factory. They just churned out their series like it was an assembly line. When I got to Four Star it was a revelation. The production values were much better, you had more time to shoot and the budgets were bigger” Among the hit shows that came under the Four Star banner was “The Rifleman” which starred a former major league baseball player named Chuck Connors, “Wanted: Dead Or Alive” with a up and coming Steve McQueen as its star, and ”Mr. Adams and Eve” with real life marrieds Howard Duff and Ida Lupino playing the title roles. Four Star also was into the Cops and Robber genre with shows like “The Detectives” which starred Robert Taylor “Michael Shayne”, based on the Brett Halliday character which starred Richard Denning, and “Target, The Corrupters” featuring Stephen McNally and Robert Harland. The company also experimented with another anthology concept starring Lloyd Bridges. Also created by Aaron Spelling, it was too far ahead of its time and did not last long. What was notable was the fact that two future Bridges actor, sons Jeff and Beau were in a couple of episodes each.
It was Aaron Spelling who came up with the idea of spinning off the Amos Burke character into a series. Spelling was an up and coming producer with Four Star. Norman Powell seemed to recall that the decision was made immediately after the success of “Julie Greer”, but with the star’s passing; a new Amos Burke had to be found.
The man chosen was Gene Barry, a child of two musically inclined parents, who after graduating from Brooklyn New York’s New Utrecht High School pursued a stage career as a song and dance man. He had some TV experience portraying Bat Masterson in the series of the same name. Prior to that his biggest credit was as the star of 1953’s “The War of The Worlds” (he would have a cameo in the 2005 version)
Leon Lontoc who played Henry the chauffeur in “Julie Greer” was retained for the series. In addition veteran character actor Regis Toomey was hired to a play veteran old school cop, Les Hart. Toomey had been a long time friend of Dick Powell, in fact he was best man at the Powell-Blondell nuptial in 1936. “Regis professionalism had a great influence on the show”, remembers Norman Powell. “He had a gift of making any scene look easy”. A young good looking actor named Gary Conway was cast as the new school cop Tim Tilson. Conway had come up through the ranks, first as a contract player with Warner Bros, where he had parts in many of hip, cool, slick detective series of the 77 Sunset Strip mold. He also was famous as the Whit Bissel created monster in “I Was a Teenage Frankenstein”. “I had just made a western, “Young Guns Of Texas”, which starred Alana Ladd(daughter of Alan), Jim Mitchum(son of Robert)and Jody McCrea(son of Joel and Frances Dee)”remembers Conway. “I replaced Patrick Wayne(son of John) who was the lead in the film. Well the film got great reviews, and all of a sudden, I received a call from Aaron Spelling. They thought I was spot on and I was hired immediately”.
In contrast to the earthy Powell portrayal of Amos Burke, Barry interpreted the character as being more sophisticated, and elegant. “Although it’s not my point of view”, says Conway, “there were similarities between him and Burke. He was a star on and off camera.” Physically Barry made a younger Burke as well, being some 15 years younger than Powell so many of the episodes had Burke romancing one of the beautiful stars that were in the cast.
The biggest constant was the appearance of so many of Guest Stars. Each show averaged six current or former Hollywood players. For an actor like Conway, this was as good as it gets. ”There had never been and never will be a collection of pure film stars,” reflects Conway. “I remember Ruth Roman making an appearance on the show. As a youngster I had watched her on the big screen in those Warner Bros films and seeing what a great beauty she was. Now I was working with her.” “Marilyn Maxwell was another. A wonderful looking woman. I grew up admiring her sexiness. I meet her and 30 minutes later I’m doing a love scene with her.”
Conway had more great memories of the show. “Zsa Zsa Gabor was on one of the shows”, remembers Conway. “She came up to me and tried to fix me up with her daughter even though she knew I was married at the time.” There was Sir Cedric Hardwicke. He was a real character, just fun to be around with his Britishness” .
Needless to say the show was a hit. With so many recognizable names, and a formula plot that kept the viewer not only watching for the Guest Stars, but wondering who the guilty party was, people stayed tuned. Besides the great cast, the series was blessed with great writers including Jay Dratler, who received an Oscar Nomination for “Laura”, the team of Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts, whose credits include “White Heat”, Harlan Ellison, who would become a great Sci-Fi writer, and Warren Duff, who adapted the Film Noir masterpiece ”Out of the Past”
There would be an additional bonus. During the second season episode entitled “Who Killed the Jackpot”, Amos Burke had competition from a female detective. Her name was Honey West and the next year, Honey played by the beautiful Anne Francis, had her own series.
But something else happened after that second season. James Bond had become the most popular thing in the movies and the small screen looking to capitalize on the espionage boom, had scored a ratings bulls eye with “The Man From Uncle”. All of a sudden, the viewer wanted spies and counterspies instead of cops and robbers. Instead of bucking the trend, Amos Burke traded in his “Law” books for a passport and became “Amos Burke, Secret Agent”. Tim, Les, Henry and all of the guest stars were gone. The changed did not work; the series didn’t even make it through that third season. The final two part episode entitled “Terror In A Tiny Town”, should have been subtitled, “Who Killed Burke’s Law”.
There are still survivors of the show. Gene Barry went on to play a part in another unique television concept, “The Name of the Game” in which he played the publisher of a magazine. He and co-stars Anthony Franciosa and Robert Stack rotated starring in individual episodes. He also starred in a series filmed in England called “The Adventurer” which was a rehash of “Amos Burke Secret Agent”. Finally after returning to his musical roots, he starred in revival of Burke’s law in the nineties. The less said the better on that one.
Norman Powell continues to produce films and television shows. Among his credits are “24”
Gary Conway thought he had it good on Burke’s Law. It actually got better for him. Don McGovern, a friend of his who was a bit player on TV(including several Burke’s Law), had a brother who owned a ranch in Paso Robles in central California. He had always been asking Gary to come up to see it. “So I finally did”, explains Conway, “and fell in love with the place. I asked Don if he knew any realtors up there who could help me find some land in that area. ”Conway was referred to an agent who knew of a great parcel of land. They got into a helicopter to see the land and after flying over some mountains came upon a valley that was spectacular to look at. As they went in for a closer look the chopper hit some high tension wires and crashed to the ground. Fortunately no one was hurt, but the good fortune convinced Conway to purchase the land.
In the 1980s when the California wine boom went south from Napa Valley to the Paso Robles area, Conway created the Carmody-McKnight vineyards, now one of the most famous in the area.
More active than ever, Conway continues to be a vintner. In addition, he now has had more time to devote to his childhood passion, painting. He is represented in major galleries on both coasts. He also has his own gallery and studio at Carmody McKnight . As a film maker he worked on a personal project called “Woman’s Story” which he wrote, produced, directed and co-starred with Erin Gray, Kent McCord and Marshall Borden. The film has been shown in special premiers as opposed a mass theatrical release across the country, raising scholarship money for art and music in several major institutes of learning.
Through modern technology, Gary has had a chance to combine two of his loves, film and wine for a project called Windows To Wine http://www.windowstowine.com/.
Despite Zsa Zsa’s best efforts , Conway has been married for over 40 years to Marian McKnight a former Miss America. Life has been good to Gary Conway
“Burke’s Law”, has a special place in the annals of Television. As Gary Conway points out, “We had every Hollywood silver screen star from Zasu Pitts to Linda Darnell. These people were film stars when being a film star meant something “. Over four decades later, being a part of Burke’s Law”, still means something as well.
Joel Blumberg is a film historian and host of WGBB Radio’s Silver Screen Audio www.silverscreenaudio.com. Despite his extensive film recall, he still can’t remember “Who Killed Julie Greer?”