TAC would like to take the opportunity to thank Colete Morlock for her wonderful review of Lowell Barrington's book, The Deserter. Colete's review explores the aspect of the story, but never before has a an impression to George Reeves. Sadly George's life was cut short and The Deserter along with several other projects never saw the the light of day with George's signature attached to them. Other projects include a science fiction film he would direct and star with Phyllis Coates, a two week personal appearance tour of Australia scheduled for August 1959. And finally the fall filming of a seventh season (26 episodes) for the 1960 broadcast season.

I'm certain you will find this Reader's Response further interesting regarding Colete's review of The Deserter as more information unfolds. LK

Louise: Apparently Gig and George appeared in Barrington's play, "Pancho". The play was performed at none other than the Pasadena Playhouse. The dates for that play were March 5-16, 1940. This was play # 604 and was directed by Maxwell Sholes.

Serena Enger: Dear Colette, It's a very interesting and much needed article. It shows that Reeves was a not a passive, unambitious actor, as portrayed in Hollywoodland. He was a well-read and thoughtful person, who sought more opportunities as an artist and director. He had also worked as a stage manager in several Pasadena Playhouse productions in the 1930s and with his wife, with Repertory Productions, Inc., during the summer of 1948.

Here's an additional link that might shed a little light on Reeves's interest in Lowell Barrington. It's from Gary Grossman's website, Superman: From Serial to Cereal. It's under The Reeves File link, and then the Scrapbook Link.

Reeves portrayed Pancho in Lowell Barrington's play, Pancho in the Playbox theatre at the Pasadena Playhouse. I'm not sure of the date. According to Jim Beaver's IMDB.com entry on Gig Young, Warner Brothers signed Young and Reeves after watching their performances in Pancho, which I would assume was in 1938. Gig Young was then known as Bryon Barr.
Barrington has a fairly successful career as a playwright on Broadway and in theatre.

Perhaps they became friends after the play and during Reeves's years with Warner Brothers? That would be a good area to research.

This is interesting! I can't remember if I found this article. It mentions the Newport theatre and "Dark Eyes," but not George and Ellanora. I found it because I'm intrigued by the Deserter article. Barrington had sold his play, "The Admiral Takes a Wife," to the actor, Jose Ferrer. It didn't get produced on Bway because of it being a comedy about war. He renamed it and George must have produced it for Repertory Productions, Inc. Jim B. told me that GR did produce the summer season. He has the whole file and did interviews. He's keeping the info for the book. This is interesting. Note that Gwen Daily's husband, Dan, did a show for Newport - Rep. Productions.

Also, Reeves's friend, Wayne Morris, was a much decorated war veteran, who played a deserter of sorts in the great film, Paths of Glory, in the late 1950s. The 1950s were also a time of great social change, and more films challenging power were being made, especially by Fritz Lang, Otto Preminger, George Stevens, Ford's film, The Searchers, Nicholas Ray, and Stanley Kramer (producer). I find it fascinating that Kramer's production crew served as the production crew for TAOS during the 1953-55 seasons (Volkman, Gerstad, Glass, Speak, etc.). A number of actors from High Noon, which challenged authority and mob mentality (John Wayne hated it), served as guest actors on TAOS. There are a number of films that quietly challenge power, like Julius Caesar, Rebel without a Cause, The Robe, etc. I privately wonder about Reeves's politics, even though Jack Larson has said he was a Republican. I wonder what happened to the rights of this book after Reeves's death?

I hope you contribute more articles to TAC. Best, Serena

Carl Glass of Glass House Presents: Colete, Two thumbs up. Nice read this morning Lou and Colete. In my minds eye, I can see GR picking Richard Jackel as "Corey." This is a guy who can play good/bad and cowardly roles. Jackel was popular back then too. At least with my mother he was. Carl

Jody McGee: Right you are Carl! Colete did a fabulous job of illustrating what a talented artist George was, and what a bright future he would have had. As to Richard Jaeckel, he was also a pal of Noel Neill's, if memory serves. And he would have been great in any film George might have directed. Jody

Ralph Schiller: Colete's Review Pays Highest Tribute To George Reeves. I just read her superb book review of "The Deserter.". Her look at the Lowell Barrington novel and George Reeves' interest in directing a motion picture based on it are deeply absorbing, profound and thought-provoking.

Colete's writing shows that for his first independent film production George Reeves was aiming high. 'The Deserter' as a motion picture would never have been a huge hit at the box office, but it would have made screen audiences think and ask themselves questions. Colete's look at this extraordinary novel tells all of us what a thoughtful, intelligent, and extraordinary artist George Reeves was.

Carl had a great choice for the title role with wonderful character actor Richard Jaeckel. I an also offer some other potential Thomas Corey actors as the lead role from that era.

My first choice would have been Audie Murphy who really did witness the horrors of war. Murphy was unfairly tagged by the critics as a bad actor but look at his remarkable screen work in 'The Quiet American' (1955) which proves them wrong. I also think that Tony Curtis would have jumped at the chance to tackle a serious dramatic role taking a break from those silly comedies and swashbucklers that he was starring in at Universal actor.

Another good choice would have been Nick Adams who was coming up fast in the late fifties. Adams was a talented, powerhouse young actor who left us all too soon at the age of 36 in 1968.

Gail McIntyre: Congratulations Colete! Yes, this is indeed that kind of material about George Reeves that I love to read.

I really to see him as an intelligent man who had political views, often not popular ones but just as the super hero he played on television, was not afraid to take on opposing forces. This article makes a wonderful companion piece to the one recently posted on his 1954 visit to Memphis.

I can't help but think, based upon the picture we are staring to see of him, whether he might have given up trying to make a go of it in acting all together and turned to politics? Who knows, maybe we could have had George Reeves in the White House in the 1980's instead of Ronald Reagan?? Alas, we'll never know. But this article shows that the potential was there. Thanks again Colete!

Super Sue Schnitzer: Great going Colete. I can see that GR would have been first rate directing as well as portraying Major Groves. It would have been in character with extending Superman to real life heros such as Corey and him playing the authority Major figure.

Thanks to Gail and SuperSue. This article was done as a token of my appreciation to George, who has given us so many memorable performances throughout his life. I wanted people to see how well read GR was and what a great director he could have been had he lived and been given the chance.

Special thanks go to Jim and Lou for their support of this project as well! Colete

John O'Keefe: Colete did a wonderful job of filling in some of the 'lost' area's of George's life and or career. It is truely an inspiring piece and very original. Best,John

Richard Potter: Well done, Colete. This was a very interesting article. One suspects that George may have chosen this story precisely because it was in such contrast to his work on AoS.

George probably figured that (a) he had nothing to lose by presenting such controversial material and (b) it might actually get the establishment to take him seriously. Thanks so much!--Richard

Stargazer: Colete, Wonderful article ! I really enjoyed the part about controversy. GR wasn't one to "go along with the crowd" just to keep the peace, because I think he had compromised so much at times, and needed to grow. Taking risks could have paid off nicely for him, because times change, and years down the road, another general unrelated "controversy" would eclipse any bad publicity that may have followed him. I feel he was ahead of his time in a lot of ways. Being a deep thinker may not have gone over very well "back when" to some people. But then, those are people who were boring. GR was never boring, and he was growing nicely, despite the lies about his being "over the hill, and "limited"

Thank you, I truly appreciate all of your responses as this is one aspect of George's life that I had wondered about for so long. I'm honored to have brought this project to the attention of all GR fans. My sincere thanks to both Jim and Lou who were so supportive of this effort.

This is just one more example of how George had been expanding his horizons beyond acting. He would have made a wonderful director so this is another "lost episode" in his life.

Colete

More from Serena Enger: This is interesting! I can't remember if I found this article. It mentions the Newport theatre and "Dark Eyes," but not George and Ellanora. I found it because I'm intrigued by the Deserter article. Barrington had sold his play, "The Admiral Takes a Wife," to the actor, Jose Ferrer. It didn't get produced on Bway because of it being a comedy about war. He renamed it and George must have produced it for Repertory Productions, Inc. Jim B. told me that GR did produce the summer season. He has the whole file and did interviews. He's keeping the info for the book. This is interesting. Note that Gwen Daily's husband, Dan, did a show for Newport - Rep. Productions.

I have a surprise for you. I'll send it via Proquest database email. I sent you a few, but I have one more. I didn't realize it myself until you inspired me to take a look at Barrington.

My knowledge of Reeves and Ellanora Reeves involvement as managers of the Newport Harbour, California area's summer theatre through Repertory Productions, Inc. is limited. I know they produced several plays during the summer of 1948, as well as acted in "Dark Eyes," as discussed in my "Recovering George Reeves" article.

Thanks to you, I looked up Barrington in the NY Times archive. I found that Repertory Productions produced his play, "The Admiral Had a Wife," somewhat revised and renamed as "Commander's Wife. Obviously, Reeves reached out to him. I only knew three titles of plays they had produced up to now. It's on the lower right-hand column under, "Newport."

Do you know how Barrington died? He was a young man when he died in 1966. By the way, his army enlistment record lists him as married.

Please feel free to use my information regarding this and Pancho in any revisions you might make. Let's face it, we are all helping each other with this research! I can't stand that fact that Reeves is portrayed as a minor actor with a passive personality! It's a shame he didn't focus more on theatre in the 1950s, but it probably didn't pay well, plus you often had to travel incessantly. Take care, Serena


Thank you, Serena! For some time now, while I've enjoyed doing the Ladies of TAOS, I've been driven to do something a bit different. As a history major, I wasn't interested so much in events as to the how and why behind them. Researching my own family tree has brought me to another whole level of searching for clues into my own past, and into some others.

I had hoped that by doing this article, it would shed some much needed light on George Reeves and his potential had he been given the opportunity to expand beyond his acting roles. I was aware that he was involved in various aspects of the Playhouse productions. It wasn't until I did the research on the latest "Lady", Maudie Prickett over on GHP that I knew George had continued his association with the Playhouse. This coupled with "The Deserter" has made me take a slightly different approach in doing my next Lady.

Between your response and one from a fellow poster on the Schutz board from Australia, I've got a little more insight into Barrington I had been working on an article to show how GR was so much more than Superman. In fact, I will start reading Jan Alan Henderson/Steve Randisi's book, "Beyond the Crimson Cape" soon. I've promised Carl Glass to do a book review of that one. I am hoping that it gives me more clues to George beyond his life on TAOS as I am hungering to bring more to the readers about him if possible.

As always, thank you for your encouragement and the links that you provided. Admittedly, you've given a lot more credence to an ongoing relationship between George Reeves and Lowell Barrington. Barrington also worked with intelligence during the war. Perhaps he might have influenced some of GR's work with espionage and mystery thrillers.

Colete

Thanks for Watching.

Lou (July 20, 2007)