Thu 14 Feb 2013
A TV Review by Michael Shonk: THE ADVENTURES OF HIRAM HOLLIDAY (1956-57).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV Comedy , TV mysteries[24] Comments
THE ADVENTURES OF HIRAM HOLLIDAY. California National Presentations, filmed for NBC, 1956-57. Based on the stories by Paul Gallico. Cast: Wally Cox as Hiram Holliday and Ainslie Pryor as Joel Smith. Produced by Philip Rapp.
The Adventures of Hiram Holliday is an amusing action spoof. The plots leaned to the absurd such as when Hiram stopped some foreign spies from turning Pearl Harbor to ice (“Hawaiian Humzahâ€). The humor was gentle and often based on misunderstanding or the odd image of Wally Cox as an action hero to rival Errol Flynn.
The screen credit and announcer tells us the series was “based on stories by Paul Gallico.†Which is odd since The Adventures of Hiram Holliday was published as a book in 1939. More confusing is Billboard (May 12, 1956), reported the TV series was based on stories from the Saturday Evening Post. Paul Gallico was writing stories for that magazine during the fifties, so perhaps Hiram appeared as a serial in the Saturday Evening Post.
Hiram Holliday was the copy editor for the newspaper New York Chronicle. Hiram catches an error that could have bankrupted the paper in libel charges. The grateful publisher Harrison Prentice sends Hiram on a trip around the world accompanied by reporter Joel Smith. On the way Hiram and Joel share one strange adventure after another with Hiram always the hero in the end and Joel failing for one reason or another to get the story published.
Wally Cox carried the show with his ability to make the absurd character of Hiram believable. It is Cox that makes the series funny and worth watching. He underplays the character, reacting to danger with a confident calmness. In one episode Hiram enters his room to find the femme fatale waiting for him. The room had been trashed and thoroughly searched. She tells Hiram she had been waiting for him. Hiram looked around and calmly replied he was glad she found something to do while waiting.
The rest of the cast were limited by one-note characters of dubious logic and were played by actors of various talents, from Sebastian Cabot to Thor Johnson (aka Tor Johnson). Publisher Prentice (Thurston Hall) existed to scream at Joel. The mastermind would make mistake after mistake while blaming it all on his henchman or femme fatale. The femme fatales existed to seduce Hiram.
Each episode would begin with Hiram and Joel entering a new country. Hiram’s interest was always in scientific and academic challenges. In Hawaii, he wanted to visit a Professor to study a lost consonant of the language. In Hong Kong, Hiram’s quest was for the rare sea cucumber.
Quickly, Hiram would stumble into an adventure while Joel was usually off somewhere eating. For reasons unexplained the misused laugh track thought Joel eating was hilarious, making it a bad running gag.
Villains arrive, usually made up of a mastermind, femme fatale, and a henchman. Through comedic misunderstanding the bad guys believe they have to get rid of Hiram. Hiram innocence and complete honesty is disbelieved and he has to turn into an action hero, from fighting atop a speeding train to performing some feat such as a carnival high dive act that he had never done before but had read about.
Ainslie Pryor failed to rise over the thankless role of Hiram’s traveling companion and best friend, Joel Smith who at times broke the fourth wall to talk to us. It was a difficult role. His character spent much of the time clueless and existed for Hiram to rescue or to take the brunt of the blame from the authorities for many of the misunderstanding that revolved around Hiram. In “Wrong Rembrandt.†Hiram had painted such a perfect copy of a Rembrandt the French police arrested Joel for art theft.
Production values were fine considering the era. Philip Rapp produced the series and wrote and directed many of the episodes. The show was funny but after a few episodes the situations became repetitive and the humor grew tired. How often can you laugh at Hiram winning swordfights with his umbrella?
The series followed Wally Cox’s successful turn as Mr.Peepers. But that success didn’t carry over to Hiram Holliday. General Foods was the sponsor of The Adventures of Hiram Holliday and quickly regretted it.
Hiram Holliday premiered October 3, 1956 on Wednesday at 8-8:30pm (Eastern). In Billboard (October 13,1956), according to rating service Trendex, NBC’s Hiram received a 11.4 compared to ABC’s Disneyland with 19.2 and CBS’s
Billboard (January 1, 1956) discussed some of the TV series in trouble. Shows the sponsors were unhappy with but had given a 26 episodes or 52 episodes commitment. This included General Food and Adventures of Hiram Holliday.
January 28, 1957 issue of Broadcasting reported, “General Foods, N.Y. will drop its sponsorship of Hiram Holiday (sic) on NBC-TV, Wed. 8-8:30pm, and will become instead the alternate week sponsor of Wells Fargo (Monday, 8:30-9pm) effective March 18th.â€
On February 27, 1957, the twentieth episode of the series to air was the last on NBC. Reportedly, three more episodes were showed in England during syndication, leaving 23 episodes apparently filmed.
Various episodes of the Adventures of Hiram Holliday are available on low budget DVD.
And on You Tube, at the moment, is the episode, “Moroccan Hawk Moth.â€
February 15th, 2013 at 10:14 am
As I understand it, the Hiram Holliday novel consists of a series of his adventures, each one leading smoothy into the next. Here’s what I have discovered online:
“His first fiction, the short Hiram Holliday sequence comprising Adventures of Hiram Holliday (stories March-September 1939 Cosmopolitan as “Tales of Six Cities”; coll of linked stories 1939; vt The Adventures of Hiram Holliday 1939) and The Secret Front (June-November 1940 Cosmopolitan as “The Strange War of Hiram Holliday”; 1940), interestingly fails to anticipate much of the coming flavour of World War Two, treating its protagonist – an amateur spy whose sensitivity to the psychic emanations of others is of ESP intensity – as being involved in Ruritanian conflicts, the successful resolution of which frustrates Hitler; this seeming lack of seriousness is only marginally lessened in the sequel, which was also insufficiently imaginative about the very Near Future. The first volume was televised as The Adventures of Hiram Holliday (1957-1958) starring Wally Cox as the Superman protagonist.”
http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/gallico_paul
February 15th, 2013 at 10:20 am
I remember watching this show and enjoying it, but other than recalling “Mr Peepers” bringing his umbrella to sword fights, that about does it for me. The only nearby TV station was a CBS outlet. If the series first aired on NBC, perhaps I watched it later, in syndication, or the NBC station that was 100 miles away, a very tricky proposition for a set that had only rabbit ears.
I haven’t yet watched the YouTube episode. I shall do that right now.
February 15th, 2013 at 2:00 pm
I think I have a copy of this book somewhere. Time to go a-hunting in my messy library. If I come up with it I will add it to my “PSB To Be Reviewed” reading pile. Wally Cox as an accidental action hero! I’ll be sure to watch these videos later tonight at home.
February 15th, 2013 at 9:04 pm
I have not read the book or anything by Paul Gallico, but every review I have read makes the Gallico character sound nothing like Wally Cox’s version (with an assist from Philip Rapp). I started to wonder why even credit Gallico, instead just have Wally Cox play a traveling tourist who mistakenly gets involved in more criminal and spy intrigue than the lead of a Hitchcock film.
February 16th, 2013 at 11:57 pm
Michael, you outdid yourself uncovering this well-hidden gem. One could argue that any show with Tor Johnson is worth watching, though I would not be that one.
I was curious about Philip Rapp so I looked him up. He wrote for Eddie Cantor and Danny Kaye and created the “battling Bickersons” for radio, and also Baby Snooks for Fanny Brice, before passing away in 1996. His Kaye films included The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, which is about to hit the spotlight again courtesy of an upcoming remake directed by Ben Stiller.
Of course so much has already been written about the paradox of Wally Cox, who railed against being typecast in exactly these types of roles. I’m sure we all know he was close friends with Brando, who reportedly kept his cremated ashes in his bedroom.
February 17th, 2013 at 3:11 am
Wally Cox was a childhood favorite. I remember one episode where he was in a balloon – I don’t know if it was for this show or some other.
I later found out that he was a body builder, and Marlon Brando’s best friend.
February 17th, 2013 at 10:38 am
David and Stan, when I was researching this show I was shocked by some of the “Hollywood truths” (aka lies) about Wally Cox. Most surprising was the claim Cox and Brando were more than just friends. This included a very fake photograph of Marlon on his knees.
The two were best friends since childhood.
I can’t imagine anyone but Wally Cox, then or now, as a better or equal Hiram Holliday.
February 19th, 2013 at 4:33 am
Wally Cox also wrote an excellent memoir/novel, MY LIFE AS A SMALL BOY (1961.) His ashes were kept by his riend Maelon Brando, and after Brando’s death, they were commingled and spread over the Grand Canyon.
February 19th, 2013 at 12:39 pm
One story I’d heard about Wally Cox is that he purposely wore ill-fitting clothing in order to conceal the fact that he was actually muscular (Tony Randall, who co-starred with Cox in Mr. Peepers, decsribed him as being “built like a small gorilla.”).
Cox used to do commercials for a laundry detergent, which would conclude with his crooking his arm as if making a muscle and putting the detergent box in the crook.
In most of the spots, Cox would wear his “uniform”, a baggy brown rack suit. In one spot, he took off his shirt to put it in the wash. At the finish, he was wearing a tee shirt when he put the box in his arm; Wally’s flex produced a Charles Atlas-sized muscle that made my family’s collective jaws drop (perhaps coincidentally, that was the last spot Cox did for the detergent).
I have seen a few Hiram Holliday episodes on dollar-store DVDs; I’m sure that there’s one showing Cox carrying a much larger man (co-star Ainslie Pryor if I’m not mistaken) fireman-style on his shoulders, out of a surf wave on a beach. I plan on rechecking first chance I get.
February 19th, 2013 at 1:05 pm
#9. Mike, I believe the episode you are looking for is Sea Cucumber.
Problem with it is the director blows the shot and I don’t remember seeing Cox’s face as he carries the bigger man. There is a nice visual gag in the episode as Hiram tries to leave after attaching underwater explosives to a ship.
February 20th, 2013 at 10:27 am
I watched “Sea Cucumber” on my cheapie DVD last night.
The picture was “unrestored” – faded and fuzzy – so I watched several times over to be sure.
We see a smaller man carrying a larger man out of the surf and onto the beach; we can’t readily make out his face because the larger man’s bulk obscures it.
When the smaller man gets far from the surf, he puts the larger man down, and we see that it’s Wally Cox – fuzzy, but it’s definitely him.
From the surf to the beach is an unbroken cut – Cox did the carrying all the way (and the hulking Ainslie Pryor was the one being carried).
And that means that director Philip Rapp did not blow the shot.
“Sea Cucumber” is one of six Hiram Holliday episodes to be found on a Mill Creek collection of Family Television. As I said, I watched this scene several times to confirm my observations here.
Back to you, Mr. Shonk.
February 20th, 2013 at 12:35 pm
#11. Mike, I watched it once. Yes, we see Cox put him down but a shot of Cox’s face carrying Ainslie (we should have seen his face as he was being carried) would have blown the audience mind and shut up those who believe it was a stunt man with fake body. Better staging and a different angle could have made an average scene much more dramatically impressive. Rapp missed the best shot for the scene.
February 20th, 2013 at 6:15 pm
#12:
I would ask you to remember that Hiram Holliday was produced in 1956, on a half-hour TV budget.
The type of shot you describe would only be possible with a small, mobile, posibly hand-held camera – and those weren’t around in 1956.
The industry standard back then was the huge, barely mobile Mitchell camera, which was simply not maneuverable in the manner needed to get the kind of close-up you describe without using frequent cut-backs between the carrying and the face shots.
And those would have called the reality of the whole thing into question even more.
The single unbroken shot of Cox carrying Pryor from the surf to the beach was the best possible shot available to Philip Rapp in that time and place. He missed nothing.
February 20th, 2013 at 8:54 pm
13. The shot would have worked if instead of setting the camera up to focus on Hiram right shoulder it would have been moved a few feet to stage right and angled towards Hiram’s face. It also would have put Hiram and Joel on the ground as the focus of the shot rather than the spy who the viewer had little interest.
No cuts. A single unbroken shot focused on your star’s face not his back was possible with the basic knowledge of blocking.
I understand the limitations, but Rapp could have got a better shot.
February 21st, 2013 at 5:25 pm
#14:
Wait a sec …
… what shot are we talking about, exactly?
In the shot I’m talking about, we’re on the beach, daylight, looking into the distance at the surf.
The focus is on Hiram carrying Joel, full-figure, advancing closer to the camera, which turns slightly when they reach the third guy on the beach, whereupon Hiram sets Joel down and dialog commences.
The camera turn gives a right profile of Hiram (and with no cut, it becomes clear that Hiram actually carried Joel the whole distance), which I suppose is where you got that “right shoulder” business.
But “… focused on (Cox’s) face not his back …”
In the shot I saw, Cox and Pryor were so far away from the camera that it would require Superman’s farsightedness to make out either of their faces. Also, Cox had Pryor across his shoulders, forcing his head downward; you couldn’t have made his face out until he set Pryor down at the conclusion of the unbroken shot.
That last factor is the key to the whole thing:
If stuntmen had been involved, a cut would have been necessary at the end of the carry – but there was none. Even as far back as 1956, many audiences were savvy enough to know about the ways that stunt doubles were subbed in for stars in many scenes, and that’s what made the beach-carry scene impressive: no cut means no substitution – little Wally Cox really did carry the bulky Ainslie Pryor across his much smaller shoulders all the way from the surf to the beach. I’ll make the case that showing it that way – as a revelation of sorts – was more effective dramatically.
Boy, I really beat this to death, didn’t I?
This is the way I argue in person, and you can bet I’d have my cheepie DVD with me to prove it all.
But it’s all in fun, of course …
( … but it’s more fun when I KNOW I’M RIGHT!!!)
February 21st, 2013 at 6:48 pm
15. Mike, we are so alike our suffering friends and families couldn’t tell us apart. Opinionated bulldog, I have been called.
I base my argument on one viewing. I remember wondering at the time if a stuntman had filled in for Cox or if the body was real.
When Cox carries Ainslie out of the water the camera is not face on but placed slightly to the left so Cox can walk by and place the body down. The spy guy is on the other side.
The better shot is to flip the position of the spy and camera. Have the camera shooting from a slightly right of the path Cox walks towards the camera, the body does not block the view of Cox.
How many times did you have to watch it to confirm it was Cox? My position of the camera would have made it easier not only to see Cox but Ainslie as well.
If we keep this up I may be forced to watch that episode again.
February 22nd, 2013 at 10:30 am
16. Once again, I must make that I have this episode on my cheep DVD, and when this question arose, I watched it several times over (the beach-carry scene itself, not necessarily the whole show) to reconfirm my observations.
I can’t say exactly what changing the camera’s position would make without knowing all the available scenery on the beach. Since this scene was shot in daylight, the finish/reveal would necessitate a dark background, so that all participants would be easily identifiable; there was a large rock formation on camera right which served this purpose. I have no way of knowing if a similar formation was available on camera left. On a location, the director, working with the production manager, would have to determine which camera placement would work best for the scene. In this case, Rapp, in staging Cox-Pryor’s emergence from the surf and progress to where the third guy was, determined that with the available scenery, camera right provided the best possible picture.
If you do watch it again, I ask you to note that Cox is carrying Pryor across his shoulders, fireman-style; neither man’s face would be readily visible until Cox put Pryor down. The unbroken shot is the key – and I’ll admit that I didn’t really look for it (or any clues) until the second or third time I saw the scene (and had the ready capability to reverse and rewatch).
Do any of you in the vast Mystery*File audience have the capability of imbedding this scene here so everybody else can know what the eff we’re talking about?
February 22nd, 2013 at 12:18 pm
Try this. Stand up and put a pillow over your right shoulder. Now you are walking toward the camera. If the camera is slightly to your right your face is hidden by the pillow. If the camera is slightly to your left and there is nothing on your left shoulder your face can be seen.
The key to this scene is seeing Wally Cox carrying Ainslie. Nothing else matters. There can be excuses for missing the shot but the shot was makeable.
February 22nd, 2013 at 5:16 pm
# 18:
In the scene, Wally Cox is carrying Ainslie Pryor across both shoulders; Pryor, who is quite a bit larger than a pillow, surrounds Cox’s head, forcing his face down until he reaches his “mark” and lets Pryor down.
It really doesn’t make any difference which side the camera’s on – the only way anybody could have seen Cox’s face would have been looking straight up at him.
Now how exactly would you have accomplished that angle with 1956 equipment?
The shot that appears is the best possible shot, given the circumstances.
February 22nd, 2013 at 7:05 pm
I apologize to Mr Rapp. The camera angle is not the problem it is either the faded print or lighting. Cox’s face is towards the camera but hidden in shadow. I had also forgotten the good for its time special effects of the underwater gag.
However, watching the entire episode again (curse you for that, Mike Doran), I still don’t think the single shot was the best possible shot.
The entire episode Rapp used master shot and edited in close ups and other angles. Even the scene on the beach after Cox saves Ainslie has different shots edited together. The fact the dialog can be heard as well as it was made me wonder how much of this was shot indoors. But even if it was outdoors, why not grab a medium close of Cox and Ainslie as Cox walks from the water?
Compare the scene to the one when the three men arrive in Hong Kong as the three villains attempt to pick out the man they are after. One camera did it, but with more than one take.
Actually, with the large amount of medium close and close up Rapp used in the episodes I am surprised the beach scene waited so long to edited in some medium close shots.
February 25th, 2013 at 10:42 am
Once more into the breach …
To answer this properly I’d really have to know exactly when this scene was shot, in the context of a 1956 production schedule that was no more than three shooting days, tops.
If this scene came up on the last day of shooting, it might have been no more than a matter of only having enough time (and money) to shoot one long camera set-up as opposed to the several that would be needed to get the angles you would have preferred.
As it was, the underwater shots of Cox most likely ate up much the episode’s budget (California National was not an extravagant outfit under even the best of circumstances). Add to that the studio-shot sequences (multiple takes required for close-ups) and …
… well, as I said above, we’d have to know the exact shooting schedule to know for sure.
Side note:
Looking at Philip Rapp’s career, I note that his major TV directing credit was on Topper, another favorite of man from the same era, which had some pretty intricate special effects given its ’50s era tight scedule and low budget.
In these circumstances, sa director learns how to get by with less – and that sometimes means cheating a bit to stay on sked on under budget.
What all this comes down to:
When judging a series such as this you have to look at the whole picture.
Philip Rapp may well have liked to get the shot that little Michael Shonk would have preferred, but if the shooting time and budget bucks weren’t there …
… well, so much for history.
February 25th, 2013 at 2:43 pm
I treat the review and comments differently. My reviews try to give you a flavor of the series and its time. I triple check every sentence in the review.
In the comments its pure opinion which I why I don’t might being proven wrong. In fact, I enjoy you and others (Barry Lane made me think hard in the last HARRY O comments over the importances of a star).
I said nothing bad about Mr Rapp in the review, way back in #10 I criticized the shot because of my reaction while viewing. I stand by it whether there are valid excuses or not. Considering Rapp edited various angles in the part of the scene where Hiram finds the sea cucumber in Joel’s pocket, he could have added one close shot with Hiram carrying Joel.
But it really didn’t matter. The scene was fine, but it could have been better. It could have wowed me. And certainly if I can say its good or not I can get picky and show an example why I thought it was good or bad.
Mike, I must admit I enjoy our banter, its more entertaining for me than watching most of the 50s TV shows.
December 3rd, 2015 at 3:45 am
I remember as a kid when we first got tv on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland in 1961 Hiram Holiday aired on a Sunday lunchtime around the time moviegoround played on the radio with the opening music from Carousel.
I used to rush back from church especially to see Hiram Holiday but it was many years later before I was aware it was Wally Cox who played Hiram.
I think the program impacted better with children who in general found the series amusing and it fitted in well as an entertaining late 50’s American series sad it was dropped by its sponsors who had hoped for better viewing ratings.
December 3rd, 2015 at 5:25 pm
nigel barrett, you bring up an interesting point. Where and when we see a show makes a difference.
In America it aired at 8pm Wednesday night and written for adults but safe for families. It aired on NBC after the news and just before FATHER KNOWS BEST. On the other two channels, CBS aired ARTHUR GODFREY SHOW (a variety show) and ABC had the last half hour of DISNEYLAND. DISNEYLAND won the time slot and the attention of all the kids.
The American audience always would have a problem seeing Wally Cox beyond MR PEEPERS. Add the competition from DISNEYLAND and HIRAM never stood a chance.
Thanks for sharing.