The Ottawa Journal from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • Page 78

12 THE TV JOURNAL May 20 26 Canadian TV Premiere Raymond Burr Comes Back to TV In San Francisco, there is the Golden Gate Bridge, the Coit Tower, cable cars, Fisherman's Wharf, the Top of the Mark; Chinatown and Robert T. Ironside, the city's legendary Chief of All of them vividly come to the screen in the Canadian TV Premiere of Ironside, which will be seen for the first time on Canadian television May 20 on CJOH-TV's Performance." To get the flavor so unique to this famed city, producer Collier Young took his crews and cast. headed by' Raymond Burr, Geraldine Brooks, Don Galloway, Barbara Anders and Don Mitchell, to the Bay City for much of the filming. This presented many unusual problems, but the final product proves it was worth all the extra. trouble.

CANNOT WALK Burr, in' his role as Ironside, is shot by an unknown assailant at the opening of the film. He recovers in every way except one. He cannot walk and must spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair. This factor alone sets off a series of problems. which needed to be resolved.

First. special wheelchair had to be designed which would withstand the punishment it would have to take in scenes calling for Ironside to: ride down a steep hill and crash; and to go tumbling down an escalator; and to withstand the heat of a blazing houseboat. Secondly, a method of transporting a man in a wheelchair to. distant places within the framework of the film had to be devised. This was resolved by designing a specially-constructed wagon which Ironside acquires from the police department when he is forced to resign due to his injury and takes on the job of special consultant to the department.

The result was one of the unique trucks ever brought to the screen. Unlike any of the other James Bondlike or comic book vehicles, this one is completely practical as well as functional. It's' old engine was removed and replaced with a powerful Rolls-Royce motor. A hydraulic lift was installed which lowered to the ground a small platform in the rear. Ironside, in his.

wheelchair, could roll upon it, press a button and be raised into the wagon. MOBILE OFFICE Once there he is in a mobile office, complete with telephone, intercom systems, detection devices and a fifth of his favorite bourbon. In the San Francisco sequences this paddy wagon moves Ironside and his team down Market Street, past the Barbary Coast, through Chinatown, across the Golden Gate Bridge and into the adjacent city of Sausalito. Climatic scenes of this film were shot in an area, on the bay in Sausalito, at which hundreds of houseboats are TV ADVERSARIES REUNITED Beneath the mustache and hat is none other than William Tallman, while the white-thatched gentleman is Raymond Burr in reunion meeting between scenes of Burr's film, "Criss Cross." Tallman was costarring with Doris Day in another film, "Meanwhile Back at the Ranch," on an adjoining stage. He met with Burr for the first time since the end of longrunning TV series, "Perry Mason," in which Tallman was opposing district attorney Burger to Burr's title role.

ed. This shooting was especially difficult as it was done at night when cold and 'wet winds whipped off the water to chill the cast and crew hour after hour. If this. was not enough, Geraldine Brooks and Barbara Anderson, the only two women working on this location, had to actually go into the icy water. SECRET MEETINGS Producer Young and director James Goldstone also took the film company into San Francisco's famed Japanese Gardens for a critical sequence involving a secret meeting of several of the characters.

Although San Francisco's splendors provided ready-made settings for much of the action, set John McCarthy and Audrey Blasdel had their work cut out for them on scenes filmed on the sound stages at Universal City Studios. One set in particular was worth noting. It was the interior of the studio in which Miss Brooks, who plays a sculptress, lives and works. As she portrays an artist who creates weird mobiles from metal by using cutting torches and soldering irons, the entire rooms were filled with these art ob- jects. STRANGE PLACES Hundreds of them, large and small, were gathered from local sculptors and dangled from every inch of ceiling space, hung on every foot of wall space and stood on nearly every yard of floor space.

Cinematographer John ren and his camera crews also found themselves working in some strange places. Aside from the northern Califor i a locations there was a night of filming at a Los Angeles office building which was surrounded by various waterfalls. To get the correct camera angles on the action taking place, Warren and his men had to stand their cameras and lights in nearly two feet of water in order to shoot it. DRIVING LESSONS "It's safe; it's, easy, only few lessons will get you Driver's. Licence." RON'S DRIVING SCHOOL 722-6554 I BY MODEL: boats, cars, planes, trains ST.

254-7274 Rent Chronnir MASON DEFEATS BURGER WAY BACK WHEN Here's a reminder for TV fans of how Raymond Burr (right) and William Tallman looked way back when TV's "Perry Mason" first came on the picture tube. Newspaper headline proclaims what never the series which always had Burr's happened on Mason winning over Tallman's district attorney LIGHT UP FOR CENTENNIAL Good outdoor lighting will make you proud of your home. Good outdoor lighting is a protection against prowlers. FOR A WELL LIGHTING PLANNED JOB Geo Bolton, "Let GEORGE do it" 731-7842 A NEW CAREER CAN NOW BE YOURS AUTOMATION YOUR FUTURE Programming IBM Computers To receive Free information mail coupon or telephone 236-0133 today. No obligation.

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