Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 73

14 -TV Sunday, Any. 18, 1957 DETROIT FREE PRESS Paul's Stomach, Age, Helped Start ffK- AV i tr is Acting Career nit if 1 BY HAL HUMPHREY Free Pre Special riter HOLLYWOOD Most actors used to be movie actors who occasionally would "squeeze in" a TV appearance or two "between pictures." Now they are TV actors who "try to do a little picture work during the summer." If the movie industry had any sensitivity it would be insulted by this turn of events. But right at the moment most moviemakers are too happy to latch on to anybody available for the SIN-e-MAH. Insults? Who has time for that? I didn't mean to get on a movies-versus-TV kiek here. Actually, this is by way of introducing you to Paul Ford, whom many of you already know as Colonel Hall, the commanding officer at Ft.

Baxter where Sgt. Ernie Bilko (Phil Silvers), operates. Ford is one of those actors on temporary leave from the ardors of TV. He has just finished a movie role at Warner Bros. "Missouri Traveler," and after a quick trip back to New York for two more TV episodes with Silvers, Ford returns here late this month for a role in "The Matchmaker." WHAT IMPRESSES ONE about.

Paul Ford, after meeting him, is that he neither talks nor looks like an actor. Nat Hiken, creator of the CBS-TV Phil Silvers Show, noticed this when he asked Ford to take the role of Colonel Hall. Ford was in the Broadway production of "Teahouse of the August Moon" then, and playing Col. VVainn right. Purdy HI.

He accepted Hiken's offer, but as things turned out it meant doubling between the theater and the TV series for a because of the hit ruu for "Teahouse." Paul Ford at Work "Oh, I've never received any official word from the Pentagon or anything like that. But I get reactions, like one officer I met. He was quite unhappy. "Tm a West Point man and must tell you I don't approve of your portrayal of an he said to me. "All I could think to say was that he must have missed one of the eatly shows where it was pointed out that I graduated third from the bottom of my class at the Academy and was considered a hair, it never occurred to them that I was just breaking in." Ford never took a dramatic lesson in his life and considers acting a much easier caper than greasing a car or selling door-to-door.

HE HAS never been in the Army either, a statement which baffles hundreds of ex-GI's who have met up with Ford and told him he is the epitome of every Army officer they've ever served under. Such praise does not come from the Army brass, Paul says. Each time Ford turned up for work at the Silvers set, he asked Hiken to make his part smaller. He was getting tired of the double grind. "IT'S THE first time in my life I ever heard an actor ask for his part to be written down instead of up," said Hiken at the time, and very likely he hasn't heard of it since.

Perhaps one of the reasons one finds Ford so "old-shoe" is his late start as an actor. He was 33 and had a wife and five kids when he heard the call of the theater. It was during the depres- Here's the Answer Michigan Look For Cochise Series Some familiar Detroit and Michigan faces will be turning up in episodes of Sheriff of Cochise (WWJ-TV (4), 10 p.m., Saturday). Four local actors have roles in the series. Phil Silvers sion.

He had been fired from the gas station where he'd worked for five years and was trying to make a living as a space salesman for the Manhattan Red Book. "MY WIFE naturally thought I had gone off my rocker when I started making the rounds looking for a job as an actor, and I guess the producers would have thought the same, except I didn't tell them I was just starting out," recalls Ford. "I wouldn't tell any lies, you understand. I just let them imagine I was an actor. My age helped.

When they saw a guy with a potbelly who was losing his Tyler McVey Out of This Wide World Wide Wide World will almost go out of this world altogether when it returns to the air Sept. 15. NBC-TV will put its far-ranging cameras on the International Geophysical Year, guided missiles and automation. It will pick up the launching by the Army of one of its large missiles. In addition, live pick-ups will be made from Havana and possibly, Mexico City.

The program will depart from its usual format to include some specially filmed segments. f- 4 song "Marta." He was killed in an automobile accident some years ago at the height of his career. E. JAMES JONES A Arthur Tracy was the Street Singer and used "Marta' as his theme. As far as can be ascertained, he is still alive.

What is the name of the song that is played on Men of Annapolis? WAYNE F. CRANE Livonia A It is "Navy Blue and Gold," one of the Naval Academy songs. HERE ARE addresses of stars requested: Write Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball, Jim Arness, Bing Crosby, Jimmy Durante, Howard Duff and Ida Lu-pino, David Janssen, Harry Morgan December Bride), Tommy Ret tig at: CBS-TV Television City Hollywood, Calif. Write Susan Heinkel at: WBBM-TV Chicago, III. Write Maxwell Reed (Capt.

David Grief) at: Guild Films Inc. 460 Park Ave. New York 22, N. Y. I would like some information on the George-Montgomery who appeared on the Arthur Murray Dance Party.

I think he's extremely handsome. Is he married? Any children? PROSPECTIVE FAN A That's Dinah Shore's George Montgomery. He's been in movies a good many years. He and Dinah have two youngsters. See page 12 for more about George.

Could you send me all the material you have on file on Walt Disney and the Mouseketeers PAM McKEAGUE Battle Creek A The Disney file is a fat one and we need it to answer questions and give us background for stories. Watch TV Prevue, we will be having more Mouseke-teer stories and other Information on Disney. Who plays Capt. David Grief? SUE REYNOLDS A That's Knglish actor Maxwell Reed. Tell me the name of the crooner known as The Street Singer who was identified by the theme Murphy To Make TV Debut Audie Muphy will make his television debut in the NBC-TV's new Suspicion series.

The World War II hero has been signed to appear in one of the series' filmed shows titled "The Flight." It was reported that the work originally was to have been called "The South American Story." It Is about a "strange disappearance that might be murder," with Murphy playing an American pilot involved in the case. The title and plot were altered to avoid resemblance to the case of Dr. Jesus De Galindez, a foe of the government of the Dominican Republic who disappeared in 1956. Mort Mills, born in Detroit, a junior lifeguard at YMCA camps near Bay City when he wa3 a youngster. James Lanphier lived in Detroit while his father was stationed at Selfridge Field and attended St.

Paul's School. A Bay Cityan is Tyler McVey who got nis acting start at Bay City High School. his wife and two daughters, make occasional visits to friends in Bay City. Willis Bouche is the farm boy from Clare. And although Barbara Stewart wasn't born in Michigan, she says she acted in summer stock so often here she feels Michigan is her second home.

From Gag Bag Jack Lescoulie, host of Tonight, is being seen on TV these days in an old movie, "Oklahoma "We made that movie in five says Jack. "We i n' even get off the horses.".