Early Eastwood: 1955 -1956 Highway Patrol Series 1 Episode 27
1955 – 1956 signified a rather important period for Eastwood. He had official embarked on his acting career with appearances in a couple of Universal B movies such as Revenge of the Creature and Tarantula and appeared in a credited role as Jonesy in Francis in the Navy, part of the ongoing Francis the talking mule series of films. By 1956 he had changed agencies and also beginning to find work on TV.
Highway Patrol was an action crime drama series produced for syndication from 1955 to 1959. It was one of the most popular syndicated series on TV and was the first American series broadcast in West Germany on that country's commercial TV channel. The chance of appearing on National TV in such a popular series was something that made good sense to Eastwood – and why shouldn’t it? It was also filmed locally, shooting around the San Fernando Valley and Simi Valley.
Episode 27 was titled, Motorcycle A and Eastwood landed a credited role as young biker, Joe Keeley. This episode was first aired April 2nd, 1956.
Below: The complete Highway Patrol Episode, Motorcycle A
Handwritten letters by Clint
To tie-in with these events and the Eastwood timeline, here are some extremely rare handwritten letters by Clint to an adoring fan. The letters are dated very early in Eastwood’s career, 1955 and 1956. There is also an early circa 1955 signed headshot of Eastwood which he sent to the recipient.
One letter is dated October 27, 1955 mere days after being dropped by his first agency. The second letter is dated May 13, 1956, about a month after the Highway Patrol episode had aired and also mentions his next film “The First Traveling Saleslady” as well as his first wife, Maggie.
First letter measures roughly 5” x 8” and the second letter measures roughly 4.5” x 7”
Below: Signed photograph measuring 5” x 7”
Below: Clint as Lt. Jack Rice in his next venture - the feature film The First Traveling Saleslady
No comments:
Post a Comment