Early Eastwood: February 1957

Early Eastwood: February 1957

It’s fair to say that in 1957 Clint was still a struggling, but jobbing actor. While under contract at Universal, he had appeared in several bit parts between 1955-56 which included, Revenge of the Creature, Francis in the Navy, Lady Godiva, Tarantula! Never Say Goodbye, Star in the Dust and Away All Boats. 

He was also appearing in several Television series which included Highway Patrol, Death Valley Days, TV Reader's Digest and The West Point Story. Universal terminated his contract on October 23rd, 1955.

Clint joined the Marsh Agency. Director Arthur Lubin landed him his biggest role to date in the film The First Traveling Saleslady (1956) and later hired him for Escapade in Japan (1957), without a formal contract. On his financial advisor Irving Leonard's advice, he switched to the Kumin-Olenick Agency in 1956 and Mitchell Gertz in 1957. 

Next up was Lafayette Escadrille, also known as C'est la Guerre, Hell Bent for Glory (UK) - an American war film produced by Warner Bros. It starred Tab Hunter and features David Janssen and Clint in an early supporting role. Clint worked on the movie between October 19th to December 8th 1956 and pretty much rounded off the year for Clint. In January and February 1957, he obviously found some time to sit down and return some of the fan mail that continued to arrive. Of course, it would only be a year or so later that Clint would be offered a supporting role in a little up and coming TV series called Rawhide. 

Below: Clint at home contemplating his future and addressing some fan mail

Below: One of Clint’s original letters to a fan, dated February 25th 1957. Clint had just completed filming of Lafayette Escadrille.