The Motive Matter

Yesterday my son asked me what spurred me to start this project. The effort to come up with a relatively concise answer reminded me that my motivation has definitely shifted over the past couple years. Initially, it was almost a lark, a project to prove to myself that I hadn't forgotten everything I learned in film school, using a topic I loved as a means to an end. As I pursued both interviews and research,  though, one thing did strike me. Perhaps the most fascinating thing about Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar is that the circumstances that led to it being such a smart, character-driven show - particularly during Bob Bailey's tenure - are the same ones that ensured its ultimate end.

During the decade-long shift from television to radio, the sponsors who dictated the content of the network airwaves as much as - if not more so than - network executives were paying much more attention to the new medium. This intersection of the sponsors' benign neglect and an overall more sophisticated listening audience created a window of relative creative freedom for radio. Through  this opening came such talented writers and producers as Jack Johnstone, Ernest Kinoy and Norman Macdonnell (to name just a few), for which I am hugely grateful. As much as I love The Shadow and I Love a Mystery, shows like X-Minus One, Frontier Gentleman and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar are the ones that have stuck with me the most.

Working in the television business at a time where another new technology in the form of online delivery is changing both form and content, it's not hard to see similar patterns playing out. The principle of "least objectionable programming" has long dominated mass media, especially in the United States, and many smart people in the TV industry insist that this dominance is now over. However, it's worth remembering that even the smartest people in the business are lucky to be right more often than they're wrong. It's tempting to believe that quality will win out, and in the long run it often does. At any given moment, though, this is far from certain.

The Second Thoughts Matter

With all the work that went into the introductory piece posted the other day, it's hard to believe that I now don't want to start the movie that way. On the plus side, it's still a nice trailer.

The Game of Inches Matter

They say that football is a game of inches. The same can be said of editing a movie. This introduction isn't much longer than the previous version but nonetheless manages to include significantly more material than its predecessor.

The Introductory Matter

As I alluded to in my post from a few days ago, I've been working in earnest on editing. With that in mind, I'm happy to offer this (still slightly rough) introductory sequence.

The What About the Movie Matter

Some say that editing is where a film is really "written". I've always thought this is especially true for a documentary where the story you're telling doesn't have the same kind of road map a drama or comedy generally does. Satisfaction and frustration frequently walk hand in hand where editing is concerned. Is it worth it? I'll let you weigh in when I post the fairly lengthy sequence I've been working on. Good night.

The Gerald Mohr Matter

In a previous post, I compared the multiple Johnny Dollars to the multitude of actors who've played James Bond. Though my point there was that the consensus opinion about Bob Bailey means there's nothing akin to Connery vs. Moore, I found myself thinking of the two actors who only appeared in audition programs and whether one of them might count as the George Lazenby of Johnny Dollar. I don't say that to insult either of the two audition-show-only Johnny Dollars, Richard Powell and Gerald Mohr, or Lazenby (whose sole outing as Bond, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, was actually pretty good) but rather to place them in the larger history of the program.

Of the two, the case is stronger for Mohr. Where Powell was literally the first actor to play the role - and hired when they still thought the character would be named Lloyd London - Mohr is the one who came between two actors who had long runs in the role. Similarly, as with On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Mohr's lone story The Trans-Pacific Matter represented an attempt to take the series in a new direction. Unlike the Bond film, which ended up being a stylistic outlier in the series, The Trans-Pacific Matter was very much a pilot for what Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar would become.

That's evident not just in the earliest use of the Joseph Mullendore's "Love Theme No. 1" but also the more thoughtful tone for the character director/producer Jack Johnstone was going for, even as he re-used a story originally performed by Edmond O'Brien. Where the story falls short, though, is in the leading man himself. Though Mohr was a good actor, he was better suited to more traditional hard-boiled roles like Philip Marlowe, who he portrayed as well as anyone including Bogart.

Mohr's take on Johnny Dollar is credible but ultimately not particularly different - or distinguished - from his predecessors, lacking the vocal and emotional nuances the character would later attain. It's unclear if this factor or other work commitments is why Mohr didn't go on to play the role regularly. According to radio historian Stewart Wright, a trade magazine announced Mohr's casting, but following that what Jack Johnstone described as "a flock of actors" would be auditioned. 

This flock included, of course, Bob Bailey who brought the added dimension to the part that makes his tenure so beloved. Some might say this makes Mohr just a footnote in the history of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. If so, then it's very telling that even the show's footnotes are a sign of quality.

The Art of Adaptation Matter

As a lifelong comics fan. one of the most interesting parts of interviewing award-winning writer David Gallaher was hearing his insights on the process of adapting a radio show for the comics medium. Here's a brief excerpt.