Ask American Profile
John Davidson, Johnny Crawford, Barbara Hale, Captain Video
—Betsy George, Ohio
The singer/actor/former host of Hollywood Squares can be seen this summer in the musical State Fair at a theater in Beach Haven, N.J. (pop. 1,278), and in The Will Rogers Follies in Tulsa, Okla. He also performs regularly at theaters, theme parks and clubs across the country. “Trying to anticipate and manage the relationship between audience and performer is fascinating to me,” the Pittsburgh, Pa., native says. “It always has been. The challenge of really touching the audience with words and songs is all-consuming to me.” Davidson also runs a company with his wife that makes educational card games focused on geography. It was created when the couple was home-schooling the youngest of their three children. “I am more proud of the Borderline geography card games, which my wife and I co-created, than anything I have ever been a part of in my life,” he says. “I have always loved maps, travel, and geography. Somehow if I have my ‘bearings’ regarding a location, or a place where people live, or where something has taken place it gives me a feeling of who and where I am.” The games are available in toy stores and educational parent-teacher stores across the country.
Can you give me information on what Johnny Crawford has been doing since he played Mark McCain on The Rifleman?
—Lucy B., New York
Crawford, now 58, had a few pop hits as a teen, so when The Rifleman went off the air in 1963, he continued acting, but also pursued music. However, he soon left the pop field and began focusing on Big Band music. He worked as a vocalist in a New York band led by Vince Giordano before starting his own orchestra. Today, Crawford’s passion for that music has turned into a full-time career. He has his own orchestra and produces period music for movies and special events. His band appeared in the film The 13th Floor and he sings over the closing credits of 2002’s Welcome To Colinwood. Personally, he was reunited with his high school girlfriend in 1990 and they married five years later. They live in Los Angeles.
Whatever happened to Barbara Hale from the Perry Mason show?
—Virgene S., Oregon
She’s 82 and still working, though her last TV appearance, a Perry Mason mystery with Hal Halbrook, was in 1995. As the legal eagle’s brainy secretary Della Street, Hale defined the smart but lady-like female sidekick. She and the late Raymond Burr were such fast friends that Burr, who cultivated flowers, even named an orchid for her. Ironically, Hale originally turned the role down. “Then the producer said, ‘But Barbara! Raymond Burr is going to do it and you know him.’ I said, ‘I’ll do it!’” The mother of three, including actor William Katt, lives in California.
What can you tell me about the two leading actors who appeared in the Captain Video sequel in the early ’50s?
—Ely T., New Mexico
Captain Video, Master of the Stratosphere appeared in 1951, two years after the pioneering TV sci-fi series Captain Video and his Video Rangers. In the sequel, Captain Video challenged the evil Vultura on the planet Atoma, and was played by Judd Holdren. Larry Stewart portrayed Ranger. Holdren went on to make Zombies of the Stratosphere and Commando Cody, Sky Marshal of the Universe. He gave up acting for the insurance business, and died in 1974. Stewart acted steadily for only another year, but became the first president of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in 1977. He died in 1997.
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