Tralfaz Sunday Theatre: Fred and the Chevy Spies

Bill Frawley was immortalised as Fred Mertz, thanks to “I Love Lucy” which, I imagine, has never been off television since 1951.

Frawley doesn’t seem to have been able to escape the name “Fred” until he was cast in “My Three Sons” in 1960. In our last Tralfaz Sunday Theatre post, we spotlighted a 1959 industrial film where he and Vivian Vance played Fred and Ethel, though the short was careful not to give them a last name.

The late Daws Butler’s friend Joe Bev has discovered yet another industrial film where Frawley again plays a guy named Fred with no last name. It’s called “What About the ’61 Chevy’s?” and was produced by Jam Handy, a company out of Detroit that had made commercial films for Chevrolet going back into the 1930s.

It’s a lightweight comedy, the kind that seemed very popular in that era. Fred hires an all-female detective agency to spy on Chevrolet and get the lowdown for him on the soon-to-be-available 1961 Chevys. Unfortunately, Vance doesn’t make a cameo appearance (probably to the relief of Frawley) and none of the characters is named Ethel. But there is a “Lucy” connection. The film was directed by Jim Kern, who not only helmed a pile of “Lucy” episodes, but was behind the camera for “My Three Sons” in the mid-‘60s.

The main female detective is played by singer/dancer Barbara Perry, who married animator Art Babbitt. She appeared as Morey Amsterdam’s wife on a couple of episodes of “The Dick Van Dyke Show.” Dancer Arlene Avril, stage actress Maryanne Cohan, cover girl Toni Hesse and Hartford Agency model Dorothy Dollivar get screen credits as well. The story may be a little odd in places, and the parts demonstrating the cars a little dull, but the score is enjoyable, thanks the work of veteran Jam Handy composer Sam Benavie.