The People of Coronet Land

Buried in the June 4, 1952 edition of the North Park College News is a “did you know?” column about some of the students. One item is “John Lindsay made a movie about how to act toward a girl on your first date.”

This isn’t just any first-date movie. It’s the cult short Dating Do’s and Don’ts, released in 1949 by Coronet Instructional Films.

There’s something fascinating about social guidance films of the late ‘40s and early ‘50s. Maybe the best ones were produced by Sid Davis, John Wayne’s ex-stunt-double, whose films screech warnings of a dangerous world full of child molesters, young druggies, speeding teenagers and the inevitable gory deaths.

In Chicago, there was Coronet, which had a different approach. The company shot dozens and dozens of undramatic films of attractive suburban high schoolers dealing with uncertainty, such as how to date, how to keep a job and how to make friends. They come across as corny and simplistic, with cheap sets and acting that sinks to being laughably inept.

The most famous star to come out of Coronet was Dick York, the first (and better) Darrin on Bewitched. York was a professional radio actor when he starred in Coronet’s Shy Guy (1947), having played the lead character on That Brewster Boy during its two-year run, then stepped into the role of Billy on Jack Armstrong: All American Boy.

Being a Coronet film, there’s a happy ending. York’s shy Phil makes friends after all, though he didn’t do it all himself. Moose-sweatered Chick, played by radio and stage actor Art Young, insisted Phil join him at a malt shop table with a couple of friends. Young surfaces as Skokie bus-riding football captain Ed Anderson in Understanding Your Ideals (1950). (He graduated in Commerce from Northwestern University in 1950 and found work at the J. Walter Thompson ad agency in Chicago. Arthur LeRoy Young, Jr. was born in Chicago on November 22, 1928 and died in Edina, Minnesota, on November 28, 2016 at age 88).



There’s one other big name in this film. The narrator is played by a Chicago radio announcer who eventually rooted out fraudsters by interrogation on 60 Minutes—Mike Wallace. Also appearing, according to a video summary on archive.org, are Frank Ferguson, beak-nosed Mickey Hugh, Bill Fein and Howard Phillips, who later attended De Paul University and was a member of the Beverly Theatre Guild. Wallace, by the way, narrated Coronet’s How to Study (1946).

York was also cast in Bookkeeping and You (1947), How to Judge Authorities (also starring the moose sweater, 1948), Rest and Health (1949), Ways To Better Conversation (re-used from Authorities, 1950), How Friendly Are You? (1951) and who knows how many other films for Coronet. We don’t know because none of the company’s actors are credited on screen.

One of the fascinations I have with the Coronet films is: who were these actors anyway?

Fortunately, someone was keenly interested in these kinds of films. Ken Smith researched and penned a book called “Mental Hygiene, Classroom Films 1945-1970,” published in 1999 when viewing these shorts was difficult; they weren’t on the internet in those low bandwidth days. Smith rightly examines the morality and social conditions of the day in his book, and gives a brief editorial summary of whatever films he was able to view.

Unfortunately, digging out names of obscure cast members was not a priority due to the incredible amount of research that would have to be done. That brings us back to Dating Do’s and Don’ts. Smith revealed a few of the people involved with the film. Unfortunately, he doesn’t give the whole cast, nor does he tell us a lot about the star, even though Smith interviewed him for the book.

Coronet owner David Smart had what Smith called “a pool of teen actors.” And while Chicago had teenagers populating radio shows, it must have been cheaper for him to hire amateur and even inexperienced actors from high schools. One was John Lindsay.

John Dickson Lindsay was born in Chicago on January 9, 1934 to Marcus Granger and Ruth Ann (Dickson) Lindsay; his father was a travelling salesman dealing in paint and varnish.

Various newspapers at the time flesh out his life story. He attended North Park Academy and made the honour roll in November 1948 in his freshman year. He played third base and left field on the baseball team—Coronet liked to hire jocks—and also appeared in school productions, including a Christmas play as a shy guy (Dick York was now in college). He was color bearer for the Illnois Society, Children of the Revolution in 1948. The following year, at age 14, he performed in a documentary for the Community Fund on WBBM radio.

He also appeared in photo shoots in the Chicago Tribune twice in 1950. I’d love to know if any of the others were hired by Coronet.



We’ll leave Lindsay’s story for a moment and look at the other actors in the movie. Ken Smith reveals toothy Ann, Woody’s date at the exciting Hi-Teen Carnival, was played by the improbably-named Jackie Gleason. Lindsay admitted he had a crush on her. She apparently married a chap named Hurley and died in 2004 at the age of 79 (according to Legacy.com).

The narrator of the short was Ken Nordine, who began his radio career in 1938 and spent years at WBBM, creating “Word Jazz.” He died in 2019 at the age of 98. Archive.org also states Dorothy Day played Woody’s mother.

Woody’s older brother, the leather jacketed Bob Woodruff, was part of the Coronet stock company. He was Bob McGraw, the boy with the bro-crush on Joe in Developing Friendships (1950). You can see him as Marvin Baker, the failed basketball player, in Attitudes and Health (1949); Bob the basketball player in How Honest Are You? (1950); the unnamed chairman of the teen canteen committee in Law and Social Controls (1949) and as twins Bob and Walter Addison in How To Keep a Job (also 1949). I haven’t been able to ID him.



As for Lindsay, his first appearance in a Coronet film appears to have been in 1948’s Everyday Courtesy as sweater-clad Bill Anderson. He was a zit-filled kid in Ways To Better Conversation (1950), Howie, the boy (still with zits) who wants to enlist, in Service and Citizenship, Alan in Developing Self-Reliance (both 1951) and Jack Connors in the Dutch restaurant in Mind Your Manners (1953).



He graduated from North Park in 1952, attended Northwestern University, served in the U.S. Army, and went on to a long career in securities investment management, at one time being vice-president of McCormick and Co. and then a senior vice president of the brokerage house, the Illinois Co. Lindsay died on September 8, 2006 in Glenview, Illinois. Ken Smith’s book says he lived less than a mile from the spot where Datings Do’s and Don’ts was shot. His film career was notably absent in his Tribune obituary.

A couple of newspaper stories revealed the identities of others in Coronet films. The Chicago Daily Herald of September 15, 1950 reported:

Five Arlington Heights township high school students have already appeared in the educational films produced by Coronet Instructional Films who have a studio in Glenview. This year three of these students are attending technique classes conducted by the company for students who appear in their films.
Those attending classes at the Little Theater, 25 E. Jackson blvd., Chicago, are Patti Ryden, Barbara Maher, and Bill Klink. Bill appeared in “Do Better on Exams” last year, and this film was shown to high school and college students. Bonnie Peterson, ’50, and Anne Milnamow appeared in films last year.
Coronet films have sent form letters to all high school drama directors announcing auditions for these films. Thirty students tried out last year.

Klink was a high school track, basketball and football player.

And the April 26, 1950 edition of the North Park College News somehow omitted a reference to Lindsay in its story.

Coronet Studios have become quite interested in North Parkers B. J. [a girl], Wanda Peterson, Janie Muir, Barb Brown, Marion Larsen, Ben Benson, Tom Houdek, Bob Spackeen, Jerry Keeney, and Don Birkle were made stars in one day and were paid for it! Tom has done quite a few of the pictures for Coronet. When will Paramount discover him?

Houdek was a track star, volleyball player and tackle at North Park who was later a guard for Oklahoma A&M, then attended the University of Texas. He is apparently still living there, retired from the savings and loan business, at age 89. Judging by two photos in the Chicago Tribune, it would appear Houdek starred as Mike Hanlon, the rejected student, in Feeling Left Out (1951). Spackeen played basketball at Illinois College, graduated from the University of Arizona, moved to Flagstaff and ran as a Republican for the Board of Supervisors.

And to the right is another Coronet actor. I’ve seen him but can’t place him. He was in stage plays as a child in 1939 and later president of his junior class at Township High in Belleville, Ill. in addition to receiving awards from the Boy Scouts. He sang in high school as well.

Smith’s book and the archive.org search of Coronet reveals a few more actor identifications, which can be matched by watching footage.

Heavy-eyebrowed John Galvarro is Howie’s older brother in Service and Citizenship (1951), while Jim Campbell plays their father. Galvarro’s other roles were as student Larry in both Understand Your Emotions and Are You Ready For Marriage? (both 1950), Howie in How to Say No (1951) before moving on to play Marty DeMalone, the tuna-stealing addict in Encyclopaedia Britannica’s Drug Addiction (1951, also shot in Chicago). He was also Toughy Padget in the soap opera Hawkins Falls, which aired live from Chicago on NBC in 1950, and later directed plays in California. His wife was a model from Vancouver.



Ernie Allen in Exercise and Health (1949) is played by a guy who was a student-on-the-street in How To Judge Facts (1948) and putting money into a candy machine in The Fun of Being Thoughtful (1950).



We mentioned Mickey Hugh in Shy Guy. He was the newspaper editor in How To Judge Facts, Ray Bennett, the student radio show moderator, in the weenie-obsessed Capitalism (1948) and shows up in a non-speaking part in The Benefits of Looking Ahead (1950). By 1949, he was attending Northwestern University and acting in their Little Theatre.



Bill Fein was mentioned in Shy Guy above. There’s conflicting and inconsistent information about him. The Internet Movie Data Base, not quoting any source, says he appeared as Jerry in Are You Popular? (below left). If so, I suspect Fein also starred as unhappy student Howard Patterson (below right) in Snap Out of It! and as Paul, the boy in the clique, in Feeling Left Out (both 1951). Fein had the title role in the Chicago-based radio serial Terry and the Pirates. A squib in the June 27, 1947 edition of Radio Life revealed he was about to enroll at Northwestern University, and he’s in a list of 1950 graduates.



Marty, star and narrator of The Self-Conscious Guy and Marty in How to Say No: Moral Maturity (both 1951). Actor unknown. He seems to have specialised in big-lip anguish.



The most annoying voice in a Coronet film belongs to math student John in The Meaning of Pi (1949). Not only does he have that Midwest drawl where a short ‘a’ is pronounced as two syllables, but his scratchy voice is changing. When he appears as Eddie Proctor in The Fun of Being Thoughtful the following year, his voice has finally cracked, though he still has the drawl. He has a two-word role as Johnny (one of the words is “uh”) in How To Say No. He’s Ed Parker in How To Get Cooperation and Eddie in Developing Friendships (both also from 1950). Actor unknown.



A fine piece of acting comes from the guy who stars as Bill in Social Courtesy (1951). He’s been forced to go to a party by an omni-present off-screen narrator. It’s clear he doesn’t want to be there; he’s grumpy and annoyed until the narrator browbeats him enough to be polite. He seems to be happy at the end that people now like him. He’s also Bill, your moderator, in How To Say No the following year. There’s no narrator but he talks directly to the camera a lot. He is Bill in Better Use of Leisure Time, stars as swimming-phobe Bill in Overcoming Fear and has a small role as (what else?) Bill in Developing Friendships (all from 1950). Actor unknown.



Let’s wrap up with three more actors (sorry to those we’re skipping). Besides York, one was a radio veteran. David Rempfer Whitehouse, the son of Professor Horace Whitehouse of the music department at Northwestern University, was born on November 13, 1929 in Evanston. He was 13 and attending Haven school when he was hired in 1943 to take on the part of Russell Miller on Vic and Sade. He had been acting in Northwestern’s Children’s Theatre. Whitehouse graduated from Northwestern with a bachelor of science in engineering in 1952. He was pretty bright. He had given up acting and was on the electrical engineering faculty of MIT when he got married in 1956.

He had a small, unnamed part in Are You Popular?, was the Pete the son in Build Your Vocabulary, student reporter Jim in How To Judge Facts (both 1948), Edward W. Blakeslee, the job-hunter, in How To Keep a Job, the “Edison” jokester in Rest and Health (both 1949), stars as Ken Michaels in Better Use of Leisure Time (1950) and plays Chuck of the future with a moose sweater talking to young Chuck of the present with a moose sweater (Stuart Sklamm) in Good Table Manners (1951).



But, sorry, John, while you’re in a terrific camp classic, my favourite actor at Coronet is one whose name I haven’t discovered. He’s the guy who plays Nick Baxter in What to Do on a Date (1951). Not only is his character awkward, so is his acting. In this epic film, Nick’s buddy Jeff (who is also Jeff Field in 1951’s Learn to Argue Effectively) cajoles the hesitant Nick to call Kay (who is Rose in How Honest Are You?) and invite her to go to the Scavenger Sale at the Community Centre. Amazingly, she says yes. And at the end, she agrees to go out with him again.

Nick shows up again in How Honest Are You? but his tour-de-force role came in 1950 as the star of The Benefits of Looking Ahead. Once again he is Nick Baxter, a grumbling, moping and shouting student failure, with tie askew (Yes, he’s wearing a tie in shop class). He envisions himself as a bum in a rundown rooming house, smoking a cigarette and eating a sandwich, with some kind of make-up smeared on his cheeks to make it look like stubble. His vision ended, he, after busting his project and whining to himself, instantly decides to figure out how his table will look and come up with a plan. As English library music swells in the background, Nick’s table is made perfectly and all is right with Nick at the end, as he fantasizes himself wearing a suit and being a hot-shot executive, conforming to 1950 American society’s norms, while still stiffly delivering his lines.



If you cut through the hokeyness, the basic advice in Coronet’s films is sound—don’t be a jerk to other people. If you don’t cut through the hokeyness, you can enjoy watching jubilation about weenie roasts, people saying “swell” and an obsession with knitted sweaters with moose on them. And, at least now, you can put names to some of the faces on screen that aren’t being called Durwood by their TV witchy mother-in-law.