Tralfaz Sunday Theatre: Decorating Unlimited

Readers of this blog likely know who this is.



Of course, that’s Howard McNear, known to fans of 1960s television as Floyd the Barber.

And you likely know this is.



Yes, it’s Kate Bradley. And Cousin Pearl. And Blanche Morton. And Betty Rubble.

You may be wondering if they worked together on The Andy Griffith Show. Or Petticoat Junction. No, these shots are from neither series. They’re from an industrial short made for McCall’s Magazine and the Bell System by Jerry Fairbanks Productions called Decorating Unlimited. It began appearing in front of audiences of community groups in late 1961.

Manya Starr and Hazel Arnett came up with a cute fantasy story where Mr. McCall (McNear) appears everywhere and magically transforms Jean and Fred’s suburban home. Benaderet plays a neighbour who is delighted with the decoration job.

The co-star of this industrial film is Sally Bliss, who also went by the screen name of Carla Balenda because her real name was “too cute” and the studio didn’t like it (as she told International News Service columnist Maralyn Marsh in October 1950).

We won’t get into the rest of the cast with one exception:



The youngest son is played by Louis Nanasi. You probably won’t recognise the name. The red-headed boy soon changed it and has been well-known to families for 60 years. He was the original voice of Charlie Brown in the Peanuts TV specials. His new name was Peter Robbins.

Edward Paul receives a credit under “Music Supervision.” It seems in the 1960s he wasn’t composing scores for Fairbanks’ films but, instead, dug out cues from the Capitol Hi-Q library. The one over the opening scene was composed by Bill Loose, Jack Cookerly and Emil Cadkin but is not in my collection. Several other pieces of music you will remember from The Quick Draw McGraw Show.

I’m not an Andy Griffith Show fan, but McNear is one of those actors who makes me smile, and he does with his usual unique delivery in this short.