Todd’s Serial Blog

Before becoming known for her appearances in ’50’s B horror flicks, Marjorie Stapp worked as a secretary for Bugsy Siegal.  When asked about that time, she stated she had no idea who he was until she saw his picture in the paper after he was murdered.

Putting that behind her she went on to finish school and get a contract with 20th Century Fox, where she got loaned out a lot, like for The Durango Kid films Laramie (1949) and The Blazing Trail (1949).  One of her loan outs was for the Columbia Super Serial, as Katzman liked to promote them, The Adventures of Sir Galahad (1949) playing Queen Guinevere.

But it is the small roles she had in horror films that she is most remembered for today.  Her credits include The Indestructible Man (1956), The Werewolf (1956), The Monster Who Challenged the World (1957), Kronos (1957) and Daughter of Dr. Jekyll (1957).  After that bit of heyday, the rest of her career was appearing  on TV shows like Dragnet, The Many Loves of Dobey Gillis, My Three Sons, Columbo and Quantum Leap.

Tags: Biography by admin
No Comments »

Everybody wants to be the hero, with the exception of Robin, the Boy Wonder, Tonto or Ilya Kuriakin,  most kids would rather be Batman, The Lone Ranger or Napolean Solo.  But sometimes you have to be the sidekick, or in the case of Phillip Trent, you get to be the sidekick’s sidekick.

A genial looking guy, he appeared in scads of B pictures as a supporting player.  Some of his credits include The Man Who Dared (1933), The Girl on the Front Page (1936), Pitares of the Skies (1939) and Outlaws of Cherekee Trail (1941).

His biggest role was in the Universal serial, The Green Hornet (1939) as reporter Jasper Jenks.  His main function was rushing into Alan Jones’ office to give him the big story he was working on that The Green Hornet would later investigate.  On several occasions he would team up with Wade Boteler, who was Jones’ sometime sidekick, thereby becoming a sidekick’s sidekick.

Tags: Biography by admin
No Comments »

Julie Gibson had a typical career for a supporting player, she had bit parts in A films like Going My Way (1944), Hail the Conquering Hero (1944) and Duffy’s Tavern (1945); while having prominant roles in B movies like  Killer Dill (1947), Bowery Buckaroos (1947) and Are You With It (1948).

When her film career started slowing down in the fifties, she moved to TV, appearing on The 20th Century Fox Hour, The Ford Television Theater and Code 3.  After her TV work started slowing down too, Gibson moved behind the camera, becoming a dialect adviser on The Outrage (1964) and a dialogue supervisor on The Cool Ones (1967).  This lead to her being the dialogue supervisor on the final season of the popular Brian Keith TV sit com Family Affair.

Her only serial was Columbia’s Chick Carter, Detective (1945) where she played the show girl accomplice to night club owner Charlie King, who double crosses him in an insurance scam over a stolen diamond, planning to give it to mobster rival George Meeker instead, but  a mix up causes the diamond to disappear and the chase is on.

Tags: Biography by admin
No Comments »