Friday, November 16, 2007

Seward Park HS and Sergeant Bilko: From 11/5/07


Max and I mentioned Mickey Freeman, Zimmerman, of Segeant Bilko fame. He went to Seward Park High School. So did Joe. E. Ross (Sgt. Ritzik) and I suspect many others in that great cast. Phil Silvers, Harvey Lembeck, Herbie Faye, Maurice Gosfield and Billy Sands all grew up in NYC
From Wikipedia: The Phil Silvers Show (originally titled You'll Never Get Rich) was a comedy television series which ran on CBS from 1955 to 1959 for a total of 143 episodes (including a 1959 special). The series starred Phil Silvers as the enterprising master sergeant Ernest G. Bilko of the United States Army who spent most of his time trying to wheedle money through various get-rich-quick scams and promotions. The series was created and largely written by Nat Hiken, and won three consecutive Emmy Awards for Best Comedy Series. The show is sometimes titled Sergeant Bilko or simply Bilko in reruns, and is very often referred to by these names, both on-screen and by viewers. Bilko's right-hand men were Cpl. Rocco Barbella (Harvey Lembeck) and Cpl. Steve Henshaw (Allan Melvin). The large supporting cast included Herbie Faye (a former burlesque crony of Silvers') as Pvt. Sam Fender, Maurice Gosfield as the slovenly Pvt. Duane Doberman, Joe E. Ross as camp cook Sgt. Rupert Ritzik, Beatrice Pons as loud-mouthed Mrs. Ritzik, Billy Sands as Pvt. Dino Paparelli, Jimmy Little as Sgt. Francis Grover, Mickey Freeman as diminutive Pvt. Fielding Zimmerman, Jack Healy as the tough-talking Pvt. Mullen, Ned Glass as quartermaster Sgt. Andy Pendleton, and former boxer Walter Cartier as botany fiend Pvt. Claude Dillingham. Some episodes gave Bilko a romantic interest (Elizabeth Fraser as Sgt. Joan Hogan). The series frequently featured so many secondary cast members, with so many speaking parts, that the show ultimately became too expensive to sustain. It was this factor, and not any decline in ratings, that led to the show's demise in 1959. As Silvers later recalled, "We went out at our height."
Here's a link to previous post on Freeman and Bilko

Here's another link where there is a larger and more readable version of the slide show that is downloadable

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