TV Radio Mirror (Jan - Jun 1957)

Hero at Home (Continued from page 46) Stover.' You may not know it, but Love Of Life is one of the biggest things on this island. Practically everyone watches it, on kinescope — which is the way they get it here, instead of by live TV. Betty Swizer, the girl who is going to interview you, is one of your big, big fans, so don't worry • about being unprepared. She probably knows as much on the show as you do." Dick Coogan laughs when he talks about it now. "You know, the man was right! When I walked into the studio, Betty Swizer introduced me as if I were an old friend — which I suppose I was, because of Love Of Life. I had no idea of what I was going to say. The whole thing had happened too fast. But she was just great. She had all the right questions, without seeming to reach for them. It couldn't have gone better if it had been planned ahead. Excepting that I got carried away by her enthusiasm and by the knowledge that Love Of Life was so well known and liked in that far-off idyllic island, and I practically gave away the whole story line for weeks ahead. It was around the time when the locket, and the mystery of the pictxu-e in it, was getting important to the plot, and I found myself spilling a little of that carefully guarded information. I talked about Vanessa, and Meg Harper, and little Carol and the others, and there was hardly anything I left unsaid. All complimentary — and true, because they're a wonderful bunch." No one has reported the number of feminine hearts that fluttered precariously that day, when it became known Paul Raven was actually in their midst, in tiie person of Dick Coogan, but the count could be impressive. It would take color TV to show his reddish-blond hair and blue eyes, but the impression of kindness mingled with strength in this well-built man — who's six-foot-three — shows up just as well in black and white. So does the firm jaw line which warns you that, beneath the easygoing, friendly manner, this is a man who can be tough in a fight, if he must be. Probably because he looks like a good scrapper, he has often been in fights, on TV and in the movies. So many of them that it's extra-lucky he leads a serene and happy home life with his wife. Gay, and seven-year-old Richard Jr. — who's called Rick to differentiate him from his daddy. "Being one of ten kids myself," Dick grins, "I had to learn early how to fight back. There can be a lot of scraps in a large Irish family — both in and out of the home — so I've had my share of donnybrooks! It's odd, under the circumstances, that I seem to take so much physical punishment on the screen, without being allowed to fight back!" In the pictiu-e, "Three Hours to Kill," Dana Andrews was supposed to throw Dick a punch, for the camera only, not actually hitting Dick. "But," Dick laughs, "hang! Dana clouted me — instead of missing— and I was out." In another movie, "Girl on the Run," Dick had a struggle . with a powerful ex-prizefighter actor. "It'll look good for the camera," he told me confidently, "but you won't know you're JDeing hit." All went fine, imtil the director kept urging the fighter on to more and more realistic close-ups. After Dick got through rocking from the blows he took, tile director said everything went well — but why didn't Coogan keep looking toward the camera? "As if I had any choice but to look in the direction in which this guy was banging my head," says a still combative Coogan, who only asks for a chance to fight back fairly. During the Broadway run of the stage play, "The Rainmaker," in which Dick played Sheriff File a couple of seasons ago, he had to get off stage fast, before the lights went up on the next scene. One night, he ducked off so quickly he missed his direction and ran into a pipe. He played the rest of the performance with a bump over his wounded eye. Another time — on the Martin Kane TV series — Lee Tracy was supposed to miss him with a punch, but it landed on Dick's mouth. A commercial coming in at that moment gave Dick time to collect his wits and repair the damage with a little make-up. By contrast, all is comparatively peaceful at home with the Coogans. In spite of her burnished red hair. Gay has none of the tempestuous and mercurial moods usually ascribed to redheads, and her blue eyes look calmly upon the world around her. Living up to her name. Gay has a flair for making life seem filled with pleasant things already happening or about to happen any moment. ohe was Gay Adams before she was married, a singer with vast ambitions who saw them flower into a successful nightclub career before she gave up the rest of her career dreams to take care of Dick and Rick. When Dick met her, he was carrying a spear (or similar lethal weapon) in a Leslie Howard production of "Hamlet," and Gay was a decorative lady-in-waiting. But Dick didn't get a chance to ask her for a date — until after he had been knocked down by a cab while pushing Leslie Howard out of its path one night! Dick wasn't really hurt, but it was enough to make Gay ask about his health. This gave him courage — and the opportunity — to ask her to dinner one night. "Now," Dick smiles, "when we go to a club and hear some singer hold a roomful of people spellbound, it is hard for Gay to reeJize tiiat she once did this. I can remember when I would sit at a table, listening to her, watching the room quiet down, the waiters stop serving. Seeing every head turned her way, feeling the emotion she was building up between herself and the audience. Sometimes, it seems a shame she gave all this up, because her voice is a lovely one. But I am sure you couldn't persuade Rick it is a mistake to have his mother at home!" Rick was born June 10, 1949, while his daddy was appearing on television as that dashing spaceman. Captain Video. When Rick was beginning to toddle around, he would watch Dick on the screen, then circle the set, when the program went off, looking for him at the back. He never could figure out where Daddy had disappeared to! Now, Rick is a second -grader, very busy with his own pursuits, seldom able to see Love Of Life because of its noontime slotting. He takes his dad's job as actor pretty much in stride — and that's the way the Coogans want it. Whether or not he will be an actor hasn't yet even been discussed, although in many ways he follows the pattern of Dick's interests. "Some days, I think Rick is the image of Dick," says Gay, "and, some days, Dick thinks he is the image of me — so it mtist be that he's a combination of us both. He is built like his father. He has Dick's mouth. We knew, the day he was born, that his ears, with hardly any lobes, were going to be just like Dick's. Puckish, Panlike ears." "Rick has Gay's profile and her fine eyes. And Gay's temperament," Dick adds. "I hope he has inherited Gay's brains. She has great inner resources, and great inner strength, and her reactions to The soothing, refreshing skin conditioner that penetrotes and brings relief to numbing, tingling muscles in back and legs . . . ends the discomfort of ^ARENT^ tight, dry skin. At Drug Stores Everywhere. THE S.S.S. COMPANY, ATLANTA, GA. POEMS WANTED ■ ^^ ^^ IWI MM ^°^ musical setting . . . send ■ ^^ ^^ ■ ■ ■ ^m Poems today. 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