Originally we were going to use this shot of Hugh O'Brien as part of our salute to authentic portrayals of Native Americans on the screen, but we decided to postpone that project until we can find at least one more shot of Vera Miles appearing as a Native American in a Guy Madison western. In the meantime, we aren't certain what film this is from, but we have more or less eliminated The Fiend Who Walked the West, Ten Little Indians and Africa -- Texas Style! That leaves us with Rocketship XM, Little Big Horn, and There's No Business Like Show Business, among a number of other possibilities. On second thought, we suppose this is probably from Seminole (1952).

It's probably not so hard to imagine Phyllis Diller cracking jokes even in this godawful make-up job, but this publicity portrait is actually from a 1969 film wherein the legendary comedienne was given a rare chance to play it decidedly non-comic for a change. The film was an adaptation of Elmer Rice's The Adding Machine, which we've somehow managed to miss for nearly 30 years now. It just doesn't turn up as often as, say, Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! or Did You Hear the One About the Traveling Saleslady?. And, amazingly, none of these films turned up on AFI's list of the Top 100 Most Boring Films By Steven Spielberg, or whatever that thing was called.

Here we have a publicity shot of Lee Grant for the 1951 film Detective Story.The caption says simply "Lee Grant as a shoplifter." This superb actress originated the role on Broadway in 1949, earning herself a Critic's Circle Award, and when she made her film debut in William Wyler's screen version she won a best actress award at Cannes. She also got an Oscar nomination. With all that she should have become one of the biggest stars of the 1950s, but, alas, that pesky Mr. McCarthy and his Red Scare Revue had to make things generally unpleasant for a lot of people. Miss Grant refused to testify against her blacklisted husband (playwright Arnold Manoff) and her screen appearances were sporadic for several years thereafter. When we finally did get to know this talented lady well (on TV's Peyton Place) she looked radically different from what you see here. Maybe living well is the best revenge. Lee Grant survived to play a featured role in 1968's legendary Valley of the Dolls and she also finally got that Oscar -- for 1975's Shampoo. All this and she's the mother of actress Dinah Manoff too!

Kiss?

No and no. It's Sonny Bono portraying a rock star named Deacon Dark aboard the ABC Television Network's "The Love Boat," airing Saturday, August 11 (9:00-10:00 p.m., EDT).

(Original caption: 1979)