Do
you remember Peter Gunn?
Peter
Gunn was a film-noir television detective series in black-and-white
(see videos below) that ran from 1958 to 1961. It was a half
hour show that carried a lot of punch. Actor Craig Stevens
played Peter Gunn, a debonair private investigator who wore
Brooks Brothers suits. He hung out at a jazz club named Mother's
where his girlfriend, Edie Hart, played by the beautiful actress
Lola Albright, sang with a small jazz group.
Yes, a
jazz group. On network TV. In the late 1950s. Can you imagine?
Produced
by Blake Edwards, Peter Gunn featured jazz from the
beginning to the end of each show, or as we would later say,
"wall-to-wall jazz.". The music was written and
arranged by Henry Mancini. You're listening to sides from
the soundtrack albums right now. The show soon became one
of the most popular in the nation. The two soundtrack albums
earned Grammy Awards for Mancini, and gave his career a tremendous
boost.
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Blake
Edwards
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Peter
Gunn and Edie Hart
(Craig Stevens and Lola Albright)
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Henry
Mancini
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So close
your eyes, imagine your're in a small, smoky jazz club in
L.A, where Shelly Manne and his Men are taking stage. At a
checkered-covered table up front sit Peter Gunn, a suave,
impeccably dressed man and his girlfriend, Edie, waiting for
her turn to sing.
Then a
Runyonesque-looking character named Odd Ball whispers in Peter
Gunn's ear....
In 1958,
thanks to Blake Edwards and Henry Mancini, Peter Gunn
brought jazz to television and became the model for some later
shows, including one that premiered in 1984 called Miami
Vice....
Right,
Sunny?
George
Spink
Los Angeles
Email
Me
