Remember movie serials? We called them “chapters. “ Besides
the main feature (or two), there were exciting short films of ten or so
episodes, most of them ending with a “cliffhanger”—the hero or heroine threatened
with death, perhaps tied up on train tracks with a train barreling toward them.
(In the next episode, our hero or heroine would be saved in the most ordinary,
disappointing way.) Some serials involved the Lone Ranger or Captain Marvel or
Dick Tracy. And occasionally someday-to-be-famous people appeared—like Ruth
Roman. Robert Lowery was in them, of course -- he was, it seemed, in almost every
other film of the ‘40s. I remember really scary serials—for example, one in
which a big horrible spider ran across the screen. And I remember a serial
featuring an irresistible skimply clad “jungle girl”—the first female I ever had a
crush on! And some serials were of foot races—and you, in the audience, might
win if you had the right number. And in those races there was always a funny drunk
with a fancy moustache and wearing a tux. Anyone remember who that gifted actor
was?
