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Sorrell Pics From Before Dukes


HossC

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Thought I'd put up a couple of pics of Sorrell before he became Boss Hogg.

The first is from a Dukes book I have. In 1962 he played the title role in the musical (stage production) of 'Fiorello!'.

The second is from one of his 2 appearances as Gen. Wilson Spaulding Barker in the first season of MASH in 1972.

Sorrell1.jpgSorrell2.jpg

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Sorrell appeared in two episodes of 'Columbo' in the '70s, and seeing as I've just mentioned that fact in The Official Dukes of Hazzard Trivia Thread, I thought I'd include a picture. The screengrab below is from the 1977 episode 'The Bye-Bye Sky High I.Q. Murder Case' (the other episode was 'Swan Song' in 1974).

SorrellColumbo.jpg

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I thought it would be a shame to show one of Sorrell's appearances in 'Columbo' without the other, so I took a look at 'Swan Song', a two-hour special from 1974. The story centers around Tommy Brown, a singer played by Johnny Cash. Tommy is an ex-con whose wife is blackmailing him to give all of his musical earnings to fund a tabernacle. When he survives a plane crash that kills his wife and Maryann (the backing singer he was involved with when she was only 16), Columbo steps in to investigate. The episode was directed by Nicholas Colasanto, aka. Coach from 'Cheers'.

Once again Sorrell doesn't get get much screen time, appearing only in a short scene in the recording studio. Here he is with Johnny Cash:

SorrellColumbo2.jpg

As well as the funky glasses, his outfit also included this very '70s shirt (center). You can also see how much padding they used in Boss's suits!

SorrellColumbo3.jpg

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I recently posted pictures of Sorrell in '12 O'Clock High' from 1965. I then found a copy of a movie called 'Black Like Me' that he appeared in a year before. The sound on the video is horribly out-of-sync (like 20-30 seconds!) and the picture quality isn't great, so I won't bother posting a link, but I did get some screengrabs.

I'll start with the title screen. The movie is based on the real life experiences of journalist John Howard Griffin, a white Texan who artificially darkened his skin to pass as a black man as he traveled across the deep South in late 1959. He spent six weeks traveling on Greyhound buses (occasionally hitchhiking) throughout the racially segregated states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, and then wrote about the racism he encountered (from blacks and whites).

BlackLikeMe1.jpg

Sorrell gets first billing after lead actor James Whitmore. It's quite prophetic how his name appears just above someone named Roscoe! About halfway down you'll also see the name Clifton James. Sixteen years later he would be re-united with Sorrell when he played Sheriff Lester Crabb in 'Treasure of Hazzard'.

BlackLikeMe2.jpg

In the '12 O'Clock High' pictures I suggested that Sorrell was wearing a wig. The reason for that comment is that he was clearly already bald in 1964 (see below). He only has a small part in 'Black Like Me', playing the doctor who prescribes the pills and treatment to change John's skin color.

BlackLikeMe3.jpg

I've looked up pictures of John Howard Griffin, and his transformation was quite convincing. Unfortunately, the same can't be said of James Whitmore, who transforms from a white man to a blacked-up white man. I half expected him to add white lipstick and start singing 'Mammy'!

BlackLikeMe4.jpg

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Yesterday I came across this picture of Sorrell on Ebay. It's from a 1976 ABC program called 'Zero Intelligence'.

SorrellZeroInt1.jpg

The notes on the back give a load of information about co-stars and air dates, but I couldn't find any trace of the show on IMDb.

SorrellZeroInt2.jpg

After a little Googling, I found it was an unsold pilot which was to star Sorrell as the base commander of a remote Alaskan US Air Force radar station. You can read more about it on Television Obscurities. In hindsight, it's lucky this wasn't a success, because it's unlikely that Sorrell would've made Dukes if it was.

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Thanks for the tip-off, ale73. Here's Sorrell in the 1974 'Kung Fu' episode 'A Dream Within a Dream' where he played Sheriff Hodges. The mustache makes his character look similar to the one he played in 'Zero Intelligence' (above).

SorrellKungFu1.jpg

I wondered whether these steps were anywhere familiar.

SorrellKungFu2.jpg

As the camera pulled back, I realized that they were part of the courthouse that once stood at the north end of Laramie Street. It appeared in several episodes of Dukes, most commonly shot from the side where it was dressed as the coffin works.

SorrellKungFu3.jpg

Finally, here's Sorrell in the saloon on Laramie Street. It wouldn't be until about a decade later that he'd finally got to own the Golden Palace Saloon (second picture) as Thadius B. Hogg in 'Go West, Young Dukes'.

SorrellKungFu4.jpg

For those of y'all not familiar with Laramie Street, it's the old Western street that once stood on the eastern side of Warner Bros' backlot. It comes up several times on the Hazzard Square thread, with the main six posts on the subject starting here.

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