CENTRAL DISPATCH

THE HAWAII FIVE-0 NEWSLETTER

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  Volume 3                                     October,   2001                                          Issue 12

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Meet Glenn Cannon

by Cindy Kimura

A cool, comfortably dressed Glenn Cannon walked up to greet me at the entrance to Zippy's on King Street in Oahu. A little older and grayer but still recognizable as John Manicote or Dr. Ibold.

I had nervously waited for his arrival. This was my "first" celebrity interview and I clutched the seed and ti leaf lei I held in my hand. I placed the lei around his neck and we went into the restaurant.

At 69, Glenn was surprised at all the fans of Hawaii Five 0 that are still out there, "the sub-continent" he calls the mainland. He still teaches at the University of Hawaii and now only directs plays which move him.

We were seated in a small booth in the noisy restaurant and Glenn gave me a bit of history on himself. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1932, he went to Temple University, class of '54 and then made his way to New York. He originally got his start on Broadway doing musicals and straight plays then finally made the exodus to Los Angeles and Hollywood. His favorite musical is West Side Story. "I mainly was in what we now call, 'B' pictures," Glenn explained. It was just a matter of being at the right place at the right time when he eventually ended up at Stanford University on a fellowship. There began his career teaching drama at Stanford and then he got an offer to teach at University of Hawaii's new undergraduate drama department. 

By this time it was 1968 and then Hawaii Five-0 showed up. "I called the casting department looking for roles and did a few episodes. I didn't get the Manicote role until I think 1970."  He found the series fit into his teaching schedule. "Most of the shows were shot in the summer and they were willing to work around my teaching schedule. Most of the courtroom scenes were shot on the weekend in the real courthouse," Glenn told me.

Asked if he had a favorite Hawaii Five-0 episode, "I can't remember the name, it was the trilogy one (Vashon). Jack told me not to prosecute him too hard," Glenn laughed. His good friend Harold Gould played Honore Vashon, the villain.

Glenn did a few one shot roles previously to getting his semi-regular role as District Attorney John Manicote. He played Ken Stone in "Cry, Lie", Whitney Davis in "3000 Crooked Miles to Honolulu", Carlson in "For a Million.. Why Not?" (Author's note one of my favorites) and finally landed his role as John Manicote in "Bait Once, Bait Twice." Did he know the John Manicote role was only a one shot deal? Cannon explained the character was supposed to be for only one episode and then it became a semi-regular role. He enjoyed playing a lawyer. "In fact I went into the courtrooms to see lawyers in action and much to my dismay I found most of the judges asleep during the proceedings." In fact he enjoyed playing the lawyer, Manicote to his other doctor roles on Magnum PI and Island Sons. Maybe a truth that all lawyers have a little bit of actor in them or in this case the other way around!! For his doctor roles, "I would end up playing a heart surgeon to a pediatrician from one show to the next."

History repeated itself on the Dr. Ibold role in Magnum PI. However, there was a difference. "I was all set to call the Magnum PI producers and they called me." Again it was a one shot character. Glenn told me the story of how his character was named. "I thought it was because I was going bald at the time," he said pointing to his baldhead. "At the time I was contemplating getting a hairpiece but they said not too. But they (Magnum producer's) assured me there really was an Ibold, someone in the crew, but I never knew for sure," Glenn laughed.

(That's Cindy with Glenn)

Maybe the reason he was so successful with both characters was because of his credo to honestly portray characters. Glenn feels that's the only way to act as well as direct. He was a beach bum in his off time, during the filming of Hawaii Five-0, before getting too much sun was bad for you. His favorite beach was Ala Moana; it was close by to his home at the time. Now he spends his time walking, reading plays, people watching and enjoying Slurpees, his only vice.

Glenn told me that Jack Lord was instrumental in getting the Diamond Head studio built with his "no work ' threat. He thought Jack wasn't a great actor but was great in   'God's Little Acre" and his McGarrett role fit him.  "Much to the dismay of your Hawaii Five-0 fans." The set of Five-0 was described as tense by Glenn in contrast to Magnum which he described as laid back. The reason for the difference was the perfectionism and professionalism of the Five-0 set. Whereas Magnum was no less professional they just had a different tone. Although Magnum wasn't without their problems. He related a story where he had heard Roger Mosely (T.C) had apparently decked a crewmember. Glenn found Tom Selleck and John Hillerman easy to work with. "They were a little bit more laid back, it was a different set."

Glenn still keeps his hand in the local theatre, movie and television. He is currently the president of the Screen Actors Guild in Hawaii, having over 700 members and goes to the mainland twice a year for meetings. He welcomes any work that comes to Hawaii. Glenn has also appeared in a few "Japanese" commercials and enjoyed being dubbed in Japanese.

However he didn't think Hawaii Five-0 was that great. "I didn't think there was anything spectacular about the show," Glenn said, but he is happy with all the references to Hawaii Five-0 found in television and movies. "And the fact it brought attention to Hawaii as a filming location to Hollywood."

You might be surprised to know most of the policemen on the show were real Honolulu cops. Glenn was also able to get some of his student's small roles in both shows. But his advice to his Hawaiian students besides practice is to come to the mainland if they want to make it. As for Glenn, he's decided he's going to stay forever in Hawaii. "To the bitter end," he laughed.

Glenn has directed over 101 plays and has been awarded numerous times for acting and directing from the state theatre council and was commended by the Hawaii Legislature for outstanding creative work for the state. He now only directs and acts in plays when they move him. In the coming year, Glenn will be directing three plays, spending time with his eleven year old son. Always busy he has never let life slow him down.

Keester Sweeney

Karen Rhodes received the following and wanted to share these anecdotes with us.

"In 1973, through a contact who knew makeup artist Keester Sweeney, I visited the set of Hawaii Five-0 on that occasion and many times in the ensuing years. But what is really remarkable is that on this visit, the episode, "Mother's Deadly Helper" was being shot in mid November, 1973 and I was permitted to travel with the crew and photograph the day's shooting. And, believe it or not, I was approached by 'the Lord' himself to photograph certain aspects of the day's shooting as he wanted to give these photos to Douglas Green, who was directing his first episode, as a gift. 

"Up to that point, ONLY the official photographer from CBS or an occasional visit from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin was allowed to be on set to capture the goings on. I'm talking traveling with the crew from the beginning of the day and ending with the final 'wrap'.

"Publicist Len Weisman balked, not knowing my private arrangements with Lord, as Lord himself told me just to go about my business and shoot pictures. When Weisman was ultimately informed by Lord, I was left alone to roam for the rest of the shoot. Subsequently, I received a thank you note from Lord for the photos, having given the film rolls directly to him and he had CBS develop the film!

"Jack Lord ADORED Keester Sweeney and because of this relationship, I was given carte blanche whenever I visited. Mr. Sweeney was quite celebrated in his own right as a makeup artist for many years during MGM's heyday and worked regularly with actors such as Hepburn and Tracy. Keester was a sweetheart of a man who also 'bestowed' upon me many Five-0 scripts as souvenirs. On this particular episode, I met veteran character actor Anthony Zerbe and maintained communication with him over the years. 

"So to have had an exclusive opportunity to see inside the machinery of Hawaii Five-0 was truly fascinating and an experience I'll never forget."

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Of the 7 or 8 times I visited the Five-0 set, I was always struck by the relationship between Lord and my contact on the show, makeup artist Keester Sweeney. It was Keester who literally made Lord look so good and he and Lord had a close relationship off set as well. When Keester was seriously thinking of retirement
at 62 and had been with the show about 5 seasons, it was Lord who personally asked Keester to stay with the show as he (Lord) 'just didn't want anyone else.' 

"I do believe then, that for the '79-'80 season, possibly sooner, Keester did retire and I had met his replacement informally while working as a stand-in on a CBS movie of the week being shot on the North Shore of Oahu in 1979. This guy was not the makeup artist for this shoot, but since it was a CBS production and he lived on Oahu, he was visiting the set. 

"On another visit, the previous week, the Company had just wrapped a show starring Hume Cronyn, the title of the episode I can't remember right off hand, but Keester told me to watch this show when it aired because the script has Cronyn in a variety of different disguises (Cronyn played a heavy pulling jobs all over Oahu as 'different people') and Keester showed me all the makeup, masks, wigs, etc. that were required for this script. It was fascinating. And boy, I was right there in the thick of it. I was the proverbial fly on the wall of the Five-0 set. 

"The 2nd week following the production of 'Mother's Deadly Helper', the Company was due to shoot an episode with John Byner aboard a cruise ship to San Francisco and that was one of the very few times production actually left Honolulu. All of the details and final logistics were being worked out when I was there during the production of 'Mother's Deadly Helper.' 

"You know, I watched Lord closely at all times in between takes; the man was a perfectionist's perfectionist. He was distant and 'involved' but, after all, he was carrying the entire show. I was told when Helen Hayes (James MacArthur's mother) guested on the show, Lord was as open and as affable as anyone on the crew had ever seen. Even he was impressed by 'The First Lady of the Theater'. 

"And, there was indeed, a saying among the crew, 'The Lord knows no wrong.' Kind of funny but very true."

Bio: T. B. Green's father was an airport manager with United Airlines, so he was able to use his father's free passes to travel to Hawaii on many occasions. It was there that a friend of Mr. Green's father, a United manager at the Honolulu airport, dealt with the Hawaii Five-0 production offices. As you'll all remember, United Airlines was periodically featured in episodes. This led to Mr. Green's introduction to and friendship with Keester Sweeney. 

T. B. Green has worked in various aspects of television over the years. In the late 1970's, he was a part-timer at Salt Lake City's ABC affiliate, KCPX, as an on-air camera operator for the evening news. He's been a stand-in, for John Heard, Steven Keats, and Peter Lawford, among others, during the filming of various movies. In the 1980's, he went full-time at STS Video Production Services in Salt Lake City, a producer of corporate video spots and commercials.

Later he began doing "open mike nights" at Cartoons Comedy Club in Salt Lake City, which led to a five-year professional career as a stand-up comic. He was forced to leave the field for family reasons. He now lives in San Diego.

Phillip E. Pine
"Journeyman" Actor
sent in by Ruth Hughes

Like most any television performer, there were certain actors Pine worked with on a number of occasions. One such as the star of Hawaii Five-0 - Jack Lord.

"We had kind of a nice relationship. I worked with him several times. I liked him. Not only did I like him, but he liked me. He had worked in New York and we got to know each other in New York, but it was just a passing acquaintance, and we'd worked together on Twelve O'Clock High..

"I did three Hawaii Five-0's. The first day I got there, I get on the show, and Boy! he was the boss on Hawaii Five-0...he was a hard driver in a lot of things, and what he wanted done, he wanted it done his way.

"The first time I went to Hawaii to do the show, I was there for 15 days, and they put me up in just wonderful accommodations. I had a very, very nice room..."

Whether Jack Lord had had anything to do with the "wonderful accommodations" Pine was given on his first trip to Hawaii, is a question that can not be answered. He may have. For some ten years later, Lord did something that really made an impression on Pine.

"My wife and I had gone to London for a vacation, and I saw a play called "The Business of Murder" - a three character, one-set play. It had already been in the theater for about four years. It went on to about six years before it closed. I got in touch with the author - I wanted the rights, and sure enough, I got the thing.

"Now, I wanted to get somebody to play the cop and and there was another character - he was a strange character who ended up being a killer and there was a woman character who ran serial information on some newspaper. I tried and tried to get somebody to do that part (the cop), because I wanted to take the show - and subsequently did - to New York and before I took it to New York, I wanted to break it in - take it around the US and do 12 weeks, and that way I would be able to amortize the cost of the show because if we went to New York and even if it flopped, there would already have been enough money taken in to pay off the backers.

"I could not get an actor in California - a movie actor with some kind of name. I don't know how many people I tried. God, I went from A to Z in actors. There were a great number of them - about 20 guys, and one of the guys was Jack Lord. I had called him up, and he was not wildly enthusiastic. I sent him the script, and he was the only one that had the guts to tell me the truth. He called me, he said, 'Phil, I don't want to do it,' and not only that, he paid the tab when he called, he didn't reverse the charges like I had told him to do. He said, 'I don't really want to do it. I'll tell you the God's honest truth - I didn't like working on the stage when I was on the stage but I'll tell you something: If you've got the rights to this thing, (which I did - I had the rights to it for a year), and if you can come up with about half of the money which it would take to produce as a movie, I'll get the other half for you out here'. (Hawaii)

"Well, there was no way for me to get the other half, so that was the end of that, but I thought it was a wonderful gesture. At least he called me and was honest about it."

(This was an excerpt from an article from Big Reel, March, 2001. Phillip Pine was in Full Fathom Five, Which Way Did They Go? and The Gunrunner.)

Hawaii Five-0 Movie Update

In September, Variety reported that the big screen version of Hawaii was alive and kicking. (My words, not there's!) A few days later, the following appeared in the Honolulu Star Bulletin. (And one of our members called George Litto and confirmed it all in person! Nice going, Shep!)

Closing in on "Five-0" film

Though it's still a ways from beginning production, "Hawaii Five-0," the film, is alive. 

Roger Towne, who wrote the script for "The Natural" and was the original writer of the Al Pacino film, "The Farm" is working with producer George Litto in shopping a treatment for the big screen transfer of the series "Hawaii Five-0."

Litto and the widow of show creator Leonard Freeman prevailed in a 21-month arbitration battle with CBS over film rights to the story about the island adventures of non-nonsense cop Steve McGarrett, played by Jack Lord from 1968 to 1980.

"It's a major franchise," Litto said last week. "It's the kind of television show that became part of the fabric of society. McGarrett became the symbol, the epitome of the tough, honest, dedicated cop."

Litto said the film's budget is in the $50 million to $70 million dollar range. The story would be international in scope, says Litto, who wrote the script with Avery Duff. They will be looking for actors to play the president of the United States, premiere of Japan and leaders of Pacific Rim countries including China and Australia.

And, thanks to Cindy Kimura, we have James MacArthur's take on the new movie!!! Thanks, Cindy!

Reflections on the New Movie

by Cindy Kimura

As you may have heard there is a new Hawaii Five 0 movie in the works. I was lucky enough to speak to James MacArthur on the phone and get his opinion on the subject.

"Well," Jim stated. "You first have to take it with a grain of salt," referring that he has been there before in regard to the two previous attempts. He admits that the only thing between Freeman and Litto is "about $75 million dollars," Jim laughed. "There are only big budget films out there." He had heard that the script had been changed because of the supposed terrorist elements. "My god, they've pulled films because of it," referring to the Schwarzengger film which has recently been pulled due to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. 

Jim has never considered who would play his character Dan Williams, but thinks Litto and Freeman would go to conventional casting i.e. Mel Gibson or Harrison Ford for the Steve McGarrett character to be a draw. "I really don't know who they would cast." But he admitted he was as stunned as anyone and hasn't talked to Rose Freeman in years and just knew what he read in the papers. When I mentioned the Alec Baldwin-Jim Carey combination, he laughed saying that "would be very unconventional." His feeling is the movie would have to stick to the basic premise of Hawaii Five-0, "Bad guys versus good guys."

So just like everyone else we will have to wait and see what happens.

(Note:  stay tuned for the January newsletter for an expanded interview with James MacArthur!)

Calendars

It's that time of year again! We will have two calendars available from November 1, 2001 through January 15, 2001. One will be of screen captures from the second season of Hawaii Five-0, the other pictures of Jack Lord. Both calendars will be $10 each (postage included, $14 each US funds for foreign mailings.) The proceeds will go to the Jack Lord Memorial Fund. Please make out checks and mail them to The Hawaii Five-0 Fan Club, c/o 682 Durham Road, Adams, TN, 37010.

                                 
 Setting the Story Straight

In the last issue, we included a story on cast changes. We made the statement that we did not know if all the "facts" contained in the story were 100% true but that it made for some interesting reading. One of our fans got part of the story straightened out for us regarding the reasons Zulu left the show. 

A combination of Zulu's dissatisfaction (and possibly bad advice and handling by his agent) and his having made an offensive reference about one of the staff - a racist remark, unfortunately, lead to his leaving the show. That was something Jack Lord did not tolerate and neither did Leonard Freeman. It may have been a misunderstanding of what might have been intended as playfulness, rather than meanness in fairness to Zulu. But be that as it may, it wasn't over something as petty as an "honorary membership" in the Coast Guard Auxiliary. Apparently Jack Lord could be testy and sensitive, but certainly not THAT petty!

Five-0 is Alive and ... Shaking????

Got this from one of our fan club members: There is a CD by Big Kahuna and the Copa Cat Pack called "shake Those Hula Hips" which has a wonderful swing version of the Hawaii Five-0 theme song as well as other tunes that were featured on the show! (Thanks, Catherine)

Recently, the Memorial Committee has decided to make a change from the original idea for a memorial sculpture. We will keep you up updated on the new design as well as a target date for the unveiling. Stay tuned.

Anyone wishing to make a donation directly to the Memorial Fund may do so by sending a check or money order to: The Jack Lord Memorial Fund, 999 Kalapake Street, Honolulu, HI, 96825 where vice chairman Doug Mossman will see they are properly recorded. Please include your name, address and telephone number with the donation.    

For more information on the memorial, check out the website at www.jacklord.co.uk

Coming to a Newsletter near you!

Stay tuned for our next few newsletters!  One of our fan club members has been fortunate enough to have had interviews with some cast members from Hawaii Five-0.  I'm sure everyone will enjoy them!

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And now a word from our sponsors:

Anyone interested in copies of Hawaii Five-0 episodes (mostly all full versions) can contact Barbara Brindle at 105 Warren Road, Sparta, NJ 07871.  (phone 973-729-9232 - she does not have email)  Barbara's rates are very reasonable and she's very reliable. 

You may also find works by Jack Lord and James MacArthur and lots of other actors by contacting Ron Evans at http:www.networksplus.net/caseyguy/epPartners.htm or email requests at caseyguy@networksplus.net.  They have over 15,000 episodes of 50s and 60s TV.  At e/p Partners, it's the 50s and 60s forever!!!

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The Hawaii Five-0 Newsletter is available in print form. Membership is $10 per year for four issues (foreign subscriptions are $14.00 US funds). Checks for membership may be made out to the H50 Fan Club Newsletter, c/o 142 Castle Street, #3, Great Barrington, MA 01230. The newsletter will be available on the 15th of January, April, July and October yearly. Contributions to the newsletter are always welcome. They can be sent to the the H50 Fan Club, c/o 682 Durham Road, Adams, TN 37010 or to our email address at Jlord5@aol.com.    Deadlines are one month before each issue. The newsletter will also be available through the Internet and can be accessed at the Hawaii Five-0 Fan club (www.hawaiifive0.org) or The Jack Lord Homepage (www.jacklord.net)

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We are looking for the following Jack Lord episodes on VHS: Dr. Kildare - A Willing Suspension of Disbelief and the movie The True Story of Lynn Stuart. Anyone who may have information about these programs can contact us at either the fan club or email address listed above.

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Memorial contributions can be made to the Jack and Marie Lord Trust c/o Hawaii Community Foundation, 900 Front Street Mall, Suite 1300, Honolulu, HI 96813. This fund was established in 1988 and was set up by the Lord’s to benefit their favorite charities. We have been assured that while personal responses are not possible, Mrs. Lord is made aware of all contributions.

 See you in 

January, 2002

Be There, Aloha

The newsletter staff wishes all of our members a safe and happy holiday season!