Wednesday 8 August 2012

Birthday Greetings To.......

Birthday Greetings To 
Earl Cameron
   Earl Cameron who is 95 years of age today, who must surely be the oldest surviving person to have worked on the 1960's television series 'the Prisoner.' Earl played the Supervisor-Number 106 in 'The Schizoid Man.'
   For the majority of episodes Peter Swanwick is the Supervisor, but for 'The Schizoid Man' Earl Cameron was drafted in, why? Earl honestly does not know. George Markstein was a very good friend of Earl's, which was mainly because he was on the film. Earl and Patrick McGoohan went way back, as they had worked together in the theatre, and in several episodes of 'Danger Man.'

                                               HAPPY 95TH BIRTHDAY EARL
                                                                    AND
                                         MANY HAPPY RETURNS OF THE DAY
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5 comments:

  1. Moor Larkin8 August 2012 at 12:21

    It's difficult to know how or why Earl would have been a good friend of George Markstein. According to the 1967 Production Notes issued by ITC, George was a recruit from journalism - so had no background in films or television at that point. Markstein did become influential with Thames TV in the following decade so I wonder if Mr. Cameron is simply mis-remembering, but why? I cannot imagine why.

    I have read that Derren Nesbitt claimed to have gone to school with George, and I half recall Peter Wyngarde claimed some personal contact with him too and Kenneth Griffith claimed to be his very good friend too, although there seems no logical connection between the two men that I can find, Griffith becoming involved with the prisoner after George had certainly departed the scene. It's all very odd.

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    1. David Stimpson8 August 2012 at 14:47

      Hello Moor,

      Oh dear oh dear. What does it matter how Earl became a friend of George? There is absolutely no need to wonder why, as it's nothing to you and me. Only to join me in wishing Earl a very happy birthday.

      Regards
      David
      BCNU

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  2. Moor Larkin9 August 2012 at 23:07

    But it is very strange. In this video,
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMQSpkRlwcY
    Mr. Cameron virtually accuses McGoohan of racism and trying to block his appearing in The Prisoner because "they don't have Black people in Russia", and yet Schizoid Man also features the Sikh guy strolling past No6's house, and one of the first characters we ever see in the show is Oriental - so the notion dopesn't even seem to make any sense.

    If you watch the video, he says he is sure that his roles in Danger Man led to his casting and yet rather than believing it was McGoohan that drew him in, he seems to be saying that George Markstein got him involved because of this, which seems completely crazy as George was barely involved with Danger Man - only editing the final two colour episodes. It's almost like history has been completely turned on its head. So it seems like an itch worth scratching at.

    And why would George even be involved in Casting? There's something very weird going on with this memoir, as with some others, it seems to me. I always recall one interview I saw with Kenneth Griffith where he is about to begin and says to his interviewer something to the effect, "I've just been brushing up by reading your [Prisoner] magazines downstairs". So I'm left wondering if many of these memoirs are what happened, or what these guys have read happened and then they tell a story that they can't actually remember themselves... :-))

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    1. David Stimpson10 August 2012 at 08:19

      Hello Moor,

      Scratch away if it makes you happy me dear fellow. For myself it has never made any difference to me what those who worked on 'the Prisoner' have had to say about their experience. I added a couple of things Earl had to say, but the main point of the piece of blog seems to have gone by the board as far as you are concerned. That was to wish Earl a happy birthday.

      Regards
      David
      BCNU

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  3. Moor Larkin10 August 2012 at 09:59

    Most of what he says seems to be derived from "after the event"... he keeps saying "George told me"....

    Given McGoohan's evident record in TV and films with multi-racial themes, it seems an unfortunate thing to have entered Mr. Cameron's head. The film "All Night Long" was based around a refreshingly colour-blind approach to what they used to call miscegenation, and in the 1960's magazine for Black Americans, called Negro Digest, a column praises "Secret Agent" for giving roles to black people that presents them as rounded human beings instead of the usual stereotypes.

    Perhaps my birthday present for Mr. Cameron could be to suggest to him that the comforting truth is mooor likely to be that his old friend from 1952 theatre, Patrick McGoohan, really was a friend and that he has somehow been misled over the ensuing years. Anyhow, that presupposes that he stops by to read this Blog, which I hope he does, as it is very nice.

    Moor.

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