THE TIOMKIN INCIDENT

In April of 1959, private investigator Stu Bailey took Kookie Kookson out to dinner with their dates to Danilov's Restaurant, in order to celebrate Kookie's birthday. On their way out the door, they ran into legendary film composer Dmitri Tiomkin as he was entering. Tiomkin suggested that he might one day write a song about Kookie as he really "dug" the young man.

As you can see by Tiomkin's picture, he didn't have much need to borrow Kookie's comb!

Tiomkin won four Oscars for his film scores/songs ('The Old Man And The Sea' score, 'The High And The Mighty' score, and for the 'High Noon' score and original song, "Do Not Forsake Me, O My Darling"), and he was nominated for another fourteen. Among his more famous compositions are "Town Without Pity" and the theme from 'Rawhide'.

His TV appearances are sparse, aside from numerous appearances at the Academy Award broadcasts: 'What's My Line?', an episode of 'The Christophers' that dealt with the spiritual power of music, 'The Colgate Comedy Hour', Johnny Carson's 1955 comedy show, and an episode of 'The Jack Benny Program'.

The 1961 appearance on that show was the closest Tiomkin came to another true foray into the fictional lifestyle of Toobworld. In the episode ("Jack Writes Song"), Jack insisted on nothing but the best - that being Tiomkin - for a collaborator on the song he was working on.

Tiomkin's appearance on '77 Sunset Strip' ("Honey From The Bee") was broadcast last night on the American Life Network. And a quick look through his entry at the IMDb.com shows that they don't even have this listing!

It's not much to go on as a League of Themselves credit to link '77 Sunset Strip' to other shows, but that appearance on Jack Benny's show should do the trick to lock it in nicely!

BCnU!
Toby OB