A letter from Nancy Malone

Last March, Elaine and I wrote a letter to Nancy Malone. We told her — in a bit of understatement — that we had become die-hard Naked City fans. We praised the show’s writing, acting, and cinematography. We told her that we especially liked hearing Adam and Libby talk in poetry: “Hail to thee, blithe salami-bringer! Bird thou never wert.” We wondered if there might have been a backstory that explained such stuff. Did Adam and Libby meet in college, perhaps?

We were (as we explained) going on an incomplete acquaintance with the series, knowing only the episodes then available in a 10-DVD set. Had we seen the entire run (now available in a 29-DVD set), we would have known that Adam Flint was an English major who wrote a thesis on Emily Dickinson (as revealed in this episode). But that still wouldn’t explain how Adam and Libby met.

We were thrilled to get a reply, postmarked June 1 and beginning “Dear Michael and Elaine.” Nancy thanked us for our letter and praised the show’s writers and directors and crew. She called the director of photography Jack Priestly “simply astounding.” And she answered our question:


[“The back story on how they [insert: Libby + Adam] met was never made clear to us — we just invented our past — and as Paul was a joy to work with — he agreed + I agreed to our relationship from — ‘chance meeting in an acting class’ etc.”]

So there is more to Adam Flint than we ever suspected.

The Archive of American Television’s Naked City page has a wonderful interview with Nancy Malone. The conversation about the series begins at 40:47. Here’s her description of auditioning actors for the part of Adam Flint: “As soon as Paul Burke walked in the room, I thought, You better not go any further.” And explaining the chemistry between the characters: “Paul Burke and Nancy Malone were crazy people, who loved each other as people and trusted each other as actors.”

Elaine and I will always be grateful to Nancy Malone for taking the time to respond to our deep affection for her work.

Related reading
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Hi and Lois watch

[Hi and Lois, May 11, 2014.]

Even more startling than the glimpse of Lois outside “Vickie’s Secret” is the final panel of today’s strip. Trixie speaks! Yet her family is oblivious. Will Trixie have more to say? Or will she go back to a life of thought balloons? Perhaps her family’s not noticing means that the strip can continue with its youngest member silent, no questions asked. No one will have to wonder, “Wasn’t there that time when Trixie said something?”

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[For clarity: the Vickie’s Secret panel illustrates one of four “options” for Mother’s Day that Hi presents to Lois: “an all-expenses-paid shopping spree.” Is it Lois who thinks about shopping at Vickie’s Secret, or Hi? Is Lois only walking past the store on her way to GNC or Sunglass Hut? Is that box in her hands from Vickie’s Secret, or has she bought a new pair of Hush Puppies? Am I the only one who thinks it’s more than a little insulting for a husband to present his wife with “options” on Mother’s Day? Should he be making those choices for her? Should I be asking these questions?]

Happy Mother’s Day

[Photograph by James Leddy, May 25, 1957.]

My mom Louise and a younger me, on a not-mean street in Brooklyn, New York.

I am very fortunate to have this woman as my mother. Happy Mother’s Day to her and to all mothers.

Nancy Malone (1935–2014)

Sad news: the actress and director Nancy Malone has died at the age of seventy-nine. She played the aspiring actress Libby Kingston, the girlfriend, and later fiancée, of Adam Flint (Paul Burke) on the television series Naked City. She was the last surviving member of the cast.

Elaine and I sent Nancy Malone a letter last year, telling her about our love of the show, of her acting, and of the Adam-Libby partnership, especially of the way the two characters toss out lines of poetry to one another. We were thrilled to receive a two-page handwritten reply. I’ll write something about that soon.


[Nancy Malone as Libby Kingston. From the Naked City episode “The Multiplicity of Herbert Konish,” May 23, 1962.]

Related reading
A letter from Nancy Malone
Nancy Malone in Life magazine
Adam and Libby at play
Adam and Libby at play again
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Mark Trail revised

[Mark Trail revised, May 10, 2014.]

The look on Mark’s face — I had to do it.

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[If you’re a regular reader, you know the context. If not, see here.]

Joe Wilder (1922–2014)

The trumpeter Joe Wilder has died at the age of ninety-two. The New York Times has an obituary.

My fambly was fortunate to hear Joe Wilder playing an all-Ellington program with the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra many years ago. His solos were the brightest moments of the night. Kids, you got to hear a master at work.

The January 6, 1986 issue of The New Yorker has a Whitney Balliett piece on Joe Wilder (titled “Joe Wilder”). It’s mostly Wilder talking. Here he describes his idea of improvisation:

“The melodic material determines to a great degree what I do. If it is simple material, I try and make it more ornate. If it is ornate, I try and simplify it. You try not to trample on a nice melody. You alter it here and there.”

You can listen to Joe Wilder’s alterations via these YouTube samples.

“Cherokee” : “Have You Met Miss Jones?” : “In a Mist” : “Prelude to a Kiss” : “Struttin’ with Some Barbecue”

[Can a trumpet sound like Johnny Hodges playing “Prelude to a Kiss”? Yes, if that trumpet is being played by Joe Wilder.]

Elizabeth T. Walker speaks

Here’s a lengthy 2014 conversation between the pianist Frank Pavese and the actress Elizabeth T. Walker, aka Tippy Walker, who played Valerie Campbell Boyd in the 1964 film The World of Henry Orient (dir. George Roy Hill). This conversation seems to have come online with no fanfare and to little notice. My favorite Walker observation therein: “It’s very hard to be yourself, but it’s the best possible thing.”

This 2012 piece from The New Yorker website describes Walker’s difficult post-Orient life: A Star Is Born, Lost, and Found. I hope that there are good things coming Elizabeth T. Walker’s way.

I’ve been a fan of The World of Henry Orient since kidhood and finally read Nora Johnson’s 1958 novel a few years ago. Here’s an excerpt.

IBM in Naked City?

A reader writes:

Naked City shot one episode in an IBM office. My [late] father was working there at the time, and said that a girl ran down the hallway and all the IBMers were instructed to open their office doors and look out. Would you be able to tell me which episode this might be?

My correspondent thinks that the episode aired in May or June of 1961, ’62, or ’63.

I think the episode might be “The Multiplicity of Herbert Konish,” which aired on May 23, 1962. It's the only episode I can recall offhand in which office life is prominent. (It also happens to be one of my favorite episodes.) But no one runs in this episode, and there’s no one looking out from an office doorway. As my correspondent notes, such a scene may have been filmed and left unused.

Naked City viewers: is another episode more likely? Adair, can you help here?

Another way at the question: does anyone recognize IBM in these scenes?


[Detective Adam Flint (Paul Burke) on the premises. The name on the door may be a fiction: I can find no trace of it.]


[David Wayne as Herbert Konish, pressing Down.]


[William LeMassena as Mr. Hanley, looking up an account in a Rolodex. Click any image for a larger view.]

The IMDb page for this episode has only Biograph Studios (in the Bronx) as a location. But these interiors do not look like sets. And Washington Square Park is conspicuous in this episode, so plainly the page is incomplete. As you may have already guessed, I haven’t found interior images of IBM offices circa 1960.

“The Multiplicity of Herbert Konish” is the subject of one, two, three previous OCA posts.

Related reading
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Impressionist France

At the St. Louis Art Museum, through July 6, Impressionist France: Visions of Nation from Le Gray to Monet. The exhibit explores the role of nineteenth-century painters and photographers in the construction of French identity. Five things I was surprised to learn:

A state-funded project employed five photographers (including Gustave Le Gray) to document French monuments in need of conservation.

Another photographer, Charles Marville, photographed old Parisian streets and buildings before they were demolished in Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann’s project of urban renewal.

Le Gray and Marville were both official photographers; Le Gray for France, Marville for Paris. All very WPA-like in my achronological head.

French rural life has long been associated with the idea of la France profonde, “deep France,” ancient and unchanged.

The paint tube transformed the possibilities of painting. The painter John Goffe Rand invented the tube in 1841. It made paint easily portable, allowing painters to work en plein air. Pierre-Auguste Renoir: “Without colors in tubes, there would be no Cézanne, no Monet, no Pissarro, and no Impressionism.”

Here’s more about paint tubes, from Smithsonian Magazine: “Never Underestimate the Power of a Paint Tube.” (This article is the source of the Renoir sentence above.) And here, from the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art, is Rand’s patent, “Improvement in the Construction of Vessels or Apparatus for Preserving Paint, & c.”

[Is there even one American city with an official photographer?]

Old Blue

[Bearded Bull’s Head. Sumerian, Early Dynastic III Period, 2600–2450 BCE. Copper with lapis lazuli and shell inlay. Saint Louis Art Museum.]

The museum card says,

This bull’s head is made from solid copper, an extremely costly and valuable material in antiquity. It was likely part of an architectural element, such as a lintel over door, since it is too heavy to be a furniture embellishment. The bull was commonly associated with a storm god, whose control of weather and thunder was imagined as a great bull roaring across the sky. As an embodiment of power and fertility, the bearded bull served as a symbol of divine protection and royal might throughout ancient Near Eastern art.

Mighty, yes. But such a plaintive face! I think of Blake’s tyger: mighty, but.

You can see this bull on the Museum’s website. He’s much bluer in person.

[About the post title: see here, listen here.]