So, I see “Paint Your Wagon” on the movie listing on the TV and I start going down the list of cast. I see Lee Marvin, no picture, which I just finished watching in a WWII movie, “Attack.” Clint Eastwood, Jean Seberg and then I come to the name and image for Harve Presnell (1933 – 2009). But, here is the surprise. The image they are using isn’t of the younger Presnell maybe from him singing “They Call the Wind Mariah,” in Paint Your Wagon,” about 1965. No, it is a photo of the old man Presnell and this is what I recognize as about the time that he played in an episode of the Outer Limits (newer one) along with Barbara Rush, playing his wife. I’ve seen this episode at least a couple of times. From 1998, “The Balance of Nature” and this episode involves a man who has figured out how to rejeuvenate frogs & eventually humans. The man’s wife dies and this is impetus for him to figure out this rejeuvenation machine, which doesn’t work at first, the patient always dying from the failure. Well he moves to another town, and meets his neighbors, Barbara Rush and her over bearing, old, salesman husband played by Harve Presnell. But, until just this morning, I didn’t connect the dots between the viril Harve Presnell singing, “They Call the Wind Mariah,” and the old man in the Outer Limits slapping his wife and treating her, otherwise, badly. In the end, Presnell’s character dies in the machine, but just after giving some of his new found youth to the man. 

Through the years, I’ve played the YouTube video of Harve Presnell singing “Mariah” and enjoyed it. I think I actually wondered what happened to Harve Presnell as I was listening to him sing. But surprisingly, I never went looking online for his bio. So, now this was a really big surprise, and I repeated some expletives, as I mulled over this revelation. At first, I found it difficult to reconcile the younger Presnell from his much older Outer Limits version, but then I realized that the two performances were about 30 years apart. **Started watching “Tidal Wave: No Escape” which I just googled and it came out in 1997. And to my surprise, there walks in Harve Presnell looking like he did a year later in the Outer Limits episode.

I also like Lee Marvin singing, “A Wandering Star.” I’m not sure you could call it singing, but I really, really like this song and Lee Marvin leading “The Dirty Dozen.”

Barbara Rush is an old woman in “The Balance of Nature” episode of the Outer Limits, 1998, but she had also appeared in the original Outer Limits, 1964, episode called “The Forms of Things Unknown.” In the 1964 episode Rush is joined by the also beautiful Vera Miles, and talented David McCallum. I think Rush and Miles are in their nubile best in this episode. I look at them both and think how good looking they were. And recall that Barbara Rush was in the 1951 Sci-Fi movie, “When Worlds Collide.”

I can think of three actresses that whenever I see them on-screen, I say to myself, “Now that’s a beautiful woman.” Lee Meriwether, Vera Miles and Martha Hyer. 

VERA MILES

Vera Miles was in the very first episode, “Revenge,” of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” in 1955. She plays the newly wed bride of husband played by Ralph Meeker. They get a small trailer at the beach, and while he is away at work, she is raped. Afterwards while she is still in a fragile condition, they are driving down a street and she comes to attention and says, “There he is,” pointing to a man going into a hotel. Meeker’s character stops the car and follows the man into the hotel, and after tracking the man down, attacks him brutally. (I don’t recall, but he may have killed the man.) So the husband gets back in the car and he and Vera Miles starts down the street again, but not too long after, the raped wife, comes to attention “again,” and says, “There he is,” pointing to a different man. Meeker’s character comes to a thoughtful look as he realizes he has either attacked or killed an innocent man, and that his wife is severely disturbed.

Having recounted this story to “my AI of choice” ChatGPT, it was brought to my attention that the same story was recreated in another episode of a different Alfred Hitchcock anthology series, but someone else played her husband. *I am not referring to the 1985 episode in which Linda Purl played the role formerly played by Vera Miles.

In the episode, “Death Scene,” of the Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1965) Vera Miles plays the wife of John Carradine. She is beautiful in this episode, as she is intentionally attracting a young chauffer. But at the end of the episode she begins to take off make up and a wig (That’s how I recall it.) and becomes an old, monstrous looking woman. *Still, her earlier look shows how fine she can look!

LEE MERIWETHER

She may have the most beautiful face I’ve seen, but I think her weakness is her overall, tallish body. I watched many of the Barnaby Jones episodes a few years ago, and often her face was perfect, but her body was a little plain.

MARTHA HYER

“They Call the Wind Mariah” Lyrics

“Wandering Star” Lyrics

Mariah Mariah They call the wind Mariah Away out here they got a name For rain and wind and fire The rain is Tess, the fire Joe, And they call the wind Mariah Mariah blows the stars around And sends the clouds a-flyin? Mariah makes the mountains sound Like folks were up there dying Mariah Mariah They call the wind Mariah Before I knew Mariah’s name And heard her wail and whinin? I had a girl and she had me And the sun was always shinin? But then one day I left my girl I left her far behind me And now I’m lost, so goldarn lost Not even God can find me Mariah Mariah They call the wind Mariah Out here they got a name for rain For wind and fire only But when you’re lost and all alone There ain’t no word but lonely And I’m a lost and lonely man Without a star to guide me Mariah blow my love to me I need my girl beside me Mariah Mariah They call the wind Mariah Mariah Mariah! Blow my love to me — goldarn: meaning “god damned”

I was born under a wandrin’ star I was born under a wandrin’ star Wheels are made for rollin’ Mules are made to pack I’ve never seen a sight that didn’t look better looking back I was born under a wandrin’ star Mud can make you prisoner, and the plains can bake you dry Snow can burn your eyes, but only people make you cry Home is made for comin’ from, for dreams of goin’ to Which with any luck will never come true I was born under a wandrin’ star I was born under a wandrin’ star Do I know where hell is? Hell is in hello Heaven is goodbye for ever, it’s time for me to go I was born under a wandrin’ star A wandrin’ wandrin’ star When I get to heaven tie me to a tree Or I’ll begin to roam, and soon you know where I will be I was born under a wandrin’ star A wandrin’ wandrin’ star

I think I want to write an article entitled, “Bobs Your Uncle,” and see where it takes me.

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I sift some ground Cayenne pepper, and some Red Pepper Flakes into the dish above while cooking. But at times, I’ve also added some chopped jalapenos & poblanos, and even the more exotic Brazilian Starfish, Biquinho or the Trinidad Perfume peppers (all of these I got at the State Farmers’ Market in Raleigh, this past year). *These peppers also go great in my Seafood Chowder.