TV dreamboats of the 1950s and 1960s

Summer is not officially over yet, but we have to return to our jobs or schools, and happily, the new television season is starting again. Of course, many people are watching their favourite series online now, but many other people still love to see these series together on the couch. In the 1950s and 1960s, everybody was doing that and American broadcasters like NBC and CBS produced these series for the whole world to enjoy. Interestingly, many hunky young actors became stars in these series. Fanboys and fangirls everywhere collected their postcards on which they often posed shirtless. We were too young to see most of these series at the time, but we love to collect these postcards now which must have given lots of fans romantic dreams once.


French postcard by Publistar, Marseille, no. 920. Photo: United-Press. Steve McQueen in Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958-1961).

Steve McQueen (1930-1980) was the ultra-cool Hollywood star of the 1960s and is still an icon of our popular culture. McQueen's first breakout role came on television. He appeared on Dale Robertson's NBC Western series Tales of Wells Fargo as Bill Longley. McQueen next filmed a pilot episode for what became the series titled Wanted: Dead or Alive, which aired on CBS in September 1958. This became his breakout role. He would later cross over into comparable status on the big screen, making him the first TV star to do so.


Spanish postcard by Postal Oscarcolor, no. 330.


British postcard by D. Constance Ltd, London, no. 106. Photo: Reisfeld / Ufa. Clint Eastwood in the TV series Rawhide (1959–1966).

Before he rose to fame as the Man with No Name in Sergio Leone's classic Spaghetti Westerns Per un pugno di dollari/A Fistful of Dollars (1964), Per qualche dollaro in più/For a Few Dollars More (1965), and Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo/The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), Clint Eastwood (1930) was a TV star as Rowdy Yates in the Western series Rawhide (1959–1966).


American postcard by the American Postcard Co. Inc., no. TV22, 1984. Photo: Viacom International Inc. Clint Eastwood as Rowdy Yates in Rawhide (1959–1966).


American Arcade postcard. Guy Madison in the TV series Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok (1951-1958).

Handsome American leading man Guy Madison (1922-1996) appeared in 85 films, on radio, and on television. In the 1940s, he started as a fresh-faced dreamboat. He became a hero to the Baby Boom generation as James Butler Hickock in the television series Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok (1951-1958). After the Hickok series ended, Madison became a star of European cinema.


Spanish postcard by Raker, no. 1155, 1965. Photo: Clint Walker in the TV series Cheyenne (1955-1962).

Heavy set, athletic Clint Walker (1927) is a retired American actor and singer. In the 1950s, Walker with his broad shoulders and slim waist almost single-handedly started the Western craze on TV in his role as Cheyenne Bodie in Cheyenne (1955-1962).


British postcard by Star, no. SP424. Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures, 1962. Will Hutchins in the TV series Sugarfoot/Tenderfoot (1957-1961).

Will Hutchins played the fledgling frontier lawyer Tom Brewster and Jack Elam as sidekick Toothy Thompson. Brewster was a correspondence-school graduate whose apparent lack of cowboy skills earned him the peculiar nickname 'Sugarfoot'. Brewster never used firearms, preferring to vanquish villains with his roping skills if friendly persuasion failed. He was reluctant to use firearms, but able and willing to do so as a last resort. During the same period, other similar shows would appear, including Maverick with James Garner and Jack Kelly, Cheyenne with Clint Walker, Bronco with Ty Hardin, Lawman with John Russell, and Colt .45 with Wayde Preston. Hutchins appeared as Sugarfoot in crossover episodes of Cheyenne, Maverick, and Bronco.


Spanish postcard by Ediciones Este, no. 7 T, 1963. Photo: Warner Bros. Ty Hardin in the TV series Bronco (1958-1962).

American actor Ty Hardin (1930-2017) is probably best known as TV cowboy Bronco. Though born as Jr. Orison Whipple Hungerford (!) in New York City, Ty Hardin was raised in Texas and, after military service during the Korean War, took some classes at Texas A&M. He then moved west to California and won some minor roles in B movies, credited as Ty Hungerford. When TV's Clint Walker insisted on improvements in his Cheyenne (1955) contract, Warner Brothers countered by bringing in Ty as a possible replacement. Soon, Ty had his own show, Bronco, which ran from 1958 to 1962. From here, he moved into a brief flurry of film activity.


Spanish postcard by Ediciones Este, no. 8 T, 1963. Photo: Warner Bros. Ty Hardin in the TV series Bronco (1958-1962).


Spanish postcard by CyA, no. 22. Photo: Warner Bros. James Garner in the TV series Maverick (1957-1960).

James Garner (1928-2014) became known to a wider audience with the role of professional gambler Bret Maverick in the Western TV series Maverick (1957-1960) opposite Jack Kelly as his brother Bart Maverick. Maverick played poker on riverboats and in saloons while traveling incessantly through the 19th-century American frontier. When Garner left the series in 1960, Roger Moore played for a while cousin Beau, namesake nephew of Beau 'Pappy' Maverick. Beau returned from an extended stay in England to meet cousin Bart. Years later, Garner and Kelly reappeared as Bret and Bart Maverick in a made-for-television film titled The New Maverick (Hy Averback, 1978) written by Juanita Bartlett, and in the series Bret Maverick (1981-1982).


Spanish postcard by Ediciones Este, no. 36. Roger Moore in Maverick (1959-1961).


French postcard by Publistar, offered by Corvisart, Epinal, no. 919. Photo: United-Press.

American actor, artist, and author Gardner McKay (1932-2001) was best known for the lead role in the TV series Adventures in Paradise (1959-1962), based loosely on the writings of James Michener. He quit acting and became a writer in 1970.


American Arcade postcard. Gardner McKay in Adventures in Paradise (1959-1962).


Spanish postcard by Oscarcolor, no. 16-T. Photo: Warner Bros. Troy Donahue, Lee Patterson, and Van Williams in the TV series Surfside 6 (1960-1962).

Surfside 6 was about the adventures of three hip private detectives, Ken (Van Williams), Dave (Lee Patterson) and Sandy (Troy Donahue). The three live on and work out of a houseboat in Miami, Florida. A yacht, belonging to socialite Daphne (Diane McBain), is anchored next to their houseboat. While not pursuing criminals, they spend time at the Fontainebleau Hotel chasing Cha Cha (Margarita Sierra) who works as an entertainer in the Boom Boom Room.


Spanish postcard by Oscarcolor, no. 252. Photo: Warner Bros. Van Williams in the TV series Surfside 6 (1960-1962).


German postcard by Filmbilder-Vertrieb Ernst Freihoff, Essen, no. AX 5597. Photo: Michael Landon in the TV series Bonanza (1959-1973).

Michael Landon played Little Joe, the youngest and most handsome of the Cartwright brothers in the legendary American Western series Bonanza (1959-1973). Ben Cartwright (Lorne Greene) and his sons Hoss (Dan Blocker), Adam (Pernell Roberts) and Little Joe (Michael Landon) had many adventures while running and defending their Ponderosa Ranch in Nevada and helping the surrounding community.


American Arcade card.

Impeccably handsome American actor Richard Chamberlain (1934) was TV's leading heartthrob because of his title role in the medical series Dr. Kildare (1961-1966). The slim, butter-haired hunk with the near-perfect Ivy-League charm and smooth, intelligent demeanour, had the distaff fans fawning unwavering over him through the series' run.


German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/240.


French postcard by Éditions d'art Yvon, Arcueil, no. 2. Photo: O.R.T.F. / Télé France Film / Photo Bruguière. Jean-Claude Drouot in the TV series Thierry la Fronde (1963-1966).

Belgian actor Jean-Claude Drouot (1938) started his acting career with a boom in the French cult TV series Thierry La Fronde (1963-1966) and with Agnes Varda’s controversial masterpiece Le Bonheur (1965). Although he went on to appear in many film, TV and stage roles he would never completely lose the image of Thierry la Fronde, the French Robin Hood.


Dutch postcard by MUVA, Valkenburg. Luke Halpin and Tommy Norden in the NBC TV series Flipper (1964-1967). Sent by mail in 1968.

The American Children's television program Flipper was originally broadcast on NBC from 19 September 1964, until 15 April 1967. There were 3 seasons and 88 episodes of 25 minutes. Flipper, a bottlenose dolphin, is the companion animal of Porter Ricks (Brian Kelly), Chief Warden at fictional Coral Key Park and Marine Preserve in southern Florida, and his two young sons 15-year-old Sandy (Luke Halpin) and 10-year-old Bud (Tommy Norden). Flipper was played by three dolphins named Mitzi, Little Bit, and Mr. Gipper. Mitzi did the close-up shots, but she wasn't very athletic, so Little Bit and Mr. Gipper did the stunt work. Today, Luke Halpin lives in Florida, where he works as a pilot and marine technician for a film production company. After two other TV series, Tommy Norden left Hollywood to join the family business.


Spanish postcard by Postal Oscar Color S.A., Hospitalet (Barcelona), no. 727. Robert Vaughn and David McCallum in the American TV series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964–1968).

American actor Robert Vaughn (1932-2016) played elegant, dark-haired Napoleon Solo in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964-1968). The Spy series was television’s answer to James Bond. Together with his partner in the series, David McCallum (1933) as blond Russian Illya Kuryakin, Vaughn set 1960s TV’s standard for suavity and crimebusting cool. They played two top Agents of the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement (U.N.C.L.E.) who fight the enemies of peace, particularly the forces of the evil organisation T.H.R.U.S.H. (Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity). Both agents use charm, wit, and a never-ending assortment of gadgets. The series’s international popularity led to back-to-back of Golden Globe nominations for Vaughn as Best TV Star in 1965-1966.


British postcard by Klasik Kards, no. 1588. Ron Ely in the TV series Tarzan (1966-1968).

After the huge success of Tarzan on the big screen, Producer Sy Weintraub, who took over the Tarzan franchise in the mid-1950s from Sol L. Lesser, took the ape man from the silver screen to television. In the American-Mexican series Tarzan (1966-1968), Ron Ely starred as Tarzan (Lord Greystoke), already well educated and fed up with civilisation. He returns to the jungle and, more or less assisted by chimpanzee Cheetah and orphan boy Jai (Manuel Padilla Jr., who had starred in the Tarzan films with Mike Henry), wages war against poachers and other bad guys. There was no Jane in the series.


German collectors card by Penny in the series 'Unsere Bambi-Lieblinge', no. 27. Ron Ely as Tarzan and Manuel Padilla Jr. as Jai with Cheeta in the TV series Tarzan (1966-1968).


Dutch postcard by KRO. Adam West in the TV series Batman (1966-1968).

At the beginning of 1966, everything turned Batman. The TV show dominated television, merchandising - an advertisement for the show in the US even made it to the Super Bowl! The show even was made into a theatrically released movie, also starring Adam West as Batman / Bruce Wayne and Burt Ward as Robin / Dick Grayson. In the Netherlands, the show was broadcasted by the KRO, which made this postcard for many fans.


Vintage autograph card. William Shatner as Captain Kirk in the American TV series Star Trek (1966-1969).

Captain James Tiberius 'Jim' Kirk is the main character in the classic American TV series Star Trek. As the captain of the starship USS Enterprise, Kirk leads his crew as they explore "where no man has gone before". Kirk, played by William Shatner, first appears in the broadcast pilot episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, 'The Man Trap' (1966). Shatner continued in the role for the show's three seasons, and later provided the voice of the animated version of Kirk in Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973–74). Shatner returned to the role for Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) and in six subsequent films.