HARRY TOWNES

In Movies like DESTINATION SPACE and odd TV series episodes like

THE NIGHT OF THE TOTTERING TONTIN......

yet another peculiar episode of THE WILD, WILD WEST, and in interesting and unusual roles for THE INNER SANCTUM, ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS,

THE TWILIGHT ZONE and THE OUTER LIMITS Harry was featured in such extremely diverse roles, but was never the leading man.....In film roles co-co-starring with Odetta, Anita Ekberg, Jay Siverheels (who played TONTO ,in the Lone Ranger...incidentally) and even Dame Edith Evans, he is largely forgotten.....

A few years after college, i returned to Huntsville and journeyed, nostalgically, to the old Downtown to check out the movie theaters, THE LYRIC, home to presentations of MGM musicals and Disney films, THE GRAND which featured Republic and American International Films....and Harry's "B" films, of course, and the

always run-down Elks Theater....to which, I had been forbidden, by my parents, to enter.....leaving THE ELK, i looked up into the eyes of Harry Townes, who had returned, semi-retired from "movies", in his latest incarnation as an Episcopal Priest....who'd 'a thought it! Since he had schooled with one of my aunts, I quickly re-introduced myself......for,actually, I had met him at a party for Joan Crawford, at the Hotel Russell Erskine, upon her having assumed the role of the wife of Pepsi's CEO....I think he was gay....a gay actor/priest.....that's nothing new..gay actor...gay priest...but BOTH!.....We chatted about the movies and he gave me a picture of Greta Garbo....which, incidentally, i still treasure.....we sat on the steps of the YMCA, he went back to church and I had more fodder for Life, i suppose......I never saw him again, although he did some television work, that I don't recall having seen, after that....he's buried near my Grandfather, at Maple Hill cemetery...... small world, isn't it? By the way....one might ask....why isn't there a pic of Harry on this blog? Few would recognize it, anyway.......or they'd comment, "Oh, I remember him......I think...." the pic is of Anita Ekberg, from SCREAMING MIMI.....one of Harry's big films, which also featured another favorite of mine....Gypsy Rose Lee....whom I also met at a bar in Chicago a few years before......So, am I making any contribution to anything in this blog......go figure......by the way, there was another movie house in town....THE CENTRAL....over in the mill town area....it was really run-down and neglected, but was a home for old 30's and 40's films that were cheap to license......Harry's films eventually ended up there.....a short distance from his birthplace.......