The Adventures of Hiram Holliday
Encyclopedia
Adventures of Hiram Holliday is a 1939 novel by Paul Gallico
, later adapted to a TV series, The Adventures of Hiram Holliday, a half-hour filmed comedy/adventure series which ran for 20 episodes on the NBC Television Network and is now better known than the literary original.
-like skills in many forms of physical combat, shooting, and in activities as diverse as rock-climbing and scuba-diving. The proofreader, Hiram Holliday, was played by Wally Cox
, who when stripped was revealed to be as muscular as his longtime best friend Marlon Brando
had ever been in his heyday. Thus, Cox made a surprisingly convincing action hero.
The starting gimmick of the series was that Holliday had inserted a comma in a news story which saved the publisher a small fortune in a trial. The grateful publisher rewarded Holliday with a trip around the world, which set the scene for him to solve crimes and thwart foreign spies in every port of call he visited. The series was hampered by a low budget which did not permit convincing recreations of the different exotic foreign locations featured in each episode.
as a criminal mastermind he repeatedly encountered. There were a number of directors including George Cahan and William Hole, and a number of writers including Philip Rapp and Richard Powell. Philip Rapp also served as producer. Star Wally Cox
was best known as Mr. Peepers
in an early live NBC
sitcom about a mild-mannered junior high school science teacher; it was typecasting he was never able to escape in later years. Hiram Holliday was Cox's last starring role.
In its BBC rerun, The Adventures of Hiram Holliday was the first US series to be "stripped," that is, shown 5 days a week in the same time slot.
in 1939. In form, the novel is a connected series of adventures, rather akin to short stories which flow into one another.
In the book, Holliday was rewarded with time off and a cash reward which he used to go to Europe. In Europe he fights spies and Nazis, finds his true love, achieves some fame as a foreign correspondent with his newspaper back in New York, and becomes the man of action he aspired to be. The book has the major themes of the protagonist coming to grips with his own character and destiny, how individuals act when confronted by great evil, and the over-arching question of would war come to Europe?
In Gallico's view, war would NOT come, but events would shortly prove him wrong. Unlike the typical adventure story of today, his book has expositions on evil and character, so it is not just "action for action's sake." It also evinces a witty and subtle dark humor. For most Gallico fans, the book does not attain the quality of writing of his later works, but it still is rewarding.
The book encapsulates Gallico's views and insights at the time of writing, without the hindsight of later events - some of which turned out to be wrong and others were quite accurate.
In one scene of the chapter set in Britain, Holliday is in a plane flying over London and gets the premonition that enemy bombers would soon fly in the same sky - as was all too true. However, it is assumed that the British have become "soft" and would not be able to stand the rigors of the coming war - which was clearly written under the influence of Neville Chamberlain
's Appeasement
policies and would be disproven by events. In the same scene, Holliday also gets a premonition of a future when a single bomb would be able to destroy a whole city - an interesting prediction of the rise of nuclear arms.
The part set in Austria
, soon after its annexation to Nazi Germany in the Anschluss
, clearly takes the attitude that Austrians were victims of Nazi aggression - an idea current among many people, at the time itself and up to the present, bur also disputed by many others and constituting a hotly controversial issue in Austria itself.
The Austrian part also includes a very strong perspective of a restoration of the Habsburg
Monarchy to a post-Nazi Austria. (Holliday helps get to safety a young (fictional) Habsburg Prince who would be the next Emperor. The idea of a restored Habsburg Monarchy, sometimes under the name of "A Danubian Federation", was an option seriously discussed at the time - though the development of World War II, culminating with the Soviets taking power in most former Habsburg lands, made such ideas moot.
In the book's Italian part, Holliday takes up an ancient Legionary sword which had belonged to a soldier of the Roman Empire and - making a kind of telepathic contact with the ghost of its original owner and with his help defeats a famous Italian fencing champion in a duel. This the story makes into the symbol that Americans are true heirs to the Roman Imperial tradition - rather than Italians, whom Benito Mussolini
tried to cast in that role. Also, the book features chivalrous Italian characters who start out as allies of Germany - but when the Germans' villainy is revealed, the Italians eventually change sides and support Holliday - all of which is a quite accurate prediction of the way Italians would actually act in the coming war.
Paul Gallico
Paul William Gallico was a successful American novelist, short story and sports writer. Many of his works were adapted for motion pictures...
, later adapted to a TV series, The Adventures of Hiram Holliday, a half-hour filmed comedy/adventure series which ran for 20 episodes on the NBC Television Network and is now better known than the literary original.
Broadcast dates
The series originally aired from October 3, 1956 to February 27, 1957. Its full 23 episodes later ran on the BBC from the fall of 1960 to the summer of 1961.Plot
The series is similar to the book, and focused on the adventures of a newspaper proofreader who through years of secret practice has gained James BondJames Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
-like skills in many forms of physical combat, shooting, and in activities as diverse as rock-climbing and scuba-diving. The proofreader, Hiram Holliday, was played by Wally Cox
Wally Cox
Wallace Maynard Cox was an American comedian and actor, particularly associated with the early years of television in the United States. He appeared in the U.S. TV series Mr. Peepers , plus several other popular shows, and as a character actor in over 20 films...
, who when stripped was revealed to be as muscular as his longtime best friend Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
had ever been in his heyday. Thus, Cox made a surprisingly convincing action hero.
The starting gimmick of the series was that Holliday had inserted a comma in a news story which saved the publisher a small fortune in a trial. The grateful publisher rewarded Holliday with a trip around the world, which set the scene for him to solve crimes and thwart foreign spies in every port of call he visited. The series was hampered by a low budget which did not permit convincing recreations of the different exotic foreign locations featured in each episode.
Cast
Other cast members included actor Ainslie Pryor (1921-1958), as Holliday's reporter sidekick, Joel Smith, and Sebastian CabotSebastian Cabot (actor)
Charles Sebastian Thomas Cabot was an English film and television actor, best remembered as the gentleman's gentleman, "Giles French," opposite Brian Keith's character, in the 1960s sitcom Family Affair. He was also known for playing Dr...
as a criminal mastermind he repeatedly encountered. There were a number of directors including George Cahan and William Hole, and a number of writers including Philip Rapp and Richard Powell. Philip Rapp also served as producer. Star Wally Cox
Wally Cox
Wallace Maynard Cox was an American comedian and actor, particularly associated with the early years of television in the United States. He appeared in the U.S. TV series Mr. Peepers , plus several other popular shows, and as a character actor in over 20 films...
was best known as Mr. Peepers
Mr. Peepers
Mr. Peepers is an American television sitcom that aired on NBC from July 3, 1952 to June 12, 1955.-Overview:Mr. Peepers starred Wally Cox as Jefferson City's junior high school science teacher Robinson J. Peepers...
in an early live NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
sitcom about a mild-mannered junior high school science teacher; it was typecasting he was never able to escape in later years. Hiram Holliday was Cox's last starring role.
In its BBC rerun, The Adventures of Hiram Holliday was the first US series to be "stripped," that is, shown 5 days a week in the same time slot.
Novel
The original novel was Gallico's first published book. It was published by Grosset and Dunlap on the cusp of World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in 1939. In form, the novel is a connected series of adventures, rather akin to short stories which flow into one another.
In the book, Holliday was rewarded with time off and a cash reward which he used to go to Europe. In Europe he fights spies and Nazis, finds his true love, achieves some fame as a foreign correspondent with his newspaper back in New York, and becomes the man of action he aspired to be. The book has the major themes of the protagonist coming to grips with his own character and destiny, how individuals act when confronted by great evil, and the over-arching question of would war come to Europe?
In Gallico's view, war would NOT come, but events would shortly prove him wrong. Unlike the typical adventure story of today, his book has expositions on evil and character, so it is not just "action for action's sake." It also evinces a witty and subtle dark humor. For most Gallico fans, the book does not attain the quality of writing of his later works, but it still is rewarding.
The book encapsulates Gallico's views and insights at the time of writing, without the hindsight of later events - some of which turned out to be wrong and others were quite accurate.
In one scene of the chapter set in Britain, Holliday is in a plane flying over London and gets the premonition that enemy bombers would soon fly in the same sky - as was all too true. However, it is assumed that the British have become "soft" and would not be able to stand the rigors of the coming war - which was clearly written under the influence of Neville Chamberlain
Neville Chamberlain
Arthur Neville Chamberlain FRS was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. Chamberlain is best known for his appeasement foreign policy, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding the...
's Appeasement
Appeasement
The term appeasement is commonly understood to refer to a diplomatic policy aimed at avoiding war by making concessions to another power. Historian Paul Kennedy defines it as "the policy of settling international quarrels by admitting and satisfying grievances through rational negotiation and...
policies and would be disproven by events. In the same scene, Holliday also gets a premonition of a future when a single bomb would be able to destroy a whole city - an interesting prediction of the rise of nuclear arms.
The part set in Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, soon after its annexation to Nazi Germany in the Anschluss
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
, clearly takes the attitude that Austrians were victims of Nazi aggression - an idea current among many people, at the time itself and up to the present, bur also disputed by many others and constituting a hotly controversial issue in Austria itself.
The Austrian part also includes a very strong perspective of a restoration of the Habsburg
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...
Monarchy to a post-Nazi Austria. (Holliday helps get to safety a young (fictional) Habsburg Prince who would be the next Emperor. The idea of a restored Habsburg Monarchy, sometimes under the name of "A Danubian Federation", was an option seriously discussed at the time - though the development of World War II, culminating with the Soviets taking power in most former Habsburg lands, made such ideas moot.
In the book's Italian part, Holliday takes up an ancient Legionary sword which had belonged to a soldier of the Roman Empire and - making a kind of telepathic contact with the ghost of its original owner and with his help defeats a famous Italian fencing champion in a duel. This the story makes into the symbol that Americans are true heirs to the Roman Imperial tradition - rather than Italians, whom Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
tried to cast in that role. Also, the book features chivalrous Italian characters who start out as allies of Germany - but when the Germans' villainy is revealed, the Italians eventually change sides and support Holliday - all of which is a quite accurate prediction of the way Italians would actually act in the coming war.