Britain is no country for old men: Britain is a country where gentlemen of a certain age say "Goodbye" to an old Anerican tv star called Efrem Zimbalist Jnr who brightened screens when they were boys

Saturday, 3 May 2014

Britain is a country where gentlemen of a certain age say "Goodbye" to an old Anerican tv star called Efrem Zimbalist Jnr who brightened screens when they were boys

I remember following Efrem, who has died at the age of 95, in his tv series,'77 Sunset Strip'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYZXkn9NAcA&NR=1&feature=endscreen
on our black and white tv, when I was a boy in the late 1950's and early 60's. He played a private investigator working out of a stylish office with his partner at '77 Sunset Boulevard', helped by Edd Byrnes as 'Kookie', a rock and roll-loving, wisecracking, hair-combing, hipster and aspiring p.i., who worked as the parking attendant at the club next door.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqvFmAm9C5w&feature=related

As a kid I didn't know what an interesting man he was. Born in New York, where his father was famous violinist, Efrem Zimbalist Senior, born in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don in 1890 and his mother, operatic soprano Alma Gluck, born in Romania in 1884. He graduated from Yale University and it was after the Second World War, in which he gained a 'purple heart' honor, that his acting career took off.

He spoke about his parents, childhood and seeing Stalin in Moscow while talking about his book 'My Dinner of Herbs' :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1QPxkXon20