Biography

Please, someone help me. In the end credits, who is the mystery woman at the lower right? Greer Garson? Marie Curie? Sarah Bernhardt or Tallulah Bankhead?

This is puzzled me since 1978 when, stoned out of my mind, I used to watch this at 4:30 AM on Sunday mornings on WPIX right after reruns of Groucho. Let me go to my grave with an answer.

I know it's not Eleanor Roosevelt, Mary Todd Lincoln, Mary Baker Eddy, Madam Blavatsky, Eva Braun, Mrs. Chang Kai Sheik, Annie Oakley, Little Orphan Annie, Judy Garland, Waylon Flowers and Madam, Marjorie Main, Thelma Ritter, Thelma Todd or Margaret Hamilton.

'Biography' was a half-hour documentary series, produced very cheaply with a heavy reliance on film clips. This series proved to be quite significant in the careers of two people attached to it: Jack Haley Jnr and Mike Wallace.

Haley eventually built an entire career from television and movie documentaries centred on compilation footage: his most notable achievement in this field being the first 'That's Entertainment!' movie. Mike Wallace was originally a utility man, hosting game shows or taking pretty much any work he could get in television, when Haley picked him to host and narrate 'Biography'. Because of the non-fiction nature of this series, Wallace was eventually able to get work as a tv journalist on shows such as '60 Minutes'.

Each episode of 'Biography' recapped the life of one famous person, the key being that these episodes relied heavily on archival film footage and audio recordings of the subject. Thus, all the biographical subjects were 20th-century figures. Haley made a commendable effort to choose his subjects from the widest possible range of professions and callings. We get movie star Charlie Chaplin and athlete Babe Ruth, but we also get Winston Churchill, Franklin D Roosevelt, Adolph Hitler and Helen Keller.

Some of the footage is impressively rare. The Helen Keller episode contains scenes from 'Deliverance', the silent film in which Helen Keller appeared as herself. A complete print of 'Deliverance' exists in the Library of Congress, but this movie is not easily available.

The Chaplin episode, inevitably, places heavy reliance on film clips of Chaplin in character as the Little Tramp, with comparably little newsreel footage ... and no footage at all from his late talkies (to which he controlled all rights at this time).

Regrettably, 'Biography' wants to tell us how to think. Wallace's narration for the Hitler episode makes it quite clear that Mike Wallace doesn't like Hitler, and that he wants us to feel the same way.

Occasionally, 'Biography' featured early use of the rostrum camera: panning across a still photograph to create the illusion of motion-picture footage.

'Biography' originally ran at a time when television documentaries were quite rare. Today, there's so much interest for this sort of thing that the History Channel has an ongoing Biography feature, and Ken Burns and Kevin Brownlow have revolutionised the documentary field. (I'm waiting for a documentary about Ken Burns.) Give credit to Jack Haley Jnr for leading the way with 'Biography'.

Biography made superb use of newsreel footage, while Wallace's narration was pitched to an adult intelligence, never telling you what you were seeing, but letting the pictures speak for themselves.

Revisionists might argue with some of the subjects, but Biography managed to present in 30 minutes an elegant encapsulation of an important life (and no, Wallace didn't tell you "what to think.) I wish these were made available for young people to learn about the century just past.

American TV has come a long way down from Biography to the dumbed-down biographies on A&E.

My husband and I have the same question as "Outnaway" about the photo of the woman in the lower right of the collection of pictures for the "Biography" channel. I personally doubt that the lady is anyone "Outnaway" lists as possibilities in his/her comment, for all that there is a distinct resemblance to Hollywood Golden Age actress Greer Garson. My guess is that the individual might Irene Dunne, a different Hollywood Golden Age actress, because Miss Dunne was involved in work for the United Nations in her later years and was the first woman to hold such an office at the U. N. However, I do hope someone can give all of us the correct answer.

While the beautiful and multi-talented actress/inventor doesn't have her own dedicated "Biography" episode, the image at lower right of the title screen nevertheless bears a close resemblance to Hedy Lamarr. In nearly all of Lamarr's images, she parts her brunette tresses down the middle while presenting a pouty mein. And no one can argue with her credibility for a Biography episode - GPS, Bluetooth, & Wi-Fi all trace their origins to her "Frequency-Hopping Spread Spectrum" wartime invention. I couldn't find an exact replica of the image in the Biography title, but all of her online photos more than match it for pure loveliness.