THE GREAT ADVENTURE (1963-1964) FORGOTTEN TELEVISION

THE GREAT ADVENTURE (1963-1964) – This hour-long series presented dramatizations of well-known and obscure events from United States history.

Twenty-six black & white episodes were made and can be viewed online.

STANDOUT EPISODES:

THE HUNLEY – In February of 1864 the Confederacy launched the experimental submarine Hunley, named after its inventor Horace Lawson Hunley. Two previous crews had drowned on test runs but on its final voyage the eight-man sub used a torpedo to sink the Union Navy’s warship the USS Housatonic. The Hunley was also destroyed by the blast and the crew killed.

Jackie Cooper starred, along with James “Dan-O” MacArthur, Wayne Rogers, George “Goober” Lindsay and Jim Nabors.     

THE DEATH OF SITTING BULL – This was the first of two parts and dealt with the Ghost Dance phenomenon among Native Americans from 1889-1891. The prophet Wovoka is often credited with originating the dance ritual which could supposedly bring back the spirits of the Native American dead to help living Indians drive off the white people.

It was also believed the dance could restore the world to the state it was in when buffalo were plenty and only Native Americans walked the land. Amid the fallout of the spreading Ghost Dance, Crazy Horse was falsely accused of leading the movement and was fatally wounded. Eddie Little Sky, Joseph Cotten, Ricardo Montalban, Lloyd Nolan, Claude Akins and Noah Beery, Jr. starred. 

THE MASSACRE AT WOUNDED KNEE – This was the second and concluding part of the story. Days after the death of Crazy Horse, government blundering continued and the military was sent in to disarm the Native Americans in the area.

Tragedy followed in the Massacre at Wounded Knee as roughly 300 Lakota Sioux and 31 U.S. soldiers were killed. Wounded Knee remains hauntingly symbolic as an example of the genocidal treatment of Native Americans. This episode featured the same cast as part one.   

SIX WAGONS TO THE SEA – This somewhat jumbled episode was a bit of a step back for the series. It loosely dramatized the 1894 incident in which California farmers defied the Southern Pacific Railroad’s monopoly on transporting produce by trying to get their own goods to market via wagons.

Central to the event were the Armenian American Serofian Brothers, who were combined into the composite character Misok Bedrozian, played by Lee Marvin. Other cast members were Walter Koenig, Ellen Madison, Richard X. Slattery, Celia Lovsky and Arthur Batanides. 

GO DOWN, MOSES – One of the most lauded episodes of the series. Ruby Dee herself starred as Harriet Tubman in this look at the operations of the Underground Railroad and its valiant deeds helping slaves escape to the northern United States.

Also in the cast were Ossie Davis, Brock Peters, Ethel Waters, Isabel Cooley, Gloria Calomee, Davis Roberts, Rupert Crosse, and Bill Walker.

THE GREAT DIAMOND MOUNTAIN – Reenactment of the Great Diamond Hoax of 1872. Prospectors Philip Arnold and John Slack obtained thousands of dollars in “castoff” diamonds from diamond-cutting efforts and salted them around a certain stretch in Colorado Territory.

They deposited more in a San Francisco bank to convince investors that they had found a huge diamond field. Interest snowballed and assorted tycoons like Charles Tiffany and the Rothschilds plus Congressman Benjamin Butler were among the victims suckered in by the scam. J.D. Cannon, John Fiedler, Philip Abbott, Barry Sullivan and John McGiver starred.

THE TREASURE TRAIN OF JEFFERSON DAVIS – This episode deals with the fortune in gold and jewels that the defeated Confederate government, including their president Jefferson Davis, fled Richmond with in early April of 1865.

This real event has been the kernel of truth at the heart of several overblown legends about lost Confederate wealth ever since then. The cast included Michael Rennie, Katherine Bard, Tim O’Connor, Byron Morrow, Jeff Cooper and Richard Bull.

THE OUTLAW AND THE NUN – Joan Hackett starred as Sister Blandina, the famous Sister of Charity who worked in Colorado and New Mexico beginning in 1872. Her efforts at educating the poor and Native Americans are well known as is her leadership in having schools and orphanages and at least one hospital built. She also crusaded against vigilante justice.

Sister Blandina’s deeds have been as embellished as those of many gunslingers of the Old West and her real-life interaction with Billy the Kid (as in the title) has been exaggerated into an elaborate legend. Leif Erickson, Kevin Brodie, Marion Ross and Hal Needham also starred, with Andrew Prine as Billy the Kid.   

THE MAN WHO STOLE NEW YORK CITY – A look at the execrable William “Boss” Tweed, whose Democrat political machine in the form of Tammany Hall and the Tweed Ring bilked millions from the public in the 1860s and 1870s.

This episode is far too kind to him, but it does cover some of the basics, especially regarding his fall. Ironically, though, it leaves out political cartoonist Thomas Nast, who brilliantly satirized Tweed. The cast included James Daly, Carroll O’Connor, Edward Andrews and Byron Morrow. 

A BOY AT WAR – This episode deals with 13-year-old Andrew Jackson’s service in the Revolutionary War, during which he lost his brothers and his mother. Flip Mark played young Andrew, with other cast members including Lew Brown, Jean Engstrom, Ralph Manza and Bernard Fox as a British officer.

THE COLONEL FROM CONNECTICUT – The story of Edwin L. Drake, the entrepreneur who led the way in having kerosene replace whale oil and who became the first man in America to drill for oil, which he struck in Pennsylvania. He was not a real colonel and was never in the military. Richard Kiley, Maggie McNamara, Whit Bissell and Sandy Kenyon starred. 

RODGER YOUNG – James “Dan-O” MacArthur starred as the title character, a partially blind and deaf young man who persevered against his physical handicaps to serve in World War Two. In the Solomon Islands he died heroically helping his unit against the Imperial Japanese forces and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. Also starred Ted Bessell, Diane Ladd and George Kennedy. Narrated by Russell Johnson. 

THE NIGHT RAIDERS – Believe it or not, Jack Klugman IS John Brown in this dramatization of the events leading up to his 1859 raid at Harper’s Ferry as well as the raid itself. I wish Tony Randall had been cast as a tidy, persnickety comrade of Brown, but I’m kind of weird. Joel Fluellen, John Wesley and Smoki Whitfield also starred.   

PLAGUE – A look at Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse (Bob Cummings), the American physician who made history by being the first doctor in America to use the smallpox vaccine. He used it on himself, his family and on President Thomas Jefferson (John Dehner) to prove how safe it was to the public. The cast included Ron Howard, Katharine Ross, Gina Gillespie and David Lewis.   

THE PATHFINDER – In 1846, as war with Mexico is approaching, U.S. Army Lieutenant John C. Fremont (Rip Torn), famed as “the pathfinder”, takes a break from exploring California for President James K. Polk. He spends some time visiting wealthy John Sutter (Carroll O’Connor), on whose land gold would be discovered in a few years. Channing Pollock played Kit Carson and David White played Senator Thomas Hart Benton.

THE PRESIDENT VANISHES – A look at what may be the most covert dental appointment in history – President Grover Cleveland’s (Leif Erickson) 1893 surgery to remove a tumor in his mouth. To avoid risking a public panic, Cleveland was secretly operated on aboard a yacht. The dental surgeon preserved the tumor and it was years before the operation was made public. Hope Holiday, John Marley and Barry Sullivan also starred.

THE HENRY BERGH STORY – As a diplomat, Henry Bergh (Brian Keith) meets Great Britain’s founder of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Inspired, he went on a crusade back in America and established the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in 1866. He also founded the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in 1874. Marion Ross and Bernie Hamilton were also in the cast.

KENTUCKY’S BLOODY GROUND – This first part of a two-part episode is set in Kentucky during the Revolutionary War, when the future state was a “Department” of Virginia. Daniel Boone (Peter Graves), after pioneering in the region, goes on to lead his men in defending against an attack by the British-allied Shawnee Indians.

THE SIEGE OF BOONESBOROUGH – The conclusion of the two-parter. As the title indicates, the focus is on the Shawnee siege of Boonesborough in 1778. The cast remained the same, including David McCallum, Ted “DAVEY!” Eccles, Peggy McKay, Laurie Mock and Andrew Duggan.

ESCAPE – One of the most underrated episodes! This deals with the 1864 escape of Union Army prisoners of war from the Confederate Army’s Libby Prison in Virginia during the Civil War. Gets in-depth with many of the details. The cast included Michael Constantine, Sorrell Booke, Sandy Kenyon, Jack Warden and Fritz Weaver.

THE PIRATE AND THE PATRIOT – As the War of 1812 rages, General Andrew Jackson (John Anderson) continues his vengeance quest against the British for everything he lost during the Revolutionary War. He prepares to defend New Orleans, aided by the notorious pirate Jean Lafitte (Ricardo Montalban). Also starring were Ray Kellogg and Wayne Heffley.

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