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Not A Number
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jack
Dec 30, 2012, 8:48:15 AM12/30/12
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The book by author Rupert Booth titled Not A Number, an attempt at
biography about Patrick McGoohan, is interesting and informative, up
to a point. When the book follows interviews given by McGoohan the
book flows rather well but when the author makes speculative
statements the content goes far afield and even slanders his subject
at some points.
One example is the author noting McGoohan's self admitted drinking and
then a leap to the conclusion that McGoohan experimented with drugs
based on a quote from Ernest Borgnine that McGoohan was "high" on the
set of Ice Station Zebra. The term "high",used by Borgnine was used to
once describe himself as happy in a new marriage he was in. Equally
McGoohan was noted as happy to be working on ISZ as the studio had
provided that his family could be with him for his tenure of the
shoot. Borgnine was commenting on McGoohan enjoying his work, not an
allusion to drug use.
It is interesting that Booth notes that Georg Gustav Markstein-
Herschdorfer under the George Markstein pen name may have contributed
nothing to origins of The Prisoner (other than the name) as McGoohan
had already outlined the themes of the series in a 1965 interview,
long before Herschdorfer's limited (single episode) time as script
editor on the Danger Man series.
biography about Patrick McGoohan, is interesting and informative, up
to a point. When the book follows interviews given by McGoohan the
book flows rather well but when the author makes speculative
statements the content goes far afield and even slanders his subject
at some points.
One example is the author noting McGoohan's self admitted drinking and
then a leap to the conclusion that McGoohan experimented with drugs
based on a quote from Ernest Borgnine that McGoohan was "high" on the
set of Ice Station Zebra. The term "high",used by Borgnine was used to
once describe himself as happy in a new marriage he was in. Equally
McGoohan was noted as happy to be working on ISZ as the studio had
provided that his family could be with him for his tenure of the
shoot. Borgnine was commenting on McGoohan enjoying his work, not an
allusion to drug use.
It is interesting that Booth notes that Georg Gustav Markstein-
Herschdorfer under the George Markstein pen name may have contributed
nothing to origins of The Prisoner (other than the name) as McGoohan
had already outlined the themes of the series in a 1965 interview,
long before Herschdorfer's limited (single episode) time as script
editor on the Danger Man series.
Dick Spanner
Oct 21, 2017, 1:43:23 AM10/21/17
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