Young Gomez
When Gomer Pyle was on TV in Australia, another fabulous US series I loved, The Addams Family, was on children’s television in a regular cycle of repeats. John Astin as Gomez was a big favourite of mine.
This strip of photos was found on New Year’s Day, 2003, at Leicester Station. I was living in that U.K. city at the time. While this guy doesn’t really look like the head of the Addams family, either in the sitcom or the New Yorker cartoon versions, there is something good-naturedly creepy about him. I think he could be Gomez in his pre-moustachioed youth. His funereal black jacket and blood-red tie add to his modern ghoulish style. I love the gormless look on his face and his spidery uneven fringe, which is reminiscent of Pugsley Addams (below) of the TV series, too.
A description of Gomez as a young man, in the episode Morticia’s Romance, was of a perennially sickly youth who gained perfect health only after meeting Morticia. This guy’s pasty, sun-starved complexion, agrees with that description and adds to the Addams Family appeal of this strip of photos.
I am feeling the Addams family here for sure. Great strip!
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Thanks Marianne! You sure were fast off the mark!
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I passed through Leicester Station several times in the autumn of 2007, and feel sure I noticed the photobooth there. Thank goodness I didn’t pause for a quick photo, and then get called away suddenly, or you might have a strip of me in your collection.
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Stranger things have happened Brett!
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Hi Brett
Just remembered to read the Photomatic link you sent me. I love the 1968 pic of your dad! South Africa, too! You must have been so thrilled to discover it in your family archive.
It was funny reading that a Margaret Parkes sent you the branded photomatics from Wellington. Margaret Parkes was my mum’s maiden name.
The large set that you mentioned at the end of the article was auctioned on eBay less than a year before the article you quoted was published. Whoever was the buyer, didn’t waste time getting them exhibited. I bid up as high as I could go and didn’t lose out by much in the end, sadly. I guess you will now know that the family of the subject came forward. It was obvious to me that it was the owner of the booth doing test photos when I first saw the collection, and that was confirmed. I have some test photos in my collection but out of respect for the wife of the owner, who doesn’t want them published, I have not written about them.
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Yes I think I read the story about the man being identified, and I guessed that too. Not much chance of there being another “Katherine” around 😉
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He he. I’ll take that as a compliment! 😊😊
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love the Adams family
Great post
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Thanks Sheldon. Very nice of you to comment!
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I am also a big Addams Family fan and still watch the reruns on TV. This fellow does look a bit like a young Gomez and could be his grandson, Pugsley’s son?
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Yes, that is it! Pugsley’s son! ❤❤❤
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Then again it could be Wednesday’s son, as the rhyme goes “Wednesday’s Child is full of Woe” and he looks a little “woe-ish.”
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He he he! Woe-ish indeed. Your quote is apt as the character Wednesday was named specifically for the line in that poem. Apparently they also thought it funny given Tuesday Weld was a popular actress at the time.
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Wow, that’s a pretty good analysis of this strip, maybe not the version that guy would like to hear. Clever tie-in to the Adams Family.
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Hey there Ted! ❤Your comment made me laugh as I thought of that same thing while writing the post. “What if he sees this?!”.😱I wouldn’t ever like to offend someone. If he saw it I would have to say, but I LOVE Gomez!!
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I know it’s a bit off the Adams family thread, but it’s amazing to me how close the 2nd and 3rd images are. Is it my imagination, or is there just the hint of a smile forming on image 3?
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Hey John. You are so right! There is definitely a twitch upwards. I think he would be an affable lad if we were to meet him.
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“Gormless” … what a great word!
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He he he. One of my faves and not a word that has frequent appropriate situations in which to use it, sadly. Another I love is po-faced, especially used in conjunction with ‘git’. 😁
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Good-naturedly creepy, indeed! Lol. He also looks a bit Transylvanian Vampire-ish to me.
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He he he, yes, vampiric! I hadn’t thought of that, Rose!
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I like that- “good- naturedly creepy!!!
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He he he, but he is!! Didn’t you go out with a boy just like that when you were a teenager? Most teenage boys could be described that way at least some of the time. 😅
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probably a couple!! 😀
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Me too! 😊
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