How We Went Koo-Koo for "Kookie"
Who could have known that a serial killer would become one of TV’s first teen idols?
In the late 1950’s, private eye shows were giving Westerns a real run for their money in prime time. Starting in the summer of 1957, Richard Diamond (created by Blake Edwards) made the jump from radio to television and did pretty well.
In the fall of 1958, two “imitation Diamonds” hit the air: Peter Gunn (also created by Edwards) and 77 Sunset Strip (created by Roy Huggins). Both were smash hits.
Huggins had intended his series to be hard-boiled, centering on former military intelligence officer Stu Bailey (Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.). However, viewer reaction to a serial killer in the pilot soon sent the series in a radically different direction.
A young unknown actor named Edd Byrnes had been cast as a hair-combing, jive-talking bad guy named Gerald Lloyd Kookson, III in that first episode. A serial killer, in fact. But his hipster manner was an instant hit with preview audiences. So the studio quickly created a regular part for the actor and opened the series’ second episode with a little monologue from Zimbalist to explain it:
“We previewed this show; and because Edd Byrnes was such a hit, we decided that Kookie and his comb had to be in our series. So this week, we'll just forget that in the pilot he went off to prison to be executed.”
That, as they say, was that. Instead of the gas chamber, Kookie wound up parking cars at the pizza joint next to 77 Sunset Strip – a little place called “Dino’s Lodge,” a real location in Southern California, owned by none other than Dean Martin, who happily allowed the studio to give his place a huge free plug every week.
Although the show was supposed to be about private eyes Stu Baily (Zimbalist) and Jeff Spencer (Roger Smith), Kookie’s appeal (especially to those of us under 20) quickly made him the show’s most popular character.
Not only was Kookie the very personification of cool, but he also didn’t temper his demeanor or his hipster talk around anyone. You either dug him or you were left clueless, Dad. For most people our age, it gave us a glimpse of how we could be different, yet still be confident and successful.
At the show’s height, Brynes was receiving 15,000 pieces of fan mail a week, rivaling most rock stars. He staged a successful holdout in the show’s second season, demanding more money and a bigger part. The studio caved rather quickly and soon Kookie began helping Bailey & Spencer solve their cases, quite often getting involved in the series’ obligatory fight scenes.
To capitalize on the character’s popularity, Warner Brothers sent Byrnes into the recording studio with another of their budding teen idols, Connie Stevens, to record the deathless classic, “Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb.”
The song – well, it’s hard to really call it a song. It consists mainly of Byrnes talking his usual hipster patter (“I’ve got smog in my noggin”) while Stevens tries to pry the ever-present comb from his hand. (“You’re the very utmost!”)
It was the right piece of fluff in the right place at the right time as it went all the way to #4 on Billboard’s Hot 100 in 1959.
Ultimately, Kookie’s character matured. He joined the Sunset Strip firm as a full-time private investigator, but it did Byrnes no favors in the long run.
Because he was under contract to Warner, Byrnes had to turn down parts in Ocean’s 11, Rio Bravo, and The Longest Day. By the time he got out of his contract, he had been forever typecast and his film career never developed.
Byrnes did make a brief comeback in 1978 when producers cannily cast him as disc jockey Vince Fontaine (“The Main Brain”) in the film version of Grease. He was one of several 1950’s icons who appeared in that film.
77 Sunset Strip gave us a glimpse of many future TV stars (Mary Tyler Moore, Adam West, Tuesday Weld, Jim Backus and others. Plus, the show featured a very high caliber of writing, including authorized adaptations of Strangers on a Train and Dial M for Murder).
But shining above it all is the original “too-cool-for-school” persona of television’s first and still greatest hipster, Gerald Lloyd Kookson, III a.k.a. “Kookie.”
More than sixty years later, he’s still “the ginchiest!”
