MovieChat Forums > Perry Mason (1957) Discussion > TCOT Jilted Jockey

TCOT Jilted Jockey

posted 8 years ago by jamesbwill
5 replies | jump to latest

This will be the evening episode tonight.

It features Billy Pearson as Perry's client, jockey Tic Barton. Billy Pearson was an actual jockey so he was quite well suited to his role. He was also a self-taught expert in art and artists. In 1956, Billy won $170,000 on the TV quiz show, The $64,000 Question. The category he selected for his questions was artwork. As a jockey who was also an art expert winning big money on TV, Billy became a national celebrity and this led to his going to Hollywood for a few movie and TV appearances, including Perry Mason.

He may not have been much of an actor, but I always really like seeing Billy Pearson in this episode. 

[–] DontBogartMe 8 years ago

I checked out Pearson out on Wikipedia (which is not always accurate but close enuff). He won all that money on a fixed quiz show, wanted to see if he was implicated in fixing horse races. No mention of that. But at the time of Mason, he did star in a pilot of a TV show based on another ESG book series written under his A.A. Fair nom de plume.
Pearson also was wed 6 times.

[–] lawson14 8 years ago

Married six times!! So he might have been jilted in real life.

[–] DontBogartMe 8 years ago

Could he have lied about his height...and when each found out...?

[–] indy_go_blue44 8 years ago

Wasn't short Mickey Rooney married 4 or 5 times? Maybe these poor guys came up short in another department?

[–] DontBogartMe 8 years ago

More like 7 or 8 times. Saw the Mick near the end in concert along with a Big Mama saloon singer. Turned out she was his last wife. He never learned his lesson. Even that marriage ended in an acrimonious separation while in his 90s.