Young Peter

I have finally become one of those silly people who bid for things on ebay that they don't need. I am rather gutted that due to a stressful evening I missed out on some clippings of Peter Graves with his baby (I really wanted to see them :-() but I did get a little three page article from a TV guide with pictures from his and James Arness's childhood. So here they are, the article and the extracted photos.

'On the stage, it was the Booths and the Barrymores; in the movies, Olivia de Havilland and her sister Joan Fontaine. Television's first family is undoubtedly James Arness of Gunsmoke and his brother, Peter Graves of Mission: Impossible. Here are some snapshots from their family album. Above, 5-year-old Jim and a 2-year-old Pete with their paternal grandparents, Dr. and Mrs. Peter Aurness. For more pictures, turn the page.'

'During the summer of 1928, the Aurness family went to Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota, where Jim and Pete had their picture taken on the beach (center). Usually, though, their parents rented a cottage on an island in Ox Lake, 130 miles north of their Minneapolis home, where 12-year-old Pete practiced with his .22 rifle (far left). The dock at Ox Lake was taken away by the ice every winter and had to be collected and reassembled. Here (bottom, far left) 16 year old Jim, already tall, stands at the center of the dock with 13-year-old Pete, their dog Lucky and their cousin Patsy.'

 'By the following summer, Pete had done some growing too (bottom, this page). In later 1944, Pete enlisted in the Army Air Corps and Jim was home on leave after being wounded at Anzio. Here (left, above) they tower over their proud mother.'

Just to keep them all in the same place, here are some of the other pictures I have found of young Peter in the past.

James Aurness age 2, and his mother Ruth Aurness, possibly pregnant with Peter.

James Aurness, Peter Aurness and family. 1936.

Supposedly Peter performing in Dreamplay in 1948 at the University of Minnesota 

Apparently this is Peter performing in The Wild Duck in 1947-8 at the University of Minnesota.

Peter Graves and James Arness.

Brothers

Further to my 1947-squee, I just found a wartime photo of Peter Graves and James Arness (i.e. Peter and James Aurness) together in uniform, so this seems a good time to post the few photos I have of them together. I'm intrigued by James Arness. I don't find him attractive, but Wikipedia makes him sound pretty interesting, especially his wartime service record. They're putting Gunsmoke on tv here pretty soon, so I might watch that and see what my brain does to me...

Anyhow, on to the photos. (please slap me if this blog starts to seem stalkery - I'm not stalkery, just mildly obsessive.) [EDIT: I just found a few more photos in James Arness's autobiography. I want to read this book. It looks interesting! Oh god, I am a stalker... (edit again - and so, I bought the Kindle edition. Damn.]

This is as early as they get, when Peter's mother was probably pregnant. Aside from anything else, this is just a beautiful photo. I love photos of this era. Her clothes, her hair, the graceful curve of her arm (reminds me a little of Modigliani paintings), and she is just so beautiful. Sigh...

This one is quite squeesome. Little Peter and his aeroplane are exceptionally cute.

Young Peter and James. I'm not so stalkery that I find teenage boys in swimming trunks attractive, but it is interesting.

Wartime photo, apparently of autumn 1944, while James is recovering from his foot injury. And now Peter is old enough that I can find him attractive. Hot damn... And that's not a phrase I've used before. I also love this because this is just how he would look playing the character of Ed in the book I've just written.

Peter directing Gunsmoke. He was about to be contracted to direct more when he was called up for the IMF. How I would love to see the episode with director's commentary!

Peter, James - and I'm assuming this is their dad. Aww :-)

This blog has some stuff on what may or may not have been their childhood home - the comments are more illuminating than the article!