Category: Jon Provost

Jon Provost on CBS Early Show

Don’t miss Jon Provost tomorrow, on The Early Show. I’ll set my FiOS DVR for you, just in case. No need to guess when — 8:40 am ET on CBS.

If you want to get a real sense of what the social changes in America were like, going from the staid 50’s to the swinging 60’s, John’s fabulous autobiography, written with his wife Laurie Jacobson, Timmy’s In The Well, is the place to get it. You’ll also get to know a whole lot about Jon, including the good stuff about growing up in Hollywood.

Jon recently lent his name to the worthy cause called the New Child Actor’s Guild.

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On a personal note, Jon was very supportive and helpful not long ago with a difficult situation we were having next door. I’m happy to say we no longer have that problem. Thanks, Jon!

Jon Provost’s Graceful Movie Mom

Nobody ever says just the name “Lassie”, do they? Doesn’t everybody who’s old enough to know the TV show say “Timmy and Lassie”?

Jon Provost says he has no problem with the idea that he played second fiddle to a dog, but once he was on board the series he was the star. Tommy Rettig was great playing Jeff, Lassie’s previous owner, but the character Timmy has achieved the status of a pop culture icon.

I’ve featured Provost several times here, and I highly recommend his tell-all book, Timmy’s In The Well. The Daily Breeze, out in L.A., CA way, has a good, concise article about Jon that I’ll link to right here.

The article mentions that Provost is in The Country Girl with Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly. Of the movie, Jon says, “At ease with grown-ups, I struck up a conversation with Mr. Crosby while we waited for technicians to light the set. Whatever I said made him laugh. “Say, this kid ad libs better than Bob Hope!”” And here Jon is, in “The Country Girl.”

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Great death scene, Jon. Hey, I’ve met somebody who met Grace Kelly. And she was no dog!

Jon Provost’s Well-Told Tale

Timmy’s In The Well, Jon Provost’s autobiography, written with his wife Laurie Jacobson, is an amazing accomplishment. If you ever watched Jon as Timmy Martin in Lassie, you must get this book. Click here to see a complete episode of Lassie with Jon.

Jon Provost - Timmy's In The Well

This is not a book for kids. Provost vividly evokes the sweeping social changes in America in the staid 50’s, through the psychedelic 60’s, and beyond. This is a real insider’s view of growing up in Hollywood, with many revelations about the life of a TV child star. All of the wild fun, the hard work, and the bitter pain, is told matter-of-factly, with total honesty and utter sincerity. There are many quotes and comments from colleagues and friends in the entertainment business, and although the photos are small, there are a lot of them, conveniently integrated into the text.

Jon Provost is appearing today at Canine Companions for Independence in Santa Rosa, California, where he lives. Santa Rosa is also home to the Charles M. Schulz Museum. Schulz’s widow Jeannie is a board member of Canine Companions for Independence.

Canine Companions for Independence

Christmas With Timmy And Lassie

Last month I had the pleasure of meeting Jon Provost of Lassie fame. Jon’s autobiography, Timmy’s In The Well is out, although I haven’t received my copy yet.

If you aren’t familiar with Lassie from the Provost years, here’s a complete show. “The Christmas Story,” from December 21, 1958. Great stuff. Note: I picked that preview frame because that car is the same Ford Country Squire wagon we had.
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June Lockhart’s TV Sons

Today, in Springfield MA, I met Jon Provost and Bill Mumy. They were separated by the Connecticut River — Jon was on the west side and Bill on the east, at two very different events. Jon was appearing at the World of Pets, and Bill was at the United Fan Con. What they have in common is June Lockhart was their mother on TV — Jon as Timmy Martin on ‘Lassie’, and Bill as Will Robinson on ‘Lost In Space’.

Jon Provost and June LockhartBill Mumy and June Lockhart

Bill Mumy shares a distinction with another former child actor — Jerry Mathers, from ‘Leave It To Beaver’. They were both directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Bill was in ‘Bang! You’re Dead’, one of the most famous installments of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and one of the few that the master himself directed. Mathers was in Hitchcock’s film ‘The Trouble With Harry’.

I can honestly say that I liked all of these guys when I watched them on TV as a kid. I’ve never had a chance to see Mathers in person, but I was thoroughly impressed by Provost and Mumy. They’re both very smart guys, as nice as anybody could ever be, and as good at listening as they are at speaking; but, then, I guess that makes sense, given their training and experience, starting at such an early age. Or maybe it comes from having June Lockhart as their TV mom!

Timmy's In The WellA while ago I posted an item about Jon Provost, whose autobiography, Timmy’s In The Well, will be out soon. Timmy was never in the well on TV, so I was pleased to show Jon the one piece of physical evidence I know of that Timmy, in cartoon form, was briefly in a well, and he was nice enough to sign it for me. Here I am today, with Jon Provost.

Jon Provost and DOuG pRATt

Bill Mumy has always been very much into music, and is a musician himself. He’s very, very good. Hear for yourself by playing the Mumy Jukebox. For a while he was in the band America. Mumy has a wide selection of great music available, and I bought his latest CD.

Bill Mumy - The Landlord or the Guest

It was a fun day! Eric got to see somebody as well, and I’m hoping to post something about that later.

Timmy’s in the Well: The Jon Provost Story

Timmy's In The Well, by Jon Provost

Unless you subscribe to the RSS feed for this blog’s comments, you may not have noticed a follow-up to my “Timmy In The Well” post.

Hi,

I thought you might like this video. You are correct that Jon Provost (Timmy) was never in the well. The joke became so well known that he has named his new book “Timmy’s in the Well”. The book will be out mid-November.

http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=894543076

Thx,
Bonnie Vent
Genesis Creations Entertainment
www.genesiscreations.biz

The video is from The O’Reilly Factor, but despite Bill O’Reilly I can recommend watching the segment, because Jon is interesting. Something that I didn’t know, and in fact joked about in my previous post, is that Lassie really did have a stunt double! I’ll embed the video here.

Jon’s Web site is here. The book can be ordered here from Amazon.com.

I hope copies of the book will be available in time for Provost’s appearance in West Springfield, MA on November 2-4, because I’m hoping to see him there to say hi. I’d like to give Jon the Give-a-Show slide that I scanned and posted, now that it’s confirmed he never fell into a well, playing Timmy Martin on Lassie.