SKY KING's Kirby Grant interview! How he became a TV legend! Out of the blue of the western sky!

Kirby Grant reveals that he didn't want to make westerns in a rare 1977 interview. That's right! TV's most popular flying cowboy, Sky King, would much rather have been singing duets with Deanna Durbin and Gloria Jean. As a Universal Studios contract player in the 1940s, Kirby was cast in a series of musicals. But, when Universal's biggest B western star was bumped to larger budgeted films, Kirby was tapped to replace him. That series paired the Montana born Kirby with sidekick Fuzzy Knight. Kirby never seemed to stop working and later starred in a series of Canadian Mountie films for Monogram. While still at Universal, Kirby was the romantic lead in two films with the studio's biggest money makers, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. The films were "In Society" (1944) and "Comin' Round the Mountain" (1951). But, it was TV's long running hit, "Sky King," with Gloria Winters as his niece Penny King and Ron Hagarthy as Clipper King, that gave Kirby Grant the long lasting fame that so many other actors never achieve. "Sky King" was based on a popular radio series about a wealthy rancher/pilot who owned the Flying Crown Ranch. Grant was also a pilot and early flying enthusiast so he immediately took to the role in the long running CBS Saturday morning series (1951-1965). In the TV series, Sky flew a twin-engine Cessna T-50 Bobcat named "The Songbird." During the show's long run, King's plane was upgraded and he began flying "The Songbird II," a Cessna 310B. Kirby and the series inspired many youngsters to become pilots, even astronauts. Kirby died in a tragic automobile accident October 30, 1985, at the age of 73. He was on his way to watch the Space Shuttle Challenger launch at Cape Canaveral when his car overturned and rolled into a water filled gully. Kirby was born Nov 24, 1911 and died Oct 30, 1985. This 1977 interview was done in Orlando, Florida.
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