our interest in glenn corbett dates back to 1963 when he replaced the "ailing" george maharis on the cbs series route 66 near the end of the third season. of course, even before corbett turned up on the program as a vietnam vet from houston, route 66 had been must-see-tv for a lot of us simply because of the weekly guest star list, which tended to feature people like tuesday weld, anne francis, suzanne pleshette and ralph meeker. in fact, just about every really interesting person in the known universe at some time or other turned up as a guest star on route 66. ralph meeker actually appeared in two episodes -- a maharis episode and a particularly memorable corbett episode.

starring with martin milner on route 66 would have been enough to confer sainthood on any performer, but glenn corbett's career is interesting for a number of other considerations. for instance, using the name glenn robinson he worked for a while in the mid-1950s as a physique model for bob mizer's legendary athletic model guild based in los angeles. just thumb through a few ancient issues of amg's physique pictorial and you'll find shots of glenn posing and smiling rather confidently in various attire from sailor suits to bikini briefs. in one notable shot he's wearing both an indian headdress and a bikini, which, of course, was once the traditional attire for many native americans. apart from this colorful early stage of his career, glenn also had fairly steady work in film and television throughout the 1960s and 1970s. we'd particularly like to see his debut in 1950's the fireball, which features glenn at about age 16. his co-stars in that film were mickey rooney, pat o'brien, marilyn monroe, beverly tyler and milburn stone! we'd also like to know what glenn was doing in the years between 1950 and 1956. were those the bikini years?