Articles and Interviews on Even Stones Have Eyes

For various reasons this is one of my favourite Route 66 episodes. See my analysis and screencapping of the episode here for more.

So here are a couple of newspaper articles and internet interviews on the subject.

An extract from an online interview on Route 66 News - 

One episode that stood out for Maharis was “Even Stones Have Eyes,” where Buz is temporarily blinded in an accident. For that shoot, Maharis wore special contact lenses that reduced his vision.

“I had the contact lenses made because it’s tough to fake blindness in such a short time,” he explained. “We didn’t have enough time (in the production schedule) to do it. So I figured the best thing to do was have a pair of lenses put into my eyes so you don’t have to fake it. I went to (a doctor) and said, ‘I want contact lenses that are opaque. I need to see something, but not a lot.’”

It's well worth reading the whole article, and the comments too, one of which relates to Even Stones Have Eyes - 

"My Mom, Dad and I just watched the Even the Stones Have Eyes. We were amazed. My Mom and Dad worked at the Texas Lions Camp as a newly married couple and brought me home as a baby to the camp where we lived while they worked – just before this episode was filmed. My Mom and Dad knew all of the persons in the episode personally with the exception of the 2 main characters and the young lady who was the instructor to one of the main characters. They introduced me to the folks on the screen with names I’d heard about all my life. It was a very powerful experience for my Dad and Mom who knew these wonderful people so well. It was a special walk down memory lane where they were transported back to that special time in their lives with those very special people who meant so much to them. As the episode played, my Mom and Dad reminisced about each of the people pictured and indicated that most had passed away. It was a bittersweet moment. What an amazing coincidence it was to come across this episode with no knowledge of where it was filmed or who it portrayed. One of God’s little miracles!"

Here is a rather frustrating snippet from a pay-per-view article from the Boston Globe that I can't access -

Boston Globe - Mar 25, 1962

4 PM, Crowded Hour Today Everywhere

‎

Friday-George Maharis plays a blind man in "Route 66." To insure realistic portrayal, Maharis wore opaque contact lenses for two hours daily weeks before the filming, taking the bumps and everyday humiliations of the

(thanks to a member of the Route 66 facebook group I can now complete this article) -

...taking the bumps and everyday humiliations of the newly blind. “The blind deserve respect for living like normal people. It's a life not easy to get used to,” says he.

The Ohio 66 site has a wonderful 'then and now' comparison here, with photos of the locations in 2009 compared with screenshots from the show.

And here in the New York Times is a little snippet about how George contracted hepatitis - 

Another episode that also involved an icy dip, “Even Stones Have Eyes” from late in Season 2, may be his least favorite, not because of the story but because of the aftermath. The script called for him to dive into a pond to rescue a blind woman.

“The water was like 40 degrees,” he recalled in a telephone interview from his home in Los Angeles. “They couldn’t get my clothes on over the wet suit.” So he went without the wet suit.

“It was 4 in the morning,” he said. “It was freezing. My jacket froze on me. They had to pour hot water on me; you can see it in the shot, the steam rising.”

He became thoroughly ill, and soon he found himself with hepatitis (later linked to a B12 shot, Mr. Maharis said). Though he continued to appear into Season 3, he said the lingering illness ultimately knocked him out of the series. Mr. Milner went on alone for a time, then acquired a new partner played by Glenn Corbett, but the show was never quite as strong.

“If I had it to do all over again, the only thing I’d change would be getting that bug,” Mr. Maharis said.

The supposition that this was his least favourite episode is untrue, however. Here, in an article transcribed from Corvette Quarterly, Summer 1990, George is quite clear on the matter - 

CQ: Do you have a favorite episode of "Route 66"? 

Maharis: Yeah, I think "Even Stones Have Eyes," where I was blind, was always really a nice one for me. The other favorite of mine, simply because my family was in it, was "The Mud Nest." My sister, Pat, and my two brothers, Bob and Paul, were in it, because it was about me trying to find my mother.

A little more on that pond-diving scene, and the hepatitis, from the Seattle Times - 

Q: Can you clear up once and for all why you left the show?

A: Because of hepatitis. When I was in Austin, Texas, I think it was, we were filming a thing with Barbara Barrie where I had to go into the river and get her, and we had shot some of it in the afternoon, and then at four o'clock in the morning we had three shots to do. And it was 40 degrees outside, and the water was colder. They had a wet suit for her and a wet suit for me. They put her wet suit on and put the trench coat over her, which matched the scene before. And then when I put the wet suit on, I couldn't get my trousers on over it, I couldn't get my jacket on over it. And we had to match the shot. The stuntman couldn't go in the water, it was too cold. So they asked me if I would do it, which I did. And while we were waiting to get the last two shots, my jacket actually froze on me, so they poured some hot water on me — it's all on tape, you can see it. And then they got worried about me, and at six o'clock in the morning they sent a doctor over who gave me a shot of B-12, and stupidly, I knew he wasn't using disposable needles but I thought they were OK, but they weren't. I got hepatitis.

A promo from the episode with Barbara Barrie as Celia, showing Buz a tactile map of the camp.