Julian Claman was a man who wore many hats, including that of war correspondent, press agent, actor, playwright and novelist. Here, he’s being interviewed in his role as a TV producer. “Hotel de Paree” was a western that ran on CBS. Claman died in 1969.

This column was originally published on Oct. 23, 1959.

Anybody want to sponsor a weekly dramatic show on TV with a Houston setting?

Out in Hollywood there’s a high-quality show, in pilot film, locked up in cans in a vault. It’s called “I’m a Lawyer,” and it was produced by Julian Claman, who created the successful “Hotel de Paree.”

“I’m a Lawyer” was filmed, basically, in Houston without much local encouragement, last spring.

Nobody wanted it, says Claman, who is halfway through a one-year leave of absence from CBS with pay, with “Hotel de Paree” to his most recent credit.

He’s spending the leave, quite appropriately, in a hotel in Paris.

***

“I can’t explain why nobody wanted the show,” he says. “I think it was a better piece of work than a number of pilots I’ve produced and sold. Of course, that’s not necessarily a test of quality -- nor of anything else. The fact remains that the show is on the shelf.”

The “Hotel de Paree” show which Claman made with Earl Holliman, sold right away, the producer said.

“I’ll see you when I get back,” he promised, “because I agree with you about Houston.”

***

What I had said about Houston was that this city ought to make a marvelous locale for a teleserial. Better, in fact, than New Orleans, I argued. Yet among the new fall shows is one called “Bourbon Street Beat,” that alleges to be set in New Orleans.

New Orleans is a wonderful town, bearing little resemblance to the sets and locations in that show. All of the principal characters talk, look and act like Yankees. I have not yet seen a single Cajun in the show, even as a walkon. They do have the policeman going around in white shirtsleeves, and two of the females have Texas (not Louisiana) drawls. But that’s about all the local flavor the opus has been able to find in the Paris of America.

***

There’s a saying among seafaring men that you can tell a man’s true age by asking him how he likes New Orleans. If he says it’s an interesting town, he’s passe, fini. If he says it’s a wonderful town, he’s still vivant. See above.

But our town, this little old Heavenly Houston, is more than just wonderful. It’s new, brash, nervous, noisy, rich, hustling, amorphous, kinetic, big, rough, careless, unsophisticated and charged with an apparently inexhaustible vitality. We’ve got everything a city ought to have: MONEY, oil, salt water, tradition, MONEY, an expanding economy and MONEY.

***

Besides that, Houston has something that New Orleans, no matter how wonderful she may be, no matter how beat Bourbon Street is, can never match.

Houston has Texas. New Orleans has only Louisiana.

That’s what I told Julian Claman when he was here last spring. That, story-wise, Texas has everything that all of the other states combined have in the way of dramatic scene, background, action and flavor. And Houston, being the metropolis of this state of states, is a great story town. So I argued.

The producer agreed.

The sponsors didn’t care for “I’m a Lawyer.” But, as Claman says, that’s no test of quality. I hope he’ll have the audacity to try again with a Houston-laid teleserial. And maybe call it, “I’m a Reporter.” Or, “I’m a Lease Hound.” Or, “The Roughneck.” Something like that.