‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’ — and Valley Stream

Those international spies, Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin, are back this week battling nefarious evildoers in the new film “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,” which opens Friday.

It is amazing to realize that the original television series (1964-1968) upon which it is based once helped generate headline news right here in Valley Stream.

It should be noted that at the height of its greatest success, “U.N.C.L.E.” was nearly as popular as The Beatles. In fact, Robert Vaughn, who starred in the original series as Solo, with David McCallum as Kuryakin, once said that when The Beatles were asked what celebrities they wanted to meet during one of their first trips to America, the stars of U.N.C.L.E. were at the top of their list. The duo was also a mainstay of the era’s teen heartthrob magazines.

Today, McCallum is known to an entirely new generation as Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard on “N.C.I.S.,” which debuted in 2003. Vaughn has spent his recent years starring in a variety of film, theater and television projects, including the British series “Hustle,” which aired here on A&E, and most recently in a West End, London staging of “12 Angry Men.”

It was McCallum who brought “U.N.C.L.E.”-mania to the South Shore. He began dating model and actress, and Cedarhurst native, Katherine Carpenter in 1966. He met her during a photo shoot for Glamour magazine. During the second week of September in 1967, word spread throughout Valley Stream and neighboring communities that one of the men from “U.N.C.L.E.” was about to be married in a local church.

Despite efforts to keep the event secret, by 2 p.m. on Saturday, Sept.16, 1967 at least 2,000 teenagers — and some of their parents — filled the sidewalks at the Lutheran Church of Our Savior, at Rockaway and Dubois Avenues, according to local newspaper accounts. Police held the crowd back with barricades and rope.

During the service, a few young men attempted to climb the church’s walls.

After the wedding, the McCallums made it to their limousine without incident, although some teens broke through the lines to temporarily surround the car before police were able to restore decorum. When Robert Vaughn appeared at the church’s doors, the police had to form a “flying wedge” of at least fifteen officers to safely escort him and his girlfriend, Hollywood’s Joyce Jameson. With the assistance of Valley Stream’s fire department and the auxiliary police, officers were soon able to clear the boulevard.

This Autumn, the McCallums will be celebrating their forty-eighth anniversary.

James H. Burns is a writer and actor living in Franklin Square.