Sponsor (Oct-Dec 1962)

We're whompin' up a reeul or fashion hoe-down for y'all at the Holiday Inn Central Bunkhouse . . . better, pack yer saddlebag and head on down to Bee-Ug D Harold Mcden. secretary-Treasurer Broadcasters' Promotion Association, Inc. 213 Kast 4»tli Street New York 17. N'.Y. Hear I'odnnh: I'm attachin' my rlieek for $4(1 as advance registration for the 1962 BPA Seminar in Kit: 'IV. Have them fellers down at the hiinkhniise set U|> hnusekeenin' for me Octoher 2.9-31. Name Station Address <ity State Date ^SPONSOR BACKSTAGE Continued He also used the silent movies he and his crew filmed, to fill out most of the rest of the show with a pictorial presentation, narrated by him, of the PT 109 episode. It is the strongest kind of tribute to Paar's capacity to make a story interesting, suspenseful and exciting that he could take an incident like President Kennedy's wartime adventure, which has had so vast an amount of coverage, and by running a batch of silent film footage (largely of a travelog nature) still make it absorbing, prime time tv. Paar's plus, of course, was having Reg Evans the brave and wiry Australian scout, who saved Kennedy and other members of the group, as well as practically all the still living participants in the adventure on the show in person. These techniques, of course, were originated and refined in the course of the Tonight show. The how-many-successive-spots-make-sense point on the Paar opener came, of course, at the midway mark (10:30) with seven plugs in a row: Ronson, Sam Benedict house pitch, TV Guide spot, Food Fair, Contac, Prestone, and Mogen David wine. Prince Carson's debut For my money NBC could hardly have made a better choice to follow Paar than Johnny Carson. Carson is a seasoned comic emcee, who has handled them all from little old ladies on daytime television to lecherous old fellow comics at Friars' testimonial luncheons. On the opening show he remarked that someone had called him the "new king." He put in a disclaimer to this title, affably developed by his predecessor. "I'm no king," he said. "Prince, maybe, yes, but king, no." At running the show, based on the first three outings, he's at least a Prince. He's got a warm, humorous, ingratiating and sometimes pixieish personality, which wears well. He knows how to handle guests, celebrities and others. He's got a quick and curious mind. And, as I noted up front, he and producer Perry Cross, both being smart showmen, have retained many of the ingredients which were so successful during Paar's time. Having guest Ann Corio teach him the stripper's walk, and stripping to the waist with muscle man Bruce Randall, Mr. Universe, for a riotously funny study in contrasts were right out of the standard Paar approach. Guests on the first three shows included Rudy Vallee, Joan Crawford, Mel Brooks, Tallulah Bankhead, Shelly Berman, Artie Shaw, and Bobby Darin. Carson manages, too, to get the "shockers" and the mildly naughty comment from his guests wherever natural, and/or desirable from the viewpoint of showmanship. Vallee, for example, told about how the producers of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying," Ernie Martin and Cy Feuer, tried to drop him before the show opened; Bobby Darin expressed his candid opinion that most of the fan magazines represented a form of mass degeneracy; and Miss Crawford, during a visit to her apartment by Carson, had asked her poodles whether they wanted to tinkle before she left. Carson thought she was asking him. The Tonight show with Johnny is just about sold out, and my guess is not only that it will stay that way, but that these sponsors are getting themselves a buy. All except those in the six-successive-spots stretch, which on opening night came at midnight: Philco, Chemical Bank of New York, Breakstone Whipped Cream Cheese, Vicks Vaporub and Jamaica Days. How many messages can a viewer absorb at one time? ^ 52 SPONSOR/ 15 October 1962