Radio-TV mirror (Jan-June 1954)

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I didn't realize this until later. All I knew was that, all at once, I was playing to three or four customers. I wasn't very funny. Even if I had been, it wouldn't have counted. Empty chairs can't laugh. "I came back to New York. Came home. I'm no good, I brooded, I have no talent. I'm through. I'm dead. "That's the kind of thing I was thinking during that all-time low of my life. I had to live and learn — learn the simplest facts of life, the ABC's of a constructive philosophy. The cloud I'd been living under had to have a silver lining. Somewhere within me I had to find a spark of the faith and spirit that had carried my dad through troubles far greater than mine. And, as soon as I began to find that spark of faith, things began to happen. "Leon, of Leon & Eddie's famous New York night club turned out to be my 'silver lining.' Leon sent for me. He said: 'Eddie Davis has just gone into the hospital for an operation. We need someone in here to make the customers laugh. I saw you at the Hurricane last month and I think those guys were nuts to let you go. I think you're great. Come in here and you're going to be a hit!' " Jan went in there, stayed eight weeks, and was a smash! The smash produced the kind of repercussion such smashes usually do, At the end of the spectacular eight weeks, Jan was booked into Loew's State Theatre. Then the Paramount management said, "Hey, let's get this guy!" Since then, Jan has played virtually every top spot in the country and has been hailed as as an expert and polished monologist, a wit, a wag, a laughmaker extraordinaire. But the real high point of Jan's life came four years ago, when he and Toni were married. "It was during the war years, iri 1943, that I first saw Toni," Jan said, and happiness glowed in his face as he spoke. "I met her when she was a glamour girl, who'd been described as 'America's most beautiful show girl,' at the Copacabana here in New York. I walked in there one night with some friends. One of the friends knew Toni, introduced us, and we danced. As we were dancing, I asked Toni if I could see her again. She didn't say no. But practically the next day I went overseas, sooner than I'd expected, with the USO. I was gone for more than a year. When I came back, I opened at the Copa. Toni was still there. That was it! We both knew it. But — because of my first marriage, which had failed but was not legally ended — there was nothing we could do about it but wait. We waited. For five years. During those years, Toni stood by. She was wonderful. "We were married in Washington, D. C, which is Toni's home town," Jan told me. "I was appearing there at the Capitol Theatre. When the All Clear sounded, so to speak, we streaked off to a Justice of the Peace like lightning. To get married — never mind where, or how, or what we were wearing — that was the thing!" In the past three years, Jan has been the sparkling emcee of such high-rating radio and TV shows as Songs For Sale, Sing It Again, Go Lucky, Meet Your Match, and Blind Date. And then, in the autumn of 1953, along came Dollar A Second. It was adapted from France's most popular radio-TV quiz, Hundred Francs A Second, which was invented and popularized by Jean Vital, the Arthur Godfrey of France. The American version is budgeted at a cost of $2,000,000 for a 26-week period. Jan hopes, with all his eager heart, that to this 26-week period there will be no period. "I'm having more fun with this," Jan said, "than anything I've ever done in my life. Before TV, I lived or died by what I, myself, did with an audience. But here's a whole show, a mixture of many talents. It's fun to do. Most of my ingenuity now goes into developing gimmicks. "For instance, there are the chance elements which are involved — the time a plane lands at La Guardia, or a baby is born in a certain hospital, or a car passes through the Lincoln tunnel. These are all real happenings, and selecting such events is a challenge in itself, for they must have both suspense and originality. And then there are the stunts which contestants perform, when they've missed an answer to a question but still want to stay on stage earning a dollar a second. "On this show, I'm of more value behind the scenes, creating these gimmicks, than I am on camera — and I love it! I eagerly look forward to the writing sessions. And I can't wait to get home, where, with Toni's help, I pre-test the stunts I use on the program. These shenanigans, hometested to make sure they will 'play' before a studio audience, include such stunts as getting Toni to carry a tray of dishes while balancing a glass of water on her head, or whirling a hoop in each hand in opposite directions at the same time. Sunday nights, Toni comes in to town, we have dinner together, and she watches the show. "Of all the things I've ever done on TV," Jan said, "this is the most satisfying. In addition, I'm deeply grateful to TV for $1,000.00 REWARD ... is offered for information leading to the arrest of dangerous "wanted" criminals. Hear details about the $1,000.00 reward on . . . TRUE DETECTIVE MYSTERIES Every Sunday Afternoon on MUTUAL Stations Be sure to read that TD Special — a double-length feature — "The Corpse Could Swim" — an exciting headline case — in TRUE DETECTIVE magazine on sale at newsstands now.