TV Radio Mirror (Jan - Jun 1961)

chicken fat." And Groucho Marx called David Susskind "this phony New York intellectual." Unlike Curtis, Marx was someone Susskind did want to meet. "After Groucho blasted me," he recalls, "1 phoned him and invited him for lunch. We became very good friends. He's a wit, a cultivated man, a seeker of knowledge." During a recent interview in his Madison Avenue office, Susskind expressed a more sympathetic attitude toward the film capital. "Hollywood is going through an agonizing period. To be successful today, movies must be truly tailor-made and urgent. The movie habit is over. When someone leaves the comfort of his home today to go to a movie theater, the film must be compelling, inspired, something different from what can be seen on television. "It doesn't surprise me that 'Alamo' — a twelve-million-dollar Western — was a box-office flop. We've been Westerned to death on television. For the same reason, I wouldn't want to produce a private-eye movie. When you come right down to it, the movie -going public is no longer attracted by pfiffle. There's already too much pfiffle on television. And that they can get for free. "Movie producers used to say, 'Get me Gary Cooper or Marlon Brando on the phone,' and then they'd sit back with no worries. That day is over. The story is the big thing today. Once you get a good story, add marquee names if you can — but the story itself is the most important. People won't go to see Cooper or Brando in a bad movie." Never one to undersell his own ability, Susskind believes that, in "A Raisin in the Sun," he made the kind of movie that will enhance the quality of motion picture fare. "I'm doing work that gives me pride and satisfaction," he says. "I'm a rebel against the status quo." He himself expects to follow up "A Raisin in the Sun" with a double exposure of Rod Serling's award-winning television drama, "Requiem for a Heavyweight." He says, "Ralph Nelson and I are going to produce 'Requiem' on Broadway and make a movie of it at the same time, with the same cast. It will be the first time anything like this has been attempted. "We plan to start rehearsals for the play in August, open it on Broadway in October, and start shooting the movie in November." At forty, Susskind is still a young man in a hurry. After graduation — cum laude — from Harvard in 1942, he served a few months as an economist for the War Labor Board, and then entered the Navy. Upon his discharge, he took a job for $50 a week as a studio press agent in Hollywood. After learning the ropes of show business, Susskind and Al Levy, a talent agent, joined forces and became producers in their own right under the name of Talent Associates, Ltd., which has since become one of the best known and most active of all television production firms. It anticipates a gross of forty-two million dollars for the 1960-61 TV season alone. Susskind was a behind-the-scenes figure until the fall of 1958, when he became moderator of Open End on an independent station, WNTA-TV, in the New York area. Within a few weeks, Susskind became a "name" as a performer, and requests for syndication of Open End began arriving at WNTA from other stations throughout the country. It is now seen in a number of cities from Maine to California. Open End — so-called because there is no set time at which the program must come to a close — has made an impact everywhere it's heard and seen. From the very beginning, Susskind and his guests have discussed subjects which are not common fodder for television conversation and which often lead to disagreement and lively debate. Replying to critics that he provokes too much vitriolic argument among his Open End guests, Susskind explains: "Such a show, with a lot of fellows sitting around bleating about nothing but sweetness and light, would become the most stupid affair imaginable. 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