Screenland Plus TV-Land (Nov 1952 - Oct 1953)

reac ARE WOMEN CRAZIER THAN MEN? [CONTINUED FROM PACE 43] each her. I asked her how she met the man she married, and this is what she had to say: She was driving her car, he was walking along the pavement, and she was backing out of a driveway — and she knocked him down and ran over him. They took him to the hospital, and she felt so badly she visited him. The poor man had been run over both ways, so that he was in plaster cast from his ankles to his neck. She brought him candy, and flowers, and one thing and another. They fell in love, and got married while he was still in the hospital. "Did he ever get out of the cast?" I asked, without thinking. The audience started to laugh, and she retorted, "How do you think I am in this condition?" I shall remember the roar of that audience as long as I live. There were 5,000 people there, and I don't think I've ever been so embarrassed in my whole life — professionally or privately. But it taught me one thing — that when it comes to poise in the most awkward of situations, a woman has it all over the stronger (?) sex! One of the questions I am most frequently asked, "Are women more intelligent than men?" also defies a cut-anddried answer. Out of all the people I've interviewed on "People Are Funny" and "House Party," I've yet to really find out. It all depends, I've discovered, on the subject matter. I believe that women are more easily interviewed, tend to be more extroverted, and are more inclined to tell you their secrets. However, I think that when it comes to the field of the home, family romance and other related subjects, women are more intelligent interviewees. Men, on the other hand, speak best of their work — the various kinds of endeavor that provide the security of the whole family — or the great adventure they've missed in life. In both sexes, a highly intelligent person is often very self-conscious, a less intelligent person the tops in naturalness. Most women tell me what they think their friends think they think! They say things for effect, and they are a little conscious of whatever lack of intelligence, or rather lack of information, they may have. But as women grow older, they begin to realize that everybody doesn't know everything, and you don't have to pretend to be so smart. They tell you then just what they think. But men are different. They stay eternally young — and consequently less communicative! Women are better off-hand talkers. In the course of my work, I have found that women are better able to do any stunts on radio and television than men. Anything that calls for imaginative thinking is their meat, but when it comes to the men, their sense of reserve predomimtes over their talent for make believe, and for inventing a situation. Here's a good example. Suppose I took a woman out of the audience and said, "Now I'm going to interview you, but not as yourself. Let's pretend, say, that you're a counterfeiter, the head of a gang, you're captured by the FBI, you've spilled the whole works, you're not holding back anything, and I'll be the interrogator. "How long was the gang organized," I'd go on. "What denomination of bills were printed, how did you pass them, etc. etc?" What would happen is that this woman would very glibly, as a general rule, fall into the spirit of the game and give me a very imaginative interview. The men are not prone to do this. Perhaps another question you may want to ask is, "Are women funnier than men?" I think that humor is a serious business, and the saying, "Laugh and the world laughs with you," is not always a true one. Most comedians I know are very serious about their business of making other people laugh. Whether it is Jack Benny, or Sid Caesar, Fred Allen, or Red Buttons, they all know how fragile a commodity it is. Because it is that fragile, I think that people tend to laugh more in groups than alone. Women, particularly, would rather enjoy a joke in a crowd, than face to face with the teller of the story. A cynic might say that is because they're afraid to miss the point, but the truth of the matter is that laughter is a contagious thing, and the bigger the party the merrier the result of the attempt to tickle the funny bone. But — women or men — I think that the American people today are not serious minded about some things. I believe that too many of us are concerned, as is natural and human, with our own little problems and our own little world, about every little thing that goes on. The bigger things slip by. Being a nation of haves, instead of have-nots, I think we're not concerned enough with the responsibilities that democracy and freedom have placed on us. I think, then, that men recognize our bounties more strongly, and that women accept some of our difficulties with a little too much disinterest. In "House Party," we have a rather popular department called, "Turn The Tables," a title which explains itself, and in which I let the audience turn them on me. Anyone can ask any questions he wants. But the recurrence of the questions about my family and myself — and they're mostly encouraged to ask ques Art Linkletter and his wife at the Hotel Statler for the fifth annual awards dinner of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He presided as M. C. 67