TV Guide (June 18, 1954)

'Toast of the Town'— From Budget Blues To 'Spectaculars' ever-present, all-seeing camera. Ed should be smiling plenty this week, however. Toast’s sixth birth¬ day also marks five years with the same sponsor. Few TV programs can make that statement. As a special feature on Sunday, Ed is planning an all-star dramatic sketch, tracing the history of Toast and, inextricably, of TV itself. The talent line-up for the anniversary program will include Rise Stevens and Darvas and Julia. In the old days, Ed had reasons other than camera fright not to smile. Under his original contract, CBS anted up $1,500 weekly to produce the show, pay all performers (including a full orchestra), and pay Ed’s salary and that of his co-producer, Mario Lewis. “At the end of the first year,” says Ed, “I figured the show had cost me $378 from my own pocket. I had thrown back more than my own sal¬ ary to get better acts. That CBS con¬ tract was real serfdom. Just say I was a victim of the small print.” Budget blues first prompted the cam¬ era’s swing to the name guests in the audience. They, of course, came for free. “Some critics objected,” Ed re¬ calls, “but I figured if names make news, faces make news, too. Also, introducing members of the audience gave the stage crew more time to strike one set and put up another.” The visiting celebrities idea cre¬ ated an intra-trade ruckus. A theatri¬ cal tradepaper (not Variety) sug¬ gested Ed was using the power of his syndicated column to blackjack stars into appearing. Irate, Ed called a meeting of theatrical union execu¬ tives and pointed out that, as a vaude¬ ville emcee for 13 years, he had al¬ ways paid all his acts top fees. When Sullivan launched Toast, the movie industry regarded TV as a squalling, inconsequential infant. Ed helped effect a mutual cooperation pact as far back as February, 1949, when he invited Luise Rainer to re¬ peat her Oscar-winning telephone scene from “The Great Ziegfeld.” This required permission from M-G-M chief Nicholas M. Schenck. Samuel Goldwyn later let Ed use film clips from “Arrowsmith” to high¬ light “The Helen Hayes Story” and from “The Best Years of Our Lives” for “The Robert E. Sherwood Story.” June a year ago, Ford’s mammoth 50th anniversary show was hailed by many in the trade as TV’s first “spectacular.” It was followed several months later by a 90-minute Rodgers & Hammerstein extravaganza. NBC and CBS are now mapping plans for similarly lavish shows next season. But Sullivan predated them all in September, 1951, with his all-star sa¬ lute to Oscar Hammerstein. “I was getting tired of the straight vaudeville format,” Ed recalls, “and wanted to inject something new be¬ fore the audience grew bored. I de¬ cided dramatized biographies would be naturals for TV.” Throughout Toast’s history, Mario Lewis has been Ed’s co-producer; Ray Bloch, his orchestra leader. Worth¬ ington (Tony) Miner was his first director but resigned to mastermind Studio One. John Wray, the show’s choreographer, promptly took over. And for the future? Ed claims he has no immediate plans for any start¬ ling innovations. Noel Coward will make his American TV debut on Toast next fall, but all in all, Ed is busy with week-to-week problems. “We’ve done so well this season against Comedy Hour ( Toast’s NBC rival) that I don’t want to tamper with our show,” he explains. “But any time I discover the audience wants a change, I’ll be ready.”