Variety (Jul 1948)

22 BABTO REIIKWS ■OLLTVroOD SHOWCASE 'With Micfceir Itooney, emcee; Buddy •Colt, Dave Barry, Barbara Fuller. Julie Wilson, L.ud Glusk- iii orch; panel .of Judces; Bob liemond, announcer Writers: Jean. HoUoway, Bill Man- hoff ' Producer: Larry Bems SO Mins.> Sun., 10 p.m. SUNtalnink CBSf from Hollywood CBS has finally found the for- mula for Mickey Rooney in radio. As ifi replacement for his ill-fated "Shorty Bell" I-want-to-be-a-news- paperman sexieB, the network hais completely revamped' its thinking - About Rooney as a radio person • ality. It is now projecting him as a sort of Don Ameche (only doubly so) to emcee a talcnt-fmding "Hollywood Showcase" Sunday night program with a three-man "board of producers" on hand to judge the potentials of the as- pirants. However, it's all Rooney, and it's his show from the opening to. the closing gong. He's .all over the place, dueting with pop singer Julie Wilson In a tune from his upcoming "Words and Music" pic; beating out the drums as accom- panist for Buddy Cole's pianistics; thesping with dramatic aspirant Barbara Fuller in, ^for want of a better description, the . Death Scene from Maxwell Anderson's "Winterset." and otherwise .spicing the stanza with a characteristic Stooney bounce as he laments the plight of talent that's never given . a chance and summarizing his ovn show biz career. As a matter of fact, in reflecting back^ one wonders how any one «lse manages to get a crack at the mike—or, for that matter, why it'-s necessary. For this is strictly Rooney's "baby." In each depart- ment there are any number of per- sonalities who can outstrip, him, tatentwise, but because Rooney is Rooney, witl^ his inexhaustible stamina, cockiness and verve, he wraps up "Showcase" in the palm of his hand. As for the show's real pro element, there is always Lud Gluskiu's orch. For the initial stanza (4), the "board of producers" was com- prised of Jerry Wald, Warners pro- ducer; Herman Hover, boniface of Ciro's (Hollywood) nitery, and Arthur Ungar, editor of Daily VAHnJiTj Who picked Miss Wilson, the singer, as the most potentially promising of the talent. Rose. TOm TVm TIME ITS AtWATS AtBEET Witbi Carmen Cavallaro and orch With Arnold Stang, Pert Kelton. DIZZY DEAN With Frank Eschen Writer; J. Roy Stockton IS Mins.; Sat., 5 p.m. . JOHNSON'S WAX NBC. from St. Louis (Ritssell Seeds) Dizzy 'Dean, the fireball pitcher who became a great play-by-play spieler by murdering the King's English, is now holding down • a regular 15-minute weekly session . of sports gab and chatter, mostly about himself. Dean is an amus- ing gent with his verbal monstrosi- ties but the fact that this show is scripted by J. Roy Stockton makes the slanguage a bit suspicious. Stockton, however, iS' careful not to pour the hillbilly grammar on too thickly wliile Dean, on his part, shows skill in giving an improvised look to a prepared gag. On the preem stanza (3), Dean gave .some biog details which re- vealed fronkly that he's his own most ardent fan. He pitched, sez he, some of baseball's historic , games even after his arm went lame. Maybe that was some ,of Stockton's gilding of the lily. In Straight vein. Dean chattered in- formatively about the current league standing, answered some questions from the mail bag and ■wound up by giving fatherly ad • Vice to aspiring pitchers. Dean, above all, is a personality and will cash in with his eccentricities. Frank Eschen handled the plugs l>riefly and to the point. Herm. (15); Cavaliers quartet; Bob Lido, vocalist; Jack Costello, announcer Producer«director-writer: Dick Paterson 30 Mins.; Tues., 8:30 p.m. TUMS NBC, from New York (.Roche, Williams St Cleary) The "poet of the piano" is biick on the summer-night airwaves as vacation pinchhitter for "Date with .fudy," and it's'a tunefully refresh* ing 30 minutes he cilfers. Carmen Cavallaro has consistently added to his "following during the last sev- 'eral years, and this stanza won't disappoint them. He's as rippling as ever at the ivories, and he; sees that his agenda includes some of tlie numbers his devotees; kn^iv best, tlu-ough his recordings^ su<jh as^^-on the teeoif stanza last week (29)—"The Tango of Roses." Selections of numbers through- out the sequence sliowed an accent on oldies and bettbr known tunes, .such "as the opener; "Stepping Out with My liaby." The Cavaliers, however, came through with a late- comer, "Village Green," with smooth vocal harmonics. Bob Lido dropped his violin to pipe tlie solos satisfactorily.. Contrasted with this melodic fare, the sponsor's plugs for Turns "for,the Tummy" aren't quite as digestible. Unacc<)untably one of the spokesmen for the product was a Southerner strangely reminiscent of Lucky Strike's tobacco buyer, Doan. Bea- THE JANE PICKENS SHOW Jan Murray, Jack Miller orch; Georee Bryan, announcer, Writers: Jacqueline Susann, trice.Cole, Producer: Irving Mansfield. SO Mins.. FrI., 8:,10 p.Hl. Sustaininr ' - CBS. from New York The popularity of "My Friend Irma" seems to have-sparked a yen for the type of intimate situa- tion comedy that involves a dumb- bell (fill in either a sister, brother, brother-in-law or sister - in - law, roommate, etc.) The humor, if any, stems from a variation-^one up in multiple shades—of, the old moron joke, and if one' probes deep, enough one will find that the butt of the comedy is someone who's basically a gi'eat guy with a heart of gold. It was probably figured that Ar- nold Stang would be a natural for this new Jacqueline ■ Susann - Bea- trice Cole scripted series called "It's Always Albert," wliich CBS has slotted in the Friday 8:30 seg- ment for the summer. Stang has brought a distinctive comic quality to radio as the Gerard of the Henry Morgan'.show, '' But as Albert, the would-bc! composer whose inability to get a job keeps brother Jan Murray and girl friend Pert Kelton behind the marriage eight-ball, Stang is niore of a caricature of Stang. There's something desperate about the scripting; the comedy, save for one funny sequence in a department store, somehow doesn't seem to have the relaxed, lighthearted With Jane Pickens. Jack Kilty> quality that's neede'd Norman ' Cloutier Orch, Choir (6), Phil Leeds (xnest), Robert Warren (announcer) Director: Edwin L. Dunham Producer: Robert K. Adams Writer: Edward Eager 0 Mins.; Sunday, 5:30 p.m. Sustaining NBC, from New York The Jane Pickens Show" is a pleasant, unpretentious newcomer to radio, being conspicuous by . the True, the- script team betrays a knack for utilizing all the knoAvn component parts: savvy when it comes to fast Broadway dialog. and inserting the right punch lines. But they've lost out completely on the one real essential need-^to in- vest their central character with likeable, warm qualities that would excuse his subnormal characteris- tics. That's wliy "Irma," for exam- ple, came through with flying col always melodic soprano of Miss ors." In "Albert." there's only the Pickens and the baritone of Jack suspi' mity. It needs more and sharper ijope comedy than it revealed on its , ppj-t suspicion that the guy is really a opening 30-minuter, but basically it's a musical interlude notable for solos by the star and Kilty, plus a number of pairings by them.. Each has a full voice, and it's a special i LET'S D. delight to liear a pair of their call-1 With 'fw bre in these times of trick vocal- ing. A comedian is a guest each week, and on the opening show the comic was Phil Leeds. He was the show's weak spot. Miss Pickens' voice has always seemed especially suited for radio, and she .also handles her speaking lines nicely; ditto for Kilty, who is, incidentally,-featured in the Broad- way hit, "Make Mine Manhattan." Norman Cloutier handling a big, full orch is also no small factor in the pleasantries, that fall upon the musical ear. Leeds does a song novelty Kelton and Jan Murray, who complete the trio, do an okay job. Rose. ANCE, AMERICA 'e.v Benefce orch, Skitch Hen- derson «rch; Fred Bobbins, emcee 30 Mins.; Sat., 10 p.m. Sustaining CBS, from New York This half-hour d.nnce session, which expands to a full hour conie next Saturday, is CBS' warm weather bid to the bobbysosteis. Chaperoned by disk jockey Fred Bobbins, the teeoff on -Saturday (3) picked up Tex Beneke from Hershey Park Ballroom, Hershey, Pa., and Skitch Henderson's outfit from the ;Hotel Penn.sylvnnia, N. Y. Show's blueprint worked in four THE AMAZING MB. TUT* With WHIard Wright, John Beal, Norman Field. .Ice Granby, Gail Bonney, Ken Harvey. Georgia EUis, 'I'ommy Bernard, Herbert Bawlinson,. Chttrle« Seel, Pat Lowry; Boy Rowan, announcer; Lud Glnskin, conductor Writer: Arnold Perl Director:. Tony .Leader 30 Mins.; M«n., 9:30 p,m. Sustaining . CBS, tram Hollywood As the summer filler for the first half of the "Lux Theatre"^ time, CBS' premiered Monday. ni|;ht;i:S) an 'adaptation from the Arthur Train riiagazine serial character, Ephraim Tutt. It should span the summer hiatus acceptably, but isn't likely to hook a sponsor unless the network sales staff beats down some agency doors. Despite the years of talk about the legit, film and radio potential of attorney Tutt, this program sounds like a ?ow-bUdget rewrite of "Mr. D. A." and "Mayor of the . Town," but minus either the law-enforcement aura of the one or the star per- formance-personality-pf the latter. Tutt, of course, is the canny and cantankerous Np\y England lawyei- of endless Saturday Evening Post stories. In this typically radio version he's maneuvered by a coi"- rupt judge'and prosecutor into de- fending : an apparently hopelessly guilty murder .suspect, tliough ex- actly how that's going: to send tlie iudgc to the S<>nate and the prose- cutor to the Governor's mansion wasn't clarified for the listener. Anyway, as even,a Clifton Finnc- gan could have predicted, the cagey old'attorney outsmarted the nrosecutor and out-talked the judge, to win a mistrial for his client and .?ivc his young assistant time to get a confession from the real killer. . Although it was done with con- siderable production splash, the yarn didn't sound fresh, even mod- erately inspirort, or narticularly interesting. The .scripting was competent, but not vigorous or bright. The character.s weren't .sharp or provocative and the per- formance generally lacked drive or bite. In sura, it seemed a routine treatment of rather old matorial. Hobe. I We<ln«8«lay, July 7, 1948 SPOTLIGHT REVUE With Dick Jurrens orchestra, Mar- garet Whiting, Joe Mooney Quar- tet, Jimmy Castle, Ai Galante guests; Joe King, announcer ' Praducer-director: Newt Stammer Writer: Frank Wilson 30 Mins.. Fri., 10:30 p.m. COCA-COLA CBS, from New York m (D'Arcy) The Dick Jurgens orchestra, s\ib- bing for Spike Jones and Dorothy Shay during the summer hiatus ' bringSt ti>eat, light style of enter- tainment to the kilocycles, -emi- nently suited to the season A snjiooth tigf^'egation of musicians presents a good variety of tunes in sprightly, well - orchestrated ar- rangements. Contrast is fmthpr added by the guest stars, to in.tke it wholesome summer evening ii$- .tening.'-:''^ Opener Friday (2) had the .Turg- ens crew rambling through "Woody Woodpecker Song" and "AH Dressed Up,'f with the band's fe.i- tured isolists, Jimmy Castle and AI Galante, doing nice turns with "Love Somebody," "A Tree in the Meadow" and "Side by Side." Guest star Margaret Whiting sang "It's You or No One" and "Love Letters in the Sand." The .Toe Mooney Quartet delivered with "By the Sea" and "A Man with a Millions Dollars." For hinterland pull, Coca-Gola brought to N. Y. two teenagers from Memphis, chosen from munic- cipal, park canteens, and these aii- peared briefly on the promm. Commercials were brief and in- formal, to fit into the program's light mood. • • Bron. wrapped around special comedy I tunes apiece from each band dressed up with Bobbins'Icky in- tros. While Beneke rates well up among the top bands, the accoustics on the Hershey remote failed to do the crew justice for the aggre- gation's tone was noticeably thin N Y U ON TllF AIR and tinny. Beineke's numbers material, but it fails to get over. On a show such as this, where the tendency might be tbwards .too much music and song, ineffective comedy can be, especially apparent. Kohn. CABIN B-13 "\ Razor in Fleet Street" With Arnold MoSS, others 30 Mins.. Monday.. 8:30 p.m. Writer: John Dickson Carr Director: John Diete Snstaining CBS, from N. Y. This ' new mystery series which teed" off Jilonday <5) is, .summer re- olacement for "Arthut Godfrey Talent Scouts." It's a 30-miHwte stanza on sustaining basis and back-to-back with Bromo Seltzov's "Inner Sanctum" stanza gives CBS a full hour: of thrills and chiUs. New series is authored bv John Dickson Carr, mystery writer: di- i reeled fav John Dietz and editod by LIFE BEGINS AT 80 Charles S. Monroe, with incidcn- With Jack Barry, Dan McCuIloueh i"'""ic by Merle Kendrick. quests. ' i ' A Razor in Fleet Street." ini- ■10 Min.s.: Sun. 3:.30 p.ni; EDT | tialer of the series, wa.s a thriller Sustaining ' I embodying the dangers of the Mutual, from New York , BgnUey.s, a young Amciipan dipto- inat and his British bride. Upon arrival from the U. S. in London they are warned by Scotland Yard operative that a jack-the-ripper, wJio doubles as bank robber, has been polishing off his victims with a razor. Bentlev bears striking resemblance to the criminal and This switch of "Juvenile Jury" provided uneven listening on tlie premiere last Sunday (4); but in- dicated pos.sibilitles if carefully doctored The basic ptinciple is the same as in "Juvenile ,Iury" that is, the appeal is primarily in ;'? warned not to roam at large un. CvirhSirverFov^^lilton Zucker. SWrrep^L°r^'l. Blues" -vhich the old Glenn Miller ALLEMT'S CAVAXiCADE With Soy Ren0. Hal tiashwood, June Mendoza, JaclTCarpentier's Onh 30 Alius.; .Fri., S p.m. JMen'tt Medicated Candy 2 UB. Sydney This strictly burlesque show makes for good radio listening. Material, mostly forgfotten by the present generation, is set for the style of Hoy Rene. longtime king, of Aussie two-a-ddy burlesque under the old Fuller regime. Rene, known everywhere, plays a Jewish character named "Mo." lie's been doing this character ever since the jway-baek days when the AuJisie -*}f!'h-^lood fans liked their stuff i Sienty blue. and June Men- V n2„ T^""'' toils for the comic. irfu^ Carpenlier's orch in same as they once ^^ckout in btfrly. Ajm<^ tollow- ,,.V':,;,;: Martin' Bush, Sandra Arnau, Ellifitt Grnskin, announcer; Ar- thur Lee, music Writer: Warren Kuhn Director: Walter Weil, assisted by • Gilbert Aryon 25 Mins.; Fri., 8:05 p.m. Sustaining' WLIB, New York j The radio club of New York | Univ. has had this series on the air for the last couple of months and, on tlie basis of last Friday night's (25) broadcast, it is fairly obvious why the program hasn't aroused much comment. The trouble is not the lack of a consistent format, Which is drawback for a commerr cial series but not necessarily one for a workshop stanza such as this. Nor is the difficulty the obvious technical and budget limitations. The chief fault is the basic one of lack of creative imagination. To the first-time listener, "N Y U on the Air" sounds like merely an in- ferior network filler. The broadcast caught offered two dramatic sketches, both ac- ceptable for college stude efforts, but neither notable even on that basis. The first was a biographical drama, "Measure for Miracles," by Warren Kuhn. In fairly standard terms it told the story of Samuel Morse's founding of the N, Y. Jour- nal of Commerce and finally his invention of the telegraph. The second piece was "reproduced" from ' a recent. "Candid Micro- phone" pickup from a Disabled Veterans' Administr.-ition office, which apparently su)ff6red by the Substitution of actors for the orig- inal blind and oncJegged ex-Gls. Music for the show was via i-ecordi- ' Hobe. i band did on the wartime V-disks. It was well balanced terp fare, de- spite the faulty pickup. In making the shift to thfe Penn- sylvania, Bobbins' own peculiar jargon crossed the bridge with a crisp: ''let'.s see what's the pitch on oKitch. Henderson's opener, "Be- yond the Blue Horizon," afforded the emcee another peg to hang an aside remark to listeners: "We'll get up on a turquoise cloud and sec how blue that azure is." His trothy comment helped offset the clumsy arrangement. But a con- slant spirit of levity borders on the monotonous and the disk jock's problem will be to keep himself contained. As a signoff he urged the rug cutters, "for the best in bands keep calibrated to CBS." Glib. Jjr^^'Ff^** BALL GAMES i'riM'I??'^^'''"*^' WMimy Dudley STANDARD BREWING CO. W.FW, Cleveland ^ Jack Graney and .Timmy Dudley team up nicely in broadcasting the ball games of the Cleveland In- dians. Graney, a former Indian player, knows all the angles of the game. Dudley, with a smooth mike technique, rounds -out the picture nicely. ■ _ With the .season progres.sine, however, the two have developed several minor irritants. Graney loses the play when the action is ta.st and hectic. Dudley overplays the terms "long ball hitter" and "skys one." Both men also have a tendency to over-emphasize players' nicknames and persnn»lity it«mst ,<. MtfrJc,* I the performers' age (in this case, over 80) and -special viewpoint. And, of course, the best partici- pants are the uninhibited ones. As in "Juvenile Jury" the ques- tions are on matters of opinion, not tact. Thus, on the show caught the five guests sparred with such questions as should a wife work if til culprit is apprehended. How* ever, he ignores warning and sets out to beard the ripper in his den. In ensuing situations he comes near being the next victim when he' wanders into Old Scratch's ton- sorial parlor on Fleet Street. When body of former suspect is found razor-slashed in barber's tightly. Dietz paced the stanza in suspenseful manner while Ken- drick's music carried the mood. It all added up to good listening for the mystery fans. Edba. her husband makes a good living P","'"'^'' -''.S J? up Suspense- have women chaneed much in Hip ' P*"^** maintained throughout, last 50 years, lio\v Ion" should -i' .sufficiently in- man allow his gii l to ansvvp • hi, ! to hold interest, proposal, is women's suffrage a' ,AVn»{d Moss as Dr. Fabian, good idea etc o"'"asc " i ship's doctor, narrates in intere.st- What might be called the denarl- l"^ fashion. Other roles are neatly mental questions didn't turn oii ^o handled by Joseph Curtin. Naomi well, as the guest" iailPo tn ^n .i.S Campbell, .lohn Stanley, Cameron to the mention oi- a pec He date A«<'rews Phil Clarke and Wil- 'way in the past, and seemin4v ^'^""^ ^c^P^^A Pjt Replies came to the quorv'^ bf what two wishes each would ch6o.sc- Particularly in the case of the 92- year-old from Brooklyn, some of the answers sounded ,is if pie- pared , Also, the signoff "philo.s-, op iy, to (he effect that we're as ' SPORTS NEWSREEL f.llj'^ T ^fP\.''"''^ "link, seemed I With John Garfield trite and anticlimacic. „,.i?J;?"fu"'v"'?. ot^togcnarians ex- pressed the traditional attitude of the aged (and of their sex)-toward the questions. Thus, they mostly thought women have changed in the last .^0 years—and for the' worse. But the 92-ycar-old cracked he too* btttex: it was women's' <!iiffrQBo''' v.,!i.'^'^i ■ ^?^°i"'' vacauoii. uuriiig i'>^ '" womaS should hp pL»-i " " .^terim he has arranged for a.qu.-.r- fact he luEBPstert of Ilollysvood personalities o velNo the aSf»?i"J*"*''',^^2°l'''- for him until l^e gets back, studio audi^ce * '""""''^ If more of such lively old geezer<i are used, on the program, provided the suspicion of planted questions- and-answers is avoided, "Life Be- gms.at 80" cohld be a reasonably popular series. But Jack Barry must be careful about wisecrack- ing at his guests (as he did in suc- gestmg that one woman's 89-year- with the kids on his "Juvenile Jury.' Comments that might be acceptable on a show with general- age participants someUmes seem SmIW? addressed to tiids or tiie aged. - , ;, l.'i Mins., Fri., 10:30 n,m. Writers: Barney Naigler, Mae Davis Producer: Charles Buck COLGATE NBC, from Hollywood " (.S'lieniictft jp Marctiiette) Bill Stern, who generally inaster- -minds thi,s stanza^ is on a four- weeks vacation. During the in- who turned in a hangup job on Friday (2) night's session. . Stanza carried Stern's patterned format, comprising sports news to the "Once in a Lifetime" vignette. Latter concerned the prank late played with Jimmy Barry, a pug of yesteryear. Garfield narrated proceedings in slick manner, vith plenty of shading on the dramatic nuances. Whether it was Garfield's o^vn fund of knowledge, or the srcnpt- er.s, he came through in fine man- ner with plenty hep sports atiec- dotia as well as a nice i"*"'; fo"^ Ws pic„,':*,B<»tor, axfd So«l, m\>c>i i