Variety (January 1950)

40 IIBVIBWS J^fsiEfr Wi^ne»dayf Janunry 25, 1950 CAVAtCADie OF BANDS Oiiy liombardo Orch, Ffedm^ : Robbins^ Tri^d, PafricU Bri^lit; Dunhills^ Kitty Kal|en» Bdrrah Minevitch's Rascals Froduceirs: Milton Douff1as,^^ari^ ■■ Ross- $0 Mins.. Tucs. 9 ROCKT KING, INSIDE DETEC- .TIVE . • lYith Roscoe Kams, Eotl Hammond Producer: Lawrence Menkiii, Charles Speer Director: Dick Sandwick 30 Mins.. Sat;,. 8:30. p.m. Sustaining: evening IN THE NATIONAL ART GALLERY DRUG-^TORE- TELE—FRODLC- L.ffir ^ P'* Mont, from N. Y. Icry dircclor DaVidrFiiileyi^hier-' .curator John Walker. Froducer-director: Fred Rickey „ 4 , j I w 4.U 1 - r ii Mins., Friday (19), 10 p,m. Patterned along the line^ of the cBS-TV, from Washington ♦♦♦♦♦♦ i I TIONS. INC. DuMont, from New York iStantdn B; Fisfier. Jne ,) Mont has the makings: of a good until the closing 20 minutes or so detective thriller. Preem show (21) that the full hour Budweiser show- indicates that the story line, al- ease began to generate some view- though not out of the ordmary, is er interest or excitement, Reveals . T, j j / Hi Tnr,cf o^Kifinne iinfAfi f buHt, aloUg 3 sturdy premise; and iiig ebnimontary is that, although by B r p a d w a y deluxe vaudfilm «oscoe Karris’ presence assures the j tliis is dowri on the CBS video houses, and theatres all over the A; isession of a good enactment in the books as a comedy show, the one ; country,ytlris »e^v lluMont: sho^y ?s tyell ap » presentation style stage shows used CBS hit the jackpot the past The Rocky King. series Over Du ' tually got In its second time up last Sat- urday (21), CBS’ v'Keri Murray Show’’ ( as on the preern) never ac- tually got off its feet and it wasn’t seems like a idea. That it '; entertainment yaiue, ;the web, at ■ luring Basil Rathboiie in the prison the liame ,?* National Art Gallery as bbth its course to be accepted, Essentially : inU niice nf nriein the though, the opening show provided V oul to ui ^ - - - good entertainnient and succeeding iow-atiori iri ILt for't^ ! ‘trough croolted means. Ip the jjurray hiittseU, who practically programs figure to be better once ' If'. Karns is ; threw the book at the audience in cVtAT4Aftryii-n>w.~ tllerc ,COUlU 06 Only; 0116 aiwwer .io incp!? . hi.is .Tank hut rnn- «ii 4 -v.a : -A/wnvr of a gambling ring tb complain ; nient w^^ the preceding vaudeo about the loss of a huge sum' episodes^ Chief fsiUlt lay >yith the original are ironed out. necessary?•’ This program, at least, vThe debut prbgram was guilty was meant for the life and hues b£ of a bit too much conversation be- color; in black and white it wbuld tween acts, a chore that Fred Rob- have beeii practically lifeless, bins, as m.c.y wasn’t too adept at jh a lightly knit, well integrated handling. His bccasional lines with show, built around 11 paintings maestro: Guy Lombardo left, a lot ranging from Hblbein; and Romney to be. desired, but, on the other hand; he did liice job dUetihg the pop, ‘Dearie,” with Kitty Kalian. Backed by the Guy. Lombardo framed,- loses his . rank, but con- i pesurpecting all the old corny tinues to look for his friend. He chestnuts. Somewhere albng the ultimately recovers everything he line there’s a place for originality had, at. the start of the session :and; in 'TV, particularly in the comedic gets .b conviction of the head of the i being evolved^ Saturday's A j X ' show might just as well have bebn At: timesv production seemed tb ; the Texacb, Sullivan bi* the Morey' h^rd^p maintain its inood v^insterdam show for all. the, dis- of suspense.; Radio techniques- of.tinctive flavor br .individuality it at the Stork Club,” the preceding week, producer Fred Coe last Sun- day riight ( 22 ) turned to a grini adult theme in Henry James’ “The Marriages,” and with one of the most neatly east groups of actors yet, did a ffine job bn it.; Adaptatibn by H. R. Hays, com- biried with the telling portrayals and the standout direction of Del- bert Mann, fully captured the mood Of the James story, dealing with a neurotic daughter and weak-willed sbii messing up the life of their widowed father. Margaret Pliillips as the daughter and Henry Dan fell as the father topped the standout cast, with Miss Phillips particularly good. Chester Stratton gave a good •reading as the son and Carol Gpbd- ner \vas fine as the American widow: Sally Gracie shoiyed well in a minor role as the hussy whom the son married; period costumes with keen, show- orchestra, which did a swell job of ; manship. For once, the screen let purveying pops 'and standards in color speak for itself without al- yarious slots down the line, the most literally screaming “See the program was p ace d much as a ! blues and the reds and the greens.’’ vaude layout would be, opening As a result, the audience pf SQQ with Trixie, a standard vaude act. : which jammed the room in the juggITng i^ber'liadls,; etc: I^RP"^W 5 llwUrButldih^;;^hei:^ Cia Bright followed, delivering yb- i demphstrations are held, drew cal takepils bf Katharine Hepburn, ' their bwii conclusions. There’s etc. This turn was too long for the little questibn that the “ayes” had impact made. Next came the Dun- it. in and Van Goch and two x v- ■ i xinccive flavor or inaiviauaiuy n 10 uezanne anq van uogn, ana two , repetition are called upon too fre- . had Fd Sullivan incidentallv oUt sculptures, producer Fred Rickey frepuentlv On a visual medium it ' r® • • &uuiyan, inciaeniajiy, pui u/nvp musie hallet fashions and A ^ in a guest appearance and Jack wove music, Daiieti tasrilPriS , ana, aoesn t work put top weU, since ^ was also on hand, but : in some camera cooperation cpuld , cutthe ;niairi the viewer could have. down on the wprdage. Otherwise, '^settled for the brief Rathborie production technmues. are okay. y .. Karns.gave a likeable enactment. There were Several devices used to • i i. A t x x make him one of the boys, such as^ After a couple of false starts. hills; dancing trio, also a widely known vaude team, who wound up involving Robbins in a handstand stunt a la Milton Berle, Miss Kal- It must be pointed put that skin tones, are still not perfect, that the camera : backfires now . and then and reveals obvious defects. For depicting pprt of his home life, andith?i,A*>e purrpws Wednesday night giving him a relaxed rnieri When not pursuing the show^s baddies. ' Jose. len becupied the next to closing vo^amplo? bi one point the com- and got over nicely with a pair of mentator spoke enthusiastically Of popSy.one done Avith Bbbbins. > the green background bf a Tail Cajiper, however, was. the Bbrrah ■ —the eamera revealed a Mihevitch Rascals, a turn that sent grayish tinge, On the whole how- the debut show off to a good start ^ ever, the.tints were warm and life- since it was the closer. The bar- c^ymcing even to^an mohica turii is excellent teievision . than since closeups of the big laugh iu i riprmally famihar with the the act—rthe little man who’s air- ways being pushed around—bring out its best selling angle. Whatever went before, liked or disliked, was ings Spotlighted. The cameras wandered over the canvasses, dar- ing clbseups as well as long shots, and the general results Were au- simply a buildup to the effect this I thentic., Cectainly a persomseemg turn must have had on listeners; * paintings for the hrst Wnnii time via video, could get a good ■ " . 'idea of the detail and the color. : I Format of the program was de- i signed for Variety? and achieved its emcee;. aim by relieving images of the I objets d’art by sidelights in the form of music- and dancing tied in with the period and spirit of the. paintings. Costumes were fre- quently . copies of those pn the cartvas, again subtly emphasizing THE SHOW GOES ON With Robert 0. Lewis, others.'.. PireetPr: Alex Leftwich Producer: Lester Gottlieb 60 Mins.; Thurs., 10 p.m. Sustaining CBS, from N. Y, The attempt to dress up vaudeo 9°'i. talent chosen was in a new disguise stilr continues, laivly humdrum, hut^^t^ general “The Show Goes On” is putting Was good. . a slightly novel tWist bn its fbrmat . Faye Liperson in a rather razzle but hardly enough to erase its: from one n£ basic similarity to “Arthur. God- P^lhtvngs she discussed,, ma frey’s Talent Scouts” and other eye fiUing, albeit rather |tilted^ such Variety showcase sessions. emcee. The scholarly Script obVi- LOOKAHERE ; : ; With Ray Heatheripn Producers: Jaiiies P. . Ellis,. John Irving Fields Director: Charles Bishop 15 Mins.; W(^., 7:30 p.ni.-Fri,» 7:15 •:p.ni. Sustaining WJZ-TV, N. Y. CBS show hit its stride last week, approximating the network’s con- ception of what a TV Burrows should look and sound like, Irv- ing Mansfield took over as pro- ducer last week and brought to the program a production fillip that blended neatly into the Bur- rows cOmediC pattern. It’s still a vaudeo show,, biit the accent is where it belongs—^bn a Burrows who has substituted an off-the-cuff quality Of spontaneity for the pre- vious too-studied script job. One i episode which fbuhd Burrows cbm- Here’s a good idea for a. show that shimld have .definite staying j luA to"grip?'whjh ^ power, if it .;abandonS its present- bear was hilarious, comedy; attempt to be “cute.’’ Tt involves specially-lehsed film on yarious iii- terestihg arid little-knbwn aspects of N. Y. life which Could have plenty of Viewer appeal. Ex-band- leader Ray Heatherton; who “acts”, in most of the film, does a live com- mentary from,. the studio, usually bringing on one or twb guests ebn- pected with each subject for an interview. (Idea is not entirely hew, incidentally. Both Kyle Mac- Dohnell and Tex McCrary and Jinx Falkeriburg worked similar stunts in early shows on the NBC-TV web;)-. . . Over-coyhess of the show, as, ih- dicated in its title, is carried iar turn to vaUde and cafe goers, but it ,registered here as sharply as through with a heavy hand % i a H eatlierton, .with apparent at- ..c® Ed Sullivan’s talent collection on Sunday ( 22 ) was one of the strbng- est he’s had in some time. Show represented shrewd selection of en- tertainers inasmuch as show gave an aura of pacing and variety in Which the individual turns stood out admirably. Surprise Was the impact regis- tered by Joey Adams along with Tony Can^qneri and Mark Plant. Adams set himself, off well with a yarn before calling op the setvices of the former pug. This is a famil- tempts at humor winding up as sb.i - 4 , much com. On the show caught l (18), for example, he was lensed at 1 rendition of “Sonny Roy” with This show is patented on the idea ously didn t come easy to the. fair of having talent buyefs audition nobody seemed to ,mind Various acts with the prospect of j;®? much. A stress ^ 1 ^^ .excedin^y inking them to dates in niteries, telcgeniCi and a .natural for the resorts and conventions. ! color camera. W hate v e r her tf»c scheme of make up was, it proved fpppvft fn to be most successful to date for the frequently merciless medium quality of the talent still remains QC pQiQr . ■ impo rtance. On fhe Museum director David Fipley, ^preenr (19), a group^of-seven-acts in nis opening and clusing |■elnarks 7 handled their chores with ease and assurance and obVioUs delight with the prospects of the buildup the gallery can receive through color tv; Finley did a little limb-walk- though routine entertainment. The budget for this show is obviously tight but maximum Values were cohtained.within its limits. Pivot Of this airer is Robert Q; Lewis who is getting his first: i hg in his introductory remarks chance at handling his own video when he said,“I hope color teler show. An affable gabber, Lewis visiori will do for the visual arts is once again displaying his neat what radio has done for music.” comedic touch ip the interviews At that, color television will do for With the various entertainment the visual arts what radio has dbne buyers.; Lewis can be ;expected for music.” At that, the results to warm up and ease up in the of Art’s debut bn tinted TV may emcee slbt as this airer continues. On fhe opener? there was a ten- dency to press a bit too hard and spiti e of the gags were appare ptl y set up in advance. Lewis has a flip lip and would do better to avoid the prepared material. well justify his optimism; Lowe. MEET THE MILLERS iVith Bill and Mildred Miller Producer-director: Beimie Ross 30 Mins.; Tucs.-Thurs., 4:30 p.m. Talent op this show. Was about, 15 Buffalo • evenly Brand new husband-wife combb, and standards. yPhii I^eds, w^ho demonstratihg modern food prep- P?M 1 Jennie^ Grossingqr ^^j^^ ^^ -good commercial ^ Catskill . possibilities on preem caught Patter, mostly ad Another Sid Raymond, did j||j flows naturally. Millers, old- neatly with a series of skilltul im- timers in show biz, make fbr easy, pressions. Two singers, ^ baritone niouth-waterihg Watching. He is a Wiltoh Clary and eonWalto Gloria , 10 years or Lane, delivered^ solid Iiumbere^gp ^ack. She. Was a piano partner Among Hie talent buyers were;Anj jp pitery stints: They run a thOliy Darrell* Gordon, nitery operator, i ^; First chore was preparation of Lbmhardo, : who was auditioning pjfty lobster snack with frosted talent for his Long Island restau- j giapeS fbr six people that had con- rant,' trol room drooling.; Camera work, The audio portion of this show j set and direction were topdrawei*. is taped for following night (Fri;) With a few more shows under their broadcasting on the AM chapnel. belts, this team should draw a Herm. sponsor. the American Airlines offices at LaGuardia Airport and at skater | tryouts for the Roller Derby. Both subjects could have been highly in- teresting if handled straight. Heatherton, however, interjected himself itito both with detrimental results. It might have been funny air of spontaneity, which was the! .highlight of the entire session.; / j : Show Was also distinguished by 1 the appearance of dancer Paul' Draper, a skillful terper who gave the session a class curtain. Draper shrewdly mixed ballet, taps and i employed themes of American folk- to see hini staggering around the. j for good all-iu’ound effect. roller arena oh skates but he over did . this with his accompanying narratiph. Airline? incidentally, got a nice The bnener by the Rbulettes, a fast skating trio, provided a good warmup, while the comedy vein was started by the aero antics bf ■f-cee-^plijg—-in—theL_nneA«i pqiieni^: 1 j f ,- ■ ^ scored With the necessary revisions, the f LeS Cauipagnon? de la show might. have interest for a i . ^ nme^man group of local sponspr. Stal. BILL EVANS SHOW With : Evans;. Bruce Roberts, ah- •riouncer^ ^ Producer: W. Biggie Levlii Director: Phil Ruskiu . 60 Mins., Mon. thru Thur., 2 p.m. WBKB, Chicago / With a format designed for a. ^‘Ippk at, look away’’ type of enter- tainment, having special appeal to busy stay-at-hOifiers; the “Bill Evans Show” is good afterhoori prbgrarhmihg. The potpourri of giiest interviews, household hints, « ^ =d 1 ' fix-it-youiseif instructions, news : ;the Rileys’ (on multiscope), book reviews, films, weather and idle chatter com- yarn had bine to give the show a high in- favor terest ratio. Continuity is main- 1 ohere of the taihed through the loose informal j Sor« Were style of Evans, who. While never: pushing himself, manages to make j | Jp* 'vveire nard^frt^r^ ®®r" transitions froib segment to seg-j 2 ^,family Gallics whb made their American preem several years ago with Edith Piaf, provided pleasant satire for another cla ss i oubh. Sullivan contributed Tjbhe ga„ based on the Bbston Brink caper. Not bad either: Arthur Schwartz’s “Inside U.S;A; with Ghevrolet” ambled along amiably enough for its half-hour bn CBSTV Thursday night (19) but lacked the solid impact that previous shows in the series have generated. Guestar Quy Kibbee kidded pleasantly with stairs Peter Lind Haybs and Mary Healy and the prbdiictibh numbers were good but the sketches, while clever, did not impress. Produceip Schwarlz arid director Sherman Marks by now have virtually solved the proli- lem of transforming the 1 egit re- vue format to video arid, With the fine talent iiiVolved; the show’s success is dependerit almost en- tirely ori its material. This one didn't fare too well in that de- partmerit. Hayes;; and Miss Healy teed off with an okay npVelty skit, featur- ing their cat-talk imitations on ‘‘Come Out? My Pretty Kltten.v Mary Wickes’ impression of a curb- side pitchman failed to click, prob- ably because of trie viewer’s assp- ciatirig it with Texaco’s Sid Stone., Hayes got some laughs in this one, though, as a moronic ■ customer. Dancer Sheila Bbnd, -production singer Stuart Wade and trie full chorus took over next With a fine wedding scene to “New Sun in the Sky,” which could haVe. been het- tei. if Miss Bond had been given more opporfuhity to dance. Hayes and Miss Healy teamed with K^b- bee on ;a corny but okay skit about selling a dilapidated house in the country. Three gals (Wickes, Bond arid Healy) closed the show With a trio song-arid-dance on “Don’t Be a Woniari,” one of the better sequences. Texaco Star Theatre seems (0 have gotten into a fairly even groove. Tuesday’s (17) extravaganza was distinguished by the appearance of Dinah Shore? who has, as riiuch to offer via video as on personal ap- pearance work. Miss Shore, wlio's appearing at the Hotel Waldorf- Astpria’s Wedgwood Room, gave a ^ charming account of hevself iri a pair of numbers which iiiciuded “Man Arourid the House,V which provided an excuse for clowning with her husband, George Mbiit- gomery, and Berle. One of the surprises of the show was the limited use of Burgess Meredith, who aided in the “Off to Siberia” skit in which he showed his ability ina;pmedic support. The other acts . included the trampolirie wprk of the Schalleri Bros, and the terping of Peggy Ryari and Ray McDonald, both of which were Well executed. Doc sfcartedr-riis^ma|dc_^u;t_I>uf_ With Arnold Slang arid Berle .stooging, he had little tb do. ;Bit itself Was fairly funny. “Life of Riley” has cbirie a long waj' since the beginning of its cycle. Program has shpwn a con- tinued improvement arid now cap-!* tures the warmth necessary for this type of domestic comedy; Tuesday’s (17) episode was prob- 'y one' of the best to date with merit With relaxed grace, 1 stf^tSvtod^tn^thic Though variation is maintained through the frequent changes of sequences, the s^et, which is not ®ave very atlractive, Consistirig of a L Gleason^s^idl^^v Single large desk and, drape back. I eori,ri,ercial? 4r^^^^^ grourid, seeims oldhat by program’s end. An occasional, change of scenery, occurring for instance at the time the emcee switches from a guest iriterview to a household hint demonstration, wOuld create a more see-.Wbrthy balance. Interviews with guests Frank . (Continued on page 48) _ executed. . “Priiico Teievislon Playhouse” has apparently started to ptoduce in cycles, mixirig the subjects of adaptations on NBC-TV to achieve the necessary change of pace. After staging a whodunit, Vera Caspary’s “Murder Canada Lee niade his tel.evisum bow Monday riight (23) on NBC- TV's “GhevrOlet Tele-Theatre” and demonstrated how a good, conipe- terit actor can hold together a weak show. Play was Frank Alexander’.'? “The Final Bell,” story of a has- been prize fighter Who refuses to throw a fight to a, man he know** he can lick: Story itself was g o 0 d, incorporating corisiderahle prize ring atriaosphere and sus- pense. Much of the impaet was lost,; howeyer, through the poor quality of the speGially-filined Df^ht scenes and, the nJs g. thesping of .some of the more important sup- porting players.; : : Lee, himslef a former profes- sional .boxer, scored with ease m the show as the one-tiriie pug who refused to compromise his et|iical .standards for the sorely-needed money he could have eamed by taking the dive, Roniola Robb as the frightened wife of his oppo- rient, over-acted and Bqhby Barry, as the punchy traineVr iriarred an otherwise . standout performance with some chin at the final curtaiii. Ed Wagner, as Lee s (Continued oh page 48)