Variety (December 1951)

Comment •emery's usual ability with lure tales, the script was i i* 1 to a Utu r high as 7J. a remarkable dlal-in for the early hour •? to i a m >. Programs high mall pull «1.700 letters la response to a single • a m announcement offering free shamrocks) soon convinced WPTZ (hat viewers sere around in the daw* a early light. A Mystery Tune’ contest of- fering free theatre tickets mas dis- carded after 10 days, when station found mail swamp >3 500 letters* too much to bo bothered about Ortcinolly skedded to ko molply HOd, viewing interest dictated Stepping up show's visual aspects -Mystery tune" gimmick, for ex- omple. nan in shnw'4 second week was designed as test to see If audi- ence la ayem actually watches set. dr merriy wants to hear music, time signals, seat her reports and hews. Contest was so framed that early risers had to be matching Sc reen to compete trig *BC-TV Sot and with lust so the viewer as his presentations of Margaret Trume Turfcor, Mias Bar incidentally, took ery’s hoot role, es *t«iry of a foreign service ter on a top-level mi mythical country which brink gf revolution the In it sews that the U. ft. the e slat log regime, which wilT save the hard pr.-*»ed administration from the revolu- tionists The underground loader, played by Anthony Dawson. kid- napped Montgomery'* daughter to keep the U.T agent from giving out the news for It hours. In which period the levelutibmsts will be able to strike. Montgomery, how- ever. bluffed the villain—telling him that if the daughter Is banned the revolutionist's spouse (Mar- B ret Phillips) will also bo killed w coup was then called off Script was full of improbabilities his Aral skit—a sightseeing tour had taken over his home and wo u ldn't recognise him to let him in, so he Joi ne d the tour, ft mode for good fun Mis Intro to Mias Barry more waa prefaced by a lit- tle sidelight In which a puppet with a kmg-siied schnot plawog fhirantes conscience, perchrd^en his shoulder and howled him out for brooking one of her statues Bit served to underline the tender humor which the comic, as s true clown, can pH Into his lines and situations m HrfrrytMS played a regal oueen to Duraate's kilt-clad spy in the show s Mg production num)*er, w hich was also pood for yocka. but it was that less ambitiously pro- duced bit at the piano which capped her appearance Comedian, as usual, wound with his “Club Du- rant” routine, with sidekick Eddie Jackson, plus Jack Roth and Julet Huffano. to ning him la the action Candy Cgndido a multi-volred character, eontribbed a neat Mgl in this scene. Glenn TumbiU. a ai reen to compete. Kovacs would write clues on paper during play-* lag of an unrelated recording, and terrtAc response ,'soon : convinced that there were plenty morning j lookers as well as listeners Energetic Kovacs does almost anything (hat comes to mind He t drawn, writes i k e * c h e t, stags ciowna. ateys at tne piano After 0 year the 1 to Get Ready” set Is still cluttered, but the original ! din has lessened somewhat There fto still enough of the Hcltzapop- po» '' type of racket to account 1 rtiv for Its success The emcee has become less uninhibited, but basic situation of Montgome r y's «ing!e-ha»d' <iu being able to frus- trate dh uprising -he waa -hie to scale a wall to the rebel headquar- ters without mussing up his neat togs) was unbelies-hie and made for an unequal conflict conae guently minimizing the suspense. Acting was gaod. with Dawson and Mlsa Phillips nicely abetting the he has compensated for this with hne\%e and a surer and Im forced comedy sense Ad has ad-lib qual- ity and Kovacs antics always seem to kill the studio crew, which would be the equivaleot of a nitery of former shows on this “Sound Off series with Sunday’s >2) ses- sion an NBC. Kv i da n c e af dissatis- faction with previous programs waa more than indicated when Lester made the entire half-hour a virtual solo effort The material was that of his own device comprising bits from previous vaude. cafe gnd He also gets scrum TV studio feeling, never hesitating to bring In associate producer Andy McKay, stage manager Trygve Lund, or even pi-Mn* one camera an the Other. Edvthe Adams, blonde vo- calist. and niantst Tony De Simone are spotted, but Kovacs (stop man Trademark la the cigar he puffs incessantly and the white clock He Is presently occupied with a serial of “Snow White* in which he mimes with Miss Adams to recordings There are plentv records on the two-hour visual dicker to keep the kids enthralled while mamma whips up the oat- -meal. Kovacs* taste in platters runs a wide gamut A hit tune is liable to turn up m Yiddish, Pol- ish or Italian As the spirit moves him the emcee will stage shenani- gans with the disk, or |u«t let It ap«n Typical of his never passing up an opportunity for a gag was the recent audition he held for goals, one of which was selected for the local run of the National Com- C y’s production of ’The Rose loo.” at the Lotus! Kovacs was a summer replacement for "Kuk- la.“ on-the NBC net Sponsors are on participating basis an *3 to < Id Ready.•* Commercials are live. Rims or slides Average number nf participants Is 3d per week v Gmyh sd on its debut <29t IRON-TV contribution the kind af sh in this cream tii and with an Ins variety to pleai avid Lesterites. and not entirely at that) waa a jungle ballet which came off welt The only surprising facet af this show was that Lester. permnaHy. wore very well despite the virtual solo He probably would ba Rna with material, aa was indicated by the telephone quiz hit. »e affair. Mood Is piras- t which is becoming of a video rarity .Talent good, although suffering In the J| ■ ■ | the lack of a really topflight mar- la his siring of class drama en- tries for “The Celaaoae Theatre. ’ producer-director Ale* Segal v uutd seem entitled to a ngra or two. Ac- tually. Elmer Bice s Counsellor- At Law” on ABC TV last Wednes- day 2S> was only s near-miss. The production received the usual Ant- rale mounting and interpretation Identified with the Celanese series. Its big negative was the casting «>f Alfred Drake in the top role, that of the successful, up-from-poverty criminal lawyer Georgs Simon, originated on Broadway by Paul Muni 20 yean ago. Celanese made a pitch for sev- eral other acton for the role, in- cluding Muni, who was In Italy and unavailable. Drake waa selected for and agreed to a chon that is not in his ken. He failed to get inta the depth of the role, giving it the routine, superficial treatment that would be gnat In a stock company His matinee idol “prrttiness >r gm in the way, and his attempts at 'uttering And suicide wen spurious. Rice was at the peak of hia mm when he wrote this one The tawver pari is one of the meatiest in the American theatn; it’s almost purely star vehicle Especially ludicrous wen some of Drake’s ef- forts vis-a-vie Ms plain mother. Urns, ployed neatly in the Jewish idiom by Dora Weisaman The im- pression here was that Drake's “Jewishness” in that specifk tan- dem didn’t show, that he was mere- ly mouthing words, ana hence he died by Alexander Gray but the fact ha did bit gabbing from the same camera grafting throughout the half-hour addrd a static eflect Ses alau op on ad with Nancy Carr delivering g bright version of Be- gin the Regular^* Lucille Reed and Bill Snary then took over for s pop tune In a breakfast table set- ting. for s nice change of par. Bruce Foote's sale. “All the Things You An," although simply staged in a record i ng sssalon layout, ram# off for neat effect. Also okay was Snary’s warbling of “Manhattan 4 against s skyscraper background. Backing h% Robert Trend ler's band was smooth. Leasing and lighting wen up is standard throughout Dare. " niboiifr* one of the primary mis- sions af television itself— public •ervice with no axe to grind. It commercial sponsorship, could hardly accept underwriting without sacrificing its objectivity, and is ss much In the Public inter- est ss any program in TV or radio. Each week this half-hour stanza introduces a problem via a play running about half the allotment, followed by a discussion period with guest speakers Dr. Lynum ■nrran* moderator of the series, is tM'ir to the program's success On last Sunday’s ill frame the sketch. “The Twelve Penny Trou- hl ?»* concerned management and h«b<»r. The union workers drew up a set of demands that included s 17c Pvt, • pan._ t NION PACIFIC R. R. KDYL-TV. Salt Lake dig ' j iGillhainl by Andre Eglevsky and lydeo of the N Y City pe, current at the City Y. Because of the two P juences, the show had consider- kicked off videowioe with s gen- "'ore production values than •rally slick airing by KDYL TV. NHMf* Eglrvsky and Miss Havden Producer Ramger kept his cameras demonstrated their sorko ballet on the action all the way down the tcrhmques in what must have been line, and reception was sharp child s play for them Efforts of throughout • Miss Murray, wha wore a leg-re- Cliff Owen, however, made the «*•«**. MV wisely con- mistake of not differentiating be- y* ?°. > minimum, tween TV and AM. with the result > rMnlmH»isi Jimmy Nelson be waa constantly trying to do a founded out the guest list, prov- play by play of the session While # ln|f ** • one of the bet- this basically doesn't affect the * rr *«*hniciam around hut that viewing, it dors make for some . . n '*tenal hardly matches his •illy situation- such as telling the . Sullivan, incidentally laoker i “they re scrambling for the *" embarrassed when he hnlL“ which anyone can era. The /** Firwt by introducing veal weakness of that technique Munn as Michigan's football lies in what hat to be left out. * cooch it s actually Michigan State) For example, telling a viewer a f*d then discovered Munn was not player missed a foul shot, which is ** ,h * audience.. rise plus paid holidays , ,n plan The shop stew- ard presented the demands and got into a long hassle with an ex- gRWN of management, who of- fored a nickel an hour and none of the other beneAts The work- ers wife suggested that members of the clergy be brought in aa me- diators. The playlet ended on »M> note. The guests were Dr Roland 1. (.ittelsohn. rabbi of the OHM fzzrsz? Fnzrst’sz graduate school of business admin ration and chairman of the rom- f* *nd salary stabili- zation of the American Bar Asan. t ^ >Bi a greed that religion. Ihe clergy, has a place la la- bor-management media non or ar- bitration. although Dr. Bryson ** bb CMtels©hn to admit foot religon would probably aids with the underdog.” Dr. Bryson's suggestion that the man of the cloth is not trained in relations brought a de- nial from the rabbi, who said that ecclesiastics receive such training Dr. Werne felt that the clergy s voice would he respected. Per one of the few times in Uni (Continued on para 441 as s home- ilo.sophn il I been di** Jettisoned this colorful portion of Rice's script On the other hand, not all the blame was Drake s. He is s ca- pable theatriciaa—a top singing (heap. Of course appeanr.g out of his element. But the Norman Lessing adaptation, while okay for lesaer drama series, was suh pjr Celanese in that it came throujtfi closer to synopsis than condenu- tion. tailored to the sometimes vicious limitations Imposed by an hour s framework Some potenti- ally tense scenes, suffered by abridgment, and the TV script of- ten sped furiously to establish sit- uations prematurely, throwing con- tinuity out of kilter. it. gaba with the the product and pitch via the »d- Miaaouri t»«ag of the few l»vt IN. which o.d^ I music and disk r does R. the **hoW ran to earth, ver^ ivily “me-te»>«*» i very effective »n soneer and Qviit, v and brat Ume the show has presented F. p.. an original teleplay and it starred idled. Robert Montgomery, the series* v too host-producer, with his lt-year-old daughter. Elisabeth, making her PtfeK- video debut. Fetter and daughter, a big playing father and daughter in the come drama, made a nice combo, with f TV Mist Montgomery registering as a