Variety (December 1951)

Wednesday* P<**ml>cr 12, TELKVISIOIV REVIEWS SI » »♦+ George M. Coh»»> **•» inaugurat- ing a new feature on the rwate Smith NBC-TV show “Sons^and Daughters of Favorite Show Peo- ple,^ last Thursday (6),^struck a nostalgic-note, with still pictures and comments on the^ Providence, H I., home in which his father was bom, on the Four Cohans, and on his dad's liking for “this kind of show/’ before fie went on stage for a medley of Cohan composi- tions. The junior Cohan, .who bears Some facial and .vocal .re- semblance to his father, although he is bigger and heavier, said that his grandfather had told him George “was born in the attic. The grandfather was “an old min- St Cohan "praised his father’s mul- tiplicity of talent and “priceless personality. “I don't think he ever took a lesson in his life; he was too busy acting and writing plays to wony about technique. The son, likeable on camera but lack- ing some of his father's bounce and projectible personality; sang from the corner of his mouth, with the always-used straw skimmer and cane. Now that Chesterfield has de- cided to ditch its Sunday night “Sound Off Time'* on NBC-TV, Fred Allen, who's been struggling to hit a solid pace on the series, came up with what was probably his best show to date last Sunday night (9), He presented the clos- est approach yet taken by Allen's scripters to bis old radio comedy pattern, in that the comic servecl as more of a sideline observer than a participant in the Skits. .While the result might not have been video at its best, it wa$ certainly the best Allen on Video. It's to>be hoped that NBC, which is now Idoking for another show for the comedian, ;Will take it from where Sunday night's show left off. « Allen /teed off with a monolog, good for some chuckles, in which he lampooned Ed Sullivan's dead- panning oh the latter’s video pro- gram. Then, in sympathizing with an Italian restaurateur’s , beefs about TV shows, he presented a series of skits showing What ac- tually should happen on TV. The “I Remember Father” takeoff was overdone, but the others, including the satire on shampoo commer- cials, were good. This led into Allen'S “City Billy” song, done with a male quartet, as a parody oh the hillbilly numbers. Finale sketch, about the new gamblers' licensing, was fair. Show, incidentally, ran Overtime an&;Allen cut into that last skit to parry with the .unseen stage manager about the trimming re- quired. It broke the mood of the show, and, while it might have been considered a part of TV's informality, even that informality can be carried too far. MISS U.'S. TELEVISION FINALS 1 With Buddy Rogers, Ken Nordine, ,, Robert Trendler orch .. Producer: Walter Schwimmer >A A A i A « >• Director: Don Cooke ♦ ♦ • f t ♦ go Mins.; Wed., 9 p.m. better panel shows on the air, has JJOLRWtOOF HOSIERY worked itself into a position* where DUMONT, front Chicago the panel is now of primary im- .• v Weiss &. Geller) portance, with the trio of guest Although more fluff than sub- acts each week only secondary. stance, the national finals of the And. with George S. Kaufman and yideo search for Miss U S. Teievi- sion ori9 51 beamed from Chicago moderator, the cracks whichLrthey via. WGN-TV last week (5), came come up with. each week (which off as a moderately diverting hour. Because of the eity-by-citybally- ^ e + S hii y r n a ,!f’ bpo attending the local elimina- tions Which Climaxed on the net- b w^5irc n fnt‘ e W°rk.show, the bankroller likely last twO weeks for the break-in Cot his money's Worth oh' -the-htip- of ; his new legiter, “Fancy Mefet- fhot {mbnlon the on^ ing You Again,” with Ken Murray ■. Y, 7?* ,, ; r subbing for him. While Murray’s *.'■ • ?,-* ls * s, u V W6 f° r some humor is more in the nitery-video $13»O0O worth of boodle, were se- emcee vein, he demonstrated Sun- lected and judged on their talent day night (9) that he ’Can keep up as looks. The gals were all with the others Attractive,* both, in /their strspless t inrta rhHefian Worn rinwn ^ wils during their performances fomm a thl Js»npi lief and in.their; bathing suits for the femme guest spot On the panel-last finalp phepspoatep waiirnn Sunday and came up with thebest 1 ^®^ . crack of the session. Answering ; ln Jbe main, the talentrexposed was French singer Charles Trenet’s ^ood by amateur standards. The ses- “problem” of how to make conver- sion wasprettytopheavywith chirp- sation with an American girl after ***- There were seven vocalists and the initial “how-do-you-do,” Fadi* two singers-mstrumentalists, There man asked Miss Christian what her were two pianists, a. tap dancer husband, Tyrone Power, hap said and an impressionist. Phyllis May- to her on their first meeting. She gors, Miss Baltimore TV, was se- answered, “I don’t think I should lected as the national winner, say that on the air.” Levenson, Except fpr the bathing suit se- While getting off his own bon mots, quence, which got fouled up Cam- as usual served as his own best au- era wise, the femmes were neatly dienCe, laughing at each of his showcased add worked against a jokes. But, that’s probably part variety of lush individual sets. The of his successful delivery as a good affair was Capably , emceed by showman. Buddy Rogers. It was a difficult Guest acts were good Sunday assignment considering the num- night to round out a fine Stanza, ber of cues and introes. Each gal Trenet, in his video bow, displayed was. preceded by a film shot and an easy personality in.. singing .one brief commentary by Rogers- on of his Own tunes with combined the city she represented. French and English lyrics, .Leo Smoothly inconspicuous musical De Lyon scored with some fresh support was provided by Robert comCdy material and impressed Trendler and the WGN orch. At- with his “dual voiced” ^routines, tractively mounted visual commer- Acro-dancer Elisa Jayne Was par cials Were backstopped by Ken YOU ASKED FOR If Art Baker, others Producer: Darrell Ross Director: Allen Buckley Writers: Cran Chamberlen, Maury Cohen ROSEFIELD PACKING CO. 30 Mins., Mon., 9 p*m. (EST) ABC-TV, from Hollywood {Guild, Bascdm & Bonfigli) ABC’s first west-to-east telecast is a harmless little variety item gimmicked up with variations that have been inspired by several ra- dio shows. Original basis of the show* has viewers writ-ing in recol- lections of some of the things that amused and amazed them some ; years ago, Program attempts to re- create these instances. All of them THE NAME'S THE SAME With Robert Q. Lewis, moderator; Abe Burrows, Meredith Willson, Joan Alexander, others; John Reed King, Lee Vines; an- nouncers .Producers: Mark Goodson, Bill Todman I Director: Jerome Schnur 30 Mins.; Wed„. 7:30 p.m. BENDIX, C. A. SWANSON ABC-TV, from N Y. (Tatliam^baird) “The Name's the Same” is a show with lots of laughs and the framework 1 for even more. It lids an extremely; good hook for throw- tele achievement. Art Baker is corif erencier. He's, a familiar phizz to film-audiences, be- ing one of thosp performers that virtually every theatre payee knows by sight, if not by name. He does okay in this department and at- tempts to dress up every act even beyond its intrinsic value. Highlight of this show was the viewing of the Duncan Sisters, an important team during the vaude heyday. This duo can still bat out a song with plenty of showmanship. Only drawback is that they’re be- yond the age where they can act Cute and get away With it. Other items included an artist who can do and oil painting in less than, a minute; a Navajo hoop dance, a ceiling walker and a film clip showing a dog that a donor had given to an institution to be trained to lead the blind. Jose. for her course. Nordine’s glib selling job. Pave. (8) was weak entry, suffering by comparison with the more in- formal half-hour stanza Wynn . did Ed Wynn's latest effort.on NBC- p «mous jfijRV triai S TV’s “All Star Revue" Saturday wlth jto Bender^ La^ry Robblns. Truman Smith, Spencer Davis, James Windsor, Helen Gillette, ... . ... . Clara Cedione, Patricia Jenkins When he started in video over Producer: John L. Clark CBS-TV. Chiefly this Coast-origi- Director: David Lowe nation lacked good material, al- 30 Mins., Wed , 9 p m. though it offered, in addition to Sustaining Wynn, a guest shot by Billie Burke, DUMONT, from N. Y. a turn by Danny Thomas, who also “Famous Jury Trials,” which has his own show in the All Star preemed on TV last year after a lineup* and Lew Parker, 15-year tenure on AM, resumed on Miss Burke's appearance* as a DuMont after a summer layoff, flibbertigibbet shopper in the New series carries on in the estab- Christmas rush at a department lished groove of fictionalizing storey was one of the better seg- actual courtroom dramas. It’s ments of the airer, but also needed presented with , minimum Of more script punch* Thomas did dramatic fireworks, but the his Antonio dialect characteriza- straight-forward exposition is a tion, but the struggles of a for- plus which makes the stanzas okay eign-bofn American with a tele- viewing. phone only provided some banal Forinat brings the viewer into a humor, Parker and Virginia Grey courtroom for an *on-the-spot ac- did another Bickersons sketch, c b U nt of the battle between pros- This is a familiar standby to AM ecutor- and defense* attorney over Eddie Cantor took his “Colgate Comedy Hour" troupe to the El Toro (Calif.) Marine Base Sunday night (9) for the first, transconti- nental video, show to originate directly from a service camp. While the show, aired via NBC-TV, might have concentrated too much on gags and skits slanted for his Marine Corps audience,, there was plenty of entertainment in it for the home viewers too. Since the show was played on the stage of the base auditorium, there was naturally less production than would have been possible in a TV studio and, of course, it was lighted like a stageshow. But Cantor and his production staff nonetheless got in sufficient values for the purpose^ In a reprise of his one-man show'* material, for example, Cantor “brought to life'' the covers of the sheet music tunes featuring girls' names that he introduced or helped popularize, such a^ “Dinah,'' “Ida,” “Susie,” etc; Girls, each of whom danced while he sang, brought the usual wolf calls from the audience. He grooved his “Maxie, the Tixi” bit this time for the Marines and. With an okay payoff line, it .dame off well. Comic wound the show With more of his one-man stuff, doing a group of “request” tunes ih his standard but always enter- taining style.. ^ Trio of guest acts added to the show’s overall quality. Norman Brown, a young drummer whom Cantor introduced as going into the Army himself soon, wowed with a lengthy solo stint on the skins and a followup dance on his. bass drum; Nilsson Twins, blonde lookers, did okay with a special tune on why they hate folksongs. Tom Dandrea and Larry Blake drew some laughs with their sailor skit, but it could have been trimmed for better impact. and TV fans—recently is was ® a case, usually involving murder, standing item on :DuMontS o ^der Both present their briefs to the mised 'Star Tiifi®* with Frances home Viewer, and the dramatic Langford (^a^ilable jtovr oe- p 0l .ti 0n j s brought in via flashback cause of her ABC-TV show trom related by the witnesses. N. Y.) in the femme role.. T it hoids .interest all the way. Bfckersons°h S ave° f comUi moments* Dn show caught (5), the case of but^the° vehicle* tends "to be wo 7? ced an< ? jjj 0 i cay busy, deceit and blackmail, with Modernaires ^qumtet Oia^ o Y th e defendant as well as the state’s by Jukebox Saturday Night, witness under suspicion of murder, nice interpolations of ca L , Although both the cases for the Vaughn Monroe, Guy_ L . prosecutor and the defense seemed a ? d Tii he -^ had^S sketchy and inadequate, the prO- of Manmhh p ren - gram Was brought to a reasonable tuneful turn and the G . ng conclusion. Direction and thesping, tice marionettes did a aided by good camerawork, kept Punch and Judy stmt for the kids. the segs ? on e welI paced Jim Bender and Truman Smith, a program’! as prosecutor and defense attorney, seldom more force- respebtivejy, were especially effec- than on SatUr- tive, and James Windsor was 1 m- §*By ^ cbows” on pressive as. the deferident. Other Y w}th S ^Sid Caesar and cast members made the most of NBC-TV. With Sid U&sar anu their roles. DavidLoew's direction tor Max Liebman moved into the situation sure-footedly to Trame W EEK IN REVIEW one of the best blocks in recent HoMrard jj ?ig weeks, 15 Mins.f Sun., 10:30 p.m. to acomplish the switch, some roXY CLEANERS & DYERS very visible .rearrangements were WRGB-TV, Schenectady ordered. A big difference, top; (Goldman, Walter & Kama) was in the casing of ^special News of, the week is recapped acts; since there was only one v ia. live and filmed material on sketch. It was a revue with wrCB’s only Sunday night pro* lotsa vaude* Overall, it topped g ra m covering currefit develop- the rriorO recent efforts of the two- me nts. It is a competent though star tandem; they’re tops in their not distinguished summary han- ing star names around, appear- u . ^ ■ . . ance of plain joes and janes who have a degree of entertainment, but , ^ « little to put this show into, a major bea* headlinei momkeis. Such a setup can produce fun or fall on its face; this one preemed with its phiz7/ v up. What gives “TNTS” some ifty ■TNT are four permanents in mod- erator Robert Q. Lewis and panel- ists Abe Burrows, John: Alexander and Meredith VViUson. Produc- ion tandem Mark Goodson-Bili Todman .did right by their format when they came up with this quar- et. They’re all hep and not ultra; ;>recious, Miss. Alexander, a radio- TV actress, a charmer who can talk. Lewis is hit more business- ike than per custom, and that’s all to the good. Burrows and Willson jjiteh contrasting speech and witti- cisms; A welcome relief, is that none tries to top the other. Curtain-raiser (5) had nortien- claturc counterparts of film ae- resses Jane Russell and Margaret O’Brien, and United Mine Workers' boss John L. Lewis. Having two screen names in succession—r-both femmes-rwas poor spotting. Panel, hreesome were allowed 10 queries each—back and forth—to iddntify contestants. Each donated a cheek or $25 on a missout after reaching the question limit. The “real” Maggie O’Brien Was presented arid was herself grilled as to whom she would like to be-? guessed correctly as Jimmy Du- rante. This, and other names were flashed for viewers. Best round was. on Jane Russell, drawing such questions as (from Willson) “are! you famous for any outstanding physical characteristics?” and (from Burrows) “are you . famous for more than one thing?” Lewis handled it wisely and got off that quick. Having question-throwers repre- sented as paying out the coin didn’t add up. For viewing purposes, this should come from the sponso- rial treasury, especially since no one is fooled by the largesse indi- cated in the other pitch. Com poser- baton ist Willson worked in a neat personal touch by. what seemed an off-the-cuff remark that Miss O’Brien flower-girled his wedding. Incidentally, the ex-moppet star, while beginning to show her womanhood, has a small voice, with childlike quality, and a quiet charm that’s very winning. John Reed King operated live for Bendix's automatic washer; middle plug had company’s dryer on film; end commercial was for Swanson’s poultry, Latter alter- nates weekly, with Bendix paving the way. The obvious come-on- applause after King’s washer build- up was foolish. Such milking makes a fine show look like it’s in a rut at the start. But overall, this pro- gram is going places if they main- tain the smartness and pace displayed at the bow. Trau. IN THE PARK IVith Bill Sears, Paul Ritt, Mary Holliday Producer: Charles Vanda, Jr. Writers: Ritt, Halllday 30.Mins.; Sun. 12 (noon) Sustaining CBS-TV, from Philadelphia This Philly-originated show has the lightness and; universal appeal that has become traditional with puppet shows* Like its intellectual ancestor, “Kukla, Fran & Ollie,” it's a moppet show, but there’s a lot of stuff that’s too fast for juve- nile minds and fit only for adult consumption. It’s a likeable show with a lot of charm. Bill Sears is a guy who talks to residents t>f the zoo* The animals are collaborating on the problem of buying this gent ah overcoat be- fore the cold spell hits town. There are some cute ideas passed back and forth and some literate dialog is delivered. The puppet manipulations are excellent and the production is well done. The animal characters are well conceived. “In the Park’ 'is a fine addition to.: the Sunday afternoon spectrum and has enough appeal to rate sponsorship. Jose: CBS-TV's “This Is Show Bdsl- ness,” just as with other of tho A Switch in pattern during the absence of stars was line, 'but the TV grind obviously consumes material at ..an alarming clip. And they’re not immune to the Condition. What was missing had nothing to do with the show proper: the air of expectancy lhat s. around when the pair - - of C s are present. FeW. performers in the mediutri have racked up such a score as that made by British comedienne Flor- ence ;Desmohd, guest hostess. Her s l (Continued on page 34) died by Howard Reig. Reig, who apparently uses contact lenses on these blocks, should strive for more flexibility and. facial line. He also would do Well to check an occa- siorial hollowness or dullness of tone.; June Youmari, in the commercial part, features a smiling, persuasive approach that sometimes shades to cloying sweetness. Filmed shots of the sponsor’s plants are in- cluded. Jaeo. CELEBRITY PARADE FOR CER- EBRAL PALSY TV Coordinator: Irene Adams Exec Producer: Charles Holden 15 Hours; 9 p.m.-12 noon (8-9) Sustaining WJZ-TV, N. Y. The proverbial big heart of show- business was given a long workout over last weekend when a virtual “who’s who” of the entertainment world showed up for cuff6 appear- ances on the. United Cerebral Palsy video show. It Was a 15-hour marathon, opening Saturday night and closing at nooii on Sunday after some 100 guest emcees, vo- calists^ comics, hoofers arid several musical crews did their stints for charity. For viewers with a pen chant for variety layouts, this show was a king-sized dish of vaudeo. Show was extended one hour late Sunday, morning. As formatted, the program was designed to raise funds for UCP from dialers who were stimulated to make large donations by a sys- tem of giveaways. The largest donors during each hour were awarded sundry merchandise gifts ranging from a year’s supply of cigarets to automobiles. Bids of the donor were relayed into the studio Via direct telephone connections and dialers were kept privy: to the size of the competing contribu- tions. It was an effective fund raising pitch, which raised over $275,000 for UCP. . . . Pitches for the UCP drive were also made' direct to the dialers by the various emcees Who handled ifie phone conversations with the donors. During the early hours of the show, emcees John Reed King Jan Murray and Ed Sullivan Were on the studio end of the phone line, to Wheedle bigger contribu- tions from the caller-inners. In ad- dition, straight pitches were .de- livered by Ezio Pi , Clifton Fadiman, Tex &; Jinx McCrary, Ed & Pegeen Fitzgerald, Jane Pickens, Maria Riva, among others. Straight entertainment was also spread over the 14 l ours via a ro* | ' (Continued on page 36) SPORTS ROUNDUP With Roily Johnson, Jack Hurley Producer: Sherman Headley * 15 Mins.; Fri., 10 p.m. BROWN CLOTHING CO. WTCN-TV, Minneapolis This is a well-presented sports show which follows the Friday , night televised boxing bouts. It has Rollie Johnson, WTCN sports di- rector, and a guest, some promi- nent sports figure, .discussing the televised fight that just preceded and other matters Of interest to sports fans, Johnson is telegenic and pcrsoriable, With a gift, of gab, arid the poise and assurance to go vvith it. What’s more, he usually; has decided opinions and minces no words expressing them,. He chooses topics that are timely and brings in notables whom, most sports followers would be anxious to see and hear. As a result, the show has, enlisted a considerable audienrie. For his guest at show caught. Johnsori had Jack Hurley, pilot oi Bob Matthews, light-heavyweight, who was here for a Twin Cities* bout. They talked interestingly and expertly of the Gavilan-Branton fight that had just been televised, discussing the scrappers' styles, bout’s highlights, arid the decision. Show’s only faults ate the overly* long commercials. Rees .