Variety (December 1954)

30 TELEVISION REVIEWS Wednesday, December 8, 1954 Leave It to Geo. (Gobel); ‘Old’ Julius Tannen Looks Like ‘Comedy Find of ’54’ Julius Tannen certainly proved that old pros never die with his socko stint on George Gobel’s Sat- urday NBC-TVer. The vet vaude- ville monologist turned in as au- thoritative a stint as anybody in The Lambs or the Masquers would want. He played his bit to the hilt, and there was an electric do-or- die something about that perform- ance which not only the intra-trade show-wise bunch got, but others must have also. This was a gallant salute from perhaps the newest tv star in the video diadem to a yesteryear vaude- ville great, and Tannen, long in re- tirement—and it would be no di- vulgcnce of any great state secret, also in need of work—delivered like Uncle Sam delivers the mail. He was biting, electric and com- manding in his stint as the testy interior decorator who, with facile change of pace, waxed Brooklynese and admitted that for 40 bucks he could also do a good facelift job on the Gobel manse. And that signoff was another star in the long and sentimental journey of any- body who has been touched by Miner’s Makeup No. 2 or a Max Fac- tor pancake—it was Tannen’s in- cisive thank-you from a once-great oldster to a great newcomer—sin- cere, warm, grateful. Gobel knew he was the winner on that deal. The Brown Derby huckster belt un- doubtedly will all of a sudden “dis- cover" Tannen as a line-reader and character player of rare skill—and should. Pronto. Tannen has been permitted to hibernate in the sun, unsung and unrecognized, too long. Abel. BREADTIME STORIES With Bud Mason Director: Hal Grene 15 Mins.; Mon.-thru-Fri., 5:15 p.m. FREIIIOFER BAKING CO WRGB-TV, Schenectady (Goldman & Walter) Simply-planned, shrewdly-mer- chandised program for four to seven-year viewers rolls along in its fifth or sixth year of continuous presentation, with little change in format but with a new artist-nar- rator in Bud Mason. He draws (some of it pre-blocked) and yarns the adventures of Freddie Frei- hofer and other characters in the animal-human fantasy world that always delights small children. Well-dressed groups of the lat- ter, wearing baker’s hats, sit on studio bleachers as Mason unfolds the thin story line. Four of them walk or are lifted to the drawing board (alongside reproduction of sponsor’s truck) for a “squiggle," from which Mason rather skillfully draws figures. A “spelling" test provides leadin to a plug for the next day’s product special. Cookies and cakes are distributed, before youngsters celebrating birthdays lineup back of their two tiers. Cameras shift from Mason to the kids, occasionally remaining a bit too long on the latter. Bespectacled, with a crewcut and a pullover sweater covering an open-neck shirt, the youthful Mason does the narration and ipieling competently. Now and then he presses too hard in eagerness to hold the tots’ attention. All- pervasive nature of advertising, visual and vocal (including a fore- and-aft singing commercial) is in- escapable. Whether little folks should be so strongly integrated may be open to debate. Program Is spotted between Dave Cameron’s "Friendly Fireman" (local) and "Howdy Doody’’ (network). Jaco. Rumors Fly On KRON-TV Status in Weaver Visit San Francisco, Dec. 7. Speculation concerning the fu- ture of NBC’s tv outlet here. KRON-TV, owned by the San Fran- cisco Chronicle, broke out anew following the appearance here last week of Sylvester (Pat) Weaver, NBC president. Weaver told news- men that NBC was considering every possibility in the local situa- tion, just as in other areas where there’s a possible NBC switch up- coming. Possible moves mentioned by Weaver (and continuance of the present NBC-KRON-TV affiliation Is one of them) include purchase of KRON-TV. an NBC UHF appli- cation, affiliation or purchase of KOVR, Stockton stat ion beaming a good picture into the Frisco area. Tele Follow-Up Comment Jackie Gleason took a sabbatical from comedy on Monday’s (6) edi- tion of “Studio One” on CBS-TV with his depiction of the central character in a meller, “Short Cut,” a thinly disguised story of a Phonix City (Ala.) setup. The comic proved that he can be equally at home in serious roles. He’s got a competent and authoritative style- that’s more than a surface charac- terization. True, his role of Sam Wheeler was reminiscent of the style he essays almost weekly in “The Honeymooners.” He gave an excel- lent demonstration that the line between comedy and drama can be exceedingly narrow. Wheeler might have been a Ralph Cranulen. But a ruthless, driving and con- suming ambition removed him from the category of a nice, harm- less guy. Gleason’s Wheeler was a man who will do anything, and make any alliance to achieve his political ends. He was "strongman” cast in a minor political role in a corrupt and venal town. He achieved the first step with his election as state senator who is assigned the job of cleaning up the town. One item signifying that he means to go higher was a brief but significant sequence in which he tried the governor’s chair for size. However, support from ele- ments of the “outs” seeking to reinstate their hooks into the gravy train, led to his assassination. Priscilla Gillette, who majors in longhair singing, did well as the backstreet fiancee and secretary of Gleason, while Lin McCarthy, Larry Gates and Florenz Ames .offered strong support in other roles. Musical background, with Bobby Hackett providing a trumpet solo, imaginative but utilitarian sets and other production accoutre- ments came off well. Originally, this Carey Wilbur story was titled “Peacock City,” but it seemed too close to the Phenix label and thus the work w-as retitled. This was Gleason’s second try on “Studio One,” other effort being in comedy vein, “The Laughmaker.” Considering that Gleason has been pretty well occu- pied between his own Saturday night show, and having woflTrd^up a grueling two weeks at the Para*, mount Theatre, N.Y., where he was doing as many as six shows daily, Gleason did quite a job of under- standing his character and mem- orizing the role. Jose. Last Sunday’s <5) “Toast of the Town” was as good an example as any in the series of why Ed Sullivan and coproducer Mario Lewis copped a Sylvania Award last week for the “best in variety” category. It Was a routine “Toast,” in the sense that it was the regu- lar studio origination without any of the remote or special events trappings, but it comprised an hour of solid entertainment values that typify the longrunner. Hard to pick out a headliner, but Eartha Kitt was back, fresh from her straight-acting “Mrs. Patterson” triumph: Kirk Douglas, in from the Coast, displayed a new facet via a musical production number; the Ames Bros, showed that knack for comedy that broad- ens their acceptance considerably; and Carol Haney turned in .a num- ber that legitimatizes the mambo. Jackie Miles, though staying with familiar material, can’t be dis- missed lightly, and the “Toast” rush-’em-through closer, in this case the Wassan troupe, provided as spectacular an acrotumbling rou- tine as has been seen on the show in some time. Backing all this up were the usual Sullivan “take-a-bow” fea- tures, with Mitzi Gaynor .serving as the peg for a clip of 20th’s up- coming "No Business Like Show Business,” Sullivan introing the teenage winner of the International Livestock prize, complete with the winning steer and family, plus a house plug for the two winning teams (both drove Lincolns) in the Mexican-Pan American Road Race. “Show Biz” clip was a poor se- lection, a long shot of the finale of the pic that crowded the screen so that little of it could be made out. Along with this was something of a faux pas by Sullivan, who said that the pic would bust all bo. records just a Lew minutes after having introed Douglas with a plug for “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" (Sullivan partly atoned by later correcting himself and saying b.o. records for a musical). Miss Kitt shone with “Please, Jacques,” a good ballad, and her new Victor release, “I Want You . • . • Around,” a rhythm number adorn- ed with some of here looselimbed strutting - and - stretching. Ames Bros., a ter opening with “Naughty Lady irom Shady Lane,” went into a highly amusing routine of impressions of top pop singers with both good vocal carbons and effec- tive slapstick. Douglas, singing “Whale of a Tale,” which he does in “20,000 Leagues,” more than compensated for vocal deficiencies with some high-voltage vitality that made the production number something special. Miss Haney’s mamboing (with an excellent un- billed male) combined topflight execution with an imaginative choreographic approach. Miles’ stint about films (in dialect) is still a big laugh-getter. And the Wassan’s tumbling made a fast- and-flashy closer against NBC’s specola lineup. Chan. “Kraft Television’Theatre” would have been wiser to lay off the Dumas name-dropping and the an- cient “Camille” which has served as the distaff cough-a-thon Hamlet for numerous Hollywood emoters of the old, old silents circa 1917; add a hotshot talker (Gable & Garbo) 20 years after that. The Wednesday (1) NBC’er should be a wiser man today after an abortive try in which the chance to give the vintage vehicle even more creaki- ness than it deserved was turned into a sureshot at the hands of a drama series that is never less certain than when it climbs aboard “classics.” This, with the next day’s “Kitty Foyle" on ABC-TV, was supposed to represent an upped pre-Yule budget in the cheese outfit’s one-two punch (or “1-2,” if the December dates ap- ply to the reference). Additionally, “Camille” was skedded as a kind of showcase for Jacques Bergerac in the Duval role, with Signe Hasso in the famed “name” part. Under the dispirited production with its ten- twent’-thirt’ tent-rep-tab approach (though okay mountings), neither one of the stars could get going against the script; and the over- dosage of French accent added an- other assault on the enjoyment po- tential. “Kitty Foyle,” Christopher Mor- le.v’s bestseller novel of 15 years, didn’t fare too well in its video stress. It emerged as an indiffer- ent, episodic exposure and al- together too telegraphic in its punches even to those unfamiliar with the book (with word from one reader that many liberties were taken with the text, but perhaps because of the limited time). Nevertheless, Cloris Leachman found this a serviceable piece for her playing of the title role, with Ed Begley outstanding as her father and George Roy Hill squar- ing the interpretation of the “old school tie” Philly Main Liner ro- mantically mixed up the white collar gal. Trau. Ed Murrow has had pros before on "Person to Person” but more than one froze up like a Frigidaire in an igloo when it came to humanizing themselves in their quarter-hour voluntary exposes of their pseudo-private lives. Some erred the other way, being so gay- ly abandoned as to dissipate the intime values that “P^to-P” sug- gests. But Murrow hit the jack- pot this past Friday night (3), over CBS-TV, with ‘Bing Crosby and Mary Margaret McBride in a man- ner that should average him out well for some time to come so far as the “right” standard of values goes. The best answer is that the pub- lic wished neither ended. It has been the other way in quife a few other instances when comedians or other show' biz personalities “re- laxing at home” were anything but. Along with it, they bored their dialer-inners. With Crosby this was a com- pelling Cook's tour of his Holly- wood manse, .and Miss McBride perhaps had a shade the better of it with her personal gallery and galaxy from her Central Park South (N.Y.) duplex. If Crosby were any more relaxed he’d col- lapse, but that didn’t impair the efficiency of his guideposts to a variety of items, from the 19 Decca “gold” platters to the late Dixie Crosby’s Copenhagen China collec- tion. He hummed “This Ole House” in tongue-in-cheek man- ner, and interlarded a dash of “Count Your Blessings” in a cas- ual style which bespoke innate showmanship—he even had the right "theme” songs for the occa- sion. He got in the right degree of plugging for his upcoming "Country Girl” (Par), saluted his late gagman Barney Dean, spot- lighted his "real” friends, spqke about the boys—Lindsay was the only one present—and even got in a fast dash of his case against “Oop! Shoop!” and “Sh-Boom,” which his four "toughest critics”— his sons—apparently hold in high- er esteem than does the Groaner. He admitted that bringing up the four boys was his toughest job. Miss McBride’s penchant for food and books was in ample evi- dence and while the newspaper columnist-broadcaster (she’s off the air for a spell) appears thin- ner, she was warm and frank and forthright in her approach to the interview. She spoke of mike deadlines; grimly humorous inci- dents like the time ‘T was caught in my zipper,” or racing with Mrs. FDR to get on-mike in time; her leaning towards explorers and peo- ple to write books; her “screen of friendship”; her collection of dolls; her veteran staff, with her 20-27 years. Withal, perhaps the best “Person to Person” Murrow has ever done. He was almost a stooge, so articulate and sponta- neously vocal were his vis-a-vis. Abel. Lot$a Slots —^ Continued from pace 25 and jokes—maybe for the outings that Berle doesn’t undertake in the Hope-Raye rotation). At the mo- ment, the Jan. 4-11-18 slots are un- filled, with Skelton ankling 8 p.m. after Dec. 28 and Silvers not sked- ded to be launched until Jan. 25. Chopped Down Chopped dowm some weeks ago was Eddie Mayehoff’s "That’s My Boy” laugh situationer. Plymouth sticks fast to the 10 p.m. Saturday time, however, opposite NBC’s George Gobel (who, incidentally, is being pitched for a quarter-hour radio strip by the web via tapings- from-tv). Silvers’ alternating under- writer will be CBS-Columbia, with other bankroller not set. (Silvers show is looking ahead by booking ahead; Paul Ford is signed for a featured part, and Harvey Lembeck has begun work on the series; Karl Lukas is pacted for the Kadowski role in the Gl-slanted showcaser for the ex-“Top Banana” man.) NBC, with no major casualties, is not entirely out_ of the woods, however. There’s no particular se- cret about the web’s dissatisfaction with the up-and-downs of the Jmo- gene Coca Saturday nighter, nor has Sid Caesar’s Monday hour been setting viewers on fire thus far in the premiering season, although it may be said in his behalf that he’ll continue to play with his format and talent components until he finds the key. The ailing Red Buttons has had two firemen for his Friday night show (Victor Borge and the pilot of Willard Waterman’s “Great Gil- dersleeve” situationer), but is ex- pected back this week. As for the Mickey Rooney telefilmer, it’s been cut up from the start by the CBS Jackie Gleason stanza, and chances are if the Rooney series were live, it would have been ousted long since, considering that pacts on cel- luloiders are usually longtermers. Reentering the vidpix sweep- stakes is Robert Cummings, with R. J. Reynolds (for Winston Cigs) underwriting the series, starting Jan. 2 (Sunday) in the 10:30 p.m. slot. Situationer is Cummings’ sec- ond, first being “My Hero,” origi- nally for Philip Morris Cigs. Skelton and ‘Understudy’ Hurt Hollywood, Dec. 7. Red Skelton jarred a couple of ribs while playing with his kids Sunday (5), so director Jack Don- ahue subbed for him at rehearsal yesterday (Mon.). While Donahue was doing Skelton’s role, the stair- case collapsed and he fell several feet, suffering bruises. Gueststar Abbe Lane stepped off just before the staircase gave way. KANG-TV Stays on Air Waco, Tex., Dec. 7. KANG-TV will definitely remain on the air here following its sale by Clyde Weatherby to the Texas Broadcasting Corp., of Austin. J. C f Kellam, veepee and gen- eral manager of Texas, stated that application has been filed with the FCC for purchase of the local outlet for $115,000 and assumption of obligations. SPEAKING OF FAMILIES With Stuart Lindman, others Producer-director: Lloyd Balcom 25 Mins.; Mon., 3:30 p.m. Sustaining WMIN-TV, Minneapolis A local version of the NBC net- work’s “It’s a Problem” and with the latter’s permission, this panel show supervised by the Twin Cit- ies’ four Family and Children’s service agencies brings into homes Monday afternoons experts’ discus- sions of current vital problems affecting practically everybody. Judging by the series’ initial an- swer to “What Is a Good Mar- riage?,” the program may be set down as a worthy WMIN-TV public service for family life. Successful preem indicates that the show should achieve its avowed purpose of leading tuners-in to a happier, better life. The first con- tribution was calculated to enlist a particularly wide feminine audi- ence as it provided interesting, helpful domestic information and enlightenment. Views were stated by Mrs. Eleanor Lucky. U. of Min- nesota Dept, of Family Life in- structor; Dr. Allan Challan, psychi- atrist, and Dr. C. Willson Ander- son, Minneapolis Family and Chil- dren’s Service director. Sitting around a bench and fac- ing the camera, the panelists were skillfully interrogated and chan- neled into various arresting phases of the topic by the personable moderator, Stuart Lindman. He whipped up occasional sharp argu- mentation and controversy and preventing the gabbing from laps- ing into anything dull. Next discussion subject will be teenagers’ problems and coming up are such topics as old age difficul- ties and housewife as drudge or duchess. Rees. ‘Face’ Slotting Mulled By NBC for Big Hoopla On Look Mag TV Awards NBC-TV is working on a major slotting for hoopla on Look maga- zine’s annual video awards, with the Saturday night “Place the Face” currently ahead in the run- ning for the Dec. 18 preemption. The web naturally looks with favor on “Face” as its time choice, since it will act as a lead-in to the Max Liebman spec that night. Toni, which sponsors “Face,” will ride along with the tab. Mag board chairman Gardner Cowles has alerted his staff to as- semble as many of the awardees as geographically possible for bows-apperances, along with other components to round out a half- hour. Awards will be announced in Look’s Dec. 28 issue, distrib- uted on the 14th. Ceremonies have been on top shows in the past, often with rival network toppers participating. NBC had first thought of putting the show in the Sid Caesar Mon- day time, but this was before a determination as to the list of winners. Report is that Caesar is not cited by Look this year. Marines in Tor Duration’ Of WABC 17-Hr. Telethon Unusual facet of the second an- nual “Stars Through the Night” telethon on behalf of the Arthritis & Rheumatism Foundation, slated for this Saturday night (11) on WABC-TV, N. Y., will be the pres- ence of a group of 75 marines un- der orders to act as a “security force” for "the duration” (17 hours). Leathernecks, members of the Marine Corps Recruiting Service from the Third Naval District, will act as traffic cops for the telethon, with their job to facilitate the flow of traffic of performers in and out of the Ritz Theatre origination site. Telethon’s being produced bv Mogle - Sheldon Associates and WABC-TV program chief Ardien Rodner. Ayer V.P.’s McDermott Thomas J. McDermott, head of radio-tv at N. W. Ayer agency’s New York offices, has been handed v.p. stripes. McDermott, who joined the agency in 1933 and has been with the radio-tv department since, operated most recently in charge of radio-tv plans. Agency’s current tv activity is confined to the Plymouth “That’s My Boy” on CBS-TV (axed but sponsor holding the time), regional pickups by Atlantic Refining of the pro football games on ABC-TV and DuMont, and alternate sponsor- ship of CBS-TV’s “You Are There” by the Electric Light Be Power Cos. i