Variety (November 1957)

VtdaeiJiy, 13, 1957 ST irasvISIOX BSV1BWS Tabulous Infant’ Gets Slapped Into ‘World’ as a Preface to TV History TUB CHEVY'SHOW _ . j Wltk Tour Martin. Nat Kiac Cola. George Gabel. Mary Kaye Trie. Weire Bros.. Marla Tallchlef, Paul Weston ereh. Producer: Leo Morgan Director: Frank Bunetta * Writers: Phil Rapp. Jack Brooks 60 Mins.; Sun. (10), 9 pan. CHEVROLET NBC-TV, from H'wood (color) (CampbelUEwald) For the first of the Dinah Shore layoff weeks on “The Chevy Show,” Henry Jaffe Enterprises signed Tony Martin to emcee and gathered a cast comprising Red Buttons, Nat King Cole, Vera Ellen and Joan | Davis. Then the roof fell in, with Buttons pulling out because of dis-. satisfaction with the script, and Asian flu taking toll of the rest of. the cast. By the time the show went on the air, only emcee Martin and Cole remained from the original, cast, with George Gobel, the Mary Kaye Trio, the Weire Bros, and Maria Tallchief filling in. Considering the state of things, producer Leo Morgan managed to f et off a fair, vaudeville show. hejre were plenty of soft spots, along with some poor, routining but the Kaye Trio, the Weire Bros., Cole and Martin all contributed good performances. Miss Tallchief’s billet number, with Bruce Hoy, was something of a throwaway, midway between the classic and modern with an inadequate beach theme. Gobel’s Texas disk- jockey hit was on the tired side. And a closing “Sinbad the Sailor” production number was tasteless ancTtuneless. Dinah’s due back Nov. 24 (Gen¬ eral Motors 50th anni spec is in next week>, which means safety and sanity for a while. Judgment on the. non-Dinah Chevy entries deferred until next time; Chan. TEEN CLUB PARTY With Wally Phillips, Merigall Moreland; guest, Lurlean Hun¬ ter; others Exec Producer: Les Urbach Producers: Don Kane, Jerry Gre- goris, Sheldon Cooper Writer-Director: Jerry Gregoris 90 Mins., Mon.-thrti-Fri., 4 p.m. PARTICIPATING WGN-TV, Chicago WGN-TV sloughed its. longrun- ning • “Bandstand Matinee” when the ratings started slipping and has developed in its place a varia¬ tion .of the old record hop format, more diversified than the other and with public affairs overtones to boot. Without denying rock ’n’ roll, it stresses the more admirable values of wholesomeness and in¬ telligence, giving the • teenage viewer something constructive to shoot for. Besides that, the party is fun and well organized. High school participants are handpicked from among honor stu¬ dents and those interested in stu¬ dent affairs, kids who are a credit to their generation. It’s a clean- cut, mixed crowd of Negroes and whites, the boys all wearing coats and ties ahd the girls neat but typical highschool garb. There isn’t a hub cap atealer in., the crowd. Host Wally Phillips, grffcious and professional, gets them to talk . about their. interests and. achieve¬ ments,. but only for moments at a time so. as not to. bog the show down- with the implicit- message. The kids. sit. at tables with dates, as in a club, are treated maturely and have free access to the dance floor with whatever music, live or canned, is played. Show uses Bob Trendler’s 14-piece studio orcti, lyhich dishes out danceable swing arrangements per'the Glenn Mil¬ ler era, in addition to pop records of Pat Boone, the Crickets and other contemporaries, and an in¬ terlarding of such adult, beats as the cha cha cha. Between the dance segments are brief inter¬ views, panel discussions, charades, a visit by'a guest artist, and plugs for school-functions and sorority balls. Show caught (7) had singer Lur¬ lean Hunter guesting and answer¬ ing questions from the teeners. Phillips later held an intelligent panel discussion with four .of the youngsters on the scare from outer space, had a set of twins rate a new disk to see if both liked the same things, and climaxed it all with a dance contest judged by the non- dandng kids in attendance.. Assisting Phillips is WGN-TV’s new find, Merigail Moreland, an attractive: adolescent of the high- schoolers’ own ranks whcr sings a couple ’ of' numbers per show, pitches in - on the interviews, reads the calendar of teenage events, and runs the handmike for Phillips. Gal has a fine singing* talent but is too new’at the game not to be¬ tray her. - nervousness. -A couple months work to give, .her. assur¬ ance that* "the cameras won’t bite should remedy what ails hfei\ Production values are-excellent, and director Jim Gregods’ camera¬ work keeps ttle,party lively for the , home folks:' . Leg. LUCILLE BALL-DK9I ARNAE SHOW With Aan Bothers, Ceear Roaere, Rudy Vallee, Hedda Hopper, Vivian Vance, William Frawley, Richard Keith, others; composer- conductor, Wilbur Hatch Exec Producer: Arnar Producer: Bert Granet Director: Jerry Thorpe Writers: Madelyn Martin, Bob Carroll Jr., Bob Shlller, Bob ‘Weiskopf 75 Mins.; Wed., 9 pan. FORD MOTORS CBS-TV (film) (JWT) . Back in the vivid 1930s the late i Hugh O’Connell, as the hero in ; the • “Once in a Lifetime” legiter, was cracking Indian nuts while shooting a picture in a Hollywood I that was just learning to talk. In his dimwit role O’Connell was makebelieved into a “genius,” so that the nut-cracking bit, which managed to enter the soundtrack, was immediately declared to be an example of great cinematic art of. the “Emperor Jones*’ genre, in its “simulation” of the beating of the jungle tom-toms. Or something like that When O’Connell ordered a costly piece of construction to be dismantled, the frantic studio head demurred for~-a couple of seconds and then, suddenly aware that he really had a “proved genius” in his midst, concurred with O’Con¬ nell and ordered the set destroyed. Something of the .sort .must have 1 passed through the minds of those —including Desi Amaz himself, perhaps—when blueprinting this season’s five hour-length- “Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz” shows. Since Desilu had run the 30-minute “I Love Lucy” for several years into a fantastic rating spiral at 9 o’clock on another day, it would be duck soup—wouldn’t it?—merely to double the time to an hour with a script in similar format, or near¬ ly so. It was, say like back-to- backing a two-part ‘'Lucy.” Last Wednesday (6) this pre¬ sumed theory did not pay out A good half-hour show is not neces¬ sarily twice as good when twice the ldhgth. Contrariwise, a good half-hour shpw might be only half as good when the running time is -double. Seldom the twain shall meet when the element of time be¬ comes the entire basis In a repeat format. To compound the felony, Arnaz & Co. for some reason elect¬ ed not only to “go hour” but 15 extra minutes’ worth. It sez here that Ford Motors, underwriter of the elongated specials, met with CBS-TV officials, “and it was de¬ cided that the program, which in unedited form- extends to one hour and 15 minutes, is so outstanding that it merits presentation in its full length.” If this was really unedited—a bizarre circumstance to begin With—the Indian nuts were certainly apparent, Some “Lucy” lovers might have found this Lucy-Desi hour amus¬ ing. It had its moments, these mo¬ ments being about par for the course of a “Lucy” half-hour but scarce as hen’s molars in a 75-. minute unreeling. The opening choice for a story, that of reflect¬ ing oti how Arnaz and "Miss Ball “met up in Havana” • in 1940, seemed to be: more innocent dramatization than reality, though either way Would be okay if there were a payoff that, depended less on the prior and continuing fame of the principals and more on the material and thfe handling thereof. It was a flashback stanza via a Hedda Hopper updated interview with the couple and longtime sup¬ porting team of Vivian Vance and William Frawley as jumping-off point It was full of pushbutton, visual gags such as Rudy Vallee stripped down to striped under¬ wear and jumping overboard on a cruise shin; a hilarious • If. over¬ extended tippling'session <by Miss. Ball and guest Ann Sothern;.a well contrived “battle of the - Conga drums” between, the ore-marital Lucille Ball and Cuban Rick^ CArnaz) Ricardo; an umvo'rthv and overly familiar throwing of flower Spots on serenaders .Arnaz and Cesar Romero; a noisy “audition” of Arnaz as a piece of'talent to catch Vallee’s eye. In his character as the great Vagabond Lover, Stein singer and whiffenpoofer, and an obvious ender-upper on the ship back to home for the manhunting Ball 8c Sothem. Interlarded in these extensive j and extended cabers were a couple 1 of songs that got lost in the frenzv. credited as titled “Our*Ship Is Coming In” #nd “That* Means I Love . You,” cleffed. fby.. -Arthur (“Cry Me a River”) Hamilton and arranged by Frank Comstock. It is* possible that under more agree¬ able conditions they, .would have, showcased more effectively. Also, the production motif' ’may have shrouded both the lyrics and the music. A curious aspect .waS, In some instances, applause for the stars and principals' 6ff first en¬ trance, and again • at • -re-entry, which suggests that, .the. “take” method of filmmaking, was not • &Xkl0Tf I JERRY LEWIS SHOW With MeHo Lark*, Weaibreok Van ■ Voorhees, Sons 3il», Nick Caa- I tie Dancers, Walter Scharf orch, others .v Producer: Ernest D. Glucksman Director: Jack Shea Writers: Mel Tolkin, Neil “Doc” Simon 60 Mins., Tues., 9 p.m. OLDSMOBILE NBC-TV, from Hollywood (D. P. Brother) . Jerry Lewis is still sticking to his dream of being a One-man cavalcade of show biz—one who has inherited the mantle of A1 Jol- son, Danny Kaye, Charlie Chaplin and some of the greats who have preceded him. He is an ambitious lad who in the best tradition of show biz gives his best and at least provides moments when the return to viewers is rich and rewarding. His opener for the season was virtually a one-manner. The guests occupied little time and were of minor consequences in the full scheme of things. Lewis and his writers stood virtually alone in this exhibit. The top return? could have been encased in a show of much shorter duration. There was a fair reaction on his talent scout takeoff, but his funny antics in the do-it-yourself home workshop rep¬ resented the apex of his show. Westbrook Van Voorhees’ impres¬ sive voice served as the sounding board off which Lewis’ antics bounced. The combination ‘held the stage excellently. .The singing moments were not of a very high level. Lewis’ top effort came at the finale in “The Lord Loves a Laughing Man,” a tune reminiscent of several others in that genre, and the choreog¬ raphy seemed ' like a burlesque. Lewis also wasn’t in very good voice at that point. There was one other occasion in which he panted heavily when making an announce¬ ment. The lad should take it easier. The Melio Larks, a singing four¬ some with beaucoup experience in the cafes and elsewhere, gave a good account of themselves with a single tune. However, their effec¬ tiveness was dissipated with the unnecessary interruption from New. York of an election bulletin during their number. Susan Silo, a 15- year-old, still holds a good poten¬ tial, despite her distressing choice of a tune. A fast rhythm number Would have served her cause more effectively than “Mr. Wonderful.” Lewis got in his unusual number of plugs on this show which in¬ cluded the muscular dystrophy drive; one for “Sad Sack,” his Par¬ amount release; there was a men¬ tion, of Decca beside, the usual com¬ mercials for Oldsmobile, with Bill Hayes and Florence Henderson making like a happy couple. * Lewis, per usual, got excellent production accoutrements with Ernest D. Glucksman giving him bigleague settings. Jack Shea’s di¬ rection provided a good pace, and Walter Scharf did well in the mu¬ sic department. Jose. PENTHOUSE SERENADE With Eddie Ackland Band, Dick Maloney, Roberta Waites, A1 Costt Producer: Pierre Norm an din Music Director: Ackland 30 Mins.; Thurs., -7:30 p.m. CBOT, Ottawa Eddie Ackland, w.k. local drum¬ mer-chanter, has rounded up a small (5) group of musicians to backbone “Penthouse Serenade,” a musical half-hour. Show will use guests and has Dick Maloney as emcee. The. format is sound and once the cast shucks off opener tension to a point where “pent¬ house” relaxation sets in, it should be a clicko item on the Thursday evening local video fare. Guesters on opener (7) were A! Cost! who has held 88 and chant; chores in Ottawa lounges, and; Roberta Waites, new to most view- era, in a pair of canary hits. Others were Ray Lafortune, keyboard; Marcel Lafortune, bass; Bill Kos- tenuk, tenor; Pete Fleming, vibes, with Ackland on drums and a pipe solo. Maloney also had a song. Penthouse setting was classy. Audio on opener was poorly balanced with instrumental show¬ hacking stronger than voices. Gen¬ eral production tightening will help this session greatly. Germ. kept in mind by the editing de¬ partment. . _ .Among Ford’s commercials was intro . of the 1958 models Via quickie pitches ' by Dick Powell, Arthur Godfrey and Tennessee Ernie Ford; ana there was an ef¬ fective blurb behind'the “Around the World In 80 Days” musical •theme amid a giant globe. . Trait. ; More Television Reviews On Page 46 JBy LEONARD TRAUBE Although television Is admittedly a gigantic communications medi¬ um, NBC was hard put—or per¬ haps unequal to the task—of filling out roughly 80 minutes adequately on Sunday’s (10) “The Fabulous i Infant,” the self-styled “story of; network tv.” Perhaps the “story” was too formidable; perhaps in try¬ ing to encompass the “other net-i works” within the sphere of “his¬ tory” it bent over sidewaysi for¬ ward and backward and thus omit-; ted some of its own important con¬ tributions to the care and feeding of the mighty 10-year-old—while at the same time holding back on including some of the more memo¬ rable and highlight fodder ground out by the rival networks. In the; end, it was more of an “NBC show” than anything else, but even here i the omissions were glaring. Not that “Infant” as displayed on “Wide Wide World” lacked high moments and some compelling nos¬ talgia; but a solid point of view Was missing, and considering that WIDE WIDE WORLD (The Fabulous Infant) With Dave Garroway, Milton Berle, Ernie Kovacs, Jack Webb, others; kinescope section, Berle, Arturo Toscanini, Garroway, Kukla, Fran & Ollie, Ed Wynn,. Bob Hope; Burns & Alien, Gene Autry, Jimmy Durante, Red Skelton, Dinah Shore, Bishop Sheen, Jackie Gleason, Wally Cox, Ralph Edwards, Martha Raye, ‘ Ozzie 8c . Harriet, Jack Webb, George Gobel, Howdy Doody, Disneyland (Davy Crock¬ ett), Mickey Mouse Club (Mouse- keteers), $64,006 Question, Perry Como, Wyatt, Earp, Roller Der¬ by, Capt. Hawk, Popeye, Country Music Jubilee, others; composer and conductor, David Broekman Exec Producer: Barry Wood Producer: Herbert Sussan Director: Van Fox Tech Supervisor: Cliff -Paul Writer: Lou Salaman 90 Mins., Sun., 4 p.m. GENERAL MOTORS NBC-TV, from N. Y. ( MaeManus, John 8c Adams ) the production high command was forced* by accident or design, to resort to mere filler, stage-wait material at its most vital points, the whole appeared to fall more in the trough of an extended pre¬ face rather than a competent foray into histories. „ Were it not for the live and very- much-alive candid commentary by Milton Berle and Ernie Kovacs— especially “Mr. Television” of the “death slot” Berlesday. era—this outline of picture-box electronics would have been “just another show” trying to make like a docu¬ mentary. .“Fabulous Infant” seemed to need the editorial and editing savvy of a Murrow, Friend¬ ly & Co. (and what happened to “See II Now” when NBC was pre¬ paring this synopsis?) or the.tele- meritary knowhow of the network’s own Pete Salomon. Entirely for¬ gotten was the fact that, only a few short years ago, it was NBCi itself which made a foremost con-' tribution in terms of the now word- j jettisoned “spectaculars” which,' had. they been included, would in- ; evitably have brought the name of i ex-NBC prexy Pat Weaver to the: front. History is made of sterner! stuff than what seemed deliberate stabbing. No series^of programs before or since have had so exten¬ sive an exploitation, been the sud- ject of so many countless features in ail the television markets of the nation and. in spurts, of the world,; as the Weaver-incepted gee-whiz- zers. From this view’ alone, the “Infant” show suggested an over¬ dose of an ostrich formula that re¬ flected little credit on the network; Whereas inclusion of the “spec era" would surely have helped to round out the “story.” The forepart was a kihescoped recap of some of the top program series, national and,,international events. Federal hearings. Presiden¬ tial Inaugurals, et al.. encasing all networks in the runthrough from 1947 ;o date—from 16,000.telecasts to 41,900,000' tv families.* ‘it Was a competent job of editing and con¬ tinuity,. if sometimes lacking high drama, by reason, perhaps, of an overcrowded canvas. It was during about the * middle of this period, incidentally, that NBC’s- Eddie ‘Cantor was seen on the first com¬ mercial west-to-east transmission* but this. too. seemed too trivial to “WWW” to treat The nostalgic stunner was the. striking closeup of Arturo Tos¬ canini singing away softly while conducting the NBC symphony; but a distinct missout was shewing Frank Costello “taking the Fifth” full face, whereas the great drama of the Kefauver hearing in ’51 lay in Costello’s successful insistence that the tv cameras be called off, reducing his onscreen appearance to his hands in a camera «tra*egy that will hardly be forgotten; strange, too. that in the skeletal treatment of the* current westerns, NBC gave the nod to ABC’s “Wyatt Earp” in what seemed ah unrealis¬ tic bypass of CBS’ high-ranked “Gunsmoke,” first of the updated oaters to “make It big” on tv. Al¬ together, as a kinnie klatch—okay; as a substantial attempt at tv his¬ tory—sketchy and unfulfilled. After the first commercial for General Motors’ 50th anniversary year and its “GM Five for *58,” the show launched into its solidest seg¬ ment. This was the "live" Act II wherein the Ernie Kovacs portion out of Las Vegas’ Tropicana, was humorous and candid, and even with too much of the autobiog¬ raphy about it, was neatly con¬ trived. It was Berle, in the segue, who. supplied the softly-treading wallop, via a frank summation of his views re the giant medium. Appearing humble and straitlaced, he presided over what turned out to be a tv magnum opus in minia¬ ture, against the impedimenta and local station puffs. “I am a ham.” Berle said, and pronto proved that he’s one of the greatest of that self-styled breed. By his voicing of a quasi-theme, that there are “469 approaches to the talent question” (meaning that number of stations), the program had a reasonable if ■not too resultful excuse to con¬ sider some local station program¬ ming, picking up KMTV-Omaha, WBZ - TV - Boston (Westinghou.se station), KYTV-Springfield. Mo., with their foremost entries, or at least their particular selections. Berle fielded the return ball niftily with a misty-eyed tribute to his late mother Sandra Berle, who “kept the laffs going”; spoke matter-of-factly of his hits and misses, his gags that laid an egg, how he “knocked myself out”; and in what seemed a valedictory speech, “television Is still just be¬ ginning. Nobody owns the air¬ waves but the people.” He walked off, sat down where his mother was accustomed to take her claque spot, looked over the theatre—a vast empty expanse, the NBC Stu¬ dio 6B that Berle built. Here was showmanship, pathos, reflective hu¬ mor—a different kind of Berle. a Berle with a “tv elder statesman” manner. Part III was inappropriate in parts and a letdown in others. It seemed to want to depict the “tv film” era. (“movies for tv in as¬ sorted flavors" as narrator Dave Garroway called it); got into a live Jack .Webb and kinnied “Dragnet” for a punctuation point complete with ■ Webb’s dissection of what makes “Dragnet” tick; turned sharply into a forked road with a cornified and nearly extraneous buildup of the web’s “Matinee Theatre,” with overall chief Albert McCIeery leading the whole crew stealth-like toward the camera amid descriptives by “Matinee” host John Conte. Whatever log¬ istics are necessary to bring in the Show—and “Matinee” is an ambi¬ tious daily undertaking—failed of its mission in this treatment. Thera followed a bit of non sequitur stuff, semi-abstractions aimed at depicting tv’s (and presumably wholly NBC’s* “facilities.” It was dull and monotoned, more suitable as a swiftie prolog to be done and forgotten. For reasons that are not clear, a few minutes were devoted to tv critics, specifically Harriet Van Home of the N. Y. World-Tele¬ gram & Sun and Hal Humphrey of the Los Angeles Mirror-News foften repped in the World-Telly in the past). Although they are among the major names in the col- umning and .critical fraternity, lit¬ tle was said in the time allotted that seemed other than familiar. Nevertheless, it was obvious that NBC permitted them wide latitude to express themselves without brakes. Still, just to cite a random example, what about a critic from the “third city”—Chicago? End-up was a live segment out of Washington. D. C., showing the USM Corps in 182d anniversary ceremonies, with marching color guard, retreat, et al. It was the selfsame Marine Corps that opened the show, which might point to the paucity of special events around (Continued on page 46)