Variety (June 1958)

32 TEUBVI$IOT<r RSn^S Wcdn^ny, June 4^ 1958 BASEBALL CORNER With Buddy Blattner, Fraukie Friscb» Dij^e Snider, Bob Feller, Pee Wee Reese Producer: Jim CoUiffan Director: Carl Tubbs 30 Mins.. Sun. $ p.m. GENERAL MILLS ABC-TV, from Chicago (tape) {Kno£-Reeves) ABC-TV’s summertime stopgap for the erstwhile Sid Caesar slot is an unpretentious baseball gabfest that is strictly for the butfs, of whom there are plenty. A kind of multinle interview pivoted by ex-i Giants infielder Buddy Blattner, its I interest value is largely in what it reveals of the off-diamond person¬ alities of some star players. There was no shyness in the group assem¬ bled for the first show « 1 >. Principal topic wras the Controv¬ ersial “Great Wall” of the Los An¬ geles Coliseum and how it affects the Dodgers, who now are billeted there. Duke Snider, player most victimized by the unorthodox pro¬ portions of the stadium, made some polite .statements about * how he’s going to change his batting stance and swing, etc., and Pee Wee Reese contributed some insights into the Dodgers pitchers’ problems. Latter was, of course^ a gambit for retired Cleveland flinger Bob Feller, who’s now in the play-^by-play broadcast¬ ing business- The wisecracks and ad lib^, which ffavored the chinfest. tended to diffuse the subject, but It was just as welL Best of the guests from a show standpoint was oldtimer Frankie Frisch, a colorful talker with some ^reverent views, whose baseball ifi?n and remembrances of the old days were more interesting than the grist of the show. Buddy Blatt-* ner managed to keen the talk from getting too far afield, proved him¬ self genial and . wove the strands into a lively half hoiir. Film clips apropos of the subject matter were plusses. Show is bn Videotape, and the teeoffer twice had problems with the soundtrack. Director Carl Tubbs had trouble catching .the ad libs as they happened, pointing up the need for an alert spare camera. Olympic champ Bob Richards was okay on the filmed Wheaties blurbs. Les. Followup Commei^ Ed Sullivan Show . Johnny Wayne & Frank Shuster are probably the freshest. comedy team extant. Also one of the most literate. This Canadian duo has been signed by Ed Sullivan for 2.6 guest appearances to. be played in 52 • weeks. This means that they’ll probably be as well known as the ringmaster on this show. If they do as well as they did on Sunday ( 1 ), it could probably be called the Wayne d? Shuster show. One of the most distinguished comedy bits bn this or many othel shows was their rib of Shakespeare. The focal point of the plot was the hitless streak of the, star catcher of the Stratford Baseball cliih. The lines were learned. The spirit of the bard was there, the Verbiage followed closely the. words of the master, and the pair imbued the bit. with a comedic spirt that was their A few more pieces of this calibre and literacy may again be popular! Another fine comedy point was Edie Adams’ rib of Marlyn Monroe, a^ clever bit of satire which has been her forte in video and cafes alike. Apparently, she’? trying to branch out. Miss Adams- (Mrs. Ernie KoVacs) opened with a serioso rendition of “Scarlet Rib¬ bons.” .In doing this fine ballad, those hep to Miss Adams’ cdmedy rep seemed tb he expecting some¬ thing to break loose. Since nothing did, the basic value of her perform¬ ance of the tune was lost upon many. The Ballet de Paris with Jean- maire 3c Roland Petit fronting; per- foimed a picturesque pas-de-deux depicting a romance between a sailor and a mermaid for good results. In the singing .' brigade, Jimmie Rodgers, who has been getting a good ride dn tele as well as disks performed a pair in two sirats. The kid .has a colorful set of pipes and periodically offers some . excite-^ merit. Sallie . Blair^ whose forte seems to be rhythm tunes, - didnT do as well as normally with , her entry into a languid ballad.: There was also singing in the classical vein by Matio Delmonacp, for good, re.'jults. Wayne &. Shuster cbnferenciered in the absence of Sullivan current¬ ly in Europe. They were tops, ex¬ cept in one: department, in which the exits got slightly, mixed up^ .Jose. . LURE OF THE LIBRARY With U. Of Louisville Players; moderator, Ken Meeker Director: Dave Jones 30 Mins.; Son. (25), 1:30 p.m, WHAS-TV, Louisville WHAS presents two half-hour community service programs, “Lure of the Library” and “Songs of Faith.” ’‘Lure of the Library” half- hour was devoted to “Antigone,” a i Person to Person pl^ MuTTow did some New York if i hotel-hopping last Friday <30) over ‘ CBSrTV for his weekly pair of I interviews. iHs^ cameras n? ‘ stoppcd iu at’the Stanhope for a thiee weeks later. Maskrafters of j,,^^,:i. olivia de Hnvilland and Skipped ever to the Hotel of. Faith spot on June .14. .The session with Van COi- college group will then begin a i summer tour that will take them cpcrmpnf fhif to England and Walps I “ the Clib^n segment Hiat Story of “Antigone” sets Put | that she is the sister of the two f he hottest of ^ men who fight and kill each other | on the plain outside the ancient I ™ city of Thebes- When Creon. king ; He,was poised, articulate and com- of Thebes,, orders one brother: buried in state and the other left: success m the ^Soviet competrt^^^ unburied on the plain. Antigbnb ! expressed, his thoughts on mu- rushes out to bury her . disgraced . sic_?ud his future career, ^ brother. As a result, Creon orders _.Suice fie was a transient at the Antigone” entombed alive. Re- : Pierre, there weren Uoo many per- mainder of the play is concerned t foual possesions that he could with the consequences of Grebn’s throw into the cam^ s ^eye.^ In- harsh tyranny. stead his personal thoughts dom- - Striking effect of this somewhat; jutted pnd that’s what brou^t the pru -^me play is due in part to the i inten^iew to me. His parents were traditional Greek masques Used by; virtually quiet props to the affair, the characters, which lend a spirit: Th? ^esisipn at thq Stanhope was, of Greek drama to the modern 1 less successful. After getting a a production. few nifty plugs for her latest pic- imiv.'vsitv Plavers’ performance ture, produced by Samuel (Joldws^ followed as closely as possible i Jr., Miss Havilland continued to traditional Gteek theatre, wdth the j dominate Views on Paris, home and actors using the masoues to trans-! children.^ Neither .Murrow or Gal- pose them from iridividua's into i ante, editor bf the Paris Match, idealized posbs of patticular types i could stpp her Once she got going. (Creon’s oversized mask with its If she -i^'asn’t sn pretty to look at, great, gaping mouth and craggy,. " ' ' .. harsh face, represents the charac¬ ter of the tyrant), and historical gestures for certain emotions and attitudes, which stem from .gestures used in Greek drama and dance. Television version of “Anti?one,” it would have been hard to take. Gtos. The Open Mind Three ; ink-stained Vets of the fourth estate—Herbert BruCker^ _ I editor of the Hartford Courant which was adapted from the t^ans- |ahd chairman of the Freedom , of lation by Dudley Fitts and Robert | Information Committee of the Fitzgerald, used np sets, but rather ;i American Society of Newspaper, shades of light and dark, to accen- : Editors; William Miller, chief edi- tuate the dialog of the actors. I torial writer of 'the New York The two plays by Kentucky col-/Herald Tribune, and I. . F. .Stone, lege theatre groups are the first j former Washington correspondent by such area amateur theatrical 1 and now editor of a weekly, news groups to be presented by WHAS-lletter—kicked around the pressing TV, although the station has pre- subject. “All the New.s” on “The sented excerpts from .plays in. in-; Open Mind” program over WRCJA- formal fashion in the past, in co-; TV Sunday (1) with Richard D. pperatiori with several local theatre ■ Heffner in the foie of moderator. groups. This effort was well staged. Just how viewers received it is a question. “Whole thing fi-ve been over their heads. Ken M‘'oker urged use of library faciliti«»s to close out the show. Wied. Stone, Avho pulls no journalistic punches and is a badgering - ban- derillero of the American press, prov.uTed most of the fireworks during* the raoidly-moving 30- minute powwow. IVIillqr and Brucker are lio journalistic slouches, blit in this instance, it was Stone’s pyrotechnics that put the torrid tabasco sauce into the professional shop talk at thirty. He contended that few papers be¬ yond the Eastern seaboard give decent* coverage to world riew's; dailies are adjuncts of advertisers, and publishers are mostly Repub¬ licans on the stuffy side. Both Miller and Brucker a^eed with Stone about the inadequate cover¬ age of foreign affairs with the pos¬ sible exception of such papers as St. Lbiiis Post Dispatch, Dee Moines Register and one or tiyo others. Brucker admitted there was advertising pressure at times. I’ve felt, it,’.’ fie said. He thought the American press was superior to the British but. decried our govr emmerit’s bureau.cracy which makes news gathering so difficult. Stone assailed Chairman Strayss of the AEC and. Secretary of ^tate Dulles (“both are: sacred cows of the N.Y. Times”) who he sbid were con- stahtly on the phone ordering big league publishers to .spike certain stories. Suppression of news /is subtle, in most instance, he charged, adding that Pulitzer, Mc¬ Cormack and Hearst. were individT ualists while today’s newspaper owners are far from this breed.. Bright reporters go stale in Wash-1 ington, fie lamented. Brucker agreed with Stone that it was difficult to get news from the State Dept arid the AEC;. “A screen is : put up,*’ he assertedC •The three journalists agreed Hiat the Moss-Henriings bill, if passed, would prevent; the government from hiding. information. The government, ^it appears^ uses .a 1789 statute to thwart the press; in its: constant Search of news. Brucker, in particular, was' deter¬ mined to "see this legislation passed because many government- aP bureaus take i the iinperidus atti¬ tude that “papa knows best” when it comes to disseminating news.. He hailed the Ariierican News¬ paper Publishers Assn: for its fight to help eliminate the 1789 statute.-. ■ This Was a spirited .program and Heffner’s .questions were, to the; point. Rails. INDUSTRY ON PARADE lYouth and Science) . 'With Bob Wilson, Peter Roberto, . Radcliffe Hall narrators Writer: Arthur Holch Exec Producer: G. W. Johnstone Producers: Roger A. Young Jr.,. Arthur. J. Lodge Jr. Jack Paar Show: Schoblboyish comic Johnny Car- son sat in for Jack Paar last week on the NBC-TV latenighter and altered the flavor of the. show en¬ tirely. With Carson navigating,, it was wholesome, intelligent arid riiortly dull. . A format that;has taken .on a .racy adults-only air under Paar, a char¬ acteristic ^stained by . previous siibbers ;■ Jonathon^ Wintere and even Grson Bean, is wolf’s clothing to a gentle soul like Carson. The experience of big hehnship will never go down^ memorable either for a Carson appearance or for an edition of the show. Thursday’s ; (29) outing,. for in^ stance, was. inordihatoly talky. and seemed to go on forever. Pacing got lost early when Carson ih- dulged iri a long, overly casual in¬ terview ^ with Margaret Truman; and while the ex-President’s daughr ter. was good pompany, acquitting herseff with ppisri, the tete-a-tete was generally unrewarding and rithet short on .wittiness.. Overall, Carson’s guests were good, each by himself, but together they made a poor melting, pot. There was a lack of foil and a pressing, need for a funny line. Alan Yoirng, who is more the type to be hosting this kind of-ve¬ hicle, 'got 6 ff the /. best quips .but seemed to be the only" one trying. Nancy Walker’s contributiori was mainly in some ad fib sitting antics,, the Jlev. Bob Richards came oh with^ seriouls message about physi¬ cal {itness, and the De Castro Sis¬ ters ogled their way thrt)ugh a pair of songs. A skit by Carson and Miss Truman anerit tv viewing in. the jet age failed tb tipkle, but Car-- soli’s takebff bri Dunniriger’s men¬ tal telepathy act^ with Alan Young as stooge, was nifty. It was the high point in the show. Beset with breakS^'^or commer¬ cials, arid apparently foHdwing. the cue sheet tb the minute, it's not top surprising that Carson had trouble kneading it all briskly. / Les. ■■■ hours of the entire year. Fisher made the ; most bf some competent help, namely his Wife, Debbie Rey¬ nolds; Dick Stown, and that pro¬ fessional eccentric, Oscar Levant. All in all, it shaped up as a fast- moving, entertaining' show despite a few weak spots. Stanza opened, with the gag bill¬ ing, “The Debbie Reynblds Show.” with the pert Miss Re 3 moids .and her husband in a zestful duet. Material given them after this was too coy and cute, however/ Miss * 15 Mins.. Sat 1 p.in. Reynolds wowed with a song-and-! WPIX, NY. dance routine, backed by smart j-, ne\v«:reeL production. At this point, unfor-1 industrial neusreeL tunately, they dipped into juvenile /produced every week since 1950 by humor with Fisher, Miss Reynolds ] the National Assn, of Manufactur- and George Gobel singing while 1 em, has been revised to stress th« dressed in baby cIothe&—it was i dociimentaty approach. Previous* pretty silly, made more^ so when : ly the Weekly IS-minute program they finished by. spurting \vater; contained four unrelated news guns. jstories. But the format now, ac- ' Dick Shawn gave the program, a icordiflg to NAM exec v.p. Charles considerable pickup with his sharp, j r. siigh Jr., is tailored to “an inte- clever monolog in which he port- ; grated, interpretive, story of one rayed a typical “young confused; A broad phase of industry’s contribu- adult,” a schizophrenic.^ Shawn’s j tjpn to. tb® American way of life.’* High Adventure . The : characteristic weaknesses and rtrerigth of CBS-TV’s “High Adventure With Lowell Thomas” were clearly marked iri the presenr tation of - the show’s seasonal finale last Wednesday f28V. Thomas’ final 1957-58 stopover wbs in Mbrocco. In this desert od- dysey, . Thomas’ eamerameri again proved that they rank among the best in the business. The pictures showed an intrinsic strength. Shots of the natives and native wildlife bordered bri the- superb, but it was the frouter who again fell down on the job. : Thomas demonstrated his own peculiar weakness in the narration. His heavy-handed rhetoric miti¬ gated the impact of the camera. Once more, the performer seemed to be' talking down to his audience, and in- the end, it became almost as much a matter of catching him at his game as concentrating on the visual aspects of the program. That the program is clearly and expressly a video travelog is not in dispute, but it was quite apparent that Thomas missed out in failing to capture even the remotest vPart of the important^ political shenani¬ gans going on in North Africa these days. The cursory examination given the history of Morocco, like- almost everything else Thomas has done on “High Adventure,” was sta¬ tic and not entirely cbmprehensi- ble. For next season, it might serve the program and the audience bet¬ ter if Thomas were to hire a hand¬ ful of expert writers and give them final sayso oh the-stanza’s word content. Art. THE BIG ISSUE With John A. Mackay, Euges* McCarthy, Francto B. Sayre Jr., Glenn A. Archer, James B. Rest- bri, Charles L; Bartlett, Glenn D. Everett; Lawrence Spivak, mod¬ erator Producer Spivak 60 Mins., Sun. (1), 3 p.m. NBC-TV, from Washineton The topic of whether a Catholic should or could bi^ome President was approached in a rather oblique but interesting way on NBC-'IV’s “The Big Issue” Sunday (1). Law¬ rence Spivak, who also moderated the hburlong . affair, produced a quasi-formal debate between Dr. John A. Mackay, of Princeton The¬ ological Seminary, and Glenn A. Archer, former Dean of Washburn U. Law School, who took the nega-y tive, and Congressman Eugene McCarthy and The Very Rev. Fran¬ cis B. Sayre, Dean of Washington Cathedral. Naturally, the program was done because Sen. John Kennedy, a Catholic, has been mentioned prominently of late, as a. Presiden¬ tial candidate for the Democratic party. - But the senator’s name didn’t enter the conversation; the debate was kept on an abstract basis. Nonetheless, the cogent and w'ellTinformed reiriiarks of the de* . haters, particularly by. Dr. Mackay, did present what seemed to he a representative feeling overall on the subject, One objection is that the participants tended occasional¬ ly to be euphemistic in discussirig so delicate a matter as a politician’s Eddieli^er^loSl teW sea- i although in th. son last Tuesday night with a gay, festive romp, one Of his better i latter half-hour of the show, re¬ porters headed by the Times* James B. Reston and pugnacious Spivak, somewhat. eficted clarity with their incisive questioning. ^•Artv--.- material was very good, and he knows how to deliver.. He wasn’t on long enough. / Levant, ‘ the self-styled “local Tokyp Rose 6 f network television,” came on to exchange banter wiUj the Fisher clan, then performed a masterful execution of a coniposi-. tiori which pianist Van Clibum played in his triumph at Moscow. It was in the nature of a tribute from Levant to Clibum—and for Unaffected by adoptiori of thb new dress is “lOP’s” creative staff /headed by Arthur Lodge Pfodne- tions -In'c. Latter outfit turns tout the series on film under super* vision of G. W. (Johni^) Johnstone, Nam director of Radio^ Television . and Films, and Roger A. Young Jr., NAM producer of tele programs. Kickoff under the fresh poficy was' “Youth and Science,” which showed how four firmr .in various once; Levant laid aside the quips ■ Qf- u.S. have ' developed as fie seriously kudosed the youngr j programs that will help train ster from Texas. . l youngsters to be the scientists of 'The Fishers, bounced back on- - _ ^ . stage to score with a medley of times, including “A Most Unusual Day,” “Tender Trap,” and “Blame Jt On My Youth.”, Finale was a real version of “Witch Doctor,” lo- caled in the jungle; with everybody tomorrow. Sunray Oil Co. in Okla¬ homa, for example, gives em- ployees’ children the run of its la¬ boratory twice a month as an aid to help them think seriously about going into science as a career. This is public service program- participating. It ^\;as an fiil^ious/ruing in the fullest sense; of the routine, those, idiotic lyrics adding . ^^ord for the series is of a rion- to the* zany air of it alL -Number propaganda nature and nothing ii. also had some trick photography, puffed with exception of the value with* Shawn , seen sometimes as a j of American industryT—and what’s miniature-sized' character: Eddie [ wrong about that?; Other topics Cantor came on at the close to pres- j slated to be covered later include ent star of the show with a plaque t “The/ Hoad Is Clear’’ (highway nsL “national music father of the : safety) and “Two Way Street” (in* year.” ' j.ternational trade), among othem/ Producer Gil Roden achieved a good degree of success in bis finale, and Barry Shear’s direction kept it humming at a sizzling tempo. Musical, backing by, Buddy Breg- man good, and efioreo by Jonathan Lucas .was distinctive.. Writers Mac Benoff,,Martin Ragaway and Skipper Dawes did well by Fisher despite a cpuple of lapses. Daku: Playhonse 98 Taking an action theme with a Mississippi riverboat background and blending“into it a soapopera approach is quite a feat, but script¬ ed. Martin H. Goldsmith and Screen Gems achieved it in “Natchez,” fifined by the Col subsid for CBS- TV’s “Playhouse 90.” Result was a cliche-riddrin yarn, full of homilies and lacking in characterization tor belleVabilify. Cliff Robertson plays a. Civil War POW returned to the south io find his father has turned traitor by re¬ fusing to burn his crops along with the other scorched-earth adherents. He becomes cynical, goes tb work for Macdonald Carey, a river eri- trepreheur and cotton promoter, (Continued, on page 46) “Freedom. Opportunity, .Pr p* gress” are “lOP’s” catchwords— they more or less sum up NAM’s aims in showing America’s indus¬ trial techniques and the part in*; dus^ plays in tour everyday life. Series is now regularly program¬ med weekly by more than 270 U.S. tv stations and is seen abroad in eight languages in 15 countries under auspices of the U.S. Informa¬ tion Agency. With Its change, to a documentary dress, its existing cov-. erage may Well be broadened. Disney’s ’Swamii Foi’ Hollywood, June 3. Walt Disney has skedded; early start of a new “Disneyland” tele- series based bn Francis Marion, Revolutionary War herb,'; to / 'be tagged “The Swamp Fox.” Hour-long episodes, written by Dennis McCarthy from screenplay by John C.. Higgins, will be part to! Disney’s “Frontierland” prbgraml Segments will be in tradition of Davy Crockett.