A tribute to musical composer Jerome Kern.         

       Brooklyn Dodgers - 7 New York Giants 6  
From Ebbets Field the fourth game of the 1950 season, and the first regularly scheduled Brooklyn Dodger game to be Nationally broadcast.
Highlights include first Black Pitcher in Major League history, Dan Bankhead, starting the game for the Brooklyn Dodgers who hits a double in his first time at bat. Gil Hodges hits a home-run. 

Calling the play by play on this radio broadcast are Red Barber and Connie Desmond.                            

A tribute to jazz singer and entertainer Al Jolson who died on October 23rd, 1950.  

A CBS RADIO PRODUCTION 

MC Art Linkletter with in order of appearance:
Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy- Comedy
Mary Martin sings "A Wonderful Guy"
William S. Paley- recalls hearing Bing for the first time twenty years ago and getting him for CBS.
Ella Fitzgerald- sings "Can Anyone Explain?"
Amos and Andy- tribute to Bing (serious)
Dorothy Kirsten- sings "Ouvre Ton Coeur"
Louis Armstrong and Jack Teagarden-"Rockin Chair"
Judy Garland sings- "Rockabye Your Baby"
Mrs. H. L. Crosby Sr. Recalls Bing's childhood
Bing Crosby and Bob Hope in a comedy routine
Bing sings- "I Surrender Dear" 

CBS salutes Bing Crosby on his 20th year in radio.              

     From the Hotel Astor in New York City, the American Guild of Variety Artists pay a special tribute to Judy Garland at a luncheon, November 27, 1951, in praise of her reestablishing two a day vaudeville entertainment at The Palace Theater, premiering October 16, 1951. 

Host for this special occasion is Sol A. Schwartz, vice president of RKO owner of The Palace Theater. He negotiated Judy's vaudeville engagement with her manager and husband Sid Luft. 

Those giving testimonial speeches include master of ceremonies  Gorgie Price, President of The American Guild of Variety Artists,  Danny Kaye who states that Garland is the greatest talent we have in Show Business, and Ed Sullivan  who reminds every one present that such union tribute to a celebrity has not happened since World War 2. He mentions the first time he met Judy in 1936, and praises her for her current on stage performances. 
A telegram is read sent by Victor Riesel regretting his inability to attend. 

Martin Lacey, President of the Central Trades and Labor Council, AFL lends his hand at some of his esoteric humor and praises Judy for her accomplishments. 

A silver plaque is presented to Judy Garland from the AFL Theatrical Union for her ability to reestablish Vaudeville at the Palace theater. 

Garland thanks all who have attended this tribute to her. She states that this day has been the most wonderful of her life. 

NOTE:
This rare recording was privately transcribed at the luncheon, professionally by production staff, and never broadcast to the public. 
                                                                       

    To celebrate its 25th anniversary, the General Foods Corporation has taken over the NBC and CBS networks from 8:00 to 9:30 P.M. to present highlights from the musical productions of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, 2nd.  The shows to be represented in this review of eleven years of musical-comedy achievement are: Oklahoma, Carousel, Allegro, South Pacific, The King and I, and Me and Juliet. 

   Clarence Francis, chairman of General Foods, opens the program which is hosted by Mary Martin. The first musical number, "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'," sung by Gordon MacRae, comes from "Oklahoma!", Rodgers and Hammerstein's first musical collaboration together. Jack Benny then appears in a sketch in which he recalls buying a ticket to "Carousel" for only six dollars and sixty cents. Then John Raitt sings "You're a Queer One, Julie Jordan," and is joined by Jan Clayton in singing "If I Loved You"; both songs are from "Carousel." After Martin sings "It Might as Well Be Spring," from the score to the movie "State Fair," Edgar Bergen and his dummy, Charlie McCarthy, introduce Bill Hayes and Janice Rule in "You Are Never Away," from the musical "Allegro." The following segment is an excerpt from Groucho Marx's "You Bet Your Life" television series, in which he interviews Rodgers and Hammerstein. Then Martin and Ezio Pinza perform "Some Enchanted Evening," and Martin sings "A Wonderful Guy." Both pieces are from the musical "South Pacific." Ed Sullivan then introduces excerpts from "The King and I," which feature Patricia Morison singing "Getting to Know You," with dancing by Michiko, as well as Yul Brynner performing "A Puzzlement." Jack Benny returns to showcase Tony Martin in "The Big Black Giant" and Rosemary Clooney in "No Other Love"; both pieces are from "Me and Juliet." The program ends with MacRae and Florence Henderson performing a duet from "Oklahoma!" titled "People Will Say We're in Love."       

 TEX AND JINX Radio & Television BROADCAST HISTORY:

April 22, 1946- February 27, 1959. 

WEAF (WNBC, WRCA), New York weekdays at 8:30 A.M. until 1954; at 1:00pm,1954-1955; then at 6:30 and 10:35pm until July 31, 1958, moving briefly to WOR, broadcasting at 2:15pm.

 In addition to the Kollmars (Dorothy Kilgallen and husband Richard Kollmar) and  the Fitzgeralds (Pegeen and husband Ed Fitzgerald), another well-recognized New York couple, newlyweds Tex McCrary and Jinx Falkenburg, added their own bread-and-bacon banter to the local airwaves between 1946 and 1959. Their gabfest, initially Hi Jinx but later revised to Tex and Jinx, was beamed over WEAF which was subsequently re-lettered WNBC and later WRCA. In limited doses, the flagship outlet of the National Broadcasting Company transmitted Meet Tex and Jinx to the whole country during 1947 and 1948. 

Tex and Jinx devoted most of their airtime to lofty and noble concepts, visitors and sidebars. Tex and Jinx [on WEAF-WNBC-WRCA] were interviewing Bernard Baruch, Margaret Truman, or Ethel Waters…. McCrary built the show on the assumption that the early morning audience was not stupid, as programmers generally assumed; that people in general had fresher minds and were more open to serious topics at the beginning of the day.” 

Their joint radio venture began in April 1946 just 10 months following their nuptials (June 10, 1945). Launched as a breakfast feature, the series later shifted to afternoons and finally into the evening hours before departing the ether a dozen years afterward. They were branded by one journalist “Mr. Brains and Mrs. Beauty.” 

In early 1947 NBC put them on its television network as a portion of a Sunday evening quarter-hour dubbed Bristol-Myers Tele-Varieties. “The McCrarys were naturals for TV,” wrote a reviewer, “with their combination of friendly chatter, interviews, and features.” That summer the web awarded them an exclusive Sunday night half-hour format under the appellation At Home with Tex and Jinx. A decade later, in the 1957-58 season, the duo hosted a daytime NBC-TV showcase, The Tex and Jinx Show. 

When hepatitis sidetracked Falkenburg in 1958 from their broadcast commitments, McCrary carried on solo on their radio show for another couple of years. In the 1980s, however, the couple separated, remaining on genial terms. McCrary died in New York on July 29, 2003 and Falkenburg expired just 29 days later in the same city, on August 27, 2003. 

NOTE:
The scores of TEX AND JINK SHOWS archived by Archival Television Audio, Inc. were originally obtained as original 16" Electronic Discs from Barry Farber, producer of the show (1957-1959), in 1960 after he had begun his own career in front of the mike at WINS Radio. These discs  were subsequently transferred to 1/4" reel to reel tape, and then disposed. These broadcasts are rare and represent  the largest known collection of TEX AND JINX extant broadcasts in the world. 

 The Tex and Jinx Show. January 31, 1955. WRCA, New York City. Commercials deleted. Tex McCrary introduces a recording of General David Sarnoff speaking at a meeting of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers earlier in the day. Jinx is not heard on this recording. Sarnoff recalls a January, 1902 banquet honoring Guglielmo Marconi (he must have had a good memory, Sarnoff was 12-years-old at the time). Sarnoff then goes on to predict television magnetic tape recording, video recordings in the home, the elimination of vacuum tubes (the first transistor radio went on sale later that year) and, "The RCA Music Sound Synthesizer" (the first one was installed by RCA in 1957). The synthesizer demonstration selected by Mr. Sarnoff  Sarnoff also predicts, "Mural Television," with flat screens that you can hang on a wall, which is now predominant in homes all over the world.
                    

  The most complete recording known running almost ten minutes longer than what has been uploaded to the internet of this rowdy uncensored early Humphrey Bogart Friar's roast, recorded live almost 70 years ago. 

Paying "tribute" to our guest of honor is Master of Ceremonies, Red Buttons, HIstorian of the Friars Club, Eddie Weiner, Joe E. Ross (missing from you tube uploads), Alan King, Maurice Chevalier, Charles Coburn, Lou Holtz, Gene Baylos, Phil Silvers (missing from you tube uploads), Solly Violinsky, Lauren Bacall, and Humphrey Bogart (part of his speech missing from you tube uploads). 

Red Buttons reads telegrams of congratulation from Liberace, Frank Sinatra, Clark Gable and Bob Hope each using a term for copulation in their quotes).  

Processed from an original recording with flaws (edits, under and over modulation, clicks and gaps) acquired over 30 years ago, Phil Gries, founder and owner of Archival Television Audio, Inc.,  has improved the quality and flow of this extraordinary Friar's Roast lampooning  Humphrey Bogart just 13 months before his death at age 56.                     

PREMIER NIGHT ON LOCATION OF THE MOTION PICTURE "GIANT"

TEX AND JINX Radio & Television BROADCAST HISTORY:

April 22, 1946- February 27, 1959. 

WEAF (WNBC, WRCA), New York weekdays at 8:30 A.M. until 1954; at 1:00pm,1954-1955; then at 6:30 and 10:35pm until July 31, 1958, moving briefly to WOR, broadcasting at 2:15pm.

 In addition to the Kolmar's (Dorothy Kilgallen and husband Richard Kollmar) and  the Fitzgerald's (Pegeen and husband Ed Fitzgerald), another well-recognized New York couple, newlyweds Tex McCrary and Jinx Falkenburg, added their own bread-and-bacon banter to the local airwaves between 1946 and 1959. Their gabfest, initially Hi Jinx but later revised to Tex and Jinx, was beamed over WEAF which was subsequently re-lettered WNBC and later WRCA. In limited doses, the flagship outlet of the National Broadcasting Company transmitted Meet Tex and Jinx to the whole country during 1947 and 1948. 

Tex and Jinx devoted most of their airtime to lofty and noble concepts, visitors and sidebars. Tex and Jinx [on WEAF-WNBC-WRCA] were interviewing Bernard Baruch, Margaret Truman, or Ethel Waters…. McCrary built the show on the assumption that the early morning audience was not stupid, as programmers generally assumed; that people in general had fresher minds and were more open to serious topics at the beginning of the day.” 

Their joint radio venture began in April 1946 just 10 months following their nuptials (June 10, 1945). Launched as a breakfast feature, the series later shifted to afternoons and finally into the evening hours before departing the ether a dozen years afterward. They were branded by one journalist “Mr. Brains and Mrs. Beauty.” 

In early 1947 NBC put them on its television network as a portion of a Sunday evening quarter-hour dubbed Bristol-Myers Tele-Varieties. “The McCrarys were naturals for TV,” wrote a reviewer, “with their combination of friendly chatter, interviews, and features.” That summer the web awarded them an exclusive Sunday night half-hour format under the appellation At Home with Tex and Jinx. A decade later, in the 1957-58 season, the duo hosted a daytime NBC-TV showcase, The Tex and Jinx Show. 

When hepatitis sidetracked Falkenburg in 1958 from their broadcast commitments, McCrary carried on solo on their radio show for another couple of years. In the 1980s, however, the couple separated, remaining on genial terms. McCrary died in New York on July 29, 2003 and Falkenberg expired just 29 days later in the same city, on August 27, 2003. 

NOTE::
The scores of TEX AND JINK SHOWS archived by Archival Television Audio, Inc. were originally obtained as original 16" Electronic Discs from Barry Farber, producer of the show (1957-1959), in 1960 after he had begun his own career in front of the mike at WINS Radio. These discs  were subsequently transferred to 1/4" reel to reel tape, and then disposed. These broadcasts are rare and represent  the largest known collection of TEX AND JINX extant broadcasts in the world. 

Broadcast on WRCA FM RADIO in New York City.

PREMIER NIGHT ON LOCATION OF THE MOTION PICTURE "GIANT" starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, James Dean, and Mercedes McCambridge who talk about working with the late James Dean, their character roles played in the film and their adulation for the  director George Stevens.

Jinx Falkenburg interviews director George Stevens who praises Elizabeth Taylor for her performance in "Giant." He states that after directing her in "A Place in the Sun," he knew that she had great talent and was destined to become a great motion picture actress. 
Jinx Falkenburg and Steven's lament the defeat of the Brooklyn Dodgers to the New York Yankees in the World Series.  

Mike Todd and Elizabeth Taylor arrive at the theater. Taylor praises George Stevens allowing for the actors to interpret their own characters as they thought best. She praises James Dean and states that if he had lived he would have become one of the finest actors of his time. 

Rock Hudson discusses working with James Dean on the movie "Giant" which is premiering tonight in New York City. He states that he only got to know Dean casually and that he was aloof. He and Dean only did two scenes together in the film. Hudson describes his early years in Hollywood and his mentor director Raoul Walsh who gave him his first part in a motion picture as an extra ("Fighting Squadron"). 
 
Mercedes McCambridge who will be nominated for the best-supporting actress in "Giant,"  also discusses working with James Dean, and his kindness to her. She probably knew Dean best of anyone. McCambridge sates that James Dean had a very strained and difficult relationship with director George Stevens. He debated the academy award director of many films on how he should perform, even though "Giant" was his third film. 

Mercedes relates her love of working in radio and her relationship with  Orson Welles who introduced her to her husband to be. 

Also a rare interview with William (Hopalong Cassidy), Boyd, who discusses his career and  memories working with Clark Gable ("Painted Desert" 1931), and his appreciation of the iconic character Hopalong Cassidy he has played on the screen since 1935 to 1948 (a second career). 

NOTE: This may be the only extant broadcast interview of William Boyd discussing his early career and his thoughts on playing the role of Hopalong Cassidy.   

NOTE: This broadcast was audio recorded the night of the New York City premiere of "GIANT" on Wednesday, October 10, 1956, the day the Brooklyn Dodgers played their final world series game as a franchise. Both Jinx Falkenburg and George Stevens comment on the sad loss that day. 

This premiere coverage was broadcast the following evening on "Tex and Jinx," Thursday, October 11th.                                                                                                                                                     

  From Hollywood NBC Radio pays tribute to Humphrey Bogart on the eve of his funeral, scheduled for the next day at noon.
 
Hosted by Bogart's long time friend, George Fisher who plays  excerpts of telephone recorded conversations he had with Bogart over the years. Heard, is a 1951 conversation of Bogart discussing the making of AFRICAN QUEEN...his relationship with  co-star Katherine Hepburn...a 1952 conversation discussing the  birth of his daughter, Leslie, the day before...a 1953 phone conversation about planning to do a fourth film with his wife Lauren Bacall...reminisces about his friendships with John Barrymoore, W.C. Fields, John Huston, John Dekker, Charles Butterworth, Mark Hellinger, Greta Garbo and Mike 
Romenoff. 

Other conversation touches on Bogart's love of Scotch and his own reputation of being a "character."

John Huston, who directed Bogart in five motion pictures, and life long friend, gives his own personal tribute to his pal "Boggie." He will be giving the eulogy at Humphrey Bogart's funeral tomorrow, January 17, 1957.                    

    A special tribute to Ed Wynn who has been in show business for 55 years. To celebrate Wynn's long career, which has recently enjoyed a rebirth, Alfred Drake emcees a one our salute originating in New York and Hollywood. This is the first in a series of such salutes to be spotted occasionally during the 1957-1958 television season.

Among the stars appearing with Ed Wynn to recall highlights of his varied career are his son Keenan Wynn, Steve Allen, Janet Blair, Jack Palance, Beatrice Lillie, Rudy Vallee, Billie Burke, Jill Corey, Bambi Linn, Mimi Benzell, and Rod Alexander.

HIGHLIGHTS

"Introduction"........................................................................All
"Be a Clown".................................Drake, Corey, Benzell, Blair
Medley.....................................................Blair, Linn, Alexander
"Love Me or Leave Me"..................................................Corey
"March with Me"................................................................Lillie
"Kiss me Again"............................................................Benzell
Fred and Adele Astaire.....................................Linn, Alexander
"Girl of the Golden West"......................................Drake, Blair
"Pretty Baby"...................................................................Allen
"You're My Everything"....................................Ed Wynn, Blair
Talk...........................................................................Ed Wynn


NOTE: Unlike three seasons past, when one shot TV events were televised and called "spectaculars" NBC will in the future use the word "SPECIAL" related to any show not aired on a regular basis. Through April 1958 NBC has scheduled 20 such SPEICALS to be broadcast. CBS has scheduled 7 such SPECIALS to be broadcast.                               

    A special tribute to Ed Wynn who has been in show business for 55 years. To celebrate Wynn's long career, which has recently enjoyed a rebirth, Alfred Drake emcees a one our salute originating in New York and Hollywood. This is the first in a series of such salutes to be spotted occasionally during the 1957-1958 television season.

Among the stars appearing with Ed Wynn to recall highlights of his varied career are his son Keenan Wynn, Steve Allen, Janet Blair, Jack Palance, Beatrice Lillie, Rudy Vallee, Billie Burke, Jill Corey, Bambi Linn, Mimi Benzell, and Rod Alexander.

HIGHLIGHTS

"Introduction"........................................All

"Be a Clown".................Drake, Corey, Benzell, Blair

Medley..........Blair, Linn, Alexander

"Love Me or Leave............................Corey
 

"Kiss Me Again".....Benzell


Fred and Adele Astaire...Linn, Alexander

"Girl of the Golden West".........Drake, Blair

"Pretty Baby"...........Allen

"You're My Everything".......Ed Wynn, Blair

Talk.................................Ed Wynn


NOTE: Unlike three seasons past, when one shot TV events were televised and called "SPECTACULARS" NBC will in the future use the word "SPECIAL" related to any show not aired on a regular basis. Through April 1958 NBC has scheduled 20 such SPEICALS to be broadcast. CBS has scheduled 7 such SPECIALS to be broadcast.

Duplicate of #10233.                               

    A special tribute to Ed Wynn who has been in show business for 55 years. To celebrate Wynn's long career, which has recently enjoyed a rebirth, Alfred Drake emcees a one our salute originating in New York and Hollywood. This is the first in a series of such salutes to be spotted occasionally during the 1957-1958 television season.

NOTE: Unlike seasons past, when one shot TV events were televised and called "spectaculars" NBC will use the word "special" related to any show not aired on a regular basis.          

Highlights: President Eisenhower in a speech before the US to calm fears on Russian Sputnik, US plans to accelerate research and space program appoints Dr. James Killian as special assistant on science to avoid research waste, Russians celebrate their 40th anniversary, display military might, Secretary of State Dulles rejects Khrushchev's high-level talks.                        

The New York City Friars Club honors Ed Sullivan for his ten years on television.

An excerpt audio air check of Friars Club members honoring Sullivan include Joe E. Lewis, Jack E. Leonard, Jack Carter, Morey Amsterdam, Walter Cronkite, and Wayne and Shuster.

NOTE: This broadcast was aired in the time slot normally seen as  The Ed Sullivan Show,  8-9pm Sunday evenings. 

This program is a video tape of a recent Friar's Club Testimonial Dinner staged by Nat Hiken. It was to be the first of many Friar's Club dinners to be televised under the over-all title "Man of the Hour.' In actuality it was the only one that was produced and broadcasts. 

                                                   

   On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the founding of the California chapter of the Friar's Club, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz are "roasted." 
   
This recording comes from two electronic transcription disc recordings which was never intended to be sold commercially. 

It represents one of the biggest turn outs for a Friar's Roast in Hollywood held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.  

Barry Mirkin leads the audience gathered to sing "Here's to the Friars" theme song. 

The emcee for this night is legendary television and radio host, Art Linkletter. He reads a since telegram from Eddie Cantor who could not attend. Other "funny" telegrams are read from those including Liberace, Jack Benny and Fidel Castro. 

Others heard "roasting their guests, are Barry Mirkin, George Murphy, Tony Martin, Milton Berle, Dean Martin, George Burns and comedian Harry "Parkyakarkus" Einstein who died from a massive coronary right after delivering his speech, seconds after Art Linkletter responds that Harry should have his own prime time TV show. 
Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz cannot continue with the tribute and are not heard. 

NOTE:
Processed by Phil Gries to CD improving sound quality.    
                                              

The oldest surviving archived remnant of a David Susskind OPEN END television broadcast  is a WNTA TV  December 23,1958 kinescope 20 minute segment of a broadcast titled "Method or Madness?" The topic, "method acting" with guests Michael Benthal, Ben Gazarra,  Adolph Green, Betty Comden, Lawrence Harvey, Jule Styne , and Patricia Neal.                

NOTE: Archival Television Audio, Inc. has a rare 90 second pristine sound recorded excerpt air check representing this early earliest extant OPEN END broadcast.  

Originally scheduled to premiere on October 7, but delayed one week.
October 14, 1958 - August 13, 1961
OPEN END with David Susskind: (WNTA Channel 13 Television)

September 10, 1961-May 5, 1963
OPEN END with David Susskind (WNEW Channel 5 Television)

June 9, 1963 last show of the season broadcast on WPIX TV.

October 13, 1963-September 18, 1966
OPEN END with David Susskind (WPIX Channel 11 Television)

October 2, 1966-September, 1986
DAVID SUSSKIND SHOW (SYNDICATED, PBS, and COMMERCIAL STATIONS, including WNEW, New York). 

After an association of nearly three decades with Channel 5 in New York, the former WNEW-TV, later changed to WNYW-TV, David Susskind stopped producing the program in September 1986 because of its late-night time slot, from 1:30 to 3:30 A.M. Sunday nights. His audience like his iconic talk show dwindled not only in its following but in the ratings. Susskind knew when to quit. His last David Susskind Show aired only five months from the time of his death. 
            
Open End with David Susskind was a break through talk show which literally had no time limit. 

The premiere broadcast reviewed in Variety stated:
"In the blueprint stage, OPEN END was initiated on WNTA-TV on Tuesday October 14th the same night 'The World of Suzie Wong' premiered on Broadway. When the show is going slowly, then Susskind has the right to end it as soon as he likes; when it's going well , he can stretch it the night through since "OPEN END" is the last scheduled WNTA program of the night."

The show ended when host, moderator David Susskind, felt all conversation points were discussed. Some of these marathon telecasts lasted over four hours! Jean Kennedy was the producer during the 28 year run of the series.

The series premiered and aired on WNTA Channel 13 in New York for three years, an independent broadcast station, before it would become a Public Broadcast Station in 1962. A myriad of talk show guests, famous, infamous and unknown, found a forum on OPEN END. Subjects varied focusing on usually one topic...show business, politics, the economy, sex, education, crime, etc. Typically, many guests would discuss a subject sitting around a large table with David Susskind moderating, leading his guests with baited questions. On occasion a solo guest would highlight the show.

For the first three years, of its 28 year existence as a regular series, WNTA TV was home to OPEN END which originally began its broadcasts on Tuesday nights, switching on January 18, 1959 to Sunday nights...a future Sunday evening time slot of the week where it would remain until 1986, for the rest of its run.

After broadcasting with a two hour truncated format on WNEW form September 10, 1961 to May 5, 1963 a falling out and rift occurred between Susskind and WNEW management centered on WNEW's reluctance to air discussions regarding race relations in America. WPIX reacted with interest in bringing OPEN END to their flagship New York channel. For the last OPEN END show of the 1962-1963 season WPIX  TOOK LAST MINUTE EMERGENCY MEASURES TO CLEAR TWO HOURS ON SUNDAY NIGHT  June 9, 1963, featuring solo guest Dr. Martin Luther KIng, pre-empting regular scheduled programming (6:30-8:30 pm).

Open End was later cut by WPIX to one hour time slot. David Susskind not satisfied with the shortened format reconnected with WNEW where he returned to a two hour format with a changed  program name. 
THE DAVID SUSSKIND SHOW  had its return premiere on WNEW TV October 2, 1966. 
 
The David Susskind Show also found syndication across the country and each market would run the program at different times at their own discretion. 

Most all of the telecasts were recorded on video tape, 2" quadruplex. Most shows were kept for a year or two like THE MOVIE MAKERS broadcast which was re-run on August 6, 1961 almost a year after it was first telecast on October 2, 1960. By this time the show was no longer without a time limit. It ran for a finite three hours long. Thus the re-run of the MOVIE MAKERS had some footage deleted from its original run which aired for over three and half hours, including commercials. 

The re-run of "THE MOVIE MAKERS" was the next to last broadcast telecast on WNTA channel 13. On September 10, 1961 the show moved to WNEW Channel 5 METROMEDIA in New York.

Sadly, most all of OPEN END broadcasts (1958-1966), later re titled THE DAVID SUSSKIND SHOW (1966-1986), were wiped erased, destroyed, discarded...whereabouts unknown, representing most shows produced and telecast during the late 1950's, 1960's and early 1970's.   Only a handful of OPEN END / DAVID SUSSKIND  shows are known to survive from 1958 thru 1969. Hundreds of programs survive representing the middle 1970's thru 1986. 

                
Open End with David Susskind was a unique break through talk with no time limit, rare during any time in television broadcast history, and never to be replicated in the future of television broadcasting after 1960. 

On occasion only one guest would be profiled. Mostly shows were comprised of many individuals discussing one topic which  included race relations, the draft, organized crime, the Hollywood scene, the politics of the times, sex-change operations, divorce, clairvoyants, psychoanalysis, prostitution, etc.

Sadly, most all of OPEN END broadcasts, later re titled THE DAVID SUSSKIND SHOW, commencing with the Oct. 2, 1966 broadcast, were wiped (erased), destroyed, discarded...whereabouts unknown, representing most shows produced and telecast during the late 1950's, 1960's and early 1970's. Hundreds of broadcasts circa mid 1970's - 1986 have been archived and are extant. 

Rediscovering David Susskind
May 17, 2016 by Cary O’Dell

David Susskind was one of the most prolific yet overlooked producers in the history of American film and television. 

Eight years after OPEN END had changed its name to The David Susskind Show, it was videotaped weekly in New York City and then syndicated across the nation, most often over PBS stations. Each episode typically addressing two topics. Given the show’s 28 year run, a full list of David Susskind Show topics, airdates, and guests runs to a staggering 160-plus pages.

The depth and breadth of subjects discussed on Susskind—not to mention his star-studded guest lists—reads like an annotated history for the second half of the 20th century. A very small sample:

1959: “Words and Wit” with guests Truman Capote, Dorothy Parker, and Norman Mailer

1960: Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev

1963:“LSD: Madness or Miracle?”

1965: “4 Draftees in a Hot Debate on Going to Viet Nam”

1966: “Are Cigarettes a Killer?”

Unfortunately, the majority of Susskind talk programs from the late 1950's and 1960s do not survive—either lost, destroyed or taped over. But what remains makes for fascinating viewing. Consider:

1971: “What It Means to Be a Homosexual”

1972: “Nice White People Scream ‘Blacks Stay Out of Our Neighborhood!’”

1972: “Is A Woman’s Body Her Business?—The Abortion Battle”

1976: “Why the Rich Get a Kick from Cocaine”

1982: “Video Game Craze”

At the time of David Susskind’s passing in February 1987, his videotape archive (most of it on 2” Quadruplex) was so vast it was divided up between different institutions, including the Paley Center (then the Museum of Television & Radio) in New York, the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago, and the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research in Madison.

But that wasn’t the end of the archive’s travels; only Wisconsin, whose collection includes most of Susskind’s fictional productions, has retained its holdings. The Museum of Broadcast Communications transferred its tapes to University of Southern California in the late 1990s. In 1992, the Paley Center—facing severe space issues—transferred their copies of Susskind’s talk show to the Library of Congress where they are now stored in Culpeper, Virginia.

We (The Library of Congress) hold almost 350 episodes of The David Susskind Show, the great majority of them unseen since their original broadcast. While some are still awaiting preservation—and, in some cases, identification due to insufficient labeling on the original tapes—a great many have been transferred, including a 1982 episode featuring Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, and Susskind’s wife Joyce Susskind, who occasionally served as co-host on the show. These shows are an extraordinary time machine, a fascinating glimpse into our culture, and featuring a very brave host and his often fearlessly candid guests.

NOTE:

Archived in the collection of Archival Television Audio, Inc. are 42 "lost" OPEN END broadcasts (1958-1966...some excerpt, some complete), including the very first extended talk show Woody Allen ever appeared (broadcast December 24, 1961). In 1997 Phil Gries, who personally audio recorded this complete program, gave a copy to Allen who had been searching for this broadcast for thirty years. It began a correspondence relationship with Woody Allen that continues to this day, having received 35 anecdotal letters from him during a span of 26 years. 

                                                 

Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev addresses the United Nations. 

     A two hour SPECIAL (live, tape, film) as Television takes a look at the decade just ended, the 1950's, its very first. 

Henry Fonda is the host for this two hour show. 

Jackie Gleason's career is reviewed and he performs the "Sid, Old Kid" number from his Broadway musical "Take Me Along." 

Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews present "My Fair Lady" songs. Rex: "I'm an Ordinary Man," Julie: "Just You Wait."   

Shelley Berman, and Mike Nichols and Elaine May, comedians who were introduced in the Fifties, lampoon psychiatry.  

Dick Van Dyke pantomimes dance crazes of the decade. His partner for this comedy sequence is Maria Karnilova.

Betty Comden and Adolph Green satirize cultural developments of the Fifties.

Suzy Parker represents the American woman in "The Creature," a film sequence created by Richard Avedon. Charles and Ray Eames also have contributed film features. 

Television and Movies are highlighted in clips from outstanding productions, including memorable the Mary Martin-Ethel Merman TV Show produced by Leland Hayward, who also has produced tonight's show. 

Excerpts from records illustrate music of the fifties.  

News Events of the decade are recalled by eyewitnesses. The voices of these men are heard: Arthur Godfrey, sports stars Roy Campanella, and Roger Bannister, sea captain Kurt Carlsen, submarine camp;ain William Anderson, explorer Edmund Hillary. 

Eric Sevareid provides commentary during the show, which consists of live, tape, and film elements. 

               

September 13, 1954 - May 27, 1970

A portrait of Abraham Lincoln on the 150th anniversary of his birth. This program concentrates on the final four years of Lincoln's life and his presidency. Thomas Mitchell introduces the program, and does one commercial for the sponsor, (The Lincoln Life Insurance Company). This presentation was a repeat of its premiere airing one year before, February 11, 1959. Alexander Scourby narrates from Richard Hanser's script, quoting mostly in the words of Abraham Lincoln. Robert Russell Bennett's score incorporates songs of the time. Donald B. Hyatt produced and directed. This broadcast received many outstanding awards but was never aired again. 

For this extraordinary documentary producer Donald B. Hyatt developed the "stills-in-motion" technique  which involved the animation of thousands of still photographs and non filmed visual materials. However, just listening to the narrative sound track by Alexander  Scourby, the incredible score, using music of the times, orchestrated by Robert Russell Bennett, coupled with the narrative written by Richard Hanser, including  salient quotations expressed by President Abraham Lincoln, makes for an exhilarating interpretation, insight and appreciation of Lincoln's presidency, and what he endured  during his administration during the Civil War (1861-1865). 

In 1954 Henry Solomon, along with Donald B. Hyatt, Issac Kleinerman, Richard Hanser, and Robert Russell Bennett, began production on a group of compilation documentaries they named PROJECT 20. Salomon and company periodically produced special broadcasts for NBC recreating the lives, events, periods, and trends of the 1900's through an effective marriage of archival news film and still photos, long before contemporary Ken Burns picked up the baton to do similar approach documentaries  broadcast on PBS beginning in the 1980's. 

There were 33 produced Project 20 NBC Specials in the series. Eleven of them were enhanced with narration provided by the mellifluous Alexander Scourby. The series became universally recognized as one of  American television's most enduring and honored series, winning hundreds of national and international awards for broadcasts, including two prime time Emmy Awards.                          

Bob Hope is the host for a 75th birthday salute plus one and career tribute to Mrs. Eleanor Rossevelt. David Susskind is the executive producer. 

This is an excerpted duplicate of #7112 which is complete
            

SPECIAL BROADCAST SALUTE
Mrs. FDR was 75 a year ago and as a plus one year follow up, a tribute to her (and the Eleanor Roosevelt Cancer Research Foundation located in Denver Colorado) by admirers in and out of show business.  Many perform during this one-hour 76th birthday celebration special broadcast. A brief distinguished appearance by Mrs. Roosevelt and a simple spiritualization of "You'll Never Walk Alone" by Mahalia Jackson rounds out an excellent broadcast. 

Bob Hope hosts this program which presents show business personalities and other prominent people.
Executive Producer, David Susskind.
Written for Television by  Reginald Rose.

HIGHLIGHTS:

"You Gotta Start Off Each Day With A Song," "I Believe, "Treat A Piano Nice".....Jimmy Durante

"Do Re Mi"....................Mary Martin accompanied by Richard Rodgers on the piano.

"If"..................................Carol Channing

"The Continental".....................Nat King Cole

"The Bee"......................................Jack Benny

NOTE:
This follow up broadcast to last years ELEANOR ROOSEVELT: DIAMOND JUBILEE (October 7, 1959) is different which had Arthur Godfrey hosting and including guests Eddie Cantor, Ralph Bellamy Gertrude Berg, Art Carney, Henry Fonda and Cedric Hardwicke among others. 

NOTE: Occasional original slight broadcast audio static and hum.                                                                                              

A tribute to President Dwight Eisenhower as he prepares to leave office at the end of January. 

A salute to Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe on this Valentine's Day live presentation saluting the play "My Fair Lady." Hosts are Samuel Liff, stage production manager for the original Broadway production and conductor Franz Allers, who also performed during the Broadway "My Fair Lady" debut. Musical selections are played from the British and American productions. They include "I Could Have Danced All Night," sung by Julie Andrews, "The Rain in Spain," sung by Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison from the London Production, "With a Little Bit of Luck," sung by Stanley Holloway from the London Production, "The Ascop Gavotte," and "I've Grown Accustomed to her Face," sung by Rex Harrison.  

Anecdotes and recollections by Franz Allers and Samuel Liff reflect the many transitions experienced for this great classic as the company tours the world three years prior to the making of the motion picture in 1964.

NOTE:
The musical MY FAIR LADY had its pre-Broadway tryout at New Haven's Shubert Theatre. Then it played for four weeks at the Erlanger Theatre in Philadelphia, beginning on February 15, 1956.

The musical premiered on Broadway March 15, 1956, at the Mark Hellinger Theatre in New York City. It transferred to the Broadhurst Theatre and then The Broadway Theatre, where it closed on September 29, 1962, after 2,717 performances, a record at the time. Moss Hart directed and Hanya Holm was choreographer. In addition to stars Rex Harrison, Julie Andrews and Stanley Holloway, the original cast included Robert Coote, Cathleen Nesbitt, John Michael King, and Reid Shelton. Harrison was replaced by Edward Mulhare in November 1957 and Sally Ann Howes replaced Andrews in February 1958. By the start of 1959, it was the biggest grossing Broadway show of all-time with a gross of $10 million.

The Original Cast Recording, released on April 2, 1956, was the best-selling album in the United States in 1956.

Original London production
The West End production, in which Harrison, Andrews, Coote, and Holloway reprised their roles, opened on April 30, 1958, at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, where it ran for five and a half years (2,281 performances). Edwardian musical comedy star Zena Dare made her last appearance in the musical as Mrs. Higgins. Leonard Weir played Freddy. Harrison left the London cast in March 1959, followed by Andrews in August 1959 and Holloway in October 1959.

MY FAIR LADY won six 1957 TONY awards, including Best Musical, and the Film version released in 1964 with Audrey Hepburn replacing Julie Andrews in the role of Eliza Doolittle won five Oscar awards including Best Actor for Rex Harrison and Best Picture.                        

From Carnegie Hall, Isaac Stern, Benny Goodman, Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra, Van Cliburn and Roberta Peters salute Jack Benny...a virtuoso with a violin. Benny demonstrates his violin prowess with Stern.
When Benny is billed for a concert, two things will happen; singular violin playing by Benny and a wad of dough for a musicians fund. Musicians thank Jack at this one-hour Carnegie Hall concert. Violinist Isaac Stern does the honors. Benny Goodman and his sextet play, and Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra accompany Stern, pianist Van Cliburn and soprano Roberta Peters. 

Highlights:

"Colas Breugnon"Overture- Orchestra 
"Scherzando" from "Symphome Espagnole"- Isaac Stern
"Man I Love", "World Is Waiting For The Sunrise"- Benny Goodman Sextet 
"Caro Nome"- Roberta Peters 
Final Movement, MacDowell's Piano Concerto #2-Van Cliburn
First Movement, Bach's Concerto For Two Violins- Jack Benny, Isaac Stern
Polka and Fugue from "Schwanda"- Orchestra 



Duplicate of  #882. 

 Stan Freberg set free in this comedy broadcast which allows for the comedian freedom of expression. Included is a couple of vignettes on "honesty," and "commercials." Stan addresses the question of cultural relations between earth and the moon, a dramatization of the sale of Manhattan  for the show-biz minded, and lampoons of the old Chinese invention, television. 

Assisting Stan on the taped hour broadcast are little Ginny Tiu, Sterling Holloway, Frances Osborne, Mike Mazurki, Patti Regan, and Gloria Wood.            

October 2nd, 1960-September 3rd, 1967 (CBS) 

Half-hour human interest show created by Allen Funt. People were unknowingly caught on camera just being themselves. Arthur Godfrey was Funt's original co-host when the show debuted in 1960 but was replaced by Durward Kirby after one season. In 1966 Bess Myerson replaced Kirby and remained co-host until the final show on Sunday, September 3rd, 1967 the same day "What's My Line?" was telecast for the final time.  

Host: Allen Funt, co-host, Durward Kirby. Guest is Dorothy Collins.           

A tribute to astronaut John H. Glenn Jr, following his historic spaceflight aboard the Friendship 7 spacecraft.            

More than one poet has tried to capture all of America in a single work.But how would it be if the works of many poets were stitched together into a sampler portrait of America? That's what tonight's program has done, drawing on such writers as Edgar Allan Poe, Ralph Waldo Emerson, e.e.Cummings and Allen Ginsberg. The major work of the evening is Robert Frost's "Death Of The Hired Man," with Peggy Wood as Mary, Alexander Scourby as Silas and James Whitmore, the show's narrator, as Warren. "The People Yes," by Carl Sandburg,is also heard.                                       

 A memorial special broadcast to the late Eleanor Roosevelt presented on the day of her funeral.        

         George Wallace, governor of Alabama  replies to reporters   
on a myriad of topics.  

         White southerners of Birmingham Alabama speak out against integration with negroes.     

September 25th, 1963-December 18th, 1963 (CBS)

Short-lived CBS sitcom starring Glynis Johns as Glynis Granville a novelist and amateur detective. Keith Andes played her husband.   

This is the premiere broadcast.         

An interview with Rob Welch of The John Birch Society.  

John Wingate moderator.     

                 

  Updates on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.          

Barry Farber on WOR Radio with guest Fannie Hurst. 
Discussion related to the JFK assassination.              

  Radio phone in talk show with Barry Gray.