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 JINX 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.
Today's Guests: Composer Irving Berlin, Dr. Selman Waksman,Cyril Ritchard and India Defence Minister Krishna Menon.
October 18, 1954-May 27, 1957.
Live ninety minute productions aired every fourth week. The range of material was vast, from dramas to musicals.
Presented on "PRODUCER'S SHOWCASE." Edwin Lester- Los Angeles-San Francisco Light Opera Association operetta about a case of mistaken identity concerning Rosalinda, her husband, their maid and a tenor, all involved in a romantic quadrangle.
October 18, 1954-May 27, 1957
Live ninety minute productions aired every fourth week. The range of material was vast, from dramas to musicals.
Presented on "PRODUCER'S SHOWCASE." This special color broadcast opens with the words, "The following program is brought to you in compatible color." For the first few years, NBC introduced all broadcasts presented in color with this introduction, prior to replacing the word "compatible" with the word "living" in 1957.
Classic fairy tale about a farm boy who trades the family cow for magic beans and climbs the beanstalk that grows from the beans, confronting an ogre. There are ten different songs presented in this live musical fantasy.
February 7 - May 15, 1960 (Sundays 2:30-3:00pm)
READING OUT LOUD was a filmed series comprised of 15 shows. Famous people read favorite literary selections aloud to a small group of children, often relatives of the reader.
Jackie Robinson recites the Gettysburg Address to his son David Robinson, daughter Sharon Robinson and wife Rachel Robinson.
NOTE: Letter dated Feb. 26, 2008, sent by Rachel Robinson, related to this TV Audio Air Check recorded off the air by Phil Gries on May 1, 1960.
THE JACKIE ROBINSON FOUNDATION
One Hudson Square
75 Varick Street
New York, NY 10013
February 26, 2008
Phil Gries
Archival Television Audio, Inc.
209 Sea Cliff Avenue
Sea Cliff, NY 11579
Dear Phil,
My apologies for the long delay in responding to your kindness in sending me the exciting television audio air check of "Reading Out Loud" the TV program where Jack read the Gettysburg Address. The Jackie Robinson Foundation has moved and we are still locating material sent to us as we reorganize the archives.
I listened to the tape with ABSOLUE AMAZEMENT and DELIGHT. Sharon and I remember vividly the family trip to Washington, and we have one photo taken on that occasion. Unfortunately, I do not have any memory of the recording session.
It is thrilling for us to hear Jackie's reading of this profound speech, and we shall cherish and preserve it in our archives. Most importantly, we will share it with our visitors to the Jackie Robinson Museum now being designed.
Phil, I am deeply grateful to you for this historic gift, and we will appropriately attribute it's preservation to you.
Sincerely,
Rachel Robinson
cc: Della Britton Baeza
Len Coleman
In 1960, Virginia Winslow Hopper Mathews created the children's TV series Reading Out Loud with Westinghouse Broadcasting executive Mike Santangelo. Produced by Westinghouse for syndication, the show featured notable figures reading aloud their favorite books to children. It debuted February 7, 1960 on the five TV stations owned by Westinghouse in Baltimore, Boston, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco. READING OUT LOUD also opened on WNTA-TV, prior it becoming a Public Television Station (WNET-TV) in New York City and 46 educational TV stations around the U.S. It ran as a half-hour show for 15 episodes.
The following is a list of READING OUT LOUD guest appearances detailing the 15 broadcasts aired, and the dates when they were broadcast.
-First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (reading Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling to a group of children)-March 13, 1960.
-Actress Julie Harris (reading selections from Kenneth Grahame's "The Wind in The Willows")-May 8, 1960.
-Actor José Ferrer (reading Huckleberry Finn)-March 20, 1960.
-Brooklyn Dodger baseball player (1947-1956) Jackie Robinson (reading excerpts from Stephen Crane's "The Red Badge of Courage" & Abraham Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address" to his family)-May 1, 1960.
-Entertainer Garry Moore (reading The Legend of Sleepy Hollow)-Feb. 28, 1960.
-Novelist Pearl S. Buck (reading Chinese fables)-April 17, 1960.
-Actor Cyril Ritchard (reading "Alice in Wonderland")-Feb. 14 or 21(?)1960.
-Singer/actor/activist Harry Belafonte (reading a collection of Jamaican folk tale about Anansi the Spider Man)-April 10, 1960.
-Senator John F. Kennedy (reading The Emergence of Lincoln)-March 27, 1960.
-Pulitzer Prize poet and author, Archibald MacLeish (reading poems of Walter de la Mare to his grandchildren)-Feb. 7, 1960
-Stage Actress Eva Le Gallienne (reading Hans Christian Anderson's "The Ugly Duckling.")-March 6, 1960.
-Vice President Richard M. Nixon (reading Carl Sandburg's "Abe Lincoln Grows Up" to his daughter Julie and her friends)-April 3, 1960.
-UCLA English Professor / TV Educator Dr. Frank Baxter (reading the poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.")-April 24, 1960.
-Industrialist Charles H. Percy (reading from James Daugherty's "Poor Richard" to his children)-May 15, 1960.
-Actor Richard Boone (reading Bret Harte's story "How Santa Claus Came to Simpson's Bar.")-February 21, 1960.
November 27, 1960-November 8, 1981. Newsmakers were interviewed by journalists on this public affairs program, ABC's counterpart of CBS's "Face The Nation" and NBC's "Meet The Press." In its earliest weeks, the series was entitled "ABC Press Conference."
Topic: Discussion of US policy in South Vietnam. Guests include Senator Joseph P. Tydings, (Democrat, Maryland), who has recently returned from a visit to Southeast Asia, socialist leader Norman Thomas, Dr. Benjamin Spock, co-chairman of the National Committee for a sane nuclear policy, and Carl Sanders, Governor of Georgia.
Commercials including promo for tonight's airing of "The Dangerous Christmas of Red Riding Hood," with Cyril Ritchard and Liza Minnelli.
Howard K. Smith is the moderator
Third showing of the taped production first presented on December 8, 1960. The first television performance of the musical adaptation of Sir James M. Barrie's play was presented live on NBC on March 7, 1955 and again live on January 9, 1956. The taped production was presented on December 8, 1960, and repeated on February 9, 1963.
September 25, 1963-June 7, 1967. Danny Kaye hosted his own Wednesday-night variety hour for four seasons. Regulars included Harvey Korman, four-year-old Victoria Meyerink & youngster Laurie Ichino.
January 12, 1959-April 26, 1968. This musical series ran semiregularly for almost ten seasons-sometimes weekly, sometimes biweekly, and sometimes as irregularly scheduled specials. All types of music were presented on the hour series; Donald Voorhees conducted the Bell Telephone Orchestra.
July 2, 1967-September 3, 1967. Hosted by Rowlf the Muppet. The comedy duo of Jack Burns and Avery Schreiber and the Doodletown Pipers were also featured.
September 25, 1962-June 23, 1970. One of television's most inventive and popular comedians, Red Skelton hosted his own series for twenty years, seven of them in a one-hour format, "The Red Skelton Hour" on CBS. Skelton began his television career on NBC September 30, 1951 with a half-hour filmed variety series lasting until June 21, 1953. He then began his CBS affiliation, and began hosting "The Red Skelton Show," a half-hour variety show broadcast live until October 18, 1960, and subsequently on videotape. This series aired from October 13, 1953, continuing until June 26, 1962. From July 21, 1954 through September 8, 1954, "The Red Skelton Revue" was broadcast live on CBS in a one-hour format. Red Skelton returned to NBC in a half-hour taped format for his final series. "Red" as the show was known, premiered September 14, 1970. The first four broadcasts included introductions by Vice President Spiro T. Agnew (September 14, 1970), Dean Martin (September 21, 1970), Jack Benny (September 28, 1970), and Johnny Carson (October 5, 1970) who got his big break writing for Skelton in the early 1950's. Red Skelton's last first-run regularly scheduled television program aired on March 15, 1971.
September 25, 1962-June 23, 1970.
Red Skelton presents an hour of specially revised fairy tales for viewers on the far side of the generation gap. Cyril Ritchard and Jane Powell join him for take-offs on:
Aladdin, Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater, Rip Van Winkle, Beauty and the Beast, and Sleeping Beauty.
A re-run originally telecast January 30, 1968
One of television's most inventive and popular comedians, Red Skelton hosted his own series for twenty years, seven of them in a one-hour format, "The Red Skelton Hour" on CBS. Skelton began his television career on NBC September 30, 1951 with a half-hour filmed variety series lasting until June 21, 1953. He then began his CBS affiliation, and began hosting "The Red Skelton Show," a half-hour variety show broadcast live until October 18, 1960, and subsequently on videotape. This series aired from October 13, 1953, continuing until June 26, 1962. From July 21, 1954 through September 8, 1954, "The Red Skelton Revue" was broadcast live on CBS in a one-hour format. Red Skelton returned to NBC in a half-hour taped format for his final series. "Red" as the show was known, premiered September 14, 1970. The first four broadcasts included introductions by Vice President Spiro T. Agnew (September 14, 1970), Dean Martin (September 21, 1970), Jack Benny (September 28, 1970), and Johnny Carson (October 5, 1970) who got his big break writing for Skelton in the early 1950's. Red Skelton's last first-run regularly scheduled television program aired on March 15, 1971.
September 25, 1962-June 23, 1970. One of television's most inventive and popular comedians, Red Skelton hosted his own series for twenty years, seven of them in a one-hour format, "The Red Skelton Hour" on CBS. Skelton began his television career on NBC September 30, 1951 with a half-hour filmed variety series lasting until June 21, 1953. He then began his CBS affiliation, and began hosting "The Red Skelton Show," a half-hour variety show broadcast live until October 18, 1960, and subsequently on videotape. This series aired from October 13, 1953, continuing until June 26, 1962. From July 21, 1954 through September 8, 1954, "The Red Skelton Revue" was broadcast live on CBS in a one-hour format. Red Skelton returned to NBC in a half-hour taped format for his final series. "Red" as the show was known, premiered September 14, 1970. The first four broadcasts included introductions by Vice President Spiro T. Agnew (September 14, 1970), Dean Martin (September 21, 1970), Jack Benny (September 28, 1970), and Johnny Carson (October 5, 1970) who got his big break writing for Skelton in the early 1950's. Red Skelton's last first-run regularly scheduled television program aired on March 15, 1971.
Christmas television special produced in stop-motion animation, telling the story of a young Shepard, blinded by lightning.
Featuring the voices of Cyril Ritchard, David Kelley, Dina Lynn, Greg Thomas, Iris Rainer, Joan Gardner, Don Messick, Sean Manning, Dru Stevens, Hilary Momberger.
Narrated by Angela Lansbury.
A strong cast in a quartet of comedy playlets.
In Murray Schisgal's "Natasha Kovolina Pipishinsky," Alan Arkin is a married lawyer who has been stepping out with a young Russian ballerina (Kay Mazzo of the New York City Ballet). Alan King is the friend who advises him against the affair.
In Neil Simon's "A Quiet War," Zero Mostel and Peter Ustinov play a Russian odd couple-a retired general and admiral who wage a war of words over what makes "the perfect lunch."
King portrays a rueful dentist in Herb Gardner's "Word of Mouth." While working on a patient (Christopher Hewett), the dentist laments his failed marriage and his unemployed son, who "found himself three years ago, and has ever since been deeply engrossed in losing himself again."
Ustinov (the hour's director) wrote "Swordplay," a Bicentennial entry set in a New England barn in 1776. Dick Shawn plays a lonesome Revolutionary who sneaks up on a Redcoat colonel (Cyril Ritchard)-for a chat.
Angela Lansbury and Cyril Ritchard are heard in this animated tale about a blind shepherd boy who, as Christmas approaches, longs for his first snowfall. "Even if I don't see it," he says bravely, "I could feel it." Songs include Irving Berlin's "White Christmas," and original tunes by Maury Laws and Jules Bass.
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PRESERVING & ARCHIVING THE SOUND OF LOST & UNOBTAINABLE ORIGINAL TV (1946 - 1982)
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