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#5901: PRODUCER'S SHOWCASE: "LORD DON'T PLAY FAVORITES, THE"

1956-09-17, WNBC, 84 min.

               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." Patrick Malloy's short story about a small traveling circus stranded in a Kansas town in 1905, experiencing a drought.

#13152: THIS IS YOUR LIFE

1957-04-03, WNBC, 8 min.

October 1, 1952 - September 10, 1961 (NBC TV). January 21, 1971 - May 7, 1973 (Syndicated - 56 episodes).

  
THIS IS YOUR LIFE was hosted by Ralph Edwards. It was a sentimental human interest show which he began on radio in 1948. Each week a special guest was lured to the studio by a ruse and then surprised as Edward's announced, "This is your Life!" Long lost friends and relatives materialized during the ensuing half hour to relive long-forgotten incidents going back to early childhood. The programs were broadcast LIVE and reverted to Video Tape at the start of the 1959-1960 season, at which time most of the telecasts were pre-recorded. 
Bob Warren announcer.
 The surprised guest received a 16mm film of the program and a Bell & Howell projector. 

In this episode, host Ralph Edwards surprises Buster Keaton.The first eight minutes are heard.

#6950A: ACADEMY AWARDS: 32ND ANNUAL

1960-04-04, NBC, min.

Bob Hope is host for the 32nd Annual Academy Awards ceremony, telecast live from the RKO Pantages Theater, in Hollywood, California.

Dean Miller interviews Buster Keaton in his home in Woodland Hills, California where he has lived the past almost six years with his wife Eleanor and dog Elmer. Keaton explains how Paramount bought this house when they made the Buster Keaton Story with Donald O'Connor in 1955.

Buster describes his toy trains and other mechanical "toys" he has always had a fascination for. He describes to Dean Miller a modernized Chicken Coop he has made. Keaton's love for everything mechanical helped him master many of his stunts used in his films.

Buster Keaton talks about his relationship with Ed Wynn and how they met in 1905 at the Temple theater in Detroit. He mentions that today's non-stunt-oriented comedy will return. "Comedy comes and goes in cycles."

Buster Keaton remembers when he began to be a member in his father's vaudeville act, his father throwing him around at every opportunity and how Buster would get even with his dad, having props fall on him.
All physical comedy in those days and little related to sentimental.

Keaton tell Miller how Harry Houdini tagged him with the name "Buster" after he fell down a flight of stairs. He shows Dean a picture of himself dating back to 1899 when he began performing. He states that he loved every day because every day was different.

Keaton describes how his mother would school teach him and his sisters. How he attended only one day of formal school in his life after he was kicked out for misbehaving.

Concluding the interview Buster Keaton remembers coming to Hollywood in 1917 and the wildest stunt he ever performed. The plot required for Keaton to be depressed after losing his girl to Bull Montana. Buster then jumps from a high board on top of a swimming pool, only to miss the pool entirely.

NOTE:

This rare ("lost") television audio air check was personally recorded off the air on Phil Gries' 1949 16"Andrea Television set when is was originally broadcast, August 10, 1961. The audio track was donated to the Museum of Television & Radio in 1996 (now known as The Paley Center for Media) just prior to the major retrospective the museum was offering to the public from September 6 thru December 8, 1996, entitled THE RETURN OF THE MAN IN THE PORKPIE HAT: BUSTER KEATON ON TELEVISION.

Screened during this Buster Keaton retrospective were 42 individual clips that had been archived of Buster Keaton appearances on television, except for his HERE'S HOLLWOOD appearance which was not archived by NBC television.

At the time, Phil Gries received the following letter dated September 19, 1996, from Allen Glover, curator and researcher at the museum.

Dear Phil,
Please find enclosed your audio air check of HERE'S HOLLYWOOD with Buster Keaton. We have made a digital master of the interview and it will now become part of the Museum's collection.
Without your lifelong dedication to the practice of recording and preserving television audio tracks, we would surely have lost a vital part of Buster Keaton's legacy.

The Museum is indebted to collectors such as yourself and your work and devotion to broadcast history are greatly appreciated and admired."

HISTORY OF HERE'S HOLLYWOOD television series, produced on 2" Quad Video tape broadcast daytime on NBC TV (1960-1962).

Here's Hollywood (568 broadcasts) aired as a half-hour interview program, weekday afternoons on NBC at 4:30pm. On October 2, 1961, the show was reduced five minutes giving way to a live news broadcast with Sander Vanocur which aired at 4:55pm.

Here's Hollywood was the leading daytime show for two years. It was the first TV broadcast of its kind, using two mobile vans equipped with 2" video tape equipment which traveled to the homes of celebrities...two locations each day, one star in the morning and one in the afternoon. Most of the interviews aired were ten minutes in length. Two different interviews comprised the full length of the half hour program. Occasionally, one subject would be interviewed for the complete program. Occasionally programs were produced outside of the United States...Hawaii, Germany, France. Five color broadcasts were attempted and then the concept abandoned, due to the complexity of 2" quadruplex video tape at the time.

Dean Miller conducted interviews from September 26, 1960, to September 29, 1961. He was replaced by Jack Linkletter who conducted interviews from October 2, 1961, to December 28, 1962. Joanne Jordan conducted interviews from September 26, 1960, to June 9, 1961. She was replaced by Helen O'Connell who conducted interviews from June 13, 1961, to December 28, 1962.

Note: Only a handful of the 1,100 different interviews survive. Most were erased, discarded, misplaced. NBC Archives have only two surviving kinescopes, one with Joe E. Brown (12-2-61), and one with Linda Darnell (12-4-61). UCLA Film & TV Archive has 46 different subject interview kinescopes on separate negative film and separate optical film.

Archival Television Audio has 82 broadcasts on audio tape, originally recorded by Phil Gries at the time the broadcasts first aired. Most of them are complete interviews. These television Audio Air Checks represent the greatest number of known surviving HERE'S HOLLYWOOD broadcast episodes.
UCLA FILM & Television Archives retains, in their vaults, the greatest number of individual original HERE'S HOLLYWOOD separate 16mm Kinescopes and coinciding separate optical and magnetic soundtracks, representing approximately four dozen shows. Almost ALL these broadcasts remain in analog form, separate negative picture and separate negative soundtrack, and not view-able as composite video and audio.

#131: DUPONT SHOW OF THE WEEK: LAUGHTER USA, THE

1961-09-17, WNBC, 53 min.

Samples of American humor from the beginnings till now are examined. A host of stars participate including Phil Silvers, Bob Hope, Jimmy Durante, Eddie Cantor, Burns and Allen, Buster Keaton, Fred Allen, Laurel and Hardy, W.C. Fields, Groucho Marx and Jack Benney. This premiere show for the series was produced by Donald B. Hyatt and his Project 20 staff. Written by Richard Hanser and Rod Reed. Original musical score by Robert Russell Bennett.

#898: A 1960'S RADIO BROADCAST ADDITION: MEMOIRS OF THE MOVIES: HOLLYWOOD AT HOME

1961-12-03, WNYC, 27 min.

Program number 10 of 18 programs.
Myrna Loy introduces this unique series. Buster Keaton leads a tour through the boulevards and back rooms and closets where the skeletons were kept in the grandest, gaudiest days of Hollywood, USA, when the guest lists and salary checks were closely related. The movie industry's catered affairs are recalled by Melvyn Douglas, Ralph Bellamy, Elliot Nugent, Walter Abel, writers Frances Marion, Albert Hackett, Samuel Spewack and Otto Preminger, producers Joseph L. Mankiewicz and Dore Schary and Japanese star Sessue Hayakawa. Most of the interviews were originally recorded in 1959 by producers Joan and Robert Franklin.

NOTE: Robert C. Franklin (1920-1980), inspired by a 1958 newspaper story he read about Columbia University's POPULAR ARTS ORAL HISTORY PROJECT, approached Dr. Louis Starr, then director of the oral-history collection, with a proposal to interview and tape record, on to 1/4" reel to reel audio tapes, movie people as they passed through New York. The objective would be to document, through personal recollections, the era of the silent era in films, the impact of sound, the triumphs and inequities of the major studios, and life in the glittering film capital...a firsthand account revelation of how silent movies were actually made.

Robert and his wife, Joan Franklin went on to record 200 reels of audio tape, recording celebrities mostly in New York City hotel rooms in 1958 and 1959. Transcripts of interviews were made available at the time to students and researchers.

In 1961 excerpts/highlights from these audio tapes were edited into a 16 part radio series titled, MEMOIRS OF THE MOVIES. Myrna Loy provided a standard opening. A different celebrity host/hostess was employed to introduce each episode. All of the 90 celebrities interviewed have since passed away with the exception of Joanne Woodward. Two additional episodes were later produced, "Style of the 70's," and "Rush To Reality," both hosted by Ben Gazzara and added, subsequently, to re-issues of the series which were syndicated in the 1960's and 1970's airing in New York (WINS), Boston (WBZ), Philadelphia (KYW), Baltimore (WJZ), Fort Wayne (WOWO), Chicago (WIND), San Francisco (KPIX), and Los Angeles (KFWB).

The original 200 unedited reels of 1/4" audio tape interviews recorded by Joan and Robert Franklin are no longer known to exist. However, audio cassette transfers from these original tapes were donated by Joan Franklin many decades ago to Columbia University's Oral History Research Office where they exist today.
Confirmed during a 2009 phone conversation with Mary Marshal Clark, archivist at Columbia at that time, who stated that the first on file communication from Robert Franklin to Columbia University related to his proposal to do an oral history audio recorded project is dated, July 31, 1958.

#904: NEW MARCH OF THE DIMES: THE SCENE STEALERS, THE

1962-01-02, WPIX, 49 min.

Starring in this special program are Jimmy Durante, Buster Keaton, Dan Blocker, Rosemary Clooney, Jackie Cooper, Abby Dalton, Ralph Edwards, Fabian, Nanette Fabray, Fritz Feld, James Garner, Lorne Greene, David Janssen, Eartha Kitt, Jack Lemmon, The Limeliters, Dorothy Provine, Roger Williams and Dr. Frank Baxter. This film and its stars signal the opening of the 1962 March of Dimes Campaign.

#326: A 1960'S RADIO BROADCAST ADDITION: RETROSPECT (MEMOIRS OF THE MOVIES): THE COMICS FINEST HOUR (ORIGINAL TITLE: THE BIRTH OF A BOFFO)

1962-11-25, WINS, 28 min.

Re-run of Program 3 of 18 episodes in the series with real humor and affection Joe E. Brown hosts as master of humor who brings back the days when movie comedy was seen, but not heard.

Comments from Eddie Sutherland, Charlie Ruggles, Moe Howard, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd. A feature presentation of the Westinghouse Broadcasting Company in collaboration with the Oral History Research Project of Columbia University. Produced by Joan Franklin and Robert Franklin.

NOTE: Robert C. Franklin (1920-1980), inspired by a 1958 newspaper story he read about Columbia University's POPULAR ARTS ORAL HISTORY PROJECT, approached Dr. Louis Starr, then director of the oral-history collection, with a proposal to interview and tape record, on to 1/4" reel to reel audio tapes, movie people as they passed through New York. The objective would be to document, through personal recollections, the era of the silent era in films, the impact of sound, the triumphs and inequities of the major studios, and life in the glittering film capital...a firsthand account revelation of how silent movies were actually made.

Robert and his wife, Joan Franklin went on to record 200 reels of audio tape, recording celebrities mostly in New York City hotel rooms in 1958 and 1959. Transcripts of interviews were made available at the time to students and researchers.

In 1961 excerpts/highlights from these audio tapes were edited into a 16 part radio series titled, MEMOIRS OF THE MOVIES. Myrna Loy provided a standard opening. A different celebrity host/hostess was employed to introduce each episode. All of the 90 celebrities interviewed have since passed away with the exception of Joanne Woodward. Two additional episodes were later produced, "Style of the 70's," and "Rush To Reality," both hosted by Ben Gazzara and added, subsequently, to re-issues of the series which were syndicated in the 1960's and 1970's airing in New York (WINS), Boston (WBZ), Philadelphia (KYW), Baltimore (WJZ), Fort Wayne (WOWO), Chicago (WIND), San Francisco (KPIX), and Los Angeles (KFWB).

The original 200 unedited reels of 1/4" audio tape interviews recorded by Joan and Robert Franklin are no longer known to exist. However, audio cassette transfers from these original tapes were donated by Joan Franklin many decades ago to Columbia University's Oral History Research Office where they exist today.
Confirmed during a 2009 phone conversation with Mary Marshal Clark, archivist at Columbia at that time, who stated that the first on file communication from Robert Franklin to Columbia University related to his proposal to do an oral history audio recorded project is dated, July 31, 1958.

#735: JONATHAN WINTERS SPECIAL, THE

1965-03-29, WNBC, 41 min.

Jonathan Winters and his guests, Buster Keaton, Julie Newmar and Fred Clark satirize Hollywood. Alexander Scourby also guests as narrator.

#15039: CBS NEWS, THE

1966-02-01, CBS, 29 min.

The deaths of Buster Keaton and Hedda Hopper.

Includes commercials.

#15024: VOICES IN THE HEADLINES: ABC RADIO NEWS

1966-02-06, ABC, min.

Voices in The Headlines was an American news program broadcast on ABC radio featuring the top news stories of the day. It was hosted by long-time radio and television announcer Fred Foy. 

A review of the week's top news stories: The Russians land moon probe, it sends contact to earth, comments by James Lovell, others, the US resumes bombing in North Vietnam, reactions from Wayne Morse, Russell Long,  Ramsey Clark, Robert Kennedy, George McGovern, Averill Harriman, Britain, General Curtis LeMay, Arthur Goldberg, Robert McNamara
Russia's Denis Fedorenko at the UN, Dean Rusk says peace channels have failed, President Johnson to go to Hawaii to meet with South Vietnamese leader, General Ky and General William Westmoreland, report on search and destroy mission in Vietnam, death claims Buster Keaton and Hedda Hopper.

Narrator: Fred Foy.   

NOTE: Fred Foy, best known for his voicing the opening of THE LONE RANGER on radio joined the ABC TV announcing staff in New York in 1961. For ABC RADIO he narrated the award-winning news documentary, VOICES IN THE HEADLINES a 25-minute weekly wrap up of salient news events of the week with sound bites representing the news as it was recorded.

#1087: HOLLYWOOD PALACE: CLOSING NIGHT AT THE PALACE

1970-02-07, WABC, 52 min.

Bing Crosby who hosted opening night at the palace on Jan. 4, 1964, brings down the curtain with a large sampling of highlights from the past six years. Celebrities include Nat King Cole, Ed Wynn, Eydie Gorme, Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass, Fred Astaire, Ethel Merman, Martha Raye, Ray Bolger, Jimmy Durante, Mrs. Miller, Sammy Davis Jr., Ella Fitzgerald, James Brown, Don Adams, Marty Allen, Jack Benny, Edgar Bergen, Milton Berle, Burns & Schreiber, Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Petula Clark, Perry Como, Tim Conway, Bette Davis, Joey Forman, David Janssen, Van Johnson, Buster Keaton, Bert Lahr, Peter Lawford, Liberace, Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds, Buddy Rich, Don Rickles, Dan Rowan, Dick Martin, Kate Smith, Gloria Swanson and Tiny Tim.

#16325: HOLLYWOOD PALACE: CLOSING NIGHT AT THE PALACE

1970-02-07, WABC, min.

Bing Crosby who hosted opening night at the palace on Jan. 4, 1964, brings down the curtain with a large sampling of highlights from the past six years. Celebrities include Nat King Cole, Ed Wynn, Eydie Gorme, Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass, Fred Astaire, Ethel Merman, Martha Raye, Ray Bolger, Jimmy Durante, Mrs. Miller, Sammy Davis Jr., Ella Fitzgerald, James Brown, Don Adams, Marty Allen, Jack Benny, Edgar Bergen, Milton Berle, Burns & Schreiber, Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Petula Clark, Perry Como, Tim Conway, Bette Davis, Joey Forman, David 
Janssen, Van Johnson, Buster Keaton, Bert Lahr, Peter Lawford, Liberace, Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds, Buddy Rich, Don Rickles, Dan Rowan, Dick Martin, Kate Smith, Gloria Swanson and Tiny Tim.   

Dupe of #1087.

#17742: DEAN MARTIN'S COMEDY WORLD

1974-06-06, WNBC, min.

June 6, 1974-August 15, 1974. 

'Dean Martin's Comedy World' was a summer replacement consisting of 10 one hour broadcasts (pre-emted Aug. 1st) for "The Dean Martin Show," whose final broadcast aired on May 24, 1974 after a nine year run (September 16, 1965 - May 24, 1974). 

PREMIERE EPISODE

This series was a showcase for comics, known and unknown. Most  segments were videotaped on location in various clubs. Jackie Cooper hosted the hour show, which also featured Nipsey Russell and Barbara Feldon. Viewers can expect to see six to eight new faces. There is also comedy by regulars Rodney Dangerfield and an improvisational group, the Committee: and a nostalgic touch is added to each show via film clips of Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, and Laurel and Hardy. 

Jackie Cooper was the "anchorman" in the control room coordinating and introducing many of the comedy acts that appeared from all over the world. Nipsey Russell and Barbara Feldon were on location to do introductions from varied locations including Hollywood, London and San Francisco.    

Duplicate of #1824.

14 records found for Buster Keaton