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. 