How did I choose this particular date for this week's listings? Well, in truth, not much changes in television from one week to the other, especially over the period of a few months in the middle of the television season. And as I look back on some previous issues from 1955, I see that I've already done Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, which narrows the range somewhat. And since daytime shows are pretty consistent across the week, that leads me to bypass Monday in favor of the weekend offferings. So Saturday it is, which brings some pleasures of its own, as you can see in these Chicagoland listings. And something else to note: for the first time in our perusal of these 1955 issues, the television week begins on Saturday, rather than the Friday we've seen in the past. It becomes a TV Guide tradition for decades.
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-2- WBBM (CBS)
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MORNING
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7:50
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Today’s Thoughts
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7:55
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News in Brief
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8:30
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Rayner Shine—Variety
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9:00
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Wild Bill Hickok—Western
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9:30
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Here’s How
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10:00
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Winky Dink and You
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10:30
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Capt. Midnight—Adventure
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11:00
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Bit Top—Circus Fun
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AFTERNOON
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12:00
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Lone Ranger—Western
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12:30
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Uncle Johnny Coons Show
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1:00
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Ray Rayner—Dance Party
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2:00
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Operation New Horizon
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2:30
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Playhouse—Drama
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3:00
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Choose Your Career
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3:30
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Horse Race—Belmont SPECIAL
87th Belmont Stakes
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4:00
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MOVIE—Drama
“Double Identity” (Chgo. TV Debut)
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5:00
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MOVIE—Mystery
“Traffic in Crime”
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EVENING
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6:00
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Gene Autry—Western
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6:30
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Beat the Clock—Games
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7:00
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JACKIE GLEASON—Comedy
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8:00
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TWO FOR THE MONEY
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8:30
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DOWN YOU GO—Quiz RETURN
Panelists: Patricia Cutts, Fran Coughlin.
Emcee: Dr. Bergen Evans
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9:00
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PROFESSIONAL FATHER
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9:30
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DAMON RUNYON THEATER
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10:00
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PEE WEE KING—Music
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11:30
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Follow That Man—Drama
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12:00
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MOVIE—Comedy
“Montana Mike” (1947)
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4 WTMJ (Milwaukee)(NBC)
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MORNING
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9:00
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Pinky Lee—Kids
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9:30
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Paul Winchell Show
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10:00
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Funny Boners—Kids
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10:30
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Corbett, Space Cadet
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11:00
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Cartoon Carnival—Kids
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AFTERNOON
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12:00
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What’s New in the Kitchen
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12:45
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Let’s Look at the News
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1:00
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Mr. Wizard—Science
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1:30
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Hot Shot Review—Music
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2:30
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Red Cross Safety Show
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3:00
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Big Picture—Army Films
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3:30
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Campus Capers—Variety
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4:00
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Roy Rogers—Western
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4:30
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Buffalo Bill, Jr.—Kids
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5:00
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Lone Ranger—Western
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5:30
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Cisco Kid—Western
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EVENING
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6:00
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Sports—Lloyd Pettit
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6:15
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Let’s Look at the News
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6:25
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Weather—Bill Carlsen
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6:30
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Horace Heidt—Variety
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7:00
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GRAND OLE OPRY
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7:30
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THIS IS HOLLYWOOD
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8:00
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IMOGENE COCA
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8:30
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DONALD O’CONNOR
Guest: Edmund Lowe
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9:00
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GEORGE GOBEL
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9:30
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MOVIE—Drama
“Outpost in Morocco” (1949)
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10:55
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WEATHER—Bill Carlsen
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11:00
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Your Hit Parade—Music
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11:30
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People Are Funny—Games
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12:00
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The Lone Wolf—Drama
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12:30
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Red Barber’s Corner
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12:35
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MOVIE—Drama
“King of the Gamblers”
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-5- WNBQ (NBC)
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MORNING | ||
9:00 | Pinky Lee—Kids | |
9:30 | Paul Winchell Show | |
10:00 | Funny Boners—Kids | |
10:30 | Corbett, Space Cadet | |
11:00 | Mr. Wizard—Science | |
11:30 | MOVIE—To Be Announced | |
AFTERNOON | ||
1:00 | MOVIE—Western “Texas Terrors” | |
2:00 | MOVIE—Drama “Make a Wish” | |
3:00 | MOVIE—Western “Devil Riders” | |
4:00 | MOVIE—Mystery “Navy Spy” | |
5:00 | MOVIE—Mystery “Forced Landing” | |
EVENING | ||
6:00 | Hopalong Cassidy | |
6:30 | Horace Heidt—Variety | |
7:00 | GRAND OLE OPRY | |
7:30 | THIS IS HOLLYWOOD | |
8:00 | IMOGENE COCA | |
8:30 | DONALD O’CONNOR Guest: Edmund Lowe | |
9:00 | GEORGE GOBEL | |
9:30 | YOUR HIT PARADE | |
10:00 | MAYOR OF THE TOWN | |
10:30 | SCIENCE FICTION THEATER | |
11:00 | Championship Bowling | |
12:00 | MOVIE—Western “Cowboy Millionaire” |
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-7- WBKB (ABC)
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AFTERNOON
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3:15
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Soldier Parade—Talent
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4:00
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Cisco Kid—Western
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4:30
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Buffalo Bill, Jr.—Kids
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5:00
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Superman—Adventure
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5:30
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Big Game Hunt—Jungle
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EVENING
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6:00
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Tomorrow—Education
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6:30
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Your Sheriff Report
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6:45
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TV Golf Clinic—Tips
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7:30
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DOTTY MACK—Music
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8:00
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OZARK JUBILEE—Red Foley
Guests: Jimmy Newman, the Imperial Quartet
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9:00
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TOM DUGGAN SHOW
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10:00
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MOVIE—Drama
“The Bushwackers” (1951)
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11:30
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Film Shorts
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11:40
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40 MOVIE—Double Feature
(1) “The Honeymoon” (2) “The Cure”
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12:30
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Film Short
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-9- WGN (DuMont)
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MORNING
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9:00
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This Is the Life—Religion
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9:30
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Pet Parade—Animals
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11:00
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Quiet Riot—Comedy
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11:30
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Adventures of Danny Dee
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AFTERNOON
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12:00
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MOVIE—To Be Announced
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1:00
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Batting Practice—Warm-up
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1:10
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Lead-off Man—Interviews
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1:25
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Baseball—White Sox
Washington Senators at Chicago White Sox
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3:45
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Tenth Inning—Interviews
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4:00
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MOVIE—Western
“Orphan of the Pecos”
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5:00
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MOVIE—Western
“Man’s Land”
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EVENING
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6:00
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MOVIE—Western
“Winning the West”
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7:00
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MOVIE—Drama
“Thief of Bagdad”
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8:30
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WRESTLING—Marigold
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11:00
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MOVIE—Drama
“Crooked Way” (1949)
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TV
A Bit, and also a Piece (or two or more):
ReplyDeleteThe Ray Rayner Show: a dance party for pre-rock Chicago teens (more or less).
The very talented Rayner did record pantomimes with Mina Kolb, who at the the time was a charter member of The Second City (alongside Alan Arkin, Roger Bowen, Avery Schreiber, Severn Darden, and I'm missing a bunch of others, but you've still got that character limit.
By the way, that's the same Mina Kolb who had a running role on Curb Your Enthusiasm (last time I looked, anyway ...).
- Record pantomiming was quite popular back then; Dotty Mack's Cincinnati-based show ran for years, with her sidekicks Bob Braun and Colin Male (the latter later became the announcer of The Andy Griffith Show, but that's another story ...).
- The Tom Duggan Show is Channel 7's attempt to help one of its local stars go national (see Chicago Deadline on page A-1).
This was likely foredoomed; Tom Duggan was possibly the rudest, most ill-mannered TV talker in Chicago at the time (in the '50s this was actually fashionable).
The story of how Terrible Tom lost his Chicago gig is way more complicated that I can get into here; remind me to tell you another time ...
- By the bye, the Deadline column has an item about how Uncle Win Stracke, a far more likable Chicago personality, was in the running to be ABC's summer fill-in for Kukla, Fran, And Ollie; it was between Win and " ... a Detroit TV personality ..."
The Detroit guy got the job; you may have heard of him - Soupy Sales.
- There's a story in the color section about Jeff Donnell, George Gobel's TV wife of the time, and arguably the most popular actress to hold that position.
Miss Donnell's career was long-lived: she spent the final decade of her life as a popular supporting player on General Hospital, up to 1988.
I'll dial down for now: I've never been sure of what your lore limit is (actually, I'm wondering what you're making out of The Gracie Allen Murder Case - and that's another story ...).
I didn't think rude and ill-mannered went over in the 50's...
DeletePaul
Record pantomiming was what Jerry Lewis did before teaming up with Dean Martin
DeletePaul
The Washington Senators that the White Sox went up against on WGN-TV, became the Minnesota Twins on November 26, 1960.
ReplyDelete"The Gracie Allen Murder Case" was initially a special "Philo Vance" novel written by S.S. Van Dine in 1938, in which Gracie matches wits (!!!) with Philo during a very complicated murder investigation. George doesn't appear in the story, though. It was filmed in 1939, with Gracie getting top billing above Warren William {as "Philo"}.
ReplyDeleteIt's Clarifyin' Time!:
DeleteS.S. Van Dine (Willard H. Wright) did indeed write The Gracie Allen Murder Case, on special order from Paramount Pictures - and George Burns is in the novel, as Gracie's boyfriend.
I know this because I'm looking at a copy of the book right now, as I'm writing this (and Mitchell, you can verify this from the extra copy I sent to you (which is why I mentioned this in the first place)).
George Burns isn't in the movie, because the Paramount brass believed that Gracie would really break through as a superstar if she only had a young, handsome on-screen partner.
In 1939, George and Gracie weren't Burns & Allen yet; their characters were still boyfriend/girlfriend.
For many years, Conventional Wisdom held that Gracie was the whole act, and George was expendable, and so Kent Taylor was plugged in as the juve lead, and there you go.
Not long afterwards, Warner Bros. got the screen rights to Mr. and Mrs. North, and signed Gracie Allen for the Mrs. part - but George was not considered for Mr. : same reasoning as above.
After the North movie, Gracie made it clear that she preferred working with George, and that's why she didn't make more movies.
For his part, George changed their characters to husband and wife, and that's when their radio show took off; the rest you know.
Belated correction to the above:
DeleteThe Mr. And Mrs. North movie referenced above was made by MGM, not Warner Bros.
The rest of the comment stands.
PROFESSIONAL FATHER's mother (wife) would soon be an all-pro in the position...Barbara Billingsley.
ReplyDeletePaul
TOM CORBETT,SPACE CADET was on the tail end of it's final season. It would air it's final episode in two weeks on the 25th.
ReplyDelete