obert Montgomery is a man of many talents: noted film actor, producer and director (including two nominations for Best Actor), Tony Award-winning director, twice president of the Screen Actors Guild, host and occasional star of
, one of the longest-running and most prestigeous of the early drama anthologies, and if that weren't enough, father of Elizabeth Montgomery. And now, add to that: presidential advisor.
Late last year, Montgomery was invited by old friend Jim Hagerty—who also happens to be President Eisenhower's press secretary—to breakfast at the White House with Ike and a half-dozen other Republican operatives. They discussed effective communication on television; after breakfast, the meeting moved to the Oval Office. At the end, he was offered the position as a staff consultant to the president. The position includes an executive office in the White House, along with a secretary; he spends a couple of days a week at the job.
Montgomery stresses that he is not, as he has been referred to in the press, Eisenhower's "coach." He hasn't tried to change or "glamorize" the president, or to change his gestures or mannerisms. "Mr. Eisenhower," he says, "is a public figure, not an actor. He has a right—and an obligation—to appear to the public as he is; not as someone else wants him to appear." His job, he says, is to "help project Mr. Eisenhower’s own personality and thoughts in as natural a manner as possible."
Montgomery spent three months studying the president's habits off-camera. "All right, these are the methods he, as an individual, ordinarily uses to convey what he wants to say." Montgomery's job is to incorporate those methods to television, to not worry about what he's been told to do, but to do what he finds easiest and most comfortable. When Eisenhower voiced concern about inconveniencing cameramen, Montgomery told him, "Whatever you want to do, Mr. President, do. It’s the technicians’ obligation to make you comfortable."
|
The student and the teacher |
Over the past year, Montgomery has worked to raise the lecturn when Eisenhower addresses Congress, so that Ike didn't have to bend over, and to give the television audience a better look at his face. He changed the president's glasses from heavy, horn-rimmed to a more flattering shape and lighter rims. When Montgomery noticed that Eisenhower frequently paced back and forth behind his desk and occasionally wen to the front to sit on the edge, he suggested that he do the same when making informal talks on TV. He had a layer of felt placed over the president's polished desktop to keep lights from reflecting into his eyes, and he coordinates the president's wardrobe to make sure it stands out from the backdrop from wherever he's speaking. He checks camera and light locations, does sound checks, and makes sure that stand-by cameras and audio are ready. He also recommend that Eisenhower use a teleprompter, but only on certain occasions; ideally, he uses a cue sheet with only about 40 words in his notes for a 30-minute speech.
For all this, Montgomery accepts no salary or expenses. He considers working with the president to be "his most exciting assignment and the high point of his career." Mr. Eisenhower, he says, is a man of wisdom, ability, integrity, and modesty; "It’s important that these qualities be projected to the people who have elected ohim." He concludes, "If you believe so thoroughly in a man and his program, how much better can you do in point of service?" I think there are more than a few candidates out there who could benefit from Montgomery's council.
l l l
Let's stay in the political arena; Tuesday is election day, and even though it's a mid-term election, with the presidency not at stake, all three networks plan to cover the vote-counting at least until control of both houses of Congress has been decied.
|
Cronkite and crew during 1952 coverage |
On CBS (beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET), Walter Cronkite heads a team of veterans from the 1952 election, including Edward R. Murrow, Douglas Edwards, Charles Collingwood, Eric Sevaried, Ron Cochran, and others. Included is the Univac computer, "the electronic brain that calculates and projects the trends," first introduced with "some success" in 1952. The network plans cutaways to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C.
Over at NBC (9:30 p.m.), Dave Garroway, "who can be counted on to remain cool amidst the most hectic proceedings," will anchor the coverage, aided by John Cameron Swayze, Roy Neal, David Brinkley, Joseph McCaffrey, Ray Scherer, and others. They'll have remotes from Republican and Democratic national headquarters. Both CBS and NBC will break for local updates for the last five minutes of each half-hour.
And then there's ABC. While WFIL, the ABC/DuMont affiliate in Philadelphia, plans to break into local programming to cover the results in the East, the network plans to deliver "complete nationwide returns" beginning at midnight, with John Daly anchoring from ABC's New York studios. It's ironic: even though ABC's news division was widely derided for most of its existence (at least up until the late 1970s), their mode of limited coverage of events such as political conventions and elections has become the norm for networks nowadays. Of course, that's not what they intended at the time . . .
l l l
It's remarkable just how much you can talk about Barry Nelson without actually talking about Barry Nelson. What do I mean about that? Point #1: Nelson is on the cover of this week's issue, along with Joan Caulfield, with whom he co-stars Saturday nights on CBS in the sitcom My Favorite Husband. Now, if that show sounds familar to you, it's probably because My Favorite Husband was a radio comedy, airing from 1948 through 1951, starring Lucille Ball as a "slightly zany housewife" married to bank executive Richard Denning, and that series eventually evolved into I Love Lucy. While both the network and sponsor Jell-O wanted Denning to continue on the show when it moved to TV in 1951, Lucy insisted on casting Desi Arnaz as her on-screen husband. The show lost Jell-O as a sponsor, but gained television immortality, which I would figure as a pretty good trade-off. The actual My Favorite Husband, with the original radio premise, finally made it to TV in 1953 with Nelson and Caulfield, running for two-and-a-half seasons. That's a good-sized paragraph about Barry Nelson that actually has very little to do with him.
Point #2: Nine days prior to this issue—that is, October 21—Nelson starred in the third episode of the mystery anthology series
Climax!, "Casino Royale," co-starring Peter Lorre and Linda Christian. If
that sounds familiar to you, it should: it's based on the novel of the same name, written in 1953 by Ian Fleming, and Nelson plays Fleming's hero, James Bond. Yes,
that James Bond. In this version, Bond is an American agent, working with a British contact named
Clarence Leiter, to subdue arch villain Le Chiffre, played by Lorre. Nelson thereby became the first actor, of any nationality, to play Bond, and if he seems somewhat miscast in the role, I don't think he can be held to blame. (But you can
watch it here and decide for yourself.) No adaptation that features "Jimmy Bond" is going to capture the essense of the Bond we've all come to know and love. Despite its proximity to the
Climax broadcast, the TV Guide article doesn't even mention "Casino Royale." Granted, the Bond stories didn't really become popular in the United States until JFK mentioned how much he enjoyed them, but it's still funny to think of it flying so far under the radar. That's two paragraphs about Barry Nelson, and still we haven't really talked about him.
So: we're told that Barry Nelson looks a lot like "an aging Tom Sawyer," but doesn't act like one. He's "actively intelligent," devoted to acting as a profession in which "he knows he is competent, hopes to improve, and works constantly toward bigger and better things." Following his discharge from the Army, he made his mark on the stage, culminating with three years on Broadway in "The Moon Is Blue." But "An actor can't afford to stay very long on Broadway," he says. "In order to become known, he must appear on the mass media—on television or in pictures." With that in mind, he made the move to TV and
My Favorite Husband. He finds live television "too much of a grind" and calls the process "a dull, tedious business, but he says this without rancor or complaint—it is, for a professional actor, simply a fact.
Nelson maintained an active and varied career throughout his life: returning to Broadway as both actor and director (including a Tony nomination), was one of the regular panelists on To Tell the Truth, served as a host on NBC Radio's Monitor in the mid-60s, acted in several movies (including Airport and The Shining), and was a guest star on many television series, with his last coming in an episode of Murder, She Wrote in 1989. He died in 2007, shortly before his 90th birthday, with a pretty good career to his name.
l l l
Speaking of television as we were—which is not surprising since this is a television website, after all—Frank De Blois is complaining that Hollywood movie studios are taking away too much talent from TV: female talent, to be specific. It's not surprising in a historical context, given that television in its early days was, by-and-large, populated either by former movie stars who'd maxed out their stardom, or up-and-coming talent looking to make it big in the movies. (There's also a select group of visionaries who, seeing television's potential, got into it early on, from the production side as well as acting. But since that doesn't fit into this story, we'll just pretend they don't exist.)
MGM, Paramount, RKO, and Columbia have already made off with "choice properties" who made their start on TV: Grace Kelly, Anne Francis, Rosemary Clooney, and Betsy Palmer, to name a few. For example, just two years ago, the future Princess of Monaco was one of the "bright stars" on television, having made her mark on
Studio One, Suspense, and
TV Playhouse. She then headed for Hollywood, promising to return to TV "after a picture or two." Since then, she's made
High Noon, Mogambo, Dial M for Murder, and
Rear Window, and she'll win a Best Actress Oscar for the about-to-be-released
The Country Girl. I wouldn't look for her to return to television any time soon.
In retrospect, though, I'm not sure that Grace wasn't the exception, rather than the rule. Anne Francis had a hit in Forbidden Planet, but a diet of low-budget movies saw her return to television, which I think really suited her better. (Honey West, anyone?) Rosemary Clooney started out with Arthur Godfrey and Ed Sullivan, and had a smash with White Christmas, but that was it; her greatest success came as a recording star, with a few guest spots on TV. Likewise, Betsy Palmer is far better known as a regular on I've Got a Secret and The Today Show and for her appearances on stage; there is, of course, Friday the 13th, but that's a ways in the future. Other names, such as Rita Gam and Joanne Jordan, never achieved megaton stardom, and Eva Marie Saint (who'd win an Oscar for On the Waterfront and would win hearts in North by Northwest) never planned on a long-term film career; she preferred "a voice in her own future as an actress." Still, there's plenty of talent out there, and as long as they continue to succeed, Hollywood will continue to come calling.
l l l
It's a quiet week on the old tube, with election coverage being the dominant feature, but there's always something worth mentioning. For instance, on
Saturday, the college football game of the week features a matchup from a time when the Ivy League was still relevant in major college football: Penn State at Penn, from Franklin Field in Philadelphia. (2:00 p.m., ABC) Penn State was well on its way to becoming the dominant team in the East, while Penn played a schedule that included teams like Army, Navy, Duke, and Notre Dame. Not a surprise that the Quakers would finish the season 0-9, losing to Penn State 35-13 in one of their better outings.
Sunday, Hallmark Hall of Fame (5:00 p.m., NBC) presents a story we'd probably never see today: "The Path to Peace," newspaper editor Horace "Go West, Young Man" Greeley's drive to have former Confederate President Jefferson Davis freed from federal prison. You'll notice that title again: reconcilation is always a path to peace, but unfortunately, too many people today seem to think that reconcilation only goes one way—theirs. Coincidentally, tonight's You Are There (6:30 p.m., CBS) tells the story of Abraham Lincoln's selection as the Republican candidate for president in 1860.
Speaking of Robert Montgomery as we were, it would be wrong to neglect this Monday's Robert Montgomery Presents, "The Gentleman" (9:30 p.m., NBC), the story of "A man . . . obsessed with the way things used to be. Rather than accepting and appreciating the present, he sadly retreats to living his life in the past." It sounds like the story of this blog, doesn't it? Otherwise, Benny Goodman and his quintet have the joint jumping on (Sid) Caesar's Hour (8:00 p.m., NBC), with regulars Carl Reiner and Howard Morris.
Tuesday provides us with a final bit of politicking, albeit in a non-partisan vein; The Morning Show (7:00 a.m., CBS) presents a filmed message from President Eisenhower urging people to get out and vote, regardless of which party they support. For those of you too young to remember, there was a time when everyone voted on the same day unless they could demonstrate they'd be out of town on Election Day, in which case they got an absentee ballot. I kind of miss those days. . . Later, on The Garry Moore Show (10:00 a.m., CBS), Garry interviews his congressman, played by Durward Kirby.
On
Wednesday, it's the second-ever episode of
Disneyland (7:30 p.m., ABC), and Walt has a treat in store: the television premiere of
Alice in Wonderland, the 1951 animated feature film with a wonderful list of voice talent, including Ed Wynn as the Mad Hatter, Sterling Holloway as the Cheshire Cat, Jerry Colonna as the March Hare, and J. Pat O'Malley as Tweedledum and Tweedlede. Sure, it's abridged, and it's shown in black-and-white, but it's probably still the best show on TV tonight.
Thursday's highlight can be seen on Climax!, the show that gave us "Casino Royale" a couple of weeks ago. This time, it's an adaptation of Lucille Fletcher's1943 radio thriller Sorry, Wrong Number (8:30 p.m., CBS), starring Shelley Winters in the role played by Agnes Moorhead in the original broadcast and, perhaps more famously, Barbara Stanwyck in the 1948 movie adaptation (for which Stanwyck was nominated for Best Actress). Fletcher, who also wrote the movie screenplay, did the television adaptation as well, so I have great confidence the quality remained high. (Orson Welles called the original "the greatest single radio script ever written.") Fun fact: the music for the TV version was composed by Fletcher's former husband, Bernard Herrmann.
We'll stick with radio—kind of—to end the week: on
Friday's
Today Show (7:00 a.m., NBC), Dave Garroway's guest is "the father of radio,"
Lee DeForest. It's said that they'll be discussing DeForest's lastest invention; now, I haven't found any info as to what that might have been, but I can imagine Garroway enjoying the interview immensely. Besides the fact he started on radio, he would have been fascinated by the science and technology of radio, not to mention the other areas in which DeForest worked.
l l l
At some point along the way we apparently decided to become a completely homogeneous culture. There are exceptions, of course, some natural resources and local landmarks unique to a given area, but for the most part we seem determined to make every city in every region of the country look identical—and identically bland—to every other city in every other region: the same chain stores in the same strip malls designed in the same architectural style.
Television, in its role as a mirror of culture, is no different. Thanks (?) to some of our streaming providers, it's now easy to check out local newscasts from various parts of the country, and I defy anyone to find substantial differences in the broadcasts: they use the same fonts, the same color schemes, the same types of intro music, the same style of logo, the same backdrop showing their respective city skylines (themselves becoming less and less distinctive). The anchors have the same, vaguley nondescript accents, they wear the same clothes (female anchors even share cute outfits online), and they read from virtually identical scripts.
Of all the things that used to give a station its unique identity, the station-identification slide was one of the most distinctive. This week, TV Guide shares some of those slides from around the country, as stations show off their mascots, local landmarks, regional color, and more.
Even after the artistic renditions became more sophisticated, station IDs maintained their distinctiveness. There were specialized versions for various holidays, photographs capturing seasonal representations of local landscapes, skylines, and the like. I don't even know if there
are station ID slides anymore other than at the start of the local news; it seems as if we just go from one program to another, and heaven forbid we should take any time away from commercial opportunities. There's no use crying over spilt station logos; still, it does seem as if we've lost something, doesn't it?
TV