Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1951-08-05
On the Air
TVS The Most Amozin' Thinq'
That Ever Happened to Jimmy
BY Harry Macarthur

BY Harry
Some of the entertainers and
producers who still have not dis
covered the true nature of tele-
vision-who still see it as visual
addition to a radio show or new
method of taking the vaudeville
stage to the customers-could
learn from Jimmy Durante.
Jack Carson is not one of these,
incidentally. When he was here
recently, Carson paid passing
tribute to the art of Durante dur
ING a luncheon conversation.
"Jimmy's so terrific on tele-
sision," Carson said, because
IT'S an intimate medium whether
Q lot of people admit that or not.
And Durante, for all the noise he
makes and for all that business of
ripping pianos apart and throw
ing sheet music around-for all
Of that, Durante's still very in
Innate entertainer.
Durante himself seems to be
well aware of this. Asked the
other day by Bob Thomas of the
Associated Press what he thought
Of TV, the comic replied:
"It's the most amazin' thing
that ever happened to me. You
know, when you're in radio or the
movies you get the usual kind of
fan mail-'You're my favorite:
will you send me an autographed
pitchuh?'-and that's all. But
the mail I get from TV is differ
ent. The people treat you like
you was one of their family. I
guess it makes a lot of difference
when you're comm right into
their livin' rooms"
Both of these comics who have
taken serious look at the nature
OF television will be back at their
old stand to demonstrate their
technique in the fall. Durante,
on his first show of the new sea-
son, will have Helen Traubel with
him for a third TV duet, which
means that you had better start
planning right now to be tuned in.
odd Stond Will Get
New Time, New Name
The old stand c"Four Star
Revue") will be moved on it's re-
turn to NBC-TV to Saturday
nights and given a new name
"All-Star Revue" The reason for
the new name is simple enough.
Instead of four stars, there will be
q whole flock of stars serving on a
rotating basis.
In addition to Durante, Carson,
Ed Wynn and Danny Thomas, the
Saturday night comedy show will
have appearances of Fibber Nc
Gee and Molly, Olsen and John
son, Abbott and Costello, Phil
Joan Davis and possibly
some others.
This parade of stars, according
to Executive Producer Merritt w.
Barnum, jr., will cut down on the
strain on the stars by letting them
appear less frequently and will
also lessen any possibility that the
audience might tire of a person.
atty by seeing him too often.
Barnum admits he doesn't know
too frequent appearances
might cause popularity of a star
to diminish, and there is, in fact,
some evidence to the contrary.
Milton Berle is on every week Tin
season. and if the customers don't
tire of Berle who, you might ask,
would they tire Of?
Barnum probably doesn't know
the answer to that, either, but he
does know one thing. The televi-
sion audience differs from the radio
audience in one major respect. In
radio, a program following an ex-
popular show inherits
a stable portion of it's audience.
The televiewers, less passive, twist
that channel selector knob at the
slightest provocation, SO each pro-
gram is on it's own.
This Is another reason why
NBC-TV is planning to put all
these stars in one Saturday night
basket.