Evening star., 1951-07-12
On the Air
Two Panels
Don't Make
"A Summer
By Harry Macarthur

VISION apparently mas mnerlueQ
from radio. One of them is "It
Pays to be Ignorant" (WNBW-
Thursday, 8 p.m.) and the other
is How To" (WTOP-TV-Tues-
day. 9 p.m) and they may as well
be taken up in that order.
"It Pays to be Ignorant" will be
familiar to lot of you, since it
has had previous incarnations on
both radio and television. Nothing
new has been added. Originally
this was good idea, a program
based on the sound theory that a
popular session like Information
Please" could be satirized with
comic effect. Very little bright
satire ever is achieved. however,
through the use of elderly bur-
lesque, vaudeville and minstrel
show jokes, some of which Joe
Miller must have considered hoary
chestnuts not worthy of his at
tention.
This is. not, or at least it ap-
pears not to be, a Spontaneous
and unrehearsed" quiz, but it
might as we'll be; the speeches
the performers are assigned are
not much help. 1t goes-and
this is an attempt to catch the
spirit rather than a verbatim &C
count-something like this:
Tom Howard, the old vaudeville
hand who conducts 1T Pays to
be Ignorant" proposes the ques-
Ition. say who is buried in Grants
Tomb" A member of the panel
1.-TWO and one woman of equally
Iraucous and fortnight approach)
invariably answers. would you
repeat that question:" Certainly. "
Howard will say, "I said, who's
buried in Grants romb?"
II think that's trick question" /"
some one may shout. How do
you know any ones buried there?"
Are you crazy?" Howard will
shout right back.
Hey, wait ; minute" some one
else will scream. Are you changin'
the question. He's changin' the
Question. You can't change the
question" And that's the way
lit goes. Some of it may amuse
you the first or second time
around, but the same old repartee
and invective get awfully tiresome
latter awhile. It could be, of
course, that all. this thing needs
lis a writer.
\ Il
Also In Need: What How To-
needs is something this depart
ment is not prepared to say after
an initial examination of it the
other night. 1t is conducted by a
man named Roger Price, whose
speciality seems at first glance
more likely as a basis for a ma
tional fad like handles. knock
knock or Little Audrey stories than
as basis for televisiQn show.
Mr.. Price, the author of q book
titled In One Head and Out the
Other" sees the races great dan
ger as "copelessness," the inability
to cope with things. How. for in
stance, do you stop a dripping
faucet? Simple, says Price. Turn
it on. How do you open a can of
beer with thumb tack? Simple,
too. You put the tack on top of the
can and belt 1t with an axe. So far
Price is doing fine, but when he
gets into the business of his TV
show he turns out to be a little
"copeleSs" himself.
This presents what apparently
is the standard panel, two men
and a woman, who provide hope
fully comic solutions for audience
participants who want to know
how to do something or other.
One sample should suffice. A girl
on the opening show said she'd
been going out with a young man
who avoided the subject of matri-
mony. How, she wanted to know,
was girl to trap him?
The most noteworthy advice she
got was to get a hair ribbon, place
it in her locks and tumble with 1t
whenever in the presence of her
young man. Sooner or later he
would be driven to distraction
and would cry, IT wish you'd let
me tie that knott" This is so
sudden" she would say and her
problem would be solved.
1t does seem that a man might
be forgiven for considering this a
little bit forced, even as tele-
visions hot weather humor goes.
How TO-" incidentally, is an
other of those Hollywood inspired
and produced summer replace
mentS embalmed in kinescope re-
cording for shipment East. More
and more that threat of Holly
woods. that it will become the
center of television programming,
advances from merely frightening
to downright terrorizing.
y y X X
Sister Act: You may recall an
appearance a while back by Denise
Darcel on "This Is Show Busi-
ness" now vacationing from its
Sunday evening spot on CBS-Tv.
The problem trumped up as an
excuse for her appearance was
whether she should or should not
encourage her singing sister to
invade these shores. This was
neither better nor worse than the
average as problems" go in this
program. but 1t did give Clifton
Fadiman the opportunity to OBJ
serve that he wasn't sure whether
there is room enough here for an
other Denise Darcel.