Evening star., 1951-07-03
On the Air
New Sunday
Programs on
| TV Scene
By Harry Macarthur

II
the evening. about the things
some of the things-that make us
love our country"
Charles Kettering, a General
Motors vice president. noted hap
PLY that the country with six per
cent of the worlds land area and
seven per cent of it's population
|haS, among other things, So per
cent of its telephones. rs per cent
of its automobiles and "a per cent
of its radio and television sets
Free enterprise did it. he said.
Jackie Robinson of the Brook
lyn Dodgers spoke about freedom
of opportunity, Judge Samuel
|ILeibowitz commended our judicial
system, a housewife described the
thrill Of a cross-country tour and
there were newsreel shots of
Robert Vogeler on his release to
freedom to point in the direction
of the threat to our way of life.
This was a fitting enough pa
triotic celebration for the week Of
July and this is the sort of
thing which defles any carping
criticism. These things are ours
and these things we must defend.
Still, American Testament" was
hardly a startling departure in
adult education" 1t was no
trenchant documentary coming to
grips with the realities of our
problems.
Perhaps the whole thing just
got of to a bad start in one living
room with the announcer's OPEN
ing remarks in praise of our way
of life. THE poorest families" he
said at one point, "adorn the tables
three times a day like wedding
feast" NBC is going to have to
be more careful with the truth if
lit hopes to educate adults with this
series. Those considerably richer
than the poorest families have
trouble these days adorning the
table with three squares a day
and no TV announcer can tell
them otherwise.
Gyorgy, All the Way: The prob
lem of televising a musical pro-
gram has been solved by Recital
Hall" (possibly by its director
Kirk Brown in so revolutionary q
manner that the foundations OF
ltelevision may still be shaking
You do it this way: You focus
your camera on a piano. say, and
then when a man comes out to
play the piano you leave the
camera right there. You come n
now and then for a closer, over
\ the shoulder look that concert
goers can't get, but you don't try
to trick things up with unneces-
sary physical movement. You let
the music speak for itself, which
it did before television and prob
ably can continue to do.
There is an outright attempt
in Recital Hail. to avoid the
elaborate, to present the artists
featured as they would be pre-
sented in, well, in a recital hall.
This technique worked out ex-
ceptionally well for the first "Re-
cital Hall" telecast-this and the
presence of Pianist Gyorgy San
dor.
| With the camera providing no
distractions, Mr.. Sander sounded
fine to this set of ears as he
worked his way through a Scar
latti sonata, Brahms "Intermezzo
in B flat Minor" Debussey's Fire
works." Chopin's "Ballade in A
fiat Major" and concluding piece
by a man whose name you are
not going to trick this reporter
into trying to spell, pronounce or
even remember.
Recital Hail. is going to be
welcomed on Sunday nights. This
weeks program, incidentally, prob
ably achieved more in the way
of adult education than anything
else NBC has done lately. It
taught its audience that Gyorgy
Sander is pronounced George
Shandor. This Is one of those
pieces of information which make
life lot less complicated.
X X X
Oscar, All the Way: Oscar
Levant, the sullen pianist who
is regarded in some quarters as
a devastating wit, is impersonat-
ing what he terms a genial host"
on Guest House" and he OBJ
viously feels uncomfortable in the
role. The program itself has some
merit. It's a combination quiz
variety show, with the panel an
swering questions from clews
furnished by the entertainers.
There were contributions on the
first show by Cornelia Otis Skin
Iner, Isabel Bibley, Dean Murphy,
Jay Marshall and Dancers Luster
and Stanton and all were most
enjoyable.
There also is a lot of Levant.
Mr.. Levant's spur-of the moment
witticisms always have sounded
as If he had practiced them an
hour before the n6ror and this
time he seems to have been pro-
vided with writer's to contrive Os-
car LevantiSms. The result is
no improvement. Your enjoy
ment of Guest House" depends
entirely on how much of this you