Evening star., 1951-02-13
On the Air
Spike Jones
Mayhem in
TV Debut
By Harry Macarthur

BY Harry Macarthur
Spike Jones has made his tele-
vision debut ("The Comedy Hour"
WNBW-Sunday 8 p.mD, and we
can now safely say that it is here
to stay. If he didn't wreck it, it
is permissible to assume that TV
is sturdy enough that nothing
ever will.
On the whole, the Spike Jones
crew seemed successful in intro
ducing a new note of. pandemo-
MUM to 1.-THE Comedy Hour" The
mayhem he and his henchmen
commit on music lends itself
to the visual medium;
in fact it is much better seen
than merely heard.
The Jones future in television
is a matter for conjecture, how
ever. It depends on how often
his admirers can take him and
on how much variety he can get
into new examples Of his art. For
his first appearance, Of course,
he had only to extract sure-flre
portions of his two-and-a-half hour
Musical Depreciation Revue"
This consists, if you hadn't
heard, of rendering popular music
pretty well asunder with generous
use of odd instruments, gongs.
cowbells, sirens, gunshots and all
out slapstick. A drummer who
gets too wrapped up in his work
isn't silenced by the conductor
in the Spike Jones orchestra;
someone in the back row just
picks up a broom and knocks him
off the. stand.
Enough people have found this
vastly amusing that Spike has
grown rich doing 1t. The trouble
with the Jones treatment Is that
it tends toward monotony.> no
matter how much variety is tried.
The mayhem overshadows the
music and the zany bandleader's
problem is to keep you from sue
cumbing to the feeling that you
are seeing and hearing the same
thing over and over again.
The Chicago Touch: The origi-
nation of THE Comedy Hour"
from Chicago on this occasion
permitted a couple of extra
laughs Sunday night, since Dave
Garroway is in Chicago. Or, more
probably. because Charlie An
drews. the writer and idea man
for Garroway and studs Place"
is in Chicago.
Garroway made a brief appear
ance on the Jones show. He came
out on stage. said ''The manage
ment has asked me to make an
important announcement. This Is
music?" and disappeared.
Later, running down the hall
at the opening of his own show,
Garroway skidded to a stop be-
side a man pushing a janitor's
broom. Turned out to be Spike
Jones. who explained matter-of-
factly, "I didn't read the small
print in my NBC contract"
Transportation Note: Further
evidence of the way the world has
been shrunk by the four-fan air
plane is offered by a press release
from WTTG. George Putnam,
WTTG and DuMont news re-
porter" it reads, will spend a
week end in Europe to gather spot
news and film-recorded inter-
views with the British Chancellor
of the EXchequer and other OFF,
cials before the end Of February.
He plans to leave after his
Thursday evening show. Broad
way to Hollywood and return in
time for his regular monday
Headline Clues telecast the fol-
lowing Monday"
The Opportune Moment: Bob
Crosby, who has made few tele-
vision guest appearances. also has
made a pair of TV films as a test
for his radio sponsor and may be
a regular before long. He thinks
he'd better get into the medium
while he's the only Crosby in it.
I've got a few years of grace, "
he told Bob Thomas, the Associ-
ated Press Hollywood man the
other day, because Bing's too
busy and Gary's too young"
X X X K
Programs and People: Add Jean
Pugsley Alexander to the list Of
those "screen-tested" on televi-
sion. A man from Columbia Pic
lures saw her on a Musical Com
edy Time" commercial and now
she's making her film debut in
"A Face to Remember" starring
Broderick Crawford. w. S.
Gilbert's Satirical farce (without
Sullivan music), Engaged" will
be televised tomorrow on "Televi-
sion Theater" (WNBW-9 p.m.0.
Mimi Benzell of the Met will
be Don McNeil's guest tomorrow
night at 9 (WMAL-TV). Late
bulletin: Dancers Artini and Con-
suelo, who gave up travelling to
open a studio here, will be guests
of N6i1fny, perJo fo,,;rl,+ /JxyNJpyrY