Evening star., 1951-12-11
On the Air
1t Was Good,
Maybe, But
Not at Home
By Harry Macarthur

ion oulludy nlgnC, MI. cantor
turn came up again on "The Com
| edy Hour" and he chose to do the
llshow from Marine Corps base,
iiwith generally unhappy result in
] the living room.
| Cantor, of course, is an old
hand at unfurlong Old Glory to
bask in the applause it inspires.
He has been surpassed at this by
!, only the late George M. Cohan,
j who had to pull such a low trick
Ias to be born on the Fourth of
July to top him. Cantor's reac-
ton to any criticism of excessive
flag waving in his act is based on
purest illogic. He's not cheaper
ing the flag by using it to his own
commercial ends; the critic is just
iunpatriotic, that's all.
He undoubtedly would react the
same way to any criticism of his
Sunday night affair. He's not TAX
ing advantage of an audience of
service men to get applause with
out eXpending talent; the critic
lis just a churl who doesn't want
1.-THE boys" to have any entertain
lment.
4 Well. if the boys at any Marine
Corps base want this sort of thing.
they can have it. Cantor opened
his show with ME and My Gals"
production number, with shapely
dancers stepping from behind the
covers of the songs about them,
while Cantor leered and his audi
ence cheered. He followed up
with Make the Taxi" skit based
entirely on local jokes: introduced
the Nelson Sisters. who, he
averred in the most debatable
statement heard on the air Sum-
day night. were the rage of Holly
wood; presented couple of act
ors in a Navy skit which probably
was funny to Marine. and wound
up with set of request songs.
InteFspersed were trips into the
audience and a liberal supply of
the sponsors commercials.
+ All of this seemed to be en-
ioyed to the full by Cantor's in
person audience and his visit with
the Marines undoubtedly was set
down by all concerned as roue-
ing success. 1t was a poor excuse
for entertainment at home
though, hardly worth the wear
and tear on the video tube. A
Cantor joke about a general who
has nothing to do is strictly local
and no funnier away from it's
home surroundings than Bob
/ Hopes jokes about AZusa and the
La Brea tar pits.
There Is no hint of a sugges-
ton in this complaint that Cantor
or any one else curtail armed serv-
ices entertainment. In fact, if he
devotes as much time and energy
as he can spare to this sort of
thing. which he probably does, he
deserves the heartfelt thanks of
all of us rather than complaints.
He ought to keep his camp shows
separated, though, from those he
performs in return for the fat fee
NBC-TV pays him to entertain
the televiewers at home.
u x
AcrObatS, Huh? If the Red
skins had more trouble than you
expected winning that game from
the Chicago Cardinals. the blame
probably can be placed on some
thing discovered by Harry Wis
mer. Mr.. Wismer noted new
wave of contortionism that was
not clearly visible to viewers
watching the game on WMAL-TV.
He is hit, Mr.. Wismer said
time and time again, but he
holds onto his feet" Again and
again, Mr.. Wismer took note of
this. Not even Bob Goode can
gain more than three or four
yards at clip while holding onto
his feet.
The Redskins may have been
confused, too, by the layout of
Comisky Park in Chicago. Accord
ing to Mr.. Wismer's reports on
where the ball was placed down,
there are chalk marks on that
gridiron at approximately the "a.
80 and 81 yard lines. That's
cheap trick for the Cardinals to
play and it's fitting that it didn't
do them any good.
Il X
/ Programs and People-There is
talent; to be found in this town,
all right. One talented youngster
turned up Sunday on Sylvia Dev-
ey's Your Junior Revue" over
WNBW. There may even have
been more than one, but the one
seen was 16-year-old miss
named Dolores Calisto,, who tap
dances with more ease and pro-
fesSional polish than some girls
earning their living that way
She's also a pupil of Weldon
Barr, whom you probably have
seen on Washington TV shows
The Augmented Eight, in
cidentally, will be special guests
on Your Junior Revue" next
Sunday. They're a double barber
shop quartet -. Washington's
one contribution to NBC-TV's new
extended daytime schedule, which
lis to start January Z, will be a
l5-minute program by Richard
Harkness. At 11:45 am. each day,
he'll present world news round
up, augmented by special films,
graphs and maps, with emphasis
on Washington news, plus in
Iterviews with political figures
/. Dorothy Malone will play
a leading role tomorrow night in
"The Golden State" on "Tele-
vision Theater" (WNBW- p.m.).
ITS a comedy about some dodgers
who find gold in the front yard
of their boarding house