Evening star., 1951-08-15
On the Air
CorIiss Not
The Girl She
Used to Be
By Harry Macarthur

day nights at 10 on CBS-TV
(WTOP-TV), sent from Holly
wood by the way of Aim recording.
which doesn't improve her looks
any.
Something little sad has hap
pened to Corliss. Growing up.
which usually puts an end to
teen-ageness for teen-agers. hasn't
touched her at all. Of course, but
there are other changes in her
and they are not subtle.
To come face to face with 1t
and put it bluntly. Corliss and
those around her have been al
lowed to turn into caricatures.
Instead of an individual with the
human and funny foibles Of that
wonderful and maddening being,
the teen-age daughter. Corliss is
a sort of comic valentine symbol
of her age group.
Something of the standardiZa-
ton which marks Glass B movies
has been allowed to mark the
Archer household. Corliss' father
is now a mere symbol of frus-
trated fathers in comedies. That
boy next door is burlesqued
symbol of boys next door. This is
a far cry from the original hui
morous report by F. Hugh Herbert.
= 4 *
The sketch seen the other night
might well be offered in evidence
right here. 1t revolved around
ICorlisS' woe, after an Internal
Revenue Bureau man says he's
looking up her father about a
little matter of $500. and her sub
sequent joy at the discovery that
her father is getting a refund and
is not criminal.
/ Now tax matters are confidential
and no Internal Revenue man
would be likely to talk this loosely
to the young of a home. You can
argue. Of course. that this is
dramatic license and might well
be allowed in half-hour comedy
sketch. It's license, all right, but
it also is symptomatic of what's
wrong with Meet Corliss Archer"
on television. 1t is downright
lazineSS on the writer's part. If
you're going to write situation
comedy, the least you can do is
spend a few minutes thinking up
a fairly legitimate premise to
base it on.
Mr.. Herbert. incidentally, may
have done it, but I don't recall
in any of his reports on Corliss
Archer any passage of dialogue
like this:
Are you one of the Archers?"
/ Me? I don't even own a bow
and arrow"
Theaters' Round: The Interna-
tional Boxing Club, which is hav-
ing hectic time trying to keep
Everybody - televiewers, telecast-
ers, theater owners and Congress
men-happy these days. has Just
tossed another consolation prize
to the movie house boys. The re-
turn match between Ray Robinson
and Randolph Turpin for the
worlds middleweight title, to be
held in New York on September
II, will be seen in a group of TV-I
equipped theaters, not on any
home screens. In New York, as
further box Office insurance, it will
be seen only at the Polo Grounds
and will not be televiSed in any
way.
/ The rumors have it that the IBC
was asking a fee somewhere be-
tween 100000 and $4,000 of
prospective sponsors of any TV
and radio broadcast of the Robin
son-Turpin match. Apparently
there were no takers.
Neither the financial details of
the .theater deal nor the number
OF theaters to carry the fight have
been made known. In the past the
pact with the theater group has
given the IBC a 40 per cent out
of the box office take, according
to report, or guarantee, which,
ever was higher.
An additional factor in granting
the TV rights for this fight to the
movie theater group, it was felt,
was the purchase by RKO-Radio
OF the film distribution rights
This could bring the IBC an addi-
tlonal tidy sum to make the loss
OF a fat sponsor fee easier to take.
Films OF the Turpin upset of Rob-
inson last month in London have
been carried in some 400 theaters
in this country.
The next prizefight on theater
TV at Keith's here, incidentally,
will be the Joe Louis-Jimmy Bivins
bout in Baltimore tonight.
x y II
Missing Link: The opening of
the last stretch of the cross
country television network-the
microwave relay link between
Omaha, Nebr., and the west coast
will be properly celebrated. The
inaugural program, set for Sun
day, September 80, at 9 pm, will
be a one-hour variety show spon-
sored by the Bell Telephone Sys-
tenn, which operates the coaxial
and microwave TV and telephone
network. This will be to make the
occasion even more historic, the
first commercial program ever to
appear on four networks at the
same time.
X 4 \ X
Employment Department: Irene
Dunno and Fred MacMurray have
signed 10-year contracts for a new
situation comedy radio series.
Bright Star" The programs will
be transcribed open end" for