Evening star., 1951-08-17
On the Air
On the Air
| Disc jockey
Radios Boy,
| Not TVS
By Harry Macarthur.

o0AO NdbS. ~ NOu1O NC bI1d
televiSion may ultimately find that
it has no particular use for the
custodian of canned music.
This is not to be construed by
the members of Art Lambs con-
Stituency as an attack on their
boy. Mr.. Lamb is an agreeable
gent who has been known to take
his wife to cocktail parties and
may even make his mark in tele-
vision some day.
The personalities of the disc
jockeys involved, however, have no
special bearing on the matter.
The fact is that the particular
function they perform in life, i'm
portant as it may be to radio,
is not precisely a blessing in tele-
vision.
\ In fact, the highest praise ac-
corded any television version of
this particular art form often has
to do with the fact that you
can look at it or not, as you wish.
A TV show which achieves this
end obviously has become some
thing other than a television show
"a radio show performed before
TV cameras. maybe, but not a
TV show.
The substitution of Schnader
descriptions or other film clips
for phonograph records does not
change things, either. The short
musical films may offer some
visual diversion to go with the
sound, but collecting q sufficient
number of them and calling the
collection program is perhaps
the least imaginative use made OF
television.
There may be q lot of this sort
OF programming in television, be-
cause of economic and other fac
tors. but that won't make it good.
1t will be occupying time, rather
than putting it to use. Now,
about this Willis Conover. Mr..
Conover is a radio disc jockey
(WWDC), who made a belated
discovery of Duke Ellington few
years ago and has never been
quite the same since. He has been
inspired by the Ellington music
to absorb every fact and fiction
about jazz he could find, which is
part of the equipment he uses now
as television disc COR film clip
Jockey on WNBW nightly at 7.
For all the things said above
about this particular type of tele-
vision entertainment, it must be
admitted that Mr.. Conover'sI
Guest Book" is an improvement
over the vague nonsense of Ernie
KovacS. which it replaced. There
is no nonsense about Mr.. Conover,
you may be sure of that. In fact
the only criticism to be made of
him is that he gives slight i'm
preston that he really is the man
who discovered jazz. by the So
lemnity with which he lends i'm
portance to fairly unimportant
notes about music and musicians.
All things considered, though,
Mr.. Conover does smooth, know
ing and workmanlike job as the
master of ceremonies of this
filmed variety show. He's inform
ative without talking too much.
And, if you're looking for that
television program which is easy
listening without demanding full
optical attention, this is it.
Week End Guests:
Saturday: Nancy Kelly, Glayds
Swarthout, Sweeny and March,
Bobby Scheer and Virginia Con-
we'll, the premiere of Summer in
the City, (WTOP-TV-9 pmJ
Toni Arden and Frank Par
ker. on Songs for Sale" CWTOP-
TWO PM.
Sunday: Eileen Barton and
Morey Amsterdam, on Star of
the Family" (WTOP-TV-6:30i
pm0 Mike Frankovitch, on
Leave it to the Girls" CWNBW
- PM -. Betty Reilly and
Joan Holloway, on Summertime
Revue" (WMAL-TV - 7 PM
. Kathy Norris and Hy Gard
ner, on Go Lucky" (WTOP-TV
-7:30 p.m) Senator Tom
Connolly, on Meet the Press"
(WNBW-7::30 pmD Francis
x. Bushman and Victor Borge, on
Toast of the Town" CWTOP-TV
3 pmD Pianist Sigi Weis-
senberg, on Recital Hail. (WNBW
$50 p.m.) Valerie Belts,
in Come Alive on Tel
evision Playhouse" CWNBW - s
p.m) Edward Everett Hor-
ton, Gene Lockhart, June Lock-
hart and Buck and Bubbles, on
Guest House" (WTOP-TV - g
p.mD Signe Hasso and Bud
dy Rogers, on Celebrity Time"
(WTOP-TV-10 p.mD Sena-
tors Hubert Humphrey and Ever
EFT Dirksen. discussing mobiliza-
ton, on American Forum"
(WNBW-10 p.mD.
Monday: Frank Albertson, on
Hollywood Screen Test" (WMAL-
TV 7:30 pm) Jerome
Hines, on Voice of Firestone"
(WNBW - $3.50 PM Peter
Cookson, in Follow Me-" on
Lights Out" CWNBW-9 p.mD
DR.. Farid Zeineddine, recent
Syrian minister to Russia, on
United or Not" (WMAL-TV-9I
PM Gaby Rodgers and
Marc Daniels, in Run from the
Sun" on Summer Theater"
(WTOP-TV - 10 PM Col
Katherine Towle, George Allen
and Richard Harkness, on Who
Said That?" (WNBW-10 PM.
X y X
The $64 Question:: Bucky Har-
ris will have to set up better liai-
son with this department if we're
to keep the customers happy.
Man called up yesterday and
wanted to know if the Mats ball