Evening star., 1953-06-22
On the Air

Saturday night and Sunday
morning in behalf of the Cere.
bral Palsy Fund. knows how te
make these charity telethons a
success. Milton Berle's get
only a part of the money pledged
The one conducted by Bob
Hope and Bing Crosby to send
Olympic athletes to Europe al
most put an end to the telethon.
Only a pitifully small pro-
portion of the money pledged
turned up in cash. There is
a difference, though, Miss Pick
ems feels. THAT was a worthy
cause. certainly" said Miss Pick
ems the other evening, but when
you touch the heart it's different.
We're criticized sometimes for
having cerebral palsied children
on the telethonS. People say
we're exploiting them. But that
isn't true at all. We have only
the children who want to appear
and who know that by appear
ing they can help others UNDER
stand cerebral palsy. They touch
peoples hearts and the people
come across" How well has
it worked for Miss Pickens?
Well, her first New York tele-
thon had obtained lis per cent
of the amount of the pledges
when she last heard. Be-
fore she started the session here
the total brought in by five
previous telethons was we'll over
81 million. Miss PickenS.
who was attacking large slab
of beef at Herb Sachs new Town
House while talking about this,
has no mere canary's appetite.
do you know what I eat
before I do a concerto" she
asked and replied. II eat a great
big steak and a large baked
potato two or three hours before
I'm due to sing. BY 9 o'clock
I'm ready to take off,"
Jerry and Jimma Strong and
Allan and June Jefferys came
face-to-face at this same Town
House the other night. A
rare meeting it was. too, since
they usually are back-to-back
rather than face-to-face.
The Strongs are on WMAL-TV
at l pm. daily. in the same half
hour spot occupied by Mr.. and
Mrs. Jefferys on WTOP-TV.
Singer Betty George turned up
the other afternoon at a party
given by Nick CASTOR, owner OF
the Old New Orleans, where she
has sung several times. Her
next project, she revealed, will
be a television show, Talk OF
the Town." on Channel Z nightly
in New York. This is all well
and good for Miss George, be-
cause a singer has to eat. But
if it keeps her away too long
from these eyes and ears, some
protest meetings will be held.
TIME FOR A CHANGE -
Jackie Gleason, who turned Sat-
urday night into Christmas Eve
every week for CBS-TV, has had
almost spectacular effect on his
NBC-TV opposition. First he
cut into the "All-Star Revue
audiences. then closed on the
show and passed it in the audi
ence ratings. At the end Of the
season, "All-Star" gave up the
competition.
Now it is beginning to appear
that the Gleason set includes 9
number of lazy viewers who won't
get up and turn a channel-se.
lector knob when he is through
"Your Show Of Shows" the first
big musical revue on TV and con-
tinually- one of the slickest shows
lon the air is on NBC-TV aftel
Gleason signs off. Yet it will
undergo a complete change ol
format when it returns in Sep
ltember.
This is usually a rescue opera
ton. Broadcasters are notorious
for their refusal to tamper in an.
way with q success. Miltol
Berle, for instance, only changed
his "Star Theater" formal il
desperation. He had alread!
skidded far down the month";!
rating lists and had little to los,
and everything to gain. Nov
NBC is taking the same drastic
action (Which worked in Berle'
case) with "Your Show o
Shows"
I'VE are going from forma
to no formal at ALL" said Pro
ducer-Director Max Lehman IL
announcing the change. "Il
fact. the shows set-up viii b,
so unpredictable that not even
will know what it will be lik'
from one week to the next" II
view of the advance preparation
which goes into each "sh o