TEXACO STAR THEATER: MILTON BERLE
Volume One
(approx 60 minutes)
In a show from 1949, Milton Berle makes an entrance in a chariot, declaring "Isn't it terrible what you have to go through for a lousy $15,000 a week, and telling topical jokes ("The Greeks had a word for this, and if you don't know what it is ask President Truman").
Guests include Ethel Merman (who sings "I Get A Kick Out of You," "I Got Rhythm," "The Varsity Drag," and a duet with Berle on "Friendship"), the three-man acrobatic act Las Scottos, actor Keye Luke in his first television appearance making his first television appearance (Berle: "You've never appeared on a comedy television show before?" "No, I haven't--but someday I hope I will"), pitchman/comic Sid Stone ("tell you what I'm gonna do"), and tap dancer Teddy Hall.
The highlight is a salute to songwriters featuring the work of Irving Berlin (EASTER PARADE), Jerome Kern (SHOW BOAT), Rodgers and Hart (THE GIRL FRIEND), Rodgers and Hammerstein (OKLAHOMA), Sigmund Romberg ("Stouthearted Men"), Victor Herbert ("Kiss Me Again"), Cole Porter (NIGHT AND DAY), George Gershwin (RHAPSODY IN BLUE).
Including performances by composers Joan Whitney and Alkex Kramer ("Love Somebody," "Candy"), Charles Tobias ("Time Waits For No One," "Don't Sit Under The Apple Tree"), Maud Nugent ("Sweet Rosie O'Grady"), and Lou Brown ("The Best Things In Life Are Free," "Sonny Boy," "The Birth of the Blues," "Life Is Just A Bowl of Cherries," "Roll Out The Barrel," and "Good News").
TEXACO STAR THEATER: MILTON BERLE
Volume Two
(approx 60 minutes)
The opening credits of this rare program are missing, but that shouldn't dissuade anyone from buying this jewel, which opens up with Berle talking with Eddie Bracken by phone about his impending vacation, and Bracken's interest in replacing him (Berle: "All I know is that there's going to be no Berle comedy." Bracken: "That's what it's been all season.").
The Blackburn Twins and Marion Colby perform a song-and-dance vacation sketch. Berle's assistant Miss Max does her usual Gracie Allen-styled convolutions to delightful comic effect with Berle, the Blackburns, and Colby.
And the Kean sisters (Betty and Jane--who later became Trixie Norton in the 1960's version of THE HONEYMOONERS on THE JACKIE GLEASON SHOW) audition an operatic version of "Doggie In The Window" and a straight version of "That Old Black Magic."
A sketch set at the Swank Club presents Jane Kean parodying Zsa Zsa Gabor, while Berle as a waiter smokes up the restaurant while preparing to serve a dinner.
The best part of the show, however, is a parody of a then hit program called SHOW BUSINESS entitled THIS IS NOT SHOW BUSINESS, with Bracken parodying Sam Levenson as "Sam Bracken," Max portraying a vacuous socialite, and Milton Berle in a ridiculous wig satirizing George S. Kaufman as "George S. Berle."
THE BUICK SHOW--STARRING MILTON BERLE
(approx 60 minutes)
From later in the 1950's, this Milton Berle show still has the legend in top form, with guests Maria Riva (daughter of Marlene Dietrich), Carol Channing, and Peter Lawford.
Berle is planning for his Christmas holiday break, but finds that everyone is making plans to be somewhere without him. Regular Arnold Stang make Berle's life comically interesting, and Carol Channing performs "It's So Nice To Have A Man Around The House."
Choreographer Herbert Ross (who has since become a major director) presents a dance-fantasy in negative.
But the real highlight of the show is a take-off on WHAT'S MY LINE, in which the panel consists of Peter Lawford, Maria Riva, and Carol Channing and the guests--whose jobs are supposed to be a mystery--include a fireman in full uniform and Santa Claus.
THE WALTER WINCHELL SHOW
& THE GEORGE JESSEL SHOW (approx 50 min)
"Good evening ladies and gentlemen and all the ships at sea--let's go to press."
Winchell's introduction was one of the most famous in media history, and the man made and broke lots of careers, but for all of his success in newspapers and on radio, his television show never quite caught on.
Seen here on ABC during the early 1950's, we get a rare glimpse of this muckraking journalist, slamming known communists (including Julius and Ethel Rosenberg) and communist sympathizers (among them Dorothy Parker), and delivering a groundbreaking editorial against smoking and the cigarette companies (but making the distinction between "excessive" smoking and "ordinary" smoking).
Winchell's sponsor was Gruen watches, and the commercials feature Teresa Wright and Philip Van Zandt.
George Jessel, America's "toastmaster general," had his own show on ABC from 1953 thru 1954.
This installment features Teresa Brewer ("Baby Baby Baby," "Love Me True," "Ricochet") and veteran pitchman/character actor Sid Stone selling hair restorer cream.
Jessel himself does a savage parody of Arthur Godfrey, obviously after October of 1953 (the time of the infamous firing of Julius LaRosa) in the show's major sketch.
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TEXACO STAR THEATER: MILTON BERLE
Volume Two (approx 60 minutes)
The opening credits of this rare program are missing, but that shouldn't dissuade anyone from buying this jewel, which opens up with Berle talking with Eddie Bracken by phone about his impending vacation, and Bracken's interest in replacing him (Berle: "All I know is that there's going to be no Berle comedy." Bracken: "That's what it's been all season.").
THE BUICK SHOW--STARRING MILTON BERLE
(approx 60 minutes)
From later in the 1950's, this Milton Berle show still has the legend in top form, with guests Maria Riva (daughter of Marlene Dietrich), Carol Channing, and Peter Lawford.
THE WALTER WINCHELL SHOW
& THE GEORGE JESSEL SHOW (approx 50 min)
"Good evening ladies and gentlemen and all the ships at sea--let's go to press."