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Show TPW7 uuLDLnUSSLziU AND AMUQEMEN TO u GUIDE u MONDAY, MAY 8, 1972 Winning Show Anne Bancroft is a renowned miracle worker. In addition to her role as Annie Sullivan, the electrifying personality who transformed the savage young Helen Keller into a rational human being in the stage and screen versions of "The Miracle Worker," the actress has worked miracles with many characters, turning them into women through her portrayals. bchemian "f As the Broadway's "Two for the Seesaw," the neurotic wife of "The Pumpkin Eater," the potential suicide of "The Slender Thread" and the seductive matron of "The Graduate," she has won her place as a great and versatile actress. In "Annie, the Women in the life of a Man," her memorable Emmy Award-winnimusic-variet- y special to be Thursday at 7 7 pm. on channel 5, Miss g Bancroft combines her ." talents and versatility by playing From Valerie, a bride comically en route to the tortured with soldier's to mother a Lillian, reading altar, a moving letter from the battlefield, she portrays a whole spectrum of women, with their strengths and frailties. "A television script must be something I want to do with my whole heart and soul," says Miss Bancroft, who, as Anne Marno, made her acting debut on television's "Studio One." Her nationally acclaimed special, with guest stars Robert Merrill, David Susskind, Lee J. Cobb, John McGiver, Jack Cassidy, Dick Smothers, Dick Shawn and Arthur Murray, has a genuine depth that appealed to its star. Even the nervous-brid- e sketch, in which she appears with McGiver and Shawn, depicts a situation that the star considers "very real." "Doubt is just bound to happen," she says about jitters," and if it doesn't, something is wrong." Re-S- et f m black-stocking- . in-- : wide-rangin- "every-woman- THE GANG FROM Allen's Alley will do a modernized version on Thursday's "The Great Radio Comedians." From left, Ajax Cassidy (Peter Donald); Mrs. Nussbaum mini-doub- ts (Minerva Pious); Senator Claghorn (Kenny Delmar); Titos Moody (Parker Fennelly). The program will be seen at 8:30 p.m. on Channel 7. Radio Comedv: Lost Art George Burns describes his as years of retirement straight man to Grade Allen. Edgar Bergen recalls a "harmless villain" W.C. Fields. And Senator Claghorn (Kenny Delmar) remembers "the world's worst juggler and Fred Allen. ventriloquist" The medium was radio, and the sound that still echoes today is that of laughter. It reached its apogee in the 1940s with the shows of Jack Benny, Burns and Allen, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, Fred Allen, Fibber McGee and Molly, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. And all of them ere present in person or in memory on "The Great Radio Comedians" Thursday at 8:30 p.m. on Channel 7. In producer Perry Miller Adato's words, the program charts "the lost art of radio comedy a3 a part of our popular cultural history." Mr. Adato's preliminary exploration began with a question: "Do you remember radio?" The response from many kinds of people: "A tremendous emotional reaction intense recall and Intense feeling. And, you know, anything that can moke people feel that deeply must be important." She then sought to produce a program that would enable to viewers to "experience it and not just enjoy radio again recognize it as nostalgia." The key question was how to translate a medium into visual terms. Cut to: a man and his dummy contemplating a knobby wooden box: The dummy, Charlie non-visu- al McCarthy, wiggles his monocle. The man, Edgar Bergen, turns a dial. And the sounds of the past emerge. But we do not merely look at a box for 90 minutes. The program is rich with the faces of the past in an montage. And then there are the people ever-changi- themselves, recalling with undiminished laughter the revolution that was radio. They came from vaudeville, and they adapted their material, counting not on sight gags but on sound gags, nc on pratfalls but on the capacity of an audience to imagine what it could not see. How else to describe a medium whose beloved preformer was a dummy? "The idea wa ridiculous, you know, a ventriloquist on radio," says Bergen, adding that many listeners chose to imagine Charlie as a real boy. "You had to have some sort of charisma, some magic, that came through the box," explains and they wouldn't accept that from her." One of the key ingredients was timing, and its outstanding practitioner was Jack Benny. A well-time- which silence d ed Benny's penuriousness, the creaking open of the vault in which he kept his wealth, his use of a word all of these like "Well -- " techniques worked for an audience which learned to wait for its comic effects. (Continued On Page!) - r r 5 kf kip: ANNE BANCROFT gives some insight into that mysterious thing called 'v nman' in sketches that take her from nervous bride to soldier's mother and include her portrayal of a wife supermarketing (above), in her Emmy g special "Annie, the Women in the Life of a Man." The nationally acclaimed special will be rebroadcast Thursday at 9 pjn. on Channel 5. Award-winnin- Behind the Scenes non-visu- al George Burns. What Burns had, in addition, was the "illogical logic" of Gracie Allen along with her endearing personality. Early in their career, they were playing Boonton, N.J. Gracie was then the "straight woman" in their act. Burns recalls, "the people liked Gracie the minute they saw her, and they laughed when she asked the questions, and they didn't laugh when I told the answers." Their discovery that night led to a new act, with Gracie as the comedienne. "The audience loved the dumb jokes, and they didn't laugh at the wisecracks, they didn't lauch at the sarcasm, because Gracie was a very dainty little thing, 1 i - Dan Blocker: Intellectual man's years, talks the and straight a man character that 15 ByADLICE FARDOE WEST What HOLLYWOOD Dan "giant" Blocker is! He is best known for what he isnt. He's best known for Hoss Cartwright, who is nothing like Dan Blocker in real life. The only similarity between the two is that both of them are big, likeable guys who will go far out of their way to keep from hurting anyone's feelings. How the brilliant, sharp-witte-d Dan can play the cowboy of the fictional Ranch all day, and then be his intelligent, inieiectual self at night is really something. He is ever ready to take adand vantage of the moment his latest commitment is to star in "The Long Goodbye" film with Elliott Gould. This former school teacher and devoted family man, who has starred in the NBC-TV-'s "Bonanza" for the oast number g 1 . XS.. ' HOST ED McMAHON and Arlene Stens, America's Junior Miss of 1971, will participate in the crowning of Miss Sten's successor at the 15th annual pageant Tuesday at 7:30 pan. to be colorcast live from Mobile, Ala., on Channel 2. (Utah's Junior Miss this year Is Cindy Strike of Salt Lake City. Last year's Utah Junior Miss was Provoan Linda Bussio.) Pon-dero- sa i in of from language shoulder. "The public is fickle," he told me. "They don't know what they want. One will say: 'Give us more comedy,' and the next one will come out with, 'Dont give us any more comedy.' Then one will say, 'You look a lot bigger off the screen than you do on,' and then visa versa. But there's one tiling I'm sure of and that is only a mother could love a kisser like mine! "As to the type of play for me to do, I have no special desire other than a good play," he explained. "If it's a good challenge, no matter what it is, that's for me. I'm not concerned on what literary form it takes. And as to a person's looks, it's the way you see them. They are either ugly or net." This interesting star is a Texan by birth and is an only r II i iff Pat 11 |