Word: libs
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...have been disappointed. He is casually spontaneous, whether throwing away an outrageous pun ("I will now play you excerpts. My mother made wonderful excerpts. Fried excerpts, boiled excerpts . . .") or sneering at Franz Liszt's Liebestraum as he skilfully plays it. He seems to ad lib every other line (but does not), appears to enjoy his own performance enormously (and does). One customer, who apparently has almost as good a time with Borge's performance as Borge, has been to see him 54 times. Another man laughed so hard he had a heart attack, was forbidden by his wife...
Bryson insists, however, that Invitation to Learning is not a program of information, but one of ideas. He proves it by avoiding experts who spout a limitless stream of facts and by seeking out knowledgeable amateurs who can juggle ideas. The show is spontaneous and, unlike many "ad lib" radio or TV shows, unrehearsed. Its quality varies. At times it is pedestrian, at other times brilliant. As Moderator Bryson knows, a half hour is not enough time to get a conversational ball rolling very far. He depends on his listeners to pick up the ball...
Song to a Lamb. One NBC official admits that TV Chef Mike Roy (KRCA-TV in Los Angeles) owes his success to the fact that he is not a professional cook, but an actor who can ad lib and keep guest cooks laughing. Another NBC cook, this one a past master, felt obligated on one Home show from New York to fight a duel with skewers of shish kebab while singing I Love...
...Tonight a year and a half ago, she was simply a garden-variety pop singer. Now she can fly across the stage via hidden cables like Peter Pan, do a tap dance, play dramatic skits, deliver commercials for Helene Curtis spray net, and nimbly field and return an ad lib...
...Lib Tribute. His most recurrent headache results from having to adjust to a brand-new set of stars on every show: "Each one has to be indoctrinated into our way of doing things. Jimmy Durante worked with us as though we'd been together for years. Perry Como gave us an ad-lib tribute at the end of his show. The only time we've had real difficulty was on the first [Betty Hutton] program. It's a matter of accident whether the personal chemistry works...