Concerning Koch Vision and the Archive of American Television's "Studio One Anthology,"the first in a series of altogether splendid joint efforts to restore landmark early programming, I shall be commenting upon my research in the attending 52-page reference guide and my essay "The Resurrection of an Era" on Saturday, April 11, from 4-6:00 PM at the Barnes and Noble bookstore in Columbus, Ohio 1560 Polaris Parkway, 43240; phone: (614) 854-0339.
This thoroughly documented reference guide includes commentary from the literary master Gore Vidal, two of whose seminal teleplays, "Dark Possession" and "Summer Pavilion" are included in the six-disk deluxe boxed set, as well as notes from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences' Archive of American Television itself. With its glossy use of photographs representing key scenes, and vintage images of Westinghouse products featured by the ever svelte hostess Betty Furness (her rendition of the catch-phrase "You can be sure if it's Westinghouse!" became every bit as memorable as any of the 466 programs constituting the CBS series "Studio One."), the reference guide is a delightful retrospective, brimming with legendary performances by legendary personalities who brought the historic works to the small screens and little-known facts.
One such arcane fact is the revelation that Eddie Albert, perhaps best known as Oliver Wendell Douglas in CBS's corny and campy "Green Acres," but featured in the "Studio One Anthology" in the very serious role of Winston Smith in a dazzling rendition of George Orwell's "1984," is very likely the first actor ever to have been broadcast on United States television, dating back to the mediums experimental transmissions in 1938!
Another esoteric tidbit from that same "1984" teleplay is that Robert Culp, immortalized a decade afterwards in the role of Kelly Robinson opposite Bill Cosby's Alexander Scott in NBC's "I Spy," served as one of the off-screen voices in the Orwellian world of state thought-control. Culp would periodically return to utilize this stentorian diction, such as in the role of Captain Shark in "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'s" "The Shark Affair," and most compellingly, in the role of the nomadic Gilgamesh-like "Trent," in fact a robot in whose completed hand is stored the last survivors of the human race in Harlan Ellison's classic teleplay "Demon with a Glass Hand" for the original and superb version of the science fiction anthology "The Outer Limits."
This reference guide also reveals the answer this blogs home-page challenge. The late Chilean-born Felicia Montealeagre, actress wife of the late maestro Leonard Bernstein, whose Manhattan home party, having included members of "The Black Panthers," caused another invited guest, journalist Tom Wolfe, to coin the phrase "Radical Chic," was, in fact, the most celebrated dramatic actress of the very early American television medium. She was challenged for that title perhaps only by Maria Riva, daughter of the legendary Marlene Dietrich. Both actresses were sublime in any number of mostly well-crafted adaptations of established stage plays and literary fare.
Capping the "Barnes and Noble" discussion will be the presentation of seminal excerpts from among the seventeen teleplays comprising "Studio One Anthology," including the newly restored original "Twelve Angry Men," Reginald Rose's courtroom drama genuine masterpiece. Henry Fonda would both produce and star in the 1956 film version, directed by another "Golden Age of Television" veteran Sidney Lumet. The teleplay's gripping dramatics, in which "Juror #8," against all possible odds persuades his fellow jurors that there is in fact insufficient evidence to convict a youth in the fatal stabbing of his father, forever changed public perceptions of the American legal process. It is but one of the truly great teleplays, all part of indeed, the "Resurrection of an Era."
Hope to see you at the Barnes & Noble in Columbus, OH April 11th from 4:00 to 6:00pm.
You may view my latest television interview concerning "Studio One Anthology" opposite veteran interviewer Fred Griffith. http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=109197 (utilize) the search bar with my full name "Larry James Gianakos."
Until next time "You can be sure if it's Westinghouse"...It's Larry James Gianakos!
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