St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 31

rv 3 Published EveKij Dcvlj Week-deH nd Sunday the ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH PART FOUR ST. LOUIS, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 1950 PAGES 1 8D Where Robbers Seized Million in Cash Television in "Review Ken Murray Show Entertaining Corn By John Crosby A if ft" I I I ii5S" NEW YORK, Jan. 18. HE blame for transporting Ken Murray's "Blackouts" from the West Coast, where it had run seven years, where it ran six weeks.

xv 1 Y-x If 'fc'C? ftf r' Iff ATt vis. to the East Coast, rests according to Murray largely on my doorstep, a terrible accusation. I first met Murray, a large, shaggy, friendly vaude-villian whose face on a clear day can be seen for 12 miles, last January at a party in Hollywood. At the time he was large with plans for a television show on film. Not kinescope.

Live film. Film, he argued, permitted the xi 3N I i -fxX JOHN CROSBY editing out of mis j. XX i. isx- takes, the sharpening of gags, the perfecting of techniques. I resisted strenuously.

Live television, I said, had an actuality, a spontaneity, that far outweighed the technical perfection of film. -iSS, xxxv At the scene of a million-dollar holdup, a Boston policeman questions two employes of Brink's, money transportation firm, beside the vault from which seven masked robbers seized the currency and some $500,000 in checks last night. Another $1,000,000 was left behind by the holdup men In the 20-minute precision raid, in which they apparently gained entrance with a master key, gagged and trussed five employes and fled with one or more confederates by automobile. The men being questioned are Charles S. Greli and Herman C.

Pfaff (right). BRUSH FIRE INVADES ARMY CAMP ZtlA after being struck by flames of a brush fire which leaped hundreds of yards across firebreaks in its rush down one side of Cheyenne mountain near the Broadmoor area south of Colorado Springs. One soldier was killed and 27 others suffered burns in battling the fire, which a force of some 70C0 volunteers had brought under control today. Three barracks, 15 warehouses and other frame buildings at the camp were wrecked, as were cabins and summer homes in the ravaged mountain area. AwitMi m-a wi'hto MY ARGUMENTS, as I recall, were not extraordinarily persuasive but, abetted by four martinis, they were extremely vehement.

And, on the West Coast, vehemence overpowers logic any day of the week. At any rate, the seeds of doubt were sown. Murray went home and mulled. Eventually he succumbed. "Blackouts" was brought to New York where it received one of the most severe critical lambastings of the season and expired.

I'm not ready to accept full responsibility for this mishap. If I'd had two less martinis, Murray very likely would still be out on the West Coast, reaping in money, and happily making a filmed television show. It was the fault of the two extra martinis, not me. On such small things a man's destiny hinges. COMMERCIAL ST.

WELL, ANYHOW, Murray the live Murray-is now on television. "The Ken Murray Show" (C.B.S.-TV, carried on KSD at 7 p.m. on alternate Saturdays), a full-hour show, is guilty of much that the theater critics originally condemned it for. Its sketches are mildewed with age. The jokes are corny.

The comedy techniques are broad to the point of burlesque. Still, it's such unabashed corn and everyone is so good-natured about it that it makes a pretty darned good television show. One other thing the theater critics complained about was vulgarity. Well, unless my critical perceptions have been blunted by this medium, there wasn't any of that. I suspect Murray has been cleaned up for home consumption.

Artist's diagram of one of the largest in the nation's history. The men, with special key to unlock six doors, entered (left) on the Prince street side of the Brink's firm garage, went upstairs to second floor, moved through hallway into counting room and through safety room and cage door to open vault. The employes were taken by surprise and offered no resistance to me roDoers. 4 i ----i i is a 1 1 4 '1 THE SHOW OPENS BIG, as they say, with a Hollywood and Vine street scene. The longest-legged damsels you ever saw parade back and forth, not doing anything specially, just exhibiting those legs.

(Occasionally there are closeups of these lasses who are pretty fetching, I must admit.) Then Murray and his cigar and presently his comic come on and the jokes begin to fly. There is a lot of manual dexterity about these jokes. That is, the cigar is removed from the mouth, the straight line is delivered, the cigar goes back In the mouth. The second guy, the man with the punch line, thinks things over; then he takes off his hat, stares full-faced at the straight man, then, truculently, at the audience, puts the hat back on. and delivers the punch line.

He then leans on his cane and snaps one suspender. Both men then stare out at the audience, milking. Murray leans heavily toward old-time entertainers who are no longer in the big money but who are as good, possibly better, than ever; and on novelty acts. The old-timer opening night was Nick Lucas, an immense favorite in my youth; the novelty, a man tap-dancing while skipping rope. Ahead of us, I'm told, we have a canary act that leaves everyone paralyzed with astonishment.

WaSfeiUiiiit, j. Ljjm iiin hiwm wn piftii niiinnn umin n. mnmim in-inwir-ripini minim mi I I I "1 V' ll-L II -y I 4'', If JK-W fOy III WARTIME AIR CHIEF'S LAST FLIGHT right), wartime air commander, is carried to a hearse on arrival at Washington National Airport today after a flight from California, where the General died Sunday. An honor guard including high-ranking officers and members of the Cabinet (in civilian dress, upper left) stand at salute. Burial will be in Arlington Cemetery tomorrow.

Associated Tress Wiriubota. FLOOD AREA EVACUEES i Hi MURRAY. A VERY POPULAR man in Hollywood, also managed to hypnotize most of Hollywood's great names into appearing briefly on his West Coast show, sometimes simply to shake hands. This practice he continues on television. Opening night.

Van Heflin took part in a poker- Three little children, evacuees from the Birds Point-New Madrid fioodway zone in southeast Missouri, let sleep erase their cares in a schoolhouse at Charleston, which has been outfitted as a shelter. More than 8000 of the 12,000 residents of the area have moved out, on the warning that it may be necessary to cut the Mississippi river levee and utilize the fioodway to re- plaving sketch in which his chief task was to hold five immense cards. Franklin Pangborn was onstage 30 seconds to introduce a dog act. Then, introduced diffidently, as "one of the great moments of television" came a scene from "Death of a Salesman" with two members of the Broadway cast. Gene Lockhart as Willie Loman, and Alan Hewitt, as his boss.

It was the scene where Willie Loman was elbowed casually and with extreme cruelty out of his lifelong job. Fragmentary though it was, it was as moving as it is on the stage, as good as its billing. This interjection of high tragedy into an essentially frivolous hour will be continued in further shows and a good thing, too. Time was when all revues had their serious moments. I don't know why they ever abandoned the custom.

nreccuro on rnkPx; iin- stream and on the Ohio river at L-airo, hi. Associated Tress Wirerhota THE KEN MURRAY SHOW moves along so rapidly that 40 minutes of it seems like 20 minutes, a high compliment: the production is eye-filling by television standards: the commercials are easv-going and ingenious (but too long). On the whole, those two extra martinis may not have harmed Murray as much as I thought. THE MAN WHO- LlNTHROn K. 3 x- 11 trrs i I 1 I 1 FUNERAL OF DR.

CUMMINGS The casket of the Rev. Dr. Clark 20TH ANNUAL FELLOWSHIP DINNER Wa'ker Cummings, executive secretary cf the Metropolitan Church Federation of St. Louis, who died Saturday, being borne from Union Avenue Christian Church after funeral services yesterday. The pa'ibearers (counter-clockwise from lower right) are: Bige Wyett, W.

Stanley Stuart, Robert R. Vernon, Clayton Lupton, funeral director (at rear of casket); Charles G. Alexander, Oliver J. Lloyd, Carl J. Bender (partially hidden).

In front is B. A. Miles, funeral home employe. ej a rot-DisptcS e-in nwtcu. Second Baptist Church and Temple Israel which comprise the "Holy Corners" cf Kingshlghway and Washington boulevard at the temple last night.

From left (seated): BIshcp Ivan Lee Holt, honor guest who instituted the dinners when he was pastor at St. John's: Rabbi Ferdinand M. Isserman, Temp'e Israel, and the Rev. Leon Rcbison, Second Baptist. Standing are: the Rev.

Albea Godbold, St. John's, and Dr. Richard Silverman, master of ceremcn'es. bj rost-DisMtcix surr nwtoarwiur. IS A SMALL BUSINESS MAN..