Chicago Tribune du lieu suivant : Chicago, Illinois • 101

CHICAGO TRIBUNE, SUNDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1966 Section 10 RADIO i Goodman Players in TV 'HanseV Merv Griff in Zooms to Success with Syndicated Show 'I Si! man Theater acting company participating in the colorcast are Sand'e Matthews Mother, Mansfield, Ronald Lohse Hansel, Hammond, Virginia Flick Gretel, Metairie, Carrie Snod-gress Gnome, Park Ridge, -and Richard Ooms Father, Nancy Evans Leonard The Bird. and Ragnhild Nygaard The Witch, of Chicago. The WMAQ-TV production personnel include Bill -Heitx, producer-director; Harr Trigg, executive produce Gene Breese, lighting director, and Jack Hakman, scenic, design. For the Goodman Theater: Bob Steinhauer, associate producer; Don Sheffield, costumes, and Pat Henry, make-up. "Hansel and Gretel" will preempt NBC-TV's Daniel Boone on the Channel 5, schedule on this date.

THE CLASSIC STORY of the journey of Hansel and Gretel into the bewitched forest will be told on TV this week in a five-act comedy drama by members of the Goodman Children's Theater of Chicago. The famous children's fantasy, "Hansel and Gretel," will be given 60 minutes of prime time by WMAQ-TV Thursday beginning at 6:30 p. m. The colorcast is produced by the program department of the Chicago TV station. The adventures of the child pair bring them into contact with many of the woods' "people," such as the Bird, the Gnome, and the Witch; and they make a visit to the Gingerbread and Candy house.

The production, previously performed by the Goodman students in a theater run last The Witch In the Goodman Children's Theaterr WMAQ-TV production of "Hansel and Gretel" is played by Ragnhild Ny-gaard. summer, was subsequently enacted and videotaped in the WMAQ-TV color studios. The members of the Good ahead of time," Griffin said, "but every morning around 11 I ait down with the five bookers of the show and the director and we discuss what we think will work, what the guests will talk about" Griffin, with a sly grin, noted that "we never break into the middle of a conversation for a commercial" the old familiar complaint about the Carson show. He spends frequent, long week-ends on flying trips to Europe for interviews with film stars. "Anybody can get the Hollywood crowd," he said.

"We pick Europe because we can get people who aren't available all the time." Griffin believes shows like his are real showcases for young performers. Any number have moved off the show to busy, profitable careers. A San Mateo boy with a California education, Griffin is now a settled-in easterner. He and his wife, Julann, and their son, Tony, spend most of the week in their New York apartment. Week-ends when Merv isn't traveling are spent on their 28 acres in New Jersey where Merv raises quarter horses and Julann pursues her hobby of making wine out of unusual bases including, A P.

'J ii i in. S0 4. Merv Griffin in action on The Merv Griffin Show, which is carried week days at 4 p. m. Chcago on channel 5.

Grffin's guest star here is Carol Charming. xUnique musical gift! and we can deliver an audience then because we catch working men who come home early. Jn many places we are in prime time, between 7:30 and 11 at night." AT 41, Mervyn Griffin finds himself at the head of a successful broadcasting empire. He is producer of NBC's day time Jeopardy game show, owner of three radio stations, performing host of the Merv Griffin Show, and employer of 147 people. It is a long way but apparently not a rocky one from bis professional start at 19 as a singer on a San Francisco radio station.

He is a pleasant, even-' tempered man of many talents, none of which is overly impressive. He plays the piano acceptably. He is a good enough singer to have been in Freddy Martin's band, and to have made a record that sold a million copies "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of He has a quick, easy manner before an audience. He plays straight man better than comedian. But he does seem to be, almost to his own surprise, a very good business man and on-the-spot program strategist "I have fantastic people around me," said Griffin, just as if he had not hired them.

"We've got a lot of things going, including a couple 3f more game shows in the works, and we operate out of two offices, one over the show's theater off Broadway and another on the east side. To give you an idea how well they run themselves, I dropped into the east side office yesterday for the first time in more than two weeks." Griffin, who had been an amiable host on a couple of game shows, attracted favor- By Cynthia Lowry THAT'S THE BEAUTY of syndication, Merv Griffin was saying. "If your show is broadcast by individual stations, instead of by a network, the local station managers decide where to put it, and what spot will be best for their audiences and, of course, for you." Now, after 18 months, The Merv Griffin Show is broadcast on 65 stations, available to 85 per cent of the nation's viewers. It is carried in Chicago daily, Monday thru Friday, from 4 to 5 p. m.

on channel 5.1 It has proved to be the fastest-selling program of its category in the short history of TV syndication. "We expected to be in the red for at least two years," said Griffin, "and so did the Westinghouse Broadcasting company, which sells us. But we made it into the black much quicker and it is not an inexpensive show to produce." Griffin's big problem was and is, of course, NBC's Tonight Show and its head man, Johnny Carson. The two programs have exactly the same format, are interested in many of the same guests, and attract about the same type of audience. The Carson program is broadcast on 194 stations and is seen by about one-third of the 12 million or so people who keep their sets on after the late news.

Griffin, however, shrewdly has kept his own show out of Carson's way. He competes for that audience only in areas one of them being New York City. "We are on at all sorts of times," Griffin said. "In Miami, a resort town, it is at 9 in the morning, which isn't bad because our people are likely to be out at night and sleep late. In Philadelphia it is at 4:30 in the afternoon hi i able attention when he auditioned on the air for the Tonight Show after Jack Paar departed.

The spot went to Carson, but Griffin later had a day time show on NBC that frankly adopted the Paar format It was a critical success and had a devoted audience. Unfortunately, the audience was not large enough. But when NBC canceled the show, more than 70,000 letters of protest flooded in. GRIFFIN'S STAFF-direc-tor, bookers, and musiciansscattered into other jobs. Yet, when Griffin decided to resume bis show on a syndicated basis, every one of his top aids quit what they were doing and happily came back to work for him.

"I never see the guests iMow enjoy o-tracK stereo auto tapes at home with an ESC A VICTOR IVilairk 8 Steireo Player Here's the greatest idea in sound since music itself! Now you can listen to ail your favorite selections on pre-recorded 8-track car stereo tapes at home! (Over 400 to choose from in the RCA Victor stereo library alone!) Completely automatic, just slip a cartridge into player for "instant then sit back and enjoy up to 80 minutes of uninterrupted stereo! To skip tracks, simply press track selector bar. To turn off, remove the cartridge. Other controls include volume, tone and stereo balance plus pilot light. Be cmong the first to own or give this exciting musical gift! Television News Notes maculate Conception in Washington, D. at 11 p.

m. on channel 7 and ABC-TV. "Harvest for Mercy," an account of how the United States sent millions of tons of grain to India, will be presented at 9 p. m. Tuesday over CBS and channel 2.

The one-hour color special follows the grain from the rich wheat fields of Kansas to the hungry mouths of a peasant family in the remote interior of western India. Pat Harty, star of NBCs Occasional Wife series, will fly home to her 600-acre New England farm for the holidays. She and her husband, Tom Kearny, have a booming Christmas tree business. Christmas through the ages Enjoy a delightful musical journey among the warm traditions of Christmases past and present. Starring Florence Henderson, hostess, and Gianna d'Angelo, Anita Gillette, Bruce Yarnell, Sherrill Milnes with Donald Voorhees and the Bell Telephone Orchestra.

A special holiday program on the Bell Telephone Hour. Sunday 5:30 P.M. NBC Channel 5 Live and in color. "Jack in the Beanstalk," an original musical adaptation of the classic children's tale, will be presented on CBS-TV and channel 2 at 6:30 p. m.

tomorrow. The hour colorcast, starring Hal Holden as Jack, Will B. Able as the giant, and Joan Roberts as Jack's mother, will pre-empt Gilligan's Island and Run, Buddy, Run. The Tucson; Boy's Choir will give a Christmas concert in and around the 17th-century Spanish mission of San Xavier del Bac "White Dove of the Desert" near Tucson at 10:30 p.m. Christmas eve on channel 2 and CBS.

Entitled "Let the Desert Be Joyful," the program will feature the choir singing Christmas songs in English, Spanish, and Latin. The following Christmas eve services will be telecast Saturday night: Services from New York City's Fourth Methodist church, at 11 p. m. on channel 2 and CBS; Midnight mass from St. Patrick's cathedral in New York at 11 p.

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