The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 137

JB 1 vf' 7' -t 9 9 9 ft 99 99 9 9 4 9 fl y' f'Sfff? iiliami Herald Sunday Section Theater Night Spots Art Music Books Records miK nni Vlllllt'nnili'ltliilllllll'a! 1 Visit With Bad Bail April 23 1967 iiiiiiiiiBiiiii'i'iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii'ii iiiiiiin'iip'iniiiiinwiiniwn'nnii! arson Johnny Carson host of enormously successful Tonight Show has left and subsequently rejoined the late-night NBC-TV show He objected to the network using reruns of his old shows during the AFTRA strike What are his feelings about his walkout and how does he feel about the competition coming from the new ABC-TV show patterned after his? Here are the answers in this first of a series on TVs Bad Boy By NORMA LEE BROWNING Copyright 1967 by Chicago Tribune NEW YORK Why did Johnny Carson quit the Tonight Show? What are the real facts of the feud between the Bad Boy of television and NBC? What indispensable quality suddenly made the prince" of late night TV hot news and more in demand than ever? Johnny Carson even looked the part of a lovable Bad Boy as he opened the door and ushered me into his duplex co-op apartment at the United Nations Plaza for the exclusive story of his walkout from the popular Tonight show He was sporting a Florida suntan and a rather furrowed brow to the chaos I'm not used to all this embroilment you he said scooping up a yipping Yorkshire terrier from under my feet He apologized for the semi-furnished disarray of crates and boxes open but unpacked suitcases books and recording equipment just moved There were guitars all over the place taking guitar lessons trying to catch up with my son he explained THIS WAS my introduction to the small town boy from Nebraska who made it bigger than Jack Paar with a bedtime chatter show that turned into a money machine for NBC and a rather phenomenal habit-forming nightly national pasttime for millions of TV viewers Carson is the guy everybody goes to bed with and practically nobody objects Teenagers dig him middle aged matrons write him mash notes little old ladies love him erous footsteps of his unpredictable predeces- sor Jack Paar the answer is definitely NO Paar was an emotionally laden man His airborne embroilments embraced everything from Castro to daughter Randy Pie blew his emotions on the air and thrived on controversy This isn't Johnny cup of tea And what makes Johnny run you might say You knew he meant it when he said is a brand new experience for me to be out in limbo sort of at the peak of my career and not know where going never had a battle with a broadcasting company And I I do it to start a controversy I had no other Even as we talked the telephones were ringing furiously Was he or was he not going back on the Tonight show tonight the night after the AFTRA strike was settled? is it nobody believes you when you take a stand on he asked if wife Joanne came into the room dressed in a beige little-boy pants suit a matching helmet with goggles over her pony tail and white boots She has enormous green eyes weighs only 96 pounds and looks like a 1 teenager She was on her way to NBC to clean out desk and office and bring home his personal belongings How did Joanne feel about the whole thing? very proud of she said almost i fiercely very rare in this day and age for a man even to have convictions much less stand by convictions were so strong that when NBC sent him a check for using re-runs of his Tonight show during the TV strike he promptly sent it back was one of tlne-e after the-fact he explained saying your as a consolation prize My contract stated that in case of re-runs we were to negotiate good faith for equitable fees There any negotiating They just sent me a check so I sent it back like going into a res- taurant and ordering a good meal without discussing the price then being told the price The news that Johnny Carson made $15000 a week on the Tonight show and wanted more brought an escalation of lay eyebrows But as Johnny pointed out keep it in perspective NBC has had a money machine with the Tonight show for the past eight years their biggest money-making show brings in $25 million in cold cash to NBC and yet treated it like a stepchild Its budget is The truth is all Johnny wanted from NBC was a little pat on the head and a pad in the purse as recognition for his services which have been substantial in making the Tonight Turn to Page 1 Col 1 ill Ml! ill IP tf 1111 Will IIW MMMI a mu in Jolmny Carson During an Earlier Interview on a Florida Visit He's the all-American Jack Armstrong with an expertise that proves all-American boys are not so square after all Carson is that right combination of mugging ham and self-effacement arrogance impudence and humility uncanny insight and the quickness of wit of a stand-up comedian without the crassness He has a bigger following in all age groups and more hero worshippers than Paar ever had that one who knows how to cope with a Connie Stevens or A1 Capp or Arthur Schlc-singer or Timothy Leary And that takes Carson is that kid who can do a magic trick and make you like it even on TV where magic tricks belong And in his bag of magic tricks was one wherein he recently told NBC to go fly a kite and they did! By end even General Sarnoff was begging him to come back to work ir it AND Johnny? Sure it matters a lot to him whether back on the Tonight Show like it Or I be doing But to all those who are wondering if Carson is figuring to follow the controversial cantank- i 1 film 1 1 il I II il li Wi 1 I i WMinmMiili 1 r'l irnniii'i Tlcasant Way to Make Living i Ex-Floridian Rogers on Life he says He studied under Herbert Berghof and made a sixth trip around the world Two years ago he went back to California Howard Hawks a noted discoverer of stars gave him his first Hollywood parts in Line an auto racing film and in a western not yet released THIS reporter visited Rogers on the set the day the jousting scenes were to be filmed However to relief it began to rain and he didn't have to suffer the indignity of being knocked off a horse in front of his Florida friends The rain came after 170 days of filming without postponement because of bad weather Earlier in the film Director Joshua Logan had the script rewritten to allow Rogers more footage in a Highland fling dance number with Vanessa Redgrave who plays the role of Queen Gue-nevere Rogers as Sir Dinadan is knocked into the dust by Lancelot in the mov ie THE YOUNG ACTOR is an expert horseman He lives in Laurel Canyon and keeps his own horse in the beach town of Malibu However it was acting ability that won the Dinadan role for Rogers Logan and Joel Freeman fson of the Lou Freemans of North Bay Village) made personal scouting expeditions for actors in this $13 million film production sure Josh and I saw every British film and covered every play with a British cast in New York and Hollywood for months before we filled our says Freeman who is Jack Warner's personal ass5-tant on the film By GEORGE BOURKE Herald Amuvement Editor BURBANK Calif Actor Anthony Rogers gets knocked on his backside in a jousting scene from the film but not at all upset by it In fact he takes it in good stude falling is as much a part of show business as is mingling with the says the actor who got his start at the Hollywood Fla Little Theater discovered some time ago that this acting is an interesting and pleasant way to make a ROGERS was born in Hamilton Scotland and attended the Queen Victoria Military School at Dublane Then followed six years in the British Merchant Marine during w-hich time he made a trip to California an area he decided might be a nice place to live in After he had had his fill of travel on the sea he moved to Florida where he became an instructor in water sports and the trampoline Among his pupils were members of the Hollywood Little Theater which hud just enlarged its quarters on Washington Ave They suggested he answer a easting eall which appeared in The H-rald Rogers responded pnd wa arccp'-ed lor a minor role After learning the fundamentals here he decided to make acting his career He rt to New York 1 improve my technique as an Staff Photo br ALBERT COYA tors Company presents it second spring repertory produetion Thursday through Sunday at Swen-sen Theater Everglades School 2015 Bay shore Dr Cloekwi-e from top are Michael Brophy with white-gowned Bobbie Byer Ed 15 cart Ion Sara Jo Edlin and Edward Laiter Mary Jo Ceggin and Chris Warren and Patrick Sullivan photographed amid the picturesque gardens of Vizcaya A Fanciful Bewitched or simply liewihlered the fanciful characters in Christopher Fry's Lady's Not for Burning" come hack to life in the bright April of a loth eentury English market town in the ver-e eoniedy about a pretty uperted witch voung lovers and other problem The Miami Ac- 9 Anthony Rogers os Sir Dinadan I -1.