Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 74

i I Raymond Burr Playing Perry Mason Is 1 DETROIT FREE PRE5 Sunday, Sept. 15, '57 TV' I 1 New Shows This Week SUNDAY, SKIT. 15 2 :30 p.m. 0 0 Here. Current events.

Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, first guest. 6:30 p.m. 0 Bachelor Father. Situation-comedy. John Forsvthe stars.

VI the lain1 More TXT 1 Our we i iow on Joan Forsythe 1 Sally. Situation-comedy. Joan Caulfield stars. MON. THRU FRI.

12 noon Tex Jinx- Variety. TUESDAY, SEIT. 17 6:30 p.m. Sugarfoot. Western, stars Will Hutchins.

7:30 p.m. Eve Arden Show. Situation-comedy. WEDNESDAY, SEI'T. 18 6:30 p.m.

Wagon Train. Western, stars Ward Bond. 7 p.m. Big Record. Variety, Patti Page hosts.

THURSDAY, SEPT 19 9 p.m. Command Ap- -ok byebtriS? iitlnii rmiin iiriiTwiWfiiiiiirniM-TiWiWMiffliiirtiiiffliW He Lost 100 Pounds To Take the Role and Win the A uthor Nod HOW DID Raymond Burr ever get typed as a villain or the dull friend of the hero? When you meet the big, broad-shouldered actor, you realize he doesn't look much like a meany even if you have seen him oil his way through countless "heavy" roles. You notice a pair of penetrating light blue. eyes and a fine smile and the deep voice that is easily recognizable whether you know him from TV, the movies or radio. Ilurr whizzed Into Detroit Thursday on an ll-day 18 city tour extolling his new TV venture, Ferry Mason, which will be seen Saturday over WJBK-TV (2) at 6:30 p.m.

He had barely time to turn up on a show over WJBK-TV, talk briefly, call friends and relatives around Detroit before he was gone again. THE TRIP IS A BKEATIIEK if you could call it that from filming the Mason series, the first long mystery on TV regularly. And the show CBS-TV hopes will recapture the Saturday supremacy lost to Ferry Como. "We've done 17 shows," said Burr, "all of them as complicated as a full-length feature. It's been six days a week, 18 to 20 hours a day.

"I've had an immense amount of research to do. Mason isn't a trench-coat private eye, he a lawyer, fhp law clavs a Hutchins Lavvford STEELY-EYED Raymond Burr plays steely-eyed Perry Mason. make up their minds. It was Erie Stanley Gardner, who wrote the countless Perry Mason books, who pointed to Burr's test and said "That's Perry Mason." That was last April. Burr has been Perry Mason Without let up since.

"My weight doesn't bother me now," he smiles. "I ork it all off with the long hours." pearance. Tribute to top stars. Once a month. FRIDAY, SEPT.

20 8 p.m. Squad- Detective adventure. Lee Marvin stars. 8:30 p.m. Thin Man.

Mystery series. Peter Law-ford, Phyllis Kirk as husband-wife detective team. SATURDAY, SEI'T 21 6:30 p.m. Perry Mason. Mystery series.

Raymond Burr stars. 8 p.m. Polly Bergen. GAKDNEK he liked Burr best. His approval of my Mason makes me feel easier." Talking along, Burr suddenly used a legal phrase and smiled.

"I've found myself doing that." "Quite often when I go home, I ask my neice or nephew if anything had happened during the day. They'll say Then I come up with 'Then why is there a black streak in the drive as if a truck was parked They are goggle-eyed." Canadian-born Burr lives alone with a nephew who is going to school in California. His neice just finished a visit and went home to Cleveland. Burr smiled and said: "I found out that in legal phraseology I am unmarried, but I am not a single man." BETTELOU PETERSON up, the Perry Mason producers thought he would be ideal for the not-so-sym-pathic district attorney's role. Burr didn't want the part.

But he made a bargain. He would make two tests one as the D. and one as Mason. EXPERT TV REPAIR ONE-HOUR SERVICE TY 7-2183 feiKS Stepping into the Mason part wasn't an easy thing. "There have been over 100 million Perry Mason mysteries sold in the United States alone," said Burr, "That's a lot of people with preconcieved ideas about the man.

"BUT MR. GARDNER is the one who knows him 90-DAY rms Senrlei In Hunt GUARANTEE 'til 11:30 F.M. ECONOMY TV-7119 WARREN nnn at TV Servica 30 0 IN YOUR HOME AFTER watching both teste, the CBS men couldn't Mama VUlrK 275 8rlf TY 6-1900 0MiS4J Richardson TV 8840 Linwood REVERE TV SERVICE ALL MAKES TV SETS REPAIRED DAY-NIGHT-SUNDAY Lleend Cltv tf Detroit No. 161 Northwest Sid Sotiihwtt Side big part in every drama. "I spent two months watching the judges and lawyers in Los Angeles courts to get the feel of the role." HOW DID TV, as notorious for type casting as the movies come up with the idea that Burr, famed for his nasty roles, could play a nice guy? They didn't.

It was Burr's idea and he worked hard to sell them on it. First he went on a diet. He trimmed nearly 100 pounds of his six-foot two-inch frame to come down to just over 200 pounds. "And I've tried to keep away from playing heavies on TV in shows I've done on Climax, and Playhouse 90," he said. But when his name came Stars Sign For Oasis NEW YORK UP) -BC says Van Johnson, Kay Starr, Jimmy Durante, Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra have Agreed to star in individual shows for a new television series titled Club Oasis.

It will alternate with the new I'olly Bergen show on Saturday nights starting Sept. 28 from 8 to 8:30 p.m. (EDT). WE 5-5961 TE 4-0442 All Parts and lator Guaranteed ihili nn mi win ii mi in, hi uu iiiito mmiwwilw inuii j.jiiii uiiliwii.iiij 1 4 vW- -4 i 'iZtfrm uum VAZr: A i i irthm liiiiiMiiii tmmk wm mm mmlaiAi'iii iiM1Wiiviwiii i TfiatMiMTifftn am How To Save Money ON YOUR TV Make These) Important Checks First! 1. Is ysir set alsMed In 2.

Check ant. connections at rear of set 3. Tarn set en and check all front controls carefully IF YOUR TROUBLE CONTINUES CALL US FOR EXPERT SERVICE DAY-NITE AND SUNDAYS TR 2-5464 TO 7-7054 ESQUIRE TV SERVICE STOP SHOPPING For reasonable TV service, here It hi Give hi a coll and yo will cjivd its the job. We give FREE Antenna where) seeded, vi hr. aerviee eitf wide ond suburban.

Day Nights and Sundays All parts labor guaranteed 1 yr. UN 3-4674 Lie. 264 TR 1-2380 RAYMOND ISUKK signs the WJBK register for Lea Marsh, center, and Joy Baird..