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Sounds like a fondly remembered show -- but I can't fondly remember the title. Maybe it'll come back to me now that you've planted the seed. Two highlights of the show I'm thinking of were an interview with Fred Astaire on the set of THE PLEASURE OF HIS COMPANY, and an interview with Harpo Marx to plug his new autobiography, HARPO SPEAKS, (his son serving as spokesman). But maybe it wasn't the same show you're thinking of; I don't think it lasted into the late 60's.
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Anyone remember a show called HOLLYWOOD BACKSTAGE, where they had a lot of inside Hollywood footage? It was from the 60's in glorious Black & White. They had a reporter who would go to Premiere's and stuff, do interviews, visit sets etc. It had real brassy bosanova Main Title music with bongos. Anyway in one episode, they ran footage of a Young (Jerry Goldsmith looking) Elmer Bernstein conducting HAWAII at a scoring session. It was a good, at least 5 minute section of the show. Pretty cool stuff. I wish they would air this again. I'd love to record it for my archives.
It was a real fun show and I'd love to see them released on DVD. Sort of like HOLLYWOOD AND THE STARS, but less documentary and more on the set interviews.
Please share if you know any more about it. Thanks.
Zoob
The name of the show is HOLLYWOOD BACKSTAGE and it ran from 1964-1968. Elmer's episode of the show ran 8 minutes. AMC showed it about a year ago.
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Posted: |
Jul 30, 2009 - 10:52 AM
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By: |
manderley
(Member)
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As Bill Reynolds points out, this show was called HOLLYWOOD BACKSTAGE, and ran from 1964-1968.
Newsman-about-town John Willis was the host, and, as I recall, it was produced originally for KHJ-TV, Channel 9, out here in Los Angeles. Episodes did run on AMC some years ago, but I don't know if these episodes were in their original format or re-edited together from single segments or the best of other shows. In the back of my mind, I seem to recall that Willis would come on the KHJ news show at various times during the week and present a segment specifically tailored for that. Then, at some point, these segments were gathered together for a half-hour show.
It was produced by Rick Spalla's Hollywood News Syndicate company. Spalla was, in those days, a local stringer capturing news around town.
As mentioned, it featured Hollywood premieres, banquets and fund-raising dinners (like The Thalians), and inside-industry interviews and visits to sets and locations (including the western location jaunt for CAT BALLOU that I recall). The show had very minimal production, even then, often one camera only, but is today a rare document of this time in Hollywood history and particularly valuable in that aspect. (I have quite a number of these shows on tape which I need to transfer to DVD, and then maybe I'll post a content index of those I have.)
Though it doesn't run much anymore on AMC, they may still have an exclusive contract for the material.
It seems a natural for Turner Classic Movies' channel, however.
While we're talking about this kind of thing, it might be interesting to bring up the "studio-behind-the-scenes" segments which were once a part of the TWENTIETH CENTURY-FOX HOUR shows which aired in 1955-56. This show featured newly-shot re-make dramas and comedies and westerns drawn from the Fox library and starring major stars from the screen. At the time this show aired, once every two weeks, for an hour, it was the most expensive show currently on television. It had several hosts in its original airings and then re-runs, but I particularly remember Joseph Cotten and John Conte. The "behind-the-scenes" segments, always featuring promo material for current or upcoming Fox releases, ran 7-10 minutes and interspersed film clips with on-set interviews with stars of the promo production, or tours around the lot. A cut version of this show (the main drama only) ran in the last several years on Fox Movie Channel, with newly-shot host segments by Robert Wagner. (I hope the "behind-the-scenes" segments still exist in the Fox archives.
"WARNER BROS. PRESENTS", a once-a-week hour show of the same period, hosted by Gig Young, also featured "behind-the-scenes" segments including the infamous one with James Dean talking about the dangers of driving drunk as well as a series on HELEN OF TROY, one of their current releases.
The otherwise horrible "MGM PARADE" show of 1955-56, featuring clips from movies and tab versions of old short-subjects, also has host George Murphy in "behind-the-scenes" segments around the lot, showing clips, and interviewing various MGM stars promoting their current films---from Robert Taylor to Cyd Charisse. These MGM shows air regularly on TCM.
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Was that 2-CD HAWAII release from Varese complete?
I've heard otherwise.
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Manderley, somehow I missed your post the first time around. I've tried in vain to encourage TCM to broadcast those Warner Brothers shows, which presumably they own as part of their MGM/WB library. How I'd love for people to see the footage of John Huston helming MOBY DICK in Ireland, the stuff that made me beg my mother to take me to see the movie when it finally opened. I also wish more DVD and BluRay manufacturers would include such precious footage in their supplemental disc materials. What a waste that instead they're just gathering dust somewhere, or worse, decomposing...
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