Jim Fleming – Garroway at Large

“Today at 35,” 1987

On January 31, 1987 NBC gave over a prime-time hour so that Today could celebrate its 35th anniversary. As you’ll see, this is a fascinating special, particularly because of one feature.¹

A word of warning: This is a very image-heavy retrospective. This special was fast-paced and used a lot of archival footage. I didn’t include everything I had wanted to include, because otherwise I’d still be editing photos this time next week. Anyway, here we go.

“Hunter takes a detour tonight so we can help our friends at the Today Show celebrate a special anniversary.”² This six-feathered version of the Peacock that we know so well? When this airs, it’s less than a year old.

We open with Jane Pauley and Bryant Gumbel, who just happen to be walking along 49th Street in front of the old Exhibition Hall. Gumbel points out where they are and how it was where Today began. “I think there’s a bank there now,” Gumbel adds mid-sentence, in that parenthetical way of his. Jane Pauley sets the scene for what television was like in 1952 – only 15 million sets in the whole country, with most viewership in the evenings, and the thought of an early-morning television show was unusual. “In fact, only 26 stations carried that first Today show,” she says.

The people on the sidewalk just keep passing by, paying no heed. There’s no way you could do this now, not when everybody wants to mug for the camera.

Then we go to a montage of classic moments, with a simple and very pretty rendition of “Sentimental Journey” in the background. And, sure enough, the first clip we see is J. Fred Muggs with Dave Garroway.

The focus in the opening montage is on lighthearted moments. You’d almost get the feeling Today was a comedy revue. The only really serious moment is Pope John Paul II holding hands and praying with Gumbel and Pauley. Then we dissolve to the dignitaries gathered for the evening, and the velvet voice of Fred Facey introduces the show.

“Welcome to Today at 35, and our family reunion,” Gumbel says, teeing up the introductions as being like a family album. We’re introduced to the returning family members with archival footage, followed by a shot of them in the studio. One neat touch is that the NBC logo appropriate for the start of their tenure is shown alongside their names.

The entire gathering was introduced in alphabetical order: Frank Blair, Tom Brokaw, John Chancellor, Hugh Downs, Betty Furness, Joe Garagiola, Jim Hartz, Florence Henderson, Jack Lescoulie, Lee Meriwether, Edwin Newman, Helen O’Connell, Betsy Palmer, John Palmer, Willard Scott, Gene Shalit, Barbara Walters, and Pat Weaver (“all of this is his baby – which he enjoys now from retirement,” Gumbel says). Jane Pauley and Bryant Gumbel round out the introduction.

“Our beginnings were humble,” Gumbel says, teeing up the obligatory clip of the first morning. “Dave Garroway and a staff of 35, working in a storefront with people looking in the window. The critics all laughed, and said it wouldn’t last even 13 weeks.”

I think there’s some kind of written regulation at NBC that they have to show this clip at least once in every special.

When we rejoin the present, Bryant Gumbel is sitting at a re-creation of the original set – “this is NOT the original,” he takes pains to point out.³

Gumbel is joined by Hugh Downs, Tom Brokaw and Frank Blair there to recount the early days of Today. Gumbel asks Blair if he felt like a pioneer. “Definitely,” Blair says. He noted that being up early and doing this unusual thing bound them together. Blair notes that producer Mort Werner was asked once what makes Today click: “It’s a matter of chemistry.”

Downs remembers being on the NBC staff in Chicago and watching the first Today program from the booth – “I was duly amazed, but I didn’t think people would be up tuning in.” Brokaw muses, “As I sit here thinking about it, these are my heroes! I was growing up out there in South Dakota, and television was truly my window on the world.” Downs remembers moments that, looking back, he called “golden.”

Garroway sits, bemused, as an entire marching band winds through the Exhibition Hall

…and watches a flea circus perform on the air.

Blair notes the program was criticized “when we brought the chimpanzee in,” but the reasoning was that kids would turn the program on to see the chimpanzee, and the parents would realize there was a news program going on. “So we all owe a great debt of gratitude to J. Fred Muggs…wherever you are,” Blair says with mock solemnity.

Gumbel asks all three if one appreciates Today more after you’ve left it. Brokaw is grateful for having done it; Downs makes a lighthearted but appreciative comment. It becomes clear that Frank Blair never really let go. “If I were younger, I would love to still be doing it. I would boot John Palmer right out of here and take over. But you reach a point of no return. You run out of fuel, and it’s better that a younger man has my job now.”

As they go to break, there’s a clip of John “Skid” Chancellor and Frank “Checkers” Blair running the first Today Show Grand Prix, a go-kart race inside the studio.

There’s a commercial. Soft piano. A woman’s voice, over shots of a bedroom: “Silk always makes me feel sensuous.” And when the woman in the commercial wears pantyhose that glistens like silk and feels like silk, “I feel wonderful…all over.”⁴

Then GM, in a Very Important Commercial, talks about its commitment to building better cars, culminating in a new six-year, 60,000-mile warranty “that tells you each and every GM car we build today is the best-quality, best-value GM car ever.”⁵

When we come back, Jane Pauley leads off a segment with Barbara Walters, mentioning her ascent from being hired by Dave Garroway as a writer to becoming co-host. There are clips of her interviewing dignitaries and statesmen and other VIPs…followed by the obligatory clips from a segment in which Walters went undercover at a Playboy Club in 1962, complete with the bunny costume.

Walters remembers the “bunny dip” used to serve patrons their drinks.

They segue into how Walters’ role evolved from writing women’s features to doing general features. Then there’s another clip, a 1965 segment where Walters spends an evening with the information telephone operators in the 50th Street office, and tries it herself, only to be greeted by the voice of Jack Lescoulie on the other end of the line.

Pauley asks Walters who she looked up to growing up. Walters replies that someday Pauley herself would hear young women say what Walters heard: “I grew up with you.”⁶ And Walters says she was very proud that when she left, Pauley took her place. “I think it’s a great credit to me that someone like you followed.”⁷

From there Pauley segues to talking about the role of the Today Girls. And four of them – Lee Meriwether, Helen O’Connell, Florence Henderson and Betsy Palmer – regale us with a cute song about what it was like and the people (and chimpanzee) they worked with, complete with more clips.

Edwin Newman is mentioned only in passing in this song, but I love this clip during the montage – from the end of a special he did long ago. He gives the NBC News disclaimer at the end, while taking a long-awaited bath, then squeezes the sponge over his head and lets out a satisfied sigh.

At the end, Jane Pauley comes over and has a little fun with how they sang her name. She then asks Bernie Wayne, who wrote the song and played the piano, to play a few bars of his most famous composition.

It turns out to be “There She Is, Miss America.” Which, of course, Lee Meriwether came to Today after her reign as Miss America, and there’s a moment of warm reminiscence. That’s promptly disposed of in the throw to break, with the famous clip of Harpo Marx⁸ chasing a Today Girl around the studio.

Then a bumper, with an RCA TK-11/31. Always a lovely thing to see.

Commercials: A UPS ad looks back on the company’s history through old black-and-white photos. Then lots of fast-paced, high-energy scenes of modern UPS operations. Lots of 727s and 747s. “We run the tightest ship in the shipping business.”

Great airplanes. I loved flying on 727s, back when you could. I miss them.

That’s followed by a commercial for a very personal thing women use. Somehow, clear blue liquid is supposed to demonstrate how effective it is. Right. (No, I’m not showing a picture.)

Then Ann-Margret and Claudette Colbert in “The Two Mrs. Grenvilles,” coming February 8.

“Sir, does this mean Ann-Margret won’t be coming?”

Followed by a Saturday Night Live promo with host Paul Shaffer being heckled by the Church Lady.

Back to the anniversary show, it’s time for a look at the entertainment greats that have been on Today. Some neat finds in the montage, including this exchange between George Gobel and Dave Garroway, when the entire morning’s show was done outside the studio:

Gobel: “The whole show? Out here in the street?”
Garroway: “Yep.”
Gobel: “Well, see now, that’s television for you. You know, just one bad week and you’re out.”

There’s also a glimpse of the famous/infamous “Caesar and Cleopatra” sketch with Jack Lescoulie and Jayne Mansfield.⁹

Gumbel is at the desk, this time with various occupants of the sidekick role: Willard Scott, Gene Shalit, Joe Garagiola and Jack Lescoulie.

The first anecdote has Lescoulie telling the story of the day Ava Gardner was supposed to be on Today, but didn’t show up. The quick-thinking Garroway summoned staff member Estelle Parsons to the desk. “You be Ava Gardner.” And Garroway conducted the interview. This dissolves into a discussion about how humor is tough to sell in the morning, which leads to playful bickering between Joe Garagiola and Gene Shalit. “Did you ever have hair?” Shalit asks. Garagiola replies, “I think you’re overdressed!” Without missing a beat, Willard Scott leaps up, his toupee in hand. “I think we can correct that!” And he plonks the toupee atop Garagiola’s head.

“This is the dignified Joe Garagiola look….”

…and then Willard turns the toupee. “Now here’s the Hippie Joe Garagiola look! Give him a guitar and watch him go!”

Lescoulie tells a story about a day he was late getting to the studio, and how in those days the tradition was to cut your tie if you made a mistake. Up against the segment clock, Gumbel asks Lescoulie to tell about the ring he wears.

It’s a duplicate of the one Garroway wore, Lescoulie says, and he gave it to him in 1953. “The inscription inside is typical Garroway,” he says, “And it says ‘To Jack from Dave, for being just what you are by the dawn’s early light.’ And I’ve worn it ever since.” Lescoulie then looks toward the camera. “And, old partner, thank you, and peace to you.”

There’s then a montage, introduced by Jane Pauley, about the versatile but lesser-sung members of the Today family.

The very first clip in the montage is the only glimpse you’ll get all night of the forgotten Jim Fleming.

Then there’s an interview with Betty Furness.

Betty mentions that she was a friend of Garroway’s¹⁰, so she watched the very first show, and when they began to have women on the show, she wanted to be on the show. “But nobody would talk to me!” She notes that she continued to be snubbed even after she was no longer doing commercials at CBS. What finally got her a role on Today was her work as a consumer reporter for WNBC-TV, and a chance meeting at the elevator with a Today producer led to a substitute hosting job. Then Gumbel crashes the interview¹¹ to show a clip of Jane Pauley bogarting his cigar at a political convention a few years before.

Then more ads.

AT&T is going to combine computers and communications so we can get the right information to the right people at the right time. Reckon how that’s gonna work out?

Smart Cat. Ask any cat and they’ll tell you they’re smarter than humans, anyway.

A slow sweep of the newsroom on that first morning forms a neat bumper for the local throw.

Remington Steele is back! Tuesday!

Peak ’80s. (And, yes, Today did originate from Australia starting the following Monday.)

Back from the break, it’s time to talk about Important News, the big stories, the world leaders and presidents and aspirants and such who have stopped by. This leads in to a discussion with Barbara Walters, John Chancellor, John Palmer and Edwin Newman.

Chancellor starts the discussion with a self-deprecating joke about the montage that led the segment off.¹² The comments from the panel speak of the influence the morning shows have gained, to the point that the White House kept track of the shows’ ratings and decided where to deploy their spokespeople accordingly.

Back at the 1952 desk, Jane Pauley takes note of the changes in technology, and notes that Today has featured new technologies right from the first day:

Garroway shows off a wirephoto machine on the first day. “We’ll show it to you mere minutes after it was taken. The print we show you will still be wet, but you won’t be able to feel it at home. I hope.”

Then Mufax shows the home audience grainy stills of the Queen’s coronation.

Hugh Downs and Jim Hartz join Pauley to talk about the change in technology, particularly in how microphones have grown tinier as time has passed. Downs predicts that at the rate they’re shrinking, microphones will disappear altogether in August 1991. Pauley disagrees: “No, I think it’ll be implants, Hugh.” They then discuss how Today has been around the world, buttressed with a quick montage of the many places the program has visited: Paris, Romania, Ireland, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro, at sea aboard the liner s/s Norway. Jim Hartz suggests that the audience may have become jaded, because they have become accustomed to “whatever you can imagine, you can do.”

We go to commercial with a look out the old 49th Street window.

Other side of the TK-11/31. I want one.

A sentimental spot for Amtrak. “There’s somethin’ about a train that’s magic.”¹³ Followed by a spot for this new pain reliever called Advil.

“The ritual of Oil of Olay.” Get you some of this stuff and some of that silky pantyhose from the first half-hour, and you’ll be at full-blown Mystical Womanhood before you know it.

A really neat spot for college basketball, with live action giving way to animated pastel renderings. Really beautiful, really classy. I wish we still saw stuff like this today.

During a brief interlude Pauley, Gumbel and Scott talk about what it’s been like, with all the stories and anecdotes and good times. Willard notes, “Everybody really seems to like each other.”¹⁴ Then Pauley says they’ve been wondering what Today will be like in the future, so through the magic of computers, they’ve sent Mike Leonard ahead 35 years…to the year 2022. Yes. To this year.

So this is what this year is like. Where’s the Snake logo, then?

“The cameras are robotic. Just stick to the script,” a robotic voice tells Leonard. Well, we do have robotic cameras now, I guess. Anyway, in this version of 2022, there’s a cure for the common cold.¹⁵ And they’ll talk live with some of the moment’s biggest celebrities:

Pro football commissioner Jim McMahon

Veteran character actor Rob Lowe

And game show host Dick Clark.¹⁶

The news is sent through absorption. Commercials are two seconds long and subliminal. And weather forecasters can actually do something about the weather: as a robocam hovers nearby, a blizzard in Buffalo gets sent to Los Angeles.

But there’s time to look back to 70 years ago, when Garroway tried out Mary Kelly’s electric typewriter.

This compares to the “rather large” portable television of 1986.

“But give them credit…they knew what the future held.”

And in a disturbing twist, digital facsimiles of yourself can be sent anywhere around the world. Which leads to several Mike Leonards ganging up on him.

This disturbs him. “Because that’s what made the Today show. All the human touches.” Garroway pops in every now and again, a patron saint of the program’s humanity.

Especially as he roars at a telephone receiver.

Leonard’s had enough of this technological dystopia. “Send me back 35 years.”¹⁷ So he clicks together his ruby-studded shoes…only to be trapped inside a computer screen.

A more serious look at the future comes in a brief visit with Pat Weaver. “It’s good to be back,” Weaver says, “and particularly on such an auspicious occasion.” Weaver doesn’t think the future will be like Leonard’s fanciful journey. “It’ll still be people. But the future will change, a lot.” Weaver hopes the future will bring fulfillment of the first promise of broadcasting: that you can sit at home, in your comfortable chair, and be somewhere else in the world, at the push of a button and the speed of light. Although he’s disappointed that the promise has yet to be fulfilled, he is optimistic “that with the new technology that we’re getting, we will finally be able to be a world without privilege” – that it won’t require family connections or wealth or aristocracy to enjoy the best things there are. Gumbel reminds Weaver of something he wrote in 1952: that the goal was to enrich life and make the common man quite uncommon. “That’s right!” Weaver says. “Glad to see you’re still consistent,” Gumbel says.¹⁸

We go to break with Garroway using his long microphone cord like a whip, to the amusement of the crowd outside.

Willard does an Alpo spot.

Then Cousin Eddie as LBJ.¹⁹

As they say good night, they remember a couple of family members who have gone onward.

Frank McGee, who joined Today in 1971, “and before his death three years later, the quiet man from Oklahoma made a lot of new friends.”²⁰

…and Dave Garroway. Gumbel closes: “We want to remember Dave Garroway tonight as we always remember him: on some weekday morning, sometime in the ’50s, in living black and white, slightly bemused by the world around him, and believing that a little whimsy never hurt anybody.”

“The environment you live in inevitably influences your personality…I wonder how ours is gonna get influenced, living as often as we do, many hours of the day, in this strange and unique room. This is the only room in the world like the one we live in. With many lights, and…I wonder if we’re gonna have lights growing out of our heads someday.”

It’s Garroway who sees us through the closing credits…and bids us good night, in his familiar way.

“Today” at 30

On January 14, 1982 Today marked its thirtieth anniversary.¹ As it tended to do on its milestone anniversaries, Today devoted much of the program to a big celebration. The 1982 anniversary special was unexpectedly poignant, and it’s for a reason we’ll get to in a little while.

As most Today anniversaries do, this one began with a glimpse at a few moments from that very first telecast.

I think there’s a law that mandates the use of footage from that kinescope. (NBC photo)

Then we return to the studio, where we see Jack Lescoulie and Dave Garroway joking with each other about the spelling of Lescoulie’s last name.² The rapport between the two melts away the years, and for a moment it’s like 1954.

It’s as if they never stopped being on the program together. (NBC photo)

Bryant Gumbel – who had just taken over as co-host after Tom Brokaw accepted the NBC Nightly News anchor slot – introduces the men he calls “the originals,” Lescoulie, Garroway and Frank Blair.³

Lescoulie, Garroway, Gumbel, Blair and Jane Pauley. (NBC photo)

Gumbel asks Garroway what they were thinking the first day. And at this point, Garroway sounds like a grandfather dispensing advice. “You are now in the first phases of the beginning of your real life, Bryant,” he says. “You’ll find that out in the years to come. At least, I did.” Gumbel asks if it really was an adventure for him. “It changes you from one man into another. Did me. And you will feel differently about the world, very much so, if you’re on like three, four, five years.”

Gumbel notes that Lescoulie was called “the saver,” and Lescoulie described the origins of that: Garroway instructing him to walk in if he ever thought Dave was getting dull or an interview wasn’t going right. “Now, that kind of trust you don’t get very often!” Lescoulie said. Garroway mentions hearing Lescoulie as host of The Grouch Club, and suggesting him to Pat Weaver as a result.

Frank Blair remembers the task they had, which was to get people to watch at seven in the morning. He and Lescoulie recall John Crosby’s famous “What hath God and NBC wrought?” review, and that the show couldn’t last beyond thirteen weeks. At this point, Garroway jumps in: “Well, all the pioneers, you know – Copernicus, Galileo, we all suffered the first year or two!”⁴ There’s a little laughter from the panel. “That’s true!” Lescoulie says. “You’re putting us in pretty fast company, though.”

This comes from the next segment, but I can’t help putting it in here. The old Dave – funny, playful – showed up that morning. It was magic. (NBC photo)

Jane Pauley asks Garroway about his statement on the first program “to be informative without being terribly stuffy.” She asks why Garroway was afraid of being stuffy. “I don’t like stuffy things, or people, very much, I guess,” he says. “And there was so much to talk about, and do, and there still is in the world, that I don’t find it a very stuffy world even today. And if you can get the world over to them, it’s great.” And with that, the inevitable topic of J. Fred Muggs comes up. “You didn’t consider that at all demeaning because you’re not a stuffy guy, eh?” Pauley asks. “No!” Garroway says. “He was a charming, marvelous beast.” At which point Garroway pulls out a TV Guide and says that Muggs is more in the public eye today than he has ever been,⁵ and as evidence shows the magazine’s “Distinguished J. Fred Muggs Awards.”⁶ To which Garroway says, “This chimpanzee has been off the air for twenty-one years! And yet he’s still in the public eye!”

Dave shows off the “J. Fred Muggs Awards” in “TV Guide.” (NBC photo)

After a break – or as Gumbel says to Garroway, “what you used to call a recess” – Pat Weaver joins the panel. Gumbel asks why a chimpanzee joined the program. “Well, a pleasant little small ape – you know, if you got a gorilla, it might have scared Dave and Jack! I don’t think it would have worked with a gorilla!” Weaver explains that one of the problems they faced was that children would turn the set to cartoons, so they needed something that could effectively compete. “When Muggs did happen, it was the ideal solution to a problem that we faced in the early days, which is how to get the kids to like the show.”

Pat Weaver joins in. I wish they hadn’t bounced Jane Pauley, though. (NBC photo)

In the next segment, Gumbel talks to John Chancellor and Edwin Newman, who joined Today when Garroway left. “You replaced Dave Garroway,” Gumbel says to Chancellor. “Tough act. What were your thoughts?”

Before Gumbel can finish his question, Chancellor slumps over, puts his head on Gumbel’s shoulder, and snores loudly. Then he snaps back up. “Well, that was one of my thoughts,” Chancellor says. “I couldn’t believe we were on that early. It was a very difficult act to follow, and I’m not sure I was really able to fill those shoes, which I learned to be about size eighteen. Dave was one of the most magnificent communicators I had ever known and I suppose some of us learned – I think maybe Edwin did, too – from David and from Jack Lescoulie to be a little easier on television. I think most of us were very solemn when we were doing the news, and I loosened up a lot when I was on the Today show, and I think Ed did too.” Chancellor talks about how serious the show was when he took over, with a lot of heavy global and national topics balanced with some of the lighter things they did. “And they’ve threatened me by showing some of the lighter things that we’ve done.”⁷

Gumbel then asks Newman about a couple of famous moments from his time on Today, including the time he abruptly cut off an interview with George Jessel that was going off the rails,⁸ and the time Newman interviewed himself about his book Strictly Speaking.⁹

Edwin Newman interviews Edwin Newman. (NBC photo)

Throughout the morning there are birthday wishes at the end of segments. Here’s one from the Blues Brothers.

Belushi and Aykroyd. Less than two months later, Belushi would die. (NBC photo)

Later segments are less Garroway-centric, but still give us glimpses of a bygone era. Here, Gene Shalit has a few minutes with Barbara Walters, who talks about how she was the last person hired when Dave Garroway was still there, so there was really nobody on the show she didn’t know.

We then see some other historic moments, such as greetings from Pope Paul VI via satellite:

…then a clip from the program’s visit to Romania:

…and the Orient:

…and to London.

And then there’s top-of-the-hour greetings. Some views of the set:

Note Gene Shalit’s hair, spectacular as ever. (NBC photo)

Bryant Gumbel and Willard Scott. I predict a beautiful friendship between the two, in which nothing can ever possibly go wrong. (NBC photo)

But even in the midst of celebration, the world continues to turn, and the second hour begins with a news update from Chris Wallace in Washington. The big story was the previous day’s crash of Air Florida Flight 90 after it took off from Washington National Airport.

After some updates on the crash and investigation from correspondents in Washington, Wallace talks to NBC technician Jim Bigger, who had been returning to the Washington bureau from an assignment at the Pentagon.

Jim Bigger, who had been close enough to the doomed 737 to be glad he was no closer. (NBC photo)

Bigger was less than half a mile from the scene – as he tells Wallace, “close enough to know I was glad that I was no closer” – and provides a chilling report, saying it looked for all the world like the plane was going to land on the bridge, that the plane was in a stall configuration with nose up and tail down, and a lot of noise.¹⁰ The plane, Bigger says, settled on the span of the bridge and then disappeared. “There was almost an eerie sense of silence,” he says. “There was nothing, and the aroma of jet fuel began to permeate the air and we knew there was an aircraft in the river. There was no place else for him to go.”

Then it’s to Willard Scott with the weather. He begins by acknowledging the crash – “Our hearts go out to everyone down there” – and the big weather story, which is a huge winter storm system covering much of the United States.¹¹ Willard mentions that Phil Donahue had been scheduled to appear on today’s program but was stuck in Boston. “Enjoy your second cup,” Willard advises him.

That big winter storm got to us down here, too. (NBC photo)

Gene Shalit does a longer interview with Barbara Walters, mentioning a time that “a really tough subject almost got the better of Barbara Walters,” and asks that a monitor be nearby for her to see the clip. But it’s not of a prime minister or celebrity trying to squeeze out from a hard question; instead, it’s this:

And her response:

Walters talks about how the times have changed for women; when she started on Today as a writer, they only had one female writer at a time, and they only wrote women’s stories. Producer Shad Northshield championed her, saying that Walters was capable of writing about anything, so she wrote about more topics and eventually became an on-air reporter. When she sees someone like Jane Pauley in a prominent role, she says, it is a sign that times have changed since those early days.

They would be reunited on “20/20.” (NBC photo)

The interview continues after the break, as Hugh Downs¹² joins Shalit and Walters. “I would not have been on the air were it not for Hugh and his generosity,” Walters says, “because they didn’t take writers and put them on the air. And so many of the opportunities I had were because this was a man who was never jealous, and never small.” They talk about her reputation as a tough questioner, and she talks about how she gets people to open up on sensitive topics. Downs backs her up, saying he’s never heard her be mean to an interviewee.

Then there’s a segment about Joe Garagiola that turns into a roast, of sorts. But it takes a serious turn when Gumbel talks about being offered the Today job; when the offer came, Gumbel knew there was someone who could give him advice about moving from sports to a general-interest morning program, because he’d done it. Gumbel thanks “my buddy here” and says “I will forever appreciate it. Thank you.”

Jane Pauley references the station break cue “We’ll be back; don’t go far,” and how that was the trademark of Frank McGee. She introduces Jim Hartz, who was McGee’s longtime friend and who succeeded McGee as Today host when he died in 1974.

The often-forgotten Jim Hartz, low-key and easygoing, speaks from the heart about his friend and fellow Oklahoman Frank McGee. (NBC photo)

Hartz, an Oklahoman like McGee, talks about their close friendship and remembers McGee’s distinguished career. “As a reporter he was all business – no nonsense, nothing fancy,” Hartz says.

Frank McGee in one of his signature roles, holding the desk during NASA missions. (NBC photo)

“On camera he was blunt, sometimes abrasive¹³, but never lost what one critic called his ministerial dignity. Away from here, though, on the farm down in Virginia, Frank was relaxed and warm and funny. One of the things he told me he liked most about the Today show was the luxury of enough time to be himself, to let the other side of his personality come out.”¹⁴

A clip from New Year’s Day 1974, in which McGee talks about his childhood experiences watching movies, poking fun at himself for not realizing the same people got shot every week and how many times he saved Ronald Colman’s life. (NBC photo)

In the next segment, a clip of Dave Garroway doing the weather with the help of Lee Ann Meriwether is followed by Willard Scott doing that day’s weather with the help of Lee Ann Meriwether. She remembers how the weather was outlined on the map in red, which couldn’t be seen on black-and-white television, so they only had to trace over it. “And it made me look so intelligent!”

Lee Ann Meriwether helps Dave Garroway with the weather..

…and helping Willard Scott with the weather. (NBC photo)

After they ham it up for a few minutes, Jane Pauley and Gene Shalit visit with Tom Brokaw. He remembers coming to New York for the World’s Fair and looking in the window at the Today Show,¹⁵ and holding up a sign plugging Today in Omaha. “I thought that was going to be my one network shot, and as a penalty I had to come back and do it for five and a half years.”

After a segment showing times when presidents had given interviews to Today, including Harry Truman’s post-presidency strolls past the big windows, Gumbel throws to Willard Scott, who’s on the 49th Street sidewalk opposite the old Exhibition Hall.

After talking to a woman who said she remembers watching the first Today program, Willard just happens to bump into David Letterman, whose new NBC late-night program begins Feb. 1. Letterman congratulates everyone on Today on the show’s thirtieth anniversary – “and I know that means a lot coming from a guy whose own show lasted eighteen weeks.”¹⁶

And then one more celebrity greeting, this one from Steve Martin.

“Well, the Today show is thirty years old. Happy birthday, and remember: don’t trust anyone over thirty.” (NBC photo)

As the two hours come to an end, Gumbel talks about all the hours of programming on over 7,810 broadcasts – “and if that doesn’t humble you a little bit on this January 14th, 1982, then I am not sure what does” – and then each Today alum identifies themselves.

One is saved for last – as Gumbel says, a very special goodbye from a very special man. “Sentimental Journey” comes up in the background.

“I’m Dave Garroway…and peace.”

There is applause. Gene Shalit hands Garroway the first piece from the enormous birthday cake. Lee Ann Meriwether, Florence Henderson, Helen O’Connell and Betsy Palmer – former Today Girls – gather around Garroway. He holds the plate and says to them, “I said ‘peace’ and I got one!” They laugh and hug him.

No one knew how poignant the moment would be. Six months, one week and one day later, the same studio that hosted a joyous celebration, and some of the same people who had gathered for that celebration, would be holding an on-air memorial for Dave Garroway, who had died the day before. No one knew, or could have known. In a thank-you letter to producer Steve Friedman, Garroway had written of the fun he had coming back for the show. He ended the letter, “Now, let’s talk about 1987.”

If only it could have been.

Here are a few more photos to supplement the screengrabs above:

Dave with Estelle Parsons, Florence Henderson, Jane Pauley, Lee Ann Meriwether, Betsy Palmer and Helen O’Connell. (NBC photo)

From left: Jack Lescoulie, John Chancellor, Hugh Downs, Pat Weaver, Jim Hartz, Betty Furness, Gene Shalit, Bryant Gumbel, our Dave, Helen O’Connell, Florence Henderson, Betsy Palmer, Lee Ann Meriwether, Frank Blair, and Estelle Parsons (hidden behind teleprompter hood). (NBC photo)

What we have, and what we’ve lost

One of the pleasures of a big and protracted research project is that you meet some really good people along the way who are engaging in interesting projects of their own. It’s always fun to compare notes and share leads, and it’s always therapeutic to commiserate about the various obstacles any researcher must overcome (time constraints, writer’s block, footage or recordings that are inaccessible, etc.). Writing and researching can be such a solitary endeavor, and it’s incredibly helpful to be reminded that you’re part of a community.

I was reminded of all this last weekend, when I had a lengthy and very enjoyable phone conversation with a fellow historian. He’s presently engaged in a highly ambitious piece of research about a topic both of us are fascinated with (and there are times I can’t figure out if I’m encouraging his efforts because I enjoy helping other researchers, or if it’s my selfishness wanting him to finish this project because I can’t wait to read it!). He’s likewise been following my work on Dave Garroway, and has frequently sent along some very helpful items his own research has uncovered.

During our conversation we often found ourselves talking in the past tense. Not necessarily because of history, mind you, but because of people important to our stories who are no longer with us. My friend had an advantage in this regard, because starting many years ago he was able to track down and get interviews with a lot of people who have since passed on. This was important, since so many of those people were carving that particular realm of the television realm out of the wilderness. I often found myself thinking, “How I would have loved to sit in on that conversation.” My friend knows how much I love this stuff, and he’s frequently shared portions of those interviews with me, and it’s fascinating to read. But it’s not the same as being there.

And it once again got me thinking about a topic I explored in a guest piece over at It’s About TV last year, or that I briefly touched on in this post some time ago. It’s how much of this history is carried around inside the minds of the participants – and how much of it we lose when those people fall ill or pass away. I think about how much I wish I’d started this project a few years earlier so I could have talked to Beryl Pfizer. Or how much I wish I had a time machine so I could sit down with Jack Lescoulie or Jim Fleming or Pat Weaver – or Dave himself – for some really long conversations. Or so many others.

Fortunately, some stories aren’t lost forever. The Television Academy‘s series of interviews is nothing short of a gift to us all – in my instance, the extended interview they did with Dave’s best friend and favorite writer, Charlie Andrews, is a gift that never stops giving. And there are so many others there, too.¹ Jeff Kisseloff’s book The Box is also indispensable, and I understand there’s a ton of material he gathered that just couldn’t fit in the book. There are also archives and repositories out there – broadcast collections like those at the Paley Center, university archives where the papers from notable figures and corporations are now held, and sometimes you’ll find some great surprises there too. But without that human touch, without those interviews, without the ability to see someone’s face light up as they recall a great moment or their eyes glower as they remember some kind of executive meddling, or to hear them laugh as they recall a moment when things went horribly wrong…there’s something missing. It reminds me of a review I once read about a biography: the writer’s extensive use of archival materials meant he had done a great job covering the story of his subject, but the reader came no closer to knowing the man.

Those stories are out there. I’m grateful for the ones that have been preserved, but I genuinely grieve for those that are lost forever. It’s my hope that along the way, I’m able to capture some of those memories in my work on Dave Garroway, and that I’m able to both tell you his life story and, by the time I’m done, make you feel like you know him. It’s a big job, but our Dave is definitely worth the try.

Remembering Jim Fleming

The first “Today” team: Dave Garroway flanked by Jim Fleming and Jack Lescoulie (NBC photo)

The Dave Garroway story is not only the story of Dave himself, but also of the people he worked with. Some of them are well-known, but others have fallen through the cracks of history. From time to time I hope to highlight some of those forgotten stories here.

Let’s begin with Today‘s first news presenter. This is a role that’s kind of gone with the times on some programs, but once it was commonplace for the hosts to throw to someone at the top of every half-hour for the news. John Palmer, for instance, was who I remember from when I watched Today in the ’80s, and of course Frank Blair’s long tenure as newsman is never far from our minds here. But it all had to begin somewhere, and in the beginning it wasn’t just the job of reading news on the air: the news editor was literally the news editor. And the first news editor of Today is all but forgotten.¹ So let’s take some time to remember Jim Fleming.

Jim Fleming on the first “Today” program in 1952 (NBC photo)

James F. Fleming, a native of Wisconsin, attended the University of Chicago and graduated in 1938. He moved to New York with the intent of going to law school, but accepted a job with CBS as a radio announcer. The announcing gig ended up becoming a role as a correspondent. Fleming reported from the Middle East, covering the Cairo and Teheran conferences, and also reported from the Soviet Union. On the first Today program, as Garroway gave a summary of Fleming’s credentials and mentioned his issues with the Soviet censors, Fleming said with a chuckle, “They ejected me, Dave.”

In 1949 NBC hired Fleming, and he worked on projects for television and radio. One of his duties was serving as editor of the radio series Voices and Events, a half-hour summer replacement program that highlighted events in the news. Fleming was eyed early on as news editor for Today, being discussed in mid-1951 before Dave Garroway entered the picture, and it was Fleming’s role to get together a staff and everything the program would need to bring the world’s happenings to the broadcast each morning. Fleming’s staffers included a young Phi Beta Kappan named Gerald Green, who had been reporting for the International News Service. Another of Fleming’s helpers was a young production assistant named Estelle Parsons, who remembered him as “wonderful…so brilliant” and “a wonderful intellect.” According to her, Fleming had the ability to take something that had come off the wire and know all about it no matter what it was or where it had happened.²

Fleming appears amazed as Garroway shows him some exciting leader film in a too-obvious publicity photo (NBC photo)

Fleming’s tenure at Today was brief, and there are varying accounts as to why.³ Regardless, in March 1953 he was replaced by Merrill (“Red”) Mueller. Fleming worked on various projects⁴ until he was tapped by Pat Weaver to be the executive producer of an innovative weekend programming service for the NBC Radio Network. This project, which became Monitor, ran for nearly 20 years.⁵

Not long after the debut of Monitor, Fleming was off again. CBS hired him to work on one of its many efforts to counter-program Today in the early morning hours. He also produced documentaries for CBS, including the Peabody-winning The Hidden Revolution, which he co-produced with Edward R. Murrow. In 1962 and 1963 he worked with David Susskind to present Festival of the Performing Arts. Later in the decade he worked with six crews to film a four-hour documentary about Africa for ABC. The resulting documentary, Africa, was narrated by Gregory Peck and aired for four straight hours on ABC prime-time in 1967. Fleming’s efforts resulted in an Emmy award.

Jim Fleming on Today’s 40th anniversary show (NBC photo)

In later years Fleming stayed out of the spotlight, although he did make a too-brief appearance on the January 14, 1992 Today program, where Faith Daniels (who was then on the news desk) interviewed him about the early days.⁶ Married and with four children, Fleming made his home in Princeton, New Jersey, where he died in August 1996 at age 81.

There’s much more to the story of Jim Fleming, and I look forward to finding it out as we continue the research process.

The Rube Goldberg Hour

As television production was being carved from the wilderness, some things worked better than others. Live production was challenging enough in a regular studio with two or three cameras and simple switching from the nearby control room. Throw in additional elements – live remotes, telop cards, film chains, you name it – and the chances of things going wrong went up even more. On Today, one of the most ambitious and technically complicated programs on the air in the early 1950s, flubs were inevitable.

In the early days of Today, the program originated from the RCA Exhibition Hall¹, across 49th Street from NBC’s facilities inside 30 Rockefeller Plaza. But while the program was directed from a control room downstairs from the studio floor, additional elements had to originate from inside 30 Rock. And one source of constant angst was the coordination of filmed pieces, which were ordered up from the control room and had to be inserted from inside the main facilities across the street.

In a 1954 Esquire article about Garroway and Today, writer Richard Gehman² described the challenges of bringing it all together. Sometimes the wrong film came up (Gehman mentioned a morning when Garroway announced, “We take you now to Ambrose Lightship!” and instead a film of the Vienna State Opera appeared). Other times, the timing was off, since the film machine required five seconds to get going up to speed. Gehman noted that if the director didn’t give an on-time cue to the assistant director to tell the film technical director to “roll up” the film machine, viewers might see numbered leader film or an empty screen. “Considering the difficult timing involved,” Gehman wrote, “it is miraculous that such horrors do not appear more often.”

But other times, film goofs weren’t the fault of the control room. Today writer and managing editor Gerald Green³, interviewed by Jeff Kisseloff for the great oral history The Box, told of an ongoing frustration with Garroway and Jim Fleming that led to film problems. In their copy, on-camera talent say certain words that serve as a cue for the control room to roll a particular piece of prerecorded material – appropriately enough, this is called a “roll cue.” Green remembered that he had difficulty getting Garroway or Fleming to read their roll cues as prescribed – instead, they’d ad-lib and since the roll cue wasn’t given, no film would follow. After the program, when they would ask Green what happened to the film, he would reply, “Read your roll cue and you’ll get the film on time.”⁴

Green remembered that when he was managing editor, he’d watch Today from his home and watch Garroway or Fleming ad-lib, miss the roll cue, and then muse aloud that there was supposed to be film to go with this. Green would shout at his television, “Run it! Run the damn film!”⁵

All of which led to the evening Green was in the kitchen, and from the den he heard his young daughter yelling. He went in to see what was the matter. In the den, he saw his daughter watching Felix the Cat. Sure enough, she was yelling at the television: “Run it! Run the damn film!”⁶

The King Is Dead (Part II)

A couple weeks back my co-author provided an excellent precis of what happened the morning of February 6, 1952, as Today had to throw out its planned program to cover the death of King George VI. As it happens, Billboard had been publishing ongoing reviews of Today (“because of its importance in opening up additional morning hours in television,” the publication promised it would continue to offer critiques “as long as it believes significant improvements may still be made”), and the program’s coverage of the King’s passing was a major component of its February 16 review.

Joe Csida’s review began by noting the program had improved in its second and third weeks, losing the “frantic, disorganized atmosphere” of its first week and slowly discarding ideas “which no doubt sound great on paper but come off just short of ludicrous on the air,” including a bowling match between players in Chicago and New York and a knitting contest. But the February 6 program, which had to deal with two major stories that broke before air, made Csida believe “the show really seemed to come into its own.”

The King’s death, obviously, dominated the morning. Csida noted that the program’s tribute included newsreel footage of the King’s life, a telephone report from London correspondent Romney Wheeler, and an in-studio visit from H.V. Kaltenborn, “who was shaken out of the hay for the event [and] contributed interesting sidelight and background data in interviews with Garroway to round out the picture.” Csida called the program’s coverage “dignified yet exciting” and that it “left little to be desired,” summarizing it as “knowing and beautifully-handled.”

(One casualty of the story was a plan to have a group of Boy Scouts take over the program that morning. Garroway had them come on camera, where he apologized to them and explained that in view of what had happened, the Scouts would need to come back the next day.)

As if that wasn’t enough, Today dealt that same morning with word that President Harry Truman, who had earlier called the state primaries “eyewash,” had decided to enter the New Hampshire primaries after all. The program carried a pickup from Washington with NBC’s Richard Harkness and newspaperman James Reston discussing the move. Their conclusion that Truman’s announcement was meant to counter the rise of Sen. Estes Kefauver, riding a wave of popularity after his well-known hearings into organized crime, prompted Csida to praise them for “a nice piece of ‘inside’ reportage.”

Csida concluded his review by noting that Today would rise and fall on how stories broke, and that the inevitability of dull news days meant that producers needed to bring together “sound thinking on the feature-type stuff,” and that other elements of the program needed improvement. However, he noted, “Garroway gets better every day. The guy is a great performer, and his development on this tough job is something to be marked in TV’s history books. Jim Fleming and Jack Lescoulie continue, too, to make solid contributions.”

Csida concluded his review with these words: “If the program’s planners and thinkers don’t let up, Today is a cinch to make it, and make it big.” (Wonder how that turned out?)

The King Is Dead

Teletypes inside the RCA Exhibition Hall clattered to life at 5:45 a.m. EST, Wednesday, February 6, 1952, carrying news that Britain’s King George VI died. Today was still in its first month on the air, experimenting to find the right balance of its various tasks – news, weather, sports, music, interviews, reviews and myriad ephemera. But the significance of the king’s death made its own case. The plan for that day’s program was thrown out, and a new one created from scratch.

Dave Garroway points to a headline on the “Today in Two Minutes” board, 9:30 a.m. EST, February 6, 1952. (NBC photo)

In the slim hour available before airtime, the Today crew arranged for remote phone reports from London and Paris, found stock film, and secured live television pickups from Washington. Broadcasting magazine reported the show went on at 7:00 a.m. with Dave Garroway’s announcement of the king’s death. A few moments later, he spoke with NBC correspondent Romney Wheeler, phoning from London. The “Today in Two Minutes” board was updated through the morning with newspaper front pages and wire service photos.

NBC foreign affairs commentator H.V. Kaltenborn was summoned to the Exhibition Hall. He worked with Today news anchor Jim Fleming to provide background information on George VI’s tenure. Coverage continued through the program’s three hours that day. CBS and ABC, having no comparable early-hour network program, aired their first television reports beginning at 10:00 a.m., after Today signed off. It was a coup for the show.

The busy Exhibition Hall during the 9:00 a.m. hour, February 6, 1952. News anchor Jim Fleming is at right, wearing a dark suit. (NBC photo)

As should be no surprise to students of early television, no kinescope of this Today exists, so we’ll never be able to see how it all played out. But accounts that have been written since indicate the cast and crew pulled off their first real test of breaking news and helped solidify the show’s bonafides.

The first “Today,” as it happened

The very first Today program aired on January 14, 1952. The complete program is lost to history, since in the run-up to “T-Day” nobody thought to order a kinescope. All that remains on film are the 7:00-7:29 segment and the segment from roughly 8:44 to 8:58. Many years ago the Today website had a rundown transcribed from the NBC archives, but some segments in the original document were out of sequence, and some other information was missing, incorrect, or didn’t seem to square up somehow.

What is presented below is the result of a years-long effort to reconstruct that first program. The detailed portions are from my notes from the kinescope (which you can watch here), while the rest is reconstructed from the rundown document, from the photographs Peter Stackpole took for Life that morning (many of which are linked below), from contemporary articles, and other sources. I have also embedded a few screen captures (credit: NBC) to illustrate from time to time. This is a living document, and as more information is found this post will be updated. If you have information that will help make this more complete, please share (gently) in the comments or drop us an e-mail.

TODAY – January 14, 1952
7:00 am – 10:00 am Eastern Standard Time

(kinescope begins)
6:59:30: NBC ID
6:59:35: Telop and v/o promo for Richard Harkness and the News
6:59:50: WNBT ID telop/spoken ID

The very first images of Today came from this camera position, which stayed busy that morning. (NBC photo)

7:00:00: Program begins. Jack Lescoulie spoken intro.
7:00:15: Garroway’s “preamble” begins.
7:02: Time stamp and headline crawl begin. Garroway walks to headline board for “Today in Two Minutes.”

7:04: News film of Capt. Carlsen of Flying Enterprise.
7:05: Return to studio; sports stories. Garroway explains when news summaries will be presented during the program. Begins tour of communications center.
7:06: Introduces Jack Lescoulie. Visits with Mary Kelly, who tells him the weather bureau is on the line for him. Garroway shows off Kelly’s electric typewriter.
7:07: Garroway shows off tape recorder and telephoto machine. Visits with Buck Prince, who has Romney Wheeler from London on the line. Also talks to Ed Haaker in Frankfurt. The big story there is the first big snowstorm of the year. “It’s really chilly here today.” Garroway: “You’re not alone. Thank you very much, Ed.”
7:09: Garroway introduces news editor Jim Fleming.
7:10: Garroway shows off wire service machines and wall of newspapers flown in for the program.

Newspapers from around the country. I think that’s Estelle Parsons holding the newspaper. (NBC photo)

7:11: Garroway walks back to telephoto machine and looks at photo – “still wet.” Walks back to his desk.
7:12: First remote – view from top of RCA building.

The first remote gives a view of 30 Rock’s ventilator stacks, but the rainy and cloudy morning prevents seeing much else. (NBC photo)

7:13: Remote from outside Pentagon. Frank Bourgholtzer v/o. Says things aren’t too visible from the Wardman Park Hotel location. Pans right from Pentagon to view of Washington skyline. Cut back to monitor view in New York.
7:13: Remote from Chicago. Jim Hurlbut interviews two Chicago police officers who are sitting in their patrol car.
7:14: In the middle of Hurlbut’s interview, we cut back to the studio. Call over studio PA from control room: “Station break, Dave.” “Oh…recess time, right back!”
7:15: Telop and v/o promo for The Mel Martin Show and WNBT ID.
7:15: Garroway at desk attempts to resume remote to Chicago but cannot get through to Hurlbut (although Hurlbut is visible on monitors with police officers).

Garroway gives up on trying to reach Jim Hurlbut: “Peace, lad.” (NBC photo)

7:16: Jim Fleming gives a news update (Mark Clark nomination as Vatican ambassador withdrawn; China accuses US of flights over Indochina; investigation into inflammable sweaters).
7:18: Garroway on phone with Jim Fidler for weather report, but Fidler not heard on the circuit. Control room (via studio PA) tells Garroway as much and asks him to continue. Garroway relays Fidler’s forecast while drawing it on map (which Garroway has to erase first).
7:20: Garroway finishes weather report, informs viewers they will play records from time to time.
7:21: First record: “Slow Poke” by Ralph Flanagan and His Orchestra (backtimed with no instrumental lead-in; music about 90 seconds in duration). Slow pan over newsroom; clock dissolves in.

7:23: Garroway walks over and cues Jim Fleming at the newspaper board on far end of communications center. Fleming compares Minneapolis headlines vs. San Francisco headlines. Lescoulie (next to Fleming) marvels that the late headlines from San Francisco would come in via wirephoto so quickly. Garroway comes over and announces “recess time.”
7:24:30: NBC tones. Telop promo for Dave and Charlie. Telop and v/o promo for Lights Out with Frank Gallop. Telop ID for WNBT; v/o promo for Tex and Jinx. V/O ID for WNBT.

7:25: Jack Lescoulie explains what viewers can expect on the program and over the next half-hour. Previews records, upcoming interview with family with son in Korea. Introduces Garroway, who interviews Lescoulie about his background and experiences.
7:27: “Sentimental Journey” fades up. “Recess; right back.” Garroway walks back to desk.
7:27: Film PSA for Treasury Dept./US Savings Bonds. No sound from film; instead, sounds from inside communications center (teletypes, phones, bells, etc).
7:28: Garroway at desk: “I didn’t know there was any sound with that film or I’d have whistled ‘Dixie.’” Remarks that he didn’t hear it over his speaker. Also notes they lost the time at the bottom of the screen and “we’re having some new times made.”
7:29: Garroway does time check, explains program for those just tuning in. Notes people looking in through windows. “Recess time right now for a minute.”
7:29: Telop promo for Richard Harkness and the News.

(end of kinescope segment; until further notice, this is reconstructed from program log sheet and other sources)

7:30: Garroway provides a briefing on what the program is about and talks with one of the remotes.
Garroway talks to the families of two soldiers stationed in Korea, Sgt. Mickey Sinnot and Sgt. Bill Cassidy. They are then shown films taken in Korea of the soldiers when they had talked to their families in days previous.
7:41: Record: “I Wanna Love You” by the Ames Brothers.
7:45: Jim Fleming gives a news update.
7:48: A live shot from a busy Grand Central Terminal as commuters hurry to work. Record: “It’s a Lonesome Town” by Mary Ford and Les Paul.
7:51: A similar live shot from Washington, D.C.
Garroway at newspaper rack takes a look at the headlines, and Jack Lescoulie gives sports update. Curious passersby watch.
Record: “Weaver of Dreams” by Nat King Cole.

8:00: Central time zone joins the program. Garroway introduces program; gives rundown of “Today in Two Minutes.” Newsreel of Capt. Carlsen of Flying Enterprise shown.
8:07: Garroway goes to newspaper board, then checks in with the overseas correspondents via shortwave radio. Robert McCormick in Paris says the big story of 1952 will be about SHAPE and NATO. In a moment widely criticized, Garroway asks a favor of Romney Wheeler in London: “All we want you to do is start our next record.” Wheeler obliges. “I hope it’s ‘Domino.’ It’s very popular over here.” You can guess what happens next. On the way back to his desk, Garroway visits with Mary Kelly.
8:12: Views of Grand Central Terminal.
8:13: Views of Washington from the Wardman Park Hotel and the Pentagon. At the Pentagon, Ray Scherer flags down Chief of Naval Operations Adm. William Fechteler on his way to work. “Can you give us a pronouncement on the state of the Navy?” Fechteler: “Well, I don’t know. When I left it yesterday, it was in great shape.”
8:15: Views of the rush hour in Chicago.
8:20: Jim Fleming with news update.
8:22: Garroway interviews Fleur Cowles about her book Bloody Precedent, published today.
8:31: Garroway does “Today in Two Minutes” briefing. Bill Stern, just arrived from California, walks into the studio and greets Fleur Cowles.
Record: “October 32nd, 1992” by the Modernaires.
8:40: Jim Fleming gives news briefing. Talks with Garroway, Bill Stern and Fleur Cowles.

(kinescoped segment resumes)

“Changing Times” was with “Today” on its first telecast. Kiplinger’s publications remained “Today” sponsors into the 1970s. (NBC photo)

8:44: Garroway does live spot for Changing Times while leaning on desk. Notes that a lady from Brooklyn called in reference to a spot earlier in the program: “Tell Garroway that the penny postcards he’s talking about now cost two cents.” Remarks that’s a sign of changing times.
8:45: NBC chimes/telop promo for Howdy Doody. Film promo for Boston Blackie. V/O promo by Don Pardo. Film ID for WNBT with V/O promo for Kukla, Fran and Ollie.
8:45: Back to studio. Garroway sees he’s on camera – “Oh, I’m talking to a friend! Is that all right?…Mort [Werner, producer], will you tell our cue people that they’re running about three inches high?” Gives time check; throws to Jim Fleming. Fleming gives story just in from Tokyo: US Navy patrol bomber crashed this morning near Yokohama. Recaps Mark Clark story, Douglas will not run for president or VP, attacks in Suez zone, Chinese charges that US planes overflew Manchuria, AEC chairman says we’re still working on H-bomb, new US proposal in Paris about control of A-bomb, Secretary of State Dean Acheson to testify before Senate Foreign Relations Committee today, Iranian prime minister Mohammad Mossadegh refuses to rescind order to close British embassies in Iran next week, economic adviser Leon Keyserling predicts $85 billion US budget for the year, recap of inflammable sweater story, bad weather in Pacific prevents search for survivors of missing freighter. Late bulletin comes in: Capt. Carlsen received a decoration today from the king of Denmark; Fleming notes that he will be honored in NYC Wednesday. Throws back to Garroway: “Brother Garroway, are you there?”
8:46: Garroway is on phone; grins at Fleming. Goes back to phone; asks control room if the mobile units are coming up after “Frenesi.” Asks them to hold “Frenesi” and to go to mobile units first. Cues Frank Blair in Washington. There’s a pause, cue channel chatter audible; picture from Wardman Park comes up, cough over audio. Garroway says he sees Jim Hurlbut in Chicago. Frank Bourgholtzer comes on, identifies himself. Picture shows morning traffic on Connecticut Avenue bridge and Rock Creek Parkway. Bourgholtzer says he’s at the Pentagon. Picture cuts to Pentagon and crowded parking lots there. Bourgholtzer says Ray Scherer is standing in front of the Pentagon, doesn’t know if they can cut to him or if they’ll show the yacht basin. “Sherm, can we have that shot? There we are!” Bourgholtzer notes that some come to work by boat, including Air Force brass from Bolling Field. Pan over parking lots; Bourgholtzer notes some can contain 6-7,000 cars. Bourgholtzer then throws to Ray Scherer, who notes parking lots on Mall side of Pentagon and how quickly they filled up. Notes Washington Monument and Jefferson Memorial in distance. Says he expects Secretary of the Army Frank Pace at any moment. Gloomy, overcast morning in Washington.
8:50: Quick view of Pentagon exterior before cuts back to Garroway: “There! We got it that time!” Garroway, smiling, gives quick explanation of how these are some of the tools that will be used on the program to take you to various places, how they can get into just about any place. Cues Jim Hurlbut in Chicago.

8:51: Hurlbut in Chicago, outside the Loop Terminal of the Illinois Central suburban railroad. Shows people coming out of terminal to go to work. Cuts to corner of North Michigan and East Randolph, showing pedestrians and traffic. Hurlbut notes how busy that corner gets during rush hour. Cuts back to Hurlbut outside terminal with people coming out of terminal. Hurlbut notes the fog will be with them all morning long. Cut to view of bridge tower in fog and NBC mobile unit on bridge, panning left. Cut to view of buses waiting for passengers. Cut back to Hurlbut, who wraps with “so, take it away, Dave Garroway.”

The state of the art in 1952. If only this baby could come up for sale in Hemmings the month after I win the lottery. (NBC photo)

8:53: “Thank you, Jim, old friend…and he is that.” Garroway notes Chicago is his old hometown and it looks familiar to him, but NYC is his new hometown and how busy and populated it is. Time check as he cues camera at Grand Central Terminal and Peter Roberts. Shots of commuters arriving as Roberts explains what’s going on.
8:54: Back to Exhibition Hall and Garroway. “We’re going to take a time-out for a short recess at this minute. Be right back, folks.”

There’s no way I was leaving this out. (NBC photo)

8:54: NBC chimes. Telop promo for Kukla, Fran and Ollie. Telop card for Mothers’ March on Polio with Eddie Cantor v/o. Don Pardo v/o repeats phone number. Telop ID for WNBT with Pardo v/o for Ben Grauer’s Seeing is Believing. WNBT verbal ID.
8:55: Lescoulie at desk recaps what program has done thus far and what it intends to do, bringing you top stories “as regularly as coffee is served.” Wire service photos will also be shown. “And, of course, we’ll always have…Dave Garroway!” Garroway standing near desk realizes he’s on, gives time check. Time and headline crawl return to screen. Garroway notes a lady has called and said it’s an interesting program but they haven’t once mentioned Brooklyn. Garroway walks over to Lescoulie, says Jack was telling him something about “a rhubarb between [Roy] Campanella and the Dodgers.” Lescoulie notes the lady calling about the lack of a Brooklyn mention; Garroway taps Lescoulie’s shoulder and says “I just said that.” They laugh about it.
8:56: Lescoulie begins telling story about Campanella’s refusal to have bone chips removed. “Sentimental Journey” comes up and Lescoulie is faded out in middle of story.
8:56: Filmed PSA for Big Brothers of America with Gene Lockhart. “Sentimental Journey” still plays over first few seconds.
8:57: Back to Lescoulie in studio; no audio for first few seconds. Lescoulie recaps his conversation with Campanella about a story that he was holding out on re-signing with the Dodgers for the 1952 season. Campanella debunks story, saying he would return to the Dodgers.

Jack Lescoulie not only smiled between every sentence, but kept smiling while he was talking. It’s truly amazing to watch. (NBC photo)

8:58: Garroway at desk notes they have a box of gadgets. Shows off needle-threading device.

8:59: Garroway notes it’s time to say goodbye to east coast viewers. Notes he wants to stand because he means it sincerely, and notes that the show has a lot of bugs but they will work them out. “Today” super comes up. “Peace.”

(end of kinescope)

9:00: Program continues for Central Time Zone. Garroway does “Today in Two Minutes.” News update.
Record: “Frenesi” by Artie Shaw
9:20: A view of commuters at Grand Central Terminal. Music: “Grand Central Station.”
9:22: Weather report from Jim Fidler. Jack Lescoulie marks weather map.
9:23: Jim Fleming has AP report on Northeast Airlines Flight 801, which crashed on approach to LaGuardia 20 minutes ago. The bulletin is broadcast one minute after it was received via teletype.
9:27: Fleming illustrates story with viewgraphic map showing location of crash.
9:40: Jim Fleming gives news update. Garroway at newspaper board shows the headlines in different parts of the country.
Record: “I’ll See You in My Dreams” by Hugo Winterhalter.
9:48: Visit with families of soldiers in Korea.
9:55: Garroway shows wire service photo just received.
9:59: “Peace.”
9:59: We’re clear.