I missed this "Tonight Show" segment 40 years back, but was extremely pleased to watch it on the local nostalgia TV station. It points up several issues that make the Golden Age of TV talk shows and variety so far superior to current junk.
Johnny's smooth interviewing style and willingness to play straight man to guest comics is on view, especially when he indulges Norm Crosby's patented shaggy dog jokes and malapropisms, adding to their impact. Charles Nelson Reilly is delightful with his idiosyncratic stories about the legit theater, and I loved the coincidence of his booking tied to his directing Julie Harris on stage in "Belle of Amherst" with my current shipment of Cynthia Nixon in the new Emily Dickinson movie "A Quiet Passion", via Netflix DVD service. The Miss Universe winner from Trinidad & Tobago is a model of self-assurance, not very forthcoming as an interview subject but beautiful as well she should be in the show's eye candy spot.
But the show-stopper is what's missing entirely from current late-night TV, guest Evelyn Keyes plugging her book "Scarlett O'Hara's Younger Sister". Johnny is well-acquainted with the book and asks relevant questions, but uninhibited Keyes is charming, informative, irreverent, vivacious and simply a delight as the perfect guest. You can't bottle what she brings to the show, but it is preserved on this video for fans to savor. So what has over the decades turned into tired, self-serving exercises to plug one's new book or movie in infomercial content on these programs is instead a fabulous peek behind the scenes of Golden Age Hollywood.
I was addicted to talk shows, first these shows with Allen, Paar, Carson, Cavett and Griffin, and later spent a ridiculous amount of time weekly glued to the set to watch a diverse group including Susskind, Kupcinet,Joe Pyne, Lou Gordon and Cleveland's local stalwarts Don Robertson and Big Wilson, plus more esoteric personalities like Les Crane, Joey Bishop and Woody Woodbury. Current crop of SNL alums and even all-around entertainers like Corden can't hold a candle to the classic as well as unsung greats of those early years.
