view raw text
SIGHT AND SOUND By Leo Mishkin NEW YORK N Y May 2 It was just like old times on radio again Only now it was on TV It was the old Kate Smith Hour with pictures Kate coming on to sing the introductory song then bringing in the first guest of the evening Then Kate singing another song or so followed by an ¬ other guest for the evening this time in a dramatic skit Then a couple of more songs from Kate and a com ¬ edy bit and the wind up with Kate lifting her voice for the clos ¬ ing numbers and that was the end of the Kate Smith Hour Those of you who re ¬ membered radio will also remember that it went on like that week after week year af ¬ ter year Sometimes it was Edward G Rob inton or Mickey Rooney or Boris Karloff in the dramatic skit Sometimes it was Henry Aldrich or It Pays to be Igno ¬ rant for the comedy But always and for ¬ ever it was Kate Smith with God Bless America or When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain with that clear and ringing voice the most popular singer of her time on one of the most popular radio shows on the air This past Sunday evening it was on ABC television with Kate marking her 25th anniversary as a broadcaster This past Sunday it was Boris Karloff in the dramatic skit and Ed Wynn and Molly Goldberg for the comedy If it werent for the fact that you could see her now in ¬ stead of just listening it might have been back in the late 1930s and early 1940s What you didnt expect however was Kate Smith making like Ray Bolger at one point doing a slow dance number to The Old Soft Shoe What you didnt expect was a trimmed down Kate Smith a much slimmer Kate Smith than she used to be Shes neither a Katharine nor an Audrey Hepburn yet of course but then who is Watching her doing The Old Soft Shoe even brought back memories of the days when she was in Flying High on Broad ¬ way just starting out just beginning that long climb to stardom on the air I never thought Id ever live to see the day when Kate Smith did a solo dance in public again but by golly there it was all right rightAnd And there too was Boris Karloff in that dramatic skit Well not exactly a dramatic skit but a solo reading of Kurt Weills September Song while the orchestra played the music in the background and i amounted to pretty nearly the same thing After all Walter Huston wasnt a singer either when he first introduced the num ¬ ber but he did all right with it too as I remember And then came the first comedy bit with Ed Wynn going into his now fa ¬ miliar business about giving up comedy for serious acting and trying to unload his comedy props on Mr Karloff Props like the single shoes that pointed in two direc ¬ tions at once for people who didnt know whether they were coming or going Or the device to let you know what time it was in case all the clocks in your house had stopped running You blew a horn and whirled a noisemaker and somebody shouted Hey cut that out will ya Dont you know its 230 in the morning morningA A Or again there was Molly Goldberg chatting with Kate across the air shaft saying it was such a nice apartment Kate was in and why didnt she take it and wouldnt Kate like some of her chopped liver and my how things have changed in the world havent they Or there would be the Billy Williams quartet the same old Billy Williams quartet from the old Max Liebman show with a couple of songs of their own Or Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy in the white ties top hats and tails they used to wear with Bergen telling McCarthy an ancient Greek legend and McCarthy telling Bergen to go tell it to an ancient Greek Like I was saying it was just like old times again back in the late 1930s and early 1940s and werent Bergen and McCarthy using the same gags then too tooA A A A AWhether Whether on the other hand this reap ¬ pearance of the Kate Smith Hour por ¬ tends a regular return to the air is some ¬ thing to be decided only in the future And come to think of it whether any of us could take a regular Kate Smith Hour once more week after week year after year is another matter entirely The world have moved on since those days and weve got things like Wyatt Earp and Mike Wallace and Bob and Ray to contend with these days But it was nice to go back for only this one instance anyway Very nice Even up to and including Kate Smith doing The Old Soft Shoe sWho would ever have thought it
