From Those Were the Days:

1943 - Judy Canova, the ‘Queen of the Hillbillies’, began a weekly comedy show on CBS Radio.

1947 - A hidden microphone eavesdropped on unsuspecting people for the first time this night, as Candid Microphone hit the airwaves. Allen Funt was the host of the ABC radio show, the forerunner of the long-running TV version, Candid Camera.

Candid Microphone didn’t have as long a run on radio, however, lasting one year on ABC, taking a two year hiatus and returning to CBS Radio for another year.

The radio format of Candid Microphone was slightly different than the TV version ... when one of the eavesdropees uttered words considered too colorful by the network, a soft woman’s voice would say, “Censored,” and the program would continue with Don Hollenbeck as the narrator. The program, directed by Joseph Graham, was sponsored by Philip Morris cigarettes.

The radio show’s announcer, Ken Roberts, joined Allen Funt on the early version of the smash TV hit. Funt, who became a big star with Candid Camera, also produced a movie called What Do You Say to a Naked Lady using the Candid idea.
10:46:15 PM    comment []  trackback []  

“You're an unprincipled young man, Hud.”

Since I have this evening and the next off, I finally got the opportunity to watch those Netflix rentals that arrived last week. After the ballgame was over, I was able to get my father (admittedly not a classic movie fan) interested in a viewing of Hud (1963), a contemporary Western that focuses on the lives of three generations of Texas ranchers.

The first time I ever heard about this movie was in a Bill Cosby comedy routine in which he described Hud as “a great movie…no plot or nothing, just a movie about a guy chasing all the women in town.” He’s a little mistaken about the no-plot aspect; the movie’s main thread concerns the Bannon family’s discovery of hoof-and-mouth disease in one of their cows, and the sickening realization that their entire herd will have to be destroyed as a result. Old school rancher Homer (played by Melvyn Douglas in an outstanding performance that snagged him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar) clashes with his son Hud (Paul Newman), a rake and a scoundrel who openly scorns his father’s traditional values and who sees nothing wrong with selling their herd before the official news about the illness gets out. Caught in the middle is Lonnie (Brandon DeWilde, the little kid from Shane), who idolizes his uncle but gradually comes to understand that his grandfather’s distaste for his own son (in Homer’s words, Hud just doesn’t “give a damn” about people) is completely justified.

Hud received seven Academy Award nominations; Newman was singled out for a performance that it is very atypical for him—but he would have to wait until 1986 to get his statuette (I personally believe that Paul’s finest hour is as a drunken lawyer seeking redemption in 1982’s The Verdict). But Patricia Neal (who plays the family’s earthy, no-nonsense housekeeper) and James Wong Home (the movie’s cinematographer) would each get an Oscar, and like Douglas’ both were well warranted. Hud was directed by one of my favorite directors, Martin Ritt (Edge of the City, Hombre, also with Newman) and was adapted by Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank, Jr. from Larry McMurtry’s outstanding novel (there’s a scene in this film where Douglas and DeWilde attend a “picture show,” which evokes memories of another great McMurtry book that later became a film, The Last Picture Show). I think Hud is a hell of a great picture, and since my Dad didn’t chime in with his traditional “it’s no Gone With the Wind” crack I’ll assume he enjoyed it, too.
10:42:37 PM    comment []  trackback []