"Garroway at Large"

I recently happened upon this brief video, on YouTube.  It is of Dave Garroway's Chicago-based television variety program Garroway at Large, which aired on NBC from 1949 until 1951. (I don't know the specific date of the telecast.)  Later, at the start of 1952, Garroway became the first host of NBC's Today show.

 

Garroway was a captivating performer, and personality.  The video, below--or, more precisely, the video made from a kinescope--is less than two minutes long, but it provides, very quickly, a nice sense of Garroway's calm, leisurely, intimate and witty style.   

There is a particularly charming moment, in the video, featuring Faye Emerson, who was one of early television's biggest stars.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18eLE5f02dM

Morgan White, Jr., and Donna Halper

My friend Morgan White, Jr., who hosts The Morgan Show, Saturday nights (10 p.m. to midnight) on Boston's WBZ Radio, will be sitting in tonight for host Bradley Jay, on the station's overnight program (midnight to 5 a.m.).

http://player.radio.com/listen/station/wbz-newsradio-1030

At midnight, his guest will be broadcast historian Donna L. Halper.  She's the author of the 2011 book Boston Radio: 1920-2010.  The book is part of Arcadia Publishing's "Images of America" series.

https://www.amazon.com/Boston-Radio-1920-2010-Images-America/dp/0738574104/

Another of her books is Invisible Stars: A Social History of Women in American Broadcasting. The book's second edition was brought out in 2014 by the academic publisher Routledge. The book was originally released in 2001 by the publisher M. E. Sharpe; in 2014, M.E. Sharpe was bought by Routledge.

https://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Stars-History-American-Broadcasting/dp/0765636700/

Halper--who is an associate professor of Communication and Media Studies at Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass.--is one of the people behind an excellent Facebook page which has been referred to previously in this space: "New England Broadcasting History":

https://www.facebook.com/nebroadcasthistory/

Martin Landau

I cannot count the number of times I have seen the outstanding 1959 Alfred Hitchcock film North by Northwest, which starred Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint.  The film never disappoints.

One of its great supporting performances was by the wonderful actor Martin Landau, who played Leonard, the right-hand man to James Mason's Phillip Vandamm.  

Mr. Landau died on Saturday, at age 89. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/16/movies/martin-landau-actor-academy-award-dies-89.html

Another of my favorite performances by Mr. Landau was his supporting role--for which he received an Oscar nomination--in Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989). 

Mr. Landau's obituary in The Washington Post noted this, about his Crimes and Misdemeanors role:  "Newsweek arts writer Cathleen McGuigan spoke for many critics when she wrote that his 'delicate, tortured performance as a successful man caught in the web of his deceits is a tour de force.'"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/martin-landau-oscar-winning-actor-who-played-heroes-and-villains-dies-at-xx/2017/07/16/310a5ee6-6a86-11e7-96ab-5f38140b38cc_story.html

Here, lastly, is part of a scene from North by Northwest; the scene includes Cary Grant, James Mason, and Mr. Landau.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IV4IWsXkNI8