Remembering Lauren Bacall…Her Television Debut
Remembering Lauren Bacall…Her Television Debut
This photo of Bacall, Fonda and Bogart was taken at NBC Burbank on May 30, 1955 during the dress rehearsal of a ‘Producer’s Showcase’ presentation of “Petrified Forest”…this was Lauren Bacall’s first appearance in a live television drama.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riylfh_9ir8
At the link is a rare kinescope of that performance. This, the only known copy, was given to The Paley Center For Media by Bacall herself in 1990.
‘Producer’s Showcase’ was NBC’s vehicle for their celebrated 90 minute color “spectaculars” which included 37 productions from 1954 till 1957. The most famous of these would be ‘Peter Pan’. This was the eleventh edition of this monthly series and may have been the first one done from the west coast.
It was directed by Delbert Mann and starred Bacall, Henry Fonda and Humphrey Bogart in what would also be his first appearance in a live television drama. Jack Klugman, Richard Jaeckel, and Jack Warden played supporting roles.
If you’ve ever seen “Key Largo”, you’ll instantly recognize the similarity of the story lines of escaped convicts taking over, in this case, a dessert dinner as opposed to a Florida Keys hotel. Enjoy and share. – Bobby Ellerbee
THE PETRIFIED FOREST predates KEY LARGO….the stage version debuting on Broadway in 1935.
Which studio in the Burbank facility is this? Is it Studio 1? I would assume so…
I remember when she was a celebrity panelist on the original Match Game with Gene Rayburn, recorded in 8H. Steve Bogart was an NBC newswriter for many years.
She will be!
Here’s Humphrey Bogart on the set of “Petrified Forest” taking a look at one of NBC’s six TK41s used on the show.