As the programming continued to expand, NJN program director handed an assignment to work with one of our news show reporters who was a seasoned New York "Street News Pro". This was a daunting assignment for me - but I knew it would also be a great opportunity to work with a TV veteran who had many credits . She was in the twilight of a long career in a job that was highly competitive, with long hours that took its toll on Betty Adams when she came to NJPTV on her last job. She was tough and streetwise from pounding New York City beats for decades in big time TV news departments – but like everyone in the business, she got older and was cast aside for a blond twink with little news knowledge but with great hair.
Betty was going to produce a long-form interview show – First Person and it was about “famous” people from or having a close connection to New Jersey and she discovered a very long list of notables. I was assigned to direct this show with her because for the most part, it would be produced on film and on location of the guests. It needed a documentary production style rather than the typical “news interview” approach. I knew I had to prove myself to this veteran who was a perfectionist. From day one we would be with high level persons and professionals. As the weeks went by, I had the opportunity to meet many of the celebrities, movers and shakers that I had admired or read about, but never dreamed I would meet and “direct” them – the following are my lasting impressions of some of the most memorable:
Dr. Thomas Robinson, Glassboro NJ – Betty and I agreed that the first show in the series was one that we could “bury” as was sometimes the custom when trying out a new show’s elements. But this interview was aired first because it was an excellent start. I suggested Dr. Robinson because I knew him as one of my college mentors and the President of Glassboro State College. I had a rare relationship with him because as President of the Student Government we would discuss the needs and pulse of the student body – and many times he gave me great advice on handling, not only my elected duties, but how I should pursue my career and education after graduation. Robinson was the show’s first guest because he and his wife became instantly world famous - his campus home (Hollybush Mansion) was the site of the Summit conference between President Johnson and Russian Premier Alexi Kosygin which produce “The Spirit of Hollybush”, a first step credited for the thawing of the cold-war that was close to becoming a hot one over many issues. Many of the original press pool photos that I had kept from my intern job at the college were used as cutaway shots that enhanced the discussion on world politics and the future of American education.
(BTW - The summit was on the same day I was married and my college internship boss called me a few days before to say, “Stay home or you will never get to your marriage until this thing is over!” I took his advice and learned later that our office worked around the clock for two days before the meeting responding to countless press calls and managing a bunch of details including the addition of 950 phone lines in our gym to handle the horde of press that were to invade our small college from all over the world. A plus for me, I sold my GSC sweatshirt on my honeymoon to Bermuda for $25 bucks that weekend! A bit of history that’s not in the history books – after the conclusion of the two-day summit the Secret Service took the two chairs that the world leaders had used for their meeting to DC without informing Dr. R or his wife. All he was told was that they had gone to the Smithsonian. A few months later two exact duplicate replacements of the wing-backed chairs arrived at Hollybush by government truck.)
The last photo I cut to at the end of the show was a one of a kind showing Dr. Robinson on the steps of the magnificent air force copter with LBJ, their hands clasped above their heads in the standard political exit image. After the show Dr. Robinson asked me, “Cal where did you get that photo?” I replied that I took it myself, it wasn’t from the press. He informed me that the picture was the only one he ever saw that “proved he was even there with the president!” I gave it to him as a thank you..
We later met other Politicians for the series including the retired Governors Cahill, Byrne, Kean. Mrs. Walter Edge, the widow of the only New Jersey Governor to serve two nonconsecutive terms was a guest. All the interviews were done at their homes and to see their “memorabilia”; how they lived was fascinating.
Jerry Lewis, Born in Newark, NJ – We did this interview at his Philadelphia Rittenhouse Square Hotel suite before his evening show at the Latin Casino in Cherry Hill and I couldn’t believe I was directing one of my idols. My first impressions – he was taller than I imagined and didn't try to be funny - he was all business. Matter of fact, he mentioned that he was only “funny when he got money to be funny…” and he set the tone immediately that he wasn’t the clown that was his public persona – but that he was the classic film maker who played the fool and that was why he was idolized by the French and not by the American audience. The interview was typical…Where’d you grow up – “Irvington”…; Your father was in vaudeville…”Yup”; How did you get your start – “the 500 Club in AC was the beginning with that Italian singer…”! But after we stop filming were got a more intimate look and it was most telling. Mr. Lewis looked carefully at all of our equipment and had questions for our crew about the film stock and the aperture settings, what kind of audio recording machine = it seemed that film shoots were like new toys for him.
As we were ushered out by his “assistant” road manager, I noticed a clothes rack in the foyer of the private elevator which contained at least a dozen tuxes and a duplicates of the casual clothes that Lewis had worn for the interview – all new. His assistant saw my look and said, “Jerry is allergic to dry cleaning fluid and many detergents, he wears a new outfit every day and then we send them to the Salvation Army – but personally I think he just likes wearing something “new” because he tells of having to wear his dads clothes to school and when he started in show business…” I left marveling at the benefits of being a “star”.
George Gallup, Princeton – Betty did her homework and always found a “hook” for her stories. Mr. Gallup had taken the train to NYC his entire career as the “poller for the nation”, so we shot an opening sequence at the Princeton “Dinky” station which was the short connector train that took 100’s of business people a few miles to Amtrak's mainline station. This show was as dry as the endless data that the Gallup Polls gathered and published. It took him 20 “takes” to say this simple sentence to the camera– “Hi, I’m George Gallop, the pollster and I’m on my way to the City.” Betty quipped in our van that she thought he was so used to checking and rechecking data, he was compelled to do try it over and over. This was hysterical for us all.
Arthur Godfrey, NYC ( Mr. Godfrey’s family lived in Hasbrouck Heights when he was 12) – We filmed him in his offices that CBS at the “black rock” which they provided him, even though he hadn’t worked for that network in decades. We had left Trenton at 4:AM to avoid the never-ending traffic jam at the Lincoln Tunnel so we could be set for a 9:AM shoot. When Mr. Godfrey entered and said, “Hello guys,” I got chills. I was in the presence of the voice that my grandmother and I listened to on the radio every morning – Arthur Godfrey and Friends. I was in the presence of a media legend. He urged me to call him Arthur and began a continual chat that only stopped when he had to leave for an appointment after the shoot. As we started to unpack the gear, he said, “Must have been tough for you guys to get here…I noticed that the traffic was really bad today… had to be because I got to read most of the New York Times from page in my limo on the way here.” (Wouldn’t it be great to have a chauffeur I pondered).
His office was very large with a magnificent desk and mahogany bookcases full of books of all kinds . At the far end of the room was collection of his “trophies”. A stuffed leopard and various other examples of the taxidermy art and African artifacts. When I asked where he would like to do the interview, at his desk or from the leather couch. He said, “Anywhere you like, except please don’t shoot my safari souvenirs…I regret that I once killed beautiful animals…we never gave it a thought in my day…showing those now would upset a lot of my fans.” We did no “B-Roll” in that corner and respected his wishes.
As we finished Mr. Godfrey’s secretary entered and said, “Arthur, your luncheon speech is at noon…your change of clothes and speech will be in the limo…and I order the meal you like on the plane…will there be anything else before you go…” With that overheard conversation I now realized why an 80 year old could still come to work and be productive. For decades he (and many other ancient stars) had never had to worry about life’s daily tasks, eating, traffic, leaving at 4:AM – this was one of the perks of wealth, success and why they worked so for so long.
Dore Schary, Born in Newark – He came to our Newark studios on the subway from NYC and we trucked our set up the Jersey Turnpike. This magic of television. I'm sure he had no idea how he had touched my life – as I watched him chat with Betty his credits rolled in my mind from the black and white films I saw late Saturday nights on TV and the wide on the big screen at the movies…a Who’s Who of great films:
Boys Town with Spencer Tracy; Young Tom Edison with Mickey Rooney; Lassie Come Home with Roddy McDowall. And a film that still haunts me from a Saturday afternoon long ago, The Boy with Green Hair! Which I thought was the one of funniest films of my matinee days. Of course, when Betty and he discussed Battleground, his legacy film, I realized I was again in the presence of greatness and art that would last forever.
Yogi Berra, (He spent a lot of his life off the field and living in Caldwell, NJ - so Betty stretched her First Person requirements a bit with this one) – We shot Yogi’s interview during the off season on the home bench at the original Yankee Stadium. Just being in the locker room and tunnels in the Mecca of Baseball was great but the great got even “greater” as Yogi would say - we were with a Baseball Hall of Famer. And Yogi was Yogi. His persona was the same as his legend, but I do believe he devilishly enjoyed creating malaprops and plays on words that hid his actual intelligence and were as good as his athletic abilities. Betty nailed the interview and we had some great laughs on and off camera – But it wasn’t over until it was over! We had to edit it.
Betty Hughes, Bradley Beach – Elisabeth Sullivan Hughes was a governor’s wife, but we interviewed her because she became more famous than her husband. She was the parent of 10 children and the family had been squeezed into Morven the former Governor's Mansion which she told us was very inadequate for a family of two let alone ten. Her brood had to double up in the bedrooms and they would have liked to have a few more bathrooms during their 8-year stay. Betty was famous for her biting humor and she upstaged the quiet Gov many times on the campaign trail and at the Glassboro Summit he hosted. She wrote for national magazines and had her own network talk show for several seasons. Unfortunately not long after the interview, after a long battle with losing and gaining back weight, she died very unexpectedly at only 61. Seeing her “backstage” was such fun as she quipped about the day’s news and how she disliked several of the current governor's “new” ideas!
First Person continued for two seasons and like many shows in public television it just disappeared without a reason or for a lack of audience. Over the run of the show I met many more celebrities and leaders in their field: Champion boxer Jersey Joe Wollcot from Merchantville; Famed pitcher Al Downing from Trenton; Fran Leibowitz, award winning writer from Morristown; Paul Volcker from Cape May a world recognized economist and chairman of the Federal Reserve Board; Amiri Baraka from Newark (LeRoy Jones at the time) award winning poet and playwright - and many more. First Person – was followed by many other shows that I directed – but this was my first and a wonderful beginning of a journey that would take me to countless new places to meet countless special people for the next 20 years.
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