I was going through the cable guide to decide what serious news program I was going to watch after the PBS Newshour. CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, FOX. Then I saw on ESPN Classic that they had Celebrity Bowling. This is a taped show from the early 70's from the looks of it. There are two two-person teams. One team has Ernest Borgnine, one team has Dick Martin (Laugh-In) and then there's Virginia Graham (was she a newspaper columnist or something?) and some other guy that might have been known to the public at the time.
The grand prize is a Chevrolet Vega, 2nd prize is an Amana Radarange (microwave). Neither of the teams is good enough to win either prize. I think they might win some Farah slacks if they're lucky. This show is a major time-capsule you might enjoy if you're old enough to remember those times.
That would be...Dick Martin and Ernest Borgnine vs. Laurence Harvey and Virginia Graham.
Laurence Harvey
Born Zvi Mosheh Skikne
1 October 1928(1928-10-01)
Joniškis, Lithuania
Died 25 November 1973(1973-11-25) (aged 45)
London, England
Years active 1948 - 1973
Laurence Harvey (1 October 1928[2] – 25 November 1973) was a Lithuanian-born actor who achieved fame in British and American films.[3]
Harvey maintained throughout his life that his birth name was Laruschka Mischa Skikne. However, his legal name was Zvi Mosheh (Hirsh) Skikne.[4] He was the youngest of three boys born to Ber "Boris" and Ella Skikne, a Jewish family in the town of Joniškis, Lithuania.[5] At the age of five he emigrated with his family to South Africa where he took on the English name of Harry.
He grew up in Johannesburg, and was in his teens when he served with the entertainment unit of the South African Army during World War II. After moving to London, England, he enrolled in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art where he became known as Larry. After learning his craft at RADA, he began to perform on stage and film, where he adopted the stage name "Laurence Harvey", taken either from the shop name Harvey Nichols or from Harvey's Bristol Cream.
Career He made his cinema debut in the British film House of Darkness (1948), but only established himself in British cinema when he appeared with Rex Harrison and George Sanders in King Richard and the Crusaders (1954) and as Romeo in Renato Castellani's adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, narrated by John Gielgud, in the same year. This enabled him to gain his first Hollywood experience. He was cast as the writer Christopher Isherwood in I Am A Camera (1955), with Julie Harris as Sally Bowles (Cabaret is a musical from the same source texts). He also appeared on American TV and on Broadway, making his Broadway debut in 1955 in the play Island of Goats, a flop which closed after one week, though his performance won Harvey a 1956 Theatre World Award.
Harvey appeared twice more on Broadway, in 1957 with Julie Harris, Pamela Brown, and Colleen Dewhurst in William Wycherley's The Country Wife, and as Shakespeare's Henry V in 1959, as part of the Old Vic company, which featured a young Judi Dench as Katherine, the Daughter of the King of France. In John Miller's biography of Dame Judi, With A Crack In Her Voice, she talked of being bewildered at how Harvey never actually looked at her during his speeches, and the book also quotes Joss Ackland as saying that Americans seemed to think Harvey was some sort of great actor, which his colleagues certainly did not.
Virginia Graham (4 July 1912, Chicago – 22 December 1998, New York City)[1][2] born Virginia Komiss, was a daytime television talk show host from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s. On television, Graham hosted the syndicated programs Food for Thought (1953–1957),[3] Girl Talk (1962–1969) and The Virginia Graham Show (1970–1972), and appeared on many other programs.
She was described as "a bright, alert, talkative woman of ripe, tart-edged candor."[4] Another writer said she looked like "Sophie Tucker doing a Carol Channing performance."[5]
She attended the University of Chicago, where she majored in anthropology, and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She then studied journalism at Northwestern University, and received a master's degree. After World War II, she wrote scripts for such radio soap operas as Stella Dallas, Our Gal Sunday, and Backstage Wife. She hosted her first radio talk show in 1951.[6] She succeeded Margaret Truman in 1956 as co-host of the NBC radio show Weekday, teamed with Mike Wallace.[7]
Holy - thank you for the historical background info on those bowlers. I was more familiar with Dick Martin from Laugh-In and Ernest Borgnine because I'm told I look like him when on a bad day.
I love the "celebrity" shows. My wife has me watching Celebrity Rehab and I swear I've only heard of 2 people on the show, the super model and the girl that got it on with Tiger Woods. One of the "celebrities" is the mother of Kesha Cole. I have no idea who Kesha Cole is ...
> I have no idea who Kesha Cole is ...
You and me both!! 😐
Supposed to be a singer
Supposed to be a singer
Very pretty lady. OH MY!
Supposed to be a singer
Look at the size of her.... ring!!! :-O
