The Fred Waring Show: March 18, 1951

The Fred Waring Show

Originally broadcast: Sunday, March 18, 1951 at 9 PM ET on ABC.

Plot: Kathryn Beaumont and Sterling Holloway join Fred Waring to discuss and preview portions of the Alice in Wonderland movie and songs.

Analysis: First off, this is not the entire broadcast as the show was originally an hour in length and it appears only the last half hour of the broadcast covered Alice. Second, while Disney was trying to promote the movie and participated with the sets, providing footage, the score, Beaumont and Holloway, I’m not sure how much input they had on costumes or casting. Very few things in the world more disturbing than seeing the Queen of Hearts with a pencil mustache, I assure you. Needless to say, it’s a more expanded version of someone going on a late night show these days to promote an upcoming project. The problem here is the line between creativity and disturbing is very fine and this thing doesn’t even seem to notice that line. Disney would refine quality control on television in years to come. As for show quality, clearly the stuff on film made for Waring by Disney is in better shape than the rest of the broadcast with sharper contrast and sound, but the show overall is still watchable.

That bit of business done, let’s look at the personalities here, starting with Fred Waring. Waring got his start like a lot of teenagers – he joined a band and a rather successful one at that. Starting in 1918, the band picked up some good gigs and landed a recording contract. The success was so good, Waring chose to drop out of college and hit the road with the band. For a period of nine years, from 1923 into 1932, Waring’s band was one of the most popular in the country, so they were an easy pick up for radio. One consequence of this shift was a halt in making records because Waring didn’t want record sales to compete with the music being played on the radio.  Nevertheless, from 1932 well into the late 1940s, Waring and his music maintained popularity until television came knocking and Waring jumped, seeing another opportunity to expand his listening base. The Fred Waring Show would be broadcast from June 20, 1948 until May 30, 1954, but Waring would continue to be involved in music, both teaching and refining vocals until his death in 1984.

Ironically, for all his work in music, Waring may actually be best known these days for a blender. In the 1930s, an inventor by the name Frederick Jacob Osius came to Waring with an idea, but no money, for an electric blender. Waring was interested and agreed to fund further research and development of the device, something that lasted another six months and cost $25,000 of Waring’s money and the blender was still not working as advertised. Waring pushed Osius out and struck out on his own, introducing the world to the Miracle Mixer in 1937. Using his radio show and band tours to promote the blender to hotels, stores and restaurants. The thing took off and remains in use to this day as the Waring Blender, something that most people either have a cousin or something like it in their kitchens right now. By the way, as an off-hand, part of the reason why General Electric was a sponsor of Waring’s television show was because of the Waring Blender.

Moving on, Kathryn Beaumont was a child actress in her second movie when Walt Disney spotted her and personally decided on her for the role of Alice. She’d stay with Disney to later voice Wendy for Peter Pan before stepping back from the cameras in favor of being a teacher. To this day, she does occasional voice work, mostly for Disney related products.

Sterling Holloway is one of those actors who people probably connect more with a voice these days rather than a face. We’ll see (and hear) a lot from Holloway as we go along, so suffice to say for now that while having a movie and stage career stretching from 1926 into the mid 1960s, save for a brief stint in the United States Army during World War II, he is best known for his voice work, which is enormous, to say the least.

The Bottom Line: A half hour edit of an hour long television show, it’s an… interesting bit of promotional material with the focus seemingly on what may sell Alice best: music and humor. But in all honesty, unless you’re a Disney or early television fan, this may just seem a bit too strange at points for many people to have much patience with. Check it out if you want, but it’s not the end of the world if you happen to miss this one. 

Like the previous bit of Alice promo material, it is included as an extra on the Alice in Wonderland: Masterpiece Edition (http://www.amazon.com/Alice-Wonderland-Masterpiece-Kathryn-Beaumont/dp/B0000TG9E2/ref=sr_1_12?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1285884274&sr=1-12) and the Alice in Wonderland: Un-Anniversary Edition (http://www.amazon.com/Alice-Wonderland-2-Disc-Special-Un-Anniversary/dp/B00335EQ0E/ref=sr_1_4?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1285884274&sr=1-4). There is a blu-ray/DVD combo release for Alice set for February of 2011, where I believe this will be included among the extras but we’ll just have to wait and see. I’ll post something here once I know for certain.

Next time, more promotion for Alice.