ANNIVERSARY TODAY:
Ted Key, the cartoonist and creator of "Hazel" was born today in 1912 (died in 2008).
Don DeFore, the actor who played Mr. Baxter on the Hazel television show, was born today in 1913 (died in 1993).
Don DeFore's son - Ron DeFore - was born today in 1950. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RON. Thanks again for the wonderful interview about your Dad (re-published here again at http://shirleybooth.info/ in the last two posts)!
*****
As promised...
* AN INTERVIEW WITH PETER KEY: "REMEMBERING TED KEY ON HIS BIRTHDAY"
(Part One)
*Copyright 2010 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Ted Key's son Peter agreed to an interview. The answera ares based on his father's unpublished memoirs.
Jim Manago: What do you know about your Dad (Ted Key)'s involvement in the Hazel television series?
Peter Key: My father negotiated the deal to make "Hazel" into a TV show.
From 1943 through 1969, "Hazel" appeared in The Saturday Evening Post, a weekly magazine put out by the Curtis Publishing Co., which then was based in Philadelphia. As a result, Curtis owned all the rights to "Hazel," including the right to make it into a TV show.
Throughout the 1950s, my father received multiple offers to make "Hazel" into a TV show, including one presented by Thelma Ritter, a comic motion-picture actress who wanted to star in the show. Curtis rejected them all.
Weakening finances eventually convinced Curtis to change its mind and it negotiated, but fortunately didn’t sign, a deal my father considered laughable.
He got permission from Curtis to try to negotiate his own deal and arranged a meeting with Screen Gems, the television arm of Columbia Pictures, which had previously expressed an interest in making "Hazel" into a TV show.
Prior to the meeting, he had lunch in New York with his brother Leonard, who was then selling TV shows, and a friend of Leonard’s who was a TV executive. The three of them came up with the terms they thought my father should ask for.
My father went to Screen Gems’ office in New York and presented the terms. Screen Gems agreed to them immediately.
As my father was leaving the office, John Mitchell, a Screen Gems executive who later became my father’s friend, explained why Screen Gems had accepted his offer so quickly. Mitchell and the two other Screen Gems executives involved in the negotiation had been seated behind my father at lunch. They had overheard the entire conversation among my father, Leonard and Leonard’s friend, and, as a result, knew what my father was going to propose before he walked into their office.
My father was also involved in getting Shirley Booth to play "Hazel."
In 1947, my father and another man whom my father knew from his radio-writing days co-wrote a three-act play about "Hazel." A producer who liked the script had shown it to Shirley Booth and she had agreed to star in the play. But the producer wanted my father and his collaborator to rewrite the script.
My father agreed, but since he had commuted to his collaborator’s apartment in New York to write the original version of the script, he wanted his collaborator to come to his home outside Philadelphia to work on the rewrite. The collaborator refused and that was that.
After Screen Gems agreed to make "Hazel" into a TV show, my father suggested that Shirley Booth star in it. Some people at Screen Gems suggested other actresses, but no one was selected.
With the need to find an actress to play "Hazel" as soon as possible, a top executive at Screen Gems’ West Coast office who thought Shirley Booth would be good in the role flew to New York to meet with her agent.
He told the agent Screen Gems had a half-hour TV series it wanted Ms. Booth to star in. The agent said she didn’t do television. The executive said to call her. The agent did, explaining to her that he had told the Screen Gems executive that she didn’t do television, but that the executive had insisted he call her anyway.
Ms. Booth asked the agent the name of the show the executive wanted her to do. The agent asked the executive, who replied, “Hazel.”
“Hazel,” the agent told Ms. Booth.
She instantly agreed to do it and went on to play Hazel on TV for five seasons, four on NBC and one on CBS.
Jim Manago: What do you know about your Dad (Ted Key)'s involvement in the Hazel television series?
Peter Key: My father negotiated the deal to make "Hazel" into a TV show.
From 1943 through 1969, "Hazel" appeared in The Saturday Evening Post, a weekly magazine put out by the Curtis Publishing Co., which then was based in Philadelphia. As a result, Curtis owned all the rights to "Hazel," including the right to make it into a TV show.
Throughout the 1950s, my father received multiple offers to make "Hazel" into a TV show, including one presented by Thelma Ritter, a comic motion-picture actress who wanted to star in the show. Curtis rejected them all.
Weakening finances eventually convinced Curtis to change its mind and it negotiated, but fortunately didn’t sign, a deal my father considered laughable.
He got permission from Curtis to try to negotiate his own deal and arranged a meeting with Screen Gems, the television arm of Columbia Pictures, which had previously expressed an interest in making "Hazel" into a TV show.
Prior to the meeting, he had lunch in New York with his brother Leonard, who was then selling TV shows, and a friend of Leonard’s who was a TV executive. The three of them came up with the terms they thought my father should ask for.
My father went to Screen Gems’ office in New York and presented the terms. Screen Gems agreed to them immediately.
As my father was leaving the office, John Mitchell, a Screen Gems executive who later became my father’s friend, explained why Screen Gems had accepted his offer so quickly. Mitchell and the two other Screen Gems executives involved in the negotiation had been seated behind my father at lunch. They had overheard the entire conversation among my father, Leonard and Leonard’s friend, and, as a result, knew what my father was going to propose before he walked into their office.
My father was also involved in getting Shirley Booth to play "Hazel."
In 1947, my father and another man whom my father knew from his radio-writing days co-wrote a three-act play about "Hazel." A producer who liked the script had shown it to Shirley Booth and she had agreed to star in the play. But the producer wanted my father and his collaborator to rewrite the script.
My father agreed, but since he had commuted to his collaborator’s apartment in New York to write the original version of the script, he wanted his collaborator to come to his home outside Philadelphia to work on the rewrite. The collaborator refused and that was that.
After Screen Gems agreed to make "Hazel" into a TV show, my father suggested that Shirley Booth star in it. Some people at Screen Gems suggested other actresses, but no one was selected.
With the need to find an actress to play "Hazel" as soon as possible, a top executive at Screen Gems’ West Coast office who thought Shirley Booth would be good in the role flew to New York to meet with her agent.
He told the agent Screen Gems had a half-hour TV series it wanted Ms. Booth to star in. The agent said she didn’t do television. The executive said to call her. The agent did, explaining to her that he had told the Screen Gems executive that she didn’t do television, but that the executive had insisted he call her anyway.
Ms. Booth asked the agent the name of the show the executive wanted her to do. The agent asked the executive, who replied, “Hazel.”
“Hazel,” the agent told Ms. Booth.
She instantly agreed to do it and went on to play Hazel on TV for five seasons, four on NBC and one on CBS.
INTERVIEW TO BE CONTINUED!
*ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY Jim Manago & Peter Key. Copyright 2010.
*****
THANKS FOR VISITING!
JOIN ME AGAIN TOMORROW!
*****
For purchasing any of my books, you can visit Amazon.com
You can also check www.bookfinder.com
which offers the best prices on new & used copies.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For Bill, His Pinup Girl: The Shirley Booth & Bill Baker Story
by Jim Manago
Foreword by Leslie Sodaro
Published December 1, 2010
Further details at: http://shirleybooth.blogspot.com
JOIN ME AGAIN TOMORROW!
*****
For purchasing any of my books, you can visit Amazon.com
You can also check www.bookfinder.com
which offers the best prices on new & used copies.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For Bill, His Pinup Girl: The Shirley Booth & Bill Baker Story
by Jim Manago
Foreword by Leslie Sodaro
Published December 1, 2010
Further details at: http://shirleybooth.blogspot.com
*****
Love is the Reason for it All: The Shirley Booth Story
by Jim Manago
Radio Research by Donna Manago
Foreword by Ted Key
BearManor Media, May 2008
http://bearmanormedia.bizland.com
by Jim Manago
Radio Research by Donna Manago
Foreword by Ted Key
BearManor Media, May 2008
http://bearmanormedia.bizland.com
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