Here's an installment of Jackpot Bowling which aired on NBC television in January 1961. The players here included Fred Lening, Al Thompson, and Jim St. John.
Those bowling pros really make it look easy---so does Milton! Though largely forgotten today, Milton Berle was one of the most versatile of comics, as well as a good dramatic actor, as most great comedians of that era were. Most of us wouldn't associate bowling alleys as an especially desirable venue for humor & certainly not for a professional comedian like Berle. In fact, I thought maybe he'd jokingly deride his appearance on such a show, admitting he knew it was a comedown. To his credit, he didn't, giving an exuberant performance of relentlessly funny jokes, something at which he was a master, conveying confidence in his material but delivered in a relaxed, totally natural manner. I don't see his hosting this show as a comedown, though I believe other comedians of the day ribbed him about it good-naturedly. Comedown or not, the man was earning a fortune. NBC wanted to pay-off their exclusive, lifetime contract with Berle. Despite the enormous paychecks, the great comic was bored with inactivity, the natural showman in him dying for an outlet. After Milton's contract commitments with NBC were over, he made guest appearances on numerous TV variety shows & specials during the rest of the 60's, never failing to offer witty repartee, always hilarious in sketches & delightful in half-hour guest shots on fully plotted-out sitcoms. Of course, he did full-fledged monologues, too, when acting as host of programs like The Hollywood Palace & such. "Jackpot Bowling" aired at an odd time, I believe---late Sun. nights, after Bonanza & Dinah Shore, I think, airing at 10:30 or 10:45, I'm unsure. The program began as a 15-minute filler at first, later going to half-an-hour. Network schedules, all 3 of them, were very different back then. Of course, I never saw the show. To think how long ago this was---1961---& how young we were---with the entire decade of the 60's before us. Ah, me.....
NBC had Berle on a 30 year contract through 1981. At the time he could only appear on NBC, later that was amended. His previous show, The Kraft Music Hall with Milton Berle, ended in the spring of 1959, the network wanted to use him somewhere.
Diana Dors was married to Richard Dawson (who you see in the audience on this clip). Dawson, of course, went on to fame in the US for his work on the TV series Hogan's Heroes as well as the Match Game, and later as host of Family Feud.
@@stilltlrforlife I believe he also appeared in an episode of the Hitchcock TV series while still unknown. He also was a regular during the last 2 seasons of "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In', post "Hogan" & pre "Match Game'.
20:43 - Hard to tell whether the pin fell naturally or the rake got it, but the applause seems to indicate an obvious strike just before the rake swept. Those Brunswick A pinsetters moved fast in those days. Most were slowed down with different sized belt and pulley systems later on to both prevent wear and for safety reasons. Prior to pinsetters there was no time limit for the pin to fall but I believe the A/A2 manual indicates it's supposed to give about 3 seconds (which the updated speed ratio later did for sure). This is still probably the most widely used pinsetter and even new bowling center owners if they know what they're doing opt to use them despite their not having been manufactured in 40 years. It's easy to tell this machine by the shield covering the deck that drops the pins; often times it will even have a Brunswick logo (though replaced shields may not). More likely than not nowadays these machines will have been updated to run much slower than is seen here.
Amazing how some of those half-hits carried. Some of those looked like weak tens or even five-pin leaves but blew right out. Must have been 3.2's. Can you imagine a two-hander back then?
Chick Hearn was such a professional he could announce dominoes and make it sound exciting. In addition to Elgin Baylor and Jerry West, Chick Hearn is equally responsible for making Laker Basketball what it is today.
"TV bowling?" Such ignorance. The show is hosted by Milton Berle who could fill up Carnegie Hall, or a bowling alley. Add to that the popularity of TV and its three channels, TV being the foremost medium of the time, the opportunity to maybe be seen on TV while watching professional athletes in a sport you and your family all play, and not to mention seeing live a skit with Milton Berle and Diana Dors; and you have a "studio audience for TV bowling."
@@lukehauser1182 I'd have been perfectly content to find Toscanini or "The Voice of Firestone" on TV myself. Now there's so much choice and nothing worth watching.
If you read up on it, the pins in 1961 were actually a little heavier than previously. There were several changes made due changes in composition and even a small change in size. The pros also used I believe a 16lb ball whereas todays pros use a slightly lighter ball.
Yeah, I thought the same thing. I wouldn't put it past the show to have lighter pins if this is not a sanctioned tournament. I've seen candlepin bowling shows from the 80s and 90s where the pin carry is insane compared to places i've bowled at in the past few years. Must have been for TV.
Whose idea was this program? I wonder if Uncle Miltie ever thought he'd be cracking jokes in a bowling center. (Chick Hearn made a funny when he said you could hear a pin drop.)
Berle was under an exclusive contract to NBC; they wanted him to "earn his money" for the 1960-'61 season, so he agreed to emcee a half-hour version of "JACKPOT BOWLING" (co-produced by his production company)- which had previously been presented as a 15 minute show right after "GILLETTE CAVALCADE OF SPORTS" {aka "The Friday Night Fights"}- but when the fights were eliminated in the summer of 1960, Phillies cigars decided to expand the program that fall, bringing Berle in as emcee, with celebrity guests as well.
+Barry I. Grauman That was Uncle Miltie's infamous 30-year contract, which ran until 1980. Perhaps that's why they had him host SNL in 1979 (with disastrous results).
By the time of that SNL appearance, Berle's contract had been renegotiated; after the mid-1960's, he occasionally hosted "The Hollywood Palace" and had a very short-lived comedy/variety show (with the delectable Donna Loren as resident singer) on ABC, as well as appearing every so often as a guest on Jackie Gleason's CBS Saturday night show which, by then, was based out of Miami Beach (he even put in a cameo in one of the color "Honeymooners" installments). In short, come his "SNL" guest hosting shot, the "exclusive" part went way out the window. And whichever way you look at it, was ultimately a disaster (I speak, of course, of that 30-year contract Berle signed with NBC in 1951) - for both parties. As for this show, it was listed among "The Worst TV Shows Ever" in Bart Andrews and Brad Dunning's 1980 book of the same name.
