smells sweet when the wind comes right behind the rain
Gordon mccrae star of film musicals of the 50s
died today this is entertainment tonight for friday january 24th
1986
hello everyone i'm rob weller and i'm mary hart
singer gordon mccrae died today in a lincoln nebraska hospital will have a
tribute starting monday night there will be a
new network evening newscast and bill cosby and lilly tomlin are added
to the super bowl pre-game show those stories and more coming up first
10 legends of music last night were inducted into the rock and roll hall of
fame there was as dixie watley reports a whole
lot of shaken going on in new york
all night long everyone hoped it would happen and it did
an all-star jam with some of the greatest names in rock and roll
to celebrate the first 10 inductions into the hall of fame
the presenters were as excited as the audience to meet
people who shaped the early days of 50s rock and roll this is a gentleman that
started it all as far as i'm concerned and uh i'd like to greet mr chuck berry
i want to thank the man who proved that the piano is a rock and roll instrument
that's domino
stevie winwood made james brown one of the first members of the hall of fame
neil young did the honors for the everly brothers ray charles accepted his award
from quincey jones little richard recuperating from an
auto accident took his honors via videotape from
rebecca flack and hank williams jr was there to greet
jerry lee lewis i thank god that i'm living and breathing
and i i'm rocking rolling in my head and my toes
posthumous awards went to sam cook buddy holly
and elvis got a special tribute from sean and julian linen
who quoted from a letter their father john had once written to elvis
i want you to be elvis i just wish uh evils sam cook buddy holly and the rest
of us still living to be here with us tonight
i was a very very surprised uh that i was uh uh one of the people that was
chosen but yet with my surprise i must tell you
i was quite pleased you know my ego certainly took over
dixie wattley entertainment tonight the much ballyhooed hands across america
music video isn't going to be seen on the super bowl
pre-game show after all instead bill cosby and lily tomlund are
going to use the time to talk about hunger in america
new orleans is overflowing with media from around the world
there to cover the game and the hysteria that leads up to it
and simon has that story the attention of an estimated 116 million
viewers will be focused on this city this stadium this football field on
sunday for the playing of the 20th super bowl
nbc has staged a massive effort in broadcasting the show
it's the anticipation and the demands placed upon you
the biggest game of the football year and you're not able to treat it the way
you do all the other games nbc's production involves 225 staff members
miles of cables almost two dozen cameras 600 performers for the up with people
halftime show and rehearsal after rehearsal we have 20
cameras for the game 14 replay machines uh we're going to give the fan every
single angle that we could possibly think of so we don't miss
one thing in the game nbc even brought the today show to the superdome for three
days of broadcasts quite frankly the news this week is is
in new orleans the major story is the super bowl it doesn't hurt that it's
being televised by nbc it probably also doesn't hurt that the
principal anchor of the today program is a former sports person
super bowl 20 also drew more than 2 000 members of the press from all over the
world
what they found was some of what makes new orleans so special
new orleans is considered an ideal super bowl site not only for its old world
charm but for its 24 hour a day ability to
party from the moment fans arrived they partied at private functions
black tie affairs and any place on bourbon street
we are partying we are being bad we are happy
we also got the hats if you don't know who you're for they got the ones with the
patriots and ones with a bear i think it's great we're having a ball down here
in new orleans and simon entertainment tonight
last night in chicago a pep band and all pep bands played the bears fight song
the 105 strong chicago symphony orchestra and the chicago symphony chorus
under the baton of sir george schulte
oh
when we come back coverage of sexual perversity in chicago the movie
next an exclusive movie preview of the new robin williams kurt russell comedy
the best of times and ahead a tribute to movie musical star
gordon mccrae
great deals are taking shape at your new england chrysler plenip dealers
a romantic comedy called my chauffeur opens wide across the country today
it stars deborah foreman sam jay jones and in their movie debut comic magicians
penn and teller sexual perversity in chicago an obi award-winning play from
pullitzer prize winner david mammott is before the cameras in los angeles after
several weeks of location shooting in the windy city
eric burns talked to jim belushi who is recreating his critically acclaimed stage
role here's jim belushi in action on the set of a movie action
well actually there is some action in the movie which is called sexual
perversity in chicago i think this is where sexual perversity comes in in a
sense is that two people meet in a bar and bam that night they have sex and
they don't know whether they're in lust or in love and it's finding out which it
is that's interesting to me and is the perversity the fact that it that the
relationship starts with sex and then maybe moves on to communication which is
ideally what it should start with in the first place right right exactly you want
me to reward that for you no okay belushi's character is bernie litgoe
so everybody has a little bernie in them but uh nobody wants a lot of bernie in
them nobody wants a lot of bernie in them but uh everyone can relate to it
he's a little obnoxious nice feed he's a little on the money
he likes to talk dirty you know he kind of talks about girls dan you got yourself a
three-week-old homemaker here belushi likes to talk about sexual
perversity in chicago which will be released this summer
he loves to talk about salvador a movie on the civil war in el salvador which
will be released before the summer it's a great great black dark wonderful real
movie this is it's likely to be a very controversial movie we we hear already
but for the violence or for the politics i'll tell you one reason i think it'll be
controversial is because it's so real that it's almost a documentary so movie
goers are about to hear jim belushi saying everything from
to uh nice feed he hopes for a similarly wide range of expression in future roles
eric burns entertainment tonight the worst a film critic can do is give a
movie a bad review the best give it an award the los angeles film critics were
in an award-giving mood yesterday lisa gibbons talked with the winners and the
winners the best picture of the year according to the la film critics was
brazil and in accepting the award director terry gilliam was especially
grateful since the critics approval got his picture its u.s release i don't know
how your people did it but so thanks a lot others picking up awards from the
los angeles film critics included angelica houston winner of the best
supporting actress award for prizzi's honor and william hurt whose performance
in kiss of the spider woman won him best acting honors for one day out of the
year the la film critics unanimously had nothing but kind things to say
but can a day of praise and honor make up for a past of pans and jabs in this
particular instance we had a film that was as good as dead and buried until the
la critics voted and it's changed my life so critics really do have their nice
side oh absolutely we're here to prove it the one thing is as you get older you
realize other people are people you know human beings and so you stop hopefully
being so so fried just about your own parents even critics are human beings
yeah even critics maybe thank you very much
lisa gibbons entertainment tonight robin williams has been announced as the
first celebrity co-host of the 58th annual academy awards next friday
williams latest movie opens he co-stars with kurt russell in the best of times a
comedy from universal pictures rated pg-13 in this exclusive movie preview
scene williams talks with his wife played by holly palance about plans to
replay a high school football game he single-handedly lost 13 years before
she thinks i am a fool no she doesn't i do i've been with a damn drop ball for 13
years i knew you weren't happy i'm only unhappy when you talk about happiness
jack the rest of the time i never think about it that is why we are going to
kill big spiel ellie jack if you play that game again you will
humiliate me you will humiliate the town and you will
humiliate yourself worse than you can ever imagine
so you don't think i can catch the damn ball do you i don't care if you catch it
or drop it or sit on a damn thing how can i live with someone who doesn't care
you're torturing me i come up with the meaning of life and you call it torture
oh i hate it when we shot me too jackie's out of the house
mr weasel's here
when we return donna meche and still to come a tribute to movie singing star
gordon mccray this weekend check your local listings for time and station as
entertainment this week turns the spotlight on
omar sherif richard drifus substar jack waggoner dick vandike and rona barrett
with olivia de haveland with two oscars and a flourishing career there's still
one thing she longs for i just wanted to marry a man i love
very much and know only that one man in my whole life
all new this weekend on entertainment this week
the christian broadcasting network will begin a half hour evening news program
monday called cbn news tonight it will be anchored by bob hughes and
styled after the mcneil lehrer news hour cbn is still searching for a woman to
co-anchor the program also monday night nbc will air the tv
movie a masterpiece of murder stars bob hope and a 77 year old actor in the
midst of a remarkable comeback gene wolf reports frank frank come on in
here frank you remember your old friend danny dolan
hey you went over the wall sure i remember hello copper and i'm me out of
you cat burglar you're the role donna mitchie is making a rare
appearance in a tv movie no stranger to the camera he's been acting in films
since 1936 well i gotta admit you look pretty nifty
i uh wish i could say the same about you but i don't lie
why not i did he decided to do a masterpiece of murder because he liked
the plot like playing a retired thief and loved the idea of working with bob
hope to go with bob hope as being the the big name in the uh in the
offering was a security for me because he goes in you know that he's
going to be in the in the top 10 rating wise and that means that you're
probably going to be exposed to over 30 million people
donna mitchie was out of the spotlight for a while he says for 12 years no one
offered him a script then that all changed with trading places
and cocoon what if we od well we'll keep an eye on each other
i'll watch him you watch him you watch me how many people in no matter what
age bracket they're in 20s or 30s or 40s can put together two pictures in a row
like trading places and uh and cocoon each which have grossed close to 90
million dollars you know what are the odds that that happens when you're in
your 20s or 30s let alone when you're in your 70s so
listen don they're calling you a septuagenarian sex symbol how do you
like that
how do you like that title well if it pleases them to use it well that's
fine but as far as i'm concerned it doesn't mean anything at all
i think it's nice if they look at me that way next
entertainment tonight's tribute to gordon mccrae
here's the et digest for friday the 24th of january on home video the burns and
alan show volume one starring george burns and gracy allen
in the record store the debut album from maryland martin
and mean business from the firm and celebrating birthdays today
pistachio kinsky is 25 neil diamond 45 and earnest bargain is 69
gordon mccrae best remembered for his roles in sweeping movie musicals of the
1950s died this morning in lincoln nebraska
he was 64 he'd been hospitalized for some time suffering from pneumonia and
cancer of the mouth and jaw mccrae started in show business as a
child performer making the transition from radio to film in the late 1940s
and achieving his greatest fame in the mid 1950s
the homer where the wind comes sweeping down the plane
and the waving wheat can sure smell sweet
when the wind comes right behind the rain
gordon mccrae's voice soared over so many others his screen presence was
rugged independent and hopeful my boy bill i will see that he's named
after me i will carousel provided mccrae with
timeless rogers and hammerstein songs that were to become part of his regular
repertoire
words wouldn't come in an easy way
Viking
I'll go out and make it or steal it or take it or die.
Wedding bells will ring so merrily. Every cheer will be a memory.
Gordon McCray appeared in five movies with Doris Day, light romantic musicals. But as the style began to fall out of fashion, McCray moved on to concert appearances with his then wife Sheila McCray until the mid-1960s. He admitted that a drinking problem had begun to affect his career.
I figured I was a drunk for about 23 years. I got picked up for drunken driving when I was finishing Carousel. That was 1955. But all of a sudden you see it's a creeping disease. You never know when it's going to hit you.
Through all his troubles, however, he continued to sing, in club dates and on TV.
The sky is blue, the night is cold, the moon is new, my club is on.
McCray even bounded back from a stroke in the early 1980s. He was resilient, determined, and in good voice.
I feel pretty good. I've been a little under the weather for about a year, but it takes a little time. Singing is my medicine.
Of all his work, he was especially proud of one achievement.
I guess I'd have to say Oklahoma. It was a part of Americana, and it's nice to be a part of Americana musical history.
It'll go down and it'll last as long as my kids are alive and their kids and their kids after their kids. So I'm proud to be a part of American musical history.
Don't you hurry with the surrey, with the fringe on the top.
A memorial service will be held for McCray Monday in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Oh, what a voice. I thought so with his family.
Monday on Entertainment Tonight, an exclusive interview with Sting from London.
And join me and Lisa Gibbons this weekend for another Starfield edition of Entertainment This Week.
And we're going to wrap up our week with Gordon McCray, his performance from July 3, 1969 on the Ed Sullivan Show, the song, America the Beautiful.
Tomorrow night at 7, special guest co-host Bert Bacharach joins host Dionne Warwick for a special duet.