"Sunday Showcase" What Makes Sammy Run?: Part 1 (1959)

Director:

Delbert Mann

Writers:

Budd Schulberg (writer)
Stuart Schulberg (writer)

TV Series:

"Sunday Showcase" (1959)

Original Air Date:

27 September 1959 (Season 1, Episode 2)

Genre:

Biography | Comedy | Drama | Music | Romance

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Anthology

Cast

Sidney Blackmer	...	H.L. Harrington
Larry Blyden	...	Sammy Glick
Norman Fell	...	Sammy's Brother
John Forsythe	...	Al Manheim
Jay Lawrence	...	Sheik Romero
Horace McMahon	...	Mike Crowley (as Horace MacMahon)
Dina Merrill	...	Laurette Harrington
Nelson Olmsted	...	Ben Osborne
David Opatoshu	...	Sidney Fineman
William Post Jr.	...	Lucky Westover
Barbara Rush	...	Kit Sargent
Milton Selzer	...	Julian Blumberg
Monique van Vooren	...	Zizi Molnari
Earl Wilson	...	Earl Wilson

Directed by
Delbert Mann

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Budd Schulberg		writer
Stuart Schulberg		writer

Produced by
Robert Alan Aurthur	....	producer

Original Music by
Irwin Bazelon

Casting by
Edith Hamlin

Production Design by
Otis Riggs

Costume Design by
Noel Taylor

Directed by
Sidney Lumet		(episode "Sacco-Vanzetti Story, The")
Delbert Mann		(episode "What Makes Sammy Run")
Dick McDonough		(episode "Jimmy Durante Show: Give My Regards to Broadway, The")

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Reginald Rose		(episode "Sacco-Vanzetti Story, The")
Budd Schulberg		(episode "What Makes Sammy Run")
Stuart Schulberg		(episode "What Makes Sammy Run")

Produced by
Robert Alan Aurthur	....	executive producer (episode "Sacco-Vanzetti Story, The") (episode "The Sacco-Vanzetti Story")
Robert Alan Aurthur	....	producer (episode "What Makes Sammy Run")
Alex March	....	producer (episode "Sacco-Vanzetti Story, The")

Production Design by
Ted Cooper

Production Management
Claude Traverse	....	unit manager

Sound Department
Norman Ogg	....	sound

Camera and Electrical Department
Phil Hyms	....	lighting technician

Other crew
Richard Auerbach	....	stage manager
Arnold Dick	....	video
Robert Hopkins	....	associate director

Distributors

• National Broadcasting Company (NBC) (1959) (USA) (TV)
• Koch Vision (2009) (USA) (DVD)

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Trivia:

Around 1956, Eddie Fisher and his agent Lew Wasserman were discussing roles for Fisher's acting debut. A project being discussed at the time was "What Makes Sammy Run?" by Budd Schulberg and Stuart Schulberg. Fisher wanted to play aggressive producer Sammy Glick, "the ultimate Jewish hustler. I knew a lot of real Sammy Glicks and I felt confident that was a character I could play." Lew Wasserman decided that the character was too much of a classic negative Jewish stereotype and that it would be bad for Fisher to play it. So Fisher went in the complete opposite direction (in retrospect, perhaps too far) with then-wife Debbie Reynolds in the squeaky clean comedy that Fisher hated, Bundle of Joy (1956), a film made to capitalize on the birth of their daughter, future Star Wars (1977) "Princess Leia" Carrie Fisher. The Schulberg project "What Makes Sammy Run?" was eventually produced in 2 parts for this show, episodes #1.2 and #1.3.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Al Manheim:Alright. Alright.
[moves across bedroom to stand in front of a dresser with a mirror, picks up an invitation and reads from it, talking to a woman getting dressed in another part of the room]
Al Manheim:"Worldwide Pictures requests the pleasure of your company at a dinner honoring Mr. Samuel Glick."
[tosses invitation down on dresser top, looks in mirror and begins tying a black bowtie]
Al Manheim:That's our Sammy.
[continues to quote parts of the invitation from memory]
Al Manheim:"... the occasion of his appointment as chairman of the board. Windsor Room, Park Wilshire Hotel. RSVP." Black tie, yet. "RSVP" - Remember Sammy's vengeful power. I dare anyone not to attend!

What I've seen of the first part of Budd Schulberg's "What Makes Sammy Run?" was quite compelling drama to me

Just watched this, the first hour part of the TV version of Budd Schulberg's novel "What Makes Sammy Run?" which was adapted by him and his brother, Stuart. In this one, Sammy Glick (Larry Blyden) goes from copy boy to radio columnist at a New York paper where he is monitored by proofreader and fellow writer, Al Manheim (John Forsythe). He then goes to Hollywood where he quickly becomes a big shot producer and starts an affair with novelist Kit Sargent (Barbara Rush). Manheim later comes there hoping to write screenplays but quickly becomes disillusioned, along with Ms. Sargent, with Glick's slick personality...Quite a compelling first hour of the way things were run in the movie capital at the time and a little witty with the references to various important celebrities of the period. Producer/director Delbert Mann keeps things snappy with both dialogue and camera movements that you're caught in the whirlwind of Sammy's world as Manheim likes to refer to it near the end. Blyden, Forsythe, and Rush as well as the supporting cast brings life to the sometimes self-conscious lines to the point that you don't want to leave right in the middle but since this was a one hour TV slot, you had to wait for the following week to see the conclusion when this show first aired. Fortunately, I only have to switch to Part 2 on the DVD I watched this off of...