(CBS Primetime, 1952; ABC Primetime, 1952 - 1953) [a suave Italian sat in a living room set, wearing his dinner jacket reading romantic poetry to the camera twice a week, just after the 11pm news, around bedtime; What might have seemed companionable on radio -- when a woman's romantic fantasy could make up the scene in her mind seemed a bit silly with this literal version on TV... (perhaps the pictures are better on radio :-) at any rate the idea of reading to people didn't work on the visual medium of television despite the efforts of two networks; Perhaps it should have been a radio series instead...]
[This romantic ballad was originally a song in a German operetta; it was first sung in English by Bing Crosby shortly after sound came to the movies; in 1953 this song was again featured in a film, "So This Is Love" with a hopeful young crooner singing it, named Merv Griffin; wonder whatever happened to him? :-)] Composers: music by Ralph Erwin (ASCAP) [professional name of Ralph Erwin Vogl], German lyric by Fritz Rotter (ASCAP); English lyric by Samuel M. ("Sam") Lewis (ASCAP) and Joseph Widow ("Joe") Young (ASCAP) Orig. Publisher: T. B. Harms, Inc. (ASCAP) 1978 Publisher: Harms, Inc. (ASCAP) 2001 Publisher: Harms, Inc. (ASCAP) c/o Warner Bros., Inc. a div. of Warner-Chappell Music, Inc. of Los Angeles, CA Composition Date: 1928, on sheet music Copyright Date: Renewal Date: Recording:
[aka: "Don't Be Afraid"; THEME credit verified by TV theme collector R. Clark] Composers: Renzo Cesana (ASCAP), Edward R. White (ASCAP) and Maxwell Alexander ("Mack") Wolfson (ASCAP) 1978 Publisher: Barton Music Corp. (ASCAP) 2001 Publisher: Barton Music Corporation (ASCAP) of Burbank, CA Composition Date: Copyright Date: Renewal Date: Recording: