TV Offers New Look at Darin
As Vegas Sees Him

BOBBY STRESSES COMEDY AS HE SUBS FOR DINO FOR SEVEN WEEKS ON NBC

Television viewers are going to get a new look at 36-year-old Bobby Darin Thursday night. That's when he takes over for seven weeks as Dean Martin's
summer replacement on NBC.

Known mostly as a singer-actor, he will bring to television the Bobby Darin of Las Vegas -- a performer who puts as much emphasis on his comedy as he does on his music. There will be singing on every show, much of it by Bobby and some of it by his guests. But there will be at least an equal quota of laugh-provoking segments on the
already-taped shows.

The production team of Saul Ilson and Ernest Chambers, as good as you'll find at this sort of thing, said the idea was to have Bobby do a "comedy show with music."

"We are making full use of Bobby's wide range of musical and comedy talents,"
Ilson said.

"In addition to top-name guest stars," Chambers interjected, "we are providing him with a company of players who join him each week in musical production numbers as well as comedy sketches."

Ilson and Chambers have constructed the program as a showcase for the multi-talented Bobby. Las Vegas customers are well aware of Bobby's talent as an impressionist and a man who does characterizations as well as anybody in the business. There will be some of that in every show, including an excellent impression of Groucho Marx. One of Bobby's routines is "The Collector," a pantomime characterization called Wimpy. It’s done in a style that recalls memories of Jackie Gleason's wonderful Poor Soul.

Working from a stage that projects out into the audience, Bobby has a string of guests -- Debbie Reynolds, Charles Nelson Reilly, Pat Paulson, Joan Rivers, Dusty Springfield, Dionne Warwick, Donald O'Connor and Mimi Hines and Phil Ford among them. All of them are used in a variety of ways -- productions numbers, comedy sketches, duets and solos. Then there are such features as Rip Taylor cast as a zany traffic helicopter pilot, Skyway Silverman, and the comedy team of Angie (Bobby) and Carmine (Dick Bakalyan). Bobby closes each of the seven shows with his most successful recording,
"Mack the Knife."

Back when Bobby was 23, he said he wanted to be a living legend by the time he was 25. Well, he now knows that was the talk of youth, instead of a confident professional. But for a fellow who was born Walden Robert Cassotto to a family on relief in New York City, Bobby Darin has done well for himself. As both a singer and composer, he has had four gold records. As an actor, he was nominated for a supporting-role Oscar in 1964 for his portrayal of a mentally ill waist gunner of a combat air crew in Captain Newman. And as a nightclub performer, he gets superstar pay.

Bobby has a beautiful home in Beverly Hills, but prefers to leave it, hop in his car and go off on a camping trip for a few days.

Thanks to Joy Cash for this article.

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