October, 1951 MIKE and CAMERA Page 3 IMOGENE COCA INTERVIEWED BACKSTAGE DURING SUMMER APPEARANCE AT CAPE PLAYHOUSE By Tommy Atkins Special to Mike and Camera Tommy Atkins is a General Electric secretary, who was visiting on Cape Cod and wrote this article especially for Mike and Camera. Imogene Coca is a favorite of thous­ ands of TV viewers who look forward to her antics on "Your Show of Shows" viewed on WRGB Saturday evenings, 9:00-10:30 p.m. From housewife to danseuse to heroine of a French movie­ complete with French double-talk­ Imogene's variety of comic caricatures is inexhaustible. When I decided to do a series of interviews with our favorite personalities, I instinctively chose Imo­ gene to be Number 1 on our hit parade, just as she is Number 1 in the hearts of so many area viewers. I want to give you a picture of Imogene exactly as I found her, so let's go backstage at the Cape Playhouse on Cape Cod, Dennis, Mass., where she starred in "Happy Birthday." She had a small dressing room, like the dressing rooms in all summer theaters, crowded with its chaise longue, freshly pressed costumes hanging on the door hinge, and dressing table with Imogene Coca reminisces about her entry into show business. Photo by JohD H. Buckley.Jr. scattered toilet articles. But adaptable Imogene Coca was as much at home here a little song and pantomime about people as in her more elaborate dressing room going to the movies. Sid was included in FAYE EMERSON KNOWN' backstage at NBC's International The­ the act, it caught, and thus the team of atre in New York City, and the eager Coca and Caesar was born. AS :' TV'S 'FIRST LADY' faces of autograph seekers passing across Imogene's entrance into the theater Faye Emerson, known to millions of the light-encircled mirror attested to the was characteristic. One day she sat Americans as the "First Lady" of tele­ fact that she was a star. huddled in an over-sized coat in a cold vision, had her first brush with dramatics To each of them Imogene was the damp theater waiting to audition as· a during her high school days in San same •.. gracious, a little retiring; she dancer. In order to stop shaking she Diego, California. She continued to make has the quality of making people feel started a comic dance, cavorting about dramatics her chief interest while attend­ that she likes each one of them personally to the applause of her fellow dancers. ing San Diego State College, by joining -and they love her for it. Leonard Sillman walked in during the the Community Theater players. Her Finally the last autograph seeker had impromptu burlesque-and a come­ first break came when a Warner Brothers gone, and Imogene sat down on the dienne was hired instead of a dancer. talent scout saw her in a production of chaise longue. We talked about the Cape Up to this time she had had solo spots in "Here Today," and arranged for a and compared tans and she said "Happy a number of revues, starting with the · screen test. She passed the test, signed a Birthday" was the only summer play she "Garrick Gaieties," "New Faces" and contract, and appeared in small roles, would do, as "Your Show of Shows" was "Straw Hat Revue" brought her into her before she was given a chance to prove scheduled to go into rehearsal the follow­ own. Last summer her appearance in her real ability. It was her fine work in ing Monday. Dry rehearsals begin for "Happy Birthday" at Chevy Chase, Ill., "Murder in the Big House" which her at 11 :00 a.m. Monday (the chorus broke.all records at that straw-hatter. brought her to the attention of the comes in at 10:00); other days they begin And is Hollywood making a bid for Warner Brothers front office. rehearsing at 8:00 and run right through Imogene's talents? You bet they are, but In 1948 she made her Broadway stage until 6:00 p.m., sometimes 8:30. Then on · she's one smart IiI gal, she's waiting for debut in Molnar's "The Play's th~ Saturday, camera rehearsal starts at the right script to come along before Thing," and in 1949, she returned to the 8:00 a.m. and continues right on to show saying O.K. At the very moment we screen in "Guilty Bystander," which was time. Which in my book is approximately were talking, Sid and her producer were filmed in New York. About this time, 60 hours! Doesn"t leave her much time returning from Hollywood with s.ome of Faye became interested in the "new" for her dog or cat, or the mystery stories the answers. medium of television, and soon had the she's-so fond of. And we have a need for Imogene Coca. first of her regular TV shows-"Fifteen She enjoys most her ballets, and her She is one who brings a smile to the lips, with Faye" and "The Faye Emerson man and wife sketches with Sid Caesar, when the world is sorely in need of a Show." These shows, along with her the other half of the team. She met Sid smile. Her versatility and sense of timing current show, "Faye Emerson's Wonder­ when they were doing a 19-week series, make her tops in a field that is rarely ful Town," seen over WRGB every "The Admiral Revue." On the 19th invaded by a woman. She's a pert and Sunday from 2:00 to 2:30 p.m., have week Max Leibman, her producer, charming little pixie whose innate happy established her reputation as "The First needed material to fill a spot, so Imogene spirit makes her a delightful person to Lady of Television." The program is suggested a bit called "Better Go Now," know-off camera and on. sponsored by the Pepsi Cola Company~