Television, Theater, Cinema, Books: Jan. 10, 1964

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TELEVISION

Wednesday, January 8

PRESIDENT JOHNSON'S STATE OF THE UNION MESSAGE TO CONGRESS (NBC, 12:30-1 p.m.).* Live.

CBS REPORTS (CBS, 7:30-8:30 p.m.). A study of the problems of presidential succession. Former Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Harry S. Truman give their views.

Friday, January 10

THAT WAS THE WEEK THAT WAS (NBC, 9:30-10 p.m.). Première of a new satirical revue of topical comment.

THE JACK PAAR PROGRAM (NBC, 10-11 p.m.). Paar shows films of his three-day visit with Dr. Albert Schweitzer. Color.

THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR (CBS, 10-11 p.m.). Dramatization of H. G. Wells's The Magic Shop, in which a young boy with supernatural evil powers visits a magic shop and disappears.

Saturday, January 11

THE HOLLYWOOD PALACE (ABC, 9:30-10:30 p.m.). Guests include Janet Leigh, Patachou and Rosemary Clooney. Bob Cummings is the host.

Sunday, January 12

ONE OF A KIND (CBS, 4-5 p.m.). A bird's-eye view of America by helicopter, showing the changes civilization has brought to the country's landscape.

14TH ANNUAL N.F.L. PRO BOWL GAME (NBC, 4 p.m. to conclusion). The Eastern Conference v. the Western Conference, from Los Angeles. Color.

BIRTH CONTROL: HOW? (NBC. 10-11 p.m.). The religious implications of oral contraceptives are debated by Roman Catholic Dr. John Rock, codeveloper of the first pill, and some of his critics. Color.

Tuesday, January 14

BELL TELEPHONE HOUR (NBC. 10-11 p.m.). A program devoted to young artists, including Singers Liza Minelli and Jack Jones, Pianist Susan Starr, Folk Singers Ian and Sylvia, and Dancer Violette Verdy, with Jane Wyman as hostess. Color.

THEATER

On Broadway

MARATHON '33, by June Havoc, blends clowns and music and lacerated feet and shrieking nerves to prove that life is a grueling test rather like a 3,000-hour dance marathon. In this strange spectacle that suggests new directions for the U.S. theater, Julie Harris is put to the test, and her inspiring childlike ardor makes this one of her finest performances.

NOBODY LOVES AN ALBATROSS, by Ronald Alexander, is a cynical, funny, abrasive comedy about the frauds who cultivate the TV wasteland for the cash crop. As the biggest phony of them all, Robert Preston is full of roguish charm and as magnetic as sin.

THE BALLAD OF THE SAD CAFE. The mismatched magnets love makes of men and women interested Carson McCullers, but in his adaptation of her novella, Play wright Edward Albee is unable to show as strongly as she did the real powers of attraction, although Colleen Dewhurst and Michael Dunn do their best to help.

BAREFOOT IN THE PARK, by Neil Simon. Audiences may shiver at the sight of a balky radiator and a snow-drifted skylight in the apartment shared by Newlyweds Elizabeth Ashley and Robert Redford, but they are certain to shake with laughter as the couple copes kookily with a week's wedlock.

THE PRIVATE EAR and THE PUBLIC EYE. Playwright Peter Shaffer shows his comic range in two one-acters—one about the strain of early love, not knowing how to win by being casual, the other about the strain and boredom of later love, not knowing how to win by seeing anew.