JONES & SCHMIDT

Notes by Tom Jones:

In 1961 there was a wonderful series on WNTA-TV Channel 13 called “Play Of The Week.” It was classy stuff and we were thrilled when they invited us to put together a revue. We decided to call it “New York Scrapbook” and that is what it was, a compilation of old and new sketches and songs, plus many different images of the city.  Harvey did a series of paintings called “New York City, 2 AM” and then composed a jazz piece to go with it. I wrote some humorous poems about New York for Orson Bean to recite. It is available for viewing at the Paley Center for Media (on DVD from kinescope) and UCLA Film and Television Archive in its “Play of the Week” series (tape masters). Sad to say, all those terrific paintings are in black and white and the kinescope print sometimes looks like something from the Dead Sea Scrolls, but even so, it still manages to be exciting.

“I Like The City Of New York”/“Everyone Looks Lonely On The City Streets”/“I Know Loneliness Quite Well”/“Where Has The Time Gone?”  In the midst of all the comedy songs and sketches, we decided to do a medley of loneliness songs, sung here (beautifully) by Kaye Ballard, Kenneth Nelson and Maureen Bailey.  Kenneth, by the way, was the first Boy in “The Fantasticks” in its Off-Broadway debut, long before he achieved a great deal of (deserved) fame playing the lead in “Boys In The Band.”