The Old Pro

An old TV pro made a comeback this week. Harry S. Truman, star, supporting cast, musical soloist and partial scriptwriter of TV's memorable tour of the White House in 1952, put on another good one-man show this week on CBS's Let's Take a Trip. He was the calm and canny host for a TV preview of the $1,750,000 Harry S. Truman Library in home-town Independence, Mo.

The ex-Commander in Chief took command as soon as the CBS cast and crew of 30 arrived last week to set up the show. The show could not be telecast live on Sunday as it has been for two years, said he, "because this is the Bible belt, and you'd never get anybody to work on Sunday." Producer James Colligan agreed to record the show in advance on Ampex visual tape. Just before rehearsals began, a piano arrived from Kansas City; it was the one given to Truman in the White House by James C. Petrillo and his American Federation of Musicians. Truman decreed happily that it would have to appear in the opening shot. "Mr. President," said Director Tim Kiley, "the script calls for us to open in the reading room." Truman grinned. "Oh, they'll change that," he said. They did.

Hire & Fire. The ex-President savored every moment of the first walk-through rehearsal, insisted on explaining each small detail to the show's regulars, Joan Terrace, 9, of Brooklyn, Jimmy Walsh, 9, of Hillside, N.J., and their adult guide, lanky Sonny Fox, 32. When they came to photographs of military leaders who served under Truman, Fox pointed to the picture of Douglas MacArthur and said: "Sometimes you have to dismiss generals, don't you, Mr. Truman?" "Yep," agreed Truman. "You hire 'em and you fire 'em, just like any other business." The former President pointed to Omar Bradley's photograph and said: "There's the greatest field general in the history of the country." Of George C. Marshall, he said: "There's the greatest of 'em all." At the photo of Dwight D. Eisenhower, he noted: "He commanded the United Nations forces in Europe."

The dress rehearsal next day stretched nine minutes too long and therefore called for cutting. Said Producer Colligan: "Now in the final version, we're killing that little talk you make about the budget,

Mr. President. We're killing the budget."

Said Fox nervously: "Congress does that, anyway."

"They try," said Truman with a smile, "but they don't get away with it."

"And we're killing the individual description of the generals," said Kiley.

"Oh, migosh," said Truman. "Well, if we leave one of 'em out, let's leave 'em all out. They're about as touchy as a bunch of little girls. No, wait a minute. I do want to get General Marshall in." He did.

One by one, the 73-year-old star of the show absorbed 30-odd last-minute script changes, then sat calmly joshing with an Independence crony, Tom Evans, while the TV people fussed and stewed. On camera at last, he led the way through the library's long corridors, discoursed on its treasures and memories, exuded a candidate's charm, his speech colloquial and homely, his accent as broad as the Missouri River, his smile glowing and real. Excerpts: P: On how to recommend laws: "Well, sir, you write 'em down in a message, you try to think things out and see what'd be best for the country, then you make a message on it and send it down to the Congress, and they act on it or they don't, as they please." P:"That's the chair that I used all the time that I was President. [To Jimmy] Come around here, young man, see how it fits ... Now sit up there and go to work. When you sit down in the President's chair, he works all the time. No idleness ... He has to work nearly 18 hours a day, and then he can't get all the work done ... I had a very good time being President of the Yew-nited States, and I guess I worked as hard as anybody ever did at any job.P:"The original flag of the President, made for President Wilson in 1916, had four stars on it. When I went to Potsdam, I found a general* with 28 stars on, and I came back and put 48 stars on the presidential flag. Now I'd like to see any general wear that many."

When Fox noted that some people regard "politicians" as "a pretty dirty word," Truman responded, "A politician is a man who understands government, and it's the most honorable profession in the world." Inevitably the group came to another piano, a replica of the one in the White House. Truman tinkled out the Paderewski minuet and, for an encore, bravely riddled a Mozart theme with clinkers. Then, after a closing speech ("Learn all you can about the Government so you can continue this great republic of ours"), the Missouri Waltz welled up and Truman scurried downstairs to the basement control room to get the verdict on the show. The other pros greeted him with a burst of applause.

*-Mr. Truman meant the late George C. Patton, whose dashing, self-designed uniforms made gen erous use of four-star clusters.

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