Clark Jones

Last updated • 8 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
Clark Jones
Born(1920-04-10)April 10, 1920
Clearfield, Pennsylvania
DiedMarch 28, 2002(2002-03-28) (aged 81)
Key West, Florida
OccupationTelevision director
Years active1949–1986

Clark Jones (April 10, 1920 – March 28, 2002) was an American television director. He gained acclaim in the early days of television as a director of live programming.

Contents

He began working in television at an experimental station in 1941. During the 1950s, directed numerous musical and variety programs, including Your Hit Parade , a precedent-breaking closed circuit broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera, The Ford 50th Anniversary Show , Caesar's Hour , the award-winning 1955 television broadcast of Peter Pan , and the Royal Ballet's performance of Cinderella .

During the 1960s, he continued to specialize in variety and music programs, including The Perry Como Show , The Bell Telephone Hour , The Sammy Davis Jr. Show, and The Carol Burnett Show . In the later years of his career, he was known principally for his direction of special event programming, including two Frank Sinatra specials and 19 Tony Award award ceremonies. Over the course of his television career, Jones was nominated for nine Primetime Emmy Awards and three Directors Guild of America Awards.

Early years

Jones was born in Clearfield, Pennsylvania, in 1920. He attended Northwestern University. He worked at an experimental television station in Schenectady, New York, in 1941. During World War II, he served in the Signal Corps. [1]

Television career

Early career

After World War II, Jones moved to New York City and began working as a director on early television shows that included Voice of the People and One Man's Family . [1] In 1949, he directed an NBC jazz show that was originally called the Floor Show and later renamed the Eddie Condon Video Show. The shows featured performances by jazz musician and bandleader Eddie Condon and guest stars, including Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Jack Teagarden, and Earl Hines. [2] [3] For one episode, he worked on a novel idea of preparing a special script depicting Holiday's life story. [4]

Your Hit Parade

In 1951, he became the director of the television show Your Hit Parade , a popular show in which a regular cast of singers performed the weeks top hits, sometimes in elaborate productions. [5] Ed Sullivan in October 1952 called Jones' direction one of the keys to the show's "professional savvy." [6] He continued as the regular director of the Hit Parade until 1954. [7] He received his first Emmy nomination in 1955 for best television director for his work on the program.

Carmen and the Ford Show

By the fall of 1952, Jones had built a reputation as "one of the most imaginative and creative of all TV directors today." [8] While working on Your Hit Parade, he also directed several special event programs. In November 1952, he directed "a precedent-breaking" performance of Carmen by the Metropolitan Opera. [8] Cameras were placed in the "Diamond Horeshoe" boxes to capture a production that featured a 92-piece orchestra and as many as 120 persons on stage at the same time> It broadcast live via closed circuit to movie screens across the country. [9] [8]

In June 1953, Jones took a two-week leave of absence from Your Hit Parade to direct The Ford 50th Anniversary Show . The Ford show was a two-hour special broadcast simultaneously on both NBC and CBS and involved the coordination of three studios, eight cameras, 45 engineers, 25 stagehands, a 24-piece orchestra, and a large cast. [10] Forty years after the broadcast, television critic Tom Shales recalled the broadcast as both "a landmark in television" and "a milestone in the cultural life of the '50s." He called it "the most stupendous" in an era of "super special shows." [11] Jones himself described it as "the very first television spectacular" and "the most exciting show" he ever did. [12]

Mid to late 1950s

In the fall of 1954, Jones began directing for Caesar's Hour , a popular comedy and variety show. [13] He directed at least 20 episodes of Caesar's Hour From 1954 to 1956.

Jones also directed several episodes of Producers' Showcase between 1955 and 1957. The most successful was the March 1955 television broadcast of Peter Pan starring Mary Martin. Jones took over as director from Jerome Robbins who directed the show on Broadway and received his second Emmy nomination for the project. [14] Jones' other projects for Producers' Showcase included a musical adaptation of Jack and the Beanstalk (1956) starring Joel Grey and the Royal Ballet's April 1957 performance of Prokofiev's Cinderella . [15] [16]

During the 1957-58 season, Jones directed The Patrice Munsel Show , a variety show starring opera singer Patrice Munsel. [17] Jones received his third Emmy for his work on that series. [18]

1960s

In 1958, Jones began directing the Perry Como Show , later known as Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall. He received his fourth Emmy nomination in 1959 for Best Direction of a Single Musical Or Variety Program for his work on an episode of Como's show featuring Maureen O'Hara and Robert Preston. [19] Jones also served as producer of Como's show in the late 1950s. [20] His association with the Como show continued until 1967, though his work was limited to specials in the later years. [21] [22]

From 1960 to 1967, Jones also directed The Bell Telephone Hour , a concert series featuring performances by stars of opera, musical theater and ballet. He also directed The Sammy Davis Jr. Show in 1966, [22] but it was cancelled after a three-month run. [23]

In 1967, Jones moved to Los Angeles to direct the first season of The Carol Burnett Show . He left the show after the first season to return to New York. For his work on the show, he was nominated for a Directors Guild of America Award (DGA Award) for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Television.

Special events

Jones also remained in demand during the 1960s for musical specials, directing Dinah Shore and Robert Goulet specials in 1964, and two Carol Channing specials in 1969. He also directed two Frank Sinatra specials: Francis Albert Sinatra Does His Thing in 1968, and Frank Sinatra: The Man and His Music (1981). He was nominated for a DGA Award for the second Sinatra special.

Jones also directed the 1982 broadcast of Night of 100 Stars and its 1984 sequel Night of 100 Stars II. He received Emmy nominations for both productions.

In 1967, Jones began a 20-year association with the Tony Awards. He directed the television broadcast of the award ceremony 19 times between 1967 and 1986. [9] He was twice nominated for Emmy Awards and once for a DGA Award for his handling of the Tony Awards. He also directed other award ceremonies and pageants, including the Emmy Awards and the Miss Universe and Miss USA pageants.

Later years

Jones died in 2002 at his home in Key West, Florida. [1] He was survived by his partner, Paul Daniel. [9]

Awards

Jones was nominated for multiple awards including the following:

Selected directing credits

Peter Pan (1955)
Cinderella (1957) [15]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan Flannery</span> American actress

Susan Flannery is an American actress and director. She made her screen debut appearing in the 1965 Western film Guns of Diablo and later appeared in some television series. From 1966 to 1975, Flannery starred as Laura Horton on the NBC daytime soap opera, Days of Our Lives for which she received her first Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.

<i>The Dean Martin Show</i> American TV series or program

The Dean Martin Show is a TV variety-comedy series that ran from 1965 to 1974 for 264 episodes. It was broadcast by NBC and hosted by Dean Martin. The theme song to the series was his 1964 hit "Everybody Loves Somebody".

James Edward Burrows, sometimes known as Jim "Jimmy" Burrows, is an American television director. Burrows has received numerous accolades including 11 Primetime Emmy Awards and five Directors Guild of America Awards. He was honored with the Directors Guild of America Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015 and NBC special Must See TV: An All-Star Tribute to James Burrows in 2016.

Jeremy Paul Kagan is an American film and television director, screenwriter, and television producer.

Bryan Gordon is an American film and television director, writer, actor and producer who is primarily known for directing comedy television shows.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paris Barclay</span> American television director and producer

Paris K. C. Barclay is an American television director, producer, and writer. He is a two-time Emmy Award winner and is among the busiest single-camera television directors, having directed nearly 200 episodes of television to date, for series such as NYPD Blue, ER, The West Wing, CSI, Lost, The Shield, House, Sons of Anarchy, In Treatment, Glee, Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, The Watcher, and American Horror Story: NYC. He also serves as an executive producer on many of the shows he directs, and occasionally as a writer or co-creator as well. From 2013 to 2017, Barclay served two terms as the President of the Directors Guild of America.

Barnet Kellman is an American theatre, television and film director, television producer and film actor, and educator, best known for the premiere productions of new American plays, and for the pilots of long-running television series such as Murphy Brown and Mad About You. He is the recipient of two Emmy Awards and a Directors Guild of America Award. He is the co-founder and director of USC Comedy at the School of Cinematic Arts, and holds the school's Robin Williams Endowed Chair in Comedy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Sargent</span> American film director and actor (1925–2014)

Joseph Sargent was an American film director. Though he directed many television movies, his best known feature-length works were arguably the action movie White Lightning starring Burt Reynolds, the biopic MacArthur starring Gregory Peck, and the horror anthology Nightmares. His most popular feature film was the subway thriller The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. Sargent won four Emmy Awards over his career.

Ernest Lamont Johnson Jr. was an American actor and film director who has appeared in and directed many television shows and movies. He won two Emmy Awards.

Dwight Arlington Hemion Jr. was an American television director known mainly for music-themed television programs of the 1960s and 1970s. He held the record for the most Emmy nominations (47), and won 18 times, putting him at the top of his profession throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and well into the 1980s. He also won the Directors Guild of America's top TV award five times, six Ace awards and a Peabody award.

Lev L. Spiro is an American film and television director. His TV episodic work includes multiple Emmy Award-winning shows such as Modern Family, Weeds, Arrested Development, My Name Is Earl, Ugly Betty, Gilmore Girls, Dawson's Creek, The O.C. and Everybody Hates Chris. His film directing includes the DGA Award nominated Minutemen, the Emmy Award-winning Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie, and the Lionsgate feature Blue Mountain State: The Rise of Thadland (2016).

Tony Charmoli was an American dancer, choreographer, and director. He began dancing on Broadway in such shows as Make Mine Manhattan but soon began choreographing for television with Stop the Music in 1949. Charmoli then choreographed dance sequences for the popular Your Hit Parade, winning his first Emmy Award in 1956. He went on to direct and choreograph for some of the biggest stars including Dinah Shore, Lily Tomlin, Danny Kaye, Julie Andrews, Cyd Charisse, Shirley MacLaine, Mitzi Gaynor, Lucille Ball, and others. On Broadway, Tony choreographed Ankles Aweigh (1955) and Woman of the Year (1981) with Lauren Bacall. Over his career, he was nominated for fifteen Emmy awards and won three.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William O. Harbach</span> American actor

William Otto Harbach was an American television producer, director and author. He won four Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award Harbach also produced and directed special events, including eight ASCAP celebrations for renowned composers, lyricists and librettists. He was the son of American lyricist, librettist and ASCAP co-founder Otto Abels Harbach.

Donald Roy King is an American television director, producer, writer, and actor. He served as the director for Saturday Night Live from 2006 until 2021. He has "directed more hours of live network television than anyone else in the history of television," according to Michael Chein.

Ronald "Ron" de Moraes is an American television director and producer. He has worked on numerous commercials, shows and concerts, and received an Emmy Award for co-directing the 2002 Winter Olympics opening ceremony and a Daytime Emmy Award for his work on the 2007 Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade.

Jerry Foley was an American television director and producer. He directed the Late Show with David Letterman from 1995 until the end of the show's run.

The Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety/Talk/News/Sports – Regularly Scheduled Programming is one of the annual Directors Guild of America Awards given by the Directors Guild of America. It was first awarded at the 66th Directors Guild of America Awards in 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">72nd Primetime Emmy Awards</span> 2020 American television programming awards

The 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards honored the best in American prime time television programming from June 1, 2019, until May 31, 2020, as chosen by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The ceremony was originally to be held at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was instead hosted from the Staples Center, while winners gave speeches remotely from their homes or other locations. It aired live on September 20, 2020, following the 72nd Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards on September 14–17 and 19. During the ceremony, Emmy Awards were handed out in 23 categories. The ceremony was produced by Done and Dusted, directed by Hamish Hamilton, and broadcast in the United States by ABC. Jimmy Kimmel served as host for the third time.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Clark Jones, 82; Directed Early TV Cultural Arts and Variety Programs". Los Angeles Times. April 6, 1982 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ↑ "Jazz Players Will Be Condon Guests". The Daily Record. July 30, 1949 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ↑ "Photograph". Chicago World. October 1, 1949 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ↑ "Billie Holiday Highlights Video Program". Alabama Citizen. October 1, 1949.
  5. ↑ "Youngsters Invade Television Fields". Journal and Courier. December 26, 1951 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. 1 2 Ed Sullivan (October 19, 1952). "Little Old New York". New York Daily News. p. II-4 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ↑ "Watch Events Go by on Ford TV Show". The Indianapolis News. June 15, 1953 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "Plans Set For Telecast Of 'Carmen'". The Times Dispatch. November 30, 1952.
  9. 1 2 3 4 "Clark Jones, 81, Director in TV's Early Days". The New York Times. April 5, 2002. p. C11.
  10. ↑ Bill Colemna (June 13, 1953). "Radiopinion and Televisionotes". The Tablet. p. 19.
  11. ↑ "Ford's 50th anniversary show was milestone of '50s culture". Palm Beach Daily News. December 26, 1993. p. B3 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ↑ "Benefit features all the stars you'd want to see". The Gasette. March 6, 1982 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ↑ "Caesar Debuts Show Monday". The Scrantonian. September 26, 1954. p. 10 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ↑ "Channel Chatter". The Rock Island Argus. March 9, 1955.
  15. 1 2 "'Cinderella' Ballet to Be On TV Tonight". The Capital Times. April 29, 1957 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ↑ "Royal Ballet presentation scheduled for TV April 28". The Province. April 6, 1957 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ↑ "Patrice Munsel's Producer Is A Professor of Psychology". Tampa Bay Times. January 26, 1958 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. 1 2 "Television Emmy Awards To Be Presented Tonight". The Evening Sun. April 15, 1958 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ↑ "Peter Gunn, With 8 Nominations, Leads Contenders for Emmy Awards". The Progress-Index. May 2, 1959.
  20. ↑ "The Old Show's Return -- Como Leads Fall Parade". New York Daily News. September 15, 1958 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ↑ "Woody Allen to Appear As Guest of Perry Como". The Hartford Courant. March 19, 1967 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. 1 2 "Director Named For Davis Show". Valley Times. November 19, 1965 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. ↑ "Sammy's One-Man SHow". Tampa Bay Times. April 17, 1966 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ↑ "Emmy award nominations are listed for major categories". The Shreveport Journal. August 6, 1982 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. 1 2 "'Hill Street Blues' tops directors' nominee list". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. February 10, 1982 – via Newspapers.com.
  26. ↑ Win Fanning (November 27, 1969). "Sinatra Does His Thing, Again". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette– via Newspapers.com.
  27. ↑ "TV: C.B.S. Presents 'A World of Love': Clark Jones Directs U.N. Hall 'Party' Shirley MacLaine and Cosby Among Stars". The New York Times. December 23, 1970. p. 53.
  28. ↑ John J. O'Connor (January 13, 1973). "TV Review: Marlene Dietrich Act on C.B.S. Tonight". The New York Times. p. 63.
  29. ↑ www.newspapers.com/clip/78728013/
  30. ↑ "Benefit features all the stars you'd want to see". The Gazette. March 6, 1982 – via Newspapers.com.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.