This week on the Late Night Time Machine, we travel back not to the set of a late-night television show, but to the movie set of a late-night television show.
In 1964, Johnny Carson was two years into his now-legendary thirty-year run hosting The Tonight Show. Though critics were at first skeptical that Carson—then best known as the host of the ABC game show Who Do You Trust?—could fill Jack Paar’s shoes, those concerns were quickly assuaged as he brought the show’s ratings to new heights.
Meanwhile, Connie Francis was at the apex of her fame. Just four years earlier, she had become the first woman to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool.” With the success of the song came a deal in Hollywood, and a string of leading movie roles, starting with Where the Boys Are, followed by Follow the Boys and Looking for Love.
It was in Looking for Love where Carson would make his big screen debut. Though he was best known as a television host, he did have a handful of acting credits to his name at that point, including an appearance as “Mr. Swanson” on The Dennis Day Show in 1954, and then later the role of “Erwin Trowbridge” in Playhouse 90. While hosting Who Do You Trust? in 1957, he even enjoyed a short run on Broadway in the play Tunnel of Love.
Yet here, in Looking for Love, he is eclipsed not only by Francis, but just about every other member of the cast, including Danny Thomas, who, like Carson, appears as himself.
Francis plays Libby Caruso, an aspiring singer who suffers from impatience. After mere weeks of trying her hand at show business, she decides to quit, setting out to become a career woman and look for a husband. She tries and fails to seduce Paul Davis (Jim Hutton), an ambitious young man who changes his tune once he realizes he can make some money with Libby, who has designed a sophisticated clothing rack called the “Lady Valet.” Paul convinces Libby to take him on as partner, promising to find investment.
Paul, it turns out, has connections in show business. He calls in a favor and gets Libby a guest spot on The Tonight Show to promote the product. While it’s inconceivable that such an appearance would ever occur, the Lady Valet would not be out of place in one of Carson and Ed McMahon’s yearly reviews of absurd Christmas gifts.
When Libby joins Carson on the couch, it plays like a fever dream. She begins by explaining to Johnny just how she landed a spot on the show. It turns out, multiple friends of friends somehow got back to Carson’s mother, who called in the favor. “Good old mom,” Carson mutters to the camera.
For those used to seeing Johnny Carson in control on his show, watching his performance in Looking for Love is oddly discomfiting, with the usually unflappable host seeming unsure how to deliver his lines or where to look. Carson, as he often did, keeps his right hand on his cheek, a gesture that here plays out more like the host trying to hide from the camera, while the intimate camera angles make it feel less like The Tonight Show and more like Carson has been trapped in a horrible bit, exacerbating the discomfort.
Libby discussing the Lady Valet gives Carson an opportunity to deliver a one-liner. He calls it “a blind date for a Martian.” When he asks Libby to share more, she says there isn’t much else to say, just that she made it after deciding to leave show business. The camera cuts to Carson, who delivers an overdramatic look of interest, perhaps sensing he can salvage this hopelessly dull appearance.
“What do you mean you gave up show business?” he asks. Libby shares her story as Paul stands in the wings, pleading with her to talk about the product instead. Carson asks again why she no longer sings, a look of painful disinterest trying to masquerade as sincerity across this face. He then turns to the studio audience and asks if they would like to hear Libby sing. They cheer.
Libby then joins the band for a rendition of “When The Clock Strikes Midnight.” Several times during the number there are reaction shots of Carson, including ones where he winks, smiles, and sways along. Needless to say, Libby’s show business career takes off from there. As it would throughout the decades, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson has launched a star.
Twenty-three years later, in 1987, Carson’s awkward movie debut would come back to haunt him when Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert appeared on The Tonight Show with a fake segment of their show, At the Movies.
“Johnny Carson is widely acknowledged as a master of show business,” Siskel says to introduce the segment. “But based on Looking for Love, that business doesn’t include the movies.”
Siskel even makes fun of his “subtle” facial expressions. And of the studio audience’s reaction to Carson inviting Francis to sing: “That doesn’t look a bit like they were paid to clap.”
Ebert respectfully disagreed, defending Carson’s strong performance.
“It’s obvious that he was playing himself,” Ebert reasoned. “When you look at that performance, it makes you think of Johnny Carson. It looks just like Johnny Carson does today.”
Ebert then pokes fun at Connie Francis, saying that Carson must be a great actor if he’s able to “hold his own” against such a great performance: “That’s acting!”
Carson finds the whole thing hilarious and seems relieved when Ebert says the film is not on home video. Siskel asks why he, Carson, did such a bad job. Carson explained he was in pain because the scene took a whole day to finish, but that he was offered $20,000 for the part. Then only a year into The Tonight Show, it was too much money to turn down.
Carson ended the segment with a prediction: “You guys are cruel and you’ll pay for this.”
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