Television history was made on March 6, 1967 when an audience of over 30 million viewers tuned in to watch the first television broadcast of Hal Holbrook's landmark one-man show, Mark Twain Tonight. The 90 minute special was a tour de force, and was acclaimed as one of the high points in television history.
Most startling is the freshness of Twain's stinging commentary on politics, the art of lying, religion, patriotism, slavery, and Man's notion that he's the Creator's pet. Holbrook seems to improvise his way through the gold mine of Twain's writing, stitching ti together from many sources, allowing us to see into the heart and soul of the great humorist at 70.
I recorded this show when it was first on TV in 1967 with a new real-to-real tape recorder we had just purchaced. ABC which first aired the program recorded several of Hal Holbrook's performances and took the best sections from each performace to air. Many years later the series was made available on video tape but I was disipointed in the version on video as it was not edited the same way the origianl TV program was. I felt the original was much better, so here you can listen to the original version as heard on TV in 1967.
| Mark Twain Tonight | |||
| 22:38 | 1 | Chauser is dead | |
| 31:09 | 2 | Variety of services | |
| 21:05 | 3 | A boy in Hanabel | |
