The Perfect Schnook

Alan Young decided when he was 14 that he would be an actor and that his specialty would be the role of the likable dolt--a type that show business calls a "schnook" (rhymes with took). Competing with such notable professional chumps as Dennis Day, Ozzie Nelson and Dagwood (Arthur Lake), Young was only a passable schnook in his 1944-47 radio show, a fair-to-medium specimen in his movie roles (Margie, Chicken Every Sunday, Mr. Belvedere Goes to College). But in his carefully planned opening TV show for Esso Standard Oil Co., aired in the East last week (Thurs. 9-9:30 p.m., CBS-TV), Young was just about as -convincing at schnookery as any man could hope to be.

Softshoe Exit. Produced in Hollywood and kinescoped throughout the country by CBS, Young's first show seemed to have a bit more polish and technical perfection than the mill run of TV comedy programs. Grinning affably, Young, a 29-year-old Scotsman who grew up in Vancouver, B.C., underplayed everything skillfully. In his first scene he painted himself into a corner of a room, then painted a door and doorknob on the wall, turned the knob gingerly and made a softshoe exit.

The final sketch, with Young taking his first ride in a commercial airliner, gave) him a chance to show off in his most colorful schnook form. Seating himself next to Actor Joseph Kearns, a serious-minded businessman trying to do some paper work, Young quickly drove Kearns to the verge of insanity through a combination of nervousness and nosiness. Told by the stewardess to fasten his belt, Young first fastened his own trousers belt, then got tangled with Kearns's safety belt. A few moments later, eavesdropping as Kearns sweated over his expense account, Young asked indignantly: "How could you spend $100 in Buffalo?"

Big-Time Entrance. The TV audience seemed most pleased when the stewardess served the two their lunch trays. Young, in his confusion, bit into a banana belonging to Kearns, then desperately tried to make amends by patching it messily with another banana. In the radio and TV gagwriters' vocabulary describing audience reactions to gags, a laugh is the lowest thing on the scale. Then comes the howl. After that they yell, and finally, on rare occasions, they scream. During Young's banana routine, there was no doubt that the studio audience screamed.

With his rollicking first show Alan Young apparently put himself into the big time with Milton Berle, Ed Wynn and other topnotch TV comics. Living quietly in Hollywood with his wife and infant daughter (he has two children by his first wife), Young works hard and keeps regular business hours. He says he likes TV and is not worrying too much about the future. For one thing, he can play the bagpipes. If things get too tough, he figures that bagpipes are always good for a scream.

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