A total of 72 episodes of The Mike Wallace Interview were broadcast by ABC between 1957 and 1958 (here’s my article on the show). From April of 1957 to April of 1958 the series was sponsored by Phillip Morris. Following the April 19th, 1958 episode — its 52nd — Phillip Morris dropped the series. Note that the Sunday, September 15th, 1957 episode was broadcast on a sustaining basis by ABC and was not sponsored by Phillip Morris. Thus, at the time, 53 episodes had been shown. The Fund for the Republic sponsored a thirteen-week series of interviews entitled “Liberty and Freedom,” one of which was never broadcast. It then sponsored an additional six episode. The final broadcast took place on September 14th, 1958.

According to an article in The Los Angeles Times from December of 1957, a filmed “stand-by interview” with Evelyn Rudie was always ready to be used in the event a guest didn’t show up [1]. It is not included in the episode count and its current whereabouts are unknown.

The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin has 66 of the 72 episodes of The Mike Wallace Interview. Five are only available as audio recordings while the rest are kinescopes that have been digitized and made available here. The Ransom Center also has a transcript of the Ben Hecht interview (broadcast February 25th, 1958) but no audio or video. One of the episodes the Ransom Center does not have a copy of is the controversial Mickey Cohen broadcast from May 19th, 1957.

According to Steve Winston, Associate Curator of Film at the Ransom Center, “There are reports that the BBC still has some excerpts though we have not been able to locate the specific department that might hold them. Other than that, the interview appears to be lost.” Audio of the Cohen episode is part of Archival Television Audio, Inc. (ATA) collection.

Also missing from the Ransom Center’s collection are the two retractions read by ABC’s Oliver Treyz on May 27th and December 14th. According to Winston, “We have no idea why the footage was not included in the kinescope. We don’t know if they were removed later, or if they were never recorded in the first place.” Archival Television Audio, Inc. has the May 27th retraction read by Treyz.

UCLA’s Film & Television Archive has two episodes of the series: the Cyrus Eaton interview that is audio only at the Ransom Center and the Ben Hecht interview that the Ransom Center only has a transcript for. Both the Museum of Broadcasting and The Paley Center for Media have several episodes that are also part of the Ransom Center’s collection.

Works Cited:
1 Smith, Cecil. “Stars Dodge the Mike Wallace Interview to Avoid Being Tagged ‘It’ in Public.” Los Angeles Times. 1 Dec. 1957: G3.

Related:

• Mickey Cohen’s Mike Wallace Interview Not Lost
• Watching The Mike Wallace Interview
• Status Guide – “Night Beat”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 at 4:50PM and is filed under Status Guide, TV's Lost & Found, The Mike Wallace Interview. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.