Frances Farmer Presents
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Frances Farmer Presents (1958–1964) was an immensely popular afternoon television program on Indianapolis station WFBM-TV (then an NBC affiliate).
Film actress Frances Farmer had gone to Indianapolis to appear in the play The Chalk Garden, where a WFBM executive saw her performance and suggested she would be an ideal celebrity to host their new daily series showcasing vintage films. The show premiered in October, 1958, and quickly became the top-rated show in its time period, a position it retained until it left the air in September 1964. It was one of the first locally produced television programs to be broadcast in color. Farmer not only introduced the daily feature, she also frequently interviewed visiting celebrities, people as diverse as Mitch Miller, Dan Blocker, Marsha Hunt, Marge Champion, and her own ex-husband Leif Erickson. Farmer also took her show on the road to Purdue University. There is existing film of her two weeks at Purdue, where she hosted the show while simultaneously appearing in The Sea Gull. Farmer interviewed many of the students appearing in the play, as well as Purdue's president and theater department chairman Joseph Stockdale.
[edit] External links
- Frances Farmer Presents at the Internet Movie Database
- Shedding Light on Shadowland--in-depth essay about Farmer, including copious information about her Indianapolis years and "Frances Farmer Presents"
