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Elbows on the Table was one of the least appreciated, but potentially one of the most compelling interview shows of its day.
Its host, journalist and broadcast personality Lawrence Carpetburner,
had cut his reporting teeth during the second World War, where he gained
fame for an exposé he penned about blackmarket stationery supplies. Educated at Andover, and later briefly at Yale, Carpetburner was
an unusual choice for a television show, as he had widely been regarded
as a person of poor to non-existent social skills. A mail order course
in manners and public speaking, undertaken just days before the premiere
of Elbows on the Table in 1956, had a transformative effect on him, one
that he was to credit many times for making him "palatable" to audiences.
The mid 1950's were a pivotal time for the new technology of TV
broadcasting, and Elbows on the Table certainly had the potential of
gaining the relevance and popularity of similar shows like "The Mike
Wallace Interview" and the interview programs by Edward R. Murrow and
other respected journalists, but never really burst through to public
awareness. It's low budget production, rude host, plus the fact that
the show's sponsor, Pulp cigarettes encouraged it's consumers not to
smoke, caused the program to lag behind in the ratings even in time
slots where a test pattern was its only competition.
Lawrence Carpetburner never again appeared on television after Elbows on the Table was
finally cancelled, instead he returned to his first love, filing things
in hanging folders. He died in 1974, of cancer of the hand.
Nevertheless, for the scholar and fan of fascinating characters that
literally can be found nowhere else, Elbows on the Table is a unique and priceless
resource.
"If one can get around the pointless, irrelevant questions and rotten
manners of the host, the Elbows interviews offer modern viewers some
first class characters in compelling situations," claims historian
R. Patterson Voorhees, "it's just a pity Mr. Carpetburner was the host, and
not someone who was possessed of a clue."
Entry by Roland Portugal
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