Person to Person
Just over a week after Mike Todd took home the Oscar for Around the World in 80 Days, he and Elizabeth were interviewed remotely by Mike’s friend, Edward R. Murrow, on his CBS celebrity interview program, Person to Person.
According to the DVD release, Edward R. Murrow: The Best of Person to Person, which included the interview with the Todds: “From 1953 to 1959, Edward R. Murrow informally welcomed television viewers into the houses of the twentieth century’s most well-known stars on Person to Person. Utilizing perhaps the simplest set in television—a chair, a table, an ashtray and a picture window—Murrow greeted two guests a week in remote interviews that candidly revealed the private lives of America’s elite.”
The interview, which aired live, opens with a shot of a room in the Todds’ New York penthouse—an empty room in the Todds’ New York penthouse. “Good evening, Liz, Mike. Anybody home?” Murrow asks. “Come on, Liz,” Mike can be heard saying. “Liz, are you ready?” “Of course!” the notoriously unpunctual Elizabeth responds. “That’s my girl. That’s the new Liz. She’s ready.” (Later in the program, Elizabeth reveals that Mike told her the show was beginning thirty minutes later than its actual start time to ensure she was ready.)
The Todds had just returned to New York after a whirlwind trip to Chicago, where Around the World in 80 Days had one of its premieres in Mike’s hometown the night before. Asked whether she planned to continue making movies, Elizabeth responded: “Well, I couldn’t really care less about making movies, to tell you the truth. I consider it much more important to be a good woman than a great actress. Or any kind of an actress.” Mike said his wife was both, and praised her performance in the upcoming Raintree County, which would be released later that year.
Downstairs for the second half of the interview, the Todds introduced Murrow and his viewers to a duck that had made itself at home on the sofa. Mike had won the duck for Elizabeth’s boys, Michael and Christopher. The boys had named it Chuck, and Elizabeth said it would be accompanying them on their upcoming trip to Europe for the Cannes Film Festival. Mike showed off some of the art lining the walls of their home: a Monet, a Pissarro, and a Frans Hals. “All hand painted, by the way, in case you don’t know,” Mike joked. Mike briefly mentioned two upcoming projects that would be keeping him busy over the next two or three years: a big screen adaption of Don Quixote and a biopic of the legendary composer Arturo Toscanini (just over thirty years later, Elizabeth would appear in Young Toscanini, a look at the composer’s early career).
Murrow asked Elizabeth what Mike was like to live with. “Should I really answer? Well, I think he’s the nicest person I've ever lived with,” she said, laughing. “No, he’s a wonderful man. He has everything you could possibly want. He has a wonderful sense of humour. I don’t want him to hear this because his head is big enough as it is. And he’s very generous. And he’s very sympathetic. But I think the most wonderful thing of all is that he’s a marvelous cook, so that saves me from the kitchen.”
“I kind of like her, too,” Mike said.
According to Variety, the show featuring Elizabeth and Mike was Person to Person’s most-watched episode during Murrow’s tenure hosting the show.