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HOLLYWOOD — Bobby Van is a song-and-dance man. He’s been a song-and-dance man all his life, and his father was a song-and-dance man before him. And Bobby’s done all right, in a long and honorable career. But now he’s doing something else and the reason is the need in all of us for some security. “I’ve been a song-and-dance man since I was 15,” Bobby says. “I never had a lesson in my life — I just picked it up as I went along. And I’ve been working pretty steadily for a long time. “But I have no security to show for it. That’s the trouble with this business. That’s one reason why I hope the new show goes. I want security.” The new show is NBC’s brand-new daytime comedy variety program, The Fun Factory, which Bobby hosts. He says it is a game show with overtones of variety. “The questions for the contestants,” he says, ‘‘grow out of the sketches and musical numbers.” The Fun Factory has had a curious, strike-crossed history. It was originally scheduled to premiere last April, then twice in May. All three times it was postponed by the devastating strike by broadcast employes against NBC. “It’s been very frustrating for me,’’ Van says. “I’ve had to turn down a lot of big money offers because of it. One of them was to go on tour with the musical, ‘George M.’ ~ But he stuck it out, waited for the strike to be settled. One reason was that he felt the show gave him that long awaited chance for security at the right time — he and his wife, actress - dancer Elaine Joyce — are just about to have their first child. Another reason is that the show was tailored expressly for him. That’s the reverse of the usual procedure. Or dinarily, a show is created and then they go shopping for a host but this time they had the host and built the show to fit his talents. Bobby Van’s father was an old-time vaudeville song and dance man, so the whole procedure came naturally to the young man. “My father,” Bobby says, “used the stage name King. That made it tough on me as a boy, because I used the real family name —Stein — when I went to school. All the teachers were confused about a kid named Stein whose father was named King. I was confused, too. “So, when I _ turned professional, I had to find a name. There were too many people named King around and I didn’t think Stein had glamor, so I picked Van. But I’ve legalized it, so my children won’t have the problems I had.”’ This, of course, will be Van’s first extended exposure on television. As noted, he likes the prospect of a long and steady engagement, for the security it will produce, but he isn’t too sure how well he’ll enjoy the work. “I like working, wherever and whenever,” he says, ‘‘and I really don’t care where or what it is. But I do think I prefer the stage because the reaction of the audience is more immediate.”’ He does think The Fun Factory will be fun for him as well as the audience because there will be live people for him to work to. It’s movies, with their lack of a live audience, he doesn’t par ticularly care for.
Newspaper Details
Olathe Daily News
Olathe, Kansas, US
Sat, Jul 03, 1976
Page 19
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 03 Feb 2026
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