'Playhouse of Stars' To Present Irene Dunne

"The Schlitz Playhouse of Stars"winds up one series tonight and begins a "new" one from Hollywood next Friday, also on CBS-TV from 9 to 9:30 P.M.
 This is by way of being the third switch for "Playhouse" which began with an hour program some months ago and eventually shortened itself to 30 minutes after a series of weak story properties and mediocre performances.

 "Playhouse" may have the winning formula this time, however, in that in addition to the shorter playing time and the Hollywood origination, it will also present Irene Dunne with introductions to each show. Miss Dunne will play a brief, specially written prologue each week, each intended to set the mood for the drama to follow.

 Next Friday's opening program for example, will star Richard Haydn in "A Quarter for Your Trouble," the story of a meek department store executive, a type for which Haydn has long been justly famous in Hollywood.

 MISS DUNNE, who'll be making her TV debut, will set the theme for Haydn and the others with the portrayal of a gum-chewing clerk in the store's information bureau.

 Future weeks will find her playing everything from tragedy to (...) and, among other types, she'll appear as a door-to-door saleswoman, an immigrant appyling for citizen-ship, a nightclub table-hopping gossip columnist who travels with a chimpanzee, a newspaper woman, or a society woman touring Singapore.(...)

(from the "Radio and Television" column, Long Island Star-Journal, May 23, 1952)