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The Great Fred de Cordova

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Eyes Of A Generation.com

The Great Fred de Cordova

Fred joined ‘The Tonight Show’ at age 60 and left the show at age 82, but he covered a lot of ground before that! After his graduation from Harvard Law School in 1933, he worked in the Shubert Theater organization and directed stage shows for the next ten years. He was variously a performer, stage manager, stage director, and finally dialogue director, the last in ‘Ziegfeld Follies of 1943’.

He directed 23 movies. One of the better known was ‘Bedtime for Bonzo’ (1951) starring a chimpanzee and future President Ronald Reagan. He also directed Rock Hudson, Errol Flynn, Tony Curtis, Audie Murphy, Yvonne de Carlo, Bob Hope and Humphrey Bogart. Much of his career was at Universal Studios, where he was known for turning out entertaining pictures quickly, even with difficult actors, and on a low budget. His last film was ‘Frankie and Johnny’ (1966) with Elvis Presley.

His skills were perfect for TV and in 1950, his TV career began with directing ‘The Jack Benny Program’, on which he appeared several times as himself. Other programs he directed include ‘The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show’, ‘The Bob Cummings Show’, ‘The George Gobel Program’, ‘December Bride’, ‘Leave It to Beaver’, ‘My Three Sons’ (103 episodes), and ‘The Smothers Brothers Show’. He directed and/or produced more than 500 TV series or segments.

He became producer of ‘The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson’ in 1970 and executive producer in 1984. He described his job as “..chief traffic cop, talent scout, No. 1 fan and critic all rolled into one” in a 1981 interview. He was executive producer when the final Carson show signed off in 1992. He won five Emmys for his work on the show.

During tapings of the Tonight Show, de Cordova would sit in a chair just beyond the guests’ couch so that he could cue Carson directly and speak with him during commercial breaks. By the 1980s Carson would occasionally speak to de Cordova during the show, although usually the moment would pass so quickly that there would be no time to give de Cordova a microphone or catch him on camera.

In July 1991, Carson paid tribute at the end of a show to his son Ricky Carson, who had died the month before in an automobile accident. De Cordova was aware that the show was going long and gave Carson the “wrap it up sign.” This infuriated Carson, and from that point forward de Cordova was no longer permitted to manage the show from the floor of the set. For more of his credits, go here http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0208111/

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4 responses to “The Great Fred de Cordova”

  1. Thomas Coleman

    De Cordova also basically played himself in the madcap black media comedy “The King of Comedy” from the early ’80’s, with Jerry Lewis delivering a brilliant performance as The Late Night Host – Carson himself refused the role. The studio kept it on the shelf for a while prior to release due to its perceived offbeat nature, but it proved quite observant and prophetic about our celebrity and fame obsessed culture.

  2. Tom Roche

    Shot of DeCordova, and some old NBC Burbank cameras is this clip from when Carson barged in on Don Rickles taping in an adjacent studio. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyxjEuFfxV0

  3. Glenn Krasner

    There was a terrific article in “Vanity Fair” about two years ago about his widow, and the hard times she had maintaining her lifestyle in Los Angeles. When Carson found out about it, he sent her a check for $100,000 to help her get by, for all the things that Freddy had done for him over the years. She actually ended up moving to Mexico, to live with her housekeeper, who had built an exact minimansion version of Mrs. de Cordova’s mansion in Mexico through her housekeeper salary, where they both lived out their golden years.

  4. Alec Cumming

    That’s a fascinating and sad story about how things turned sour for Fred and Johnny near the end. Carson sure knew how to nurse and grow a grudge.

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