Here's a nice little column from the Associated Press that ran in papers of June 30, 1956.
Inside Hollywood
Phil Harris Knows How To Live; Takes TV And Movies In Stride
By BOB THOMAS
HOLLYWOOD (AP)— That’s what I like about Phil Harris : the guy knows how to live.
While many of his fellow artists are knocking themselves out with weekly TV shows, Phil spends most of his year in the comfortable confines of Palm Springs. There he lives with his wife, Alice Faye, and their two daughters in a lovely home facing the Thunderbird golf course.
A few times every year, Phil lumbers up to Hollywood to assist in NBC spectaculars, as he will tomorrow. Once or twice a year he ventures up to make a movie. The rest of the time he spends on the golf course, beside trout streams and otherwise enjoying himself.
On him the life looks good. He is deeply tanned, relaxed and obviously pleased with his existence. I asked him if he ever thought of doing a regular TV show.
“The network has talked about it,” he remarked, “but so far they haven’t come up with anything satisfactory to me.”
What about a TV version of the radio show he used to do with Alice?
“Wouldn’t think of it,” he said flatly. Family shows have been done to death on television. It makes me sick to watch them. What could you possibly do on one that hasn’t been done on one before?"
Nor does he think well of doing a show that would feature his band. “Somehow bands just don’t go over too well on TV,” he remarked.
Phil said he’d like to keep pushing his movie career. He made a big impression in “The High and The Mighty” a couple of years back, and made “Anything Goes” and “Goodbye My Lady” last year. The latter was a disappointment to him.
Phil said that he expected his wife Alice to remain in retirement.
“The children are at an age when they need her the most,” he said, “One is 14 and the other is 12. They need her guidance.”
Besides the Palm Springs place, they have a home in Encino and real estate holdings elsewhere. Yep, Phil knows how to live. Where’s he going after tomorrow’s spec?
Fishing with Bing Crosby.
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