The Colgate Comedy Hour
Tags: comedy, humor

Plot synopsis:
The program evolved from NBC's first TV variety showcase, Four Star Revue, sponsored by Motorola. The "running gag" sketches were dropped in favor of more performing acts. The weekly show was proposed to be hosted by four comedians in a four-week rotation to provide competition for Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town on CBS. The first episode, starring Hans Conried, Rosemary DeCamp and Dick Foran, was written and produced by the then 22-year-old Peggy Webber, who appeared in over 100 episodes of Dragnet with Jack Webb.
The new format was heavily backed by its sponsor, Colgate-Palmolive, to the tune of $3 million in the first year, and the 8:00 p.m. ET, Sunday evening format show was a spectacular success, particularly for Eddie Cantor and the Martin & Lewis and Abbott & Costello duos. In his autobiography, Jerry Lewis wrote that the show premiered Sunday, September 17, 1950, with Martin & Lewis and was telecast from the Park Theatre off Columbus Circle in New York City. As theatres are known by different names over history, it is possible that this was the now-demolished International Theatre at 5 Columbus Circle, the broadcast location of another NBC show of the era, Your Show of Shows with Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca. In fact, Eddie Cantor hosted the first Colgate Hour on September 10, 1950.
During the 1950-51 season, AT&T put into regular service a coast-to-coast coaxial/microwave interconnection service which allowed live telecasts from across the nation. Three production units were quickly set up, one in New York, one in Chicago, and one in Los Angeles. Martin & Lewis and Abbott & Costello anchored the West Coast, broadcasting from the El Capitan theater in Hollywood (today known as Avalon Hollywood. Other shows that originated here include The Hollywood Palace), while Eddie Cantor anchored from New York. This gave NBC a substantial edge over Ed Sullivan, since top-grade talent from motion pictures could also do network TV on the West Coast Colgate Comedy Hour, while Sullivan had to work with whomever happened to be in New York at the time that a particular episode aired.
During the 1952-53 season, Cantor suffered a heart attack immediately after a Colgate Comedy Hour broadcast in September. Although he quickly recovered and returned in January 1953, he was reluctant to move with the show. By the fourth season, the sponsor was providing $6 million, but the performers were finding difficulty in offering fresh material. Ratings hence began to decline. Cantor had become too ill to continue in the hosting role, and the travel was too stressful and painful for him. His final Colgate appearance was in May 1954. Vic Schoen was hired as the musical director in 1954.
In 1954, Tony Martinez, later cast as the farmhand on The Real McCoys, made his television debut on The Colgate Comedy Hour.
Hal March and Tom D'Andrea appeared on The Colgate Comedy Hour in what subsequently became in the summer of 1955 the 11-episode NBC live military comedy series, The Soldiers. D'Andrea took leave from his role as Jim Gillis in William Bendix's The Life of Riley for The Soldiers.
In June 1955, the show changed its name to the Colgate Variety Hour to reflect a move away from pure comedy. A number of the earlier hosts had left by the end of the 1953-54 season (with the exception of Martin & Lewis) as the show shifted toward mini-musicals, starring hosts such as Ethel Merman and Frank Sinatra, who paired together in truncated version of Cole Porter's "Anything Goes". The show was also performing on the road as well, unlike other seasons where the shows were transmitted from New York or Los Angeles at 8 p.m. Gordon MacRae often served as host during this period.
However, ratings continued to slide while The Ed Sullivan Show got stronger. The final show, emceed by the series' last continuing host Robert Paige, aired as a Christmas special on December 25, 1955, with Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians choral ensemble. The Colgate Comedy Hour was replaced the following season with the NBC Comedy Hour, hosted by Leo Durocher for the first three shows. After Durocher, the regular hosts changed, and after 18 broadcasts, the final show aired in June. Regular supporting casts always co-starred in each of the episodes. Jonathan Winters was featured on the show.
On November 5, 1967, NBC broadcast a special Colgate Comedy Hour revival (pre-empting The Dean Martin Show, which Colgate sponsored at the time), with guests Nanette Fabray, Kaye Ballard, Edie Adams, Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks [performing one of their "2000 Year Old Man" routines], Phyllis Diller, Bob Newhart, Nipsey Russell, and Dan Rowan & Dick Martin. None of the performers who had performed in the original 1950-1956 shows appeared. The special also served as a television pilot for a possible revival of the series, which never happened.
In the 1954-1955 season, Donald O'Connor left the show and starred in his own musical situation comedy, The Donald O'Connor Show, which aired on the NBC Saturday schedule alternating with The Jimmy Durante Show.
Notable guest stars who went on to find success in entertainment included Vera Miles, costar of Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Psycho, Bob Fosse, later a noted choreographer and director who won multiple Tonys and an Academy Award for his work, and even a child-age Christopher Walken, who became an Oscar-winning actor and screen star, appeared alongside Jerry Lewis in a sketch (albeit under his given name, Ronald).
Kinescopes of the 28 shows hosted by Martin & Lewis have been airing Saturday evenings on the classic television network RTV since June 30, 2012.

Review: Not the first color broadcast.
An earlier comment claims that an episode in November 1953 was the first color television broadcast ever.
The Federal Communications Commission, on Oct. 10, 1950, approved a color television system developed by CBS that was not compatible with existing black and white television sets.
However, a court challenge by RCA, which was developing its own color system that was compatible with black and white sets, tied up the inauguration of the CBS color system until a decision for CBS by the U.S. Supreme Court in May 1951.Finally, on June 25, 1951, CBS broadcast a one-hour program in color, called "Premiere", featuring Ed Sullivan and other CBS stars, and carried it on a five-station East Coast CBS-TV hookup.The episode of "The Colgate Comedy Hour" broadcast in color in November 1953 was actually the network debut of the rival RCA color television system.
In December 1953, the FCC formally reversed its earlier decision and approved the RCA system as the color standard for American television..
First TV show in colour.
'Colgate Comedy Hour' was a first-rate comedy-variety series, performed live from New York City and featuring some of the biggest names in American show business at the time.
The series was sponsored by Colgate-Palmolive, a 'health and beauty aids' company which had established a healthy presence in the sponsorship of entertainment since the early days of radio.
In the 1940s, Al Jolson had starred in a weekly radio show sponsored by Colgate Tooth Powder, but he mistakenly kept identifying the sponsor as 'Colgate Toothpaste': a different product altogether, which was sponsoring a different radio show at the time.Apart from its excellent entertainment value, the Colgate Comedy Hour is also important for a technological reason.
The episode broadcast live on 22 November, 1953, hosted by Donald O'Connor, was the very first colour tv broadcast.
Prior to this, all colour tv transmissions had been closed-circuit only..
First Color Show?.
Recently, Gloria O'Connor (Donald's widow) told me that she thought the Nov. 22, 1953 Colgate Comedy Hour was the first color telecast of the newly-approved color system.
Evidently it was part of a test.
Many old-timers have insisted that the Jan 1 Rose Bowl Parade was the first color telecast.
Can anyone shed some light on the Colgate Comedy Hour?
I met Joyce Smith, one of the original dancers, at an NBC Reunion and she also believed that the show was telecast in color.
It would be a good thing to straighten this out for the history books.
In addition, Joyce said the Comedy hour originated at the original 'El Capitan' theater on Vine Street..
I've seen the two Abbott and Costello episodes.
Not all Colgate Comedy Hour episodes originated from New York.
In fact, when it began, production originated from New York and was kine-scoped for West Coast broadcast.
Beginning with the second season, production was divided between Hollywood and New York, with the majority of episodes originating from Southern California.
The show started in New York and ended in L.A. The first Los Angeles-based episode of the show aired late in September 1951.
All of the Los Angeles-based Colgate Comedy Hour episodes seem to have been filmed instead of aired live, as I have seen with a December 1952 Abbott and Costello-hosted episode.
Fred Waring was the final host of the series, and on Christmas Day 1955.
The first Colgate Comedy Hour to originate from outside New York or Los Angeles was from Philadelphia in 1951 not Las Vegas or Miami in 1954.
No sooner did the show end did Los Angeles overtake Chicago as an important center for TV production, as it remains 50 years later..
a true classic.
I've been lucky enough to see five episodes of this golden age of TV pioneer.
The high powered talent was only part of a top notch production.
Two of those shows featured Abbott and Costello, who can be seen doing their "Who's on First?" routine and interacting with horror film legend Boris Karloff.
The other three are Martin and Lewis shows, and actually made me laugh out loud more than a half century later, their work was that good.
In fact, what's obvious from those shows is that there's a lot of ad-libbing going on, and the two seem like they're absolutely having the times of their life.
If you find that DVD (the sleeve advertised two shows but actually contains three, all with original commercials, I found it for a dollar at a Dollar General store...talk about a buried treasure!) look for the bit part where Jerry teases two NBC studio cameramen.
A true gem.
And fans of old TV commercials won't be let down, either, by the catchy jingles and nice animation for Colgate toothpaste, Palmolive soap and shave cream, Halo shampoo or Fab detergent..
Martin and Lewis together again!.
The Colgate Comedy Hour (1950-1955) was a show that had the biggest comedians and entertainers as guest hosts.
It featured of music, fun and gags.
Last night I heard that the comedy legend Jerry Lewis has died at the age of 91.
I took the news with a heavy heart since I've been a big time JL fan for many, many years.
That was the reason I wanted to find something from the net with Mr. Lewis.
And I found an episode of this show from 1955.
There he teams with his old partner Dean Martin.
They still have the chemistry left here, and it is a true joy to watch them perform 'Side by Side' together.
And Jerry is his funny self when he makes Dino's pool playing impossible.
How sad that they're both gone now.
I hadn't seen this show before, but plan to see much more of it in the future..
From what I have seen it's good..
I own a DVD that is entitled "The Abbott & Costello Show".
But it's actually two episodes of "The Colgate Comedy Hour".
From what I have seen it looked like a good show.
But again I have only seen two shows.
Both shows were hosted by Abbott & Costello and they were hilarious.
It featured many different skits and bits including the "Two Tens For a Five".
And of course it had everyone's favorite "Who's on First?".
I really enjoyed the quick banter between the two.
I heard the best Abbott & Costello routines are the ones preformed in front of a live audience.
Costello was great at ad-libbing and it shows here.
I have only seen a couple of the Martin & Lewis movies and they were good.
So I'm guessing the ones hosted by them were good too.
I really recommend this to anyone who likes comedy and especially anyone who hasn't seen the "Who's on First?" bit.
It's classic stuff.