Yesterday was the 75th anniversary of the first television broadcast of the musical program Your Hit Parade, on NBC.
The show had aired on radio since 1935, featuring, over the years, many singers (including Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Buddy Clark, Dinah Shore, Bea Wain, and Andy Russell), and various orchestra leaders (such as Al Goodman, Carl Hoff, Axel Stordahl, and Mark Warnow).
During the summer of 1950--as the weekly Hit Parade radio show continued--there were four experimental television broadcasts of the program. The shows were telecast from New York's International Theatre, at Columbus Circle.
The show's primary singing stars, for the summer shows, were Eileen Wilson and Snooky Lanson.
The summer broadcasts also featured singer Dorothy Collins--as well as the Hit Paraders (the show's choral group), and the Hit Parade dancers. Andre Baruch was the program's announcer, and Raymond Scott its orchestra leader.
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Publicity photo of Eileen Wilson, Snooky Lanson, and Dorothy Collins, the primary singing stars of TV's Your Hit Parade from 1950 to 1952.
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Ms. Wilson had starred on the Hit Parade radio program since 1948; for part of her time on the show her co-star was Frank Sinatra. Prior to joining the program, she had been a singer with big bands--including, notably, the Les Brown orchestra.
Mr. Lanson had joined the Hit Parade radio show only weeks before the initial TV broadcast.
During the 1940s, he had been a vocalist with the Ray Noble orchestra. In 1950, before being hired for the Hit Parade, he had had a hit song, "The Old Master Painter," recorded with the Beasley Smith orchestra. He was also heard regularly on various Nashville-based radio programs, both local and national. One of the programs, on which he had starred for a number of years, was the music show Sunday Down South. It originated from Nashville station WSM, and was aired by NBC.
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Cover of script, first Hit Parade TV broadcast, July 10, 1950
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Dorothy Collins had also recently joined the radio program, to sing the show's Lucky Strike jingles, which were written by orchestra leader Raymond Scott. Mr. Scott had become the radio show's bandleader in 1949, after the death of his brother, Mark Warnow, who had led the orchestra for years. Previously, Ms. Collins had for several years been a vocalist with Mr. Scott's orchestra--on the radio, on records, and in public appearances.
In October of 1950--in that the summer experimental shows were a success--the Hit Parade
TV program began airing weekly; the radio show continued as well. Both
shows aired on Saturday nights from New York's Center Theatre, at
Rockefeller Center.
For the summer TV broadcasts, Ms. Collins had had dual roles: she sang
the show's commercial jingles, and also appeared in song productions on
the program.
Her dual roles continued, with the start of the weekly
telecasts. Yet while the TV program, as noted above, originally featured two main singing stars--Ms. Wilson and Mr. Lanson--Ms. Collins would soon become a co-equal star. Before long, she would become one of television's most popular performers.
In the image, above, of the cover page for the script of the TV show's debut summer broadcast, one can see the logo "BBDO Television." BBD&O was the advertising agency which oversaw the production of the Hit Parade radio and TV broadcasts--as well as overseeing many other television and radio programs of the period.
(Please note: some edits were made to this post on July 13th.)
