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The Big Show was an American radio variety program featuring 90 minutes of comic, stage, screen, and music talent. It was aimed at keeping American radio in its classic era and making it robust against the rapidly growing television tide. The show ran from November 5, 1950, to April 20, 1952.
Hosted by stage actress Tallulah Bankhead, The Big Show began November 5, 1950, on NBC with a stellar line-up of guests: Fred Allen, Mindy Carson, Jimmy Durante, José Ferrer, Portland Hoffa, Frankie Laine, Russell Knight, Paul Lukas, Ethel Merman, Danny Thomas, and Meredith Willson. To make sure no one missed the launch, NBC ran in Sunday newspapers across the country an illustrated advertisement displaying headshots of Allen, Bankhead, Carson, Durante, and Merman. The premiere opened with this introduction:
As promised, the second week's program featured the guests Groucho Marx, Jane Powell, Ezio Pinza, and Fanny Brice, along with Hanley Stafford, Frank Lovejoy, David Brian and John Agar (the latter three recreating their screen roles in highlights from their current Warner Bros. picture, Breakthrough ) [1]. The early shows were successful, and the program remained on Sunday nights from 6:00 to 7:30 PM ET during its first season, later shifting to 6:30 to 8:00 PM ET in its second season. NBC made significant efforts to prevent the predicted decline of radio, viewing The Big Show as a crucial element in this endeavor. Newsweek described it as "the biggest bang to hit radio since TV started." Demonstrating the significant investment in the program, budgets for individual installments could reach as high as $100,000.
The show's success was credited to Bankhead's notorious wit and ad-libbing ability in addition to the show's superior scripting. She had one of the funniest writers in the business on her staff: Goodman Ace, the mastermind of radio's legendary Easy Aces . She included renowned ad-libbers in the show—particularly Fred Allen (he and his longtime sidekick and wife, Portland Hoffa, appeared so often they could have been the show's regular co-hosts) and Groucho Marx, both of whom appeared on the first season's finale and appeared jointly on three other installments.
As recorded in her memoirs, Tallulah Bankhead accepted the role on the show due to financial need. However, she almost reconsidered when she became concerned that her role would be limited to that of a glorified mistress of ceremonies, merely introducing the feature performers without substantial involvement. "Guess what happened?" she continued. "Your heroine emerged from the fracas as the Queen of the Kilocycles. Authorities cried out that Tallulah had redeemed radio. In shepherding my charges through The Big Show, said the critics, I had snatched radio out of the grave. The autopsy was delayed."
Each week, the show opened with Tallulah Bankhead subtly highlighting the high profile of the guests. Following her introduction, the guests would present themselves in alphabetical order, culminating with Bankhead's own distinctively raspy introduction, "And my name, darlings, is Tallulah Bankhead."
The show's lineup, including Allen and Marx, was a literal "who's who" of American entertainment of the time. They included film stars Ethel Barrymore, Charles Boyer, Gary Cooper, Marlene Dietrich, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Carmen Miranda, Bob Hope, Sam Levene, Martin and Lewis, Ginger Rogers, George Sanders, and Gloria Swanson; musical/comedy stage stars Eddie Cantor, Jimmy Durante, Judy Holliday, and Gordon MacRae; opera stars Lauritz Melchior and Robert Merrill; and jazz and popular music titans Andrews Sisters, Louis Armstrong, Peggy Lee, Rosemary Clooney, Perry Como, Billy Eckstine, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman, The Ink Spots, Frankie Laine, Judy Garland, Édith Piaf, Frank Sinatra, Rudy Vallée, and Sarah Vaughan. [1]
The show also featured many of the nation's most familiar radio stars, some of whom were beginning to shine on the medium the show was intended to help hold at bay: Gertrude Berg ( The Goldbergs ), Milton Berle, Bob Cummings, Joan Davis, Ed Gardner (Archie from Duffy's Tavern ), Phil Harris, Garry Moore, Jan Murray, Ozzie and Harriet Nelson ( The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet ), Phil Silvers, Danny Thomas, Paul Winchell, and more.
Other shows in the radio universe were referenced. The Big Show's November 26, 1950, installment, for example, took the cast of Bankhead, Fred Allen, Jack Carson, Melchior, and Ed Wynn to the fictitious Duffy's Tavern, where Ed Gardner, in character as Archie the manager, awaited them.
Fred Allen, who often humorously referenced the decline of his own radio career, joined Tallulah Bankhead to recreate one of the most memorable routines from Allen's previous show: the "Mr. and Mrs. Breakfast Show." This routine sharply parodied the overly sentimental husband-and-wife morning shows that had become a radio staple a decade earlier. And it was on The Big Show's premiere that Allen delivered his famous wisecrack about TV: "Television is a new medium, and I have discovered why it's called a new medium—because nothing is well done."
"The Big Show was not just grander than most radio shows—it was also wittier, smoothly produced, smart, and ambitious, with an interesting juxtaposition of guests, but it wasn't significantly different," wrote radio historian Gerald Nachman in Raised on Radio. "It was just a more lavish, inflated revival of radio's earliest form—the variety showcase; you could almost hear the sequins." Yet Nachman admired the show, which he said was "as close to a Broadway show as radio could whip together each week."
Except for special tributes (the series premiere, coinciding with the anniversary of George M. Cohan's death, was a particularly slam-bang tribute: a medley of Cohan musicals' signature songs), the show usually concluded with each guest taking a turn singing a line from music director Meredith Willson's composition "May the Good Lord Bless and Keep You," a touch that proved sentimental but not saccharine. So did Bankhead's likewise customary sign-off, wishing "Godspeed" to American armed forces around the world (who also listened to the program via the Armed Forces Radio Service).
In the surviving episodes, including the first-season finale, Tallulah Bankhead and her guests seamlessly navigate the comic banter and musical segments. Bankhead was supported by a top-tier musical director, Meredith Willson. The writing team, led by Fred Allen, included Frank Wilson, who adapted movie scripts and short stories for the dramatic segments, as well as George Foster, Mort Greene, and Selma Diamond. Fred Allen, a longtime friend of Goodman Ace, contributed as well and is considered (at least by historian Nachman) to have been the show's unofficial script doctor.[2] The show's announcers were Ed Herlihy and, when it occasionally originated from Hollywood, Jimmy Wallington.
The Big Show wasn't quite big enough to put television in its place and keep it there. NBC cancelled the show after two seasons and a reported loss of $1 million, a major figure in those years. In fact, it was primarily because the program was unable to attract more advertisers than those who sustained the second half-hour segment (6:30-7:00pm) during the first season: RCA Victor, American Home Products/Whitehall Pharmacal's Anacin, and Liggett & Myers' Chesterfield cigarettes. The show's failure to pull the audience needed to keep it alive longer than two years might also have been due to the former NBC hits now nestling on rival CBS, including The Jack Benny Program (directly opposite The Big Show), Amos 'n' Andy , Edgar Bergen, and Charlie McCarthy. But The Big Show is remembered as one of the great final stands, at its best, of classic American old-time radio and—for its wit, colorful music, and dramatics—as good as broadcast variety programming got on either medium.
Three 30-minute programs replaced The Big Show: Dimension X at 6 p.m. Eastern Time and The Amazing Mr. Malone at 6:30 p.m. E. T., and You Can't Take It With You at 7 p.m. E. T. [2]
Dee Englebach, producer of The Big Show, sought to replicate the radio program's success on television with All Star Revue. Tallulah Bankhead joined as one of the rotating hosts, bringing the comedy antics and musical variety of The Big Show to the screen. The television series debuted on October 11, 1952, featuring a guest lineup that included Groucho Marx, Ethel Barrymore, Ben Grauer, and Meredith Willson. Bankhead continued to host the series until April 18, 1953.
In the spring of 1980, a 90-minute TV series titled The Big Show premiered on NBC. Nominated for several Emmy Awards, it nevertheless died a quick death after only a few months. Keith Olbermann's first MSNBC news show, which aired from 1997 to 1998, was titled The Big Show with Keith Olbermann.
The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act that was successful in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in 14 motion pictures from 1905 to 1949. Five of the Marx Brothers' fourteen feature films were selected by the American Film Institute (AFI) as among the top 100 comedy films, with two of them, Duck Soup (1933) and A Night at the Opera (1935), in the top fifteen. They are widely considered by critics, scholars and fans to be among the greatest and most influential comedians of the 20th century. The brothers were included in AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars list of the 25 greatest male stars of Classical Hollywood cinema, the only performers to be included collectively.
The Tonight Show is an American late-night talk show that has been broadcast on NBC since 1954. The program has been hosted by six comedians: Steve Allen (1954–1957), Jack Paar (1957–1962), Johnny Carson (1962–1992), Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien (2009–2010), and Jimmy Fallon (2014–present). Besides the main hosts, a number of regular "guest hosts" have been used, notably Ernie Kovacs, who hosted two nights per week during 1956–1957, and a number of guests used by Carson, who curtailed his own hosting duties back to three nights per week by the 1980s. Among Carson's regular guest hosts were Joey Bishop, McLean Stevenson, David Letterman, David Brenner, Joan Rivers, and Jay Leno, although the practice has been mostly abandoned since hosts currently prefer reruns to showcasing potential rivals.
Tallulah Brockman Bankhead was an American actress. Primarily an actress of the stage, Bankhead also appeared in several films including an award-winning performance in Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat (1944). She also had a brief but successful career on radio and made appearances on television. In all, Bankhead amassed nearly 300 film, stage, television and radio roles during her career. She was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1972 and the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame in 1981.
John Florence Sullivan, known professionally as Fred Allen, was an American comedian. His absurdist topically-pointed radio program The Fred Allen Show (1932–1949) made him one of the most popular and forward-looking humorists in the Golden Age of American radio.
Robert Reiniger Meredith Willson was an American flautist, composer, conductor, musical arranger, bandleader, playwright, and writer. He is perhaps best known for writing the book, music, and lyrics for the 1957 hit Broadway musical The Music Man and "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" (1951). Willson wrote three other musicals, two of which appeared on Broadway, and composed symphonies and popular songs. He was twice nominated for Academy Awards for film scores.
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You Bet Your Life is an American comedy quiz series that has aired on both radio and television. The original version was hosted by Groucho Marx of the Marx Brothers, with announcer and sidekick George Fenneman. The show debuted on ABC Radio on October 27, 1947, moved to CBS Radio debuting October 5, 1949, and went to NBC-TV and NBC Radio on October 4, 1950. Because of its simple format, it was possible to broadcast the show on both radio and television but not simultaneously. Many of the laughs on the television show were evoked by Groucho's facial reactions and other visual gimmicks. So the two versions were slightly different. The last episode in a radio format aired on June 10, 1960. The series continued on television for another year, recording the last season, beginning on September 22, 1960, with a new title, The Groucho Show.
The Hollywood Palace was an hourlong American television variety show broadcast Saturday nights on ABC from January 4, 1964, to February 7, 1970. Titled The Saturday Night Hollywood Palace for its first few weeks, it began as a midseason replacement for The Jerry Lewis Show, another variety show, which lasted only three months.
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Selma Diamond was a Canadian-born American comedian, actress, and radio and television writer, known for her high-range, raspy voice and her portrayal of Selma Hacker on the first two seasons of the NBC television comedy series Night Court. Diamond was also the main inspiration for the character of Sally Rogers on the series The Dick Van Dyke Show.
The Baby Snooks Show was an American radio program starring comedian and Ziegfeld Follies alumna Fanny Brice as a mischievous young girl who was 40 years younger than the actress who played her when she first went on the air. The series began on CBS September 17, 1944, airing on Sunday evenings at 6:30 pm as Post Toasties Time. The title soon changed to The Baby Snooks Show, and the series was sometimes called Baby Snooks and Daddy.
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"May the Good Lord Bless and Keep You" is a popular song by Meredith Willson, originally published in 1950.
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The Chase and Sanborn Hour is the umbrella title for a series of American comedy and variety radio shows sponsored by Standard Brands' Chase and Sanborn Coffee, usually airing Sundays on NBC from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. during the years 1929 to 1948.
Four Star Revue is an American variety/comedy program that aired on NBC from October 4, 1950, to December 26, 1953.
The Fred Allen Show was a long-running American radio comedy program starring comedian Fred Allen and his wife Portland Hoffa. Over the course of the program's 17-year run, it was sponsored by Linit Bath Soaps, Hellmann's, Ipana, Sal Hepatica, Texaco and Tenderleaf Tea. The program ended in 1949 under the sponsorship of the Ford Motor Company.
Black Strap Molasses is a novelty song by Carmine Ennis and Marilou Harrington, released in August 1951. It was recorded by the movie stars Groucho Marx, Jimmy Durante, Jane Wyman, and Danny Kaye, with chorus and orchestra directed by Sonny Burke. The song was a popular success, reaching number 29 on the Billboard charts, but was banned from some radio networks because it was perceived as promoting commercial products.