The Colgate Comedy Hour
For five years, NBC's Colgate Comedy Hour was the only
serious threat to Ed Sullivan's The Toast Of The Town over
on CBS in the Sunday 8.00 - 9.00PM timeslot.
The Colgate Comedy Hour provided the first television
appearance for some of the most celebrated stars in show business,
including Eddie Cantor, Phil Silvers, Spike Jones and Abbott and
Costello. It was also the first major TV variety series to
originate from Hollywood.
In addition to 'traditional' variety shows hosted by big names,
the show occasionally featured full-length television adaptations
of well known Broadway musicals such as Anything Goes,
which was seen on the show in 1954 starring Frank Sinatra and
Ethel Merman.
Also in 1954, the show began to present shows which were
telecast from various locations such as the Hollywood Bowl, Pebble
Beach, California, Jones Beach Ampitheater on Long Island and the
SS United States.
The entire cost of producing this spectacular and very
expensive show was footed by the show's single sponsor, Colgate
toothpaste. Having a single company sponsor an entire show was a
holdover from the old radio days when a certain product would
become indelibly associated with a single program (eg: The Lux
Radio Theater, The Jello Show with Jack Benny, and
Johnson's Wax's Fibber McGee and Molly).
Colgate eventually decided that the production was not
cost-effective and withdrew its sponsorship. NBC cancelled the
show in 1955 and all but gave up its competition with Toast Of
The Town in the Sunday evening slot for the next 20 years.
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