Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians usher in the year 1961 along with Vincent Lopez and his orchestra. Robert Trout reports the festivities from Times Square.             

HY GARDNER CALLING - Sunday Night, half hour broadcast, weekly, WRCA Ch. 4 New York City - 11:30pm - 12:30am  April 29, 1956-January 13, 1957

HY GARDNER - Mon-Fri, weekdays, WRCA CH. 4 New York City 11:15-11:25pm, 11:20-11:30pm, 11:15-11:30pm September 10, 1956-January 25, 1957

TONIGHT: AMERICA AFTER DARK Hy Gardner ten minute segments "Face to Face" (New format replacing Steve Allen's TONIGHT!,
revised format series hosted by Jack Lescoulie.Last broadcast January 28, 1957 - July 26, 1958 (M-F 11:15pm - 1:00am).   

HY GARDNER CALLING - February 12, 1958 - September 3, 1958
WABD (Dumont). 30 minute broadcast Wednesday evenings 8:30-9:00pm.

HY GARDNER CALLING - September 10, 1958 - January 14, 1959 
WNEW. 30 minute broadcast Wednesday evenings 8:30 - 9:00pm

HY GARDNER SHOW - October 25, 1959-August 14, 1960 WNEW 45 minute and 60 minute broadcast, Sunday evenings 10-11pm.

HY GARDNER SHOW - September 24, 1960 - September 29, 1962 WOR one hour weekly broadcast, Saturday evenings 12am-1am.

HY GARDNER SHOW - October 21, 1962 - April 4, 1964 WOR one hour weekly broadcast Saturdays or Sundays 7:00pm-8:00pm.

HY GARDNER SHOW - September 26, 1964-January 10, 1965 WOR one hour weekly broadcast Saturday 11:30pm-12:30am or 12:00am-1:00am.


Hy Gardner was a well-known New York Herald-Tribune columnist.  He  appeared regularly on Tonight! and America After Dark, a short-term substitute for Tonight! after Steve Allen abandoned it early in 1957. Gardner specialized in profiling show business celebrities and other news makers, and he hosted a nightly ten-minute TV interview program in New York called Face to Face. His weekly Sunday-night show, Hy Gardner Calling!, also aired only in the New York area and consisted of interviews conducted by telephone, with the subject seemingly at home, but actually seated in one studio, while Gardner sat at his desk in another. The telephone hook-up was real, and there was no physical proximity between host and guest. The show premiered in 1954 ? on New York City’s NBC affiliate station WRCA-TV, Channel 4, and ran until 1965. 

Hy Gardner interviews Groucho Marx. In this excerpt Groucho tells Hy a very funny anecdote related to an incident all three Marx Brothers pranked on MGM's wonder boy, Irving Thalberg.                                                                                                                                           

October 5th, 1950- September 21st, 1961- NBC
1980-Syndicated, 1992- Syndicated

Comedic filmed quiz show featuring competitive questions and humorous conversation with the contestants. The NBC version of the show was hosted by Groucho Marx with his longtime sidekick George Fenneman serving as announcer and scorekeeper. A revival of the show was attempted in 1980 with Buddy Hackett as host. Another revival with host Bill Cosby was attempted in 1992. Both syndicated revivals were unsuccessful.                                                    

MEET THE ARTIST  a weekly broadcast with host Don Lowe spotlighting a different entertainer each week. 

Highlights from April 15, 1959 and May 2, 1960 Carnegie Hall benefit performances by Harry Belafonte with host Don Lowe presiding on the ABC Radio Network.  

 We hear over 15 different songs by Harry Belafonte as well and his anecdotal and direct conversation with his Carnegie Hall audience.           

Johnny Greene hosts this informal radio talk show with special guests Jack Benny, George Burns and Sylvia Fine (wife of Danny Kaye). This was an extremely rare occurrence where Benny and Burns were able to trade anecdotes on the same broadcast about one another and to one another.
Also, Sylvia Fine discusses her career and love affair with Danny Kaye with many anecdotes shared by all guests.

A major snowstorm impacts the Northeastern section of the United States. The Mid-Atlantic and New England regions were affected. It was the second of three major snowstorms to impact the Northeast during the winter of 1960-61.

 "Hollywood's Fourth Estate," is discussed by columnists covering the movieland scene. They include, Joe Hyams, American columnist and author of bestselling biographies of Hollywood stars including Humphrey Bogart, Mike Connolly, American magazine reporter and primarily a Hollywood columnist, Florabel Muir, American reporter, newspaper columnist and author, covering Hollywood celebrities and underworld gangsters from the 1920s through the 1960s, Murray Schumach, Author and Hollywood reporter for the New York Times, Mike Connolly, American magazine reporter and Hollywood columnist, and Jonah Ruddy.                                                  

Alexander Scourby narrates this documentary showing the rise and fall of Adolf Hitler.  Produced by Henry Salomon and Richard Hanser.  Musical score by Robert Russell Bennett.  NBC news bulletins with Wilson Hall interrupts programming, stating that "President Eisenhower has broken off U.S. relations with Castro's Cuba."  This program originally aired on March 14, 1956.

NOTE:
This was the second of over 30 different NBC PROJECT XX documentaries made for television (1954-1970). This broadcast depicts a chronicle of the rise and fall of Adolf Hitler, dictator of Germany. The story begins with scenes of Hitler as a shabby  street-corner orator in Munich Germany. It shows his rise to a position of supreme power in his homeland and eventually in much of Europe. 

High Nazi officials are seen strutting about at the height of their success. Goering, Goebbels, Himmler and Hess are among the figures seen in addition to Adolph Hitler. Aside from newsreel shots of concentration camps there are reconstructed scenes of Nazi victims being prepared for extermination. 
There are scenes of mass Nazi rallies. 

As Nazi power begins to fail, there are scenes of Germans fleeing for shelter from "Allied bomb s. From a recent German movie comes re-enacted details of the abortive bomb lot against Hitler's life  on July 20, 1944. Newsreels show Der Fuhrer being congratulated on his escape from death. But in fact his health is broken. While he broods in his bunker, Berlin falls in ruins above him. As the Russians advance on the doomed capitol Hitler takes his own life.

An exceptional original music score is composed by Robert Russell Bennett to compliment and give impact to the visuals, and the narrative by Alexander Scourby is superb. He would continue to narrate over half of all Project XX events during its 16 year television cycle. 

The US breaks off diplomatic relations with Cuba as a result of the expulsion of US diplomats from Cuba.               

Cuban diplomatic break commentary by Frank McGee and other NBC newsmen.            

A tribute to President Dwight Eisenhower as he prepares to leave office at the end of January. 

A Best of Paar rebroadcast which originally aired 
Nov. 16, 1960.

Hugh Downs announces the opening, and introduces Jack Paar who does a brief monologue and then is stymied by verbal gibberish by Joe E. Brown who kids Jack. 

Guest Joe E.  Brown talks about his affection for Marliyn Monroe while filming Some Like it Hot. Other subjects discussed is his early acrobatic life beginning when he was only nine years old. He also tells the story of the time when only one person remained in the audience before his act with Billy Bash and the Five Ashtons was over, and he was the janitor.     

On the panel Peggy Cass, Jack Douglas and his wife Reiko Douglas chime in and comment. 

Joe E. Brown mentions his pride for his son Joe L. Brown, general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates who won the World Series in 1960. 
Joe E. Brown states his own love of what he is currently 
doing as President of the Pony Baseball League and the 14,000 volunteers who give of their time to helping these young teenagers.                                   

The first of this season's wonderful programs from Carnegie Hall in New York City. Leonard Bernstein conducts, performs and explains. 

July 29, 1957- March 30,1962. 
.  
For four years and eight months Jack Paar reigned supreme as host of the Tonight Show with a crew of regulars, but only two stayed with him for the entire run; announcer Hugh Downs and band leader Jose Melies, a former army buddy. Familiar faces who appeared many times with Jack included Dody Goodman, Betty Johnson, Elsa Maxwell, Alexander King, Genevieve, Jack Douglas; and wife Reiko, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Hans Conried, Peggy Cass, Cliff (Charley Weaver) Arquette, and Johnathan Winters. Hugh Downs substituted for Jack Paar 79 times, more than any other substitute host there were 20 different performers over the period of the series run. Joey Bishop substituted for Paar 31 times. Arlene Francis, 30 times, Jonathan Winters, 26 times, Orson Bean, 21 times and Johnny Carson 15 times. Altogether there were 243 broadcasts that had substitute hosts filling in for Paar during Jack Paar's TONIGHT SHOW tenure. The title of the late-night broadcast changed to THE JACK PAAR SHOW which took effect on February 3, 1958. The first videotaped broadcast aired on January 5, 1959. "Best of Paar " Re-runs began on July 10, 1959. The first color broadcast aired on September 19, 1960. 

This show is a "Best of Paar"rerun from November 14th, 1960.  

Jack's guests are Mickey Rooney, Genevieve, and Jack Haley.

NOTE: This was the first time Mickey Rooney would return as guest on Jack Paar's Tonight Show since his controversial confrontation with Paar on the air on December 3, 1959. (See ATA # 13402)                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

July 29, 1957- March 30,1962. 

 A "BEST OF PAAR" re-run from November 14, 1960. Mickey Rooney returns to the Tonight Show and greets Jack eleven months after they had their controversial moment together on the TONIGHT SHOW, December 1, 1959.                                                                                                                                                                                

This CBS special pays tribute to composer George Gershwin. Maurice Chevalier, Florence Henderson, Frank Sinatra, Julie London, Ethel Merman, and Ron Husmann are all on hand to salute the great composer. One in a series of variety programs sponsored by General Electric. 

Musical Highlights:

"Lady Be Good"- Maurice Chevalier 
"The Man I Love"- Julie London, Florence Henderson 
"Strike Up The Band"- Ethel Merman     
"I've Got A Crush On You"- Frank Sinatra
"Someone To Watch Over Me"- Florence Henderson 
"I Got Rhythm"- Ethel Merman 
Porgy and Bess Dance Medley- Alvin Ailey and Carmen de Lavallade

Host: Richard Rodgers
Ronald Reagan: Series Host 

                                       

The topic of tonight's round table discussion, predictions about the world in the New Year, 1961. 

Guests include, Alogey Jose Nigerian Correspondent, William Clark, UK commentator and director, Bottom Nekrasov, Russian Correspondent, Patrick O' Donovan, Washington D.C. correspondent, James McCulley, Australian Editor, and Prim Batiya, Indian Correspondent.               

Walter Cronkite narrates. 
In 1944 the Allies waged a series of battles around the monastery of Monte Cassino in an attempt to penetrate the German lines. The two opposing generals, Mark Clarke, commander of the United States Fifth Army, and Gen. Fridolin von Senger of the German forces, give their views of the strategic encounter.             

The third of six General Electric specials- a review of life in the 1920's and '30s, against a background of George Gershwin's music presented by top name stars: Maurice Chevalier, Florence Henderson, Ron Hussman, Julie London, Ethel Merman and Frank Sinatra. Richard Rodgers is host.             

   Jonathan Winters in a comic routine, satirizing the "space race."
A test pilot and others on a lunch pad of an X-100 rocket discuss the launch with a U.S. Senator.         

Outgoing President Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his farewell address to the nation as he prepares to welcome the new incoming President, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. 

From  the ABC TV Newsroom a Bulletin, interrupting THE UNTOUCHABLES television program, announcing an airplane crash at Idlewild airport. 
      
"A Mexican DC -8 jet airliner enroot from New York to Mexico City with 97 persons aboard crashed during a blinding snow storm while taking off from Idelwild airport. At least 40 of the 97 persons aboard escaped without injury. The plane burst into flames but fireman brought the blaze under control after 50 minutes. This has been a bulletin from the ABC Newsroom. We now return to our regularly scheduled program."                  

Frank Sinatra and Peter Lawford star-studded gala and party fundraiser staged at the national Armory in Washington DC on the night before JFK's formal inauguration.                                       

Live radio coverage of the Inaugural Ball for President-Elect John F. Kennedy is broadcast from the DC Armory In Washington, DC.           

John F. Kennedy is sworn in as the 35th president of the United States. Live coverage from CBS and NBC news. Vice-President Lyndon Johnson is also sworn in. Poet Robert Frost recites a poem. NBC coverage from Chet Huntley, David Brinkley, Edwin Newman, and Ray Shearer. CBS coverage by Walter Cronkite and Nancy Hodgeman. 

JFK inaugural, Benediction,, Lyndon Baines Johnson is sworn in, Poem by Robert Frost, President elect John F. Kennedy is sworn in who states that this is not a victory party but a celebration."

Note: President John F. Kennedy held the first presidential news conference to be carried live on radio and television.                                                  

Special on President Dwight David Eisenhower as he leaves office, passing the reigns of the Presidency to John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Includes Kennedy's inauguration speech.       

A 2 hour and 45 minute round table discussion...reflections by novelists James Mitchener(Tales of the South Pacific, Hawaii, Centennial), Nancy Wilson Ross(Joan of Arc, Westward the Women, Thor's Visit to the Land of Giants), Sloan Wilson(The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, A Summer Place),  Morris West(The Devil's Advocate, Children of the Sun, The Big Story), Virgilia Peterson, and Alan Drury(Advise and Consent).                         

Presented on "PLAY OF THE WEEK." Orson Bean and Kaye Ballard lead this potpourri of music, songs and sketches about New York City.             

         THE PLAY OF THE WEEK - Syndicated - 1959-1961
A New York-based dramatic anthology series that relied heavily on talent from Broadway, with occasional musical revues. 
Each Thursday night there was broadcast a staged different play  covering all genres, dramas, comedies, musicals, fantasies, mysteries, etc. 
Underwritten by Standard Oil of New Jersey, the series' executive producer was David Susskind.  

NEW YORK SCRAPBOOK

This was the second WNTA-TV review attempt for Play of the Week which presented two hours of song, dance and sketches about Manhattan and surrounding environs.   

Many bright moments in this program included "Demi Dozen" which had a solid run at Julius Monk's "Upstairs at the Downstairs" nitery.  "Mr. Off-Broadway" is sung by lead Orson Bean. and "Ballad of the Lexington Ave. Express" is sung by Jane Connell. There is a song narrative about a corner preacher by Gerry Matthews. 

Kaye Ballard also belts out a few songs of her own, as well as singers Kenneth Nelson and Maureen Bailey. 

Julian Stein's orchestrations were for piano and from time to time, drums. 

Duplicate of #10524. 
          

         THE PLAY OF THE WEEK - Syndicated - 1959-1961
A New York-based dramatic anthology series that relied heavily on talent from Broadway, with occasional musical revues. 
Each Thursday night there was broadcast a staged different play  covering all genres, dramas, comedies, musicals, fantasies, mysteries, etc. 
Underwritten by Standard Oil of New Jersey, the series' executive producer was David Susskind.  

NEW YORK SCRAPBOOK

This was the second WNTA-TV review attempt for Play of the Week which presented two hours of song, dance and sketches about Manhattan and surrounding environs.   

Many bright moments in this program included "Demi Dozen" which had a solid run at Julius Monk's "Upstairs at the Downstairs" nitery.  "Mr. Off-Broadway" is sung by lead Orson Bean. and "Ballad of the Lexington Ave. Express" is sung by Jane Connell. There is a song narrative about a corner preacher by Gerry Matthews. 

Kaye Ballard also belts out a few songs of her own, as well as singers Kenneth Nelson and Maureen Bailey. 

Julian Stein's orchestrations were for piano and from time to time, drums. 
          

NBC News special on the pirate ship in the Caribbean. The "Santa Maria" is hijacked by Portuguese rebels against the Antonio Salaza government.            

Pirate on the seized ship the "Santa Maria" announces intentions and reasons for seizing the ship. The ship cannot be found.            

September 20, 1952-June 22, 1957; 
October 3, 1958-January 2 1959;
January 27, 1961; 
February 3 1961-March 24, 1961; 
September 1962-September 12, 1970


After the 1954-1955 season (one hour live broadcasts), Jackie Gleason produced a series of 39 filmed half-hour episodes of "The Honeymooners" which was syndicated (1955-1956). For the following 1956-1957 season, the Jackie Gleason Show returned to a live one-hour variety format with a Honeymooners sketch included in many of its broadcasts. After this season, The Honeymooners sketches would not be revived until the 1966-1967 season of The Jackie Gleason Show.   

Jackie Gleason criticizes and apologizes for his bad panel show, "You're In The Picture." He comments on the risks of theatrical productions. This show was canceled after its premiere episode.                                                                      

Jack Paar's guests are Red Skelton and Joey Bishop. Co-host is Hugh Downs. 
A Best of Paar rebroadcast from September 26, 1960.            

September 26, 1960 - December 28, 1962 

Dean Miller interviews veteran actor Charlie Ruggles. The only television interview Ruggles ever did aside from appearing on a This Is Your Life episode. 
Excerpt.

Here's Hollywood (568 broadcasts) aired as a half-hour interview program, weekday afternoons on NBC at 4:30pm. On October 2, 1961 the show was reduced five minutes giving way to a live news broadcast with Sander Vanocur which aired at 4:55pm. 

Here's Hollywood  was the leading daytime show for two years. It was the first TV broadcast of its kind, using two mobile vans equipped with 2" video tape equipment which traveled to the homes of celebrities...two locations each day, one star in the morning and one in the afternoon. Most of the interviews aired were ten minutes in length. Two different interviews comprised the full length of the half hour program. Occasionally, one subject would be interviewed for the complete program. Occasionally programs were produced outside of the United States...Hawaii, Germany, France. Five color broadcasts were attempted and then the concept abandoned, due to the complexity of 2" quadruplex video tape at the time.

Dean Miller conducted interviews from September 26, 1960 to September 29, 1961. He was replaced by Jack Linkletter who conducted interviews from October 2, 1961 to December 28, 1962. Joanne Jordan conducted interviews from September 26, 1960 to June 9, 1961. She was replaced by Helen O'Oconnell who conducted interviews from June 13, 1961 to December 28, 1962.

Note: Only a handful of the 1,100 different interviews survive. Most were erased, discarded, misplaced. NBC Archives have only two surviving kinescopes, one with Joe E. Brown (12-2-61), and one with Linda Darnell (12-4-61). UCLA Film & TV Archive has 46 different subject interview kinescopes on separate negative film and separate optical film. 

Archival Television Audio has 82 broadcasts on audio tape, originally recorded by Phil Gries at the time the broadcasts first aired. Most of them are complete interviews. These television Audio Air Checks represent the greatest number of known surviving HERE'S HOLLYWOOD broadcast episodes. 
UCLA FILM & Television Archives retains, in their vaults, the greatest number of individual original HERE'S HOLLYWOOD separate 16mm Kinescopes and coinciding separate optical and magnetic sound tracks, representing approximately four dozen shows. Almost ALL of these broadcasts remain in analog form, and not view-able as composite video and audio.  
                                                                                                                   

1010 WINS RADIO New York switched from top forty to the first successful all-news station April 19, 1965. 
Previously when WINS was one of four premiere New York Rock 'N' Roll radio stations only a few snippets of on the half hour five minute Dick Waffle "Newswatch" broadcasts are known to exist. This rare audio was recorded by Phil Gries at 10:55 AM from his Brooklyn New York home on Saturday morning, February 4, 1961. 
 
Dick Waffle reports at the "Newswatch." Waffle reports initial bulletins reporting the blizzard of '61. 
This third "knockout" blizzard of the winter accounted for a 17 consecutive day of temperatures below freezing, the longest in New York history. We also hear the 1010 WINS sign off as the WINS announcer reports that the next news bulletins will be heard will be at 11:25 AM. 

NOTE:
The Blizzard of February 3 - 4, 1961

The storm, U.S. HEAVIEST SNOW STORM SINCE 1947 tied up the Northeast coast. It occurred toward the end of an extended cold snowy period that brought the temperature in New York's Central Park down to -2 (2 degrees below zero) on the morning of February 2nd. The storm reached blizzard proportions throughout much of the northeast and winds at LaGuardia airport gusted over 80 miles per hour on the 4th. Snowfall totals exceeded 20 inches over much of the region. Falling on top existing snow cover, including that left over from the "Kennedy inaugural" snowstorm on the 19-20th of January, the aftermath of the storm found near record snow cover over the region ranging from 2 to 2 1/2 feet in and around New York City up to nearly 4 feet around Newburg, New York. 

Snow began falling on the evening of February 3rd 1961, dumping six inches and continued through the morning of the 4th, with an additional 11.4 inches of snow piling up. The snow that fell on February 4th was heavy and wet and was driven by gale force winds. This was the third major snowstorm of the winter, following 15.4 inches on December 11th and 12th 1960, and 9.9 inches of snow recorded on January 19th and 20th. However, those storms were characterized by very cold temperatures while this storm saw temperatures rise from the upper 20's to the mid 30's during the afternoon of the 4th when the snow changed to rain. This was the second winter in a row to have two snowstorms of one foot or more.                                                  

October 18th, 1959-1966, 

A one hour syndicated taped color weekly broadcast, featuring the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The series was awarded a Peabody. Superb music by a 71 piece orchestra in the sumptuous setting of a ballroom. Different guest conductors appear on a weekly basis and take the podium. 

Andre Kostelanetz conductor.