Beginning in 1929, a New Year's Eve Tradition...Guy Lombardo & his Royal Canadians. Guy Lombardo was best known to TV audiences for his annual New Year's Eve telecasts. His brothers Carmen (the band's musical director), Victor, & Lebert were all members of the orchestra. Guy, the eldest, was designated the leader. For most of his years in television, Guy Lombardo represented nostalgia for the '30s and '40s. At midnight the traditional welcoming in of the New Year at Times Square is presented. Jack Lescoulie brings in the New Year at Times Square.
The best-known New Year's Eve shows on radio and then television was hosted by bandleader Guy Lombardo, who hosted 21 consecutive New Year's Eve shows from 1956 to 1976 on CBS, and for a time in syndication. Lombardo's first radio broadcast on New Year's Eve was heard on December 31, 1928 over CBS Radio, and for a time he even split hosting duties by broadcasting on CBS Radio before 12 Midnight EST and on NBC Radio after Midnight. Lombardo would host 48 straight New Year's Eve broadcasts until his death in 1977, and famously performed "Auld Lang Syne" by his Royal Canadians as the clock struck 12 Midnight, ushering in the start of a New Year.
Once the Lombardo orchestra began their annual television shows, there would be a live segment from Times Square, which was (and still is) the focal point of the nation's largest New Year's celebration. In the early years of Lombardo's television specials, Robert Trout reported on and counted down to Midnight in New York's Times Square; but for most of Lombardo's years on television, another legendary newsman, Ben Grauer, had the honor. (Grauer, by the way, also reported from Times Square for NBC Radio on celebrations following the surrender of Japan on August 14, 1945.
The first New Year's Eve special on television was broadcast on December 31, 1941 on WNBT New York, and consisted of entertainment broadcast from the Rainbow Room, atop the RCA Building in New York's Rockefeller Center.[3]
Due to World War II, there would be no more New Year's Eve specials on television until December 31, 1945. WNBT produced a remote broadcast of festivities in Times Square. While NBC had begun to feed programs to WRGB is the Albany area and WPTZ in Philadelphia, information is unavailable as to whether either or both of these stations broadcast the program, or if it was seen just locally in New York.[4]
Unless New Year's Eve fell on a weekend, NBC would carry a special New Year's version of "The Tonight Show" each year beginning in 1954, including coverage of the arrival of the New Year in Times Square.
Dick Clark himself had actually emceed one New Year's Eve TV special prior to 1972; on December 31, 1959, he emceed a 90-minute New Year's special on ABC. One of the guests was Frankie Avalon. But it would be the last time Clark would do a New Year's Eve television special for the next thirteen years.
By the 1970s, Lombardo's big band music skewed to an older generation, so Dick Clark started his telecast in 1972 to compete.
New Year's Eve celebration, ushering in the year 1963. pickup from Times Square with Robert Trout and Guy Lombardo's orchestra (The Royal Canadians) from the Americana Hotel in New York City.
