Broadway Open House
Encyclopedia
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
from May 29, 1950 to August 24, 1951, airing weeknights from 11pm to midnight. The show was one of the pioneering TV creations of NBC president Pat Weaver; it demonstrated the potential for late-night programming and led to the later development of The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. It is the longest currently running regularly scheduled entertainment program in the United States, and the third longest-running show on NBC, after Meet the Press and Today.The Tonight Show has been hosted by...
.
Hosts
The show was originally to be hosted by comic Don "Creesh" HornsbyDon Hornsby
Don "Creesh" Hornsby was a comedian and novelty pianist who was slated to be the original host of Broadway Open House, American network television's first late night program....
(so named because he yelled "Creesh" often), but he died of polio two weeks before the premiere broadcast. Hornsby's popularity at the time with celebrities who caught his act can be judged from this anecdote by Sharlotte Spencer (in her book From CIA Wife to Sobriety):
- I knew Don Hornsby, from my days in Long Beach and Belmont Shore when Bob HopeBob HopeBob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
was helping Don get his start. Don was appearing in the San Fernando Valley at the Sportsmans Lodge. One evening, Bob and I, Monty and a friend went out to see his show. The showroom was all on one level and sitting in front of us were Ronald ReaganRonald ReaganRonald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
, Jane WymanJane WymanJane Wyman was an American singer, dancer, and character actress of film and television. She began her film career in the 1930s, and was a prolific performer for two decades...
, Bill HoldenWilliam HoldenWilliam Holden was an American actor. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1954 and the Emmy Award for Best Actor in 1974...
and wife (Brenda HoldenBrenda MarshallBrenda Marshall was an American film actress.Born Ardis Ankerson in Negros, Philippines, Marshall made her first film appearance in the 1939 Espionage Agent. The following year, she played the leading lady to Errol Flynn in The Sea Hawk...
). I kept scooting around but couldn’t see around Ronnie, so I tapped him on the shoulder and said, "If you will just move an inch that way, I could see the show." Well, he didn’t move and sat up straighter than ever. Needless to say, he never got my vote! Even Holden smiled and shook his head.
Hornsby's replacements, hosting different nights each week, were Morey Amsterdam
Morey Amsterdam
Morey Amsterdam was an American television actor and comedian, best known for the role of Buddy Sorrell on The Dick Van Dyke Show in the early 1960s.-Early life:...
(Monday and Wednesday) and the raucous Jerry Lester (Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays), the brother of character actor Buddy Lester. However, Amsterdam soon exited the show, leaving Lester the sole host, performing sketches with his crew of sidekicks (including some of the earliest TV appearances of brassy Barbara Nichols
Barbara Nichols
Barbara Nichols was an American actress who often played brassy comic roles in a number of films in the 1950s and 1960s.-Early life and Career:...
), running through standard nightclub comedy routines and introducing the show's vocal group, the Mello Larks. Lester's signature bit was to twist his eyeglasses at a 45 degree angle on his face. The show had occasional guests, including Lenny Bruce
Lenny Bruce
Leonard Alfred Schneider , better known by the stage name Lenny Bruce, was a Jewish-American comedian, social critic and satirist...
, who appeared May 1950, and there were also audience participation bits, such as having women from the audience join the female cast members in modeling fur coats. The sponsors included Anchor Hocking
Anchor Hocking
Anchor Hocking Glass Corporation is a manufacturer of glassware. The Hocking Glass Company was founded in 1905 by Isaac Jacob Collins. That company merged with the AnchorCap and Closure Corporations in 1937. Anchor Hocking is primarily located in Lancaster, Ohio...
glassware and Blatz Beer
Valentin Blatz Brewing Company
The Valentin Blatz Brewing Company was an American brewery based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It produced Blatz Beer from 1851 until 1959 when the label was sold to Pabst Brewing Company.-History:...
.
Dagmar arrives
However, devising new material night after night became a treadmill of desperation. The solution was to hire bosomy blonde Jennie Lewis, who was given no script and told, "You just sit there and act dumb. Your name is Dagmar." With her new name, she sat on a stool with a sign around her neck saying "Girl Singer," did breathing exercises, and soon performed as a reader of poems and plays, while Lester made occasional jokes about her "hidden talents." Her appearances created a sensation, leading to much press coverage and a salary increase from $75 to $1,250. With Dagmar getting all the attention, Lester walked off his own show in May 1951, and Dagmar carried on as host. On July 16, 1951, she was featured on the front cover of LifeLife (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
, and the show came to an end one month later.
Dagmar's run on Broadway Open House and her appearances on other shows (Colgate Comedy Hour, The Milton Berle Show
Milton Berle
Milton Berlinger , better known as Milton Berle, was an American comedian and actor. As the manic host of NBC's Texaco Star Theater , in 1948 he was the first major star of U.S. television and as such became known as Uncle Miltie and Mr...
, Masquerade Party
Masquerade Party
A syndicated revival was produced by Stefan Hatos and Monty Hall in 1974, hosted by Richard Dawson and announced by Jay Stewart. The basic premise was the same as the original show. Bill Bixby, Lee Meriweather, and Nipsey Russell were regular panelists. Col. Harland Sanders of Kentucky Fried...
) made her the first major female star of television, and she soon had her own show, Dagmar's Canteen, making guest appearances during the late 1950s with Jack Paar on The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. It is the longest currently running regularly scheduled entertainment program in the United States, and the third longest-running show on NBC, after Meet the Press and Today.The Tonight Show has been hosted by...
.
Cast and crew
Other Broadway Open House cast members were tap dancer Ray Malone, accordionist Milton DeLuggMilton DeLugg
Milton DeLugg is an American composer and arranger.-Biography:A talented accordionist, he appeared in short Soundies musicals and occasional movies . He quickly became a successful arranger and composer...
, announcer Wayne Howell and vocalists Jane Harvey, Andy Roberts and David Street. The show's opening theme music was "The Beanbag Song" by DeLugg, Lester and Willie Stein
Willie Stein
Willie Stein was an American television producer and songwriter.In 1950, Stein and Milton DeLugg cowrote the song "Orange Colored Sky", which became a hit for Nat King Cole, and later his daughter Natalie....
. A second theme was the song "It's Almost Like Being in Love." DeLugg often played a song he wrote with Stein, "Orange Colored Sky
Orange Colored Sky
"Orange Colored Sky" is a popular song, written by Milton DeLugg and Willie Stein and published in 1950.The best-known version of the song was recorded by Nat King Cole , but a number of other singers have recorded it, including Cole's daughter, Natalie.The recording by Nat King Cole was recorded...
", which became a hit for Nat King Cole
Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres...
.
Ray Buffum and Jac Hein were the producers. Hein and Joseph C. Cavalier directed. Stan Burns and Allan Sherman
Allan Sherman
Allan Sherman was an American comedy writer and television producer who became famous as a song parodist in the early 1960s. His first album, My Son, the Folk Singer , became the fastest-selling record album up to that time...
were the writers. The program was developed by Sylvester "Pat" Weaver, a programming vice-president at NBC who had started his career as a production assistant on Fred Allen
Fred Allen
Fred Allen was an American comedian whose absurdist, topically pointed radio show made him one of the most popular and forward-looking humorists in the so-called classic era of American radio.His best-remembered gag was his long-running mock feud with friend and fellow comedian Jack Benny, but it...
's radio show Town Hall Tonight
Fred Allen
Fred Allen was an American comedian whose absurdist, topically pointed radio show made him one of the most popular and forward-looking humorists in the so-called classic era of American radio.His best-remembered gag was his long-running mock feud with friend and fellow comedian Jack Benny, but it...
in the 1930s. After the 15-month run of Broadway Open House, Weaver further developed his ideas on a local show over NBC's New York station starring Steve Allen
Steve Allen (comedian)
Stephen Valentine Patrick William "Steve" Allen was an American television personality, musician, composer, actor, comedian, and writer. Though he got his start in radio, Allen is best known for his television career. He first gained national attention as a guest host on Arthur Godfrey's Talent...
, which eventually took to the network in 1954 as The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. It is the longest currently running regularly scheduled entertainment program in the United States, and the third longest-running show on NBC, after Meet the Press and Today.The Tonight Show has been hosted by...
.
Steve Allen remembered Hornsby, Broadway Open House and Fred Allen in a 1997 interview:
- NBC had tried unsuccessfully to do late night television with the comedian Jerry Lester and with Morey Amsterdam in the early 1950s, but that did not go over well with the viewers. I'm not certain the quality of the show had anything to do with it. At that point in time, you still had a limited number of television sets and television had still not come to a lot of the medium-sized cities around the country. I think you had a lot of people in the network executive suites who were convinced 11 o'clock was just too late for people to stay up and watch television. If that original show (Broadway Open House) had been done five years later, they may have changed their minds, because they did a lot of the same kind of humor we did later... Any time a performer dies in the process of doing a television series or a Broadway show, it's a difficult proposition how to proceed in good taste. With Fred Allen, this was in the mid-1950s and while he was never as successful in television, he had been an icon in radio... This may have been the first time, or at least one of the first times, a performer in television died while in the midst of doing a regular show. A comedian named Don Hornsby was supposed to do NBC's first late-night show, but he died two weeks before the show went on the air, so the audience had not yet seen him. But Fred Allen was one of the great humorists in the history of entertainment to that time, and the nation was still in shock because people had just seen him the previous Sunday night.