And Now, A Word From Our Alternate Sponsor

The year is 1957, and here is a commercial for Tootsie Roll, as seen on a telecast of the Howdy Doody Show.




In June, 1956, Howdy and the gang were exiled from weekday afternoons to Saturday mornings because they were getting clobbered ratingswise at the hands of ABC's Mickey Mouse Club. At the time of this broadcast excerpt, the show was still televised live, but by late 1957 or early 1958, they began taping ten shows (in one week) per month. In case you're wondering, that's budding jazz musician Lew Anderson in the role of Clarabell.

And Now, A Word From Our Sponsor

The year is 1950, and here is an advertisement for 3 Musketeers as seen during a live telecast of the Howdy Doody Show.






Buffalo Bob Smith sure knew how to sell a product. And yes, that was TV's future Captain Kangaroo himself, Bobby Keeshan, as Clarabell the Clown.

FBN On Dish Network

The Fox Business Network (which went on the air on October 15, 2007) was finally added to the Dish Network lineup last Tuesday (February 3) on Channel 206. It is also available in HD.

And Now, A Word From Our Sponsor

Here is the late Jack Narz, from a 1958 telecast of the nighttime version of Dotto, extolling the vitues of Fab detergent.



The nighttime version of Dotto aired on NBC, while the far more successful daytime version aired on CBS. Colgate (which made Fab detergent) cancelled sponsorship of the show and the respective networks took Dotto off the air in the wake of allegations of the quiz show being rigged.


Jack hosted both versions

Time For Perry, Folks!

Here is a 1952 CBS telecast of the old 15-minute Perry Como Show, with Perry, along with the Fontaine Sisters, commercials for Chesterfield cigarettes, and Perry's special guest (and fellow RCA Victor recording artist), country music legend Hank Snow!





The Como show aired on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 7:45 PM Eastern Time on CBS until 1955, when the network eliminated the news-and-music half hour slot (7:30-8:00 PM), this in the wake of ABC's huge success with Disneyland. NBC did not eliminate their 15-minute musical-variety early evening shows until 1957. As for Perry, following the elimination of his early-evening CBS telecasts, he moved over to NBC to star in what would be a hugely successful hour-long Saturday night show, before moving to Wednesday nights (in 1959) to take over the Kraft Music Hall.

Here's That Wild And Crazy Concertmaster

Here, on this 1956 telecast of the Lawrence Welk Show, is lead violinist Dick Kesner performing "Indian Love Call" on his Stradivarius violin. But not before trying to become the Sid Caesar of the ABC Network.




I wonder if Steve Martin saw this.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

From all of us at Bob's House!