November 30, 1927…The Birth Of Hallowed Broadcast Ground
The Original Mosaic Look Ceiling and Today’s Colbert Dome Artistry
When The Hammerstein Theater (now, The Ed Sullivan Theater) opened November 30, 1927, this black and white photo shows what the ceilings of the auditorium and lobby areas looked like. Below, you’ll see it in color!
The first nine years at 1697 Broadway were not easy, and the legitimate theater use only lasted a few years. As the Great Depression took its toll, Billy Rose took over the theater in 1933 and made it a huge nightclub, with tables and chairs where the theater seating used to be.
Finally, some stability came in 1936 when this facility became CBS Radio Playhouse #3. The first radio show from here was “Major Bowes Amateur Hour”. Ironically, the last radio show, and the first television show from here were amateur hour take offs… they were both the “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts” shows.
In the fall of ’48, in a LIFE Magazine story on his talent scout show, they predicted, “Godfrey will probably be on television very shortly,” and the prophecy came true on December 6, 1948.
After two years on the radio, “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts” became a regular show on CBS-TV. It was simulcast on radio from the studio it had been in those two years…CBS Radio Theater #3 which, when converted to television became Studio 50. This was the first television show to originate from Studio 50.
From then on, this has been home to some of the greatest talent ever seen on television. From Jackie Gleason and Ed Sullivan’s shows to David Letterman and now Colbert, all the greats have performed on this stage.
Thanks to our friend Nick Van Hoogstraten, author of “Lost Broadway Theaters,” the color image shows a small part of the hand painted mural work in 1987. Just to be clear, the “tile/mosaic” effect is painted on and is not real tile. This survived the paint overs by being inside a tape storage closet. The paint over came in 1960. The black and white photo is how the theater looked when it opened -Bobby Ellerbee
2023 ADDENDUM: Bob Valinski put in the new “Colbert Era” dome artistry and here is what he had to say about this test photo taken before the show debuted, “This is what the dome looked like in Sept 2015 when we put in an Orad engine to feed the 4 projectors aimed at the ceiling. A lot of mind bending calculations had to be used to ensure that the 4 SDI outputs line up seamlessly when projected on the 3D dome. The engine could even take a live SDI input and render to the 4 projector outputs.”
Oh my God! That’s not a mural, that’s a mosaic — tile work!
It’s also where some of the earliest HD test footage was shot for use in the testing of what was then known as the ‘advanced television’ (now known as digital television) effort was done around 1990. The ‘Texas Sign Dude’ sequence, amongst others, was shot there.
My Dad took me there to watch Allen Ludden and a tapping of “Password ” Arlene Francis and Ray Bulger were the guests.
We didn’t get our first TV set until 1953, but Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts was still on the air. I remember that my parents never missed it. I was in the third grade at the time.
The paint-over came in about 1960. I was surprised the mural was visible so long into the TV era. It’s still there under the paint.
Amazing history in that place.