CBS Studio 52…A Surprise, With Studio 50 & 51 History Expanded

Here is a ticket from July 14, 1949 for ‘The 54th Street Revue’ television show from Studio 52. Thanks to author and television historian David Schwartz in Los Angeles who sent this, we now have proof that Studio 52 was in television service two years earlier than we thought.

Thanks to David, we also now know that CBS Studio 51, The Maxine Elliot Theater at 109 West 39th Street, was the first CBS television theater property. It was probably converted, from legitimate theater to television, in anticipation of the start of Ed Sullivan’s ‘Toast Of The Town’ show which debuted from there on June 20, 1948.

Remember, before this, all the CBS television originations were from their studios in the Grand Central Terminal Building at 15 Vanderbilt Avenue and one or two small studios at the headquarters building at 485 Madison Avenue.

The second conversion was CBS Studio 50 which came only a few months after 51’s conversion. I think Studio 50, which CBS used as a huge radio studio, was up and running by January of 1949 and with work completed there, the engineers went around the corner to Studio 52 and began work.

‘The 54th Street Revue’ debuted on Thursday night, May 5,1949 from Studio 52 and this may have been the first ever television series produced there. The host was Jack Sterling with the Harry Sosnik Orchestra and guests on the first show were Cliff Edwards, a comedian, singer and cartoon voice who you may best remember in the role of Jiminy Cricket in Walt Disney’s ‘Pinocchio’. Edwards’s rendition of “When You Wish Upon A Star” is probably his most familiar recorded legacy. Other debut guests included the dance team of Bob Fosse and his wife Mary Ann Niles and singer Carol Bruce.

As I learned when I created the 40 part History Of NBC’s New York Studios earlier in the year, many times old tickets can tell us things that are absent in other records. Thanks to David for his help. Enjoy and share!

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