My Kind Of Weekend! Ultra Rare…Here’s The Back Story

Thanks to our friend David Schwartz, here is a historic pair of tickets from a great weekend of live television in Los Angeles. Most of us never think about it, but CBS’s Television City and NBC’s Color City both went into operation about the same time…in the fall of 1952.

We’ll start with the ticket from October 4, 1952. Although the Burbank studios were not officially dedicated till March 27, 1955, after studios 2 and 4 were completed, the facility began to be used in September of ’52. Studios 1 and 3 were in operation, and ‘All Star Review’ was one of the first shows to come from there with the start of the third season of the show.

When the show debuted in late 1950 as the ‘Four Star Revue’ with four rotating hosts, it was an all NYC production. In the fall of 1951, the first coast to coast broadcasts were done and NBC did a few ‘All Star Reviews’ from their Radio City West studios in Hollywood that second season which lasted into the summer of ’52, It’s sister show, ‘The Colgate Comedy Hour’ had a similar history, but a bigger budget and longer life. Bob Hope and Martin & Lewis did most of the Colgate shows with west coast originations in studio 1.

Over at the CBS Columbia Square studios, the radio hit ‘My Friend Irma’ had come to television and was being produced there starting in January of ’52. This was a weekly series which took up a lot of space with it’s multiple sets. Space was at a premium at the Columbia Square address, so it was decided that they needed to move this show asap as the ratings were climbing. As you will see on the ticket, this was the first show ever to originate from Television City. No one knows exactly when the first episode was done from TVC, but I don’t think it could be more than a month or two before this October 3, 1952 ticket. The official dedication of TVC was November 16, 1952.

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