NBC’s ‘All Star Review’

In the post just before this, Jackie Gleason mentioned in a letter to Eddie Brinkmann that they “had their competition at NBC on the run”. Jackie’s competition for his first season at CBS was NBC’s ‘All Star Revue’. A rare full episode is here for you to watch. Notice at the start, the show billboards as stars Jack Carter, Jimmy Durante, Olson & Johnson, Danny Thomas and Ed Wynn, however…they did not all appear on each episode. They would rotate on a weekly basis and this May 10, 1952 episode was Danny Thomas’s turn. After Gleason hit the air, Martha Raye was added to the line up and the line up was cut to four which eliminated two hosts. By the end of the 52-53 season, Martha was the sole host. In the 53-54 season, the show’s name changed to ‘The Martha Raye Show’ which ran once a month in place of ‘Your Show Of Shows’. One of these sketches is about a woman president…it’s funny. Enjoy!

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