Picture Parade #2…First CBS Color Special, ‘Ford Star Jubilee’ 1955

Information is hard to come by, but it is thought that for CBS, this was their first full scale color broadcast using the RCA/NTSC Dot Sequential color system. The show came from CBS Television City’s Studio 43.

The event on September 24, 1955 was a double debut of sorts. It was the debut of ‘The Ford Star Jubilee’ anthology series, but was also called ‘The Judy Garland Special’, as she was the star. This show was telecast live in color from Los Angeles, but only the East Coast saw it in color. Other time zones saw a black and white kinescope, most of which survives today. Here is a clip of the whole one hour special but is it qued up to Judy singing “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” from the show. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

By the way, this was the first TV special to have what amounted to a “soundtrack album”, since most of the songs on the Capitol recording “Miss Show Business”, released two days after the broadcast, were what Judy had sung on this special.

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