The Landmark Achievements Of “The Colgate Comedy Hour”

There are three major landmarks in television history that occurred on this show which ran from September of 1950 through December of 1955. The first landmark is “the wheel format” which basically inserted rotating hosts on a weekly basis. The network also used the wheel format on ‘The All Star Review and it’s successor ‘The Four Star Review’ which later became ‘The Martha Raye Show’ as she had been the most popular rotating host on both prior programs. NBC had an idea that would really “pop” using this format, which brings us to landmark number two…bi-coastal origination.

During the 1950-51 season, AT&T put into regular service a coast-to-coast coaxial/microwave interconnection service which allowed live telecasts from across the nation. Martin & Lewis and Abbott & Costello (seen below) anchored the West Coast, broadcasting from the El Capitan theater in Hollywood (also known as The Hollywood Palace), while Eddie Cantor anchored from New York. This gave NBC a substantial edge over the competing ‘Toast Of The Town’ with Ed Sullivan, since top-grade talent from motion pictures could also do network TV on the West Coast Colgate Comedy Hour, while Sullivan had to work with whomever happened to be in New York at the time that a particular episode aired.

Here is landmark event number three: The episode broadcast on November 22, 1953, hosted by Donald O’Connor, was the first ever, coast to coast color television broadcast in the NTSC color system. There were few other color broadcasts in the 1953-1954 season, and all of them were transmitted by NBC. The series was also used earlier in the season to demonstrate the final form of RCA’s “Compatible” color system to members of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Two sets were in the room: an experimental color model and a standard black-and-white unit. Eddie Cantor hosted the program with guests including Frank Sinatra, Eddie Fisher, and Brian Donlevy.

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