Retro: Atlanta Saturday, July 2, 1955

[bpatrick]

Red-letter day: The Lawrence Welk Show debuts
on ABC. It will be derided by critics and canceled
due to poor demographics, then keep right on going in
syndication and, now, in reruns on PBS (one PBS station
manager who turned down the Welk reruns wondered if Hee
Haw would be next--edit Hee Haw down to the music segments
and you'd have a pretty good country-music show).

Times, by the way, are EST. These are from the Atlanta
Constitution.

WSB Ch. 2 (NBC)

9 AM Pinky Lee
9:30 Paul Winchell
10 AM Funny Boners (a kids' version of Truth Or
Consequences, hosted by Jimmy Weldon, the
voice of Yakky Doodle)
10:30 Tom Corbett, Space Cadet
11 AM Mr. Wizard
11:30 Movie: "Doorway To Suspicion"
1:15 Movie: "Arch Of Triumph"
2:30 Movie: "In Old Mexico"
3:30 Cartoons
4 PM Bowling (no details given)
5 PM My Hero (Bob Cummings' first show)
5:30 Terry And The Pirates
6 PM Soldiers Of Fortune
6:30 Horace Heidt
7 PM The Soldiers (Hal March did this show live
on Saturdays and The $64,000 Question live
on Tuesdays that summer.)
7:30 Dunninger (his generation's Kreskin)
8 PM Steve Allen In Movieland (with Jeff Chandler,
Tony Curtis, Piper Laurie, Mara Corday, Benny
Goodman, Teddy Wilson, and Gene Krupa)
9:30 Your Play Time
10 PM My Little Margie
10:30 City Detective
11 PM News; Movie: "Four Faces West"
1 AM News Headlines

WAGA Ch. 5 (CBS)

8:45 Cartoons
9 AM Ranch-Hand Round-Up
10 AM Winky Dink And You
10:30 Captain Midnight
11 AM Big Top
12 N Buffalo Bill Jr.
12:30 TV Ranch
12:45 Baseball: Giants at Phillies (Dizzy
Dean does play-by-play)
4 PM Sunny Days (time approximate)
4:15 Tale Of The City
4:30 This Is Your Town
5 PM Wrestling
6 PM Hartman Family (Paul Hartman's Pride
Of The Family, reruns of a 1953 ABC
series)
6:30 Beat The Clock
7 PM America's Greatest Bands (Louis Armstrong
is a guest)
8 PM Two For The Money (Sam Levenson replaces
Herb Shriner for the summer)
8:30 Down You Go
9 PM Professional Father (Barbara Billingsley
is the mom on this show)
9:30 Damon Runyon Theater
10 PM News; Sports On Parade
11 PM News
11:15 On Stage
sign off 11:30 PM

WLW-A Ch. 11 (ABC)

9:15 Cartoons
10 AM Serial
11:30 Movie: "West Of The Divide"
12:30 Hoedown Matinee
1 PM Movie: "The Lady Confesses"
2 PM Movie: "Hollywood And Vine"
3:15 ABC Horse Races
3:30 Wrestling
4:30 Movie: "Terrors On Horseback"
5:30 Atlanta Jubilee
6:30 Ozark Jubilee
8 PM Lawrence Welk (on the first show,
Myron Floren plays "Lady of Spain"
and Champagne Lady Alice Lon sings
"Love Me or Leave Me")
9 PM Gospel Jubilee
10 PM Wrestling
11 PM News; Movie: "High Tide"
sign off 12:15 AM

 

[TimL]

(one PBS station
> manager who turned down the Welk reruns wondered if Hee
> Haw would be next--edit Hee Haw down to the music segments
> and you'd have a pretty good country-music show).


Speaking of which, bpatrick (and others interested) One of the PBS "Pledge week" programs is "Grand Ole Opry Vintage Classics". Hosted by Vince Gill, This program consists of Musical selections from The "Grand Ole Opry" TV series from the 1950's and 60's from all the well known stars. It aired on WVIZ 25 Cleveland Saturday Night 5:30-7PM. I've only watched a bit of it thus far but they appear to be airing complete songs..Sounds really good if you want to get classic music footage.

 

[bpatrick]

> (one PBS station
> > manager who turned down the Welk reruns wondered if Hee
> > Haw would be next--edit Hee Haw down to the music segments
>
> > and you'd have a pretty good country-music show).
>
>
> Speaking of which, bpatrick (and others interested) One of
> the PBS "Pledge week" programs is "Grand Ole Opry Vintage
> Classics". Hosted by Vince Gill, This program consists of
> Musical selections from The "Grand Ole Opry" TV series from
> the 1950's and 60's from all the well known stars. It aired
> on WVIZ 25 Cleveland Saturday Night 5:30-7PM. I've only
> watched a bit of it thus far but they appear to be airing
> complete songs..Sounds really good if you want to get
> classic music footage.
>
North Carolina's public-TV network ran that show yesterday as
well. I have to admit I'm not a country-music fan, but I do
remember all those performers and songs, and they did sound really
good.

The program itself seemed to stress the "Nashville sound," which
has a more MOR feel to it than traditional country. Indeed, many
of these songs were played on MOR and even top-40 stations in the
'50s and '60s. I think Vince Gill pointed out that Eddy Arnold and
Ray Price were probably the leading exponents of this style of music
(but so was Jim Reeves).

Urban legend: Patsy Cline was a winner on Arthur Godfrey's Talent
Scouts in 1957, and he wanted to make her a regular on his morning
show. But she'd have to change her sound, he told her. She turned
him down, preferring to stick with the sound she knew so well.<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by bpatrick on 06/12/05 10:49 PM.</FONT></P>