Retro - Boston 6/6/1955

[MCarney]

Source: TV Guide

2 – WGBH Boston (Educational)
4 – WBZ Boston (NBC)
6 – WCSH Portland, ME (NBC)
7 – WNAC Boston (ABC/CBS/DuMont)
8c – WNCH New Haven, CT (ABC/CBS/DuMont/NBC)
8m – WMTW Poland Springs, ME (ABC/CBS/DuMont)
9 – WMUR Manchester, NH (ABC/DuMont)
10 – WJAR Providence (ABC/DuMont/NBC)
12 – WPRO Providence (CBS)
13 – WGAN Portland, ME (ABC/CBS)
18 – WGTH Hartford, CT (ABC/DuMont)
30 – WKNB Hartford, CT (ABC/CBS)
55 – WHYN Springfield, MA (CBS/DuMont)
61 – WWLP Springfield, MA (ABC/NBC)

6:45a
4 - News (Jack Chase)

6:50a
10 – N.E Farm Report

7a
4-6-8c-10-61 – Today
7-30 – Morning Show (Jack Paar)

9a
4 – Swan Boat
6 – Movie (TBA)
7 – Star Time “Handful of Magic”
8c – Yankee Peddlers
10 – Breakfast at the Sheraton
12 – Cartoon Playhouse
30 – The World Around Us
61 – Movie (TBA)

9:30a
7 – Mr. & Mrs. North
12 – Robert Q. Lewis

9:45a
7 – Road of Life (serial)

10a
4-6-8c-10-61 – Ding Dong
7-12-30 – Garry Moore

10:15a
30 – Film Shorts

10:30a
4-8c-10 – Way of the World
6 – Your Kitchen
7-12 – Arthur Godfrey
30 – Movie “Waterloo Road”
61 – Film Shorts

10:45a
4-8c-10-61
Sheilah Graham (Charleton Heston is guest of the week)

11a
4-6-10-61 – Home (color – remote from West Point)
8 – Window Shopper

11:15a
13 – Arthur Godfrey

11:30a
7-8c-12-13 – Strike It Rich (Gloria de Haven is the Helping Hand)

12 noon
4-13 – News & Weather
6 – Down East
7-12-30 – Valiant Lady
8c-10-61 – Tennessee Ernie Ford

12:15p
4 – Big Brother Bob Emery
7-8c-812-13 – Love of Life
10 – Circus Time
30 – The Fun Show

12:30p
6-61 – Feather Your Nest (prize is a kitchen)
7-8c-12-13 – Search for Tomorrow
10 – Let’s Go Shopping
30 – Magic Carpet

12:45p
7-12-13 – Guiding Light
8c – Electric Show
10 – Catholic Chapel
55 – Movie (TBA)

1p
4 – Movie “Over The Moon”
6 – Your Home and You
7 – Dear Homemaker
10 – Movie “Nightbeat”
12 – For the Ladies
13 – The Inner Flame (serial)
30 – Little Playhouse
61 – Movie “A Matter of Time”

1:15p
9 – Movie (TBA)
12-13 – Road of Life (serial)

1:30p
6 – Movie (TBA)
7-8c-12-13 – Welcome Travelers
30 – TV Kitchen

2p
7-8c-13-55 – Robert Q. Lewis
12 – Playhouse “Al Haddon’s Lamp”
30 – News & Weather
61 – Marilou Weston

2:15p
4- Child Behavior (Educational)
30 –Jigsaw Quiz

2:30p
6 – TV Classified
7-12-13-55 – Art Linkletter
8c – Guiding Light
8m – What’s New, Girls?
9 – Jigsaw Quiz
13 – Points and Pointers
55 – Matinee – Bill Martin

2:45p
4 – Into Focus (Interviews)
8c – News – Joe Burns
30 – Homemaking Adventures

3p
4-6-10 – Ted Mack
7-8c-12-13 – Big Payoff
8m – Cooking Can Be Fun
55 – Movie (TBA)
61 – Movie “Strange Impersonation”

3:15p
30 – At Your Service

3:30p
4 – First Love (Serial)
6-8c-10 – Greatest Gift
7-12-13-30 – Bob Crosby
8m – News
9 – Film Short

3:35p
8c – Movie “Secrets of Wu Sin”

3:45p
4-6-8c-10 – Miss Marlowe
13 – Your Own Home

4p
4 – At Four on 4 (Drama)
6 – Homemaking
7-12-13 – Brighter Day
8c-10 – Hawkins Falls
9 – Farm & Home Digest
30 – Club 30

4:15p
7-8m-8c-12-13 – Secret Storm
10 – First Love (serial)

4:30p
4-6-10-61 – Mr. Sweeney
7-12-13 – On Your Account
8c – Meet The Stars
8m – Rhythm Ranch
9 – Cartoon Time
30 – Wolf Dog
55 – Fred’s Corner

4:45p
4-6-10-61 – Modern Romances
8m – Lost Jungle
30 – Petey’s Adventures
55 – Out West with Bill

4:55p
18 – News

5p
4-6 – Pinky Lee
7 – Matinee Time “Indirect Approach”
8c – Outdoor Adventure Club
8m – Vanishing Legion
9 – Donn Tibbetts
10 – Looney Tunes
12 – Cartoon Carnival
13 – Western Playhouse
18-30 – Movie (Listed as Western)
61 – Uncle Ed’s Fun Club

5:15p
8m – Mystery Mountain
13 – Movie – Western

5:30p
2 – Come and See
4-6-8c-10-61 – Howdy Doody
7 – Flash Gordon
8m – Mountain Playhouse
12 – Film Short

5:45p
9 – Guest House
55 – The Rascals (Little Rascals?)

6p
2 – Images
4-12 – The Rascals
6 – Superman
7 – Gene Autry
8c – Stage 8 – Film Drama
8m-18-30 – News & Weather
10 – Superman (listed separately from ch. 6)
13 – Little Theater
61- Hopalong Cassidy

6:15p
8m – Movie “The Great Mr. Handel”
13 – News, Weather, Sports
18 – Movie “Fisherman’s Wharf”
30 – Movie “Happy-Go-Lucky”
55 – Movie “Bush Pilot”

6:30p
2-4-6-61 – News
7 – Big Town
8c – Sports, Weather
10 – Secret File
12 – Playhouse “The Unheard Song”

6:40p
9 – Sports and News

6:45p
4 – Annie Oakley
8c – News
12 – News and Weather
13 – Movie Museum

7p
6 – Youth Cavalcade
7 – I Lived Three Lives
8c – Mr. District Attorney
9 – Kukla, Fran and Ollie
10 – Your News Reporter
12 – Film Short
13 – Penny to a Million (Quiz Show)
18 – Movie (TBA)
61 – Weather (J. Qull)

7:05p
61 – Little Show

7:15p
2 – Shakespeare on TV
4 – News (Arch McDonald)
8m-9-18 – News (John Daly)
10 – TV Sports Page
12 – Golf (John Mahoney)
61 – Highlights

7:25p
30 – Weather (Cavell Jobert)

7:30p
4-6 – Tony Martin
7-12-13-30-55 News
8c – Mayor Richard C. Lee
8m-18 – Name’s The Same
9 – Kit Carson
10 – Madison Sq. Garden
61 – Film Short

7:45p
4-6-8c-10-61 – News (John Cameron Swayze)
7-12-13-30-55 – Perry Como

8p
2 – Roads to Bach
4-6-8c-10 – Sid Caeser
7-12-13-55 – Burns and Allen
8m – Cavalcade of America
9 – Corliss Archer
18 – TV Reader’s Digest
30 – Liberace

8:30p
7-12-13-30-55 – Talent Scouts (Arthur Godfrey)
8m-9-18-61 – Concert (Mildred Miller, mezzo-soprano)

9p
4-6-10-61 – Medic
7-8c-8m-12-13 – I Love Lucy
9-18 – Pee Wee King
30 – China Smith
55 – TV Theater

9:30p
4-6-10-61 – Robert Montgomery Presents
7-8c-12-13-55 – December Bride
8m – Star and the Story
30 – Stage S

10p
7-8c-12-13-55 – Studio One
8m – Pee Wee King
30 – Movie “Castle in the Desert”

10:30p
4-61 – Foreign Intrigue
6 – It’s a Great Life
9 – My Hero
10 – Mr. District Attorney
18 – The Ruggles

10:45p
8m – To Be Announced

11p
4-6-7-8m-9-10 – News
13-18-30-55-61 – News
8c – Doug Fairbanks
12 – Man Behind the Badge

11:05p
7 – Damon Runyon Theater
9 – Movie (TBA)
30 – Movie “Portia on Trial”
61 – Sports Review

11:10p
4- People Are Funny
18 – Heart of the City

11:15p
6 – Roller Derby
8c – Sports Final
10 – Playhouse
13 – Wrestling Matches
61 – Movie Museum

11:30p
8c – Mystery Theater
12 – News
61 – Tonight (Steve Allen)

11:35p
7-Stars in the Night “Murder by Messanger”

11:40p
4 – Tonight (Steve Allen – guests are Gene Rayburn and Eydie Gorme)

11:45p
6 – The Passerby

12a
8c – Movie (TBA)

12:05a
7 – Stars in the Night “Dinner Party”

1a
4-8 - News

 

[MCarney]

I didn't realize I had a typo - channel 6 is WNHC

2 – WGBH Boston (Educational)
4 – WBZ Boston (NBC)
6 – WCSH Portland, ME (NBC)
7 – WNAC Boston (ABC/CBS/DuMont)
8c – WNHC New Haven, CT (ABC/CBS/DuMont/NBC)
8m – WMTW Poland Springs, ME (ABC/CBS/DuMont)
9 – WMUR Manchester, NH (ABC/DuMont)
10 – WJAR Providence (ABC/DuMont/NBC)
12 – WPRO Providence (CBS)
13 – WGAN Portland, ME (ABC/CBS)
18 – WGTH Hartford, CT (ABC/DuMont)
30 – WKNB Hartford, CT (ABC/CBS)
55 – WHYN Springfield, MA (CBS/DuMont)
61 – WWLP Springfield, MA (ABC/NBC)

 

[oldiesfan6479]

Do you have the Boston TV schedule sometime during the first three weeks
of October in 1954?

That would be interesting, as MA was still on EDT, but NYC (and most other
areas) had already gone back to EST at the end of September.

 

[MCarney]

I'll have to check but I don't think so. I wasn't aware of the time switch issue (it was long before I was born) - sounds like it could make for a lot of time delay TV.

 

[oldiesfan6479]

I wasn't aware of the time switch issue (it was long before I was born) - sounds like it could
make for a lot of time delay TV.

Probably not in 1954, as it was before video tape. Unless they ran everything a week late
via film prints and kinnies.

I'm guessing the 7:30/8:00 to 11 PM prime time aired from 8:30/9:00 to 12 midnight.

 

[bpatrick]

If you had put up the following day's listings they would have
included the debut of "The $64,000 Question," which was number
one by the end of the summer and stayed there through the entire
1955-56 season. On the first show a Staten Island cop, Redmond
O'Hanlon, won $8000 in the category of Shakespeare; he came back
the following week, answered the $16,000 question, then decided to
stop. He was never implicated in any rigging; indeed, it was never
actually proven that the show was rigged in the sense that "Twenty-One"
was (giving contestants the answers and directions on how to give those
answers); "Question"'s producers asked prospective contestants 150-200
questions in their category, so they knew what the contestants knew and
what they didn't. If they wanted to keep a contestant on, they asked questions
they figured the contestant could answer; if not, they threw him or her a curve.
They tried that approach to get Dr. Joyce Brothers off (her category was boxing)
but she knew her stuff (with some help from Nat Fleischer, publisher of Ring magazine)
and won $64,000 in December 1955. She then went on to win another $70,000 against
a succession of fighters on "The $64,000 Challenge."

Perhaps it was just changing times but the 1976-78 revival of the show, "The $128,000
Question," proved to be a colossal bore to most viewers. (BTW, Alex Trebek hosted the
second season of that show but neither he nor his predecessor, Mike Darow, made old
fans of the show forget Hal March.)

On a different tack: I noticed Ted Mack listed in the daytime. That show was "Ted Mack's
Matinee," and it was similar to Arthur Godfrey's morning show on CBS (could it be that since
both emceed talent shows somebody figured Ted could be another Godfrey?). A couple
of years later ABC, remembering that he had once been a bandleader, tried Ted with a show
similar to Lawrence Welk's (Welk was also hosting a talent show, "Top Tunes And New Talent"),
and it might have gotten on the air except that the pilot aired the same night Elvis made his
third and final appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" at a time when Ed and Ted went head-to-head
(sorry for the corny rhyme).

 

[MCarney]

If you had put up the following day's listings they would have
included the debut of "The $64,000 Question," which was number
one by the end of the summer and stayed there through the entire
1955-56 season. On the first show a Staten Island cop, Redmond
O'Hanlon, won $8000 in the category of Shakespeare; he came back
the following week, answered the $16,000 question, then decided to
stop.

You are correct - and here's the description of the show:
"Comedian Hal March emcees the quiz to end all quizes. Dr. Bergen Evans, late of Down You Go, heads the board that selects questions and judges answers. All of the questions are from the category first chosen by the contestant."

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

Although TV Guide was no longer listing it, WTAO-56 Cambridge/Boston was still on the air (and the Boston newspapers would list it's programs until it left the air on March 30, 1956).

According to that day's Boston Globe, WTAO's program schedule of that day was:

5 P.M.-Sign-On/'The Christophers" (religious series)
5:30 P.M.-Feature Theatre (movie, title not listed)
7 P.M.-Movie: "Convict's Code" (the Internet Movie Database two movies with that title, one made in 1930, the other in 1939).
9 P.M.-Mary Miller Show (local??)
9:30 P.M. Film Short: "The Forge"
10 P.M.: Professional Boxing: Rafael Merentino vs. Hardy Smellwood, 10-round bout from St. Nicholas Arena, New York City (the long-gone DuMont network carried Monday-night boxing matches from St. Nicholas Arena during the mid-1950's; the play-by-play man was a young Chris Schenkel. The August 8, 1956 edition was, BTW, DuMont's last network program)
11 P.M.-Sign-off

 

[visaman]

Although TV Guide was no longer listing it, WTAO-56 Cambridge/Boston was still on the air (and the Boston newspapers would list it's programs until it left the air on March 30, 1956).

According to that day's Boston Globe, WTAO's program schedule of that day was:

10 P.M.: Professional Boxing: Rafael Merentino vs. Hardy Smellwood....

I beleive that should be Hardy Smallwood