Retro: Chicago TV Guide - Monday, June 21, 1954

[Gregg]

Chicago TV Guide, Monday June 21, 1954

WBBM-TV CBS 2 Chicago

7am The Morning Show--Variety
9am Arthur Godfrey & Friends
10:30 Strike It Rich--Warren Hull
11am Valient Lady--Serial
11:15 Love of Life
11:30 Search for Tomorrow
11:45 Guiding Light
Noon Brighter Day--Serial
12:15 Portia Faces Life
12:30 Garry Moore--Variety. Gary prepares for a vacation in Italy.
1:30 Art Linkletter's House Party
2pm Big Payoff--Quiz. Guests: Bess Myerson and Randy Merriman
2:30 Bob Crosby--Music. "Three Coins in The Fountain," "Cross Over The Bridge."
3pm Woman with A Past--Serial
3:15 Secret Storm
3:30 Film Feature "One Strange Day"
4pm Shopping with Miss Lee
4:20 Buster Crabbe--Western
5pm Range Riders--Adventure
5:30 Gene Autry--Western
6pm Sports--Bob Elson
6:10 Weather
6:15 News--Julian Bentley
6:30 CBS News--Douglass Edwards
6:45 Perry Como--Music
7pm Burns & Allen. Gracie gets the mistaken idea that George is leaving show business.
7:30 Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts
8pm I Love Lucy. Lucy is not sure if she and Ricky are really married.
8:30 Masquerade Party--Peter Donald. Panalists Ogden Nash, Elka Chase, Buff Cobb.
9pm Summer Theater. Cowpoke Will Sorrell tries to save another cowboy from hanging.
10pm News--Fahey Flynn
10:15 In Town Tonight--Variety. Lee Phillip, Len Dresler, Merelyn Tate, The King's Jesters.
10:30 News--John Harrington (Huh? Two late newscasts, two different anchors, 15 min. apart?)
10:45 Irv Kupcinet--Comments
11pm Playhouse. A widow comes to live with her son and daughter-in-law.
11:30 News (Yet another newscast?)
11:35 Movie--Mystery. "Tangled Evidence"
-------------------

WTMJ-TV NBC 4 Milwaukee
Compare WTMJ's schedule with NBC-owned WNBQ 5. WTMJ passes on a quite a few daytime and early evening NBC network shows. Milwaukee didn't get it's second TV station till 1956, so WTMJ picked up some shows from CBS, ABC and Dumont in its early days. According
to Wikipedia, WTMJ moved from Channel 3 the previous year to avoid interference with Channel 3 in Kalamazoo, MI. WBBM-TV Chicago also moved, leaving 4 for 2.

7am Today--Dave Garroway
9am Ding Dong School
9:30 One Man's Family--Serial
9:45 Three Steps to Heaven
10am Home--Women's News. A visit to Chicago's Merchandise Mart
11am Gordon Thomas--Variety
Noon What's New in The Kitchen
12:45 News
1pm The Grenadiers--Music
1:30 Bob Heiss--Interviews
1:55 Weather--Bill Carlsen
2pm Mrs. USA. Arthur Gary interviews author Dorothy Brandon about her friend Mamie Eisenhower.
2:30 Ask Washington--Holly Wright. Panel of newsmen answer viewer's current affiars questions.
3pm Welcome Travelers--Tommy Bartlett
3:30 On Your Account--Win Elliot (I guess that's the long-time CBS Radio sportscaster?)
4pm Beulah Donohue--Women
4:30 Howdy Doody--Puppets
5pm Superman--Adventure
5:30 Foreman Tom--Western
6pm Hot Seat Revue--Music
6:15 News
6:25 Weather
6:30 Sports Picture
6:45 NBC News--John Cameron Swayze
7pm The Name's The Same--Robert Q. Lewis. Panel: Joan Alexander, Gene Rayburn, Bess Myerson, Roger Price.
7:30 The Goldbergs. Molly takes pity on a young, starving dentist.
8pm Dennis Day. Dennis has a chimpanzee entertain at Susan's birthday party.
8:30 Robert Montgomery. An adaptation of Dickens' "Great Expectations."
9:30 Who Said That? Walter Kiernan. Panel: June Lockhart, H.V. Kaltenborn, Bob Considine, J.P. McElroy.
10pm Industry on Parade. (Isn't this an early infomercial for any company that provides a free film?)
10:15 News--Paul Skinner
10:25 Weather--Bill Carlsen
10:30 Big Story--Drama. Residents of Albany NY are frightened by several shootings. (I guess NBC still hadn't put Tonight on the air at this time.)
11pm Big Town--Drama.
11:30 Movie--Mystery. "Pearl of Death"
1am News--Tom Mercein
-----------

WNBQ NBC 5 Chicago (Today, WMAQ)

6:45 Everett Mitchell--Talk
7am Today--Dave Garroway
9am Ding Dong School
9:30 One Man's Family--Serial
9:45 Three Steps to Heaven
10am Home--Women's News. A visit to Chicago's Merchandise Mart
11am Bride & Groom--Weddings
11:15 Hawkins Falls--Serial
11:30 Betty White Show (Quite amazing that Betty White is on the NBC schedule 59 years later with "Off Their Rockers." Was this just a Chicago show or NBC national?)
Noon Noontime Comics. Johnny Coons entertains the kiddies.
12:30 Bob and Kay--Chatter. Bob Murphy and Kay Westfall.
1pm Creative Cookery--Frank Page
2pm Mrs. USA. Arthur Gary interviews author Dorothy Brandon about her friend Mamie Eisenhower.
2:30 Ask Washington--Holly Wright. Panel of newsmen answer viewer's current affiars questions.
3pm Welcome Travelers--Tommy Bartlett
3:30 On Your Account--Win Elliot
4pm Pinky Lee--Comedy
4:30 Howdy Doody--Puppets
5pm Elmer The Elephant--Kids. John Conrad, Elmer and Elmira.
5:30 Close-Up--Music. Howard Miller, June Valli, Guy Cherney.
6pm Weather--Clint Youle
6:05 News--Jack Angell (I wonder why news follows weather? And only 5 minutes of news?)
6:10 Sports--Joe Wilson
6:15 Dorsey Connors--Travel. A visit to Melbourne, Australia.
6:20 Alex Dreier, Man on The Go--Features
6:25 Tony Weitzel--Comments
6:30 Tony Martin--Music "Sentimental Journey," "Beyond The Blue Horizon"
6:45 NBC News--John Cameron Swayze
7pm City Desk--Panel. Ian O'Connor moderates.
7:30 Comment--Documentary. Henry Cassidy, Irving Levine and Morgan Beatty offer reports on Communism.
8pm Dennis Day. Dennis has a chimpanzee entertain at Susan's birthday party.
8:30 Robert Montgomery. An adaptation of Dickens' "Great Expectations."
9:30 TV Playhouse. "The Last Kiss" F. Scott Fitzgereld's tragic tale of a young Hollywood producer.
10pm Weather--Clint Youle (Again, weather and variety come before news?)
10:10 Dorsey Connors--Variety
10:15 News--Jack Angell
10:25 Weather--Bill Carlsen
10:30 Sports--Norman Barry
10:45 Herbie Mintz--Music
11pm Now for Nardine (This is the last show of the night. Other nights, there's a movie, golf or horse racing at 11pm. On Friday, it's a variety show hosted by Howard Miller. But nothing on WNBQ is listed after 11pm.)
---------

WBKB ABC 7 Chicago (Now WLS-TV)
ABC's daytime schedule was pretty thin in 1954. No game shows, no soap operas and other than Don McNeill, borrowed from radio, no well-known variety shows. Lots of local kids shows.

7am Chicago Parade--Variety
8am Don McNeill's Breakfast Club
9am Paul Fogarty--Excercise
9:30 Pied Piper--Kids
10am Play House--Kids
10:30 Studio B for Bartlett. Tommy Bartlett and a guest.
10:55 News--Ulmer Turner
11am Danny O'Neil Show. Chet Roble, Nancy Wright
11:55 News--Ulmer Turner
Noon Happy Pirates--Variety
12:55 News--Ulmer Turner
1pm Ruth Crowley--Baby Care
1:15 The Doctor Answers
1:30 Claude Kirchner--Variety (I guess this the same Claude Kirchner who did a circus-themed kids show on WOR-TV NY for many years?)
2pm Stuart Brent--Discussion
2:15 Swingalong--Music
3pm Home Theater. "Eleventh Hour." On a South Sea island, a female tourist falls in love with a playboy.
3:30 Time for Uncle Win. Win Stracke with folk songs, animals and fun for kids.
4pm Jungle Adventure--Film. "The Big Game Hunt"
4:30 Garfield Goose and Friends
5pm Jolly Seven Gang--Kids
5:30 Sports--Tom Duggan
5:45 Bob & Ray--Satire. Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding. (This is the same Bob & Ray who'd later be on many national variety shows.)
6pm News--Austin Kiplinger
6:05 Sports--Jack Drees (Another sportscast so soon?)
6:10 Weather--Wayne Griffin
6:15 ABC News--John Daly (Daly also hosted What's My Line? on CBS.)
6:30 Flight No. 7--Travel. "Wings to Ireland."
7pm Sky King. A jeweler uses carrier pigeons to smuggle stolen gems.
7:30 Concert. Howard Barlow conducts from the Paramount in New York. Soloist Brian Sullivan, tenor. (Can you imagine, classical music on a major network? Even PBS rarely airs classical concerts these days and Time-Warner recently dropped Ovation from its cable line-up.)
8pm TV Golf Clinic (I guess ABC wasn't going to spend any money programming against I Love Lucy.)
8:30 Boxing from Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn.
9:45 Neutral Corner--Boxing
10pm Death Valley Days. A man invests his last $10 on a lot in Nevada which turns into a gold mine.
10:30 Candid Camera (ABC has Central Time Zone programming 10 to 11pm? I don't think Death Valley Days or Candid Camera were syndicated in 1954.)
11pm Tom Duggan--Comments
11:15 News--Ulmer Turner (Long day for Ulmer. His first newscast was more than 12 hours ago.)
11:30 Danny O'Neil--Music
12am Movie--Adventure. "Luck of A Sailor"
-----------------

WGN-TV Dumont 9 Chicago

9am Paul Fogarty--Exercise
9:30 Time for Stories
10am A to Z Cookery
10:55 News--Steve Fentress
11am King's Crossroads--Film
11:30 Earl Nightingale--Chats
11:55 News--Steve Fentress
Noon Hi Ladies--Mike Douglass (I guess this show grew into his successful syndicated program.)
12:45 Charm Salon--Beauty. Portia Stevens
12:55 News--Steve Fentress
1pm Movie--Drama "Taming of The Wild" Rod LaRocque
2pm Paul Dixon--Music. Pantomimes to popular records. (Really? I'd want to watch pantomimes for an hour each day?)
3pm Movie--Western "Outlaws of The Rio Grande"
4pm Bandstand Matinee. Jim Lounsbury spins discs.
4:55 News--Les Nichols
5pm Bob Atcher--Kids. Bob and his singing ranch hands.
5:30 News--Les Monypenny
5:45 Curbstone Cut-Ups--Chats. Ernie Simon
6pm Captain Video--Adventure
6:15 Sports Final--Vince Lloyd
6:30 News--Spencer Allen
6:45 Chicagoland Newsreel
7pm TV Showcase--Film "Bandages and Bullets"
7:30 Big Picture--Army Film
8pm Behold Thy Mother--Religion. Father Keane hosts.
8:30 Sportsman Club
9pm Boxing--New York City (Tonight there's boxing on both Channel 7 and Channel 9.)
9:45 Sports--Arch Ward
10pm Movie--Adventure "Three Pirates"
11:30 News--Les Nichols
11:45 Weather--Carl Grayson (It looks like WGN-TV signs off before midnight.)

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

Regarding Paul Dixon at 2:00 P.M. on WGN, Channel 9 and pantomimes. Dixon's show originated at WCPO-TV, Channel 9, in Cincinnati and was picked up by stations on the Dumont Network (WCPO-TV was also an ABC-TV affiliate then). That show had Dixon, Dottie Mack and Wanda Lewis pantomiming both popular and novelty records. Dottie Mack was later on the ABC-TV Network doing the same on a show called, "Girl Alone" and also seen locally on "The Dottie Mack Show". That program evolved into "Pantomime Hit Parade" on WCPO-TV which had Colin Male and Bob Braun with her (later Bob Smith replaced Braun). Another show called, "This Is Music" was done by WCPO-TV staff members doing pantomiming in 1959 and it was seen on the ABC-TV Network.

While some may laugh at pantomiming records today, these were very popular programs in the 1950's and Dottie Mack (who later married New York DJ William B. Williams) was very good at it.

 

[Tim L]

Linn Sheldon, on one of his very first shows on Cleveland TV (1948), also did the pantomime record bit at WEWS-TV 5..He would be best known as kid show host "Barnaby" on Channels 3 and later 43 nearly the entire time from 1957-1990.

 

[oldiesfan6479]

WBBM-TV CBS 2 Chicago
7am The Morning Show--Variety
9am Arthur Godfrey & Friends
WNBQ NBC 5 Chicago (Today, WMAQ)
7am Today--Dave Garroway
9am Ding Dong School

This was 1954--before video tape.

I recall reading that NBC, back then, did three hours of Today (7-10 AM ET), so that
ET and CT stations could carry two hours between 7-9 AM local time.

What about CBS? Was The Morning Show network, and did CBS also do it for three
hours, with the same ultimate result?

 

[bpatrick]

Marlo Lewis, in his autobiography which concentrates mostly
on his years as Ed Sullivan's producer, mentions "The Morning
Show" when Jack Paar was host and says that "for three long
hours" every morning Jack tried to find someone to talk to
(newsreader Charles Collingwood was in another studio and
couldn't talk with Jack; announcer Hal Simms' appearances on
camera were sporadic at best).

Win Elliot, host of "On Your Account," is indeed the same as
the CBS sportscaster; I remember his nightly radio show "Sports
Central U.S.A." in the '60s. Dennis James eventually became host
of "On Your Account" and moved with it to CBS. BTW, it was replaced
by "Edge Of Night" on April 2, 1956, the same day "As The World Turns"
debuted (they were the first 30-minute soaps).

Claude Kirchner was host of the Chicago-based "Super Circus" on ABC
Sunday afternoons (Mike Wallace did the commercials for Peter Pan
peanut butter) before heading for New York. In the 1962-63 season
he briefly hosted "Magic Midway" on NBC Saturday mornings, which, IIRC,
was the beginning of a long stint as spokesperson for Marx Toys.

And is "Miss Lee" on Ch. 2 Lee Phillip?

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

The original host of the CBS "Morning Show" when it premiered in early 1954 was Walter Cronkite, and I suspect he as still with the show in June.

"The Tonight Show" with Steve Allen was on the air in June, 1954 but only locally on the NBC O&O in New York. It went out over the network for the first time on September 27th.

Betty White's daytime show on WNBQ-5 was a network series, originating from either the old NBC Hollywood Radio City on the corner of Sunset and Vine (originally built for radio in 1938), or from the new NBC Burbank studios. The first stage of NBC Burbank opened in the Fall of 1952; additional studios were built throughout the fifties, and by the start of the sixties, NBC's West Coast operations were consolidated there.

For about eight years, NBC's West Coast activities were split between the old and new facilities. Basically, a TV show that needed a lot of studio space or was being broadcast in color would be done out of Burbank; if the show was in black-and-white and didn't need that much studio space, it would be done at Hollywood Radio City.

 

[DaveArnold]

Jim Lounsbury and Ernie Simon with TV programs on WGN had long stints in radio.

 

[visaman]

While some may laugh at pantomiming records today, these were very popular programs in the 1950's and Dottie Mack (who later married New York DJ William B. Williams) was very good at it.

I imagine it would be an early form of MTV? ;D

 

[bpatrick]

"The Big Payoff" has Bess Myerson and Randy Merriman
listed as guests; actually, they were the hosts (Merriman
left at the end of 1957, as I pointed out on one of the
Minneapolis threads).

Steve Allen, in addition to doing "The Tonight Show" locally
in New York at the time, was a regular panelist on "What's
My Line?". He had taken the job in March 1953, following the
firing of Hal Block, on condition that he could leave if and when
he could get "Tonight" on the full NBC network, which happened
on Sept. 27, 1954. Steve did his last "Line" on Sept. 19, 1954,
although he returned frequently as a guest panelist over the next
thirteen years. When his replacement, Fred Allen (no relation),
passed away March 17, 1956, Steve was on the panel the following
night and pointed out the fact that they were not related, yet he
felt as badly as though they were. Steve also appeared on
the last Sunday-night show, Sept. 3, 1967, when host John Daly was
the Mystery Guest. (Arlene Francis' husband, Martin Gabel, who appeared
on the show 112 times, was the fourth panelist that night.)

Gil Fates once referred to Steve, Arlene, Dorothy Kilgallen,
and Bennett Cerf as "What's My Line?"'s "varsity team."

 

[Gregg]

An additional note on the Betty White Show on NBC at 11:30am Central Time. The Monday program schedule didn't list it but on a different day, TV Guide includes Frank DeVol and his Orchestra. So I guess Betty would chat with DeVol and had musical artists as guests, even though I assume she didn't do any singing herself.

DeVol was later on the mock variety show Fernwood 2 Night in the late 70s as the orchestra leader, and played along with the premise, with Martin Mull and Fred Willard. DeVol passed away in 1999. I'm amazed that Betty White is still on the NBC schedule all these decades later.

 

[bpatrick]

Even in her 90s Betty seems to be a hotter property now than
ever, something which I think began when she guest-hosted
"Saturday Night Live."

But to show you how Betty's image has changed since the '50s,
she was once the spokesperson for Fantastik, a spray cleaner made
by my dad's company (from which he is retired), Texize (later part of
Dow Chemical). When Betty began playing Sue Ann Nivens, moving
away from her all-American image, she was let go as the Fantastik
spokesperson.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

Regarding the point of originzation of Betty White's 1954 NBC daytime series:

I just read one of her memoirs, and in it, Ms. White wrote that the show began at Hollywood Radio City (corner of Sunset and Vine), but soon afterwards moved to Burbank.