Retro; New York City, October 31, 1946

[Bob1370]

Source; New York Times

Stations;

2-WCBS-TV (CBS)
4-WNBT (NBC)
5-WABD (DuMont)

EVENING

3:00; 5-News, Music (to 5 PM)
7:50; 4-Television Reporter (news)
8:00; 4-Hour Glass (variety) starring Helen Parrish
5-Charm School (fashion)
8:15; 2-News with Milo Boulton
8:30; 2-Case of the Poisoned Powders
5-Film Shorts
8:50; 2-Feature Film (title not announced)
9:00; 4-Children's Halloween Party
5-Quiz; Cash and Carry with Dennis James

Hour Glass was the first major big-budget variety show on television, sponsored by Chase and Sanborn and seen in most of the TV homes then in existence (in New York, Philadelphia, the Albany/Schenectady/Troy area, and Washington, DC). Helen Parrish became TV's first real star, but she and the show faded from view after she went on maternity leave in the spring of 1947 and did not return for the 1947-48 season.
Dennis James launched a decades-long career as television emcee with Cash and Carry, a sort of predecessor to the later TV game show Supermarket Sweep.
WCBS-TV's 8:15 newscast featured actor Milo Boulton as anchor. Boulton was perhaps best known for co-starring in the original stage production of "The Petrified Forest" alongside Leslie Howard and Humphrey Bogart-he did not make the move to Hollywood to appear with Howard and Bogart in the film version the following year, but remained in the Broadway theater and returned to it periodically throughout a long acting career which also included film roles, and dramatic roles on television. Boulton left television news shortly after this listing was published. He was replaced by newsman Douglas Edwards, who anchored the Channel 2 local news and then the CBS Evening News from 1947 to 1962, and continued in radio and television news until his retirement in the 1980s.

 

[FreddyE1977]

He was replaced by newsman Douglas Edwards, who anchored the Channel 2 local news and then the CBS Evening News from 1947 to 1962, and continued in radio and television news until his retirement in the 1980s.

I remember Edwards being interviewed about this move many years later.

"I had worked so hard to establish my career in radio during the war, and had finally made a name
for myself. Then they come along and tell me I'm being shifted off to this experimental toy where
nobody would ever hear from me again. I thought, 'Boy, what a crummy break!' "

Interesting perspective I thought.

 

[Ultimajock]

5-WABD (DuMont)

9:00; 5-Quiz; Cash and Carry with Dennis James

Dennis James launched a decades-long career as television emcee with Cash and Carry, a sort of predecessor to the later TV game show Supermarket Sweep.

...I seem to recall reading somewhere (in Brooks & Marsh?) that, although Cash & Carry was on DuMont, it was actually produced by ABC, as the Alphabet Network's WJZ-TV/7 was still many months away from taking the air on 10 August 1948. The 12 May 1948 broadcast of Don McNeill's Breakfast Club was simulcast over ABC Radio and the DuMont Television Network, while being produced for television through the facilities of NBC affiliate WPTZ/3 Philadelphia (which also aired the broadcast live); The Breakfast Club had travelled from its Chicago home base to Philadelphia to promote McNeill's mock campaign for President that year, and WPTZ was owned at the time by Philco, one of The Breakfast Club's radio sponsors...