Hopefully incomplete list of surviving 1948 US broadcasts (expanded)

Was Sullivan in the TOAST OF The TOWN clip?

Description of the excerpt held by the UCLA Film and Television Archive, from their site:
Nanette Fabray’s first appearance on Toast of the town. She is currently appearing in Broadway in Love life. She sings Green up time from Love life and Papa won’t you dance with me from the feature film High button shoes. Ed Sullivan dances with her in the latter number.


Discription of the complete episode held by Paley Center, from their site:
One in this series of variety programs presided over by Ed Sullivan. Highlights of this program include the following: the June Taylor Dancers perform to the "Toast of the Town" theme; comedians Gene McCarthy and Tommy Farrell play radio disc jockeys and lip-synch to the songs "Temptation" and "Wait 'Til the Sun Shines, Nellie"; Sullivan introduces Terry Moore, Jerome Courtland, Lucy Monroe, and Mae West, who are in the audience; a tap dance duo performs "Tap City in Rhythm"; from a theater box, comedian Patsy Flick does a Yiddish routine with Sullivan as straight man; the Martins perform a Christmas sketch with their puppets; Sullivan introduces Michael O'Shea and the New York Postmaster, Albert Goldman, who are in the audience, and John Garfield, who comes onstage to read a letter to Santa Claus from a child; Dorothy Sarnoff sings "Lover"; comedian Frank Fontaine does impressions of "Amos 'n' Andy," Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and others; and Dorothy Sarnoff sings "Ave Maria." Includes commercials.

I would not be surprised if the Sullivan estaste holds other episodes of the series from 1948.



I haven't been playing dead! You know that, right, Kankuro?

Sullivan in a "Yiddish routine", oy! Anyone remember a puppet act on "Sullivan" with a guy named Danny? His puppet always called Sullivan "Mr. Solivan". which brought a smile to his face.
Fabray and Fontaine are the only performers (except Garfield's bit) I remember.
The Taylor dancers were regulars there I think.

WOW!! Thanks for "discovering" this previously unknown Mae West television appearance!! I imagine it's just a brief cameo and she just stands and waves from the audience but still it's awesome to know she was on tv as early as 1948 and this program still exists! I had never looked Mae up on the Paley search engine since she made very, very few appearances on tv. I've submitted the info about this episode to IMDb and hopefully it will appear as a credit for all involved within a week.

As you are well-aware, there are many people with incomplete filmographies on IMDb. Just a few weeks ago I watched an episode (23 June 1956) of the 1956 version of "The Patti Page Show", which isn't listed on IMDb, which featuring several people, including Bob Hope, who does jokes.

It was a short-run (4 weeks) summer replacement for "The Perry Como Show", and if I manage to get at least 1 more of the episodes, I'll submit it (and the episodes) to IMDb.


I also recently submitted a 1955 documentary series called "Tomorrow" (which didn't feature anyone famous, but is still a piece of television history), but screwed-up the submission. The page needs considerable editing.


I haven't been playing dead! You know that, right, Kankuro?

Yes, I would imagine the majority of pre-1980 variety and talk show credits are coming from fans and independent historians rather than publicists and industry sources since that sort of data was seldom logged and the shows almost never seen after initial airing or first rerun. Where did you see this Patti Page episode? There's someone who sells a dvd set from her shows on ebay, I think it's four discs, I've considered buying it but I have some of her dvds that are clips from the shows and I have rarely watched them even though I do like her voice.

Last month I bought one of those privately made "public domain" collections of variety shows off ebay and am finding a lot of people in them that apparently even the seller was unaware of, even big stars like Lucille Ball and Judy Garland. I finally saw THE MOREY AMSTERDAM SHOW via these sets and it was a big surprise to learn there was a singer in the early 1950's named Jody Miller which was also the name of a well-known country/pop singer of the 1960s/1970s though obviously not the same woman as she would have only been about ten at the time and the first Jody looks and sounds nothing like her. That reminds me of the two Susan Rayes - one who sang and played piano on early tv and another one (born 1944) who became a country star in the early 1970's and was often on HEE HAW. Susan and Jody (the second ones) were big favorites of mine when I was a kid in the 1970's.

This is totally off-topic, but "The Morey Amsterdam Show" holds a very special place in television history. Why? Because nearly every episode of the 1949-1950 DuMont version survives as a kinescope recording (held by the UCLA Film and Television Archive). That makes it one of the oldest live series to have the majority of episodes preserved. (a handful of episodes of the CBS version also survive) Other 1949 series to have this lucky thing happen to them include "Admiral Broadway Revue" (NBC, simulcast on DuMont...held by Library of Congress and Paley), and "Let There be Stars" (ABC, held by Paley). I believe a good amount of 1949 episodes of "Texaco Star Theatre" also survive at the Paley Center for Media.




I haven't been playing dead! You know that, right, Kankuro?

Again this is off-topic, but in 1970s Australia, there were two famous music and television personalities with similar names: Johnny Young and John Paul Young. Needless to say people got very confused!




I haven't been playing dead! You know that, right, Kankuro?