''Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse'' is an American
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
anthology series
An anthology series is a radio, television, video game or film series that spans different genres and presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short. These usually have a dif ...
produced by
Desilu Productions
Desilu Productions () was an American television production company founded and co-owned by husband and wife Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball. The company is best known for shows such as ''I Love Lucy'', ''The Lucy Show'', ''Mannix'', ''The Untouchabl ...
. The show ran on the
Columbia Broadcasting System
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
between 1958 and 1960. Three of its 48 episodes served as pilots for the 1950s television series ''
The Twilight Zone
''The Twilight Zone'' is an American media franchise based on the anthology television series created by Rod Serling. The episodes are in various genres, including fantasy, science fiction, absurdism, dystopian fiction, suspense, horror, sup ...
'' (One Episode) and ''
The Untouchables
Untouchables or The Untouchables may refer to:
American history
* Untouchables (law enforcement), a 1930s American law enforcement unit led by Eliot Ness
* ''The Untouchables'' (book), an autobiography by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley
* ''The U ...
'' (Two Episodes).
History
Between 1951 and 1957,
Desi Arnaz
Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha III (March 2, 1917 – December 2, 1986) was a Cuban-born American actor, bandleader, and film and television producer. He played Ricky Ricardo on the American television sitcom '' I Love Lucy'', in which he c ...
(1917-1986) and
Lucille Ball
Lucille Désirée Ball (August 6, 1911 – April 26, 1989) was an American actress, comedienne and producer. She was nominated for 13 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning five times, and was the recipient of several other accolades, such as the Golde ...
(1911-1989) starred in and produced (via their
Desilu
Desilu Productions () was an American television production company founded and co-owned by husband and wife Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball. The company is best known for shows such as '' I Love Lucy'', ''The Lucy Show'', ''Mannix'', ''The Untouchab ...
production company) the immensely popular ''
I Love Lucy
''I Love Lucy'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes, spanning six seasons. The show starred Lucille Ball, her husband, Desi Arnaz, along wit ...
'' show. In early 1958, Desi Arnaz convinced
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
to purchase ''Desilu Playhouse'' with the promise that a bi-monthly ''Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show'' (later rebroadcast as ''
The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
'') would be among the dramas, comedies and musicals planned for the show.
Westinghouse Electric Company
Westinghouse Electric Company LLC is an American nuclear power company formed in 1999 from the nuclear power division of the original Westinghouse Electric Corporation. It offers nuclear products and services to utilities internationally, includi ...
paid a then-record $12 million to sponsor the show, which resulted in the cancellation of the prestigious anthology series ''
Studio One'', also sponsored by Westinghouse.
![Lucille Ball Aldo Ray, William Lundigan Desilu Playhouse 1958](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Lucille_Ball_Aldo_Ray%2C_William_Lundigan_Desilu_Playhouse_1958.JPG)
The show debuted on Monday nights in the 10:00–11:00 pm
astern Standard Timeevening time slot on October 6, 1958, hosted by Desi Arnaz, with
Betty Furness
Elizabeth Mary Furness (January 3, 1916 – April 2, 1994) was an American actress, consumer advocate, and current affairs commentator.
Early years
Furness was born in Manhattan, the daughter of wealthy business executive George Choate Furness ...
continuing as the Westinghouse spokesperson (as she had been on ''Studio One''). The first show was "Lucy Goes to Mexico," a Lucy-Desi Hour with guest star
Maurice Chevalier. The dramatic "Bernadette" (a biography of the
Roman Catholic Church's Saint Bernadette
Bernadette Soubirous (; ; oc, Bernadeta Sobirós ; 7 January 184416 April 1879), also known as Saint Bernadette of Lourdes, was the firstborn daughter of a miller from Lourdes (''Lorda'' in Occitan), in the department of Hautes-Pyrénées in F ...
), starring
Pier Angeli, premiered in week two.
Later shows included comedies, dramas and musicals, and various one-off comedies and dramas starring Lucille Ball in non-"Lucy" character performances.
In October 1959, the show moved to Friday nights from 9:00–10:00 pm
astern Standard Time The show lasted only one more year, due to an inability to attract big guest stars, the growing popularity then of westerns and police shows being shown on
prime time. It ran opposite the competing
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
television network's highly rated ''
77 Sunset Strip
''77 Sunset Strip'' is an American television private detective drama series created by Roy Huggins and starring Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Roger Smith, Richard Long (from 1960 to 1961) and Edd Byrnes (billed as Edward Byrnes). Each episode was o ...
'' that season, and the Arnaz-Ball divorce in 1960. Just prior to their marital breakup, Ball and Arnaz, along with
Vivian Vance
Vivian Vance (born Vivian Roberta Jones; July 26, 1909 – August 17, 1979) was an American actress and singer best known for playing Ethel Mertz on the sitcom '' I Love Lucy'' (1951–1957), for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Out ...
,
William Frawley
William Clement Frawley (February 26, 1887 – March 3, 1966) was an American vaudevillian and actor best remembered for playing landlord Fred Mertz in the American television sitcom '' I Love Lucy'', "Bub" O'Casey in the television comedy ser ...
, and
Little Ricky
Keith Thibodeaux (born December 1, 1950), also known as Richard Keith, is an American actor and musician, best known for playing Little Ricky on the television sitcoms '' I Love Lucy'' and ''The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour''. He was billed as Rich ...
, filmed the last ''
Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show'', entitled "Lucy Meets The Moustache" and featuring guest stars
Ernie Kovacs
Ernest Edward Kovacs (January 23, 1919 – January 13, 1962) was a Hungarian-American comedian, actor, and writer.
Kovacs's visually experimental and often spontaneous comedic style influenced numerous television comedy programs for years aft ...
and
Edie Adams
Edie Adams (born Edith Elizabeth Enke; April 16, 1927 – October 15, 2008) was an American comedian, actress, singer and businesswoman. She earned the Tony Award and was nominated for an Emmy Award.
Adams was well known for her impersonations ...
. This last hour-long installment of the ''I Love Lucy'' format and characters was broadcast on April 1, 1960. The final telecast of ''The Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse'', "Murder is a Private Affair", aired on June 10, 1960.
Notable episodes
![Joan Fontaine Maximilian Schell Desilu Playhouse 1959](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Joan_Fontaine_Maximilian_Schell_Desilu_Playhouse_1959.jpg)
In the fall of 1958, "
The Time Element
''The Twilight Zone'' is an American media franchise based on the anthology series, anthology television program, television series created by Rod Serling. The episodes are in various genres, including fantasy, science fiction, absurdism, dysto ...
". starring
William Bendix
William Bendix (January 14, 1906 – December 14, 1964) was an American film, radio, and television actor, who typically played rough, blue-collar characters. He is best remembered for his role in ''Wake Island'', which earned him an Academy ...
, aired to positive reviews. Written by
Rod Serling, the show's popularity gave Serling the leverage to convince CBS to give the go-ahead to Serling's concept for a science fiction/fantasy anthology series (which was what Serling had in mind when writing "The Time Element") that he called ''
The Twilight Zone
''The Twilight Zone'' is an American media franchise based on the anthology television series created by Rod Serling. The episodes are in various genres, including fantasy, science fiction, absurdism, dystopian fiction, suspense, horror, sup ...
'' which debuted in the fall of 1959.
In April 1959, ''Desilu Playhouse'' aired a two-part drama called "The Untouchables".
Paul Monash
Paul Monash (June 14, 1917 – January 14, 2003) was an American television and film producer and screenwriter.
Life and career
Paul Monash was born in Harlem, New York, in 1917, and grew up in The Bronx. His mother, Rhoda Melrose, acted in si ...
adapted the 1957
memoirs of treasury agent
Eliot Ness
Eliot Ness (April 19, 1903 – May 16, 1957) was an American Prohibition agent known for his efforts to bring down Al Capone and enforce Prohibition in Chicago. He was the leader of a team of law enforcement agents, nicknamed The Untouchables. ...
, played by
Robert Stack
Robert Stack (born Charles Langford Modini Stack; January 13, 1919 – May 14, 2003) was an American actor. Known for his deep voice and commanding presence, he appeared in over forty feature films. He starred in the highly successful ABC tele ...
. After CBS passed on the idea to produce a weekly version, ''
The Untouchables
Untouchables or The Untouchables may refer to:
American history
* Untouchables (law enforcement), a 1930s American law enforcement unit led by Eliot Ness
* ''The Untouchables'' (book), an autobiography by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley
* ''The U ...
'' became a hit series on
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
and ran for four seasons (1959–1963).
Stack was selected only after the agent of Arnaz' personal choice, actor
Van Johnson
Charles Van Dell Johnson (August 25, 1916 – December 12, 2008) was an American film, television, theatre and radio actor. He was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer during and after World War II.
Johnson was described as the embodiment o ...
, demanded Johnson be paid for 2 episodes at $10,000 each (the normal rate). Arnaz, according to Stack, blew his top at Johnson, fired him and called Stack and offered him the role. Stack accepted at once and began filming the next day
Production notes
Music
Music for the show was composed by
John Waldo "Johnny" Green. The show opened with "Westinghouse Logo" and closed with "Desilu Playhouse Closing Theme" during the end credits.
Notable crew members
Several notable people contributed to one or more episodes of the show, including (in alphabetical order):
Producers
*
Bert Granet
Bert Granet (July 10, 1910 – November 15, 2002) was an American writer and television producer whose credits included '' The Locket'' (1946) for RKO Radio Pictures.
Granet worked with Desilu Productions and was instrumental in getting Rod Serli ...
*
Quinn Martin
Quinn Martin (born Irwin Martin Cohn; May 22, 1922 – September 5, 1987) was an American television producer. He had at least one television series running in prime time every year for 21 straight years (from 1959 to 1980). Martin is a mem ...
Directors
*
Robert Florey
Robert Florey (14 September 1900 – 16 May 1979) was a French-American director, screenwriter, film journalist and actor.
Born as Robert Fuchs in Paris, he became an orphan at an early age and was then raised in Switzerland. In 1920 he worked a ...
*
Claudio Guzmán
Claudio Guzmán (August 2, 1927 – July 12, 2008) was a Chilean-American television director, producer, art director, and production designer.
Biography
Guzmán was born in Rancagua, Chile in 1927. As a young man, Guzmán enrolled at the ...
*
Douglas Heyes
Douglas Heyes (May 22, 1919 – February 8, 1993) was an American film and television writer, director, producer, actor, composer, and author with a long list of accomplishments. He was sometimes credited under the pseudonym Matthew Howard.
Pers ...
*
Arthur Hiller
*
Jerry Hopper
Harold Hankins Hopper (July 29, 1907 – December 17, 1988), known professionally as Jerry Hopper, was an American film and television director, active from the mid-1940s through the early 1970s.
Early life
Jerry Hopper was born in Guthrie, ...
*
Lamont Johnson
Ernest Lamont Johnson Jr. (September 30, 1922 – October 24, 2010) was an American actor and film director who has appeared in and directed many television shows and movies. He won two Emmy Awards.
Early years
Johnson was born in Stockto ...
*
Phil Karlson
*
Buzz Kulik
Seymour "Buzz" Kulik (July 23, 1922 – January 13, 1999) was an American film director and producer. He directed 72 films and television shows, including the landmark CBS television network anthology series ''Playhouse 90'' and several ep ...
*
Robert Ellis Miller
Robert Ellis Miller (July 18, 1927 – January 27, 2017) was an American film director.
Filmography
* '' Breaking Point'' (1963) - TV Series
* '' Any Wednesday'' (1966)
* '' Sweet November'' (1968)
* '' The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter'' (1968 ...
*
Ralph Nelson
Ralph Nelson (August 12, 1916 – December 21, 1987) was an American film and television director, producer, writer, and actor. He was best known for directing '' Lilies of the Field'' (1963), '' Father Goose'' (1964), and '' Charly'' (1968 ...
*
Joseph M. Newman
*
Ted Post
Theodore I. Post (March 31, 1918 – August 20, 2013) was an American director of film and television. Highly prolific, Post directed numerous episodes of well-known television series including '' Rawhide'', ''Gunsmoke'', and ''The Twilight Zone'' ...
*
Jerry Thorpe
Writers
*
James B. Allardice
James B. Allardice (March 20, 1919 – February 15, 1966) was an American television comedy writer of the 1950s and 1960s.
Biography
James Burns Allardice Jr. was born to James Burns Allardice, a native of Scotland, and Lucinda (Lula) Masters G ...
*
Madelyn Davis
*
Oscar Fraley
Oscar Fraley (August 2, 1914 – January 6, 1994) was an American sports writer and author, perhaps best known, with Eliot Ness, as the co-author of the American memoir ''The Untouchables''.
Early life
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Fraley ...
*
John Mantley
John Truman Mantley (April 25, 1920 – January 14, 2003) was a Canadian theatrical actor, writer, director, screenwriter and producer of the long-running television series, ''Gunsmoke''. He was also Mary Pickford's cousin.
Family
Mantley had ...
*
Eliot Ness
Eliot Ness (April 19, 1903 – May 16, 1957) was an American Prohibition agent known for his efforts to bring down Al Capone and enforce Prohibition in Chicago. He was the leader of a team of law enforcement agents, nicknamed The Untouchables. ...
*
Rod SerlingDocument Number: H1000089528 Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2010. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2010
/ref>
* William Templeton
Actors
*Desi Arnaz
Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha III (March 2, 1917 – December 2, 1986) was a Cuban-born American actor, bandleader, and film and television producer. He played Ricky Ricardo on the American television sitcom '' I Love Lucy'', in which he c ...
*Lucille Ball
Lucille Désirée Ball (August 6, 1911 – April 26, 1989) was an American actress, comedienne and producer. She was nominated for 13 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning five times, and was the recipient of several other accolades, such as the Golde ...
*Jane Russell
Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell (June 21, 1921 – February 28, 2011) was an American actress, singer, and model. She was one of Hollywood's leading sex symbols in the 1940s and 1950s. She starred in more than 20 films.
Russell moved from th ...
*Martin Balsam
Martin Henry Balsam (November 4, 1919 – February 13, 1996) was an American actor. He had a prolific career in character roles in film, in theatre, and on television. An early member of the Actors Studio, he began his career on the New Yo ...
*Parley Baer
Parley Edward Baer (August 5, 1914 – November 22, 2002) was an American actor in radio and later in television and film. Despite dozens of appearances in television series and theatrical films, he remains best known as the original "Cheste ...
*John Drew Barrymore
John Drew Barrymore (born John Blyth Barrymore Jr.; June 4, 1932 – November 29, 2004) was an American film actor and member of the Barrymore family of actors, which included his father, John Barrymore, and his father's siblings, Lionel and E ...
*Richard Benedict
Richard "Pepe" Benedict (born Riccardo Benedetto, January 8, 1920 – April 25, 1984) was an Italian-American television and film actor and director. He was born in Palermo, Italy.
He appeared in dozens of television programs and movies from ...
*John Beradino
John Beradino (born Giovanni Berardino, May 1, 1917 – May 19, 1996) was an American infielder in Major League Baseball and an actor. Known as Johnny Berardino during his baseball career, he was also credited during his acting career as John Ber ...
*Warren Berlinger
Warren Berlinger (August 31, 1937 – December 2, 2020) was an American character actor, with Broadway runs, movie and television credits, and much work in commercials.
Early life
Warren Berlinger was born in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, ...
*Neville Brand
Lawrence Neville Brand (August 13, 1920 – April 16, 1992) was an American soldier and actor. He was known for playing villainous or antagonistic character roles in Westerns, crime dramas, and ''films noir'', and was nominated for a BAFTA Awa ...
*Rory Calhoun
Rory Calhoun (born Francis Timothy McCown, August 8, 1922April 28, 1999) was an American film and television actor. He starred in numerous Westerns in the 1950s and 1960s, and appeared in supporting roles in films such as '' How to Marry a Milli ...
*Wally Cassell
Wally Cassell (born Oswaldo Silvestri Trippilini Rolando Vincenza Castellano; March 3, 1912 – April 2, 2015) was an Italian-born American character actor and businessman.
Early years
Wally Cassell was born as Oswaldo Silvestri Trippilini ...
*Pat Crowley
Patricia Crowley (born September 17, 1933) is an American actress. She was also frequently billed as Pat Crowley.
Early life
Crowley was born in Olyphant, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Helen (''née'' Swartz) and coal mining foreman Vincent Cr ...
*Frank DeKova
Frank de Kova (March 17, 1910 – October 15, 1981) was an American character actor in films, stage, and TV.
Biography
De Kova was born in New York City. He was a teacher at a school in New York before joining a Shakespeare repertory group. He ...
*Buddy Ebsen
Buddy Ebsen (born Christian Ludolf Ebsen Jr., April 2, 1908 – July 6, 2003), also known as Frank "Buddy" Ebsen, was an American actor and dancer, whose career spanned seven decades. One of his most famous roles was as Jed Clampett in the CBS ...
*Abel Fernandez
Abel Gonzalez Fernandez (July 14, 1930 – May 3, 2016) was an American actor who played in movies from 1953 to 2002. He was best known for his role as Federal Agent William "Bill" Youngfellow on the 1959–1963 ABC Television series ''The Unto ...
*Wallace Ford
Wallace Ford (born Samuel Grundy Jones; 12 February 1898 – 11 June 1966) was an English-born naturalized American vaudevillian, stage performer and screen actor. Usually playing wise-cracking characters, he combined a tough but friendly-fac ...
*William Frawley
William Clement Frawley (February 26, 1887 – March 3, 1966) was an American vaudevillian and actor best remembered for playing landlord Fred Mertz in the American television sitcom '' I Love Lucy'', "Bub" O'Casey in the television comedy ser ...
*Betty Furness
Elizabeth Mary Furness (January 3, 1916 – April 2, 1994) was an American actress, consumer advocate, and current affairs commentator.
Early years
Furness was born in Manhattan, the daughter of wealthy business executive George Choate Furness ...
* Bruce Gordon
*Jean Hagen
Jean Hagen (born Jean Shirley Verhagen; August 3, 1923 – August 29, 1977) was an American actress best known for her role as Lina Lamont in ''Singin' in the Rain'' (1952), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting ...
*Donald Harron
Donald Hugh Harron, (September 19, 1924 – January 17, 2015) was a Canadian comedian, actor, director, journalist, author, playwright, and composer. Harron is best remembered by American audiences as a member of the cast of the long-running co ...
*Earl Holliman
Henry Earl Holliman (born September 11, 1928) is an American actor, animal-rights activist, and singer known for his many character roles in films, mostly Westerns and dramas, in the 1950s and 1960s. He won a Golden Globe Award for the film ' ...
*Vivi Janiss
Vivi may refer to:
People
* Vivi Bach (1939–2013), Danish actress and singer
* Vivi Fernandez (born 1977), Brazilian model
* Vivi Flindt (born 1943), Danish ballerina
* Vivi Friedman (1967–2012), Finnish film director
* Vivi Gioi (1917–1975 ...
* Richard Keith
*Barton MacLane
Barton MacLane (December 25, 1902 – January 1, 1969) was an American actor, playwright, and screenwriter. He appeared in many classic films from the 1930s through the 1960s, including his role as General Martin Peterson on the 1960s NBC ...
*Joe Mantell
Joseph Mantell (né Mantel; December 21, 1915 – September 29, 2010) was an American film and television actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as best friend Angie in the 1955 film '' Marty'', which ...
*Margo *** People
* Margo (actress) (1917–1985), Mexican-American actress and dancer
* Margo (magician), American magic performer and actress
* Margo (singer), Irish singer
* Margo (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name
...
*John McIntire
John Herrick McIntire (June 27, 1907 – January 30, 1991) was an American character actor who appeared in 65 theatrical films and many television series. McIntire is well known for having replaced Ward Bond, upon Bond's sudden death in Novem ...
*Sid Melton
Sidney Meltzer (May 22, 1917 – November 2, 2011), known professionally as Sid Melton, was an American actor. He played the roles of incompetent carpenter Alf Monroe in the CBS sitcom '' Green Acres'' and Uncle Charlie Halper, proprietor ...
*Martin Milner
Martin Sam Milner (December 28, 1931 – September 6, 2015) was an American actor and radio host. He is best known for his performances on two television series: '' Route 66'', which aired on CBS from 1960 to 1964, and ''Adam-12'', which a ...
* Cameron Mitchell
*George Murphy
George Lloyd Murphy (July 4, 1902 – May 3, 1992) was an American dancer, actor, and politician. Murphy was a song-and-dance leading man in many big-budget Hollywood musicals from 1930 to 1952. He was the president of the Screen Actors Guild fro ...
*Barbara Nichols
Barbara Marie Nickerauer (December 10, 1928 – October 5, 1976), known professionally as Barbara Nichols, was an American actress who often played brassy or comic roles in films in the 1950s and 1960s.
Early life and career
Nichols was b ...
*Hugh O'Brian
Hugh O'Brian (born Hugh Charles Krampe; April 19, 1925 – September 5, 2016) was an American actor and humanitarian, best known for his starring roles in the ABC Western television series ''The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp'' (1955–1 ...
*Roger Perry
Roger Perry (May 7, 1933 – July 12, 2018) was an American film and television actor whose career began in the late 1950s. He served as an intelligence officer in the United States Air Force during the early 1950s.
Career
Television
In th ...
*Paul Picerni
Horacio Paul Picerni (December 1, 1922 – January 12, 2011) was an American actor in film and television, perhaps best known today in the role of Federal Agent Lee Hobson, second-in-command to Robert Stack's Eliot Ness, in the ABC hit televisi ...
* Aldo Ray
*Joe De Santis
Joseph Vito Marcello De Santis (June 15, 1909 – August 30, 1989) was an American radio, television, movie and theatrical actor and sculptor.
Biography
Joe De Santis was born Joseph Vito Marcello De Santis to Italian immigrant parents in Ne ...
*Karen Sharpe
Karen Kay Sharpe (born September 20, 1934) is an American film and television actress. She is known for playing Laura Thomas in the American western television series ''Johnny Ringo''.
Life and career
Sharpe was born in San Antonio, Texas, th ...
*Mickey Simpson
Mickey Simpson (December 3, 1913 – September 23, 1985) was an American supporting actor of burly roles, probably most familiar as "Sarge," the bigoted diner owner in the 1956 film, ''Giant''. He appeared in over 175 films and television episod ...
*Red Skelton
Richard Red Skelton (July 18, 1913September 17, 1997) was an American entertainer best known for his national radio and television shows between 1937 and 1971, especially as host of the television program '' The Red Skelton Show''. He has stars ...
* Patricia Smith
*Robert Stack
Robert Stack (born Charles Langford Modini Stack; January 13, 1919 – May 14, 2003) was an American actor. Known for his deep voice and commanding presence, he appeared in over forty feature films. He starred in the highly successful ABC tele ...
*Harry Dean Stanton
Harry Dean Stanton (July 14, 1926 – September 15, 2017) was an American actor, musician, and singer.
In a career that spanned more than six decades, Stanton played supporting roles in films including ''Cool Hand Luke'' (1967), ''Kelly's Heroes ...
* Barry Sullivan
* Carol Thurston
*Vivian Vance
Vivian Vance (born Vivian Roberta Jones; July 26, 1909 – August 17, 1979) was an American actress and singer best known for playing Ethel Mertz on the sitcom '' I Love Lucy'' (1951–1957), for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Out ...
* Bill Williams
*Walter Winchell
Walter Winchell (April 7, 1897 – February 20, 1972) was a syndicated American newspaper gossip columnist and radio news commentator. Originally a vaudeville performer, Winchell began his newspaper career as a Broadway reporter, critic and co ...
*James Westerfield
James A. Westerfield (March 22, 1913 – September 20, 1971) was an American character actor of stage, film, and television.
Early years
Westerfield was born in Nashville, Tennessee, to candy-maker Brasher Omier Westerfield and his wife D ...
*Jack Weston
Jack Weston (born Morris Weinstein; August 21, 1924 – May 3, 1996) was an American actor. He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in 1976 and a Tony Award in 1981.
Career
Weston, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, usually played comic roles in fi ...
* Jesse White
*James Whitmore
James Allen Whitmore Jr. (October 1, 1921 – February 6, 2009) was an American actor. He received numerous accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, a Grammy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Theatre World Award, and a Tony Award, plus two Ac ...
*Ed Wynn
Isaiah Edwin Leopold (November 9, 1886 – June 19, 1966), better known as Ed Wynn, was an American actor and comedian. He was noted for his ''Perfect Fool'' comedy character, his pioneering radio show of the 1930s, and his later career as a d ...
* Keenan Wynn
Aftermath
Westinghouse bought CBS in 1995, and renamed itself after its prime asset in 1997.
Further reading
*Anderson, Christopher. ''Hollywood TV: The Studio System in the Fifties''. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, 1994.
*Andrew, Bart. ''The "I Love Lucy" Book''. New York: Doubleday, 1985.
*Sanders, Coyness Steven, and Tom Gilbert. ''Desilu: The Story of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz''. New York: William Morrow, 1993.
References
External links
*
''Desilu Playhouse'' "Silent Thunder"
Complete 52min episode from 16mm film - aired Dec. 8, 1958
{{Westinghouse
Television series by CBS Studios
Black-and-white American television shows
1950s American anthology television series
1960s American anthology television series
1958 American television series debuts
1960 American television series endings
American Broadcasting Company original programming
English-language television shows
Television series by Desilu Productions