''Hour Glass'' is the first regularly scheduled

variety show Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical performances, sketch comedy, magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is normally introduced by a co ...

shown on American network television. The ''Encyclopedia of Television'' noted that the program "is historically important because it exemplified the issues faced by networks, sponsors, and advertising agencies in television's formative years."

Distribution

''Hour Glass'' was broadcast only on WNBT (now

WNBC WNBC (channel 4) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Linden, New Jersey–licensed Telemundo stati ...

) in New York City from May 9, 1946, through November of that year, when distribution to NBC affiliates in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

and

Schenectady Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...

began. From that time, the three-city network continued until March 1947.

Overview

Described as "the first elevisionhour-long musical variety show", ''Hour Glass'' was sponsored by

Standard Brands Standard Brands was a packaged foods company, formed in 1929 by J. P. Morgan with the merger of: * Fleischmann Company *Royal Baking Powder Company * E. W. Gillett Company of Canada (1929) - Toronto-based baking goods company (maker of Magic Bak ...

, promoting Chase and Sanborn coffee and Tenderleaf Tea. The program included comedians, musicians, entertaining films (such as a film of dance in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sou ...

), and a long, live commercial for the sponsor's products. Such famous names as Doodles Weaver, Bert Lahr, Dennis Day, Anton Reiter, Jerry Colonna,

Peggy Lee Norma Deloris Egstrom (May 26, 1920 – January 21, 2002), known professionally as Peggy Lee, was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress, over a career spanning seven decades. From her beginning as a vocalis ...

and

Joe Besser Joe Besser (August 12, 1907 – March 1, 1988) was an American actor, comedian and musician, known for his impish humor and wimpy characters. He is best known for his brief stint as a member of The Three Stooges in movie short subjects of 1957� ...

appeared on the program. The first show was hosted by Evelyn Eaton (daughter of one of

The Seven Little Eatons The Seven Little Eatons was a family of young American stage performers in the early part of the twentieth century. Although they were called The Seven Little Eatons, in fact only five of the siblings embarked on a career in showbiz. Early da ...

); ''Life'' surmised that NBC was adapting to a paradigm shift and making better use of the visual medium by hiring an attractive woman as master of ceremonies, as opposed to the more authoritative voices of men who typically commanded radio variety shows of the era. On November 14, 1946,

Edgar Bergen Edgar John Bergen (born Edgar John Berggren; February 16, 1903 – September 30, 1978) was an American ventriloquist, actor, comedian, vaudevillian and radio performer, best known for his proficiency in ventriloquism and his characters ...

brought his ventriloquism act to the show. It was one of the first times that a major

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a tr ...

performer had appeared on

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 advertising, ...

. Coincidentally, Standard Brands (via Chase and Sanborn) was the sponsor of Bergen's radio program.

Duration

''The Columbia History of American Television'' attributed the program's short life to its cost and the lack of market penetration for television at the time, saying, "Standard Brands invested $200,000 in this series over its ten-month tenure at a time when that level of investment just couldn't be supported and sustained, leading to the ''Hour Glasss abbreviated run." Another factor was that James Petrillo, president of the

American Federation of Musicians The American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada (AFM/AFofM) is a 501(c)(5) labor union representing professional instrumental musicians in the United States and Canada. The AFM, which has its headquarters in New York City, ...

forbade musicians from performing on television without an agreement between the AFM and the networks, thus limiting directors and performers to use of recorded music and lip sync. A report in ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy ...

'' at the show's start noted that the show's audience at the time was estimated at 3,500 television sets watched by up to 20,000 viewers, a thousandth of the estimated 20,000,000 radio listeners nationwide that were hearing ''The Chase and Sanborn Hour'' in a given week.

Personnel

The show was co-hosted by Eddie Mayehoff and Helen Parrish. Bergen later became the host of the program. Edward Sobol was the producer. During the series' time on the air, a system of alternating writers was developed, giving "an individual writer two weeks in which to write a show instead of the weekly deadline."

Critical reception

A contemporary review in ''Life'' praised the individual performances but panned the production values, noting that camera operators cut off the feet of dancers and that the show lacked the kind of "camera virtuosity monopolized by Hollywood." On the whole, the ''Life'' review noted that television would need "good scripts and better directors" if it were to succeed.

Existing recordings

Audio-only recordings of ''Hour Glass'' from 1946–1947, including the inaugural show, are known to exist at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...

, making the show one of the few shows to have any surviving material from before 1948 still in existence. Photos of the first live ''Hour Glass'' broadcast taken from a TV monitor during the live telecast, along with a program review, appear in the May 27, 1946 issue of ''Life''."Commercial Television: First Show is Fuzzy, Funny
Life Magazine (May 27, 1946)

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 0128878, title=Hour Glass 1946 American television series debuts 1947 American television series endings 1940s American variety television series NBC original programming Black-and-white American television shows English-language television shows Lost television shows