''Melody Street'' is an early American television series, hosted by

Elliot Lawrence Elliott Lawrence Broza (February 14, 1925 – July 2, 2021), known professionally as Elliott Lawrence, was an American jazz pianist and bandleader. Son of the broadcaster Stan Lee Broza, Lawrence led his first dance band at age 20, but he pl ...

, which aired on the

DuMont Television Network The DuMont Television Network (also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont Television, simply DuMont/Du Mont, or (incorrectly) Dumont ) was one of America's pioneer commercial television networks, rivaling NBC and CBS for the distinction of being ...

. The program aired Fridays at 8:30pm ET from September 25, 1953, to February 5, 1954. Each episode was 30 minutes long. One guest star was guitarist

Tony Mottola Anthony C. Mottola (April 18, 1918 – August 9, 2004) was an American jazz guitarist who released dozens of solo albums. Mottola was born in Kearny, New Jersey and died in Denville. Career Like many of his contemporaries, Mottola began ...

Criticism

''Melody Street'' was hampered by a small budget, even by 1950s standards. Later-day critics, such as Castleman and Podrazik (1982), have cited ''Melody Street'', among other DuMont series, as one of the reasons fewer and fewer viewers tuned in to the ailing DuMont Network. They stated ''Melody Street'' was, like several other DuMont programs during the 1953–1954 season, "doomed from the start by third-rate scripts and cheap production" and pointed out that the program "required the performers to lip-sync other people's records."

Reception

John Lester for the ''Long Island Star-Journal'' said the program "presents an attractive melange of musical numbers" and that the program had "initiative, ingenuity and imagination".http://www.fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2014/Long%20Island%20City%20NY%20Star%20Journal/Long%20Island%20City%20NY%20Star%20Journal%201954/Long%20Island%20City%20NY%20Star%20Journal%201954%20-%200429.pdf

Episode status

Two complete episodes, January 1, 1954, and another 1954 episode, of the show survive at the

UCLA Film and Television Archive The UCLA Film & Television Archive is a visual arts organization focused on the preservation, study, and appreciation of film and television, based at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Also a nonprofit exhibition venue, the archiv ...

, along with an excerpt from another episode.

References

Bibliography

*David Weinstein, ''The Forgotten Network: DuMont and the Birth of American Television'' (Philadelphia:

Temple University Press Temple University Press is a university press founded in 1969 that is part of Temple University (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). It is one of thirteen publishers to participate in the Knowledge Unlatched pilot, a global library consortium approach t ...

, 2004) *Alex McNeil, ''Total Television'', Fourth edition (New York:

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.Ballantine Books Ballantine Books is a major book publisher located in the United States, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. It was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann in 1998 and remains ...

, 1964) {{ISBN, 0-345-31864-1

External links