Ted Mack (television host)
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William Edward Maguiness (February 12, 1904 – July 12, 1976) was the host of ''Ted Mack and The Original Amateur Hour'' on radio and television.


Early years

The son of a railroad brakeman, Mack was born in
Greeley, Colorado Greeley is the List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule municipality city that is the county seat and the List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous municipality of Weld County, Colorado, Weld County, Colorado, ...
. His mother was a teacher and a pianist. Mack graduated from Sacred Heart High School in Denver, Colorado, in 1922. He was class president there for three years in addition to playing football and basketball and playing in the school's orchestra. He went on to graduate from the
University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univ ...
, where he majored in Law and Commerce, and funded his college education by playing saxophone in an orchestra.


Big bands

Mack's career in show business began in 1926 when he joined Ben Pollack's orchestra. In the late 1920s, clarinetist and saxophonist Mack formed a dance band, under his real name. A nightclub owner disliked how "Edward Maguiness" looked on his marquee, so he changed the bandleader's name to the shorter and snappier "Ted Mack". At one point, Mack was known as "the performer with the longest run of any master of ceremonies at the Paramount theater, New York", having been in that role for five months. Mack and his orchestra spent the summer of 1933 entertaining at the Chicago World's Fair, after which they had an engagement for two months in New York City. A 1934 newspaper review said, "Ted Mack and his bandmen furnish comedy fare and entertaining music in equal measure, and the group of personable young women who assist display talent as well as good looks."


Film

Mack was musical supervisor for
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 ...
, where he was orchestra director for ''
The Great Ziegfeld ''The Great Ziegfeld'' is a 1936 American musical drama film directed by Robert Z. Leonard and produced by Hunt Stromberg. It stars William Powell as the theatrical impresario Florenz "Flo" Ziegfeld Jr., Luise Rainer as Anna Held, and ...
'' and '' Beat the Band''.


''Original Amateur Hour''

The ''Original Amateur Hour'' began on radio in 1934 as ''
Major Bowes' Amateur Hour The ''Major Bowes Amateur Hour'' was an American radio talent show broadcast in the 1930s and 1940s, created and hosted by Edward Bowes (1874–1946). Selected performers from the program participated in touring vaudeville performances, under ...
'', and ran until the 1946 death of its creator,
Major Bowes Edward Bowes (June 14, 1874 – June 13, 1946), professionally known as Major Edward Bowes, was an American radio personality of the 1930s and 1940s whose ''Major Bowes Amateur Hour'' was the best-known amateur talent show on radio during its 18 ...
. Mack, a talent scout who had directed the show under Bowes, revived it in 1948 for ABC Radio and the DuMont Television Network. The show lasted on radio until 1952 and until 1970 on television, where it ran on all four major networks, ending as a Sunday afternoon
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 ...
staple. A success in the early days of television, the program set the stage for numerous programs seeking talented stars, from ''
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'' to ''
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'' to '' America's Got Talent''. Auditions for the show were generally held in New York's Radio City Music Hall. Those who passed the initial screening were invited to compete on the program, featuring amateurs whose performance were judged by viewers, voting via letters and phone calls. Contestants who won three times earned cash prizes, scholarships, or participation in a traveling stage show associated with the program. Winners who went on to show business careers included singers
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Irene Cara Irene Cara Escalera (March 18, 1959 – November 25, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter and actress of Black, Puerto Rican and Cuban descent. Cara rose to prominence for her role as Coco Hernandez in the 1980 musical film '' Fame'', and f ...
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The Rock and Roll Trio The Rock and Roll Trio were an American rockabilly group formed in Memphis, Tennessee, during the 1950s. They were also known as "Johnny Burnette and the Rock and Roll Trio" and the "Johnny Burnette Trio". The members of the Trio were Dorsey Bur ...
, and Los Concertinos from
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. Ted Mack and producer Lewis Graham (the former Lou Goldberg) programmed something for everybody. A single broadcast (Easter Sunday, 1959) featured an opera singer, a trumpet sextet, a dulcimer player, a kiddie dance troupe, a young vocalist, a dancer, a rhythm-and-blues combo, a barbershop quartet, and mother-and-son Irish step dancers. Mack's pleasant manner and unflappable calm put many nervous contestants at ease, and he used the same down-to-earth tone for commercials and public-service announcements.


Other television

In 1951, Mack was host of ''Ted Mack's Family Hour'' on ABC. A TV reference book summarized the show as "A Sunday evening program of music, songs and comedy."Terrace, Vincent (2011). ''Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. 1057. In 1955, he had a daily afternoon program, ''Ted Mack's Matinee'' on
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
. A review of the April 20 episode in the April 30, 1955, issue of ''Billboard'' said, "Unpretentious and easy-going, NBC's new ''Ted Mack's Matinee'' looks as if it's going to provide housewives with a smooth, relaxing stanza to break up her icdaytime chores."


Personal life

In 1926, Mack married Ellen Marguerite Overholt. They had no children but fostered children from Catholic charities at their home. After the ''Original Amateur Hour'' ended its broadcast run, Mack became a lecturer at colleges and served as host of local amateur shows.


Death

Mack died of heart failure July 12, 1976, at Phelps Memorial Hospital in North Tarrytown, New York at the age of 72. He was survived by his wife.


References


External links


Museum of Broadcast Communications: ''The Original Amateur Hour''
(archived)
Clip from the December 29, 1957, episode of Ted Mack and ''The Original Amateur Hour'' from YouTube
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mack, Ted 1904 births 1976 deaths Radio personalities from Colorado American television personalities Male television personalities People from Greeley, Colorado People from Sleepy Hollow, New York