''The United States Steel Hour'' is an
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 ...
which brought hour long dramas to television from 1953 to 1963. The television series and the radio program that preceded it were both sponsored by the
United States Steel Corporation (U. S. Steel).
''Theatre Guild on the Air''
The series originated on radio in the 1940s as ''Theatre Guild on the Air''. Organized in 1919 to improve the quality of American theater, the
Theatre Guild
The Theatre Guild is a theatrical society founded in New York City in 1918 by Lawrence Langner, Philip Moeller, Helen Westley and Theresa Helburn. Langner's wife, Armina Marshall, then served as a co-director. It evolved out of the work of th ...
first experimented with radio productions in ''Theatre Guild Dramas'', a CBS series which ran from December 6, 1943, to February 29, 1944.
Actress-playwright Armina Marshall (1895–1991), a co-administrator of the Theatre Guild, headed the Guild's newly created Radio Department, and in 1945, ''Theatre Guild on the Air'' embarked on its ambitious plan to bring Broadway theater to radio with leading actors in major productions. It premiered September 9, 1945, on ABC with
Burgess Meredith,
Henry Daniell and Cecil Humphreys in ''
Wings Over Europe'', a play by Robert Nichols and Maurice Browne which the Theatre Guild had staged on Broadway in 1928–29.
Within a year the series drew some 10 to 12 million listeners each week. Presenting both classic and contemporary plays, the program was broadcast for eight years before it became a television series.
Playwrights adapted to radio ranged from
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
and
Oscar Wilde to
Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earli ...
and
Tennessee Williams, casting numerous Broadway and Hollywood stars, including
Ingrid Bergman,
Ronald Colman,
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (; April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress with a career spanning more than 50 years and 100 acting credits. She was noted for playing unsympathetic, sardonic characters, and was famous for her p ...
,
Rex Harrison,
Helen Hayes,
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress in film, stage, and television. Her career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned over 60 years. She was known for her headstrong independence, spirited perso ...
,
Gene Kelly,
Deborah Kerr,
Sam Levene,
Agnes Moorehead,
Basil Rathbone and
Mary Sinclair. Even
John Gielgud was heard, in his famous role of ''
Hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
'', in an expanded 90-minute broadcast with
Dorothy McGuire as Ophelia.
Fredric March was also heard in his only performance as
Cyrano de Bergerac, a role he played neither onstage or onscreen. The series even featured a rarity – the only radio broadcast of
Rodgers and Hammerstein's flop musical, ''
Allegro
Allegro may refer to:
Common meanings
* Allegro (music), a tempo marking indicate to play fast, quickly and bright
* Allegro (ballet), brisk and lively movement
Artistic works
* L'Allegro (1645), a poem by John Milton
* ''Allegro'' (Satie), an ...
''. The radio series was broadcast until June 7, 1953, when the United States Steel Corporation decided to move its show to television.
Television
The television version aired from October 27, 1953, to 1955 on
ABC, and from 1955 to 1963 on
CBS. Like its
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 ...
predecessor, it was a
live drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...
tic
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 ...
. During its first season on television, the program alternated bi-weekly with ''
The Motorola Television Hour''.
By 1963, the year it went off the air, it was the last surviving live anthology series from the
Golden Age of Television. It was still on the air during President
John F. Kennedy's famous April 11, 1962 confrontation with steel companies over the hefty raising of their prices. The show featured a range of
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, ...
acting talent, as its episodes explored a wide variety of contemporary social issues, from the mundane to the controversial.
Notable guest star actors included
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 Y ...
,
Tallulah Bankhead, Emmy nominated
Ralph Bellamy,
James Dean,
Dolores del Río,
Keir Dullea
Keir Atwood Dullea (; born May 30, 1936) is an American actor. He played astronaut David Bowman in the 1968 film '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'' and its 1984 sequel, '' 2010: The Year We Make Contact''. His other film roles include ''David and Lisa' ...
,
Andy Griffith,Dick Van Dyke,
Rex Harrison,
Celeste Holm,
Sally Ann Howes,
Jack Klugman
Jack Klugman (April 27, 1922 – December 24, 2012) was an American actor of stage, film, and television.
He began his career in 1950 and started television and film work with roles in ''12 Angry Men'' (1957) and ''Cry Terror!'' (1958). Du ...
,
Sam Levene,
Peter Lorre,
Walter Matthau,
Bennye Gatteys,
Paul Newman,
George Peppard,
Suzanne Storrs
Suzanne Storrs (April 13, 1934 – January 25, 1995), born Suzanne Storrs Poulton and later known by her married name Suzanne Pincus, was a former Miss Utah and an American television actress, who appeared in sixteen television series between 19 ...
,
Albert Salmi,
George Segal and Johnny Washbrook. Washbrook played Johnny Sullivan in ''The Roads Home'' in his first ever screen role. Griffith made his onscreen debut in the show's production of ''
No Time For Sergeants'', and would reprise the lead role in the 1958 big screen adaptation. In 1956–57,
Read Morgan
Read Lawrence Morgan (January 30, 1931 – April 20, 2022) was an American film and television actor. He was known for playing the role of Sergeant Hapgood Tasker in the American western television series ''The Deputy''.
Life and career
Morg ...
made his television debut on the ''Steel Hour'' as a young boxer named Joey in two episodes entitled "Sideshow". Child actor
Darryl Richard, later of ''
The Donna Reed Show'', also made his acting debut on the ''Steel Hour'' as Tony in the episode "The Bogey Man," which aired January 18, 1955. In 1960
Johnny Carson starred with
Anne Francis
Anne Francis (also known as Anne Lloyd Francis; September 16, 1930 – January 2, 2011) was an American actress known for her ground-breaking roles in the science-fiction film ''Forbidden Planet'' (1956) and the television action-drama seri ...
in the presentation ''Queen of the Orange Bowl''.
Episodes were contributed by many notable writers, including
Ira Levin
Ira Marvin Levin (August 27, 1929 – November 12, 2007) was an American novelist, playwright, and songwriter. His works include the novels '' A Kiss Before Dying'' (1953), '' Rosemary's Baby'' (1967), ''The Stepford Wives'' (1972), '' This Perfe ...
,
Richard Maibaum and
Rod Serling. The program also telecast one hour musical versions of ''
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'' and ''
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn''. ''The United States Steel Hour'' telecast ''The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' on November 20, 1957, with a cast starring
Jimmy Boyd,
Earle Hyman,
Basil Rathbone,
Jack Carson and
Florence Henderson. Boyd had previously played Huckleberry in the earlier telecast of ''The Adventures of Tom Sawyer''.
Controversy
Rod Serling was not regarded as a controversial scriptwriter until he contributed to ''The United States Steel Hour'', as he recalled in his collection ''Patterns'' (1957):
In the television seasons of 1952 and 1953, almost every television play I sold to the major networks was "non-controversial". This is to say that in terms of their themes they were socially inoffensive, and dealt with no current human problem in which battle lines might be drawn. After the production of ''Patterns'', when my things were considerably easier to sell, in a mad and impetuous moment I had the temerity to tackle a theme that was definitely two-sided in its implications. I think this story is worth repeating.
The script was called ''Noon on Doomsday''. It was produced by the Theatre Guild on ''The United States Steel Hour'' in April 1956. The play, in its original form, followed very closely the Till case in Mississippi, where a young Negro boy was kidnapped and killed by two white men who went to trial and were exonerated on both counts. The righteous and continuing wrath of the Northern press opened no eyes and touched no consciences in the little town in Mississippi where the two men were tried. It was like a cold wind that made them huddle together for protection against an outside force which they could equate with an adversary. It struck me at the time that the entire trial and its aftermath was simply "They’re bastards, but they’re our bastards." So I wrote a play in which my antagonist was not just a killer but a regional idea. It was the story of a little town banding together to protect its own against outside condemnation. At no point in the conception of my story was there a black-white issue. The victim was an old Jew who ran a pawnshop. The killer was a neurotic malcontent who lashed out at something or someone who might be materially and physically the scapegoat for his own unhappy, purposeless, miserable existence. Philosophically I felt that I was on sound ground. I felt that I was dealing with a sociological phenomenon—the need of human beings to have a scapegoat to rationalize their own shortcomings.
''Noon on Doomsday'' finally went on the air several months later, but in a welter of publicity that came from some 15,000 letters and wires from White Citizens' Councils and the like protesting the production of the play. In news stories, the play had been erroneously described as "The story of the Till case". At one point earlier, during an interview on the Coast, I told a reporter from one of the news services the story of ''Noon on Doomsday''. He said, "Sounds like the Till case." I shrugged it off, answering, "If the shoe fits..." This is all it took. From that moment on ''Noon on Doomsday'' was the dramatization of the Till case. And no matter how the Theatre Guild or the agency representing U.S. Steel denied it, the impression persisted. The offices of the Theatre Guild, on West 53rd Street in New York City, took on all the aspects of a football field ten seconds after the final whistle blew.
Awards
''Theater Guild on the Air'' won a
Peabody Award for drama in 1947.
''The United States Steel Hour'' won Emmys in 1954 for Best Dramatic Program and Best New Program. The following year it won an Emmy for Best Dramatic Series, and
Alex Segal was nominated for Best Direction. It received eight Emmy nominations in 1956, then one nomination for the years 1957, 1959, and 1961; in 1962 the episod
''The Two Worlds of Charlie Gordon''was nominated for the
Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation.
See also
*''
Academy Award Theater
''Academy Award'' (also listed as ''Academy Award Theater)''Terrace, Vincent. (1999). ''Radio Programs, 1924–1984: A Catalog of More Than 1800 Shows''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . p. 8. is a CBS radio anthology series, which presented 30-minut ...
''
*''
Author's Playhouse
''Author's Playhouse'' is an anthology radio drama series created by Wynn Wright, that aired on Mutual in 1940–1941,Terrace, Vincent (1999). ''Radio Programs, 1924–1984: A Catalog of More Than 1800 Shows''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . p. 31 ...
''
*''
The Campbell Playhouse''
*''
Cavalcade of America''
*''
CBS Radio Workshop''
*''
The Cresta Blanca Hollywood Players
''The Cresta Blanca Hollywood Players'' (often referred to as just ''Hollywood Players'') was a dramatic anthologyReinehr, Robert C. and Swartz, Jon D. (2008). ''The A to Z of Old-Time Radio''. Scarecrow Press, Inc. . p. 126. series on radio in t ...
''
*''
Ford Theatre''
*''
General Electric Theater''
*''
Lux Radio Theatre''
*''
The Mercury Theatre on the Air''
*''
Playhouse 90''
*''
Screen Director's Playhouse''
*''
The Screen Guild Theater''
*''
Suspense
Suspense is a state of mental uncertainty, anxiety, being Decision-making, undecided, or being Doubt, doubtful. In a Drama, dramatic work, suspense is the anticipation of the wikt:outcome, outcome of a plot (narrative), plot or of the solution t ...
''
References
Further reading
* William L. Bird, Jr. ''"Better Living": Advertising, Media, and the New Vocabulary of Business Leadership, 1935–1955.'' Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1999.
Listen to
*
External links
''Company Voice Advertising'', Museum of Broadcast Communications*
*
ttp://www.rodserling.com/PPBintro.htm "Writing for Television" by Rod Serlingbr>
''The United States Steel Hour'' at CVTA with episode list''Theatre Guild United States Steel Hour'' records, 1956–1963 held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division,
New York Public Library for the Performing ArtsWatch ''U.S. Steel Hour'' episodesat 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 a ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:United States Steel Hour, The
1953 American television series debuts
1963 American television series endings
1940s American radio programs
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1950s American anthology television series
American Broadcasting Company original programming
1950s American drama television series
1960s American drama television series
American radio dramas
Anthology radio series
American live television series
Black-and-white American television shows
CBS original programming
English-language television shows
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series winners
U.S. Steel
NBC radio programs
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1960s American anthology television series