''The Bigelow Theatre'' (also known as ''Bigelow-Sanford Theater'' and as ''Hollywood Half Hour'' and ''Marquee Theater'' in syndication) is an American
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 ...
originally broadcast on CBS Television and on the DuMont Television Network.
This series is not to be confused with the similarly named ''The Bigelow Show'', a musical variety program which aired 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 ...
and CBS in the late 1940s.
Broadcast history
The series aired on CBS on Sunday nights at 6pm EST from December 10, 1950, to June 3, 1951. There were no regularly featured actors on ''The Bigelow Theatre'', but guest stars included James Dean,
George C. Scott
George Campbell Scott (October 18, 1927 – September 22, 1999) was an American actor, director, and producer who had a celebrated career on both stage and screen. With a gruff demeanor and commanding presence, Scott became known for his port ...
,
Raymond Burr
Raymond William Stacy Burr (May 21, 1917September 12, 1993) was a Canadian actor known for his lengthy Hollywood film career and his title roles in television dramas ''Perry Mason'' and '' Ironside''.
Burr's early acting career included roles ...
,
Cesar Romero
Cesar Julio Romero Jr. (February 15, 1907 – January 1, 1994) was an American actor and activist. He was active in film, radio, and television for almost sixty years.
His wide range of screen roles included Latin lovers, historical figures in c ...
,
Lloyd Bridges
Lloyd Vernet Bridges Jr. (January 15, 1913 – March 10, 1998) was an American film, stage and television actor who starred in a number of television series and appeared in more than 150 feature films. He was the father of four children, includi ...
,
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 ...
,
Gig Young
Gig Young (born Byron Elsworth Barr; November 4, 1913 – October 19, 1978) was an American actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performances in ''Come Fill the Cup'' (1952) and '' Teacher's Pet'' ...
Ruth Warrick
Ruth Elizabeth Warrick (June 29, 1916 – January 15, 2005) was an American singer, actress and political activist, best known for her role as Phoebe Tyler Wallingford on ''All My Children'', which she played regularly from 1970 until her d ...
,
Gale Storm
Josephine Owaissa Cottle (April 5, 1922 – June 27, 2009), known professionally as Gale Storm, was an American actress and singer. After a film career from 1940 to 1952, she starred in two popular television programs of the 1950s, '' My Litt ...
, and Chico Marx.Brooks, Tim & Marsh, Earle (1964). ''The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows'' (3rd ed.). New York: Ballantine. .
After the series ended on CBS, the show was retitled ''The Bigelow-Sanford Theatre'' and aired on DuMont on Thursdays at 10pm EST from September 6 through December 27, 1951.McNeil, Alex (1980). ''Total Television'' (4th ed.). New York: Penguin Books. . There were 27 episodes on CBS, and 15 on DuMont, however, some of the DuMont episodes were reruns of the CBS series.
Seventeen filmed episodes of the program were leased and run after having been shown originally on ''
The Silver Theatre
''The Silver Theatre'' is a television series that was broadcast on the CBS television network from 1949 to 1950. Hosted by Conrad Nagel, it was a live anthology series consisting of dramatic teleplays about romance. It was sponsored by the I ...
''.
Episode status
Nine episodes are held by 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 ar ...
, at least two of which (October 4 and the December 27 finale) aired on DuMont.
One CBS episode from February 11, 1951, "Agent From Scotland Yard", is held by 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 library ...
in the J. Fred MacDonald collection.
See also
*
List of programs broadcast by the DuMont Television Network
This is a list of programs broadcast by the DuMont Television Network, which operated in the United States from 1942 to 1956. All regularly scheduled programs which were aired on the DuMont network are listed below, regardless of whether they orig ...
*
List of surviving DuMont Television Network broadcasts
The DuMont Television Network was launched in 1946 and ceased broadcasting in 1956. Allen DuMont, who created the network, preserved most of what it produced in kinescope format. By 1958, however, much of the library had been destroyed to recove ...
*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 ...
, 2004)
*Alex McNeil, ''Total Television'', Fourth edition (New York:
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a British 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, 1964)