(Left: Meredith Willson, Tallulah Bankhead & Dee Englebach. Right: Portland Hoffa, Groucho Marx, Fred Allen & Bankhead.)
TALLULAH’S BIG SHOW
Billed as “Sunday’s Spectacular At Six,” The Big Show has gone down in Network Radio history as its most spectacular failure. Some estimates have pegged the loss to NBC at a million dollars over The Big Show’s run of 13 months spanning the 1950-51 and 1951-52 seasons. But considering the star-laden program’s weekly budget of $30,000 with very little coming in from sponsors to pay the bills - that figure may have been off by as much as 50%.
The Big Show was NBC’s reaction to the CBS talent raid of its major comedy talents who took control of Sunday night radio in the fall of 1949 - a night that NBC had dominated for twelve consecutive years. CBS scheduled Jack Benny, Amos & Andy, Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy and Red Skelton in an unbeatable two hour block of hit shows.
NBC had to do something in retaliation - if for no other reason to keep its affiliates from revolting. It became the responsibility of NBC Programming Vice President Charles “Bud” Barry to come up with something, something really big to recapture Sunday night’s dwindling radio audience. (1)
And so, the 90 minute Big Show was born and slated for a 6:00 start on NBC in the fall of 1950. It was scheduled in the earliest hour of Sunday’s prime time for two reasons:
First, The Big Show was projected to build audience during its first hour and hold listeners during its final 30 minutes opposite Jack Benny on CBS - a task that NBC‘s earlier attempt in 1949-50, Hollywood Calling, failed miserably to accomplish with a 7:00 start.
Secondly, NBC didn’t want to compete with Sunday night television which was poised to siphon off Network Radio’s audience by the millions with top rated attractions at 8:00. NBC-TV’s Colgate Comedy Hour was set to launch on September 10th with rotating hosts Eddie Cantor, Bob Hope Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis, Fred Allen, Bud Abbott & Lou Costello and Bobby Clark opposite Ed Sullivan’s popular Toast of The Town vaudeville-like revue on CBS-TV.
With great fanfare NBC promised a bold and exciting new venture in Network Radio - a non-stop parade of comedy, music and dramatic skits all performed by the most famous names in show business. But was it really new?
As detailed in Network Radio Ratings, 1932-1953, the Blue Network attempted virtually the same thing for three seasons beginning in 1943 with The Radio Hall of Fame - an hour long, extravagant variety show produced with trade paper Variety and sponsor Philco paying top dollar to attract the leading stars of radio, records and movies.
The Radio Hall of Fame was also broadcast on Sunday night at 6:00. It was a critically acclaimed show produced and directed by Devere (Dee) Englebach, but a ratings disaster - never ranking above 111th for any season.. NBC was obviously aware of The Radio Hall of Fame because it hired Dee Englebach to produce and direct The Big Show.
What Radio Hall of Fame didn’t have was a host with high name recognition. NBC’s first idea for The Big Show was to rotate star comedians as emcees But that idea was rejected because Colgate Comedy Hour already had the same thing planned for Sunday night - with video. Next, a co-host concept was floated with a movie star, Henry Fonda, and a flamboyant Broadway actress, Tallulah Bankhead.
When Fonda rejected the idea Bankhead, 48, got the job and $2,500 a week as solo hostess of The Big Show. By all reports, the feisty, hard drinking, chain-smoking actress threw herself into the job to prove herself worthy of it. She later explained, “I needed the money, dahling!”
With his budget of $30,000 per show, Englebach had the green light to hire big name guest stars, to afford a 40 piece orchestra and 12 to 16 voice chorus under Meredith Willson’s direction and employ a skilled staff of writers led by Goodman Ace of Easy Aces and Selma Diamond with contributions from Fred Allen. (2) (See Meredith Willson on this site.)
After heavy advertising The Big Show hit the air running on November 5, 1950, with Bankhead and her guests, Jimmy Durante, Ethel Merman, Frankie Laine, Danny Thomas, Fred Allen & Portland Hoffa, Paul Lukas and Jose Ferrer .
First reviews were promising. Syndicated critic John Crosby wrote: “…NBC’s biggest gamble may have been Tallulah Bankhead, an unpredictable volcano who has been known to sweep away whole villages when she erupts. My sole complaint is Miss Bankhead’s addiction to the word “darling,” (or “dolling” as she is wont to pronounce it.). She employed “dolling” 422 times…and that’s a bit too much for an hour and a half.”
Variety added: “…The debut of Tallulah Bankhead as an m.c. and if her deep-throated delivery were more urban than small town it was nonetheless pleasant, even with the overplay of her “Darling”. Her acid bit with Ethel Merman who did a few numbers from “Call Me Madam” was barbed-wire satire…”
Variety heaped more praise on the second show with headline guests Groucho Marx, Ezio Pinza, Fanny Brice & Hanley Stafford, Jane Powell, Frankie Laine, Vincent Price and Jane Wyatt: “Result was as boff an airer as the first one the week before, for one of the most hilarious sessions in current radio.”
After the fifth show in early December starring Joan Davis, Danny Thomas, Margaret Truman, Fred Allen & Portland Hoffa, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Mindy Carson and The Sons of The Pioneers, a few cracks began to appear as Variety: wrote: “It was generally a humdrum program despite a wealth of talent.”
But all appeared well again by the seventh broadcast with guests Bob Hope, Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis, Louis Armstrong, Rosalind Russell, Frankie Laine, and Dorothy McGuire, prompting Variety to comment: “Combined talents of femcee Tallulah Bankhead, scripter Goodman Ace and a string of top name guests headed by Bob Hope and Martin & Lewis wrapped up one of the best yet in NBC’s Big Show…Hope’s two word critique of Tallulah Bankhead: ‘Girl Berle’.”
The Big Show was off to a great start - except for two problems. Listeners weren’t buying it and NBC couldn’t sell it to advertisers. The first two months of The Big Show resulted in an average Nielsen rating of 6.6 - compared to Jack Benny‘s 19.0. And it got worse. When the season ended The Big Show finished with a 5.5, to Jack Benny‘s 17.0 for the comparable November through May period. Ranked in 82nd place for the season, The Big Show appeared to be doomed. An episode from this period, May 6, 1951, is posted.
But NBC wasn‘t giving up and cutting its losses. The network’s new radio chief Pat Weaver approved bringing The Big Show back for a second season. The only change was moving the program up to 6:30 where it was given the curious lead-in of Joel McCrea’s western series, Tales of The Texas Rangers..
To give The Big Show a distinctive promotional lift, its key personnel were flown to Europe for their first two programs of 1951-52 season. The first show, transcribed at London’s Palladium for broadcast on September 30, featured Bankhead and guests Sir Laurence Olivier, Vivian Leigh, Beatrice Lillie, Fred Allen & Portland Hoffa, Joan Fontaine and George Sanders. London’s Daily Express critiqued it as, “ Ninety minutes of bad jokes, tuneless songs, witless dialogue, soapy compliments and onion-under-the-nose emotion.”
Not deterred, The Big Show moved on to Paris for its second episode in which Bankhead hosted Josephine Baker, Gracie Fields, Fred Allen & Portland Hoffa, Georges Guetary, William Gargan and George Sanders.
Repetition was noticeable in the October 14th homecoming show with Jimmy Durante, Ethel Merman, Shirley Booth, Fred Allen & Portland Hoffa and George Sanders which caused Variety to comment: “Comedy was in the familiar formula with the stars bantering with femcee Tallulah Bankhead. Fred Allen’s contribution, a monolog of Americans In Paris, misfired badly.”
Listeners ignored The Big Show despite the big promotional push given the European junket. Its October Nielsen rating was a dismal 5.2 compared to its CBS competition: Our Miss Brooks, 8.7 at 6:30, Jack Benny’s 14.6 at 7:00 and Amos & Andy, 14.0 at 7:30.
The program’s redundancies of guests and routines began to turn the critics who championed it. Variety noted the problem in its of the November 25th episode: “The Big Show” on NBC held to a pretty good average with the banter running only a poor second to the songs. Quips between Tallulah Bankhead and her guests had too much sameness and routined nature as if the insults about the femcee’s appearance and habits had worn out their humorous welcome.”.
NBC continued to pump advertising funds into promoting The Big Show to listeners and advertisers - but nothing worked. Nielsen ratings for the fourth quarter of 1951 averaged 5.2 and sealed the program’s fate.
Nevertheless, reviews for the program continued to praise the effort necessary to mount The Big Show week after week, even after NBC announced its cancellation.
The 57th and final installment of the program on April 20, 1952, was much like any other with Groucho Marx, Ethel Merman, Fred Allen & Portland Hoffa, Julie Harris, Phil Foster, Earl Wrightson and George Sanders, although the program’s closing theme, Meredith Willson’s May The Good Lord Bless & Keep You Until We Meet Again had a special poignancy when sung by Bankhead and her guests. And then it was gone.
The Big Show’s 1951-52 season ranking was 68th. Meanwhile, the CBS competition it was intended to damage - Jack Benny, Amos & Andy and Edgar Bergen - all finished in the Annual Top Five. (Red Skelton moved to Wednesday that season with terrible results against NBC's Groucho Marx.)
Although The Big Show is regarded a huge failure, it gave new life to Tallulah Bankhead’s career. Along with writing a best selling autobiography she toured the country in a successful one-woman show. And, like most of her guest stars, she moved into television in the fall of 1952 as the hostess of six episodes of NBC-TV’s All Star Revue. Her producer/director in the series was Dee Englebach.
(1) Barry is known as the architect of The Big Show, but the hand of NBC-TV chief Pat Weaver is also evident. The program introduced NBC’s “Tandem Advertising” plan - a form participating advertising as opposed to full program sponsorship - that Weaver championed for both radio and television. The Tandem plan offered advertisers participation in The Big Show plus Screen Directors’ Playhouse (59th in the 1950-51 Nielsen rankings), Duffy’s Tavern, (72nd), The Man Called X, (77th) and the NBC Symphony, (87th). Weaver became the head of NBC Radio in 1951 in addition to his television duties.
(2) Although his own show was cancelled, Fred Allen was still under contract to NBC and appeared with his wife, Portland Hoffa, in 27 of The Big Show’s 57 episodes.
Copyright © 2015 Jim Ramsburg, Estero FL Email: tojimramsburg@gmail.com
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