67th Anniversary of Hour Glass

Today marks the 67th anniversary of Hour Glass, television’s first regularly scheduled variety show. It debuted on Thursday, May 9th, 1946 at 8PM. At the time, there were very few televisions on the air and not a lot of sets in existence. The series was likely only seen on WNBT in New York City, at least initially, and perhaps the other stations making up NBC’s nascent East Coast network. It went off the air in March 1947. No footage is known to exist, but audio from many episodes can be found at the Library of Congress.


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One Reply to “67th Anniversary of Hour Glass”

  1. “HOUR GLASS” was a season-long experiment in television variety shows, sustained by Standard Brands (Chase & Sanborn coffee, Tender Leaf tea, Blue Bonnet margarine, et. al.) on Thursday nights at 8pmet), and seen at its peak in only three cities: New York, Philadelphia, and Schenectady, New York, which had NBC affiliates at the time. Helen Parrish was its “femcee”, succeeded by Eddie Mayehoff near the end of its run. The audio soundtracks will give you a clue as to HOW the show was presented….

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