The Bell Telephone Hour, also known as The Telephone Hour, is a concert series broadcast on NBC Radio Network from April 29, 1940 to June 30, 1958. Sponsored by Bell Telephone as the name implies, it showcased the best in classical and Broadway music, reaching eight to nine million listeners each week. It continued on television from 1959 to 1968. Throughout the program's run on both radio and television, the studio orchestra on the program was conducted by Donald Voorhees.
The series returned to radio in 1968-69 as Encores from the Bell Telephone Hour featuring highlights and interviews from the original series.
The Bell Telephone Hour Orchestra included clarinetist and saxophonist Joe Allard, who is well known as a saxophone teacher at the Juilliard School and the New England Conservatory of Music. His list of students includes Stan Getz, Eric Dolphy, Dave Liebman, Ricky Ford, Bob Hanlon, Dave Tofani, Mike Brecker, Roger Rosenberg, John Coltrane, and Steve Grossman.
Warner Anderson was the program's announcer, and Floyd Mack the narrator.[1]
The TV show, seen on NBC from January 12, 1959, to April 28, 1968, was one of the first TV series to be telecast exclusively in color, using the color TV system perfected by RCA in 1954. It aired every week on Friday evenings at 10:00 pm, then was switched to Tuesday evenings at 10:00 pm in 1963. It was noted for its Christmas specials, frequently featuring opera stars and stars of musical theater and ballet. In the fall of 1965, the show was switched to an earlier time, Sundays at 6:30 pm.
In 1960, the program alternated weeks with Sing Along with Mitch.[2] Beginning in 1965, the program sometimes had to share its time slot with an NBC news series called Actuality Specials on NBC, and was telecast every other week. In the fall of 1963, the program alternated with The Andy Williams Show.[citation needed]
During its last season, 1967–1968, the program was switched back to its old Friday-night time slot and the format changed from a videotaped and mostly musical presentation to filmed documentaries about classical musicians made on location. By this point, The Bell Telephone Hour was seen as a relic of a bygone era in television history.[3]
One of the last, and most notable episodes done in the videotape format, was "First Ladies of Opera", featuring Joan Sutherland, Leontyne Price, Renata Tebaldi, and Birgit Nilsson, all on one program. In 1976, footage from the TV series was edited into a 90-minute retrospective TV special entitled The Bell Telephone Jubilee, hosted by Bing Crosby and Liza Minnelli.
NBC staff announcer Mel Brandt was the series announcer. ABC staff announcer Scott Vincent hosted the 1962 season finale, "Till Autumn".[4]
Reissues on DVD
Beginning in 2001, DVDs of performances from the television series have been released by Video Artists International. To date, VAI has issued more than two dozen DVD compilations, and a number of complete telecasts, most notably the episode of April 29, 1960, which presented a lavishly staged production of The Mikado starring Groucho Marx. The stunning array of performers who appeared on The Bell Telephone Hour television program includes:
The series won two Emmys and was nominated for seven others.
Rehearsal: The Telephone Hour
In 1947, a 27-minute, black-and-white short subject entitled Rehearsal: The Telephone Hour, was released to theaters. Originating in NBC's Studio 6B at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the film featured, in addition to Voorhees and the orchestra, operatic bass Ezio Pinza and opera mezzo-soprano Blanche Thebom singing arias. It simulated a rehearsal of the popular program, complete with a commercial announcement, and then, near the end, segued to what was presumably the actual radio broadcast.
^"Mitch Miller's Sing Along hit Now a Regular". The Globe and Mail. Toronto ON. 27 January 1961. p. A1.
^"Dennis James"(PDF). Radical Software. Vol. 2, no. 2. 1971. pp. 9–11. Retrieved December 15, 2021. You can't have The Bell Telephone Hour on and stay in competition.
