Comedy · NBC
The Big Show
November 5, 1950 – April 20, 1952 · 57 broadcasts
Radio's last grand gesture, and it knew it. In November 1950 NBC -- bleeding Jack Benny, Edgar Bergen and Amos & Andy to CBS, and bleeding audience to television -- answered with ninety minutes of Sunday-night spectacle that cost as much as $100,000 a week. Eight marquee guests a night, Meredith Willson's orchestra and a sixteen-voice chorus, and presiding over the whole extravagant business the one voice nobody could counterfeit: Tallulah Bankhead, husky, imperious, and funnier than anyone expected. The bill was Broadway, Hollywood and Tin Pan Alley in the same ninety minutes. Fred Allen and Portland Hoffa turned up so often they might as well have been co-hosts. Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh played Shaw from the London Palladium; Louis Armstrong, Judy Garland, Edith Piaf, Frank Sinatra and Sarah Vaughan sang; Peter Lorre did Poe; Fanny Brice's Baby Snooks took an acting lesson from the hostess. Goodman Ace headed the writing staff, and Dorothy Parker monologues turned up across the run. Every week closed with the whole company singing a line each of Willson's "May the Good Lord Bless and Keep You," and Bankhead wishing Godspeed to servicemen listening overseas. It won the reviews and lost the ratings -- placed dead last in its own time period, opposite the very stars NBC had lost -- and the network folded it on 20 April 1952 after two seasons and a reported million-dollar loss. Fifty-seven broadcasts. Radio never tried anything this big again.
Collection status:
30 of 57 held (53% complete)
30 of 57 broadcasts available to stream
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Episode Spine
Grouped by year. Jump to the full list below, or open a season on its own page.
1950
The series premiere framed itself as a parody of Fred Allen's own program, retitled for the joke as "The Pinch Penny Show" -- a swipe at a rival Allen's script pointedly declined to name. Guests included Jimmy Durante, Portland Hoffa, Ethel Merman, Paul Lukas and Danny Thomas.
Fanny Brice's Baby Snooks got an on-air acting lesson from Tallulah Bankhead, and Groucho Marx coached opera star Ezio Pinza through "Some Enchanted Evening." Bankhead closed with a Dorothy Parker monologue, "Sentiment," which gave the broadcast its title.
Ray Middleton and Jose Ferrer paid a musical-dramatic tribute to Abraham Lincoln, Eddie Cantor reminisced about his early days in radio, and Bankhead starred with Evelyn Varden in Patricia Collins's playlet "A Matter of Perspective." Bob Hope monologued about entertaining troops in Korea before Bankhead closed with "Give My Regards to Broadway."
Fred Allen and Bankhead traded their well-worn breakfast-radio-show routine before the whole company decamped, in a scripted crossover, to Ed Gardner's Duffy's Tavern. Ed Wynn supplied a comic aside about the opera "Carmen."
The President's daughter, Margaret Truman, matched wits with Bankhead in a broadcast built around her as guest of honor, framed as a mock "Margaret Truman Program" complete with a spoof commercial for banks. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. performed a scene from "State Secret," the Sons of the Pioneers sang "Cool Water," and a hoarse-voiced Phil Silvers satirized his own film career.
Bankhead and Charles Boyer starred in a dramatized excerpt from F. Scott Fitzgerald's "All the Sad Young Men," the broadcast's centerpiece; the guest bill also carried Edward Arnold, Jimmy Durante, Imogene Coca and Clifton Webb.
Broadcasting from Los Angeles, Bankhead starred with Deborah Kerr and Dorothy McGuire in a scene from Clare Boothe Luce's "The Women"; Bob Hope, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis followed with their own spoof version, titled "The Fellows." Louis Armstrong sang "Ain't Misbehavin'," and the broadcast reportedly ran long enough that Bankhead's sign-off collided with the orchestra's closing theme.
The Christmas Eve broadcast, dedicated to servicemen overseas through the Associated Services of the Armed Forces, featured General Jonathan Wainwright speaking from Camp Breckinridge and a reading of "A Letter to Virginia." Bert Lahr opened with "If I Were King," and the bill also carried Robert Merrill, Margaret O'Brien and Edith Piaf.
Gloria Swanson and Jose Ferrer performed a scene from Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's "Twentieth Century," and Ferrer paired with Margaret O'Brien for a scene from "Romeo and Juliet." The New Year's Eve broadcast closed with a medley of hits from the 1950 theatrical season, Swanson included.
1951
Edward G. Robinson starred in a Cornell Woolrich mystery about four strangers summoned to a strange dinner party, reconstructed twice over during the broadcast. Marlene Dietrich sang "Falling in Love Again," Phil Baker ad-libbed with Bankhead about television, and Bankhead closed with a monologue on New Year's parties.
Louis Calhern performed a scene from "The Magnificent Yankee" amid a bill that carried Jimmy Durante, Jack Carson and Martha Raye; Durante opened with a specialty number, "I'm James the Fifth."
Gary Cooper joined Bankhead for scenes from Ernest Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms." Ray Bolger sang his signature "Once in Love with Amy," Rudy Vallee traded comic dialogue with Bankhead over an audience infant's ill-timed crying, and the broadcast's ending was reportedly cut for time.
Bankhead and Robert Cummings performed a scene from Noel Coward's "Private Lives," while Judy Holliday reprised a bit from "Born Yesterday." Baseball manager Leo Durocher and actress Laraine Day were also on the bill, alongside Fred Allen and Portland Hoffa.
Broadcasting from Hollywood, the Andrews Sisters marked their fifteenth anniversary as a trio with a medley of their hits, and Judy Garland sang "Get Happy" after Bankhead introduced her, to Garland's evident lack of amusement, as "Judy Holliday." Bankhead then recited Dorothy Parker's monologue "A Telephone Call" straight, before Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis and Joan Davis performed a comic version of the same piece.
Uta Hagen and Paul Kelly performed a scene from Clifford Odets's "The Country Girl," and Bankhead sparred verbally with Monty Woolley before joining him in a scene from Kaufman and Hart's "The Man Who Came to Dinner" -- promptly followed by Olsen and Johnson and Judy Holliday doing a comic version of the same scene. Jack Haley sang an Irish tune and Robert Merrill also appeared.
Clive Brook, Hugh Riley and Margaret Phillips performed Philip Barry's "Second Threshold" in Robert Sherwood's adaptation. Frankie Laine sang, Margaret Truman strained gamely through "Love Is Where You Find It," Portland Hoffa sang to Fred Allen's banjo accompaniment, and Herb Shriner delivered a "Hoosier" comedy routine before the broadcast closed with an Irving Berlin tribute.
Jack Pearl and Cliff Hall reprised their vaudeville-era Baron Munchausen and Sharlie routine. Smith and Dale performed their "Dr. Kronkeit" bit with Jean Courtney, Jimmy Durante and Eddie Jackson sang "Bill Bailey," Bob Burns told stories of Van Buren, Arkansas and played his self-built bazooka, and Bankhead read a sentimental essay about a dog by O. O. McIntyre.
Rex Harrison and Lilli Palmer performed Maxwell Anderson's "Anne of a Thousand Days," followed immediately by Jimmy Durante and Judy Holliday's comic take on the same scene. Carmen Miranda and Jackie Miles also appeared, and Holliday separately spoofed "I Went to Havana."
Van Johnson starred, with Henry Nakamura and Lane Nakana, in a dramatization of "Go for Broke"; Ethel Barrymore followed with a dramatic reading scored by her brother Lionel. Ezio Pinza sang an aria from "The Marriage of Figaro," Joan Davis performed a calypso number with an assist from Bob Hope, Groucho Marx and Van Johnson, and Judy Holliday accepted the cast's congratulations on her Academy Award.
William Marshall, Ossie Davis and Alonzo Buzaine performed a scene from "Green Pastures." Jimmy Durante, Fred Allen and Rudy Vallee sang Meredith Willson's original novelty number "Don't Put Bananas on Bananas" as "The Nasal Trio"; critic John Crosby presented Bankhead with an award, which Allen promptly spoofed in a sketch about Crosby's home life, and Dr. Ralph Bunche presented a second award on behalf of the United Nations.
Olivia de Havilland and Evelyn Varden performed a scene from "Romeo and Juliet," and Bankhead recited "Casey at the Bat" in the style of DeWolf Hopper, with Jack Carson and Martha Raye supplying a comic epilogue about what happened to Casey once he got home. Baseball player Tommy Henrich and Brooklyn comedian Phil Foster traded stories about the borough, and Martha Raye sang "That Old Black Magic."
Dennis King, Martin Blaine and Horace Braham performed a scene from George Bernard Shaw's "The Devil's Disciple." Lisa Kirk sang "I Feel a Song Coming On," Judy Holliday and Joan Davis coached Bankhead on dating advice, Herb Shriner delivered a hometown monologue, Fred Allen imagined a wedding between Bankhead and Dennis King, and Bankhead closed reading a Walt Whitman tribute to America.
Frank Lovejoy starred in a dramatization tied to "I Was a Communist for the FBI," with the real-life former informant Matt Cvetic delivering a brief anti-communist address of his own. Ethel Merman opened with "There's No Business Like Show Business," Rosemary Clooney sang "Taking a Chance on Love," Gordon MacRae recalled his years as an NBC page, and the cast closed with a tribute medley of Meredith Willson's own compositions.
The season finale paired Bankhead and Margaret Truman in Dorothy Parker's "Advice to the Little Peyton Girl," followed by Groucho Marx playing marriage counselor to Fred Allen and Ginger Rogers. George Jessel delivered a mock eulogy for the program and impressions of Al Jolson and Eddie Cantor, while Allen coached Bankhead through the finer points of collecting unemployment insurance; the broadcast's last minute was reportedly cut.
The second-season opener broadcast from the London Palladium, with Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh performing a scene from George Bernard Shaw's "Caesar and Cleopatra." George Sanders traded barbed banter with Bankhead and sang; Fred Allen and Jack Buchanan staged a British-flavored take on "Allen's Alley" billed as "Buchanan's Mews"; and Beatrice Lillie sang "I Apologize."
Broadcasting from the Empire Theatre in Paris before a capacity house, the program paired George Sanders with Joan Fontaine in a dramatization of Stefan Zweig's "Letter from an Unknown Woman," which Allen and Bankhead then spoofed. Josephine Baker's number reportedly drew the loudest ovation of the night -- French press coverage judged she had upstaged the hostess -- and the broadcast also carried a tribute to the recently deceased French actor Louis Jouvet, performed by Fernand Gravey and French cast members. Gracie Fields and Georges Guetary both had numbers substituted or pre-taped around contractual and clearance snags with their regular engagements.
The broadcast turned a promotional "Southern Show Train" -- which had carried passengers from New Orleans, Natchez and several other Southern cities to attend in person -- into its organizing theme, built around music and comic sparring between Bankhead and Ethel Merman rather than a dramatic sketch, making it the only broadcast in the run with no scripted drama at all. Fred Allen spoofed the recent film "An American in Paris," Shirley Booth sang from "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," and Jimmy Durante sang about his own wardrobe in "I'm a Fugitive from Esquire."
October 21, 1951
(untitled)
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Originating from Hollywood -- the only broadcast that season's regular announcer Ed Herlihy skipped, replaced there by one-time guest announcer Wendell Niles -- the program starred George Sanders in a radio adaptation of Balzac's "The Mysterious Mansion," with Lurene Tuttle and Barney Phillips in supporting roles, their only appearances on the series. Bankhead delivered a Dorothy Parker monologue about men who sit to a hostess's left at dinner parties.
Back in New York after the prior week's Hollywood broadcast, the program gave Ann Sheridan a dramatization of the Fay Grissom Stanley story "The Last Day of All," about a poison-plotting married couple, with Martin Blaine supporting. Sophie Tucker, accompanied by longtime pianist Ted Shapiro, sang a medley of her standards, and Bankhead closed with an Armistice Day tribute reading a Marine's letter home to his daughters, written on the eve of his death in Korea.
November 18, 1951
Molly Goldberg
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Dane Clark and Martha Scott performed a scene from the new Broadway play "The Number," about two small-time bookmaking-world lovers who can only ever be voices to each other on the phone. George Sanders joined Bankhead for the diminutive historical playlet "Catherine Parr," with Sanders as Henry VIII arguing with his sixth wife over breakfast eggs; Phil Foster then spoofed the same sketch from behind a mock drugstore counter.
Ginger Rogers and Paul McGrath performed a scene from the just-closed Broadway comedy "Love and Let Love," which George Sanders and then Bankhead herself promptly spoofed. Lauritz Melchior sang Leoncavallo, Wally Cox delivered his "Dufo" and "The Hinker" monologues, and Fred Allen and Portland Hoffa closed with an "Allen's Alley"-style door-to-door bit polling the guests on how much they liked Bankhead.
Ann Sothern and Ed Gardner (in his Duffy's Tavern "Archie" voice) both appeared, Sothern reprising her Broadway role from "Faithfully Yours" in an excerpt about a marriage strained by amateur psychoanalysis. Hildegarde traded an insult routine with Bankhead, and the broadcast closed with a nightclub-act finale in which Bankhead, an accomplished pianist, played "Rustle of Spring" and sang a medley of standards.
Rosalind Russell starred in a dramatization of A. E. Coppard's short story "Fifty Pounds," about a proud, penniless writer and the wife who leaves an anonymous gift of money rather than let him know its source. Sarah Vaughan and Phil Silvers also appeared, and Bankhead closed with a tribute to CARE, reading a letter from a Finnish recipient of a CARE package thanking the anonymous American sender.
Milton Berle took a rare straight dramatic turn opposite Bankhead in Joel Murcott's original Christmas script, playing two once-successful performers who reunite, still quarreling, on the road in a snowbound North Dakota town. Robert Merrill sang from "Otello," Margaret Truman and Ozzie and Harriet Nelson also appeared, and Alec Templeton closed with piano impressions including a send-up of Bankhead's own singing.
The New Year's Eve broadcast looked backward, with Bankhead and Gertrude Berg (in her Molly Goldberg voice) reviewing past broadcasts via recorded excerpts that filled most of the hour. Bankhead read Dorothy Parker's monologue "The Waltz" straight, before Fred Allen, Portland Hoffa and Johnny Johnston performed a comic version of the same piece.
1952
British vocalist Vera Lynn, the wartime "Sweetheart of the Forces," began what became a run of regular appearances during her first American visit. Claude Rains starred with Gene Reynolds in a dramatization of John Collier's "Midnight Blue," a murder-mystery sketch turning on a wrongly colored muffler, with Bankhead opposite him as Mrs. Spiers; the broadcast also carried the on-air announcement that Bankhead had been voted Woman of the Year in Radio by the nation's radio editors, marked by the chorus interrupting her with "My Darling, My Darling."
Phil Foster began a running mother-wants-me-to-marry-Tallulah-Bankhead bit that carried across several January broadcasts. June Havoc performed a scene from her Broadway hit "Affairs of State" with Sheppard Strudwick, which Fred Allen and Bankhead then spoofed; Tony Bennett and Betty Hutton also appeared, Hutton promoting her new film "The Greatest Show on Earth."
Dick Powell, better known from his own "Richard Diamond" series, starred as a criminologist who commits a "perfect crime" in a dramatization of Ben Ray Redman's "The Perfect Crime." Jack Pearl and Cliff Hall reprised their Baron Munchausen routine, Shirley Booth and Earl Wrightson also appeared, and the whole company opened with birthday-card rhymes for Bankhead's approaching birthday.
Jack Carson played opposite Bankhead in Dorothy Parker's honeymoon comedy "Here We Are." James Barton, Tony Bavaar and Vera Lynn performed songs from the new Broadway musical "Paint Your Wagon," Victor Borge offered his comic "Mozart Opera" piano routine, and Bob and Ray contributed their "Tahiti Travelogue" sketch; the broadcast also announced the show had been voted 1951's "Champion of Champions" in Motion Picture Herald's radio-editors poll.
Cathleen Nesbitt joined Bankhead in a repeat staging of the comedy sketch "A Matter of Perspective," first performed more than a year earlier -- which Fred Allen, Jerry Colonna and Portland Hoffa then spoofed. Ethel Merman traded an insult routine with Bankhead, Vera Lynn sang "Tulips and Heather," and Jan Murray performed his "Fight Routine."
Claude Rains starred, with Jan Miner and Ed Jerome, in a dramatization of James Thurber's "The Catbird Seat," about a mild-mannered employee who fakes a lurid double life to discredit an officious coworker. Jean Sablon and Vera Lynn sang, and around Valentine's Day, Bankhead read Lincoln's condolence letter to Mrs. Bixby in honor of Lincoln's birthday, alongside a Valentine-themed run of guest verses.
In a Valentine to radio itself, Fred Allen and Portland Hoffa staged "The Television Mikado," a sketch about a soap tycoon who wants a TV show with "30 minutes of commercials" and no talent required. Tallulah Bankhead starred in a separate dramatization of Edith Wharton's ghost story "Afterward"; Joan Davis, Hoagy Carmichael and Jane Pickens also appeared, and the broadcast marked Vera Lynn's farewell before her return to London.
February 24, 1952
(untitled)
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Rex Harrison and Lilli Palmer performed a dramatization of Friedrich Gerstaecker's German folk tale "The Enchanted Village," about an artist who stumbles into a bewitched town that reappears only once a century. Connee Boswell sang "Stormy Weather," Henny Youngman delivered a life-story monologue, and Fred Allen and Portland Hoffa appeared alongside a station-anniversary salute to WLW Cincinnati.
Peter Lorre performed Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" -- mangled in Bankhead's introduction as "Armen Tilado" -- and Shepperd Strudwick starred in a dramatized excerpt from Meredith Willson's own novel-in-progress, "Who Did What to Fedalia?," which Lorre, Bankhead and Ethel Merman then spoofed as a mock "Author Meets the Critics" panel. Fibber McGee and Molly checked in from Hollywood to mark their twentieth anniversary on NBC, and Phil Foster closed with a Brooklyn monologue and a specially written Willson song, "I Take a Dim View."
For St. Patrick's Day, Fred Allen and Portland Hoffa staged an original "Irish Musical" about the Widow Green of Donegal, with Frank Sinatra as her singing son and Bill Gargan as the villainous landlord Allen's character ultimately outwits. Gargan separately starred in a dramatization of John Collier's twist story "De Mortius"; Helen O'Connell and Peter Donald also appeared, Donald in his familiar Irish-dialect comedy.
Paul Douglas starred in a dramatization of John Richard Humphrey's fantasy "Michael Finney and the Little Men," about strange fish-like creatures living beneath a vacation-house pump house. Victor Borge performed his classic "Phonetic Punctuation" routine, Jack Pearl and Cliff Hall's Baron Munchausen went to Africa this time, and Marlene Dietrich traded an insult exchange with Bankhead before the two spoofed Douglas's own sketch.
Judy Canova attempted, unsuccessfully by all accounts, to teach Bankhead to yodel, and Fred Allen and Portland Hoffa monologued about why he wasn't born in Alabama despite his grandfather's best intentions. Vivian Blaine, Johnny Johnston and Jan Murray rounded out the bill, with Phil Foster contributing a bit about preferring the telephone to television.
Paul Winchell and dummy Jerry Mahoney visited the dentist in one sketch; in another, "The Continental" Renzo Cesana performed an original seduction-themed piece, "Brave Men with a Sword," which Jane Russell and then Judy Canova each spoofed in turn. Oscar Levant contributed a topical gag about President Truman, and the broadcast closed with an Easter salute featuring Meredith Willson's composition "It's Easter Time."
Groucho Marx and Fred Allen reminisced together about their vaudeville days in a two-part bit that continued into the following week's finale. Groucho sang his own new novelty number, "There's a Place Called Omaha, Nebraska," George Sanders sang an aria from Verdi's "Otello," and Bankhead read Carl Sandburg's "Chicago" as part of a station-anniversary salute to WMAQ.
The series finale closed out Groucho Marx and Fred Allen's two-part vaudeville reminiscence, awarded the New York Drama Critics Circle prize on-air to John Van Druten for "I Am a Camera" (performed in excerpt by Julie Harris and William Prince), and gave Ethel Merman and George Sanders a spoof of Merman's Broadway vehicle "Call Me Madam." Portland Hoffa closed the run bantering with Bankhead and Merman about a hoped-for Paris vacation against Fred Allen's preference for Redbank, New Jersey, before Bankhead thanked the cast and Meredith Willson's chorus sang a final "My Darling" in her honor.
The Story
Radio's last grand gesture, and it knew it. In November 1950 NBC -- bleeding Jack Benny, Edgar Bergen and Amos & Andy to CBS, and bleeding audience to television -- answered with ninety minutes of Sunday-night spectacle that cost as much as $100,000 a week. Eight marquee guests a night, Meredith Willson's orchestra and a sixteen-voice chorus, and presiding over the whole extravagant business the one voice nobody could counterfeit: Tallulah Bankhead, husky, imperious, and funnier than anyone expected. The bill was Broadway, Hollywood and Tin Pan Alley in the same ninety minutes. Fred Allen and Portland Hoffa turned up so often they might as well have been co-hosts. Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh played Shaw from the London Palladium; Louis Armstrong, Judy Garland, Edith Piaf, Frank Sinatra and Sarah Vaughan sang; Peter Lorre did Poe; Fanny Brice's Baby Snooks took an acting lesson from the hostess. Goodman Ace headed the writing staff, and Dorothy Parker monologues turned up across the run. Every week closed with the whole company singing a line each of Willson's "May the Good Lord Bless and Keep You," and Bankhead wishing Godspeed to servicemen listening overseas. It won the reviews and lost the ratings -- placed dead last in its own time period, opposite the very stars NBC had lost -- and the network folded it on 20 April 1952 after two seasons and a reported million-dollar loss. Fifty-seven broadcasts. Radio never tried anything this big again.
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