The Big Show — 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."

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.

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.