General Electric Theater - "State Fair" (09-10-53)

 General Electric Theater - State Fair (Aired September 10, 1953)

INTRO: Bob Camardella Plays Andy Williams "Moon River" (1962)
 

General Electric Theater featured a mix of romance, comedy, adventure, tragedy, fantasy and variety music. Occupying the Sunday evening spot on CBS following the Toast of the Town/Ed Sullivan Show from 1 February 1953 to 27 May 1962, the General Electric Theater presented top Hollywood and Broadway stars in dramatic roles calculated to deliver company voice advertising to the largest possible audience. Despite a long technical and practical experience with television production, GE's previous attempts to establish a Sunday evening company program had fared poorly. In the fall of 1948 GE entered commercial television for the first time with the Dennis James Carnival, a variety show dropped after one performance. A quiz program entitled Riddle Me This substituted for twelve weeks and was also dropped. In April 1949 GE returned to Sunday evenings with the musical-variety Fred Waring Show Produced by the Young & Rubicam advertising agency under the sponsorship of GE's Appliance, Electronics and Lamp Divisions, the program occasionally included company voice messages. In November 1951 GE transferred television production to the Batten, Barton, Durstine and Osborn (BBDO) advertising agency, under whose direction the General Electric Theater debuted 1 February 1953 as an "all-company project" sponsored by GE's Department of Public Relations Services.

 

THIS EPISODE:

September 10, 1953. CBS network. "State Fair". Sponsored by: General Electric ("Ring The Bell" contest). Ann Blyth, Ken Carpenter (announcer), Wilbur Hatch (music), Jaime del Valle (transcriber), Philip Strong (author), Verna Felton, Tom Tully, Sam Edwards, Joseph Kearns, Dick Ryan, Lamont Johnson, Kathleen Hite (adaptor), Hett Manheim (editorial supervisor). 30:01. Episode Notes From The Radio Gold Index.