(+1) 234 567 21

‘Your Hit Parade’…The Original, Music Countdown Show

•

Eyes Of A Generation.com

‘Your Hit Parade’…The Original, Music Countdown Show

Long before the Casey Kasem or American Bandstand countdowns, there was ‘Your Hit Parade’ which started on radio in 1935 and ran there till 1955. The television version started on NBC in 1950 and ran there till ’58 when it went to CBS for a year.

In the great photo below, we see one of the show’s biggest stars, Dorothy Collins singing before the cameras at NBC’s Ziegfeld Theater, in color. The show started July 10, 1950 in NBC’s brand new Studio 6A which was converted May 29, 1950.

The show needed more floor space for the 10 song scene sets and the next year it moved to NBC’s brand new 8H which was converted January 30, 1950. The show was done in color occasionally from The Colonial Theater, but went all color in 1956 when it moved to Perry Como’s new home at the Ziegfeld Theater.

You can tell from the look of this video clip that this was a color broadcast captured on black and white kinescope film. It shows Dorothy Collins singing “I Get A Kick Out Of You” from the Ziegfeld. When the show moved to CBS, it went back to black and white. Enjoy and share!

Source

2 responses to “‘Your Hit Parade’…The Original, Music Countdown Show”

  1. Bob Batsche

    I was too young to enjoy these early color shows. First, my dad purchased a CBS color TV with that spinning wheel. Then it was an RCA color TV. I remember staying up late just to watch movies in living color. Thanks for including the camera cables in the photo as I remember these when I started at NBC. Kick the cable and you could break a toe!

  2. Tom Coughlin

    I’ve seen multiple sources give Hit Parade as the first show to use an insert shot produced on color video tape using RCA machines. Dorothy Collins was married to Hit Parade bandleader Raymond Scott at the time. Scott was a devotee of cutting edge electronics–first person to use a sequencer, he collaborated with Bob Moog in the 1960s to build electronic instruments.

Leave a Reply