The Historic Hudson Theater…Newly Renovated & Broadway Ready

The Historic Hudson Theater…Newly Renovated & Broadway Ready

Look what they found in the basement!

In 1995, the theater was bought by the Millennium Broadway Hotel and used it as a conference center, but last year it was sold to the London based Ambassador Theater Group. Since then, the theater has undergone more major renovation, and will soon become a Broadway theater again, just as it began in 1903, but here is some of The Hudson’s TV history.

The Hudson Theater became NBC’s newest New York studio on September 25, 1950 with the debut of “The Kate Smith Show.” Her daytime show was on at 4PM weekdays from ’50 till ’54. From September of ’51 till June of ’52, she also hosted the “Kate Smith Evening Hour” at 8PM Wednesday nights from the Hudson.

On Sept 27, 1954, “Tonight” with Steve Allen debuted from The Hudson and stayed there until December of 1959. Jack Paar had taken over in June of ’57 after the strain of hosting “‘Tonight” and, the Sunday night “Steve Allen Show” became too much for Steverino. Both Allen shows were done at The Hudson.

With the January 1960 debut of “Tonight” from Studio 6B, NBC’s lease on the Hudson was up and the theater went back to legitimate theater after having spent the ‘30s and ‘40s as a CBS Radio theater and the ‘50s as an NBC Television studio.

As for the door, at one point in the 1950’s, ”Tex and Jinx,” were known in virtually every American household. They had two radio programs, a five-day-a-week television show and a syndicated column in The New York Herald Tribune. They were among the first to refine the format that came to be called the talk show.

The beautiful Jinx Falkenburg was one of America’s highest paid cover-girl models during World War II, and later, with her husband, Tex McCrary, a pioneer talk-show star on both radio and television they became a national fixture. This is where Barbara Walters began her broadcasting carrier.

There is more on Tex and Jinx at this link in a remembrance of the two by William Safire. They died a month apart in 2003. Break a leg Hudson! -Bobby Ellerbee

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/15/opinion/of-tex-and-jinx.html

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