The Colgate Comedy Hour — Season 4
This was a Colgate-sponsored comedy hour that featured many notable comedians and entertainers of the era as guest stars.
About this season
The Colgate Comedy Hour is an American comedy-musical variety series that aired live on the NBC network from 1950 to 1955. The show starred many notable comedians and entertainers of the era, including Eddie Cantor, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Fred Allen, Donald O'Connor, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, Bob Hope, Jimmy Durante, Ray Bolger, Gordon MacRae, Ben Blue, Robert Paige, Tony Curtis, Burt Lancaster, Broadway dancer Wayne Lamb and Spike Jones and His City Slickers.
Episodes (34)
1. Martin & Lewis
Aired 4 October 1953
Skits: Burt plays an escaped lunatick. Songs: "Great To Be Home", "You're The Right One", "That's Amore", "There's No Tomorrow"
2. Jimmy Durante
Aired 11 October 1953
3. Eddie Cantor
Aired 18 October 1953
4. Donald O'Connor
Aired 25 October 1953
5. Bud Abbott with Martin & Lewis
Aired 1 November 1953
6. Jimmy Durante
Aired 8 November 1953
7. Martha Raye
Aired 15 November 1953
8. Donald O'Connor
Aired 22 November 1953
9. Eddie Cantor
Aired 29 November 1953
Highlights include a take-off on TV westerns where all the characters speak in voice-overs and a salute to the songs of Harold Arlen.
10. Jimmy Durante
Aired 6 December 1953
11. Perry Como and Martha Raye
Aired 13 December 1953
12. Donald O'Connor
Aired 20 December 1953
13. Eddie Cantor
Aired 27 December 1953
14. Jimmy Durante
Aired 3 January 1954
15. Martin & Lewis
Aired 10 January 1954
16. Alan Young, Stan Freberg, Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby
Aired 17 January 1954
17. Ethel Merman
Aired 24 January 1954
18. Eddie Cantor
Aired 31 January 1954
19. Jimmy Durante
Aired 7 February 1954
20. Donald O'Connor
Aired 14 February 1954
21. Sonja Henie (with Abbott & Costello)
Aired 21 February 1954
Gene Wesson hosts with guests Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, skater Sonja Henie, comic/singer Keefe Brasselle, with Carolyn Jones, Joyce Jameson, Michael Ross, Will J. White, Jud Conlon Singers, Norman Abbott, Glen Stangle, and announcer Hal Sawyer. Wesson and Brasselle perform dueling impressions, a sketch depicts a mob-run coffee shop, and Abbott and Costello encounter the Frankenstein Monster and the Gill Man in the Universal Studios' prop room.
22. ANYTHING GOES w Ethel Merman, Frank Sinatra, Bert Lahr
Aired 28 February 1954
23. Eddie Cantor
Aired 7 March 1954
24. Jimmy Durante
Aired 14 March 1954
25. Abbott & Costello
Aired 21 March 1954
26. Eddie Cantor
Aired 4 April 1954
27. Jimmy Durante
Aired 11 April 1954
28. Abbott & Costello
Aired 18 April 1954 • 60 min
Bud Abbott and Lou Costello welcome guests including: Jane Russell; Rhonda Fleming; A&C stalwarts Connie Haines, Bobby Barber and Mike Ross; actress Beryl Davis; actors Tony Martinez, Nestor Paiva, Frank Richards, Benny Rubin, Jim Hayward and Ken Mayer; Jack Shea; Baby Mistin; Donna Kaye; announcer Hal Sawyer; and Al Goodman and his Orchestra. In comedy highlights, the boys are flat broke in a bording house in the Latin American country of Bolamania. They rehearse a magic trick, hoping to get a job at a nightclub. Then Lou gets the great idea of impersonating the El Presidente! Also, take offs on Liberace and You Bet Your Life.
29. Ice Capades Special
Aired 25 April 1954
30. Martin & Lewis
Aired 2 May 1954
31. Jimmy Durante
Aired 9 May 1954
32. Eddie Cantor
Aired 16 May 1954
33. Abbott & Costello
Aired 23 May 1954
One in this comedy/variety series with rotating hosts. The comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello star in this live episode. Highlights include the following: Bud and Lou get fired from their jobs at a department store after attempting to sell nylons; Abbott and his friends sucker Costello out of his pay, but Lou gets his revenge; Hoagy Carmichael sings and is visited by child actor Ricky Vera; Costello and Vera try to tell each other the tale of Little Red Riding Hood and crack each other up in the process; Abbott cons Costello out of his money, but Vera gets the last laugh; Peggy Lee sings "Johnny Guitar," "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered," and the "Halo Shampoo" song; Costello gets appliances with meters and has to pay a quarter every time he uses one, prompting a lot of mayhem as he attempts to try each one out; the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra plays "Midnight Sleigh Ride" and "Holiday"; and Costello attempts to dance with a woman who is almost twice his height.
34. Martin & Lewis
Aired 30 May 1954