View source for The Bell Telephone Hour

{{short description|Television series}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Italic title}}
{{Infobox radio show
| name          = The Bell Telephone Hour
| image         = Donald Voorhees Bell Telephone Hour.JPG
| image_size    = 
| alt           = 
| caption       = [[Donald Voorhees (conductor)|Donald Voorhees]] conducting ''The Bell Telephone Hour'' on [[NBC Radio Network]]
| other_names   = 
| format        = [[Classical music|Classical]] and [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] music
| runtime       = 
| start_time    = 
| end_time      = 
| runtime_note  = 
| country       = [[United States]]
| language      = 
| home_station  = [[NBC Radio Network]] (1940-1958)<br>[[NBC]] (1959-1968)
| syndicates    = 
| television    = 
| presenter     = 
| starring      = [[Donald Voorhees (conductor)|Donald Voorhees]]
| announcer     = 
| creator       = 
| writer        = 
| director      = 
| senior_editor = 
| editor        = 
| producer      = Wallace Magill
| exec_producer = 
| narrated      = 
| rec_location  = 
| rem_location  = 
| oth_location  = 
| first_aired   = {{Start date|1940|04|29}} 
| last_aired    = {{End date|1958|06|30}} 
| num_series    = 
| num_episodes  = 
| audio_format  = 
| opentheme     = 
| othertheme    = 
| endtheme      = 
| sponsor       = [[Bell System|Bell Telephone]]
| website       = <!-- {{URL|example.com}} -->
| podcast       = <!-- {{URL|example.com}} -->
}}
'''''The Bell Telephone Hour''''', also known as '''''The Telephone Hour''''', is a concert series broadcast on [[NBC Radio Network]] from April 29, 1940, to June 30, 1958. Sponsored by [[Bell System|Bell Telephone]] as the name implies, it showcased the best in [[Classical music|classical]] and [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] music, reaching eight to nine million listeners each week. It continued on television from 1959 to 1968. Throughout the program's run on both radio and television, the studio orchestra on the program was conducted by [[Donald Voorhees (conductor)|Donald Voorhees]].

==Synopsis==
After early shows featuring [[James Melton]] and [[Francia White]] as soloists, producer Wallace Magill restructured the format on April 27, 1942, into the "Great Artists Series" of concert and opera performers, beginning with [[Jascha Heifetz]]. The list of talents heard over the years includes [[Marian Anderson]], [[Bing Crosby]], [[Margaret Daum]], [[Nelson Eddy]], [[Benny Goodman]], [[Josef Hofmann]], [[José Iturbi]], [[Fritz Kreisler]], [[Gregor Piatigorsky]], [[Oscar Levant]], [[Ezio Pinza]], [[Lily Pons]], [[Gladys Swarthout]], and [[Helen Traubel]].

The series returned to radio in 1968-69 as ''Encores from the Bell Telephone Hour'' featuring highlights and interviews from the original series.

The Bell Telephone Hour Orchestra included clarinetist and saxophonist Joe Allard, who is well known  as a saxophone teacher at the [[Juilliard School]] and the New England Conservatory of Music. His list of students includes Stan Getz, Eric Dolphy, Dave Liebman, Ricky Ford, Bob Hanlon, Dave Tofani, Mike Brecker, Roger Rosenberg, John Coltrane, and Steve Grossman.

[[Warner Anderson]] was the program's announcer, and Floyd Mack the narrator.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Ranson|first1=Jo|title=Radio Dial Log|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3472065/the_brooklyn_daily_eagle/|newspaper=[[Brooklyn Eagle|The Brooklyn Daily Eagle]]|date=April 22, 1942|page=18|via=[[Newspapers.com]]|access-date=October 23, 2015}}</ref>

==Television==
[[File:Lena horne 1964.JPG|thumb|[[Lena Horne]] performing in 1964]]
The TV show, seen on NBC from January 12, 1959, to  April 28, 1968, was one of the first TV series to be telecast exclusively in color, using the [[color television|color TV]] system perfected by [[RCA Corporation|RCA]] in 1954. It aired every week on Friday evenings at 10:00 pm, then was switched to Tuesday evenings at 10:00 pm in 1963. It was noted for its [[Christmas]] specials, frequently featuring [[opera]] stars and stars of [[musical theater]] and [[ballet]]. In the fall of 1965, the show was switched to an earlier time, Sundays at 6:30 pm.

In 1960, the program alternated weeks with ''[[Sing Along with Mitch]]''.<ref name="GM-1961-01-27">{{cite news |title=Mitch Miller's Sing Along hit Now a Regular |work=The Globe and Mail |date=27 January 1961 |location=Toronto ON |page=A1}}</ref> Beginning in 1965, the program sometimes had to share its time slot with an NBC news series called ''[[Actuality Specials]]'' on NBC, and was telecast every other week. In the fall of 1963, the program alternated with ''[[The Andy Williams Show]]''.{{Citation needed |date=October 2023}}

During its last season, 1967–1968, the program was switched back to its old Friday-night time slot and the format changed from a videotaped and mostly musical presentation to filmed documentaries about classical musicians made on location. By this point, ''The Bell Telephone Hour'' was seen as a relic of a [[Golden Age of Television|bygone era in television history]].<ref>{{cite magazine| url=http://www.radicalsoftware.org/volume2nr2/pdf/VOLUME2NR2_art03.pdf| title=Dennis James| magazine=[[Radical Software]]| volume=2| issue=2| year=1971| pages=9–11| access-date=December 15, 2021| quote=You can't have ''The Bell Telephone Hour'' on and stay in competition.}}</ref>

One of the most notable of the ''Bell Telephone Hour'' documentary programs combined a tour of the [[Museo del Prado]] in [[Madrid]], with performances by such noted Spanish musicians as [[Andrés Segovia]], [[Alicia de Larrocha]], and [[Victoria de los Ángeles]]. Another was a profile of [[Cleveland Orchestra]] [[Conductor (music)|conductor]] [[George Szell]]. This one was not a biography of Szell, but a documentary showing how he worked with the orchestra.

One of the last, and most notable episodes done in the videotape format, was "First Ladies of Opera", featuring [[Joan Sutherland]], [[Leontyne Price]], [[Renata Tebaldi]], and [[Birgit Nilsson]], all on one program. In 1976, footage from the TV series was edited into a 90-minute retrospective TV special entitled ''The Bell Telephone Jubilee'',  hosted by Bing Crosby and [[Liza Minnelli]].

NBC staff announcer [[Mel Brandt]] was the series announcer. ABC staff announcer [[Scott Vincent]] hosted the 1962 season finale, "Till Autumn".<ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211205/uwi2qhZNvW0 Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20201114220708/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwi2qhZNvW0&gl=US&hl=en Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web| url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwi2qhZNvW0| title=NBC TV The Bell Telephone Hour Till Autumn (1962)| website=[[YouTube]]| date=12 June 2015}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

==Reissues on DVD==
Beginning in 2001, DVDs of performances from the television series have been released by [[Video Artists International]]. To date, VAI has issued more than two dozen DVD compilations, and a number of complete telecasts, most notably the episode of April 29, 1960, which presented a lavishly staged production of ''[[The Mikado]]'' starring [[Groucho Marx]]. The stunning array of performers who appeared on ''The Bell Telephone Hour'' television program includes:

• Singers: [[Barbara Cook]], [[Franco Corelli]], [[Régine Crespin]], [[Victoria De Los Angeles]], [[Giuseppe Di Stefano]], [[Eileen Farrell]], [[Nicolai Gedda]], [[Dolores Gray]], [[Mahalia Jackson]], [[Carol Lawrence]], [[George London (bass-baritone)|George London]], [[Thomas Hayward (tenor)|Thomas Hayward]], [[Gordon MacRae]], [[Ethel Merman]], [[Robert Merrill]], [[Anna Moffo]], [[Birgit Nilsson]], [[Roberta Peters]], [[Leontyne Price]], [[John Raitt]], [[Dinah Shore]], [[Risë Stevens]], [[Joan Sutherland]], [[Renata Tebaldi]], [[Richard Tucker (tenor)|Richard Tucker]], [[Leslie Uggams]], [[Jon Vickers]], [[Mildred Miller]] and [[Gretchen Wyler]]

• Pianists: [[Claudio Arrau]], [[Jorge Bolet]], [[Robert Casadesus]], [[Alicia de Larrocha]], [[Van Cliburn]], [[Philippe Entremont]], [[Lorin Hollander]], [[Byron Janis]], [[Grant Johannesen]], and [[José Iturbi]]

• Violinists: [[Mischa Elman]], [[Zino Francescatti]], [[Yehudi Menuhin]], [[Erica Morini]], [[David Oistrakh]], [[Michael Rabin (violinist)|Michael Rabin]], [[Ruggiero Ricci]], and [[Isaac Stern]] (Also, famed cellist [[Gregor Piatigorsky]] and master of the guitar [[Andrés Segovia]])

• Dancers: [[Alicia Alonso]], [[Erik Bruhn]], [[Jacques d'Amboise (dancer)|Jacques d'Amboise]], [[Carla Fracci]], [[Rudolf Nureyev]], [[Matt Mattox]], [[Edward Villella]], [[Violette Verdy]], and [[Maria Tallchief]]

*Musical groups: [[Jefferson Airplane]], [[The New Christy Minstrels]]

==Awards==
The series won two [[Emmy Awards|Emmy]]s and was nominated for seven others.

==''Rehearsal: The Telephone Hour''==
In 1947, a 27-minute, black-and-white [[short subject]] entitled ''Rehearsal: The Telephone Hour'', was released to theaters. Originating in NBC's Studio 6B at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the film featured, in addition to Voorhees and the orchestra, operatic bass [[Ezio Pinza]] and opera mezzo-soprano [[Blanche Thebom]] singing arias. It simulated a rehearsal of the popular program, complete with a commercial announcement, and then, near the end, segued to what was presumably the actual radio broadcast.

==Listen to==
*[https://archive.org/details/Bell_Telephone_Hour Internet Archive: ''The Bell Telephone Hour'']

==Watch==
*[http://www.tubeplus.me/trailer/445307/Rehearsal%3A_The_Bell_Telephone_Hour/''Rehearsal: The Telephone Hour''] {{dead link|date=March 2022}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|The Bell Telephone Hour (radio)}}
{{Commons category|The Bell Telephone Hour (TV series)}}
* {{IMDb title|0052447|The Bell Telephone Hour}}
*[http://catalog.nypl.org/record=b16130236~S1 ''The Bell Telephone Hour'' collection of sound recordings, 1940-1968], at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
*[http://www.otrsite.com/logs/logb1042.htm Jerry Haendiges Vintage Radio Logs: ''The Bell Telephone Hour'']
*[http://vaimusic.com/product/4554.html Groucho Marx in The Mikado]
* {{emmytvlegends title|bell-telephone-hour-the}}
{{EmmyAward VarietySpecial 1959–1975}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bell Telephone Hour, The}}
[[Category:1959 American television series debuts]]
[[Category:1968 American television series endings]]
[[Category:1930s American radio programs]]
[[Category:1940s American radio programs]]
[[Category:American classical music radio programs]]
[[Category:1950s American music television series]]
[[Category:Bell System]]
[[Category:Black-and-white American television shows]]
[[Category:American English-language television shows]]
[[Category:NBC original programming]]
[[Category:Peabody Award–winning radio programs]]
[[Category:Peabody Award–winning television programs]]
[[Category:1940 radio programme debuts]]
[[Category:1958 radio programme endings]]
[[Category:NBC radio programs]]
[[Category:1960s American music television series]]