The Kate Smith Show
Encyclopedia
The Kate Smith Show is a half-hour, short-lived variety
program which aired on CBS
television
from January 25 to July 18, 1960. The program features singer Kate Smith
(1907-1986) and the Harry Simeone
Chorale.
personality from 1930-1951. From 1950-1954, she hosted an afternoon weekday program on NBC
television. The program was co-produced by Barry Wood and Smith's long-time manager, Ted Collins, formerly an officer of Columbia Records
. One of the segments called "Cracker Barrel" is an interview of her guests. The program also features segments entitled "The House in the Garden", "America Sings," and "Ethel and Albert," a domestic comedy strip.
In the 1951-1952 season, Smith hosted The Kate Smith Evening Hour on NBC, produced by Greg Garrison
, later of The Dean Martin Show
.This program aired on Wednesday evenings at 8 p.m. Eastern opposite CBS's Arthur Godfrey and Friends.
In 1956, Ted Collins sustained a critical heart attack
. Smith cancelled all engagements and determined to leave television permanently. She spent months either in the hospital or at home praying for Collins' recovery. Collins was married, and Smith was single; there was no romantic connection between the two.
", first adopted in 1931 on radio, rather than Smith's better known rendition of "God Bless America
" by the composer, Irving Berlin
, which she began singing in 1938. The early evening time slot, her previous absence from the limelight, and the growing popularity of rock and roll
netted low ratings. Despite otherwise good reviews, the show was cancelled after nearly six months on the air. Collins died in 1964. Thereafter, Smith worked sporadically in making personal appearances.
There is no complete listing of Smith's guest stars, but one was Country
singer Billy Byrd (1920-2001), also a guitar
maker from Nashville
, Tennessee
. Hank Williams is also listed as a guest, but he died seven years earlier. Perhaps, the segment with Williams had been taped by Smith prior to the singer's death in 1953.
The Kate Smith Show replaced Masquerade Party
at mid-season. It aired at 7:30 p.m. Eastern on Mondays with competition from David Janssen
's Richard Diamond, Private Detective
on NBC and Clint Walker
's western
series, Cheyenne
on ABC
. The Kate Smith Show preceded the second of the two seasons of the Rory Calhoun
western, The Texan
. She performed "It Was So Beautiful," "Somebody Loves Me," and "There's a Goldmine in the Sky", as well as "When The Moon Comes Over The Mountain.". Smith and Tennessee Ernie Ford
performed duets: "You're Just in Love" and "Hey, Good Lookin'."
hockey
games attracted national attention after she had been out of the public limelight for several years.Smith spent her last years in Raleigh
, North Carolina
. In 1982, U.S. President Ronald W. Reagan traveled to Raleigh in the company of U.S. Senator Jesse Helms
, a Smith admirer, to award her the Presidential Medal of Freedom
.In 1942, as an actor, Reagan had appeared with Smith in Irving Berlin's This Is the Army
. In 1984, Reagan granted the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Tennessee Ernie Ford. Like Smith, he had had also appeared on The Ford Show in 1959 but in different episodes.
Variety show
A variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is an entertainment made up of a variety of acts, especially musical performances and sketch comedy, and normally introduced by a compère or host. Other types of acts include magic, animal and circus acts, acrobatics, juggling...
program which aired on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
from January 25 to July 18, 1960. The program features singer Kate Smith
Kate Smith
Kathryn Elizabeth "Kate" Smith was an American Popular singer, best known for her rendition of Irving Berlin's "God Bless America". Smith had a radio, television, and recording career spanning five decades, which reached its pinnacle in the 1940s.Smith was born in Greenville, Virginia...
(1907-1986) and the Harry Simeone
Harry Simeone
Harry Moses Simeone was a distinguished music arranger, conductor and composer, best known for arranging the famous Christmas song "The Little Drummer Boy", for which he received co-writing credit.-Early years:Harry grew up listening to stars performing at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City,...
Chorale.
Background
A Virginia native who dropped out of nursing school to pursue a singing career, Smith was a radioRadio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
personality from 1930-1951. From 1950-1954, she hosted an afternoon weekday program on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
television. The program was co-produced by Barry Wood and Smith's long-time manager, Ted Collins, formerly an officer of Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
. One of the segments called "Cracker Barrel" is an interview of her guests. The program also features segments entitled "The House in the Garden", "America Sings," and "Ethel and Albert," a domestic comedy strip.
In the 1951-1952 season, Smith hosted The Kate Smith Evening Hour on NBC, produced by Greg Garrison
Greg Garrison
Greg Garrison was a pioneer producer and director in television, directing nearly 4,000 shows in his career. He received more than a dozen Emmy Award nominations, although he never won....
, later of The Dean Martin Show
The Dean Martin Show
The Dean Martin Show is a TV variety-comedy series that ran from 1965 to 1974 for 264 episodes. It was broadcast by NBC and hosted by crooner Dean Martin...
.This program aired on Wednesday evenings at 8 p.m. Eastern opposite CBS's Arthur Godfrey and Friends.
In 1956, Ted Collins sustained a critical heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
. Smith cancelled all engagements and determined to leave television permanently. She spent months either in the hospital or at home praying for Collins' recovery. Collins was married, and Smith was single; there was no romantic connection between the two.
CBS program launched
More than a year after his recovery, Smith and Collins launched The Kate Smith Show on CBS, with the theme song "When the Moon Comes over the MountainWhen the Moon Comes over the Mountain
"When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain" is a popular song, published in 1931, and credited as written by Howard Johnson, Harry M. Woods, and Kate Smith...
", first adopted in 1931 on radio, rather than Smith's better known rendition of "God Bless America
God Bless America
"God Bless America" is an American patriotic song written by Irving Berlin in 1918 and revised by him in 1938. The later version has notably been recorded by Kate Smith, becoming her signature song ....
" by the composer, Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist of Jewish heritage, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history.His first hit song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", became world famous...
, which she began singing in 1938. The early evening time slot, her previous absence from the limelight, and the growing popularity of rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
netted low ratings. Despite otherwise good reviews, the show was cancelled after nearly six months on the air. Collins died in 1964. Thereafter, Smith worked sporadically in making personal appearances.
There is no complete listing of Smith's guest stars, but one was Country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
singer Billy Byrd (1920-2001), also a guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
maker from Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
, Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
. Hank Williams is also listed as a guest, but he died seven years earlier. Perhaps, the segment with Williams had been taped by Smith prior to the singer's death in 1953.
The Kate Smith Show replaced Masquerade Party
Masquerade Party
A syndicated revival was produced by Stefan Hatos and Monty Hall in 1974, hosted by Richard Dawson and announced by Jay Stewart. The basic premise was the same as the original show. Bill Bixby, Lee Meriweather, and Nipsey Russell were regular panelists. Col. Harland Sanders of Kentucky Fried...
at mid-season. It aired at 7:30 p.m. Eastern on Mondays with competition from David Janssen
David Janssen
David Janssen was an American film and television actor who is best known for his starring role as Dr. Richard Kimble in the television series The Fugitive , the starring role in the 1950s hit detective series Richard Diamond, Private Detective , and as Harry Orwell on Harry O.In 1996 TV Guide...
's Richard Diamond, Private Detective
Richard Diamond, Private Detective
Richard Diamond, Private Detective is an American detective drama which aired on radio from 1949 to 1953, and on television from 1957 to 1960.-Radio:...
on NBC and Clint Walker
Clint Walker
Norman Eugene Walker, known as Clint Walker , is an American actor best known for his cowboy role as "Cheyenne Bodie" in the TV Western series, Cheyenne.-Life and career:...
's western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
series, Cheyenne
Cheyenne (TV series)
Cheyenne is a western television series of 108 black-and-white episodes broadcast on ABC from 1955 to 1963. The show was the first hour-long western, and in fact the first hour-long dramatic series of any kind, with continuing characters, to last more than one season...
on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
. The Kate Smith Show preceded the second of the two seasons of the Rory Calhoun
Rory Calhoun
Rory Calhoun was an American television and film actor, screenwriter and producer, best known for his roles in Westerns.-Early life:...
western, The Texan
The Texan (TV series)
The Texan is a Western television series starring popular B movie star Rory Calhoun. It aired on the CBS television network from 1958-1960.-Production notes:...
The Ford Show guest
On January 15 and 22, 1959, Smith had been the only guest to appear in two consecutive episodes of NBC's The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie FordThe Ford Show
The Ford Show is a half-hour comedy/variety program, starring singer and folk humorist Tennessee Ernie Ford, which aired in color on NBC television on Thursday evenings from October 4, 1956 to June 29, 1961....
. She performed "It Was So Beautiful," "Somebody Loves Me," and "There's a Goldmine in the Sky", as well as "When The Moon Comes Over The Mountain.". Smith and Tennessee Ernie Ford
Tennessee Ernie Ford
Ernest Jennings Ford , better known as Tennessee Ernie Ford, was an American recording artist and television host who enjoyed success in the country and Western, pop, and gospel musical genres...
performed duets: "You're Just in Love" and "Hey, Good Lookin'."
Later career
From 1969-1976, Smith's singing of "God Bless America" at the Philadelphia FlyersPhiladelphia Flyers
The Philadelphia Flyers are a professional ice hockey team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League...
hockey
Hockey
Hockey is a family of sports in which two teams play against each other by trying to maneuver a ball or a puck into the opponent's goal using a hockey stick.-Etymology:...
games attracted national attention after she had been out of the public limelight for several years.Smith spent her last years in Raleigh
Raleigh, North Carolina
Raleigh is the capital and the second largest city in the state of North Carolina as well as the seat of Wake County. Raleigh is known as the "City of Oaks" for its many oak trees. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city's 2010 population was 403,892, over an area of , making Raleigh...
, North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
. In 1982, U.S. President Ronald W. Reagan traveled to Raleigh in the company of U.S. Senator Jesse Helms
Jesse Helms
Jesse Alexander Helms, Jr. was a five-term Republican United States Senator from North Carolina who served as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1995 to 2001...
, a Smith admirer, to award her the Presidential Medal of Freedom
Presidential Medal of Freedom
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is an award bestowed by the President of the United States and is—along with thecomparable Congressional Gold Medal bestowed by an act of U.S. Congress—the highest civilian award in the United States...
.In 1942, as an actor, Reagan had appeared with Smith in Irving Berlin's This Is the Army
This Is the Army
This Is the Army is a 1943 American wartime motion picture produced by Hal B. Wallis and Jack L. Warner, and directed by Michael Curtiz, and a wartime musical designed to boost morale in the U.S. during World War II, directed by Sgt. Ezra Stone...
. In 1984, Reagan granted the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Tennessee Ernie Ford. Like Smith, he had had also appeared on The Ford Show in 1959 but in different episodes.