This was a Colgate-sponsored comedy hour that featured many notable comedians and entertainers of the era as guest stars.
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.
Martin & Lewis (Episode 1)
Air date: 1953-10-04
Overview: Skits: Burt plays an escaped lunatick. Songs: "Great To Be Home", "You're The Right One", "That's Amore", "There's No Tomorrow"
Jimmy Durante (Episode 2)
Air date: 1953-10-11
Eddie Cantor (Episode 3)
Air date: 1953-10-18
Donald O'Connor (Episode 4)
Writer: Sidney Miller
Air date: 1953-10-25
Bud Abbott with Martin & Lewis (Episode 5)
Air date: 1953-11-01
Jimmy Durante (Episode 6)
Air date: 1953-11-08
Martha Raye (Episode 7)
Air date: 1953-11-15
Donald O'Connor (Episode 8)
Air date: 1953-11-22
Eddie Cantor (Episode 9)
Air date: 1953-11-29
Overview: 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.
Jimmy Durante (Episode 10)
Air date: 1953-12-06
Perry Como and Martha Raye (Episode 11)
Air date: 1953-12-13
Donald O'Connor (Episode 12)
Air date: 1953-12-20
Eddie Cantor (Episode 13)
Air date: 1953-12-27
Jimmy Durante (Episode 14)
Air date: 1954-01-03
Martin & Lewis (Episode 15)
Air date: 1954-01-10
Alan Young, Stan Freberg, Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby (Episode 16)
Air date: 1954-01-17
Ethel Merman (Episode 17)
Air date: 1954-01-24
Eddie Cantor (Episode 18)
Air date: 1954-01-31
Jimmy Durante (Episode 19)
Air date: 1954-02-07
Donald O'Connor (Episode 20)
Air date: 1954-02-14
Sonja Henie (with Abbott & Costello) (Episode 21)
Air date: 1954-02-21
Overview: 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.
ANYTHING GOES w Ethel Merman, Frank Sinatra, Bert Lahr (Episode 22)
Air date: 1954-02-28
Eddie Cantor (Episode 23)
Air date: 1954-03-07
Jimmy Durante (Episode 24)
Air date: 1954-03-14
Abbott & Costello (Episode 25)
Air date: 1954-03-21
Eddie Cantor (Episode 26)
Air date: 1954-04-04
Jimmy Durante (Episode 27)
Air date: 1954-04-11
Abbott & Costello (Episode 28)
Writer: John Grant
Air date: 1954-04-18
Overview: 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.
Ice Capades Special (Episode 29)
Air date: 1954-04-25
Martin & Lewis (Episode 30)
Air date: 1954-05-02
Jimmy Durante (Episode 31)
Air date: 1954-05-09
Eddie Cantor (Episode 32)
Air date: 1954-05-16
Abbott & Costello (Episode 33)
Air date: 1954-05-23
Overview: 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.
