Today the television variety show The Hollywood Palace is perhaps only remembered by those of a certain age and fans of classic television, as well as television and music historians. While it may not be well remembered today, it was very much a success while it was on the air. The Hollywood Palace boasted guests ranging from such classic movie stars as Ginger Rogers to popular comedians such as Bob Newhart to acrobats to rock acts such as Paul Revere & The Raiders. While it never ranked in the top thirty shows for the year, it received respectable ratings, particularly for the then struggling network ABC. Ultimately, it ran for seven seasons. The Hollywood Palace debuted on January 4 1964, so that the show just turned sixty.
The origins of The Hollywood Palace can actually be traced back to a show on an entirely different network, namely the late night show Tonight on NBC. It was in 1962 that popular host Jack Paar left Tonight. Johnny Carson, who had hosted his own short-lived variety show, The Johnny Carson Show, on CBS and was then the host of the game show Who Do You Trust? on ABC, was chosen as Jack Paar's successor as the host of Tonight (even then referred to informally as The Tonight Show). NBC would have to wait for Johnny Carson, as his contractual obligations to ABC and Who Do You Trust? producer Don Fedderson would not make him available to host The Tonight Show until October 1 1962. In the interim NBC relied on a number of guest hosts on The Tonight Show, a short list of which included Joey Bishop, Jack Carter, Bob Cummings, Jimmy Dean, Arlene Francis, Art Linkletter, and Groucho Marx. Among these guest hosts was actor and comedian Jerry Lewis, who hosted The Tonight Show for two weeks. Jerry Lewis's stint as a guest host on The Tonight Show proved so successful that NBC, CBS, and ABC made offers to Lewis to star in his own show. ABC won in the end, although at a substantial cost.
Jerry Lewis signed a contract for $8 million per season with forty-two episodes a year with ABC. The contract also gave Jerry Lewis complete creative control. For the talk and variety show, The El Capitan Theatre (now the Avalon Hollywood), at one time home to The Colgate Comedy Hour, Truth or Consequences, and This Is Your Life, was completely renovated at an enormous cost, and renamed The Jerry Lewis Theatre. Ultimately, The Jerry Lewis Show, a two-hour talk and variety show airing on Saturday night, would be the most expensive variety show in the history of American television.
Unfortunately, The Jerry Lewis Show would also be a complete and utter failure. It debuted on September 21 1963 to largely hostile reviews. Worse yet, while the first episode of the show did well enough in the Nielsens, the ratings dropped precipitously over the next few weeks. It was then on November 10 1963, less than two months after it had debuted, that ABC announced that The Jerry Lewis Show had been cancelled. The cancellation did cost ABC dearly, as they had to buy out Jerry Lewis's contract. The star walked away with around $10 million, although some have claimed it was even more.
The debacle that was The Jerry Lewis Show left ABC in a bit of a lurch. Not only had they spent an extraordinarily huge amount of money on a show that bombed, but they were now left with nothing to air on Saturday night at 9:30 PM Eastern/8:30 PM Central. ABC partially rectified this problem by giving the 10:30 PM Eastern/9:30 PM Central back to their local affiliates. As to the hour beginning at 9:30 PM/8:30 PM, it would now be occupied by a hastily thrown together variety show. What was once The El Capitan and then The Jerry Lewis Theatre was renamed The Hollywood Palace, which was also the name of ABC's new variety show replacing The Jerry Lewis Show.
The Hollywood Palace differed from other variety shows of the era in that it did not have a regular host, and instead used a different host each week. Legendary crooner Bing Crosby hosted The Hollywood Palace more than anyone else, a total of 32 times (including the Christmas editions of the show). Other notable hosts on the show included Jack Benny, Milton Berle, Ernest Bognine, Joan Crawford, Bob Cummings, Bette Davis, Jimmy Durante, Judy Garland, Betty Grable, Dean Martin, Debbie Reynolds, Phil Silvers, and Adam West. As might be expected, when he hosted the March 7 1964 edition of The Hollywood Palace, Dean Martin had to take a poke at his former partner, remarking that he would like to thank Jerry Lewis for "...building me this theatre." Among the regulars on the show would be one who would soon be famous. For a time Raquel Welch served as the show's "Billboard Girl," who was responsible for placing the names of the acts on placards. Dick Tufeld served as the show's off-screen announcer.
The Hollywood Palace has often been compared to The Ed Sullivan Show in the variety of acts booked on the show. That having been said, The Hollywood Palace was able to book acts that Ed Sullivan never could. An adjacent parking lot was sometimes used for trapeze and high-wire acts that The Ed Sullivan Theatre in New York City could never accommodate. The fact that The Hollywood Palace was in Hollywood was another advantage it had over The Ed Sullivan Show.Quite simply, being located in Los Angeles, acts could be easily flown in from Las Vegas, giving the show access to many comedians and musicians.
Regardless, The Hollywood Palace featured a wide variety of acts throughout its run. Stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood were represented on the show by such legends as Dan Dailey, Bette Davis, Ann Miller, Jane Powell, and Cesar Romero. Several popular comedians appeared on the show, including Burns & Schreiber, Jack Carter, Shecky Greene, Pat Morita, Bob Newhart, and Rowan & Martin. Among the most frequent acts on the show was the performing elephants Bertha and Tina. Also appearing on The Hollywood Palace were such novelty acts as the acrobats the Hardy Family, The Berosini Chimps, The Flying Wallendas, and Les Salvadori (an Italian clown troupe).
For the first season Les Brown and His Band of Renown served as the show's house band. Starting with its second season and for the rest of its run, Mitchell Ayres and His Orchestra were the house band on The Hollywood Palace. The show featured a number of notable singers, including Rosemary Clooney, Mary Costa, Vic Damone, Nat King Cole,Eydie Gormé, and Nancy Wilson. Of course, today The Hollywood Palace may be best remembered for the American television debut of The Rolling Stones. Unfortunately, that debut was less than pleasant for The Stones. The host of the night Dean Martin made the band the butt of several jokes. While The Rolling Stones recorded two songs, ultimately only 45 seconds of the band would make it into the June 13 1964 edition of the show. Fortunately, for The Rolling Stones, their second song (a cover of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away") would air on the second episode of the second season without ridicule. Ultimately, The Hollywood Palace would feature several rock and R&B acts, including The 5th Dimension, Buffalo Springfield, The Jackson 5, The Mamas & the Papas, Paul Revere & The Raiders, The Supremes, The Turtles, and We Five. While The Beatles never appeared on The Hollywood Palace, their promotional films for "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" were shown on the February 25 1967 edition of the show.
Ratings for The Hollywood Palace dropped in its seventh season, perhaps due to competition from Mannix on CBS and NBC Saturday Night at the Movies on NBC. ABC then cancelled the show, with its last edition airing on February 7 1970. Fittingly enough, it was hosted by Bing Crosby, who had also hosted the first edition of the show. Sadly, very little has been seen of The Hollywood Palace ever since. The residuals for the many performers on the show, not to mention union contract fees for musicians, simply made it too expensive to be syndicated as a rerun. PBS aired a compilation of clips from The Hollywood Palace on December 16 2004 titled Christmas at the Hollywood Palace. There are clips from the show to be found on YouTube and there are also several unofficial DVD releases. It is not available on any streaming service.
Ultimately, The Hollywood Palace was much more than a hastily thrown together replacement for the failed Jerry Lewis Show or a knock-off of The Ed Sullivan Show. It was a showcase of acts ranging from stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood to current comedians and rock acts to novelty acts such as dancing elephants and performing chimps Although remembered only by a few and currently unavailable, the show has a definite place in television history. One can only hope that the entire series will become widely available one day.
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