The Hollywood Palace (1964–1970)

Popular, long-running Saturday night variety show of the mid-to-late 1960's, originating from the Hollywood Palace Theater (formerly the El Capitan) on Hollywood Boulevard. There was a ... See full summary »

Stars:

Bing Crosby, Milton Berle, Jimmy Durante

Won 1 Primetime Emmy. Another 9 nominations.

Cast

Complete series cast summary:
Bing Crosby	...	Himself - Host (31 episodes, 1964-1970)
Milton Berle	...	Himself - Host (16 episodes, 1965-1969)
Jimmy Durante	...	Himself - Host (13 episodes, 1964-1969)

Storyline

Popular, long-running Saturday night variety show of the mid-to-late 1960's, originating from the Hollywood Palace Theater (formerly the El Capitan) on Hollywood Boulevard. There was a revolving guest host, usually a singer or comedian, each week. Bing Crosby was the most frequent guest host (including, of course, the Christmas Week show), but other frequent guest hosts included Sammy Davis, Jr., Jimmy Durante, Don Adams, Fred Astaire, and Judy Garland. The Rolling Stones made their first U.S. TV appearence on the show in 1964. The waning popularity of weekly variety shows contributed to "Hollywood Palace" being cancelled in early 1970, but it's still well-remembered by its many fans.

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Plot Keywords:

variety | three word title

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Taglines:

From Hollywood, The Entertainment Capital of the world. ABC-TV presents "The Hollywood Palace!"

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Genres:

Comedy | Family | Music

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Certificate:

TV-G

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 January 1964 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Hollywood Palace Theater - 1735 N. Vine Street, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

American Broadcasting Company (ABC), United Artists Television, Zodiac Enterprises

Technical Specs

Runtime:

60 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White (1964-1965) Color (1965-1970)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

During the 1966-1967 season, Nick Vanoff asked Jim Trittipo and Hub Braden, (his art department staff)), to put together an estimate and proposal to expand the stage facilities of the "Palace Stage"; which would create a swimming pool beneath the existing stage, two sliding floors on tracks which would be a hardwood stage to cover the pool, and a second tracking ice rink floor which would slide on top of the stage floor. The basement of the stage was an orchestra personnel dressing room, actors dressing rooms, and storage rooms. The original theater's orchestra pit had been filled with concrete for "The Jerry Lewis Show" extending the original stage foot light and proscenium edge forward for a camera and sound area, as a production area in front of the original house curtain line. The proposal included removing this front stage area for the swimming pool feature. A water proof video camera port at the front of the pool, underneath the fore-stage's camera area. Storage of the two tracking stage and ice floors, to video the swimming pool, required rebuilding the stage rear wall; acquiring the real estate behind the actual stage-theater property. The adjacent property behind the theater was owned by the Methodist Church, which had converted the former Knickerbocker Hotel into a Methodist retirement senior citizen care facility. ABC would not negotiate a purchase of the The Knickerbocker-Methodist Church property. Vanoff proposed, then, to move the "Hollywood Palace" to the "Culver City Studios" film sound stage. ABC axed Vanoff's proposal maintaining the "Palace" had to remain in Hollywood at their renovated TV stage. After the series was canceled in January, 1970, ten years later, Nick pitched the idea of a very "big variety show" to NBC Television in 1979-1980. "The Big Show" became a two hour special premiere, followed weekly with a one and a half hour program format with two celebrity hosts, for each weekly event. Ed Sullivan's original variety show introduction of a "really big show" was Vanoff's dream realized. Vanoff, during the ten years, had partnered and purchased the abandoned Columbia Studio lot at Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street in Hollywood, which was where the "Big Show" television program originated.

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Connections

Referenced in Bewitched: Baby's First Paragraph (1966)

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Soundtracks

"Put On A Happy Face"
Written by Gower and Margie Champion
Performed by the Les Brown Orchestra and then the Mitchell Ayres Orchestra and the Mort Lindsey Orchestra

User Reviews

Playing the Palace

How I loved the Hollywood Palace back in the day. It was ABC TV's best contribution to our culture back in the day. Of course the fact that the most frequent guest host was the Greatest Entertainer Ever made it a must see item.

Highlights that I remember would include such things as: Bing Crosby dueting with Sonny&Cher, Nelson Eddy making his last big or small screen appearance, Tony Martin and Rudy Vallee, not singing together, but dueting with the clarinet and saxophone, instruments that both played but put aside when their singing careers took over.

The show was a homage to the old Palace Theatre in New York City. In the days of vaudeville it was the summit of every entertainer's ambition; to play at the Palace Theatre.

It was good that people got to see a lot of these folks. I wish that TV Land would broadcast some of these shows.

Classics every one.