The Hollywood Palace 

Various guest hosts present a musical variety show.

Stars:

Bing Crosby, Milton Berle, Jimmy Durante

Won 1 Primetime Emmy. Another 9 nominations.

Cast

Complete series cast summary:
Bing Crosby	...	Himself - Host 32 episodes, 1964-1970
Milton Berle	...	Himself - Host / ... 17 episodes, 1965-1970
Jimmy Durante	...	Himself - Host / ... 15 episodes, 1964-1970

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 show | 

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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 first two (televised in black and white) seasons, Liberace performed as a guest with Jimmy Durante (host [1]-#16-4/18/64) and with Milton Berle (host [2]-#11-12/4/66). Liberace performed as host (during the second mid-season B&W [2]-#15-1/9/65) with Edward G. Robinson in a dance routine of "Me And My Shadow"; Shani Wallace, and Rowan and Martin (comedy team) were guests. In the third "color season", Vanoff built Liberace's second host assignment as a "Liberace Special Appearance" (season [3]-#22-2/26/66); featuring a different piano from Liberace's piano collection in each of his keyboard segments. The art department design team met with Liberace at his Hollywood Boulevard Sunset Strip home to review the collection. Liberace's Louis XIV style concert grand piano case instrument was the show's opening showcase, featured on a 2-step (12" high) semi-circular platform, with double (framed) doors featured at the platform back edge. After the first opening piano number, the double doors snapped closed, revealing a mirrored double door setting. A musical dance number featuring Hollywood Palace Showgirls concluded the show's opening number. A honky-tonk upright featured Liberace performing New Orleans' piano jazz. Liberace also performed on his Ebony Black Baldwin Concert Grand with the 1" thick plastic-glass raised on the clear glass stick. This Baldwin was Liberace's West Coast performance grand piano with his crystal candelabra, which had a duplicate twin piano, located on the East Coast (in storage, used on his Eastern Coast appearances, Candelabra included). The HP design team rented four other candelabras for the other instruments used during the show's segments. Lee considered pulling his pipe organ, to use on the show as well, but Jim Trittipo convinced Liberace the show would need another TV musical hour. The honky-tonk upright piano was stored in the residence's subterranean hillside-garage. Liberace, conducting the seek-the-piano-house tour, explained to the design team his leisure past time home decorating hobby; gluing gold tassel fringe to all the pieces of furniture, to the ceilings crown molding, to the window draped lambrican headers, as well as painting moldings with gold paint. The afternoon house tour was memorable.

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Connections

Featured in The Nicholas Brothers: We Sing and We Dance (1992)

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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.