On November 5th 1956, the musical variety program "The Nat King Cole Show" debuted on NBC. Although it wasn't the first network show to be hosted by an African-American, it was the first of its type to headlined by an artist with Cole's star power. The program, which originally aired for 15 minutes, was expanded to a half hour during the summer of 1957.During its brief run, "The Nat King Cole Show" never had a national sponsor. Depending on who you ask, this was due to either the less than stellar ratings of the show or the reluctance on the part of the companies to sponsor a program headlined by an African-American. Perhaps it may have been a combination of both.
To help "The Nat King Cole Show" financially, many of the top stars in show business (Mel Torme, Ella Fitzgerald, Harry Belafonte, Eartha Kitt, and Peggy Lee just to name a few) worked for the minimum fee. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to save the show. Because both Cole and NBC were operating the show at a financial loss, he decided to pull the plug. The last episode aired on December 17, 1957. Although "The Nat King Cole Show" lasted for little over a year, it does occasionally turn up in reruns on channels such as PBS and BET J.
Below is the link to a 1957 clip from the show that features Cole performing with a 10 yr old Billy Preston. About a year after this performance, the two appeared in the W.C. Handy biopic "St. Louis Blues". Cole portrayed Handy as an adult and Preston played him as a kid. At the end of their duet on the show, Nat predicted that Billy had an excellent career ahead of him. Considering that some of Billy's career achievements included a string of solo hits as well as performing with such artists as Little Richard, Ray Charles and the Beatles, I'd say that Nat was right on the money.
Nat "King" Cole & Billy Preston
7 comments:
That clip was a real treat: two of the all-time great keyboard players in a duet. (Some of my favorite recordings of Cole are when he's not singing, just playing the piano.)
The show had trouble gaining sponsorship, because of fear of a backlash in southern states, if I recall. He was in fact attacked during a concert in Alabama around this time. Other shows that lampooned African Americans (Beulah for example, who was "always in the kitchen, but never knows what's cooking," or Amos 'n Andy) weren't a problem at all, and could easily gan national sponsorship (e.g. Lever Brothers. the makers of Rinso, for Amos 'n Andy).
This really wouldn't change until the late-1960s, early-1970s.
X. Dell: While shaving early this morning, I thought about going back to this post and adding my thoughts on the reasons the show struggled with ratings/national sponsorship, but you beat me to it. :-)
Over the years, I have heard both theories about the show's lack of national sponsorship. I can understand the reluctance on the part of some sponsors (after all, they want their ads to air on shows with high ratings). However, I suspect that even if "The Nat King Cole Show" was a Nielsen winner, some sponsors still wouldn't want to have anything to do with it.
Although it has changed somewhat, many people still have a problem viewing blacks in a serious and dignified manner. To this day, there has never been a long-running drama on network TV that has featured a predominately black cast. The series "Soul Food" had a successful run on TV. However, it aired on the cable channel Showtime, where ratings expectations are lower than network standards.
Has there every been a voice as smooth?
He also had an eye for talent. I was just talking about Billy Preston yesterday!
Think I'll go wheel my iPod down to the "N"s and listen to some Nat :)
Cool! I did not know Billy Preston played the young W.C. Handy, and I have seen the movie a couple of times at least. I do remember Eartha Kitt as the vamp. X. Dell was dead on about Nat King Cole not gaining national sponsorship for his show mainly because of the fear of the loss of revenue from southern states. I've had many discussions regarding how network television fails to take black entertainers seriously. In other words if they are not shuffling and grinning the networks just aren't interested. There have been plenty of shows with stellar casts, that failed to remain on the air because they were dramas ("City of Hope", "Under One Roof") to name a couple. I really don't see any signs of improvement.
Pjjazzypar, Malcolm, I remember Frank's Place, a critically acclaimed drama producd by Tim and Daphne Reid. It was a decent show airing on CBS sometime in the 1980s. CBS had a track record of supporting good shows that struggled early with ratings (M*A*S*H being a good example), but that wasn't the case with this one.
Even white producers have had a difficult time pitching not only black dramas, but smart and innovative black sitcoms with A-list writers. I saw an interview with Susan Harris (Soap, The Golden Girls) where she griped about Hollywood's refusal to take African American audiences and actors seriously. This stemmed from Harris' own attempts to produce an hour-long black drama.
Ironically, some of the most succesfully African American producers have created hit shows and movies centered around white characters for white audiences (e.g. Michael Moye's Married with Children, Debra Martin Chase and Whitney Houston's The Princess Diaries and Suzanne DePasse's Lonesome Dove).
Personally, I'd love to see the above producers create something more autobigraphical:-)
Yes, the show was cancelled because of racists sponsors. The same thing with Richard Pryor. I'm not sure but I think Flip Wilson might have been the first to keep a weekly sitcom running for more than a minute.
Barbara: We'd be hard pressed to find anyone smoother. While putting together this post, I read something that saddened me. I already knew that Nat was a chain smoker. However, he apparently believed smoking kept his voice low and would smoke several cigarettes in quick succession before a recording for this very purpose. It gives the term "suffering for one's art" a whole new meaning.
Pjazzy: Last week, I caught part of "St. Louis Blues" on TCM. Come to think of it, that movie had a helluva cast. In addition to the ones we mentioned, Cab Calloway, Pearl Bailey, and Ruby Dee were also in the cast.
X. Dell: Although I don't recall specific episodes, I remember watching "Frank's Place" on occasion. Tim Reid must shake his head in disgust sometimes: a quality show like "Frank's Place" gets cancelled after one season while a mediocre sitcom like "Sister, Sister" stays on the air for five years.
That's an interesting story about Susan Harris. It's similar to what Steven Bochco faced with "City of Angels". Although that did get on the air, CBS threw it to the wolves by scheduling it against "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" (which was the hottest show on TV at the time).
Colored Girls Who Have Considered: I appreciate you stopping by. We used to watch "The Richard Pryor Show" during its brief run in prime time. Just like what CBS did with "City of Angels" (see above), NBC fed "The Richard Pryor Show" to the wolves by scheduling it opposite "Happy Days" and "Laverne and Shirley" (which were the top 2 rated shows on TV at the time).
Yes, "The Flip Wilson Show" was the first successful network variety show headed by a black performer. Although he later had a sitcom (Charlie and Company) it lasted for just one season.
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