Ford Star Jubilee

Infobox television
show_name = Ford Star Jubilee


caption =
format = anthology
runtime = 90 minutes
creator =
starring =
country = USA
network = CBS
first_aired = September 24, 1955
last_aired = November 3, 1956
num_episodes = 12

"Ford Star Jubilee" was a live, ninety minute, color spectacular that aired once a month on Saturday nights on CBS from September 1955 to November 1956, at 9;00 P.M., E.S.T.

Ford Motor Company sponsored this big-budget Comedy / Drama / Music anthology series, which featured big name performers, color broadcast and a longer than normal 90 minute format.

This series routinely featured major stars, such as Judy Garland, Betty Grable, Orson Welles, Julie Andrews (at the time that she was preparing for her starring role in "My Fair Lady" on Broadway), Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, Lillian Gish, Charles Laughton, Jack Lemmon, Raymond Massey, Lauren Bacall, Claudette Colbert, Noel Coward, Nat 'King' Cole, Mary Martin, Eddie Fisher, Ella Fitzgerald, Red Skelton and Debbie Reynolds.

Instead of the usual live performance, the final episode on November 3, 1956 was a special, two-hour presentation of the 1939 MGM film "The Wizard of Oz", hosted by Bert Lahr, 10 year old Liza Minnelli and young Oz expert Justin Schiller. The broadcast was a ratings smash, but the film was not shown on TV again until 1959, when it was shown at an earlier hour (6:00 P.M., E.S.T.), guest-hosted by Red Skelton and his daughter Valentina as a Christmas season special in its own right, not as part of an anthology series. This broadcast attracted an even wider audience, because children were able to watch, and thus began the tradition of showing the film annually on television.

Episode List

* The Judy Garland Show 9/24/1955
* Together With Music 10/22/1955
* The Caine Mutiny Court Martial 11/19/1955
* I Hear America Singing 12/17/1955
* Blithe Spirit 1/14/1956
* The Day Lincoln Was Shot 2/11/1956
* High Tor 3/10/1956
* Twentieth Century 4/7/1956
* This Happy Breed 5/5/1956
* A Bell For Adano 6/2/1956
* You're The Top 10/6/1956
* The Wizard of Oz 11/3/1956

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047731/ Ford Star Jubilee at IMDB]