The Bell Telephone Hour

The Bell Telephone Hour, sometimes billed simply as The Telephone Hour, was a long-running radio show featuring classical and popular music and musicians. The show ran on NBC radio from 1940 through 1958, then moved to television, where it ran for another decade; it was one of the first TV shows to be broadcast exclusively in color.

The performers on the show ranged from Jascha Heifetz to Benny Goodman to Margaret Daum. NBC also assembled an outstanding orchestra for the show, which included the legendary saxophonist Joe Allard. As an aside, Benny Goodman is my favorite bandleader of the Swing Era; my father's was Tommy Dorsey.

For more information, see Wikipedia.

Series description provided by Frank Bell.