The Nat "King" Cole Show

I don't know how long it's going to last, but for right now the BET Jazz channel is showing, on Tuesdays at 10am, 6pm, and 11pm, old kinescopes (pre-tape, that is) of the Nat "King" Cole Show.

It's two of the half-hour shows put together for a hour's worth of Mr. Cole.

Mr. Cole always has a musical guest -- last week it was Coleman Hawkins and then Cab Calloway.

Format is: song, song, song, song. No "bits." Banter is minimal. Mr. Cole sings a few of the Great American Songbook's hits to absolute perfection, then joins his guest for a number or two. Pace is unrushed. Background sets are not quite up to high school play standards.

The show is beyond charming.

Here's an article on the show:

The Nat "King" Cole Show, premiered on NBC as a fifteen-minute weekly musical variety show in November 1956. Cole, an international star as a jazz pianist and uniquely gifted vocalist, became the first major black performer to host a network variety series. It was a bruising experience for him, however, and an episode in television history that illuminates the state of race relations in the United States at the dawn of the modern civil rights movement.

Cole's first hit record, "Straighten Up and Fly Right," was recorded with his Nat "King" Cole Trio in 1944. By the mid-1950s he was a solo act--a top night-club performer with several million-selling records, including "Nature Boy," "Mona Lisa," and "Too Young." A frequent guest on variety programs such as those hosted by Perry Como, Milton Berle, Ed Sullivan, Dinah Shore, Jackie Gleason, and Red Skelton, Cole was in the mainstream of American show business. His performances delighted audiences and he seemed to be a natural for his own TV show, which he very much wanted.

...

In the inevitable postmortem on the show, Cole praised NBC for its efforts. "The network supported this show from the beginning," he said. "From Mr. Sarnoff on down, they tried to sell it to agencies. They could have dropped it after the first thirteen weeks." The star placed the blame squarely on the advertising industry. "Madison Avenue," Cole said, "is afraid of the dark."

In an Ebony magazine article entitled "Why I Quit My TV Show," Cole expressed his frustration: "For 13 months I was the Jackie Robinson of television. I was the pioneer, the test case, the Negro first....On my show rode the hopes and tears and dreams of millions of people....Once a week for 64 consecutive weeks I went to bat for these people. I sacrificed and drove myself. I plowed part of my salary back into the show. I turned down $500,000 in dates in order to be on the scene. I did everything I could to make the show a success. And what happened? After a trailblazing year that shattered all the old bugaboos about Negroes on TV, I found myself standing there with the bat on my shoulder. The men who dictate what Americans see and hear didn't want to play ball."

For the complete article, go to:

http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/N...natkingcole.htmBack to top

Thanks for the heads-up. I'm going to set my Tivo to record it.

(I couldn't get your link to work)

Went back to try and fix this link, but it didn't work. Very screwed-up website. Sorry.