The Ford Shows

The Ford Motor Company was founded on this day in 1903. As we posted earlier, our enthusiasm for the contributions to the world by Henry Ford are muted, to put it mildly, by his Anti-Semitism. At the same time, the man and his products played a major role in American culture in the 20th century. The case could be made that they defined it.

This is a little run-down of the radio and television variety programs that bore the Ford Motor Company’s name. Naturally, Ford sponsored countless other shows as well; we’re interested here only in the shows that had the company brand right in the title. We add it to our brand new “Advertising and Brands” section of Travalanche, with nearly 50 posts, which was born out of work on my upcoming book on radio and tv shows.

It’s well known that Ford has his own newspaper, the notorious Dearborn Independent, from 1919 to 1927. Less well known is that, at roughly the same time (1922-26) he got in on the ground floor of radio. His Dearborn radio station had the unfortunate call letters “WWI”, which makes it nettlesome to Google nowadays. (Of course back then the First World War wasn’t called that at all, as there hadn’t yet been a second one. It was simply known as the “Great War”). Unlike the Dearborn Independent, the radio station wasn’t political. Later figures from Father Coughlin to Hitler himself would use radio for the same purposes as Ford’s Independent op-eds. But WWI presented mostly music by the Ford Motor Company Band, the Ford Hungarian Gypsy Orchestra, and guest performers. It’s closure in 1926 is telling. That was the year NBC was founded, with CBS coming into being the following year. An independent station instantly became small fry in a world of national networks. And Ford’s business was manufacturing automobiles. Starting his own competing radio network was outside his wheelhouse. (See what I did there?)

Instead, like many major American corporations, Ford opted to underwrite individual entertainment programs to be broadcast on the networks, bearing his brand.

The Ford Sunday Evening Hour ran on CBS radio from 1934 to 1942, and was revived 1945-46. It was mostly and and devotional music program starring the Ford Symphony Orchestra, made up of 75 members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Carmine Coppola was one of the arrangers and conductors on the show, and this is the reason that he named his son Francis FORD Coppola. During intermission, there were remarks by William John Cameron, former editor of the Dearborn Independent. (A series of libel lawsuits prevented them from taking the show in a Father Coughlin style direction however).

During the summer months, it became The Ford Summer Hour and presented lighter musical selections. Meredith Willson was one of the presenters in that version on the show. During the summer of 1946 the show was called The Ford Festival of American Music.

In the ’50s Dinah Shore would famously became associated with Ford’s rival Chevrolet on television. Less well remembered is that for one season (1946-47) she had been the star of The Ford Show. Billed as “The Ford Girl”, her singing was backed by The Robert Dolan Orchestra, and her comedy partner on the show was Peter Lind Hayes. Guests included William Bendix,Dennis Day,Gene Kelly, Carmen Miranda, Johnny Mercer, and Lily Pons.

At this stage, Ford switched from a variety to a dramatic format, called Ford Theatre, featuring original plays performed by famous stars of cinema and the stage. The radio version ran from 1947 through 1948. The TV version (sometimes called Ford Television Theatre), from 1948 through 1957.

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Ford Motor Company, in 1953 Mary Martin and Ethel Merman co-hosted a major variety special on CBS featuring Frank Sinatra, Rudy Vallee, Wally Cox, Dorothy Stickney, Eddie Fisher, and all kinds of other weirdness, such as lyricists Oscar Hammerstein II and Howard Lindsay (who had earlier hosted Ford Theatre on radio), and newsmen Edward R. Murrow and Lowell Thomas. For the kids there were Kukla and Ollie (sans Fran), and, in the interest of diversity, Marian Anderson along with Amos and Andy.

Ford Star Jubilee ran only a single 12 episode season (1955-56), but, man, does it sound like a great show. 10 of the shows were performed live. Some of them, such as the all-star “I Hear America Singing” and a Judy Garland special, were variety shows. But there was also Noel Coward starring in an adaptation of Blithe Spirit with Lauren Bacall,Claudette Colbert,and Mildred Natwick; Orson Welles in Twentieth Century, and Bing Crosby in a musical version of Maxwell Anderson’sHigh Tor. The very last episode was devoted to the first ever television showing of The Wizard of Oz, presented by Bert Lahr and 10 year old Liza Minnelli!

Few remember or ever knew that the first animated version of Charles Schulz’s Peanutswere on The Ford Show (1956-61). This popular variety show was hosted by Tennessee Ernie Ford (unrelated to Henry), which gave the show’s name a kind of intriguing ambiguity: was it named after the star or the sponsor? This was later dispelled when it was tweaked to The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford and finally The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show. Bud Yorkin directed and produced the show. Norman Lear was one of the writers.

For more on show biz history,consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, And please stay tuned for my upcomingElectric Vaudeville: A Century of Radio and TV Variety.