Hour
Glass was a seminal, if largely forgotten, variety program airing
on NBC-TV from May 1946 to February 1947. It is historically important,
however, in that it exemplified the issues faced by networks, sponsors,
and advertising agencies in television's formative years. The program
was produced by the J. Walter Thompson agency on behalf of Standard
Brands for their Chase and Sanborn and Tenderleaf Tea lines. It
took sponsor and agency several months to decide on the show's format,
eventually choosing variety for two reasons: it allowed for experimentation
with other forms (comedy sketches, musical numbers, short playlets,
and the like), plus Thompson and Standard Brands had previously
collaborated on the successful radio show The Chase and Sanborn
Hour.
The lines of responsibility were not completely defined in those
early years, and the nine-month run of Hour Glass was punctuated
by frequent squabbling among the principals. Each show was assembled
by seven Thompson employees working in two teams, each putting together
a show over two weeks in a frenzy of production. The format was
familiar to Chase and Sanborn Hour listeners in that the
program accentuated star power as the means of drawing the largest
audience. Hour Glass featured different performers every week, including
Peggy Lee and--in one of the first examples of a top radio star
appearing on network television--Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy
in November 1946. The show also showcased filmed segments produced
by Thompson's Motion Picture Department; these ranged from short
travelogues to advertisements. Every episode also included a ten
minute drama, which proved one of the more popular portions of the
show.
It must have been the curiosity factor that prompted some stars
to appear on the show because they certainly were not paid much
money. Hour Glass had a talent budget of only $350 a week,
hardly more than scale for a handful of performers. Still, Standard
Brands put an estimated $200,000 into the program's nine-month run,
by far the largest amount ever devoted to a sponsored show at that
time.
Although
Thompson and Standard Brands representatives occasionally disagreed
over the quality of individual episodes, their association was placid
compared to the constant sniping that was the hallmark of the agency's
relationship with NBC. It started with unhappiness over studio space,
which Thompson regarded as woefully inadequate, and escalated when
the network insisted that a NBC director manage the show from live
rehearsals through actual broadcast. The network was similarly displeased
that Thompson refused to clear their commercials with NBC before
air time.
In February 1947 Standard Brands canceled Hour Glass. They were
pleased with the show's performance in terms of beverage sales and
its overall quality, yet were leery about continuing to pour money
into a program that did not reach a large number of households (it
is unclear if the show was broadcast anywhere other than NBC's interconnected
stations in New York and Philadelphia). The strain between NBC and
Thompson played a role as well. Still, Hour Glass did provide
Thompson with a valuable blueprint for the agency's celebrated and
long-running production, Kraft Television Theatre.
-Michael Mashon
