The Bell Telephone Hour Season 2 Episodes

Episode 1

A Night of Music

Fri, Oct 9, 195960 mins

Season 2 opens with Sally Ann Howes and Alfred Drake singing show tunes; the Kingston Trio performing folk songs; violinist Zino Francescatti playing Debussy and Sarasate; Red Nichols and His Five Pennies with Connie Boswell offering jazz music; and the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo present Offenbach's "Gaite Parisienne."

Episode 2

Music of the West

Fri, Oct 23, 195960 mins

Episode 3

On Stage with Music

Fri, Nov 6, 195960 mins

Burgess Meredith is host. Performers are John Raitt, Jayne P. Morgan, Johnny Desmond, Gene Nelson, Taina Elg, The Four Lads, pianist Loren Hollander, dancers Allegra Kent and Jacques d'Amboise, and the Coast Guard Academy Choir.

Episode 4

The Music of George Gershwin

Fri, Nov 20, 195960 mins

Episode 5

The Gift of Music

Fri, Dec 18, 195960 mins

Episode 6

Our Musical Ambassadors

Fri, Jan 1, 196060 mins

Episode 7

We Two

Fri, Jan 15, 196060 mins

Musical variety show with this episode focusing on famous couples: recording artists Les Paul and Mary Ford; dancers Marge and Gower Champion; singers Gordon and Sheila MacRae; concert pianist JosZ iturbi and his sister Amparo Iturbi; and Raymond Scott and his wife Dorothy Collins.

Episode 8

The Four of Us

Fri, Jan 29, 196060 mins

Four entertainers perform songs not readily associated with them: Ray Bolger sings and dances 'Slaughter on Tenth Avenue;' clarinetist Benny Goodman plays Carl Maria von Weber's Concerto in E-flat Major; Beatrice Lillie sings ballads in a comic style; and Ethel Merman sings ragtime tunes.

Episode 9

Portraits in Music

Fri, Feb 12, 196060 mins

"Portraits in Music" are painted by poet Carl Sandburg, with Nanette Fabray, Julie Andrews, opera singers Victoria de los Angeles and Brian Sullivan, and singer Earl Wrightson. To the music of Aaron Copland's "A Lincoln Portrait," Sandburg reads from Lincoln's letters and speeches. Nanette offers a musical portrait of women during the past 75 years. The opera stars sing arias from Puccini's "La Boheme." Julie and Earl duet songs from Sigmund Romberg operettas.

Episode 10

The Music Makers

Fri, Feb 26, 196060 mins

Polly Bergen is the host with singers John Raitt and Barbara Cook, 15-year-old concert pianist Lorin Hollander; the jazz combo Dukes of Dixieland; the barbershop quartet Buffalo Bills; and the Bob Hamilton dance trio.

Episode 11

Main Street U.S.A.

Fri, Mar 11, 196060 mins

musical-comedy stars Howard Keel hosts with musical comedy stars Carol Lawrence and Eddie Hodges, pianist Roger Williams, singer Connie Francis, the vocal quartet The Hi-Lo's and the American Ballet Theatre. They perform in settings representing a county fair, a concert in the park, a picnic, a barn dance and a school dance. "Graduation Ball," the Ballet Theatre segment, is danced to the music of Johann Strauss.

Episode 12

Concert Hall

Fri, Apr 1, 196060 mins

Ralph Bellamy is the host for this concert of serious music and ballet. Cellist Gregor Piatigorsky plays Gabriel Faure's "Elegie" and Camille Saint-Saens "Allegro Appassionato." Pianist Jose Iturbi plays Manuel De Falla's "Ritual Fire Dance" and Franz Liszt's Concerto No. 1. Opera singers Lucine Amara, Nicolai Gedda and Jerome Hines sing the prison scene from Charles Gounod's "Faust." Prima ballerinas Alicia Alonso, Melissa Hayden, Nora Kaye and Mia Slavenska dance the 1845 Pas de Quatre created by Jules Perrot to the music of Cesare Pugni. The Westminster Choir sing selections appropriate to the Easter season.

Episode 13

The Mikado

Fri, Apr 29, 196060 mins

In a mythical Japan, Ko-Ko, a cheap tailor, has been appointed Lord High Executioner and must find someone to execute before the arrival of the ruling Mikado. He lights upon Nanki-Poo, a strolling minstrel who loves the beautiful Yum-Yum. But Yum-Yum is also loved by Ko-Ko, and Nanki-Poo, seeing no hope for his love, considers suicide. Ko-Ko offers to solve both their problems by executing Nanki-Poo, and an agreement is reached whereby Ko-Ko will allow Nanki-Poo to marry Yum-Yum for one month, at the end of which Nanki-Poo will be executed, in time for the arrival of the Mikado. But what Ko-Ko doesn't know is that Nanki-Poo is the son of the Mikado and has run away to avoid a betrothal to an old harridan named Katisha. The arrival of the Mikado brings all the threads of the tale together.