The Ford 50th Anniversary Show

The Ford Motor Company celebrating their 50th anniversary with a 2-hour variety show airing on both NBC and CBS, to reach majority of America for this special occasion, with a whole ensemble of performers. Including Wally Cox from one of my favorite TV-series of '53, Mister Peepers, doing several skits. Ethel Merman demands your attention and Mary Martin shows all the shapes and sizes she comes in. They even do recreation of vaudeville and a whole lot of other song numbers.

This was the very first TV spectacular, and has been called "a landmark in television" and "a milestone in the cultural life of the '50s". Definitely a product of its time, it goes in for a good bit of flag-waving and American optimism. But it's worth watching for Wally Cox--a great, subtle comedian, quite underappreciated, and Mary Martin, who is spectacular here: beautiful singing, and her review of 50 years of fashion is brilliant. And Murrow even gets in a dig at McCarthyism.