The ''Gillette Cavalcade of Sports'' is an American

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...

-turned-

television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

by the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) that ran from 1942 to 1960. The program included broadcasts of a variety of

sport Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...

s, although it is primarily remembered for its focus on

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermine ...

matches.

Overview and background

The ''Cavalcade of Sports'' officially began on radio in 1942 as the

Gillette Company Gillette is an American brand of safety razors and other personal care products including shaving supplies, owned by the multi-national corporation Procter & Gamble (P&G). Based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, it was owned by The Gill ...

grouped various existing sports sponsorships under one banner. The sponsorships had begun three years earlier, according to an article on the Gillette Company in Vol. 68 of the ''International Directory of Company Histories''. In 1939, Gillette president Joseph Spang purchased the sponsorship rights to the

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...

on behalf of Gillette for $100,000. A special promotion of Gillette razors and blueblades sold four times better than company estimates, resulting in the company seeking out additional sponsorships for sporting events. The Gillette stable of radio sports programs spanned several different networks (including the

NBC Red Network The NBC, National Broadcasting Company's NBC Radio Network (known as the NBC Red Network prior to 1942) was an American commercial radio network which was in operation from 1926 through 2004. Along with the Blue Network, NBC Blue Network it was ...

CBS Radio Network CBS News Radio, formerly known as CBS Radio News and historically known as the CBS Radio Network, is a radio network that provides news to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by Paramount Global. ...

and the

Mutual Broadcasting System The Mutual Broadcasting System (commonly referred to simply as Mutual; sometimes referred to as MBS, Mutual Radio or the Mutual Radio Network) was an American commercial radio network in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the Old-time radio, golden ...

) and grew to include not only ongoing sponsorship deals with

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

for the World Series and

All-Star Game An all-star game is an exhibition game that purports to showcase the best players (the "stars") of a sports league. The exhibition is between two teams organized solely for the event, usually representing the league's teams based on region or d ...

, but the annual Kentucky Derby horse race and the

Cotton Bowl Classic The Cotton Bowl Classic (also known as the Cotton Bowl) is an American college football bowl game that has been held annually in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex since January 1, 1937. The game was originally played at its namesake stadium i ...

and

Orange Bowl The Orange Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in the Miami metropolitan area. It has been played annually since January 1, 1935, making it, along with the Sugar Bowl and the Sun Bowl, the second-oldest bowl game ...

in college football. In his book about Gillette's history ''Cutting Edge'', author Gordon McKibben wrote, "most males in the 1940s and 1950s did not have to be told that the ''Cavalcade of Sports'' meant Gillette was sponsoring another ball game or horse race". The diversified field of sporting events continued onto television, reportedly including at least two golfing tournaments as well as college football's Blue–Gray Classic and (beginning in 1958) the Rose Bowl game. As late as 1988, the ''Cavalcade of Sports'' banner was used in connection with Gillette's sponsorship of the NHL's

Stanley Cup Playoffs The Stanley Cup playoffs (french: Les séries éliminatoires de la Coupe Stanley) is an elimination tournament in the National Hockey League (NHL) consisting of four rounds of best-of-seven series to determine the league champion and the winner ...

. Internationally, the ''Gillette World Sports'' program continues the concept to the present day in many international regions from

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

. With all of this, however, the ''Cavalcade of Sports'' was best known for its Friday night boxing broadcasts that aired on NBC from 1946 to 1960, and then, after NBC decided against featuring boxing due to sensitivity over criminal allegations in the sport, for several more years on ABC.

As ''Cavalcade of Sports''

Its earlier iteration, ''Cavalcade of Sports'', likewise a boxing show, ran on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

station WNBT (channel 4, now

WNBC WNBC (channel 4) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Linden, New Jersey–licensed Telemundo stati ...

) intermittently beginning in 1943 and was picked up by the NBC television network three years later. The twice-weekly 1946 shows began on Monday, November 8 at 9:00 p.m. and Friday, November 12 at 9:30 p.m.

Eastern Time The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, mainland Ecuador, Peru, and a small por ...

. Both were open-ended programs – as the station signed off the air after the last bout ended (in the early days of television, most stations did not have late-night local newscasts). St. Nicholas Arena in New York City was the site of the earliest bouts and continued to host the Monday night fights until that program's cancellation in May 1949.

As ''Gillette Cavalcade of Sports''

The Friday night program, broadcast from Madison Square Garden lasted until June 24, 1960, a 14-year period which is, by far, the longest continuous run of any boxing program in television history. The Gillette sponsorship began at the start of the first full television programming season, 1948-49. On September 4, the program was retitled ''The Gillette Cavalcade of Sports'', a name that remained until the end of its run. Every great boxer of the time – including among others

Rocky Marciano Rocco Francis Marchegiano (September 1, 1923 – August 31, 1969; ), better known as Rocky Marciano (, ), was an American professional boxer who competed from 1947 to 1955, and held the world heavyweight title from 1952 to 1956. He is the onl ...

Sugar Ray Robinson Walker Smith Jr. (May 3, 1921 – April 12, 1989), better known as Sugar Ray Robinson, was an American professional boxer who competed from 1940 to 1965. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990. He is often regard ...

Archie Moore Archie Moore (born Archibald Lee Wright; December 13, 1913 – December 9, 1998) was an American professional boxer and the longest reigning World Light Heavyweight Champion of all time (December 1952 – May 1962). He had one of the longest ...

Rocky Graziano Thomas Rocco Barbella (January 1, 1919 – May 22, 1990), better known as Rocky Graziano, was an American professional boxer and actor who held the World Middleweight title. Graziano is considered one of the greatest knockout artists in boxing hi ...

Willie Pep Willy or Willie is a masculine, male given name, often a diminutive form of William or Wilhelm, and occasionally a nickname. It may refer to: People Given name or nickname * Willie Aames (born 1960), American actor, television director, and scre ...

– appeared on one or more of its broadcasts. In the early years of television, there was a saturation of boxing programs, as many as six prime-time network programs in one week, not even counting the myriad local shows. With so much boxing airing simultaneously, all weight divisions had a chance at stardom, not just heavyweight contenders.

Commentators

Bob Haymes Robert William Haymes (March 29, 1923 – January 27, 1989), also known by the stage names Robert Stanton and Bob Stanton, was an American singer, songwriter, actor and radio and television host. He is best remembered for co-writing the song " Th ...

(using the stage name Bob Stanton) was the program's original announcer; he was joined by Ray Forrest in 1948. Jimmy Powers took over the role in 1949 and remained

's main boxing announcer until the network ceased carrying prime time boxing matches in 1960.

Theme music

The show's theme music was the "Look Sharp/Be Sharp March" by Mahlon Merrick, an upbeat tune that was recorded, published (and sheet music printed) sometime between 1953 and 1956. It received quite a bit of airplay on U.S. radio programs, and was used in the repertoire of many high school and college bands of the period. There is a 1954 rendition of the song by the

Boston Pops The Boston Pops Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, specializing in light classical and popular music. The orchestra's current music director is Keith Lockhart. Founded in 1885 as an offshoot of the Boston Sym ...

under

Arthur Fiedler Arthur Fiedler (December 17, 1894 – July 10, 1979) was an American conductor known for his association with both the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops orchestras. With a combination of musicianship and showmanship, he made the Boston Pops one ...

br>on YouTube
The "March" was used in the 1980 film '' Raging Bull'' during a scene in which the Robert De Niro character Jake LaMotta unveils his new nightclub. Coleco's Head-to-Head Boxing handheld video game, released in 1981, played the most identifiable eight-note part of the tune when turned on and the first three notes of that at the start of each round. The music is also used in the '' Punch-Out!!'' series of video games published by Nintendo, and the 1993 Argentine film '' Gatica, el mono''.

Recognition

Awards and nominations

The ''Gillette Cavalcade of Sports'' won an Emmy Award for Best Sports Program in 1955. It also received an Emmy nomination for Best Sports or News Program in 1954.

Nielsen ratings

According to Nielsen, the program finished at #6 for the 1950-51 season; it slide to #19 in 1951-52 and then to #24 in 1952-53 before rebounding somewhat to #18 in 1953-54. No other boxing series has ever ranked in the Nielsen top 10 in its season ratings.

Latin America

In the late 1940s, when the ''Cavalcade'' was aired through

extended their Spanish programming activities to Latin American countries, where it was known as the ''Cabalgata Deportiva Gillette''. Its schedule included the MLB Game of the Week aired on Saturday afternoons, the

MLB All-Star Game The Major League Baseball All-Star Game, also known as the "Midsummer Classic", is an annual professional baseball game sanctioned by Major League Baseball (MLB) and contested between the all-stars from the American League (AL) and National ...

in the midseason and the fall

. On there, shared duties Spanish-language broadcasters such as Pancho Pepe Cróquer,

Buck Canel Eloy "Buck" Canel (March 4, 1906 – April 7, 1980) was an American Spanish language sportscaster of Major League Baseball games. Canel was born in Argentina when his father was working for the Spanish consulate in that country. His famous ca ...

, and Felo Ramírez. During the opening presentation, Canel habitually introduced Cróquer as ''La Voz Deportiva de América''. In addition, the ''Cavalcade'' broadcast the bouts of every great fighter of the time, including

Sandy Saddler Joseph "Sandy" Saddler (June 23, 1926 – September 18, 2001) was an American professional boxer. He was a two-time featherweight world champion, having also held the super featherweight title. Over his twelve-year career (1944–56), Saddler s ...

and

Jersey Joe Walcott Arnold Raymond Cream (January 31, 1914 – February 25, 1994), best known as Jersey Joe Walcott, was an American professional boxer who competed from 1930 to 1953. He held the NYSAC, NBA, and ''The Ring'' heavyweight titles from 1951 to 1952 ...

, whose fights were accurately and succinctly described by Cróquer on its Friday nights broadcasts from Madison Square Garden. He is particularly remembered for his emotional description on the second of four matches held between Pep and Saddler, which was aired in February 1949.

United Kingdom

The imitatively-titled, but otherwise unrelated, series ''Cavalcade of Sport'' aired on ITV in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

in 1956, early in the British commercial network's life.

References

External links

*
Gillette Cavalcade of Sports Theme Song
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6cyy_rziuk - 1958 titles {{Boxing on television Boxing television series NBC Sports 1940s American television series 1950s American television series 1960s American television series 1946 American television series debuts 1960 American television series endings NBC original programming American sports television series Black-and-white American television shows English-language television shows