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Silent Show
''Silent Show'' is a 1957 American half-hour television comedy special created by and starring Ernie Kovacs. It was broadcast on NBC, and was selected by the United States as the only television program screened at the 1958 World's Fair in Brussels. In 1961 Kovacs restaged and expanded the ''Silent Show''s "Eugene" sketch for the ABC network. Background In 1956 NBC wanted to present to the viewing public an example of the new technology of color television, and they hired Ernie Kovacs to write and star in one of the first color television shows to be broadcast. Although NBC was more interested in the "visual splendor" of what would be shown, Kovacs went one step further and, aside from his opening monologue and the Dutch Masters cigar commercials, decided to banish all human conversation from the show. NBC had another reason for this special: a hole in its lineup on a particular Saturday night. After Jerry Lewis broke up his longtime partnership with Dean Martin, NBC had offe ...
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Ernie Kovacs
Ernest Edward Kovacs (January 23, 1919 – January 13, 1962) was an American comedian, actor, and writer. Kovacs's visually experimental and often spontaneous comedic style influenced numerous television comedy programs for years after his death. Kovacs has been credited as an influence by many individuals and shows, including Johnny Carson, '' Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In'', ''Saturday Night Live'', '' Monty Python's Flying Circus'', Jim Henson, '' Max Headroom'', Chevy Chase, Conan O'Brien, Jimmy Kimmel, '' Captain Kangaroo'', ''Sesame Street'', '' The Electric Company'', '' Pee-wee's Playhouse'', ''The Muppet Show'', Dave Garroway, Andy Kaufman, ''You Can't Do That on Television'', '' Mystery Science Theater 3000'', and Uncle Floyd, among others. Chase even thanked Kovacs during his acceptance speech for his Emmy Award for ''Saturday Night Live''. While Kovacs and his wife Edie Adams received Emmy nominations for Best Performances in a Comedy Series during 1957, his ta ...
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Ernie Kovacs Milk Visual 1957
Ernie is a masculine given name, frequently a short form (hypocorism) of Ernest, Ernald, Ernesto, or Verner. It may refer to: People * Ernie Accorsi (born 1941), American football executive * Ernie Adams (other) * Ernie Afaganis (born c. 1933), Canadian sports announcer * Ernie Althoff (born 1950), Australian musician and composer * Ernie Anastos (born 1943), American television journalist * Ernie Anderson (1923–1997), American radio and television announcer * Ernie Ashcroft (1925–1985), English rugby league footballer * Ernie Ball (1930–2004), American guitarist and businessman * Ernie Banks (1931–2015), American baseball player * Ernie Barbarash, American film producer * Ernie Barnes (1938–2009), American football player and painter * Ernie Blenkinsop (1902–1969), English footballer * Ernie Boch Jr. (born 1958), American billionaire businessman * Ernie Bond (other) * Ernie Bridge (1936–2013), Australian politician * Ernie Broglio (1935–2 ...
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1957 Television Specials
Events January * January 1 – The Saarland joins West Germany. * January 3 – Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch. * January 5 – South African player Russell Endean becomes the first batsman to be Dismissal (cricket), dismissed for having handled the ball, in Test cricket. * January 9 – British Prime Minister Anthony Eden resigns. * January 10 – Harold Macmillan becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. * January 11 – The African Convention is founded in Dakar. * January 14 – Kripalu Maharaj is named fifth Jagadguru (world teacher), after giving seven days of speeches before 500 Hindu scholars. * January 15 – The film ''Throne of Blood'', Akira Kurosawa's reworking of ''Macbeth'', is released in Japan. * January 20 ** Israel withdraws from the Sinai Peninsula (captured from Egypt on October 29, 1956). * January 26 – The Ibirapuera Planetarium (the first in the Southern Hemisphere) is inaugurated in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. F ...
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1950s American Television Specials
Year 195 ( CXCV) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known in Rome as the Year of the Consulship of Scrapula and Clemens (or, less frequently, year 948 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 195 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * Emperor Septimius Severus has the Roman Senate deify the previous emperor Commodus, in an attempt to gain favor with the family of Marcus Aurelius. * King Vologases V and other eastern princes support the claims of Pescennius Niger. The Roman province of Mesopotamia rises in revolt with Parthian support. Severus marches to Mesopotamia to battle the Parthians. * The Roman province of Syria is divided and the role of Antioch is diminished. The Romans annex the Syrian cities of Edessa and Nisibis. Severus re-establishes his headquarters and the colonies th ...
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Directors Guild Of America Award
The Directors Guild of America Awards are issued annually by the Directors Guild of America. The first DGA Award was an "Honorary Life Member" award issued in 1938 to D. W. Griffith. The statues are made by New York firm, Society Awards. Categories Competitive categories Special awards Discontinued categories Winners – Motion Picture Lifetime Achievement Award (formerly the D. W. Griffith Lifetime Achievement Award) * 1953: Cecil B. DeMille * 1954: John Ford * 1955: No award * 1956: Henry King * 1957: King Vidor * 1958: No award * 1959: Frank Capra * 1960: George Stevens * 1961: Frank Borzage * 1962–1965: No award * 1966: William Wyler * 1967: No award * 1968: Alfred Hitchcock * 1969: No award * 1970: Fred Zinnemann * 1971–1972: No award * 1973: William A. Wellman and David Lean * 1974–1980: No award * 1981: George Cukor * 1982: Rouben Mamoulian * 1983: John Huston * 1984: Orson Welles * 1985: Billy Wilder * 1986: Joseph L. Mankiewicz * 1987: Elia Kaza ...
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Life (magazine)
''Life'' (stylized as ''LIFE'') is an American magazine launched in 1883 as a weekly publication. In 1972, it transitioned to publishing "special" issues before running as a monthly from 1978 to 2000. Since then, ''Life'' has irregularly published "special" issues. Originally published from 1883 to 1936 as a general-interest and humor publication, it featured contributions from many important writers, illustrators and cartoonists of its time, such as Charles Dana Gibson and Norman Rockwell. In 1936, Henry Luce purchased the magazine, and relaunched it as the first all-photographic American news magazine. Its place in the history of photojournalism is considered one of its most important contributions to the world of publishing. From 1936 to the 1960s, ''Life'' was a wide-ranging general-interest magazine known for its photojournalism. During this period, it was one of the most popular magazines in the United States, with its circulation regularly reaching a quarter of the U.S. ...
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Operation Mad Ball
''Operation Mad Ball'' is a 1957 American military comedy from Columbia Pictures, produced by Jed Harris, directed by Richard Quine, that stars Jack Lemmon, Ernie Kovacs, Kathryn Grant, Arthur O'Connell, and Mickey Rooney. The screenplay is by Blake Edwards, Jed Harris, and Arthur Carter, based on an unproduced play by Carter. Plot Following World War II in 1945, at a U.S. Army hospital unit in France, Pvt. Hogan does not believe that a blue-stocking can ever be good-looking. Catching first sight of new arrival nurse Lt. Betty Bixby convinces him otherwise. He picks up her dropped cigarette lighter after putting aside his M-1 rifle. He is seen by security officer Capt. Paul Lock, who admonishes him for doing so while Hogan is standing night guard duty. Lock confines him to quarters preliminary to a court martial. The colonel in charge of the hospital, however, would prefer to keep everything "in the family" and avoid a court martial. He knows it would be bad for camp morale ...
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Sylvania Award
The Sylvania Awards were given by the television manufacturer Sylvania Electric Products for various categories of television performance, broadcasting, scripts, music and other aspects of production between 1951 and 1959. In their day they rivaled the Emmy Award for prestige. They came to an end after the sponsor was merged into GTE. History Sylvania Electric Products, a television set manufacturer, gave the annual Sylvania Awards from 1951. The awards were given for advancing creative television techniques. The Sylvania Award was as prestigious as the Emmy Award in the early days of television. It was one of several developed in the 1950s after the Emmy award was founded in 1949. Others included the '' TV Guide Award'' and the ''Look Magazine TV Award''. Ed Sullivan gave out the ''Michael'' award in Los Angeles from 1950 to 1953. In 1951 the Sylvania award for best program suitable for children was given to '' Zoo Parade'' by the National Congress of Parents and Teachers, heade ...
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Steve Allen
Stephen Valentine Patrick William Allen (December 26, 1921 – October 30, 2000) was an American television and radio personality, comedian, musician, composer, writer, and actor. In 1954, he achieved national fame as the co-creator and first host of ''The Tonight Show'', which was the first late-night television talk show. Though he got his start in radio, Allen is best known for his extensive network television career. He gained national attention as a guest host on ''Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts.'' After he hosted ''The Tonight Show'', he went on to host numerous game and variety shows, including his own ''The Steve Allen Show'', ''I've Got a Secret'', and ''The New Steve Allen Show''. He was a regular panel member on CBS's ''What's My Line?'' and, from 1977 until 1981, he wrote, produced, and hosted the award-winning public broadcasting show ''Meeting of Minds'', a series of historical dramas presented in a talk format. Allen was a pianist and a prolific composer. ...
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Expo 58
Expo 58, also known as the 1958 Brussels World's Fair (; ), was a world's fair held on the Heysel/Heizel Plateau in Brussels, Belgium, from 17 April to 19 October 1958. It was the first major world's fair registered under the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) after World War II and the fifth in Brussels overall. Expo 58 left a deep impression on Belgium. It was also the pretext for major upheavals and works in Brussels, whose boulevards were transformed into urban motorways. The Atomium, built for the occasion, has become one of the city's must-see landmarks. Background Expo 58 was the eleventh world's fair hosted by Belgium, and the fifth in Brussels, following the fairs in 1888, 1897, 1910 and 1935. In 1953, Belgium won the bid for the next world's fair, winning out over other European capitals such as Paris and London. Nearly 15,000 workers spent three years building the site on the Heysel/Heizel Plateau, north-west of central Brussels. Many of the building ...
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Tonight Starring Steve Allen
''Tonight Starring Steve Allen'' is an American television talk show broadcast by NBC. The show is the first installment of ''The Tonight Show''. Hosted by Steve Allen, it aired from September 27, 1954 to January 25, 1957, and was replaced by '' Tonight Starring Jack Paar.'' Allen's run as host of the show lasted for two and a half seasons, beginning in fall 1954 and ending with Allen's departure in January 1957. During its run it originated from the Hudson Theatre in New York City. History Originally a local program airing from 11:20 p.m. to 12 midnight on WNBT New York as ''The Steve Allen Show'', the program was moved to the full NBC network in the Fall of 1954. The first network episode of ''Tonight'' aired on September 27, 1954, and ran for 105 minutes instead of the 60-minute duration of modern talk shows (however, the first fifteen minutes were shown on very few stations). The announcer of the show was Gene Rayburn (who would eventually become a top-game show e ...
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Ernie Milktable
Ernie is a masculine given name, frequently a short form (hypocorism) of Ernest, Ernald, Ernesto, or Verner. It may refer to: People * Ernie Accorsi (born 1941), American football executive * Ernie Adams (other) * Ernie Afaganis (born c. 1933), Canadian sports announcer * Ernie Althoff (born 1950), Australian musician and composer * Ernie Anastos (born 1943), American television journalist * Ernie Anderson (1923–1997), American radio and television announcer * Ernie Ashcroft (1925–1985), English rugby league footballer * Ernie Ball (1930–2004), American guitarist and businessman * Ernie Banks (1931–2015), American baseball player * Ernie Barbarash, American film producer * Ernie Barnes (1938–2009), American football player and painter * Ernie Blenkinsop (1902–1969), English footballer * Ernie Boch Jr. (born 1958), American billionaire businessman * Ernie Bond (other) * Ernie Bridge (1936–2013), Australian politician * Ernie Broglio (1935–2 ...
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