Film producer Mike Todd and his wife, Elizabeth Taylor, on the first anniversary of Todd's film, "Around The World In Eighty Days," invited 18,000 of their close friends to a Madison Square Garden extravaganza.

 Personalities on hand include George Jesel, (Todd's Wife) Elizabeth Taylor, Elsa Maxwell, Walter Cronkite, Senator Hubert Humphrey, Hedda Hooper, Charles Boyer, Ginger Rogers, Joe E. Lewis, Bill Leon. and Garry Moore. It was estimated that a crowd of 18,000 filled the arena to witness the event. 

Jim McKay is the host.

 NOTE: Mike Todd conned the CBS program  PLAYHOUSE 90 into covering the spectacle, live. But when the crowd got out of control, a bland publicity stunt turned into a giant food fight.

News Anchor  Walter Cronkite covers the event.  
  

 NOTE: Five months later, on March 22, 1958, Mike Todd died in an airplane crash.                                                               

October 18th, 1959-1966, 

A one hour syndicated taped color weekly broadcast, featuring the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The series was awarded a Peabody. Superb music by a 71 piece orchestra in the sumptuous setting of a ballroom. Different guest conductors appear on a weekly basis and take the podium. 

Arthur Fiedler Conductor. 

 



                                                                                                                                                                                                   

September 5, 1949-June 7, 1954 (NBC); June 14, 1954-June 16, 1963 (ABC). This was the first broadcast of the season. "Voice of Firestone," which began on radio in 1928, was a Monday-night perennial for more than two decades before coming to television in 1949; for the next five years it was simulcast on NBC radio and television, until a dispute between the sponsor and the network over the Monday time slot led Firestone to shift the program to ABC. The half-hour musical series presented all kinds of music, but emphasized classical and semiclassical selections. Each week a guest celebrity was featured, and for many years the principal guests came from the Metropolitan Opera Company. The Firestone Orchestra was conducted by Howard Barlow, and the show was hosted by John Daly during its years on ABC; Hugh James was the announcer. "Voice of Firestone" was seen as a series of specials from 1959 until 1962; it returned as a weekly series in the fall of 1962 for a final season (September 30, 1962-June 16, 1963). 

Dupe Of Number 4954.                          

September 5, 1949-June 7, 1954 (NBC); June 14, 1954-June 16, 1963 (ABC). This was the first broadcast of the season. "Voice of Firestone," which began on radio in 1928, was a Monday-night perennial for more than two decades before coming to television in 1949; for the next five years it was simulcast on NBC radio and television, until a dispute between the sponsor and the network over the Monday time slot led Firestone to shift the program to ABC. The half-hour musical series presented all kinds of music, but emphasized classical and semiclassical selections. Each week a guest celebrity was featured, and for many years the principal guests came from the Metropolitan Opera Company. The Firestone Orchestra was conducted by Howard Barlow, and the show was hosted by John Daly during its years on ABC; Hugh James was the announcer. "Voice of Firestone" was seen as a series of specials from 1959 until 1962; it returned as a weekly series in the fall of 1962 for a final season (September 30, 1962-June 16, 1963).

Arthur Fiedler conducts the orchestra.                                        

The seventh annual Grammy awards are presented from the Beverly Hilton Hotel, in Beverly Hills, California            

Winners of the 1964 Grammy Awards give performances. Les Brown conducts the orchestra. 

Dean Martin is the host.                                    

July 5, 1970-Sept. 23, 1979. 

This broadcast featured Edward Kennedy, Senator from Massachusetts. This was the first broadcast of the series. A recurring summer series, "Evening at Pops" presents the Boston Pops Orchestra, under the direction of Arthur Fiedler (until his death July 10, 1979).

Debut: A musical salute to America opens a 13-week series of concerts by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops.

Announcer for the series is William Pierce.

Evening at Pops was a long-term television series produced by Boston's local PBS-affiliate station, WGBH. It aired from 1970-2005 (reaching much wider PBS audiences than the WGBH area), and was conducted by Arthur Fiedler from 1970-1979. He did one program, a 50th anniversary celebration in April 1979. 

Evening At Pops included a wide variety of performances by the Boston Pops Orchestra, usually also featuring special guest performers. 

The premiere broadcast had guest Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who read excerpts from the writings of President Lincoln as the orchestra played Aaron Copland's "Lincoln Portrait."

    Other selections included waltzes by Richard Rodgers and music from his "Victory at Sea"; John Philip Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever"; Morton Gould's "American Salute"; and a medley from Broadway's "Hair." 

NOTE: There are 21 duplication Evening of Pops broadcasts listed in the Archival Television Audio library. All were recorded, direct line, at the time of the original broadcast. Most of the entire series (1970-1979) has been preserved as pristine audio air checks (Approximately 115 different broadcasts). 

Representing Evening at Pops  classic programs there are none extant at The Library of Congress, or UCLA Film & TV Archive. Only four broadcasts representing the entire nine year run of the series are archived at The Paley Center (May 23, 1973, July 14, 1974, August 22, 1976, & June 24 1977).
The Chicago Film Archives has one issue of the series, a black and white 1" reel to reel video tape recording of an off the air 1978 broadcast.

 There are no complete broadcasts extant on YouTube with the exception of a May 1972 broadcast, with guest Leroy Anderson (still pictures seen over the audio track), and a poor video 46 minute excerpt of a broadcast with The Carpenters (Aug. 4, 1974). 

Evening at Pops has never been released on VHS of DVD to the public. WGBH, the Boston Pops Philharmonic archival library, and PBS's own archives have indicated that they have no copies. 

Arthur Fiedler was the conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra for 50 years and one of the world's best‐known musical figures. He died July 10, 1979 at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts after a long illness. He was 84 years old.

After the death of Arthur Fiedler, to meet contractual obligations for the 1979 summer series of thirteen Evening At Pops broadcasts, seven re-runs were aired as well four new programs under Harry Ellis Dickson, Evening at Pops assistant conductor for 25 years. Dickson performed four new broadcasts, July 22, August 5th, 19th and September 9th.
 
One program during this final summer series was pre-empted (Aug. 26th). The last broadcast of this series was a re-run, televised  September 23, 1979. 

Evening at Pops remains a treasure trove of rich programming that portends to be forever locked away, as it has continued to be, the past forty years, with no potential in sight for its re-release in the future because of many factors, including music copyright issues.
                                                                                                           

July 5, 1970-July 8, 1979. This was the "Nostalgia Time" broadcast. A recurring summer series, "Evening at Pops" presents the Boston Pops Orchestra, under the direction of Arthur Fiedler (until his death in 1979).   

Guest is ragtime pianist Max Morath. Dupe Of 2423.                        

July 5, 1970-July 8, 1979. 
A recurring summer series, "Evening at Pops" presents the Boston Pops Orchestra, under the direction of Arthur Fiedler (until his death in 1979). Announcer for this series introducing guests, descriptions of musical selections, and intermissions, is William Pierce.

On this broadcast the easy listening music of Ferrante and Teicher. Tonight they bring a swinging new touch to the Stephen  Foster song book: from a slow jazzy "Old Folks at Home" to a symphonic rendition of "Camptown Races." The pianists also perform a double-time version of "Malaguena," a haunting concerto woven from "Fiddler on the Roof," and the movie theme from "Exodus."