Shower of Stars

Did You Know?

• Basil Rathbone later played Scrooge in the 1956 TV musical The Stingiest Man in Town and again in a 1958 non-musical British half-hour version with Fredric March as narrator.
• Extant episodes survive only in black-and-white kinescopes of the original color broadcasts, created for showing to the Armed Forces.
• The episodes carry no copyright notice and are in the public domain in the United States.

Overview

Shower of Stars was a variety program that leaned heavily on musical comedy revues, though it occasionally presented a straight play. It aired about once a month from 1954 to 1958, offering a lighter alternative to the serious dramas on Climax!, the show it shared a timeslot with. Both programs were backed by Chrysler Corporation and hosted by William Lundigan. Most Chrysler commercials were pre-recorded on film, but in a handful of early episodes, the cars were brought into the studio for live spots. The show attracted a roster of top-tier talent who made repeat appearances, including Jack Benny, Bob Crosby, Betty Grable, Van Johnson, Shirley MacLaine, Fredric March, Frankie Laine, Ethel Merman, Basil Rathbone, Red Skelton, Mario Lanza, Ed Wynn, and Liberace. In 1954, March and Rathbone took on the roles of Ebenezer Scrooge and Jacob Marley in a filmed musical version of A Christmas Carol, with songs by Bernard Herrmann and Maxwell Anderson. That production, shot at Desilu Studios, was the first musical adaptation of the story to air on television and the first in color; it returned each Christmas for the show’s entire four-year run. Jack Benny was the most frequent performer, joining as a regular in season two and appearing in most episodes. Even when he wasn’t on the schedule, he would often pop up in a joking cameo, insisting he thought he was supposed to be in that show.