Sealtest Variety Hour (Dorothy Lamour)

Dorothy Lamour
(1914 – 1996)

See 
Musical Variety (1946-49)

First playing as "Front and Center," the show changed in Sept. 1948 to The Sealtest Variety Theater. On Thursday nights at 9:30, it was a variety comedy show with glamorous Dorothy Lamour as "hostess with the mostess". The show was known by fans as The Dorothy Lamour Show. Dorothy began life as Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton, was Miss New Orleans of 1931, and sang in her first hubby Herbie Kaye's band on the way to Hollywood and her trademark attire, the sarong. She wore it in her very first picture, Paramount's "The Jungle Princess" of 1936, and America loved the combination. She's beloved for being the book between the bookends of Bob and Bing in the classic series of Paramount romps, the "Road to " pictures. These were a perfect potpourri of adventure, slapstick, ad libs, Hollywood inside jokes and great song and patter numbers. Of these she said "I was the happiest and highest-paid straight woman in the business." Her nicknames were "the beautiful one" and, of course, "the Sarong."

After signing with Paramount, she immediately starting guesting on radio, and her bright, youthful delivery of a song landed her a featured spot on The Chase and Sanborn Radio Hour with Don Ameche and Bergen and McCarthy. Dorothy was just a lovely ray of sunshine before the squall that threw Mae West overboard as far as network radio was concerned on the infamous "Mae West as Eve" broadcast of that show, which is available on the Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy Collection. The War War II years saw Dorothy give her all (with a sarong and a song) for the war effort, and the "Road Crew" really were on the road a great deal! She appeared on radio often, which led to "Front and Center."

After the war when this show became "peacetime" and was re-named The Sealtest Variety Theater. Dorothy's guest list packed famous stars like sardines into the half-hour. There was Bob Hope, David Niven, Joan Davis, Sydney Greenstreet, Van Johnson, Boris Karloff, Gregory Peck, Ray Milland, and Burt Lancaster among many more. The radio stars of the day were well represented too, such as Edgar Bergen, The Nelson Family (The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet), Jim and Marion Jordan (Fibber McGee and Molly), Ed Gardner (Duffy's Tavern) and Harold Peary (of The Great Guildersleeve and Honest Harold), Dick Powell (Richard Diamond) and many more. Every week it was at least one big star, and sometimes two or three. One show is a wild and wooly attempt at a live remote that has a certain cache among old time radio buffs. But that's an anomaly. The show's essence is pure fun and entertainment, with The Crew Chiefs singing when Dorothy wasn't, and a good band under the direction of Henry Russell to keep the tempo way up.

In 1949, actor Eddie Bracken signed on as a continuing feature. Johnny Lang announced, with the whole three-year affair directed by Glenhall Taylor. In John Dunning's "On the Air, The Encyclopedia of Old Time Radio," Taylor recalls that Dorothy Lamour was warm and unpretentious. He remembered her saying at the start of the series, "I can't sing and I can't act, it's up to you guys to make me look good." Obviously, a great deal of Hollywood's screen and radio talent rallied 'round Dorothy, and did their darndest to make The Sealtest Variety Theater a star-studded half hour of radio variety each and every

For more radio variety, please see Bing Crosby, Dinah Shore Collection, Burns and Allen, Command Performance, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, and The Phil Harris and Alice Faye Show featured comedy and songs, as did Jack Benny.

Please note these Sealtest Variety Hour programs can also be found on the Divas of . See also: Front & Center, the 1947 predecessor program of Sealtest Variety Hour also starring Dorothy Lamour.

See also: Sealtest Vilage Store (starring Joan Davis and later Eve Arden).