Hour Glass
5/9/46 (and possibly other appearances), NBC
Songs unknown
"Hour Glass was one of the most important
pioneers in the early history of television... It was the first
hour-long entertainment series of any kind produced for network
television, the first show to develop its own star, the first
big variety series, and the most ambitious production by far
ever attempted up to its time... Subsequent shows brought on
such acts as Bert Lahr, the singing Merry Macs, Dennis Day,
Jerry Colonna, Joey Faye and Peggy Lee." - Tim Brooks and Earl
Marsh, Complete Directory to Prime-Time Network and Cable
TV Shows
Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town
8/8/48, CBS
Songs unknown
"Peggy Lee, doubling from the Paramount Theater,
provided the high-spot with a well-delineated group. She looks
excellent in close-up, although the full-length shots tend to
harden her appearance. Miss Lee concentrated on ballads, which
made for a high degree of audience satisfaction" - Variety,
8/11/48
Cavalcade of Bands
1/50-9/51 (w/ occasional appearances by Peggy),
Dumont Network
Songs unknown
"The 'star' of this series was a different big-name
band each week, ranging from the 'sweet' music of Guy Lombardo
and Lawrence Welk to the big-band swing of Lionel Hampton and
Duke Ellington... In addition to the 'Band of the Week,' top-line
singers and comedians filled out the bill, including such names
as Jackie Gleason, Kitty Kallen and Peggy Lee, as well as a
number of lesser lights." - Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, Complete
Directory to Prime-Time Network and Cable TV Shows
The Star-Spangled Revue*
5/27/50, NBC, w/ Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Beatrice
Lillie, Arnold Stang, Janet Reed, Bill Hayes, Michael Kidd
Songs included: Bewitched (Bothered and Bewildered) / It's So
Nice to Have a Man Around the House (w/ Hope, Sinatra, cast)
Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town
10/22/50, CBS
Songs included: Show Me the Way to Get Out of This World / La
Vie en Rose
"Miss Lee, accompanied on the guitar by her husband
Dave Barbour, nicely put over 'La Vie en Rose.' Camera work
and lighting on Miss Lee was top-flight for vaudeo stage conditions."
- Variety, 10/25/50
Kreisler's Band Stand
3/51, ABC, w/ Benny Goodman, Mel Tormé
Songs included: Where or When
"A former Goodman band vocalist, Peggy Lee, currently
at the Copacabana, New York, also delivered a standard, 'Where
or When.'" - Variety, 3/28/51
The Peggy Lee Show
1951 summer replacement series, CBS, w/ Mel
Tormé
Songs included: All of Me / Mañana / It Never Happened to Me /
After All, It's Spring
"Following the current network pattern of replacing
the top regular comedy airers with musical sessions during the
summer, Peggy Lee is pinch-hitting for Amos 'n' Andy
series with a neat song stanza. One of the top-flight stylists
in the trade, Miss Lee registers on this show as an ingratiating
femcee who handles her lines slickly. This airer is simply formatted
around Miss Lee as the star with assists from guest vocalists
and Russ Case's orchestra. Only novel twist on the session is
Miss Lee's weekly debut of a new number. On the preem, she introduced
"After All, It's Spring" from the upcoming legit musical Seventeen.
Miss Lee socked across a flock of her wax standards." - Variety,
6/20/51
TV's Top Tunes*
7/2/51 through 8/17/51, CBS
A thrice-weekly, 15-minute musical program co-hosted
by Peggy Lee and Mel Tormé, with The Fontane Sisters.
Songs for Sale
12/51 through approx. 3/52, CBS
Songs unknown
"Songs for Sale was a showcase for the
efforts of aspiring amateur songwriters. Each week a number
of them (usually three) had their songs performed by professional
singers and rated by a panel of judges... Rosemary Clooney and
Tony Bennett were relatively unknown when the series began,
but both immediately attracted considerable attention and went
on to become major stars... When it returned in 1951 singers
were generally rotated, though Peggy Lee became a regular in
December 1951 and remained for several months." - Tim Brooks
and Earle Marsh, Complete Directory to Prime-Time Network
and Cable TV Shows
Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town
1/13/52, CBS, tribute to Broadway showman George
White
Songs included: Are You Having Any Fun? / Thank Your Mother /
This Is the Mrs. / My Song / Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries (w/
Rudy Vallee)
"Topping the listing was Peggy Lee, one of the
more expressive song-chicks around. Miss Lee negotiated one
of the top White tunes, 'Are You Having Any Fun?', and participated
in a well-presented finale." - Variety, 1/16/52
The Paul Whiteman Revue
3/30/52, ABC
Songs unknown
"'Paul Whiteman Revue,' canceled by Goodyear,
staged a tuneful and entertaining valedictory Sunday night,
sparked by the solid thrushing of Peggy Lee in the guest spot...
Miss Lee, who concentrated heavily on ballads rather than the
current novelty pops, registered solidly with her dramatic rendition
of two oldies." - Variety, 4/2/52
Colgate Comedy Hour
5/25/52, NBC
Songs included: The Lady is a Tramp / Where or When
"Songstress Peggy Lee, spotted midway in the
show, was wasted in a bit which called for her to warble only
two numbers." - Variety, 5/28/52
Colgate Comedy Hour
11/11/53, NBC
Songs included: Baubles, Bangles and Beads
"Peggy Lee, of course, is one of the top pop
singers of this day. She purveys a tuneful variety of sex which
was evident even when she sang the Halo shampoo commercial,
which is still a cavalier way of treating an artist. Her top
number done in a cloud of artificial smoke was 'Baubles,' which
made an interesting sequence." - Variety, 11/11/53
The Perry Como Show*
10/13/54, CBS
Songs included: I Feel a Song Coming On
Colgate Comedy Hour*
1954, NBC, w/ Eddie Fisher
Songs included: Love, You Didn't Do Right By Me / From This Moment
On / Lover
Walt Disney's Cavalcade of Song*
2/16/55, w/ Walt Disney, Sonny Burke
Songs included: He's a Tramp / The Siamese Cat Song / La La Lu
Colgate Comedy Hour*
2/20/55, NBC, w/ Louis Armstrong, Gordon MacRae
Songs included: I've Got a Right to Sing the Blues / Long Ago
and Far Away (w/ Gordon MacRae) / Come Rain or Come Shine / The
Birth of the Blues (w/ Gordon MacRae)
"Typical of the production elements that went
into the show was the finale, in which McRae and Miss Lee sang
from a balcony, with harlequins standing there throwing down
streamers." - Variety, 2/23/55
Colgate Variety Hour
7/24/55, NBC, w/ Ella Fitzgerald, Jack Webb,
promoting the film Pete Kelly's Blues
Songs unknown
"The Misses Lee and Fitzgerald, who are in the
film along with Webb, are expert singers, for sure, and they
turned in quite a number of tunes for the major share of the
entertainment." - Variety, 7/27/55
Music '55
Summer 1955 (series ran 7/12/55 through 9/13/55),
CBS, w/ Stan Kenton
Songs unknown
Shower of Stars: The Flattering World
3/15/56, CBS, w/ Jack Benny, Elsa Lanchester,
Fredric March
Songs included: Riding High / Mr. Wonderful / Heart
"Aside from some expert mugging by Elsa Lanchester,
there was little to laugh at or commend. Benny was stolid and
uninspired as a bluenose college dean, Peggy Lee was miscast
as his wife, Fredric March showed some spirit as a ham, Miss
Lanchester played the housemaid and Sharon Bell essayed her
young daughter... Miss Lee came off okay warbling 'Riding High'
and 'Mr. Wonderful,' and the foursome, Benny, March, Lee and
Lanchester, romped through 'Heart' from the legituner Damn
Yankees." - Variety, 3/28/56
The Walter Winchell Show
12/56, w/ Tony Martin
Songs included: I Don't Know Enough About You / Mañana / Lover
/ Last Night When We Were Young / Them There Eyes
"Fortunately, Winchell had two top-notchers for
the song department in Peggy Lee and Tony Martin. They carried
the bulk of the show in duet and solo and made it all an ear-appealing
affair." - Variety, 12/12/56
The Steve Allen Show*
3/31/57, NBC, w/ Tennessee Ernie Ford, Dinah
Shore, the Collins Kids
Songs included: That Old Feeling / St. Louis Woman
The Jackie Gleason Show
6/8/57, CBS, w/ Johnnie Ray
Songs included: Anything You Say Is True (w/ Johnnie Ray) / Baby,
Wait for Me / They Can't Take That Away from Me
"Miss Lee did her usual socko job." - Variety,
6/12/57
What's My Line?
6/16/57, NBC
Songs (if any) unknown
The Jackie Gleason Show - guest hostess Peggy Lee
6/22/57, CBS, w/ Tony Bennett
Songs included: The Man I Love
"Miss Lee, who never looked better, was also
the hostess with the mostest, whether femceeing or chirping.
Her work on the finale, relaxed and charming and typically low-key
Lee, indicates that she could have another future, a la Dinah
Shore, as a regular in the video sweepstakes. She whammed with
a segment from her Capitol album of The Man I Love, which
could be a hot seller on the grounds 1) that it's a Peggy Lee
package, plus 2) Frank Sinatra conducting. Sinatra a maestro?
Well, he's been everything else. Another highlight in a variety
outing overloaded with song was Miss Lee's capers with guest
Tony Bennett, in which they traded off each other's trademarked
numbers for a winning session." - Variety, 6/26/57
The Frank Sinatra Show*
10/18/57, ABC, w/ Bob Hope, Kim Novak
Songs included: Listen to the Rocking Bird / He's My Guy
The Frank Sinatra Show
11/8/57, ABC
Songs included: Old Devil Moon / That's All / Our Love Is Here
to Stay (duet w/ Frank Sinatra)
The Nat King Cole Show*
1957, NBC, w/ Julius LaRosa
Songs included: My Heart Stood Still / Don't Get Around Much Anymore
/ Makin' Records (to the tune of Makin' Whoopee, w/ Nat King Cole
and Julius LaRosa)
Crescendo*
9/27/57, CBS, w/ Julie Andrews, Louis Armstrong,
Eddy Arnold, Diahann Carroll, Carol Channing, Benny Goodman, Rex
Harrison, Stanley Holloway, Mahalia Jackson, Sonny James, Stubby
Kaye, Matt Mattox, Lizzie Miles and Dinah Washington
"A kaleidoscope of American music as seen through
the eyes of Mr. Sir (Rex Harrison), a visiting Englishman whose
skepticism about American culture is changed when he is introduced
to a wide variety of American music styles"
The Eddie Fisher Show
4/58
Songs included: Fever
The George Gobel Show
10/58
Songs included: Fever
The Pat Boone Show
1959, network unknown
Songs unknown
The Dinah Shore Chevy Show
3/15/59, network unknown
Songs unknown
Swing Into Spring*
4/10/59, CBS, w/ Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman,
Lionel Hampton, Andre Previn
Songs included: Things Are Swingin' / Why Don't You Do Right?
/ I'm Just Wild About Harry / When a Woman Loves a Man / The Glory
of Love (w/ Ella Fitzgerald) / Swing Into Spring
The Dinah Shore Chevy Show
5/17/59, network unknown
Songs unknown
The Bing Crosby Show*
9/29/59, ABC, w/ Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong,
George Shearing, Joe Bushkin, Paul Smith, Jane Turner, Florence
Henderson
Songs included: I'm Glad I'm Not Young Anymore (w/ Crosby, Sinatra,
Armstrong) / Baubles, Bangles and Beads / Too Neat to Be a Beatnik,
Too Round to Be a Square (w/ Crosby) / I Love a Piano (w/ Crosby,
Sinatra) / Lullaby of Birdland / Some of These Days / Up a Lazy
River / High Society / Now You Has Jazz (w/ Crosby, Sinatra, Armstrong)
"A 60-minute layout that's alternately sophisticated,
smart, breezy, snazzy and solid entertainment. Whether it was
Satchmo's blowing up a storm of vocalizing, or Crosby, Sinatra
and Miss Lee singing, dueting or as a threesome, or yet again
as a Bushkin-Shearing-Smith grandslam in their 88 virtuosing,
it came out like TV being restored to the showbiz pedestal.
These Crosby outings have a habit of upgrading the medium."
- Variety, 10/1/59
The Steve Allen Show*
11/9/59, NBC, w/ Billy Eckstine, George Jessel,
Chuck Connors
Songs included: It's Alright with Me / Smack Dab in the Middle
/ Medley: How Do You Erase a Memory? / Baby, All the Time / I've
Grown Accustomed to His Face / I Get Along Without You Very Well
/ Here's That Rainy Day
"Peggy Lee was standout in her song assignments.
Early in the show she scored with a couple of swinging tunes
and then she was called on to wrap up at the finale with a superb
medley of torch songs, the close-up camera work enhancing the
dramatic impact." - Variety, 11/11/59
The Big Party by Revlon
12/17/59, CBS, w/ Benny Goodman, Carol Channing,
John Gielgud
Songs included: Fever
"Miss Lee overcame the handicap of the opening
spot with a tasteful in-time medley and a rendition of her disc
click, 'Fever,' that was corned up with some inane choreography
by the Big Party regulars who only stand and watch."
- Variety, 12/23/59