The granddaddy of shows like American Idol, an early televised talent show I remember watching with my parents in the long-ago was Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour. Based on an even earlier radio talent show, Ted Mack drew from vaudeville traditions, and besides musical acts a typical show might include performances from jugglers, baton-twirlers, acrobats, and even dog acts. The show transitioned to various networks, and ran in different incarnations over several decades. A main sponsor of the show was Geritol, promoted as being "for iron-poor blood." It seemed like in the 1950's, a host of maladies were rooted in iron-poor blood. Do you have memories of any vintage talent shows you once viewed in your area?
I really like the older talent shows, won't watch anything related to Simon Cowell - maybe different over there but over here, the shows mainly focus on the judges !
Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. Remember the uproar when he fired Julius Larosa? What was that all about?
Arthur Godfrey? Ted Mack? HA HA! You call those "Vintage" talent shows? They're all too recent! How about the Great-Granddaddy of all talent shows, before TV.....MAJOR BOWES! (1930's & 40's) Hal
It was because he neglected to show "humility" for being a well-praised guest on Godfrey's program. Hal
Interesting! Thanks Hal. I never cared much for Mr. Godfrey. Even though I was only 7 at the time LaRosa was fired, I remember it.
@William DeFox I thought the Ted Mack Amateur hour was not syndicated, and was limited to viewing in the Chicago area, where we lived, and watched it. I may be wrong. Anyway, "amateur hours" were quite popular then. One we had was Morris B. Sachs amateur hour. Sachs was a large retail-store owner in Chicago.
The Original Amateur House was a continuation of the radio show, Major Bowes' Amateur Hour, which ran from 1934 to 1946, when Major Bowes died. Mack revived it in 1948 for ABC Radio. It played until 1952 on radio and until 1970 on television, where it ran on all four networks, ending as a CBS Sunday afternoon show. Auditions were held at the New York Radio City Music Hall. Among the winners were Gladys Knight, Ann-Margret, Pat Boone, and Raul Julia. Ted Mack also hosted Ted Mack's Family Hour on ABC, which was a bit of a variety show, with music and comedy, and Ted Mack's Matinee on NBC. -- Wikipedia
I had to look up the specifics, which is why I left the Wikipedia referral, but I do remember the Ted Mack Amateur Hour.
I remember watching Star Search, hosted by Ed McMahon. The lead singer of Sawyer Brown, who won Star Search, tells his kids that they were the original American Idols...…...his kids laugh and say "yea, right dad".