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Premiered: December 17, 1948 Last Aired: October 12, 1950
Morey Amsterdam, known as "the human joke machine" hosted this early TV series. It made the transition to television after six months on the CBS Radio Network.
The setting was the fictional Golden Goose nightclub, a swanky spot in Times Square. Amsterdam was the club's emcee and introduced musical and comedy acts, as well as performing songs and monologues himself. Occasionally he'd break out his cello and play it in a comedy bit. (He was also the show's producer and writer.)
Contributing to the onstage and "behind the scenes" comedy was Jacqueline Suzann as Lola, the hat check girl, and Art Carney as Charlie, the doorman (later to be changed to Newton, the waiter).
CBS chose not to renew his contract, allowing it to run out and his show to end early in March 1949. In just a few weeks, the series was picked up by the DuMont network and telecast from the Adelphi Theatre. On the new network, the show, now set at the Silver Swan, aired for a year and a half.
It was while the series was on DuMont that Jackie Gleason became impressed with Art Carney's work and hired him for his Saturday night series Cavalcade of Stars. You know the rest of that story.
Morey Amsterdam later played an important role on "The Dick Van Dyke Show".
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