For four years on CBS, and then for three years on NBC, with hosts like James Mason and Gordon MacRae, the Lux Video Theatre offered many established Hollywood and Broadway stars their first television exposure.
It was initially a thirty-minute weekly dramatic show, but when it moved to NBC on 26 August 1954 – with To Each His Own starring Dorothy McGuire and Gene Barry – it extended to one hour. The series then presented hour-long video versions of Hollywood movies.
The host would introduce each act and would conduct an interview with the stars at the end of the play.
Among its productions were ‘A Medal for Benny’ with J Carrol Naish; ‘The Enchanted Cottage’ with Dan O’Herlihy; ‘Hold Back The Dawn’ with Fernando Lamas; ‘Miss Susie Slagle’ with Dorothy Gish; ‘Sunset Boulevard’ with Miriam Hopkins; ‘The Browning Version’ with Herbert Marshall; ‘The Heiress’ with Vincent Price and Marilyn Erskine; ‘A Place in the Sun’ with John Derek and Ann Blythe; and `No Sad Songs for Me’ with Wendell Corey and Viveca Lindfors.
Lux Video Theatre was one of several crossovers from a successful radio run. The series closed on 12 September 1957.
Announcer
Jay Jackson
Ken Carpenter Host
Otto Kruger
Gordon MacRae
James Mason
William Holden
