Matinee Theater

1 9 5 5 – 1 9 5 8 (USA)
576 x 60 minute episodes

Premiering on 31 October 1955, this daily dramatic anthology show from NBC – devised and produced by Albert McCleery – featured original material, as well as adaptations of literary classics. Stories were hosted by John Conte, who also acted in several of the episodes.

Performed and broadcast live to air from NBC’s Burbank studios, episodes were shown at 3.00 pm Eastern Time, Monday through Friday.

Actors and crew rehearsed for the next day’s show while the current episode went out live on air, with a heavy curtain dividing the two operations.

Among the many actors who appeared in the 576 episodes were Steve McQueen, Jack Nicholson, Vincent Price, Dennis Hopper, Roddy McDowall, J. Pat O’Malley, William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Roger Moore, Harry Morgan, Rip Torn, Troy Donahue, Robert Morse, Suzanne Pleshette, Mike Connors, Hermione Gingold, Ann B Davis, Robert Loggia, Irene Ryan, Fay Wray, Rita Moreno, Earl Holliman, Eddie Cantor, Diana Douglas, Shelley Fabares, Werner Klemperer, Agnes Moorhead, Inger Stevens, Elaine Stritch, Chuck Connors, Marion Ross, Michael Landon, Bradford Dillman, Angie Dickinson, Cesar Romero, Patrick Macnee, Darren McGavin, Peter Graves, Morey Amsterdam, Lee Meriwether, Jim Backus, Eva Gabor, Zsa Zsa Gabor, and Cloris Leachman.

Livia Granito, who directed several of the earliest episodes, was the first female director of a regular hour-long dramatic show in the US.

The show’s long run came to an end on 27 June 1958.

John Conte started a campaign with his wife Ruth, to keep the show on the air called the ‘Fund for the Preservation of Matinee Theater‘, but despite 10,000 letters of support, there was no reprieve, although 26 episodes were syndicated as Cameo Theater.

Video