The Spike Jones Show Vol. 1

The best comedy-novelty band of all time was at its peak when The Spike Jones Show (officially The Spotlight Revue, better known as The Coke Show) debuted on CBS, Friday, October 3, 1947. The show premiered in San Francisco where Spike and his City Slickers’ wacky Musical Depreciation Revue was holding forth at the Curran Theatre. The guest list here includes musical humorist Victor Borge (savaging “Clair de Lune” on the premiere), Tex Williams (doing his signature “Smoke Smoke Smoke”), Mel Torme and Frankie Laine. Also along for the ride are the great jazz singer/songwriter Nellie Lutcher, pianist/xylophonist Jan August, crooner/songwriter Jack Owens, the Dinning Sisters (a vocal group from Oklahoma in the mode of the Andrews Sisters), and the Harmonicats (offering their popular rendition of “Peg O’ My Heart.”) Among the regulars are singer Dorothy Shay, the “Park Avenue Hillbillie,” Slicker superstar Doodles Weaver (“William Tell Overture”), doing his best to steal the show as the spoonerism-spouting Professor Feetlebaum, trumpeter/vocalist George Rock (“Two Front Teeth”), comedian Earl Bennett (alias Sir Frederick Gas), banjoist Freddy Morgan, opera singer Ina Souez, and announcer Mike Wallace, en route to his stellar career as a TV newsman.

10/3/47 w/ Victor Borge; 10/17/47 w/ Frankie Laine; 10/24/47 w/ Tex Williams; 10/31/47 w/ Jan August; 11/7/47 w/ Jack Owens; 11/14/47 w/ Francis Craig; 11/28/47 w/ Jack Smith and the Clark Sisters; 12/5/47 w/ The Three Suns; 12/12/47 w/ Mel Torme; 12/19/47 w/ The Dinning Sisters and the Harmonicats; 12/26/47 w/ Golden Gate Quartet; 1/2/48 w/ Buddy Clark; 1/9/48 w/ Nellie Lutcher; 1/16/48 w/ Jan August; 1/23/48 w/ Jack Owens; and 1/30/48 w/ John Laurenz