The big show. Volume 5

'The Big Show' presented a weekly mixture of comedy, drama and music from such guest stars as Jimmy Durante, Ethel Merman, Danny Thomas, Groucho Marx, Fanny Brice, Bob Hope, Eddie Cantor, Rudy Vallee, Judy Garland and Fred Allen - the latter graduating to semi-regular/contributing writer status. In fact, each program found the guests introducing themselves by name; the introductions completed with a husky voice intoning '...and my name, dahlings, is Tallulah Bankhead'. Bankhead, a celebrated stage veteran renowned for her work in plays like 'The Little Foxes' and 'The Skin of Our Teeth', served as the show's mistress of ceremonies - proving to be both an apt foil for the program's guests and a self-deprecating good sport for an endless series of 'rivalry-with-Bette-Davis' jokes. In explaining her motivation for agreeing to host a weekly radio series, she told Newsweek Magazine 'I have to live in the style, dahling, to which I'm really accustomed'. The glamorous, unpredictable Talloo also added two memorable trademarks to the "Big Show" proceedings: announcing the network's half-hour I.D. as an opportunity to "ring my chimes" and leading the show's guest roster in a rendition of "May the Good Lord Bless and Keep You" at each program's close.