Hallmark Hall of Fame (1951)
Hallmark Hall of Fame is an anthology program on American television, sponsored by Hallmark Cards, a Kansas City based greeting card company. The longest-running primetime series in the history of television, it has a historically long run, beginning during 1951 and continuing into 2013. From 1954 onward, all of its productions have been shown in color, although color television video productions were extremely rare in 1954. Many television movies have been shown on the program since its debut, though the program began with live telecasts of dramas and then changed to videotaped productions before finally changing to filmed ones. The series has received eighty Emmy Awards, twenty-four Christopher Awards, eleven Peabody Awards, nine Golden Globes, and four Humanitas Prizes. Once a common practice in American television, it is the last remaining television program such that the title includes the name of the sponsor. Unlike other long-running TV series still on the air, it differs in that it broadcasts only occasionally and not on a weekly broadcast programming schedule.
- Kenneth Blackwell
- Tennyson Flowers
- Richard Friedenberg
Stars:
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Episode 1 - Dynamite
Release Date: 1954-09-05The Swedish-American inventor of dynamite, established before his death the Nobel Prize to be awarded annually for the best work in the field of physics, medicine and chemistry.
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Episode 2 - Do Not Cry For Me
Release Date: 1954-09-12Tells the story of the early life of the American composer Stephen Foster. Relates the difficulties Foster encountered when he tried to have his first song performed.
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Episode 3 - A Man of Many Ideas
Release Date: 1954-09-19The story of John Nelson Wanamaker the 35th United States Postmaster General who was known for buying an abandoned railroad depot and converting it into a department story called "The Grand Depot" which was considered the first department store in Philadelphia.
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Episode 4 - The Reluctant Redeemer
Release Date: 1954-09-26The story tells of Moses' upbringing by an Egyptian pharaoh, his killing of a cruel overseer and the flight to Media where he marries. When the voice of God comes from the burning bush he returns to Egypt to free his people. Natalie Wood will be featured as the beloved ot Moses when he was a young man.
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Episode 5 - The Story of Johann Sebastian Bach
Release Date: 1954-10-03From court appointed organist to his triumphant position as Kantor at the Thomasschule his story unfolds as his music was given to the world almost a century after he died after being rediscovered by Felix Mendelssohn.
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Episode 6 - The Immortal Oath
Release Date: 1954-10-10The tale of Hippocrates, the father of medicine is dramatized.
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Episode 7 - The Yankee Roadblocks
Release Date: 1954-10-17An all-male cast set in the Revolutionary War days, the story tells how a hero exposed the plot of Benedict Arnold and save General Washington from being captured by the British.
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Episode 8 - The Lady in the Wings
Release Date: 1954-10-24The widow of the great composer, Edward MacDowell, remembering her happy past, wishes to create a place where artists from all quarters can work in solitude.
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Episode 9 - The Path to Peace
Release Date: 1954-10-31Horace Greeley's fight for peace is dramatized.
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Episode 10 - A Matter of Principal
Release Date: 1954-11-14An incident in the life of John Adams, second President of the United States and his defense of an English Officer who was charged with the deaths of five American patriots in Boston.
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Episode 11 - President for a Day
Release Date: 1954-11-21The story of the man who was President of the United States for one day is told. David Rice Atchison as President of the Senate automatically became President for 24 hours when Zachary Taylor refused to be inaugurated on a Sunday.
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Episode 12 - Macbeth
Release Date: 1954-11-28A dramatization of Shakespeare's Macbeth.
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Episode 13 - Deadlock
Release Date: 1954-12-05The story of the Burr–Hamilton duel arose from a long-standing political and personal rivalry that had developed between both men over a course of several years.
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Episode 14 - The Province of Man
Release Date: 1954-12-12The story of how William Harvey used King John of England as a guinea pig to test his theory of the circulatory system.
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Episode 15 - Amahl and the Night Visitors
Release Date: 1954-12-19The tale of a poor boy and his mother who journey to visit Christ's birth in Bethlehem.
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Episode 16 - The Joyful Tydings
Release Date: 1954-12-26The story of the stormy controversy during the reign of Henry the Eighth is dramatized.
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Episode 17 - William Tell
Release Date: 1955-01-02The story of the legendary Swiss marksman William Tell is dramatized.
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Episode 18 - The First Mintmaster
Release Date: 1955-01-09Story of John Hull, first mintmaster of Massachusetts Bay Colony, who was appointed to the post in 1650 as the culmination of his efforts to abolish barter and foreign coinage in favor of a stabilized currency.
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Episode 19 - Crusade for Freedom
Release Date: 1955-01-16In the name of his brother, the editor of a Boston newspaper, Benjamin Franklin launches a crusade against Cotton Mather.
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Episode 20 - Dr. Harvey W. Wiley
Release Date: 1955-01-23Struggle of chemist Wiley to expose frauds in food and drug trade and in patent medicine. His efforts to prove the harmful effects of adulterated and falsely labeled food ultimately led to passage of the Food and Drug Act.
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Episode 21 - A Story About Henry Ford
Release Date: 1955-01-30Ford, unhappy with farm life, moves to Detroit where he begins to experiment with the gas engine, certain that it could be made to propel a vehicle.
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Episode 22 - Patrick Henry
Release Date: 1955-02-06Silver-tongued Patrick Henry studied law for only six weeks, but so impressed the board that they passed him. He was a successful Southern backwoods lawyer and reluctant to enter the Virginia House of Burgesses until the British introduced the Stamp Act.
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Episode 23 - The Shining Beacon
Release Date: 1955-02-13Tale of Alcuin, the great educator who taught Charlemagne to read and write.
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Episode 24 - Martha Custis Washington
Release Date: 1955-02-20The courtship of George Washington and Martha Custis, a widowed mother of two.
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Episode 25 - The Talking Wire
Release Date: 1955-02-27The story of Alexander Graham Bell and experiments that led to the electric hearing aid, and then the telephone.
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Episode 26 - The Adventures of Lt. Contee
Release Date: 1955-03-06Tribute to one of Commodore Perry's officers, whose personal efforts helped open Japan to foreign trade.
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Episode 27 - The Pirate and the Lawyer
Release Date: 1955-03-13Adventures of pirate Jean Laffite and lawyer Edward Livingston.
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Episode 28 - Soldier's Bride
Release Date: 1955-03-20Story of the love between Knox Taylor (daughter of Colonel Zachary Taylor) and Jefferson Davis.
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Episode 29 - The Finest Gift
Release Date: 1955-03-27The story of Lord Byron's efforts to liberate Greece.
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Episode 30 - The Green Mountain Boys
Release Date: 1955-04-03The story of Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain boys.
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Episode 31 - Lydia
Release Date: 1955-04-10Story of the pagan Greek Lydia, who lived in ancient Rome and saved the life of the Apostle Paul.
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Episode 32 - The Man Who Tore Down the Wall
Release Date: 1955-04-17Story from 1910 of Dr. James Ewing, who fought to break down the barriers erected against the investigation and treatment of cancer, and who almost single-handedly founded the Memorial Cancer Center in New York City.
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Episode 33 - Aimee de Rivery
Release Date: 1954-04-25Story of Aimée de Rivery, who brought reforms to Turkey.
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Episode 34 - The Touch of Steel
Release Date: 1955-05-01The story of young army officer and law student Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., 60th justice of the United States Supreme Court.
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Episode 35 - Cradle Song
Release Date: 1955-05-08Story of Ernestine Schumann-Heink.
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Episode 36 - The Promise
Release Date: 1955-05-15A dramatization of the legend of Damon and Pythias.
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Episode 37 - The Man With a Camera
Release Date: 1955-05-22Story of George Eastman, and his development of the first camera to use film.
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Episode 38 - The Story of Paul Harris and the Founding of Rotary International
Release Date: 1955-05-29Tribute to Rotary International in commemoration of its golden anniversary. Includes speech by then Rotary president Herbert J. Taylor.
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Episode 39 - The Tempering of the Sword
Release Date: 1955-06-05The story of Baron Friedrich Wilhelm Von Steuben, founder of the American military system, who trained troops in the American Revolution.
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Episode 40 - Cadet Poe
Release Date: 1955-06-12Recounts a "little-known incident" in the life of Edgar Allan Poe.
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Episode 41 - The Father Who Had No Sons
Release Date: 1955-06-19The inspiring story of Milton S. Hershey, who worked so hard to bring happiness to thousands of orphans.
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Episode 42 - The Farmer From Monticello
Release Date: 1955-06-26The story of Thomas Jefferson's return to politics in 1773.