TV in the ‘50s a Forgettable Period for Blacks

It was poetic justice. Unforgettable.

There on the screen, in the emotional highlight of CBS’ Grammy Awards this week, flickered the long-ago image of the great Nat King Cole.

How many viewers, I wondered, knew that 35 years before, in 1957, NBC was forced to cancel his show--the first network variety series hosted by a major black star--because of the inability to get enough national sponsors, frightened away by a feared boycott in the South? In the North, as well, several NBC stations rejected the show.

And now this week, in a triumphant and bittersweet moment, the telecast of the music industry’s top awards show belonged to the late singer and his daughter, Natalie, and to his song “Unforgettable,” which is binding them together for a new generation in a chillingly beautiful duet in which their voices are spliced together.

“He had a billion people (this week) and he couldn’t even stay on the air in those days,” said producer and musical mogul Quincy Jones, who was a friend and colleague of the singer and pianist. “Blacks almost didn’t exist on television.”

“He did have a hell of a time getting a sponsor and you know damn well why--because the man was black,” recalled singer Mel Torme, one of many top show-business stars who appeared on the 1956-57 series, “The Nat King Cole Show,” at minimum fees in a vain effort to help the beloved entertainer establish his own program.

Times jazz critic Leonard Feather remembered Cole’s comment: “Madison Avenue is afraid of the dark.” Added Feather, who noted that the series had lesser local sponsors: “At that time, you never saw any black newsmen or anchormen on TV either, mostly for fear of offending the Southern market. Despite all his talents, (Cole) had to fight that whole situation.”

Cole died in 1965 at the age of 45, leaving behind a remarkable string of stylish hits--such as “Nature Boy” and “Mona Lisa”--that made him a genuine superstar, except on TV, despite guest appearances on other shows. Several black performers--Hazel Scott and Billy Daniels--had preceded him with musical series, but Cole’s enormous stature gave his attempt special significance.

His eldest daughter, Carole, recalled: “I was maybe 12, 13 when the show was on. Dad was certainly an admirer of this new medium, and I got the feeling that he knew what he was up against in trying to make an impact, but that ultimately he didn’t really know. He was getting all these negative responses from sponsors.

“It was pretty overwhelming to see all the personalities who gave their time for him, but ultimately it was a heartbreaking experience for him. He had been all over the planet with roses to walk on, acknowledged as a goodwill ambassador, but in his own country, getting on television and into the homes of millions of Americans was a problem.”

On the Grammy show, Natalie Cole won for best album and record of the year--both titled “Unforgettable.” And by a stroke of scheduling luck, viewers will be able to watch both Nat and Natalie Friday night in back-to-back specials during KCET Channel 28’s pledge drive. (They’ll also air Saturday on KPBS Channel 15 in San Diego.)

First up will be a “Great Performances” broadcast, “Unforgettable, With Love: Natalie Cole Sings the Songs of Nat King Cole.” That will be followed by “The Incomparable Nat King Cole,” which has a genuine historical interest because it is drawn from that 1950s series that NBC, to its credit, carried for a year in hopes of gaining the elusive sponsor support.

Nat’s special is edited from four episodes of his series, includes more than 20 songs and features such performers as Ella Fitzgerald, the Oscar Peterson Trio, Coleman Hawkins, Roy Eldridge and Stan Getz. The Nat-and-Natalie specials will then be repeated by KCET on March 9, also in prime time. (They will also air March 11 on KOCE Channel 50 in Orange County, which currently airs the original “Nat King Cole” series on Saturdays at 9 p.m.)

The musical stars who tried to keep Nat Cole’s series alive with their appearances also included Count Basie, Mahalia Jackson, Cab Calloway, Pearl Bailey, Sammy Davis Jr., the Mills Brothers, Harry Belafonte, Peggy Lee and Tony Bennett.

Ratings were not impressive, but accounts of the series’ struggle to survive inevitably center on the cowardice of advertisers and the fears about offending nervous stations.

“It was a hard time for black performers,” said Joel Segal, buyer of TV time for the McCann-Erickson ad agency. “We’re more rational now.”

Times, thankfully, have changed, although the new spate of hate crimes in many parts of the nation makes one wonder just how much.

For Torme, Nat Cole “stood as a heavyweight not only as a musician but as a human being. Madison Avenue misread the great commercial appeal not only of black people but the acceptance of Nat Cole by the general public as one of the great singing and performing artists of our time.

“Even in those days, he was just coming into the era when he was inordinately popular. Jackie Robinson had broken the color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers, and the black community was coming into its own. The great black movement was just about to begin.”

“I thought that Dad fought the good fight,” Carole Cole said of his TV series. “I don’t think anyone watching the show would have a clue of the turmoil he was going through because he wanted it to succeed. He put his own money into the show.

“That was a time when people couldn’t imagine an African-American selling anything on television. After Dad’s death, I read some letters from people who said they bought his records and were dealing with why it was difficult for them to accept him in the privacy of their homes. It forced some people to rethink their attitudes.”

It is difficult to imagine that Nat Cole is gone 27 years this month. But it is a joy that Natalie Cole is giving new life to his legacy. It all came together on the Grammys--where Nat was a smash hit on TV at last.