Fireside Theatre/Jane Wyman Presents/The Jane Wyman Show (dramatic anthology)

      Broadcast Summary:

     (NBC Primetime, 1949 - 1952 with no regular host;
      Syndicated, from 1949 - with various hosts;

      NBC Primetime, 1952 - 1953 with host/producer Frank Wisbar;
      NBC Primetime, 1953 - 1955 with host/actor Gene Raymond;
      NBC Summer Reruns, from 1954;

      NBC Primetime, 1955 - 1958, with hostess Jane Wyman;
      Syndicated, 1958 - with hostess Jane Wyman;

      ABC Daytime and Primetime Reruns, 1962 - 1963, with Jane Wyman;
      Syndicated and re-run under various titles.)


     [The series which began as "Fireside Theatre" had a long evolution 
      from its beginning as a live 15-minute show on NBC in 1949; its
      history parallels the maturing of network television in its
      earliest years...

      In 1949 NBC-TV was a loose affiliation of East Coast TV stations 
      which had developed out of NBC radio network affiliates. The 
      nationwide coaxial cable which made a true live TV network 
      possible was not finished until 1952. So a kinescope recording
      or filmed episodes were used to send network shows past the 
      East coast to other TV stations around the country whose radio 
      stations were also affiliated with NBC;

      Six months after the live series began, production switched to
      filming at Hal Roach Studios in Hollywood; Roach produced 52
      episodes during the first season, and also began syndicating
      these shows after they aired on NBC-TV. No doubt the deal was a
      way of compensating for the low price paid by NBC for filming
      the episodes; Roach was a pioneering low-budget producer of 
      theatrical short subjects which he repackaged and syndicated 
      for the new medium of television, including "Little Rascals" 
      and "Laurel and Hardy"; 
      
      His studio was also a rental facility where many low-budget 
      production companies later created series like "My Little
      Margie" and others; It was a business model for other studios
      founded years later;

      For the second season in 1950, the series expanded to a half-hour.

      After episodes aired on NBC-TV, episodes of "Fireside Theatre" were
      syndicated by Hal Roach under the title "Your - TV Theater" to 
      many TV stations all across the U.S. -- including independents 
      and stations affiliated with networks other than NBC;
 
      The show had several hosts between 1949 - 1955 when it at last
      found a permanent host, who was also its co-producer;

      Asa Kolinsky wrote to explain that in 1955, the series was taken
      over by a partership between MCA chairman Lew Wasserman and 
      veteran screen actress Jane Wyman (Ronald Reagan's first wife)
      who formed a company called "Lewman Productions"; the series began 
      filming at Wasserman's Revue Studios facility (which was later to
      be absorbed into MCA/Universal Studios); that same year the title
      of the series was changed to reflect its new star producer/host... 
      and the title had several adjustments over the next three years:

     "Jane Wyman Presents The Fireside Theatre" (1955 - 1956);
      aka: "Jane Wyman Presents...";

     "The Jane Wyman Theatre" (1956 - 1957); and
     "The Jane Wyman Show" (1957 - 1958);

      In 1958, the Revue Studios episodes went into syndication under
      the title "The Jane Wyman Show";

      As with many Dramatic Anthology series of the time, episodes were
      not only re-run and syndicated, but were re-cycled under several
      other anthology titles; Revue Studio episodes with Jane Wyman
      showed up on the 1959 season of a CBS series with the umbrella 
      title "Spotlight Playhouse" (1955 - 1959); this was a catch-all
      program to re-cycle dramatic anthology and unsold pilot episodes;
 
      In 1962 the Jane Wyman/Revue episodes were again rerun on the 
      ABC-TV network first on Daytime, and the following year on Primetime]


Theme 1: "Pastorale"

    [Verified as the THEME in the TV Guide article "What's The  
     Name of That Theme Song?" Feb. 19, 1954 on p.21]

     Composer: Jack Virgil (ASCAP)

     Original Publisher: Movietone Music Corp. (ASCAP)

     2000 Publisher: Movietone Music Corporation (ASCAP)
                         c/o Sam Fox Pub. Company, Inc.
                         of Scottsdale, AZ.

     Unpublished Copyright Date: Nov. 13, 1930; Eu 30 733.
     Unpublished Renewal   Date: Oct. 22, 1958; R 223 500.

    [on photocopy of sheet music]:
     Published Copyright Date: 1937.
        

     Recordings:


Theme 2: "Fireside Fantasy", based upon "Pastorale" (1930)

    [Theme credit verified on sheet music]
  
     Adapter/Arranger: Victor Lamont (ASCAP) 
                      [pseudonym of Victor E. Maiorana]

     1978 Publishers: Sam Fox Pub. Co., Inc. (ASCAP), and
                      Movietone Music Corp. (ASCAP)

     2000 Publishers: Sam Fox Pub. Co., Inc. (ASCAP)
                         of Scottsdale, AZ; and
                      Movietone Music Corporation (ASCAP)
                         c/o Sam Fox Pub. Company, Inc.
                         of Scottsdale, AZ.
                     
    [Creation Date as "Pastorale" (above)]:
     Creation Date: 1930.
     
    [Creation Date as "Fireside Fantasy"]:
     Creation Date: 1953.

     Copyright Date: Dec. 31, 1953; EP  77 698.
     Renewal   Date: Oct. 19, 1981; RE-103-817.

     Recordings:


Theme 3: "Nude Descending Stairs", from the suite "Passion in Paint"

    [Jane Wyman theme, verified by collector Ray Clark]

     Composer: Henri René (ASCAP)

     Original Publisher: Mills Music, Inc. [Old Acct.] (ASCAP)

     2000 Publisher: EMI-Mills Music, Inc./Old Acct. (ASCAP)
                        c/o EMI Music Publishing
                        of New York, NY

    [As arranged for band by Floyd E. Werle]:
     Published Copyright Date: Mar. 21, 1958; EP 118 103.

     Recordings:
          LP: "Passion In Paint" (1955)
               RCA-Victor LPM-1033 
               Henri Rene and His Orchestra


Theme 4: "Jane Wyman (Sig) (M & E)"

    [aka: "Wyman Love Theme (Sig)"]

    [Music credit in Patillo's Book "TV Theme Soundtrack Recordings" 
     (1990) listed the "performer" as Melvyn Lenard, a pseudonym
     of David Marvin Gordon, of Gordon Music, often a publisher
     of THEMES written by ghost writers
     
     Melvyn Lenard was listed as the writer in the ASCAP database in 1999;
     Stanley Wilson was listed as the writer in the ASCAP database in 2000.]

     Composers: credited to Melvyn Lenard (ASCAP) 
                           [pseudonym of publisher David Marvin Gordon], and
                            Stanley J. Wilson (ASCAP/BMI)

     1978 Publisher: Gordon Music Co., Inc. (ASCAP)

     2000 Publisher: Gordon Music Co., Inc. (ASCAP)
                       of Canoga Park, CA
                     
     Copyright Date: 

     Recordings:



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