Country of origin United States No. of seasons 1 Original network NBC Final episode date 1950 Genre Educational television | Original language(s) English Running time 15 mins./20 mins. First episode date 1 November 1946 Number of seasons 1 Cast Ben Grauer, Warren Hull | |
Also known as 'The Warren Hull ShowThe Ben Grauer Show' Presented by Jon Gnagy, Ben Grauer (Feb-June 1950), Warren Hull (Jan-Feb 1950) Similar Faraway Hill, The Voice of Firestone, Kraft Television Theatre, Strike It Rich | ||
You Are an Artist was a television series, which first aired on NBC flagship station WNBT-TV in New York City and "a small network of stations on the East Coast" on November 1, 1946, and then continued on the NBC Television network until 1950. The show originally ran for 15 minutes, then later ran for 20 minutes, before a 10-minute news broadcast, Camel News Caravan.
Contents
You Are an Artist
As its title suggests, it was a program designed to teach people how to draw art. Artist Jon Gnagy "would execute drawings before the camera while describing his technique in simple, understandable language." In later episodes, he added analysis of a famous painting on each episode.
The program briefly reverted to a New York City local show before a final three-week run on NBC in 1950.
The Warren Hull Show
Warren Hull became host of the program in January 1950, and the title changed to reflect his role as star. The format changed to a talk show, "nothing more than an extended commercial for its sponsors, the book publishers Doubleday and Company.":12 In each episode, Hull talked about a new book from Doubleday and interviewed the author. Hull was host for a month, before Ben Grauer replaced him.:12
The Ben Grauer Show
Once more, the title was changed to indicate a new host. Grauer continued Hull's format of talking about books and interviewing authors. His program also plugged Doubleday book clubs that offered discounted versions of books. Grauer's version of the show ran from February 1950 through June 1950.:12
Episode status
No kinescoped episodes are known to survive of this program, due to NBC's lack of an archival policy at the time. However, there are numerous audio recordings without video images from as early as January 9, 1947 (featuring Jon Gnagy) as taken from the live WNBT-TV broadcasts in New York, as documented in the Library of Congress SONIC Archives.