The Arthur Murray Party
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The Arthur Murray Party was a television variety show which ran from 1950 until 1960. It appeared on ABC for the first few months of its broadcast, then moved to the DuMont Television Network, ABC, CBS, DuMont, CBS, NBC, CBS, and finally NBC (in that order). The show was hosted by famous dancers Arthur and Kathryn Murray, and was basically one long advertisement for their chain of dance studios. Each week the couple performed a mystery dance, and the viewer who correctly identified the dance would receive two free lessons at a local studio.
The show was set up like a large party, with Kathryn hosting a variety of guests, from sports stars to actors or musicians. Murray dance studio instructors would help Kathryn and Arthur to show their guests how to perform a particular dance step. At the end of the show, the couple would perform a Johann Strauss waltz.
It is most notable for being one of the few TV series broadcast by all four major commercial networks of the 1950s. It may, in fact, be the only series which had a run on all four networks at least twice.
Categories: Articles lacking sources from December 2006 | All articles lacking sources | 1950s TV shows in the United States | 1960s TV shows in the United States | ABC network shows | DuMont network shows | CBS network shows | NBC network shows | Dance television shows | 1950 television program debuts
