In 1951, Chicago Title and Trust, sponsor of Chicago Symphony Orchestra radio broadcasts, decided to test the waters of a new media—television. They succeeded brilliantly, organizing what the Chicago Tribune hailed as "the first U.S. orchestra weekly concert series on TV . . . and the only regularly scheduled presentation of live symphonic music in the country." The inaugural concert on September 25, led by Chicago Symphony Orchestra music director Rafael Kubelík, was a gala affair. Telecast live from the stage of the Civic Theatre over station WENR and fed to twenty-two stations, the program brought the Orchestra into living rooms across the Midwest. An additional twenty-eight shows aired that first season, the majority conducted by Kubelík, with assistant conductor George Schick filling in for the remainder. Because the initial contract specified a minimum of only twenty-five musicians, the earliest programs credited the "Chicago Symphony Chamber Orchestra," rather than the full orchestra.

Considerable changes were initiated in 1953 at the beginning of Fritz Reiner’s tenure as music director. WGN-TV, now the producer, extended the program to an Hour of Music, airing from 4-5:00 p.m. on Sunday afternoons and syndicated the show over the fourteen-station DuMont network. Reiner and Schick conducted half of the programs, with the remaining shows led by the guest conductors who were appearing at Orchestra Hall the same week. With Reiner at the helm, a multitude of internationally renowned conductors and artists visited Chicago that season. Making their television debuts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra were William Steinberg, Vladimir Golschmann, Erich Leinsdorf, Antal Dorati, Igor Stravinsky, Karl Böhm, Carlo Maria Giulini, Ernest Ansermet, Bruno Walter, and former CSO music director Désiré Defauw. The Orchestra, now enlarged to an average of fifty players, received additional recognition in WGN publicity: "[The] director uses three cameras, offering many close-ups showing musicians in the various sections in action. To all who are accustomed to thinking of symphony men as either long-haired or bald-headed, there came a surprise last night. Inthe brass section they sported crew cuts!"

Because kinescopes were made by DuMont in New York for distribution to member stations, the first extant films are from this period and include the television concerts conducted by Defauw, Reiner, Dorati, Schick, and Ansermet. Though the series continued through the 1957-58 season, the number of shows gradually dwindled to one per month and after 1955 syndication ceased entirely. When a newspaper critic reported in March 1958, "Ratings, those little numbers which have killed off so many top flight television programs, don’t frighten the sponsors of . . . Hour of Music," he was wrong. Two months later Chicago Title and Trust withdrew its sponsorship of the program and the Orchestra’s first television series came to an end.

After only a year’s absence, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra returned to WGN-TV when Carson Pirie Scott, RCA Victor, and United Airlines joined together to sponsor a new series, Great Music from Chicago. Now "live and in living color" the hour-long show aired weekly at 8:00 p.m. Sunday evenings with Deems Taylor as the initial host and narrator. The show was greeted with so much fanfare that Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley was inspired to proclaim October 18-25, 1959, Great Music from Chicago Week. Twenty-six shows aired between October and April, focusing primarily on classical music with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as the principal ensemble. Prominent guest conductors with the Orchestra included Hans Rosbaud, Alfred Wallenstein, Igor Markevitch, Sir John Barbirolli, Sir Thomas Beecham, André Cluytens, Morton Gould, Lukas Foss, Pierre Monteux, William Steinberg, George Szell, Leopold Stokowski, Jean Martinon, André Previn, Arthur Fiedler, Aaron Copland, Charles Munch, and Paul Hindemith. Among the many soloists were Byron Janis, Isaac Stern, Erica Morini, Dorothy Kirsten, William Warfield, Nathan Milstein, and Zino Francescatti. A number of pops concerts were added to the lineup each season, some featuring the CSO led by WGN’s resident conductor Robert Trendler. Others showcased jazz artists, such as Count Basie and Woody Herman, and singers Florence Henderson and Tony Bennett. 

As many as seventy musicians were now used for each program. Less than half of the repertoire was duplicated on adjacent subscription concert programs, with music of a more popular nature often substituted. According to Philip Hart, the Chicago Symphony’s assistant manager at the time, "the Orchestra assembled two hours before air-time, had a straight one-hour run-through, followed by a break. During that break, we would confer with the producer and settle such last minute production problems as light shining in a player’s eyes, the location of the soloist, or resolution of final timings and cuts, if necessary. Fifteen minutes before air-time the Orchestra, conductor, and soloist (if any) took their places on stage, and at air-time the program went out ‘live’. Even after the program was taped for syndication, the program was played straight through." Tickets were highly sought after for these concerts, most originating in WGN’s Studio 1-A in the Tribune Tower which could accommodate a studio audience of 400. Other programs were taped at Orchestra Hall, the Ballroom of the Edgewater Beach Hotel, and at the Ravinia Festival. 

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s participation in the Great Music from Chicago series lasted four seasons, from 1959 to 1963. After 1963, the series continued for three more years but focused exclusively on popular artists and music. Of the 104 shows produced by WGN during the Orchestra’s tenure, nearly 80 have been found to date. The collection, held by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Rosenthal Archives, comprises one of the oldest, largest, and most comprehensive symphony-based film and video archives in the United States. For the past decade these programs have only been available for viewing within the Archives, where they have been enjoyed by scholars, enthusiasts, and Chicago Symphony Orchestra musicians alike. We are delighted that selected shows will now be available to a much wider audience where, once again, the thrill of these live performances can be experienced by the public in their own homes. 

Brenda Nelson-Strauss
Director, Samuel R. and Marie Louise Rosenthal Archives