Summary

One in this series of musical/variety programs concerning the management and guests at a New York Park Avenue hotel that conveniently sports a Packard automobile showroom right off the lobby. Edward Everett Horton stars as the hotel's harried manager, J. Allardyce Dabney. Dabney begins this installment by telling singers Betty Brewer and Bill Harrington that he has embarked on a new diet and exercise regimen. He then proceeds to the hotel lounge, where Brewer and Harrington sing "The Old Piano Roll Blues." In the audience, Dabney greets actor Helmut Dantine and actress Virginia Gilmore, and the three chat briefly about Dantine's new movie. The scene cuts to the entertainers' dressing room, where Harrington and Brewer speculate about their future mates; Harrington sings "The Girl That I Marry," and Brewer performs "The Man I Love." A hotel typist asks Brewer to give Dabney the latest chapter of his book, which she has just finished. As Brewer begins to read, the chapter is acted out on the screen by Dantine and Gilmore; the short drama involves a blind veteran who comes to the hotel to meet his girlfriend. Next, Dabney auditions the duo of Howell and Bowser in the hotel lounge. Howell plays the ukulele and sings "The Nearness of You," after which his partner joins him in "El Manisero." The program moves on to its big production number in the hotel's Pelican Room. In "Robert E. Lee," Brewer and Harrington sing the parts of a girl and her riverboat lover, backed up by the Don Craig Chorus and by dancers who include Donald Saddler and June Graham. At the program's end, Dabney says good-bye to Gilmore and Dantine. Includes commercials and a promo.

(The series ran from March to September 1950 with Edward Everett Horton as the host/hotel manager. Don Ameche assumed that role in September 1950, and in July 1951, the hotel motif was dropped and the title was changed to "Don Ameche's Musical Playhouse.")