The Needle Shop

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The Needle Shop was an early American television program which aired on the DuMont Television Network in a 15-minute timeslot at 2:30pm ET weekdays. The program aired on New York City television station WABD from 1948 to 1949.

Broadcast history[]

This series is significant as representing part of WABD's daytime experiment. While not the first with daytime programming, the station was the first to introduce a schedule which began in the morning and continued through to the end of prime-time, at a time when daytime and afternoon broadcasting was heavy on test patterns.

The series was about sewing, and was hosted by Alice Burrows, who was age 62 when she started appearing on the series. She was described in a news article as "pretty, silvery-haired and bristling with energy".^[1]

According to the book What Women Watched: Daytime Television in the 1950s (University of Texas Press, 2005) by Marsha Cassidy, the DuMont daytime schedule beginning in January 1949 was:

• 10-10:30am Johnny Olson's Rumpus Room
• 10:30-11am Welcome, Neighbors
• 11am-12noon The Stan Shaw Show
• 12noon-12:15pm Amanda
• 12:15-12:30pm Man in the Street
• 12:30-12:45pm Camera Headlines
• 12:45-1pm Fashions in Song
• 1-1:30pm Okay, Mother
• 2:30-3pm Inside Photoplay (The Wendy Barrie Show)
• 3-3:15pm The Needle Shop
• 3:15-3:30pm Vincent Lopez Speaking (The Vincent Lopez Show)

Preservation status[]

As with most DuMont series, no episodes are known to exist, as live local shows were very rarely kinescoped for many years. Additionally, 1940s daytime television series are poorly preserved as a whole, with only a few scattered kinescopes known to be held by television archives (one of which, an experimental one-off telecast of the Breakfast Club radio show, aired on WABD).

Reception[]

Billboard magazine felt a younger and more attractive host would have been a better choice, but also stated that Burrows "obviously knows her stuff" and that the series "might prove of value".^[2]

See also[]

• List of programs broadcast by the DuMont Television Network
• List of surviving DuMont Television Network broadcasts
• 1948-1949 United States network television schedule (weekday)
• Amanda - Also part of the 1948 WABD morning line-up

References[]

One Stop Shop

External links[]

• The Needle Shop on IMDB