Let There Be Stars

1949·1h

Let There Be Stars was an early television series which aired on the ABC television network in 1949. It was a high-budget show for its time, and used new production techniques such as "Teleparencies", transparencies which could be displayed in the background, faded in or out or dissolved, and changed on the fly. The idea of the program was to highlight up-and-coming actors and actresses who had been found by a talent scout working to cast new performers in Broadway shows. The first program got a rave review from Variety magazine, but quality dropped off, and the show only lasted a little more than a month, from October 16, 1949 through November 27. The 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th episodes are stored at the Paley Center for Media. The archive also has a "rough rehearsal kinescope" of one of the episodes.