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5 unusual facts about Ted Mack


Bobby Sowell

In 1966 Sowell won the Mid-South Fair and was scheduled to appear on the Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour on CBS Television, but before he could go there, he got drafted during the Vietnam War and his musical career was put on hold.

Booker Bradshaw

In 1961, while a junior at Harvard, he applied his singing talents on the The Original Amateur Hour television show with Ted Mack as a singer of folk songs, becoming a three time winner, and participated in the national finals at Madison Square Garden.

Major Bowes Amateur Hour

"It is composed of 12 prize winning acts which have never before appeared in Buffalo, with Ted Mack, former conductor of Shea's Buffalo Orchestra, returning in the role of master of ceremonies. On the screen will be Mickey Rooney, the delightful star of the Judge Hardy family series, in his newest role, "Hold That Kiss" with Maureen O'Sullivan and Dennis O'Keefe. Shea's Buffalo News will conclude the bill."

Ted Mack, who had supervised the auditions for Bowes, became the interim host of the radio show and a few months later moved it to the fledgling medium of television.

What's It For?

What's It For? last aired until late 1957, when it was replaced in its time period by Ted Mack's The Original Amateur Hour.


Robyn Read

In 1988, the Independent MP for the state seat of North Shore, Ted Mack, resigned from Parliament to avoid qualifying for a parliamentary pension.

Virginia Vestoff

She coped with the loss by acting, and took third prize on The Ted Mack Amateur Hour, which launched a professional career with the Children's Chorus of the New York City Opera.


see also

The Pixies Three

Having performed in local shows since 1955, the Hanover, Pennsylvania trio of Midge Bollinger (lead vocals), Kaye McCool (low vocals), and Debra Swisher (high vocals) were signed to Mercury Records in 1963 by producers/songwriters John Madara and Dave White, who had discovered the group at a show in Philadelphia (among the group’s previous successes were two appearances on the Ted Mack Amateur Hour).