Historic Philadelphia

Clark became nationally influential in the
music business and broadcasting.
All original television performances were
live in the 1950s, and New York was running
out of venues to produce shows, so
Philadelphia began providing network programs
for CBS. The first ever network show not
originated from New York was The Big Top, a
weekly live circus performance broadcast from
Camden Convention Hall starting Saturday,
July 1, 1950. WCAU-TV built new headquarters
on City Line Avenue in 1952, and in the
next year originated a live, half-hour daily
cowboy soap opera from a replica of an 1890s
Western town built in the parking lot.
Albert M. Greenfield was elected chairman
of the City Planning Commission in 1956. His
financial empire was grossing some $850
million. With his third wife, he bought Sugar
Loaf, a Chestnut Hill mansion of glass-walled
contemporary architecture. The annual daylong
New Year’s Day receptions at Sugar Loaf
would feed champagne, caviar, and the best of
everything to some seven hundred invited
guests including city officials, judges,
academics, congresspersons, the elite, and the
✧
Favorite Philadelphia celebrities of the
Fifties (clockwise from top left): Mario
Lanza, Chubby Checker, Grace Kelly, and
Eddie Fisher.
KELLY, LANZA, AND FISHER PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE
URBAN ARCHIVES, TEMPLE UNIVERSITY. CHECKER PHOTO
COURTESY OF THE THEATRE COLLECTION, FREE LIBRARY
OF PHILADELPHIA.
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