The program starred Bob Hope and Jerry Colonna, alongside Blanche Stewart, Elvia Allman, and a continuously rotating supporting cast of actors and musicians which included, for a time, Judy Garland, Frances Langford, and Desi Arnaz and his orchestra.
For most of its run, Pepsodent followed Fibber McGee and Molly on Tuesdays[1] and preceded The Raleigh Cigarette Program starring Red Skelton.
[4] In an effort to boost sales, Pepsodent became the official sponsor of Amos 'n' Andy, a continuation of WGN's popular Sam 'n' Henry starring Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll.
Hope, along with his parents and siblings emigrated to the United States aboard the SS Philadelphia and passed through Ellis Island on March 30, 1908, before moving to Cleveland, Ohio.
[9] During the early 1930s, Hope began a gig with New York's Palace Theatre and also performed in his first Broadway play as part of the cast of 1930's Smiles.
In 1936, Hope shared star billing with Ethel Merman and Jimmy Durante in Cole Porter's Broadway musical Red, Hot and Blue.
Sponsored by Emerson's Bromo-Seltzer, alongside Hope in the starring cast were singers James Melton, Jane Froman and Patricia Wilder with musical accompaniment from Al Goodman.
Wilder came with Hope to this series alongside tenor Frank Parker with Red Nichols and his Five Pennies providing the music.
Airing Wednesdays at 10, Hope hosted the program for a single season ending his association with Lucky Strike on March 23, 1938.
[13] The Pepsodent Show Starring Bob Hope premiered on Tuesday night September 27, 1938, over the stations of the National Broadcasting Company.
[16] The original Pepsodent cast consisted of Bob Hope, Jerry Colonna, Blanche Stewart and Elvia Allman.
In total, during the run of The Pepsodent Show, listeners heard the arrival and departure of four announcers, five vocalists and three bandleaders.
Included in the original team of Pepsodent writers were Mel Shavelson, Norman Panama, Jack Rose, Sherwood Schwartz, and Schwartz's brother Al. His writing eventually grew to fifteen and some of the newcomers to the show included Milt Josefsberg, Larry Gelbart and Hal Block.
With his USO troupe, Hope traveled to the likes of Sicily, England, Alaska, North Africa and the South Pacific entertaining the servicemen and women in the military.
Even with Hope constantly traveling overseas to perform for the troops, The Pepsodent Show still continued production.
Broadcasting in front of a live audience of soldiers and gearing the subject matter of the monologue to the troops, Hope fashioned a very successful variant on the radio comedy variety format.
Like Pepsodent before, due to the poor ratings, Swan pulled its sponsorship of The Bob Hope Show in 1950.
For the entirety of the program's ten-year run (September 27, 1938 – June 8, 1948), The Pepsodent Show was broadcast on Tuesday nights from 10 to 10:30.
Pepsodent sponsored CBS's popular comedy My Friend Irma in the evening and Arthur Godfrey Time and Art Linkletter's House Party during the daytime.
In 2003, household-manufacturing company Church & Dwight purchased the Pepsodent brand rights in the United States from Unilever.