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167-534: Recent logos have been themed for different holidays during the year (such as Halloween , Valentine's Day , and New Year's Day ), in observance of its upcoming or ongoing broadcasts of the Olympics , as well as an American flag-themed logo following the September 11 attacks . The logo has been adapted for color television and high definition as technology has advanced. As NBC acquired other television channels,

334-476: A Christian holiday, being the vigil of All Hallows' Day. Celebrated in Ireland and Scotland for centuries, Irish and Scottish immigrants took many Halloween customs to North America in the 19th century, and then through American influence various Halloween customs spread to other countries by the late 20th and early 21st century. Popular activities during Halloween include trick-or-treating (or

501-449: A trademark infringement lawsuit against NBC. The new NBC logo was virtually identical to the logo that Nebraska ETV had been using since 1974, with the only cosmetic difference between the two designs being that the right trapezoid of the NBC logo had blue coloring. An out-of-court settlement was reached in which NBC gave Nebraska ETV over $ 800,000 worth of new broadcasting equipment, including

668-643: A "rare few" in rural communities as they were considered to be "deadly serious" practices. In recent centuries, these divination games have been "a common feature of the household festivities" in Ireland and Britain. They often involve apples and hazelnuts. In Celtic mythology , apples were strongly associated with the Otherworld and immortality , while hazelnuts were associated with divine wisdom. Some also suggest that they derive from Roman practices in celebration of Pomona . The following activities were

835-449: A 1955 Emmy Award ) directed with associate director Bill Colleran. Tony Charmoli won a 1956 Emmy for his choreography, and the show's other dance directors were Tom Hansen (1957–58), Peter Gennaro (1958–59) and Ernie Flatt (uncredited). Paul Barnes won an Emmy in 1957 for his art direction. In 1953, the show won a Peabody Award "for consistent good taste, technical perfection and unerring choice of performers." The seven top-rated songs of

1002-590: A Christianization of an earlier pagan custom. Many Christians in mainland Europe, especially in France, believed "that once a year, on Hallowe'en, the dead of the churchyards rose for one wild, hideous carnival" known as the danse macabre , which was often depicted in church decoration . Christopher Allmand and Rosamond McKitterick write in The New Cambridge Medieval History that the danse macabre urged Christians "not to forget

1169-482: A bargain that Satan can never claim his soul. After a life of sin , drink , and mendacity, Jack is refused entry to heaven when he dies. Keeping his promise, the Devil refuses to let Jack into hell and throws a live coal straight from the fires of hell at him. It was a cold night, so Jack places the coal in a hollowed out turnip to stop it from going out, since which time Jack and his lantern have been roaming looking for

1336-515: A bold, bright and contemporary design consisting of two trapezoids – one red and one blue. One of the technological innovations of this logo was its use in the first electronically animated ident for an American television network; the trapezoid "N" was previewed in a print ad in October 1975, before it was officially used on-air on January 1, 1976, at the start of the Bicentennial year. On

1503-608: A carnival fun house, powered by steam. The House still exists, in the Hollycombe Steam Collection . It was during the 1930s, about the same time as trick-or-treating , that Halloween-themed haunted houses first began to appear in America. It was in the late 1950s that haunted houses as a major attraction began to appear, focusing first on California. Sponsored by the Children's Health Home Junior Auxiliary,

1670-434: A chair, holding a fork between the teeth and trying to drive the fork into an apple, or embedding a coin in the apple which participants had to remove with their teeth. Another common game involves hanging up treacle or syrup-coated scones by strings; these must be eaten without using hands while they remain attached to the string, an activity that inevitably leads to a sticky face. A similar game involved hanging an apple from

1837-439: A clip featuring a main character or host of a particular program. In May 2011, NBC introduced a glossy 3D version of their logo, which was designed by Zoic Studios . Other aspects of the 2009 graphics package remained intact. In April 2013, NBC altered and modified their 3D logo and changed its wordmark to use Sweet Sans Pro, which officially came out on September 30, 2013. On September 17, 2018, NBC changed its wordmark to use

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2004-537: A color mobile unit. It also paid Nebraska ETV $ 55,000 to cover the cost of designing and implementing a new logo. In return, NBC was allowed to keep the "N" logo. The Peacock returned as part of NBC's branding in September 1979. The "N" and the Peacock were combined to create a design called the "Proud N." This marked the first time that the Peacock was actually part of NBC's own logo. It was simplified in keeping with

2171-477: A common feature of Halloween in Ireland and Britain during the 17th–20th centuries. Some have become more widespread and continue to be popular today. One common game is apple bobbing or dunking (which may be called "dooking" in Scotland) in which apples float in a tub or a large basin of water and the participants must use only their teeth to remove an apple from the basin. Variants of dunking involve kneeling on

2338-613: A cross-promotion, Rolfe made recordings for Edison Records credited as "B.A. Rolfe and his Lucky Strike Orchestra". Beginning in April 1930, the show became known as The Lucky Strike Dance Hour , as a second hour-long show began airing Wednesday nights on the NBC Blue network (9:30 to 10:30 pm). During the fall, the Wednesday show was replaced by Tuesday and Thursday night broadcasts, also on NBC Red. During its first three years,

2505-430: A form of these attractions by opening one of the first "hell houses" in 1972. Your Hit Parade Your Hit Parade was an American radio and television music program that was broadcast from 1935 to 1953 on radio, and seen from 1950 to 1959 on television. It was sponsored by American Tobacco 's Lucky Strike cigarettes. During its 24-year run, the show had 19 orchestra leaders and 52 singers or groups. When

2672-632: A guest female vocalist each week; the guest vocalist was called the "Lucky Star of the Week". Guy Lombardo was host of the show until January 16, 1953, when the Hit Parade radio program aired for the last time. The success of the radio show spawned a spin-off series, Your All-Time Hit Parade , sponsored by Lucky Strike and devoted to all-time favorites and standards mixed with some current hits. The program began on NBC February 12, 1943, airing Fridays at 8:30 pm until June 2, 1944, and then Sundays at 7 pm as

2839-431: A heaven filled with angels and a hell filled with devils", a motif that has permeated the observance of this triduum . One of the earliest works on the subject of Halloween is from Scottish poet John Mayne , who, in 1780, made note of pranks at Halloween— "What fearfu' pranks ensue!" , as well as the supernatural associated with the night, "bogles" (ghosts) —influencing Robert Burns ' " Halloween " (1785). Elements of

3006-447: A hit record during his stint on the show – "Cinco Robles (Five Oaks)" (# 22 / 1957) The line-up of the show's other singers included Eileen Wilson (1950–52), Sue Bennett (1951–52), June Valli (1952–53), Alan Copeland (1957–58), Jill Corey (1957–58), Johnny Desmond (1958–59), Virginia Gibson (1957–58), and Tommy Leonetti (1957–58). All were performers of standards , show tunes or big band numbers. Featured prominently were

3173-498: A logo depicting a microphone surrounded by lightning bolts, superimposed over a map of the United States. The "NBC" letters appeared in an arc above the graphic. In 1931, NBC introduced its second logo – a square with a diagonal NBC text in it, and lightning bolts around the "B." This logo was later adopted in 1941 for use as the original logo for the newly formed NBC television network. In 1943, NBC introduced its third logo,

3340-458: A logo. In 1986, the "N" was retired and the Peacock became the sole logo used by NBC, including the radio network. In 1980, just one year after the "Proud N" was introduced, NBC hired renowned design firm Chermayeff & Geismar to create a new brand identity for the network. Steff Geissbühler designed the simplified peacock that became the network's new logo. The 11 feathers of the previous peacock logo were pared down to six, encompassing each of

3507-545: A male announcer saying "This is NBC, the National Broadcasting Company," followed by the NBC chimes . On the network's flagship television station WNBT (now WNBC ), this was accompanied by the same announcer saying "WNBT, New York." At the beginning of telecasts, a card was shown with a different NBC logo with the letters in cursive and enclosed in a rectangle (a logo also used at the end of broadcasts in

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3674-435: A microphone surrounded by lightning bolts, which was a modification of the original 1926 logo used by the NBC radio network. Lightning bolts were also part of the logo of corporate parent RCA , as well as that of one-time sister company RKO Pictures . The waves placed on the left side were meant for the radio network, and the right waves were meant for the television network. A network identification featuring this logo includes

3841-419: A multicolored background while an RCA TK-40 or TK-41 camera passed by with a jazz rendition of the NBC chimes, while the second consists of the snake forming against a color-changing background, going from blue to green to red, on each note of the regular, automated NBC chimes. The logo was also designed by John J. Graham. In 1962 on Laramie , a new version of the Peacock opening logo was introduced in which

4008-532: A new in-house typeface made by Capacity, "NBC Tinker", named after former NBC chairman and CEO Grant Tinker . In July 2020, NBC temporarily added six vertical pips to the right side of the 2018 logo, which radiate out from each color of the peacock to form the vertical row in order to tie into it being used in the same position for the logo of NBCUniversal's Peacock streaming service, to promote its launch, before reverting back to its regular logo in March 2021. In

4175-735: A newspaper in Kingston, Ontario , Canada, reported children going "guising" around the neighborhood. American historian and author Ruth Edna Kelley of Massachusetts wrote the first book-length history of Halloween in the US: The Book of Hallowe'en (1919), and references souling in the chapter "Hallowe'en in America". In her book, Kelley touches on customs that arrived from across the Atlantic; "Americans have fostered them, and are making this an occasion something like what it must have been in its best days overseas. All Halloween customs in

4342-482: A number of lives during Rome's sultry summers. By the end of the 12th century, the celebration had become known as the holy days of obligation in Western Christianity and involved such traditions as ringing church bells for souls in purgatory . It was also "customary for criers dressed in black to parade the streets, ringing a bell of mournful sound and calling on all good Christians to remember

4509-463: A nun, priest, monk, etc.); a coin , that they would become rich; a bean , that they would be poor. The game features prominently in the James Joyce short story " Clay " (1914). In Ireland and Scotland, items would be hidden in food – usually a cake, barmbrack , cranachan , champ or colcannon  – and portions of it served out at random. A person's future would be foretold by

4676-464: A peacock for the NBC television network: an abstraction of an eleven-feathered peacock indicating richness in color. This brightly hued peacock, which NBC called the "Bird," was adopted because of the increase in color programming. In addition, NBC's owner, RCA, manufactured color television sets. As a result, the peacock became a marketing tool, in the hopes that people tuning in to NBC would purchase color TV sets. NBC's first color broadcasts showed only

4843-449: A place to rest. In Ireland, Scotland, and Northern England the turnip has traditionally been carved during Halloween, but immigrants to North America used the native pumpkin, which is both much softer and much larger, making it easier to carve than a turnip. The American tradition of carving pumpkins is recorded in 1837 and was originally associated with harvest time in general, not becoming specifically associated with Halloween until

5010-402: A presentation of the top 15 songs. Later, a countdown with fanfares led to the top three finalists, with the number one song for the finale. Occasional performances of standards and other favorite songs from the past were known as "Lucky Strike Extras". Listeners were informed that the " Your Hit Parade survey checks the best sellers on sheet music and phonograph records, the songs most heard on

5177-597: A secular Halloween custom. It is recorded in Scotland at Halloween in 1895 where masqueraders in disguise carrying lanterns made out of scooped out turnips, visit homes to be rewarded with cakes, fruit, and money. In Ireland, the most popular phrase for kids to shout (until the 2000s) was " Help the Halloween Party ". Author Nicholas Rogers cites an early example of guising in North America in 1911, where

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5344-495: A seven-tone sequence. The current tones – which were first adopted in 1929 as a simplified cue for identification of its radio affiliates because of issues with orchestrating the seven notes properly – are only three notes, G , E' and C' (contrary to popular belief, the selection of the three notes was not intended to represent the initials of the network's eventual owner, the General Electric Company , which

5511-443: A still frame of the colorful peacock. Several modifications were made by NBC before the emblem made its first on-air appearance on May 22, 1956. In the summer of 1957, beginning with Your Hit Parade , the peacock became animated and introduced every NBC color telecast until a revamped animation appeared in 1962. Its musical backing was a gong while the peacock began its formation, with a male announcer saying "The following program

5678-498: A string with a coin embedded; the coin had to be removed without using hands. Another once-popular game involves hanging a small wooden rod from the ceiling at head height, with a lit candle on one end and an apple hanging from the other. The rod is spun round, and everyone takes turns to try to catch the apple with their teeth. Several of the traditional activities from Ireland and Britain involve foretelling one's future partner or spouse. An apple would be peeled in one long strip, then

5845-401: A summer replacement for Jack Benny, continuing until September 24, 1944. The regular vocalists were Marie Green, Ethel Smith , Martha Stewart, Bea Wain and Jerry Wayne. Lyn Murray led the chorus, and the orchestra was conducted by Mark Warnow . On December 6, 1948, Lucky Strike introduced yet another musical series, the daytime Your Lucky Strike , aka The Don Ameche Show , since the host

6012-471: A telephone in promos for The Office or the ringing of a cash register in promos for Deal or No Deal ). Two versions of the 2008 logo animation were used: a 3D glass version (introduced in the fall of 2008) that was used in most promos, and an occasionally used 2D logo that was also used as a generic ID. The ".com" suffix added to create the URL for promoting the network's website was sometimes featured beside

6179-419: A throwback motif. The Peacock also made an appearance before the premiere of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien in 2009. The "Laramie Peacock" has also been used by local stations: the sequence was shown at the beginning of Pittsburgh Dad 's Guide to Christmas , a special aired on Pittsburgh NBC affiliate WPXI on December 19, 2014. NBC updated its image in 1975 with the introduction of an abstract "N,"

6346-470: Is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows' Day . It is at the beginning of the observance of Allhallowtide , the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints ( hallows ), martyrs , and all the faithful departed. In popular culture, the day has become a celebration of horror and

6513-447: Is a customary celebration for children on Halloween. Children go in costume from house to house, asking for treats such as candy or sometimes money, with the question, "Trick or treat?" The word "trick" implies a "threat" to perform mischief on the homeowners or their property if no treat is given. The practice is said to have roots in the medieval practice of mumming , which is closely related to souling . John Pymm wrote that "many of

6680-451: Is a popular Irish Christian folktale associated with the jack-o'-lantern, which in folklore is said to represent a " soul who has been denied entry into both heaven and hell ": On route home after a night's drinking, Jack encounters the Devil and tricks him into climbing a tree. A quick-thinking Jack etches the sign of the cross into the bark, thus trapping the Devil. Jack strikes

6847-455: Is also presented opaque in full color during the opening credits of a program, with the bug sometimes accompanied by " .com " text as a promotion for the network's website. Live finale episodes of The Biggest Loser continued to use the version with the NBC name titling below the peacock until its September 2009 conversion to HD, due to that program's standard definition production being based out of Burbank instead of New York City. This logo

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7014-489: Is associated with the macabre and the supernatural . One theory holds that many Halloween traditions were influenced by Celtic harvest festivals , particularly the Gaelic festival Samhain , which are believed to have pagan roots. Some go further and suggest that Samhain may have been Christianized as All Hallows' Day, along with its eve, by the early Church . Other academics say Halloween began independently as

7181-406: Is brought to you in lively black and white, on NBC." At the end of the sequence, the penguin is shown taking off its top hat and unzipping its chest, with The Beatles jumping out and performing, before running away while being chased by fangirls. In 1968, a variant of the 1965 "in living color" peacock ID was featured at the start of an episode of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In . At the very end of

7348-490: Is brought to you in living color on NBC," while the music crescendoed followed by a nine-note flourish while the peacock's feathers changed color and finally spread out. According to Game Show Network executive David Schwartz, the first announcer who spoke those famous words behind the Peacock graphic logo was Ben Grauer , who had been a familiar voice on NBC since 1930. A slide with the letters "NBC" in red, green, and blue respectively and with "TELEVISION" underneath appeared at

7515-429: Is evident with such 1960s programs as Hullabaloo using both archived Kinescope footage with rare color videotape finds, which was later re-released for home video on VHS and DVD . For NBC's 1965 fall preview special, the peacock introduction began as normal with announcer Mel Brandt's standard introduction; however, when the peacock faded, Brandt is heard saying "It just starts in black and white!" Used to begin

7682-748: Is one of the quarter days in the medieval Gaelic calendar and has been celebrated on 31 October – 1 November in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man . A kindred festival has been held by the Brittonic Celts, called Calan Gaeaf in Wales, Kalan Gwav in Cornwall and Kalan Goañv in Brittany ; a name meaning "first day of winter". For the Celts, the day ended and began at sunset; thus

7849-508: Is sometimes accompanied with NBC text, usually below the peacock, however, this is not always the case. The network's logo bug incorporated the text starting in August 1995, and it becomes colorized on September 18, 2006, NBC Nightly News finally began using the 2006 on screen bug starting on March 26, 2007, to coincide with the program's first high-definition broadcast, with the web address for MSNBC (and since 2012, NBC News ) later added to

8016-571: Is the world's largest Halloween parade and America's only major nighttime parade, attracting more than 60,000 costumed participants, two million spectators, and a worldwide television audience. Since the late 2010s, ethnic stereotypes as costumes have increasingly come under scrutiny in the United States. According to a 2018 report from the National Retail Federation , 30 million Americans will spend an estimated $ 480 million on Halloween costumes for their pets in 2018. This

8183-483: Is up from an estimated $ 200 million in 2010. The most popular costumes for pets are the pumpkin, followed by the hot dog , and the bumblebee in third place. There are several games traditionally associated with Halloween. Some of these games originated as divination rituals or ways of foretelling one's future, especially regarding death, marriage and children. During the Middle Ages , these rituals were done by

8350-483: The Aos Sí , or the souls of the dead, and received offerings on their behalf, similar to ' souling '. Impersonating these beings, or wearing a disguise, was also believed to protect oneself from them. In parts of southern Ireland, the guisers included a hobby horse . A man dressed as a Láir Bhán ( white mare ) led youths house-to-house reciting verses – some of which had pagan overtones – in exchange for food. If

8517-487: The Celtic-speaking countries , some of which are believed to have pagan roots. Jack Santino , a folklorist , writes that "there was throughout Ireland an uneasy truce existing between customs and beliefs associated with Christianity and those associated with religions that were Irish before Christianity arrived". The origins of Halloween customs are typically linked to the Gaelic festival Samhain . Samhain

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8684-494: The Nielsen ratings at #29 in the 1950–51 season, #30 in 1953–54, #15 in 1954–55 and #23 in 1955–56. The show faded with the rise of rock and roll when the performance became more important than the song. The need for visual performances to accompany the songs on television resulted in skits that became more ludicrous as the songs repeated each week. Those issues, along with the growing popularity of rock and roll, contributed to

8851-679: The Scottish form of All Hallows' Eve (the evening before All Hallows' Day ): even is the Scots term for "eve" or "evening", and is contracted to e'en or een ; (All) Hallow(s) E(v)en became Hallowe'en . Halloween is thought to have influences from Christian beliefs and practices. The English word 'Halloween' comes from "All Hallows' Eve", being the evening before the Christian holy days of All Hallows' Day (All Saints' Day) on 1 November and All Souls' Day on 2 November. Since

9018-596: The Winter Olympics , or at the beginning of a calendar year leading up to the Summer Olympics (in 2012 , the rings variant was implemented on April 16, 2012, in accordance with "Green is Universal" week, along with sister network Telemundo ). The Olympics version of the network's 1986 logo is also used by NBC affiliates for their logos during the network's coverage of the Games (as well as in promotions for

9185-432: The autumn season , such as pumpkins, corn husks , and scarecrows , are also prevalent. Homes are often decorated with these types of symbols around Halloween. Halloween imagery includes themes of death, evil , and mythical monsters . Black cats , which have been long associated with witches, are also a common symbol of Halloween. Black, orange, and sometimes purple are Halloween's traditional colors. Trick-or-treating

9352-517: The effect of witches , who were believed to accompany the malignant spirits as they traveled the earth". After 1605, Hallowtide was eclipsed in England by Guy Fawkes Night (5 November), which appropriated some of its customs. In England, the ending of official ceremonies related to the intercession of saints led to the development of new, unofficial Hallowtide customs. In 18th–19th century rural Lancashire , Catholic families gathered on hills on

9519-459: The primary and secondary colors in the RYB color palette and also representing NBC's six divisions: News (Yellow), Sports (Orange), Entertainment (Red), Stations (Purple), Network (Blue), and Productions (Green). The peacock's head (implied by the negative space cutting into the side of the purple feather) was now flipped to the right – this was done to suggest as if it was looking forward to

9686-549: The 18th century, "imitating malignant spirits" led to playing pranks in Ireland and the Scottish Highlands . Wearing costumes and playing pranks at Halloween did not spread to England until the 20th century. Pranksters used hollowed-out turnips or mangel wurzels as lanterns, often carved with grotesque faces. By those who made them, the lanterns were variously said to represent the spirits, or used to ward off evil spirits. They were common in parts of Ireland and

9853-646: The 1950–1951 season, Bob Fosse appeared as a guest dancer on several episodes, with partner Mary Ann Niles. From 1950 until 1957, the orchestra was led by well-known bandleader and musician Raymond Scott (who married Dorothy Collins in 1952); the show's other music supervisors were Dick Jacobs (1957–58) and Harry Sosnik (1958–59). During the 1957–58 season, sponsor American Tobacco pitched Hit Parade filter cigarettes instead of Lucky Strikes. Alternate sponsors included Avco Manufacturing's Crosley division (1951–54), Richard Hudnut hair care products (1954–57), and The Toni Company (1957–58). Your Hit Parade finished in

10020-408: The 2022–23 television season, NBC began to phase in an updated version of the peacock symbol, with its colors made brighter to match the logo of Peacock, the feathers repositioned to make them more "balanced", the peacock's "beak" made larger and more prominent, white-outlined versions no longer being used, and the wordmark made bolder. The updated peacock was soft-launched in September 2022 as part of

10187-697: The Calvinist doctrine of predestination . State-sanctioned ceremonies associated with the intercession of saints and prayer for souls in purgatory were abolished during the Elizabethan reform , though All Hallows' Day remained in the English liturgical calendar to "commemorate saints as godly human beings". For some Nonconformist Protestants , the theology of All Hallows' Eve was redefined: "souls cannot be journeying from Purgatory on their way to Heaven, as Catholics frequently believe and assert. Instead,

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10354-529: The Christian tradition, serves as "a reminder of death and the transitory quality of human life" and is consequently found in memento mori and vanitas compositions; skulls have therefore been commonplace in Halloween, which touches on this theme. Traditionally, the back walls of churches are "decorated with a depiction of the Last Judgment , complete with graves opening and the dead rising, with

10521-511: The Hit Parade dancers and the Hit Paraders, the program's choral singers. The vocal arranger and choral director of the Hit Parade was Ray Charles (1950–57). He started with the pilot shows in 1949, but did not receive billing until 1955 because he was simultaneously working with a choir on a show sponsored by a competing brand (Chesterfield cigarettes). The Hit Paraders sang the opening commercial jingle (composed by Raymond Scott ): During

10688-480: The Irish and Scots, though "In Cajun areas, a nocturnal Mass was said in cemeteries on Halloween night. Candles that had been blessed were placed on graves, and families sometimes spent the entire night at the graveside". Originally confined to these immigrant communities, it was gradually assimilated into mainstream society and was celebrated coast to coast by people of all social, racial, and religious backgrounds by

10855-525: The January 10, 1976 episode of NBC's Saturday Night (now Saturday Night Live ), Weekend Update host Chevy Chase mocked the new logo and its $ 1   million design cost. Johnny Carson also discussed the new logo and its cost on The Tonight Show . In February 1976, Nebraska ETV (later Nebraska Educational Telecommunications, now Nebraska Public Media), the PBS member network for Nebraska , filed

11022-511: The Kinephoto process," a reference to a live program put onto black and white film identified as a Kinescope recording. This variant was widely used throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Many programs were originally recorded in this manner before the advent of two-inch videotape. NBC, however, continued to use its Kinephoto recording system to archive many of its videotaped programs so the videotapes can be erased and reused for other programming. This

11189-511: The NBC Logo Legal Usage Guidelines, which is distributed to NBC employees involved in graphics as well as outside vendors, such as advertising agencies, who may need to use the logo. On September 17, 1999, NBC revamped its network identity. A new network ID sequence was introduced, with the NBC logo reflecting through very huge glass feathers; this identity was used until the end of the 2001–02 television season. In

11356-399: The NBC airings of The Wizard of Oz as well as on the broadcast of Peter Pan , which had been videotaped at NBC Studios (NBC had previously telecast live versions of Peter Pan in 1955 and 1956 on the anthology Producers' Showcase ). The "Laramie Peacock," named for the series which introduced it, used the same "living color" tagline as the first peacock, but the accompanying music

11523-465: The NBC peacock, which is present on both the SD and HD feeds. NBC updated its logo once again on January 4, 2008, with all network promos and IDs ending with the peacock feathers blooming out of the peacock's body, forming the logo. The feathers also flashed in tune to the NBC chimes, which were sometimes played using different instruments other than the standard xylophone, or other sounds set to G-E-C (such as

11690-583: The Olympics that precede the start of the Games), both on-air for some stations or confined to the "Olympic Zone" micro-sites. The Olympic rings is also used below the logo of its sister channels, such as Telemundo and USA for example. Shortly after the beginning of the 2006–07 television season, almost all NBC programming included graphics for Today , Meet the Press , and Dateline NBC . The left version

11857-523: The Puritans of New England strongly opposed the holiday, along with other traditional celebrations of the established Church, including Christmas. Almanacs of the late 18th and early 19th century give no indication that Halloween was widely celebrated in North America. It was not until after mass Irish and Scottish immigration in the 19th century that Halloween became a major holiday in America. Most American Halloween traditions were inherited from

12024-852: The San Mateo Haunted House opened in 1957. The San Bernardino Assistance League Haunted House opened in 1958. Home haunts began appearing across the country during 1962 and 1963. In 1964, the San Manteo Haunted House opened, as well as the Children's Museum Haunted House in Indianapolis. The haunted house as an American cultural icon can be attributed to the opening of The Haunted Mansion in Disneyland on 12 August 1969. Knott's Berry Farm began hosting its own Halloween night attraction, Knott's Scary Farm , which opened in 1973. Evangelical Christians adopted

12191-583: The Scottish Highlands in the 19th century, as well as in Somerset (see Punkie Night ). In the 20th century they spread to other parts of Britain and became generally known as jack-o'-lanterns . Lesley Bannatyne and Cindy Ott write that Anglican colonists in the southern United States and Catholic colonists in Maryland "recognized All Hallows' Eve in their church calendars", although

12358-625: The TV series, vocalists Dorothy Collins (1950–57, 1958–59), Russell Arms (1952–57), Snooky Lanson (1950–57) and Gisèle MacKenzie (1953–57) were top-billed during the show's peak years. During this time, MacKenzie had her own hit record in 1955 with "Hard to Get" which climbed to the #5 ranking in June 1955 and stayed on the charts for 16 weeks. She also starred in her own NBC variety program, The Gisele MacKenzie Show from 1957 to 1958, produced by her mentor, comedian Jack Benny . Russell Arms also enjoyed

12525-490: The TV show was seen from 10:30–11:00 pm. Both shows featured the Lucky Strike Orchestra, led by Raymond Scott. In the fall of 1951, the radio show moved to Thursday nights, and its personnel and format were changed. The show, still sponsored by Lucky Strike, now starred Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians. Vocalists from Lombardo's orchestra sang on the new version of the radio show, which also featured

12692-617: The US in the early 20th century, as often for adults as for children, and when trick-or-treating was becoming popular in Canada and the US in the 1920s and 1930s. Eddie J. Smith, in his book Halloween, Hallowed is Thy Name , offers a religious perspective to the wearing of costumes on All Hallows' Eve, suggesting that by dressing up as creatures "who at one time caused us to fear and tremble", people are able to poke fun at Satan "whose kingdom has been plundered by our Saviour". Images of skeletons and

12859-585: The United States are borrowed directly or adapted from those of other countries". While the first reference to "guising" in North America occurs in 1911, another reference to ritual begging on Halloween appears, place unknown, in 1915, with a third reference in Chicago in 1920. The earliest known use in print of the term "trick or treat" appears in 1927, in the Blackie Herald , of Alberta , Canada. The thousands of Halloween postcards produced between

13026-560: The WWII years, Your Hit Parade returned to NBC in 1947. The show's opening theme, from the musical revue George White's Scandals of 1926 , was " This Is Your Lucky Day ", with music by Ray Henderson and lyrics by Buddy G. DeSylva, Stephen W. Ballantine and Lew Brown. Orchestra leaders over the years included Al Goodman , Lennie Hayton, Abe Lyman , Leo Reisman, Harry Salter, Ray Sinatra , Harry Sosnik, Axel Stordahl , Peter Van Steeden, Mark Warnow and Raymond Scott (1949–1957). The chorus

13193-404: The aftermath of the September 11 attacks in 2001, NBC introduced a special version of the peacock that replaced the colors with a furled American flag waving within the logo (including within the logo bug); this version was used until the 2002 Winter Olympics . During programs presented in widescreen , the logo bug would be shrunk and placed to fit within the 16:9 video area (specifically, on

13360-535: The air March 4, 1949. During the early 1980s, André Baruch and Bea Wain hosted a syndicated radio version of Your Hit Parade , reconstructing the list of hits of selected weeks in the 1940s and playing the original recordings. André Baruch continued as the announcer when the program arrived on NBC television in summer 1950 ( Del Sharbutt succeeded him in the 1957–58 season), written by William H. Nichols, and produced, in its first years, by both Dan Lounsbery and Ted Fetter. Norman Jewison and Clark Jones (nominated for

13527-429: The air and most played on the automatic coin machines, an accurate, authentic tabulation of America's taste in popular music ." However, the exact procedure of this "authentic tabulation" remained a secret. Some believe song choices were often arbitrary due to various performance and production factors. The show's ad agencies—initially Lord and Thomas and later Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborne —never revealed

13694-548: The bands were picked up from diverse points across the US instead of originating entirely from New York, which was a novelty at the time. The "variety" segments included dramatizations of cases from the New York Police Department , society gossip by Walter Winchell (then a gossip columnist for Hearst's tabloid New York Daily Mirror , featuring a style different from the one Winchell is more remembered for), and comedy by Bert Lahr and Jack Pearl . During

13861-456: The bird fanned its bright plumage against a kaleidoscopic color background (with the eleven melded feathers shrinking and separating into the peacock's form). As with the 1956 Peacock, this logo appeared at the start of every NBC color telecast; as all NBC shows eventually began airing in color, it was generally used only to open those shows that were produced by NBC itself, such as The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson . It was, however, seen on

14028-409: The bold upper case NBC letters (later used in the 1953 "Xylophone" logo) were also used as an animated "light-up letters" logo in synchronization with the NBC chimes in front of a gray background. This closing sequence was edited in at the end of a network program. Another variant was later used with a darker gray background and a disclaimer underneath the light-up letters: "This program was reproduced by

14195-501: The bonfire were carried sunwise around homes and fields to protect them. It is suggested the fires were a kind of imitative or sympathetic magic  – they mimicked the Sun and held back the decay and darkness of winter. They were also used for divination and to ward off evil spirits. In Scotland, these bonfires and divination games were banned by the church elders in some parishes. In Wales, bonfires were also lit to "prevent

14362-450: The countdown format was introduced, with the number of songs varying from seven to 15. Vocalists in the 1930s included Buddy Clark , Lanny Ross , Kay Thompson and Bea Wain (1939–1944), who was married to the show's announcer, French-born André Baruch . Frank Sinatra joined the show in 1943, which gave the show even more popularity. By 1944 however, Sinatra's move to Hollywood led to a conflict with American Tobacco as it determined that

14529-621: The dead , especially the souls of the givers' friends and relatives. This was called "souling". Soul cakes were also offered for the souls themselves to eat, or the 'soulers' would act as their representatives. As with the Lenten tradition of hot cross buns , soul cakes were often marked with a cross , indicating they were baked as alms . Shakespeare mentions souling in his comedy The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1593). While souling, Christians would carry "lanterns made of hollowed-out turnips", which could have originally represented souls of

14696-570: The dead are traditional decorations used as memento mori . " Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF " is a fundraising program to support UNICEF , a United Nations Programme that provides humanitarian aid to children in developing countries. Started as a local event in a Northeast Philadelphia neighborhood in 1950 and expanded nationally in 1952, the program involves the distribution of small boxes by schools (or in modern times, corporate sponsors like Hallmark , at their licensed stores) to trick-or-treaters, in which they can solicit small-change donations from

14863-583: The dead to gain vengeance on their enemies before moving to the next world . In order to avoid being recognized by any soul that might be seeking such vengeance, people would don masks or costumes". In the Middle Ages, churches in Europe that were too poor to display relics of martyred saints at Allhallowtide let parishioners dress up as saints instead. Some Christians observe this custom at Halloween today. Lesley Bannatyne believes this could have been

15030-487: The dead; jack-o'-lanterns were used to ward off evil spirits. On All Saints' and All Souls' Day during the 19th century, candles were lit in homes in Ireland, Flanders, Bavaria, and in Tyrol , where they were called "soul lights", that served "to guide the souls back to visit their earthly homes". In many of these places, candles were also lit at graves on All Souls' Day. In Brittany , libations of milk were poured on

15197-402: The duration of programs as a separate translucent bug beginning with the 1994–95 season. Until the 2004–05 season, the bottom-of-screen logo bug featured a variety of animated effects that built up the image from its components (such as the six feathers rotating into the form of the logo with the peacock's body being formed when the feathers were in place, or a white flag containing the logo wiping

15364-418: The early 1950s). This was replaced by another card depicting an NBC cameraman operating an RCA camera was shown underneath the text "NBC Television Presents." The letters "NBC", lighting in tune with the chimes, indicated time for station identification or the end of a telecast. In 1953, a stylized xylophone and mallet was introduced, symbolizing the NBC chimes, which were first heard on NBC radio in 1927 as

15531-492: The early 20th century. Then, through American influence , these Halloween traditions spread to many other countries by the late 20th and early 21st century, including to mainland Europe and some parts of the Far East . Development of artifacts and symbols associated with Halloween formed over time. Jack-o'-lanterns are traditionally carried by guisers on All Hallows' Eve in order to frighten evil spirits . There

15698-519: The end of all earthly things". The danse macabre was sometimes enacted in European village pageants and court masques , with people "dressing up as corpses from various strata of society", and this may be the origin of Halloween costume parties. In Britain, these customs came under attack during the Reformation , as Protestants berated purgatory as a " popish " doctrine incompatible with

15865-419: The end of every color telecast. Starting in September 1959, an animated logo joined the Peacock, appearing at the end of every telecast. Starting with the "N", each letter would grow from the other, forming a stacked typographic logo consisting of an "NB" ligature with the "C" forming the base. This would be known as the "NBC snake " . Several versions of this exist; the first is the snake forming in front of

16032-414: The end of the 1987–88 television season , and NBC itself retained the "Proud N" in the title sequence for its movie/mini-series presentations. Because of this, the new logo was not universally adopted until the fall of 1988. This logo's first appearance as an on-screen bug was in the 1993–94 television season, appearing only during the opening sequences of programs, and then staying on-screen throughout

16199-458: The end of the original clip of the 1965 peacock ID, as the peacock's feathers became brighter upon switching to the portion in which it sneezed. In 1993, NBC commissioned several artists such as Al Hirschfeld , Peter Max , John Kricfalusi , J. J. Sedelmaier , David Daniels, Joan C. Gratz, and Mark Malmberg to devise abstract variations of the peacock for promotional use. However, the Gratz bumper

16366-466: The event of technical difficulties with inserting local advertising (a placeholder logo graphic remains in use, although from the fall of 2009–10 season to the spring of the 2023–24 season, the animation used has changed to match the network's imaging of the current timeframe). The network maintains specific guidelines for the logo, including proper colors for reproduction, using either RGB , CMYK , or Pantone colors. The usage guidelines are contained in

16533-443: The fact that it "solves the rural conundrum in which homes [are] built a half-mile apart". Halloween costumes were traditionally modeled after figures such as vampires , ghosts , skeletons , scary looking witches , and devils. Over time, the costume selection extended to include popular characters from fiction, celebrities, and generic archetypes such as ninjas and princesses . Dressing up in costumes and going " guising "

16700-536: The feast days associated with the presentation of mumming plays were celebrated by the Christian Church." These feast days included All Hallows' Eve, Christmas, Twelfth Night and Shrove Tuesday . Mumming practiced in Germany, Scandinavia and other parts of Europe, involved masked persons in fancy dress who "paraded the streets and entered houses to dance or play dice in silence". In England, from

16867-459: The festival begins the evening before 1 November by modern reckoning. Samhain is mentioned in some of the earliest Irish literature. The names have been used by historians to refer to Celtic Halloween customs up until the 19th century, and are still the Gaelic and Welsh names for Halloween. Samhain marked the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter or the 'darker half' of the year. It

17034-472: The first use of the new logo on August 26, 1985, it was only ultimately unveiled on May 12, 1986, during the finale of the NBC 60th Anniversary Celebration TV special, where past and present NBC stars stood on stage to introduce the new logo. Although NBC had been popularly known as "the peacock network" for some time, it was the first time that "The Bird" had been used as NBC's official symbol all by itself. After

17201-474: The future, not back to the past. The shape of the peacock's body was also simplified, becoming vertically elongated, and removing the tips at the bottom and above the head. This new design remained unused for several years – NBC was ranked last among the Big Three television networks in ratings at the time, and wanted to hold off on the expense of rebranding until it had returned to the number one spot. Despite

17368-466: The graves of kinfolk, or food would be left overnight on the dinner table for the returning souls; a custom also found in Tyrol and parts of Italy. Christian minister Prince Sorie Conteh linked the wearing of costumes to the belief in vengeful ghosts : "It was traditionally believed that the souls of the departed wandered the earth until All Saints' Day, and All Hallows' Eve provided one last chance for

17535-550: The graves of the dead, although it is a secular celebration for others. Some Christians historically abstained from meat on All Hallows' Eve, a tradition reflected in the eating of certain vegetarian foods on this vigil day, including apples, potato pancakes , and soul cakes . The word Halloween or Hallowe'en (" Saints ' evening" ) is of Christian origin ; a term equivalent to "All Hallows Eve" as attested in Old English . The word hallowe[']en comes from

17702-459: The graveyard of Holy Spirit Hospital in Rome presented a scene in which bodies of those who recently died were arrayed around a wax statue of an angel who pointed upward towards heaven . In the same country, "parish priests went house-to-house, asking for small gifts of food which they shared among themselves throughout that night". In Spain, they continue to bake special pastries called "bones of

17869-589: The holiday. Haunted attractions are entertainment venues designed to thrill and scare patrons. Most attractions are seasonal Halloween businesses that may include haunted houses , corn mazes , and hayrides , and the level of sophistication of the effects has risen as the industry has grown. The first recorded purpose-built haunted attraction was the Orton and Spooner Ghost House, which opened in 1915 in Liphook , England. This attraction actually most closely resembles

18036-683: The holy" (Spanish: Huesos de Santo ) and set them on graves. At cemeteries in Spain and France, as well as in Latin America , priests lead Christian processions and services during Allhallowtide, after which people keep an all night vigil. In 19th-century San Sebastián , there was a procession to the city cemetery at Allhallowtide, an event that drew beggars who "appeal[ed] to the tender recollections of one's deceased relations and friends" for sympathy. Today's Halloween customs are thought to have been influenced by folk customs and beliefs from

18203-416: The household donated food it could expect good fortune from the 'Muck Olla'; not doing so would bring misfortune. In Scotland, youths went house-to-house with masked, painted or blackened faces, often threatening to do mischief if they were not welcomed. F. Marian McNeill suggests the ancient festival included people in costume representing the spirits, and that faces were marked or blackened with ashes from

18370-399: The houses they visit. It is estimated that children have collected more than $ 118 million for UNICEF since its inception. In Canada, in 2006, UNICEF decided to discontinue their Halloween collection boxes, citing safety and administrative concerns; after consultation with schools, they instead redesigned the program. The yearly New York's Village Halloween Parade was begun in 1974; it

18537-410: The item they happened to find; for example, a ring meant marriage and a coin meant wealth. Up until the 19th century, the Halloween bonfires were also used for divination in parts of Scotland, Wales and Brittany. When the fire died down, a ring of stones would be laid in the ashes, one for each person. In the morning, if any stone was mislaid it was said that the person it represented would not live out

18704-459: The late 19th century and early 20th century. Another popular Irish game was known as púicíní (" blindfolds "); a person would be blindfolded and then would choose between several saucers . The item in the saucer would provide a hint as to their future: a ring would mean that they would marry soon; clay , that they would die soon, perhaps within the year; water, that they would emigrate ; rosary beads , that they would take Holy Orders (become

18871-404: The letter's pared-down design. Although all eleven feathers were intact, the teardrop tips were removed, while a simpler color scheme was used for the feathers themselves (blue for the feather behind the peacock's body; yellow, orange, red, violet and indigo respectively for the other feathers on both sides). The Peacock's body became a simple triangular shape, without any feet. On several occasions,

19038-435: The life cycle and rites of passage of local communities" and curbing them would have been difficult. In parts of Italy until the 15th century, families left a meal out for the ghosts of relatives, before leaving for church services . In 19th-century Italy, churches staged "theatrical re-enactments of scenes from the lives of the saints" on All Hallows' Day, with "participants represented by realistic wax figures". In 1823,

19205-411: The logo branding was adopted to other networks including: CNBC , NBCSN , MSNBC , Golf Channel , and NBC Sports Regional Networks . The logo was also incorporated into the corporate emblem of the network's parent company, NBCUniversal , then became a part of a redesigned Comcast mark at the end of 2012 after it was acquired by the latter a year before. NBC debuted as a radio network in 1926, with

19372-409: The logo bug onto the screen), usually during a show's opening sequence. Until the 2008–09 season, a screensaver -style sequence featuring these logo effects against a black background was also used as a placeholder graphic during slots within commercial breaks allocated for local stations to insert commercials and station promotions. Some NBC affiliates also ran the sequence through the network feed in

19539-770: The logo's introduction, many of NBC's affiliates (especially the stations part of NBC's O&O group at the time: WNBC-TV in New York City , KNBC-TV in Los Angeles , WMAQ-TV in Chicago , KCNC-TV in Denver , WRC-TV in Washington, D.C. , and WKYC-TV in Cleveland ) started adding the new peacock to their station identification. However, a few stations still kept the previous "Proud N" from 1979 at least until

19706-400: The logo. On September 14, 2009, with the introduction of the network's "More Colorful" image campaign by design agency Capacity Studios, the network incorporated a flickering effect for a gradient version of the NBC peacock – seen at the end of promos and ID sequences – in which the logo cycles through all six colors before switching to the standard multi-colored logo, usually displayed next to

19873-753: The medieval period, up until the 1930s, people practiced the Christian custom of souling on Halloween, which involved groups of soulers, both Protestant and Catholic, going from parish to parish, begging the rich for soul cakes, in exchange for praying for the souls of the givers and their friends. In the Philippines, the practice of souling is called Pangangaluluwa and is practiced on All Hallows' Eve among children in rural areas. People drape themselves in white cloths to represent souls and then visit houses, where they sing in return for prayers and sweets. In Scotland and Ireland, guising —children disguised in costume going from door to door for food or coins—is

20040-403: The mid-to-late 19th century. The modern imagery of Halloween comes from many sources, including Christian eschatology , national customs, works of Gothic and horror literature (such as the novels Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus and Dracula ) and classic horror films such as Frankenstein (1931) and The Mummy (1932). Imagery of the skull , a reference to Golgotha in

20207-411: The new Peacock was used independently of the "N," starting with the new " Proud as a Peacock " advertising campaign that reintroduced the Peacock; however, the "N" and the Peacock were usually combined between 1979 and 1986. The 1979 "Proud N" logo was designed by Lippincott & Margulies . Initially, the Peacock was not NBC's primary logo and was only used to distinguish color broadcasts. Instead, NBC

20374-415: The new logo for Sunday Night Football . A new brand identity by design agency Sibling Rivalry was phased in over the holiday season, while Loyalkaspar updated the "Tinker" font as a variable font known as "Tinker Pro". Other NBC divisions (such as NBC News , MSNBC and CNBC ) began to deploy the logo in 2023, as well as Comcast itself in 2024, albeit with a glossy colored gradient. In the early 1950s,

20541-671: The night of All Hallows' Eve. One held a bunch of burning straw on a pitchfork while the rest knelt around him, praying for the souls of relatives and friends until the flames went out. This was known as teen'lay . There was a similar custom in Hertfordshire , and the lighting of 'tindle' fires in Derbyshire . Some suggested these 'tindles' were originally lit to "guide the poor souls back to earth". In Scotland and Ireland, old Allhallowtide customs that were at odds with Reformed teaching were not suppressed as they "were important to

20708-560: The peacock was retired. The "Laramie Peacock" made special appearances throughout the ensuing years, mostly in a retro-kitsch context or to commemorate a significant broadcast event on NBC. It was used to promote the network's coverage of the NASCAR Cup Series race held at Darlington Raceway in the Florence, South Carolina region from 2015 to 2020, when it was the series' annual throwback round, where many racecars featured

20875-471: The peacock with a penguin: a caption showing I Dream of Jeannie and The Jerry Lewis Show (the programs NBC was pre-empting that night) was pushed off-screen by an animated, waddling penguin adorned with a top hat and flapping its flightless wings (imitating the peacock), accompanied by announcer Mel Brandt drolly saying " I Dream of Jeannie and The Jerry Lewis Show will not be seen tonight. Instead... (music cue) The following very, very special program

21042-408: The peel tossed over the shoulder. The peel is believed to land in the shape of the first letter of the future spouse's name. Two hazelnuts would be roasted near a fire; one named for the person roasting them and the other for the person they desire. If the nuts jump away from the heat, it is a bad sign, but if the nuts roast quietly it foretells a good match. A salty oatmeal bannock would be baked;

21209-449: The person would eat it in three bites and then go to bed in silence without anything to drink. This is said to result in a dream in which their future spouse offers them a drink to quench their thirst. Unmarried women were told that if they sat in a darkened room and gazed into a mirror on Halloween night, the face of their future husband would appear in the mirror. The custom was widespread enough to be commemorated on greeting cards from

21376-432: The poor souls". The Allhallowtide custom of baking and sharing soul cakes for all christened souls, has been suggested as the origin of trick-or-treating. The custom dates back at least as far as the 15th century and was found in parts of England, Wales, Flanders, Bavaria and Austria . Groups of poor people, often children, would go door-to-door during Allhallowtide, collecting soul cakes, in exchange for praying for

21543-412: The protection of God when approaching their dwellings. At Samhain, the Aos Sí were appeased to ensure the people and livestock survived the winter. Offerings of food and drink, or portions of the crops, were left outside for them. The souls of the dead were also said to revisit their homes seeking hospitality . Places were set at the dinner table and by the fire to welcome them. The belief that

21710-446: The related guising and souling ), attending Halloween costume parties, carving pumpkins or turnips into jack-o'-lanterns , lighting bonfires , apple bobbing , divination games, playing pranks , visiting haunted attractions , telling frightening stories, and watching horror or Halloween-themed films . Some people practice the Christian observances of All Hallows' Eve, including attending church services and lighting candles on

21877-536: The right fringe outside of the safe area ). During the 2006–07 television season, this smaller widescreen logo was only used during live broadcasts, such as Saturday Night Live , Christmas at Rockefeller Center (the annual special commemorating the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting), Live Earth and the Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular . The smaller logo was reintegrated at

22044-461: The right side during the program. Programs broadcast in 4:3 SD continued to use the translucent version of the logo until September 13, 2009. Some NBC Sports programs, such as golf and Olympic sports, use a bug incorporating the Olympic rings below the peacock; this version is also used on entertainment and news programming, starting with the beginning of the fall television season in the lead-up to

22211-588: The sacred bonfire. In parts of Wales, men went about dressed as fearsome beings called gwrachod . In the late 19th and early 20th century, young people in Glamorgan and Orkney cross-dressed . Elsewhere in Europe, mumming was part of other festivals, but in the Celtic-speaking regions, it was "particularly appropriate to a night upon which supernatural beings were said to be abroad and could be imitated or warded off by human wanderers". From at least

22378-402: The sequence, the peacock sneezes, sending its feathers flying off-screen, after which the puzzled peacock is shown looking in each direction in notice that its feathers are missing. This clip was later re-used in 1985 to open an episode of TV's Bloopers & Practical Jokes , and in the 2002 special The Most Outrageous Game Show Moments 2 . The sneezing peacock was only an animation added onto

22545-423: The show debuted, there was no agreement on its title. The press referred to it by several names, with the most common being "Hit Parade", "The Hit Parade", "The Lucky Strike Hit Parade", and "The Lucky Strike Parade". The program title officially became "Your Hit Parade" on November 9, 1935. Every Saturday evening, the program offered the most popular and bestselling songs of the week. The earliest format involved

22712-505: The show featured Rolfe's band playing popular songs and novelty tunes interspersed with plugs for Lucky Strikes by the announcer, whose other role was introducing each number. During the fall of 1931, the program was revamped as The Lucky Strike Magic Carpet Show , a variety show hosted by Walter O'Keefe featuring the orchestras of Rolfe, Anson Weeks , Jack Denny , George Olsen , Abe Lyman , Phil Harris and others supplied exclusively by Jules Stein 's Music Corporation of America , and

22879-428: The show to revert to New York and black-and-white in 1958 (sponsorship also reverted to Lucky Strike, as the Hit Parade brand was quietly retired late that year due to low sales), switching to CBS before being cancelled during the spring of 1959. While Your Hit Parade was unable to deal with the rock revolution, the show's imaginative production concepts had an obvious influence on the wave of music videos that began in

23046-468: The show was heard on the NBC Red network Saturdays between 10 and 11 pm beginning in September 1928. The program was devised by American Tobacco's George W. Hill, an attempt to popularize the consumption of tobacco products, which were increasingly used by young people and women. For the latter demographic group, the company also launched the slogan "Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet" at the same time. In

23213-470: The show's eventual cancellation. In the fall of 1957, the show was revamped: production was moved to Hollywood with a new cast and was now broadcast in color, being the first TV show to be introduced by the animated version of the "Living Color" peacock (introduced one year earlier and nowadays the logo of NBC). American Tobacco also switched sponsorship to its new upscale "Hit Parade" filter brand that had been launched that spring. However, low ratings caused

23380-481: The singer was the one to pay the production costs (including the telephone hook-up to New York) and was fired for messing up the No. 1 song, " Don't Fence Me In " by interjecting a mumble to the effect that the song had too many words and missing a cue. An AFRS transcription survives of this show. As Sinatra zoomed in popularity, he was rehired, returning (1947–49) to co-star with Doris Day . Hugely popular on CBS through

23547-572: The so-called ghosts are thought to be in actuality evil spirits". Other Protestants believed in an intermediate state known as Hades ( Bosom of Abraham ). In some localities, Catholics and Protestants continued souling, candlelit processions , or ringing church bells for the dead; the Anglican church eventually suppressed this bell-ringing. Mark Donnelly, a professor of medieval archaeology , and historian Daniel Diehl write that "barns and homes were blessed to protect people and livestock from

23714-418: The songs were more important than the singers, so a stable of vocalists went uncredited and were paid $ 100 per episode, equal to $ 2,222 in 2023. In 1936–37, it was carried on both NBC and CBS. Script continuity in the late 1930s and early 1940s was written by Alan Jay Lerner before he found fame as a lyricist. The first number one song on the first episode was "Soon" by Bing Crosby . Some years passed before

23881-470: The souls of the dead from falling to earth". Later, these bonfires "kept away the devil ". From at least the 16th century, the festival included mumming and guising in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man and Wales. This involved people going house-to-house in costume (or in disguise), usually reciting verses or songs in exchange for food. It may have originally been a tradition whereby people impersonated

24048-909: The souls of the dead return home on one night of the year and must be appeased seems to have ancient origins and is found in many cultures. In 19th century Ireland, "candles would be lit and prayers formally offered for the souls of the dead. After this the eating, drinking, and games would begin". Throughout Ireland and Britain, especially in the Celtic-speaking regions, the household festivities included divination rituals and games intended to foretell one's future, especially regarding death and marriage. Apples and nuts were often used, and customs included apple bobbing , nut roasting, scrying or mirror-gazing, pouring molten lead or egg whites into water, dream interpretation , and others. Special bonfires were lit and there were rituals involving them. Their flames, smoke, and ashes were deemed to have protective and cleansing powers. In some places, torches lit from

24215-512: The special, the variant – with the voice-over being featured at the beginning of the ident, instead of during the middle – led into almost the complete pre-title teaser of Get Smart ’s pilot episode, which was shot in black-and-white. This variant is also known as the "Pink Peacock" on video-sharing websites such as YouTube due to the faded color of the video. For the first American television broadcast of The Beatles ' black-and-white film, A Hard Day's Night , on October 24, 1967, NBC replaced

24382-564: The specific sources or the methods that were used to determine top hits. They made a general statement that it was based mainly on "readings of radio requests, sheet music sales, dance-hall favorites and jukebox tabulations"; Radio Guide claimed "an endless popularity poll on a nationwide scale." The origins of the format can be traced back to the Lucky Strike Saturday Night Dance Party sponsored by Lucky Strike cigarettes. Led by Benjamin A. Rolfe ,

24549-528: The spring and summer of 1933, the Tuesday and Thursday broadcasts were phased out and the show reverted to the original Lucky Strike Saturday Night Dance Party format with Rolfe's orchestra and the Men About Town trio, running until early 1934. Your Hit Parade began on NBC April 20, 1935, as a 60-minute program with 15 songs played in a random format before presenting the number 1 song. Initially,

24716-403: The start of the 2007–08 season on all widescreen programming, including pre-recorded standard definition broadcasts in order to insert graphical promos during the show. The network used a variation of its logo bug accompanied by "HD" text for High-definition programming in the 2006–07 season. Live broadcasts in high-definition previously used the logo without "HD" text. Until 2016, the NBC bug

24883-424: The summer of 1950 to the start of summer of 1951 (the first year of the Hit Parade television show), the stars of the TV show—Eileen Wilson, Snooky Lanson, and Dorothy Collins—also starred on the Hit Parade radio show. (Wilson had sung on the radio show since 1948.) Beginning in the fall of 1950, the radio show and the TV show both aired on Saturdays; the radio program was heard from 9:00–9:30 pm, Eastern time, and

25050-583: The time of the early Church , major feasts in Christianity (such as Christmas , Easter and Pentecost ) had vigils that began the night before, as did the feast of All Hallows. These three days are collectively called Allhallowtide and are a time when Western Christians honour all saints and pray for recently departed souls who have yet to reach Heaven. Commemorations of all saints and martyrs were held by several churches on various dates, mostly in springtime. In 4th-century Roman Edessa it

25217-430: The trunks of cars parked in a church parking lot", or sometimes, a school parking lot. In a trunk-or-treat event, the trunk (boot) of each automobile is decorated with a certain theme, such as those of children's literature, movies, scripture , and job roles . Trunk-or-treating has grown in popularity due to its perception as being more safe than going door to door, a point that resonates well with parents, as well as

25384-454: The turn of the 20th century and the 1920s commonly show children but not trick-or-treating. Trick-or-treating does not seem to have become a widespread practice in North America until the 1930s, with the first US appearances of the term in 1934, and the first use in a national publication occurring in 1939. A popular variant of trick-or-treating, known as trunk-or-treating (or Halloween tailgating), occurs when "children are offered treats from

25551-425: The week were presented in elaborate TV production numbers requiring constant set and costume changes. However, because the top songs sometimes stayed on the charts for many weeks, it was necessary to continually find ways of devising a new and different production number of the same song week after week. After the show was revamped in September 1957, the top songs were reduced to five, while "extras" were increased. On

25718-475: The year. In Mexico, children create altars to invite the spirits of deceased children to return ( angelitos ). Telling ghost stories , listening to Halloween-themed songs and watching horror films are common fixtures of Halloween parties. Episodes of television series and Halloween-themed specials (with the specials usually aimed at children) are commonly aired on or before Halloween, while new horror films are often released before Halloween to take advantage of

25885-560: Was Don Ameche . This 30-minute show, airing weekdays at 3:30 pm on CBS, was a talent competition with little-known and unknown professional vocalists, backed by Al De Crescent on organ or Bill Wardell on piano. The performers were judged by a trio of random housewives casting votes via long-distance phone calls. Winners were booked into the Mocambo, Earl Carroll's or other night clubs. Produced by Bernard Schubert and directed by Harlan Dunning, this show also featured auctioneer Riggs. It went off

26052-479: Was a Germanic idea, although it is claimed that both Germanic and Celtic-speaking peoples commemorated the dead at the beginning of winter. They may have seen it as the most fitting time to do so, as it is a time of 'dying' in nature. It is also suggested the change was made on the "practical grounds that Rome in summer could not accommodate the great number of pilgrims who flocked to it", and perhaps because of public health concerns over Roman Fever , which claimed

26219-411: Was a soft, woodwind-based number, with Mel Brandt providing the voiceover . It was revised further in April 1968, the music having been slightly rearranged and the animation shortened by a few seconds. Another version, with Vic Roby announcing, "Now, a special program in living color on NBC," was unveiled for use on specials during this same period. It was shortened further on December 31, 1975, when

26386-698: Was an early shareholder in RCA , which itself founded NBC by creating it as a subsidiary). There is some indication that the xylophone logo was used at 5:32 p.m. Eastern Time on December 17, 1953, to announce the Federal Communications Commission 's (FCC) approval of the new color standard, which would go into effect 30 days later. This logo debuted in December 1953, during the Tournament of Roses Parade . John J. Graham designed

26553-689: Was first used in 1992. Animated versions of the Hirschfeld, Sedelmaier, Gratz, and Kricfalusi peacocks acted as stings, and continued to air on the network until 2002. The NBC late-night talk show Late Night with Conan O'Brien occasionally featured sketches with "Polly, the NBC Peacock", a personified version of the logo who praised the network's programming, and mocked the ratings moves and celebrities of competitors. Halloween Halloween , or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween , All Hallows' Eve , or All Saints' Eve ),

26720-553: Was held on 13 May, and on 13 May 609, Pope Boniface IV re-dedicated the Pantheon in Rome to "St Mary and all martyrs". This was the date of Lemuria , an ancient Roman festival of the dead. In the 8th century, Pope Gregory III (731–741) founded an oratory in St Peter's for the relics "of the holy apostles and of all saints, martyrs and confessors". Some sources say it was dedicated on 1 November, while others say it

26887-438: Was identified by other logos such as the xylophone and the NBC snake. However, the Peacock became so closely associated with NBC that in 1979, the network's president at the time, Fred Silverman , incorporated it into the logo. This decision was influenced by research conducted in 1977 by Peter H. Kliegman from NBC's corporate planning department, which recognized the Peacock's value in identifying NBC-TV, and recommended its use as

27054-579: Was led by musical director Lyn Murray . Dozens of singers appeared on the radio program, including "Wee" Bonnie Baker , Dorothy Collins , Beryl Davis , Gogo DeLys , Joan Edwards (1941–46), Georgia Gibbs , Dick Haymes , Snooky Lanson , Gisèle MacKenzie , Johnny Mercer , Andy Russell , Dinah Shore , Ginny Simms , Lawrence Tibbett , Martha Tilton , Eileen Wilson , Barry Wood , and occasional guest vocalists. The show featured two tobacco auctioneers, Lee Aubrey "Speed" Riggs of Goldsboro, North Carolina and F.E. Boone of Lexington, Kentucky . From

27221-498: Was less embossed than the one used previously and did not display the NBC acronym beneath it. After the beginning of the 2009–10 season on September 28, 2009, as part of the lead-up to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver , the Olympics variant of the on-screen logo was used on all network programming, except for news. Since December 2007, NBC occasionally places a text-based advertisement for an upcoming program above or next to

27388-562: Was on Palm Sunday in April 732. By 800, there is evidence that churches in Ireland and Northumbria were holding a feast commemorating all saints on 1 November. Alcuin of Northumbria, a member of Charlemagne 's court, may then have introduced this 1 November date in the Frankish Empire . In 835, it became the official date in the Frankish Empire. Some suggest this was due to Celtic influence, while others suggest it

27555-453: Was placed within the 4:3 safe area, with the logo bug being displayed identically on the standard definition and high definition feeds (the color version of the NBC logo bug began to be placed within the 4:3 safe area during high definition programming in May 2008). Today, the NBC bug is placed within the 16:9 widescreen frame, again being displayed identically on the SD and HD feeds. This logo bug

27722-627: Was prevalent in Scotland and Ireland at Halloween by the late 19th century. A Scottish term, the tradition is called "guising" because of the disguises or costumes worn by the children. In Ireland and Scotland, the masks are known as 'false faces', a term recorded in Ayr, Scotland in 1890 by a Scot describing guisers: "I had mind it was Halloween ... the wee callans (boys) were at it already, rinning aboot wi' their fause-faces (false faces) on and their bits o' turnip lanthrons (lanterns) in their haun (hand)". Costuming became popular for Halloween parties in

27889-535: Was seen as a liminal time, when the boundary between this world and the Otherworld thinned. This meant the Aos Sí , the 'spirits' or ' fairies ', could more easily come into this world and were particularly active. Most scholars see them as "degraded versions of ancient gods [...] whose power remained active in the people's minds even after they had been officially replaced by later religious beliefs". They were both respected and feared, with individuals often invoking

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