Here's Dora's World, a half-hour TV special from 1974. It stars Dora Hall and — in a bevy of cameos — Dave Barry, Harry Hickox, Milton Frome, Pete Barbutti, Stubby Kaye, Sid Melton, Sammy Shore, Nick Navarro, Scatman Crothers, Roy Stuart, Pat Priest, Ronald Del Barrio and Aaron Ross. If you're anywhere near my age bracket, you know who eight or nine of those people were.
But if you don't know who Dora Hall was…well, you should. I could write a long post here telling you but I'll save time and quote from a 2001 post from the popular blog, newsfromme.com…
Dora Hall was a sweet little woman who, in her seventies, starred in a flurry of syndicated TV specials in the early seventies, surrounded by guest stars. Since I'd never heard of her, I assumed she was a British star whose fame had not previously reached this continent and that these specials were being made for, primarily, overseas consumption. And it turned out I was wrong. Ms. Hall was not a star in England or anywhere. She'd had a very minor performing career in this country and had devoted most of her life to being a good wife to a man named Leo Hulseman. Now, Mr. Hulseman, as it turned out was the President of the Solo Cup Company, maker of plastic and paper cups, and he had so much money that he figured he could buy his spouse a couple of variety shows.
And he did. At a reported cost of $400,000 per show, Mr. Hulseman made his dear wife a TV star. He had previously made her a recording artist. Hundreds of thousands of Dora Hall albums and singles were recorded and given away when one purchased Solo Cups. Now, he surrounded her with mid-range guest stars (Rich Little, Roosevelt Grier, etc.) and allowed her to be a TV star.
So here's one of those specials she starred in because her husband loved her. There have been worse reasons to be on television…