On September 29, 1950, DuMont aired the last installment of The Hazel Scott Show, fifteen minutes at 7:45 on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings in which the Trinidad-born pianist played and sang more or less whatever she pleased. It had premiered on July 3 as the first network series hosted by a Black American, and Variety found it “a neat little show.” The trouble had started eleven days before the premiere, when her name appeared in Red Channels, the blacklisters’ directory of alleged Communist sympathizers. Against the objections of her husband, Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Scott volunteered to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee, and on September 22 she did, denying she had ever knowingly served the Party or its fronts. It did not help. With no sponsor willing to touch the show, DuMont pulled it a week later. Its replacement lasted seven weeks. No episode of Scott’s is known to survive.
Hazel Scott in a publicity photograph by James J. Kriegsmann, dated October 14, 1947, three years before her DuMont series. (Public domain — published in the U.S. before 1978 without a copyright notice — via Wikimedia Commons)
Sources: The Hazel Scott Show — Wikipedia (DuMont, 15 minutes, Mon/Wed/Fri 7:45–8 pm ET; premiered July 3, 1950; Red Channels listing June 22; voluntary HUAC appearance September 22; final network telecast September 29, 1950, per Brooks & Marsh; replaced by The Susan Raye Show, October 2–November 20; no episodes known to exist) , “The O’Zone: Women’s History Month Part 2: Hazel Scott” — KUVO Jazz (voluntary HUAC appearance September 22, 1950; “September 29, 1950, exactly one week after her testimony, her show was cancelled”) , Scott, Hazel — The Broadcast 41, University of Oregon (show first aired on DuMont July 3, 1950; Red Channels, June 1950; HUAC testimony September 22, 1950; DuMont cancelled the show “just a week after”) , “Hazel Scott’s Lifetime of High Notes” — Karen Chilton, Smithsonian Magazine, October 15, 2009 (she requested to appear before HUAC despite her husband’s objections; the show was cancelled within weeks) , Hazel Scott — Wikipedia (Red Channels; HUAC testimony as Hazel Scott Powell, September 22, 1950; denial of being “ever knowingly connected with the Communist Party or any of its front organizations”)
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