Matinee Theater is an American anthology series that aired on NBC during the Golden Age of Television, from 1955 to 1958. The series, which ran daily in the afternoon, was frequently live. It was produced by Albert McCleery, Darrell Ross, George Cahan and Frank Price with executive producer George Lowther. McCleery had previously produced the live series Cameo Theatre which introduced to television the concept of theater-in-the-round, TV plays staged with minimal sets. Jim Buckley of the Pewter Plough Playhouse recalled: When Al McCleery got back to the States, he originated a most ambitious theatrical TV series for NBC called Matinee Theater: to televise five different stage plays per week live, airing around noon in order to promote color TV to the American housewife as she labored over her ironing. Al was the producer. He hired five directors and five art directors. Richard Bennett, one of our first early presidents of the Pewter Plough Corporation, was one of the directors and I was one of the art directors and, as soon as we were through televising one play, we had lunch and then met to plan next week’s show. That was over 50 years ago, and I’m trying to think; I believe the TV art director is his own set decorator —yes, of course! It had to be, since one of McCleery’s chief claims to favor with the producers was his elimination of the setting per se and simply decorating the scene with a minimum of props. It took a bit of ingenuity.

Two playwrights and a former burlesque queen travel to Louisiana to research a musical they're planning on a local Southern hero.

Hedda Hopper plays hostess at a party for her (grown) son William (DeWolfe Jr.). Hopper, attends the dedication of the Motion Picture Relief Fund's country home and goes to the Mocambo. There is also a sequence dedicated to the Milwaukee, Wisconsin world premiere of the first short in this series attended by more that a few film stars.

If a shy sailor marries before his next birthday, he will inherit a fortune.

A newlywed develops amnesia and can't remember his wife.

Jimmy Hanley learns that his former dancing partner has been killed, leaving a baby boy Sandy, so he takes the baby to live with him and his roommate Boris Bebenko. Theatre manager Allen Rand threatens to fire Jimmy for neglecting his work, but Jimmy's girlfriend Diana squares things by going to dinner with Rand over Jimmy's objections. Sandy catches measles and the quarantine causes Jimmy and Boris to miss a big audition.

Nicky Nelson is a fast-talking sideshow barker with a wax-and-alive concession on Atlantic City's boardwalk. Even with the band of his friend, struggling musician Gene Krupa, playing on the sidewalk to attract the customers, "The Living Corpse" and other low-rent acts aren't enough to lure the seen-it-all boardwalk strollers, and the landlord closes the show in lieu of never-paid rent. Nicky, always promoting, goes to Stephen Hanratty, head of the pier's Dance Pavilion, to plug Krupa's band as an attraction, but Hanratty won't even listen to them. But, while there, he meets singer Lily Racquel, who knows he is a phoney but might have the ability to to talk a radio-station manager into giving her an audition. She gives him a ring to help finance the project; he promptly loses it in a crap-game.

A pampered heiress (Madeleine Carroll) elopes with a shipboard reporter (Fred MacMurray) just to get her name in a society column.

A Texas millionaire travels to Europe to meet his girlfriend, a European countess. He stops in a rustic mountain village and meets a beautiful peasant girl. He falls in love with her, then must decide if he wants her or the rich countess.

Steve Merrick is an out of work writer who stays home and plays house husband while his wife goes to work for her former fiancé and Merrick's publisher who is still carrying a torch for her.

Shirley Ross plays an innocent young girl convicted for complicity in a crime committed by her boy friend (Lloyd Nolan). The male crook is sentence to six months on a prison farm populated by both men and women (segregated, of course). Ross is also incarcerated, suffering the cruelties of the sadistic male and female guards (including J. Carroll Naish and future "Ma Kettle" Marjorie Main!)

The Bellows family causes comic confusion on an ocean liner, with time out for radio-style musical acts.

A young singer hopes to become a success on Broadway.

Tony Marvin is a laid back but incredibly successful promoter and fair-haired boy for J. P. Todhunter's pineapple company located in beautiful Hawaii. He gets the company to sponsor a contest in which the winner gets a Hawaiian vacation and is obligated to write articles on the islands which, when published, will constitute a publicity coup for the company. Unfortunately, Georgia Smith, the winner, feels lonely and isolated in the Islands and wants to return to the States. With help from buddy Shad Buggle Tony tries to romantically divert Georgia without letting her know his true motivation.

An unfortunate marriage and a bogus Count are the ingredients for this musical.

The employees of a failing radio station must put on a huge ratings winner to have any chance of continued operation.

A beautiful singer and a battling priest try to reform a Barbary Coast saloon owner in the days before the great earthquake and subsequent fires in 1906.

In this action film, a courageous test pilot works with experimental aircraft for the US Armed Forces. When an important airplane manufacturer dies, his daughter is left to run the company. The company seems to be producing dangerous prototypes, so the woman decides to close the company.

Con men Calvin Churchill and Clip McGurk know how to fix a horse-race or boxing match. Calvin wants to go straight and win back his estranged wife, but first the men must dodge a dogged IRS agent and bilk a bunch of aviation investors out of the backing boodle for a balloon excursion into the stratosphere.

A society girl tries to make a go of her marriage to an archaeologist.

A recently-fired advertising executive starts his own company, Confidential Services, to help clients solve their unusual and problematic situations.

A book publisher finds his business floundering, which prompts his socially ambitious wife to desert him for a society millionaire, leaving him with their young son. The publisher's fortunes improve dramatically, however, when a best-selling romance novelist decides to publish her new book with his firm. In the meantime, his ex-wife has married the millionaire, and she and her new mother-in-law come up with a plan to sue her ex-husband for custody of the boy.

In this MGM Colortone Musical short, a department store custodian who overindulges in drink sees the mannequins in the store's display windows come to life.

An embezzler who expects to serve his time in prison and then pick up his buried loot is in for a surprise.

In rhyme, a soapbox preacher, Mr. Blue Laws, enlists Mr. Public Opinion in the efforts of the Society for the Prevention of Jazz. Armed with an ax and a buckshot-shooting pistol, the two of them interrupt Ted Fiorito and his jazz orchestra (and showgirls). The lads head for the woods, where Ted convinces them to stand their ground. They're joined by their songstress who says it may be their last day on earth, so sing the blues for all they're worth. Then the dancers arrive to report they barely got away, and it's time for a final strut. Public Opinion brings a death sentence. Is there no appeal?

The friendship between two orphans endures even though they grow up on opposite sides of the law and fall in love with the same woman.

While the warden is away, his daughter attempts to turn prison into 'Paradise" Considered a Lost Film.

A glamorous film star rebels against the studio, her pushy press agent and a family of hangers-on.