Produced and hosted by Sid Ordower, Jubilee Showcase aired on ABC’s Chicago affiliate television station, WLS Channel 7, from 1963 to 1984, and won an Emmy Award for a Pioneering Project in television.
“For more than two decades, the long-defunct Jubilee Showcase TV program featured — and therefore preserved on tape — virtually everyone who mattered on gospel.”
It featured everyone from the youngest church performers to the most famous gospel recording artists of the time including: James Cleveland; Grammy Award winner Albertina Walker; the Caravans; Andrae Crouch & The Disciples; the Mighty Clouds of Joy; the Soul Stirrers; the Staple Singers and the Barrett Sisters — all gospel music pioneers. There was even an appearance by the acknowledged inventor of gospel music, Thomas Dorsey.
Presenting the widest variety of gospel and inspirational music with the highest professional standards, this historic program reached a vast audience every Sunday morning establishing itself as an institution in Chicago, “church before church.” Jubilee Showcase was also a platform for a majority of the performers to make their television debuts, such as with Albertina Walker singing “Amazing Grace.”