December 28, 1941: Lipton Tea cancelled sponsorship to 'The Helen Hayes Show'

 

December 28, 1941: Lipton Tea dropped their sponsorship of the program The Helen Hayes Theater as it prepared for shortages in tea imports from India. The show on CBS was referred to as the first casualty of World War II.

The Helen Hayes Theater was a drama anthology that lasted for less than a year. The Lipton Tea Series became the show's longest, and also best, forum. Helen Hayes herself supervised the production of the series. She even appeared on a commercial for the tea. Nevertheless, just weeks after Pearl Harbor was bombed, Lipton Tea announced that it would stop sponsoring the show due to tea shortages that they were expecting to happen during those times.