rand’s esoteric otr

Note:  This program contains racial stereotyping themes that may be offensive to some listeners.

This week, I’m starting a series of posts of “Pick and Pat”, a rare variety show featuring two blackface performers.  These programs, unheard since they were originally broadcast, come from a series of aircheck lacquers I recently obtained.  Except for one program, the shows are incomplete.  I’m still working on transferring and restoring the discs, so I’m not sure how many I will be able to offer here since the discs are in bad shape and starting to deteriorate.

The episode of May 31, 1937 includes routines where Pat plays the harmonica and the pair do a sketch playing Indians selling the island of Manhattan.  The latter includes some jokes about the stock market crash and Depression and, with two Irish vaudeville comedians in Blackface playing Native Americans, considerable cognitive dissonance about race that might make your head explode if you try to analyze it too much.  The show features music by vocalist Edward Roecker and an orchestra led by Benny Krueger, including “That Old Gang of Mine” with a recitation.  The series was sponsored by the U.S. Tobacco Company to promote Model and Dill’s Best pipe tobaccos.

According to Dunning’s “Encyclopedia of Old Time Radio”, Pick Padgett and Pat Malone were Irishmen who teamed up in 1929 as Molasses and January and worked regularly under that name on the “Maxell House Show Boat” program.  They were heard on radio in their own series on NBC from 1934-35, CBS from 1935-39, Mutual in 1944 and ABC in 1945.  You can see a picture of Pick and Pat and read an interview with Pick Padget from the St. Petersburg, Florida Evening Independent of June 16, 1933.

These discs were made for the producer of the program, Frank MacMahon, and each show was recorded on 16″ lacquers in three parts.  In the case of this particular episode, the second disc is missing, so you’ll hear a fade-out in the middle of the show before we continue with the third part.  The discs also preserved a bit of the shows on the air that evening before and after “Pick and Pat”; this set includes the last minute or so of the “Ted Weems” show, a special announcement by the WABC announcer on how to get tickets for the program, and, at the end, the WABC station id and opening of “Lux Radio Theater”.

The show was transferred directly from an original WABC lacquer aircheck made by the National Recording Company, New York.  The file has been run through click reduction software to improve the sound.  Note that the sound levels vary during the show.

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Now, let’s turn to some classic old time radio comedy with the “George Burns and Gracie Allen Show” in a program originally broadcast December 26, 1944 on CBS and distributed as program 62 in the series by the Armed Forces Radio Network.

In this episode, Gracie’s concerned because their show is moving to Mondays - the night that “high class” dramas like “Lux Radio Theater” are broadcast.  So, of course, she has to hire an acting coach for George and convince him to take up drama.  The show features Bill Goodwin, Jimmy Cash, Mel Blanc and Felix Mills and his Orchestra.  According to Goldin, this was the last show of the series with Goodwin and Cash.

The program was transferred from an original AFRS Navy Department transcription and appears to be uncommon among otr collectors.  The program date is from the transcription matrix.

A special tip of the hat to blog listener Michael Utz who donated the disc to my collection.

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I’m in a rather lighthearted mood this week, so here’s some more comedy, this time with a World War II theme.

“Mail Call” was one of the comedy-variety series produced by Armed Forces Radio and featuring some of the top talent from Hollywood and radio.  Program 58 in the series, recorded September 30, 1943 and released in November of that year, is hosted by actor Lionel Barrymore and features Harlow Wilcox with the announcing duties, taking a break from shilling Johnson’s Wax on “Fibber McGee and Molly”.  Skinnay Ennis and the OTC Band kick off the show with “This is the Army, Mr. Jones” and Georgia Gibbs sings “Shoo Shoo Baby”.  Dennis Day offers a seldom-heard War-themed tune and then we hear  Fanny Brice and Hanley Stafford in a “Baby Snooks” sketch.

The program was transferred from an original War Department Armed Forces Radio vinyl transcription.  Apologies for the digital artifacts in the file - the click reduction had to work overtime on this very scratched disc.

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Singin’ Sam returns this week with another quarter hour of “oldies” your great-grandparents might remember from the turn of the last century.

In program 107, the first song is an upbeat version of “I’ll See You in My Dreams”.  Then Sam gives us the forgotten songs “When the Poppies Bloom Again” and “I’ve Got Rings on My Fingers (And Bells on My Toes)”, and wraps up with the old standard, “My Wild Irish Rose”.

Our program was transferred from original Transcription Sales, Inc vinyl disc, matrix number L-19688-A1.  The disc was in pretty rough shape and has been run through some de-clicking software to clean up the sound.

Be sure to check out the comments for “Singin’ Sam”, program 104 in the blog.  Listener Jim Widner offers up some corrections to my bio of Harry “Singin’ Sam” Frankel in the post and some additional information on his life and career.

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Once again we drop in on our two-fisted insurance investigator, portrayed by Paul Dubov, as we hear the next to last episode of “The Adventures of Frank Race”.  We’re close to the end of our run of this syndicated series as it was broadcast in the late 1940s and early 50s.

Globe-trotting Race is in London this week, working on a case involving a murdered man who took out life insurance policies with some old Army buddies that own a nightclub together.  It’s program 42 in the series,  “The Adventure of the Black Friar’s Bridge”.

The show was transferred from an original Bruce Eells and Associates vinyl transcription set, matrix numbers UR-138897 and UR-138898.

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Special thanks go out this week to Jason in North Carolina and Steven from parts unknown for their generous donations to the blog.  Also, a big “thank you” to Christopher McPherson for donating a couple of interesting transcriptions that will be posted soon.

Now, on with the show …

Note:  The attached pdf file contains racial stereotyping themes that may be offensive to some blog readers.

“Lone Wolf Tribe” was a juvenile series that ran on CBS for one or two seasons, circa 1932-33, three days a week.  The show followed the adventures of Wolf Paw and his Indian tribe.  I haven’t found out much about the program, except for a page on a collectors site that talks about premiums offered in conjunction with the program.

In this post, “The Tribe Book of the Lone Wolf”, a pdf file of a booklet offered to listeners of the show.  It includes secret signs and picture writing you should only share with the members of your tribe, some info on Native American lore (at least the way that Madison Avenue imagined it), the Wolf Tribe credo, and, most importantly, a catalog of fine “Indian things” you can get by trading “wampum” (ie, Wrigley’s Chewing Gum wrappers).

Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be any surviving episodes of the series.  Anyone have additional info to offer about it?

The pdf file, linked on the ebook icon below the post, is about 1.8 MB and runs 28 pages.

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We come to the final entry I’ll be posting in the series of “Bing Crosby Show” aircheck discs in my collection.

Bing returns to sing a bit and give us a soft sell for GE home appliances in this show from March 26, 1953.  After kicking off the show with “Bye Bye Blues” (a song that, oddly, he performed just a few weeks ago on the series), Bing talks with announcer Ken Carpenter about the crooner’s upcoming GE sales trip to Europe on the Queen Elizabeth.  Guests on the show are Rosemary Clooney and the ever-present Joe Venuti.

The program was transferred from an original Radio Recorders lacquer aircheck recorded from KCBS/KCBS-FM, San Francisco.

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Note:  The following program contains racial stereotyping themes that may be offensive to some listeners.

Last week we heard a previously lost episode of the “Kraft Music Hall” featuring Lum N’ Abner.  In this post, another episode in the series that appears to be not in circulation.

Broadcast as “Music Hall” on the Armed Forces Radio Network as program 155 in the series and originally heard as “Kraft Music Hall” on November 22, 1945 on NBC, the program features host Frank Morgan.  The first song on the show is “Tampico” and Frank Morgan appears in a comedy sketch about pirates.  The show features John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra, the Charioteers, Lina Romay, Vera Vague,  Carmen Cavallaro and announcer Ken Carpenter.

The show was transferred from an original AFRS vinyl transcription.  There’s some heavy grove damage and scratches on the disc; the file has been run through some noise reduction software to clean up the sound a bit.

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Note:  The following program contains racial stereotyping themes that may be offensive to some listeners.

Leave it to Frank Race to run into Indian royalty at a bowling alley.

Paul Dubov and Tony Barrett return this week in our continuing series, “The Adventures of Frank Race”, as we work our way through the run of the series in chronological order.  In program 41, Race and his cabbie sidekick decide to relax with an evening of bowling, which is interrupted by a mysterious woman from India who thinks her husband is going to be murdered.  And there’s a whole subplot involving a psychiatrist who has a mother complex…

The show was transferred from an original red vinyl Bruce Eells and Associates vinyl transcription set, matrix numbers UR-138135 AU-2 and UR-138136 AU-2.

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