September 4, 2008
Comedians Gill and Doemling highlight “Nonsense and Melody”, a breezy little comedy variety show produced by Transco in 1935-36. We pick up this week with episode 24 in the series.
Jean’s having a party at her hotel as the troupe visits Venice, so we get lots of jokes about canals in the comedy sketch portion of the show. Songs include “If I Had a Million Dollars and You” (with interesting Hawaiian slide guitar backing) and “Cherry Berry Bin” done as a gondolier song. The Jack Tars perform “Be Still My Heart”.
Transferred from an original red vinyl Bruce Eells and Associates vinyl transcription. Apologies for the “crackle” in the last four or five minutes of the show from some damage around the perimeter of the disc.
More episodes in the series will follow in the coming weeks.
August 20, 2008
Well, I’ve only got a couple of shows for you this week, but this one’s a doozy.
Direct for a set of Armed Forces Radio Service transcriptions, here’s a special ninety minute edition of “Command Performance” from May 29, 1946, celebrating the fourth anniversary of AFRS.
The show is a compilation of excerpts representing all of the major series produced especially for personnel in the Army, Navy and Marines during World War II. The program, introduced by Bill Goodwin and hosted by Bob Hope is framed by a “letter” that is a kind of retrospective of major events in the War.
Hope opens the show with one his topical monologues. Then, after setting up the show with the “letter”, we hear the following excerpts:
- “Downbeat” featuring a couple of tunes from drummer Ray Bauduc (who played with the Bob Crosby Orchestra)
- “Melody Roundup” with the Riders of the Purple Sage doing “New San Antonio Rose” and Abigail and Buddy performing a “hillbilly” version of “Begin the Beguine”
- “Showtime” with Janet Blair singing Cole Porter’s “I Love You”
- “Mail Call” where Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy do a routine on Dickins’s “Oliver Twist”, introduced by Bill Goodwin
- “GI Jive” hosted by GI Jill with the King Sisters singing “When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano”
- “Jubilee” where the Slim Gaillard Trio perform the hit novelty tune, “Cement Mixer (Put-Ti Put-Ti)”
- a religions program with “Ave Maria” performed by the Bob Mitchell Boys Choir
- “GI Journal” with Kay Kyser joining Jerry Colonna as the Journal’s “star reporter”, then “copy girl” Linda Darnell and Mel Blanc in character as Private Sad Sack in an extended comedy sketch that includes “The Life of the Sad Sack”
- Fred MacMurray hosting a program reminiscing about the year 1935 where the King Sisters sing “I’ve Had My Moments”
- “Words With Music”, with Donald Crisp reading Thomas Hood’s “I Remember”
- “Command Performance” with Bill Goodwin, Bob Hope and Janet Blair in a parody of radio soap operas, “The Ups and Downs of Brenda Scuttlebutt, Girl Yo-Yo”; Fred MacMurray joins them for a sketch about an annoying little boy on the set of a Hollywood movie
- “Purple Heart Album” with Francis Langford singing “We’ll Be Waltzing Again”
If you’ve never listened to AFRS programming, which was produced especially for military personnel and not broadcast stateside, the show gives you a good idea of the range of shows that were a part of AFRS’s schedule alongside their rebroadcasts of material from the major networks. It’s a really entertaining ninety minutes and an intriguing immersion into the popular songs, topical jokes and military culture of World War II.
The program was transferred from an original three-disc AFRS transcription set in near-mint condition.
August 13, 2008
We’re nearing the end of our run of episodes of “The Two Daffodils”, a comedy series syndicated by the Continental Broadcasting Corporation circa 1930-31. The show features comedians Ken Gillum and Duke Atterbury.
In program 3081A, there’s a sketch about a passenger complaining about an airline, Ken Gillum sings a novelty tune, and Little Oscar pays a visit. The show was transferred from an original Columbia shellac pressing.
August 8, 2008
We turn once again to the Transco syndicated musical comedy show, “Nonsense and Melody”, featuring Gill and Doemling from 1935-36. We last left the series with episode 20 a few weeks ago in the blog and I’m missing the disc containing show numbers 21 and 22.
So, picking up with episode 23 in this post, the cast is in Rome. Jean Cowan sings a song about “rock and roll”. (No, it’s not about some obscure forerunner to Elvis Presley or Little Richard - it’s about the “Rocking Rhythm of the Sea”.) The accordion player takes a turn and the Three Jack Tars do “Okay Toots”. The comedy sketch is about Ceasar and Brutus.
The program was transferred directly from an original red vinyl Bruce Eells and Associates transcription probably pressed in the 1940s. I’ve got nine more episodes in the series that will be posted in the coming weeks.
July 2, 2008
Comedians Gill and Doemling play host to another episode of the Transco syndicated musical comedy show, “Nonsense and Melody”, originally recorded in 1935-36. The program was transferred directly from an original red vinyl Bruce Eells and Associates transcription probably pressed in the 1940s.
Jean Cowan sings “That’s College Rhythm”; the accordion soloist performs a tune; the orchestra runs through “Shiek of Araby” and we hear a comedy sketch about a tour of the pyramids where the Three Jack Tars sing a yodel song.
Once again, we dive into a couple of episodes of “Nonsense and Melody”, a Transco syndicated program from circa 1935-36 featuring comedians Gill and Doemling on a ship taking a world cruise. The show is transferred from a red vinyl Bruce Eells and Associates transcription probably pressed in the 1940s.
In program 19, the ship is headed for Egypt. Charlie Wellman sings “Alabamy Bound” in an interesting style that sounds like a cross between Al Jolson and Rudy Valee; the orchestra plays “Bugle Call Rag”; Jean Cowan sings “Mr and Mrs is the Name” and the Jack Tars do a fun rendition of “Cross Eyed Kelly”. The comedy sketch is on Cleopatra and Marc Anthony.
June 20, 2008
Another episode in the 1930-31 comedy series, “The Two Daffodils” featuring Duke Atterbury and Ken Gillum, transferred from an original Columbia transcription disc. The show was syndicated by the Continental Broadcasting Corporation.
In program 3079A, Ken Gillum performs “Everything is Hotsy Totsy Now”, “Am I Blue?”, and “You Got Me Cuckoo”. We also get a poem from Ewescray, a routine about a visit to an insane asylum, and Professor Ignatz takes listener questions.
The original laminated Columbia pressings of this series are quite heavy and thick, weighing about three and a half pounds - I always bring one out if someone has never seen a transcription disc before. This disc was particularly difficult to transfer since it had warped into a kind of lopsided “u” shape - I finally got it to balance well enough on the turntable so that the edge of the record wouldn’t hit the back of the tonearm and cause it fly off the record.
June 12, 2008
As a special treat, here’s an episode of “Lum N’ Abner” that appears to be uncirculated among otr enthusiasts - “Accidentally Yours” from July 1947, created especially for National Farm Safety Week.
The program was transferred from an original RCA Orthacoustic vinyl transcription disc, matrix number ND7-MM-10097, and was used during the Farm Safety campaign run between July 20 and 26, 1947 by the National Safety Council, Chicago. The other side of the disc contains short segments by various political figures about farm safety that could be used in local farm and news programs.
In the show, Lum and Abner hang up a poster promoting Farm Safety Week and, of course, create many opportunities for accidents in the Jot’em Down Store. Cedric Wehunt and Ben Withers pay a visit.
Chester Lauck and Norris Goff began their run as Lum and Abner in 1932 and the series continued in one form or another until the mid-1950s, appearing on all four major networks during the run of the series. The characters inhabit the mythical small town of Pine Ridge, Arkansas, but Lauck and Goff based them on people they knew growing up in the state.
One of the fun things about the show is that you can hear Lauck starting to break up during one part, where he tosses out some figures on the number of accidents and deaths each year on farms, but he regains his composure and they go on with the recording session.
Note: Listeners may find this program offensive due to racial stereotyping themes.
Another circa 1949 episode of “Southland Echoes”, sponsored by Black Draught Laxative and syndicated by the Nelson Chesman Company of Chatanooga, Tennessee.
Episode 49-6 features the Homeland Harmony Quartet singing “He Bore It All” and “When the Saints Go Marching In”. The Jones Sisters perform some yodeling in “Liza Jane” and the ballad “They Took the Stars Out of Heaven”. Blackface comedians Jam-Up and Honey talk about farms.
This program was transferred from an original vinyl transcription disc. Unfortunately, there’s a bad scratch that runs through the first five minutes or so of the program. Also, this show has an unusual technical problem seen in some of the programs from the series - there’s a strange “drop out” in the sound near the end of the number “They Took the Stars Out of Heaven”, so this isn’t a problem with your MP3 player or the MP3 file.
I’ll be posting a couple of shows from this series about once a month.
Note: Listeners may find this program offensive due to racial stereotyping themes.
We continue our look at an uncirculated country music and comedy show from circa 1949, with a couple more episodes of “Southland Echoes”, produced by the Nelson Chesman Company in Chattanooga.
Sponsored by Black Draught Laxative and Cardui for Women, episode 49-5 features the influential Southern Gospel group, the Homeland Harmony Quartet, singing “Living on the Sunny Side” and “After the Sunrise”. West Virginia performers the Jones Sisters sing “My Adobe Hacienda” and “The Echoes from the Hills”. Blackface comedians Jam-Up and Honey do a routine on how love is like sea sickness.
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