Episodes
Wednesday Feb 22, 2017
Louie’s Hungry Five - Pgm 305, October 5, 1931
Wednesday Feb 22, 2017
Wednesday Feb 22, 2017
Once again we drop in on the continuing story of the “little German Band” with “Louie’s Hungry Five”. You can read background information on the program in my first post in this series.
In episode 305, originally broadcast October 5, 1931, the boys work to wrap up the auction of their household goods to fund their trip to South America, selling their stove. Anyone recognize the popular tune they play a couple of minutes into the show?
You can download a jpeg of the original local announcer’s cue sheet for the program here.
Our mp3 was transferred directly from two twelve-inch shellac 78 rpm transcriptions, pressed by Columbia’s Sound-on-Disc division, matrix numbers 233263 and 233264.
Thursday Feb 09, 2017
Basketball - Canton vs Central Catholic - January 1948 - excerpts
Thursday Feb 09, 2017
Thursday Feb 09, 2017
We continue our look at some rare local previously lost radio programming transferred from a set of “throw away” lacquers that originally came from WHBC in Canton, Ohio.
This post features a half-hour excerpt of a local high school basketball game between Canton Township Wildcats and Central Catholic. You’ll hear the opening of the game - part one of the set - and then part five, near the very end of the game. It was a very close match-up and, unfortunately, we don’t have part six with the last few minutes of the game to find out who won. Jim Monte Jim Muzzy does the play by play and the game is sponsored by Sugardale meats, which still doing business in Ohio.
Programming of this type is quite rare - I can’t recall another local high school basketball game floating around among old time radio collectors, but there may be some other excerpts that exist. I imagine that most local high school and college sports events were aired live - this one only survives because it was presented transcribed.
Our mp3 was transferred from two Audiodisc sixteen lacquers. The grease pencil writing on the disc is a little obscured - the date looks like sometime January 1948. Someone could probably track down the specific date and the final score in a local Canton newspaper archives.
Thursday Feb 09, 2017
Louie’s Hungry Five - Pgm 304 - October 3, 1931
Thursday Feb 09, 2017
Thursday Feb 09, 2017
Now we continue our run of twenty episodes of this early obscure comedy serial, syndicated by WGN, and chronicling the adventures of the “little German band”. You can read background about the series in my first post about the series.
In program 304, originally heard October 3, 1931, the guys get confused trying to increase bids in the auction for their household items they’re using to fund their trip to South America. Meanwhile, Louie’s girlfriend calls, worrying about Louie’s broken leg. You can read the original announcer cue sheet provided with the discs at this jpeg link.
The show was transferred directly from two twelve-inch shellac 78 rpm transcriptions, pressed by Columbia’s Sound-on-Disc division, matrix numbers 233261 and 233262.
Thursday Feb 02, 2017
Louie's Hungry Five - Pgm 303, October 2, 1931
Thursday Feb 02, 2017
Thursday Feb 02, 2017
We continue our look at the early 30’s comedy serial, “Louie’s Hungry Five”, distributed by WGN. You can read more about the series in my original post that kicked off the series.
Program 303, heard Friday, October 2, 1931, has the guys in the “little German band” still trying to hide the fact from their girlfriends the fact that they’re selling all their household items to go to South America. After some music, they start the auction, with Louie giving them instructions on how to increase the bids. You can see the original cue sheet for the local announcer by downloading this jpeg image.
Our show was transferred from two twelve-inch 78 rpm shellac transcriptions pressed by Columbia’s Sound-on-Disc division, matrix numbers 233259 and 233260.
Thursday Jan 26, 2017
Louie’s Hungry Five - Pgm 302 - October 1, 1931
Thursday Jan 26, 2017
Thursday Jan 26, 2017
Now the next installment in the early 1930s serial comedy about the “little German band”, “Louie’s Hungry Five”. Read more about the series in my original post kicking off the series on the blog.
In our last episode, the Louie and the band were preparing to auction their household items to use the money for a trip to South America and trying to hide the auction from their girlfriends. Julia called Louis on the phone and Emil tells her he has broken his leg. In program 302, they’re figuring out how to keep Julia away from the auction and dealing with her checking with all the hospitals about Louie. You can download the original cue sheet that was used by the local announcer here.
Our mp3 was transferred from two 12” Columbia Sound-On-Disc shellac transcriptions, matrix numbers 233257 and 233258. I have a total of about twenty consecutive episodes of the series I’ll be posting over the coming weeks.
Thursday Jan 26, 2017
Curtis Springer for Acidine - Pgm 3
Thursday Jan 26, 2017
Thursday Jan 26, 2017
Now we continue our run of the first five episodes of “Curtis Springer”, a daily fifteen minute show featuring commentary by the “King of Quacks” with his advice on the “facts about life”. You can read more about Springer in my first post on the series.
In this episode talks about two “dizzy blondes” he overheard at a restaurant talking about doping up kids they were supposed to be babysitting when they went out for a hot night of dancing. He didn’t intervene or report the conversation because he would be wasting his time trying to give advice to someone who doesn’t want it. This syndicated series was sponsored by Acidine.
The mp3 you’re listening to was transferred direct from a translucent blue one-sided 16” celluloid Brunswick transcription, matrix number 9151, pressed by Flexo, a manufacturer of promotional and radio-related discs made with experimental plastics in the early 1930s.
Again, I think these may be the only surviving radio programs by Springer from the 1930s.
Wednesday Jan 18, 2017
Federal Housing Administration - Pgm 6
Wednesday Jan 18, 2017
Wednesday Jan 18, 2017
With the swearing in of a new President (apparently) happening this week, I thought we’d get a little political on the blog with some different transcriptions in my collection dealing with various facets of the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration.
First up, an episode of a government radio series that appears to be previously lost promoting the Federal Housing Administration. The FHA was established as part of the National Housing Act of 1934; I’m guessing this show dates from 1934 or ’35 as the agency was trying to first promote their services. This was typical of the type of promotional radio work done by FDR’s New Deal agencies; many of the individual shows and series were simply discarded since they served a temporary purpose and don’t survive today.
The FHA has seen many changes over the years. The original idea of commercial banks making loans in their own community, with the loans being backed by the Federal government, was, in my opinion, a sound idea. The breakdown of regulations over commercial banking led to the 2007 sub-prime mortgage crisis, with banks taking on loans from unqualified borrowers, buying and selling these “junk” loans on the open market, and sticking the Federal taxpayer with the bill.
Wikipedia notes that, “The share of home purchases financed with FHA mortgages went from 2 percent to over one-third of mortgages in the United States, as conventional mortgage lending dried up in the credit crunch. Without the subprime market, many of the riskiest borrowers ended up borrowing from the Federal Housing Administration, and the FHA could suffer substantial losses. Joshua Zumbrun and Maurna Desmond of Forbes have written that eventual government losses from the FHA could reach $100 billion. … By November 2012, the FHA was essentially bankrupt.”
Despite this mix of Federal backing for loans by private local commercial banks to support affordable home ownership and stable home markets, the Republicans opposed the FHA, like many other of FDR’s New Deal programs. They got their wish to dismantle the FHA by simply passing de-regulation of banks over the years that ensured the agency would collapse with a tidy profit being earned by private commercial banks.
Our FHA radio show features the United States Marine Band, Captain Taylor Branson, conducting. They perform “The Gate City March” by Weldon, as well as works by Wagner and others. We also hear a little sketch about a family needing to do some updating to their home for a long-term family visitor. They discover how a loan through their local bank, guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration, can help them. I have another FHA transcription I’ll post later that includes short dramatized sketches about young couples buying their first home and other common situations for taking out home loans.
There are no credits on the show, but the announcer sounds like the same guy who did the announcing work on 1930s episodes of “Jungle Jim”. He shows the same dramatic enthusiasm, whether he’s talking about the Marine Band and the FHA or the latest perils of Jungle Jim.
The mp3 was transferred directly from a 16” one-sided shellac transcription from Radio and Film Methods Corporation, 101 Park Avenue, New York, matrix number 206A. As far as I can tell, no other episodes of this series survives.
Wednesday Jan 18, 2017
Louie’s Hungry Five - Pgm 301 - September 30, 1931
Wednesday Jan 18, 2017
Wednesday Jan 18, 2017
First up in the blog this week, our next episode of the early 1930s radio comedy serial, “Louie’s Hungry Five”.
The show looks at the misadventures of the “Little German Band” and was developed by WGN after the success of “Amos n’ Andy”. The series features Henry “Hank” Moeller as the group’s leader, Herr Louie Hasenpfeffer, Harold “Hal” J. Giles as his sidekick, the Weasel and unknown actors portraying Emil, Yohannis and Fritz. You can see my first post about the show for more information about the series.
In program 301, originally broadcast September 30, 1931, the boys are preparing an auction to fund their trip to South America. However, they haven’t told their girlfriends and have to figure out how to hide the auction from them. As they say, complications ensue.
You can see the original cue sheet used by the local announcer for this episode by downloading this jpeg file.
This show was transferred from two 12” 78 rpm Columbia Sound-On-Disc shellac transcriptions, matrix numbers 233255 and 233256. I have a total of about twenty consecutive episodes of the series I’ll be posting over the coming weeks.
Thursday Jan 12, 2017
Louie’s Hungry Five - Pgm 300 - September 29, 1931
Thursday Jan 12, 2017
Thursday Jan 12, 2017
Finally this week, we kick off a series of about twenty consecutive episodes of a previously uncirculated early radio series, “Louie’s Hungry Five”.
The series is a continuing comedy series, similar to “Amos n’ Andy”, about a “Little German Band”. After Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll left WGN because they wanted to syndicate “Sam and Henry” on records to stations and had such a success with their newly titled “Amos n’ Andy” series, WGN developed this program to jump on the lucrative syndication bandwagon.
After some WGN broadcasts, perhaps in 1929, the series was first distributed in 1930 and was initially pressed on the Marsh Laboratories Electra label and later on Columbia. At its peak, the show was heard on at least sixty-five stations in 17 states from coast to coast and even in Canada. Louie’s Hungry Five were making personal appearances around the Chicago area into the 1940s.
Doug Hopkinson and Ryan Ellett produced a detailed and illustrated article about the series that tells the story much better than I can. Briefly, the show looks at the misadventures of Herr Louie Hasenpfeffer (Henry “Hank” Moeller), the Weasel (Harold “Hal” J. Giles), and Emil, Yohannis and Fritz (all played by unknown actors).
The gimmick on the show, besides the funny continuing stories, were one or two numbers played by the band in each show, usually German “oompah” versions of songs by popular artists like Eddie Cantor. (I haven’t been able to identify most of the tunes - perhaps listeners here can figure out what they are.)
At its peak, the show was heard on at least sixty-five stations in 17 states from coast to coast and even in Canada.
In this first show in our collection, episode 300 broadcast Tuesday, September 29, 1931, the band is preparing to auction off their belongings to buy tickets for a trip to South America. The first song they perform is “Springtime in the Rockies”. You can see the original cue sheet used by the local announcer for the episode by downloading this jpeg. (And, while I don’t have the actual program, you can view the cue sheet for the previous episode here.)
This group of discs representing around twenty consecutive episodes turned up on eBay and appears to be a different stash of discs discovered by Hopkinson and Ellett a few years ago, even though the episode numbers overlap. All of my discs include the cue sheet for each episode.
This show was transferred from two 12” Columbia Sound-On-Disc shellac transcriptions, matrix numbers 233253 and 233254. The discs in my collection are in wonderful shape and were a pleasure to transfer.
We’ll hear what happens to the "Little German Band" next week as the story continues. I understand Michael Biel has some of the early Marsh Laboratories discs of early episodes in the series and can’t stand them - I enjoy the ones that I’ve got and think it has a certain “early radio” charm.
Thursday Jan 12, 2017
Curtis H. Springer for Acidine - Pgm 2
Thursday Jan 12, 2017
Thursday Jan 12, 2017
Once again, after a long break on the blog, we pick up again with an early radio broadcast by medical quack Curtis H. Springer. You can read more about him and the series in my first post in the series.
In program 2, Springer goes on rambling diatribe about gossip. The show recorded in studios in Chicago and was sponsored by Acidine. It was probably syndicated around 1934. The announcer is identified in program 4 as Hal Dean.
Our mp3 was transferred from a translucent blue one-sided 16” celluloid transcription with a Brunswick label, matrix number 9150-1. The disc was pressed by Flexo, which was producing various promotional and radio related discs from experimental plastics at the time. The surface noise you hear is the result of the deforming of the plastics as it has aged. These discs are rather unpleasant to work with - they have a strong smell of camphor.
Has anyone else run into any of these Flexo discs released by Brunswick? I posted an early “Front Page Drama” some time ago with the same red Brunswick label, but pressed on thick heavy shellac.
I have the first five episodes in this series and will be posting the rest in coming weeks. As far as I can tell, these are previously lost and uncirculated and probably the only broadcasts surviving from a man that was called the “King of Quacks”.