rand’s esoteric otr

I recently obtained a few rare episodes of this rare comedy-variety series with the Incomprable Hildegarde.  In this post, we give a spin to program 17 in the series as it was heard on the Armed Forces Radio Network.  The show was originally broadcast as “The Raleigh Room” on May 15, 1945 on NBC.

Hildegarde’s first song on the show is “Who?”.  Patsy Kelly tries to get a date with Xavier Cugat and Clifton Webb gives her some advice, putting in a few plugs for his new movie, “Laura”.  Hildegarde and Cugat sing “Take It Easy”, with lyrics making fun of Patsy’s man-chasing.  In the cast are Hildegarde, Patsy Kelly, guests Xavier Cugat and Clifton Webb, and Harry Sosnik and His Orchestra.

The show was transferred from original AFRS vinyl transcription, matrix numbers HD5-MM-7476-1 and HD5-MM-7477-1, probably pressed by RCA.  Date is also on the transcription matrix.

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Continuing from our previous post, we now hear a collection of announcements by “Evelyn” to promote the local “Hour of Charm” program featuring Phil Spitalny’s All-Girl “Hour of Charm” orchestra.

The announcements were transferred from an original vinyl RCA Thesaurus transcription, matrix number E1-MM-1741.

Special thanks to listener Michael Utz for his donation of the disc to the blog!

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In this post and next, we step “behind the mike” for a piece of memorabilia that demonstrates how local stations could carry inexpensive, quality programming.

You may have heard of RCA’s Thesaurus discs.  First released in the 1930s and continuing well into the fifties and sixties, stations could subscribe to a music library that included songs, generic singing commercials and other material recorded especially for broadcast.  Collectors of jazz and country music have mined music library transcriptions for years for recordings by well-known artists that were never released in any other form.  Stations would use music from the discs for several purposes - theme songs or background music on local shows, filler when programs turned up short, or even to assemble a custom program of music.

In this mp3, we hear “The Hour of Charm - Audition Program #5″, a fifteen minute demonstration program aimed at local potential sponsors for a program based on a Thesaurus-based music series that demonstrates how the show could be assembled from the recordings.  The demo features, as hostess, “Evelyn and Her Magic Violin” and we hear the music of Phil Spitalny’s All-Girl “Hour of Charm” Orchestra.

The next post is the flip side of the disc - a set of announcements by Evelyn promoting the show.

The program was transferred from an original vinyl RCA Thesaurus transcription, matrix number E1-MM-1730.

Many thanks to listener Michael Utz for donating the disc to my collection.

update, 9/20/2009

A listener asked for some more information on the show in the comments, so here’s some additional background on the disc and “The Hour of Charm”.

RCA’s matrix numbers at the time used a code, with the first two figures indicating the date. So, I’d make a guess that the “E1″ would date this disc to 1951. There’s a “Night Beat” 45 rpm promo set I posted on the blog a few months ago with the matrix code “E0″ from 1950.

Dunning’s “Encyclopedia of Old Time Radio” has a fascinating entry on Spitalny’s All-Girl Orchestra. “The Hour of Charm” ran on CBS and NBC from 1934 to 1948. “Evelyn” later described life in the group as being in a kind of very strict sorority - Spitalny enforced a code of behavior and the girls even had to get approval to go on dates from a committee. The girls had to weigh less than 122 pounds when they auditioned and their costumes and hairstyles were very carefully planned.

But, all of the women in the group were immensely talented musicians; many had to play multiple instruments and sing - one played 24 instruments and took up tuba when Spitalny couldn’t find a suitable tuba player in a nationwide search.

Evelyn must have been pretty happy in the group. Dunning notes that she married Spitalny in June 1946 and they lived together in Miami until Spitalny’s death in 1970.

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This week, we premiere a new series on the blog, “The Magic of Music”, that appears to not be in circulation among otr enthusiasts.

“The Magic of Music” featured a musical guest who is interviewed about their work and a new album they’re promoting.  The series concentrated on jazz and vocalists and includes lesser known artists from the period; there are no performances in the studio, but we hear excerpts from their albums, some that are hard to find today.

The show was transcribed in Hollywood for Marine Corps Reserve and Recruiting and hosted by Bob Osterburg - love the singing opening to the show that includes the host’s name.  Mackenzie’s “Directory of the Armed Forces Radio Service Series” seems to imply this was an AFRTS originated series, but one of the programs I have in the series mentions that the show originates on Mutual.

Program 40 in the series as broadcast on AFRTS features vibes player Terry Gibbs talking about his career and album “Swingin’ With Terry Gibbs”.  The show includes an AFRTS informational announcement about NATO.  The show is dated April 18, 1958 in the matrix, so that could be the date the program was recorded, the date of the original network broadcast, or even the date it was mastered by AFRTS - the dates are less consistent on these later transcriptions.

The show was transferred from an original AFRTS vinyl microgroove transcription with an episode of the “Jimmy Wakely Show” on the other side.

I’ll drop in a few episodes of the series in the next few months on the blog.

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Here’s another one of those NBC line check recordings I picked up a few months ago, the second half of “The Fred Waring Show” from August 8, 1947.  Unfortunately, the first half of the show is missing.

Usually, Waring would feature a long medley during the program and this one is devoted to songs from the show “Carousel”.  It’s sponsored by Green Giant peas and corn, so we get to hear that great Green Giant jingle sung by the chorus at the close of the program.

The show was transferred from an original line check laquer made an at unknown local NBC affiliate and it appears to be lost/uncirculated

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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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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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Finally this week in our look at the end of World War II, we hear a remarkable broadcast - a special episode of “Command Performance” dubbed “Victory Extra”, prepared for VJ Day and broadcast August 15, 1945 on the Armed Forces Radio Network.

Running a full 100 minutes, the show features an incredible array of actors, actresses, comedians, performers and personalities - almost anyone who was anybody showed up to celebrate the end of the War for our troops.  Below, after the jump, is a complete outline of all the program contents for the purposes of indexing and searching for the show, but, if you’ve never heard it, I’d recommend you just listen and be surprised at who shows up.

Of course, since AFRS programs had to be distributed on disc to stations around the world, this special broadcast had to be prepared in advance.  It would be interesting to find out how the show was put together - it sounds like it was specially created and didn’t use recycled excerpts from other programs, like some other AFRS programs.  Was it done in one recording session?  What did they tell the audience?  (Or was the audience made up of the performers themselves?)

The program was transferred from an original AFRS vinyl transcription set.

Click “more” to see a complete listing of the show’s performers.

(more…)

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Here’s another episode of the long running musical variety showcase, “Kraft Music Hall”.  This episode was originally broadcast September 14, 1944 and rebroadcast as program 93 in the “Music Hall” series on the Armed Forces Radio Service.

The program features host George Murphy, Marilyn Maxwell, Eukie, John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra along with guests the Kingsmen and Lum N’ Abner.  Murphy and Maxwell kick off the show with “It Had to Be You” and we hear a parody of soaps called “The Cross Family”.  A highlight of the episode, and something that fits with this week’s blog theme of the end of World War II, is a routine by Lum N’ Abner about updating to modern post-War conveniences in the home.

The show appears to be a lost/uncirculated program in the series and was transferred from an original AFRS War Department vinyl transcription.  Date of the program is from the transcription matrix.

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