Episodes
Thursday Oct 08, 2009
Mail Call - Pgm 93
Thursday Oct 08, 2009
Thursday Oct 08, 2009
Now let's turn back the clock to World War II with another entry in the Armed Forces Radio Network variety series, "Mail Call", that brought the top stars from movies and radio to perform for the troops.
This is a pretty amazing little half-hour program. Program 93 features hostess Paulette Goddard introducing W.C. Fields, Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd with Edgar Bergen, Virginia O'Brien, Borrah Minnevitch and the Harmonica Rascals and the King Sisters. The announcer for the show is Don Wilson. The program is dedicated to armed forces personnel from the State of Kentucky, so there's something of a Kentucky Derby theme going on, at least in the program's opening and first number by the orchestra, "Kentucky". The King Sisters sing the War themed tune, "Milkman, Keep Those Bottles Quiet" and the Harmonica Rascals do a wonderful arrangement of "Brazil". (I'm a fan of the Harmonicats, so this was a real treat.) The highlight of the show is the sketch with W.C. Fields and Edgar Bergen. They're in rare form, with Fields and Bergen tossing in adlibs as Fields gets lost in the script. The show was transferred from an original AFRS vinyl transcription. According to the log of the series at otrsite.com, it was recorded May 24, 1944. By the way - do you recognize the theme the orchestra plays after the intro of Paulette Goddard? It would turn up years later as a main theme used on "The Big Show". Was this some kind of stock cue in the music score library at NBC?
Wednesday Nov 18, 2009
Mail Call - Unknown pgm number
Wednesday Nov 18, 2009
Wednesday Nov 18, 2009
In this post, a bit of a mystery - an unnumbered and undated episode of the Armed Forces Radio series "Mail Call".
The host of the program is Jane Nye. The King Sisters kick off the show with "Candy". Betty Grable, Bob Hope, Humphrey Bogart and Bing Crosby appear in a sketch that parodies "The Princess and the Pirate". The program also includes appearances by Dick Haymes, Ken Murray, Marilyn Maxell. It sounds like it's probably an "assembled" show, with Nye's segments recorded to introduce segments from other Armed Forces Radio programming. The show was transferred from a unusual 14" microgroove lacquer that sounds like a dub of an original AFRS disc and appears to date from the 1960s. Christopher McPherson donated the disc to the blog and, believe it or not, the disc came from the estate of Mae West. Goldin lists his particular "Mail Call" episode, but I couldn't find any other references to the show. Is the original vinyl disc still out there somewhere?Thursday Aug 27, 2009
Mail Call - Pgm 58
Thursday Aug 27, 2009
Thursday Aug 27, 2009
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.