Episodes
Friday May 30, 2008
Hoosier Hot Shots - AFRS Program 13, circa 1950
Friday May 30, 2008
Friday May 30, 2008
While the Hoosier Hot Shots are most well known for their recordings and radio activity of the 1930s and 40s, they did do a little known one season radio program in 1949-1950 for the Mutual network. I've only run into references to a couple of shows from the series in circulation.
In program 13 in the series as it was distributed by AFRS, the Hot Shots perform "Wait at the Gate for Me Katie", "Meet Me by the Icehouse Lizzie", and "The Nuts Think They're the Berries". Ken and Alan do "Yes, Sir, That's My Baby" on banjos; Helen Gordon sings "But None Like You" and Gil Taylor sings "September in the Rain". For comedy, there's a sketch with a father telling a "big fish" story to his daughter and a routine about shopping performed by Gabe. The show features Ford Pearson announcing. The sketches were really cornpone, even for 1950, and it's odd to hear some "straight" pop musical numbers in the mix, but the Hoosier Hot Shots were still turning out some fun novelty numbers even at this late date.Friday May 16, 2008
The Two Daffodils - Pgm 3077A
Friday May 16, 2008
Friday May 16, 2008
Duke Atterbury and Ken Gillum continue our look at the 1930-31 comedy series, "The Two Daffodils", syndicated by the Continental Broadcasting Corporation and transferred from an original Columbia transcription disc.
The boys start out with some hokey riddles, do a sketch about a taxicab ride, and get a visit from Professor Ignatz; songs include "Where Did Robinson Caruso Go With Friday on Saturday Night?" and "Sweet Sue". They wrap up with a collection of Scotsman jokes.Friday Apr 25, 2008
Hildegarde's Radio Room - AFRS Pgm 26 - Oct 16, 1945
Friday Apr 25, 2008
Friday Apr 25, 2008
In this post, "Hildegarde's Radio Room", AFRS Pgm 26 in the series, originally broadcast on NBC, October 16, 1945 as "The Raleigh Room". The guests include Jackie Keck of "The Aldrich Family", Ned Sparks, Hank Greenburg, and Paul McGrath, the host of "Inner Sanctum"; the music is by Harry Sosnick and his Orchestra.
Hildegarde got her start in vaudeville and first gained fame in Europe, signing a contract with the BBC in the 1930s. She returned to the US in the late 1930s and gained a Time magazine cover and even had a lipstick and nail polish color named after her. Walter Winchell dubbed her "The Incomparable Hildegarde". Her signature song was "Darling, Je Vous Aime Beaucoup", written by her manager and companion of twenty years, Anna Sosenko. Sosenko's NY Times obituary noted, "No one knows why she and Hildegarde parted in the mid-1950's, but they eventually made up. Two days after she turned 85, Hildegarde was performing at the Russian Tea Room in 1991 and, of course, offered a rendition of her 1934 signature song, ''Darling, Je Vous Aime Beaucoup.'' She observed that it was a song she never grew tired of singing. Ms. Sosenko, who had composed it and was one of many friends and well-wishers in the audience, brought down the house when she countered, ''But I'm tired of it.''" By the late 1940s, Hildegarde was the highest paid caberet singer in the world, released dozens of LPs in the 50s and 60s and sold out Carnegie Hall on her eightieth birthday. The Wisconsin Historical Museum has a photo of Hildegarde appearing on her radio show, circa 1945, on this page. There's also info on a record Hildegarde made to promote her home state that included the song "My Milwaukee". Hildegarde has a wonderful singing voice, but the constant smiling and upbeat tone and that little laugh can get a bit grating sometimes, at least to me. Post updated with corrected date of Oct 16th. - 28 April 2008Sunday Apr 13, 2008
Nonsense and Melody - Pgm 14
Sunday Apr 13, 2008
Sunday Apr 13, 2008
Another program in the series "Nonsense and Melody", recorded and syndicated by Transco circa 1934-35, featuring the comedy team of Gil and Doemling, and transferred from an original red vinyl repressing from Bruce Eels and Associates. This episode, features a wonderful little musical number, "Sweetie Pie", by a vocal trio, the song "Mandy" by the show's female vocalist, and sketches about parlour magic and Paul Revere's ride; Doemling plays a woman in both comedy turns. One of the better shows in the series and really nice sound in this program, by the way.
Saturday Apr 12, 2008
Nonsense and Melody - Pgm 13
Saturday Apr 12, 2008
Saturday Apr 12, 2008
In this entry, the syndicated comedy variety show, "Nonsense and Melody" featuring the comic team of Gill and Doemling. The series was recorded and syndicated by Transco in the mid 1930s and takes place aboard a cruise ship; each show includes music and a comedy sketch based on the theme of the place being visited. In program 13, the group visits Paris. The series isn't well known or widely circulated among OTR enthusiasts, but is a fun example of Depression era snappy comedy with bad puns, unusual and long forgotten songs and performers (such as solo musicians accordian or harmonica), and the occasional bit of risque humor.
RR King, on the OTR mailing list dug up some references to the series. Los Angles Times articles from October 5 and 6, 1934 noted that Frank Gill, Jr. and Bill Doemling were formerly comics at KHJ and were working on the transcriptions for Transco at the Freeman Lang studios; there were 78 shows planned for the series. King also found an ad from the May 20, 1935 El Paso Herald-Post where the show was broadcast over KTSM at 8:15 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays and 9:15 am on Wednesdays and Fridays. He also found references to a series with this title being broadcast through the 1940s on stations in Galveston, Sheboygan, and Chicago and as late as August 1950 in Charleston, West Virginia. I got a group of ten discs comprising twenty shows in the series with almost all being red vinyl repressings of the show done by Bruce Eels and Associates, which bought all of Transco's programs when the firm went through bankruptcy. I'll periodically post others in the series in their original intended broadcast order.