Carol Adams - July 4, 1949

A few years ago, I wound up with a stack of “throw away” lacquers from WHBC in Canton, Ohio.  These were parts of local shows, programs recorded from the network line for time-shifting and other production odds and ends.  The “Fishing and Hunting Club” episodes from ABC came from these discs.

Now, a special treat.  Local shows in old time radio are rare - often they were just done live and not recorded or might have been recorded and tossed out, since they weren’t needed after the broadcast.

Here’s an episode of a fifteen minute program hosted by WHBC’s resident home economist, Carol Adams, originally broadcast on July 7, 1949.  It’s a nice example of a type of program produced by and for women that isn’t really well documented.

Carol talks about planning meals around the holidays and some background information on varieties of pancakes.  Then she discusses different recipes from a pamphlet of United Nations dishes recently published by the Red Cross in Queens, Long Island.  The pamphlet includes recipes from wives of UN delegates from different countries.  She reads the recipe for a rhubarb pie contributed to the pamphlet by the wife of a delegate from Canada, then an Iranian recipe for Green Beans and Rice, and New Zealand Sausage Rolls.  She gives suggestions for visiting the kids at summer camp, tips for keeping cool during the summer from a dermatologist (including an admonition against wearing girdles during hot weather).  At the end of the show, she promotes tomorrow’s program that will highlight the latest in fall fashions.

I did a little digging on Carol Adams and it appears to have been a stage name.  The June 20, 1949 issue of Broadcasting-Telecasting, on page 78, in their short notes from local stations tells us that “Zetta Horst, known to listeners of WHBC Canton, Ohio, as Carol Adams, and Blake Sommer have announced their marriage.”  I also found a brief article in the Wooster, Ohio Daily Record noting that she and her husband were celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary in 2009.

Our mp3 was transferred direct from an original 16” lacquer Audiodisc transcription from WHBC in Canton, Ohio.  The discs were suffering from palmitic leeching and starting to crack - I cleaned up the discs as best as I could and this one turned out pretty well.

If you’re in the Ohio area and happen to know Blake and Zetta’s family, let them know about this post.  I wonder if they might have recordings of other shows Zetta appeared in.