DeVore Sisters
The DeVore sisters were a bit of a house band on WLW in those days. They were a trio of actual sistes including Billie, Ruth and Marge. Then when Ruth left, Barbara Cameron filled in. Barbara actually outloved the troupe going into television at WKRC-TV later on. More here and here.
A note on the longevity of the Moon River program though. Both the Jay Hickerson History of Network Programming and the John Dunning Encyclopedia of Old time Radio list the program as ending in 1940 or ambiguous 1940s. The only source for it running longer is a Cincinnati Magazine article from 1985 and a Time Magazine article abstract from 1954. Wikipedia makes up it's own bunkum version of history referencing all three of those sources but adhering to none. My recordings corroborate add nothing to that conversation since they all date to either 1940 or 1941.
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According to Rusty McClure's "Crosley," a book that sights a number of local sources, Moon River ran "more or less for the next thirty years." This puts the show ending around 1960, which seems about right to me, for what it's worth.
ReplyDeleteWLW founder Powell Crosley died on March 28, 1961. With the show's biggest - and perhaps only remaining fan was gone, it's just as likely "Moon River" was once and for all cancelled after a respectful period had passed. WLW celebrated it's 50th anniversary in 1972, which probably occasioned a few nostalgic Moon River replays, but it was definitely not in regular programming.
That Crosley book is excellent, but with Moon River being really just a footnote in the book I'm hard hard pressed to commit to that source over another.
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