The Whistling Brakeman

No, not the Singing Brakeman, that's Jimmie Rodgers. This is the lesser known Whistling Brakeman, George E. Nearpass III. Sources alternately give his middle name as Edward or Edwin. His gravestone just uses the initial. Nearpass was born March 5th, 1886 in Hart, MI. He really was a railroad brakeman. reputedly, he began working for the Pennsylvania railroad in 1900 as a newsboy at the age of 12. There's a little family information here. 

Overall, there isn't much information online for Nearpass. The earliest print reference I've found to Nearpass is in a 1925 issue of Traffic World, a railway journal. It reports as follows:

"The entertainment features were provided by an orchestra from Plymouth, Ind., the Broadway Quartet, composed of Pennsylvania employees in the Pittsburgh office, and George E. Nearpass, the “whistling brakeman,’ an employee of the Pennsylvania at Butler, Ind. "

The earliest radio appearance that I found documented was in a 1928 issue of Railway Age. It describes George performing on 720 WCCO-AM in St. Paul, MN on October 31st. The station was only 3 years old at the time, and had only change calls from WLAG a year earlier. Two years later it would join the NBC Red network. 

I found a promotional postcard for "Mr. Geo. E. Nearpass." It's stamped KFNF, and date stamped from April of 1929. The recipient is in Kansas City, MO.  This was the original 920 KFNF-AM in Shenandoah, IA and owned by the Henry Field Seed Co. It signed on in 1924. The stamped call letters suggest they were stamped for the different appearances and the same post cards shipped from each. There are some which are not stamped at all. More here and here. 

In addition to the radio performances they are even more dinner performances, conventions, banquets, and other small venues. One 1930 newspaper article described him as a vaudeville entertainer which is very apt. Some articles describe him as being able to whistle three tones at the same time, impossibly imitating a banjo while playing air banjo. [There's a phrase I never thought I'd write.]

 The Indianapolis Times of April 1929 describes one of these appearances.

"George E. Nearpass, 1429 East Vermont Street, known as “The Whistling Brakeman,” who recently has returned from a twenty-state radio broadcasting tour, will appear at the April dinner of the John H Holliday Jr. post, American Legion, at the First Presbyterian church, Tuesday evening.

Nearpass, who is a Pennsylvania brakeman between Indianapolis and South Bend, when he is not on broadcasting trips, has been heard over WLW, WLS, KDKA and other big stations, in his original monologue, “A Trip on the Punkin Vine Limited." 

In 1930 The Railroad Brakemans' Journal published a short bio which confirmed that Nearpass was employed as a regular brakeman on a daily passenger run between Indianapolis and South Bend. It further explains that he has broadcast from nearly fifty radio stations, listing off KDKA, WLW, WCCO, WSB and WLS. But it also notes that he gained the most attention through a monologue "A Trip on the Punkin' Vine Limited." It's exact contents may be lost to time but we know from news articles that the monologue describes a real train line in Indiana which operated until 1980. [SOURCE] 

Another promo postcard from 1924 puts Nearpass on KDKA at 8:30 PM doing barnyard imitations. This may be the Punkin' Vine Ltd. There are more sources that corroborate this. A 1930 issue of the Rushville Republican does explain it's contents:

"In taking his listeners on a "Trip on the Punkin Vine Limited" George describes his daily work on this train loading and unloading pigs, chickens, cows, caves, and what-not in and out of the express car. Nearpass makes with his mouth all the various noises in the car as he hustles the express."

By all appearances his radio career was short, perhaps just 6 years.  But his railroad career continued for decades more. A 1947 issue of the Railroad Trainman reported that George had retired from his work on the railroad. He would have been about 61 at the time. He died September 10th, 1963. His son, George Nearpass IV, also went to work for the railroad.

It's worth noting there were more Whistling Brakemen over the years. The most well known was a Canadian man in named Roy Thoreson. [SOURCE] According to one talent guide he performed on the Tonight Show. He seems to have been active from about 1980 to 1995.He was a regular on the Calgary Stampede, a rodeo. In 1993 he even met with then president of the soviet union, Mikail Gorbechev. He died in 2015.

The Novelty Boys

Jimmie Pierson and Richard "Dick" Klasi were the Novelty Boys,leaders of a touring and yodeling old time country music troupe. I say troupe because their group grew to include a number of other members including Cora Deane, Cleora Cooper, Johnny Buffington and others. Dick and Jimmie were farms boys that first met in 1931 working at the Henry Field Company.

Henry Field was a seed company, they still exist today. Like many small businesses of the era, they sponsored tom on their local radio station. In this case that was 780 WJAG-AM in Norfolk, NE.  WJAG was owned by the Norfolk Daily News, so you can imagine there was some reciprocity there. While the station's main studio was at the Hotel Norfolk, the Henry Field Company programs aired daily from a studio built at one of their branch stores.It is there that Jimmie and Dick debuted on air. They later played KSOO-AM for Henry Field as well. First they played as the Nebraskan Trio, then as The Oklahoma Wranglers which they used for about 3 years. 

They went on to play at KFNF-AM near Shenandoah, IA and on KOIL-AM in Omaha, NE.
In was there that they picked up the name "The Novelty Boys."  There they were sponsored by the Aksarben Horse Show and were also able to play WAAW-AM and WOW-AM. In 1934 they played on KMOX-AM.  They also played for a time on WNAX-AM in Yankton, SD. In 1937 Jimmie Pierson's little brother, Melvin "Willie" Pierson, joined the group. He stayed on for a New England tour that included WABI-AM in Bangor.

In WWII Jimmie went into the service, and his brother Willie filled in for him. the group returned to St. Louis and appeared on several stations, then stayed on at KMA-AM in Shenandoah. When Jimmie returned they tried to reunite, but illness struck and many members struck off. Jimmie and Willie played as part of a trio with Willies wife Lois on WIBW-TV, but the good times were over. Willie has a second career as a DJ on KRFM, a radioman at last.

Kitchen Klatter

Leanna Field Driftmier was the host of the daily half hour radio program Kitchen-Klatter. Her program  first aired in 1926 and ran into 1959 a total stretch of 33 years. The program is sometimes referred to as the longest-running homemaker show in US radio history. For the record I cannot corroborate that claim. Her 33 years-run is impressive, but I suspect the definition of "home-maker show" as opposed to
"cooking show" is key to the claim. More here.

Leanna's brother actually gets some credit for the start of her radio career. He was Henry Field who founded the radio station KFNF-AM in 1924. Leanna debuted there assisting her sister Helen on another home maker program "The Mother’s Hour" When Helen left the show in 1926 Leanna took over and renamed it Kitchen-Klatter. That monicker does have a bit more pizazz. More here.

Driftmier continued to host that program for over three decades virtually without interruption. When she injured her back in 1930, she hosted the show from her bedroom. After she recovered she was still wheelchair-bound, and she continued to host the program from that position from her own kitchen. I suspect that she is one of the earliest radio personalities to broadcast from a wheel chair, and almost certainly the only one with a cooking show. But "only cooking show host in a wheelchair" doesn't have the same ring to it.

In 1950 the program crossed the street to KMA-AM. She continued until 1959 when her daughter Lucile Driftmier Verness took over the program so she could retire from broadcasting. She continued to guest on the program intermittently until her death in 1976. The program lasted another 9 years.

The Seedlings of Radio

In 1924 radio was very early in it's game. Programming was eclectic to put it nicely. But it was that no-standards environment that brought out some really odd programming.  It's in a situation like that where risk is trivial, where programmers really can take chances.Strangely it was in the small town of Shenandoah Iowa where that sort of thinking built not one, but two radio stations run by seed barons.

920 KFNF-AM was founded by Henry Field, owner of the Henry Field Seed Company in 1924. They shared time with KUSD and WILL.  He hated that new "jazzy" music and started the station to sell goods, and to air old time music and hymns. He had been printing a seed catalog since 1899, and after sprinkling it with short articles, moved up to a full magazine in 1913  called "seed Sense" which published quarterly. Despite criticism, it was a moderate success. By his own accounting in 1927 he sold: 55 carloads of tires; 60 carloads of paint; 490,000 pounds of coffee; 44 carloads of field seeds; 20 carloads of dried fruit; 51,000 radio tubes; 204,000 yards of dress goods; 60,000 pairs of ladies' hose; and 21,000 suits.  More here.

But it was not the only radio station selling seeds. The Earl May Seed Company can trace it's roots to 1915 Mr. May moved to Shenandoah, IA and connected himself to the Mount Arbor Nursery then struck out on his own. Then in 1919 he took over the old Armstrong Seedhouse. In stead of starting a radio station, Earl started a program on WOAW-AM in Omaha. It was probably the first gardening program ever aired. It was about about planting, landscaping, caring for ornamental trees, fruit trees, and flowers. At first he trekked to 590 WOAW to do the program.  Later, in 1924 he built a special studio in the May Seed Company building and through the Omaha station transmitted his programs sixty-six miles by wire.

He branched out into selling dry goods on his program: dried fruit, canned fruit, frozen fish, and citrus. Things went so well he decided to start his own radio station.On August 12,1925, operating at that time on a wave length of 252 meters with a power of five hundred watts, 960 KMA-AM broadcast its initial program. It did so well, that he began building a proper studio. It was finished in the fall of 1927, its auditorium seated one thousand people.It was called "The Cornbelt station in the Heart of the Nation."

These men had had a bit of a rivalry in business and in broadcasting of course. but over time KFNF withered and KMA thrived. KMA grew to 5,000 watts. KFNF was still only 1,000 in  the 1950s. Eventually KMA-AM became a business concern in it's own right, and a member of the NBC Blue Network and a Mutual Broadcasting affiliate. Things changed. In the 1950s KFNF was the Mutual affiliate, KMA moved on to ABC.  Earl May died in 1946, but his family took over operation of the station. KFMF was already in private hands. Today KMA's  license is held by KMA Broadcasting, which is still in the family. KFNF wasn't as lucky, it's calls changed to KYFR in 1977 a religious sat-caster, one of seven "family" stations in the Midwest.