The Hebrew Christian Hour

This radio program is much more obscure than it probably should be.  The first information I found was in the form of a promotional postcard or flyer. The back is stamped "Gospel Crusaders, P.O. Box 845, Allentown, PA" Below that is a second stamp for the Bethlehem Revival Center on West Broad Street in Bethlehem, PA. The card is undated. That postcard, whatever it's vintage, lists only 6 radio stations. 

CALLS	FREQ	CITY	State
WVCH	740	Chester	PA
WIBG	990	Philadelphia	PA
WKAP	1320	Allentown	PA
WPIT	730	Pittsburgh	PA
WGCB	1440	Red Lion	PA
WWVA	1170	Wheeling	WV

There were many singing groups who were named Gospel Crusaders. Notably the Nyack Gospel Crusaders which were formed in 1944. There was one in Rhode Island founded by W. Robert Garlock around 1938. Yet another Gospel Crusaders played at 1550 WRHC-AM in Jacksonville, FL in 1957. In the late 1960s Brother John Phillips organized a Gospel Crusaders with a spot on 1580 KDAY-AM. 

None of those groups fit the time and place. I even found a Gospel Crusaders of Chester PA, but active in the 1990s. Right place, wrong time. The closest I found was a reference in the Gospel Herald [SOURCE] of 1950. It mentions The  Wayside Gospel Crusaders  of  Lancaster, PA. It's a possibility in a stack of wrong answers. In another section it puts them less specifically in Eastern, PA. This appears to have been a short-lived group, only peripherally related to Michelson. The Bethlehem Revival Center was also not much of a clue. It appears in newspapers into the 1970s. Google Maps images go back to 2008 and that year the signage read W.N. Serfass & Co, public accountants. It is no more. 

1948 Radio Annual

All of this is ancillary to the question of Dr. Arthur Urrah Michelson. At the bottom it gives his address at P.O. Box 707 Los Angeles, 53, CA. That "53" is a big hint. Five digit zip codes debuted in 1963. But starting in 1943 some cities began using two digit local zone numbers. This is our first bracket for dates. Also from that address I found a February 1952 issue [SOURCE] of The Jewish Hope linking the address to Dr. Arthur U. Michelson, editor of that very monthly publication. Michelson published an autobiography in 1943 which tells us he was born Kronach, Germany in 1886 and died in 1968. 

His autobiography is heavy on the theology and short on actual biographical facts but newspaper clippings put him at US revival events as early as 1932. His references to the 1922 German currency crisis give us a 10 year window for immigration. The book Studies in Contemporary Jewry: Volume XIV by Peter Y. Medding confirmed this general date but Jewish Social Studies Vol. 10 (1938) gave his arrival as 1931 in LA coming from Chicago, so late 1920s fits. His page on ancestry.com differs slightly, it cites Krone, Germany and his death in 1969... but it has other errors as well.  (Note, Krone was part of Prussia from 1772 to 1945, it's been part of Poland since 1945.) 

From My Life Story from 1943. A. Michelson (R)

That 1952 issue of the Jewish Hope does have references to radio. "I am grateful to the Lord that he has revealed himself to me and has given me the privilege of proclaiming the Gospel over the radio, which is the best method of reaching the Jews. Our radio broadcasts reach a potential audience of many millions every day." Most of it reads like that. It's all ministry and very little radio outside of his schedule.

Similarly, most print references to him are in sermons where he might be called "gallant soul" without telling us anything about the man's life. A newspaper will record that he spoke 3 churches in Sarasota FL in 1959, but not if he had a family. The one article I found that mentioned his wife did not even mention her name, only that she was Catholic. The Rocky Mountain News of August 31st, 1938 reported that he was formerly a judge in imperial German courts and attended the University of Berlin.  But back to that radio schedule in Jewish Hope. This one was from 1952. [SOURCE] A surprising number of affiliates are Canadian. A newspaper account reported that it was sold through a regular ad agency, apparently Tom Westwood. (see above) There was also a 1945 lawsuit corroborating that. [SOURCE].

CALLS	FREQ	CITY	State
CKPC	1380	Brantford	ON
CFCN	1060	Calgary	AB
WLXW	1380	Carlisle	PA
WVCH	740	Chester	PA
CHWK	1270	Chilliwack	BC
WDOK	1260	Cleveland	OH
KXXX	790	Colby	KS
KJSK	900	Columbus	NE
KROX	1260	Crookston	MN
KWDM	1150	Des Moines	IA
KGDE	1230	Fergus Falls	MN
WMRP	1510	Flint	MI
KWBC	970	Fort Worth	TX
KMMJ	750	Grand Island	NE
WFUR	1570	Grand Rapids	MI
CJCH	920	Halifax	NS
KGRI	1000	Henderson	TX
KLEE	610	Houston	TX
CFJC	910	Kamloops	BC
CKWS	960	Kingston	ON
CKCR	1490	Kitchener	ON
KCVR	1570	Lodi	CA
KGER	1390	Los Angeles	CA
WMBW	800	Miami Beach	FL
KEYD	1440	Minneapolis	MN
WKBZ	850	Muskegon	MI
CHVC	1600	Niagara Falls	ON
CJNB	1240	North Battleford	SK
WIBG	990	Philadelphia	PA
WPGH	1080	Pittsburgh	PA
KXL	750	Portland	OR
WSAY	1370	Rochester	NY
CKTB	620	St. Catherines	ON
KXA	770	Seattle	WA
KFNF	920	Shenandoa	IA
KSPO	1230	Spokane	WA
CKFH	1400	Toronto	ON
CKMO	1410	Vancouver	BC
CJVI	900	Victoria	BC
KBOK	1090	Waterloo	IA

I even eventually discovered that there are transcriptions of his sermons from radio broadcasts in the early 1950s, like this one recorded in December of 1952. (below) That card which gave his PO Box as in Los Angeles seems to predate his move to Minnesota. 

It appears he started making 1440 KEYD-AM his primary home in radioland after 1945 and before 1952. Multiple weekly issues of Radio Life list him on different stations; sometimes as the Hebrew Christian Hour and sometimes just by his name Dr. A.U. Michelson. [SOURCE] But I also found him on a KEYD schedule in October of 1954 in the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Issues of Radio Life from 1941 into 1944 of Radio Life puts his program on 570 KMTR-AM and no other listed stations. I believe that L.A. station was his original home base starting before February of 1942. Some 1941 issues list him as splitting his 60 minute spot with music from 7-7:15 then Clifford E. Clinton until 7:30 and Michelson taking the balance of the hour. January and September 1945 issues puts him on KFOX. More here and here. I have not resolved a time gap between 1945 and 1952, but he remained on air until at least 1958. [SOURCE]

Eventually I discovered a possible reason that Michelson dissapeared from radioland. He was doing crime, though it's unclear if he went to prison. The book The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America by Wilber R. Miller spells out that he committed multiple felonies as the head of Jewish Hope. His crimes include false representations, mail fraud and embezzling. The book is a hefty five volume set so you'll have to settle for the cliff notes. He was investigated by the Federal Post office and the Better Business Bureau and his operation was found to be unsatisfactory. The language is academic and gentle but the charges were felonies.

Michelson was the executive head of Jewish Hope and received funds from his radio broadcasts, and through the mail with the Jewish Hope magazine, circulars and evangelistic trips. His salary was $17,418 per year which is $403k in today's dollars. Above that salary he and/or his family collected another $9,023, or another $209k in 2026 dollars which were all excluded from the books of Jewish Hope. Miller cites FBI Memorandum as his source and I corroborated this in the Jewish Social Studies journal where they describe the doings of Arthur Michelson as "nefarious" and "unethical." In 1949 the Indianapolis Jewish Post reported that Michelson took 2 out of every 3 dollars in donations and took home a million dollars a year. 

Flour Power (part 2)

Early regional and national flour brands were frequent radio sponsors in the golden era. In a previous post, back in 2007 I wrote up [LINK] the radio contributions of nine brands Light Crust Flour, Hillbilly Flour, Bright Star Flour, Martha White Flour, King Biscuit Flour, Purity Flour, Bewley Flour, Red Star Flour and Mothers Best Flour. Of those only Martha White and Purity Flour still exist. I have found nine more flour brands with interesting roles in radio.

As early as the 1950s the FTC got involved in flour-industry anti-trust issues under the Clayton act. More here. The FTC ordered that Pillsbury divest itself of two competitors it acquired: Ballard & Ballard based in Louisville and Duff's Baking Mix, a division of American Home Foods, based in Hamilton OH. But the march of consolidation barely slowed down. In 2014 Horizon Milling and ConAgra Milling were permitted to merge under the new brand Ardent Mills which controls about 17% of the U.S. flour milling industry. That march of consolidation has further fueled flour's departure from radio advertising making relics of these old programs.

Sperry Flour - General Mills owns the Sperry brand these days. It's rarely used though. The original Sperry Flour Company was from Stockton, CA, founded around 1850. It operated 30-some flour mills around Spokane by 1920. Some of those mills still stand today. Their main product was a fine ground white flour they called "drifting snow flour." In 1929 General Mills bought them out. The mills kept running in Spokane until about 1965.  The buildings themselves were sold to VWR United  in 1966, then ADM in 1981. More here.

In the 1930s Sperry flour began sponsoring some radio programing. The window was short, they'd already been bought by GM. But in 1934 I found a listing for Helen Gladstone of the Sperry Company featured on KMTR. Their sponsorship of Eb and Zeb started as early as 1932, and appear on the same schedule as Helen but on KFOX.  Little is written about Zeb or Eb except that the scripts were written by John Hasty. It's an old fashioned rural comedy mocking the intelligence of country people. Every source I've found listed Shell as the sponsor but the above promo shot has a Sperry flour box on the front and the logo on the back. 

https://jeff560.tripod.com/kgfj.html

The cast get a full listing on the cards which even OTR guides lack: Mrs. (Mother) Pearce, Al Pearce, Cal Pearce, Morey Amsterdam, Mabel Todd, THE THREE CHEERS, E.J. Derry, Jr. Travis B. Hale, Phil Hanna, Yogi Yorgesson, Lord Bilgewater, Hazel Warner, Tony Romano, Bob Lee, Earl Hatch, Jackie Archer, Budd Hatch, Walter Kelsey, Carlyle Bennett, the Eb and Zeb, played by Al Pearce and W.A. Wright respectively. Pearce has a star on the Hollywood walk of fame, having spent time at KFRC starting in 1928. Much of that cast had also been on the NBC Blue Network on the Pearce's The Happy Go Lucky Hour. Mr. Wright is the hardest of them to find, his wife appears in the both the August and February 1929 issues of Radio Life living at 1619 East 87th St. Los Angeles, CA. Then in 1941 W.A. Wright appears as the Vice President of the Fuller, Smith & Ross Advertising Agency. I guess he went straight.

Pillsbury Flour - This company has been around since at least 1869 or so says the official version. It was founded by Charles Alfred Pillsbury and his uncle John S. Pillsbury.  But earlier histories describe Charles becoming the third partner in an existing flour milling company in St. Anthony Falls, MN. So it's more likely that it was rebranded at some point after 1869.

Three different sponsored programs pop up the first is Todays' Children, a well known soap operate sponsored by Pillsbury. That sheet music above is from 1936, and the back even bears the recipe for the pictured wedding cake. The program ran from 1933 to 1938, then got a reboot in 1943 and ran to 1950 with a new cast. Today's Children started as one of three Phillips-created serials which made up the General Mills Hour, with characters and plotslines crossing between them. The three original serials were: Todays Children, The Guiding Light, and Woman In White. Pillsbury sponsored all three of course.

Pillsbury then sponsored Grand Central station, a dramatic program that ran from 1937 to 1954. It culminated in a Grand Central Station Radio Broadcasts LP, with Pillsbury on the back. The announcers were George Baxter, Ken Roberts and Tom Shirley. The programs were narrated by Jack Arthur, Stuart Metz and Alexander Scourby. Roberts started out on WMCA, and you might know him from The Shawow when it ran on Mutual. Scourby pops up on the 1936 CBS radio program Columbia Workshop, which connects the two via Orson Welles.

A third program, the "National Radio Homemakers Club" was heard over CBS starting in 1929. Her two biggest sponsors were Pillsbury flour, and Royal gelatin. The show ran until 1932. I wrote about her career here.

Gold Medal Flour - In 1931 the Washburn Crosby Co. of Minneapolis, MN ran its own radio station which I'll get to in a moment. Washburn was founded by Cadwallader C. Washburn in 1866. The biography doesnt say it but I suspect that he's Welsh with him sharing a first name with Cadwaladr ap Cadwallon was king of Gwynedd.  That's quite a handle. In 1880 his flour took three top prizes and he started using the "Gold Medal" brand as a superlative.

Gold Medal notably sponsored Beams of Heaven with Paul E. Brown on 860 WERD-AM. If you forgot, that is the first black-owned radio station in America. More here. The program was named after Charles Tindley’s song “Beams of Heaven (as I go),” published in 1906.The show's host was Paul E. X. Brown.

Paul E. X. Brown first became an announcer for WERD in 1949. He had previously been the editor of the Prince Hall Masonic Review and a DJ and sports announcer at WEAS. His tenure at WERD was short, as he took a position as chief announcer at WEDR in 1950. He left radio in 1962 for a marking job at coca-cola. He died in 2007 at the age of 96. For more on Mr. Brown You can read the book Black Radio ... Winner Takes All: America's 1St Black DJs by Marsha Washington George.

In 1956 the FCC considered an incident of competing broadcast applications. [SOURCE] It involved  WERD, WDMG and WAMI. But as a bonus they delved deep into the programming content of WERG on page 716. I am going to gratuitously quote an entire paragraph below. From it we learn that Beams of Heaven ran for 30 minutes 5 days a week playing gospel records.

"Musical programs proposed by WERD include the "Graham Jackson Show," 9:30 to 10:00 a.m. Monday through Saturday, which will feature semi-classical and popular music played by the Staff Organist, together with guest appearances of musicians and vocalists from educational institutions and the community-at-large. "Sweet Chariot," a recorded program of religious music which has been requested by the listening audience. "Beams of Heaven," 11:30 to 12:00 noon Monday through Friday, will feature one-half hour of the best recorded gospel music. "Gospel Train," 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, will present a full hour of recorded songs of faith and worship, and will feature spirituals, gospel and sacred songs. "Old Ship of Zion," 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, will present one-half hour of the best recorded religious music."

Gold Medal also sponsored the Betty Crocker Radio Cooking School. I've made a number of references to Betty Crocker over the years but strangely seem not to have dug into it much except in cases of disambiguation. Gold Medal then operating as Washburn-Crosby flour, bought the failing and ironically named station WLAG in 1924, and renamed it WCCO. The station bore the name "gold medal flour station" on it's letterhead for at least a decade. The radio cooking school had recipe mailings, letters, mail-in tests and you can still find this ephemera today..

 

Victor Flour -  Crete Mills manufactured Victor Flour. The sponsored Uncle John and Aunt Minerva on 740 KMMJ-AM in Clay Center, Nebraska. A 1929 KMMJ guide describes Uncle John's temper and frequent insults directed at Minerva. [SOURCE]

Strangely their character names pop up in many places . There's an Uncle John and an Aunt Minerva in the 1943 comedy film So's Your Uncle. But Don Woods and Billie Burkes bear no resemblance to the above persons. There was also a pair of gospel composers “Uncle Wallace” and “Aunt Minerva” who may have had their names misappropriated. Details on their career are scarce, a few newspaper references in the Barnard Bee, and the Variety Radio Directory of 1938 both list them at KMMJ. So that's at least a decade on air.

Occident Flour - It looks like Arden Mills still makes unbleached Occident flour in commercial quantities at least. There are 50 lbs bags on some supply websites. But it seems to have also become shorthand for the type of flour used to make pan bread. (the square slices you use to make a sandwich) The image here is from 1939, of the WCCO Radio house band. Old advertisements seem to indicate that Occident Flour was made by the Russell-Miller Milling Company as early as 1911.

The Russell-Miller Milling company was founded in 1882, and operated in Valley City, ND. It relocated to Minneapolis in 1906, growing to become the 4th largest milling company in the U.S. by 1957. I was expecting to find that they were later acquired by Gold Medal but no, in 2012, Miller Milling became a part of the Nisshin Seifun Group of Japan.

How then did they end up sponsoring a program on WCCO, owned by the competition? My best guess is that Gold Medal was happy not to foot the full bill for WCCO's operations so the sales door was open even to competitors. A 1952 State Fair edition of the WCCO news parade Bob DeHaven of "Breakfast with Bob" plugs Occident Cake Mix but I can find no references between the 1939 post card and the 1952 morning program.

 

Gold Chain - The book The First Generation of Country Music Stars claims that Ernest Tubbs got his start with a flour sponsor.  He recorded a 78 in 1940 with Decco that sold enough to get him a regular slot on KGKO. Afterward Universal Mills sought him out and on air at least he became known as the Golden Chain Troubadour for Golden Chain Flour. He did at least one tour under the flour regime and then left to appear in some Charles Starlet western films in Hollywood.

But there's more of course. They also sponsored the radio show Hackberrry Hotel  which I've also explored in the past. [LINK] Hack Berry & Willie Botts were the main characters  program on KGKO and KXYZ in 1944. A promotional postcard reveals Willie Botts as portrayed by Ben McClesky in blackface. The show continued until 1951 probably making it one of the later programs to do so

 

Hecker's Flour - sponsored the Bobby Benson radio series in the 1930s. It was broadcast on CBS October 1932 to December of 1936. Then it was carried on the Mutual network June 1949 through June 1955.  I've seen it listed under multiple names: Bobby Benson and the B-Bar-B Riders, Bobby Benson & the H-Bar-O Rangers, and alternately as Bobby Benson and the H-O Rangers. You can see which ones were sponsored by Heckers. The original run of the series was just a 15-minute program, but the shows after 1949 were 30 minutes long.Four different actors played Bobby Benson in the series; Richard Wanamaker, William Halop, Ivan Cury and Clyde Campbell. Of the group, only Halop had much of an acting career. You might recognize him as Bert Munson from the Archie Bunker TV series.

The programs two main sponsors were Hecker H-O Company, and Kraft Foods. Heckers even sponsored Bobby Benson comic books. Don't recognize the Hecker brand? It is a sister brand of Ceresota. This brand was made by Northwest Consolidated Milling Company, which was  acquired by the Standard Milling Company in April 1902, they later changed their name to Uhlmann Company which they still use today

Aunt Jemima's Pancake Flour - I've actually written about this at length before, HERE.  But here I want to talk about the company. You will see in that post a flour sack with the name "The Quaker Oats Company", but other older ads refer to them as Aunt Jemima Mills Co. In 1888, Chris L. Rutt and Charles G. Underwood bought a small flour mill in St. Joseph MO. They operated that company as the Pearl Milling Company initially. In 1889 Rutt copied/stole the Aunt Jemima name and image from a local Vaudeville Act and began using it in advertisements. The Quaker Oats Company purchased the Aunt Jemima Mills Company in 1926, and formally registered the Aunt Jemima trademark in April 1937 but the brand had been already in use for over 50 years!  Their most notable radio contribution was the The Aunt Jemima program on the NBC Red Network back in 1929, that's clearly before the brand change.

But this is where the official history might be lacking. The current owners claim that the Aunt Jemima Mills Co. name was in use 1914–1926. But you can easily find examples as late as 1929, even in legal documents. The official brand change in appears in the 1937 Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office as follows "

120,160 PANCAKE, BUCKWHEAT, CORN AND WHEAT FLOURS. Registered January 15th 1918, Aunt Jemima Mills, Company, St,. Joseph MO, Renewed January 15th 1938, to The Quaker Oats Company, Chicago, IL, A corporation of New Jersey, assignee."

Freedom Mills Flour - I never thought I'd find a contemporary example but here it is. Freedom Mills is a local and independent flour mill in Skandia, MI. They advertise pretty regularly with WKQS Sunny 101.9, an Adult Contemporary station based in Marquette. I appreciate the historical continuity of their recipes appearing on the radio station website.  Liberty farms started milling in 2017 and are now available in 50 stores. You can read more here. and here.

The Jazz KNOB and the Lighthouse Cafe

 103.1 KNOB, which may have been the first all-jazz radio station in the world. I am always wary of broad claims of being "first," but Stein bought KNOB in 1957. Most other all-jazz stations claim much more narrow firsts. 88.3 WBGO claims to be the first Jazz Station to "webcast day and night" in 1997. In 1966, WLIB-FM claimed alternately to be the first jazz station in all of America programmed by African Americans and/or New York's only all-jazz radio station. It was almost certainly both, at least in 1966. Even WHAT-AM's all-jazz format only goes back to 1958, though their overnight jazz programming goes back to at least 1956... courtesy of Sid Mark's program.
Alex "Sleepy" Stein was a jazz DJ and owner of the infamous

If you are thinking of other Los Angeles area stations, KBCA only flipped to jazz in 1960, then dropped it in 1966. If you were thinking of the Alameda-based 92.7 KJAZ, it was founded in 1959. Despite their claims, it was not the first commercial jazz station. [More here] And what about KLON? It was founded in 1950 which is before most of these other claimants, but they didn't change to an all-jazz format until 1981! The station changed its call sign to KKJZ in July 2002. A 1958 article in Broadcasting magazine (below) firms up the KNOB claim. It appears that KNOB was all jazz but WHAT may have them on total operating hours:

"Southern California's KNOB began operation with a jazz format on 25 August 1957 in Long Beach, though the station only gradually increased its hours of operation to twenty-four hours as the station increased power and moved from 97.9 to 103.1 MHz a year later."

Stein for his part, didn't start in jazz. Stein was born in Georgia, then lived in Miami and Havana, Cuba. He even graduated from the University of Havana with a degree in languages. He moved to New York for a job at CBS. He later moved to Chicago for an announcing job on WIND. There he got his nickname "Sleepy" for a slot he inherited from Russ "Wide-Awake" Widoe. Later Alex was station manager and program manager at KARV in Phoenix. He moved from there to Long Beach, CA for a gig at KFOX-AM. It was at KFOX that Alex started doing remote broadcasts from the Lighthouse, a legendary jazz club in Hermosa Beach. More here. His show was called Mahogony Hall. Stein brought Niles, Jim Gosa and other early jazz DJs to KNOB. Ray Torian hired him as Program Director, then Stein bought half of the business and it flipped to all-jazz. Torian wasn't a jazz fan but he gave it a go.

But it was Howard Rumsey who brought jazz to the Lighthouse. Rumsey convinced John Levine, the owner The Lighthouse Café, to host a series of Sunday jazz jam sessions. Levine purchased the bar in 1949, Levine was skeptical but on May 29th, 1949 he gave it a whirl. It was hugely successful. Those live jam session broadcasts from the Lighthouse built Stein's reputation in the L.A. jazz scene. Jazz was popular but live jazz was a rare bird on the radio.

At the Lighthouse, the house band was Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All-Stars. Rumsey was a local. He was born in Brawley, CA near the Salton sea. He first began playing bass with Vido Musso and Johnnie Davis, then became part of Stan Kenton's first band. He played with Charlie Barnet and Barney Bigard then returned to Los Angeles and founded the Lighthouse All-Stars. Contemporary records recorded Rumsey's All-Stars with it's various line ups multiple times between 1952 and 1960. Their regular Sunday gig became Stein's bread and butter at KFOX. More here.

In the end, the Lighthouse All-Stars outlasted jazz on KNOB. In 1966 The Jazz Beat column of Billboard remarked that the "...Sleepy Stein and Ray Torian interests, who became involved in internal fighting, and hindered the stations growth." In 1966 Stein sold his interest in KNOB and became a stockbroker. The station flipped to an “adult request” music format. KCBA bacame the top jazz station in Los Angeles by default. Live jazz continued at the Lighthouse Cafe until John Levine's death in the early 1970s. That brought an end to Rumsey’s time at The Lighthouse. Howard Rumsey himself continued to write and record for decades. He died on July 15th, 2015. He was 97. He lived long enough to see the formation of Woofy Productions. Between 2003 and 2007 they released nine different jazz LPs in their "Sunday Afternoons at The Lighthouse Cafe" series.  More here.

I strongly recommend reading the paper Jazz and Radio in the United States by Aaron Joseph Johnson. He dives into this topic than even the Peretti text. You can download it [HERE]

The Kiwanis Frolic

Today frolicking is something that antelope do in the tall grass on the Animal Planet channel. But in the early part of the last century it also was jargon describing a range of amateur stage shows— the Great Depression's equivalent of open mic night. Many different civic groups held a frolic: the Rotary Club, Moose, Elks, Odd fellows... and the Kiwanis Club. This image below is from a newspaper covering a Frolic held in Ottawa in 1928. It sounds less dirty when you know it's Canadian.

So it comes as no surprise that in those early days of radio, so hungry for content that someone felt the need to broadcast them.  In the early days of KFOX-AM, then known as KFRN-AM, Kiwanis member Bob Muckler had an variety program. In 1927 he and fellow and Kiwanian Hal G. Nichols, devised a plan to let their local Kiwanis Club take over on Monday nights from 9:00 PM to midnight. It was called the Kiwanis Frolic. (It helps to have the station owner in your club.)

Starting on January 17th 1927 Bob Muckler was the Emcee of a Kiwanis Club radio talent show. His guests included budding local singers and musicians alongside more professional talent from vaudeville houses and theaters. Five minutes of each "program" was allocated to a member of Kiwanis who discussed the club's activities, objects, and objectives.

The Monday night Kiwanis Frolic popular program, drawing weekly letters from as far away as Alaska,  New Zealand and Australia. At the time the station broadcast on 1240 which was not too crowded in the bay area. KFOX-AM first broadcast from the Jergins Trust Building in Long Beach in 1924 on 1290 kHz. In 1927 it moved to 1240 kHz. A 1928 FCC frequency re-allocation resulted in a further move to 1250 kHz. They didnt' move to 1280 until the NARBA agreement in 1941.

KFOX still exists, though only as a christian zombie sat-caster. The Long Beach Kiwanis Club still exists as well. As of 2010 it still had 40 members, and that may sound small but that's actually above average. In other words, it's doing better than KFOX. Hal Nichols died in 1952, in the early 1940s Bob Muckler was booking acts for the State Fair. His career after that remains a mystery.

Famous Cats of Radio

On the Internet cats are more popular than people. But even superstar cats like Grumpy cat, Maru and Lil Bub followed in the footsteps of the cats that came before them. Even casting aside fictional cats like  Felix and Garfield we still had Morris the Cat the spokes-cat for 9-Lives cat food. his career began back in 1968.  More recently there was Mr. Bigglesworth in the Austin Powers franchise.. but yes most famous cats were animated because cats are just uncooperative and bitey. But there is a single radio precedent for famous cats.

There's a bit of cat-branded radio out there with "Cat Country" franchises all over notably 107.3 WPUR in Atlantic City, NJ. But in all of radio land past and present I am aware of only one live cat mascot: Barty the cat on KFOX. Barty was the 1280 KFOX-AM radio mascot in the late 1940s and early 1950's. He was featured on Hal Nichols Memory Room radio program. I know you've never heard of that either so let's get into it.

After relocating from KDZQ-AM in Denver in the 1920s  Hal George Nichols opened the Echophone Radio Shop and worked as a musician. He founded KFOX in 1924 by buying KFON-AM with partner 20th Century Fox, who later backed out leaving Hal with the station. By about 1940 Hal Nichols was already playing what he called oldies and his cat was co-hosting. I have found print references that confirm the cat was "on air" as early as 1946, and still there in 1952 when Nichols died. It was written that the cat could purr on command.  The image above is from a post card, they also made pins. In the 1956 book  Mr. Tipps author Vivien Robinette mentioned her experience with the program:

" [Nichols] who owned Radio Station KFOX in Long Beach, California, and his pet cat, Barty, a very beautiful and very famous cat who is known all over the world, played a record for me on their daily Memory Room program and dedicated it to me."

The book Mr. Tipps is of course about a cat, which starts to give you an idea about the kind of people who listened to Hal's program. In the 1960s Sonderling Broadcasting bought the station from Nichols' estate and flipped the station to a country format sans cats.

DJ Spike Jones

Spike Jones was born Lindley Armstrong in 1911 in Longbeach California. He was a drummer by trade so the percussion was natural for him. But he also played with groups in the 1940s doing popular dance numbers. His first gigs on air were at KFOX-AM and KGER-AM around 1928 with the band Spike Jones and his Five Tacks. They played hot jazz, and weren't yet incorporating kitchen utensils and car horns. His first break was in the 1930 when he joined the Victor Young orchestra filling in for Vic Burton. By 1936 he was doing studio sessions with the group. Victor Young was connected, he was the musical director of the Harvest of Stars radio program. (It ran on NBC and CBS from 1945 to 1950)

After that he began appearing on syndicated radio programs. At first he was just a house drummer, playing for Al Jolson and Burns & Allen. Then he started appearing on the Kraft Music Hall program from 1940 - 1942 while Bing Crosby was it's host. That's about when his group officially became Spike Jones and The City Slickers. They played a NBC show called Point Sublime in 1941 under the name Duke Daniels and the City Slickers. The name Spike Jones appeared shortly thereafter. In 1942 they cut "Der Fuhrer's Face" and it exploded. He had a movie deal within a week.



But Jones kept working in radio. He played a bit on Fibber & Molly McGee 1940-1943.  Then the Lifebuoy Program aka the Bob Burns Show in 1943 and 1944 and now The City Slickers were the house band. He got an even more central role as a summer replacement in 1945  for Edgar Bergen on the  NBC program, The Chase and Sanborn Program.

Then he got his own show. Starting in 1947 he was hosting the Coca-Cola Spotlight revue, (aka the Coke Show) which was renamed in 1949 as The Spike Jones Show. He did a tour in 1949 and grossed over a million dollars. RCA Victor took out full page ads in Billboard just to brag. It was said that his booking agency MCA got him the gig. They had a lot of muscle back them so I believe that. Guests included Frank Sinatra, Frankie Laine, Mel Torme, Peter Lorre, Don Ameche and Burl Ives. The program ended in June of 1949. After that he went off to TV and Hollywood. But he had been a heavy smoker for decades and by then was using an oxygen tank offstage to keep going. He died of emphysema in 1965. He was only 54.

Redd Foxx on KFOX

I was reading the back of one of my classic Redd Foxx comedy LPs. At the end of the biography and the standard florid prose was a short reference to his time in radio.  This was news to me.

"The versatile Foxx is also a performer on radio and television and has won a wide audience as a disc jockey on radio station KFOX in Los Angeles."

There was in fact such a station as KFOX in Los Angeles. It was on 1280, a frequency presently belonging to KFRN, one of the hundreds of sat-fed sticks operated by Family Radio. It was and is a daytimer, but in the 1960s it had a simulcast on 100.3 FM, what we now call KSWD. They first broadcast from the Jergins Trust Building in Long Beach California in 1924 under the call letters KFON. It later changed its call letters to KFOX.  A bit more here.

I was trying to figure out when this radio career was since it's not mentioned in most short biographies.I found a 1961 Issue of billboard that listed several of his comedy albums.  There are so many it's clearly established he was a stand up comedian by this date.  These were all out by the time Dooto Records ran this ad in March of 1961. ( I list his discography at the bottom of this post)  But Dooto records was also located locally in Los Angeles. They were at 9512 South Central Ave.  These events could be contemporary to each other.

Redd Foxx was born Jon Elroy in 1922 in St. Louis Missouri. he relocated to Chicago as an infant.  He did not excel in school and eventually dropped out of high school.  He joined a singing group and performed on street corners as a part of the Four Bon Bons. In 1939 they went to New York City and got lucky, scoring a spot on the Major Bowes Radio Amateur Hour and performed at the Apollo Theater. his friends quit on him and went back to Chicago. Foxx stayed.  He worked odd jobs and eventually teamed up with Slappy White and as a duo toured the Chitlin Circuit together. In the late 1940s, after his first divorce he relocated to LA.

Dooto Records was owned by Walter "Dootsie" Williams. Foxx's fist sides for Dootone were recorded in 1956. That is a big time gap, about 15 years worth actually.  Then in a book called "Upside Your Head!: Rhythm and Blues on Central Avenue" by Johnny Otis I found a picture of Dootsie and Johnny Otis.  (See below.) notice the KFOX mic to the left. That's the connection.  I found further confirmation in a transcribed interview. 

Otis later describes Foxx as working with him as an assistant on his KFOX disc jockey show. This is when the station was located on 220 East Anaheim Street. There are no other references I can find.  But I do have other references that indicate KFOX was playing rhythm and Blues in that era, but probably only on the FM side.  But by the 1970s the AM was definitely playing country music.  In 1972 KLAC debuted in LA playing country music too, going head to head with KFOX. KFOX headed downhill and sold their FM license to Industrial Broadcasting to survive. It didnt' work and they were sold off to the present owners. That same year Sanford and Son debuted on NBC launching Foxx into television.

*I know discographies have nothing to do with radio, but there's nothing online so I'm copying these off my LPs for others to draw upon more readily. His complete discography was supposedly 54 albums. Below are all of them I think.  Feel free to fill in the blanks. Some of the information came from a Dootone discography here.

DOOTO RECORDS DISCOGRAPHY
DTL01   - The Best Laff
DTL214 - Laff Of The Party Vol. 1
DTL219 - Laff Of The Party Vol. 2
DTL220 - Laff Of The Party Vol.3
DTL227 - Laff Of The Party Vol.4
DTL234 - Best Of Foxx Vol. 1
DTL236 - Laff Of The Party Vol.7
DTL249 - Burlesque Humor
DTL253 - The Side Splitter Vol.1
DTL265 - The Laff of the Party Vol. 8
DTL270 - The Side Splitter Vol. 2
DTL274 - Best of Fun (Red Foxx and Others)
DTL275 - Racy Tales
DTL290 - Redd Foxx Funn
DTL295 - Sly Sex
DTL298 - Have One On Me
DTL385 - The New Soap/Song Plugging
DTL390 - The Jackasses/The Race Track
DTL397 - The Honeymooners/The Sneezes
DTL402 - Beans And Pineapple Sauce/The Army
DTL408 - The Two Oars/The Preacher's Bicycle
DTl411 - The Dead Jackass/Women Over Forty
DTL416 - Real Pretty Baby/It's Fun To Be Living In The Crazy House
DTL418 - Best Of Redd Foxx Parts 1&2
DTL421 - The House/Sex And Orange Juice
DTL426 - Hollywood Playboy/The Dogs Meeting
DTL436 - South Of The Border/The Plastic Surgeon
DTL453 - The Dear John Letter/Honesty Is The Best Policy
DTL455 - The Shoe Shine Boy/The Royal Thighs And Others
DTL458 - 118 Ways To Make Love/Pregnancy Co-Operation
DTL460 - No Teeth/With My Teeth/The Best Years/Deep Sea Diver
DTL464 - Christmas Hard Ties/Jaw Resting
DTL801 - Laffarama
DTL804 - Wild Party
DTL809 - This is Foxx
DTL815 - He's Funny
DTL820 - Red Foxx At Jazzville U.S.A.

MF RECORDS DISCOGRAPHY
RF1 - Laff Your Head off
RF2 - Laff Your Ass Off
RF3 - Redd Foxx At Home
RF4 - A Whole Lot of Soul
RF5 - At His Best
RF6 - Doin' His Own Thing
RF7 - Say It Like It Is
RF8 - Is Sex Here To Stay
RF9 - Where It's At
RF10 - Huffin' And A Puffin'
RF11 - I Am Curious, Black
RF12 - Three Or Four Times A Day
RF13 - Mr. Hot Pants
RF14 - Hot Flashes
RF15 - Restricted
RF16 - Superstar
RF17 - Spice can Be Nice!

Woody Guthrie on KFVD

Woody Guthrie traveled a lot for work. In 1938 he went to Redding, California to work on the Kenneth Dam. He was not alone. In his own words:

"In a bend of the Sacramento is the town of Redding,California. The word had scattered out that twenty-five hundred workers was needed to build the Kenneth Dam, and already eight thousand work hands had come to do the job... I fell off of the freight with my guitar over my shoulder and asked a guy when the work was going to start. He said it was supposed to get going last month. Telegram hadn't come from Washington yet."

That dam if it ever existed, even on paper was never built. Woody headed south to Los Angeles and managed to get a daily radio show on 1000 KFVD-AM. He was trying to save up money to bring his wife and child to LA to live with him. It was a time in which the west coast as very country. The Saddle Tramps were on KFOX, The Saddle Pals were on KMPC, Sons of the Pioneers were on KRKD and both Sutart Hamblen and Roy Rogers were stars. Woody and his cousin Jack auditioned for Frank Burke Jr. who gave them a daily 15-minute slot at 8:00 AM. It was early enough they could still fit in a days labor after the gig. It was called the Oklahoma and Woody Show. More here.

Maxine Crissman guested on a couple shows and when jack left to work, she became the other half of the duo. She picked up the stage name Lefty Lou and it became the Woody and Lefty Lou Show in 1937. It did well enough He was able to bring his family to LA that year. They managed to pick up a couple extra gigs together on KIEV-AM in Glendale, and the program was extended from 15 minutes to half an hour then they added an 11pm show. Then Mrs. Guthrie decided that there was a little hanky panky between Lefty Lou and Guthrie.

They performed on KFVD until 1938 when a big offer came to move the program to 1010 XELO-AM in Tijuana. The deal included a big raise, a longer program and creative control. It was a border blaster and sent Woody's program across the Midwest and into Canada. They got an invitation to play the Big Barn Dance on WLS, then it fell apart. They had a big fight with the Mexican police and Woody was briefly arrested. The WLS invite was lost. The owner of XELO left town owing them money. So they went back to KVFD, but Maxine fell ill and had difficulty performing. The show fizzled out and Woody left for New York in 1939. Woody didn't perform again on radio until Alan Lomax put him on his CBS "Folk School on the Air" show.