Breakfast at Sardi's

September 1948 was a pivotal moment in the career of Jack McElroy, and it didn't go well.  But let's start there at the peak, the ABC-TV report on 1948 mentions McElroy and he gets a half page headshot on page 49 between Erwin Canham and Louella Parsons. [SOURCE]  

"All radio was saddened early last year by the sudden death of Tom Breneman, beloved host of Breakfast in Hollywood. A radio institution, Breneman had gained a reputation as a premier showman and it is in the same tradition of show business that his program continues on the ABC network as a cooperative feature with Jack McElroy at the helm."

The New York Times wrote about the change on September 12th that year with more detail and invoking a third name. 

"Jack McElroy, who has been singing on the show and helping out generally, will step into the top position as successor to Garry Moore in running "Breakfast in Hollywood," the program of the late Tom Breneman on WJZ-ABC at 11 A. M. daily. Mr. McElroy will take over on Tuesday. The program will move into the 2 P. M. time with the broadcast of Oct. 4, when Kay Kyser's new program starts in the morning period." 

Breakfast in Hollywood was a morning radio show created and hosted by Breneman. He hosted it from 1941 to 1948 but on three different radio networks at different times: NBC Blue, ABC and Mutual (kinda). When it debuted in January of 1941, newspapers referred to the program as "Breakfast at Sardi's", named for the working restaurant from which the program was broadcast. That first version of the show also two regulars who were staff the hostess, Nell Olson and Bobby Batuga, the Maitre d'. This first version of the show was only 30 minutes long and broadcast from KFWB. 

After it got going, there were two shows every weekday at Sardi's. At 8:00 AM they did a live broadcast to the East Coast, airing at 11:00 AM EST. Then breakfast was served and a second show, heard live in the West, began at 9:30 PST. There was no script, just Breneman asking everyday people questions and taking in the occasional celebrity guest. It was so popular it spawned a copy cat program on Mutual "Luncheon at Sardi’s." That broadcast on WOR from a different, unrelated Sardi's in New York City with a different different, unrelated host, Bill Slater. (More on that another day.) That original building still stands today but it's been a strip club since 1971.

On August 3rd, 1942 the program was picked up by NBC Blue and the program moved to Radio City at 1539 North Vine Street. This site, [LINK] claims that Breneman bought the building and the Hollywood Roof Ballroom next door in 1938, converting them into a radio studio and Tom Breneman’s Hollywood Restaurant. There may be something to it, but 1938 is before the radio program even started at Sardis. (Breneman was also only the "honorary" mayor of Encono. Nice try AI.) I think they just have the year wrong. I also remember that address coming up once before in reference to the Radio Room, cafe. [LINK]  (If you look at this 1948 photo you can see both signs.)

1539 North Vine Street in 1948

These sources are all slightly wrong. The Hollywood restaurant opened initially at 1525 N. Vine St. [SOURCE] In 1945, the Blue Network rebranded as the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). Then in December of 1947 The Hollywood restaurant expanded next door to 1539 Vine, the former Empire nightclub. Four months later in April 1948, Breneman died of a heart attack. There are pictures of the line out front on April 28th learning there would be no show that day. He died 2 hours before show time. [SOURCE]  His name was replaced on the marquee with the words: American Broadcasting Company. You can use these signage changes to date pictures. 

Tom Breneman was born in 1900 and raised in Wayneboro, PA. He later attended Columbia University. He started in vaudeville, and in 1927 he became program director at 1020 KFVD-AM in Culver City, CA. In 1929 he starred in a radio comedy series called
Tom 'n' Wash in which he played three characters. From 1931–1932, he used the on-air name Tom Brennie, and hosted "Laugh Club of the Air" on NBC in New York. A 1931 issue of Radio Digest lists the syndication: WJZ, WBAL, WFAA, WIOD, WGN and KOA. That expanded from there. You can listen to a souvenir album with Breneman hosting here.

Tom "Brennie", Radio Digest Jan 1932

His earlier program, Laugh Club was a show with audience participation, and even Billboard called it "one of the very first." So in that way it prefigures Breakfast at Sardi's. I found a 1932 entry in Broadcasting magazine which refers to his latest program the “Tom and Wash Laugh Club.” I don't think that was a formal name, just a confused press release.  [SOURCE] Breneman's obituary reports that he later returned to Hollywood and managed two radio stations and then went to San Francisco in a similar capacity." Those would have been KFVD again and it's sister station KFAC. Those stations were part of the CBS/Don Lee network at the time. In 1937, Breneman he became the host of "Secret Ambition" at KNX. 

Breneman was only 46 years old. Before that fateful day in 1948, the ABC radio series had gone by the name “Breakfast In Hollywood”. After the death of Breneman, Jack McElroy took over.  The format remained largely the same, with a lot of Q&A with the general public. I know it's weird but I suspect that ABC didn't understand why the audience loved Breneman, and picked McElroy because he looked like Breneman; a friendly Lou Costello figure.  Sadly, it didn't work, but you can hear a continuity between the program and later television talk shows like Steve Allen, Jack Paar, even Letterman. 

July 12th 1949 Promo

Without Breneman the chemistry didn't work, and the ratings dropped. I know that ABC booklet says that Jack McElroy took over directly but it's not true. Garry Moore stepped into the role first, and he quit by July 1948. Moore was doing six shows a week for "Breakfast in Hollywood" as well as his regular spot on "Take It or Leave It." When the New York Times reported the change on July 13th, they had not even named a successor. [SOURCE] Consequently the pictures of Garry hosting the program are few. One AP News feature on Moore stated "Unlike Breneman, Garry doesn't kiss the ladies or wear their hats. He has his own line of gags." Cliff Arquette took over briefly followed by John Nelson, Nelson left to host the TV version of Bridge and Groom. Then they tapped Jack McElroy.  Supposedly Arch Presby was also host at one point but I've never been able to corroborate that. 

Jack McCoy NBC Radio Trading card #3 (1953)

McElroy's tenure lasted until the program ended on July 6, 1951. ABC attempted a revival as "Welcome To Hollywood" which debuted on NBC in 1952. Jack McCoy hosted the attempted Saturday morning reboot. Don Rickles was the announcer. Sometimes that's erroneously cited as McElroy again. I found one source that reports George Jessell was the host, in 1953. that might have been a fill-in.  It wrapped permanently in 1954. McCoy died in 1991.

Before Breakfast in Hollywood, Nelson and McElroy were probably best known for an ABC program, "Bride and Groom" where Elroy was a singer and announcer. John Nelson was the program's host. Bride and Groom had an audience participation component which is probably what made NBC think it would work. It ran from November 26, 1945, to September 15, 1950. An obituary in the Circleville Herald says that McElroy was a singer in his hometown of Pittsburgh, KS. His career ourtide these two shows is not well documented. He was born in 1913 and died in 1959 of lung cancer at the age of 45. Arquette later went on to a strange type of fame on Hollywood Squares. He died in 1974 at the age of 68.

Whistling J. Donald Wilson

Our story starts with two radio announcers born only a few years apart with similar names, both working as radio announcers on national networks. Donald Harlow "Don" Wilson and John Donald Wilson. With John and Don being relative homonyms, some confusion was inevitable. Multiple sources claims that in 1938, he had adopted the name "Norman Wilson, but later changed it back to J. Donald Wilson. This is correct and is  documented in the January 1, 1938 issue of Broadcasting Magazine [LINK] which states (on pg 50) in their Behind the Mike column the following:

"J. Donald Wilson, Hollywood announcer on the 'Charlie Chan' and 'Strange as It Seems' transcription serials produced by Raymond R. Morgan Co... has changed his name for professional purposes to Norman Wilson. To avoid confusion with Don Wilson, announcer of the NBC Jack Benny program, J. Donald Wilson, a year ago inverted his name, but it didn't sound right. He has now taken the new name."

The timing of this text is apropos, because on page 19 of the same issue it reports that the other Don Wilson repeated his 1936 victory and was chosen as the best announcer of 1937. (This happened almost annually thru about 1952) John clearly felt like his career was in the shadow of the other Don Wilson. But the newsy, present-tense delivery of the text makes a mess of the chronology. Is his real name Donald John Wilson or John Donald Wilson, which is the inverted form?  His headstone reads "John Donald Wilson" so I take that to be his real name. But that means that his resume may be divided over three pseudonyms.  

The choice of  the name "Norman Wilson" has no clear origin. It was the name of the short-lived bandleader of the Norman Wilson Orchestra on KRKD in Los Angeles. A decade later but there was also a Norman Wilson Co. record distribution company located at 2562 Holmes St. in Kansas City, MO. They operated from at least 1952 - 1960 moving London, Mercury and Hollywood records. They appear in both issues of Billboard and Cashbox in that era. Norman Wilson Distribution had moved to 1914 Washington Avenue in St. Louis. 

Our John Donald Wilson was born on June 5th, 1904 and was a radio and film writer, producer, and voice actor, born in Kansas City, MO. There lies the only connection to that record distribution company. But based on that I'm guessing there is at least a family connection there. It's too much of a coincidence.  But his fame centers mostly around his writing on The Whistler. The Whistler began as a radio mystery drama which debut on May 16th 1942 and ran until September 22nd 1955 on CBS. That's a 13-year run.  There were 692 episodes. This was followed by a series of 8 Columbia films, (below) and a short-lived syndicated TV version in 1954. That's a home run by any measure.

• The Whistler – 1944
• The Mark of the Whistler – 1944
• The Power of the Whistler – 1945
• Voice of the Whistler – 1945
• Mysterious Intruder – 1946
• The Secret of the Whistler – 1946
• The Thirteenth Hour – 1947
• The Return of the Whistler

As both a writer and producer on the radio series, you would hope J. Donald Wilson would have earned some decent royalties and licensing fees. Not that Wilson was the only writer on the series; George Allen was the main writer on most of the later episodes, taking over duties in 1944. Allen donated over 100 of those scripts to UC Santa Barbara [LINK] making for a nice research library. Allen actually made some pretty significant changes to the structure of the series, even changing The Whistler from a participant to an observer. Nonetheless, when the first film was in development, it's producer Rudolph Flothow hired J. Donald Wilson to draft that story. More here and here.

Despite writing and producing The Whistler, Wilson wasn't the announcer for The Whistler.  That duty went to Joe Kearns and Gale Gordon in the early episodes and later Bill Forman. Forman was an odd pick. His prior resume included no acting credits at all, and his big gigs were the Fitch Bandwagon and Kay Kyser’s Kollege of Musical Knowledge. But Forman was a natural, and later even co-wrote scripts. More here.

But there was a fourth narrator, Everett Clarke. At the same time Signal Oil was sponsoring it's broadcasts on the West Coast (KNX, KQW etc.) from Feb. 1946 to Feb. 1947, a completely separate and local broadcast of The Whistler was airing Sunday nights at on WBBM in Chicago sponsored by Meisterbrau beer.  They used the same scripts and music as the Los Angeles-based production but broadcast it as a live performance, with an audience and of course, a completely different cast.  It even aired with the same opening narration:

"I am the Whistler, and I know many things, for I walk by night. I know many strange tales, many secrets hidden in the hearts of men and women who have stepped into the shadows. I know the nameless terrors of which they dare not speak. And so I tell you the amazing story of..."

In addition to the radio series "The Whistler", J. Donald Wilson also wrote, produced, and/or directed The Adventures of Bill Lance, The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe, and Dark Venture. Wilson also did his own voice work in radio in the 1930s.  He voiced Mickey Mouse in select 1938 broadcasts of The Mickey Mouse Theater of the Air as well as other characters in Disney productions such as The Reluctant Dragon. He was the announcer on Strange As It Seems and Charlie Chan. After more than a decade of acting on radio, in march of 1945, he became production head of NBC Blue (aka ABC) and later was promoted to vice president. More here.

The Adventures of Bill Lance, private eye, aired in two non-consecutive runs. This detective series first aired on CBS was from April 1944 into September 1945. Wilson rebooted the series at ABC and it ran from June 1947 into January 1948, sponsored by planters peanuts. John McIntire portrayed Bill Lance in the first run, and Gerald Mohr took on the role in the second run.  Mohr  had been in the Mercury Theatre and was quite good. Wilson didn't write the scripts in that second run. A short news piece in The Winona Republican-Herald claimed that ABC hired writers specializing in criminology for the series.  Dick Joy announced both runs, with some fill in by Owen James. Adam Graham will tell you anything you want to know about it More here.

Nero Wolfe was different. That detective already existed, and Wilson just re-worked it for radio. By the time the Nero Wolfe series aired in 1950, author Rex Stout had already published 17 detective novels in the series. The radio series only ran into 1951 but the books kept coming for another 25 years.

The more famous, Donald "Don" Wilson was born on September 1st, 1900, was an American announcer and actor in radio and television. He was sometimes described as having a "Falstaffian" voice. This term is usually used to describe a fat jolly fellow who's a bit mad kind of like John Belushi. The reference is very old, it alludes to Shakespeare's character Sir John Falstaff in the play Henry IV from 1597. You can't be too debauched on the radio, so Wilson was just a bit cheeky. The reputation comes from his time as the rotund announcer and comic foil to the star of The Jack Benny Program. That reputation came from Jack Benny himself, who made Wilson the butt of numerous fat jokes. When they made the jump to television, Jack toned down the fat jokes a little.

His career has been written about much more extensively so I'll just hit the pre-Jack Benny highlights.Wilson began his radio career as a singer over Denver radio station KFEL-AM in 1923. By 1929, he was working at KFI-AM, and shortly afterwards for Don Lee at KHJ-AM, in Los Angeles. Though best known for his comedy work with Jack Benny, Wilson had a background as a sportscaster,  right before working with Benny he was actually the announcer on the George Gershwin series. Wilson first worked with Benny on his April 6, 1934 broadcast. The program ran for 30 years.

Don Wilson died April 25th, 1982 and J. Donald Wilson outlived him by 1 year and 9 months, dying on January 26th, 1984. 

Hugo Gernsback Vs. Gaylord Wilshire

Henry Gaylord Wilshire, known by his friends as Gaylord, was a quack. But he was a notable quack. In 1895 he began developing 35 acres of a barley field in what is now Los Angeles. From that parcel, he donated a strip of land 120 feet wide by 1,200 feet long to the city. This was intended for a Boulevard which now bears his name: Wilshire Boulevard. If you're not familiar, it's the primary east-west arterial road in L.A. The Los Angeles Conservancy described him as "flamboyant character." In his day he was a land speculator, gold speculator, public speaker, political candidate, publisher and radio broadcaster.

In 1925, he started marketing the I-on-a-co, an electric belt that could purportedly improve health. The belt gained popularity from its marketing. [Donald G. Davis wrote a great whitepaper on the I-on-a-co here]  He bought a nearly full-page ad in the Los Angeles Times in 1926. At the bottom of that advert he listed a schedule of his upcoming radio appearances. He also was quoted as below:

"Since 1925 I have been broadcasting weekly lectures regarding the I-on-a-co Belt, in practically all the leading newspapers in California. I have been broadcasting weekly lectures on the I-on-a-co over three radio stations. I have lectured in person in many California cities..."

But even his biography by Louis Rosen does not name the stations. The advert listed only one of the three, his Thursday-evening spot on 1250 KTAB-AM in Oakland. We know the other two were also in the Bay area: San Francisco and Oakland. In Oakland the 9 options were: 590 KLX-AM, 830 KGO-AM, 1170 KFUS-AM, 1200 KLS-AM, 1250 KZM-AM (share with KTAB), 1360 KFUU-AM, and 1450 KFWM-AM. But in San Francisco there were only five: 700 KPO-AM, 1120 KFRC-AM, 1330 KFWI-AM, 1360 KJBS-AM, and 1450 KGTT-AM.

I had assumed it would be KLX as they also aired the nutter Aimee Semple McPherson. But it appears the answer lies elsewhere. I found a Radio Doings calendar from August, 1926 for 1260 KMTR-AM in Hollywood airing "Wilshire's Ionaco Lectures" at 7:30 PM on Tuesday the 17th and "Gaylord Wilshire Lectures" at 7:00 PM on Friday the 20th.  Broadcast Weekly lists "Ionaco with Gaylord Wilshire" on 1200 KFWI-AM on Tuesday Nov. 23rd, at 8:30 PM and again that Friday. KFWI is actually in San Francisco but KFWI is basically in Los Angeles... leaving us with a missing station.

A February issue of Radio Doings puts Wilshire on 7:00 PM on Tuesday Feb 15th on 890 KNX-AM, also in Los Angeles, then again on KMTR, 10:00 AM Saturday, February 19th Charles W. Hemp "Presenting Gaylord Wilshires famous invention The Ionaco." Charles was the Director of Radio Activities at the Iona Company. So it is no surprise to see him at 7:00 AM on 830 KFWB-AM, June 14th 1927. In Hollywood again this time on 1330 KFQZ-AM, 7:30 PM another "Wilshire Ionaco Lecture" Tuesday, February 15th. They keep stacking up also in that issue is 1220 KSFD-AM 7:00 PM Feb. 16th, KNX, again on Feb 15th and Charles Hemp was on KFWB and KMTR with the same schtick at least as early as January  1927.

Interestingly not only did the American Medical Association (AMA) go after Wilshire, but so did some science hobbyist magazines. Notably Science and Invention which was funded by WRNY. In October 1927 Hugo Gernsback wrote an exposé The Ionaco Swindle. Some readers wrote in to defend Wilshire and the Ionaco, most of them read like advertising copy. But other savvy readers, in a move that prefigures "doxxing" wrote in and outed other print publications still running I-on-a-co advertisements. Wilshire was already dead, but the editors rejoiced in the irony that Wilshire "died of the very ailments for which Ionaco was supposed to be specific [cure]."

Wilshire died destitute in 1927 in New York City. He was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. But even after his death (according to the book The Body Electric by Carolyn Thomas de la Pena) radio stations continued to broadcast his program from transcription discs. The FRC finally banned quack advertisements from radio in 1932.

Victory Belles

I read a short blurb, a sales pitch really, that claimed that Victory Belles was the first all female radio program in America.  It could certainly be true. It's a very small category in radio history and it's not one that's gotten adequate coverage anywhere. I have one fantastic resource on the topic, but In it's effort to be canonical the Encyclopedia of Women in Radio 1920-1960 by Leora and Luther Sies contains no narrative on the topic.

Victory Belles was a comedy, dancing and musical variety show on KNX-AM in Los Angles. It was hosted by Lurene Tuttle, but had a number of other recognizable names on the team.The Radio Gold Index lists only two known recorded episodes [SOURCE]  Both are 30 minutes long, one from December 1942 and one in May 1943. This would indicate that even as a weekly program that dozens of episodes were lost. the best account we have of their activities is actually first hand from Peggy Gilbert who performed on the program and did a USO tour with the group. Her biography, Peggy Gilbert & Her All-Girl Band by Jeannie Gayle Pool, covers much of that time period.

But what were Victory Belles?  The USO recruited and screened young ladies to socialize and sometimes work at the USO. In June of 1942, Life Magazine profiled the practice making it look more like a sock hop  and less like a blind date. But the ladies were also typists, waitresses on the bases. The program just re-used the jargon. You can actually hear one episode online here. Peggy Gilbert wasn't the only star in the troupe. From those two episodes we have a few names we know appear. I list them below with a short radio bio.

Lurene Tuttle - A vaudeville actress that made the leap to radio whose career was long enough to lead into TV and film. She portrayed most of the females voices on the  The Adventures of Sam Spade program. She also appeared on The Great Gildersleeve, Blondie, Brent House, The Cass Daley Show, Duffy's Tavern, Glamour Manor, Maisie, the Red Skelton Show, Suspense, Doctor Christian, Lux Radio Theater. Note.. she later appears on the Dukes of Hazard TV program

Mabel Todd - Probably the same Mabel Todd from the The Komedy Kingdom. Was doign films as early as 1936, seems to have left performing behind by 1946.

Martha Mears - She appears in over 30 films and more than a dozen radio programs including: The Colgate House Party, The Old Gold Program, The General Foods Show, Bob Ripley, Joe Penner, Phillip Morris, Radio Rodeo, and the Dr. Pepper 10-2-4 Ranch program

The Music Maids - a revolving troupe that appeared mostly in films including  Hoosier Holiday (1943), Girl Crazy (1943) and Hit Parade of 1943. Notice the tight grouping.  At different times the line up included Denny Wilson, Jeanne Darrell, Alice Ludes, Patt Hyatt, Virginia Erwin, Alice Sizer, Bobbie Canvin, Dottie Messmer.It's hard to say which were on the team when they appeared on Victory Belles.

The Taylor Maids - Another trio with a changing line up. They appeared in a few films as well:  Cowboy Canteen (1944), Artistry in Rhythm (1944) and So's Your Uncle (1943). A Newspaper ad from 1954 lists their names as Beverly, Patti, and  Shirley. It's probably the same trio.

Bea Turpin and her Eight Jills Of Jive - Somewhat obscure. As a group they have no appearances other than on Victory Belles. Bea Turpin appeared in at least one pre-1920 black & white film. In Peggy Gilbert's book the name is given as "Bee Turpin." She reports that Bee played piano. This can be corroborated by radio listings for KFAC-AM in 1934 and 1935 in Sacramento.

Wilhelmina Gould - Even more obscure. SPERDVAC lists her name only on the Victory Belles Episode. Corroborated by Peggy Gilbert, but without detail.

Beverly of "Reveille With Beverly" - Beverly "Ruby" Ross was the start of the 1943 film Reveille With Beverly. It was a flick about a 5:30 AM radio show with swing music, dedicated to the local servicemen. Sound familiar? It was based on a real "Reveille with Beverly" radio show hosted by the very real Jean Ruth Hay. More here.

Ona Munson - Ona is listed as a producer on the program. Just two years later Ona Munson had her own eponymous 15 minute show, the Ona Munson Show, a.k.a. Open House also on CBS. She had appeared in the movie Gone With the Wind in 1939 and was surely the most famous of all the names attached to Victory Belles. Her only other big radio gig was on the program Big Town, which ran from 1937 to 1952. Ona joined the program in 1940 and stayed through to the end.

The Old Fashioned Revival Hour

Rev. Charles E. Fuller was a radio evangelist in every sense of the word. He hosted the Old Fashioned Revival Hour, a weekly Sunday broadcast that ran for over three decades. At it's peak it was carried on over 450 stations. Even the music was popular. The Old Fashioned Revival Hour Choir and quartet, and it's organist George Broadbent made several popular recordings in the 1940s and 1950s.

Charles was born in California to a wealthy family that owned mines and orange groves. and his first work was as an orange grower working for his father. Some biographies say he saved up his money and bought a telegraph and learned Morse code. It's more likely that this was a crystal set of some kind. He attended Pomona College in 1906, he worked for his father managing an orange packing plant but later quit to pursue bible study.  He spoke on radio at a bible conference in 1927. His study group grew. He joined the Cavalry Church and began broadcasting his Sunday evening services on KGER-AM. He left that in 1933 to begin full-time radio evangelism.

He began the Gospel Broadcasting Association in 1933. His services were carried on KFI and KNX. In 1937 he began paying for airtime on the Mutual Broadcasting Network. He started a second show on Mutual called the Pilgrim hour that ran from 1944 to 1947. Mutual started with 13 stations but when they expanded their network Fuller went with them, ballooning to 450 affiliates. But 10 years later it all collapsed for Fuller. Mutual dropped all paid religious programming after noon on Sundays. Fuller had to scramble to piecemeal a network of independent stations without a national middleman syndicating. In 1949, (1951 in some accounts) he cut a new deal with the ABC Radio Network, which bumped him back up to 650 radio stations.

Fuller died in March of 1968, two years after his wife. The program was briefly hosted by Fuller Seminary president David Hubard.  After the final episode was recorded in March of that year, Fuller died of heart failure. His son Dan Fuller and David Hubard began a new radio ministry called the Joyful Sound. In 2002 the junior Fuller began rebroadcasting the Old Fashioned Revival Hour on a station in Ventura, CA. (I've been unable to determine which one) Today, the program is broadcast on 120+ stations across the United States including shortwave. More here.

Zeke Clements was not a dwarf

Marlon "Zeke" Clements was not a dwarf. He just played one on the big screen. In 1937 Clements yodeled the part of Bashful, in Walt Disney's 1937 version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. To be clear, Scotty Mattraw was the speaking voice of bashful, but when Disney needed Bashful to yodel they used Zeke. Apparently even in the 1930s they couldn't find a single voice-over man to handle both the voice over and the yodeling parts. He wasn't always a dwarf however, he also appeared as a singing cowboy in several B-Westerns.

Over his career he performed as both under his stage name Zeke, the Alabama Cowboy and the Dixie Yodeler. Clements was born in Warrior, Alabama in 1911. His music career began in 1928 when he joined the touring show of Otto Gray and his Oklahoma Cowboys touring show. The band was formerly known as McGinty's Oklahoma Cowboy Band. McGinty had been a real-deal cowboy and a Rough Rider under Roosvelt. Graywas more of a band manager which is probably how they ended up on the National Barn Dance at WLS-AM in Chicago. they had been playing on KFRU-AM in Bristow, OK, and KFJF-AM in Kansas City. The barn Dance had only started in 1924, so in these early regional years of radio they were genuine celebrities. Gray actually made the cover of Billboard.

In 1933, he joined  singer Texas Ruby as member of the Bronco Busters. The book The Cowboy in Country Music by Don Cusic claims that in 1934 Zeke was the first Opry act to wear cowboy clothing. It's unclear if this was his first appearance on the Opry, or just his first appearance with the Bronco Busters... or just the first clad in chaps and boots. I find that "first" claim dubious. However, this was before the era of singing cowboy movies. Gene Autry's first cowboy movie began a year later, in 1935. Though Autry and Clements had both been on the National barn Dance by 1929, it's clear that Autry popularized the clothing fad. You can't see the outfits on the radio.

After the Opry, Clements also spent time on WHO-AM in Des Moints and WHAS-AM in Louisville.  The book The Encyclopedia of Country Music claims that it was while playing on the Hollywood Barn Dance on KNX-AM, that Zeke answered the Disney ad for a yodeler. But the Hollywood Barn Dance supposedly only ran from 1943 to 1948. This is long after Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released. Only one of these things can be true. By all reports Ruby  was supposed to audition for a role as well but was too drunk. In 1939, Zeke broke it off with Ruby and went back to the Opry. He continued to be a successful songwriter for the rest of his life writing hits for both Eddy Arnold and Red Foley. He died in Nashville in 1994.

Brittingham's Radio Center Restaurant

Brittingham's Radio Center Restaurant was located at 6113 Sunset Boulevard. It was in CBS Columbia Square which at the time housed KNX-AM, and later both KCBS-FM and KNXT-TV. CBS continued to use studios and offices at the location from 1938 until 2007. This particular post card is dated to August 28th 1947. Tours cost 40 cents.

A huge number of CDS programs were recorded and broadcast here:  the Lucky Strike Program, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. It was designed by architect William Lescaze. Al Jolson mocked the modern looking building and said that "It looks like Flash Gordon's bathroom." 

But the restaurant was moderately popular. Bobby Sherwood's Stringette played there nightly. The building still exists, but today the space is empty, no tourists, no hot griddle, no radio. The National Trust for Historic Preservation and Los Angeles Conservancy are trying preserve the landmark building.

DJ Merle Travis

I know all of two songs by Merle Travis but I bet you know them too. "Dark as a Dungeon" and "Sixteen Tons" were both written and recorded by Merle Travis in the mid 1940s. But 10 years before that he made his first forays into radio and that is where we shall begin. There are two versions of the story, but one has him playing the "Tiger Rag" at the age of 18 on 1280 WGBF-AM in Evansville, IN. He was attending a dance in 1936 and his brother talked the DJ into letting Merle play a short tune during the break. That appearance got him invited to play in the band the Tennessee Tomcats. His career would go on to include the Knox County Knockabouts, Whitley's Western Swing Band, the Drifting Pioneers, Clayton McMichen's Georgia Wildcats, Brown's Ferry Four and many others.

A year after his radio debut, he was hired by fiddler Clayton McMichen as guitarist in his Georgia Wildcats. but while the Wildcats were regulars on WAVE-AM in Louisville, KY that was years after Travis left the group in 1939 to join the Drifting Pioneers, a Chicago-area gospel quartet. They became very popular regulars on the Boone County Jamboree program on WLW-AM. The program was later known as Midwestern Hayride. Travis stuck with the station long after the group broke up and fell in playing with other country artists like Grandpa Jones and the Delmore Brothers whom he played with as Brown's Ferry Four.

He went to LA and played on Cliffie Stone's Hometown Jamboree, which aired on both KXLA-AM and KCOP-TV. On KXLA he also played on Town Hall Party and Dinner Bell Roundup, and on AFRS on the Melody Roundup. On KNX he became a regular cast member of The Hollywood Barn Dance. It wasn't until the late 1960s Travis relocated to Nashville and became a member of the Grand Ole Opry. More here.

He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970 and elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1977. In the 1980s CHM records started to reissue his old records while he recorded new material.  He died of a heart attack in 1983. The Country Routes label has since issued several compilations of his radio transcriptions from the 1940s and 1950s

Hollywood Walk of Fame: H - L

This is part three of what will be a 5 part series wrapping this Friday. The Los Angeles Times has a series of biographies of every star on the walk and notes the categories, but even they have been unable to link some of these names to radioland itself. I've examined over 100 "stars" now: some obscure, some still ubiquitous. Very few were actually deejays. The list is mostly comics and singers than anything else. I think that says more about Hollywood than radio.

Jack Haley - This former  host of the Jack Haley Wonder Show later played the Tin Man in the The Wizard of Oz. the Wonder Show was famous for featuring the then not-so-famous Lucille Ball. Jack also hosted the Log Cabin Jamboree on the NBC Red Network.

Carl Stewart Hamblen - He was one of radios early singing cowboys. His first stretch on air started in 1936 on KFYO-AM in Abilene, TX. He later sang as Cowboy Joe on KFI-AM, and with the Beverly Hillbillies, on KMPC in 1930. He performed with several groups under different shows on KFWB into the late 1930s. He found god in 1949, quit drinking and started "The Cowboy Church of the Air" which ran until 1952.

Bill Handel - He won his star only in 2009. He hosts a morning show on KFI-AM  and a legal advice program on Premier Networks presently. He has been notable lately only for making racist remarks on air.

Arlene Harris - She made her name as a comic actress on the radio program "The Chatterbox."  But she also put in some time on CBS as Mummy Higgins, playing the mother of Baby Snooks with Fanny Brice.

Phil Harris - In 1946 he started doing wholesome family skits with his wife Alice Faye on The Fitch Bandwagon show. In 1949 the show was became The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show. Afterward he moved onto bit parts in TV and cartoon voice over gigs.

Bill Hay - Starting in 1926 he announced for the  Amos 'n' Andy show, moving with them from WGN to WMAQ. He actually got his start on KFKX in 1922.

George Hayes - He is known for his work in westerns acting alongside William Boyd,  Roy Rogers, Gene Autry or Wild Bill Elliott. He also hosted "Melody Ranch" a WWII-era country music program on AFRS. He also guested on the Andrews Sisters show in 1944 and in the supporting cast of the Roy Rogers Show 1946-1947 on Mutual in the role he was typecast for.

Helen Hayes - After a good showing on Lux Radio Theater she got her program the "Helen Hayes Theatre" which ran 1935 - 1936. After which she did a year on the O'Neill Cycle on NBC Blue. She was on the Electric Theater on CBS in 1948 and in 1949 she turned up again on "This Is Broadway" a radio talent show on CBS.

Johnny Hayes - A real deal DJ from KRTH-FM. He started at WAKE in 1961,and after a few stops,  KRLA in 1965 where he stayed for 25 years. (Some sources say 27.) Today he is alive, well and retired.

Dick Haymes - His recording career takes front and center but he was also a performer on Club Fifteen with the Andrews Sisters. His show "Here's To Romance"ran on the NBC Blue network in 1943. He followed that with The Dick Haymes Show running 1944 to 1948. Then "The Carnation Show" in 1950, NBC Bandstand 1956-1957... you get the drift.

Jim Healy - A sports announcer who was on KLAC from 1961 to 1965, then KFWB in 1969. He spent some time on TV but came back and was on KLAC from 1973 to 1982 and KMPC from 1984 to 1994. He also hosted Here's Healy on KBIG-FM back in the 1950s. .

Chick Hearn - He was  the play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Lakers  which have been carried on network radio via KLAC-AM since the beginning of time. Still, a sort of dubious inclusion.
*Corrections from  KoHoSo

Horace Heidt - He was a popular radio bandleader on both NBC and CBS. He did dozens of programs: Horace Heidt's Alemite Brigadeers, Pot O' Gold, Tums Treasure Chest, The American Way, Captain Dobbsie's Ship of Joy, The Horace Heidt Youth Opportunity Program the list goes on.

Jean Hersholt - He of the unpronounceable surname had two big roles in his career. He spent 7 years starring on "Dr. Christian" and playing the character Dr. John Luke. The rest of his career appears to have been in TV.

George Hicks - A war journalist who was first on NBC then NBC Blue. He actually recorded the D-Day Normandy Invasion. It was broadcast on NBC and the BBC. That's pretty damn amazing.

Hildegarde - Also known as Hildegarde Loretta Sell a slightly risque cabaret singer. She had two radio shows.  Her NBC radio program "Raleigh Room" ran in the 1940s and AFRS carried Hildegarde's Radio Room for at least a couple episodes in 1945.

John Hodiak - most of his career was on stage and screen but he also played the role of the comic strip character Li'l Abner on radio. It ran in 1939 and 1940 on NBC.

Portland Hoffa - Married to Fred Allen it's no surprise she performed as both comedian and vocalist on his programs.  her character was so unpopular that sales execs begged Allen to drop her but he stood firm. In 1949 he left the program. The performed together on The Big Show 1950–52, and she finally started working without Fred in 1954 usually as a mystery guest on TV quiz shows.

Bob Hope - Bob Hope was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1990 while he was still alive. He  first appeared on the show "The Intimate Revue" in 1935, followed by the Woodbury Soap Hour in 1937, and the Pepsodent Show in 1938. His film career took off and then those USO shows... etc. Guinness Book rates him as the most awarded entertainer in history.

Warren Hull - He started out on Soap Operas like "The Gibson Family" which ran on NBC in 1934. Following a short film career he became a radio announcer on The Hit Parade and Vox Pop in the 1940s. He then hosted the game show "Strike It Rich" on NBC radio 1949 - 1957.

Frazier Hunt - This respected newscaster and war correspondent was on WLS-AM on every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday  at 6:45 PM. Frazier Hunt and the News was on NBC in the early 1940s. Probably best known for smuggling out a copy of  the Versailles Peace Treaty in order to scoop the story.

Marlin Hurt - He did the Hometown Incorporated show in 1940, Fred Brady Show in  1943 and subbed on the The Bob Burns Show on NBC. But the big fame came from his role on the Fibber McGee and Molly program in 1944. He played the role of Beulah, a black woman. In 1945, Beulah was spun off into it's own radio show "The Marlin Hurt and Beulah Show" which ran 1945 to 1954. Thankfully on TV ABC finally cast a black woman to play the part of  Beulah.

Ted Husing - Primarily known as a sportscaster in the 1930s, he was also a CBS announcer on "March of Time" and an for "George Burns and Gracie Allen.  In 1946, he moved from CBS to WHN-AM to try his hand at DJ-ing.   It was a hit and the Ted Husing Bandstand ran from 1946 to 1954. He moved on to TV after that.

Michael Jackson - Born in England he became a DJ in South Africa. He came to the US in 1958 and did a program on KYA. At KEWB he phased out the record flipping and phased in a talk format. He made stops at KNX,and KHJ, then put in 32 years at KABC starting in 1966.  He came back to KABC in 2009 and is still there.

Jaime Jarrin - The Dogers moved to LA in 1958 and KWKW-AM picked up the Spanish language broadcasting rights for the games. Jarrin was the news and sports director, and he became the  announcer from 1962 to 1984.

Al Jolson - A radio star from it's earliest days he was on NBC's The Dodge Victory Hour and his own shows included Presenting Al Jolson,  Kraft Music Hall, Jolson Sings Again, Shell Chateau and a litany of others.

Spike Jones - After a good performance on The Bob Burns Show, he got his own radio show,  The Chase and Sanborn program on NBC. Then he moved over to CBS 1947 to 1949 for his show The Spotlight Revue, which was renamed later The Spike Jones Show. But really, his recording career is where it's at.

Ellen K- Inexplicably Ryan Seacrest's sidekick has a star on the Hollywood walk of fame. She used to be a co-host with Rick Dees on KIIS at least as early as 1995. She also had a Top 30 Countdown show on Premier networks that was cancelled in 2002.

Casey Kasem - See previous post here.

Danny Kaye -  Most of his fame is from film and music but he also starred in a radio program "The Danny Kaye Show" which was carried on the CBS network from1945–1946. He also did a set of shows for AFRS in WWII and in 1963 he repeated the recipe with a TV version of the show.

Sammy Kaye - He started out on the Mutual network in 1937 doing short sets. Then starting in 1940 had a show called "Sensation and Swing" on NBC. He also was on the Old Gold program for two seasons starting in 1943 . Starting in 1944 he launched the Sunday Serenade, a program title he'd recycle often. He continued to do short run programs and short form music programs into the mid 1950s.

John B. Kennedy -  An American radio correspondent whose radio debut was in 1924 on WJZ-AM on the Collier Hour which ran until 1931. Afterward NBC had him host "The Magic Key" from 1934 to 1939 and "The People’s Rally" which ran 1938 - 1939.

John Reed King - Famous as a game show host on radio and television he ended up doing morning news at KDKA in the 1960s and KGO-TV in the 1970s. The peak of his popularity was probably the radio show "Missus Goes A-Shopping" on CBS.  He also announced on the soap opera "Our Gal Sunday" and the infamous Duffy's Tavern among others.

Wayne King - Nick named the "Waltz king" his longest stretch was 1931 to 1940 on NBC doing random gigs usually as the "Wayne King Program" sponsored by Lady Esther cosmetics. He later subbed for Jack Benny and Jimmy Durante.

Raymond Knight - Originally an ad writer for NBC, he was asked to write a comedy program in 1929 and came up with  "The Cuckoo Hour". He later did the children's program "Wheatenaville Sketches." He later wrote for Broadway productions.

Kay Kyser - You can't forget "Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge". It started in 1937 on WGN-AM in Chicago and then moved to NBC. It continued to air until 1949. He retired from broadcasting in the 1950s and was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1990.

Art Laboe - See previous post here.

Jim Ladd - Possibly the last surviving DJ of note from the Freeform era, he started at KNAC in 1969, but earned his stripes doing a weeknight show on KLOS-FM starting in 1971. In 1974 he began 13 year stretch at KLOS that ended with in 1984. He was on KMET until 1987 when it flipped to KTWV, smooth jazz. In 1988 he moved to KMPC (later KEDG) staying until it flipped in 1989 to Español. He DJ'd at KLOS again in the 90s getting booted with  format flip staff purge in 2011.  He now does a shift on the Deep Tracks XM/Sirius channel. (Long Live Ladd)
*Corrections from  KoHoSo 

Arthur Lake - Mr. Lake played the part of Dagwood Bumstead in 28 different "Blondie" films, 1 TV show and the radio series on NBC Blue. It ran 1944 to 1950. He also portrayed the character in a couple guest appearances.

Dorothy Lamour - While most of her career was in film she also had her own fifteen-minute weekly musical program on NBC Radio in 1935. She also guested on the Rudy Vallee radio show, The Chase and Sanborn Hour and The Sealtest Variety Hour

Frances Langford - She got onto the Rudy Vallee by auditioning and became a regular starting in 1931.
From 1946 to 1951, she performed on The Bickersons and the Chase & Sandborn Show. She later replaced Judy Garland in Bob Hope's show.

Fulton Lewis II - See previous post here.

Art Linkletter - See previous post here.

Little Jack Little - He was a song plugger in Chicago who got lucky. He was a short man which a big orchestra on WABC-AM in the early 1930s. He did a lot of USO shows in WWII, and was a DJ on WEAM-AM starting in 1947.

Mary Livingston - She was a comedian in her own right, but also the wife and radio partner of comedy great Jack Benny.  In 1932 she turned a bit part into a full-time rule. her stage fright kept her from beginning a major character, and she was large absent from the last season 1954-1955.

Al Lohman & Roger Barkley - They share a star because they shared a show, a highly rated morning drive program "The Lohman and Barkley Show" on KFI. It ran through most of the 1970s into the 1980s. Barkley quit the duo in 1986. They both have notable radio careers before and after they were a team.

Guy Lombardo - He was Dick Clark before Dick Clark. From 1929 to 1959 he and his band hosted a New Years Eve show at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City live on NBC. From 1959 to 1976 the program continued with Lombardo at the Waldorf Astoria.Starting in the 1960s it was also aired on TV competing with that young upstart Mr. Clark.

Vincent Lopez - His first documented radio performance was in 1921 on WJZ-AM. He and his band continued to perform on air including a series called "Luncheon with Lopez"  but it was in 1952 that he and Gloria Parker hosted a radio program on ABC broadcast from the Taft Hotel called "Shake the Maracas."

Phillips Lord -  He started with a small singing show on WTIC-AM. Then became a successful as a radio script writer for NBC with "Sunday Evening at Seth Parker's" which actually ran 6 days a week from 1929-1939. He later created the show  Gang Busters a huge hit that lasted from 1935 to 1957.

Art Linkletter's House Party

You know that trite saying "Kids Say the Darndest Things"? That was Art Linkletter's fault. One of the segments on his "House Party" program, Linkletter interviewed kids between the ages of five and ten years old. It is usually claimed that this segment was unscripted. I have trouble believing that was always true. In the 27 year run of this program, he interviewed some 23,000 rug rats. I don't know when he picked up the segment, but it was before 1947. The show started like this:

"Come on in, you're just in time for the house party... and the man of surprises and a million laughs, Art Linkletter! Well here it is the middle of the week, and the House Party rolls along with it's 30 minutes of informal fun, games, gags, gimmicks and gifts and guests from all over the United States..."

The program It began running in the afternoons on CBS at 4:00 PM, on three odd days a week. In 1948 ABC picked up the series with GE staying on as the sponsor. CBS picked it back up in 1950 and continued to run the program until 1967. When it was sponsored by Pillsbury in 1950, it was the Pillsbury House Party.  General Electric, the original sponsor had been content for it just to be named "House Party." From 1952 onward it was just called "The Linkletter Show" the name didn't' matter, it was always hosted by Art Linkletter. You can hear an episode here.

Arthur Gordon "Art" Linkletter was actually Canadian by birth, if you weren't aware. He was abandoned as an infant and adopted by a preacher that relocated him and his new family to San Diego in 1917. He didn't attend college. Instead he became an announcer at KGB-AM in San Diego. Back then it was on 360 meters bu tit shifted to 1210AM probably about when Art was on the air. The moved to1360 in 1942 later becoming the well known KLSD-AM. In his 1950 autobiography Confessions of a Happy Man, he wrote about KGB in great detail. Linkletter began as an announcer in 1933, and was promoted to Program Director just a year later, and then Station Manager by 1936.  But that didn't stop him from leaving the station that year.

It was on KGB that Linkletter honed his schtick hooping it up and ad libbing with audience members.It was excessively wholesome by modern standards. But, while syndicated by CBS in most of the 1950s, the program had better than a 6 share in the Hooper ratings. By then the show ran Monday through Friday in the mornings at 10:30 AM. Linkletter hosted another, better known program at the same time "People Are Funny" which ran from 1942 to 1960. Under the title Art Linkletter's House Party, the show premiered on CBS television on September 1, 195. It's new sponsor was the Lever Bros' Company.

Both "House Party" and  "People Are Funny" made the leap to television cementing his career in the new media. he died last year at the age of 97.

The Marmola Entertainers

Here's another really obscure gem. Marmola was a weight-loss pill that was charged with false advertising back in 1935. [Source] He advertised in print rags like the Police Gazette, Life, The Druggist,  and the Baptist Record. Time magazine wrote about their "inventor" Ed Hayes in less than glowing terms. They even wrote that Marmola "may cause a user to drop dead."  Hayes was a crank and a bit infamous for it.

"For 30 years a crafty old Detroiter called Edward D. Hayes, vendor of notrums, has dodged the U. S. Post Office, the Federal Trade Commission, Federal Courts, Better Business Bureaus. Twenty years ago he slipped, was arrested and fined $5,000 and had his sucker list of 500,000 names destroyed..."

The FTC sent cease and desist letter to the 21 radio stations running paid advertisements for Marmola. Time didn't list their calls, but only three cities Rochester, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Miami. Another source, Inger Stole,  states it more forcefully...More here.

"There was a case in the late 1920s involving a diet cure called Marmola. It turned out that Marmola contained a chemical that burned human tissue. But by the time the government could do anything about it, about 70 people had died. The FTC issued a "desist and refrain" order against Marmola ads but the Supreme Court ruled that the FTC acted outside its jurisdiction. Under existing laws, Marmola ads were fully legal."

Legal or not, Marmola the product, was bunkum, and probably dangerous bunkum. It had been for sale since 1907 and finally the tide of regulation had turned. But before it did, Marmola  sponsored a radio program very briefly, all around 1931. OTRpedia indicates it was syndicated, but not by whom. Possibly related to that I note that Brunswick Records pressed up a series of 25 Marmola 78s that may be connected to the broadcasts. I found a single reference to an FCC fine levied on KNX-AM in 1936 because of Marmola ads. That is far from comprehensive. Six transcriptions are known to exist of the program. Two sides of one acetate are on Youtube (thank you jnorman111). More here.

DJ John Cage

John Cage was an avant-garde composer among other things. He "wrote" compositions of pure silence, he played piano with debris placed on top of the strings, and experimented with tape cut-ups. His music career started out in radio but never really came back to it. He found some fame in the 1960s but all-in-all was too damn weird for general consumption.. which suited him just fine.

The closest he came to being a DJ was as a boyscout as a child. Cage had a radio program on KNX when he was 12, for the Boy Scouts of America. It began as a 30 minute program entirely comprised of performances by himself and other Boy scouts. Solo violin, solo piano piano and vocal. Strangely it's popularity led it to expand fo a 2-hour program. It was the kind of thing that was only possible in 1924. At the time KNX operated on 360 meters, and had only been granted those calls in May of 1922.

In 1982 he wrote a radio play "Marcel Duchamp, James Joyce, Erik Satie: An Alphabet" which was commissioned and performed on Westdeutscher Rundfunk WDR Radio in West Germany. It had 16 performers and one narrator and contained no music.

In 1966 Cage and Morton Feldman recorded four conversations billed as "Radio Happenings" at WBAI in New York. The series of sit downs ran from July 1966 and January 1967. There was no music, he composed nothing, they just rambled for half an hour or so each time.

CBS once commissioned a play group he worked with in Chicago to do a work based upon Kenneth Patchen's The City Wears a Slouch Hat. I can find no recording of it, but he does mention it in an interview here which I quote from below:

"My idea was to take a play, and thinking of the script as having ambient sounds to use those sounds, not as sound effects, but as the sounds of a music which would accompany the play. CBS liked that."

But the most famous connection to radio is in performance. In 1955 he "wrote" a composition for 5 radios with two performers stationed at each radio. One is for tuning the radio-stations, the second is for adjusting the volume and tone. I put quotations around the word "wrote" because the content of the composition is inherently different at each performance even if the rhythm is the same. Below is the video form a 1982 performance of it.

CBS KNX postcard

Above, an artifact of a very different era: Colorpicture Ltd. of Boston made Plastichrome Postcards. I know nothing of post cards but would guess this is from the 1960s. Antiqueradio.com has a similar one that seems to be from the 1950s. At that time one would guess that a vacationer would care enough about an AM radio station to send home a postcard just because they had stopped there.

In comparison, this week R&R started cutting Clear Channel stations from their reports because they are no longer locally programmed. They are essentially sat-casters, zombies. They cannot serve their market, they can barely remain on air, their ratings will falter, they will likely fail to convey information in an emergency. If you have no local staff, no local marketing.. how are you better than an Ipod?

The back of the postcard reads:

"Holllywood Calif. Built around a verdant forecourt, these studios are the spot where most CBS West Coast broadcasts originate.

The Optimistic Doughnut Hour

There was a saying about optimism and pessimism. "The optimist sees the doughnut, the pessimist sees the hole". I was surprised to find a radio show named after it. There's also a poem about it called "the foreman's Grist" but that's 0ff topic. Let's skip ahead to the bit about radio.

I've had to place this together from many sources over a couple years. the program was sponsored by the Davis Perfection Bakery and was a variety stage revue show. There were skits, comedy and a little music of course. If you look carefully, you can see the bakery logo on that truck in the pic.

The house band "The Optimistic Do-Nuts" included Isaac McVea, who unwittingly became the first black radio host in Los Angeles. His son Jack McVea played ukulele in the same band. The program began in the early 1920s. In the cast was a little known actor Sam McDaniel, who played a preacher character, Deacon McDaniel in 1926.

In the book Don't Touch That Dial, author J. Fred Mac Donald makes a single short reference to the program

"Although they did not flourish on radio, black comedians were also an ingredient of early broadcasting... Thus Ernest Whitman and Eddie Green appeared as a "coon act" on the Maxwell House Show Boat Program in it's first season on NBC. Hattie McDaniel brought her Mammy personality from the Optimistic Doughnut Hour over KNX (Los Angeles) in 1932 to the Show Boat series in the early 19302. "

Hattie McDaniel was a regular on the program as the character Hi-Hat-Hattie. Today she is better remembered for playing a similar Mammy character in the movie Gone With The Wind. It's off topic but of the 300 films she appeared in before her death in 1952, she only got credit for about 80. On the upside she's the only person who has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and was on a postage stamp. But I dwell here because her career began singing with the Melony Hounds on station KOA-AM in Denver.

Other guests on the Optimistic Doughnut Hour included an unlikely list of people: Morey Amsterdam, Minnie Pearl, Willie Best. Hattie McDaniel joined the show in 1931 after her brother Sam McDaniel got her an audition. Her success on the program led to her own show Hi Hat Hattie and Her Boys. She did a saucy late vaudeville comedy and sang. The boys of course were just Sam McVea's Jazz band.

The Davis Perfection Bakery who sponsored all this was just a bakery. Actor Dalton Trumbo worked there briefly as a bread wrapper . The bakery was big enough to appear on a 1932 map of L.A. near Los Angeles City Hall on Temple Street. Another souce lists it at the intersection of 1st. and Beaudry and another location in Sacramento. It was probably a regional chain since it was dolling out cash for radio ads.

The Very Naughty Bob Crane

** Updated in 2025

Before we talk about radio I want to acknowledge that Bob Crane was not a entirely a good person. Some people might say he was naughty, others might be more specific and say deviant or perhaps even a peccant serial philanderer. Today he's called a sex addict. We are not going to get into what he did, or was accused of doing. It'd get this little blog a Google ban. But the fact is, he was a seriously dirty dude. But we're going to focus on radio.

He was born Robert Edward Crane in 1928. He started out as an announcer on 1480 WLEA-AM. It was his first radio gig, but it was in Hornell, New York over 230 air miles form his new wife Ann Terzian, in Stamford, CT. Bob toughed it out, at 1480 WLEA living at the YMCA until he could score a better gig at 1120 WBIS-AM (now WPRX-AM) in Bristol, Connecticut. He bailed on then quickly for a better gig as the morning man at 600 WLIZX-AM in Bridgeport. He stayed there over six years. In 1951, WLIZ purchased WICC and Bob's program moved to the new stick. But he left for a gig Boston, MA at WEEI-AM. He left in 1956 only at the beckoning of the CBS radio network.

CBS gave him the morning show at 1070 KNX-AM in Hollywood. Soon it was the number one rated morning show in Los Angeles. He was known locally as "the king of the airwaves" If you've ever heard an air check, he' was really good on air. [LINK] His guests included Marilyn Monroe, Marvin Gaye, Bob Hope, Jayne Mansfield, and Frank Sinatra. But while number one in his slot, he still was really number two overall behind Dick Whittinghill at 710 KMPC-AM. The two arch rivals were actually friendly and Crane filled in for Dick for a few weeks two decades later in July of 1972. It's interesting that Whittinghill's 1976 autobiography Did You Whittinghill This Morning? makes no reference to Crane at all. (That's probably because of his ...extra circulars.) More here.

It was only in 1965 that be was offered the starring role in "Hogan's Heroes" and became a television star.  In 1974, after years of TV he actually snubbed an offer for a new radio gig. He even had his own eponymous show for 14 whole episodes in 1975. After that his status as a regular at strip joints and discos got him blackballed from Disney, and probably other quarters. The poor performance of the movie Superdad in 1973 kept him out of yet more lead rolls. 

He spent the rest of his career doing dinner theater and making guest appearances. He filed a few TV pilots that went nowhere. In 1976, he made a guest appearance on WICC for their 50th anniversary. He was down but not out. But in 1978 he was found bludgeoned to death in an Arizona hotel room; he was fifty years old. His friend John Henry Carpenter was tried for the murder but was acquitted.

Breakfast with the Johnsons

Reality TV has been an exploding genre since that pasty and trite "Real World" sham graces the cablevision universe with it's debut on MTV in 1992. Twenty seasons later a hundred similarly conceived TV programs have come and gone, and nobody has yet to refer to where reality programming began.

Before reality television there was reality radio. Reality radio, began it's first contrived motions in 1952 on WBBM-AM. It was a half-hour radio show hosted by Cliff Johnson from the kitchen of his Oak Park home. It ran for 10 years.

The show was basically arranged around a breakfast table in the Johnson home. The characters be they real or otherwise were: breadwinner Mr. Johnson, homemaker /wife, Luella, and four daughters, ages 2 to 10: Linda, Pamela, and Vicki. The family pet was a parakeet named Olaf. It died and was mourned on-air. When Mrs. Johnson became pregnant with Cliff Jr. the cast expanded. Read more here.

Girls chatted about school and boys boys, were prominent characters. It mirrored real life in that era milkman and mail man included.

At 7:30 in the morning, Monday through Friday. The microphones were installed all over the Johnson home. Children would wandered in, and the milkman would come in. They talked about each other, Chicago, and the world. It was like Oak Park, IL had its own radio show.

Clifford Johnson was born on a dairy farm in Beresford, SD. He married Luella in 1938. they relocated to Lincoln and it was there that he got a job with the Central States Network. his good reputation there got him a gig at KOIL in Omaha. That high profile gig led him to WBBM in Chicago in 1941.

First he was was host of "Meet the Missus", then "Shopping with the Missus", and "Listen to Cliff". His eponymous show caught the notice of Philip K. Wrigley, who brought him on board at KNX. There he filled in for Jack Bailey during his show "Queen for a Day" and once for Art Linkletter and his segment "Kids Say the Darnedest Things." It was that show that supposedly inspired Cliff to dream up "Breakfast with the Johnsons."

After 10 great years at the breakfast table, Cliff moved on. He became host of "Sounds of Europe." He received the Dwight Eisenhower Award for his news work there. He was managing editor from 1964 to 1968 at 1390 WNUS-AM. Then at the age of 77 he went back to college earned a degree in theology and one on communications. he spent the remainder of his life volunteering and doing community work. In 1993 the Illinois state assembly honored him with a resolution deciding his life's accomplishments.