The Last Scandihoovian

This may be hard to explain if you've never been to the North Central United States. Prior to WWI most immigrants to his region were of German origin, but after the start of WWI, it was mostly Scandinavians from Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark. While they comprise only 3.8% of the U.S. population, they comprise 32% of Minnesota. Let's just say there is a really good reason that the Minneapolis football team is named "The Vikings."

As in other parts of the country, eventually media comes around to the idea of marketing to specific ethnic groups. In 1930 Clellan Card hit it just right. He walked into the studios of WCCO-AM and got a bit part in a fishing tackle commercial. the stock market had crashed only a year earlier and him and his wife had been forced to move in with his parents. He was paid $4.50 for his radio work that day and he found his calling. More here and here.


Clellan Card was born in 1903in Minneapolis but graduated from Rutgers University in New Jersey. When the economy crashed he sold bonds, pumped gas and whatever he had to to pay the bills. On WCCO-AM he learned the ropes eventually earning  a role as the host of the early morning "Almanac of the Air" program. By all reports he was popular but CBS killed the program for their national news show.

Card crossed the street to KSTP-AM. There he did man on the street interviews, a recurring segment called "Quiz of the Twin Cities" and a new music bit called Spinner Sanctum. He wasn't as successful on KSTP and moved later to WTCN-AM where he slowly started getting air time on their TV station WTCN-TV. In August of 1952, Midwest Radio-Television bought a controlling interest in WTCN and changed the calls of WTCN-TV Channel 4 to WCCO-TV to match their other AM property.. the CBS affiliate that Card just left. In 1958 he was cut from the schedule on WTCN-AM.. but he was taking off on TV so it was moot. More here.


On WCCO-TV he became the comic character "Axel Torgeson" a Scandinavian which he pronounced "Scandihoovian", Wisconcin in the same jest was pronounced "Sisconsin." The program "Axel and His Dog" was a very popular kids program. The Axel character was actually recycled from the Almanac of the Air, but on TV it really worked and Card continued the program until shortly before his death from lymphoma in 1966.

The Cackle Sisters

I was visiting the WFMU's Beware of the Blog as I sometimes do and they posted a set of acetates of the Cackle Sisters. It's here. I recommend you listen and the download furiously. Without revealing much detail the short post and long list of 32 MP3s set me off on two parallel hunts: the Purina Mills' Checkerboard Time radio show, and the career of the DeZurik Sisters Mary Jane and Carolyn Dezurik aka the Cackle sisters.

They began on KSTP in their home state of Minnesota. In 1935 and 1936 they won amateur talent contest on the station. That led to a show at a large country fair where they were seen by George Ferguson of the WLS Artists' Bureau. In 1936, the DeZurik sisters signed a deal appear weekly on the National Barn Dance at WLS-AM. In 1937 they were hired to perform on Purina Mills' Checkerboard Time radio show also on WLS. There they performed as The Cackle Sisters. Yodeling was a craze, and Ralson Purina was cashing in. In 1938 they signed a deal with Vocalion and cut 6 sides.
They stayed with Purina until 1941 only leaving because they were starting families. After leaving WLS the sisters split up. Carolyn went on to join Sonja Henie's Ice Review for about a year. Then she went home to St. Paul and did some time on the Sunset Valley Barn Dance and the afternoon show Main Street Minnesota back at KSTP. In 19434 the sisters reunited and went back to Purina. but also performing weekly at WSM on Nashville's Grand Ole Opry. thsi required a commute by train each week.In 1946 A third sister Lorraine was added to the act. In 1947, after a car accident mary jane retired again. Lorraine and Carolyn continued on as the Cackle sisters but now they were transitioning into TV. By 1951, they'd been on WLW-TV and WBKB-TV. But Abotu then Lorraine retired from performing. Carolyn stayed on to sing for her husband, Rusty Gill's band The Prairie Ramblers sticking with yodeling in some way until 1963. Carolyn finally died in may of 2009 outliving everyone.

Freddy's on KSTP-AM

Today 1500 KSTP-AM is a conservative political talker. Minneapolis is a pretty liberal city which explains why their ratings are typically half that of WCCO-AM. But in the 1980s they were a much more mixed talker under Hubbard broadcasting. They were the station that gave Jesse Ventura a talk program in 1988. In the 80s who thought he'd have a political career? More here.

But today I look back to KSTP-AM circa May 1960. In 1928 a share-time between KFOY-AM and WAMD-AM ended in a merger. The resulting station was KSTP. They ran some NBC syndication but were a full-service MOR outlet for most of the 60s which was in my mind a non-format. MOR is what we now call Standards or nostalgia and full-service means you have block programming.

What sent me on this flurry of research was the last 30 seconds of an 1981 Jack Teagarden LP. I knew the LP was recorded live at Freddy's Cafe in Minneapolis by KSTP. Freddy's no longer exists but they had comedy, jazz, live entertainment of all kinds. They were a night club in the classic sense. I don't know who recorded his program but in catching Teagarden at the end of his career they captured a now famous DJ at the beginning of his. The hosts of that show was Leigh Kamman.

Leigh Kamman started out just a jazz fan and got a gig at WMIN-AM as a janitor. he moved to WEBC-AM in Duluth in 1942. He left that to to do AFRN programs out of KOA-AM in Denver during WWII. He went to New York City in 1950 and did a jazz program on WOV in New York.

In 1956 he blew back into Mineapolis and picked up work at WLOL and KSTP and he hosted show's at Freddy's. The jazz shows at Freddy's were broadcast live on KSTP. This program evolved over time to become a regular late night gig for Kamman called The Jazz Image on Minnesota Public Radio. That program ran from 1973 until September 23rd 2007. Kamman retired at the age of 85.

If you have any question of Jack Teagarden... He was a man of red hot jazz in his era. Try this old 78s on for size.