DJ Sally Jessy Raphael

 

Sally Lowenthal was born February 25th, 1935 but if you recognize that face you would better know her as Sally Jessy Raphael. But her career started in radio and according to multiple publications she was fired from eighteen of the twenty four radio stations she worked at. The 2003 book Watching TV Talk Shows, cites merely 18 "jobs" so that claim is highly questionable. But without a doubt she had a huge radio career before her breakout in Television.  Her autobiography Sally: Unconventional Success lists a nine sets of call letters: WAVS, WFAS, KDKA, WINS, WIOD, WMCA, WOR, WPIX-TV, WPLG-TV and WRC-TV.  (Note: the index includes stations she never worked at. Ex. WOR, and KDKA.)

She's still alive as of this writing, 91 years old and she's only been retired since about 2014. You probably know her as a TV talk show host. For a stage name she combined her mother's maiden, Raphael and Jessy from her father's family. It was a name she used as early as the 1970s on air. 

During her teenage years she moved between San Juan, Puerto Rico and the New York suburbs. In Scarsdale, New York she worked at the local AM radio station, 1230 WFAS-AM in White Plains. The station had a program in which Junior High School kids read the news on the air and Raphael was one of the students selected to participate. She attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, but no record ties her to WRCT, though it did sign on in 1949... so it's possible. 

She also attended the University of Puerto Rico in San Juan and graduated from Columbia University in New York. Raphael studied acting under at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. Her autobiography starts in her 20s with a radio show at an unnamed station in San Juan. A caption for a picture suggests the station was 630 WKYN-AM. Her mroning show may or may not have been simulcast on WQBS 99.9 San Juan or 760 WORA-AM. It's not clear how much network was in that network. One source reported that she she hosted a cooking show on WAPA-TV in Puerto Rico. If it's true it was her first foray into television.

Before TalkNet her radio career is hard to track. Print references are few. Her autobiography is a good source but it's not a resume, it's a hard knocks tale. The hard, dated references are hwo we put the time line together. She is quoted on the back of the 1983 book Making It In Radio as Sally Jessy Raphael with TalkNet. In 1977 she won a Lulu award for the Sally Jessy Raphael Show on WMCA in New York. [SOURCE] The OPC Bulletin of November 15th 1977 has a blurb about her WMCA career as she stressed that talk shows are journalism. [SOURCE]

 "Indeed it was the capacity crowd needed, for "the fastest mike in town." For 17 years an expert in moderating radio talk shows, Raphael is most currently with WMCA. She regaled a laughing, cheering audience from the moment she stood up throughout hour she had the floor.  "This is the first time I have addressed a live audience," she declared almost shyly.  To titters, she added, she wanted to show "Why I am the greatest telephone talk person in the country, and modest."

The OPC issue from October states that "She’s been in the business 17 years, with 17 different radio or TV stations." That may be the origin of the "fired 18 times" tall tale. It goes on to add that for three years at WMCA, she did an hour-and-a-half TV program in the morning, a noon program featuring classical music and a night-time rock radio show.  If the 17 year tenure is correct, she started at the station in 1960. For that to be true she'd have had to start in 1960. According to her autobiography she was hired by WMCA in 1976 and fired in 1981. 

Yet the OPC Bulletin adds details to her resume missing from even her autobiography. In Miami, she was a radio reporter with Storer Broadcasting Corporation.  That would have to be WGBS-AM, which Storer acquired in 1945 as WFTL and moved from Ft. Lauderdale.  She also hosted her own daily public affairs program on that Post-Newsweek TV station.  Post Newsweek owned 3 different stations at one point but I think this was WPLG. But the first station she cites in her Florida tenure was 1190 WAVS-AM in Davie, FL. She eventually worked her way up to WIOD-AM in Miami.

She got a News anchor job at Channel 11, WPIX-TV in 1976, but was fired 8 months later. That probably overlapped with her part time at WINS-AM in New York. In between WINS and WMCA she was offered a full time job at KDKA and turned it down to work at WMCA rather than relocate again. [SOURCE] But after WMCA is when she went big. 

WPIX Action news, 1976

Raphael  hosted a radio call-in advice show distributed by NBC Talknet which ran from 1981 to 1987, but was so popular it went into radio syndication in 1982. Prior to that it was broadcast our of WRC-TV in Washington D.C. One source reports it ran into 1987 overlapping her TV career. 

“In Touch with Sally Jessy Raphael” debuted as a local 30-minute weekday program on Oct. 17, 1983, airing after “Donahue.” It was shot at KSDK’s studio. The Sally Jessy Raphael Show (later shortened to Sally), which ran in first-run syndication from October 17, 1983, to May 24, 2002. She rose to fame in the 1980s. But that TV talk show ran until 2002, just short of 20 years in network syndication.

The Midnight Jamboree WEVD (part 2)

Gene King, left. very camera shy.

In 2012 I wrote an article about the Midnight Jamboree which debuted on 1300 WEVD-AM in 1936. I did not expect I would need to write a Part 2 at the time. I used the sources I had available at the time and it felt fairly complete. A recent comment from a reader [HERE] pointed out that personal letters between Ev Suffens (stage name for Raymond Nelson) and writer Ayn Rand, describe Suffens as the host of Midnight Jamboree. The problem is that multiple sources also name Gene King as the host. Someone on the internet was wrong, and it might be me; so I revisited the subject.

Back in 2012 I rarely cited sources. It seemed unnecessary with informal writing like a blog.  It was my readers questions (and even researchers questions) which drove me to cite sources initially for my own use. I think my original source was the Arnold Passman book The DeeJays. [SOURCE] It does not specifically say that King is the host but Passman refers to the program as Gene King's; full apostrophe S. In 1942 the Ohio state University Monthly [SOURCE] specifically stated:

"...[King] started announcing for WEVD, became after a time, chief announcer and conducted the tremendously popular "Midnight Jamboree," New York's all-night recorded music program, to which an estimated 300,000 turned for nocturnal entertainment."

The Chief Announcer claim is corroborated in the 1939 Radio Annual. [SOURCE] The book Music in the Air also lists him as the host. "New York contemporaries of Symphony Sid included Gene King, whose Midnight Jamboree on WEVD (Eugene V. Debs) featured
current bands and vocalists..." [SOURCE]

Gene King, probably U. Ohio grad pic

The earliest I can place King by citation, at WEVD, was August of 1937. He's named, alongside Bill Resnick as station staff in an issue of Billboard. [SOURCE] This aligns pretty well with the date from that Ohio State publication stating that he was in Spain "..when the Franco revolt broke out..." that would be July 1936. That's a good source but I had more.  The UC Law Journal of Race and Economics [SOURCE] mentioned King at WEVD in a foot note referencing a New York Daily News article in November of 1939. Maybe the most important citation I found is Broadcasting Vol. 19, No. 8 of October 1940 [SOURCE] which specifically states:

"Gene King has resigned as conductor of the daily program Jamboree on WEVD, New York, from midnight to 4 a.m. to preside over a daily record series on WOR, Newark, entitled Danceland, which started Oct. 14, 3-3:30 p.m"

 

So it's clear that Gene King was the host of the Midnight Jamboree for a period of time, starting in 1936 and ending in 1940. But we also know the program ran into 1942, so clearly King was not the only host. Was he the first? 

The first Ayn Rand letter to Ev Suffens is dated April 6th. [SOURCE] Notably this is before King returned from Europe. Dismuke.org cites this as well. [SOURCE] But the answer is back in those Ayn Rand letters. In her June 10th letter [SOURCE] she complains about the new announcer of the Midnight Jamboree. She does not name him, but does criticize his playing of Jazz. (Gasp!)  So Ed Suffens was only the host prior to June of 1936. How much earlier did the program begin?

The Daily Worker reported the radio schedule of WEVD, WEAF, WOR, WABC, and WJZ daily from 1924 through 1936. So in reviewing those schedules, we can say with confidence that February 20th, 1936 was the first episode of the Midnight Jamboree. [SOURCE] Prior to that time, the midnight slot was held by a dance program, and usually preceded by an opera program. Ev Suffens was only host from February to June of 1936, a period of about 6 months. 

The DJ name Ev Suffens only appears rarely outside in the letter of Ayn Rand. The name appears in Variety in October of 1933 as the former director of the Provincetown Playhouse, then launching a drama and Opera studio. [SOURCE]. Then in the 1938 Radio Annual he's listed as the chief announcer at WEVD. [SOURCE] He seems to stop using the name after that. But a Raymond E. Nelson starts directing TV programs in the early 1940s and that may be him. That Ray Nelson later became the VP of the NTA film network. 

But who then was hosting the Midnight Jamboree after King left in 1940? There is a little disambiguation. There was a Gene King at KCTO in Columbia, LA in the late 1960s and another at WPCH in 1932. [SOURCE] Neither of these is our Gene King. King went on to WOR, and then WCOP as reported in Part 1. After King left the program, it's profile declined significantly. You might think it ended but for two references... 

One of the last references to the Midnight Jamboree was in a September 1942 issue of Broadcasting Magazine. [SOURCE] It does not name the host. It's also mentioned in Radio Daily. [SOURCE] They both probably got the same press release for Carl Post's piano gig on the show. But a 1941 issue of Billboard lists the host as David Niles.

 "Those stayer-uppers who tune into Station WEVD here for the nightly dance music kicks offered by the titularly swing-tinted Midnight Jamboree must think they have the wrong wave-length, unless they're used to the clever introduction given the show by its conductor, David Niles, who is also the station's chief announcer."

I had thought that was the end of it but a 1958 issue of Downbeat lists the show still on air. [SOURCE] The formerly 4-hour weeknight program had become just a 3-hour Sunday special. In1947, Ernest Tubb's Midnite Jamboree on WSM had overshadowed it, absconding with the name. David Niles obituary in the New York times [SOURCE] states that he started his career on WMCA in 1933 after a career in the stage and silent movies. He was the chief announcer at WEVD for 37 years. Sources confirm his presence at the station well into the 1960s. Billboard describes him as the News Director in 1966. [SOURCE]

You can hear Niles voice on a transcription disc from 1948. [LINK] Billboard confirms Niles was the Jamboree host, as early as 1940. [SOURCE]  Note that it's absent from this radio schedule [LINK] which otherwise places Niles on a talk program.  I suspect he took the Jamboree over from King directly. But there could have been a gap, and the earliest reference I can cite is this very critical July 1941 quote in Variety. [SOURCE]

"Manhattan has five stations on the air 'till 4 a.m., WHOM, WHN, WEVD, WNEW and WOR. After four o'clock just WNEW and WOR fight it out; WHN quits at three. But it plays the loudest records, positively. If a disk is just wild that's not enough for WHN, it's got to be frantic... Sunday nights David Niles (WEVD) has New York to himself from three to four. And what does he do with it? Nothing. Davey ought to change that maudlin paragraph Introducing his final 15-minutes in which he 'rests, relaxes, and reminisces.' Hear it twice and it starts to take on a comedy angle, But Davey must like it because he serves it regularly at 3:45."

It seem like Suffens started the Midnight Jamboree, and Gene King built it into a popular jazz-inflected program. Then Niles went back to a very mellow classical playlist. Rand would have been pleased but apparently popular listeners were not.

Outstanding Radio Features of 1935

I found this image online with no attribution but dated to January 12th, 1935. But I do recognize it as a column from the New York Daily News. I'm going to assume that date is real and extrapolate from there. This Radio Program section was published in this format from at least 1934 into 1937, that's almost 90 years ago. So lets dig into the arcane details.

TUESDAY (1/15/35)

CALL SIGN	Time	Owner
WOR	8:00 PM	Eddy Brown, Violinist
WHN	8:00 PM.	Amateur Hour
WJZ	8:30 PM	Lawrence Tibbett
WMCA	9:00 PM.	US Navy Symphonic Orchestra
WEAF	9:30 PM	Ed Wynn; Duchin Orchestra
WABC	9:30 PM	Jones Orchestra; Evan Evans Baritone
WEAF	10:00 PM.	Musical Comedy, "The Mikado" with John Barclay
WEAF	11:00 PM.	Christmas Carols
WJZ	12:00 MID	Rudy Vallee Orchestra

Eddy Brown only died in 1974 after a very long career. He was a child prodigy musician, who performed on many New York City area radio stations after immigrating to America from Italy at the age of 4 in 1899. He performed with many different symphonies, and lead the Eddy Brown String Quartet in the 1920s. He was music director of the Mutual Broadcasting System from 1930–37, then the music director of radio station WQXR from 1936 to 1942. This performance would have been while he was still at WQXR, and simultaneously president of the Chamber Music Soc. of America.

Lawrence Tibbett was an opera singer and recording artist. Originally from Bakersfield, California he studied music in New York starting in 1923 under Frank La Forge. The earliest radio appearance I found of his was in 1922 over KHJ. He sang leading roles with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City from 1923 to 1950 with over 600 performances in that time. Tibbett  made his first recording for Victor in 1926 and his first Hollywood film in 1930, Rogue Song, for MGM. He appeared on many different radio programs: The Packard Show, Hit Parade, Chesterfield Presents, Ford Sunday Evening Hour, Atwater Kent Radio Hour, The Circle, The Voice of Firestone, and the live broadcasts at the Metropolitan Opera. In 1937 he co-founded AFRA and serving as it's president until 1953. I suspect this specific program is Lawrence Tibbett with Wilfred Pelletier's Orchestra and John B. Kennedy as commentator. 

 The Duchin Orchestra recorded literally hundreds of sides for Victor recordings, often with Lew Sherwood, vocalist. Their sides for the Texaco program were broadcast live on October 2nd 1934. Ed Wynne (also spelled Wynn) was also on the Texaco program back in 1932 in the Fire Chief series. [LINK]The American Bosch popularity poll vote him most popular comedian that year. 

Evan Evans should have a disambiguation asterisk. In addition to the judges, actors, writers, Welsh poets and footballers there was also an Evans Evans actress born in 1936. Evans Evans appears with the Barlwo Orchestra in multiple issues of Tempo dating back to 1933. A concert Program listing, Serious Music on the Columbia Broadcasting System notes 17 performances under the title "Melody Masterpeices." A 1939 advertisement for Julliard School of music lists Evan Evans in the voice staff. Each reference is short and nominally informative always writing out the name and the one word "baritone" except for the oldest one, The Musical Times published in 1899 which inexplicably says "tenor."

WEDNESDAY (1/16/35)

CALL SIGN	Time	Owner
WMCA & WNYC	2:00 PM	New York Civic Symphony and Orchestra.
WABC	3:00 PM	Kate Smith's Matinee, with broadcast from Berne Switzerland
WEAF	3:30 PM	Woman's Radio Review - American Indian Music
WEAF	7:00 PM	Pickens Sisters
WABC	7:30 PM	The O'Neills
WEAF	8:00 PM	Mary Pickford in "Trigger"
WJZ	8:30 PM	Lanny Ross
WABC	8:30 PM	Broadway Varieties
WJZ	9:00 PM	Warden Lewis E. Lawes; Sing Sing Band
WABC	9:00 PM	Nino Martini; Kostelanetz Orch; Chorus
WEAF	9:00 PM	Town Hall Tonight, with Fred Allen
WJZ	9:30 PM	John Charles Thomas
WABC	9:30 PM	Burns and Allen
WJZ	10:00 PM	Induction of Elsie Janis as NBC Announcer
WABC	10:00 PM	Byrd Expedition Broadcast - Christmas Program
WEAF	10:30 PM	One Man's Family
WABC	10:30 PM	Mary Eastman, Evan Evans, Howard Barlow Orch.
WJZ	11:00 PM	Coleman Orch.
WEAF	12:00 MID	George Olsen Orch. and Ethel Shutta
WABC	12:00 MID	Amateur Night in Harlem

I hardly need to discuss Kate Smith, especially since I did that previously [LINK].  But Woman's Radio Review is a much lesser known radio program. Claudine MacDonald was the program's host, a single photo caption [SOURCE] adds little detail from the Donna L. Halpern book Invisible Stars: A Social History of Women in American Broadcasting. 

“The Women’s Radio Review was almost like a magazine, featuring segments on music (sometimes written or performed by women artists), literature, art, travel, news… and no recipes. Macdonald was… opposed to the type of women’s show that talked to women as if they were stupid.”

The Picken's Sisters were really sisters. Grace, Jane, Helen and Patti were daughters of Monte and Patti Pickens. Grace was not a singer but their manager. Patti and Helen got married and dropped out of show biz early. But Jane Pickens Hoving was a popular singer on Broadway, radio and television for 20 years. She sang in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1936, then toured with Eddy Douchin's Orchestra. Her appearances on the American Melody Hour on CBS radio led to her own radio program: the Jane Pickens Show on NBC.

The O'Neills was a radio soap opera . The radio iteration of the show aired for a decade in a 15-minute format. First on Mutual, CBS and then NBC from 1934 to 1943, later a TV series from 1949 to 1950. Quick synopsis: An elderly widow "Mother O'Neil" played by Kate McComb has two married children and two adopted children. Mother O'Neil is sage and wise, as is her platonic companion Morris Levy played by Jack Rubin. The kids are all non-stop drama as the words soap opera implied.

Lanny Ross born Lancelot Patrick Ross, was another singer from the Packard show. In the 1937 season Fred Astaire left, and they wrapped up those episodes with under the title Mardi Gras, with Ross as the singer and Walter O'Keefe as comedian, but still sponsored by Packard. His first radio gig was in 1928 earning him the title "the troubadour of the moon" according to the Historical Dictionary of Old Time Radio by Robert C. Reinehr. But this is probably not quite right. (The book Paul Whiteman: Pioneer in American Music by Don Rayno reports that same title describing Jimmy Brierly for a program he did on WAAT prior to 1933. A 1930 issue of The Herald and review newspaper tells me that "The Troubador of the Moon" program may be heard over WWJ, WSAL WHO. KSTP or WTAM... that program starred Ross so I'm going to disregard Brierlyfor the moment.  Ross career did start in 1928, but singing for Yale Glee Club's Jeddo Highlanders on NBC. He performed on Show Boat until 1937, and his own show, ''Lanny Ross and His Log Cabin Orchestra.'' before going into film. 

Warden Lewis E. Lawes publicity photo 1935

 Lewis E. Lawes (pictured above) was an actual prison warden, that's a title not a proper name. The Sing Sing Band is a reference to Sing Sing Prison, not vocalists. But Lawes did make some radio appearances. He was in The Glass Key episode of the Campbell Playhouse in 1939, and on Information Please he appeared with Boris Karloff in 1941.  He was the narrator for "Behind Prison Bars", which ran on WJZ from 1933-1939.  Later he was the subject of The Crime Cases Of Warden Lawes, a set of dramatized stories from Lawes' Sing Sing files on Mutual-Radio 1946-1947. He did record one record for Victor in 1932, it's more of the above. [SOURCE] It's hard to describe his brief but intense popularity, he wrote a few books and appeared in everything from radio to the cover of Time magazine, to comic books.

John Charles Thomas was an American opera singer from Pennsylvania. He made his first recordings for Vocalion in 1920, then RCA Victor in 1931. This led to regular appearances on radio including Five-Star Theater in 1932-33 with the Joseph Bonime Orchestra, the Vince Radio Program 1934–36, the Ford, General Motors and The Magic Key of RCA shows 1937–40, the Coca-Cola show from 1940–41 and the Westinghouse Radio Program in 1943-46. 

Elsie Janis was born Elsie Bierbower, in 1889. She was an actress, singer and eventually a radio announcer. most sources state that in 1934, Janis became the first female announcer on the NBC radio network. The December 19, 1934 issue of Radio World published the below article. Apparently NBC had an official first broadcast on January 16th.

Ethel Shutta and the Olsen orchestra air back to back which isn't' surprising. Shutta married band leader George Olsen in 1926, and the couple began touring together. They appeared on the Jack Benny Canada Dry Radio Show, which debuted in 1932 on NBC radio, and apparently together on WEAF. They divorced in 1939. Her career was mostly spent on Broadway but she did do the Nestle Chocolateers program in 1933. 

My favorite program on this list is Amateur Night in Harlem. This was broadcast live from The Apollo Theater. This is where the tough judgement of that local crowd was built. Great artists won real applause, but poor performances were met with jeers, the audience would boo and hiss. [SOURCE] I've written about this program before but there is so much to be said. [LINK]

American Labor Party Radio Broadcasts of 1950

You can be forgiven if you have never heard of the American Labor Party (ALP). It was established in 1936, splitting from the Socialist Party of America (SPA). It's political activity was almost exclusively limited to the state of New York. In 1956, the party was terminated by its New York state committee. So unless you are a New Yorker, and over the age of 65, you'd have to read a lot of history to bump into the ALP.  (Note the SPA only existed from 1899 - 1972)


In 1948, the ALP wasn't going to support Harry Truman. So they backed Progressive Party candidate Henry A. Wallace. Wallace won a whopping 2.4% of the vote, which was more than Teddy Roosevelt, but also obviously a loss for the Progressive Party and the ALP. However, they re-elected Vito Marcantonio in the United States House of Representatives. They also elected Leo Isacson to fill a vacant seat in a Bronx district but lost in the general election that November. Let's take a look at the candidates.

Candidates:

• W. E. B. DuBois for U.S. Senate 
• Vito Marcantonio for U.S. Senate  
• Janet Scott, for U.S. Senate  
• Dr. Clementina Paolone, for Lieutenant Governor
• John T. "Jack" McManus, for NY State Governor
• Frank Scheiner, NY State Attorney General 
• Paul L. Ross, for NYC Mayor
• Michael Jiminez, for Comptroller
• Harriet Wolff, for State Assembly
• Dorothy Bloom, for State Assembly
• Frances Smith, for State Assembly
• Scott K. Gray, Jr.,
• Nicola Rossi 

The problem might have been the Communists. The Communist Party USA openly endorsed the Progressive Party. By connection, some of the ALP staff were Marxists, and some Progressive Party candidates that the ALP supported were alleged communists. Notably among them was Lee Pressman who was not allegedly a communist. He was exposed in 1948 by HUAC as a paid spy for Soviet intelligence. Lee was a member of the Progressive Party (not the ALP) but the stink was smeared all over the left-wing parties during the red scare. Nonetheless the ALP ran real candidates in 1950, even if things were looking grim. The State of New York even managed to kick Wolff, Gray, Rossi and Bloom off the ballot before election day. More here and here.

By October The candidates were getting on-air to promote their campaigns. You can see that not all the candidates hit the airwaves. Wolff, Gray, Rossi and Bloom were already gone. DuBois appeared the most often, but Ross and Paolone were able to make multi-lingual appeals. Most appearances were on WMCA even though WEVD, was literally founded by the Socialist Party of America. But The Jewish Daily Forward had taken an increasing control over programming moving the station toward the center. According to Nathan Godfried's oft-cited but rarely read text, Legitimizing the Mass Media Structure, the SPA at least had turned to NBC and other channels to make its political message heard. 

There is little to corroborate most of the appearances listed on the schedule. But the DuBois appearances are well-documented, with audio, video and even personal papers known in the DuBois Papers held at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst [LINK]. But the below list is not complete. DuBois own papers include a speech by candidate Frances Smith given at WMCA on October 27th.

DATE	CALLS	TIME	CANDIDATE
10-09-1950	WMCA	9:30 - 9:45 PM	Dr. W. E. B DuBois
10-12-1950	WMCA	9:30 - 9:45 PM	John T. "Jack" McManus
10-15-1950	WEVD	3:00 - 3:15 PM	Paul L. Ross (Yiddish)
10-16-1950	WMCA	9:30 - 9:45 PM	Paul L. Ross
10-19-1950	WMCA	9:30 - 9:45 PM	Dr. W. E. B DuBois
10-22-1950	WEVD	3:00 - 3:15 PM	Paul L. Ross (Yiddish)
10-22-1950	WOR	9:15 - 9:30 PM	DuBois & McManus
10-23-1950	WMCA	9:30 - 9:45 PM	McManus & Dr. Paolone
10-25-1950	WMCA	7:30 - 7:45 PM	Cong. Vito Marcantonio
10-26-1950	WMCA	9:30 - 9:45 PM	Dr. W. E. B DuBois
10-29-1950	WEVD	3:00 - 3:15 PM	Paul L. Ross (Yiddish)
10-29-1950	WHOM	4:00 - 4:15 PM	Dr. Clementina Paolone (Italian)
10-30-1950	WMCA	9:30 - 9:45 PM	Paul L. Ross
10-31-1950	WMCA	9:30 - 9:45 PM	Dr. Clementina Paolone
11-01-1950	WMCA	8:30 - 8:45 PM	Jack McManus
11-02-1950	WMCA	7:30 - 7:45 PM	Cong. Vito Marcantonio
11-03-1950	WMCA	9:30 - 9:45 PM	Dr. W. E. B DuBois
11-05-1950	WEVD	3:00 - 3:15 PM	Paul L. Ross (Yiddish)
11-05-1950	WHOM	4:00 - 4:15 PM	Dr. Clementina Paolone (Italian)
11-05-1950	WJZ	6:45 - 7:00 PM	McManus & Dr. Paolone
11-06-1950	WMCA	9:15 - 10:00 PM	DuBois, McManus, Ross &  Paolone

By the 1950s, the ALP had lost much of its support to the rival Liberal Party of New York, in part because of accusations of communist influence in the ALP.  In the end, most of the Republican ticket was elected. Only the incumbent U.S. Senator, Herbert H. Lehman [D], managed to retain his seat. DuBois only won 3.93% of the vote for the U.S. Senate, losing out to incumbent Herbert H. Lehman [D], and trailing well behind Joe R. Hanley [R].

The New York stations they appeared on are an interesting mix: WMCA, WEVD, WHOM, WJZ and WOR. There are easily dozen large New York City AM stations which were on air in 1950. My guess is that they focused their budget on Manhattan.

There were also Television broadcastsbut all of them were on WPIX. WPIX-TV only signed on in 1948 as Channel 11(VHF.)  From 1948 to 1965, WPIX produced Three Star News, a 6:30pm newscast that ran for half an hour. So the speeches would have aired shortly afterward.

DATE	CALLS	TIME	CANDIDATE
10-08-1950	WPIX	7:15 - 8:00 PM	Dr. W. E. B DuBois
10-15-1950	WPIX	7:15 - 8:00 PM	Dr. Clementina Paolone
10-22-1950	WPIX	7:15 - 8:00 PM	Paul L. Ross

The sheet also had a section for their Upstate radio schedule. (below) Not all of these statison even exist anymore. WXKW operated on 850 kHz from 1948–1953 signing off after litigation around some engineering issues. Sounded the same year was 1150 WRUN in Utica. They changed calls to WUTI after a sale in 2008. 590 WROW was founded in 1947, still on air today they switched from Mututal to ABC in 1950. WEVT there is a typo, that has to be 1280 WVET, which also which also launched in 1947. They kept those calls until 1961, currently they are WHKT. 950 WARC also was founded that year, they changed calls to WBBF in 1953. 1260 WNDR predates them by one year, starting in 1946 just like 1450 WKAL in Utica. 620 WAGE started in 1941, and flipped the calls to WHEN after a sale in 1954.

DATE	CALLS	CITY	TIME	CANDIDATE
10-22-1950	WROW	Albany	9:15 - 9:30 PM	DuBois & McManus
10-22-1950	WEBR	Buffalo	9:15 - 9:30 PM	DuBois & McManus
10-22-1950	WEVT	Rochester	9:15 - 9:30 PM	DuBois & McManus
10-22-1950	WNDR	Syracuse	9:15 - 9:30 PM	DuBois & McManus
10-22-1950	WKAL	Utica-Rome	9:15 - 9:30 PM	DuBois & McManus
11-05-1950	WXKW	Albany	6:45 - 7:00 PM	Paolone & McManus
11-05-1950	WKBW	Buffalo	6:45 - 7:00 PM	Paolone & McManus
11-05-1950	WARC	Rochester	6:45 - 7:00 PM	Paolone & McManus
11-05-1950	WAGE	Syracuse	6:45 - 7:00 PM	Paolone & McManus
11-05-1950	WRUN	Utica-Rome	6:45 - 7:00 PM	Paolone & McManus

It appears that 970 WEBR was the most established station on the upstate list, having signed on in 1924. Those calls moved to 1440 in 2012, and the 970 stick became WDCZ. They even predate 1380 WKBW which was founded in 1926, they had been on 1520 kHz for decades even by this broadcast in the fall of 1950. So here we see old stations, new stations... just what appears to be a budget-driven slice of the radio dial. Charitably one could argue that by design, a random looking selection might represent a random selection of the electorate. So I consulted the Mighty Fybush, and even he agreed it appeared to be "stations where you could buy a block of time inexpensively."

After the 1950 drubbing, the ALP regrouped and in 1952, they endorsed Progressive Party candidate Vincent Hallinan for President and Corliss Lamont for US Senate. Thaty went nowhere. In the 1954 election, the ALP failed to garner 50,000 votes for any of its candidates and it lost its place on the New York ballot. They ceased to exist shortly thereafter. Maybe they should have got time on 1010 WINS?

The WMCA Broadcasters

The WMCA Broadcasters have quite a discography, most of them pressed into shellac at 78 rpm back in the late 1920s. They released just shy of 60 platters on Columbia between 1926 and 1928. Some were splits with Irving Kaufman,Arthur Fields or Frank Bessinger and just one each with Joe Collegiate and Joe Fire. Some sides were paired with other singles and repressed by Harmony Records. More here.

But they were just a pseudonym. Ernie Golden was the real man behind the name and any one of his many different orchestras were behind the mic. His group recorded under dozens of names, many more are likely unknown. Some of their pseudonyms include: Ted's Collegians, Yankee Ten Orchestra, John Vincent's Californians, Lou Tanner and his band, and the Hotel McAlpin Orchestra to name a few. You can find more info in the book Pseudonyms on American Records, 1892-1942 by Allan Sutton.

New Amberola Graphic magazine made fun of his many identities back in the 1980s,  pointing out that no two of his bands existed at the same time. "...Their [the WMCA Broadcasters] last appearance in the studio was on November 28, 1927. In mid-January, Ernie Golden's orchestra reappears!"  But Ernie Golden is also a pseudonym. His real name was Eugene Chadbourne. In addition to the hits he had with his many orchestras, he also worked Broadway theater with some success. He wrote the music for the show 'Artists and Models' in 1930. More here.

Let's tie this back to radio. WMCA first signed on February 1st, 1925. Initially they broadcast from the Hotel McAlpin. That hotel is a historic hotel building on Herald Square, at the corner of Broadway and 34th street in New York City. Currently it operates as Harold Towers. It was constructed in 1912 by General Edwin A. McAlpin and at the time was the largest hotel in the world, accommodating up to 2,500 guests. By 1928 they had built an addition! WMCA-AM tested from this building as 2XH, then signed on from the hotel and deriving it's call sign from the family name. All this happened before WMCA moved to the 570 kHz frequency.

Interestingly there were at least two broadcasts from the Hotel McAlpin prior to the sign on of WMCA. In 1920, The McAlpin hosted a broadcast by the Army Signal Corps arranged the broadcast of Italian soprano vocalist Luisa Tetrazzini from her hotel room. Then two years later they had another first linking ship-to-shore radios into their phone system. But it was this hotel for which Ernie Golden's Hotel McAlpin Orchestra was named. It it perhaps the only name in this whole story which was real. They recorded starting in 1923 for Edison Diamond Disc, and Victor, but also Harmony and Columbia as you would expect. But the hotel orchestra outlived the career of  Mr. Golden. By 1939 they were recording under the name Johnny Messner And his Hotel McAlpin Orchestra. They never recorded under the WMCA callsign again after 1928.

Bebop Hits The Radio

I like Jazz, but I have a particular soft spot for Bebop. As a genre, it was short-lived starting with Coleman Hawkins highlights in the early 1940s and petering out into novel but less atonal work by Sonny Stitt and his peers. Around 1948, at the relative peak of the genre it made the leap to radio— in all it's atonal improvisational glory.

In the book Why Jazz Happened  author Marc Myers quotes Walter Gil Fuller describing how not just jazz but Bebop specially made it into the popular culture.

"The first promoters to successfully present 'bop' were Monte Kay, who produced the nightly concerts here at the Royal Roost, and Symphony Sid, the WMCA all-night disc jockey. In 1945 they sponsored the concert debut of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie at Town Hall and since then have been active in presentation and promotion of be-bop in New York.  Several other disc jockeys have been instrumental in bringing the music to a wider audience: Fred Robbins and Bill Williams of WOV, Leonard Feather of WHN, Willie Bryant and Ray Carroll of WHOM, Jerry Roberts and Bill Cook of WAAT, Woody Woodard of WLIB, and Dan Burley and Fred Barr of WWRL..."

This is your short list of makers and shakers in jazz circa 1950. I've written about a few of them before, namely Symphony Sid, Willie Bryant and Ray Carroll, and Fred Robbins. Those are certainly the bigger of the few names on that short list. Leonard Feather is also famed but more for his jazz writing at this date.Those other names you don't recognizance are all still worth knowing. Bill Cook was actually mentioned in Philip Roth's book, American Pastoral.

"...Bill Cook, the smooth late-night Negro disc jockey of the Jersey station WAAT. Musical Caravan, Bill Cook's show, I ordinarily listened to in my darkened bedroom on Saturday nights. The opening theme was Ellington's "Caravan," very exotic, very sophisticated, Afro-Oriental rhythms, a belly-dancing beat..."

That's all true actually.  William B. Helmreich even re-quotes some of the same passage in his book, The Enduring Community: The Jews of Newark and MetroWest, making the connection between a major Jewish population center and black culture. Cook was actually popular enough he later had a program on WATV-TV called Stairway to Stardom. He started on WAAT-AM in 1947, in 1951 just 3 years later The New York age magazine was claiming that Cook had been the first black DJ in the New York metro. Around the same time in 1948 Jerry Roberts was doing a new midnight show at WAAT titled Top Flight Time. But they were both jazz men on the same station, Roberts often filled in for Cook when he was out. Though Cook was more popular, Roberts has been on WAAT since 1942 hosting his own program Swing Shift.

In 1948 Ebony magazine listed off what they claimed were the only 16 black DJs in America. (This website claims they missed one) On that list was Woody Woodard of WLIB-AM.  But Ebony also claimed in 1986 that Woodard was New York's only Black DJ in 1946!  That certainly predates Cook. In 1947 radio guides show him on a 7:00 AM news program on WLIB so I'll call it at least plausible. Above you can see a picture of two Girl Scouts present an award to Woody Woodard at WLIB in 1947.

Dan Burley wasn't just a DJ, he literally wrote the book on hipsterdom, the Original Handbook of Harlem Jive, published in 1944. He wrote for the Amsterdam News, New York Age, Jet Magazine, and Ebony. It was news when WWRL hired him to do a radio program, the Skiffle Club, in 1947. Then in 1948 he crossed the street to WLIB. But he was out of radio and back to writing by 1949. Also interesting to note he helped propel the Skiffle craze in the UK with his band "Dan Burley and his Skiffle Boys."

PD Fred Bar and SM Edith Dick ran WWRL, they wooed Hal Jackson to the station which is notable enough. But they also brought in Tommy Smalls aka Dr., Jive and many others. In 1946 after Fred returned from WWI and a 31 months at AFRS he started moving in some jazz programming. But he himself was never a jazz DJ.  Fred Barr hosted Gospel Time on WWRL from about 1958 through at least 1964. His connection to bebop was more like Monte Kay's. Without jazz men on both sides of the equation— both events and media, bebop wouldn't have prospered as it did.

Hollywood Walk of Fame: M - R

You may have noticed that at least a dozen names on this list have had no business being on the list: side kicks, spouses, extended family, former landlords... etc. There seems to have been a gravitational pull to some popular shows where a large number of the regulars got Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Although fame is distinctly relative, and not always enduring... some of these are not like the others.


Gordon MacRae - Coming from Broadway he made an odd pick for host of  The Railroad Hour. It ran from from 1948 until 1954 starting on ABC and moving to NBC in 1949. In that some era, he guested on the Bell telephone hour. the rest of his career was in film.

Guy Madison - From 1951 to 1954 he played Wild Bill Hickok on the Mutual Network. He later played the same character on a television series.

Ted Malone - He began his radio work as an announcing and playing ukulele KMBC,  In 1929. His early work on air even included poetry readings, especially his program "Between the Bookends" and "Pilgrimage of Poetry." He later branched out into variety shows and quiz shows like Yankee Doodle Quiz in 1943.

Hal March - One half of the comedy duo Sweeny and March on the program of the same name on CBS 1946 to 1948, revived on NBC in 1951.  He is most famous for the quiz show scandal that took down The $64,000 Question which he hosted.

Mark & Brian -   Also known as Mark Thompson and Brian Phelps. They came to Los Angeles in 1987, and debuted a morning show at KLOS-FM. They started working together at WAPI in Birmingham. they retired the show just this year after a 25 year reign.

Mary Martin - She sang everywhere: The Bing Crosby Show, Good news in 1938, Stage Door Canteen, Theater USA, CBS Mystery Theater and others. She never had a starring role in radio, her recording career was huge however and you can't separate the two.

Tony Martin - He was a regularly featured vocalist on the Burns and Allen show 1936 - 1937. In 19398 and 1939 he showed up on "Tune Up Time" on CBS, then the "Carnation Contented Hour" 1948 - 1951. His recording career was much more significant however.

Groucho Marx - Famous now for his black and white film appearances he also spent time in radio. NBC Blue carried the series "Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel" in 1932 and Blue Ribbon town int eh 1940s.  But Groucho was best known on radio as host of "You Bet Your Life" which ran on ABC radio in 1947 and 1949 before moving to TV.

Mary Margaret McBride - See previous post here. 

Clem McCarthy - A sportscaster who called boxing, horse racing and whatever else came up. His best known  for the often re-run clip of his announcing on NBC the 1938 Joe Louis-Max Schmeling rematch.He did some bit parts too including the Eddie Bracken show in 1945.

Smilin' Ed McConnell - He started singing on CBS in 1932 as the Sunshine Melody Man doing gospel numbers.  His children's show, Smilin' Ed's Gang launched in 1944 ran through 1953 on NBC. After the show moved to TV he was replaced be a less fat host.

Joel McCrea - Famous for his movie roles, his biggest radio role was as Jayce Pearson on the radio Tales of the Texas Rangers. It ran 1950 to 1952. When it was revamped for TV he didn't get cast.

Hattie McDaniel - See previous post here.

Graham McNamee - Starting in radio in 1923 his first jobs of any note were in sports writing and announcing on WEAF. He did the play-by-play announcing for the 1926 World Series and went on to announce for the Rose Bowl and championship boxing. In the 1930s he was an announcer for an announcer on Rudy Vallee, Ed Wynn's and others. 

Don McNeill - See previous post here.

James Melton - In 1927 he began singing on radio with a cabaret group. Though he never had his own program , he was a regular performer. He was on The Firestone Hour in 1933, on Ward's Family Theater in 1935, The Sealtest Sunday Night Party (1936), The Palmolive Beauty Box Theater (1937), The Song Shop (1938), the Bell Telephone Hour (1940), Texaco Star Theater (1944) and Harvest of Stars in1945.

Bob Miller - He is a sports announcer doing  play-by-play for the Los Angeles Kings since 1972 on XTRA-AM later moving to KTLK.  Miller moved over to TV announcing for the games in 1990 when the Kings stopped simulcasting  games on TV and radio. He was inducted into the Hockey hall of fame in 2000.
*Corrections from KoHoSo

Ken Minyard & Robert Arthur  - This morning team started their run on KABC-AM in 19723 and continued until 1990 when Artur retired. Minyard tried other co-hosts but was cancelled in 1998. He tried father & song show on KRLA for a year-and-a-half then returned to KABC in 2001 and retired in 2005.

Everett Mitchell - See previous post here.

Vaughn Monroe - This big band leader hosted the Camel Caravan radio program starting in 1946 and running through 1953, seven straight years. He also guested on a number of other programs. His radio resume is a little thin actually.

Garry Moore - He started out in 1937, at WBAL-AM as an announcer. His first network gig was NBC Blue Network's Club Matinee, 1939-43. He got shared billing on the Jimmy Durante-Garry Moore Show, from 1943-48 then did  a year as the Garry Moore Show which crossed over to TV.

Frank Morgan - Coming from a family of radio performers, he is the 2nd most famous after his own niece. The Frank Morgan Show ran on NBC 1944-1945 followed by the Maxwell House Coffee Hour. But he also played Daddy Higgins, father to the Franny Brice character Baby Snooks.

Henry Morgan - He started as an errand boy at WMCA in 1932, after several odd jobs, in 1940, he was offered a daily 15-minute series "Meet Mr. Morgan" on Mutual which mixed ad lib comedy with zany records. Most famous for fighting with his sponsors he also erroneously made the communist black list in the 1950s. He recovered and later hosted TV quiz shows.

Robert W. Morgan - He started out on College station WWST in Wooster Ohio in 1955. He put in time at KACY, KTEE, KOMY, KMBY, KROY, KMAK, KEWB, KHJ.where he was a 'Boss Jock'. He was a Los Angeles institution who only retired in 1970.

Carlton E. Morse - He got a job script writing at KGO-AM  which went very well indeed. His work was mostly action and mystery but he also did some soap operas. his series "I Love a Mystery" ran from 1939 to 1942 on the NBC Blue Network and was revived by Mutual from 1949 through 1953.

Ken Murray - He was the first host  of "Queen for a Day", on the Mutual network from 1945 to 1957. It was a show that was part audience response and part reality programming. It crossed over to TV and only ended when Murray had a heart attack in 1964.

Edward R. Murrow - An extraordinarily famous and respected journalist, his radio career literally jumped directly from covering a children's chorus to covering Nazi aggression in 1938. He became a regular on the nascent "World News Roundup" where he remained thru 1947. Murrow later hosted "This I Believe" which was both erudite and esoteric.

Conrad Nagel - On CBS from 1937 to 1947 he hosted and directed the radio program Silver Theater. Overlapping that he also hosted the Radio Readers Digest from 1942 to 1945. He also was the announcer for Alec Templeton Time in 1939.

John Nesbitt - He wrote and announced for "Headlines of the Past" in 1937. Which grew into a new program " The Passing Parade" which ran until 1951 on NBC.  He also did bits under that title as segments on the Westinghouse Program.

Chuck Niles - Sometimes billed as the only jazz disc jockey on the walk of fame. Actually there are two counting him and Dave Garroway. He rose to fame on  KNOB-FM around 1957 and crossed the street to KBCA in 1965. Starting in 1990 he DJ'd on the infamous KLON-FM, (now KKJZ) he died in 2004.

Ken Niles - A radio announcer and producer at Don Lee Networks, even working on Louella Parsons' Hollywood Hotel show. He did a series of radio dramas called ''Theater of the Mind'' in 1928 and also announced for Camel Caravan, the "Bing Crosby Show'' and ''The Abbott and Costello Show.''

Wendell Niles - He was an announcer on several successful shows: The Bob Hope Show, The Burns & Allen Show, The Milton Berle Show and The Chase and Sanborn Hour. He was also in a couple bad films with a guy named Ronald Regan

Walter O'Keefe - He hosted The Walter O'Keefe Show from 1928 to1937, and then in 1938 with "Battle of the Sexes." Later quiz shows like "Double or Nothing," in the 1940s brought him to even greater national prominence.

Gary Owens - He became a big-time TV announcer but started out on a podunk station, KORN-AM. He moved to KMA in 1956, then KROY in 1959 and finally KEWB. He moved to sister station KFWB in 1951 and then KMPC in 1962 where he stayed for 20 years.

Ozzie Ozzie & Harriet Nelson - They started doing their routine on on Red Skelton's radio show, then in 1944 they got their own radio series, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.It moved to TV in 1952 and continued to be a ratings winner.

Frank Parker - A golden era vocalist who sang on both the Jack Benny Show, and the Burns and Allen show. He later hosted Bride and Groom, and was a panelist on the quiz show “The Masquerade Party." Another dubious inclusion.

Parkyakarkus - Parkyakarkus is a character played by Harry Einstein. While there are many stage names on the walk.. there are few fictional characters. He is most famous for dying on stage at the Friar's Club Roast of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in 1958. He also was on radio briefly pretending to be Greek on Eddie Cantor's radio show in the 1930s and played the same role on his own show "Meet Me At Parkys." 

Louella Parsons - A gossipy Hearst writer, her column parlayed into a radio show starting in 1928> she tried again in 1931 then in 1934 won out armed with better sponsorship on "Hollywood Hotel" via CBS. It ran until 1938.  Her feud with another gossip columnist, Hedda Hopper was legendary.

Al Pearce - His first time on air was with the San Francisco Real Estate Glee Club in 1928. he did a little sketch comedy on KFRC-AM, but the The Happy Go Lucky Hour is what hit big. Starting in 1928 it hit big in 1932 and moved to the NBC Blue network running thru 1935. He went on to try many single season shows for CBS into the late 1940s.

Jack Pearl - A vaudeville man who graduated to radio with the Ziegfeld Follies of the Air in 1932. He was also the host of The Lucky Strike Hour from 1932 to 1934 and his own Jack Pearl Show, which ran from  1936 through early 1937.

Drew Pearson - A known muck-raker of the D.C. beltway in his day, he had a 15-minute program twice a week on the Mutual from 1935 to 1936. It expanded to a 30 minute slot on NBC as "Listen America" running from 1939 to 1941 when it was revamped into "Drew Pearson Comments" running from 1941 to 1953.

Harold Peary - A player of bit parts who got lucky playing Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve, on  Fibber McGee & Molly. It was spun off in 1941by NBC as "The Great Gildersleeve" with him in the leading role. it lasted another 16 years and 4 feature films.

Joe Penner - See previous post here.

Dick Powell - Most of his work was on film but he also was repeatedly featured on Lux Radio Theatre. In his dozen or so appearances he was in "Gold Diggers" in 1936, "Model Wife" in 1941, "Murder, My Sweet" in 1945 and "To the Ends of the Earth" in 1949.

Basil Rathbone - A Shakespearean actor best known for playing  Sherlock Holmes in 17 films made between and in a radio series "The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" running from 1939 to 1946 on NBC Blue.

Quentin Reynolds - He was war correspondent who rose to prominence for covering the Blitz in London in WWII. He also filled in one season for Walter Winchell in 1946.

Grantland Rice - He was a sports writer of some renown, having made his debut on WJZ in 1922 announcing the World Series.  His 1955 book The Tumult and The Shouting was broadcast, as The Grantland Rice Story in fifty-two episodes on NBC inexplicably narrated by Jimmy Powers instead of Mr. Rice.

Irene Rich - Beginning as a star in silent films she also hosted the drama "Dear John", aka The Irene Rich Show.  It ran from 1933 to 1944.

Robert Ripley - See Previous post here.

Roy Rogers - His show broadcast 100 episodes on NBC over six seasons between 1951 and 1957. He even proposed to his first wife on air, met his second wife at a radio station, and while he did license his stage name, he had nothing to do with those nasty restaurants.

Will Rogers - See previous post here.

Mickey Rooney - By far more famous as a film actor, he also starred in a 1948 CBS radio series, "Shorty Bell" as Andy Hardy revisiting the character form the films. He and the original cast also did a syndicated radio version of The Hardy Family in 1949 and 1950.

Lanny Ross - A singer and actor he famously worked on shows like ''Show Boat,'' ''Troubador of the Moon,'' ''The Swift Show'' and his own program ''The Lanny Ross Show." It ran 1941 thru 1949 on CBS with a set also on AFRS.

Charles Ruggles - He was a film actor, appearing in almost 100 different films. He did bit parts in Front Line Theatre, the Roma Wines Show and probably others. His inclusion is dubious.

Art Nudnick's Musical Menagerie

The image on it's own is almost inexplicable. First I found the image on a Tumblr page. It actually originates with Andy Lanset who helps look after the WNYC archives in New York. It's online origin at Flickr makes the following claim:

"Rolf, the mandolin-playing terrier, was regularly featured on Art Nudnick's Musical Menagerie. The Sunday afternoon variety programme was a hit on WYNC in 1925"

This is the kind of story that you hope to be true. But so far I've found nothing. No Art Nudnick, and no Musical Menagerie... at least not on WNYC-AM.  But the date is plausible. It is one of the oldest licensed radio stations in the U.S.  It made its first official broadcast on July 8th 1924. they were operating on 570 AM at the time. They had the frequency all to themselves until 1928 when they were forced into a time share with WMCA-AM which lasted until 1931 when they became a daytimer on 810.

The mic is a prop but the mandolin looks curiously playable. It was the right era for strange radio programming, in those eccentric and experimental early years when there was a lot of airtime and not enough talent and programming to go around. I can't be sure.

Beating Up Barry Gray

Barry Gray was a lot like Walter Winchell in many ways. They were both mudslingers no doubt, but Walt was a bit more political and presented himself at least ostensibly as a news man, hence those teletype sounds. Barry Gray was more of a gossip. This is why Lee Mortimer punched out Barry Gray and not Walter Winchell. Though later Winchell had his own spat with Gray. they had some things in common...suffice it to say that Barry Gray got in a lot of fights.

Barry's fight with Lee began in 1946 and started to appear in issues of Billboard as accusations of libel. In January of 1947 Gray had been on WOR-AM for about 2 years doing overnights and doing interviews and slinging gossip like a low-rate Walter Winchell. Lee said that "nobody hit anybody" but that's not what Gray's face looked like. 

Barry Gray's real name was Bernard Yaroslaw.  In radio, Gray had started out as just another disc jockey on WMCA flipping records but then did an interview one night with Woody Herman. The format became what we now call talk radio. For that reason he is sometimes called the father of talk radio. By October of 1949 he was doing overnights on WOR expounding on that talk schtick.

In 1952 he started the spat with Winchell. Winchell called him “Borey Pink” trying to make an offensive connection between Barry's Jewish heritage and communism. But in 1955 Gray had a chance to fight back. Winchell's favorite watering hole was the Stork Club. Relating to a public libel scandal, an effort was being made to revoke it's liquor license. It was a bit of a conspiracy by Winchell's enemies. Gray went on a tear inviting some of those enemies on his radio show including even Ed Sullivan. The book Let's Go To Press by Ed Werner records the following incident:

"On the show, a  guest had asked Gray, "What is your ambition in life, is it  to be another Walter Winchell?" Gray had replied forcefully,  "Yes, my ambition is to be another Winchell. After all, how  long can he expect to live?"

Gray later claimed that Winchell previously hired some thugs to rough him up. It may be why he left town in 1948. Gray took his show from New York to Miami, broadcasting from 1140 WMIE-AM. He broadcast the program live from a series of night clubs including the Kitty Davis Night Spot, Copa Lounge and Danny & Doc's Jewel Box .. (weak source on that last one) Things got a little hot for him professionally after a few altercations and an incident where he clubbed someone over the head with the microphone. 

Barry returned to WMCA in 1950 and stayed for almost 4 decades. He didn't leave until 1989 on the heels of a format change. He took the opportunity to return to WOR-AM. that parlayed into "The Barry Gray Show" which aired on WOR-TV. The TV show didn't last, but Barry stayed on WOR-AM until his death in 1996. He was 80 years old.  He was voted 1996 "Talk Show Host of the Year" by the National Association of Talk Show Hosts.

Symphony Sid

Symphony Sid was the man that brought bebop to the masses. We don't know for sure how Sidney Tarnopol became known as Symphony Sid. In that era, it was common for immigrants to shorten or modify their surnames to make them sound less "ethnic."  That's how Sid Tarnopol became Torin. But that doesn't answer the question at all. One story says that he worked at a record store, the "Symphony Shop." I can find no record of any such retailer. Another version claims that it came with a rhyming introduction by announcer Walter Tolmes. The most believable version is that it came from the classical program he DJ'd on his first radio gig at 1380 WBNX-AM.More here.

Sid was born in 1909, in New York City. and grew up in Brooklyn. And that's where he made his debut in radio as a Jazz DJ on WBNX in the Bronx. He was already using the name Sidney Torin.  More here and here. I can't find a starting year, but generally I assume it to be around 1931, to fit the rest of his timeline. It is often written that he also worked at WBMS-AM, whose calls did reside in New york in this era, but that station was absorbed by 1450 WHOM-AM in 1933. The calls moved to Boston, as did Mr Torin later on, not until 1951, and took a job at another jazz station, 1090 WBMS. He didn't return to New York until 1956.

By 1937 on WBNX he was hosting a jazz show, his "After School Swing Session."  By 1940 he was also DJingat WHOM for his "After-Hours Swing Session.".  He followed that with overnight shifts at WMCA and WJZ . On WMCA it was an all night jazz show "the royal Roost" on WMCA around 1948.  That graveyard shift at WJZ was "Jumpin' With Symphony Sid." Somewhere in there he also was on WWRL. He was already the best known jazz DJ in New York. They even started wring songs about him. In 1947, Arnett Cobb recorded "Walkin' With Sid" on Apollo records. In 1952 King Pleasure recorded "Jumpin' With Symphony Sid" on the Prestige label. The George Shearing Quartet recorded it the next year for MCA, but so had Charlie Parker and Sonny Stitt.

In Boston he ruled the airwaves on WBMS and also did a turn or two at WCOP. He came back a few years later and landed at WOV, hosting the Birdland Jazz show.  He stayed for just a year, giving up the mic to B. Mitchell Reed in 1956 (probably). She spent the next year at WEVD, spinning salsa. He later moved to WADO-AM, still spinning jazz, he stayed there until 1964 when the station first went to an all-Spanish format. It was a shame they didn't keep him on.  the jazz community gave him a lot of flak for shunning jazz at WEVD, he eventually added jazz to the last hour of his program. He retired in 1970 to the Florida keys, and in 1976, briefly un-retired to do shifts on a Miami jazz FM station, 93.9 WBUS.. that today we call WMIA. He died on September 14th, 1984.

MOVIE NIGHT

I came across this in my research yesterday but it's worthy of it's own post. It's a military training film about a certain New York radio station, owned by the Nathan Straus family. It discusses it's ownership, management and daily activities.  On one side it's a strange little film that exists for virtually no reason, except to demonstrate the connections between Straus and the government.  On the other hand it's a dandy little film about what was an independent radio station while we sit here in an era with precious few.  More here.

A New World A-Coming

Vincent Lushington "Roi" Ottley attended St Bonaventure University for two years, beginning in 1926 and transferred to the University of Michigan in 1928 to study Journalism. He stayed on there for a year and dropped out to return to New York where he attended Columbia and St. John's University for a law degree. It may seem like he lacked direction, but there was more going on than that. He grew up in Harlem, and only got into college on a track scholarship. In 4 years he went through four schools and at least 3 majors without completing any.  But all along he'd been writing. He wrote for school newspapers and their literary magazines. When he returned to New York he started writing for the Amsterdam News. In 1943 he published he first book A New World A-Coming, and won a Peabody Award. He went on to publish five more books. So how does this relate to radio?

 That gifted writer and later became a columnist for the Chicago Tribune and later a war correspondent in WWII. While overseas, he wrote for Liberty Magazine, PM and the Pittsburgh Courier; he made a bit of a name for himself. There were very few black reporters overseas. Some sources say he was the first. More here.  But it was that first book, A New World A-Coming inspired an eponymous radio program on WMCA-AM.  Some sources say that Ottley produced it, others that WMCA produced it. It's opening credits state that it was produced by WMCA and the "The City-wide Citizen's Committee on Harlem." It's most likely that both had creative input. But it was definitely narrated by Canada Lee (Ottley did narrate a few episodes) and it's theme song was written by Duke Ellington. The program was about black Americans, and showcased black literature, poetry and was at the same time vigorously patriotic. They plugged war bonds too. The 30 minute program aired on Sunday afternoons and the series was continued on into 1957. (Once source claims it ran into 1966) You can hear a few episodes here.

It featured accounts of African-American social life in 1940s Harlem and serving in the military during WWII. That gets back to that City-wide Citizen's Committee on Harlem. that group was founded by reverend John Johnson, Walter Francis White and Algernon Black in 1935. They were involved with the NAACP and the Urban League. It's wroth noting that by this time, the Urban League had already been producing radio programs such as "Minority Opinion," "Americans All," "Immigrants all," and "Freedom's People."

Collectively all these groups were trying to improve race relations, but they were also civil rights activists. In the late 1930s there had been a series off riots set off by police violence against blacks. To his credit, mayor Laguardia did not order a crack down. He reached out to the Citizen's Committee on Harlem. At this time Roi Ottley was reporting on these issues at the Amsterdam News. By the time he won that Peabody award, he was a big name in their community. In 1944 he became the director of the Negro Unit of the New York Federal Writers Project. These writings became fodder for his radio program. More here.

That's all very impressive but the leap to radio is the twist in the story. Nathan Straus bought  WMCA in 1943 from Ed Noble, and became it's chairman of the board. Straus was the former head of the United States Housing Authority and Noble was trying to buy the NBC Blue Network and trying to ingratiate himself to the FCC. But even from the get-go it was expected that Straus was doing something different. The Billboard article describing the purchase was titled "Noble Buy Of WMCA From Noble Points Up Entry Of Public-Minded Into Field."  He shared the board with H. M. Stein, the president of Davega-City Radio. The book Broadcasting Freedom by Barbara D. Savage described Straus as "a New Dealer with progressive views on race..."  No surprise then that it was Straus who bought the rights to A New World A-Coming from Ottley to create the program. It wasn't his only black oriented program by far.. but for every program there's a story to tell.