Woodsman, Spare That Dog

The dog version of Junior enthusiastically rushes to get an axe to cut down a tree on which Lucky Ducky (from the cartoon of the same name) is perched.

Two problems.

1. Junior never takes his eyes off the duck.

2. Junior puts down the axe.

George walks into the scene, then Junior reaches for where the axe was (it has fallen on the ground).



Junior shakes his head then realises his mistake.



What does Avery do to top the routine? Well, since George was used as an axe, chopping into the tree....



Walt Clinton, Preston Blair, Grant Simmons and Louie Schmitt are the credited animators. The cartoon was released Oct. 9, 1948.

Network Radio the Week Before NBC

Broadcasting history tells us that the NBC signed on for the first time on Monday, November 15, 1926.

That’s quite true. But the story isn’t complete.

NBC leaves the impression it was the first radio network in the U.S. It wasn’t. In fact, it inherited another network (and its programming) after parent company RCA purchased WEAF in New York from A.T. & T.

WEAF had a string of affiliates from Maine to Missouri. According to the September 1926 issue of Radio Broadcast magazine, they were:

WCSH, Portland.
WEEI, Boston.
WTAG, Worcester, Mass.
WJAR, Providence, R.I.
WTIC, Hartford.
WFI and WOO, Philadelphia.
WCAP, Washington.
WGR, Buffalo.
WCAE, Pittsburgh.
WTAM, Cleveland.
WADC, Akron, Ohio.
WWJ, Detroit.
WSAI, Cincinnati.
WLIB and WGN, Chicago.
WOC, Davenport, Iowa.
WCCO, Minneapolis.
KSD, St. Louis.
WDAF, Kansas City.

WFI refers to WLIT Philadelphia (see below) as both stations shared a frequency and were owned by the same department store.

If, like me, you’re curious what the WEAF network (known as the Broadcasting Company of America) aired the day before NBC signed on with a four-hour extravaganza, here’s the answer that I can find from newspapers of Sunday, November 14, 1926:

4:00—Men’s conference in the Bedford branch of the Y. M. C. A., Brooklyn; also WEEI, WTAG, WCSH, WCAE, WSAI.
7:20—“Capitol Theater Family” with Major Edward Bowes orchestra under the direction of David Mendoza and soloists; also WEEI, KSD, WWJ, WJAR, WRC, WCAE, WTAG.
9:15—“Atwater Kent Hour” with Frieda Hempel; soprano, Rudolph Gruen, piano; Ewald Haun, flautist; also WGR, WRC, WSAI, WEEI, WCCO, KSD, WJAR, WTAG, WCAE, WTAM, WOC, WWJ, WFI, WGN.
10:15—WEAF Players: Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” with Pedro de Cordoba as Macbeth, Katherine Emmet as Lady Macbeth, Lawrence Cecil as Macduff, Gerald Stopp as Duncan and Alfred Shirtley as Banquo; also WCAE. (WTIC silent)

Many radio pages then had programme highlights, some supplied by various print services. Here’s a short biography of the star of the Atwater Kent Hour:

While Frieda Hempel was trained in Europe, it was because she is a native of Leipzig, and at an early age became a pupil of Mme. Nicklass Kempner at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin, where she made her operatic debut in the “Merry Wives of Windsor,” at the Royal Opera in 1905. It was she who created the role of Marschelin in “Rosenkavalier” in Berlin in 1911. She toured Europe in concerts until she was claimed by the Metropolitan Opera Company, New York, in 1912.
While she knows the principal European languages—French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish, English and a little Irish brogue, she is a proud champion of songs in English, including old folk melodies and vesper hymns, as well as contemporary songs. Of the American songs she has shown a preference for the old Revolutionary period.

Some papers even printed the musical selections to be heard that evening. To the right, you can see what was featured on the Atwater Kent programme.

Let’s look at the rest of WEAF’s programming for the week before NBC took over. These come from various sources and may not be complete.

Monday, November 8   (WEAF 492m. 610kcs.)
6:45 to 7:45 a.m.—Tower Health Exercises from the Metropolitan Tower; also WGR, WEEI, WRC.
8:00 p.m.—“What’s Wrong With Our Educational System?” Orrin C. Lester, an experienced business man and formerly a school superintendent, will give the second in a series of talks on the general subject. Mr. Lester has some interesting ideas of public school education and believes that academic subjects should have something in common with the modern requirements of life. He was for years a school superintendent but left the teaching profession to study education in its relation to life from outside viewpoints, Mr. Lester believes that the primary object of education should be to develop a sense of personal responsibility As a layman Mr. Lester's, social viewpoint and experience represent the combined judgement of the great majority of fathers and mothers who are facing the problem of educating their children today. This series of talks which will be participated in by other well known personages, some of whom will take a position somewhat differing from Mr. Lester, is an experiment, which like all experiments must develop with the help and suggestions of those interested; also WLIT.
8:15—Old Timer Concert, old-time negro songs sung by a chorus of male voices, a little exchange between the “end men” Tambo and Bones and “Mr. Interlocutor,” and all the novelties that mark the old-fashioned minstrel show, will be heard in the first show of a series. Songs include “Cold Black Lady,” “My Gal’s a High Born Lady,” “Chicken” and “Alexander’s Ragtime Band”; also WLIT (to 8:30).
8:45—Book talk. W. Orton Tewson, editor of Literary Review, will give the second of his series of four book reviews. Mr. Tewson aims to acquaint with "What's What and Who[’s] Who" in the realm of modern situation; also WLIT.
9:00—A & P Gypsies. “The Melody,” a composition of Vice President Charles G. Dawes, will be the selection of outstanding interest tonight. John Barnes Wells, radio tenor, will again be the guest artist of the evening and will be heard in at least two solos of popular appeal. Songs will be “In a Persian Garden” (Ketelby), “Floods of Spring” (Rachmanioff), “Mexican Serenade” (Strickland), “Katinka” (selections), “Mystery of Life” (Herbert), (melody by Vice President Dawes), “Artist’s Life” (waltz) (Strauss), “Spanish Dances” (Sarasate), “German National Anthem”; also WEEI, WJAR, WRC, WCSH, WCAE, WTAM, WLIT, WWJ, WDAF, WSAI.
10:00—WEAF Grand Opera Company, “The Magic Flute” by Mozart will be repeated tonight by the company, directed by Cesare Sodero. The leading roles this even will be assumed as follows: Queen of the Night, Genia Zielinska, coloratura soprano; Pamina, Frances Sebel, soprano; Tamino, Guiseppe di Benedetto, tenor; Papageno, Carl Rollins, baritone; Sarastro, Nino Ruisi, basso; Monastatos, Justin Lawrie, tenor; also WJAR, WCCO, WCAE, WCSH, KSD, WDAF, WSAI, WLIT.

Tuesday, November 9   (WEAF 492m. 610kcs.)
6:45 to 7:45 a.m.—Tower Health Exercises from the Metropolitan Tower; also WGR, WEEI, WRC.
8:00 p.m.—Scott’s Vikings, selections from “Peer Gynt” suite: “Morning,” “In the Hall of the Mountain King,” “Asa’s Death,” “Arabian Dance,” “Solvajg’s Song”; also WEEI, WFI, WCAE, WWJ, WGR, WTAM, WSAI, WJAR, WTAG, WOC, WCCO, WCHS, KSD.
8:30—Jolly Buckeye Bakers; also WTAG, WFI, WTAM, WWJ, WSAI, KSD, WCCO.
9:00—Eveready Hour, Julia Marlowe, famous Shakespearean actress who retired several years ago, will be heard once more in some of his most successful roles; also WEEI, WFI, WTAG, WJAR, WGR, WCAE, WTAM, WWJ, WSAI, WGN, WOC, WCCO, KSD, WRC.
10:00—Auction bridge instruction prepared by Messrs. Milton C. Work, Sidney S. Lenz, Wilbur C. Whitehead and E. V. Shepard, all of New York City; also WEEI, WCSJ, WTAG, WJAR, WGR, WCAE, WTAM, WFI, WWJ, WSAI, WGN, WOC, WCCO, KSD.
10:30 to 11:30—Janssen’s Hoffbrau orchestra; also WFI, WWJ, WCAE, WGR, WTAM, WCSH.
Reviews: Miss Julia Marlowe was the Eveready Hour last night The famed deliverer of Shakespearean lines, to whom Mr. Furness made a sweeping bow at the outset, recited excerpts from two of her most acclaimed roles; and then turned her attention to more modern and armisticial things. Apparently concerned with the music rather than the content of her utterances, Miss Marlowe remained a voice of evenly varied inflections and scant emotional expression throughout the hour. Her lines flowed with too limpid a beauty to keep this irreverent listener enthralled. (Stuart Hawkins, Herald Tribune).
We had several calls at the office last night from bridge players regarding the broadcast of the auction bridge hand on the WEAF chain...[T]he bidder forced one of his opponents to start discarding and worked what our informant called the “squeeze play” to force the king of spades out of the hand, thus taking the last two tricks with the dummy. The bidder made a “grand slam” anyway [on the bid of six hearts], whereas, according to the local player’s viewpoint, had his opponent been more cagy and gone easy on his spades he could have held on to a “little slam.” (Hartford Courant)
Preview: The Crusaders orchestra under the direction of Frank Cornwall will be heard for one hour in a program of music...from Janssen’s Midtown Hofbrau Restaurant, New York City. The Crusaders Orchestra features a brass quartet heard frequently during the radio programs which consists of two baritone saxophones, one tenor saxophone and one tuba. This orchestra is the latest to be added to the group broadcasting from WEAF and has only been playing at the famous Hofbrau, one of New York’s outstanding restaurants, for a few months. Previously they toured the country with Mr. Cornwell as director. At the Midtown Hofbrau there has recently been constructed as the place from which the orchestra broadcasts a platform in the form of a mammoth sea shell. This is made entirely from small bits of glass and is in reality a Mosaic mirror. It is said that more than one hundred fifty thousand pieces of glass were used in its construction. While the orchestra is playing colored lights in keeping with the selection being rendered illuminate this unusual setting. (Jamestown Evening Journal)

Wednesday, November 10   (WEAF 492m. 610kcs.)
6:45 to 7:45 a.m.—Tower Health Exercises from the Metropolitan Tower; also WGR, WEEI, WRC.
7:30 p.m.—United States Army band; also WTAG, WJAR, WRC (to 8:00).
8:00—Salon concert,baritone; also WJAR.
8:30—Davis Saxophone Octet. The octet will discard their musical “landlubber” tactics for rhythmic “sea legs” when they launch a program consisting entirely of sea tunes. Selections will be “A Sailor,” “When the Bells of the Lighthouse Ring Out, “Sailor’s Hornpipe,” “Fisher’s Hornpipe,” “Asleep in the Deep” ; also WJAR, WRC, WCAE, WSAI, WEEI, WLIT, WCSH, WGR.
9:00—Ipana Troubadours; also WEEI, WGR, WRC, WCAE, WWJ, KSD, WCCO, WLIB, WSAI.
9:30—Moment Musicale; also WEEI, WGR, WCSH, KSD, WWJ.
10:00—Smith Brothers, Trade and Mark (Scrappy Lambert and Billy Hillpot); also WTAG, WGR, WRC, WCAE, WWJ, KSD, WCCO, WDAF.
10:30—WEAF Light Opera company performing “La Mascotte,” a three-act comic opera by Andrau; also WCAE, WJAR.
Preview: A salon concert with Ridoni, dramatic baritone. as the featured artist will occupy the waves of WEAF and WJAR for one half hour this evening...Ridoni...has just returned to America, the land of his birth, after an absence of two years. During the greater part of that time Ridoni was the favorite pupil of Oscar Anselmi, the famous impresario and maestro who gave both Caruso and Tettrazini to the world. (Jamestown Evening Journal)

Thursday, November 11   (WEAF 492m. 610kcs.)
6:45 to 7:45 a.m.—Tower Health Exercises from the Metropolitan Tower; also WGR, WEEI, WRC.
8:30 p.m.—Shickerling Crystal Gazers Quartet; also WEEI, WFI, WGR.
9:00—Cliquot Club Eskimos; also WEEI, WJAR, WTAG, WFI, WCAE, WSAI, WTAM, WGR, WWJ, WOC, WCCO, KSD, WGN.
10:00—Goodrich Zippers, directed by Henry Burr and featuring RCA recording artists; also WEEI, WFI, WCAE, WWJ, WGR, WOC, WCCO, WTAG, KSD, WSAI, WJAR, WGN, WCSH, WTAM, WADC. (WWJ, closed for repairs).

Friday, November 12   (WEAF 492m. 610kcs.)
6:45 to 7:45 a.m.—Tower Health Exercises from the Metropolitan Tower; also WGR, WEEI, WRC.
8:30 p.m.—Orchestral concert, also WLIT.
9:00—South Seas Islanders; also WLIT, WWJ, KSD.
9:30—La France orchestra; also WEEI, WGR, WDAF, WLIT, WCAE, WTAM, WWJ, KSD, WOC.
10:00—Whittall Anglo-Persians, featuring musical gems inspired by, or revived, during the World War; also WRC, WJAR, WTAM, KSD, WWJ, WCCO, WDAF, WGR, WEEI, WTAG, WCAE, WOC, WLIT. (rug company sponsorship)
10:30—Allied Officers dinner. Speeches by Gen. Charles P. Summerall, Admiral Charles P. Plunkett and Consuls General of France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Poland, Portugal, Belgium and Rumania. At the conclusion of the speeches a period of silence will be observed for one minute, the program being finally concluded with the rendition of taps; also WTAG, WTIC, WJAR, WCSH, WWJ, WDAF, WGR perhaps other affiliates.
Preview: Arcadie Kirkenholz, the well-known violinist, this evening, at 8:30 o’clock, will be heard in the second of a series of programs known as A Half Hour With Great Composers...Birkenholz [sic] has selected works from Ludwig Van Beethoven [sic] for this second program. Among the selections which will be included in this thirty minutes given over to an intimate musical meeting with great composers will be found, First Movement of the Concerto, Rondino, Minuet, and Turkish March...Mr. Kirkenholz who has been called by Leopold Auer, [“]one of the most gifted violinists of the younger generation,” has played several times before the microphone of WEAF, where his programs have been greeted with enthusiasm.
Preview: The La France Orchestra, with Anna C. Byrne as guiding spirit, will broadcast another of its popular half-hour programs this evening...beginning at 9:30. The Mysterious Baritone will again join this orchestral group and will be heard in two solos. Miss Byrne is now arranging her radio programs from the requests which have come in from radio listeners in great abundance. In the limited time which the orchestra has been on the air Miss Byrne does not find it possible to include all the selections requested by the radio audience, but where several selections are of one particular type and adhering to a definite theme a characteristic one is selected.(Jamestown Evening Journal)

Saturday, November 13   (WEAF 492m. 610kcs.)
6:45 to 7:45 a.m.—Tower Health Exercises from the Metropolitan Tower; also WGR, WEEI, WRC.
1:45 to 4:00 p.m.—Football, Yale-Princeton, from Palmer Memorial Stadium in Princeton. Phillips Carlin and Graham McNamee, announcers; also WEEI, WGR, WTIC.
9:00—Balkite Hour, New York Symphony conducted by Walter Damrosch, Wagner’s “Die Valkyrie”; also WEEI, WGR, WFI, WCAE, WWJ, WSAI, WTAM, WGN, KSD, WCCO, WDAF. (battery company sponsorship)
10:00 to 11:00—WEAF Revue, featuring artists who appear on the station throughout the week; also WTAG, WCAE.

Though RCA bought the WEAF/BCA network, the company already owned a radio station in New York, and had since 1923. WJZ had its own small network of affiliates:

WBZ, Springfield, Mass.
WGY, Schenectady, N.Y.
WRC, Washington.
KDKA, Pittsburgh.

This “Radio Group” also provided limited network programming on November 14.

8:30—Hotel Commodore orchestral. Astrid Fjelde, contralto; also WGY.
10:15—Maxwell House Ensemble with Toscha Seidel, violinist; also WGY, WRC, WBZ, KDKA.

The Decatur Herald gave radio fans an overview of the major programme of the evening; it printed the list of melodies to the right.

Toscha Seidel, the young Russian violinist, who, in a comparatively short period of time, has risen to one of the highest pinnacles in the realm of music, is to be the featured soloist of the next Maxwell House Coffee Concert, to be broadcast by Stations WJZ, WRC, WGY, WBZ and KDKA at 9:5 [sic] o’clock tonight, central time. Supporting Seidel in this concert will be heard the Maxwell Coffee Orchestral, with Nathaniel Shilkret wielding the baton as conductor. As a suitable setting for the violin music which Mr. Seidel will draw from his Stradivarius, Mr. Shilkret has arranged a program of Oriental selections.
Toscha Seidel will play on his most priceless possession, a violin made by the master violin maker of Cremona, Italy, Stradivari, or Stradivarius, as the name is given in the Latin inscriptions. Music critics all over the world have been most complimentary in their remarks concerning Seidel and it is generally conceded that he ranks among the four greatest violinists of the present generation.

WJZ would be transferred to NBC on January 1, 1927, with a two-hour broadcast sponsored by the Victor Talking Machine company. This resulted in the naming of the Blue and Red (WEAF) networks, according to that day's issue of Radio Digest.

The four-station RCA network was not as active as WEAF’s but provided the following programmes for the remainder of the week (there were no network shows on Monday or Wednesday that week):

Tuesday, November 9   (WJZ 455m. 660kcs.)
8:00—Champion Spark Plug Hour; also WGY, WRC.
9:00—Pennsylvania Railroad Hour. A musical bouquet, twenty songs dedicated to flowers, directed by Nat Shilkret; also WGY.
10:00—Cook’s Southern Hemisphere Cruise, the story of Vienna, Austria; also WRC, WGY.

Thursday, November 11   (WJZ 455m. 660kcs.)
8:00—First National presentation (“The Voice of the Silent Drama”), “Midnight Lovers”; also WRC, WGY, WBZ.
9:00—Royal Hour of Music, Erva Giles, soprano; also WRC, WGY, WBZ. (typewriter company sponsorship)
10:00—Armistice Day Radio Celebation: Major General Charles P. Summerall, chief of staff of the Armies of the U.S., and Father Francis P. Duffy, late chaplain of the 169th Infantry, from WJZ, New York, U.S Marine band from WRC, Washington; from WGY, WBZ.
11:00—Frivolity Club Orchestra under Jack Denny; also WBZ.

Friday, November 12   (WJZ 455m. 660kcs.)
9:00—Breyer Ice Cream hour; also WRC.
10:00—Baldwin Piano hour, the second concert of the series. The artists to be presented on this program will be Phoebe Movil, pianist, Lozos Shuk, cellist and the Baldwin string quartet, composed on Jacques Jacobs, first violin; Alexander Kozegi, second violin; Egon Frank Kornstein, viola, and Laxos Shuk, cellist. Cello solo, “Study” (Chopin-Glazounoff), “After a Dream (Faure-Casals), “Andalusian Serenade” (Kuempf), piano solo, “Puerto del vine” (Debussy), “Pickwick” (Debussy), “Spesalizio” (Liszt), “Beethoven Quartet in A major” (op. 18, No. 5) (string quartet); also WGY.
10:30—Paul Specht’s orchestra; also WRC, WGY.
Review: Specht’s is one of the finest radio orchestras heard around. A quadruple microphonic pick-up explains the excellent instrumental balance for one thing. This new wrinkle in the Specht welfare is explained by the maestro having been a pioneer radio broadcaster in the days when talent was scarce and unconcerned about co-operating with radio. Specht’s program, it will be notes, is a 50-50 proposition of licensed and unlicensed numbers, the forepart being special symphonic dance arrangements of the classics; also a flock of English stuff brought over by Specht. The latter half is pop stuff, this being explained by Twin Oaks [supper club at 143 W. 46th where Specht performed] only paying a license fee to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers for one-half hour during which period the generally known numbers are utilized. (Variety, Nov. 17).

Saturday, November 13   (WJZ 455m. 660kcs.)
2:00—Army-Notre Dame football game from Yankee Stadium, running description by Major Andrew White; also WRC, WGY.
8:25—Student concert of the Philharmonic society of New York.Three preludes from “Palestrina,” Hans Pfitzner; concert piece for piano and orchestra (von Weber), Don Quixote (Richard Strauss). Miss Margery Hamilton, of Youngstown, Ohio, will be the soloist in the third of a series and will play Weber’s “Concertstruck” for piano. William Mengelberg conducts; also WRC.

There were other networks, too. The General Electric-owned WGY in Schenectady, in addition to airing WJZ, also had a multi-station hook-up with WHAM Rochester, WFBL Syracuse and WMAK Lockport, N.Y. It would appear to have been much like the later Mutual network where stations made broadcasts available to each other.

Monday, Nov. 8
No programming.

Tuesday, Nov. 9
7:30—Address, “Big Business and the Making of Our Government,” Prof. Charles N. Waldron, Union College. WGY, WMAK, WHAM.
7:45—Edward Rice, violinist, from the Schenectady studio. WGY, WMAK, WHAM.
10:30 to 11:30—Musical program from the studio at Buffalo, presented by Dr. Pierce’s Golden Orchestra and sponsored by The World’s Dispensary Medical association. Stations WMAK, WGY, WHAM, WFBL.

Wednesday, Nov. 10
6:45—WGY Agricultural program from the studio at Schenectady. Stations WGY, WMAK, WFBL.
7:30—Musical program from the Eastman Theatre, Rochester, N.Y. Stations WHAM, WGY, WMAK, WFBL.
8:00—Opera, “The Abduction from the Seraglio,” given by the Rochester Opera Company with orchestra accompaniment, under the direction of Emanuel Balaban. This program is sponsored by the Hickok Manufacturing Company and the Bausch & Lomb Optical Company. Stations WHAM, WGY, WMAK, WFBL.
10:15 to 11:15—Concert program from the studio at Syracuse, N.Y. Stations WFBL, WGY, WHAM, WMAK.

Thursday, Nov. 11
3:15—The second concert by the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra is an All-Wagner program with Eugene Goossens conducting the broadcast from the Eastman Theatre. This program is sponsored by the Convention and Publicity Bureau of the Rochester Chamber of Commerce.
The orchestra is made up of 98 men with Richard Halliley, baritone, as soloist. The concert will be opened with the “Tannhauser” overture. The second number will be “Sigfried’s Journey to the Rhine” followed by Hans Sach’s monologue from “The Mastersingers” sung by Mr. Halliley. The Prelude and Love-Death from “Tristan and Isolde” and the introduction of the Third Act of Lohgengrin, the Epithalamium so much favored by concert-goers, will finish the first half of the program.
The concert will be resumed with “Wotan’s Farewell” from “The Valkyrie” and will close with the mighty “Entrance of the Gods into Valhalla” from “Rhinegold.”
Stations WHAM, WGY, WMAK, WFBL.
7:30—WGY Book Chat, William F. Jacob, General Electric Co. librarian. Stations WGY, WHAM.
7:45—Weekly concert from the studio at Syracuse University at Syracuse, N.Y. Stations WFBL, WGY, WHAM, WMAK.
10:00 to 10:45—Piano recital from the studio at Schenectady. Stations WGY, WHAM, WMAK, WFBL.
11:30—Organ recital by Stephen E. Boisclair from Albany, N.Y. Stations WGY, WHAM, WMAK, WFBL.

Friday, Nov. 12
7:30—WGY Health Talks. Stations WGY, WMAK.
7:35—Edward Rice, violinist, from the studio at Schenectady. Stations WGY, WHAM, WMAK, WFBL.
7:45—Music study series, part 4 (Cui). Esther Osterhout, pianist. Stations WGY, WHAM, WMAK, WFBL.
8:15—Auction bridge game. Stations WGY, WMAK, WHAM.
8:45—Farce comedy, “Good Evening Clarice” by McMullen, given by the WGY Players, Ten Eyck Clay, director. Stations WGY, WHAM, WMAK, WFBL.

Saturday, Nov. 13
6:30—Dinner concert from Onondaga Hotel, Syracuse. Stations WFBL, WMAK, WGY, WHAM.
7:30—Program from the stage and studio of Shea’s Buffalo Theatre. Stations WMAK, WHAM, WFBL, WGY.

Sunday, Nov. 14
3:00-4:30—Musical program from the studio at Syracuse, N.Y. Stations WFBL, WGY, WHAM, WMAK.

And yet another little network saw WGBS in New York provide programmes occasionally to WIP Philadelphia.

Tuesday, Nov. 9, 1926
8:30 to 9:30—Free Public Course in Chamber Music direct from Central High School Auditorium, under the personal direction of Dr. Henry T. Fleck, LLD. The Wyomissing String Trio of Nana Nix (violin), Willy Richter (piano), John Meyer (cello) will present a concert of selections from Haydn and Mendelssohn. Interpretive remarks and illustrations will be made by Dr. Fleck of New York. From WIP.

Thursday, Nov. 11
8:15 or 8:20—Etude Hour under the direction of James Francis Cooke; to WIP.
9:30—Music drama, “Not Until,” first radio performance of a new play on war and peace by Harold M. Sherman, produced by and featuring Howard Kyle; to WIP.

Saturday, Nov. 13
9:15—Program by the St. Erik Society for the Advancement of Swedish Arts, Music and Literature; to WIP.
10:15—“Winter Constellations,” to WIP.
10:30 to 11:05—Arrowhead Inn dance orchestra; to WIP.

Sunday, Nov. 14
9:30—Dailey Paskman, musical drama “The Devil, the Servant and the Man,” by William Anthony McQuire; musical setting by Dr. Alfred G. Robyn.; to WIP.
10:30—Roxana Erb, mezzo-contralto, and the WGBS String Ensemble; to WIP.

No, CBS did not exist yet. It began as a programming service called United Independent Broadcasters. UIB signed a deal in April 1927 with the owners of Columbia records to set up the Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting System, which finally got phone lines to broadcast its shows, and began network programming on Sept. 19, 1927. Within six weeks, Columbia pulled out (taking the “phonograph” part of the name with it). A year later, Bill Paley and his family bought the money-losing company and turned it around. It then bought Atlantic Broadcasting’s WABC and Paley’s CBS had a New York flagship on January 18, 1929.

You’ll notice the bulk of programmes are musical, leaning to classical and even opera. No soap operas or quiz shows. Weather, sports results and Sunday church broadcasts were local. The days of the network comedy/variety shows were still a few years away. You won’t see any big-name stars, though a to-do was made about Eddie Cantor guest starring on the Eveready Hour on Nov. 2, 1926 for $100 a minute.

While all the network shows were live, there were such things as transcriptions. At least for one show. The disc was not heard on the air, but was for sponsor reference only. You can read a Variety story from Nov. 10, 1926 about it to the right.

Surprising to me was the fact that the Happiness Boys, novelty singers Billy Jones and Ernie Hare, were not on a network show at the time. They did appear on radio from 8 to 8:30 Friday nights, but only on WEAF for Happiness Candy stores. They didn’t land a network job until February 2, 1929 when they became Heel and Toe, the Interwoven Pair, on WJZ and 20 other stations.

And one of the biggest duos in radio history were still broadcasting locally in November 1926. Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll had a programme on WGN Chicago and the telephone lines couldn’t be reversed to New York. It was called Sam ‘n’ Henry, but you know them by their later moniker, Amos ‘n’ Andy.

Happy New Year

How could it be that Warner Bros. released a spot-gag cartoon about holidays on a calendar and Columbia did the same thing 13 days later?

Well, it’s simple. You see, Technicolor sent a print to Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera by accident and they were shocked to discover a Warners cartoon was almost the same as...oh, wait, that was another cartoon.

Anyway, I suspect the answer to the question is “coincidence.”

Columbia/Screen Gems’ Happy Holidays (released Oct. 25, 1940) even has a “more than one Thanksgiving” gag like Tex Avery’s Warners short Holiday Highlights (released Oct. 12, 1940). However Happy Holidays has a New Year’s Day gag where the other one doesn’t.

The cartoon starts with Scrappy’s brother Oopy on a calendar and suddenly realising the new year has come. He falls off the calendar, ripping off the title page to show January.



The gag? Some people don’t have the stamina for a long New Year’s Eve party. At 11:50 p.m., all is dark. As the minutes tick away, the lights in houses come on, a full moon pops into view. At midnight, there’s a celebration. Even the moon happily rings in the new year.



At 12:05, it’s all over. People go back inside their homes, the moon disappears, and it’s lights out by 12:08 a.m.



Allen Rose received the story credit for this Phantasy. Harry Love is the credited animator (no director is credited) and Joe De Nat supplied the music. Unlike the Avery cartoon, there is no narrator, but Mel Blanc supplies some voices. As you might anticipate from a Columbia cartoon of this vintage, there are celebrity caricatures. Clark Gable and Carol Lombard show up, and there’s a Baby Snooks routine.

Swirling Head

A wimpy pilgrim thinks he’s caught a turkey hiding behind a log in Tex Avery’s Jerky Turkey.



Then, the realisation. There’s a head-spinning take, one of two in the cartoon. Here are some frames.



“Who, you?” asks the chief. The pilgrim is tongue-tied and gesticulates as he tries to answer. The chief hangs in mid-air.



The pilgrim runs away, leaving his teeth behind to continue trying to answer. They eventually race away as well.



Jerky Turkey sat on the shelf for a while. The Hollywood Reporter blurbed on May 2, 1944 the cartoon would be among eight cartoons to be released in the 1944-45 season starting in October. The October 6, 1944 issue of the Reporter said it was in animation (As a side note, the story also says Getting the Air was in ink and paint, and the House of Tomorrow was in animation. Thad Komorowski tells us the latter was rejected, then revived some years later. He believes the former became The Unwelcome Guest).

A short piece in the Dec. 6 edition of the Reporter reported on the “Is this trip really necessary gag” in the cartoon, but it hadn’t been released yet. Showman’s Trade Review of Jan. 13, 1945 reported producer Fred Quimby had set the release for February, but the official date was April 7. An ad for the Dome Theatre in Lawton, Oklahoma, reveals it was screened there on March 31 with Wallace Beery’s This Man’s Navy.

Boxoffice’s review of May 12, 1945 read:

Hilarious. The Pilgrim Fathers landed on Plymouth Rock minus a destroyer escort, gun crew and C card, and the Mayflower was not a Kaiser production. This modernized version of our Thanksgiving legend portrays the unsuccessful attempts of one of the Pilgrims to track down a turkey. The fowl in the case is a Jimmy Durante prototype, and plagues the hunter in a succession of hilarious situations, both are finally lured to Joe's diner, where the proprietor, a burly bear, utilizes them for his own holiday fare.

Heck Allen helped Avery with the story, while Preston Blair, Ed Love and Ray Abrams are the credited animators.

A Cob Blampett Cartoon

In a way, there are two sets of credits in Prehistoric Porky (1940). There are the ones at the beginning of the cartoon.



Then, as an inside gag, members of Bob Clampett’s unit are spoonerised on a drawing in “Expire” magazine.



Someone will know the answer to this. I don’t know who “Ray Blouse” is supposed to be, other than Ray Katz. The names below are Dick Thomas, Dave Hoffman, John Carey, Vive Risto, Bob Clampett, Warren Foster, Tubby Millar and then a surprising one: is that supposed to be George Gordon? Wasn’t he at MGM at the time? Or did the studio have a George Jordan? (Late note: there is a reference to George Jordan in the Clampett unit in the early June 1939 edition of The Exposure Sheet, the studio newsletter. He was born on a May 31).

Porky’s hand covers the next names, but I suspect they are Norm McCabe, Sid Farron, unknown (Rollie Hamilton?), Herman Cohen and Mary Tebb.

According to the May 13, 1940 edition of the Exposure Sheet, Clampett’s unit also included Lu Guarnier, Seymour Slosburg, Izzy Ellis, John H. (Jock) MacLachlan, Bill Oberlin and Pete Alvarado, along with Selma Fleishman. There are other names in other issues. Whether Tolly Kirsanoff was in the unit around this time, I don’t know. He was in mid-1939.

There are some very good visuals and layouts in this cartoon, and I like Thomas’ background work.

Being a Clampett cartoon, there are radio references (a vulture turns into Jerry Colonna, another is hit with rocks making noises reminiscent of the NBC chimes) and a movie star reference (the second vulture sounds like Ned Sparks; both are voiced by Mel Blanc).

The ending is a cliché Jewish line and gesture, but Blanc uses a regular voice, avoiding sounding like he came from the Garment District.

More Than Alice

Said the drama critic of the Virginia Gazette of a William and Mary freshman from Portland, Maine: “With pretty, fluttering mannerisms she effectively concealed the almost sadistic sense of humor of her character in an incongruous manner which kept the audience roaring.”

After her second play of the evening, on March 16, 1956, the same critic wrote: “Her singing, while not good, was not bad, either, and was handled with utter confidence and perfect diction.”

A year later, she was a lead in the college’s mounting of Romeo and Juliet. All of this was a far cry from what she became best-known for—starring in a TV sitcom where audiences guffawed week after week at such wit as “Kiss my grits!” and “Stow it, dingy!”

Linda Lavin picked up an Emmy nomination and two Golden Globes for the title role on Alice. Viewers connected with her, as the series lasted nine seasons.

She was a hit on Broadway before and after Alice, winning a Tony in 1970 and being nominated five other times, up to 2012. She toured in the mid-1960s in On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.

Lavin made her William and Mary debut on October 19, 1955 in Dial M For Murder. The locals claimed her as one of their own, and the Richmond Times-Dispatch of June 3, 1966 gave a summary of her career and her latest show on the Great White Way.

‘Glory’ Graduate Has Won Broadway’s Top Typing Job
By SUE DICKINSON
NEW YORK—A self-styled “rotten typist” has just landed New York’s most glamorous secretarial job.
Since March 29, Linda Lavin, a William and Mary graduate (1959) has portrayed Sydney, Girl Friday to gossip columnist Max Mencken, in the musical hit “It’s a Bird . . . It’s a Plane . . . It’s SUPERMAN” (Alvin Theater).
Fortunately, her new role does not tax her secretarial abilities. Instead, she livens the office of the Daily Planet by flirting outrageously with the prudish Clark Kent (played by Bob Holiday), almost discovering his true identity as SUPERMAN while she sings “You’ve Got Possibilities.”
Later she teases her egotistic boss (played by Jack Cassidy), for whom she has long carried the torch, with another Strouse-Adams hit “Ooh, Do You Love You!’
HER TYPING notwithstanding, Linda Lavin is assured of her job for many moons. Her way with a song and a comic line has evoked raves: “. . . pure imp . . . I wish she were in every musical and revue” (Stanley Kauffmann, N. Y. Times); “...a delightful comedienne . . . Singer, dancer, actress—Linda’s a comer.” (Emory Lewis, CUE).
Twice since she acquired her steno pad at the Planet has her picture graced the front pafe of the N. Y. Times Drama Section: in a Hirschfeld cartoon on March 27 and on June 5, when critic Kauffmaun cited her as one of those talented young actresses who “helped to make a dry season less of a desert.”
To make her job even more enviable Linda Lavin appears in a glamorous but very wearable career-girl wardrobe. Interviewed backstage, she explained, “Sydney is a chic girl and would be well up on fashion. And I’m glad for that.”
NOTING WITH PLEASURE that it was the first time a wardrobe had been specially designed for her, the attractive, black-haired actress pointed out that costumer Florence Klotz is short herself and so is very aware of the figure problems of us short girls.”
Linda Lavin changed into her own print shift in a dressing room that was virtually papered in congratulatory telegrams. A low coffee table patterned in green and blue tiles proved to be her own handiwork. “My sister, who was an actress before her marriage, helped me do it during a recent visit.”
The talented daughters of Mr. and Mrs. David Lavin were raised in Portland, Maine. They come by their talent naturally, for their mother, the former Lucille Potter, was a professional singer and had her own radio show in Portland.

“I WAS ALWAYS performing somewhere,” Linda Lavin recalls of her girlhood, but she had no theatrical aspirations “because I felt I wasn’t a strong enough character to cope with this rat race.”
Her matriculation at William and Mary was a matter of love at first sight. “A friend from Petersburg and I visited Washington, D.C. once,” she recalled. “She convinced me that it was part of my education to attend a Southern college and then took me to Williamburg. I fell madly in love with the college. It was just what I wanted—small and coed, with all that ivy and tradition.”
Her goal then was to be a French interpreter at the United Nations. “The French teacher talked me out of that, explaining that no American is that good in languages,” she laughed. “That made me realize how much I wanted to act.”
AFTER ONE WEEK on campus Linda Lavin auditioned for “Dial M for Murder” and was cast as the wife, a rare accolade for a freshman to be given a leading role.
“Miss Althea Hunt was director and head of the drama department then,” she remembered. “She is an incredibLe woman — vital, resourceful, dynamic. She made great demands on us. I owe her a great deal.”
The old Phi Beta Kappa Hall had burned the year before, so her initial dramatic endeavors were in loca1 schools and the gym.
“But my sophomore year they built the finest non-professional theater in the country. ‘Romeo and Juliet’ was the opening production; I was Juliet. The mechanical equipment is so advanced that New York theaters can’t afford. It doesn’t even bother me that I’ll never have another such theater, because I had one once. It was thrilling to work in such a place and learn so many forms and styles of theater.”
LINDA LAVIN NOTED that campus productions ranged from Shakespeare through Restoration comedy and Ibsen to contemporary drama. “There is no training ground for the theater now except in the academic situation,” she said earnestly.
Restoration comedy and today’s musical comedy are “very much alike in terms of style and dealing with an audience,” Miss Lavin said. “I had considered myself only a dramatic actress but found I could do comedy in ‘The Matchmaker.’ Howard Scammon, who took over after Miss Hunt’s illness, directed it. He has such a facility for pace, movement and design that he can make anybody funny. The New York theater could use his talents.”
Following her sophomore year Linda Lavin became a summer resident of Williamsburg to play the Widow Huzzitt in “The Common Glory,” appear in afternoon productions of “The Founders,” and, she explained with a grimace, “to repeat a history course I flunked.”
“THAT SUMMER conditioned me to doing two performances a day. And Howard Scammon really taught us to project our voice, because those amphitheaters had no microphones. It was a marvelous summer—wonderful to be in Williamsburg as a citizen,” she recalled, adding with the comedienne’s true talent for timing, “And I passed that history.”
During another vacation she visited her godparents in New Jersey and heard that singers were needed for a tent show there. “It was my first Cinderella story. I sang for director Bert Yarborough who for several years directed a summer stock company in Richmond, got a chorus job and floated back to New Jersey. We did 10 musicals in 10 weeks,” she remembered. “After graduation I was doing part-time work typing and read that he was casting ‘Oh, Kay’ for off-Broadway. I auditioned and got a part as one of the six Cottontails in my first New York show.”
HER FIRST BROADWAY production was “The Family Affair” in four small parts. Nothing that Harold Prince directed that musical and “SUPERMAN,” she added, “The world does come around to itself after all.”
Linda Lavin won a Theater World Award (1964-65) as one of the most promising personalities for “Wet Paint” and received plaudits for off-Broadway’s “The Mad Show,” which she left to take her current role. She has appeared on TV in “The Nurses and the Doctors” and hopes to appear in films some day.
But in the meanwhile she happily takes dictation at the desk next to SUPERMAN’S.

Calling Superman a “hit” was a bit premature. It ran for 129 performances on Broadway, though the musical was nominated for three Tonys and has been revived a number of times.

Lavin’s stage career carried on nonetheless. She was one of those people continually in demand, even at a time in life when age plays a factor in finding on-screen work. She was on a number of cable and streaming shows and most recently signed for the Hulu series Mid-Century Modern. Complications from lung cancer have claimed her at age 87.

Tralfaz Sunday Theatre: Les Escargots

You can probably count on one hand, maybe on one finger, the number of animation directors who made their first film with the help of mental patients while working at a psychiatric institute.

This describes Frenchman René Laloux.

Some years later, he and writer/designer Roland Topor created the feature film Fantastic Planet (1973), a special award winner at the Cannes Film Festival.

The two of them toiled together earlier on an animated short film called Les Escargots (1965). It also won several awards in Europe.

“Surreal” may be the best way to describe it. It’s about as far removed from any studio cartoon in North America at the time. No one will mistake this for Honey Halfwitch or Daffy and Speedy.

Laloux died in 2004.