No Dice, Snafu

Thanks to a little devil-esque character, Private Snafu doesn’t save any money for post-war necessities, like a suburban home, with wife and child in Pay Day, a finely crafted cartoon from the Friz Freleng unit at Warner Bros.

Every time Technical Fairy First Class shows up with a bank teller’s window so Snafu can make a deposit, some beckoning smoke tempts him away, and he spends money on souvenirs, a night in a whore house and, finally, gambling.

The smoke forms a hand with a pair of dice. Technical Fairy tries to push and pull Snafu away from the crap game. Snafu does a little dance-walk (Gerry Chiniquy?) and we see Snafu’s butt.



Now come the visual puns. Snafu rolls box cars (two sixes), then rolls a pair of ones (snake eyes).



Carl Stalling puts a drum roll on the soundtrack as Snafu shakes the dice. Just before Snafu bets it all and gets set to roll the dice, Stalling inserts that five-note “You’re a Horse’s Ass” tune.

The story (by Mike Maltese and Tedd Pierce?) is really clever. Each time Snafu wastes his money, there’s a cut to a drawing of his post-war dream where things disappear as he loses money to buy them. The animation is good, too. The Snafu cartoons have no credits.

There’s no dialogue until the end of the cartoon when a mouse living in a hole in what had been Snafu’s home answers a phone. Mel Blanc ends the cartoon by borrowing from the song “Annie Doesn’t Live Here Any More” by Johnny Burke, Joe Young and Harold Spina.

This short appeared in the Sept. 1944 edition of the Army-Navy Screen Magazine.

Never Trust a Nazi

Blitz Wolf isn’t just another Tex Avery fairy tale send-up. There’s a war on, so it’s a propaganda cartoon, too. Considering what a detestable individual Adolf Hitler was, ridiculing him was completely warranted. At the end of the short, the wolf Hitler-stand-in is blown to Hell, which, for him, is populated by Jews (doing their version of the Kitzel catchphrase from the Al Pearce radio show).



Avery, being the anti-Disney, uses Disney’s Three Little Pigs as a starting point, even utilising the voice of the Practical Pig, Pinto Colvig, to repeat his performance.

The story by Rich Hogan has a warning at the beginning—that even good people can be sucked in by the promises and talk of Fascists. The army-fatigued practical pig warns his brothers to be prepared for the invasion of the Big Bad Wolf, and pulls out a newspaper with the story.



Cut to a close-up and downward pan.



The delusional pigs don’t believe the mainstream media. It doesn’t reflect their beliefs as fact. “He won’t hurt us, ‘cause we signed a treaty with him!” They pull out the treaty. Cut to another close-up and pan, then the camera trucks in a little closer to get the signature and seal.



No sooner does this happen than the tanks start rolling in. The scene soon switches to the Blitz Wolf (Bill Thompson with a German accent) shouting to the pig inside the straw house that he’ll huff, etc. “But Adolf, that would break our treaty,” says the pig. “You’re a good guy. Why, you hate war. You wouldn’t go back on your word!” The wolf leans in and says “Are you kiddin’?” and laughs knowing he has snowballed them with his lies.



A little over a month after Pearl Harbor, The Hollywood Reporter revealed “As his first cartoon supervising chore at MGM, Fred ‘Tex’ Avery will handle ‘Blitz Wolf,’ a new animated character for the studio’s shorts” (Jan. 16, 1942). The paper announced on June 2 the cartoon was “in last stages of work” and on Aug. 19 it was “winding up production.” It wound up pretty fast as the same day, the Academy of Motion Pictures screened it at the Filmarte Theatre.

In fact, it was already in theatres, as an ad from the Portsmouth (Virginia) Herald issue of Aug. 16 shows. (Come for Bing. Stay for the Nazi).

This brings us to the oft-told tale that Fred Quimby thought Hitler might win the war and wanted the cartoon to be a little less violent. Did he really say that?

You’d think maybe the famous 1975 animation issue of Film Comment might have mentioned the quote. Or Joe Adamson in his interview with Avery in Tex Avery, King of Cartoons. Or Michael Barrier in his lengthy book Hollywood Cartoons.

It appears the story started circulating from an interview Chuck Jones did on the Mark and Brian radio show in Los Angeles in 1996 as related in the book Chuck Jones Conversations (2005, University of Mississippi Press). I quote Jones, quoting Avery, quoting Quimby.

And he [Quimby] went on, he said, “I was just looking at the storyboard of the Blitz Wolf” and he said—“you think,” this is 1944, right in the middle of the war [sic]—and he said, “Do you think you're being a little rough on Mr. Hitler? ‘Cause we don't know who's going to win the war.”

I have a hard time believing Quimby said this, even if he were joking (Quimby was not known for having a sense of humour). Hollywood—as was all of America—was awash with extreme anti-Axis patriotism. And Jones was not exactly known for a kindly attitude toward cartoon film producers (Disney, excepted).

Blitz Wolf was nominated for an Oscar. Three other war-related animated shorts were nominated, with Uncle Walt picking up the statue for Der Fuehrer’s Face. Fortunately, his face, and the rest of him, was gone in three years.

Tralfaz Sunday Theatre: Invisible Diplomats

What was Audrey Meadows doing in late 1964? Besides appearing in reruns of The Honeymooners, I mean.

Not an awful lot, it seems. So why not appear in an industrial film?

Mike Connolly’s syndicated Hollywood column of Dec. 26, 1964 led off with the news:

Audrey Meadows, Ruta Lee and Gig Young signed to star in a 60-minute, strictly-no-commercials commercial film for Bell Telephone. It’s the first time the company has signed such big names for an industrial movie. It’s also the longest ever made by the outfit. It even has a plot and I hope I’m not giving it away when I reveal that the colorfilm (using all the colors of the Princess Phones and then some) will be titled “The Girl with the Velvet-Smiled Voice.”

If that was the plan, it went through a pile of changes. Jerry Fairbanks Productions was hired to make the film, which ended up running about 20 minutes and was titled “Invisible Diplomats.” A note in the Fairbanks papers about this film reads “A script and combined picture and sound track continuity by Leo Rosencrans, Oct. 8, 1964 and May 17, 1965, 43/35 pages.”

I haven’t been able to discover when the film was shot, but I’ve found screenings of it for Bell employees as early as July 1965 in Birmingham, Alabama and Columbus, Georgia. It was still being shown to phone company workers as late as November 1974.

The “plot” Connolly refers to basically tells office PBX telephone operators to put up with incompetence and nonsense, and that your local Bell company can help.

Gig Young’s presence confused me until I discovered he and Meadows had appeared in A Touch of Mink on the big screen in 1964.

Several cast members receive no screen credit. Among the ones who do are Hal Peary, who does his laugh from Fibber McGee and Molly and The Great Gildersleeve. It is odd seeing him without a moustache. And there’s a short appearance by Bonnie Franklin, who was trying to get cast in one-shot roles on television at the time (The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Karen).

Does Art Carney make a surprise cameo at the end? You’ll have to watch.

By the mid 1960s, Fairbanks wasn’t using Ed Paul as a music director any more. He paid for cues from the Capitol Hi-Q library instead. I don’t have a copy of the music over the opening/closing credits but it’s unmistakably a Phil Green-Ken Love-Geoff Thorne cue originally from England’s EMI Photoplay series.

More Benny

We got more Jack Benny in our homes at the start of the 1954 season. And Jack wanted us to have more.

Radio was still hanging in there with a big-time line-up. On WCBS New York, Jack maintained his familiar 7 p.m. time-slot, while the rest of CBS’ programming that evening was the Hallmark Hall of Fame (6:30), Amos ‘n’ Andy (7:30), Our Miss Brooks (8:00), My Little Margie (8:30, co-starring Charlie Farrell, star of Seventh Heaven), Edgar Bergen-Charlie McCarthy (9:00).

As for television, Jack expanded his air-time. And judging by this interview with United Press, published starting Sept. 29, 1954, he wanted even more.

Benny Back on TV Sunday; Hopes For Full Hour in ‘55
By VERNON SCOTT
HOLLYWOOD, Sept. 29 (UP)—Jack Benny is the funniest of men—even when he's sick in bed and feeling sorry for himself.
The king of comedians, felled by a vicious cold, was gracious enough to keep his appointment for our interview. Propped up in bed by half-a-dozen pillows, he sniffled disconsolately, hoping some notice would be taken of the fact that his baby-blue pajamas were a perfect match for his eyes.
He proferred his hand weakly. “I’m really not in pain,” he wheezed in a voice which indicated these might well be his last words on earth.
Jack was surrounded by books, magazines, and television scripts. He riffled the pages of a script as he talked.
"I'LL BE DOING a TV show every other week," he announced, "beginning Sunday, October third. CBS, of course." He craned his neck to make certain the facts were clearly written down. Seeing this, he smiled winningly.
"I hadn't planned to do so many shows," he said. "But you know how it is with fans—well, you know." He cleared his throat. "And then there's the money," he added testily.
"My first year I did four programs, the second year I did six. Then I moved it up to nine shows in 1952. Last year I did 12." He took pains to insure the data was carefully noted.
• • •
HE COMPLAINED that the bi-weekly half-hour show would be taxing.
"I wish we had an hour. It would give us time to build up the other characters in the sketches. Next year I'll try to get an hour show." This would be in addition to his radio half hour.
Benny stared off into space letting this pronouncement sink in. It was one of his tricky silences that gets more laughs than a truckload of gags. He twitched his nose and went on.
"We're gambling with my opening show," he confided. "We're not having any big-name guest stars or wild goings-on. You'll remember we did that last year on the first show."
• • •
WE CONFESSED we did not recall last year's opener. Jack looked stricken.
"We had Marilyn Monroe as guest star," he said reproachfully." But Sunday there'll just be Don Wilson and Rochester. And me, of course," he added quickly before lapsing into another silence.
Jack looked as if he wouldn't say another word. He even picked up a magazine and flipped the pages. Then he spoke.
"And I'll have very little time for jokes." He explained this by saying he seldom cracks jokes on his show. He doesn't have to. People laugh at the character he’s built up over the years.
“Sometimes there’s not one funny line for me in the script,” he said with a hurt look. The injured expression was evidence enough why Jack Benny doesn’t have to open his mouth to keep ‘em rolling in the aisles.

Jack’s series never did go to an hour length, and you have to wonder if he was thinking out loud. The idea wasn’t practical. The 7:30 p.m. TV airtime was not his. It was purchased by American Tobacco. As it was, American Tobacco cut its investment in Benny. It dropped his radio show at the end of the season, despite a plan to cut costs in 1955 by increasing re-runs. No one else would pick it up (Bergen was moved into Benny’s slot that fall).

It would have been a strain on the writers as well. Unlike radio, Jack just couldn’t fill time with a band number. Since singer Dennis Day wasn’t around as much, the writers would have to sit there and come up with comedy. It would have been a heavy load.

Jack did get in some extra time on TV in the 1954-55 season. Reports say his appearance on the G.E. Electric Theatre put $70,000 in his vault. And he was beginning to appear on Shower of Stars as well; his tour of duty there lasted all four seasons and included the famous “40th Birthday” special.

Not going to an hour didn’t hurt him. Starting in 1956, Jack won four consecutive Emmy awards. And his series carried on until 1965.

The Scoop on Scoop Scandals

In the early 1930s, there were cartoon studios like Harman-Ising, Fleischer, Charles Mintz, Walter Lantz and others that had a regular schedule of animated shorts released by the major motion picture companies.

There were others that tried to take advantage of the popularity of sound cartoons spurred by Walt Disney, but didn’t quite make it.

One of these was Scoop Scandals.

The Film Daily of October 5, 1930 published the advertisement to the right.

The trades had a flurry of blurbs about the new studio. Variety reported on October 10th:

New Producing Firm
Louis B. Mayer’s brother, Rudolph, a production executive at Metro, and Lou Ostrow, formerly studio manager for Tiffany, have formed a company to produce pictures and will begin with a cartoon series to be called “Scoop Scandals.” Offices have been opened at 1047 Fairfax Ave., Hollywood.

The company was already in operation when this story was written. The Daily News of Los Angeles reported on the 3rd:

Joseph P. Medbury, humorist, yesterday was being sued in municipal court by the “Scoop Scandals, Ltd.,” who allege that the writer omitted to return to them a partial payment of $500 on a story refused as unsatisfactory for publication.

I suspect the paper means writer John P. Medbury, who, according to Variety about a month later, countersued.

We learn a bit more from the Nov. 26 issue of Variety.

NEW CARTOON SHORTS
Hollywood, Nov. 25
John Decker, former “Vanity Fair” and “New York World” cartoonist, has been engaged by Rudolph Mayer and Lew Ostrow to turn out a new cartoon shorts series tentatively titled, “Scoop Scandals.”
Reel will caricature international names. Release is not set but will probably be Metro.

Yes, MGM was already releasing Flip the Frog cartoons made by Ub Iwerks’ studio. Metro wasn’t above considering an additional animation series, much like RKO was putting Toby the Pup cartoons (from Mintz) on screens at the same time as the Aesop’s Fables (from Van Beuren Productions).

This raises the question: were any of these cartoons made? The answer is “yes” and one was screened before a theatre audience in Los Angeles. The Hollywood Reporter gave its verdict in the December 18 edition.

Burlesque News Reel Very Funny
A new picture company has come into being called Scoop Scandals, Ltd. It is being sponsored by Rudolph Mayer and Lou Ostrow and they previewed the first of their Cartune News Reels last night. The idea for this burlesque was conceived by John Decker, of the New York World. Leonard Sachter does the photography.
The first showing of this novel short was heartily received by a large preview audience and deservedly so. There has always been a good spot for someone to come along and fill in, with a few reels of kidding, the weekly news output. The caricatures of Al Smith, Cal Coolidge and Mussolini have been very well done. The gags are good and well supported by laugh lines. They take a good crack at Congress through the medium of a Will Rogers cartoon and for fillers-in they picture an endurance flight and a bit of human interest along the lines of “romance.” The only comedy that failed to “click” was a Leon Errol episode which was decidedly weak.
Elmer Young has done a good job as head animator for these cartoons. The only fault of this news reel lies in the synchronization and at times in the talk was not so clear, which may or may not have been the fault of the recording.
No release has been arranged for this series as yet but it is rumored that there is a deal on with MGM.

Elmer Young and his brother Frank had owned a company that made silent, stop-motion films. Read more in this Cartoon Research post.

So what happened? Variety of March 25, 1931 provides the answer:

Cartoon Newsreel Too Complicated, So Folds
Hollywood, March 24.
“Scoop Scandals,” burlesque cartoon newsreel series being produced by Rudolph Mayer and Lew Ostrow for Metro, folded after the first was completed. Mechanical difficulties in production of the cartoons was responsible. Idea was originated by John Decker, cartoonist, who sold it to Mayer and Ostrow.

Does the reel still exist? I won’t speculate. We have readers more knowledgeable about this stuff than I am and rarities have surfaced from time to time since starting this blog.

Who animated this cartoon besides Young? We can thank Harvey Deneroff and his short, but valuable, interviews with cartoon artists at the Animation Guild’s Golden Banquet Awards 40 years ago, which are posted on the Cartoon Research site.

Larry Silverman began working in animation in New York in 1926. He told Harvey he worked for Paul Terry (who would have been just starting a studio with Frank Moser after being bounced from Van Beuren’s Fables operation). Then he went to the West Coast.

“I was working for a studio that was making some kind of a cartoon based on news, which wasn’t going to work, and they didn’t know it. But they closed up after a couple of weeks, too. And then Fergie [Norm Ferguson] got me a job at Disney’s.”

Silverman got screen credit on Harman-Ising’s Wake Up The Gypsy in Me (1933). You can see his name on Famous/Paramount cartoons after he returned to New York (see the internet for his studios and screen credits; I won’t list them here). He was at least partly responsible for a newspaper strip called Jungletown Fables. This one is from November 1933.


The only one person I’ve found associated with the studio is not an animator. This story from Variety of Aug. 25, 1931 seems to have been its last hurrah.

Novelty Newsreel Co. Loses $7,025 Judgment
Los Angeles, Aug. 24
Daniel F. Tattenham has been awarded $7,025 from Scoop Scandals. Ltd., for the balance of a year at $150 a week as producer of animated cartoons. Tattenham claimed wrongful discharge.
Scoop Scandals, organized last fall to make burlesque news reels for Metro, was dropped because of mechanical difficulties.

There we are. A brief story about another footnote of the Golden Age of Animation.

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.