The Majestic Theater Of The Air
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The Majestic Theater Of The Air
''The Majestic Theater of the Air'', also known as ''The Majestic Hour'', is an American musical radio program that aired on the CBS radio network between 1928–1932 on Sunday evenings. The series was produced and emcee'd by Wendell Hall and sponsored by Chicago's Grigsby-Grunow Company, manufacturers of Majestic Radios. It began on the CBS network in October, 1928, with a coast-to-coast hookup of 29 stations. Eddie Cantor, Ruth Etting, and Harriet Lee When Grigsby-Grunow expanded their broadcast to reach the full CBS network on January 6, 1929, the stars of the program were Eddie Cantor and Ruth Etting. In April, 1929, singer Harriet Lee was introduced by Hall on the show as the "Chicago Nightingale", becoming a hit on the CBS network. Songwriter showcase In an August 1929 program, Hall presented the songwriters J. Fred Coots and Benny Davis Benny Davis (August 21, 1895 - December 20, 1979) was a vaudeville performer and writer of popular songs. Biography Davis starte ...
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CBS Radio
CBS Radio was a radio broadcasting company and radio network operator owned by CBS Corporation and founded in 1928, with consolidated radio station groups owned by CBS and Westinghouse Broadcasting/Group W since the 1920s, and Infinity Broadcasting since the 1970s. The broadcasting company was sold to Entercom (now known as Audacy, Inc.) on November 17, 2017. Although CBS's involvement in radio dates back to the establishment of the original CBS Radio Network in 1927, the most recent radio division was formed by the 1997 acquisition of Infinity Broadcasting by CBS owner Westinghouse. In 1999, Infinity became a division of the original Viacom; in 2005, Viacom spun CBS and Infinity Broadcasting back into a separate company, and the division was renamed CBS Radio. It was the last radio group left to be tied to a major broadcast television network, as NBC divested its radio interests in the 1980s, and ABC sold off its division to Citadel Broadcasting (now part of Cumulus Media) i ...
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Wendell Hall
Wendell Woods Hall (August 23, 1896, St. George, Kansas – April 2, 1969, Fairhope, Alabama) was an American country singer, vaudeville artist, songwriter, pioneer radio performer, Victor recording artist and ukulele player. Biography Hall was known as the Red-haired Music Maker and the Pineapple Picador in his recording heyday of the 1920s and 1930s. In 1923, he released the song "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'," which sold over two million copies in the United States. It was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA. The song is also considered the first musical hit on radio. He wrote "Underneath the Mellow Moon" and "Carolina Rose". Hall also wrote songs with Carson Robison and Art Gillham. Hall began his career in 1922 Chicago as a song plugger for Forster Music. He traveled around the country and stopped in towns to play in music stores, theaters, and radio. In vaudeville he began singing and playing the xylophone. He found the ukulele to be more portable and quickly became an expert w ...
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Majestic Radios
Majestic Radios was an American radio brand from 1927 to 1955, trademarked as "The Mighty Monarchs of the Air". Noted for their high quality, they were initially manufactured by the Grigsby-Grunow Company of Chicago. After Grigsby-Grunow's demise in 1934 during the Great Depression, Majestic Radios continued to be made through subsequent corporate ownership changes and reorganizations for another twenty-two years. The Majestic Radio & Television Corporation was formed to produce the radios in the 1930s and 1940s. Following Majestic Radio & Television's liquidation in 1949, Majestic-brand radios were made by a division of the Wilcox-Gay Corporation at their Michigan factory in the 1950s. Grigsby-Grunow years (1927–1934) Formation and development Before embarking on radio manufacturing, the Grigsby-Grunow Company had started in 1921 as the Grigsby-Grunow-Hinds Company in Chicago, making such automotive aftermarket items as its "Premier" brand of sun visors. co-founded by Bert ...
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The Sacramento Bee
''The Sacramento Bee'' is a daily newspaper published in Sacramento, California, in the United States. Since its foundation in 1857, ''The Bee'' has become the largest newspaper in Sacramento, the fifth largest newspaper in California, and the 27th largest paper in the U.S. It is distributed in the upper Sacramento Valley, with a total circulation area that spans about : south to Stockton, California, north to the Oregon border, east to Reno, Nevada, and west to the San Francisco Bay Area.History of ''The Sacramento Bee''
from the newspaper's website
''The Bee'' is the flagship of the nationwide . Its "Scoopy Bee" mascot, created by

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Altoona Tribune
The ''Altoona Tribune'' was a daily newspaper in Blair County, Pennsylvania. It was in operation from 1856 to 1957. History It was launched on January 1, 1856, by Ephraim B. McCrum and William M. Allison, with equipment purchased from the defunct ''Altoona Register''. Two years later, H. C. Dern acquired Allison's share of the company, and in 1875, Hugh Pitcairn replaced McCrum. Dern and Pitcairn started publishing daily issues in 1873. These were discontinued after two years, but resumed in 1878. The ''Tribune'' occupied its own three-story building at 1110 12th Street, with the press room in the basement, circulation and advertising on the first floor, the editorial department on the second floor and the composing room on the third floor. Adam J. Greer was one of the first editors, and was followed by William H. Schwartz. Schwartz had been associated with local newspaper work for more than thirty years, and achieved widespread recognition for his editorials. Mr. Dern died in ...
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Eddie Cantor
Eddie Cantor (born Isidore Itzkowitz; January 31, 1892 – October 10, 1964) was an American comedian, actor, dancer, singer, songwriter, film producer, screenwriter and author. Familiar to Broadway, radio, movie, and early television audiences, this "Apostle of Pep" was regarded almost as a family member by millions because his top-rated radio shows revealed intimate stories and amusing anecdotes about his wife Ida and five daughters. Some of his hits include "Makin' Whoopee", "Ida (Sweet as Apple Cider)", " If You Knew Susie", "Ma! He's Making Eyes at Me", “ Mandy”, " My Baby Just Cares for Me”, "Margie", and " How Ya Gonna Keep 'em Down on the Farm (After They've Seen Paree)?" He also wrote a few songs, including " Merrily We Roll Along", the ''Merrie Melodies'' Warner Bros. cartoon theme. His eye-rolling song-and-dance routines eventually led to his nickname "Banjo Eyes". In 1933, artist Frederick J. Garner caricatured Cantor with large round eyes resembling the drum-l ...
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Ruth Etting
Ruth Etting (November 23, 1896 – September 24, 1978) was an American singer and actress of the 1920s and 1930s, who had over 60 hit recordings and worked in stage, radio, and film. Known as "America's sweetheart of song", her signature tunes were "Shine On, Harvest Moon", " Ten Cents a Dance" and " Love Me or Leave Me". As a young girl in Nebraska, Etting had wanted to become an artist; she drew and sketched all the time. At sixteen, her grandparents decided to send her to art school in Chicago. While Etting attended class, she found a job at the Marigold Gardens nightclub; after a short time there, Etting gave up art classes in favor of a career in show business. Etting, who enjoyed singing in school and church, never took voice lessons. She quickly became a featured vocalist at the club. Etting was then managed by Moe Snyder, whom she married in 1922. Snyder made arrangements for Etting's recording and film contracts as well as her personal and radio appearances. She became ...
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Harriet Lee (singer)
Harriet Lee was an American radio singer during the Golden Age of Radio in the 1920s–1930s. She was best known as a blues contralto on the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) and, later, NBC Radio Networks. Called the "Songbird of the Air", she was named Miss Radio 1931 based on nationwide submittals from radio stations, judged by Flo Ziegfeld and McClelland Barclay, to select the "most beautiful radio artist" for the Radio World's Fair in New York City. Lee was one of the highest paid radio stars that year. She hosted the ''Harriet Lee'' show on experimental New York City station W2XAB (now WCBS-TV) in 1931, making her one of the first singers to have a show on U.S. television. After her radio appearances ended in the mid-1930s, Lee was a voice coach working with various film stars for major Hollywood studios. Between the 1930s–1960s, she gave singing lessons to Dorothy Lamour, Ava Gardner, Esther Williams, Rhonda Fleming, Ginger Rogers, and Janet Leigh, among others ...
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Pittsburgh Press
''The Pittsburgh Press'' (formerly ''The Pittsburg Press'' and originally ''The Evening Penny Press'') was a major afternoon daily newspaper published in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1884 to 1992. At one time, the ''Press'' was the second largest newspaper in Pennsylvania, behind only ''The Philadelphia Inquirer''. For four years starting in 2011, the brand was revived and applied to an afternoon online edition of the ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette''. Early history The history of the ''Press'' traces back to an effort by Thomas J. Keenan Jr. to buy ''The Pittsburg Times'' newspaper, at which he was employed as city editor. Joining Keenan in his endeavor were reporter John S. Ritenour of the Pittsburgh ''Post'', Charles W. Houston of the city clerk's office, and U.S. Representative Thomas M. Bayne. After examining the ''Times'' and finding it in a poor state, the group changed course and decided to start a new penny paper in hopes that it would flourish in a local market full of t ...
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Benny Davis
Benny Davis (August 21, 1895 - December 20, 1979) was a vaudeville performer and writer of popular songs. Biography Davis started performing in vaudeville in his teens. He began writing songs when working as an accompanist for Blossom Seeley. In 1917, he wrote "So Long Sammy" with Jack Yellen and "Good-Bye Broadway. Hello France" with C. Francis Reisner. His first success was 1920's "Margie", with music by Con Conrad and J. Russel Robinson. His most popular song was "Baby Face", written in 1926 with Harry Akst. For Broadway, Davis wrote the score for the 1927 edition of ''Artists and Models'' and for the 1929 show ''Sons o' Guns''. His career lasted until the mid-1930s. Davis's liberal use of false rhymes in his songs was scorned by some pure practitioners of the craft, and prompted Howard Dietz to compose a couplet: "Heaven Save Us, From Benny Davis." Nevertheless, Davis was voted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1975. Davis died in December 1979, aged 84, in Miami, Flor ...
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Arnold Johnson (musician)
Arnold Johnson (March 23, 1893 in Chicago – July 15, 1975 in St. Petersburg, Florida) was an American big band pianist, arranger, composer, and leader during the swing jazz era. He was orchester leader on the popular ''The Majestic Theater of the Air'' program on the CBS radio network beginning in 1929. Johnson worked in a Chinese restaurant in Chicago as a pianist when he was fourteen years old, and also worked as an accompanist for vaudeville revues. He studied at the Chicago College of Music and the American Conservatory of Music. He took a job as a pianist in Rudy Wiedoeft's New York-based Frisco Jass Band in the early 1920s, and also worked briefly in real estate around this time."Arnold Johnson". ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music'', ed. Colin Larkin. 4th edition, 2006. He formed his own band in the middle of the 1920s, which recorded for Brunswick Records and Vocalion Records; Freddy Martin and Harold Arlen were sidemen in the group. Later, Vic Berton, Bob Chester, and Danny ...
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