''Acousticon Hour'' was a "musicale" radio program aired during 1927 and 1928 on
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
. It offered selections from classical music, orchestral favorites, operas and operettas.
History
The show was sponsored by the company that marketed the
Acousticon brand
hearing aid
A hearing aid is a device designed to improve hearing by making sound audible to a person with hearing loss. Hearing aids are classified as medical devices in most countries, and regulated by the respective regulations. Small audio amplifiers su ...
, invented by
Miller Reese Hutchison
Miller Reese Hutchison (August 6, 1876 – February 16, 1944) was an American electrical engineer and inventor. He developed some of the first portable electric devices, such as a vehicle horn and a hearing aid. His father was William Hutchison ...
.
As broadcast historian
Elizabeth McLeod
Elizabeth McLeod (born 1963) is a journalist and broadcast historian who lives and works on the coast of Maine. She is best known for her extensive research into the origin and history of ''Amos 'n' Andy'', an authoritative study first available o ...
has noted, in the 1920s a product name used in a show's title was considered a more acceptable form of advertising than the use of intrusive commercial messages:
:The most popular program format of the late twenties was the sponsored musical feature. It could be a large symphonic group, a dance orchestra, or a song-and-patter team — and it would usually carry the sponsor's name.
The A&P Gypsies, for example — a large, genre-crossing orchestra conducted by
Harry Horlick.
The Ipana Troubadors
''The Ipana Troubadors'' (aka ''The Ipana Troubadours'') was a musical variety radio program which began in New York on WEAF in 1923. In actuality, the Troubadors were the Sam Lanin Orchestra. They opened the show with their theme, "Smiles."
Th ...
— a hot dance band directed by
Sam Lanin
Samuel Charles Lanin (September 4, 1891 – May 5, 1977) was an American jazz bandleader.
Lanin's brothers, Howard and Lester, were also bandleaders, and all of them had sustained careers in music. Lanin was one of ten children born to Benjamin ...
. The Goodrich Zippers — a banjo-driven orchestra conducted by
Harry Reser
Harrison Franklin Reser (January 17, 1896 – September 27, 1965) was an American banjo player and bandleader. Born in Piqua, Ohio, Reser was best known as the leader of The Clicquot Club Eskimos. He was regarded by some as the best banjoist of ...
, when he wasn't leading the same group under the name of
The Clicquot Club Eskimos
''The Clicquot Club Eskimos'' was a popular musical variety radio show, first heard in 1923, featuring a banjo orchestra directed by Harry Reser. A popular ginger ale, Clicquot Club, was Canada Dry's main rival. Clicquot (pronounced "klee-ko") wa ...
. Everyone remembers
The Happiness Boys
''The Happiness Boys'' was a popular radio program of the early 1920s. It featured the vocal duo of tenor Billy Jones (1889-1940) and bass/baritone Ernie Hare (1883-1939), who sang novelty songs.
Career
Jones and Hare were already established as ...
,
Billy Jones and
Ernie Hare
Thomas Ernest Hare (March 16, 1883 – March 9, 1939) was an American singer who recorded prolifically during the 1920s and 1930s, finding fame as a radio star on ''the Happiness Boys'' radio program.
Career
Hare's recording career began in 1 ...
-- but what about
Scrappy Lambert
Harold "Scrappy" Lambert (May 12, 1901 – November 30, 1987, in New Brunswick, New Jersey) was an American Big band, dance band vocalist who appeared on hundreds of recordings from the 1920s to the 1940s.
At Rutgers University he was a cheer ...
and Billy Hillpot, who performed exactly the same sort of material as Trade and Mark, The Smith Brothers. The list is endless:
The Silvertown Cord Orchestra, featuring the Silver Masked Tenor. The Sylvania Foresters. The Flit Soldiers -- yet another Harry Reser group.
The Champion Sparkers. The Fox Fur Trappers. The Ingram Shavers, who were the Ipana Troubadours on alternate Wednesdays. The Yeast Foamers. The Planters Pickers. And, the magnificently named Freed-Eisemann Orchestradians. All playing pretty much the same sorts of music, all announced by Phillips Carlin or John S. Young or Alwyn Bach or
Milton Cross
Milton John Cross (April 16, 1897 – January 3, 1975) was an American radio announcer famous for his work on the NBC and ABC radio networks.
He was best known as the voice of the Metropolitan Opera, hosting its Saturday afternoon radio broadca ...
in pretty much the same sort of stiffly formal style.
McLeod, Elizabeth. "Radio's Forgotten Years"
The ''Acousticon Hour'' was not a 60-minute show as the title suggests. It was a 30-minute program which NBC broadcast from 5:30 to 6 p.m. on Sunday afternoons. In 1928, the Acousticon male quartet sang "The Palms" in recognition of Palm Sunday. The singer-songwriter Jack Norworth
John Godfrey Knauff (January 5, 1879 – September 1, 1959), known professionally as Jack Norworth, was an American songwriter, singer and vaudeville performer.
Biography
Norworth is credited as writer of a number of Tin Pan Alley hits. He wr ...
was a guest in March 1928, and the pianist-songwriter Jean Schwartz
Jean Schwartz (November 4, 1878 – November 30, 1956) was a Hungarian-born American songwriter.
Schwartz was born in Budapest, Hungary. His family moved to New York City when he was 13 years old. He took various music-related jobs including dem ...
appeared as a guest the following month. Selections from the operas ''Carmen
''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the Carmen (novella), novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first perfo ...
'' and '' La Gioconda'' were included in the April 1928 schedule.
Jack Burton was the program's announcer, director, and writer. Performers who made their network premieres on the show included Lina Abarbanell
Lina Abarbanell (January 3, 1879 – January 6, 1963) was an American soprano who performed in grand and light opera and musical comedy. She made her debut at sixteen at the Neues Theatre, Berlin and was first introduced to American theater ...
, Donald Brian
Donald Brian (February 17, 1877 – December 22, 1948) was an actor, dancer and singer born in St. John's, Newfoundland (now Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada). In 1907, he starred in the hit operetta ''The Merry Widow''.
Life and care ...
, Shelton Brooks
Shelton Brooks (May 4, 1886September 6, 1975) was a Canadian-born African American composer of popular music and jazz. He was known for his ragtime and vaudeville style, and wrote some of the biggest hits of the first third of the 20th century.
...
, Victor Moore
Victor Fred Moore (February 24, 1876 – July 23, 1962) was an American actor of stage and screen, a major Broadway star from the late 1920s through the 1930s. He was also a writer and director, but is best remembered today as a comedian, play ...
, Jack Norworth
John Godfrey Knauff (January 5, 1879 – September 1, 1959), known professionally as Jack Norworth, was an American songwriter, singer and vaudeville performer.
Biography
Norworth is credited as writer of a number of Tin Pan Alley hits. He wr ...
, Blanche Ring, Julia Sanderson
Julia Sanderson (born Julia Ellen Sackett; August 27, 1887 – January 27, 1975) was a Broadway actress and singer. In 1887, she was born in Springfield, Massachusetts to parents Albert H. Sackett (also a Broadway actor) and Jeanette Elvira San ...
, Jean Schwartz
Jean Schwartz (November 4, 1878 – November 30, 1956) was a Hungarian-born American songwriter.
Schwartz was born in Budapest, Hungary. His family moved to New York City when he was 13 years old. He took various music-related jobs including dem ...
, Six Brown Brothers
The Six Brown Brothers, later known as the Five Brown Brothers, were a Canadian vaudeville era saxophone sextet consisting of six brothers. They were known for their comedic musical acts as well as their many recordings. They performed as clowns w ...
, and Sophie Tucker.[
]
See also
* List of U.S. radio programs
*Old-time radio
The Golden Age of Radio, also known as the old-time radio (OTR) era, was an era of radio in the United States where it was the dominant electronic home entertainment medium. It began with the birth of commercial radio broadcasting in the early ...
References
{{reflist
Listen to
Jack Norworth (five songs)
External links
( ttps://web.archive.org/web/20091026205847/http://geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/5284/120928.html Archived2009-10-24)
American classical music radio programs
1920s American radio programs
1927 radio programme debuts
1928 radio programme endings
NBC radio programs