William Reese Jones (March 15, 1889 – November 23, 1940) was a tenor who recorded during the 1920s and 1930s, finding fame as a radio star on ''
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 ...
'' radio program.
Jones worked in such occupations as mining, banking, and blacksmithing before his 1918 recording debut. He recorded with the Cleartone Four, the Crescent Trio, the Harmonizers Quartet and the Premier Quartet, and he performed under a variety of names (Harry Blake, Billy Clarke, Lester George, Duncan Jones, Reese Jones, John Kelley, Dennis O'Malley, William Rees, Victor Roberts, Billy West, William West, and Carlton Williams).
After he met
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 ...
in 1919, they teamed in 1920 when Brunswick executive
Gus Haenschen Walter Gustave Haenschen ( - March 27, 1980) was an arranger and composer of music and an orchestra conductor, primarily on old-time radio programs.
Early years
Haenschen was born in St. Louis to parents who had come from Germany and settled in tha ...
had them sing an accompaniment on a
Brunswick Records
Brunswick Records is an American record label founded in 1916.
History
From 1916
Records under the Brunswick label were first produced by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, a company based in Dubuque, Iowa which had been manufacturing produ ...
recording. They went on to do numerous recordings together for Brunswick,
Edison
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These invention ...
, and other companies.
They began on radio October 18, 1921 on WJZ (
Newark, New Jersey
Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.WEAF, moving to
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
from a run from 1926 to 1929. As "The Happiness Boys", they sang popular tunes, mostly light fare and comic songs, and they joked with one another between numbers.
By 1928, they were the highest paid singers in radio, earning $1,250 a week. The partnership ended with Hare's death on March 9, 1939. Jones continued to perform, teaming with Hare's 16-year-old daughter, Marilyn Hare, in 1939-40. He died November 23, 1940, in Manhattan, of a heart attack, and is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in The
Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
, New York City.
Among Jones' hits was "The grass is always greener in the other fellow's yard" which became the theme song of the "Big Brother Bob Emery " a children's program, first on radio, then on TV in both New York and Boston in the 1940s and 1950s.
See also
*
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 ...
References
Sources
*Hoffmann, Carty, ''Billy Murray, The Phonograph Industry's First Great Recording Artist''
*Kinkle, Roger D., ''The Complete Encyclopedia of *Popular Music and Jazz, 1900-1950''
*Gracyk, Tim, ''The Encyclopedia of Popular American Recording Pioneers: 1895-1925''
*Joseph Dinneen. "How Bob Emery Became Big Brother to 12,000 Youngsters." Boston Globe, March 1, 1925, p. E6.
Discography of American Historical Recordings
The Discography of American Historical Recordings (DAHR) is a database of master recordings made by American record companies during the 78rpm era. The DAHR provides some of these original recordings, free of charge, via audio streaming, along with ...
UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive The Cylinder Audio Archive is a free digital collection maintained by the University of California, Santa Barbara Library with streaming and downloadable versions of over 10,000 phonograph cylinders manufactured between 1893 and the mid-1920s. The ...
at the
University of California, Santa Barbara
The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...