Singin' Sam aka Harry Frankel (January 27, 1888,

Springfield, Ohio Springfield is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Clark County, Ohio, Clark County. The municipality is located in southwestern Ohio and is situated on the Mad River (Ohio), Mad River, Buck Creek, and Beaver Creek, approxim ...

-June 12, 1948,

Richmond, Indiana Richmond is a city in eastern Wayne County, Indiana. Bordering the state of Ohio, it is the county seat of Wayne County and is part of the Dayton, OH Metropolitan Statistical Area In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 36,812. Situa ...

) was a minstrel performer, vaudevillianDeLong, Thomas A. (1996). ''Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. 98. and popular personality during the early days of radio. He was best known as "Singin' Sam, the

Barbasol Barbasol is an American brand of shaving cream, aftershave, and disposable razors created by MIT Professor Frank Shields in 1919 in Indianapolis. It is currently owned by Perio, Inc. Invention MIT Professor Frank Shields set out to create a ...

Man" for his long association with that company.

Early life

The son of clothing merchant Sol Frankel, Harry grew up in

Danville, Kentucky Danville is a home rule-class city in Boyle County, Kentucky, United States. It is the seat of its county. The population was 17,236 at the 2020 Census. Danville is the principal city of the Danville Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes ...

, singing in various quartets, moving with his parents to Richmond, Indiana, when he was nine years old. He joined Coburn's Minstrels in 1908 and later toured with Al G. Field's Minstrels. Frankel and Joe Dunlevy were known as the "Two Blackbirds" when they performed in vaudeville theaters during the late 1920s.

Career

When Frankel began in radio in 1930 on

WLW WLW (700 AM) is a commercial news/talk radio station licensed to Cincinnati, Ohio. Owned by iHeartMedia, WLW is a clear-channel station, often identifying itself as The Big One. WLW operates with around the clock. Its daytime signal provides ...

(

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

), sponsored by the Great States Lawn Mower Company, he started using Singin' Sam as his professional name, and he was also known at that time as "The Lawnmower Man." In New York he began as "Singin' Sam the Barbasol Man" on WABC on July 20, 1931. He disliked New York, and three years later, he returned to

, with vocalist Helene "Smiles" Davis, so named because of her identification with the (then new) song "Smiles" while singing to the troops during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The couple married May 2, 1934, in Richmond and lived first on their farm, known as Just-a-Mere Farm, ll miles west of town on the National Road (now

U.S. Route 40 U.S. Route 40 or U.S. Highway 40 (US 40), also known as the Main Street of America, is a major east–west United States Highway traveling across the United States from the Mountain States to the Mid-Atlantic States. As with most routes wh ...

). They later lived on small farm on the southeast side of Richmond with a large colonial revival house with a pool and several outbuildings. In late 1934, Singin' Sam returned to broadcasting after Barbasol arranged to do his show live from Cincinnati, an easy commute. He continued with Barbasol until 1941, and during that time, he also did shows for Coca-Cola, flying to New York on alternate weeks to make transcriptions for his weekly 15-minute ''Refreshment Time with Singin' Sam'', which aired from 1937 to 1942. In total, he made 260 transcriptions for the syndicated program. He retired about a year before his death.Associated Press, "'Singin' Sam' Dies From Heart Attack", ''San Bernardino Daily Sun'', San Bernardino, California, Tuesday 15 June 1948, Volume LIV, Number 248, page 3. He died in hospital in Richmond of a heart attack in 1948.Morrisson-Reeves Library, Richmond, Indiana, Local History Collection
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Others

Harry Frankel should not be confused with country singer Singin' Sam Agins (1919–1996) and others who adopted the name.Singin' Sam Agins

Notes and references

Notes

References

External links

*
Morrisson-Reeves Library Digital Collections: Singin' Sam recordings''Screen Songs: Singin' Sam and the Famous Bouncing Ball'' (1934)
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Singin Sam 1888 births 1948 deaths American radio personalities Musicians from Richmond, Indiana People from Danville, Kentucky Musicians from Springfield, Ohio American male film actors American male voice actors Gennett Records artists Burials at Earlham Cemetery, Richmond, Indiana 20th-century American male actors Male actors from Ohio Male actors from Kentucky Male actors from Indiana Singers from Ohio Singers from Kentucky Radio personalities from Ohio Radio personalities from Indiana Radio personalities from Kentucky 20th-century American singers 20th-century American male singers