''Maxwell House Show Boat'' was the

top radio show In the United States, radio listenership is gauged by Nielsen and others for both commercial radio and public radio. Nielsen and similar services provide estimates by regional market and by standard daypart, but do not compile nationwide infor ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

from 1933 to 1935. The program was sponsored by

Maxwell House Maxwell House is an American brand of coffee manufactured by a like-named division of Kraft Heinz in North America and JDE Peet's in the rest of the world. Introduced in 1892 by wholesale grocer Joel Owsley Cheek, it was named in honor of the Ma ...

coffee, and it aired on

NBC Radio The National Broadcasting Company's NBC Radio Network (known as the NBC Red Network prior to 1942) was an American commercial radio network which was in operation from 1926 through 2004. Along with the NBC Blue Network it was one of the first t ...

Thursday nights, 9 pm. The first show was broadcast in 1931. ''Maxwell House Show Boat'' was inspired by the success of the

Jerome Kern Jerome David Kern (January 27, 1885 – November 11, 1945) was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over ...

Oscar Hammerstein II Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II (; July 12, 1895 – August 23, 1960) was an American lyricist, librettist, theatrical producer, and (usually uncredited) director in the musical theater for almost 40 years. He won eight Ton ...

musical ''

Show Boat ''Show Boat'' is a musical with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It is based on Edna Ferber's best-selling 1926 novel of the same name. The musical follows the lives of the performers, stagehands and dock worke ...

'', which was based on the novel of the same name by

Edna Ferber Edna Ferber (August 15, 1885 – April 16, 1968) was an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her novels include the Pulitzer Prize-winning '' So Big'' (1924), ''Show Boat'' (1926; made into the celebrated 1927 musical), '' Cim ...

. It became an instant classic when it opened in 1927 on Broadway. The radio program starred

Charles Winninger Charles J. Winninger (May 26, 1884 – January 27, 1969) was an American stage and film actor, most often cast in comedies or musicals. Life and career Winninger was born in Athens, Wisconsin, the son of Rosalia (Grassler) and Franz Winninger ...

as Captain Henry, a role directly inspired by Winninger's stage performance as Cap'n Andy Hawks, owner of the showboat ''Cotton Blossom'' in the Kern-Hammerstein musical. (Otherwise, the Maxwell House program and the stage ''Show Boat'' had nothing to do with each other besides the fact that both had a Mississippi

showboat A showboat, or show boat, was a floating theater that traveled along the waterways of the United States, especially along the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, to bring culture and entertainment to the inhabitants of river frontiers. Showboats were a ...

as a setting for the action.) In 1932, the year before ''Maxwell House Show Boat'' premiered, Winninger reprised his role as Cap'n Andy in the first stage revival of Kern and Hammerstein's ''Show Boat'', a role he would once again play in the 1936 film version of the musical.

Cast

Lanny Ross Lancelot Patrick Ross (January 19, 1906 – April 25, 1988)DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). ''Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. was an American singer, pianist an ...

, master of ceremonies *

Annette Hanshaw Catherine Annette Hanshaw (October 18, 1901 – March 13, 1985) was an American Jazz Age singer. She was one of the most popular radio stars of the late 1920s and early 1930s. Over four million of her records had been sold by 1934. In her ten-y ...

(1932-1934)

References

{{reflist 1930s American radio programs NBC radio programs

Cast

See also

References