''The Grouch Club'' is a talk show broadcast on

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 Broadc ...

West Coast on Mondays (later Tuesdays) between October 17, 1938 and April 25, 1939, followed on Sundays at 6:30 PM on

NBC Red Network 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 ...

April 16, 1939 through January 21, 1940.

Jack Lescoulie Jack Lescoulie (November 17, 1912 – July 22, 1987) was a radio and television announcer and host, notably on NBC's ''Today'' during the 1950s and 1960s; a newspaper source lists his date of birth as May 17, 1912. Lescoulie was also known for h ...

hosted as “grouchmaster”, listening to people who wanted to complain about any problem in their life. Among the “grouchies” featured were familiar radio personalities (some also in movies): Jack Albertson,

Arthur Q. Bryan Arthur Quirk Bryan (May 8, 1899 – November 30, 1959) was an American actor and radio personality. He is best remembered for his longtime recurring role as well-spoken, wisecracking Dr. Gamble on the radio comedy ''Fibber McGee and Molly'' and f ...

(the future voice of

Elmer Fudd Elmer J.''Hare Brush'' (1956) Fudd is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. '' Looney Tunes''/'' Merrie Melodies'' series and the archenemy of Bugs Bunny. He has one of the more disputed origins in the Warner Bros. cartoon pantheo ...

), Emory Parnell, Ned Sparks, Don Brody, Mary Milford, Phil Kramer and Eric Burtis. Beth Wilson was a key singer and the hosts were Neil Reagan and Jim Barry. A key producer was a top movie screenwriter

Owen Crump The 18th AAF Base Unit (Motion Picture Unit), originally known as the First Motion Picture Unit, Army Air Forces, was the primary film production unit of the U.S. Army Air Forces (AAF) during World War II, and was the first military unit mad ...

Roland Kibbee Roland Kibbee (15 February 1914 in Monongahela, Pennsylvania – 5 August 1984 in Encino, California) was an award-winning American screenwriter and producer. He was a frequent collaborator and friend of actor-producer Burt Lancaster. Career ...

was among the writers. The show was created by Nat Hiken. Simultaneous to the show was a series of 9- to 10-minute comedy

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

s also co-written and co-starring on screen, Jack Lescoulie. These were produced by

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Di ...

through

Vitaphone Vitaphone was a sound film system used for feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects made by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1931. Vitaphone was the last major analog sound-on-disc system and the only one th ...

. Arthur Q. Bryan and Nancy Evans often appeared in these, which showcased an unfortunate soul struggling with library book cards, voting trouble, parking problems and other troubles… warranting an entrance in the “Grouch Club”. Only six films were made in 1938-1939, the first of which eventually made it to DVD as an “extra” with the feature ''

The Roaring Twenties ''The Roaring Twenties'' is a 1939 American crime thriller film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring James Cagney, Priscilla Lane, Humphrey Bogart, and Gladys George. The film, spanning the periods between 1919 and 1933, was written by Jerry ...

''.

Lloyd French Lloyd French (January 11, 1900 – May 24, 1950) was an American director of short films, most of them comedies. His best remembered films are several Laurel and Hardy comedies in the 1930s. He also made several musical short films featuring ma ...

was key director. *''The Great Library Misery'' / September 10, 1938 *''Tax Trouble(s)'' / March 18, 1939 *''Witness Trouble'' / July 29, 1939 *''Vote Trouble'' / September 9, 1939 *''No Parking'' / December 22, 1939 *''Trouble in Store'' / December 23, 1939

References

* Roy Liebman ''Vitaphone Films – A Catalogue of the Features and Shorts'' 2003 McFarland & Company * ''Motion Pictures 1912-1939 Catalog of Copyright Entries'' 1951 Library of Congress {{DEFAULTSORT:Grouch Club, The 1938 radio programme debuts 1940 radio programme endings CBS Radio programs 1930s American radio programs Vitaphone short films Warner Bros. short films

See also

References