''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
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 ...
(1883-1939), who sang novelty songs.
Career
Jones and Hare were already established as soloists on phonograph records. One of Jones's better solos was "Mary Lou", while Hare scored with the Yuletide novelty "Santa Claus Hides in the Phonograph". In 1920 recording 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 th ...
had them sing an accompaniment on a Brunswick recording. They went on to do numerous recordings for
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 prod ...
, Edison, and other companies. Similarities between the two singers were often noted: same height, same weight, birthdays a few days apart. Fred Rabinstein, who worked with Edison, recalled:
:They had amused themselves by singing opera in a burlesque fashion, as they
ater Ater (Hebrew אֲתַר) is an Old Testament male name.
#A descendant of Hezekiah, who returned from Babylon ;
#An Israelite, who subscribed to Nehemiah
Nehemiah is the central figure of the Book of Nehemiah, which describes his work in r ...
did in their 1922 record of "Operatic Syncopation"...They seemed to have everything in common except that Jones was a bachelor (he took a wife after his mother's death) and Hare was married, with a little girl named Marilyn, who was to serve for a short time as Jones's singing partner after her father's death in 1939... both had mothers whose maiden names were Roberts; both were five feet and seven inches tall; both had voices of operatic calibre that perfectly complemented each other, and both had had operatic experience.
Jones and Hare 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.Banks, Michael A. "Collector's Corner: Early Radio Applause Cards," ''Auction Bytes'' #180, December 3, 2006. /ref>
Beginning August 22, 1923, the Happiness Boys broadcast on New York's WEAF, moving to NBC from a run from 1926 to 1929. The duo sang popular tunes, mostly light fare and comic songs, and they engaged in humorous repartee between numbers. Their theme song was "How Do You Do" (1924). However, only the words to this song were new at that time. The melody had been used for a variety of other songs in the past and is still used in the camp favorite " If You're Happy and You Know It (Clap Your Hands)".
Dave Kaplan was usually the team's pianist on records. Kaplan was in charge of Edison's popular music division (and led the company's house dance bands "Kaplan's Melodists", the anagrammatical "McNalpak's Dance Orchestra", and "Atlantic Dance Orchestra"), but his contract as Edison's bandleader did not restrict his piano accompaniment work on other labels; he was so identified with Jones and Hare that they were jocularly referred to as "The Happiness Boys with Dave Kaplan at the Piano" in a single phrase. Fannie Heinline, regarded as the best American female banjoist at the turn of the century, made guest appearances on ''The Happiness Boys'' as banjoist and vocalist.
By 1928, Jones and Hare were the highest paid singers in radio, earning $1,250 ($20,000 today) a week. They also made highly successful personal appearances in the United States and Europe. (They mention the European tour fondly in their recording of "We Don't Like It, Not Much".)
Jones and Hare specialized in comic songs that commented on trends and popular culture. When the song "Collegiate" swept the country and prompted a host of similar tunes, Jones and Hare countered with "We Ain't Never Been to College". Gracious living and social propriety were skewered in Jones and Hare's "Etiquette Blues". America's fascination with radio triggered the pungent parody "Twisting the Dials", probably the very first comedy sketch of its kind: Billy and Ernie simulate tuning a radio and getting snatches of random radio programs (Ernie's stentorian recitation of "Gunga Din" interrupted by Billy singing a fast Hawaiian song; Billy saccharinely introducing children's storyteller "Daddy Scarem" rnie who turns out to be pretty grim; an incomprehensible boxing match, etc., punctuated by frequent time-outs for station identifications and time signals).
One of their most pointed satires, recorded with a full orchestra, was "We Can't Sleep in the Movies Anymore". Jones and Hare demonstrate how talking pictures have changed a restful evening in a theater into a noisy onslaught of "sneezes, squawks, and squeals". The lyrics also note that the actors' voices seldom matched their silent screen images:
HARE: The sheik is from the ghetto. I thought he came from Spain.
JONES: His voice is high falsetto! And he sounds like he's in pain!
Jones and Hare kidded the "
talkies
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before ...
", but were featured in ''A Movietone Divertissement'' (
MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...
Warner Brothers
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American Film studio, film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, Califo ...
/Vitaphone, 1932), both sound
short subject
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.
Radio's "Happiness Boys" changed their identities and allegiance whenever they changed sponsors. For Taystee Bread, for example, Jones and Hare became "The Taystee Loafers", and for Interwoven Socks they became "The Interwoven Pair." Regardless of their affiliation, they continued with their songs and jokes through the 1930s.
The partnership ended with Ernie Hare's death on March 9, 1939. Hare's 16-year-old daughter, Marilyn Hare, joined Jones at the microphone, allowing the act to continue as "Jones and Hare" for about a year, until she left to pursue a movie career in Hollywood. Jones died within the year, on November 23, 1940.
In 1953, a classic vaudeville performance by the Happiness Boys was included in ''
The Ford 50th Anniversary Show
''The Ford 50th Anniversary Show'', also known as ''The American Road'', was a two-hour television special that was broadcast live on June 15, 1953, from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. Ford Motor Company purchased two hours of prime time from ...
'', a live television audience of 60 million persons (broadcast live over the NBC and CBS networks). The audio of the Happiness Boys was accompanied by a pantomime performance by
Mary Martin
Mary Virginia Martin (December 1, 1913 – November 3, 1990) was an American actress and singer. A muse of Rodgers and Hammerstein, she originated many leading roles on stage over her career, including Nellie Forbush in '' South Pacific'' (194 ...
and
Ethel Merman
Ethel Merman (born Ethel Agnes Zimmermann, January 16, 1908 – February 15, 1984) was an American actress and singer, known for her distinctive, powerful voice, and for leading roles in musical theatre.Obituary ''Variety'', February 22, 1984. ...
.
Billy Jones and Ernie Hare's music was recently reissued on the Living Era CD (AJA 5628), ''How Do You Do?'', which brings together two dozen of their more popular hits, including "
Barney Google
''Barney Google and Snuffy Smith'', originally ''Take Barney Google, F'rinstance'', is an American comic strip created by cartoonist Billy DeBeck. Since its debut on June 17, 1919, the strip has gained a large international readership, appearin ...
" (lyrics by
Billy Rose
Billy Rose (born William Samuel Rosenberg; September 6, 1899 – February 10, 1966) was an American impresario, theatrical showman and lyricist. For years both before and after World War II, Billy Rose was a major force in entertainment, with sh ...
Lonnie Donegan
Anthony James Donegan (29 April 1931 – 3 November 2002), known as Lonnie Donegan, was a British skiffle singer, songwriter and musician, referred to as the " King of Skiffle", who influenced 1960s British pop and rock musicians. Born in Scot ...
), "
I've Never Seen a Straight Banana
"I've Never Seen a Straight Banana" is a novelty song from 1926, written by Ted Waite. A short film was made in 1926 in the Phonofilm sound-on-film process with music hall comedian Dick Henderson
Richard Henderson (20 March 1891 – 15 Octo ...
", "Etiquette Blues", "I Miss My Swiss (My Swiss Miss Misses Me)", "Twisting the Dials", "The Village Blacksmith Owns the Village Now", "
Yes! We Have No Bananas
"Yes! We Have No Bananas" is an American novelty song by Frank Silver and Irving Cohn published March 23, 1923. It became a major hit in 1923 (placing No. 1 for five weeks) when it was recorded by Billy Jones, Billy Murray, Arthur Hall, Irving ...
" (Billy Jones solo), and "She's the Sweetheart of Six Other Guys" (parody of "
Sweetheart of Sigma Chi
Often called the most beloved and popular of college fraternity songs, "The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi" was written in 1911 by Byron D. Stokes (Albion Class of 1913) and F. Dudleigh Vernor (Albion '14). Stokes had written the words while in class on ...
").
References
Bibliography
*Hoffmann, Carty, and Riggs, ''Billy Murray, The Phonograph Industry's First Great Recording Artist''
*Roger D. Kinkle, ''The Complete Encyclopedia of Popular Music and Jazz, 1900-1950''
*Tim Gracyk, ''The Encyclopedia of Popular American Recording Pioneers: 1895-1925''
Billy Rose
Billy Rose (born William Samuel Rosenberg; September 6, 1899 – February 10, 1966) was an American impresario, theatrical showman and lyricist. For years both before and after World War II, Billy Rose was a major force in entertainment, with sh ...