''The Horn and Hardart Children's Hour'' (later known as ''The Children's Hour'') was a variety show with a cast of children, including some who later became well-known adult performers. It had a long run for more than three decades. The program was sponsored by

Horn & Hardart Horn & Hardart was a food services company in the United States noted for operating the first food service automats in Philadelphia, New York City, and Baltimore. Philadelphia's Joseph Horn (1861–1941) and German-born, New Orleans-raised Fran ...

, which owned restaurants, bakeshops and

automat An automat is a fast food restaurant where simple foods and drinks are served by vending machines. The world's first automat, Quisisana, opened in Berlin, Germany in 1895. By country Germany The first automat in the world was the Quisisana ...

s in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Radio

Launched on Halloween day, October 31, 1927, the program was initially broadcast on WCAU Radio in

, hosted by Stan Lee Broza, and was later 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 ...

during the 1940s and 1950s. The original New York host was

Paul Douglas Paul Howard Douglas (March 26, 1892 – September 24, 1976) was an American politician and Georgist economist. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a U.S. Senator from Illinois for eighteen years, from 1949 to 1967. During his Senat ...

, followed by

Ralph Edwards Ralph Livingstone Edwards (June 13, 1913DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). ''Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . Pp. 86-87. – November 16, 2005) was an American radio ...

and finally

Ed Herlihy Edward Joseph Herlihy (August 14, 1909 – January 30, 1999)Cox, Jim (2008). ''This Day in Network Radio: A Daily Calendar of Births, Debuts, Cancellations and Other Events in Broadcasting History''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . was an Ameri ...

. Horn and Hardart's slogan was "Less work for mother dear whose gentle hands, lead us so kindly through little folk lands. We'll give her happiness, each kindness, each caress repaid with thoughtfulness. Less work for mother dear." There were several versions of this song heard on the program: :Less work for mother; let's lend her a hand. :Less work for mother so she'll understand. :She's your greatest treasure; :Let's make her life a pleasure. :Less work for mother dear.

Television

When the program went to television, it was a radio-TV simulcast. The television premiere was on

WCAU-TV WCAU (channel 10) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Mount Laurel, New Jerse ...

in Philadelphia in 1948, followed by WNBT in New York in 1949, telecast on Sunday mornings. The hosts were Broza in Philadelphia and Herlihy in New York. A number of performers became quite successful after their work on the Philadelphia TV series, including Ted Arnold (musical director for

Glenn Yarbrough Glenn Robertson Yarbrough (January 12, 1930 – August 11, 2016) was an American folk singer and guitarist. He was the lead singer (tenor) with the Limeliters from 1959 to 1963 and also had a prolific solo career. Yarbrough had a restless ...

and

José Feliciano José Montserrate Feliciano García (born September 10, 1945) () is a Puerto Rican musician, singer and composer. He recorded many international hits, including his rendition of the Doors' "Light My Fire" and his self-penned Christmas song " ...

Frankie Avalon Francis Thomas Avallone (born September 18, 1940), better known as Frankie Avalon, is an American actor, singer, and former teen idol. He had 31 charting U.S. ''Billboard'' singles from 1958 to late 1962, including number one hits, "Venus" an ...

Rosemary Clooney Rosemary Clooney (May 23, 1928 – June 29, 2002) was an American singer and actress. She came to prominence in the early 1950s with the song "Come On-a My House", which was followed by other pop numbers such as " Botch-a-Me", " Mambo Italiano", ...

Buddy DeFranco Boniface Ferdinand Leonard "Buddy" DeFranco (February 17, 1923 – December 24, 2014) was an Italian-American jazz clarinetist. In addition to his work as a bandleader, DeFranco led the Glenn Miller Orchestra for almost a decade in the 1960s and ...

Eddie Fisher Edwin Jack Fisher (August 10, 1928 – September 22, 2010) was an American singer and actor. He was one of the most popular artists during the 1950s, selling millions of records and hosting his own TV show, ''The Eddie Fisher Show''. Actress Eli ...

Connie Francis Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero (born December 12, 1937), known professionally as Connie Francis, is an American pop singer, actress, and top-charting female vocalist of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Called the “First Lady of Rock & Roll” ...

Joey Heatherton Davenie Johanna "Joey" Heatherton (born September 14, 1944) is an American actress, dancer, and singer. A sex symbol of the 1960s and 1970s, she is best known for her many television appearances during that time, particularly as a frequent varie ...

Kitty Kallen Kitty Kallen (born Katie Kallen; May 25, 1921 – January 7, 2016) was an American popular singer whose career spanned from the 1930s to the 1960s, to include the Swing era of the Big Band years, the post-World War II pop scene and the early ...

Rose Marie Rose Marie (born Rose Marie Mazzetta; August 15, 1923 – December 28, 2017) was an American actress, singer, comedian, and vaudeville performer with a career ultimately spanning nine decades, which included film, radio, records, theater, night ...

Bernadette Peters Bernadette Peters ( ''née'' Lazzara; born February 28, 1948) is an American actress, singer, and children's book author. Over a career spanning more than six decades, she has starred in musical theatre, television and film, performed in solo co ...

Ann Sheridan Clara Lou "Ann" Sheridan (February 21, 1915 – January 21, 1967) was an American actress and singer. She is best known for her roles in the films ''San Quentin'' (1937) with Humphrey Bogart, ''Angels with Dirty Faces'' (1938) with James Cagne ...

Arnold Stang Arnold Sidney Stang (September 28, 1918 – December 20, 2009)
''The New York Times'', 22 December 2 ...

Ezra Stone Ezra Stone (born Ezra Chaim Feinstone; December 2, 1917 – March 3, 1994) was an American actor and director who had a long career on the stage, in films, radio, and television, mostly as a director. His most notable role as an actor was that ...

(radio's original

Henry Aldrich Henry Aldrich (15 January 1648 – 14 December 1710) was an English theologian, philosopher, and composer. Life Aldrich was educated at Westminster School under Dr Richard Busby. In 1662, he entered Christ Church, Oxford, and in 1689 was mad ...

) and

Bea Wain Beatrice Ruth Wain (April 30, 1917 – August 19, 2017) was an American Big Band-era singer and radio personality born in the Bronx, New York City. She had several hits with Larry Clinton and His Orchestra, including "My Reverie", "Deep Purple", ...

Al Alberts Al Alberts (born Al Albertini, August 10, 1922 – November 27, 2009) was an American popular singer and composer. Biography Born Al Albertini in Chester, Pennsylvania, United States, he went to South Philadelphia High School. As a teenager, h ...

(of

The Four Aces The Four Aces are an American male traditional pop quartet popular since the 1950s. Over the last half-century, the group amassed many gold records. Its million-selling songs include " Love is a Many-Splendored Thing", " Three Coins in the Fou ...

) had a 30-year children's variety show modeled on the ''Horn & Hardart'' show where he had appeared as a child. Who can forget the Braslow Twins?(Geoffrey & Gregory)

Fred Rogers Fred McFeely Rogers (March 20, 1928 – February 27, 2003), commonly known as Mister Rogers, was an American television host, author, producer, and Presbyterian minister. He was the creator, showrunner, and host of the preschool television se ...

worked as a stage manager on the show, which he later described as "terrible" for forcing children to perform.Archived a
Ghostarchive
and th
Wayback Machine
The closing song was sung to the tune of "A Bicycle built for Two": :Childhood, childhood :Sweetest days of all :Children playing hide and seek and ball :Tripping to school so merry :The Golden Rule to study :Oh, how we'll miss, the years of bliss :When our childhood days are gone.
/ref> The series came to an end in the summer of 1958. Stan Broza died on December 15, 1970.

References

Listen to

Clip of Stan Lee Broza hosting a 1933 episode

External links

WCAU History
{{DEFAULTSORT:Horn And Hardart Children's Hour, The American variety radio programs Local children's television programming in the United States