Wendell Woods Hall (August 23, 1896, St. George, Kansas – April 2, 1969,

Fairhope, Alabama Fairhope is a city in Baldwin County, Alabama, United States, located on the eastern shoreline of Mobile Bay. The 2020 Census lists the population of the city as 22,477. Fairhope is a principal city of the Daphne-Fairhope-Foley metropolita ...

) was an American

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while the ...

singer, vaudeville artist, songwriter, pioneer radio performer, Victor recording artist and

ukulele The ukulele ( ; from haw, ukulele , approximately ), also called Uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments of Portuguese origin and popularized in Hawaii. It generally employs four nylon strings. The tone and volume of the instrumen ...

player.

Biography

Hall was known as the Red-haired Music Maker and the Pineapple Picador in his recording heyday of the 1920s and 1930s. In 1923, he released the song "

It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo' "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'" or "It Ain't Gonna Rain No More" is a song by "The Red-Headed Music Maker", singer and instrumentalist Wendell Hall (1896–1969). Hall's 1923 recording of it was a hit in the US and also in Britain, where it was sung ...

," which sold over two million copies in the United States. It was awarded a

gold disc Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

by the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

. The song is also considered the first musical hit on radio. He wrote "Underneath the Mellow Moon" and "Carolina Rose". Hall also wrote songs with

Carson Robison Carson Jay Robison ( – ) was an American country music singer and songwriter. Although his impact is generally forgotten today, he played a major role in promoting country music in its early years through numerous recordings and radio appear ...

and

Art Gillham Art Gillham (January 1, 1895, St. Louis, Missouri – June 6, 1961, Atlanta, Georgia) was an American songwriter, who was among the first crooners as a pioneer radio artist and a recording artist for Columbia Records. With Billy Smythe and Scott ...

. Hall began his career in 1922 Chicago as a

song plugger A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetition ...

for Forster Music. He traveled around the country and stopped in towns to play in music stores, theaters, and radio. In vaudeville he began singing and playing the xylophone. He found the ukulele to be more portable and quickly became an expert with that instrument. During 1923, he frequently performed on radio station KYW, then in Chicago. In January, 1924 he signed with the National Carbon Company to host the

Eveready Hour ''The Eveready Hour'' was the first sponsor (commercial), commercially sponsored variety program in the history of broadcasting. It premiered December 4, 1923 (or, according to other sources, November 4, 1923, or February 12, 1924), on WFAN, WEAF ...

a pioneer commercially sponsored variety program on WEAF in New York. On November 4, 1924, the program was on a pre-network 18 station "hook-up" to broadcast election returns with entertainers Will Rogers, Carson Robison,

, and the Waldorf Astoria Orchestra. Eveready even painted their batteries with a red top to cash in on Hall's popularity. Beginning in January, 1929, Hall hosted ''

The Majestic Theater of the Air ''The Majestic Theater of the Air'', also known as ''The Majestic Hour'', is an American musical radio program that aired on the CBS radio network between 1928–1932 on Sunday evenings. The series was produced and emcee'd by Wendell Hall and spo ...

'' as producer, program director, and emcee on the

CBS radio network CBS News Radio, formerly known as CBS Radio News and historically known as the CBS Radio Network, is a radio network that provides news to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by Paramount Global. It ...

. In April, 1929, he introduced singer Harriet Lee on the show as the "Chicago Nightingale", leading to her becoming a hit on CBS. A few years later, Hall hosted ''Gillette's Community Sing''. He made a few musical short films. After his radio days were over, Hall wrote commercials for radio. Beginning in September 1933, Hall had a program on NBC that the F. W. Fitch Company sponsored. He did some collaborations with

, recording versions of

Stephen Foster Stephen Collins Foster (July 4, 1826January 13, 1864), known also as "the father of American music", was an American composer known primarily for his parlour music, parlour and Minstrel show, minstrel music during the Romantic music, Romantic ...

tunes such as "

Camptown Races "Gwine to Run All Night, or De Camptown Races" (popularly known simply as "Camptown Races") is a minstrel song by Stephen Foster (1826–1864). () It was published in February 1850 by F. D. Benteen of Baltimore, Maryland, and Benteen published ...

" and "

Oh! Susanna "Oh! Susanna" is a minstrel song by Stephen Foster (1826–1864), first published in 1848. It is among the most popular American songs ever written. Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all tim ...

." He made many recordings on record labels of the time: Victor, Gennett, QRS, Brunswick. Hall performed on a variety of stringed instruments, including the standard

, the taropatch ukulele,

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

, and the hybrid

banjolele The banjo ukulele, also known as the banjolele or banjo uke, is a four-stringed musical instrument with a small banjo-type body and a fretted ukulele neck. The earliest known banjoleles were built by John A. Bolander and by Alvin D. Keech, both ...

, as well as the

tiple A tiple (, literally treble or soprano), is a plucked typically 12-string chordophone of the guitar family. A tiple player is called a ''tiplista''. The first mention of the tiple comes from musicologist Pablo Minguet e Irol in 1752. Although ma ...

. Like so many of the other performers during the era, Hall was a big fan of the instruments created by the C.F. Martin & Company, particularly their Taropatch. Like other performers, he was unsuccessful in obtaining an endorsement deal with Martin, but in response to his letter offering to endorse their product, Martin offered their 20% discount for professional performers and to inlay his name in the head of the instrument. He published an instruction book, ''Wendell Hall's Ukulele Method'', with

Forster Music Forster Music Publisher, Inc. was a major American publisher of popular songs founded in 1916 in Chicago by Fred John Adam Forster (1878–1956). The company had an office in New York and its music was of the Tin Pan Alley genre. For most of its ...

in 1925, that was edited by

May Singhi Breen May Singhi Breen (née May W. Singhi ; February 24, 1891, New York City – 19 December 1970, New York City) was an American composer, arranger, and ukulelist, who became known as "The Original Ukulele Lady." Her work in the music publishing busin ...

. He also marketed a series of custom ukuleles through the Regal Musical Instrument Company of Chicago, with his picture on the head of The Red Head Ukulele and

with red tuning pegs that became collectors' items for several generations afterward. When the ukulele dropped in popularity, many performers distanced themselves from it, Hall was no exception. It wasn't until

Arthur Godfrey Arthur Morton Godfrey (August 31, 1903 – March 16, 1983) was an American radio and television broadcaster and entertainer who was sometimes introduced by his nickname The Old Redhead. At the peak of his success, in the early-to-mid 1950s, Godf ...

brought the instrument back to life in the 1950s that it re-emerged. Due to this resurgence, Hall was able to land a radio show on WBKB five days a week. His instruction booklets were updated and republished at that time as well.

Personal life

On June 4, 1924, Hall married Marion Martin. The wedding was performed live on the radio, believed to be the first broadcast ceremony in history.Elmer Douglass, "Marriage of Friends Stirs Elmer's Soul," Chicago Daily Tribune, June 5, 1924, 10

Bibliography

* Wendell Hall's Ukulele Method, Edited by

, Forster Music Publisher, Inc., 1925 * Ten Trick Tunes, Forster Music Publisher, Inc., 1926 * Jingle Tunes No. 1, Forster Music Publisher, Inc., * Francis Gerald Fritz, Dissertation University of Wisconsin: https://minds.wisconsin.edu/handle/1793/7192

References

Sources

* *

External links

*
The Library of Congress - National Jukebox - Blue Island Blues
Retrieved 9/27/2011 *

Wendell Hall Wendell Woods Hall (August 23, 1896, St. George, Kansas – April 2, 1969, Fairhope, Alabama) was an American country singer, vaudeville artist, songwriter, pioneer radio performer, Victor recording artist and ukulele player. Biography Hall wa ...

at Allmusic.com * Hilmes, Michelle, ''Only Connect: A Cultural History of Broadcasting in the United States'' (2d ed.), Thomson Wadsworth, 2007, pp. 49–51. * Hilmes, Michelle, ''Radio Voices - American Broadcasting, 1922-1952'', University of Minnesota Press, 1997.
Wendell W. Hall recordings
at the

Discography of American Historical Recordings The Discography of American Historical Recordings (DAHR) is a database of master recordings made by American record companies during the 78rpm era. The DAHR provides some of these original recordings, free of charge, via audio streaming, along with ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, Wendell 1896 births 1969 deaths American country singer-songwriters American banjoists Country musicians from Kansas Vaudeville performers Gennett Records artists American ukulele players 20th-century American singers Singer-songwriters from Kansas