''Acousticon Hour'' was a "musicale" radio program aired during 1927 and 1928 on
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
. It offered selections from classical music, orchestral favorites, operas and operettas.
History
The show was sponsored by the company that marketed the
Acousticon brand
hearing aid
A hearing aid is a device designed to improve hearing by making sound audible to a person with hearing loss. Hearing aids are classified as medical devices in most countries, and regulated by the respective regulations. Small audio amplifiers ...
, invented by
Miller Reese Hutchison
Miller Reese Hutchison (August 6, 1876 – February 16, 1944) was an American electrical engineer and inventor. He developed some of the first portable electric devices, such as a vehicle horn and a hearing aid. His father was William Hutchison ...
.
As broadcast historian
Elizabeth McLeod has noted, in the 1920s a product name used in a show's title was considered a more acceptable form of advertising than the use of intrusive commercial messages:
:The most popular program format of the late twenties was the sponsored musical feature. It could be a large symphonic group, a dance orchestra, or a song-and-patter team — and it would usually carry the sponsor's name.
The A&P Gypsies, for example — a large, genre-crossing orchestra conducted by
Harry Horlick.
The Ipana Troubadors
''The Ipana Troubadors'' (aka ''The Ipana Troubadours'') was a musical variety radio program which began in New York on WEAF in 1923. In actuality, the Troubadors were the Sam Lanin Orchestra. They opened the show with their theme, "Smiles."
T ...
— a hot dance band directed by
Sam Lanin
Samuel Charles Lanin (September 4, 1891 – May 5, 1977) was an American jazz bandleader.
Lanin's brothers, Howard and Lester, were also bandleaders, and all of them had sustained careers in music. Lanin was one of ten children born to Benjamin ...
. The Goodrich Zippers — a banjo-driven orchestra conducted by
Harry Reser, when he wasn't leading the same group under the name of
The Clicquot Club Eskimos
''The Clicquot Club Eskimos'' was a popular musical variety radio show, first heard in 1923, featuring a banjo orchestra directed by Harry Reser. A popular ginger ale, Clicquot Club, was Canada Dry's main rival. Clicquot (pronounced "klee-ko") ...
. Everyone remembers
The Happiness Boys
''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 (1883-1939), who sang novelty songs.
Career
Jones and Hare were already established ...
,
Billy Jones and
Ernie Hare -- but what about
Scrappy Lambert
Harold "Scrappy" Lambert (May 12, 1901 – November 30, 1987) was an American dance-band vocalist who appeared on hundreds of recordings from the 1920s to the 1940s.
At Rutgers University, he was a cheerleader and played piano for a jazz gr ...
and Billy Hillpot, who performed exactly the same sort of material as Trade and Mark, The Smith Brothers. The list is endless:
The Silvertown Cord Orchestra, featuring the Silver Masked Tenor. The Sylvania Foresters. The Flit Soldiers -- yet another Harry Reser group.
The Champion Sparkers. The Fox Fur Trappers. The Ingram Shavers, who were the Ipana Troubadours on alternate Wednesdays. The Yeast Foamers. The Planters Pickers. And, the magnificently named Freed-Eisemann Orchestradians. All playing pretty much the same sorts of music, all announced by Phillips Carlin or John S. Young or Alwyn Bach or
Milton Cross in pretty much the same sort of stiffly formal style.
McLeod, Elizabeth. "Radio's Forgotten Years"
The ''Acousticon Hour'' was not a 60-minute show as the title suggests. It was a 30-minute program which NBC broadcast from 5:30 to 6 p.m. on Sunday afternoons. In 1928, the Acousticon male quartet sang "The Palms" in recognition of Palm Sunday. The singer-songwriter Jack Norworth
John Godfrey Knauff (January 5, 1879 – September 1, 1959), known professionally as Jack Norworth, was an American songwriter, singer and vaudeville performer.
Biography
Norworth is credited as writer of a number of Tin Pan Alley hits. He wr ...
was a guest in March 1928, and the pianist-songwriter Jean Schwartz
Jean Schwartz (November 4, 1878 – November 30, 1956) was a Hungarian-born Jewish American composer and pianist. He is best known for his work writing the scores for more than 30 Broadway theatre, Broadway musicals, and for his creation of more t ...
appeared as a guest the following month. Selections from the operas ''Carmen
''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the O ...
'' and '' La Gioconda'' were included in the April 1928 schedule.
Jack Burton was the program's announcer, director, and writer. Performers who made their network premieres on the show included Lina Abarbanell, Donald Brian
Donald Brian (February 17, 1877 – December 22, 1948) was an actor, dancer and singer born in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, St. John's, Colony of Newfoundland, Newfoundland (now Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada). In 1907, he sta ...
, Shelton Brooks, Victor Moore
Victor Fred Moore (February 24, 1876 – July 23, 1962) was an American actor of stage and screen, a major Broadway star from the late 1920s through the 1930s. He was also a writer and director, but is best remembered today as a comedian, play ...
, Jack Norworth
John Godfrey Knauff (January 5, 1879 – September 1, 1959), known professionally as Jack Norworth, was an American songwriter, singer and vaudeville performer.
Biography
Norworth is credited as writer of a number of Tin Pan Alley hits. He wr ...
, Blanche Ring
Blanche Ring (April 24, 1871 – January 13, 1961) was an American singer and actress in Broadway theatre productions, musicals, and Hollywood (film industry), Hollywood motion pictures. She was best known for her rendition of "In the Good ...
, Julia Sanderson, Jean Schwartz
Jean Schwartz (November 4, 1878 – November 30, 1956) was a Hungarian-born Jewish American composer and pianist. He is best known for his work writing the scores for more than 30 Broadway theatre, Broadway musicals, and for his creation of more t ...
, Six Brown Brothers, and Sophie Tucker
Sophie Tucker (born Sofia Kalish; January 13, 1886 – February 9, 1966) was a Russian-born American singer, comedian, actress, and radio personality. Known for her powerful delivery of comical and risqué songs, she was one of the most popula ...
.[
]
See also
* List of U.S. radio programs
*Old-time radio
The Golden Age of Radio, also known as the old-time radio (OTR) era, was an era of radio in the United States where it was the dominant electronic home entertainment medium. It began with the birth of commercial radio broadcasting in the earl ...
References
{{reflist
Listen to
Jack Norworth (five songs)
External links
( ttps://web.archive.org/web/20091026205847/http://geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/5284/120928.html Archived2009-10-24)
American classical music radio programs
1920s American radio programs
1927 radio programme debuts
1928 radio programme endings
NBC radio programs