The Eton Boys, or The Four Eton Boys, were an American all-male

musical quartet In music, a quartet (, , , , ) is an ensemble of four singers or instrumental performers. Classical String quartet In classical music, one of the most common combinations of four instruments in chamber music is the string quartet. String quar ...

from the St. Louis, Missouri area, whose members were Art Gentry, lead; Earl Smith, tenor; Charles Day, baritone; and Jack Day, bass. "Incidentally, The Eton Boys never went to

Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...

," write authors

Scott MacGillivray Scott MacGillivray (born June 29, 1957) is an American non-fiction author specializing in motion picture history. His book '' Laurel & Hardy: From the Forties Forward,'' revised and expanded in 2009, chronicles the later films of Stan Laurel and ...

and

Ted Okuda Ted Okuda (born December 8, 1953) is an American non-fiction author and film historian. He has many books and magazine features to his credit, under his own name and in collaboration with others. Career Okuda's long-held interest in movie comedies ...

; "the group's name is simply a musical reference ("Eton" is "note" spelled backwards)." In the 1930s they headlined

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street ** Broadway Theatre (53rd Stre ...

vaudeville shows, frequently appeared in short musical films such as

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 Pictures, First National from 1926 to 1931. Vitaphone is the last major analog sound-on-disc sys ...

Broadway Brevities Broadway Brevities are two-reel (17–21 minutes long) musical and dramatic film shorts produced by Warner Bros. between 1931 and 1943. The series continued as Warner Specials in later years. Overview Other titles used for these black and white ...

and Paramount's animated

Screen Songs ''Screen Songs'' (formerly known as ''KoKo Song Car-Tunes'') are a series of animated cartoons produced at the Fleischer Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures between 1929 and 1938. Paramount brought back the sing-along cartoons in 19 ...

, and often appeared on the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

radio network.

History

They went to schools in the St. Louis area, and the two Day brothers entered show business first, as

acrobat Acrobatics () is the performance of human feats of balance, agility, and motor coordination. Acrobatic skills are used in performing arts, sporting events, and martial arts. Extensive use of acrobatic skills are most often performed in acro d ...

s in a successful vaudeville act that played the

Palace Theatre Palace Theatre, or Palace Theater, is the name of many theatres in different countries, including: Australia *Palace Theatre, Melbourne, Victoria *Palace Theatre, Sydney, New South Wales Canada *Palace Theatre, housed in the Robillard Block, Mo ...

nine times in one year. Art Gentry was once radio's youngest regular announcer and worked for

KMOX KMOX (1120 AM broadcasting, AM) is a commercial radio station in St. Louis, Missouri, owned by Audacy, Inc. The station is a 50,000 watt List of North American broadcast station classes, Class A clear-channel station with a omnidirectional ante ...

, and he is the grandfather of television personality

Matt Lauer Matthew Todd Lauer (; born December 30, 1957) is a former American television news personality, best known for his work with NBC News. After serving as a local news personality in New York City on WNBC, his first national exposure was as the ne ...

. Earl Smith left vaudeville for nightclub work in New York, and joined the Eton Boys there.

Motion pictures

The Eton Boys also appeared in motion pictures, exclusively in New York. Their busiest years in movies were 1933 and 1934: they were featured in two-reel, 20-minute Vitaphone musical shorts;

Max Fleischer Max Fleischer (born Majer Fleischer ; July 19, 1883 – September 11, 1972) was an American animator and studio owner. Born in Kraków, in Austrian Poland, Fleischer immigrated to the United States where he became a pioneer in the development ...

's Screen Songs for Paramount; and one feature film produced by

Universal Universal is the adjective for universe. Universal may also refer to: Companies * NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company that is a subsidiary of Comcast ** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of N ...

in New York, ''

Moonlight and Pretzels ''Moonlight and Pretzels'' is a 1933 American Pre-Code musical film directed by Karl Freund, about a man who puts on a Broadway show. The film was released by Universal Studios and featured Mary Brian and William Frawley, now best-known as "Fre ...

''. The Screen Songs were animated cartoons, each showcasing a popular song. For example, ''

Down by the Old Mill Stream "Down by the Old Mill Stream" is a song written by Tell Taylor. It was one of the most popular songs of the early 20th century. The publisher, Forster Music Publisher, Inc., sold 4 million copies. Background The song was written in 1908 while ...

'' (1933) had a hillbilly theme, with the animated characters harvesting apples for cider. Halfway through each cartoon, the Eton Boys would appear in live action and lead the audience in singing the title song, guided by the

bouncing ball The physics of a bouncing ball concerns the physical behaviour of bouncing balls, particularly its motion before, during, and after impact against the surface of another body. Several aspects of a bouncing ball's behaviour serve as an introd ...

. In 1941 the Eton Boys made their final film appearances, singing in 11

Soundies A soundie is a three-minute American film displaying both the audio and video of a musical performance. Over 1,850 soundies were produced between 1940 and 1946, regarded today as "precursors to music videos". Soundies exhibited a variety of mu ...

. These were short musical films produced in New York, especially for coin-operated "movie jukeboxes".

Later lives

The Eton Boys recorded for

Victor Records The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American recording company and phonograph manufacturer, incorporated in 1901. Victor was an independent enterprise until 1929 when it was purchased by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and became ...

in 1941. They completed their radio commitments for

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 ...

and disbanded in 1943. Earl Smith continued to pursue a show-business career, and Art Gentry sang in a radio series for World Transcription Service, "Songs of Our Times" (1948).

Filmography

*''Frances Shelley and the Four Eton Boys'' (Vitaphone short, 1929) *''The Operator's Opera'' (Vitaphone short, 1933) *''Use Your Imagination'' (Vitaphone short, 1933) *''Sing 'Em Back Alive'' (1933) *''

'' (Universal feature film, 1933) *'' I Like Mountain Music'' (Screen Song, 1933) *''

'' (Screen Song, 1933) *''She Reminds Me of You'' (Screen Song, 1933) *''Mirrors'' (Vitaphone short, 1934) *''The Gem of the Ocean'' (Vitaphone short, 1934) a musical short *''A Great Idea'' (Mentone short, 1935) * ''Zero Girl'' (Vitaphone short, 1936) *''Rhythm Café'' (Nu-Atlas short, 1938) Soundies (all 1941):MacGillivray and Okuda, pp. 85-86. * ''My Gal Sal'' * ''I Want a Girl'' * ''They're Making Me All Over in the Army'' * ''My Little Girl'' * ''

Old MacDonald Had a Farm "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" (sometimes shortened to Old MacDonald) is a traditional children's song and nursery rhyme about a farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The ter ...

'' * ''

The 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 Class of 1914). Stokes had written the words while i ...

'' (vocal chorus only) * ''Lily, Hot from Chile'' * ''

Beer Barrel Polka "Beer Barrel Polka", originally in Czech , also known as "The Barrel Polka", "Roll Out the Barrel", or "Rosamunde", is a 1927 polka composed by Czech musician Jaromír Vejvoda. Lyrics were added in 1934, subsequently gaining worldwide popularit ...

'' * ''Jerk McGurk from Albuquerque'' * ''A Bicycle Built for Two'' * '' Sweet Adeline''

References

External links

Eton Boys IMDb page
Fleischer All Stars {{DEFAULTSORT:Eton Boys Vocal quartets Musical groups from St. Louis 1930s American radio programs