''The American Melody Hour'' is an American

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 ...

program. ''The American Melody Hour'' was designed as a musical variety show. The program showcased a half-hour playing and singing "the tunes of yesterday and tomorrow..." mostly sung by baritone Bob Hannon. The program was hosted by

lyric soprano A lyric soprano is a type of operatic soprano voice that has a warm quality with a bright, full timbre that can be heard over an orchestra. The lyric soprano voice generally has a higher tessitura than a soubrette and usually plays ingenues and ot ...

Vivian Della Chiesa Vivian Della Chiesa (October 9, 1915 – January 6, 2009) was an American lyric soprano who achieved a high level of popularity in the United States singing on the radio during the 1940s and the early 1950s. Della Chiesa performed a wide variet ...

. Other regular performers on the program included conductor Frank Black, vocalist Frank Munn and baritone Conrad Thibault. The program was produced by daytime radio monarch Frank Hummert. Announcers included Andre Baruch and Larry Elliott. ''The American Melody Hour'' originally could be heard on the

Blue Network The Blue Network (previously known as the NBC Blue Network) was the on-air name of a now defunct American Commercial broadcasting, radio network, which broadcast from 1927 through 1945. Beginning as one of the two radio networks owned by the ...

on Wednesday nights from October 22, 1941–April 15, 1942. The program then moved to

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 ...

Tuesdays at 7:30 pm on April 21, 1942. In 1947, the program moved to Wednesdays at 8 where it ended its run on July 7, 1948. The program was sponsored by Bayer aspirin during its entire six-year run.

Critical response

A review in the trade publication ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' compared the program to '' The American Album of Familiar Music'' and said that it sounded line 1931-era radio, demonstrating none of the "finer nuances that radio music has gathered in the past few years".

References

External links

Four episodes of ''The American Melody Hour'' available for download at Radio Echoes
{{DEFAULTSORT:American Melody Hour, The NBC radio programs CBS Radio programs 1941 radio programme debuts 1948 radio programme endings American variety radio series