Recollections at 30 — 1956
28 episodes broadcast in 1956.
The hour-long sales audition, "A Salute to Radio," with H. V. Kaltenborn hosting a tribute to radio's first thirty years of news, music and comedy -- the pilot that launched the series.
The opener dips into the vault for a Radio City party, Clara, Lu 'n' Em, Fred Allen, Graham McNamee's call of the Carnera-Baer fight, and a bit of Information Please.
Minstrel-show nostalgia built around the NBC Minstrels, with Easy Aces, Al Jolson on Shell Chateau, Major Bowes' amateurs, and Leslie Howard in a Barrie sketch.
Rudy Vallee's Fleischmann Hour headlines a reel that catches the radio debuts of Clark & McCullough and Lum & Abner, plus a Town Hall Tonight turn from Fred Allen.
Ralph Edwards' Truth or Consequences leads off, followed by Bing Crosby and Bob Burns on Kraft Music Hall and a 1936 interview with sprinter Jesse Owens.
Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy spar with W. C. Fields on the Chase and Sanborn Hour, backed by Vox Pop, Al Pearce's gang, and eight-year-old Bobby Breen.
The harmony act Gene & Glenn (Jake & Lena) shares the half-hour with a 1938 Jack Benny broadcast, Fibber McGee, and Ben Bernie's orchestra.
Herbert Morrison's shattering 1937 eyewitness account of the Hindenburg disaster, framed by Phil Baker, Frank Crumit, and a Tommy Dorsey remote with a young Sinatra and Jo Stafford.
A single day rebuilt from the archive -- the NBC schedule of Friday, March 4, 1938, from Amos 'n' Andy to Frank Munn's Waltz Time and a West Coast flood report.
Early-Thirties variety with the A & P Gypsies, blackface team Pick & Pat, Eddie Cantor, and a teenaged Deanna Durbin.
A Labor Day package that opens with Al Jolson introducing Bing Crosby at the 1935 dedication of NBC's Hollywood studios, plus Ed Wynn, Nelson Eddy, and President Roosevelt.
Excerpts from NBC's June 1939 broadcast saluting the King and Queen of England on their visit to the United States.
Mary Martin's first radio appearance on Rudy Vallee's 1939 variety hour, alongside a young Milton Berle, Eleanor Powell, John Barrymore's Shakespeare, and Fats Waller.
Edward VIII's December 1936 abdication address anchors a reel with Ruth Etting, the Revelers, and an Eddie Cantor courtroom spoof.
The Boris Karloff horror classic "Cat Wife" from Lights Out headlines, with Vincent Lopez, Buddy Clark, and Graham McNamee reporting the Normandie disaster.
The Pickens Sisters harmonize on The Magic Key and Joe Cook clowns for Rudy Vallee, with Jeanette MacDonald and Allan Jones from "The Firefly."
A big-band night -- Glenn Miller live from Carnegie Hall (1939), Kay Kyser, Benny Goodman, and Bing Crosby -- with Fred Parsons subbing for Ed Herlihy.
A twelve-year-old Judy Garland's 1935 radio bow on Shell Chateau, amid Fanny Brice's Baby Snooks, Joe Penner, Ginger Rogers, and Mickey Rooney.
Sophie Tucker's "Lady in Red," a Vic and Sade sketch, and Al Jolson's Shell Chateau songs, with the 1935 dedication of NBC's Hollywood studios and the Original Dixieland Jazz Band's "Tiger Rag."
A songwriters' salute to Irving Berlin and George M. Cohan.
A Veterans Day program -- Tallulah Bankhead reading a Lincoln letter, Cohan's "Over There," the Armistice bugler, and Schumann-Heink on radio and war.
Rudy Vallee introduces Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy to radio for the first time (1936), with Judy Garland, Jean Sablon, and John McCormack's "Danny Boy."
The Jack Benny-Fred Allen feud in full cry on Town Hall Tonight (1937), with Helen Kane and Rodgers songs from "Jumbo."
November 28, 1956
(untitled)
Kids' radio remembered -- Professor Kaltenmeyer's Kindergarten, Baby Snooks, the Singing Lady, and Walter Damrosch's Music Appreciation Hour.
Floyd Gibbons narrates the 1936 Connecticut River Valley flood, framed by Lanny Ross, Carmen Miranda, Art Tatum, and Bergen and McCarthy.
Red Skelton's 1937 radio debut on Rudy Vallee's show, with Cliff Edwards' "Paper Moon," Gloria Swanson, and Walter Huston's "September Song."
The oldest recordings NBC could find -- Graham McNamee introducing Lindbergh's 1927 return from Paris and Coolidge's Flying Cross, with the Clicquot Club Eskimos.
◆ ◆ ◆
Other seasons: 1957