In the early shows Spike Jones was actually just the musical and comedy talent while Francis Lankford did most of the hosting. In those early years, during the war, the show was sponsered by Chase and Sandborne. After the war, Francis Lankford would leave, and the sponser changed to Coca Cola. Spike Jones took over as the host and was joined by the Park Avenue Hillbilly, Dorothey Shea.
Spike Jones and his band of City Slickers were accomplished musicians and, could play a song just fine to back up Francis Lankford, Dorothy Shea, or any other musical guest that might be on the program. What set Spike apart was what he could do to a song.
He incorporated just about anything that could make a sound. He substituted horns for contraptions made from plumbing fixtures, horns from anything from a bicycle to a car horn. Kazoos, washboards, banjoes, a variety of cow bells all tuned to musical notes. Anything that could make a noise and could be used for best comic affect in a song.
PS: Last week I posted some notes on WC Fields. I need to make a minor correction. I stated that his performance of Poppy first appeared on Broadway around 1912. it was actually in the early 1920's. Around 1912 was when he began performing with the Ziegfeld follies, and his debut with spoken comedy as opposed to doing a pantomime and juggling act.
PS2: I recently burned three CD's that I was planning to donate to the Peoria Area Blind People's Center for an auction. I forgot to take them. Oopsie. If anyone is interested in them, I am willing to give them away. On one disk is my Jack Benny collection of all the known shows between 1932 to 1935, and those between 1939 to 1940. The older shows are not the best of quality, but for Jack Benny fans, nice to listen to. The second disk has a collection of Amos and Andy from the first known broadcasts in the late 1920's to the end of 1944. Also Gunsmoke from the 1949 audition show through around January 1953. The third disk has Father Knows Best, not complete, but all the shows I have from the 1948 audition through 1954 plus some that are undated. The complete Jack Paar shows when he was the Summer replacement for Jack Benny in 1947. Finally some Dragnet shows from the first shows in June 1949 through around February 1950.
So, how can you get them? Let me know that you are out there.
Just send me an email
and ask me for one or more of them. To make sure I don't accidentally delete your email as spam, please put: "Retro Radio CD" in your subject line. When you write to me, I can give you a more detailed list of what is on the disks if you like. Right now I only have three, so they are being offered on a first come first served basis. If response is too overwhelming, I might make similar offers in the future. Maybe putting together a catalog of my collection, and ask for at least enough of a contribution to defray the expense of the material and shipping costs.
PS3: Hey, just a little self promotion. If you are looking for a source of good clean humor, check out the
Robot Comic Blog.
Clean jokes all the time, updated every other day, more or less. Because it's a blog, you can subscribe to the RSS feed so you won't have to miss any.
