Tom Campbell 1975

    

Time for another trip down memory lane with Bay Area fave, Tom Campbell (for Cal Stereo). Here's a neat 1975 show..

When Tom got out of the Air Force, he got a gigs in Shreveport, WDGY Minneapolis (The Twin Cities connection continues) and Dayton. 1967 it was to San Francisco where fame struck. between radio and agency work he bounced around southern California including for us at AFRTS

Tom Campbell 1975

More Tom Campbell

GI Jive 1944

 

GI Jill (Martha Wilkerson) was our first big DJ.  She was the voice of home to thousands.

GI Jive 1944

The program continued well into the Korean War.

More GI Jive

Harry Von Zell 1944

 

Harry Von Zell was one of giants of radio announcing.  In the 1920s he was the announcer for Paul Whiteman.  By 1930 a CBS staff announcer.  Harry Von Zell biography in Wikipedia

Today Harry jives up a storm in Sound Off!

Sound Off - 1944

More Old Time Radio

Happy Thanksgiving 1944

   

Surprisingly hard to find Thanksgiving shows.  From 1944 Lionel Barrymore (Mr. Potter on It's a Wonderful Life)  and an all-star cast share the holidays.

1944 AFRS Thanksgiving Show

My best to you and yours. 

More Old Time Radio

Mosquito Network - Hy Averback 1944

 

Hy Averback was born in 1920 in Minneapolis.  During WWII Hy was one of the first AFRS talents, training at Fox Studios and going to the Mosquito Network.  After the war, he became a very successful director and producer, known for The Real McCoys, MASH and I Love You Alice B Toklas.  He died on October 14, 1997 in Los Angeles, California.

Martin Harlow did a dissertation about the Mosquito Network.

"The year is 1944 and the world is at war. In the South-West Pacific, US soldier and radio broadcaster, T/5 1 Hy Averback, presents the /4teib/7ne Cocktail Hour program on the airwaves of the American Expeditionary Station (AES) on Guadalcanal in the British Solomon Islands Protectorate. To keep his audience of Gl's and other service personnel amused and interested, Averback invents make-believe locations and situations for his show. "From the fungus-festooned Fern Room, high atop the elegant Hotel DeGink 2 in downtown Guadalcanal, we bring you the dance music of the Quinine Quartet'. 3 With Harry James' version of The Flight of the Bumble Bee 4 as its musical theme and accompanied by background sound effects of a murmuring crowd, women's laughter and ice tumbling into cocktail glasses, Averback's program is a daily reminder to troops to take their anti-malarial Atabrine tablets"

Read the full story

Mosquito Network - 1944 -Claude Thornhill All Navy Show

Hy Averback remembered his troop time:

"When Bob Hope brought his USO entourage to Seoul in 1951, Hy Averback was with them.  I did not meet him but one of our Seoul AFRS guys was able to do some interviews.  Averback told him it brought back memories of his AFRS assignment during WWII." - Palmer Payne

One Night Stand 1944

 Normally One Night Stand was re-packaged radio remotes for the troops but in 1944 Esquire Magazine had a vote on the best jazz talent.  There was one of the best all star shows ever.  AFRS was there.

 

This part of the program originates from Philharmonic Auditorium, Los Angeles. The first tune is, "Mood To Be Wooed." Lionel Barrymore presents an Esky award to Duke Ellington. Johnny Hodges, Lawrence Brown, Harry Carney and Ray Nance also receive awards. . Jerome Kern presents an Esky award to Billie Holiday, Danny Kaye presents awards to Al Casey and Sidney Catlett. Halfway through this program, the AFRS announcer mentions that the nationwide Blue net portion of the broadcast has been concluded and the rest of the show is for the AFRS audience only

 

 

One Night Stand - 1944 Esquire All Stars

Halloween's Coming.... Mystery Playhouse 1944

 The Mystery Playhouse was one of the first series on AFRS.  The networks were sending over more good material than could be readily used.  A lot of it was used in anthology programs, sort of the best of radio back home.  "SGT X" (Howard Duff) was the host of the Mystery Playhouse..

Ida Lupino and Louis Hayward in Graham Greene's novel, "Brighton Rock." was originally aired on the CBS show "This Is My Best", in 1944

Mystery Playhouse #37 "Brighton Rock"  

Halloween Memories

Mail Call 1944

Mail Call. May 24, 1944. Program #93. The program is dedicated to the state of Kentucky. Borah Minevich and His Harmonica Rascals do a spectacular arrangement of, "Brazil." Mortimer Snerd tells Paulette Goddard about his first date. Charlie McCarthy tries to apologize to W. C. Fields for setting a skunk trap in Fields' garden. This is a well-known routine, using the same script as in, "The "Chase and Sanborn Program" recording from September 21, 1941. This time, W. C. loses his place in the script and mis-reads several lines. The date above is the recording date. The program was released June, 1944.

Early AFRS and WC Fields, total win.

Mail Call 1944

More Old Time Radio

AFRS Alaska 1944

TIME OUT from pool game to listen on the radio.  Portable radios are furnished by the Special Service division of the Army.  Radio reception is not too good in most sections of the Highway, due perhaps to mountains, mineral deposits, and Northern Lights.  Pool tables are, however, a late addition to most camps.  They were furnished by the American Red Cross.

(The Alaska Highway "Truck Tracks" 16 Feb 1944)

Jubilee 1944

Ernie Whitman

What a great show.  In the early years, Jubilee featured the best African-American entertainment.  On this new Transfer it's Ernie "Bubbles Whitman" hosting Tiny Bradshaw, Loumell Morgan and more.

Jubilee 1944 - Ernie Whitman

More Jubilee

Alaska 1944

(Adak) Actors and actresses gather around during rehearsal for a play over station WXLB operated by GIs on barren Adak in the Aleutians.  Station is operated for the entertainment of the men who man the lonely frontier and once a week a play is featured.  

Left to right: Kathy Kellett (Butte, Montana), Sid Chauken (Long Beach, California), Muriel Couchman (Iowa City, Iowa), Andy Eger (Hollis, New York), Alice Chilgren (Little Fork, Minnesota), Jack Pulliam (Dallas, Texas)

10/31/44

More AFRS Alaska

Major Glenn Miller 1944

 

If you ever come across these, they have nothing to do with AFN or AFRTS but are very interesting.  The American Broadcasting Station in Europe (ABSIE) was a propaganda station we piped to the Nazis.  Glenn Miller made several broadcasts at EMIs Abbey Road studios with Ilsa Weinberger with Glenn speaking in phonetic German. These particular broadcasts were recorded October 30^th and November 6^th, 1944 and aired November 8^th and November 15^th respectively.

 

Joseph Krug of the Colony Record Shop in NYC somehow acquired dubs of these and issued them as bootlegs circa 1951.  These bootlegs actually had wide distribution at the time, being sold by major retail chains, to include Sam Goody.  The Miller Estate started the lawsuits in 1951 and it took five years to resolve.

 

Decades later a more complete better sounding version was issued on RCA as "Glenn Miller - the Lost Recordings"

Guess Who - 1944

In the early years of the network, we rebroadcast a lot of stateside shows and created our own "Guess Who" was sort of a reverse request show.  Joan Marshall would play records and the folks at home see if they knew what they were.  Joan was a dancer that later was on the original pilot for the Munsters and was later on a Star Trek.  How many songs do you know?

Guess Who - 1944

More Old Time Radio

Kate Smith - 1944

In WWII AFRS did a series of shows called "Personal Album", these were 15 minutes of minutes with a popular star, usually with the star talking about their music and lives.  Today a visit with Kate Smith and Ted Collins.

Personal Album - Kate Smith

More Old Time Radio

Showtime - 1944

In 1944 AFRS brought the troops the best of Broadway with "Showtime".  Initially Dinah Shore was the hostess, but later there were others.  Today, Marilyn Maxwell..

Showtime - 1944

More Old Time Radio

Shilling for Luck - 1944

In 1944 the troops were curious about the British.  AFRS assembled an all star cast to tell a storyin "Shilling for Luck",  Gene Kelly is a sailor from Liverpool, Ohio.  He meets a sailor from Liverpool, England. They compare the Liverpool's. Multiple stories are tied together with a one shilling coin. The coin is passed to Gene's grandson who gives it to Shirley Temple, who also learns about the British. The all-star cast focusses on the similarities of our cultures.

Shilling for Luck - 1944

More Old Time Radio

Jubilee - 1944

The program originates from New York City. The first tune is, "Jumping In A Gin Mill." Colonel Stoopnagel appears. The announcer mentions Una Mae Carlisle as being in the cast, but she is not heard. Claude Hopkins and His Orchestra, Dorothy Donagan Mel Allen (announcer), Pigmeat Markham, Ralph Cooper (m. c.), The Stuff Smith Trio. 

Jubilee - 1944

More Jubilee

At Ease - 1944

"At Ease, with the music you'll always remember" a program of symphonic music.

Meredith Wilson was a member of Sousa's band, went to the NY Philharmonic under Toscanini and then took Hollywood.  He composed the score for the "Great Dictator" and arranged the music for "The Little Foxes".  During WWII he volunteered for the army and led the AFRS Orchestra.  After the war, more huge success, including writing the "Music Man"

At Ease - 1944

More At Ease

More Old Time Radio

Jill's All Time Jukebox 1944

Martha Wilkerson did the GI Jive show.  Starting near the end of the war was the "All-Time Jukebox", memories with GI Jill.  Here's a 1944 visit

Jill's All-Time Jukebox - 1944

Here's more from GI Jill

Melody Roundup - 1944

Lum and Abner were a good fit for the Melody Roundup.  Today they bring a piece of the Jot em Down Store to the troops with Texas Jim Lewis.

Melody Roundup - 1944

More Melody Roundup