The American Album of Familiar Music
Encyclopedia
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
and then on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
. Directed by James Haupt, the show was produced by Frank and Anne Hummert
Anne Hummert
Anne Hummert was the leading creator of daytime radio serials during the 1930s and 1940s, responsible for more than three dozen drama series....
, better remembered today for creating Ma Perkins
Ma Perkins
Ma Perkins is an American radio soap opera which was heard on NBC from 1933 to 1949 and on CBS from 1942 to 1960. Between 1942 and 1949, the show was heard simultaneously on both networks...
and other soap operas.
Sponsored by Bayer Aspirin
Bayer
Bayer AG is a chemical and pharmaceutical company founded in Barmen , Germany in 1863. It is headquartered in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany and well known for its original brand of aspirin.-History:...
, the show highlighted performances by a variety of vocalists, instrumentalists and vocal groups. When it began October 11, 1931 on NBC, the lead vocalist was Frank Munn, one of early radio's top stars because of his previous appearances on The Palmolive Hour
The Palmolive Hour
The Palmolive Hour was a critically acclaimed radio concert hour in the USA, sponsored by Palmolive Soap and broadcast on NBC from December 9, 1927 to July 29, 1931. The Palmolive Musical Stock Company offered a mix of jazz, show tunes and opera selections.The program usually opened with a duet by...
(1927-31). Ring Lardner
Ring Lardner
Ringgold Wilmer Lardner was an American sports columnist and short story writer best known for his satirical takes on the sports world, marriage, and the theatre.-Personal life:...
observed, "Under any name, they sound as sweet." Lardner outlined his "perfect radio program" for The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
magazine, and found a place for The Revelers along with Paul Whiteman
Paul Whiteman
Paul Samuel Whiteman was an American bandleader and orchestral director.Leader of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s, Whiteman's recordings were immensely successful, and press notices often referred to him as the "King of Jazz"...
and Fanny Brice
Fanny Brice
Fanny Brice was a popular and influential American illustrated song "model," comedienne, singer, theatre and film actress, who made many stage, radio and film appearances and is known as the creator and star of the top-rated radio comedy series, The Baby Snooks Show...
.
In the late 1930s, Munn was joined on the program by soprano Jean Dickenson (1937-51), "Nightingale of the Airwaves." Another co-star with Munn during that period was Lucy Monroe, who sang The Star-Spangled Banner at every New York Yankees opening day and every Yankees World Series between 1945 and 1960.
Other singers featured on the program were Margaret Daum
Margaret Daum
Margaret Daum was an American classical soprano. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Daum studied singing at the Ithaca Conservatory of Music where she graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1928...
, Elizabeth Lennox, Vivian della Chiesa
Vivian Della Chiesa
Vivian Della Chiesa 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. She performed a wide variety of classical and popular works from opera to musical theatre, jazz, and popular songs...
, Virginia Rea, Donald Dame, and the dozen members of the Buckingham Choir. Vocalist Evelyn MacGregor (1899-1967) was also heard on the American Melody Hour.
Gustave W. "Gus" Haenschen
Carl Fenton
Carl Fenton born as Walter G. Haenschen, was an American bandleader, composer, and radio musician.- Name origin :The Carl Fenton Orchestra was a title given to Brunswick Records studio bands through the 1920s...
. who led the orchestra, composed the opening theme song, "Dream Serenade," with lyrics by Alfred Bryan
Alfred Bryan
Alfred Bryan was a United States songwriter and pacifist.-Songs:His hits included*"Peg O' My Heart"*"Come Josephine in My Flying Machine"*"I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier"...
. The line-up also included violin soloist Bernard Hirsch and the piano duo of Victor Arden and Phil Ohman. The show's announcers were André Baruch
André Baruch
André Baruch was a familiar voice as a film narrator and on radio as an announcer, news commentator, talk show host, disc jockey and sportscaster....
, Howard Claney and Roger Krupp. The 30-minute show aired Sunday evenings at 9pm until 1933 when it moved to 9:30pm. In 1938, the Hummerts did away with the studio audience after concluding that the music sounded better with fewer people in the studio. In 1945, when Frank Munn left the show for retirement, he was replaced by Frank Parker.
After the NBC run ended November 19, 1950, the series moved a week later (November 26) to ABC where it was still broadcast Sundays at 9:30pm, continuing until the June 17, 1951 finale.