The Eveready Hour
Encyclopedia
WFAN
WFAN , also known as "Sports Radio 66" or "The FAN", is a radio station in New York City. The station broadcasts on a clear channel and is owned by CBS Radio...
Radio in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. Radio's first sponsored network program. it was paid for by the National Carbon Company
National Carbon Company
The National Carbon Company was founded in 1886 by the former Brush Electric Company executive W. H. Lawrence, in association with Myron T. Herrick, James Parmelee, and Webb Hayes, son of U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes, in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1890, National Carbon merged with Thomson-Houston,...
, which at the time owned Eveready Battery. The host for many years was the banjo-playing vocalist Wendell Hall
Wendell Hall
Wendell Woods Hall was an American country singer, vaudeville artist, song writer, pioneer radio performer, Victor recording artist and ukelele player.-Biography:...
, "The Red Headed Music Maker," who wrote the popular "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'
It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'
"It Ain’t Gonna Rain No Mo’" is the title of a novelty song that is entirely the creation of the "Red-Headed Music Maker", guitarist and vocalist Wendell Woods Hall . Much like that other major, much-quoted song of the early 1920s, Yes! We Have No Bananas, the novelty, vaudeville aspect of "It...
" (Victor Records). Hall was married on The Eveready Hour in 1924.
History
The program started locally on radio station WEAF in New York City in 1923. The idea for the program came when the National Carbon Company's George Furness tuned in WJZ that summer and heard Edgar White BurrillEdgar White Burrill
Edgar White Burrill was a critic and lecturer on books and the literary scene who organized the 1920s Literary Vespers series held at Aeolian Hall and Town Hall. Burrill was a major precursor to radio drama with his dramatic radio readings during the 1920s and 1930s, and one of these readings led...
reading Ida M. Tarbell
Ida M. Tarbell
Ida Minerva Tarbell was an American teacher, author and journalist. She was known as one of the leading "muckrakers" of the progressive era, work known in modern times as "investigative journalism". She wrote many notable magazine series and biographies...
's He Knew Lincoln. Envisioning the unexplored possibilities of radio programming and advertising, Furness became the producer and supervisor of The Eveready Hour, a show he structured to bring the full spectrum of American culture to the airwaves. When it debuted that December, the media critic Ben Gross called it "the most important program in broadcasting."
On election night, November 4, 1924, the program was "hooked-up" to 18 stations. Wendell Hall was the host with Will Rogers
Will Rogers
William "Will" Penn Adair Rogers was an American cowboy, comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer, film actor, and one of the world's best-known celebrities in the 1920s and 1930s....
, Art Gillham
Art Gillham
Art Gillham, , was an American songwriter, who was among the first crooners as a pioneer radio artist and a recording artist for Columbia Records....
, Carson Robison
Carson Robison
Carson Jay Robison was an American country music singer and songwriter. Although his impact is generally forgotten today, he played a major role in promoting country music in its early years through numerous recordings and radio appearances. He was also known as Charles Robison and sometimes...
and the Eveready Quartet entertaining between election returns given by Graham McNamee
Graham McNamee
Graham McNamee was a pioneering broadcaster in American radio, the medium's most recognized national personality in its first international decade....
. Joseph Knecht led the Waldorf-Astoria Dance Orchestra
The Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra
The Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra, in addition to providing dinner music at the famous hotel of the same name, made over 300 recordingsRust, Brian, The American Dance Band Discography 1890—1942, Volume 1, Arlington House, New York, 1975, pp. 374--378, 399--402, and 974—981. ISBN 0-870000-248-1 and many...
. The Eveready Hour became a multi-station feed in 1924 over a group of Eastern and Midwestern stations, a hook-up which later served as the basis of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), beginning in 1927. The Eveready Hour continued as a featured broadcast on NBC until 1930.
A 1926 Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post is a bimonthly American magazine. It was published weekly under this title from 1897 until 1969, and quarterly and then bimonthly from 1971.-History:...
advertisement for The Eveready Hour and Eveready Batteries showed a fantasy illustration of radio listeners above the following copy:
- Like the fabled ship in which Jason brought home the enchanted fleece of gold, The Eveready Hour brings a rich treasure of entertainment to charm the harbor-homes of its hearers. Inaugurated two years ago, The Eveready Hour was an adventure in broadcasting - an hour of connected entertainment, uninterrupted by the frequent injection of the name of the broadcaster.
- Radio has already become a highly specialized art worthy of the most scrupulous code of ethics, and The Eveready Hour represents a sincere effort to pioneer in providing the most acceptable form of radio entertainment.
- Eveready programs cover a wide range of entertainment and human interest, transporting us to periods of wholesome simplicity; to barren islands where marooned sailors meet adventure, starvation and death; to battle-scarred France with singing doughboys; to emotional heights by telling with music the stories of the seasons; and to memories of yesteryear aroused by old ballad and musical comedy favorites.
Guests included Lionel Atwill
Lionel Atwill
Lionel Atwill was an English stage and film actor born in Croydon, London, England.He studied architecture before his stage debut at the Garrick Theatre, London in 1904. He become a star in Broadway theatre by 1918, and made his screen debut in 1919. He acted on the stage in Australia but was most...
, Arthur "Bugs" Baer, Belle Baker
Belle Baker
Belle Baker was an American singer and actress. Popular throughout the 1910s and 1920s, Baker introduced a number of ragtime and torch songs including Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies" and "My Yiddishe Mama". She performed in the Ziegfeld Follies and introduced a number of Irving Berlin's songs...
, Eddie Cantor
Eddie Cantor
Eddie Cantor was an American "illustrated song" performer, comedian, dancer, singer, actor and songwriter...
, Pablo Casals
Pablo Casals
Pau Casals i Defilló , known during his professional career as Pablo Casals, was a Spanish Catalan cellist and conductor. He is generally regarded as the pre-eminent cellist of the first half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest cellists of all time...
, Irvin S. Cobb
Irvin S. Cobb
Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb was an American author, humorist, and columnist who lived in New York and authored more than 60 books and 300 short stories.-Biography:...
, Richard Dix
Richard Dix
Richard Dix was an American motion picture actor who achieved popularity in both silent and sound film. His standard on-screen image was that of the rugged and stalwart hero.-Early life:...
, Emma Dunn
Emma Dunn
Emma Dunn was an English-born American film actress. She appeared in 108 films between 1914 and 1948....
, Lew Fields
Lew Fields
Lew Fields , born as Moses Schoenfeld, was an American actor, comedian, vaudeville star, theatre manager and producer....
, the Fonzaley String Quartet and Laurette Taylor
Laurette Taylor
Laurette Taylor was an American stage and silent film actress.-Personal life:Laurette Taylor was born in New York City of Irish extraction as Loretta Helen Cooney.-Personal life:...
. Directed by Paul Stacey and Douglas Coulter, the show featured an orchestra conducted by Nathaniel Shilkret
Nathaniel Shilkret
Nathaniel Shilkret was an American composer, conductor, clarinetist, pianist, business executive, and music director born in New York City, New York to an Austrian immigrant family.-Early career:...
. In 1924, Charles W. Harrison
Charles W. Harrison
Charles Harrison was an American tenor ballad singer.Harrison studied singing in New York City with Frederick Bristol...
brought together the Eveready Mixed Quartet, a group that included Harrison, soprano Beulah Gaylord Young (Harrison's wife), contralto Rose Bryant and bass Wilfred Glenn. Tom Griselle provided the piano accompaniment. Harrison also led a male quartet for the radio show.
The songwriter Yip Harburg
Yip Harburg
Edgar Yipsel Harburg , known as E.Y. Harburg or Yip Harburg, was an American popular song lyricist who worked with many well-known composers...
was involved in several shows as indicated by existing scripts:
- The Mayor of Hogan's Alley ("Eveready Hour," CBS radio, 1929 Feb 19) Typed script of one-act musical play; music by Jay Gorney and Henry Souvaine [with script by E.Y. Harburg]. — 27 pages.
- How's the Judge[?] ("Eveready Hour," CBS radio, 1929 May 14) Typed script of one-act musical play; music by Jay Gorney and Henry Souvaine [with script by E.Y. Harburg]. — 27 pages.
- For Dear Old Delta ("Eveready Hour," CBS radio [1929]) Typed script of one-act musical play; music by Jay Gorney and Henry Souvaine [with script by E.Y. Harburg]. — 29 pages.
Surviving recordings
The only known recording of an Eveready Hour broadcast was made by an engineer at the Edison LaboratoryThomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial...
in West Orange, New Jersey
West Orange, New Jersey
West Orange is a township in central Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 46,207...
on the evening of May 15, 1928, from the over-the-air signal of station WEAF. This remarkably clear recording contains a local announcement by a WEAF staff announcer, Paul Dumont, and then the first 18 minutes of the hour-long broadcast. This same recording holds the distinction of being the earliest known aircheck (off-air recording) of a live dramatic radio broadcast. In other words, it was a recording of a radio transmission that was not a news event, speech or music only presentation. This rare recording is now archived at the Edison National History Site (ENHS), which is part of the National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
.
Listen to
Further reading
- McNamee, Graham. You're on the Air. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1926.