The Palmolive Hour
Encyclopedia
Colgate-Palmolive
Colgate-Palmolive Company is an American diversified multinational corporation focused on the production, distribution and provision of household, health care and personal products, such as soaps, detergents, and oral hygiene products . Under its "Hill's" brand, it is also a manufacturer of...
and broadcast on NBC
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...
from December 9, 1927 to July 29, 1931. The Palmolive Musical Stock Company (aka the Palmolivers) offered a mix of jazz, show tunes and opera selections.
The program usually opened with a duet by Frank Munn and soprano Virginia Rea. To call attention to the sponsor's product, they did not appear on the program under their own names but instead were introduced each week as Paul Oliver and Olive Palmer. Contralto Elizabeth Lennox was featured in duets with Rea. 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...
led the orchestra with Frank Black at the piano.
Guest appearances
Fanny BriceFanny 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...
was a guest on the program's premiere, and other broadcasts featured such guests as Gene Tunney
Gene Tunney
James Joseph "Gene" Tunney was the world heavyweight boxing champion from 1926-1928 who defeated Jack Dempsey twice, first in 1926 and then in 1927. Tunney's successful title defense against Dempsey is one of the most famous bouts in boxing history and is known as The Long Count Fight...
, the Duncan Sisters
Duncan Sisters
The Duncan Sisters were a vaudeville duo who became popular in the 1920s with their act Topsy and Eva.-Early career:Rosetta and Vivian Duncan were born in Los Angeles, California, the daughters of a violinist turned salesman...
, Claudie Muzie, Cliff Edwards
Cliff Edwards
Cliff Edwards , also known as "Ukelele Ike", was an American singer and voice actor who enjoyed considerable popularity in the 1920s and early 1930s, specializing in jazzy renditions of pop standards and novelty tunes. He had a number-one hit with "Singin' in the Rain" in 1929...
(aka Ukelele Ike), Cecil Lean, Cleo Mayfield, The Revelers
The Revelers
The Revelers were an American quintet popular in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The Revelers' recordings of "Dinah", "Old Man River", "Valencia", "Baby Face", "Blue Room", "The Birth of the Blues", "When Yuba Plays the Rumba on the Tuba", and many more, became popular in the United States and...
and Edith Mason
Edith Mason
Edith Mason was an American soprano.She studied in Boston, Philadelphia, and Paris. She made her debut on January 27, 1912, as Nedda in Pagliacci with the Boston Opera Company. During the next three years, she sang in Europe at Nice, Marseilles, and Paris...
, prima donna soprano of the Chicago Civic Opera Company. The announcers were Phillips Carlin and Alois Havrilla.
When the series came to an end during mid-summer 1931, only a few months lapsed before many associated with The Palmolive Hour were reunited on a new series that fall. Munn, Rea, Lennox, the Revelers and Haenschen all continued in the similar format of The American Album of Familiar Music
The American Album of Familiar Music
The American Album of Familiar Music was a radio program of popular music broadcast from 1931 to 1951, first on NBC and then on ABC. Directed by James Haupt, the show was produced by Frank and Anne Hummert, better remembered today for creating Ma Perkins and other soap operas.Sponsored by Bayer...
. Munn stayed with that series until his retirement in 1945.