The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air
Encyclopedia
Florenz Ziegfeld
Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. , , was an American Broadway impresario, notable for his series of theatrical revues, the Ziegfeld Follies , inspired by the Folies Bergère of Paris. He also produced the musical Show Boat...
's stage shows to the new medium of radio.
Eddie Dowling
Eddie Dowling
Eddie Dowling was an American actor, screenwriter, playwright, director, producer, songwriter and composer....
hosted the musical variety format. Sponsored by Chrysler Motors, the half-hour series aired Sunday evenings from April 3 to June 26, 1932, moving April 24 from 8:30pm to 10:30pm. With Al Goodman leading the orchestra, the line-up of guests included 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...
, Helen Morgan
Helen Morgan
Helen Morgan was an American singer and actress who worked in films and on the stage. A quintessential torch singer, she made a big splash in the Chicago club scene in the 1920s...
, Jack Pearl
Jack Pearl
Jack Pearl, born Jack Perlman , was a vaudeville performer and a star of early radio.Born in New York, Pearl made an easy transition from vaudeville to broadfcasting when he introduced his character Baron Munchausen on The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air in 1932. His creation was loosely based on the...
, 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....
and Ziegfeld himself. Pearl introduced his Baron Munchausen character.
In 1932, Ziegfeld died July 22, but the series came back for a run from February 22 to June 6, 1936, serving as a tribute to the showman. Goodman returned as orchestra leader, and Brice appeared in the sketch series that eventually expanded into The Baby Snooks Show
The Baby Snooks Show
The Baby Snooks Show was an American radio program starring comedienne and Ziegfeld Follies alumna Fanny Brice as a mischievous young girl who was 40 years younger than the actress who played her when she first went on the air. The series began on CBS September 17, 1944, airing on Sunday evenings...
. Other guests included Patty Chapin, James Melton
James Melton
James Melton , a popular singer in the 1920s and early 1930s, later began a career as an operatic singer when tenor voices went out of style in popular music around 1932-35...
and Benny Fields
Benny Fields
Benny Fields was a popular singer of the early 20th century, best known as one-half of the Blossom Seeley-Benny Fields vaudeville team...
. Few episodes survive.