Wendell Hall
Encyclopedia
Wendell Woods Hall was an American country
singer, vaudeville artist, song writer, pioneer radio performer, Victor recording artist and ukelele player.
", which sold over two million copies in the United States. He also wrote "Underneath the Mellow Moon" and "Carolina Rose". He also wrote songs with Carson Robison
and Art Gillham
.
He began his career in 1922 Chicago as a song plugger for Forster Music. He traveled around the country and stopped in towns to play in music stores, theaters, and radio. In vaudeville he began singing and playing the xylophone. He found the ukelele to be more portable and quickly became an expert with that instrument. In January, 1924 he signed with the National Carbon Company to host the Eveready Hour a pioneer commercially sponsored variety program on WEAF in New York. On November 4, 1924 the program was on a pre-network 18 station "hook-up" to broadcast election returns with entertainers Will Rogers, Carson Robison, Art Gillham, and the Waldorf Astoria Orchestra. Eveready
even painted their batteries with a red top to cash in on Hall's popularity. He was married on the air. In 1929 Wendell Hall hosted the Majestic Music Hour and a few years later Gillette's Community Sing. He made a few musical short films. After his radio days were over Wendell Hall wrote commercials for radio.
He did some collaborations with Carson Robison
, recording versions of Stephen Foster
tunes such as "Camptown Races
" and "Oh! Susanna
". He made recordings on Victor Records.
Hall performed on a variety of stringed instruments, including the standard ukelele, the taropatch ukelele, banjo
, and the hybrid banjolele
, as well as the tiple
. He published an instruction book, Ukelele Methods, with Forster Music in 1925, and designed a series of custom ukeleles that became collectors' items for several generations afterward.
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
singer, vaudeville artist, song writer, pioneer radio performer, Victor recording artist and ukelele player.
Biography
Hall was known as "the red-haired music maker" and "the pineapple picador" in his recording heyday of the 1920s and 1930s. In 1923, he released the song "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...
", which sold over two million copies in the United States. He also wrote "Underneath the Mellow Moon" and "Carolina Rose". He also wrote songs with 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 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....
.
He began his career in 1922 Chicago as a song plugger for Forster Music. He traveled around the country and stopped in towns to play in music stores, theaters, and radio. In vaudeville he began singing and playing the xylophone. He found the ukelele to be more portable and quickly became an expert with that instrument. In January, 1924 he signed with the National Carbon Company to host the Eveready Hour a pioneer commercially sponsored variety program on WEAF in New York. On November 4, 1924 the program was on a pre-network 18 station "hook-up" to broadcast election returns with entertainers Will Rogers, Carson Robison, Art Gillham, and the Waldorf Astoria Orchestra. Eveready
Eveready
Eveready or Ever Ready may refer to:In companies and organizations:* Eveready Battery Company, a U.S. battery manufacturer which became Energizer Holdings...
even painted their batteries with a red top to cash in on Hall's popularity. He was married on the air. In 1929 Wendell Hall hosted the Majestic Music Hour and a few years later Gillette's Community Sing. He made a few musical short films. After his radio days were over Wendell Hall wrote commercials for radio.
He did some collaborations with 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...
, recording versions of Stephen Foster
Stephen Foster
Stephen Collins Foster , known as the "father of American music", was the pre-eminent songwriter in the United States of the 19th century...
tunes such as "Camptown Races
Camptown Races
Gwine to Run All Night, or De Camptown Races is a minstrel song by Stephen Foster . It was probably composed in Cincinnati in 1849, according to Richard Jackson, and published by F. D. Benteen of Baltimore, Maryland, in February 1850...
" and "Oh! Susanna
Oh! Susanna
"Oh! Susanna" is a minstrel song by Stephen Foster . It was published by W. C. Peters & Co. in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1848. The song was introduced by a local quintette at a concert in Andrews' Eagle Ice Cream Saloon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on September 11, 1847. Foster was said to have written...
". He made recordings on Victor Records.
Hall performed on a variety of stringed instruments, including the standard ukelele, the taropatch ukelele, banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
, and the hybrid banjolele
Banjolele
The banjolele is a four-stringed musical instrument with a small banjo-type body and a fretted ukulele neck. "Banjolele," sometimes also spelled "banjelele" or "banjulele" is a generic nickname given to the instrument, which was derived from the "banjulele-banjo", introduced by Alvin D...
, as well as the tiple
Tiple
Tiple is the Spanish word for treble or soprano, is often applied to specific instruments, generally to refer to a small chordophone of the guitar family. A tiple player is called a tiplista.-Colombian tiple:...
. He published an instruction book, Ukelele Methods, with Forster Music in 1925, and designed a series of custom ukeleles that became collectors' items for several generations afterward.
External links
- http://www.loc.gov/jukebox/recordings/detail/id/9540/ The Library of Congress - National Jukebox - Blue Island Blues. Retrieved 9/27/2011