Rare Comedy Broadcasts

One of the best ways to get listeners to pay attention so you can sell your product to them is to get them to laugh. Telling a few jokes seems like a simple way to create a profitable radio program but putting together a successful comedy program was never as easy as something like a music program. Contrary to the experience of long-time favorites like Fibber McGee and Molly, The Jack Benny Program, or Bob Hope, staying funny week after week is not easy. Probably the hardest part is that your show might be funny, but it just doesn't tickle your sponsor. Just ask Fred Allen how difficult radio can be if you do not get along with your sponsor.

• Arbogast Show, November 1951, WMAQ Chicago. It's 10:30, and when you should be getting ready for a good night's sleep, WMAQ brings on a half hour of disc jockey silliness which will keep you awake, giggling. John Arbogast and Steve Robinson's antics included broadcasting from the bathtub and mixing a cantaloupe, a sheepherding dog, and a small child to get "Melancholy Baby".
• Ask Dr. Science, Tonight's question is: "Is Computer Science a Real Science?" The short answer seems to be, probably not. Remember, Dr. Science is not a Real Doctor!
• Friar's Club Testimonial Dinner, January 8, 1961, CBS. Miss Audrey Hepburn gives a rather sweet roast of Gary Cooper.
• Ben Alexander Show, February 10, 1947, Transcribed from HOLLYWOOD. "Let the punishment fit the Crime", Ben shares stories of judges handing down unusual sentences and cops finding creative means to foil crime.
• The Bill Goodwin Show, Live from Hollywood, March 18, 1957, NBC, sponsored by Schick Shavers. Mr. Goodwin opens his hour-long comedy-variety program with a funny monolog before introducing his special guest, Hollywood animal trainer, Ralph Helfer.
• The Bob Crane Show, KNX Los Angeles, November 13, 1957. Disc jockey Bob welcomes his young son to the show. Later, he plays interviews with popular newspaper columnists for L.A. papers.
• The Bob Smith Show, WNBC New York, August 25, 1947. While Bob is away from the microphone, Donald Duck slips in to substitute and plug his new film, Fun and Fancy Free (1947).
• Bringing Up Father, July 1, 1941, King Features Syndication. First Show of the series featuring Jiggs and Maggie from the comic pages.
• The Cass Daley Show, NBC, 1950. Cass and her uncle are invited to a party at Basil Rathbone's house in Beverly Hills. Rathbone's experience as Sherlock Holmes is hardly enough to prepare him for Cass's shenanigans.
• Circus Night in Silvertown, May 24, 1935, NBC, Sponsored by BF Goodrich Silvertown Tires. Host Joe Cook has to get ready to box "The Masked Marvel" and hopes he doesn't have a blow-out.
• Cliff and Lolly, July 16, 1930, Continental Broadcasting Corporation. Cliff Arquette and Lolly Grookins, "The Nuts of Harmony". Lots of fun songs and amusing patter.
• Comedy Capers, 1934, Bruce Eells and Associate Syndication. The little girl wants a bedtime story in the middle of this vaudeville-like review.
• The Comedy Caravan, 1944, AFRS Rebroadcast. Jimmy Durant is considering a run for President, while Garry Moore has his own version of the Oscars.
• Coronet Cigarette Program, March 12, 1950, Audition program. A disc jockey program set in the Coronet Cigarette Stand where comic characters pass through to comment and get their smokes. The show would feature Kenny Delmar as Senator Clatchhammer.
• Count Your Blessings, May 15, 1950, audition program. A show about the Blessing family, Doug and Carrie Blessing, and their TEN kids.
• Daddy and Rollo, November 11, 1942, Mutual Network. Daddy edits the local paper, but he still has to take care of his boy, Rollo who decides that school is a waste of time. 
• Dave Garroway Show, 1950-51, AFRS, Dave and singer Connie Russel along with the studio orchestra have plenty of music and have plenty of morning laughs for the fellows. The guys in the orchestra each plays a solo so that their wives will know what they are up to so early in the morning, and Dave and Connie's on-going banter will make anyone smile.
• Dawgs, audition program 1938. Stuart Erwin stars in a drama which has a second purpose of promoting dog ownership. One of the shows premises of the show is to give away a pup each week.
• Eggs at Eight, 1952, KVOO Tulsa. Three-quarters of an hour of pure silliness in the Heartland. This episode includes a merciless send-up of Dragnet.
• Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel, Blue Network / British, 1932, a title that should be familiar to Marx Brothers fans, this program is a BBC rebroadcast (not to be confused with BBC's 1980's broadcasts using the original script) of the movie icon’s first attempts to expand their vaudeville and film success into broadcasting. Along with the Depression-era material, we get a history lesson from a Marx Brothers fan and scholar.
• Forever Ernest, 1946, CBS, a Summer replacement for Vox Pop. Former child star Jackie Coogan gets his first regular radio role co-starring Lurene Tuttle is a situation comedy about a 'fraidy-cat' drugstore clerk desperate to impress his girlfriend.
• The Fresh Up Show, 1946, Mutual, sponsored by 7-Up. Bert Wheeler plays a drug store clerk who gets conned into marrying the local doctor's daughter. Featuring Ruth Davies singing with the 7-Up Orchestra.
• Funny Side Up, 1959, CBS Featuring Bert Parks and Kenny Delmar, the panel program from 1959 is performed in the best tradition of It Pays to be Ignorant.
• Gleason and Armstrong, 1931 Hollywood Broadcast Features Syndication, A couple of palookas from "New Joisey" determined to make it into the big time and hopefully pick up a few bucks and maybe a pretty girl or two along the way. Originally syndicated by Hollywood Features in 1931, our heroes' show has many elements of an early soap opera, but the dish-suds and the floor-polish crowd was hardly this show's target audience.
• The Preview Theatre of the Air, 1948, KFWB, Hollywood. George O'Hanlon starred in Warner Bros Joe McDoakes live-action shorts, which are also the basis for his radio comedy series, which featured the talents of Lurene Tuttle and Willard Waterman. Although the part would go to Alan Reed, O'Hanlon auditioned for Hanna-Barbara's "Fred Flintstone". Once The Flintstones became a commercial success, O'Hanlon was given the part of George Jetson in the follow-up series.
• Great Caesar's Ghost, March 8, 1946, ABC. The premise of this audition program is that small town druggist Julius Caesar Jones gets a visit from the ghost of the Roman emperor whenever he utters the phrase "Great Caesar's Ghost" because as a descendant of Caesar, he is the first in generations to have both the Emperor's name and blood. Although it was not picked up, it was a very entertaining sitcom.
• The Great Crepitation Contest of 1946, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Crepitation is the term the CBC accepts for flatulence, and flatulence is a polite word for farting. Face it, nothing is as funny as farting. The contestants are Paul Boomer of Australia and Lord Windifer of Great Britain.
• The Grouch Club, 1939, NBC. Even curmudgeons deserve a forum. Billed as a "no-situation comedy", the Grouch Club was a place for professional complainers on the West Coast CBS network in 1938-39 and later nationwide on the Red Network. Grouchmaster Jack Lescoulie was helped in his duties by Arthur Q. Bryant, Jack Albertson, Mary Milford, and Walter Tetley.
• The Guys Next Door, July 25, 1947, ABC. Newlyweds Guthrie and Phoebe Guy have their first home. In this audition program, Phoebe has bought all the bricks that Guthrie will need to build a new barbecue pit in the backyard if only he can survive the ordeal.
• The Happy Gang, 1939, picked up by Mutual. Daily music and comedy show from Canada.
• "Hello World (Doggone!)" February 1933, KWKH, Shreveport, Louisiana. Station spokesman William Kennon Henderson Jr made this phonographic recording to complain about large Northern broadcasters "sideswiping" his station which used the 850 kHz frequency. The interference of WENR and WLS Chicago was enough to keep local listeners from hearing KWKH's content. A second recording (perhaps the flip-side of the phonograph recording) features "Old Man" Henderson making his point musically.
• Hildegarde's Raleigh Room, November 13, 1945, NBC. The Incomparable Hildegarde gives us plenty of laughs songs, and chances to light up our Raleigh's.
• Hogan's Daughter, 1949, NBC. Family situation comedy about an Irish family living in a New York City walk-up. Pop Hogan thinks that life is unfair (how can his neighbor afford a television?) while his daughter Phyllis is looking for a job, but she would rather find a boy. Shirley Booth stars as Phyllis, Old man Hogan's daughter.
• Hollywood Calling, July 3, 1949, NBC. A very scripted interview program from the movie capital, this episode takes place the night before Independence Day, which is also George Murphy's birthday. Ronald Reagan gives the gang the idea of celebrating the birthday of everyone they can find who was born on July 4, except George Murphy.
• Housewives Incorporated, Housekeeping tips and a chance to poke fun at husbands, often in rhyme' are the backbone of this locally produced program from Seattle. The studio piano gets a workout providing background music and interludes. Don't forget the Griddle Rich Pancake Batter in the refrigerated section of your grocer or ask your milkman.
• In Old New York, February 22, 1944. Hijinks in a New York boarding house. One of the regular residents does a pretty good Durante imitation. A body is found in Room 421 with no arms or legs but rather than calling the cops, they decide to wait for a reporter who wrote a mystery novel, thinking he should be able to solve the mystery.
• Jack Oakie College: Jack Oakie progressed from Wall Street to vaudeville to Hollywood where he picked up the title of "World's Oldest Freshmen" for the series of college comedies he appeared in. RJ Reynolds hired him as their radio voice in 1937 for the program which would eventually evolve into The Came Caravan. This episode features Joe Penner and Judy Garland two years before The Wizard of Oz made her a household name.
• Jazz Jesters, September 1941. Mirth and Melodies
• Joe and Mabel, March 2, 1941, possibly audition program. Joe is a cabbie with a steady job, surprisingly wise friends, and a really sweet girl. The combination is not always harmonious, especially around Valentine's Day.
• Joe E. Brown Show, 1939, CBS, sponsored by Post Toasties. One of the greatest smiles on the pre-War big screen was Joe E. Brown's. In this variety/sitcom, he plays an up-and-coming executive at Bullhammer Enterprises. Most of all, it gives Joe a chance to play off the other characters, including announcer, Don Wilson.
• June's My Girl, October 4, 1948, NBC audition program. Diana Lynn plays a sweet young woman working for the Nichol's Employment Agency, which leads to several occupation jokes. The agency is in receivership, so the bank sends good-looking Jimmy Crane to look after its interests, but June's interests are center on Jimmy Crane!
• Junior Miss, 1953, CBS. Barbara Whiting stars as 15-year-old Judy Graves, a precocious girl living with her family in a New York apartment. Gale Gordon plays her long-suffering father. The stories are based on a series of semi-autobiographical articles by Sally Benson in The New Yorker magazine.
• The Kid on the Corner, April 10, 1948, NBC Audition. Walter Tetley, "Radio's foremost young actor" (Tetley was in the Thirties when the show was recorded), plays a newspaper boy. A newspaper price war breaks out, but the newsboys manage to foil criminals as well.
• The Laff Parade, 1934, Radio Transcription Company of America. Ken Niles hosts this frolicsome variety offering with loads of music and fun. Caution: some editions of the program will be considered racially insensitive to modern listeners.
• The Lee Giroux Show, January 24, 1947, Audition Program for Jackson's Home Furnishings. Intended for the Northern California market, Mr. Giroux shares amusing stories in the form of "Personality Portraits", as well as music from the Hammond Organ.
• Leo and the Blonde, 1947, Universal Recorders Transcription. Leo is a Hollywood publicity agent who discovers an incredible talent when his car breaks down in the middle of Wyoming. The funny thing is, he really believes in the Blonde he discovers and sets everything into her success.
• Let Yourself Go, June 6, 1945, CBS, sponsored by Eversharp Pens. It's almost time host Milton Berle to go on vacation. After trying to figure out his income taxes, he tries to convince Al Jolson to host the summer replacement show.
• Let's Have Fun, October 22, 1935, CBS, sustained. A new concept, every week the show will present a new, hour-long Rogers and Hart musical comedy. In this edition, the Professor has a process to send a modern crooner back in time so that he can woo Cleopatra in ancient Egypt. Who woos who is the big question.
• Love Thy Neighbor Premier and Air Trailer, December 1940, Paramount Syndication. Although the on-air "feud" was officially over for a few years, Fred Allen and Jack Benny appear together in this film about competing radio comics whose lives intertwine off the air. The film features Mary Martin's fur-coat striptease while singing "My Heart Belongs to Daddy".
• Luck of the Irish, February 25, 1946, Audition Program. A hair-growing expert comes into "Honest" O'Day's advertising agency with $10,000 to pitch his product. The question is who is swindling who?
• The Lucky Strike Hour, 1933, NBC, Lucky Strike Cigarettes and Cremo Cigars. A decade before casting their lot with Jack Benny, the tobacco company went on the air with a variety-music and comedy program. Featuring dance music, singers, comics like "Baron Munchausen", and dramas from the files of the FBI.
• Those Mad Masters, March 19, 1946, KGO San Francisco, ABC net. Natalie and Monte Masters star in this bickering couple comedy. What angers Natalie is that when Monte comes home, all he wants to do after dinner is read the paper or listen to the radio. After tuning into the prize fight, he has some out-of-this-world dreams.
• Manhattan Playhouse, Mutual Network, January 18, 1949. The program emulates the excitement of a Broadway opening, tonight's show, "The Perfect Secretary", is about a young executive who has a habit of falling in love with his secretary.
• Meet Me at Parky's, June 24, 1945, NBC. Harry Einstein's hilarious ethnic character, Parkyakarkus, is running a restaurant that attracts an amusing clientele, but the real fun is the puns and malapropisms Parky uses to murder the English language.
• Meet Millie, early 1950's, CBS. Millie Bronson is a modern girl, working as a secretary in Manhattan and living with her mother in Queens. When the TV version of the program became the first show broadcast from CBS Television City, Los Angeles, the studio audience laughed so hard and so much that the actors had to freeze in position until the laughs stopped.
• Meet the Menjous, 1950, ZIV Syndication. Matinee idol Adolphe Menjou and his wife, Verree Teasdale, hold interesting and amusing conversations on a new topic each day and share them with the listening audience.
• Meet the Ruggles (The Ruggles), December 1957, Audition programs, Comedian Charlie Ruggles stars in this family sitcom based on the 1950 TV program. Ruggles and his wife are both behind in renewing their driver's licenses, so the teenagers are the only legal drivers in the family.
• MGM Musical Comedy Theatre, 1952, MGM Syndication. /an amusing story about a pair of crooks who are no match for a guardian angel.
• The Mighty Casey, June 28, 1947, Mutual. An interesting sitcom about the hero of the Mudville Nine.
• Mirth and Melody, December 2, 1948, ABC Net. An old-fashioned minstrel show from New Orleans.
• Moon Mullins, January 31, 1947, CBS. From the comic pages to the living room radio, Moon is an eternally down on his luck prizefighter who is surrounded by a gang of incredibly eccentric characters at the boarding house where he lives, including his landlords, Lord and "Lady" Plushbottom.
• The Nebbs, 1945, Mutual net. A situation comedy of "the great unwashed masses", Rudy and Fanny Nebbs were a standard working-class family with son Junior who is about to find out that girls are more fun than baseball and a daughter who is catching the attention of all the boys.
• The New Swan Show, 1948, NBC Net. Bob's ratings were beginning to slip by the end of his ten-year contract with Pepsodent, but Lever Brothers were willing to give him a new shot pitching Swan Soap. The new show is a lot like the old one, and just as much fun. This time around his singer is Doris Day.
• New York Closeup, November 24, 1954, WEAF (?). Tex and Jinx's guest today is none other than Fred Allen who has retired from radio (Jinx blames television, Fred says his blood pressure had something to do with it). Fred is pitching his new showbiz autobiography, Treadmill to Oblivion (1954, Little, Brown, and Company).
• Old Gold Show, October 22, 1944, CBS. New Host Jackie Gleason has been listening to the radio for years, so now he is going to run his own radio station. If only WIOU can land a sponsor.
• Once Upon a Time, 1938, Standard Radio Inc. Syndication. A new telling of "Hansel and Gretel", don't worry, the old witch still gets hers!
• The Penny Singleton Show, May 30, 1950, NBC/AFRTS. Penny stars as Mrs. Penny Williamson in this "harmless" situation comedy, but after 28 motion pictures and eleven seasons on the Radio, she will always be Blondie.
• Philco Radio Time, November 3, 1948, ABC, San Francisco aircheck. Edgar Bergen, Charlie McCarthy, and Mortimer Snerd join Bing on this election day edition of the show.
• The Private Life of Rochester Van Jones, May 12, 1950, CBS, audition programs. Eddie Anderson from The Jack Benny Show tries to spin-off a situation comedy with his "Rochester" character. There are plenty of references to his "Generous" boss.
• Radio Comedy Theater, AFRS, 1946. Dick Foran and Ann Rutherford star in the comedy, "No Time for Divorce".
• The Ralph Slater Show, October 3, 1945, Mutual. "Hypnotism Can Be Fun!" Claiming to be "the World's Fastest Hypnotist", Slater helps a Coast Guardsman become a great lover.
• Ramona and Her Might Miniature Minstrels, January 1945. "The Smallest Minstrel Cast Ever Assembled", the show features Ramona and her Baby Grand along with an all-girl trio and "Don Fredrickson and his Joke Book".
• Rexall Hollywood Review and Rexall's Parade of Stars, Fall 1944, Columbia Transcription for Rexall. Robert Benchley, Cass Daley, Charles Butterworth, and Harlow Wilcox share joes and quips while pitching Rexall's "One Cent Sale".
• The Salad Bowl Revue, October 20, 1933, NBC net. Fred Allen's second foray into radio was sponsored by Hellman's Mayonnaise and surprised everyone when it was so popular that it remained on the air long after salad season. With less lettuce in stores, Hellman's eventually pulled the plug and Fred and Portland moved on to The Sal Hepatica Revue.
• Sam Pilgrim's Progress, ABC 1949 Audition. Times and tribulations of New York cabbie Sam Pilgrim created and played by Mac Benoff.
• The Slapsie Maxie Show, September 8, 1948, NBC. Light-heavyweight Max Rosenbloom takes a stab at comedy. He gets the chance to be a judge for the Mrs. America pageant, but he gets kayoed before the contest begins.
• Snow Village Sketches, 1946, Mutual Network. Stories of the lives of cantankerous New England farmers and other country folk around a small New Hampshire town. The stories were based on scriptwriter William Ford Manley's experiences growing up in Snowville, New Hampshire. The show was popular enough that the town changed its name temporarily.
• Something to Think About, Syndicated for Anderson Lumber Stores. Five-minutes of interesting and thought-provoking stories.
• Star Performance, April 11, 1944, KFI Los Angeles, sponsored by Bullocks Jewelers. "Charm Incorporated." Howard Culver stars as a likable mug who gives up betting on the horses and buys a charm school to go legitimate. He also becomes a student.
• Stark Rock, Manly Detective at Large, The Gotham Radio Players present a fun send-up of a Golden Age hard-boiled detective.
• Sweet Adeline, April 30, 1949, audition program. Life and romance for a brother and sister who live together. Gale Gordon, Una Merkel, and Lillian Randolph star.
• Swifty McGinnis, Southpaw Supreme, November 13, 1939, Audition Program. A light-hearted serial about a young baseball pitcher on his way to the majors
• That Brewster Boy, December 1941. The Brewster's are a pretty average family, but Joey Brewster seems to be a little more than average. Joey thinks his problems are over because he had found his niche as a natural born salesman.
• That's My Pop, July 29, 1945, CBS. A fun Husband vs Mother-in-law situation comedy. Based on Milt Gross's comic strip, Pop has been "more or less" out of work but refuses to let failure go to his head. His motto is "Never put off today what you can put off tomorrow".
• That's Our Boy, August 26, 1950, audition program, created by Carlton E. Morse. Tommy Smith is a "Twentieth Century Tom Sawyer", who lives in a small town full of interesting characters.
• That's Rich, CBS, sustained, the mid-50s. Richard E. Wilt came to find his fortune in the Hollywood entertainment industry. Success is elusive, but fun and adventure follow Rich everywhere.
• The Mirth Parade, 1933, Bruce Eells and Associates Syndication. Before becoming a household name while working for Jack Benny, Don Wilson was a sportscaster who covered the opening of the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics. He went to work for the Don Lee Network but was fired for buying a Packard (Lee bought the L.A. Cadillac franchise from Harley Earle). He also stood as the "drum major" for The Mirth Parade variety program.
• The Quaker Party, October 1939, NBC net. Quaker Oats takes great pride in presenting Tommy Riggs and his "imaginary friend" Betty Lou Barry. Riggs and his Betty Lou character are coming off an unprecedented 48-week run on The Rudy Vallee Show.
• The Raymond Paige Show, September 1948, CBS net. An original "musicomedy" about a Hollywood publicity girl.
• The Show Goes On, 1950, CBS/AFRTS. Robert Q. Lewis hosts a comedy-variety program showcasing new talent. The program ran on TV then on the radio the next day.
• The Little Things in Life, December 25, 1975, WOR New York. The Baxter's are expecting the whole family over to unwrap Christmas presents, but first Dad has to get the dollhouse assembled.
• To Have and To Hold, December 25, 1975, produced by The Radio Playhouse for the Serial Network. A look at traditional vows, new morality, and being caught between them. A doctor and his wife reminiscing on Christmas morning.
• Tom Breneman's Laugh Parade, August 8, 1945, Audition program. Stories and jokes from the Hollywood U.S.O.
• Tom, Dick and Harry, Teleways Syndication. The novelty trio presents fun some and lots of puns and jokes while pitching for a new sponsor.
• The Tony Martin Show/Texaco Star Theatre, April 20, 1947, CBS. Tony welcomes his carrot-topped guest, Red Skelton.
• The Village Store, July 26, 1945, AFRS. Host Jack Haley welcomes guests Lloyd Nolan and Jean Carroll to this fun comedy-variety program.