Skip to main content

Posts

October 24, 1929: The First Rudy Vallee Broadcast on NBC

October 24, 1929: For the first time NBC broadcast The Rudy Vallee Show . Although the show name changed several times, the listening public knew the show as The Rudy Vallee Show . In this show, megaphone totin' Rudy and his Connecticut Yankees band played through the late 1940's. The Rudy Vallee Show was the first musical variety radio program broadcast on NBC. This program was sponsored by the popular Fleischmann’s Yeast Company. NBC executive, Bertha Brainard, was the woman behind the suceess of the show. She encourage Rudy Vallée to host a variety series and told Rudy that "only a woman could understand the appeal of Vallée's voice." The show quickly became a top-rated variety program and the host appeared along with regulars, Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson.  Very popular and influential, the show featured dramatic skits, music and comedy and could made an unknown person into a radio star.

October 12, 1937: Mr. Keen's Radio Debut

  October 12, 1937: Mr Keen , the longest running detective show, aired for the first time on radio . The show starred Bennet Kilpack as Mr. Keen, Arthur Hughes, and Phil Clark. The program was sponsored by BiSoDol antacid mints, Hill's cold tablets, Heet liniment, Dentyne, Aerowax, RCA Victor and Chesterfield cigarettes. Some sponsors lasted for the entirety of the show's history, but many changed throughout the running of the program. Mr. Keen , otherwise known by its full title Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost of Persons , was first broadcast on NBC Blue Network before it moved to CBS in 1947, 10 years after its debut. During the first few episodes of the show, the "Tracer of Lost Persons" part was kind of forgotten, as most of Mr. Keen's cases involved murder. The show lasted for nearly 20 years, with the last episode airing on April 19, 1955.