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Children are the most critical radio listeners and the most loyal. Radio production managers strive the hardest to please them with the programs for several hours each day designed especially to interest and amuse as well as to instruct children.

The have their own favorites in their own programs as well as in those arranged for older people and, according to a recent survey, retain as much information from the things they hear as older people. Older listeners have other interests but children give their undivided attention to the things they happen to like and can quote verbatim both the features and the introductory continuities.

Educating and interesting these potential listeners and citizens of the future is one of the greatest problems and pleasures of both chain and local producers.

Dramatized comic strips are among the favorites. The survey shows. “Skippy,” the youngster beloved by all has an enormous following. His serious antics are heard every week day over KSD at 5:15 p.m. “Little Orphan Annie” with her trials and philosophies rivals other child programs for popularity each day at 5:45 p.m. over KWK.

Through “The Singing Lady” at 5:15 p.m. every day except Saturday and the Uncle Billy feature at KMOX at 5 p.m., children get a liberal education in song and have their foundations laid for music appreciation in balladry.

Romantic adventure and geographical picturization are included in the “Round the World Club” and the “Lone Wolf Club” which appear every other day at 5:30 p.m. over KMOX to transfer children to romantic lands. They are cheered and set on their way with a thought that someone is interested in the day’s work at school by a “Don’t Be Late for School” chat over WIL.

Other worlds are brought closer, music appreciation is taught, club fellowship is learned and enjoyed while children feel that they are receiving especial and personal consideration in the scheme of radio relationship.

(Originally published in Radio and Entertainment 4/17/32).

When he was a wee lad of three Ken Wright started playing original compositions – too original, some of them – on the piano. Then he graduated to a three-quarter violin to suit his childish chubbiness and thence to adept piano playing and finally to concert organ work.

You see, he was designed for a musical career even some twenty-two years ago when he gladdened his mother’s heart by playing these delightful three-year-old bits on the piano. She was a music teacher and it was just in that field that she hoped he would finally land.

He hails from Great Bend, Kansas, a village of some 6,000 souls, and it was there that he received the greatest part of his education both musical and educational. When he was eighteen, he decided that he would rather play an organ than anything else and in less than a year he was the rage at church and was sought after to open theaters in various cities in the great state of Kansas.

After he had achieved all honors that could be accorded to one young man in his home state, he landed in Menominee, Michigan, in a theater, and was there and thereabouts for four years.

He was featured in theaters as a master of ceremonies where he led an orchestra and introduced acts and played the organ. In his spare time he learned to play the accordion since it was easier to carry about than a piano or organ. His first radio work was done while he was there when he played from a theater for remote broadcasts, and he is given credit for having originated the novelty type of program. You may have read an extensive article crediting him with this advance of theater and microphone technique in the September 1931 edition of the Motion Picture Herald.

Last September he decided to take radio more seriously and came down to St. Louis where he joined the staff of KMOX been heard on original programs of his own, in-studio features, and has adapted his original theater title of  “The Singing Organist” in his daily morning programs where he sings an all-request hymn feature called “Morning Reveries.”

When he came here, he and Sunny Joe, the banjoist, formed a team, and by way of contrast, Walter Richards, the Program Production Director, dubbed him Sad Sam. So he is the same person, Sad Sam the accordionist, and Ken Wright the organist. Each program is typically different and indicative of the versatility of his ability and character.

Ken and Sad Sam, since he is the same, is probably the most serious minded person to be so merry that I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. His work is his paramount interest and one can practically feel his intent interest in his work when he is near. He has cabinets and more cabinets full of music through which he pours [sic] with all possible application when he is designing a single program for his listeners.

He is six-feet-two with brown hair and violet colored eyes. His features are regular and have the most flashing smile of great conviction. He is devoutly interested in every possible angle of his work and in his friends. One has the feeling that he is a trifle romantic but try as hard as I could, I could not discover what his ideal girl would be.

He has the forehead of a scholar and his eyes are rather quizzically slanted which might be an indication of the part that he is playing when he is Sad Sam. Ken speaks a good brand of French all of which he has mastered by himself and is thoroughly conversant on most of the intellectual subjects that there are.

He is likable and friendly and talented and handsome, in fact he answers the ideal requisite which one would create in one’s mind as his favorite radio entertainer. That he is a favorite is indicated by the several thousand fan letters he has received.

(Originally published in Radio and Entertainment 2/11/33).

By popular request we print the picture of Betty Jane and Virginia Holman, 17 and 19 year-old daughters of Mrs. Jane Holman of 142a East Lockwood Avenue, Webster Groves, who were chosen recently by Paul Whiteman during his appearance in St. Louis, as the first of his “finds” in his nation-wide search for radio talent.

The Holman  Sisters have won wide distinction through their broadcasts over KMOX as a piano team.

The selection, coming after the “Jazz King” had listened to nearly five hundred applicants, entitled the sisters to personal appearances with the Whiteman Orchestra during its theater engagement in Cincinnati a week ago and a place on the Pontiac program over the National Broadcasting Company’s hookup last Friday night.

Whiteman expressed himself as delighted with the success of his first contest. “From my experiences in St. Louis,” he said, “I firmly believe that we shall discover some real radio headliners during our talent search, which will be conducted in each of the cities where I play during my vaudeville tour.

“I was amazed at the great amount of talent uncovered in St. Louis. While many of the contestants were not ready for network programs, there were several who, with a little training, could compete successfully for places on the major broadcasts.”

The Holman Sisters are to have further auditions later in the studios of NBC in Chicago.

(Originally published in Radio and Entertainment 1/23/32).

(By Nancy Frazer)
Getting Henry, Zeb and Otto all rounded-up for an interview requires so much effort that I was exhausted when I finally got them cornered. Gasping for breath, I, by degrees, managed to get this much information out of them.

They are quite as aimless off the air and the stage as they are on – even after I got them all together, they sat on the edges of their chairs and wanted to know after each question whether or not that was all and they could go. How they ever all get into a studio at once remains a miracle but we have their daily programs over KMOX as positive evidence of their one-purposeness when it comes to music.

They were all born in Topeka, Kansas, and all came to radio by devious routes. Being all born in one place is about the only unified thing about them except their programs and so we’ll have to take them singly.

Henry – the first in point of name of the trio – is Merle Hausch and plays the guitar as well as sings with Zeb. Some years ago, a paper hanger in Topeka had a dream of being on the radio in an act named Henry and Hiram. He had never been on the air in his life but the dream was so impelling that he took the name Henry and started out to find himself a partner. Two weeks later, he was on the stage in Topeka doing the act of which he had dreamed (This is a true story. All three of them swear to it).

He took guitar lessons from the time he was twelve years old and the first tune he learned was “Gates Ajar.” So it was with guitar playing that he essayed to make his radio fame – and he has. He went from Topeka triumphs to Chicago and then to the Dixie Columbia Chain. When his act with Hiram was broken up, he found Zeb and then they set for Otto. They had never met before – although they grew up in the same town!

Then there’s Zeb, whose real name is Rene Hartley. He always smokes a big, black “seegar” and notoriously never talks on the air. He is reticent about himself but this we managed to elicit from him.

He took his first violin lessons from a Negro who was in jail – no Zeb wasn’t in jail but the Negro was and he was the best violinist in Topeka. So every day the little lad trudged down to the jail to learn to “fiddle.” Since that time he studied two years with Bissing in Chicago.

He has had two orchestras all his own in Topeka and Kansas City where he violined and led and has composed several song hits. He does all of the arranging for the three as he did for his orchestra. He is tall and slender and has gloriously wavy hair. He is not sure where he got the name Zeb except that youngsters always called him that.

Making personal appearances lately, he has gone back to stage work from whence he came but he likes radio work best of all. “More interesting,” he says, with Calvin Coolidge brevity.

Last, but in no way least, is jovial Otto who was christened Ted Morse. He played a bugle much to the delight of all his neighbors and had a band all his own when he was a youngster. His family bought him and trumpet and a trumpeter he has been ever since. He started in stage work at a very early age and appeared here with the “Six Brown Brothers.”

He was the leader of the 139th Infantry Band in France and graduated from the American Band Leaders’ School in Chaumont, France. He sings second tenor with Henry when their voices come over the air. He is jovial and as much like the title “Otto” as anyone could possibly be. The others gave him that name when he joined them in Chicago.

Otto’s favorite tune to sing is “Ach die Lieber Augustine” and by some amazing manner he has managed to grow one hair on his head that has attained the length of four inches!

They have a collection of more than 700 songs that they sing including ballads, hymns and hillbilly music and they nearly always play with their music perched in front of them. The only tune that they could all agree on as being their favorite was the “Naughty Waltz.”

Zeb supplies the arrangements. Henry has amassed the words for their songs and Otto is the droll wit. They all contribute real musical training and experience to make them the popular trio that they are.

There they are – at least those are the last words that I managed to get as they rushed off in three directions. All born in Topeka – got together to make radio fame in Chicago and came to KMOX where they have made it.

And that’s Henry, Zeb and Otto when they whale into their rollicking melodies with “Let ‘er go, Zeb – Let ‘er go.”

(Originally published in Radio and Entertainment 10/29/1932).

When a meteor flashes through the sky leaving a trail of only a few seconds’ duration, we seldom inquire into the cause, but if a brilliant, attractive star were suddenly to take its place in the firmament, we’d all rush about asking why.

But let’s drop the metaphor of the heavens because it would certainly embarrass such a fellow as Gypsy Joe. Despite his recent success over WEW he is just as modest as the Texan people from whom he comes. Though broadcasting in this city only a little over a month, and with fan mail coming in by the basket, he remains simple and sincere.

Perhaps that word “sincere” is one of the reasons for the phenomenal rise of this latest radio star. Sincerity and hard work are the two qualities one finds most outstanding in Gypsy Joe. Long practices, a policy of answering as many requests as possible, and effort to make each program his best, account for the reception accorded Gypsy Joe since his debut in September over WEW.

His weekly number of requests, and they are steadily increasing, now average about 350 separate numbers; it’s quite impossible for him to fill all of them, but he does as many as possible each day at 11:30 a.m. His requests range from that of an estranged husband for a number to be dedicated to his wife, to a birthday song for a child born the day the Cardinals won the 1931 World Series and named Burleigh William in honor of two of the Cardinal pitchers. And still they come.

(Originally published in Radio and Entertainment 10/29/1932).

Gypsy Joe
(By Olga Hugo)
“Gypsy Joe,” or in real life, Joseph David Cline, has gained great popularity with his radio listeners. Joe is 36 years of age, six feet tall, has brown hair and brown eyes and a very pleasant disposition. He is not married but is partial to blondes. He has played a guitar since he was a small boy but has never taken a lesson. He did, however, take one vocal lesson, but when asked to sing the scales, quit. He acquired the name “Gypsy Joe” about four years ago when directing an orchestra under the name “Gypsy Troubadors” – hence the name “Gypsy.”

Joe began his radio career about ten months ago at WEW where he was given an audition on a Sunday afternoon and on the following Monday morning started his regular daily program and has been with that station ever since. He likes radio and puts his whole heart and soul into his work with the resultant feeling that he is right in the home with you and you and you when conducting his airings.

The programs are made up entirely of the many requests sent in by the vast dialing audience. And talk about fan mail! When asked to give an estimate of the amount of letters received during his career you should have seen the mountain of mail he exhibited. Just recently he received a letter from Craft Yard, Honolulu, Hawaii.
Joe has certainly enjoyed being with WEW these past months and is especially fond of the young gentleman who has been announcing his programs, meaning none other than Bill Durney, the old Mike-master. Joe contends he’d be lost without Bill to utter the mutterings.

He confesses that there isn’t anything he’d rather do than stick to radio and make good. That is his highest ambition. As evidence of his mounting popularity, “Gypsy Joe” has left WEW to join the staff of KMOX. He is featured on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings and also appears each Saturday evening on the celebrated “County Fair.” We are sure that the entire WEW staff joins us in wishing Joe the best of luck in this new and more advantageous position and as evidence of our appreciation of his past performances, we’ll be listening.

(Originally published in Radio and Entertainment 4/22/1933).

The story of the Girls of the Golden West is one of determination and centered purpose. They wanted to be singers, they wanted to sing over the air and they have succeeded.

Their real names are Dollie and Millie Good. They come from Texas and at heart they are real Texans. Their mother plays the guitar, their father sings and all eight children are musical.

When they were youngsters, they were ushered into the front room after supper and had singing bees all their own. Their oldest sister played the piano, both their father and mother played and they all sang. They had contests to see who could sing the loudest and best, whistling contests and so on and hilarious in their idea of make-believe, they always pretended they were on the stage. They “played like” they were bowing to vast audiences and they acknowledged the applause as graciously as if they were.
While Dollie, the youngest, was still in school she decided that she wanted to play and sing more than anything else. Her mother told her that she would either have to stop school or stop spending so much time in learning to play a guitar. So Dollie, intent on her purpose, stopped school.

She wanted to play a guitar because her mother played one but she wasn’t quite sure just how to go about it. She played a ukulele ever since she was a child. and so she tuned the guitar in just the same way and managed to get music of a sort out of it. Then she started harmonizing with her own music and playing while Millie sang.

When they had learned about two songs together they decided to attempt a radio tryout. They went down to WIL and had an audition on one of the two songs that they knew and they were so well received that they were given a job immediately. They were scared to death for their repertoire was limited and so they started learning some popular songs. The program director there told them to play and sing more “hill billy” songs and they were so new in the game that they didn’t even know what he meant!

After about six weeks, they decided to devote more of their time to learning to sing and concentrated on that. They came down to try out on “Hank” Richards’ County Fair last summer and have been at KMOX since then with the exception of three months they spent at the KER outlet in Milford, Kansas.

Besides being talented, (they both play banjos and violin) they are pretty and friendly and happy in the work that they are doing. Millie has dark brown hair and laughing brown eyes and Dollie is taller, quite slender with broad shoulders and has light brown hair and a smile that would win anyone.

Their childhood ambition of being on stage is gratified in the personal appearances that they make throughout the surrounding cities. They are a part of Wyoming Jack’s rodeo unit that is booked out for personal appearances and they are featured as the only two girls singing yodeling Western songs on the air. Millie harmonizes yodeling which is a unique feat.

When they sing “I Want to Go Back to Texas,” they really mean it for, as they explain with a dreamy look in their eyes, they really love Texas and the West. They can visualize the mountains when they sing about them, they can picture the camp fires and are really inspired when they are singing about that country. It takes real feeling to be able to sing about that territory, they explain, and they have it.

They appear on the Early Morning Farm Folks Hour, the KMOX County Fair as well as on special programs when Wyoming Jack is the announcer of his own Western Rodeo.

They have talent and ambition and a native interest in things, they are determined to succeed further in radio work and in talking to them and realizing what pretty, clever girls they were, I decided that they started out to win, and at the moment that is…success.

(Originally published in Radio and Entertainment 4/22/1933).