RUSC - Old Time Radio Shows

Variety & Music

Music and variety played a pivotal role in radio. It could be a show in its own right with a leading superstar of the day such as Bing Crosby, or it could be an inexpensive filler using an unknown orchestras in a studio or via a remote from a local night spot.

What's amazing when listening to these shows today is that even after seventy years the charm, charisma and warmth still comes across so strongly.

Just close your eyes and it is as though you're back in the 30s or 40s and enjoying some of the great music of the era. I wonder if the music of today will have quite as much staying-power as the tunes you'll here in this magical section of RUSC.

10-2-4 Time
Show Count: 1
Broadcast History:

20th Century Fox Presents
Show Count: 10
Broadcast History: 1936 to 1942
Sponsor: 20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox is on the air...

Across the Dial
Show Count: 1
Broadcast History: 1953
Sponsor: Packard Automobiles, Philip Morris Cigarettes

Adolph Zukor's Silver Jubilee
Show Count: 1
Broadcast History: 1937
Cast: Adolph Zukor, W C Fields, Jack Benny, Cecil B DeMille, Carole Lombard, Ken Carpenter, Frank Forest, Jack Oakie, Charles Butterworth, Dorothy Lamour, Shirley Ross, Ralph Rainger, Martha Raye, Gladys Swarthout, Lloyd Nolan, Wallace Beery , Raymond Hatton, Victor Moore, Edward Arnold, Adolphe Menjou

Al Jolson Show
Show Count: 6
Broadcast History: 1932 to 1949
Cast: Walter O'Keefe, Al Jolson, Harry Einstein, Martha Raye, Monty Woolley, Oscar Levant, Dick Powell, Bing Crosby
Director: Herb Polesie, Bill Lawrence
Producer: Carroll Carroll

Andrews Sisters
Show Count: 19
Broadcast History: 31 December 1944 to 23 September 1945 and 3 October 1945 to 27 March 1946
Cast: LaVerne Andrews, Patti Andrews, Maxene Andrews, Foy Willing and The Riders of The Purple Sage, George "Gabby" Hayes

Arthur Godfrey
Show Count: 18
Broadcast History: 1930-33, 1934-45, and 30 April 1945 to 30 April 1972
Sponsor: Chesterfield Cigarettes

Avalon Time
Show Count: 32
Broadcast History: 1 October 1938 to 1 May 1940
Sponsor: Avalon Cigarettes
Cast: Del King, Red Foley, Kitty O'Neil, Red Skelton, Curt Massey, Dick Todd, Janette Davis, Marlin Hurt, Tommy Mack, Bud Vandover, Cliff Arquette, Don McNeill

Barrel Of Fun
Show Count: 5
Broadcast History:

Benny Goodman Show, The
Show Count: 19
Broadcast History:

Best Of All
Show Count: 36
Broadcast History:

Big Show, The
Show Count: 29
Broadcast History: 5 November 1950 to 20 April 1952
Cast: Tallulah Bankhead, Fred Allen, Jimmy Durante, Ethel Merman, Frankie Laine, Jose Ferrer, Paul Lukas, Danny Thomas, Groucho Marx, Jane Powell, Fanny Brice, Ezio Pinza, Bob Hope, Eddie Cantor, Rudy Vallee, Danny Kaye, Judy Garland, Judy Holliday, Ed Wynn
Director: Dee Engelbach
Producer: Dee Engelbach

Bing Crosby
Show Count: 36
Broadcast History: 2 September 1931 to 27 February 1932, 8 March 1932 to 20 July 1932, 4 January 1933 to 15 April 1933, 16 October 1933 to 11 June 1935, 2 January 1936 to 9 May 1946, 16 October 1946 to 1 June 1949, 21 September 1949 to 25 June 1952, 9 October 1952 to 30 May 1954 and 22 November 1954 to 28 December 1956
Cast: Bing Crosby, Bob Burns, Mary Martin, Victor Borge, Connie Boswell, Jerry Lester, George Murphy, Peggy Lee, Judd McMichael, Ted McMichael, Joe McMichael, Mary Lou Cook, Ken Carpenter, John Scott Trotter, Skitch Henderson, Lina Romay , Charlie Parlato, Mack McLean, Loulie Jean Norman, Gloria Wood
Director: Bill Morrow, Murdo MacKenzie, Cal Kuhl, Ezra MacIntosh, Bob Brewster, Ed Gardner
Producer: Bill Morrow, Murdo MacKenzie, Cal Kuhl, Ezra MacIntosh, Bob Brewster, Ed Gardner

Breakfast Club with Don McNeill
Show Count: 31
Broadcast History: 23 June 1933 to 27 December 1968
Sponsor: Swift and Company, Kelloggs, Philco Radios
Cast: Don McNeill, Jim Jordan, Marian Jordan, Ole Olsen, Jack Paar, Allen Prescott, Fran Allison, Sam Cowling
Producer: Cliff Peterson
Host: Don McNeill, Ole Olsen, Jack Paar, Allen Prescott

Breakfast With Dorothy And Dick
Show Count: 2
Broadcast History: 15 April 1945 to 21 March 1963
Producer: Richard Kollmar
Host: Richard Kollmar, Dorothy Kilgallen

Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street
Show Count: 6
Broadcast History: 11 February 1940 to 8 October 1944, 8 July 1950 to 30 September 1950 and 12 April 1952 to 2 August 1952
Cast: Gene Hamilton, Zero Mostel, Jack McCarthy
Director: Tom Bennett, Dee Engelbach
A strange sort of a show that was probably a little in front of it’s time. Radio shows in those days were usually quite straight forward in whatever sphere of entertainment they dealt in but The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street was what we today would call a “send-up”. It had a satirical way of putting over good music, whether it be opera, symphony or blues. The satire was of course in the lyrics, not in the music.

Chesterfield Show, The
Show Count: 2
Broadcast History:

Chicago Theater of the Air
Show Count: 24
Broadcast History: 1940-1954
Cast: Marion Claire
Producer: Marion Claire

Command Performance
Show Count: 240
Broadcast History: 1 March 1942 to 20 December 1949 and 7 October 1945 to 21 April 1946
Cast: Charles Laughton, Red Skelton, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland
Director: Glenn Wheaton
Producer: Vick Knight, Maury Holland, Cal Kuhl
A Wartime Variety Show broadcast mainly to the armed forces between 1942 and 1949. It was produced for the armed forces by the War Department for short wave transmission to troops serving in overseas theatres of war.

Dinah Shore Show, The
Show Count: 37
Broadcast History: 6 August 1939 to 1 July 1955
Cast: Dinah Shore

Disney Preview
Show Count: 1
Broadcast History:

Downbeat
Show Count: 17
Broadcast History:

Ed Wynn The Fire Chief
Show Count: 2
Broadcast History:
Cast: Ed Wynn, Evelyn Knight, Jerry Wayne, Rolfe Sedan, Hope Emerson, Lorna Lynn

Eddie Cantor Show, The
Show Count: 14
Broadcast History: 13 September 1931 to 1 July 1954
Sponsor: Chase and Sandborne
Cast: Eddie Cantor, Dave Rubinoff, Harry Einstein, Bert Gordon, Bobby Breen, Deanna Durbin, Shirley Dinsdale, Hattie McDaniel, Gerald Mohr, Sara Berner, Veola Vonn, Frank Nelson, Elvia Allman, Herb Vigran
Director: Abbott K Spencer, Vick Knight, Manning Ontroff

Eddy Arnold Show
Show Count: 8
Broadcast History:

Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy
Show Count: 84
Broadcast History: 17 December 1936, 9 May 1937 to 26 December 1948, and 2 October 1949 to 1 July 1956
Cast: Edgar Bergen, W C Fields, Don Ameche, Dorothy Lamour, Nelson Eddy, Clarence Stroud, Claude Stroud, Judy Canova, Zeke Canova, Annie Canova, Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Frances Langford, Marsha Hunt, Pat Patrick, Richard Haydn, Barbara Jo Allen, Norman Field
Director: Earl Ebi

Fitch Bandwagon
Show Count: 11
Broadcast History: 4 September 1938 to 17 June 1945, 23 September 1945 to 16 June 1946, and 29 September 1946 to 23 May 1948
Sponsor: Fitch Shampoo
Cast: Alice Faye, Phil Harris, Eddie Cantor, Andy Devine, Cass Daley, Francis Trout, Henry Russell, Elliott Lewis, Robert North, Jeanine Roose, Anne Whitfield, Walter Tetley
Director: Paul Phillips
Producer: Ward Byron, Bill Lawrence
Host: Dick Powell

Frances Langford Show
Show Count: 13
Broadcast History:
Sponsor: Maxwell House Coffee Time
Cast: Frances Langford
Host: Frances Langford

G.I. Journal
Show Count: 64
Broadcast History:
Cast: Various

Gene Autry's Melody Ranch
Show Count: 83
Broadcast History: 7 january 1940 to 1 August 1943, 23 September 1945 to 13 May 1956
Sponsor: Double Mint Chewing Gum
Cast: Pat Buttram, Johnny Bond, Carl Cotner, Sara Berner, Frankie Marvin, Alvino Rey, eddie Dean, Jimmy Wakely , Harry Lang, Jack Mather, Horace Murphy, Jerry Hausner
Producer: Bill Burch
Host: Gene Autry

GI Jive
Show Count: 15
Broadcast History:

Glenn Miller
Show Count: 42
Broadcast History:
Cast: Glenn Miller

Good News of (1937 to 1940)
Show Count: 51
Broadcast History: 4 November 1937 to 25 July 1940
Sponsor: Maxwell House Coffee Time
Cast: Clark Gable, Hanley Stafford, Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney, Fanny Brice, Judy Garland, Joan Crawford, Alice Faye, Lionel Barrymore
Director: Ed Gardner
Host: James Stewart, Robert Taylor, Robert Young, Dick Powell, Frank Morgan

Grand Marquee
Show Count: 1
Broadcast History: 9 July 1946 to 25 September 1947
Cast: Jim Ameche, Beryl Vaughn, Olan Soule
Director: Norman Felton
Producer: Norman Felton

Grand Ole Opry
Show Count: 24
Broadcast History: 28 November 1925, then 14 October 1939 to 28 December 1957
Cast: George Dewey Hay, Uncle Jimmy Thompson, Uncle Dave Macon, DeFord Bailey, Humphrey Bate’s Possum Hunters, Arthur Smith, Uncle Ed Popline and his Old Timers, Binkley Brothers and their Dixie Clodhoppers, Paul Warmack and his Gully-Jumpers, Kitty Cora Kline, Kirk McGee, Sam McGee, Sid Harkreader, George Wilkerson and the Fruit Jar Drinkers, Robert Lunn, Vagabonds, Asher Sizemore, Little Jimmy Sizemore, Bunny Biggs, Lee Davis Wilds, Jack Shook and the Missouri Mountaineers, Curly Fox, Ruby Owens, Edna Wilson, Margaret Waters, Zeke Clements, Dixie Yodeler, Buster Bate, Claude Lampley, H J Ragsdale, Tom Lefew, George Wilkerson, Charlie Arrington, Tom Andrews, Gayle Binkley, Amos Binkley, Oscar Stone, Oscar Albright, Dr Humphrey Bate, Alter Liggett, Dorris Macon, Paul Warmack, Roy Hardison, Burt Hutcherson, Herman and Lewis Crook, Bill Etter, Staley Walton, Blythe Poteet, Alton Delmore, Rabon Delmore, Dee Simmons, Nap Bastian, George D Hay, Roy Acuff and his Smoky Mountain Boys, Minnie Pearl, Willis Brothers, Bill Monroe, Kay Carlisle, Ernest Tubb, Eddy Arnold, Tommy Jackson, Jimmy Selph, George Morgan, Carl Smith, Carter Sisters, Rod Brasfield, Rachel Veach, Hank Williams, Pee Wee King
Director: Jack Stapp, Ott Devine, Kenneth W MacGregor
Producer: Vito Pellettieri
Host: Whitey Ford

Guest Star
Show Count: 310
Broadcast History: 1943-1962
Host: Kenny Delmar
The Guest Star Series of radio shows were produced by the Treasury Department to promote the purchase of U.S. Savings Bonds. It starred all the popular movie and radio stars of the time. Name any old-time star and you’ll likely find that he or she had at least one performance on this popular syndicated series.

Hank Williams Mother's Best Flour Show, The
Show Count: 59
Broadcast History:
Cast: Hank Williams, Audrey Williams, Jerry Rivers, Cedric Rainwater, Don Helms

Happy Gang, The
Show Count: 1
Broadcast History: 1937-1959
Cast: Bert Pearl, Blaine Mathe, Bob Farnon, Kay Stokes
Producer: George Temple, John Adaskin

Hedda Hopper's Hollywood
Show Count: 1
Broadcast History:
Host: Hedda Hopper

Hollywood's Open House
Show Count: 1
Broadcast History:

Howard Miller Show
Show Count: 160
Broadcast History: Aired at 10:45 - 11:00 am
Sponsor: Wrigley's Spearmint Chewing Gum
Host: Howard Miller
Coming to you from the windy city Chicago, CBS and Wrigley's Spearmint Gum presents The Howard Miller Show. Hosted by Howard Miller and each day presenting one of the celebrated stars of the music world.

Jack Pearl Show
Show Count: 1
Broadcast History: 8 September 1932 to 25 September 1951
Sponsor: Lucky Strike, Royal Gelatin, Frigidaire, Brown and Williamson Tobacco, U.S. Treasury, Pet Milk
Cast: Jack Pearl, Cliff Hall, Tommy Dorsey

Jimmy Durante Show, The
Show Count: 42
Broadcast History: 10 September 1933 to 30 June 1950
Sponsor: Texaco, Camel Cigarettes, Rexall
Cast: Elvia Allman, Hope Emerson, Jimmy Durante, Florence Halop, Arthur Treacher, Victor Moore, Alan Young, Don Ameche
Producer: Phil Cohan

Judy Canova Show, The
Show Count: 49
Broadcast History: 6 July 1943 to 27 June 1944, 13 January 1945 to 30 June 1951, and 29 December 1951 to 28 May 1953
Sponsor: Emerson Drug Company, General Motors, Colgate, Smith Brothers
Cast: Gale Gordon, Judy Canova, Mel Blanc, Verna Felton, Sharon Douglas, Hans Conried, Sheldon Leonard, Ruby Dandridge, Ruth Perrott, Joe Kearns, Gerald Mohr, Joseph Kearns, George Niese, Elvia Allman
Director: Joe Rines
Producer: Joe Rines

Kate Smith
Show Count: 15
Broadcast History: 17 March 1931 to 1 August 1958
Sponsor: La Palina Cigars, Hudson Motor Car Company, Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, General Foods, Calumet Baking Soda, Swans Down Flour, Grape Nuts, Jell-O, Sanka Coffee, Readers Digest
Cast: Ted Collins, Henny Youngman, Jim Crowley, Charlie Cantor, Minerva Pious, Elmer Davis, Cecil Brown, Bill Henry
Host: Kate Smith

Komedy Kapers
Show Count: 17
Broadcast History:
Cast: Elvia Allman
Host: Bob Burns, Tom Post

Kraft Music Hall
Show Count: 35
Broadcast History: 26 June 1933 to 22 September 1949
Sponsor: Miracle Whip, Kraft Foods
Cast: Bing Crosby, Al Jolson, Deems Taylor, Paul Whiteman, Roy Bargy, Edward Everett Horton , Eddie Foy, Frank Morgan, Dorothy Kirsten, Nelson Eddy

Let Yourself Go
Show Count: 1
Broadcast History: 1944 to 1945
Cast: Al Jolson, Milton Berle, Joe Besser
Host: Milton Berle

Light-Up Time
Show Count: 75
Broadcast History:
Sponsor: Lucky Strike
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Dorothy Kirsten
Host: Frank Sinatra

Lonesome Gal
Show Count: 12
Broadcast History: 13 October 1947 to the mid 1950s
Cast: Jean King

Magic Key, The
Show Count: 67
Broadcast History:
The Magic Key of RCA was an American variety radio show that featured an unusually large and broad range of entertainment stars and other noted personalities. It was on the NBC Blue Network from September 29, 1935, until September 18, 1939.

Mail Call
Show Count: 11
Broadcast History:

Martin & Lewis Show
Show Count: 77
Broadcast History:
Sponsor: Chesterfield Cigarettes, Anacin
Cast: Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Ben Alexander, Sheldon Leonard, Flo McMichael
Director: Robert L. Redd, Dick Mack
Who could forget the incredible comic duo of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis!

Moon River
Show Count: 15
Broadcast History:

Music Miscellaneous
Show Count: 60
Broadcast History:

Philco Radio Time
Show Count: 51
Broadcast History: 1946 to 1949
Cast: Bing Crosby

Railroad Hour, The
Show Count: 209
Broadcast History:
Sponsor: Association of American Railroads
Cast: Gordon MacRae, Stanley Farrar, Nadine Conner , Tom McKee, Mary Jane Croft, Ken Christy, Norma Varden, Herb Butterfield, Theodore von Eltz, Dorothy Kirsten, Jane Powell
Director: Norman Luboff
The Railroad Hour was a radio series of musical dramas and comedies broadcast from the late 1940s to the mid-1950s. Even though the shows do feature scripts, it was all about the songs - so if you love a good old sing-along, The Railroad Hour will tick all of the boxes.

Request Performance
Show Count: 4
Broadcast History:

Rudy Vallee - Royal Gelatin Hour
Show Count: 44
Broadcast History:

Sealtest Variety Theater
Show Count: 38
Broadcast History: 6 July to 28 September 1947 and 9 September 1948 to 7 July 1949
Cast: Dorothy Lamour
Director: Glenhall Taylor

Songs By Sinatra
Show Count: 22
Broadcast History:
Host: Frank Sinatra

Sound Off
Show Count: 15
Broadcast History: 1946 to 1948

Spike Jones Show, The
Show Count: 56
Broadcast History: 3 June 1949 to 25 June 1949
Cast: Frances Langford, Dorothy Shay, Spike Jones and the City Slickers
Producer: Hal Fimberg, Joe Bigelow

Texaco Star Theater
Show Count: 63
Broadcast History: 1938 to 1949
Cast: Fred Allen, Ed Wynn, James Melton
Director: William A. Bacher
Host: Adolphe Menjou, Ken Murray, John Barrymore

To Be Perfectly Frank
Show Count: 25
Broadcast History:
Director: Gordon Auchincloss
Producer: Gordon Auchincloss
Host: Frank Sinatra

World War I Songs
Show Count: 10
Broadcast History:

World War II Songs
Show Count: 5
Broadcast History:

Your All Time Hit Parade
Show Count: 5
Broadcast History:

Your Hit Parade
Show Count: 110
Broadcast History:
Your Hit Parade was an American old time radio series broadcast every Saturday evening from 1935 to 1955, offering the most popular and best selling songs of the week.

Your Rhythm Revue
Show Count: 3
Broadcast History: