Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge
Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge was an American old-time radio musical quiz program. It was first broadcast on February 1st 1938.
The idea had come from Kay Kyser a bandleader who - although couldn’t read a note of music - went on to become a celebrity, both in music and on radio.
It was In 1926, while at University that Kyser took over the orchestra, mainly because of his popularity on campus. According to the university’s newspaper, The Daily Tar Heel, the band was horrible, but nobody cared, as Kyser’s enthusiasm was contagious.
After graduation, he decided to continue with the band though with little success until 1934 when they performed at the Blackhawk Restaurant in Chicago. At the time quiz shows were popular, so to encourage audience participation Kyser began asking the audience musical questions.
Kyser recalled, "there was a lot of radio air time from the Blackhawk, and what we didn’t know was that the college kids were listening and thought we were great".
The show was originally named Kay’s Klass and became a combination of music related quiz, songs and comedy but because Kyser had glasses and the look of a professor, a classroom setting was suggested and band member Sully Mason came up with the title that made them famous: Kay Kyser’s Kollege of Musical Knowledge.
Initially, their show ran on the air for WGN/Chicago, then because of its popularity, in 1938 it moved to New York. The first show aired on March 30th on NBC and became a roaring success from coast to coast. Kay became known as the Ol' Professor, wearing a long robe and mortarboard hat, and greeted listeners Evenin’, folks. How y’all? which became his trademark, along with the catchphrase That's right, you're wrong! after being put through a true-false quiz where they had to respond with false to a true statement.
The Kollege soon developed a weekly audience of 20 million listeners nationwide. Listeners were invited to submit questions to Kyser, with both listeners and audience members earning a 'Diploma' by sending in questions or correctly answering a question. One episode in December 1937 resulted in more than 2,000 letters being sent to the program.
By mid-January 1938, the number of letters from listeners had exceeded 75,000!
During World War II, from 1941 to 1945, Kay Kyser aired his radio show from over 500 military installations and hospitals, and was actually the first bandleader to perform at camp shows for military personnel. His first such show was on February 26th, 1941 at San Diego marine base.
The Kay Kyser band had over 400 recordings, 11 number one records and 35 top ten hits. The band also appeared in seven feature Hollywood films. Stage Door Canteen and Thousands Cheer are two of the band's best-known films. Both movies were created to raise the morale of troops and their families.
The Kollege ran on radio for eleven years until 1949, then Kyser did two seasons of the show between December 1949 and December 1950 on NBC-TV for Ford Motor Company, but his transition to television was not successful. He soon retired silently from show business and never looked back.
I've recently discovered heaps of the episodes from the series in my RUSC archives, so look out for them popping up over the coming weeks!
Happy listening my friends,
