Guest Star, Pgm 17 : Treasury Department
Up next on the blog is an early episode of the long-running Treasury Department public service series, “Guest Star” that promoted the sale of US savings bonds.
In this show, Kenny Delmar plays host to Hildegarde who sings “Among My Souvenirs” and “My Belle Aime”. The Savings Bond Orchestra with Miklos Schwab as the piano soloist gives us a short piece based on themes by Paganini.
The mp3 was taken directly from a Treasury Department vinyl disc, matrix number ND7-MM-5434-1C, probably pressed by RCA/NBC. The show is dated January 18, 1947 in the vinyl trail-off area, which likely indicates when it was recorded.
httprandsesotericotr.podbean.com
You need to be a member of Times Past to add comments!
KENNY DELMAR : Appeared on "The Danny Kaye Show", "Jungle Jim", and "The Shadow". He is most remembered for his role as Senator Beauregard Claghorn on "The Fred Allen Show" quipping "I say, I say---that's a joke, son!", which is a phrase known to millions of cartoon fans as being used by the Warner Brothers character "Foghorn Leghorn".
HILDEGARDE : She was born Hildegarde Loretta Sell in Adell, Wisconsin, and raised in New Holstein, Wisconsin, as a Roman Catholic in a family of German extraction. She worked in vaudeville and traveling shows throughout her career, appearing across the United States and Europe. She was known for 70 years as "The Incomparable Hildegarde," a title bestowed on her by columnist Walter Winchell. She studied at Marquette University's College of Music in the 1920s.
During the peak of her popularity in the 1930s and '40s, she was booked in cabarets and supper clubs at least 45 weeks a year. She spent most of the 1940s on the NBC Radio program "Raleigh Room," sponsored by the cigarette company and her annual salary reportedly was $150,000. She appeared on the cover of Life magazine in 1939, and her recordings sold in the hundreds of thousands. Revlon even introduced a Hildegarde shade of lipstick and nail polish.
She was once referred to as a "luscious, hazel-eyed Milwaukee blonde who sings the way Garbo looks". Liberace once said "Hildegarde was perhaps the most famous supper-club entertainer who ever lived. I used to absorb all the things she was doing, all the showmanship she created. It was marvelous to watch her, wearing elegant gowns, surrounded with roses and playing with white gloves on. They used to literally roll out the red carpet for her." Much of Hildegarde's image and refinement had to do with her early manager, Anna Sosenko, with whom she formerly shared a 10-room apartment in Manhattan's Plaza Hotel, surrounded by masterpieces by Renoir, Manet and others. Sosenko wrote Hildegarde's signature song, "Darling, Je Vous Aime Beaucoup," and tried to shroud the Wisconsin-born Hildegarde in publicity that lent her an exotic allure. She planted stories in the media about such implausibilities as an elderly Swedish monarch going gaga for her. That relationship ended up in litigation over the control of receipts from their joint efforts.
A noted flirt, Hildegarde wore long, white gloves ("Miss Piggy stole the gloves idea from me," she once said), and told risque anecdotes while parceling out long-stemmed roses to men in her audience.
During a performance in Washington, she nestled up to a dour-looking Sen. John L. McClellan (D-Ark.) and waltzed with him while she whispered for all to hear, "Oh, Senator, you're entrancing. . . . You dance so beautifully. . . . Darling, you're terrific. . . . Why go back to the Senate. . . . And where's your wife?"
She spent most of the 1940s on the NBC Radio program "Raleigh Room," sponsored by the cigarette company. Her annual salary reportedly was $150,000.
From the 1950s through the 1970s, in addition to her cabaret performances and record albums, she appeared in a number of television specials and toured with the national company of the Stephen Sondheim musical Follies.
Her autobiography, Over 50 .... So What!, was published by Doubleday in 1961.
She died at the age of 99 in a hospital in New York on July 29, 2005, of natural causes.
We’ve heard the long-running public service series, “Guest Star”, sponsored by the Treasury Department and promoting the sale of Savings Bonds, on the blog before. This week, we investigate an early entry in the series when they would book more famous actors and comedians for the show.
Program 18 of the series will be of interest to fans of the “Sherlock Holmes” radio series. Guest Basil Rathbone and series announcer Kenny Delmar stage a comedy sketch about a famous detective and his not-too-bright assistant. The show also features music by the Three Dollars with Denes Agay. If the incomplete log of the series at otrsite is accurate, then this show would have dated from circa 1947.
Guest Star - Pgm 443, Sept 18, 1955, Portrait by Cupid with Vincent Price
“Guest Star” was a series with hundreds of episodes released to radio stations in the 1940s and through the early 60s to promote the sales of US Savings Bonds. The program is more well-known for musical guests, but, on occasion, an actor or comedian would be given a turn at the microphone.
In program 443, dated September 18, 1955, we hear Vincent Price in a short drama called “Portrait by Cupid” that involves a talented painter, counterfeiting and, of course, love. It’s not the best-known or best work in Price’s long career, but it’s fun to hear him in this setting. The fifteen minute format didn’t allow for much character or plot development, so the script is a little simplistic; that’s probably why they didn’t try this format often for the series.
The show, in near hi-fi quality, was transferred from an original Treasury Department transcription in almost mint condition. This comes from a period when the discs were pressed extra-thin - if you saw it and you were a knowledgeable record collector, it might remind you of RCA’s “dynaflex” albums from the 1970s. http://randsesotericotr.podbean.com/
Here’s another episode of the popular Treasury Department public service program that ran for many years. Program 444, originally broadcast the week of September 25, 1955, features Eartha Kitt backed by John Conte and Harry Sosnick and the Savings Bond Orchestra.
In the show, “Grenada” and “Thine Alone” are performed by Sosnick and the orchestra and Eartha Kitt lends her unique voice to “C’est Si Bon”. She also does another number that I won’t reveal here - I’ll just let you listen to the show and be surprised by it. It’s not something you’d associate with Kitt’s exotic image.
The program was transferred from an original Treasury Department vinyl transcription. There’s great sound in the show - a true hi-fi recording in near mint condition. http://randsesotericotr.podbean.com/
We heard another show in this series featuring Fibber McGee and Molly a few weeks ago on the blog. In this post, “Treasury Star Parade”, program 254 from September 11, 1943. Produced by the Treasury Department to promote the sale of War Bonds during WWII, the series morphed into “Guest Star”, which was used to promote US Savings Bonds well into the late 50s.
This episode features Freddy Martin and His Orchestra performing “Isn’t It Love” with a vocal by Gene Walsh, “Holiday for Strings”, and “In My Arms”. The show also includes the radio premiere of a war-themed tune, “Bells of Victory”, again with a vocal by Gene Walsh. http://randsesotericotr.podbean.com/
Replies
During the peak of her popularity in the 1930s and '40s, she was booked in cabarets and supper clubs at least 45 weeks a year. She spent most of the 1940s on the NBC Radio program "Raleigh Room," sponsored by the cigarette company and her annual salary reportedly was $150,000. She appeared on the cover of Life magazine in 1939, and her recordings sold in the hundreds of thousands. Revlon even introduced a Hildegarde shade of lipstick and nail polish.
She was once referred to as a "luscious, hazel-eyed Milwaukee blonde who sings the way Garbo looks". Liberace once said "Hildegarde was perhaps the most famous supper-club entertainer who ever lived. I used to absorb all the things she was doing, all the showmanship she created. It was marvelous to watch her, wearing elegant gowns, surrounded with roses and playing with white gloves on. They used to literally roll out the red carpet for her."
A noted flirt, Hildegarde wore long, white gloves ("Miss Piggy stole the gloves idea from me," she once said), and told risque anecdotes while parceling out long-stemmed roses to men in her audience.
During a performance in Washington, she nestled up to a dour-looking Sen. John L. McClellan (D-Ark.) and waltzed with him while she whispered for all to hear, "Oh, Senator, you're entrancing. . . . You dance so beautifully. . . . Darling, you're terrific. . . . Why go back to the Senate. . . . And where's your wife?"
She spent most of the 1940s on the NBC Radio program "Raleigh Room," sponsored by the cigarette company. Her annual salary reportedly was $150,000.
From the 1950s through the 1970s, in addition to her cabaret performances and record albums, she appeared in a number of television specials and toured with the national company of the Stephen Sondheim musical Follies.
Her autobiography, Over 50 .... So What!, was published by Doubleday in 1961.
She died at the age of 99 in a hospital in New York on July 29, 2005, of natural causes.
guest-star_17.mp3
We’ve heard the long-running public service series, “Guest Star”, sponsored by the Treasury Department and promoting the sale of Savings Bonds, on the blog before. This week, we investigate an early entry in the series when they would book more famous actors and comedians for the show.
Program 18 of the series will be of interest to fans of the “Sherlock Holmes” radio series. Guest Basil Rathbone and series announcer Kenny Delmar stage a comedy sketch about a famous detective and his not-too-bright assistant. The show also features music by the Three Dollars with Denes Agay. If the incomplete log of the series at otrsite is accurate, then this show would have dated from circa 1947.
The program was transferred from an original transcription pressed by RCA, matrix number ND7-MM-5435.
http://randsesotericotr.podbean.com/
guest-star_18_treasury department.mp3
“Guest Star” was a series with hundreds of episodes released to radio stations in the 1940s and through the early 60s to promote the sales of US Savings Bonds. The program is more well-known for musical guests, but, on occasion, an actor or comedian would be given a turn at the microphone.
In program 443, dated September 18, 1955, we hear Vincent Price in a short drama called “Portrait by Cupid” that involves a talented painter, counterfeiting and, of course, love. It’s not the best-known or best work in Price’s long career, but it’s fun to hear him in this setting. The fifteen minute format didn’t allow for much character or plot development, so the script is a little simplistic; that’s probably why they didn’t try this format often for the series.
The show, in near hi-fi quality, was transferred from an original Treasury Department transcription in almost mint condition. This comes from a period when the discs were pressed extra-thin - if you saw it and you were a knowledgeable record collector, it might remind you of RCA’s “dynaflex” albums from the 1970s.
http://randsesotericotr.podbean.com/
guest-star_443.mp3
Here’s another episode of the popular Treasury Department public service program that ran for many years. Program 444, originally broadcast the week of September 25, 1955, features Eartha Kitt backed by John Conte and Harry Sosnick and the Savings Bond Orchestra.
In the show, “Grenada” and “Thine Alone” are performed by Sosnick and the orchestra and Eartha Kitt lends her unique voice to “C’est Si Bon”. She also does another number that I won’t reveal here - I’ll just let you listen to the show and be surprised by it. It’s not something you’d associate with Kitt’s exotic image.
The program was transferred from an original Treasury Department vinyl transcription. There’s great sound in the show - a true hi-fi recording in near mint condition.
http://randsesotericotr.podbean.com/
guest-star_444.mp3
We heard another show in this series featuring Fibber McGee and Molly a few weeks ago on the blog. In this post, “Treasury Star Parade”, program 254 from September 11, 1943. Produced by the Treasury Department to promote the sale of War Bonds during WWII, the series morphed into “Guest Star”, which was used to promote US Savings Bonds well into the late 50s.
This episode features Freddy Martin and His Orchestra performing “Isn’t It Love” with a vocal by Gene Walsh, “Holiday for Strings”, and “In My Arms”. The show also includes the radio premiere of a war-themed tune, “Bells of Victory”, again with a vocal by Gene Walsh.
http://randsesotericotr.podbean.com/
treasury-star-parade_254.mp3