Phantom Dancer :: 12:00pm 13th May 2025
John Reed King was an American radio and television announcer, broadcaster, and game show host during the 1930 to the 1970s. As my late vocal coach’s father-in-law, that makes him three degrees of separation from you. This week you’ll hear John Reed King announce for Louis Prima’s Orchestra. He is your Phantom Dancer feature artist this week.
The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week.
LISTEN to this week’s Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 13 May and weeks of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/
DEGREES OF SEPARATION
The concept was originally set out in a 1929 short story by Frigyes Karinthy, in which a group of people play a game of trying to connect any person in the world to themselves by a chain of five others. It was popularized in John Guare’s 1990 play Six Degrees of Separation.
Six degrees of separation is the idea that all people are six or fewer social connections away from each other. As a result, a chain of “friend of a friend” statements can be made to connect any two people in a maximum of six steps.
KING
John Reed King was one of the announcers for The American School of the Air on CBS, and had one of the top-rated radio shows of the 1930s in New York City with Missus Goes A-Shopping. He was also an announcer for the radio version of Death Valley Days, The Jack Berch Show, and the soapie My Gal Sunday based on a 1900s play from which the phrase, “That’s all there is, there isn’t any more” originates.
On 1 August 1944, he hosted the live television version of Missus Goes A-Shopping, and on 29 January 1946, he hosted the television version of It’s a Gift, making these among the first television quiz shows ever aired, after CBS Television Quiz (1941-1942) and Spelling Bee (BBC London 1938).
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, King was host of The John Reed King Show, an audience-participation quiz show. It began on New York stations WOR-TV and moved to WCBS-TV on 2 February 1950.
He worked at KDKA radio and television in Pittsburgh during the 1960s. He was a morning news anchor for the radio station, and hosted a daily talk show on television.
In 1970, he was a news anchor at KGO-TV, the ABC owned-and-operated television station in San Francisco.
13 May PLAY LIST
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Play List – The Phantom Dancer
107.3 2SER-FM Sydney
LISTEN ONLINE Community Radio Network Show CRN #711 |
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107.3 2SER Tuesday 13 May 2025 |
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Set 1
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1930s Pop | |
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Open + Stop Beating Around the Mulberry Bush
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Al Goodman Orchestra (voc) Bea Wain and The Hit Paraders
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‘Your Hit Parade’
WABC CBS NYC 22 Oct 1938 |
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While a Stinking Cancer Stick was Burning + The Lady in Red
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Al Goodman Orchestra
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‘Your Hit Parade’
WABC CBS NYC 22 Oct 1938 |
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At Long Last Love + So Help Me
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Al Goodman Orchestra (voc) Bea Wain
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‘Your Hit Parade’
WABC CBS NYC 22 Oct 1938 |
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Alexander’s Ragtime Band + Change Partners + I’ve Got a Pocketful of Dreams + Close
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Al Goodman Orchestra (voc) The Hit Paraders
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‘Your Hit Parade’
WABC CBS NYC 22 Oct 1938 |
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Set 2
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Stan Daugherty | |
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Blue Days (theme) + Just Anybody
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Stan Daugherty Orchestra
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KXOK St Louis
5 Feb 1942 |
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Half a Love
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Stan Daugherty Orchestra
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KXOK St Louis
5 Feb 1942 |
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A1 in the Army and A1 in my Heart + Few and Far Between
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Stan Daugherty Orchestra
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KXOK St Louis
5 Feb 1942 |
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A Heavenly Hideaway + Blue Days (theme)
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Stan Daugherty Orchestra
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KXOK St Louis
5 Feb 1942 |
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Set 3
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John Reed King Announcer | |
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Open + Baby Me
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Louis Prima Orchestra
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Hickory House NYC via WJSV Washington DC
22 Sep 1939 |
| I’ll Remember |
Louis Prima Orchestra (voc) Louis Prima
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Hickory House NYC via WJSV Washington DC
22 Sep 1939 |
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Doing the Serpentine
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Louis Prima Orchestra
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Hickory House NYC via WJSV Washington DC
22 Sep 1939 |
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Comes Love
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Louis Prima Orchestra
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Hickory House NYC via WJSV Washington DC
22 Sep 1939 |
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Set 4
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Woody Herman | |
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Blue Flame (theme) + Woodchoppers Ball
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Woody Herman’s Third Herd
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‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ Peony Park WOW NBC Omaha 1948 |
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Early Autumn
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Woody Herman’s Third Herd
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‘All-Star Parade of Bands’
Peony Park WOW NBC Omaha 1948 |
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Happiness is Just a Thing Called Joes
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Woody Herman’s Third Herd (voc) Leah Matthews
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‘All-Star Parade of Bands’
Peony Park WOW NBC Omaha 1948 |
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Dippermouth Blues
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Woody Herman’s Third Herd
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‘All-Star Parade of Bands’
Peony Park WOW NBC Omaha 1948 |
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Set 5
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Duke Ellington | |
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Diminuendo in Blue
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Duke Ellington Orchestra
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‘Date with the Duke’
Toledo OH Blue Network 9 Jun 1945 |
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Rocks in My Bed
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Duke Ellington Orchestra (voc) Bette Roche
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‘Date with the Duke’
Toledo OH Blue Network 9 Jun 1945 |
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Crescendo in Blue
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Duke Ellington Orchestra
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‘Date with the Duke’
Toledo OH Blue Network 9 Jun 1945 |
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Teardrops in the Rain
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Duke Ellington Orchestra
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‘Date with the Duke’
Toledo OH Blue Network 9 Jun 1945 |
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Set 6
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Gernam Swing | |
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Du bist so lieb zu mir
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Hans Rehmstedt und sein Orchester (voc) Horst Winter
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Comm Rec
Berlin Apr 1943 |
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Land ist’s hier
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Billy Bartholomew mit seinem Tanzorchester
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Comm Rec
Berlin 6 Jan 1939 |
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Truxa Fox
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Eugen Wolff und sein Orchester
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Comm Rec
Berlin Apr 1937 |
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Wenn es draussen dunkel ist
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Kurt Widmann und sein Orchester
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Comm Rec
Berlin Jul 1940 |
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Set 7
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Tommy Dorsey | |
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I’m Getting Sentimental Over You (theme) + The One I Love
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Tommy Dorsey Orchestra (voc) Frank Sinatra + The Pied Pipers
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Palladium Ballroom
KFI NBC LA 26 Nov 1940 |
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Our Love Affair
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Tommy Dorsey Orchestra (voc) Frank Sinatra |
Palladium Ballroom
KFI NBC LA 26 Nov 1940 |
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Make Me Know It
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Tommy Dorsey Orchestra
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Palladium Ballroom
KFI NBC LA 26 Nov 1940 |
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Shadows on the Sand
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Tommy Dorsey Orchestra (voc) Frank Sinatra
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Palladium Ballroom
KFI NBC LA 26 Nov 1940 |
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Set 8
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Stan Kenton | |
| Bags and Baggage |
Stan Kenton Orchestra
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‘Concert in Miniature’
Fort Sheriden IL NBC 2 Sep 1952 |
| All the Things You Are | Stan Kenton Orchestra |
‘Concert in Miniature’
Fort Sheriden IL NBC 2 Sep 1952 |
| Young Blood + Close |
Stan Kenton Orchestra
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‘Concert in Miniature’
Fort Sheriden IL NBC 2 Sep 1952 |
