HIGH ART AND PARODY

One of the more ambitious US radio shows of the 1930s was NBC Blue Network’s ‘The Magic Key of RCA’, ‘unlocking a world of entertainment’, as announcer Milton J Cross would intone. It was a show that featured opera, symphony, critique, comedy, swing and hillbilly and was ‘Hi-Brow’. Parodying that show from 1940 was NBC Blue’s ‘Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street’, ‘showcasing the 3 B’s – barrelhouse, boogie woogie and the blues’. It was ‘Lo-Brow’. For a short time in 1944, it too was narrated by Milton J Cross. We hear these shows side-by-side on this week’s Phantom Dancer with Greg Poppleton.

PHANTOM DANCER

The Phantom Dancer is your non-stop swing and jazz mix of live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week. I’ve been bringing you The Phantom Dancer on radio 2SER, and now online, since 1985.

Hear this week’s Phantom Dancer (after Nov 20) and past Phantom Dancers at 2ser.com.
Hear the show live every Tuesday 12:04-2pm on 107.3 2SER Sydney

MAGIC KEY

The Magic Key of RCA ran on NBC’s Blue Network from 29 September 29 1935 till 18 September 1939.

NBC used this quality program to demonstrate the cultural contribution radio could make. This is made clear in Milton Cross’s script on the Magic Key mix from 1937 and 1938 I’m presenting for you this week.

From 1938, they also used the show to promote RCA TV.

It is also made clear from the shows’s content I’m presenting to you this week – a recitation by one of the great Shakespearean actors, Eva Le Gallienne, an announcement for a Magic Key Eugene Goosens concert and two selections by RCA Victor recording artist, Fats Waller.

PRE-INTERNET CALLOUT

We’ll also hear a curious and successful proto-internet reach-out over radio for a rare magazine by literary critic, Alexander Woolcott.

We hear the story of this pre-Facebook call-out, it’s success and his thank you. Fascinating.

STARS

Performers who appeared on The Magic Key include Fats Waller, Benny Goodman, Ray Noble, Ruth Etting, Rudolf Ganz, Casper Reardon, Paul Robeson, Eddie Green, Jane Froman, Rudy Vallée, Irving Berlin, Darryl Zanuck, Tommy Dorsey, Artie Shaw, Sonja Henie, Tyrone Power, Paul Whiteman, Efrem Zimbalist, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Eleanor Roosevelt, Vienna Boys’ Choir, Gladys Swarthout, Guy Lombardo, Richard Himber, Eugene Ormandy, Lauritz Melchior, Fred MacMurray, Walt Disney and the Pickens Sisters.

CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY OF LOWER BASIN STREET

The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street was something of a parody on The Magic Key and started on the Blue Network in 1940. It ran until 1944 but was revived on NBC from 1950-52 including one half-hour TV show. A broadcast from 1952 is your Phantom Dancer video of the week.

Radio Life magazine described The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street as ‘one of radio’s strangest offsprings… a wacky, strictly hep tongue-in-cheek burlesque of opera and symphony.’

It made an unknown regular vocalist named Dinah Shore a national recording and radio star.

Two resident bands provided the jazz and swing music. They were,
– Henry Levine (a former member of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band) and His Dixieland Octet offered traditional ‘readings’ of jazz standards;
– Paul Laval and His Woodwind Ten played the same type of music on more symphonic instruments, showing that such instruments as oboe, bassoon and celeste were equally capable of producing hot jazz. In 1943, Laval changed his surname to ‘Lavalle’ to avoid association with French fascist leader, Pierre Laval.

Each week the show would feature a notable guest from the jazz world. There were appearances by W.C. Handy, Eddie Condon, Lionel Hampton, Jelly Roll Morton, Sidney Bechet, Bobby Hackett, Count Basie, Benny Carter and this week, Stuff Smith.

VIDEO

This week’s Phantom Dancer video of the week a transcripton of the 19 April 1952 show with host Orson Bean.

4 DECEMBER PLAY LIST