1931 - " MARMOLA ENTERTAINERS " - RADIO TRANSCRIPTION

[desoto1961]

A hefty sister!! Ha!! Modern women!! Connie should punch Bob in the mouth!! Love this Jim!!

[jnorman111]

What these discs were never meant to do was survive

beyond their initial airings. After one or two airplays, they

were supposed to be returned to the ad agency of origin

and DESTROYED! This is why we have seldom - or in

my case, never - heard of these and similar shows before

now. The fact that any survive today is ascribable to a

sheer miracle of combined negligence and luck.

[jnorman111]

These Western Electric Columbia studio recordings

sound fabulous - as good as the already fine Columbia 78s

of the time, or even better. This is in high contrast to the

usual dismal fidelity of airchecks from the period. Their

quiet surfaces, strong modulation and enhanced high

frequencies were meant to optimize their sound on AM

radio, and cut through the static.

[jnorman111]

The "Marmola Entertainers" extols the infamous diet

pill, Marmola, which had the unfortunate side effect of

causing users to drop dead - a little detail glossed over on

these programs! The "entertainers," all anonymous,

include a snappy orchestra, a sappy baritone, and a

company of players who are either trying to lose weight,

or already have. It's an up-to-date 1931 medicine show -

later to be shut down by the F. C. C.!

[jnorman111]

These programs, thus go

back to the very birth of that new medium. They all date

from May or June of '31 to February of '32. They turned

out to be like no radio programs I'd ever heard. Being

sponsored, syndicated shows, they are essentially 12 to

14-minute "infomercials" for various products and

services. But not only that: Each is packed with terrific

music and entertainment, or in the case of the "Foodtown Pops Revue,"

a full-out symphony orchestra, chorus and soloists.

[jnorman111]

Researching, I learned that the practice of prerecording

radio shows for syndication got started in

Chicago in 1929. Marsh Labs and Brunswick Records

made the first such programs, on twelve-inch 78s lasting

five minutes per side, six sides to the half-hour. Amos 'n'

Andy was first distributed this way. By 1931, somebody

realized that the sixteen-inch 33-1/3 rpm Vitaphone

soundtrack disc, used for Warner Bros. talkies since 1926,

with its up to fifteen minute playing time, could

"air".

[fromthesidelines]

There were quite a number of syndicated "transcribed" radio shows available to local stations, from the late '20s through the '50s- and some of those discs WERE saved (despite instructions to either return them to the distributor, or destroy them after their initial use) and have survived to this day, including this obscure program...

[stratocat9999]

As pointed out by others, this is a very rare recording, as the first known syndicated show was Amos 'n' Andy. This may actually predate those earliest syndicated Gosden/Corell shows. That and the fact that the sponsor was was selling 'patent medicine'.  That's as bad as the Goat Gland transplants that were marketed out of Texas in the 30's. A lot of dead people trying to get the result we get now with Viagra. Great disc, Cheers!

[3zy]

Just as a point of reference, Marmola was a thyroid preparation marketed as a diet supplement by some fly-by-nighters, and like all thyroid preparations used without a doctor's supervision, it had the unfortunate side effect of making some users drop dead. Not on the market anymore, for hopefully obvious reasons.

[stratocat9999]

That is very unusual! A syndicated show!? 1931!! That is rare! Usually when you find a 16" shellac disc, it's usually a VitaPhone soundtrack disc for film.

There are very few surviving radio shows prior to 1934. The few syndicated programs on shellac were largely destroyed. Freeman Gosden and Charles Correl (Amos 'n' Andy) set up the very first syndicated program (pre Amos 'n' Andy, but post Sam 'n' Henry). This is very rare! I don't know anything about the show, but I am very intrigued!

[gilmour509]

very neat! i just uploaded a radio transcription today.

[SwingBandHeaven]

I think these transcriptions are great. A real window into the radio of the past. I have a collection of these types of disks myself - although only one as early as this. Most of mine are from the mid to late 1930's.