Chase And Sanborn Hour

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The Chase and Sanborn Hour was the umbrella title for a series of US comedy and variety shows, sponsored by Standard Brands' Chase and Sanborn Coffee, usually airing Sundays on NBC from 8pm to 9pm during the years 1929 to 1948.

The series began in 1929 as The Chase and Sanborn Choral Orchestra, a half-hour musical variety show heard Sundays at 8:30pm on NBC. When Maurice Chevalier became the show's star, he received a record-breaking salary of $5000 a week. Violinist David Rubinoff (September 13, 1897 – October 06, 1986), became a regular in January 1931, introduced as "Rubinoff and His Violin."

With Chevalier returning to Paris, Eddie Cantor was chosen as his replacement and the new 60-minute program, The Chase and Sanborn Hour, was launched September 13, 1931, teaming Cantor with Rubinoff and announcer Jimmy Wallington. The show established Cantor as a leading comedian, and his scriptwriter, David Freedman, as “the Captain of Comedy.” When Jimmy Durante stepped in as a substitute for Cantor, making his first appearance on September 10, 1933, he was so successful that he was offered his own show. Then the world's highest paid radio star, Cantor continued as The Chase and Sanborn Hour's headliner until November 25, 1934.

With a new format, The Opera Guild, hosted by Deems Taylor, began December 2, 1934, Sundays at 8pm, on The Chase and Sanborn Hour, and that concert series continued until March 17, 1935. Major Bowes' Amateur Hour had the slot from March 24, 1935 until September 11, 1936, followed by Do You Want to Be an Actor?, with Haven MacQuarrie, broadcast from January 3, 1937 until May 2, 1937, a series that continued Sundays at 10:30pm as a half-hour show from December 5, 1937 until February 20, 1938.

Chase and Sanborn found a gold mine with a wooden dummy when Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy began an 11-year run, starting May 9, 1937. The 1945 summer replacement series, with Spike Jones and Frances Langford as co-hosts, was titled The Chase and Sanborn Program.

Although the series ended December 26, 1948, it was followed by a compilation show on NBC, The Chase and Sanborn 100th Anniversary Show (November 15, 1964), assembled by writer Carroll Carroll and narrated by Bergen. This became an annual event with The Chase and Sanborn 101st Anniversary Show (November 14, 1965), a Fred Allen tribute, followed by The Chase and Sanborn 102nd Anniversary Show (November 13, 1966), which turned out to be the last of the series.

You Bet Your Life

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You Bet Your Life was an American radio and television quiz show. The primary version was hosted by Groucho Marx of the Marx Brothers, with announcer and assistant George Fenneman. The show debuted on ABC Radio in October 1947, then moved to CBS Radio in 1949 before making the transition to the NBC Radio and NBC-TV networks in October 1950. Because of its simple format, it was possible to broadcast the show simultaneously on the radio and on television. In 1960, it was renamed The Groucho Show and ran a further year.

The mid-1940s was a depressing lull in Groucho's career. His radio show Blue Ribbon Town, sponsored by Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, had failed to catch on. (The show ran from March 1943 to August 1944, but Groucho left in June 1944.) During this period, Groucho was scheduled to appear on a radio show with Bob Hope. Annoyed that he was made to wait in the waiting room for 40 minutes, Groucho went on the air in a foul mood. Hope started by saying, "Why, it's Groucho Marx, ladies and gentlemen. (applause) Groucho, what brings you here from the hot desert?" Groucho retorted, "Hot desert, my foot, I've been standing in the cold waiting room for 40 minutes." Groucho continued to ignore the script, and although Hope was a formidable ad-libber in his own right, he couldn't begin to keep up with Groucho, who lengthened the scene well beyond its allotted time slot with a veritable onslaught of improvised wisecracks.

Listening in on the show was producer John Guedel, who got an idea. He approached Groucho about doing a quiz show. Groucho retorted "A quiz show? Only actors who are completely washed up resort to a quiz show." Guedel explained that the quiz would be only a backdrop for Groucho's interviews of people, and the storm of ad-libbing that they would elicit. Groucho said, "Well, I've had no success in radio, and I can't hold on to a sponsor. At this point I'll try anything."

John Guedel developed the show and found sponsorship. At that time Groucho was not making movies, and had not been successful on the radio. He convinced the skeptical Groucho to take the lead, and invest in 50% of the show, in part by saying that he was "untouchable" at ad-libbing, but not at following a script. Since Groucho and the contestants were ad-libbing, Groucho insisted that each show be recorded and edited before release.

Some show tension revolved around whether a contestant would say the "secret word", some common word revealed to the audience at the show's outset. If a contestant said the word, a toy duck resembling Groucho with a mustache and eyeglasses, and with a cigar in its bill, descended from the ceiling to bring a $100 bill.

Here is a  hilarious clip with Groucho and Jack Benny. On Jack's TV show, Jack Benny plays a contestant on Groucho's "You Bet Your Life" Program. That's Irene Tedrow in between the two masters.

Seeing Ear Theater

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"Between 1997 and 2001, at the height of the dot-com bubble, the Sci-Fi channel decided to invest some money into producing a number of original audio stories under the banner of Seeing Ear Theater, essentially a “next generation” of radio plays for a modern audience. A talented team of script-writers, excellent actors and sound effects people crafted a series of remarkable episodes, breathing life into the stories of both classic writers, like Harlan Ellison and Frederic Brown, and modern writers, like Neil Gaiman and J. Michael Straczynski."



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Seeing Ear Theater.zip









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