The Eddy Duchin Show Radio Program

Background

Eddy Duchin was one of those candles that burn the very brightest but become extinguished far too soon. Only 41 years old at the time of his death, Duchin amassed an extraordinary body of musical and patriotic achievement during his professional careers. Yes, careers. Initially schooled in Pharmacology, Duchin soon determined that he had more to contribute via his music than as a pharmacist. Yet even after an extraordinarily successful career as a pianist and band leader, Duchin obtained a commission in the Navy to serve on Navy destroyers in the North Atlantic; between 1943 and 1945, one of the most dangerous theatres of the War in Europe.

Upon his return to civilian life, Duchin picked right up where he left off, while at the same time founding a school for teaching piano technique and authoring four books on the subject.

Dubbed 'The Magic Fingers of Radio' Duchin's gift for extemporizing melodies was remarkable for its day. His touch and attack was so quick and deft that at one time his hands were reported to have been insured for $150,000. Beginning as early as 1931, Duchin's piano work could be heard all over Radio for various bands throughout the 1930s. By the mid-1930s Duchin and his band were featured in Films of the era.

After Duchin's return to civilian life, the Navy still held a special place in his memory. A Lieutenant Commander upon his separation in 1945, Duchin made his services available over and over again for the Navy Department and its recruiting efforts.

Eddy Duchin's continues to help the Navy after World War II

The Eddy Duchin Show was one of several Navy Department and Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) contributions that Duchin made on behalf of armed forces recruiting. The Eddy Duchin Show was particularly attractive in several respects: his orchestra headlined the series, it featured the finest vocalists of the era, and it offered a tribute or salute to a different facet of Naval Operations during every program.

Polished, well-paced, and patriotic, all thirteen 15-minute programs were--and remain--a treat to the listener. Veteran announcer Ken Roberts introduced and closed every program. The opening introduced the featured vocalist for the evening, offered a tribute to a particular arm or installation of the Navy, then smoothly segued into Eddy's opening number. Eddy and Ken would then discuss a particular Naval career before launching into Duchin's second piece of the evening, often accompanied by regular vocalist, Tommy Mercer.

The second half of the program was devoted to the featured vocalist for the evening and ended with the real treat of most programs, a showcase of Eddy Duchin's artistry on the keys. Duchin's unmistakeable Boston accent was another of the series' charms. Not often heard in a conversational context, the byplay with Ken Roberts, albeit tightly scripted, remains a fascinating historical artifact in itself.

There are hundreds of examples of Eddy Duchin's piano magic in wax recordings of the era, but few of them showcase a full three hours of Duchin's artistry in one collection. Finely transcribed to digital audio, the thirteen program set of The Eddy Duchin Show remains one of those wonderful rare gems of vintage Radio.

Series Derivatives:

Notes on Provenances:

The most helpful provenances were the log of the radioGOLDINdex and newspaper listings.

What you see here, is what you get. Complete transparency. We have no 'credentials' whatsoever--in any way, shape, or form--in the 'otr community'--none. But here's how we did it--for better or worse. Here's how you can build on it yourselves--hopefully for the better. Here are the breadcrumbs--just follow the trail a bit further if you wish. No hobbled downloads. No misdirection. No posturing about our 'credentials.' No misrepresentations. No strings attached. We point you in the right direction and you're free to expand on it, extend it, use it however it best advances your efforts.

We ask one thing and one thing only--if you employ what we publish, attribute it, before we cite you on it.

We continue to provide honest research into these wonderful Golden Age Radio programs simply because we love to do it. If you feel that we've provided you with useful information or saved you some valuable time regarding this log--and you'd like to help us even further--you can help us keep going. Please consider a small donation here:

We don't pronounce our Golden Age Radio research as 'certified' anything. By the very definition, research is imperfect. We simply tell the truth. As is our continuing practice, we provide our fully provenanced research results--to the extent possible--right here on the page, for any of our peers to review--or refute--as the case may be. If you take issue with any of our findings, you're welcome to cite any better verifiable source(s) and we'll immediately review them and update our findings accordingly. As more verifiable provenances surface, we'll continue to update the following series log, as appropriate.

All rights reserved by their respective sources. Article and log copyright 2009 The Digital Deli Online--all rights reserved. Any failure to attribute the results of this copywritten work will be rigorously pursued.

[Date, title, and episode column annotations in red refer to either details we have yet to fully provenance or other unverifiable information as of this writing. Red highlights in the text of the 'Notes' columns refer to information upon which we relied in citing dates, date or time changes, or titles.]