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The Magic Key of RCA Radio Program

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RCA's 'Magic Brain' graphic

RCA LISTEN Newsletter LIFE insert of August 1937

RCA Building at Rockefeller Center

Dr. Frank Black, NBC Music Director at the podium of the NBC Symphony Orchestra

Dr. Walter Damrosch at the NBC Mike for The Magic Key. Dr. Damrosch also hosted and directed NBC's long-running Music Appreciation Hour over NBC during the school year.

Dr. Frank Black (right) discusses arrangements with Irving Berlin (1936)

World renowned Opera contralto Mme. Ernestine Schumann-Heink performed one of her last appearances over Radio during The Magic Key of RCA of November 3rd 1935. Mme. Schumann-Heink died from leukemia a year later.

Lovely soprano Helen Jepson takes her turn at the NBC mike during a performance of The Magic Key of RCA.

Milton J. Cross was the senior statesman of NBC's announcing staff. Cross hosted and announced almost half of The Magic Key of RCA's productions. Milton Cross also hosted The Metropolitan Opera from 1931 to 1974.

Linton Wells, The Magic Key of RCA's Roving Reporter

Linton Wells (left) shows Frank Mason (right), NBC V.P. for International Broadcasting where Wells' 4-month tour of Latin America took him for The Magic Key of RCA

John B. Kennedy provided a series of remote interviews from all over the word during broadcasts of The Magic Key of RCA

NBC and RCA 'mixers' monitor a soloist's sound levels from the NBC control booth during a performance of The Magic Key of RCA.

RCA Communications technicians monitor and route international transmissions during a 1937 broadcast of The Magic Key of RCA.

Radiotron was the Radio Tube arm of R.C.A.

A Broadcast Station Directory accompanied every matched set of RCA Radiotrons

RCA Laboratories were responsible for the research that propelled RCA into technological preeminence throughout the era.

NBC's involvement in Education over Radio established a legacy spanning almost 20 years between 1935 and 1955

RCA Victor celebrated it's 40th Anniversary in 1938. RCA Victor employee C. L. Aronson had been with Victor since its founding--and eight years before Nipper became RCA Victor's mascot.

For his part Nipper, RCA Victor's mascot since 1906, celebrated his 30th Anniversary with RCA Victor during The Magic Key of RCA's 1936 productions.

Students at the RCA Institute (RCAI) in New York get hands on training throughout their education. The RCAI also maintained a campus in Chicago.

Caption Reads -- The Magic Key program made musical history the other Sunday by presenting, for the first time on the air, the entire gifted Flagstad family of Norway. They are: Kirsten, right, of the 'Met,' Karen, her sister, and their mother.

The Singing Pianist, Ramona

Background

Throughout most of the Golden Age of Radio era, the major networks occasionally produced a major flagship sustaining program of one type or another. The practice served several ends:

It gave the respective network a high production value feature to tout its respective technical and artistic capabilities.
It gave the network a platform upon which to significantly promote other featured programming in its line-up.
It gave the network an opportunity to introduce its newest talents of the era.
It demonstrated the networks' capabilities to potential future sponsors and their ad agencies.
It served as a major buoy to network affiliate stations to reinforce their confidence that they were part of a truly well-financed, high-quality network; and perhaps coax other potential affiliates into the fold in the process.

These productions tended to be all hands on deck, no expense spared showcases of the very best that the respective network represented at the time. CBS' Columbia Workshop debuted in 1936 with its initial cycle of cutting-edge 'experimental Radio' productions. NBC for its part premiered its The Magic Key of RCA in 1935. NBC's The Magic Key was part of a concerted, three year Radio Corporation of America (RCA) campaign promoting its line of 'smart' electronics and technologies of the era. RCA characterized the various technological advances in its new recorders and players as 'Magic' components, such as:

Magic Eye [for precision receiver tuning]
Magic Brain [for precise noise and static filtering]
Magic Voice [for clearer sound reproduction]
Metal Tubes [for longer lasting performance and noise shielding]
Magic Tone Cell with its Jewel-Lite Scanner [balanced tone head and diamond-tipped styli for less damage to record grooves]
Flexible Tone Bridge [for more precise tracking in record grooves]

RCA's 'Magic' promotion continued to roll out new 'Magic' technologies between 1935 and 1939. Between 1937 and 1939 RCA began including a monthly four to eight page newletter insert in LIFE Magazine titled LISTEN. The multi-page monthly inserts comprised at least seventeen issues during the multi-year campaign.

RCA had recently completed the construction of its remarkable Radio City Complex at Rockefeller Center in 1932. Radio City Music Hall was opened to the public on December 27, 1932 with an extraordinary stage show featuring Ray Bolger and Martha Graham. The opening was meant to be a return to "high-class variety entertainment". 'Variety' was apparently not the best use of the stunning new venue. The premiere program was very long and individual variety acts were lost in the cavernous hall. Acting quickly, on January 11, 1933, the Radio City Music Hall converted to the then familiar format of a feature film with a spectacular stage show which 'Roxy' Rothafel had perfected at the Roxy Theatre. The first film was shown on the giant screen was Frank Capra's The Bitter Tea of General Yen starring Barbara Stanwyck. This was the formula they needed, and Radio City's Music Hall soon became the premiere showcase for films from the RKO-Radio Studio.

If you get the impression that RCA and NBC had much to tout throughout the early to mid-1930s, you're getting past the tip of the iceberg. The period between 1932 and 1939 was both RCA and NBC's single most explosive period of network growth and technological success. 1936 especially, was NBC's Tenth Anniversary in Broadcasting.

RCA and NBC debut The Magic Key of RCA

The Magic Key of RCA premiered on September 29th, 1935, as the crown jewel in NBC's Fall 1935 Season. The series debuted with an introduction to The Magic Key of RCA, highlighted by:

A Short-wave address by David Sarnoff, President of the Radio Corporation of America--from the steamship Majestic, 975 miles out at sea in the Atlantic Ocean.
Walt Disney from Hollywood
Maria Jeritza and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra--from Vienna
Amos 'n' Andy from New York
A Six-second Trip Around the World by Radio

This pattern was extended throughout the run of The Magic Key, incorporating remotes and short-wave international broadcasts employing NBC's worldwide resources. NBC's Music Director, Dr. Frank Black, directed the NBC Symphony Orchestra in two or three stirring symphonic pieces during each hour-long production.

From the October 11th 1936 edition of the Oakland Tribune:

Magic Key Will Celebrate First
Birthday With Gala Broadcast

Greetings and music from 12 foreign nations will be broadcast today when the Magic Key celebrates its first aninversary on the networks of the National Broadcasting Company. The program will be heard from 11 a.m. to 12 noon, over KGO.

John McCormack, famous American tenor, will be heard during the portion of the program to be broadcast form NBC's Radio City studios. Frank Black, conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra, and Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra will supply music of contrasting types.

Dublin, London, Paris and Rome will be among the first to send birthday greetings. The soprano voice of Erna Sack will be brought from Berlin. Then more greetings from Geneva, Hollywood, Montreal, Honolulu, Tokyo, Shanghai and Bolivia will be heard.

Eduardo Donato and his orchestra, playing at Buenos Aires, and a broadcast from an airplane over Chicago, will complete this part of the program.

The Magic Key programs were inaugurated a year ago by David Sarnoff speaking from aboard the S.S. Majestic at sea.

As a technical demonstration if nothing else, The Magic Key of RCA was about as cutting-edge as RCA's broadcast technology of the era could provide. NBC had a long-standing proscription against employing pre-recorded recordings in live productions. That proscription exended well into the 1950s. This simply underscores the fact that all of the various remote and short-wave portions of The Magic Key were as live or real time as the RCA technology of the era could permit. And indeed by 1936, NBC's network successfully handled 698 international pickups from 51 countries. NBC had also inaugurated regular Radio programming exchanges between the U.S. and Latin America by 1936.

September 1937 LISTEN magazine illustration depicts how NBC transmitted live broadcasts of the Salzburg Festival from Salzburg to Geneva through the ionosphere to RCA's Riverhead, Long Island receiving antennae.

The program's name, 'The Magic Key of RCA' referred to RCA's record of Radio and Television technologies that RCA termed "The Magic Keys to the Future." The 'Magic Key' term also fell in nicely with RCA's five-year promotion of its 'Magic' electronic components of the era.

From the April 3rd, 1938 edition of the Oakland Tribune:

Space Is No Object in Case of Radio
Program That Has Its Points
of Pickup Scattered Over Surface
of Earth Wherever Celebrated
Participants Happen to Be Located
At Time of Sunday Broadcast

KEY TO A THOUSAND CITIES

By JACK BURROUGHS

_IT STARTED on board the Majestic while that liner was at sea.
     The men who launched the great liner had no idea that they would have an indirect hand later on in the launching of one of radio's major broadcasts, but on one of the vessel's trans-atlantic voyages that was exactly what did happen.
     This is how It came about:
     On Sunday, September 20, 1035, David Sarnoff, a passenger aboard the Majestic opened a new series of radio broadcasts called "The Magic Key."
     This coast-to-coast NBC-KGO program inaugurated back in 1935 with a land and sea broadcast has had the airlanes steadily.
     The inaugural program brought an imposing list of celebrities to the dialers.
     The group included Marie Jeritza and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, heard from Vienna; Walt Disney, from Hollywood; Amos 'n' Andy, from Chicago; Paul Whiteman and his orchestra; Conductors Walter Damrosch and Frank Black with the NBC Orchestra and John B. Kennedy, NBC commentator, speaking from New York.
     During its tenure of the air lanes, the Magic Key program has continued to present, week after week, the most celebrated opera, symphony, and concert artists, and the outstanding entertainers of radio, stage and screen.
     The program has been the Open Sesame to a world of entertainment, the veritable key to a thousand cities.
     It is international in its scope, with portions of each 60-minute program cut in from various pickup points throughout the world.
     On one occasion were pickups from a dozen widely separated points on the Earth's surface. These broadcasts originated at the following spots: New York, Hollywood, Honolulu, Buenos Aires, Tokio. Manila, Bangkok, Madrid, Paris, Berlin, Stockholm and Basle.

MONOPOLY can never be linked with the name of the Magic Key program. Sameness cannot be laid at the door of a series that includes operatic and concert stars like Giovannia Martinelli, Helen Jepson, Rosa Ponselle, Tito Schipa, Rose Bampton, John McCormack, Marjorie Lawrence, Helen Traubel and Gladys Swarthout, conductors and instrumental artists like Mischa Mischakoff, Efrem Zimbalist, Leopold Stokowski, Jose Iturbi, Eugene Ormandy and Charles O'Connell, and such varied attractions as the Scale Street Ramblers, noted swingsters, pickups from the Winter quarters of the Barnum and Bailey Circus, scenes from Broadway stage productions and spot news broadcasts from various parts of the world.
     Distance seems no bar to these presentations. In his endeavor to put topflight talent on the air the Magic Key has not merely brought the artists to the microphone but has taken the microphone to the artists no matter in what part of the world they happened to be at the time.
     Remote control broadcasts have been offered the listeners from points that are in many cases far removed from broadcasting facilities. In ordinary radio parlance "remote control" may refer to a point of origin only a few blocks away from the broadcasting station. But a remote control pickup on a Magic Key program may mean anything from La Scala to a London Music Hall, from the Hospice of St. Bernard in the Swiss Alps to an expedition in a South American jungle. In these remote control broadcasts the radio engineers play a highly important role.
     In addition to the celebrated guests heard on this series there are several famous "regulars" who are heard on these broadcasts each week.
     This list of regular participants includes: Frank Black, NBC general music director; Milton J. Cross and Ben Grauer, and Linton Wells, roving correspondent whose assignments carry him far and wide.
     Black conducts the Magic Key Orchestra of 65 pieces in classical selections on these broadcasts, except when his orchestra is replaced by some outstanding musical group like the Boston Symphony Orchestra or the Philadelphia Orchestra.

FRANK JEREMIAH BLACK, conductor of the Magic Key Orchestra whose many compositions include the famous fragment that introduces the weekly Magic program and serves also as a signoff melody, is a native of Philadelphia.
     He cannot tell you when he first felt a desire to play the piano, but he rather suspects that he was born with the inclination to climb up on a piano bench and run his fingers over the keyboard. Although the hours he has spent at the keyboard, if laid end on end, would fill several calendars, Black's activities are by no means restricted to the field of music. His outside interests range from baseball to color photography. He has somehow found time to establish an enviable reputation as a writer, one of his tours de force along this line being a series of articles along musical lines for one of the outstanding National magazines.
     Black's prodigious labors in the musical field, are made possible through adherence to a strict routine. For years he has subjected himself to severe discipline in this respect.
     Regardless of what hour he retired the night before, he always gets up at 6 o'clock in the morning. By 7 a. m., he is in his office at Radio City. This gives him from two and a half to three hours time to work on arrangements, as his regular duties do not begin until 9:30 or 10 a. m.
     From 10 a. m., through the remainder of the day he is kept busy furnishing the answers to countless questions and ironing out the numberless problems that fall to a musical director's lot.
     One of the words that he took out of his working vocabulary a long time ago is that notorious thief of time, procrastination." He keeps his business correspondence not only up to date but practically up to the minute. No unanswered letters ever find a resting place on top of his desk. He attends to all his manifold duties with neatness and dispatch.
     Like many another successful musician, Black started out to be something else. The study of chemistry kept him busy when he attended college at Haverford and afterward when he went to the University of Pennsylvania.

ONE of our Radio City correspondents who specializes in nosing out interesting facts concerning radio celebrities, provided us with the following slant on Black's career and character:
     "When Frank Black went to Harrisburg, Pa., to get a job as chemist after he left college, he took time to play for a hotel man there.
     "He got a job playing in the hotel and he's been in music ever since. He took time to write songs for a lot of vaudeville acts in Philadelphia and he took time to make thousands of piano rolls for player pianos there in his own factory as a youth. He took time lo lead the pit orchestras for a number of famous musical comedies of an earlier day and he arranged the tunes of these shows by men like George Gershwin. He took time to become musical director for a phonograph company where he directed for such singers as John Charles Thomas. And he took time to make the first arrangements of classical numbers you heard in the movie theaters, such numbers as 'Carmen Capers,' 'Wagneria,' 'Lilting Lucia,' and others.
     "He works easily . . . Nobody has ever seen Frank Black the least bit ruffled. He has piled up a tidy fortune and could retire tomorrow if he wanted to. But he won't. He likes to work too well."

IN POINT of service the veteran announcer Milton J. Cross is the oldest announcer with the National Broadcasting Company. In 1929 he won the American Academy of Arts and Letters medal for good radio diction.
     He made his radio debut back in 1922 through WJZ. He has a good tenor voice and in the early part of his radio career he alternated announcing with singing. Cross received his musical training at the Damrosch School of Musical Art in New York. He is a native of New York.
     Helen Jepson, one of the many opera stars who have been heard on Magic Key programs, is a native of Titusville, Pa. She spent her early years in Akron, Ohio. There, at the age of 15, when she was a high school student, she made her stage debut in the role of "Nedda" in "Pagliacci." Later she sang in the "Bohemian Girl" and "Pinafore."
     She won five scholarships with the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. She made her Grand Opera debut in 1928 with the Philadelphia Civic Opera. The following year she appeared with the Philadelphia Grand Opera as "Nedda" in "Pagliacci" with John Charles Thomas. In 1933 she took part in the Athens, Ga., Symmer Opera and in the same year with the Montreal Opera singing the title roles in "Louise" and "Thais." She was heard for some time as special soloist; on a Paul Whiteman program.

NOLA DAY, NBC contralto, who has appeared as a Magic Key guest, is a native of Iceland but was brought to the United States when she was a baby. She grew up in Tacoma. When she was still in her teens she joined a touring organization that gave entertainments in the logging camps in the Northwest. At the end of a two-years' tour Nola went to Portland, Oregon, and after a year's vocal training she was selected as a soloist with the Portland Symphony Orchestra. Later she went to Seattle where she sang in "The Vagabond King," and later proved her vocal versatility by singing with a dance orchestra. When KOMO, Seattle, put on its first transcontinental over NBC, Nola took part. This was her radio debut. She later became a member of the NSC staff in San Francisco. At present she is with NBC in New York.
     Gladys Swarthout who has been featured as a guest on the Magic Key program, is a native of Deepwater, Missouri. After graduating from the Central High School in Kansas City, Mo., she entered the Bush Conservatory of Music in Chicago where she remained for three years.
     Miss Swarthout began her career as a church singer, after which she went into concert work. She was a member of the Chicago Civic Opera Company in 1924 and 1925. She has been with the Ravinia Company of Chicago in 1927 and 1929 and later joined the Metropolitan Opera Company.

The superlatives employed by the author of the above piece were entirely appropriate. The Magic Key of RCA was without question NBC's most ambitious, sustained programming effort of its--then--nine year history. From the very outset of the series, week after week demonstrated NBC's remarkably expanding network and its technological capabilities. And of course it also quite deliberately demonstrated Radio Corporation of America's (RCA) remarkable technical achievements over its--then--sixteen year history.

RCA illustrated how NBC airs 35 hours of compelling Radio every day from the September 1937 edition of LISTEN magazine.

Given the fact that CBS and NBC were the two major networks of the era, comparisons between CBS' Columbia Workshop and NBC's The Magic Key of RCA are probably inevitable:

Both could rightfully be referred to as experimental Radio.
Both series' showcased their latest respective technological developments.
Both expanded the sound shaping envelope in evolving Radio.
Both showcased the greatest international talent of the era.

Contrasts between the two flagship productions are also appropriate:

The Magic Key of RCA aired first (1935-1939).
Columbia Workshop ran over twice as long in various forms (1936-1947).
The Magic Key of RCA concentrated more on showcasing its extensive, worldwide sound transmission, broadcasting hardware, and networking technologies.
Columbia Workshop concentrated more on showcasing its more innovative sound capture, shaping, and transmission engineering technologies.
The Magic Key of RCA devoted a great deal more of its air time to music performances.
Columbia Workshop devoted a great deal more of its time to innovative literary works, avant garde music works, tone poems, sound demonstrations, and radioplays.
The Magic Key of RCA, though sustaining over its 'Blue' Network, remained far more commercialized throughout its run.
Columbia Workshop only occasionally touted CBS' various commercial enterprises.
The Magic Key of RCA introduced most of the era's most innovative and distinguished musical performers to Radio.
Columbia Workshop introduced most of the era's most innovative and accomplished writers to Radio.

While the above comparisons are by no means exhaustive, they accurately portray the contrasts that made both productions unquestionably historic Radio for their era.

There were also several definable sub-elements throughout the evolving format of The Magic Key of RCA:

Regular messages showcasing RCA's various technological advances throughout its seven sponsoring enterprises -- The Radio Corporation of America, RCA Communications, RCA Victor, RCA Radiotron, RCA Radiomarine, RCA Institutes, and the National Broadcasting Company
John B. Kennedy's various live remote broadcasts throughout the world.
Floyd Gibbons' live commentaries throughout the world.
Regularly featured scenes from the most popular Stage productions of the era.
Linton Wells' remotes from Central and South America
Regular live hookups from every geographic area of the world that NBC's network could reach.
Dr. Frank Black's opening and closing orchestral and choral performances.

And indeed, as with Columbia Workshop, the extraordinary technical direction, timing, and network routing behind the mike were the greatest technical achievements over Radio of the era. Both flagship network productions were all hands on deck undertakings employing both networks' greatest engineering and production talent.

Norman Corwin rehearses with Peggy Burt for one of Corwin's burlesques--'Mary Had A Little Lamb'

During the course of The Magic Key of RCA's run the production aired transmissions from planes, trains, and ships at sea. The series transmitted live from points across the length and breadth of the United States as well as internationally:

Argentina
Batavia
Brazil
Canada
Chile
Cuba
England
Finland
France
Germany
Greenland
Guatemala
Hawaii
Iceland
Ireland
Italy
Japan
Norway
Peru
Russia
Shanghai, China
Spain
Switzerland
Thailand
The Philippines
Uruguay

It goes without saying that RCA and NBC were unquestionably flexing their technological muscles with The Magic Key of RCA. The Columbia Chain's Chairman, William S. Paley, had been making aggressive inroads into Broadcast Radio since 1928. By 1935 NBC and the Columbia Broadcasting System had become head-to-head competitors in virtually every area of the communications field.

LISTEN Supplement to LIFE magazine

Throughout 1937 to 1939 RCA had taken out four to eight page advertising supplements in LIFE magazine--a mini-publication that RCA titled LISTEN Magazine. RCA also launched an accompanying five-minute LISTEN Magazine of the Air promotional series over Radio. The promotional campaign served as an adjunct to The Magic Key of RCA and celebrations marking NBC's Tenth Anniversary and culminating in RCA's Twentieth Anniversary by the end of the series.

Use the player above to hear the September 20th 1937 promotion
of LISTEN magazine

If you're getting the impression that The Magic Key of RCA was Radio's most ambitious and impressive regular production in the history of Radio by 1935 you're beginning to grasp the significance of this remarkable series. There would be numerous, memorable and distinguished NBC productions to follow, to be sure:

1923-1926 NBC University of The Air Talks
1925-35 NBC University of The Air
1928 Music Lectures
1928-1954 The Voice of Firestone
1929-1942 Music Appreciation Hour
1931-1940 The Metropolitan Opera
1935 Music at The Hayden's [Planetarium]
1936-1938 Children's Hour
1937-1954 NBC Symphony Orchestra
1937-1949 The Passing Parade
1937 Streamlined Shakespeare
1938 Great Plays
1940-1942 Behind the Mike
1942-1946 The Lands of The Free
1942 Music of The New World
1943-1947 The Pacific Story
1944-45 The American Story
1944 Pursuit of Learning
1944-48 The Worlds Great Novels
1944-45 We Came This Way
1945 Our Foreign Policy
1945 The Story of Music
1945 Pioneers of Music
1944-1950 Orchestras of the Nation
1946 NBC Radio Institute
1946 Featuring Our Families
1946 Tales of The Foreign Service
1946 Your United Nations
1946 Home Around The World
1947 American Novels
1946 Concert of Nations
1948 Radio City Playhouse
1948-1951 NBC University Theater
1951 New Theater
1952 Best Plays
1954-1955 Anthology
1954-1964 Biography In Sound
1955-1975 NBC Monitor

But it was The Magic Key of RCA that remains NBC's most comprehensive and ambitious undertaking during the Golden Age of Radio.

RCA and NBC combined to produce this 1948 promotional short 'Behind Your Radio Dial' narrated by Ben Grauer, the announcer for The Magic Key of RCA

By any concievable metric of the era, The Magic Key of RCA forever expanded the envelope of early Radio. And if indeed it was concieved to not only tout RCA and NBC's extraordinary technological achievements and production capabilites but at the same time effectively diminish all other competing networks of the era by comparison, RCA certainly accomplished everything it set out to do.

Series Derivatives:

LISTEN Magazine of the Air; The Magic Key; Symphony Orchestra; The RCA Magic Key

Genre:

Anthology of Golden Age Radio Variety

Network(s):

NBC-Blue

Audition Date(s) and Title(s):

Unknown

Premiere Date(s) and Title(s):

35-09-29 01 Welcome to the Magic Key of RCA

Run Dates(s)/ Time(s):

35-09-29 to 39-09-18; NBC-Blue; Two hundred and six, 60-minute programs; Sunday afternoons; Monday evenings as of June 26, 1939

Syndication:

NBC

Sponsors:

The Radio Corporation of America; RCA Comunications; RCA Victor; RCA Radiotron; Radiomarine; RCA Institutes; The National Broadcasting Company

Director(s):

Principal Performers:

Amos 'n' Andy [Correll and Gosden], Walt Disney, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Maria Jeritza, Paul Whiteman, Dr. Walter Damrosch, David Sarnoff, Giovannia Martinelli, Helen Jepson, Rosa Ponselle, Tito Schipa, Rose Bampton, John McCormack, Marjorie Lawrence, Helen Traubel, Gladys Swarthout, Mischa Mischakoff, Efrem Zimbalist, Leopold Stokowski, Jose Iturbi, Eugene Ormandy, Charles O'Connell, Scale Street Ramblers, The Revelers, John Goss and his London Singers,

Recurring Character(s):

None

Protagonist(s):

None

Author(s):

None

Writer(s)

Music Direction:

Dr. Frank Black;

Musical Theme(s):

"You Are Music," by Dr.Frank Black [published 1938]; Lyrics by Bernard Maltin and Albert Stillman

Announcer(s):

Milton J. Cross [Master of Ceremonies, Host]; Ben Grauer, John Wald
John B. Kennedy [Remote interviews]

Estimated Scripts or
Broadcasts:

206

Episodes in Circulation:

Total Episodes in Collection:

Provenances:

RadioGOLDINdex, Hickerson Guide.

Notes on Provenances:

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

Digital Deli Too RadioLogIc

OTRisms:

The Hickerson Guide perpetuates several inaccuracies in its The Magic Key entry:

While there may have been one--and only one--episode of The Magic Key that aired as a 30-minute broadcast, the remainder of the entire run of The Magic Key of RCA were 60-minute broadcasts.
The Magic Key did not begin airing as a 30-minute broadcast from August 14th, 1939 forward.
There were never 208 broadcasts of The Magic Key of RCA. There were at most 206 broadcasts of The Magic Key of RCA. There were at least two 'hard,' pre-announced preemptions during the series.
Milton Cross, while the host of most of the circulating The Magic Key broadcasts, was not the regular host or announcer throughout the canon.

The worst of the travesty that's been visited upon the majority of the circulating exemplars of The Magic Key of RCA is the butchery that's been performed on them:

Virtually all of the circulating recordings showing an encode rate of 32 kpbs or less are actually fake stereoized. That is, they were encoded as stereo from two identical 16 bit/16khz monaural recording tracks. There was almost no fidelity left in the recordings to work with.
They were 'pegged out' resulting in clipping off as much as 50% of the original fidelity of the source recording.
Half were arbitrarily upencoded to 128 bit encodes, simply amplifying the poor fidelity.
The majority of the butchered, stereoized circulating recordings were also slowed down due apparently to tape stretch. We speed corrected them.
All of the archive.org recordings show these regrettable characteristics

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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.

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[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.]


The Magic Key of RCA Program Log
Date	Episode	Title	Avail.	Notes
35-09-29	1	Welcome to The Magic Key of RCA	Y	[Premiere] 35-09-29 New York Times 2:00-3:00-Premiere: Symphony Orchestras; Amos 'n' Andy; Walt Disney. Cartoonist: Vienna Symphony Orchestra; Maria Jeritza, Soprano, and Others-WJZ. 35-09-29 Wisconsin State Journal A new series starting on NBC at 1 today will bring Maria Jeritza's voice from Vienna, as well as Amos 'n' Andy, Walt Disney, Paul Whiteman, and others. 1 p.m.--The Magic Key: with Maria Jeritza, Paul Whiteman, Amos 'n' Andy, Walter Danrosch, NBC and Vienna Symphony orchestras, at Chicago, Hollywood, Honolulu, Manilla, Geneva, Vienna, New York, (WIBA, WENR). Close announces that The Magic Key of RCA has given up its time the following week for the World Series
35-10-06	-	Preempted	--	[Preempted for World Series Game over all major networks] 35-10-06 New York Times 2:15-5:00--World Series: Detroit vs. Chicago, at Chicago--WABC, WEAF, WJZ, WOR, WINS
35-10-13	2	The 16th Anniversary of RCA ~~Mutiny On the Bounty~~	Y	[Opening clipped] 35-10-13 New York Times 2:00-3:00-Sympbony Orchestra; Albert Spalding, Violin; From Berlin, Duzolina Giannini, Soprano ; From Addis Ababa, "The War," E. W. Beattie, U. P. Correspondent, and Others-WJZ. 35-10-13 Wisconsin State Journal Ethopia will be in the radio spotlight today, with Edward Beattie, United Press correspondent whose dispatches you read in The State Jouranl, speaking to America from Addis Ababa. Beattie will give the latest war news and summarize the situation during the Magic Key broadcast on WIBA-WENR at 1 p.m. He was the first American newspaperman to reach Emperor Haile Selassie's capital after comflict became imminent. Other features on the program will include songs by Dusolina Giannini from Berlin, music by the Berlin Radio Orchestra, violin solos by Albert Spalding, a skit by James Gleason and Helen Broderick, music by Rudy Vallee's and a symphony orchestra directed by Frank Black, and a news review by John B. Kennedy. Announces the episode as "the second of its weekly broadcasts". Also announces the Male Chorus of 200 voices from Stockholm, Sweden; Harold Bauer, Walter Huston, and Nan Sunderland for the next week.
35-10-20	3	The U. of Stockholm Male Chorus	Y	[Opening clipped] 35-10-20 New York Times 2:00-3:00-Symphony Orchestra; Harold Bauer. Piano; Walter Huston, Actor, and Others ; From Stockholm, Swedish Male Chorus-WJZ. 35-10-20 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key: Walter Huston, Harold Bauer, University of Stockholm male chorus, John B. Kennedy, Richard Himber's orchestra, NBC symphony, Nan Sutherland (WIBA, WENR).
35-10-27	4	A Salute to 1935's Navy Day	Y	35-10-27 New York Times 2:00-3:00-Navy Day Celebration: Speakers, H. L. Roosevelt, Assistant Secretary of the Nary: Rear Admiral J. K. Taussig; Jessica Dragonette, Soprano; Beatrice Lillie, Comedienne, and Others-WJZ. 35-10-27 Journal Times Bulletin The magical case with which the U.S. navy department in Washington communicates with ships and naval stations throughout the world, will be demonstrated on the Magic Key program dedicated to Navy Day this afternoon at 1:00 o'clock over WENR. Jessica Dragonette and Beatrice Lillie, broadcasting from New York and Jan Garber's orchestra playing from Chicago, will be guests. After an introduction in Washington by John B. Kennedy, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Henry L. Roosevelt will extend an invitation to the public to visit navy yards and warships. He will introduce Rear Admiral Joseph K. Taussig who will make a brief talk, then engage in a two-way exchange of greetings with the U.S. naval outposts at Samoa, Guam, Honolulu, Dutch Harbor, Alaska, and Panama.
35-11-03	5	The Holland Symphony from Amsterdam	Y	35-11-03 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--The Magic Key: Joseph Schmidt, tenor; Josef Levinne, pianist; Mme. Ernestine Schumann-Heink, Eleanor Powell, Roland Young, Tom Dorsey's orchestra (WIBA, WENR).
35-11-10	6	A Scene from Mutiny on The Bounty	Y	[No open or close; partial recording] 35-11-10 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key: with Efrem Zimbalist, Susanne Fisher, Franchot Tone, NBC Symphony, John B. Kennedy (WIBA, WENR).
35-11-17	7	Opens with The Dance of the Russian Sailors	Y	35-11-17 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key: Albert Spalding, Leopold Stokowski, Lauritz Melchoir, Carlos Salzedo, Conrad Thibault (WIBA, WENR).
35-11-24	8	Music of Hawaii and Germany	N	35-11-24 Wisconsin State Journal Music of Hawaii, played by the famous Royal Hawaiian band in Honolulu, and music of Germany, sung by Ernst Groh, tenor, in Europe will br brought to WIBA listeners by the Magic Key at 1 p.m. today. Lottie Lehmann, soprano; Helen Chandler, actress; Xavier Cugat and his orchestra; Frank Black and the NBC Symphony orchestra, and Milton J. Cross as master of ceremonies will be heard also.
35-12-01	9	Excerpts from Porgy and Bess	Y	35-12-01 Wisconsin State Journal Tod Duncan and Anne Brown, who play the leading roles in George Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess," will present a scene from that production called the first real American folk opera staged in New York, on the Magic Key program over WIBA today at 1. Eddie Duchin and his orchestra also will appear, with Frank Black and the NBC Symphony orchestra.
35-12-08	10	Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra	Y	[Poor fidelity; Speed adjusted] 35-12-08 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key: Philadelphia orchestra plays "The Swan of Tuoneta," prelude to the third act of "Lohengrin," Bizet's "Spanish Dance," Debussy's "Les Fetes," scherzo from MacDonald's "Rhumba" symphony, vorspiel and liebesnacht from "Tristan and Isolde" (WIBA, WENR). Announces Rose Bampton, Don Cossac, Minnievitch's Harmonica Rascals, and Ray Noble as the next program.
35-12-15	11	A Scene from At Home Abroad	Y	[No open or close; partial recording] 35-12-15 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key: Reginald Gardiner, English comedian; Minnievitch's Harmonica Rascals, Rose Bampton, Don Cossac's choir, Ray Noble orchestra, NBC Symphony (WIBA, WENR).
35-12-22	12	Excerpts from Boy Meets Girl	Y	[Christmas program; No open or close; partial recording (15 min)] 35-12-22 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key: with John McCormack, Tom Dorsey's orchestra, stars of "Boy Meets Girl," Walt Disney and his barnyard menagerie, NBC Symphony (WIBA, WENR).
35-12-25	Spcl.	Christmas Day Concert	Y	35-12-24 Wisconsin State Journal WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON 1 p.m.--Magic Key: Lucrezia Bori, Cleveland Symphony, NBC Symphony (WIBA, WLS).
35-12-29	13	A Scene from Dear Old Darling	Y	35-12-29 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key: Preview of George M. Cohan's "Dear Old Darling"; Andres Segovia, Helen Jepson, James Melton, Benny Goodman orchestra, NBC Symphony (WIBA, WENR).
36-01-05	14	Title Unknown	N	36-01-05 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key: with Kirsten Flagstad, Guy Lombardo orchestra, NBC Symphony (WIBA, WENR).
36-01-12	15	The Largest Mouthpiece in the World	Y	[Tape stretch; Speed problems (Corrected to 59:28)] 36-01-12 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key: Kazanova and her Tsiganes, Adele Astaire, Stoopnagle and Budd, Percy Grainger, NBC Symphony (WIBA, WENR). Announces that the following week, The Magic Key will release it's airtime for the Dedication of the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial
36-01-19	--	Pre-Empted	--	[Preempted over all major networks for Dedication of Theodore Roosevelt Memorial] 36-01-19 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Roosevelt Memorial: F.D.R. pays tribute to T.R. with Gov. Lehman, Mayor LaGuardia, Roland Hayes, others ( WIBA, WENR, WBBM). 36-01-19 New York Times 2:00-4:00--President Roosevelt, Governor Lehman, Mayor La Guardia and Others, at Dedictation of New York State Theodore Roosevelt Memorial, American Museum of Natural History--WNYC (WABC, WJZ, WMCA, WINS. 2:00-2:30).
36-01-26	16	Celebrations of the Chinese New Year	Y	[Tape stretch; Speed problems (Corrected to 59:01)] 36-01-26 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key: Giovanni Martinelli, Frank Fay, Himber orchestra, Chinese new year celebrations in three cities (WIBA, WENR).
36-02-02	17	The Varsity Eight	Y	36-02-02 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): weather forecasters, hospice of St. Bernard, Morton Downey, Jack Hylton, others.
36-02-09	18	Thirteen Hours By Air	Y	[Tape stretch; Speed problems (Corrected to 59:57)] 36-02-09 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Joan Bennett, Yale Glee club, Lombardo, Noble, Himber, NBC Symphony orchestras. Announces a worldwide survey of Winter Sports as next.
36-02-16	19	Winter Sports Scenes from Montreal	Y	36-02-16 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Lum and Abner, Armand Tokatyan, Dusolina Giannini, winter sports scenes.
36-02-23	20	Mardi Gras Fetes	Y	36-02-23 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Mardi Gras fetes in Rio de Janeiro, New Orleans; Francia White, Rudy Vallee, Klein and Gilbert, Gene Raymond.
36-03-01	21	Sixteen Years of RCA Radio Pioneering	Y	[Speed problems (Corrected to 59:54)] 36-02-29 Wisconsin State Journal WIBA Sunday 1:00--NBC The Magic Key.
36-03-08	22	A Scene from Call It A Day	Y	[Speed problems (Corrected to 60:49)] 38-03-06 Oakland Tribune Marjorie Lawrence, Australian soprano of the Metropolitan Opera Company, and George O'Connor, veteran vaudeville entertainer, who has made official Washington rock with laughter, will be guest artists during the Magic Key program today on NBC-KGO from 11 a. m., to 12 noon. Miss Lawrence made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera on December 18, 1935, in Warner's "Die Walkure," and is today one of the leading sopranos on its roster. Presidents and other high-ranking Government officials have been entertained by O'Connor over a long period of years. He is a familiar figure at Gridiron Club entertainments, White House correspondents and Press Club dinners. Dr. Frank Black, conducting the Magic Key Orchestra, and Linton Wells in a two-way international interview with a foreign news' correspondent will round out the full hour broadcast. 36-03-08 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Jean Dante, of Theater Guild; Lauritz Melchior, tenor; Ruth Etting; Russ Morgan orchestra; NBC symphony.
36-03-15	23	The Vienna Boys' Choir	N	36-03-15 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Correspondent Edgar Ansel Mowrer, Gladys Swarthout, Vienna Boys' choir, Benny Goodman's and NBC Symphony orchestras.
36-03-22	24	Flood Relief Errands of Mercy	Y	[Capstan pinch; Speed problems (Corrected to 62:40)] 36-03-22 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Lanny Ross, Erna Sack (with highest soprano voice in the world), Floyd Gibbons, Ray Noble orchestra, others.
36-03-29	25	A Scene from A School For Scandal	Y	[Capstan pinch problems (Corrected to 62:40)] 36-03-29 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): John Goss and London singers, Efrem Zimbalist, Ina Claire, Brian Aherne, Osgood Perkins, Charles Coburn, NBC symphony.
36-04-05	26	A Scene from Justice	Y	36-04-05 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Leslie Howard, Doris Doe, Yvonne Printemps, Mossman Glee club.
36-04-12	27	Title Unknown	N	36-04-12 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Philadelphia orchestra in Bach, Wagner, Rimsky-Korsakow music.
36-04-19	28	The Three Musketeers	N	36-04-19 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Ralph Forbes, Heather Angel, Bronislaw Huberman, violinist; Tommy Dorsey's band, glee club, NBC symphony.
36-04-26	29	Madrid Festival	N	36-04-26 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): H.G. Wells, Raymond Massey, star of Well's "Things to Come," Meredith Willson's orchestra, Madrid festival, others.
36-05-03	30	Title Unknown	N	36-05-03 Wisconsin State Journal 12:00--NBC Magic Key. 36-05-03 New York Times 2:00-3 :00-Symphony Orcbestra ; Gladys Swarthout, Soprano; Mario Chamlee, Tenor; Speaker, David Sarnoff, President RCA-WJZ.
36-05-10	31	Child Prodigies and Erna Sack	Y	[Partial recording (last 7 minutes); Gertrude Lawrence did not appear on this date; The circulating 16:04 partial recording is fake--manufactured from an 8-minute Gertrude Lawrence segment from 37-02-07 and approximately six minutes of the last disc from 36-05-10] 36-05-10 Wisconsin State Journal 12 noon.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Ruggieri Ricci, 15-year-old violinist; Abbe children, authors and travelers; Erna Sack, soprano; Xavier Cugat orchestra, Pennsylvania Masque and Wig club. 36-05-10 New York Times 2:00-WJZ--Symphony Orchestra. Frank Black, Conductor; Ruggeiaro Ricci, Violin; Xavier Cugat Orchestra; Univ. of Penn. Masque and Wig Club; Interview With Abbe Children, Authors; From Dresden, Erna Sack, Soprano. 36-05-10 Oakland Tribune Child prodegies will be featured during the Magic Key of RCA broadcast over a coast-to-coast NBC-Blue network, including KGO today, between 10 and 11 a. m. The young stars are Ruggiero Ricci, 15-year-old violinist, and the Abbe children, authors and world travelers. Other guest stars on the program will be Erna Sack, soprano of the Dresden (Germany) Opera Company; Xavier Cugat and his rhumba orchestra, and the University of Pennsylvania Masque and Wig Club, Miss Sack will sing from Dresden. The Masque and Wig Club will present an excerpt from their pro-duction, "Red Rhumba."
36-05-17	32	One Rainy Afternoon	N	36-05-16 Wisconsin State Journal Sunday 12:00--Magic Key, WTMJ WENR WLW; WIBA Sunday 12:00 NBC Magic Key.
36-05-24	33	Fats Waller and His Rhythm	Y	[Side B Poor fidelity; (Resampled and corrected)] 36-05-24 Wisconsin State Journal 12 noon.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Le Petit Mirsha, sensational Rumanian boy soprano; Helen Jepson, operatic soprano; Harold Bauer, concert pianist; "Fats" Waller, Negro pianist and singer; Hugh O'Connell, stage and screen actor; NBC Symphony.
36-05-31	34	Jean Sablon from Paris	N	36-05-31 Wisconsin State Journal 12 noon.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): with Jean Sablon; "France's Big Crosby;" Virginia Rea, Jan Peerce, Richard Himber's orchestra, Sheila Barrett, NBC Symphony. 36-05-31 New York Times 2:00-3:00--Symphony Orchestra; Virginia Rea, Soprano; Jan Peerce, Tenor, and Others. From Paris: Jean Sablon, Sorigs-WJZ.
36-06-07	35	Swiss Yodelers from The Alps	Y	[Very poor fidelity (Resampled, reshaped and corrected)] 36-06-07 Ogden Standard-Examiner Swiss Yodelers, Hill Billies Vie--Yodeling from the summit of the Jungfrau's heights in Switzerland will vie with American hill billy music on the "Magic Key" of RCA today during the broadcast over KLO and the NBC-Blue network at eleven o'clock. Shep Field's dance band, Marion Telva, mezzo soprano, Joseph Knitzer, violinist, and Colonel Stoopnagle and Budd, comedians, will be on the same program. Dr. Frank Black will direct the NBC symphony orchestra and Milton Cross will be master of ceremonies. The Swiss program will be brought to America from an altitude of 13,671 feet through RCA facilities. The Alpine atmosphere will be followed by the Tennessee Ramblers and their mountain selections from the heights of Radio City. Marion Telva, former Metropolitan Opera star, will come out of retirement for the broadcast. Her appearance as guest soloist will be her first since she abruptly left the stage of the Metropolitan. Colonel Stoopnagle and Budd will broadcast from the golf course at Sound View country club, Long Island.
36-06-14	36	An Hour of Great Wagnerian Music	Y	[Poor fidelity (Resampled, reshaped and corrected)] 36-06-14 Wisconsin State Journal 12 noon.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Dr. Frank Black conducts 70 members of N.Y. Philharmonic Symphony in all-Wagner program, including music from "Die Meistersinger," "Lohengrin," "Tannhauser," "Tristan and Isolde," "Die Walkure."
36-06-21	37	Title Unknown	N	36-06-21 Wisconsin State Journal 12 noon.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Tito Schipa, Helen Traubel, Sheila Barrett, Ruby Newman's orchestra, NBC Symphony. 36-06-21 New York Times 2:00-3:00--Symphony Orchestra; Tito Schipa, Tenor; Helen Traubel, Soprano, and Others--WJZ.
36-06-28	38	Seeing America First - Bunker Hill	Y	[Open clipped; Begins a Seeing America First series of John B. Kennedy visits to prominent historic sites of America] 36-06-28 Wisconsin State Journal 12 noon.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): with Fibber McGee, Molly, Ruth Etting, Pianist Rudolph Ganz.
36-07-05	39	Opens with Le Nozze di Figaro	Y	[Poor fidelity (Resampled, reshaped and corrected)] 36-07-05 Wisconsin State Journal 12 noon.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): members of Philadelphia orchestra play music of Mozart, Beethoven, Gliere, Piarne, Turina, Range-Hill, Saint-Saens, Wagner, Debussy, Bach, Dvorak.
36-07-12	40	The Russian Symphonic Choir	N	36-07-12 Wisconsin State Journal 12 noon.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Zimbalist will be featured in the Magic Key at noon through WIBA-WENR. Attractions also will include the Russian Symphonic choir, the NBC Symphony orchestra, Richard Himber's orchestra, and Gould and Shefter, pianists. 36-07-12 New York TImes 2:00-3:00--Efrem Zimbalist, Violinist; Russian Symphonic Choir and Others--WJZ.
36-07-19	41	Title Unknown	N	36-07-19 Beatrice Daily Sun Sunday's highlights include the magic key hour at noon on NBC featuring Frank Fay, comedian, Rose Bampton, opera mezzo-soprano, Midge Williams, negro rhythm singer, and Frank Black's orchestra. 36-07-19 New York Times 2:00-3:00-Symphony Orchestra; Rose Bampton, Contralto; Charles Magnanti, Accordion, and Others-WJZ.
36-07-26	42	The Life of Queen Victoria	N	36-07-26 Wisconsin State Journal 12 noon.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Kathleen Norris, one of America's foremost woman novelist, will make her first appearance in a dramatic role on the air during the Magic Key of RCA program on WIBA at noon today. She will take a role in a scene from her own play, "The Life of Queen Victoria." Bill Robinson, renouned Negro tap dancer will synchronize his pedal magic with the rhythms of Lennie Hayton's orchestra. Frank Black and the NBC Symphony orchestra, the Revelers Quartet, and Carol Deis, young soprano, also will be featured.
36-08-02	43	The Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra	N	36-08-02 Wisconsin State Journal 12 noon.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): members of Philadelphia orchestra play from oldest phono-radio station in world, Camden. 36-08-02 Wisconsin State Journal 2:00-3:00-Symphony Orchestra, Charles O'Connell, Conductor-WJZ.
36-08-09	44	The Cinncinati Opera Company	N	36-08-09 Wisconsin State Journal 12 noon.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Walter C. Kelly, famous in vaudeville as "The Virginia Judge," 36-08-09 New York Times 2 :00-3 : 00-Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Opera Company; Walter C. Kelly, Comedian , Path Wailer, Piano-WJZ
36-08-16	45	The Statue of Liberty's 50th Anniversary	N	36-08-16 Wisconsin State Journal 12 noon.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): A special broadcast from the statue of Liberty on Bedloe's Island in New York harbor in connection with the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the statue will be the highlights of the Magic Key broadcast through WIBA at 12 today. Other features will include Corinna Mura, young Spanish soprano; Walter O'Keefe, comedian; Frank Black's NBC Symphony orchestra; Phil Spitalny and his famous all-girl orchestra with Maxine, Evelyn, and Rachel and Lola.
36-08-23	46	Seeing America First - San Francisco March From Taunhauser March from Tanhouser	Y	36-08-23 Wisconsin State Journal 12 noon.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Floyd Gibbons speaks from Spain; Hildegarde, John B. Kennedy, Mischa Levitzki, Shep Fields' band, NBC Symphony.
36-08-30	47	Seeing America First - Salt Lake City	Y	[Poor fidelity (Resampled, reshaped and corrected)] 36-08-30 Wisconsin State Journal 12 noon.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): For the second successive Sunday, Floyd Gibbons, famed "Headline Hunter", will broadcast direct from the Spanish front during the Magic Key program, on WIBA at 12 noon today. Gibbons' eyewitness report of the civil war in Spain will be relayed to the United States through EAQ in Madrid. Other headliners on the hour broadcast will include Albert Spalding, violinist; Helen Traubel, dramatic soprano; George Hall and his orchestra; John B. Kennedy and the NBC Symphony with Frank Black.
36-09-06	48	The Mikado	N	36-09-06 Wisconsin State Journal 12 noon.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Carte Opera co. in "The Mikado;" Philadelphia orchestra group.
36-09-13	49	Seeing America First - The Clay Country Fair	N	36-09-13 Syracuse Herald The Clay County Fair at Spencer, Iowa, typical show of its kind, will be visited by John B. Kennedy during the Magic Key program over NBC-WSYR at 1 o'clock this afternoon. Kennedy will stroll along the midway and also interview farmers who have won blue ribbons with their live stock and produce. Henry Fonda and June Walker, stage and screen stars, will broadcast from NBC studios a scene from the folk drama, "The Farmer Takes a Wife," and the Cadets Quartet will supply some tunes appropriate to the occasion.
36-09-20	50	Seeing America First - Dodgers and Giants at Ebbets Fld ~~Bluin' The Blues~~	Y	[Regional preemptions] 36-09-20 New York TImes 2:00-3:00--Cardinal Patrick Hayes and Others, at Holy Name Rally, Randals Island Stadium--WOR (WABC. 2:45-3; WJZ. 3-3:30) 36-09-20 Wisconsin State Journal 12 noon.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Kirsten Flagstad, NBC Symphony, "Doc" Rockwell.
36-09-27	51	Seeing America First - The Roosevelt Raceway	Y	36-09-24 Wisconsin State Journal Outstanding renewal of the week is the assignment of Frank J. Black on the Sunday "Magic Key" program over NBC. Not only has his program been renewed for a year, but beginning in October, he will again have a symphony orchestra of 65 men under his baton. 36-09-27 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m..--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Paul Robeson, Jane Froman, Casper (Swing Harp) Reardon, NBC Symphony.
36-10-04	52	Title Unknown	N	[Regional preemptions for World Series] 36-10-04 New York Times 1:45-4:00--World Series: Yankees vs. Giants--WABC, WEAF, WJZ, WOR, WHN, WINS (Also Monday and Tuesday if played) 36-10-04 Zanesville Signal 2:00--The Magic Key of R.C.A.

36-10-11	53	The Music of Twelve Nations	N	[Renewed for another season; First Anniversary Special] 36-10-11 Syracuse Herald Greetings and music from 12 nations will be heard this afternoon when the Magic Key program celebrates its first anniversary. The broadcast will be heard from 2 to 3 o'clock over WSYR. John McCormack, famed Irish tenor, will be heard during the portion of the program originating in the Radio City studios. Dublin, London, Paris and Rome will be among the first to send birthday greetings. The soprano voice of Erna Sack will be brought from Berlin. Then more greetings, from Geneva, Hollywood, Montreal, Honolulu, Tokyo, Shanghai and Batavia, will be heard. Edouardo Donato and his orchestra, playing in Buenos Aires, and a broadcast from an airplane over Chicago, will complete this part of the program.
36-10-18	54	Seeing America First - The Hayden Planetarium	Y	[Amplitude pegged out, clipping (Resampled, reshaped and corrected)] 36-10-18 Ogden Standard-Examiner 12:00--NBC--RCA Magic Key with John B. Kennedy and Frank Black Orchestra; Playlet: Romeo and Juliet and others. Features Alexander Kirkland, Jean Dante and Jean Sablon
36-10-25	55	Seeing America First - Grand Central	Y	[Fidelity washed out; capstan pinching; (Resampled, reshaped and corrected)] 36-10-25 Oakland Tribune Three stars from "White Horse Inn," one of Manhattan's latest stage hits, and music and drama from New York, Hollywood and Berlin will be heard during the Magic Key broadcast today, from 11 a.m. to noon, over the NBC-KGO network. Billy Gaxton, Kitty Carlisle and Dorothy Stone, all of whom are featured players in "White Horse Inn," the new musical show at the Center Theater, New York City, will be heard.
36-11-01	56	Title Unknown	N	36-11-01 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m..--Magic Key (WIBA, WMAQ): Lennie Hayton, Duscolina Giannini, Frank Parker, Duncan sisters.
36-11-08	57	The San Francisco Opera Company	Y	[Amplitude pegged out, clipping (Resampled, reshaped and corrected)] 36-11-08 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m..--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Kirsten Flagstad, Friedrich Schorr, Len Joy's High Hatters, Tom Powers.
36-11-15	58	Celebrating NBC's Tenth Anniversary	Y	36-11-15 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m..--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Charles Laughton, Director Alexander Korda, Helen Traubel, Revelers quartet.
36-11-22	59	Forbidden Melody	Y	[Partial recording (8 minutes only) ] 36-11-22 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m..--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Efrem Zimbalist, violinist; Walter O'Keefe, comedian; Carl Brisson, Ruby Mercer, stage stars; Tommy Dorsey's orchestra.
36-11-29	60	A Seeing Eye Training School for Dogs	Y	36-11-29 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m..--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Paul Whiteman's orchestra, Marian Anderson, Stoopnagle and Budd, Ramona, the King's Men.
36-12-06	61	Title Unknown	N	36-12-06 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m..--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Ruggiero Ricci, violinist; Morton Downey, singing "Moira My Girl"; Sheila Barrett, mimic; Hannah Klein and Pauline Gilbert, pianists; Oswaldo Friesedo's Argentine orchestra.
36-12-13	62	A Scene from Tobacco Road	Y	36-12-13 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m..--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): James Barton of "Tobacco Road," Pianist-Composer Percy Grainger, Singer Jane Froman, Emil Coleman's orchestra, Yale Glee club.
36-12-20	63	Robert Benchley, Bill Robinson and Bobby Breen	Y	36-12-20 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m..--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Gertrude Wettergren, opera star; Edward Johnson, Metropolitan manager; Marcia Davenport, music critic; Robert Benchley, critic-actor; Bill Robinson, dancer; Bobby Breen, child actor; Frank Black, conductor.
36-12-27	64	The Moscow Cathedral Choir	Y	36-12-27 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m..--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): John McCormack, Oliver Wakefield, Richard Himber's orchestra, Moscow Cathedral Choir.
37-01-03	65	An International Celebration of Music	Y	37-01-03 Syracuse Herald Artists from practically every field of music will participate in the Magic Key program over NBC-WSYR at 2 o'clock this afternoon. The international feature of the program will be a group of songs by Petit Mirscha, 10-year-old Rumanian boy soprano, who will be heard from Milan, Italy, by short-wave. Other guests include Ezio Pinza, Metropolitan Opera basso; Ania Dorfmann, Russian concert pianist; "Fats" Waller, Negro pianist, and his swing orchestra, and "Doc" Rockwell, comedy monologist. Another feature will be a talk by Max Reinhardt, famed theatrical producer, on the forthcoming presentation of "The Eternal Road," following which Frank Black and the NBC Symphony Orchestra will interpret music from the production.
37-01-10	66	Reflected Glory	N	37-01-10 Ogden Standard-Examiner Lotte Lehman to Sing Over Radio--Headed by the internationally famous soprano of the Metropolitan opera company, Lotte Lehmann, a group of distinguished leaders in various entertainment fields will be heard during the Magic Key of RCA program over KLO and a coast-to-coast NBC blue network today between 12 and 1 p.m. Frank Black and the NBC symphony orchestra will complete the program's cast.
37-01-17	67	Title Unknown	N	37-01-17 Ogden Standard-Examiner The famous Philadelphia orchestra will be presented with its full strength of 180 musicians, under the direction of Charles O'Connell, assistant conductor, during the Magic Key of RCA program today at twelve o'clock MST, over KLO and the NBC Blue network. The program will be featured by the appearance of George Copeland, world-famous pianist, and Rene Maison, Metropolitan Opera company tenor, as guest soloists.
37-01-24	68	Title Unknown	N	37-01-24 Ogden Standard-Examiner 12:00--NBC--RCA Magic Key: Symphony Orchestra and Guest Artists.
37-01-31	69	Title Unknown	N	37-01-31 Syracuse Herald Giovanni Martinelli, Metropolitan Opera tenor; the piano team of Jacques Fray and Mraio Bragiotti; Rufe Davis, comedian, and Tommy Dorsey's orchestra will be guest artists on the Magic Key program over NBC-WSYR at 2 p.m.
37-02-07	70	Opens with The Overture to Secret of Suzanne	Y	37-02-07 Ogden Standard-Examiner Opera Stars Will Appear In Concert--Kerstin Thorborg of the Metropolitan Opera company, Gertrude Lawrence of Broadway, Raya Garbousova, young Russian cellist, and Dr. Walter Damrosch will be among the stars heard on the Magic Key of RCA hour over KLO and NBC-Blue network this morning at twelve o'clock. This will be Madame Thorborg's first appearance on a Magic Key program. Miss Lawrence will be heard in a brief dramatic sketch. Others on the program will be David and Goliath, comedy team, and Fray and Braggiotti, piano duo. Dr. Damrosch will conduct the NBC Symphony Orchestra in the Allegretto from Brahms' Third Symphony. Dr. Frank Black, who regularly directs the orchestra in the Magic Key hour, will conduct several symphonic numbers in the course of the program. Milton J. Cross will serve, as usual, as master of ceremonies.
37-02-14	71	Title Unknown	N	37-02-14 Ogden Standard-Examiner Japan's sensational symphonic conductor, Viscount Hidemaro Konoye, will direct the NBC Symphony Orchestra in the Magic Key program over NBC-WSYR from 2 to 3 o'clock this afternoon. The yound musician, who has appeared as guest conductor of leading orchestras of Germany, France and England, before coming to the United S tates, already has appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He is a younger brother of Prince Konoyo, president of the House of Peers of Japan. Sharing honors with Viscount Konoye on the guest list will be Ofua Cigna, new dramatic soprano of the Metropolitan Opera; Helen Gleason and Dennis King, stars of the new Franz Lehar operetta "Frederika;" Carlos Salzedo, harpist, and Rufe Davis, comedian.
37-02-21	72	Fulton of Oak Falls	N	37-02-21 Ogden Standard-Examiner Syracuse Herald - George M. Cohan, presenting excerpts from his current Broadway play, "Fulton of Oak Falls," will be a guest on the Magic Key program over NBC-WSYR at 2 o'clock this afternoon. Other guests appearing on today's broadcast will be Albert Spalding, famed violinist; Frederick Jagel, Metropolitan Opera tenor, and Eddie Duchin and his popular dance orchestra.
37-02-28	73	Maurice Evans and Bidu Sayao	N	37-02-28 Oakland Tribune Maurice Evans, who has been acclaimed "the finest actor on the English-speaking stage," and Bidu Sayao, Brazilian soprano, who made her American operatic debut at the Metropolitan on February 13, are among the luminaries who will be heard in the Magic Key broadcast over the NBC-KGO Network today from 11 a.m. to noon. Jessie Matthews, Engilsh stage and screen actress, will be heard from London in the hour. Others to be heard form the Radio City studios of NBC are Henri Deering, American concert pianist; Rufe Davis, cmic imitator appearing now on Broadway, and Frank Black and the NBC Symphony Orchestra. Evans, who has been onthe English stage since 1926, and in English films since 1929, is playing the title role in "King Richard II," which recently opened in New York. Some of his more recent British screen appearances were in "Wedding Rehearsal," "Marry Me," "The Only Girl" and "The Path of Glory." Miss Sayao is the first South American woman to become a regular member of the Metropolitan Opera Company. She had won a high reputation in leading roles with French, Italian and Sough American opera companies before making her Metropolitan debut in the title role of Massenet's "Manon."
37-03-07	74	Brother Rat	N	37-03-07 Ogden Standard-Examiner Night club and operatic music, with a dash of drama from a current Broadway hit, will compose the Magic Key of RCA program over KLO and the NBC-Blue network this afternoon from twelve to one o'clock. The visiting artists will be Jean Sablon, recently arrived French troubadour; Josephine Antoine, Metropolitan Opera soprano; Richard Himber and his variety orchestra, and Frank Albertson and Eddie Albert of the cast of "Brother Rat." John B. Kennedy, NBC commenttor, and Dr. Frank Black, conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra, will complete the program. Milton J. Cross will preside as master of ceremonies.
37-03-14	75	White-Headed Boy	N	[St. Patrick's Day program] 37-03-14 Syracuse Herald Two other natives of Dublin will be heard with Irwin in the Magic Key program over NBC-WSYR at 2 o'clock this afternoon, in a pre St. Patrick's Day broadcast. They are Sara Allgood, actress of the Abbey Theater, and Dudley Digges, character actor of stage and screen. Other guests will be Helen Jepson, Metropolitan Opera soprano, and George Enesco, composer, conductor, violinist and teacher.
37-03-21	76	Title Unknown	N	37-03-21 Syracuse Herald Guests on the Magic Key program over NBC-WSYR at 2 o'clock this afternoon will be Bruna Castagna, Metropolitan Opera contralto; Joseph Schmidt, Rumanian tenor; Andres Segovta, guitar virtuoso, and Walter O'Keefe, comedian. An additional feature, originating in Minneapolis, will be an interview by John B. Kennedy of boys and girls of the Owatona, Minn. 4-H Club, winner of the Social Progess contest conducted among 90,000 4-H clubs last year.
37-03-28	77	Title Unknown	N	[Easter program] 37-03-28 Ogden Standard-Examiner Metropolitan Star To Sing Over KLO--"Ave Maria," from Verdi's "Otello" and three German songs will be sung by Elisabeth Rethberg when she is heard with the Philadelphia orchestra, Eugene Ormandy conducting, in the Magic Key of RCA broadcast Easter Sunday, today, over KLO and the NBC-Blue network from twelve to one o'clock. The songs are "Merienlied" and "Hat dich die liede beruhrt," both by Josef Marx, and "Er ist," by Hugo Wolf. The pickup of hte Metropolitan prima donna and the symphony orchestra will be from Music Hall, Philadelphia. Originally Miss Rethberg was scheduled to sing from the NBC studios in Radio City, New York.
37-04-04	78	From A Flying Fortress in the Air	N	37-04-04 Lima News The mightiest fighting ship of the United States Army, in the air over Bolling Field, will be the focal point for the Magic Key program at 2 p.m., over WJZ, when the program leaps continents and oceans in presentation of world features. John B. Kennedy, NBC's roving reporter, will be aboard the Army's giant Boeing "Flying Fortress" to short-wave a report to ground stations for radio distribution as the big ship is put thru complicated maneuvers by its officers and men.
37-04-11	79	A Lover Who Lost	N	37-04-11 Wisconsin State Journal From the glittering make-believe of Broadway to the reality of the back woods, from the easy-going life of Buenos Aires to hard-shelled Berlin, the Magic Key program picks up the entertainment heard at 1 today over WIBA, WENR, and WTMJ. From Broadway it presents Dugley Digges and Sara Allgood in a radio adaptation of "A Lover Lost." The backwoods contribution is an old-timer fiddler's contest from the plains of Colorado. Hopping across oceans with the greatest of ease, the Magic Key microphone will pick up the voice of Erna Sack, soprano, from Berlin, and from Buenos Aires will come the music of the typical band of Juan Darienzo.
37-04-18	80	Four Great Composers with Philadelphia Academy of Music	Y	37-04-18 Ogden Standard-Examiner Composers Billed On 'Magic Key'-- Four world-famous conductors--Leopold Stokowski, Jose Iturbi, Eugene Ormandy and Charles O'Connell will lead the Philadelphia orchestra on the Magic Key of RCA this afternoon, at twelve noon over KLO and a coast-to-coast NBC-Blue network. The Magic Key broadcast, originating in Philadelphia Academy of Music, will be a prelude to the Philadelphia orchestra's 1937 nation-wide tour sponsored for the second time by RCA-Victor. Stokowski will speak briefly. Marian Anderson, Negro contralto, and Iturbi, who is a pianist as well as a conductor, will be soloists.
37-04-25	81	Richard II - A Scene	N	37-04-25 Wisconsin State Journal 12 noon--Magic Key--(WIBA, WMAQ, WTMJ): will feature birthday greetings from Guillo Marconi, in the United States, to his famous father, inventor of the radio, aboard the latter's yacht in European waters.
37-05-02	82	National Music Week	Y	37-05-02 Wisconsin State Journal David Sarnoff to Open Nat'l Music Week Today-- The Magic Key program, which has spent the last few weeks hopping all over the world picking up unique programs, today settles down at home to present a musical program and David Sarnoff, officially opening National Music week. Included in the musical features of the program will be Rosa Ponselle, Metropolitan Opera soprano singing "Oh Divine Aphrodite" and "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny." Frank Black will conduct the symphony orchestra in "Jubilee" from Chadwick's "Symphonic Sketches," "Old Man River" and "Go To Sleep My Dusky Baby." The program will be aired over WIBA, WENR and WTMJ at 12 noon today.
37-05-09	83	A Coronation Special	N	37-05-09 Ogden Standard-Examiner Novelist Will Talk Coronation--Kathleen Norris, famous American novelist, will describe the brilliant coronation scene with its flags and bunting, its last minute courtesy practicing and trial professionals, for the Magic Key program this morning from eleven to twelve o'clock over KLO and the NBC Blue network. Mrs. Norris will speak from london The program also will present Efrem Zimbalist, world famous violinist, Jeanne Behrend and Alexander Kelberine, sensational piano team who recently made a successful appearance with the Philadelphia orchestra; Larry Burke, west coast night club, theatre and movie tenor star, and Dr. Frank Black and the NBC symphony orchestra. In addition, a scene from the current Broadway comedy success, "Excursion," will be heard,
37-05-16	84	10th Anniversary Tribute to Lindbergh's Flight	Y	37-05-16 Wisconsin State Journal 12 noon--Magic Key--WIBA, WENR, WTMJ): Features an international broadcast, commemorating the 10th anniversary of Lindbergh's flight to Paris.
37-05-23	85	Title Unknown	N	37-05-23 Wisconsin State Journal 12 noon--Magic Key--WIBA, WENR, WTMJ): Helen Jepson, Met. Opera star, will be heard singing Von Gluck's "O Del Mio Dolce Ardor" and "The Bird Song" from "Pagliacci," University of Pennsylvania Choral Society will share guestar honors.
37-05-30	86	Title Unknown	N	37-05-30 Wisconsin State Journal 12 noon--Magic Key--WIBA, WENR, WTMJ): George M. Cohan, famous actor; Walter Hampden, actor; Paul Draper, dancer; Yoichi Hiraoka, Japanese Musician, will be guestars.
37-06-06	87	Trouble Night	N	37-06-05 Wisconsin State Journal Duke's Organist to Play On Magic Key Over WIBA--Marcel Dupre, noted French organist who played the wedding music for the Duke of Windsor and Mrs. Warfield Thursday morning at Monts, France, will be featured in the Magic Key broadcast Sunday through WIBA at 12 noon. Dupre will play two numbers on his own organ in his villa at Meudon. Others on the program include Giovanni Martinelli, singing from Milan, Italy; William Primrose, Phil Spitalny's All Girl Orchestra, and Katherine Locke and Jules Garfield, stars of "Having a Wonderful Time."
37-06-13	88	Victoria Regina	N	37-06-13 Wisconsin State Journal Charming Ruth Bradley, a blues singer with Bunny Berigan's orchestra, will share honors on the RCA Magic Key program today with Helen Hayes, actress, and Margret Brill, harpist. The full hour program, originating in Radio City studios, is broadcast over WIBA and the National network at 1 p.m.
37-06-20	89	The Female of the Species	N	37-06-20 Wisconsin State Journal John Charles Thomas, famous baritone; Kay Thomposon and her boys; Xavier Cugat and his orchestra, and Margaro Gilmore, stage star, will assist Dr. Frank Black and the symphony as the Magic Key of RCA swings across the talent world at 12 noon today over WIBA. In addition, John B. Kennedy, RCA's Flying Reporter, will be heard from Washington, visiting the weather bureau.
37-06-27	90	Title Unknown	N	37-06-27 Wisconsin State Journal Mischa Misakoff, concertmeister of the new NBC symphony orchestra, will appear as a guest soloist on the Magic Key program from 12 to 1 p.m. today over WIBA and the National netowrk. As concertmeister Mischakoff will be assosicated with Arturo Toscanini and Artur Rodzinski in the forthcoming radio concerts.
37-07-04	91	Scenes and Music from Make A Wish	Y	[Fourth of July program] 37-07-04 Wisconsin State Journal Bobby Breen, boy soprano, Marion Claire, grand opera and radio soprano, both stars of the new motion picture "Make a Wish," and Gertrude Berg, author of the original story, will present highlights and music from the picture on the Magic Key program at 12 p.m. today over the NBC network and WIBA. The Goldman Band, internationallly famous for its interpretations of martial music, and the Revelers, one of radio's oldest and best known radio quartets, will assist Dr. Frank Black and the Magic Key orchestra in the musical portion of the program, which will terminate with a community sing of "The Stars and Stripes Forever." 37-07-04 New York Times 2:00-3:00-Symphony Orchestra; Goldman Band; Irvin S. Cobb, -Humorist, and Others-WJZ.
37-07-11	92	Title Unknown	N	37-07-11 Wisconsin State Journal Seven new features, led by the romantic French singer, Jean Sablon, and Dr. Frank Black and the orchestra, will comprise the talent for the Magic Key program at 12 p.m. today over WIBA. A second new feature, to be heard during the summer months on the Magic Key, will make its debut Sunday. Old song dramatizations, written by Edmund Birnbryer of the NBC script division, will offer the story, in music and dialogue, of tunes dear to the heart of all Americans. In deference to weather conditions throughout the United States, the Magic Key will offer its audience a visit to Iceland as another special feature of the program. The program also will present the Metropolitan Opera star Susanne Fisher, soprano; Shep Fields and his orchestra, and the Kidoodlers, a novelty instrumental group. Milton Cross and Ben Grauer will act as joint masters of ceremony.
37-07-18	93	Title Unknown	N	37-07-18 Wisconsn State Journal Negro Singer On Magic Key Show Today--Marian Anderson, world's greatest Negro contralto; Oliver Wakefield, English comedian, and Fairchild and Carroll the piano team from "Babes In Arms," will headline the Magic Key program at 12 p.m. today over the NBC network and WIBA. The three headline features are in addition to the regular highlights of the program--Dr. Frank Black and the Magic Key orchestra, the sensational French singer, Jean Sablon, and the old songs dramatizations. Miss Anderson will sing from Buenos Aires, where she in on tour. She has been heard before on the Magic Key, when she sang with the Philadelphia Symphony orchestra under the baton of Leopold Stokowski in the Quaker City convention hall. She has prepared three numbers for the broadcast from South America. Sablon, who made his debut in a limited engagement on the Magic Key last Sunday, sings with a specially instrumented group directed by Dr. Black. He will offer three songs. The old song chosen for the program is "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo." Dr. Black will present the number with a double quartet and a cast under the direction of James Church of the NBC production staff.
37-07-25	94	Title Unknown	N	37-07-25 Wisconsin State Journal Florence Easton, Metropolitan soprano and Efrem Zimbalist, world famous violinist, will join Dr. Frank Black and the orchestra as features of the Magic Key of RCA Hour, at 12 noon on WIBA today. Tex O'Rourke will return to the show as master of ceremonies. Jean Sablon, French singer, also will be heard.
37-08-01	95	A Scene from The Mansion of Aching Hearts	N	37-08-01 Wisconsin State Journal Vina Bovy, soprano, and Ozzie Nelson and his orchestra will join Dr. Frank Black and his orchestra, Jean Sablon, French Singer, and Tex O'Rourke, humorist, on the Magic Key of America Broadcast. "The Mansion of Aching Hearts" will be dramatized and set to a special score by Dr. Black. Ozzie Nelson assisted by Harriet Hilliard will play a special modern arrangement. The program comes over WIBA at noon.
37-08-08	96	Title Unknown	N	37-08-08 Wisconsin State Journal Gladys Swarthout, opera soprano, and Jesus Maria Saproma, pianist, will be guestars on the Magic Key program over WIBA at noon. Others to be heard on the program are Tony Russell, ballad singer; Dr. Frank Black and orchestra; Tex O'Rourke, comedian, and a special chorus.
37-08-15	97	Scenes from Flight From Glory	Y	37-08-15 Wisconsin State Journal Hollywood will play host to the Magic Key today when the Key turns to California for a program featuring Bob Benchley as master-of-ceremonies, Nat Shildret's orchestra, scenes from the movie, "Flight From Glory", and a pickup from Honolulu. The program is aired through WIBA at noon.
37-08-22	98	Title Unknown	N	37-08-22 Wisconsin State Journal John B. Kennedy, NBC's flying reporter, will describe a children's fresh air camp and will interview youngsters fighting for health as a highlight of the Magic Key broadcast over WIBA at noon.
37-08-29	99	Title Unknown	N	37-08-29 Wisconsin State Journal Francia White, soprano, and Tommy Dorsey's band will head the guest talent on the Magic Key program this noon over WIBA.
37-09-05	100	Title Unknown	N	37-09-05 Wisconsin State Journal Richard Crooks, famous operatic tenor, will be the featured artist when the Magic Key turns here and there for its entertainment today at noon over WIBA. Crooks, summering in Maine, will sing from station WHCS in Portland. Among his numbers will be the Stephen Foster selections "Old Uncle Ned" and "Oh, Susannah."
37-09-12	101	A Tribute to George M. Cohan	Y	37-09-12 Wisconsin State Journal George M. Cohan, one of America's best known actors and playwrights, and an American Legion post's chorus team will be featured on the Magic Key program over WIBA at noon.
37-09-19	102	Title Unknown	N	37-09-19 Wisconsin State Journal Planes over Geneva, Switzerland; Frankfort and Berlin, Germany; Paris, France; London, England; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; New York; Washington, D.C.; Chicago; Spokane; a China Clipper between Wake Island and Guam; and a Java-bound Holland liner over Asia will report their positions in a lightning-like trip around the world on the Magic Key broadcast at noon today over WIBA.
37-09-26	103	Title Unknown	N	37-09-26 Ogden Standard-Examiner Queena Mario, Metropolitan opera soprano, and the Orpheus choir, distinguished choral group, will headline guest talent for the Magic Key when the entire program originates from the music hall of the public auditorium in Cleveland, Ohio, today, from 12 to 1 p.m. over KLO and the NBC blue network. Frank Black and the Magic Key orchestra, Jean Sablon, barition, and Tex O'Rourke, master of ceremonies, also will be heard,
37-10-03	104	Title Unknown	N	37-10-03 Wisconsin State Journal An educational feature of international aspect will be heard on a regular schedule beginning today at 1 p.m. over WIBA, when the Magic Key will inaugurate a series of interviews between Linton Wells, journalist, in New York, and internationally known newspaper correspondents abroad.
37-10-10	105	Title Unknown	N	37-10-10 Ogden Standard-Examiner 12:00--NBC--RCA Magic Key: Frank Black and the NBC Concert Orchestra; Tex O'Rourke; Tune Twisters; Jolly Coburn Orchestra; John Charles Thomas; Linton Wells, and Old Time Song Drama.
37-10-17	106	Title Unknown	N	37-10-17 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): from Greenland, Switzerland, New York; Mary Small, Rene Matson, others.
37-10-24	107	Title Unknown	N	37-10-24 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): naval demonstration, Elizabeth Rethberg, Tune Twisters.
37-10-31	108	The Lady Has A Heart	N	37-10-31 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Elissa Landi, Vincent Price, Jan Kiepura, Linton Wels, Edgar A. Mowrer, string symphony.
37-11-07	109	From the Chicago Civic Opera House	Y	[2nd half only; no close] 37-11-07 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Gertrud Wettergren, Roy Shield orchestra, Noble Cain choir, Lyon and Marlowe, plectrum band, Eve Curie.
37-11-14	110	Alexander Woollcott, the Town Crier	Y	[Another of the South American tour series] 37-11-14 Ogden Standard-Examiner Alexander Woollcott, author, playwright and provocative raconteur, will headline the Magic Key program today from twelve o'clock noon to one p.m. over KLO and the NBC-Blue network. On the same program will be Conrad Thibault, the popular radio and concert baritone; Lucrecia Sarria, a Peruvian girl whose soprano voice technique has been delighting American audiences; the Victor Tipia band with Oscar Sepra as soloist, from Buenos Aires, and Dr. Frank Black and the Magic Key orchestra.
37-11-21	111	When They Played the Waltz	N	37-11-21 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Martha Gelhorn, newspaper correspondent in Madrid; Virginia Rea, Margalo Gilmore, others.
37-11-28	112	Opens with Fete Boheme	N	37-11-28 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Vina Bovy, soprano; Edward Davies, baritone; Vic and Sade; Marek Weber and Roy Shield orchestras; Linton Wells; music includes "De Glory Road," works of Meyerbeer, Scarlatti, Gounod.
37-12-05	113	Title Unknown	N	37-12-05 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Gina Cigna, Alec Templeton, Golden Gate Jubilee singers.
37-12-12	114	Title Unknown	N	37-12-12 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Tenor Lauritz Melchoir, Pianist Frank Black, Harpist Edward Vito, presentation of first mobile television unit.
37-12-19	115	The Candle In the Forest	N	37-12-19 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Morizs Rosenthal, 75, pianist; Linton Wells interviews Neil McMillan in Amazon jungles; Joan Edwards sings.
37-12-26	116	The Helsinki University Chorus	Y	[Announces a delay in the appearance by Eleanor Roosevelt] 37-12-26 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Helsinki University chorus, Georges Enesco, Laura Suarez.
38-01-02	117	A Mercury Theatre Scene from Julius Caesar	Y	38-01-02 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Kirsten and Karen Flagstad, Orson Welles; scene from "Julius Caesar."
38-01-09	118	Eleanor Roosevelt from Washington	Y	[Eleanor Roosevelt's rescheduled appearance] 38-01-09 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Mrs. Roosevelt, Linton Wells, Tenor Carl Hartmann.
38-01-16	119	All the Men and Women Are Merely Players	N	38-01-16 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Dame May Whitty and daughter, Pianist Emma Boynet, Linto Wells, glee club orchestra.
38-01-23	120	Title Unknown	N	38-01-23 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Vicente Gomez, Spanish guitarist; Dusolina Giannini, soprano; Linton Wells, Interviewer; orchestra: "Without a Song," "One Fine Day," Voila Sapete," "Dance of the Clowns."
38-01-30	121	Title Unknown	N	38-01-30 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Ezio Pinza sings "Deep River," "Alma Mia," two Mozart arias; Jose Iturbi, pianist; Carol Weyman, soprano; 6,000-mile interview.
38-02-06	122	Excerpts from Pictures At an Exhibition	N	38-02-06 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key--(WIBA, WENR): Philadelphia orchestra and Ria Ginster, soprano; "Praeludium Fugue in F Minor," Bach-Cailliet; "Komm Susser Tod," Bach-O'Connell; "Bella Mia Flema," Mozart; "Er Ists," Wolf; march from "Pathetique" symphony, Tschaikowsky; "Voi Che Sapete," "Non So Cosa son Cosa," Mozart; "Do Not Go, My Love," Hageman; excerpts from "Pictures at an Exhibition," Moussorgky-Cailliet.
38-02-13	123	Title Unknown	N	38-02-13 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Glenn Darwin sings Walter Damrosch's "Abraham Lincoln Song;" Linton Wells speaks from Guatemala City; Sara Allgood and Whitford Kane.
38-02-20	124	Balcony Scene	N	38-02-20 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Helen Jepson, Charles Kullmann, Margalo Gilmore, Linton Wells, Felix Knight.
38-02-27	125	Title Unknown	N	38-02-27 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Bruna Castagna, Ania Dorfman, Linton Wells. 38-02-27 Oakland Tribune CASTAGNA ON MAGIC KEY Bruna Castagna, Metropolitan Opera contralto, and Anita Dorfmann, Russian pianist, will headline the Magic Key program today from 11 a. m. to 12 noon, over the NBC-KGO network. As further highlights, the Magic Key also will offer Linton Wells, speaking from San Francisco, in a two way international interview with Roy C. Bennett, editor of the Manila Bulletin. Dr. Frank Black conducting his original Magic Key theme song as a production number, and the Revelers, veteran radio quartet. After studying with Isidor Philipp at the Paris Conservatoire, Ania Dorfmann made her debut at Liege, Belgium. In a remarkably short space of time she became a favorite solo artist of symphony conductors, appearing frequently with Sir Thomas Beecham, Sir Henry Wood, Vladimir Goldschmann, Gabriel Pierne, and others. Frank Black's original theme song for the Magic Key program which incorporates the idea of the key turning, recently was published as a popular fox trot under the title, "You Are Music," with lyrics by Bernard Maltin and Albert Stillman. Black's decision to publish the song was prompted by thousands of requests for copies from listeners. The number has been used as the Magic Key theme since September 29, 1935. A quartet and soloist will be heard in the song version of the number.
38-03-06	126	Title Unknown	N	38-03-06 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Sarah Allgood, Whitford Kane, Marjorie Lawrence, Carlos Salzedo, Linton Wells.
38-03-13	127	Title Unknown	N	38-03-13 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Gladys Swarthout, Linton Wells, Pianist Hortense Monath, Pasquier Trio.
38-03-20	128	Title Unknown	N	38-03-20 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Ferde Grofe conducts newest work; Yale Glee club. 38-03-19 Oakland Tribune Ferde Grofe will be guest conductor on the Magic Key program tomorrow. NBC-KGO, 11 a. m. to noon, and Zinka Milanov, "Met" soprano, will be one of the guest stars.
38-03-27	129	Salute to the Music Educators Conference	Y	38-03-27 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): St. Louis Symphony orchestra, Soprano Helen Traubel; "Elsa's Dream" and "Du Bist der Lenz," Wagner; "I Love You," Grieg; "Coriolanus" overture, Beethoven; "Don Juan," Strauss; scherzo from "Octet in G Minor," Mendelssohn; "The Mastersingers" prelude, Wagner.
38-04-03	130	A Salute to Army Day	N	38-04-03 Wisconsin State Journal Magic Key Broadcasts Army Demonstration; Lehman, Eddy to Sing A graphic demonstration of U.S. Army facilities, including pick-ups from an army substratosphere plane attempting to break an altitude record, from the army's new "flying fortress," from West Point, and from two army bases, will be broadcast during the Magic Key program at 1 p.m. today over NBC-WIBA-WENR. Arranged as a tribute to Army day, the army portion of the hour broadcast will be under the personal supervision of Gen. Malin Craig, chief of staff of the United States army. Lotte Lehmann, Metropolitan Opera soprano, will be soloist with the Magic Key orchestra, conducted by Frank Black, during the first half of the program.
38-04-10	131	The Flagstad Family of Norway Caption Reads -- The Magic Key program made musical history the other Sunday by presenting, for the first time on the air, the entire gifted Flagstad family of Norway. They are: Kirsten, right, of the 'Met,' Karen, her sister, and their mother.	Y	38-04-10 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Alexander Woollcott, Kirsten and Karen Flagstad and their mother, Wallace Carroll of United Press.
38-04-17	132	Lauritz Melchior and Eva leGallienne	Y	38-04-17 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Eva LeGallienne, Lauritz Melchoir; Linton Wells.
38-04-24	133	The Cinncinati Symphony Orchestra	Y	38-04-24 Wisconsin State Journal 12 m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Cincinnati Symphony orchestra; Eugene Goossens, conductor; Marjorie Lawrence, soprano; "Bacchanal," Goossens (world premiere); "Academic Festival" overture, Brahms; "Divinities du Styx," Gluck; "Dido's Lament," Purcell; allegro molto from "Eroica" symphony, Beethoven; "Fetes," Debussy; three Hugo Wolfe songs.
38-05-01	134	The 15th Annual Celebration of Nat'l Music Week	Y	38-05-01 Wisconsin State Journal 12 m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Dr. Frank Black's orchestra, John Charles Thomas, glee club in works of American composers.
38-05-08	135	Title Unknown	N	38-05-08 Wisconsin State Journal 12 m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): "Overture to Spring," Goldmark; allegretto from "Symphony No. 2," Brahms; "Adagio in C Minor," Lekeu; "Pacific 231," Honegger; "Parade," Chasins; fourth movement of "Radio Station WGZBX," James. 38-05-14 Radio Guide Sundays, 2-3 p.m., NBC-B Linton Wells, roving reporter for the Magic Key broadcast of the Radio Corporation of America, left New York Last week for a four-month tour of twelve Central and South American countries by airplane, canoe and mule train. Beginning with the Magic Key broadcast of Sunday, May 8, and continuing for thirteen weeks, he will be heard in eye-witness reports of life and current events in Latin America. His first broadcast will originate from Managua, capital of Nicaragua, after a hazardous trip over the proposed Nicaraguan canal route.
38-05-15	136	Title Unknown	N	38-05-15 Wisconsin State Journal 12 m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Cissie Loftus, Leonard Warren, Lew White.
38-05-22	137	Title Unknown	N	38-05-22 Wisconsin State Journal 12 m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Philadelphia orchestra: "Die Meistersinger" overture, Wagner; "Claire de Lune," Debussy; "Fetes," Debussy; "Tales from the Vienna Woods," Strauss; "Hebraic Poem," McDonald; "Les Preludes," Liszt.
38-05-29	138	An Ode To Memorial Day	N	38-05-29 Wisconsin State Journal 12 m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Marian Anderson, Arthur Guiterman's "Ode to Memorial Day," Felix Knight, Linton Wells.
38-06-05	139	David, the Giant Killer	N	38-06-05 Lima News Morton Downey, famous tenor, and Larry Clinton and his orchestra will inaugurate a "lighter" summer series of the Magic Key of RCA when they appear as guest artists during the program on Sunday from 1 to 2 p.m. over WJZ. Downey, whose voice is as well known abroad as in this country, will act as singing master-of-ceremonies. He will present a humorous Negro sketch, "David, the Giant Killer," written by Pauline Palmer; the Magic Key orchestra, conducted by Frank Black, and Linton Wells, Magic Key roving reporter, speaking from Lima Peru. Altho he has been featured on countless radio programs and has won a wide reputation for his quick wit and ready banter, Downey has never appeared in the capacity of master of ceremonies on a variety show before.
38-06-12	140	Title Unknown	N	38-06-12 Ogden Standard-Examiner Linton Wells, Magic Key roving reporter, nearing the half-way mark in his four-month tour of Central and South American countries, will be heard from Santiago, Chile, during the Magic Key program this morning from eleven to twelve o'clock over KLO and NBC-Blue network. Wells, who left New York on April 17, will conclude his journey in August. From Radio City, the program will feature The Magic Key orchestra conducted by Frank Black, and several guest artists.
38-06-19	141	Title Unknown ~~Where To~~	N	38-06-19 Lima News Rudy Vallee will make one of his rare appearances on a program other than his own when he is heard as guest star of the Magic Key of RCA program on Sunday, at 1:00 p.m., over WJZ. Vallee, who is heard each week over NBC networks as master of ceremonies of the Royal Desserts Hour, will join the Songsmiths quartet, and Frank Black's Magic Key orchestra on the program. Linton Wells, roving reporter, speaking from Montevideo, Uruguay, will bring Magic Key listeners another of his eye-witness accounts of life and current events in Latin America. Wells, who left New York on April 17, has been reporting latest developments in South and Central America during weekly Magic Key programs. He will return to the United States in August, after completing his four-month tour. 38-06-19 New York TImes 2:00-3:00--Concert Orchestra; Rudy Vallee and Ann de Ohla, Songs; Georges Barrere, Flute; Yella Pessi, Harpsichordist--WJZ
38-06-26	142	Title Unknown	N	38-06-26 Lima News Bob Hope, radio and musical comedy star, and Bunny Berigan's orchestra, currently one of the most popular bands in the country, will headline the Magic Key of RCA program on Sunday, from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m., over WJZ. Rose Marie, a grown-up edition of the precocious little songstress, Baby Rose Marie, will be a guest artist on the full-hour variety program, which also presents Linton Wells, Magic Key roving reporter, in an on-the-spot news report from Buenos Aires, and the Magic Key orchestra, conducted by Frank Black, NBC general music director.
38-07-03	143	The Blue and Gray 75th Anniversary	N	38-07-03 Lima News A gala variety hour, headed by Igor Gorin, young Russian baritone, Larry Clinton and his orchestra, and Irving Caesar, who will introduce another "Song of Safety," will be presented during the Magic Key of RCA program on Sunday, at 1:00 p.m., over WJZ. The Magic Key also will turn to historic Gettysburg, Pa., for an on-the-spot broadcast from the famous battlefield whre the veterans of the Blue and the Gray will be meeting on their 75th anniversary, and also to Rio de Janeiro, for a news broadcast by Linton Wells, Magic Key roving reporter. The Magic Key Orchestra, conducted by Frank Black, and the Revelers, veteran radio quartet, will round out the full-hour broadcast.
38-07-10	144	George Gershwin Tribute	N	38-07-10 Wisconsin State Journal Radio Pays Trubute to Gershwin Tonight in Programs of His Music--On the eve of the first anniversary of George Gershwin's death, radio will pay tribute to the American composer's memory in three programs devoted to his music. 12 m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Nathaniel Shilkret conducts all-Gershwin concert, with Jane Froman, Felix Knight, Sonny Schuyler.
38-07-17	145	Title Unknown	N	38-07-17 Wisconsin State Journal 12 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WMAQ): Cornelious Skinner, Linton Wells, and Hal Kemp's orchestra make up the menu.
38-07-24	146	Title Unknown	N	38-07-24 Wisconsin State Journal 12 m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Philadelphia orchestra; Eugene Ormandy, conductor; Charles O'Connell, guest conductor; Edward Roeker, Jr., baritone; De Glory Road," spiritual; "Die Fledermaus" overture, Strauss; interlude and dance from "La Vida Breve," "DeFalla; "Londonderry Air," Grainger; cakewalk from "Cakewalk Symphony" McDonald; "Minstrels," Debussy; variations on "Pop Goes the Weasel," Caillet; excerpts from "Tannhauser" and "The Mastersingers," Wagner.
38-07-31	147	Title Unknown	N	38-07-31 Wisconsin State Journal 12 n.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Imperial Marimba Symphony orchestra; Roy Shield orchestra; Edward Davies; Vic and Sade; Vass family; Linton Wells in Havana.
38-08-07	148	Title Unknown	N	38-08-07 Wisconsin State Journal 12 n.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Gladys Swarthout, soprano, today's main attraction.
38-08-14	149	Title Unknown	N	38-08-14 Wisconsin State Journal 12 n.--Magic Key (WIBA, FENR): Sara Allgood, Whitford Kane, Susanne Fisher, Clifford Menz, Sammy Kays orchestra.
38-08-21	150	Title Unknown	N	38-08-21 Wisconsin State Journal 12 n.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Doris Doe, contralto; Cesare Sodero, Jr., 11-year-old violinist; Larry Clinton orchestra; Todor Mazaroff, Bulgarian tenor; Clifton Fadiman; Franklin P. Adams.
38-08-28	151	Title Unknown	N	38-08-28 Wisconsin State Journal 12 n.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Col. Stoopnagle, Conrad Thibault, Beveridge Webster, Harriet Hilliard, Ozzie Nelson's orchestra, Golden Gate quartet, Frank Black's orchestra.
38-09-04	152	Title Unknown	N	38-09-04 Wisconsin State Journal 12 n.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Ireene Wicker; Pauline Lord, Marion Telva, Tommy Dorsey's and Frank Black's orchestras, Critic Clifton Fadiman.
38-09-11	153	Title Unknown	N	38-09-11 Wisconsin State Journal 12 m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Clifton Fadiman, master of ceremonies; Grete Stueckgold, soprano; Sara Allgood and Whitford Kane from the stage; Luboshutz and Nemnoff, pianists; Gray Gordon's orchestra.
38-09-18	154	A 'Seeing Eye' Demonstration	N	38-09-18 Wisconsin State Journal 12 n.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Efrem Zimbalist; demonstration of Seeing Eye in heavy traffic; Joan Briton, and Billie Halliday, "pop" singers; Artie Shaw's orchestra; Frank Black's orchestra.
38-09-25	155	Paderewski's Debut Over Radio	Y	[The Magic Key's Third Birthday] 38-09-25 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): with Ingace Paderewski, pianist.
38-10-02	156	A Scene from Lightin'	N	38-10-02 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Fred Stone in scene from "Lightnin';" Lotte Lehman in three songs.
38-10-09	--	Pre-Empted	--	[Preempted for the World Series] 38-10-09 Wisconsin State Journal 12:30 p.m.--World Series (WGN): Yankees vs. Cubs on WIBA, WMAQ, WCFL, WBBM at 12:45 p.m.; on WJJD, WIND at 1 p.m. 38-10-09 New York Times 1:45-4:00-World Series-WEAF, WOR, WJZ, WABC.
38-10-16	157	A Scene from Richelieu	N	38-10-16 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Walter Hampden in scene from "Richelieu;" Virginia Rea, Elizabeth Lennox, Alec Templeton.
38-10-23	158	A Salute to Navy Day 1938	Y	38-10-23 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Rose Bampton; "voice of the navy," with pickups from China, France, California, Connecticut.
38-10-30	159	A Bird's Eye View of the Golden Gate Exposition	Y	38-10-30 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): bird's-eye view of Golden Gate exposition; Ebe Stignani, Richard Bonelli, Dino Borgioli, opera singers.
38-11-06	160	Abe Lincoln in Illinois	Y	38-11-06 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Raymond Massey, Helen Jepson, Carlos Salzedo, Clifton Fadiman.
38-11-13	161	Sight Unseen	N	38-11-13 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Lauritz Melchior, Benny Goodman and Budapest String quartet (Mozart's "Quintet in B Flat"), Katherine Locke in "Sight Unseen," Clifton Fadiman, Frank Black's orchestra.
38-11-20	162	Title Unknown	N	38-11-20 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Cellist Emanuel Feuermann, Soprano Margaret Speaks, Actress Minnie Dupree.
38-11-27	163	Title Unknown	N	38-11-27 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Gertrude Lawrence, Rene Maison, Swor and Lulbin, Ransom Sherman, Roy Shield's orchestra.
38-12-04	164	Title Unknown	N	38-12-04 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WMAW): Maria Caniglia, soprano, Sheila Barrett, mimic, and Fairchild and Carroll, pianists featured.
38-12-11	165	Marian Anderson, Eric Blore and Clifton Fadiman	Y	38-12-11 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Marian Anderson, Eric Blore, and Clifton Fadiman appear.
38-12-18	166	Schola Cantorum Christmas Melodies	N	38-12-18 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): John Charles Thomas, baritone, and the Schola Cantorum of New York sing Christmas melodies.
38-12-25	167	Christmas Day Celebration	N	[Christmas Day Program] 38-12-25 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Benjamino Gigli, operatic tenor, the Vienna Choir boys, and Kitty Cheatham.
39-01-01	168	Air Parade Special	N	39-01-01 Wisconsin State Journal Air Parade Led Today By 'Magic Key' Show Presenting Laughton--Reviews and previews head radio's offerings today. The march of events of 1938 will be reviewed and dramatized on several programs and a preview of what the networks will offer for the new year will be heard. NBC's "Magic Key" heads today's parade with a two-hour program, originating in New York, Washington, London, with pick-ups from six other foreign lands. The program will be aired through stations WIBA, WMAQ, WENR, and WTMJ at 1 p.m. The "Key's" show will include a dramatization by Charles Laughton, and his wife, Elsa Lanchester; president; music by Kirsten Flagstad, Ezio Pinza, Dr. Walter Damrosch, and Larry Clinton's orchestra, and comedy by Olsen and Johnson.
39-01-08	169	A Musical Tribute To Stephen Foster	Y	[Poor, edited recording; Ending clipped and another close spliced on] 39-01-08 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Elsie Janis, actress, Elizabeth Schumann, lieder singer, and Alexander Woolcott, "Town Crier", participate.
39-01-15	170	Cadenza	N	39-01-15 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): the stage and screen will be represented by Margal Gilmore, Sylvia Brema, Robert Wildback, and the "girls trio" from "The Boys from Syracuse."
39-01-22	171	Title Unknown	N	39-01-22 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Indianapolis Symphony orchestra under the direction of Fabien Sevitsky and Lauritz Melchoir, Wagnerian tenor, head hour.
39-01-29	172	A Salute to Victor Herbert	Y	39-01-29 Wisconsin State Journal Magic Key Program to Observe Anniversary of Herbert's Birth--The 80th anniversary of the birth of Victor Herbert will be commemorated during the Magic Key program when the Victor Light Opera company, conducted by Nathaniel Shilkret, features a full hour of the American composer's works. Soloists to be heard include Morton Bowe, tenor; Anne Jamison, soprano, and Thomas L. Thomas, baritone. Stations WIBA and WENR will air the program in this area.
39-02-05	173	Scenes from A Sunny Morning	Y	39-02-05 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Marjorie Lawrence, soprano; Eva Le Gallienne, actress; Sammy Kaye and orchestra, and Shelton and Howard, comedians.
39-02-12	174	Lincoln Day Appreciation	Y	39-02-12 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Grace Moore, soprano, and Alexander Woollcott, author and commentator, head program.
39-02-19	175	Maggie McShane	N	39-02-19 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Nathan Milstein, violinist, and Sara Allgood, Whitford Kane, and Hiram Sherman, stage actors, head program.
39-02-26	176	An All-Paderewski Program	Y	39-02-26 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Ignace Jan Paderewski, famed Polish pianist, will herald his American tour with a broadcast at 1 p.m. today through NBC-WIBA-WENR.
39-03-05	177	Scenes from Stars In Your Eyes	N	39-03-05 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Jimmy Durante and Ethel Merman in scenes from "Stars In Your Eyes," a pickup from the Pan American "17", and songs by Ezio Pinza, basso.
39-03-12	178	The Hamilton College Glee Club	Y	39-03-12 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Alexander Woolcott, author, and Jan Piepura, tenor, head attractions.
39-03-19	179	School For Scandal - Distant Drums	N	39-03-19 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): seven symphonists play swing tunes; Pauline Lord appears as Lady Teazel; the swing "Mikado" cast and Loretta Lee sing.
39-03-26	180	When the Whistle Blows	N	39-03-26 Wisconsin State Journal Ancient and modern times will be contrasted today during the Magic Key program when the symbol of the world of tomorrow, the trylon at the New York World's fair, is linked with the ancient Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Tower of London, and the Eiffel tower of France. Commentators will carry on trans-Atlantic conversations from the respective towers. The entertainment portion of the Key program will be highlighted by Nancy Carroll's appearance in "When the Whistle Blows," a whimsical romantic sketch. The programs will be heard through stations WIBA and WENR at 1 p.m.
39-04-02	181	An Action Preview of Army Day	Y	39-04-02 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): a preview of Army day--from land, sky and foreign posts.
39-04-09	182	Easter On the Airwaves	N	[Easter Program] 39-04-09 Wisconsin State Journal Marian Anderson, Iturbi Star on Easter Airwaves--It's a musical Easter on the airwaves today. Beginning at dawn and lasting until midnight, Easter programs will predominate. Outstanding artists on today's broadcasts include Marian Anderson, Negro contralto, Marjorie Lawrence, soprano, Jose Iturbi, pianist, and Helen Hadley, soprano. Another special event is the appearance of the Philadelphia Symphony orchestra, assisted by the Westminster choir, on the Magic Key program. 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Philadelphia symphony orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy, with Marjorie Lawrence, Wagnerian prima donna, as soloist.
39-04-16	183	A Salute to Open House Week	N	39-04-16 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): salute to Open House week with John Charles Thomas, baritone, Robert MacGimsey, whistler, and Lulu McConnell, actress.
39-04-23	184	The Hot Mikado	N	39-04-23 Wisconsin State Journal 1 p.m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): highlights from "The Hot Mikado," with Bill Robinson, others; Bruna Castagna; mimic Sheila Barrett.
39-04-30	185	A Scene from Katherine Parr	Y	[Special Half-hour program to allow for a speech by FDR at the opening of the World's Fair] 39-04-30 Wisconsin State Journal 12m.--Magic Key (Wiba, WENR): Robert Morley, Margalo Gillmore in "Katherine Parr"; Jarmila Novotna, soprano. 39-04-30 Wisconsin State Journal 12:30--World Fair Opening WBBM WENR WCFL 39-04-30 Wisconsin State Journal FDR, Whalen, Lehman, LaGuardia to Speak on N.Y. Fair Program Opening of the New York World's Fair and the 150th anniversary of George Washington's inauguration—which it ostensibly honors—will be celebrated on the networks today and tonight. Presidcnt Roosevelt, Grover Whalen, president of the fair, Gov. Herbert H. Lehman of New York, and Mayor F. H. LaGuardia of New York City will speak during a broadcast at noon through WMAQ, WGN, and WIND. The latter half, including the president's address, will be broadcast also by WIBA, WENR, WBBM, and WCFL. The Washington anniversary will be marked by broadcast of a dramatic sketch on WENR at 3 p. m. It will be "First In Peace—Our First President," by Ernest Boyd, author, editor, and diplomat. Principal points interest at the fair will be described during the Sunday Evening Hour on WBBM at 7 p. m. The microphone tour will include the sponsor's building, the federal building, the temple of religion, and the lagoon of nations' fountain display. Music will include Dvorak's "Carnival" overture, "The Beautiful Blue Danube," and "Pomp and Circumstance," played by a symphony orchestra conducted by Fritz Reinor, organ solos by Ernest White, and songs by the Hall Johnson choir.
39-05-07	186	16th National Music Week Observance	N	39-05-07 Wisconsin State Journal David Sarnoff, chairman of the National Music week committee will dedicate the 16th annual National Music week during the Magic Key broadcast at noon today through WIBA-WENR. Conductor Frank Black will present an all-American program with Rose Bampton and Robert Weede as soloists.
39-05-14	187	Who'll Buy My Lavender	Y	39-05-14 Wisconsin State Journal 12 m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Jane Cowl, actress, James Melton, tenor, and Casper Reardon, swing harpist, guests.
39-05-21	188	Highlights from Mexicana	Y	39-05-21 Wisconsin State Journal 12 m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): excerpts from "Mexicana," with Cencente Gomez, Tito Coral, Rita Rios, others.
39-05-28	189	Ode To Memorial Day	N	39-05-28 Wisconsin State Journal 12 m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): George Gaul reads Guiterman's "Ode to Memorial Day;" Ruth Chatterton stars in "The Anniversary;" Joan Edwards and the Southernaires sing; Col. Stoopnagle gets the laughs.
39-06-04	190	Marc Antony and Cleopatra	N	39-06-04 Wisconsin State Journal 12 m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): New Friends of Rhythm, Eddie Green, the family man.
39-06-11	191	The Tridget of Greva ~~The Trivet of Greta~~	N	39-06-11 Wisconsin State Journal 12 m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): Parker Fennelly, Mark Smith, Bob Strauss in Ring Lardner's "The Tridget of Greva;" music by Dick Todd, Tune Twisters, symphony orchestra conducted by Nathaniel Shilkret.
39-06-18	192	Title Unknown	N	39-06-18 Wisconsin State Journal 12 m.--Magic Key (WIBA, WENR): The Philadelphia Symphony orchestra with Conrad Thibault and Muriel Dickson as soloists. 39-06-18 New York Times 2:00-3:00--Philadelphia Summer Symphony Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy, Conductor--WJZ.

39-06-26	193	A Preview of Second Fiddle	Y	[Moves to Mondays] 39-06-26 Wisconsin State Journal The Magic Key, long a Sunday afternoon feature, makes its Monday debut tonight at 6:30 over station WLS. On the first program of the new series Irving Berlin, Rudy Vallee, Sonja Henje, Mary Healy, and Tyrone Power will appear in a half-hour preview of the motion picture, "Second Fiddle." From London, Buenos Aires, Hollywood, and New York, orchestras of Jack Harris, Oswaldo Fresdo, Lou Silvers, and Tommy Dorsey will be heard. 39-06-26 New York Times 8:30-9:30--Variety Show: Pick-ups From London, Oslo, Buenos Aires, Hollywood and New York; Entertainment by Screen Actors--WJZ.
39-07-03	194	Opens with That's Right I'm Wrong	N	39-07-03 Wisconsin State Journal 6:30 p.m.--Magic Key (WLS): Col. Stoopnagle, Carmen Miranda, Charlie Barnett's band, others. 39-07-03 New York Times 8:30-9:30--Variety Show: Carmen Miranda, Singer; Le Roy Miller, Comedian; Rodgers Sisters, Songs, and Others--WJZ.
39-07-10	195	Title Unknown	N	39-07-10 Wisconsin State Journal 6:30 p.m.--Magic Key (WLS): Stuart Robertson, English Basso, and Glenn Miller and his orchestra headline broadcast.
39-07-17	196	Title Unknown	N	39-07-17 Wisconsin State Journal 6:30 p.m.--Magic Key (WLS): Sammy Kaye's orchestra, Col. Stoopnagle, Vass family, others.
39-07-24	197	Title Unknown	N	39-07-24 Wisconsin State Journal 6:30 p.m.--Magic Key (WLS): Bob Zurke's orchestra makes air debut.
39-07-31	198	Title Unknown	N	39-07-31 Wisconsin State Journal 6:30 p.m.--Magic Key (WLS): Melville Clark, amateur harpist, and his wife on the novachord; Helen Jepson, soprano, and Col. Lemuel Q. Stoopnagle, inventor.
39-08-07	199	Title Unknown	N	39-08-07 Wisconsin State Journal 6:30 p.m.--Magic Key (WLS): Lew Lehr encounters Col. Lemuel Q. Stoopnagle. 39-08-07 New York Times 8:30-9:30Varietv Show: Concert, Orchestra; Nathaniel Shilkret, Conductor; Miller Band; Lew Lehr, Comedian; Others--WJZ.
39-08-14	200	Title Unknown	N	[Contrary to the Hickerson Guide, The Magic Key absolutely did not air as a 30-minute broadcast beginning on August 14, 1939] 39-08-14 Wisconsin State Journal 7 p.m.--Magic Key (WENR): at new hour; Col. Stoopnagle, Eddie Gardner, Shep Fields and Nat Shilkret's orchestras, Rodgers sisters, Bea Wain, Leroy Miller. 39-08-14 New York Times 9:00--WJZ--Variety Show: Concert Orchestra. Nathaniel Skilkret, Conductor; Fields Orch.; Rodgers Sisters, Bea Wain, LeRoy Miller. Songs: Colonel Stoopnagle, Eddie Gardner, Comedy
39-08-21	201	Whisper You Care	N	39-08-21 Wisconsin State Journal 7 p.m.--Magic Key (WLS): Sheila Barrett, mimic, Vincent Lopez's orchestra, and Felix Knight, tenor guests; Geraldine Farrar's "Whisper You Care" introduced. 39-08-21 New York Times 9:00-10:00Variety: Concert Orchestra, Nathaniel Shilkret, Conductor; Sheila Barrett, Mimic; Lopez Orchestra, and Others--WJZ.
39-08-28	202	The Facts About A Gas-Pipe Organ	N	39-08-28 Wisconsin State Journal 7 p.m.--Magic Key (WLS): Oscar Levant, Information Please "expert" teaches Stoopnagle the "facts about a gas-pipe organ." 39-08-28 New York Times 9:00-10:00Variety Show: Oscar Levant, Pianist; Harriet Hilliard, songstress; Orchestra, Nathaniel Shilkret, Director; Others--WJZ.
39-09-04	203	Scenes from Golden Boy	N	39-09-03 Wisconsin State Journal Monday 7 p.m.--Magic Key (WENR): Barbara Stanwyck, William Holden, Adolphe Menjou, Lee Cobb preview "Golden Boy." 39-09-04 New York Times 9:00--WJZ--Variety Show: Concert Orchestra. Nathaniel Skilkret, Conductor; Colonel Stoopnagle; Chester Orch.; Lowell Thomas Introducing Barbara Stanwyck, William Holden, Adolphe Menjou and Lee Cobb.
39-09-11	204	Tramming At the Fair	N	39-09-11 Wisconsin State Journal 7 p.m.--Magic Key (WLS): Jessica Dragonette heads guestars; introducing a new composition "Tramming at the Fair." 39-09-11 New York Times 9:00-10:00--Variety Show: Jessica Dragonette, Soprano; Others--WJZ. 39-09-10 Long Beach Independent JESSICA DRAGONETTE returns to the air following an extensive concert tour tonight on RCA's Magic Key program (NBC-Blue: at 6 pm). Colonel Stoopnagle will be master of ceremonies on the program, which will also feature Bertee Shefter, pianist-composer, and Gray Gordon, Victor recording songster. OLD TIME fans remember Billie Burke as the lovely redheaded glamour girl whose vogue was greatest in World War times. Newspaper readers remember her as the wife of Flo Ziegfeld. More recently Miss Burke has been doing character roles in the movies, playing screwball wifes of business tycoons, where she has shown herself adept at comic characterization. Last Week Miss Burke was guest star of the Good News of 1940 program on the NBC-Red network. 39-09-11 San Mateo Times 5:00-6:00—KGO, Magic Key Colonel Stoppnagle, emcee. Nat Shilkret's orchestra, Le Roy Miller, Cliff, Nazarro, Jessica, Drngonelte, Bert Shefter and Gray Gordon's band.
39-09-18	205	Title Unknown	N	39-09-18 Wisconsin State Journal 7 p.m.--Magic Key (WENR): Xavier Cugat's band; Dinah Shore, concert orchestra, aviation drama. 39-09-18 New York Times 9:00-10:00--Variety: Concert Orchestra, Nathaniel Shilkret, Conductor; Dinah Shore, Songs, and Others--WJZ.
39-09-25	--		--	39-09-25 Wisconsin State Journal 7:00--Order of Adventurers--WLS 39-09-25 New York Times 9:00--WJZ--Roth Orchestra 9:30--WJZ--Senator H. Styles Bridges "Road to Peace" 9:45--WJZ--Jules Dubois, Speaking From Panama Peace Conference
39-10-02	--		--	39-10-02 New York Times 9:00-9:30--Bishop Bernard J. Sheil of Chicago - "American Youth and the Europeon War."--WJZ.

The Magic Key of RCA Radio Program Biographies

Dr. Frank Jeremiah Black [Preston DuPre, Cyril Crossing, and some 20 other noms de plume] Vaudeville, Stage, Radio, Television, and Film Composer, Arranger, Conductor; Music Historian (1894-1968) Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. Education: Haverford College, PA; University of Pennsylvania; PhD (h.c.), Missouri Valley College Radiography: 1927 The Revelers 1932 Big Six of The Air 1934 The Lucky Strike Music Hall 1934 The Pause that Refreshes 1936 The Magic Key 1937 Carnation Contented Hour 1938 The Cities Service Concerts 1939 Great Plays 1940 The White Cliffs 1941 Frank Black Presents 1942 Plays for Americans 1942 This Is War 1942 Command Performance 1943 Music of The New World 1943 Words At War 1948 Carnegie Hall Concerts 1941 The Treasury Hour 1941 Frank Black Presents 1941 NBC's 15th Anniversary Party 1941 Music Every American Knows 1942 Plays For Americans 1942 NBC Summer Symphony 1942 Command Performance 1942 Music Of the New World 1943 Words At War 1943 General Motors Symphony of the Air 1944 The Cleveland Symphony 1944 The NBC Symphony Orchestra 1945 The Gus Haenschen All String Orchestra 1946 NBC Parade of Stars 1953 Cadillac Choral Symphony 1955 Anthology 1957 Recollections At Thirty	Dr. Black was NBC's Director of Music for 14 years Dr. Frank Black conducted the all-male, 22-voice Cadillac Choral Symphony Dr. Frank Black (right) discusses arrangements with Irving Berlin (1936) Dr. Frank Black conducting circa 1937 Dr. Black served as ABC's Music Director in 1948	Pennsylvnia-born Frank Jeremiah Black was the son of a Quaker dairyman. As a boy, Frankie Black had earned extra income by playing the upright piano at the area nickelodeon. Eschewing the family dairy business, Frank Black enrolled instead at nearby Haverford College to pursue a degree in Chemistry. Black rediscovered Music while in college. His new found passion for Music took him to New York where he reportedly studied under renowned Hungarian pianist and composer, Rafael Joseffy. When it came time to pay the bills Frank Black applied his talents to scoring for vaudevillians and other odd journeyman music work. Bu the age of 21, his growing reputation found him scoring music for Tin Pan Alley and Broadway. Between 1921 and 1926 Frank Black was scoring music, writing arrangements, and directing Broadway and off-Broadway musicals for George and Ira Gershwin, Rogers and Hart, Jerome Kern and Florence Ziegfeld. In 1926 Frank Black began working with The Revelers, a popular male quartet of the era. Black's arrangements for The Revelers propelled the group to several hit recordings of the era and a 1927 Vitaphone Short, The Revelers. Frank Black later applied his experience scoring for The Revelers' close-harmony arrangements to several series' featuring even larger male choruses for the following 25 years. From the February 13th, 1939 issue of Time Magazine: Monday, Feb. 13, 1939 Radio: Old Timer In the young business of radio, the oldest continuous network commercial program is the Cities Service Concert (age 12), selling motor oil and gasoline. Last week Cities Service signed up for its 13th year over NBC. Like many another radio old timer, the Cities Service program got its start with Graham McNamee announcing. First feature was silvery Edwin Franko Goldman's cornety band. When the program was a half-year old, Canadian Conductor Rosario Bourdon took over, be gan making the Cities Service hour the big-time show it is today. He handed the baton over last February to Dr.* Frank Jeremiah Black, an old timer, too. Frank Black will conduct the Cities Service hour 52 Friday nights. He will also continue to be NBC's musical director, conduct the RCA Magic Key concerts Sunday afternoons, run his NBC string symphony this summer, oversee NBC's vast music library, dash off arrangement — popular or high-brow — which are the envy of the profession. For all this he will collect some $100,000. A whimsical, greying man of 44, Philadelphia-born Frank Jeremiah Black can look back through his heavy horn-rimmed cheaters on 25 adventurous years in music As a boy he played the piano in a nickelodeon. University of Pennsylvania turned him out a chemist, but piano-pounding in a Harrisburg hotel offered better money. From then on he stuck to music, studied under Organist Charles Maskill and Pianist Rafael Joseffy, applied this talent to writing vaudeville songs, editing for a Philadelphia music publisher, and running his own player piano roll company. He used to pound rolls out by the yard, under some 20 different names—Preston Dupre for the classics, Cyril Crossing for tangos, other Frenchy names for "saluts d'amour," etc. In 1916 he came to Broadway and Tin Pan Alley, arranged and directed musicals for Jerome Kern, Rudolf Friml, Ziegfelu, Rodgers & Hart, Gershwin. He arranged the swipes that made the Revelers quartet a popular and much plagiarized sensation in the late '20s. Most exciting season in Frank Black's career was 1936-37. With the Carnation Milk program to direct in Chicago Monday nights and the Magic Key in Manhattan Sundays, he commuted by air between the two cities for 58 weeks. To give air travel its due, he never missed an engagement. But in those 58 weeks, he "ran the entire gamut of airplane adventure except for being killed." He was gashed and kayoed when bumpy air over the troublesome Nittany Mountains conked him against an overhead baggage rack. He once watched ambulances gather below him at Newark when his ship could not get its landing gear down. He weathered innumerable forced landings and is one of the few air travelers who ever landed on an airport backwards. On that occasion the pilot overshot Chicago airport, bounced off the far end of the runway, cleared an embankment, and fetched up in a soggy meadow. The passengers sat, wondering what next, when suddenly the grounded airliner started backwards out of the swamp, rumbled over the embankment and back on the runway tail first, towed, they soon found out, by an airport tractor. Frank Black, who finds the lofty detachment of air travel just the ticket for writing arrangements, still likes to fly. *Of Music, Missouri Valley College, 1935.

Benjamin Franklin 'Ben' Grauer (Announcer) Radio, Television, Film and Stage Actor; NBC Announcer/Narrator (1908-1977) Birthplace: Staten Island, New York City, U.S.A. Education: B.A., City College of New York Radiography: 1930 The Coca-Cola Top-Notchers 1932 Olympic Games 1933 Thrills Of Tomorrow For Boys 1934 The Baker's Broadcast 1934 Fleischmann's Yeast Hour 1935 Radio City Matinee 1935 The Nellie Revell Show 1935 Ripley's Believe It Or Not 1935 Circus Night In Silvertown 1935 Lux Radio Theatre 1935 The Magic Key 1936 Paul Whiteman's Musical Varieties 1937 The Shell Show 1937 Shell Chateau 1937 The Fact Finder 1938 The Royal Desserts Program 1938 Walter Winchell 1938 Pulitzer Prize Plays 1939 Richard Himber and His Orchestra 1939 The Vitalis P rogram 1940 H.V. Kaltenborn 1940 News Roundup 1952 America Looks Abroad 1940 Behind the Mike 1941 The News From Europe 1941 Sunday Evening News Roundup 1941 NBC Sunday News Roundup 1941 Jergens Journal 1941 The Hemisphere Review 1941 Two Years Of War 1941 Radio City Music Hall Symphony Orchestra 1941 Kay Kyser's Kollege Of Musical Knowledge 1941 The March Of Time 1942 Radio City Music Hall On the Air 1943 Music Of the New World 1943 Mr and Mrs North 1943 Information Please 1943 The NBC Symphony Orchestra 1943 The Fitch Bandwagon 1943 Your Home Front Reporter 1943 General Motors Symphony Of the Air 1944 Treasury Salute 1944 Opening Of the Fourth War Loan 1944 NBC D-Day Coverage 1944 Republican National Convention 1944 Democratic National Convention 1944 We Came This Way 1944 Liberaton 1945 The Harold Lloyd Comedy Theatre 1945 V-E Day Coverage 1945 Atlantic Spotlight 1945 The Charlie McCarthy Show 1946 Alec Templeton Time 1946 A Story For V-J Day 1947 Echoes Of A Century 1947 Home Is What You Make It 1947 Here's To Veterans 1947 You Have To Go Out 1947 Housing 1947 1948 The Chesterfield Supper Club 1948 Guest Star 1948 Living 1948 1948 Author Meets the Critics 1949 March Of Dimes 1949 The Henry Morgan Show 1949 Could Be 1950 The People Act 1950 We Can Do It 1950 The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show 1951 Memo For Americans 1951 The Big Show 1951 Theatre Guild On the Air 1951 Living 1951 1951 American Portraits 1952 The Endless Frontier 1952 The Forty Million 1953 Medicine U.S.A. 1955 Biography In Sound 1955 Best Of All 1955 Guest Star 1956 X Minus One 1956 Recollections At Thirty 1956 Sleep No More 1957 The Boston Pops 1959 Johnny Presents 1959 Meet the Press 1961 Monitor 1962 Democracy In America 1968 New Year's Eve All-Star Parade Of Bands 1973 New Year's Eve With Guy Lombardo 1976 The First Fabulous 50	Ben Grauer circa 1947 A 1932 profile of Ben Grauer cited his acting background since the age of 8. Caption: Ben Grauer not only takes 'em but develops 'em (1938) Ben Grauer applauds the Boss, Raymond Firestone on accepting an award for The Firestone Hour. Ben Grauer interviews Tobey Balding a five year old British evacuee during a World War II Broadcast Ben Grauer chats with Kukla of Kukla, Fran and Ollie from the TV Show of the same name Ben Grauer circa 1964 Helen Hayes sits next to Mrs. Ben Grauer -- Melanie Kahane -- at an unidentified event during the 1960s Ben Grauer sits at the Monitor Desk with Miss Monitor on the phone.	Benjamin Franklin Grauer was born in Staten Island, New York. Already a child actor in films and on Broadway during the 1920s, he began his career as a child actor in David Warfield's production of The Return of Peter Grimm. Among his early credits were roles in films directed by D.W. Griffith. After graduating from Townsend Harris High School, he received his B.A. from City College of New York in 1930. Grauer started in radio as an actor but soon joined the broadcasting staff of the National Broadcasting Company. Grauer was one of the four narrators, along with Burgess Meredith, of NBC's public affairs series The Big Story, which focused on courageous journalists. Starting in 1932, Grauer covered the Olympic Games, presidential inaugurations and international events. During the course of his extraordinary radio career, Ben Grauer covered nearly every major historic event, including the Morro Castle fire, the Paris Peace Conference and the US Occupation of Japan. Upon graduating in 1930, a 22-year-old Ben Grauer joined the staff at NBC. He quickly rose through the ranks to become a senior commentator and reporter. He was the designated announcer for the popular 1940s Walter Winchell's Jergens Journal and was selected by Arturo Toscanini to become the voice of the NBC Symphony Orchestra. Grauer took over in 1940 and remained until it was disbanded in June 1954. Toscanini said he was his favorite announcer. Grauer provided the commentary for NBC's first television special--the opening in of the 1939 New York World's Fair. In 1948 Grauer, together with John Cameron Swayze provided the first live TV coverage of the national political conventions. In 1956 NBC began broadcasting some of their shows in living color and in 1957 the animated Peacock logo made its debut. It was Grauer who first spoke the now famous words, "The following program is brought to you in living color on NBC," behind the Peacock graphic. During his forty year broadcast career, Ben Grauer hosted numerous TV programs on NBC, including game shows, quiz shows, concerts and news programs. In 1954, he married interior designer Melanie Kahane. Millions still remember his NBC coverage of the annual New Year's celebrations on both radio and TV. Between 1951 and 1969, Grauer covered New Years Eve at Times' Square eleven times. Grauer continued covering New Year's Eve for Guy Lombardo's New Year's Eve specials on CBS throughout the 1970s, with his last appearance on December 31, 1976, the year before both he and Guy Lombardo died. Several years after the death of Toscanini, Grauer and composer Don Gillis (who produced the NBC programs from 1947 to 1954), created the Peabody Award-winning radio series Toscanini, the Man Behind the Legend. Beginning in 1963, it continued through the centennial of Toscanini's birth in 1967. The Toscanini series ran for nearly two decades on NBC Radio and then other radio stations until the early 1980s. In the last decade before his death, Grauer collected material for a projected history of Prices and Pricing, with special attention to Book Prices. He was active in several professional journalistic organizations as well as the Grolier Club. Grauer had a strong interest in the graphic arts, annually printing his own Christmas cards. All of the networks produced at least one or two truly memorable network voices, whether as recurring announcers, heavily tapped narrators, or on occasion simply the voice of a familiar newsreader. NBC Radio was particularly blessed in this regard, as were its listeners. CBS had Dan Seymour, and NBC had Ben Grauer. The two were justifiable legends in their own lights at their respective networks. But Ben Grauer quite literally did it all at NBC. No matter the task--from newswriting or reading to comedy to Toscanini to quiz shows to all day stints at Monitor--and on both Radio and Television. Ben Grauer literally has no equal in the history of Radio and Television as an announcer, and few equals in overall versatility. The literally thousands of circulating Radio recordings and Television kinescopes or films that bear Ben Grauer's unmistakable signature--crystal clear ennunciation, steady rock-solid delivery, and natural enthusiasm. We miss him now 32 years after his passing and indeed he will always be missed as long as any of his recordings remain available.

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The Magic Key of RCA Radio Program

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The Magic Key of RCA Radio Program Biographies