Astaire on air: The Packard Hour, 1936

[Fletch]

On the web for your entertainment is this example of Fred Astaire's big-time radio musicale for Packard Motors.

You'll hear Johnny Green's great orchestra and piano, Hollywood's lovable upper-class twit Charlie Butterworth, and the pop-eratic pipes of Allan Jones and Anne Jamison - all in addition to Mr. A's inimitable vocalisms and repartée. He even taps out a few rhythm choruses here and there.

This broadcast of November 3, 1936, is interrupted at points for election returns from the history-making Roosevelt-Landon race, via the Press-Radio Bureau.

Enjoy!

The Fred Astaire Packard Hour, 11/3/36 (.mp3)

Not your typical summer replacement...

 

[Tomasso]

Thanks, Fletch.

Astaire had a radio show, who knew.

 

[BJBAmerica]

Thanks, Fletch!!! Looking forward to giving this a listen!!

 

[Fletch]

Astaire had a radio show, who knew.

LizzieMaine, our Guardian of the Aethereal Realms, surely knew.
I did, too, but until now I'd never heard it.
I'd be surprised if many (or any) more exist. This was surely only recorded because of the election night angle. Recording off the air was very expensive then and done as seldom as possible.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Actually, the recordings are airchecks made for Johnny Green, the orchestra leader on the program. Most of the series was recorded, but many programs are not complete -- this is one of the few that has survived intact. It's been reissued on cassette and CD over the years.

The discs were acquired by a now-deceased west coast collector directly from Green himself, and as the story goes, they were stored under his bed...

 

[dhermann1]

Astaire - Packard

This is really unrelated, but the discussion pushed a button. There's a scene in one of the Astaire Rogers musicals that's always driven me crazy, I believe involving a Packard. I believe the song is "A Fine Romance". They've gone off for a ride in the country, in what I believe is a grand old Packard phaeton. They wind up in some "snowy" spot where they sing their song. What bugs me is. where but in Hollywood do people go roaring off for a ride in the country, with the snow pouring down, with the top down???
Please excuse the interruption.

 

[Harp]

Thanks, Fletch

...What bugs me is. where but in Hollywood do people go roaring off for a ride in the country, with the snow pouring down, with the top down???
Please excuse the interruption.

Northern Illinois...lol

 

[dhermann1]

Northern Illinois...lol

Is that like people in Boston walking down the street on a bitterly freezing January day slurping an ice cream cone?

 

[Harp]

Is that like people in Boston walking down the street on a bitterly freezing January day slurping an ice cream cone?

a reasonable comparison.

 

[Harp]

...unless they are from Harvard. lol