America's history through the lens of 20th century broadcast media
Copyright 2020 Greenstone Media Consulting, LLC
American Broadcasting Company
Program Glimpses
Francesco Longo, 1929
John Pearson emoting
Club Ether, Paul Whiteman Orch, Vic Meyers Trio, 1929
Dorothy Cannon
John Pearson
Herman Kenin filled
many hours of ABC
airtime both from
the San Francisco
KYA studios as well
as in remote
broadcasts from San
Francisco locations
where his orchestra
was performing.
Franceso Longo conducted the American Philharmonic Orchestra from San
Francisco. It was not until 1937 that another network
launched its own symphony orchestra (the NBC
Symphony) bearing that network’s name.
“Harper’s Corner”, written by Mitchell Sutherland,
was set in a small rural
community (a program
that perhaps anticipated
the later soap opera, Ma
Perkins). The cast included
Burton James as the
Barber, John Pearson as the
constable, Albert Ottenheimer as “Grandpa Prouty”
and Robert Reef as “Budge Talbot.” After leaving
radio Mitchell was a long-time writer on the staff of
the “Seattle Times”. (Harper's Corner promotional
cast photo at left)
Vic Meyers orchestra filled
hours of each ABC broadcast
day. Meyers and his orchestra
were also often heard on the
late night “Club Ether”
program.
The “Histories of Paul Bunyan”
was written by James Stevens
and was sometimes set in the
Haywire Logging Company
(shown in the publicity photo
below).
Harry Colwell
wrote “The
Great American
Appleburys” on
which Dorothy
Cannon starred
as Flora
Applebury.
John Pearson,
who was an ABC
announcer (and
continued on at
KJR for many
years) also acted
on ABC shows
such as “Harper’s Corner”.
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