Early Mel Blanc radio highlights

[Yhtapmys]

I've hunted around for some early newspaper mentions of Mel. I haven't found any feature stories .. cartoons were pretty much ignored unless the word 'Disney' was attached .. all I've found is some newspaper highlights. All of them are from Al Pearce and His Gang. Any of the Pearce shows I've found on line have poor sound quality.

The earliest one is for March 20, 1940. This was an historic night on radio. People were being urged to tune in to Fred Allen because his show was going to feature an eagle. Little did anyone know it was to be one of Fred's most famous programmes.

Anyway, here's the part of the listings about Mel. Note that Mr. Kitzel had initials:

Pearce Gang Plans Special "Welcome Spring" Broadcast
[March 20, 1940]
"In the spring, a young man's fancy"—and why should Al Pearce and his Gang be any exception? Having thus decided, they will salute the season and use it as the theme of their program on the CBS from 8 to 8:30 p. m. Wednesday.
Pearce as Elmer Blurt, Artie "C. B. Kitzel" Auerbach, Carl Hoff, Blanche Stewart, Mel Blanc and Phil Kramer will concentrate their comedy on the spring theme, while Arlene Harris' "Human Chatterbox" monologue will center, around a visit to a sick friend.
In the musical department, Hoff will revive one of the late George Gershwin's early successes. "Lady Be Good," and the orchestra will also present the currently popular "Say Si Si."
Marie and Her Merry Men will sing their own novel arrangement of the well known concert song "Clavelitos."
- - -
Blanche Stewart, of course, appeared with Jack regularly in the 30s and then again after the war. I admire anyone who can do human and animal characters. Phil, I believe, was the emcee's voice in the cartoon Hamateur Night. And Mr. Bryan needs intwoduction.

Pearce changed his cast for the following season, as witnessed by this highlight from Oct. 4, 1940:

FRANCES HILL, for eight years a singing star on Nashville's CBS station, WLAC, will be the special guest of Al Pearce during the presentation of the "Al Pearce Show." (CBS, Friday, 7:30 to 8 p. m.) In addition, all the "gang" will be there—Artie Auerbach, Arthur Q. Bryan, Mel Blanc, Dick Lane, Margaret Brayton, Josef Forte, Bill Wright and Wendell Niles.

Lane played Steve Bradley on Jack's show, and I think Bill Wright is the same guy as Will Wright, who was one of the IRS guys on Jack's show. And my educated guess is Margaret Brayton appeared with Jack as well; she was about the only Margaret I can think of working in network radio in L.A. at the time.

Pearce was one of radio's early comedians...

[Oct. 11, 1940]
Twelve solid years on the air and the beginning of his 12th year of commercial broadcasting will be the record to be celebrated by Al Pearce when he and his gang broadcast their weekly fun-fest over CBS Friday from 7:30 to 8 p. m. for Camel Cigarettes.
Aiding and abetting Pearce in his celebration, which on the broadcast will be set at a mythical night club, will be all the gang members—"Mr. Kitzel," Waymond W. Wadcliffe, Wendell Niles, Carl Hoff and his orchestra, fast-talking Dick Lane, Margaret Brayton and Mel Blanc.
Guests for the occasion will be Capt. Ozie Waters of KLZ, Denver, singer and guitar player making his first appearance on a coast-to-eoast commercial program, and the two-piano team of Bill Jordan and George Kent, who were guest-starred on last week's Pearce stanza.

There's a newspaper story the same day about Jimmy Durante being accused of abusing his estranged wife. He called the charge "humiliatin'."

Nov. 29, 1940 finds the following:

"Al Pearce and His Gang" have a special treat in store for their radio listeners Friday night. Bert Henderson, "impersonator extraordinary," guest stars on the show (CBS, 7:30-8 p.m.)
Artie Auerbach, Dick Lane, Arthur Q. Bryan, Margaret Brayton, Mel Blanc and others join in destruction of a new super-drama especially written for them. And Al Pearce himself will do one of his famous "Elmer Blurt" sketches.

Pearce's show was somewhat different than Jack's though they both had a cast that did a large sketch and a few cast members who appeared only in character. Pearce had at least one of his own characters he'd play as a lead in a sketch, where Jack basically played himself.

Similar radio listings can be found for Jack's show as well, but only the creditted cast ever gets mentioned.

Yhtapmys

P.S.: Oh, an earlier reference to Mel has popped up. This is Feb. 2, 1939, in a pile of miscellaneous things in a radio column (I'm guessing it's from the A.P.). I'll add another item relevant to Jack:

Mel Blanc, the "hiccup man" on the Al Jolson programs, is the voice of ''Porky the Pig'' in the Schlessinger film cartoons.
Don Wilson won costume honors when he impersonated Diamond Jim Brady at a party given recently at the Beverly Wilshire by Edgar Bergen.

[TheSportsmenQuartet]

The Merry Men are The Sportsmen Quartet.

[Yhtapmys]

The Merry Men are The Sportsmen Quartet.

SQ, I've been meaning to ask you .. why did they change their name for various shows? Did the sponsors own certain names? (I know it worked like that up here in radio in the 30s).

Yhtapmys