From the Airwaves to your Parlor Piano: Sheet music with a radio connection?

["Skeet" McD]

I just posted this image over on the "Shaving" barstool...but seeing as it's as relevant here, thought you might enjoy it as well:

I've collected sheet music for years (I'm a singer), but most of it from earlier in the 20C than this. I couldn't pass up the graphic however. It lives next to the mirror in the bathroom...

http://gallery.me.com/finiancircle#100014/DSCF1825

The names of the composer and lyricist struck me as very likely to be pseudonyms...but no, according to ASCAP....they're for real. And the song is really quite good. I'd give a great deal to hear an episode or two of the radio program and hear it in full orchestration. So far, no luck.

"Skeet"

Now I'm wondering if anyone else has interesting sheet music covers that are related to radio programs?

 

[RetroToday]

I love your shaving sheet music, very cool!

The closest thing I have to sheet music that relates to radio is one for the song "Please", from the movie "The Big Broadcast" (1932).

You can see my other sheet music at the following link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremyhopkin/sets/72157606970531994/

 

["Skeet" McD]

I love your shaving sheet music, very cool!

Thanks, Retro! Your sheet certainly fills the bill as far as I'm concerned.

Attached, another offering from the dynamic junk pile of cultural effluvia currently belonging to....me. I had stuck this in the mental cubbyhole of "snack food/domesticity" but when I began to think of other radio items I might have I began to remember it. And sure enough: A BOWL OF POP CORN, A RADIO AND YOU....they don't write 'em like THAT anymore. Hey, Fletch--if you're out there, here's one for you, Iowa-boy!

http://gallery.me.com/finiancircle#100014/DSCF1831

Another program I'd give a great deal to hear an aircheck from: The Jolly Time Pop Corn Revue....the back is as good as the front, at least for pop corn fetishists and cultural historians. It also explains how this got from General Jolly Time to yours truly....although it doesn't explain why someone wrote away for one:

http://gallery.me.com/finiancircle#100014/DSCF1835&bgcolor=black

VERSE
My sweetie is marvellous company Wherever we happen to go
When she's at a dance no one else has a chance
And she's just as much fun at a show
But the evenings when she says "Bring pop-corn Tonight you're a fireside beau."
They're evenings that I call, the best of them all
And I sing while the fire burns low,

CHORUS
Just a bowl full of pop-corn A radio and you
Just a chair by the fire place That's big enough for two
Just a heart-full of happiness
Not a care can break through
With a bowl full of "Jolly Time Pop-Corn," a radio and you.

The elephant in the room no-one's talking about in this first year of the Depression is.....there are probably OTHER reasons than popcorn and necking to stay away from those "dances and shows"....

 

[RetroToday]

Just incredible, skeet'.

I haven't seen any in my travels that directly relate to products or actual radio shows as yours do. Great finds in my opinion, I'd love to find some of those and hope I do.
I'd especially like to find "A bowl of popcorn, a radio and you" then frame and hang it beside one of my old floor model radios.

Thanks for sharing these.

 

["Skeet" McD]

Thanks!

Just incredible, skeet'.

I haven't seen any in my travels that directly relate to products or actual radio shows as yours do. Great finds in my opinion, I'd love to find some of those and hope I do.
I'd especially like to find "A bowl of popcorn, a radio and you" then frame and hang it beside one of my old floor model radios.

Thanks for sharing these.

Dear Retro,
Thank you very much. Oddly enough, the popcorn sheet and the shaving sheet were bought at the same place and time....whether they represent the buying tastes of the dealer, or came from the same original owner's collection, I don't know. As I mentioned originally, they're a little off-center for my own collecting interests (time-wise)....but they were so great I just couldn't pass them up.

Glad you enjoyed them....BTW, can you identify the radio in the illustration, or is it just a confection of the illustrator?

 

["Skeet" McD]

http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/American-Pop-Corn-Company-Company-History.html[/URL]

American Pop Corn launched a weekly radio show in 1930, hosted by General Jolly Time and his Pop Corn Colonels. The orchestra played popular music and took requests from listeners across the country. The show's theme song, "A Bowl of Pop Corn, a Radio, and You," was a popular hit. A trade advertisement listed 30 cities where the radio show played, along with broadcast stations and times. The promotion stated "Push Jolly Time--For the Largest Profits and Quickest Turnover."
During the 1930s popcorn grew in popularity because it was an inexpensive snack during economically difficult times, at the movies and at home. A ten-ounce can of Jolly Time cost ten cents, and popcorn could be enjoyed at home while listening to the radio. To promote popcorn as a snack, American Pop Corn offered an electric popcorn popper and a can of Jolly Time pop corn for one dollar, shipped anywhere in the country. Thousands of customers responded.

 

["Skeet" McD]

RETRO TODAY: PLEASE MAKE CONTACT....HURRY!

Dear Retro,
I PMd you twice yesterday but haven't had a response....don't know if you check personal messages; your icon said you were online.

This is a time-sensitive matter...so if you read this, please PM me....hope to hear from you.

Sincerely,
"Skeet"

Sorry for the inconvenience to others

 

[RetroToday]

[QUOTE="Skeet" McD]Glad you enjoyed them....BTW, can you identify the radio in the illustration, or is it just a confection of the illustrator?[/QUOTE]

Hi Skeet,

I checked my PMs, sorry I didn't respond sooner as I was away from the Lounge for a while.

I think the radio in the illustration could definately be based on a real one, the problem is you can't see the whole radio which makes identification almost impossible.
There were several radio companies that were making consoles like that in 1930.

There is a possibility that if this popcorn show was affiliated with a company that sold radios they would be forced to feature that same brand of radio in promotional materials.
For example, in the 1931 movie "Public Enemy" (starring James Cagney) only "Brunswick" brand radios, gramophones and records were used in the movie as Brunswick was then owned by Warner Brothers.