OLD TIME RADIO - 1 CD-ROM -  21 mp3

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Smilin’ Ed McConnell (1882 – July 23, 1954) was a radio personality, best known as the host of the children's radio and television series, Smilin' Ed's Gang, closely identified with its sponsor, Buster Brown shoes and also known as The Buster Brown Program. For his work in radio, McConnell was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

After his discharge from the Army, McConnell was a gospel vocalist with several evangelists. He entered radio in Atlanta in 1922 as a substitute when a scheduled performer failed to arrive. He married in 1928, and four years later the CBS network. In 1937, he moed to NBC as their "Sunshine Melody Man," offering hymns and uplifting messages. McDonnell’s blend of "songs, humor and philosophy" aired over network affiliates at 5:30pm. Guests included the Doring Trio, The Four Grenadiers, The Campus Choir and the Rhythmaires.

McConnell became known in New York City when he was heard over WJZ, though the show was broadcast from Chicago and he lied in Elk Rapids, Michigan. McConnell’s timeslot and sponsors also changed. For a while, he was heard at 10:30am doing a 15-minute program sponsored by the Air Conditioning Training Corporation of Youngstown, Ohio. Variety noted that aside from such hymns as "God Understands," he "unloads a hokey hodge-podge of songs and you-know-me-I wouldn't-steer-you-wrong-blather."

McConnell grabbed children's attention when he created the character Froggy the Gremlin, performing with Irma Allen on the organ or Del Owen on the piano. Even though McConnell though he became famous as "Smilin' Ed," he continued to host programs for religious adults. While his Buster Brown show was running, McConnell presided over a five-minute show sponsored by the American Poultry Journal. It reached over 50 stations. Variety said:

Anyone who's been laboring under the impression that a dash of American folk music and a hymn or two is strictly for farm listeners is apparently off the beam, because here's a series of 48 shorties that two metropolitan stations - Chicago's NBC flagship, WMAQ and Minneapolis' WCCO-CBS have latched on to for a 16 week ride... Packaged by E. H. Brown Agency for American Poultry Journal, (transcription) disks which feature two songs apiece by Smilin' Ed McConnell, with Irma Glen accompanying on the Hammond, are blanketing the east and midwest now. McConnell plugs the mag ("If you've got a poultry problem, write to APJ's Problem Corner and get a personal reply from the editor...send in a subscription too, only 50 cents for two years!") and sings... Cornfed delivery of a song like "Come Along My Mandy" and hymn "When Cares of Life Distress You" on one platter, cues the general format, but the star of NBC's live "Buster Brown" airer knows how to put over the old "neighborly feeling." And he's no slough at plugging the Journal it might be added.

Another Smilin' Ed show that turned up for a while was a 15-minute program sponsored by the Purity Baking Company. Once again, Variety reviewed:

One of the veterans of radio, Ed McConnell mines the rich veins of American sentiment among those who are white-haired, churchy, rural and simple. He has a disarming style that has been analyzed in these columns on previous occasions and for other sponsors. This show differs only that he sticks to hymns and is necessarily serious in comment, with none of the semi-light homefolksy gab he could more appropriately introduce in a framework not devoted to ecclesiastical music alone. Aiming at a selective audience, the program will no doubt do well. McConnell puts it o a personal basis. Even while telling his listeners this is one program that will not "be cluttered up with long-winded advertising" he is sledge-hammering the important thought - no chekee no hymnee. "My friends who love me will support me by buying Tasty Bread" he announces..." "McConnell has a good Epworth League baritone and a down home rhetorical sloppiness. It's "you-all" or "ya" and no fuss. In fact, this is about the most calculatedly unpretentious program of the season. McConnell is probably the most humble man in America, making $100,000 or better, a year.

In the early 1930s Smilin' Ed McConnell promoted Aladdin Kerosene Lamps with remarkable success over WLW in Cincinnati, Ohio. He became a well known radio personality as 'The Aladdin Lamp Man' who sang songs, told stories and sold Aladdin lamps over the air.

By 1948, 145 ABC stations were subscribing to his 15 minute programs. Smilin' Ed's humor, songs, and music were condensed into a five-minute program especially for electric lamp dealers. So it is very likely that this series originated after 1948.

Through his personable style, Smilin' Ed touched the lives of millions of housewives. He said in one program, 'Honey, a house without an Aladdin kerosene or electric lamp is like a house without a door -- incomplete!'
The Buster Brown Show

With Buster Brown Show, Ed had support from producer Frank Ferrin, writer Hobart Donavan (who also wrote the Buster Brown comic book giveaways) and director Arthur Jacobson. When Ed started this show, some radio listeners recalled Buster Brown faintly from a 1929 DBS radio series. By the time Smilin Ed' got his kiddie show, Buster Brown was no longer well remembered as a comic strip because the character was merely the trademark symbol for a shoe company.

Buster Brown and Smilin' Ed were then collided in 1944, with "Smilin' Ed's Buster Brown Gang" taking to the airwaves on September 2. The show continued on NBC radio every Saturday morning at 11:30 through April 11, 1953. There was an adventure story to open the show, plugs for Buster Brown shoes, and Froggy the Gremlin might sing a song or annoy a guest, such as Shortfellow the Poet or Alkali Pete the Cowboy. The character Midnight the Cat actually spoke a few lines on the show and Smilin' Ed was always prone to sing a novelty song or two by plunking his magic twanger. The term "plunking" may have come from McConnell's habit of plunking the strings on his piano to emphasize some of the action in his stories. McConnell was the voice of Froggy, putting on a low, gruff, Popeye-like croak.

However, whenever McConnell had to sing a duet with Froggy, announcer Archie Presby was the voice of Froggy. And when there was a live audience, Archie would sometimes dress up in a frog costume and carry on to the delight of the screaming kids.

The full cast of the radio show had included June Foray, Wendall Noble, Conrad Binyon, John Dehner and Jimmy Ogg. All of them took part in the adventure stories. Foray was called upon to voice Midnight and Old grandie the Piano and Bud Tollefson, the sound effects engineer, growled the voice of Tige the Dog.

Smilin' Ed used the show to promote not only the Buster Brown shoes, but as well as the comic books, which featured McConnell and usually a little story involving the "Buster Brown Gang" of Midnight, Squeaky and Froggy. To his credit, Ed would tell the young audiences that they could go to their local store and get a comic book without having to make a purchase. The comic books had many premiums to offer, including a Buster Brown Gang neckerchief, various games, music records and trinkets.

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EPISODES LIST

Buster Brown Gang 44-10-14 (xx) Billy Stanley
Buster Brown Gang 46-05-26 (xx) Pegasus, The Winged Horse
Buster Brown Gang 46-07-27 (xx) Knights and Tournaments
Buster Brown Gang 47-08-30 (xx) A Caribe Indian Story
Buster Brown Gang 47-12-13 (xx) A Plane Called Yankee Doodle
Buster Brown Gang 48-05-15 (xx) Pirates and the Parrott
Buster Brown Gang 49-01-15 (xx) The Enchanted King
Buster Brown Gang 49-02-26 (xx) Kulah's Brother
Buster Brown Gang 49-03-05 (xx) Alamo, The Race Horse
Buster Brown Gang 49-04-30 (xx) A Wolf Named Fang
Buster Brown Gang 49-08-13 (xx) Robin Hood Helps Young Knight
Buster Brown Gang 50-03-04 (13) Little Fox
Buster Brown Gang 52-08-23 (xx) Zacha and the Mutiny
Buster Brown Gang 52-08-30 (xx) The Goddess Statue
Buster Brown Gang 52-09-06 (xx) Melon Patch Murder
Buster Brown Gang 52-09-13 (xx) Little Foxes' Moose Hunt
Buster Brown Gang 52-09-20 (xx) Enchanted South Winds
Buster Brown Gang 52-09-27 (xx) The Monkey Gods
Buster Brown Gang 52-10-04 (xx) The Boy Who Wouldn't Obey
Buster Brown Gang xx-xx-xx (xx) A Tribute To The Girl Scouts
Buster Brown Gang xx-xx-xx (xx) Jerry And Judy