[78-L] National Barn Dance documentary on PBS

[Cary Ginell]

The Arkansas Woodchopper's first name was Arkie, not Artie. Just setting the record straight because I don't think he's ever had his name mentioned on this list. His real name was Luther Ossenbrink.

Cary Ginell

> From: mbiel at mbiel.com
> To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
> Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2011 23:20:35 -0700
> Subject: Re: [78-L] National Barn Dance documentary on PBS
> 
> I found where this message disappeared to, so disregard my previous
> request for reposting.  
> 
> 
> Much of the information on Elizabeth McLoud's listing of early surviving
> broadcast recordings is from me, and she has not updated that listing in
> too many years.  No early Nat'l Barn Dance programs have been found,
> although there is a re-creation of The WLS Showboat on Silvertone from
> 1928 that includes some people who were on the Barn Dance including
> Bradley Kincaid.  I was friends with the announcer who replaced George
> D. Hay on the Barn Dance, the late Steve Cisler, so I especially eager
> to find some recordings.  Got some photos of Steve with the program's
> cast, including one of him and Artie the Arkansas Woodchopper by a
> microphone with a movie camera in the picture.  The movie might have
> been an Illinois Agriculture Dept SILENT film.  I did tell the producers
> of the documentary about this but didn't know the documentary was on, so
> I don't know if they found it. I also told them to check the WLS 75th
> anniversary program for recordings of Geo Hay doing WLS IDs from 1925
> Columbia Records, and a segment of an interview with Steve I did.  I
> understand that there are some recordings of the program from the late
> 30s with Henry Burr and Billy Murray.  
> 
> Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com  
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>   -------- Original Message --------
>  Subject: [78-L] National Barn Dance documentary on PBS
>  From: Harold Aherne <leotolstoy_75 at yahoo.com>
>  Date: Wed, October 05, 2011 11:45 am
>  To: 78-L at 78online.com
>  
>  I watched part of the last episode of "Prohibition" last night, but the
> program that followed,
>  at least on my own PBS station, was considerably more interesting. "The
> Hayloft Gang:
>  the Story of the National Barn Dance" has apparently not been mentioned
> here, at least
>  not in the last couple months, but many of the program's performers
> were regulars 
>  on shellac as well as on the radio.
>   
>  I'll confess an ulterior motive for watching: I hoped that Henry Burr
> would be mentioned 
>  at least briefly, as he was a regular on the broadcast for several
> years until his 1941 
>  passing. But no such luck; still, I think the documentary did a pretty
> good job of covering
>  the popularity and social impact of the National Barn Dance. It was
> interesting to hear 
>  George Gobel as an adolescent singer; I had known that he recorded for
> ARC in 1933 but
>  didn't know (or forgot) that he was a Barn Dance regular. 
>   
>  Speaking of which, about how much of NBD was preserved? Elizabeth
> McLeod doesn't 
>  list any NBD programs among the surviving pre-1932 broadcasts, and I
> wonder if in later
>  decades the entire local program was recorded or only the network hour.
> In addition, 
>  different sources are sketchy about when the program ended; the
> documentary cited 
>  April 1960, Wikipedia says 1968, John Dunning's encyclopedia says 1970.
> 
>   
>  Here's the official PBS site:
>  http://www.pbs.org/programs/hayloft-gang/
>   
>  -HA
> 
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