06 August 2024

Wendall Hall First to Marry on Live Radio – Phantom Dancer

(Free event)

Greg Poppleton - Phantom Dancer

Wendall Hall was an American country singer, vaudeville artist, songwriter, pioneer radio performer, recording artist and ukulele player. On 4 June 1924, the ‘Red-Headed Music Maker’ marriage ceremony to Marion Martin was the first ever live on radio. He is your Phantom Dancer feature artist this week.

The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week.

LISTEN to this week’s Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 6 August) and weeks of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/

WENDALL

Radio pioneer Wendall Hall was known as the Red-Headed Music Maker and the Pineapple Picador on in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1923, he released the song

His 1923 hit, “It Ain’t Gonna Rain No Mo’,” sold over two million copies in the United States and was the first musical hit on radio.

Hall also collaborated with Carson Robison and Art Gillham writing songs.

Wendall Hall started his music career in 1922 song plugger, travelling around the U.S and to play in music in shops, theatres, and on the wireless.

His first vaudeville act was him singing and playing the xylophone. He found the ukulele to be more portable and quickly became an expert with that instrument.

By 123 is was performing often on Chicago radio, leading in January 1924 to hosting the pioneer commercially sponsored variety program, The Eveready Hour (spruiking batteries) on WEAF in New York.

On November 4, 1924, the program was on a pre-network 18 station “hook-up” to broadcast election returns with entertainers Will Rogers, Carson Robison, Art Gillham, and the Waldorf Astoria Orchestra.

Eveready even painted their batteries with a red top to cash in on Hall’s popularity.

In January, 1929, Hall hosted ‘The Majestic Theatre of the Air’ as producer, program director, and emcee on CBS.

In April of that year he introduced singer Harriet Lee on the show as the “Chicago Nightingale”, leading to her becoming a hit on radio

He hosted ‘Gillette’s Community Sing’ in the early 1930s and made a few musical short films. He wrote commercials for radio and from September 1933 had a program on NBC.

HALL

Wendall Hall performed played standard ukulele, the taropatch ukulele, banjo, banjolele, and the 10-string Martin-style tiple.

He published an instruction book, Wendell Hall’s Ukulele Method, with Forster Music in 1925, that was edited by May Singhi Breen.

Hall also marketed a series of custom ukuleles through the Regal Musical Instrument Company of Chicago, with his picture on the head of The Red Head Ukulele and banjolele with red tuning pegs that have become collectors’ items

Wendall distanced himself from the ukulele when they went out of fashion. However, when Arthur Godfrey brought uke’s back in the 1950s, Hall scored a five days a week radio show and his instruction booklets were updated and republished.