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HAPPY-and Lucky
by
^Alicc Qollins
PERHAPS you think that the Happy Co Lucky Hour of the Don Lee Chain blossomed full grown into being. That several hundred chairs were placed in the KFRC main studio, a group of artists and an orchestra assigned, Al Pearce appointed Master of Ceremonies, and there it was!
Not so. The Happy Co Lucky Hour grew slowly. As a matter of fact, Pearce was assigned to a Saturday morning informal hour. Several other artists, including Norman Nielsen and "Mac," were rather loosely assigned to the broadcast — they could come if they wanted, but if they didn't there was no harm done. The boys had no program and followed it to the letter. They began whooping it up a bit.
The boys seemed to be having so much fun that a listener wrote in and asked if she could come to the studio and watch as well as listen. Sure, said the genial Al over the air, come along — providing, that is, you aren't a bill collector. Several came. The following Saturday several more than the previous week showed. Happy Co Lucky had started to grow and it has been growing steadily ever since.
Some days hundreds are turned away from the studios because of lack of room. Fans have been known to come three hours before the program and bring their lunch so they could have a front seat.
• It wasn't long after the initial visitors came that the new, large studio had to be used. From a Saturday
morning program it soon grew to a five day a week afternoon program. Other stations on the Don Lee network sampled it, liked it, and began broadcasting it regularly.
The Happy Go Lucky Hour has made many thousands happy. At Christmas time the presents personally contributed by members of the gang up and down the coast and the presents bought from the proceeds of the sale of pictures of the artists fill a huge store-room. These are distributed to the poor and crippled children from Seattle to Los Angeles. At Easter time Easter gifts are gathered and distributed.
And so the Happy Co Lucky Hour has come to be more than a program, it has become an institution.
• At the head is Al Pearce; by his side is his brother, Cal. The other regulars are Norman Nielsen, Edna O'Keefe, Tommy Harris, Edna Fischer, Charles Carter, baby Jean Clairmook and Lord Bilgewater. Others, heard from time to time, are "Mac," Marjorie Lane Truesdale, Pedro, Frederic Bittke and Abe Bloom.
Norman Nielsen has been part of the show from the beginning. Norman was playing the straight part in a vaudeville act and had come home to visit his folks in Oakland for a vacation. He tried out on KFRC, was accepted, and decided to remain with radio. He was married in February, 1929, to Vivian Dunn of Dinuba, California.
Edna O'Keefe is 19. She was catapaulted from Girls High School in San Francisco into the KFRC studios.
(Continued on Page 33)
♦
Tommy Harris
Happy-Co-Lucky Hour is heard over KFRC and KHJ daily at 2:00 p. m.
Here 's That Happy-Go-Lucky Gang
Charlie Carter