FRANK MUNN RECEIVES ONE OF MANY "LISTENERS' FAVORITE SINGER" AWARDS.
FRANK MUNN’S GOLDEN VOICE
Frank Munn fit the old expression, “He had the perfect looks for radio.”
Standing a squat 5-6½ at 260 pounds, “The Golden Voice of Radio” who took the subway from his Bronx apartment to NBC’s Manhattan studios several times a week could easily have been mistaken for an office or factory worker. That was just fine with Munn who enjoyed anonymity and whose rise to fame began by accident in a turbine factory during World War I.
A severe injury to his hand in that factory left the 22 year old Munn unable to do a machinist’s work for a year. So, the tenor without training who had won some amateur contests, began singing for his supper - and little more - at local service clubs and as a vocalist for the five piece Triangle Jazz Band in the Bronx.
Finally able to take a job driving new cars from Detroit to New York City, Munn scraped together enough money to cut audition discs for record companies which included the Edison Phonograph Works. Thomas Edison, himself, heard Munn’s singing and - as quoted in Thomas DeLong’s Magic Music Box - Edison critiqued Munn’s singing as, “Pretty bad. Very weak. Has a tremolo.”
But not all recording executives felt that way. One, in particular, Gus Haenschen, of Brunswick Records, took Munn under his wing in 1922 and developed his natural ability to interpret ballads. (See Gus Haenschen on this site.) Samples of Munn's style are posted here with his recordings of Should I?, I Surrender Dear and Are You Lonesome Tonight? Before their Brunswick collaboration ended five years later with Haenschen’s resignation from the label, Munn was established as a recording star responsible for thousands of discs sold. Nevertheless, he quit making records in 1933 to concentrate on radio.
Munn made his first radio appearance on October 1, 1923, at WJZ/Newark. It was love at first sound - Munn instinctively knew how to play the microphone and quickly found himself appearing on local programs on WJZ and WEAF/New York City. When Network Radio arrived in late 1926, the pudgy tenor was doing guest shots on The A&P Gypsies and The Champion Sparkers. The latter was under the direction of his old friend and mentor, Gus Haenschen, who had left Brunswick for radio, and it was Haenschen who gave Munn the biggest break of his career in December, 1927.
Haenschen had been named musical director of Colgate-Palmolive-Peet Company’s new and elaborate Palmolive Hour on NBC. He hired Munn as the program’s male lead to sing as Paul Oliver opposite soprano Virginia Rea as Olive Palmer. Despite the soapy pseudonyms given the pair by the sponsor, the highlight of each week’s show was the romantic duet sung by Munn and Rea - er, Paul and Olive. The Palmolive Hour was one of Network Radio’s early hits and settled in for successful four year run.
Frank Hummert was planning to launch his first in a string of music shows in 1931 when The Palmolive Hour closed down. He immediately hired Haenschen to oversee The American Album of Familiar Music, a weekly concert of standard and traditional songs. Haenschen then hired Munn and Rae to lead the cast - finally identifying them by their real names.
"Everything I am in radio," said Munn, "I owe to Gus Haenschen. It is his artistry, musicianship and advice which have allowed me to achieve whatever success has been mine." That quote exemplifies Munn’s humility and he was equally grateful for Frank Hummert’s faith in his talent.
It was Hummert who dubbed Munn, “The Golden Voice of Radio,“ and he knew a winner when he had one in the popular tenor whose capacity for work seemed to have no limit. Munn appeared on two of Hummert’s weekly shows for 12 seasons, on three of them for one season and four of them a week for two seasons. And a Hummert season was 52 weeks a year with no summer hiatus!
Among Munn’s credits for Frank & Anne Hummert and their clients:
The American Album of Familiar Music - 14 seasons, 1931-32 to 1944-45.
The American Melody Hour - Four seasons, 1941-42 to 1944-45.
The American Musical Review - One season, 1934-35
Lavender & Old Lace - Three seasons, 1934-35 to 1936-37
The Sweetest Love Songs Ever Sung - One season, 1936-37
Waltz Time - 12 seasons, 1933-34 to 1944-45.
Taken by themselves, Munn’s two longest running shows, The American Album of Familiar Music and Waltz Time, weren’t ratings world beaters - although American Album did score eight Top 50 seasons. But when the ratings of American Album and Waltz Time are combined and averaged over his concurrent run on both of them each week, the result is a respectable 18.4.
That translates into a range from 3.8 to 6.0 million listeners per week, putting Frank Munn dangerously close to Top Ten ranking. To hear his friends and co-workers talk, it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. (An episode of Waltz Time is posted below.)
Munn’s routine never varied. He never missed a broadcast, arrived on time for rehearsal, joked with the crew, then changed into his “work clothes” - formal dress until Hummert closed Munn’s broadcasts to audiences in 1938 to preserve the impression created from his voice that Munn had the looks of a handsome movie star. Once the broadcast was finished, Munn went home and that was that - just another day at the office. He never seemed impressed that millions were listening to his work at the “office” and he repeatedly refused lucrative offers for stage and movie work.
His frugal lifestyle paid off in 1945 when Munn took a look at his bulging bank account and decided he could safely retire at 51. By that time Munn estimated that he had sung over 8,000 solos and duets on the air. Free of all commitments he simply quit and left Network Radio for good, never to sing again. He and his second wife lived out the rest of his days traveling and enjoying life at their two homes on Long Island.
Frank Munn died of a heart attack at home eight years later while watching the World Series on television. The date was October 1, 1953 - exactly 30 years to the day from his first appearance on radio.
But what a 30 years!
Copyright © 2014, Jim Ramsburg, Estero FL Email: tojimramsburg@gmail.com
| frank_munn_should_i.mp3 |
| frank_munn_i_surrender_dear.mp3 |
| frank_munn_are_you_lonesome_tonight.mp3 |
| waltz_time.mp3 |
