JUDY CANOVA - AT THE PEAK OF HER NETWORK RADIO AND MOVIE CAREERS.
JUDY CANOVA
Judy Canova was a triple-threat who brought country humor and music to the Broadway stage, Hollywood movies and Network Radio for more than a decade. She starred in 17 money-making films and led her Saturday night NBC show to eight Top 50 seasons as the pig-tailed, calico-clothed hick with a great singing voice, down-home humor and old fashioned common sense. For the most part it was all an act and a great one.
Juliette Judy Canova was born November, 20, 1913, into the Starke, Florida, family of Joseph and Henrietta Canova. Henrietta was an amateur singer who encouraged her four offspring to develop their musical talents. Young Judy proved to be especially adept with an exceptional vocal range worthy of classical training. But her talents blossomed in an unexpected direction when the family's financial need pushed the teenager into joining her older siblings, Annie and Zeke, as The Three Georgia Crackers, a hillbilly act of songs and jokes that became popular across the deep South.
Work in the South became incresingly scarce in the early 1930’s as the Depression deepened, so the family act headed to New York City on the outside chance that they might find an outlet for their talents. (1) They found it, however briefly, in the December, 1934 review, Calling All Stars, which ran for less than a month. More importantly, it led to solo showcases for 21 year old Judy as the charming new singing comedienne from the South on important NBC variety hours led by Rudy Vallee and Paul Whiteman.
Given the endorsements of the these two star makers, the biggest break of Judy’s Broadway stage career came in late 1935 when the Shubert brothers hired her for their revival of The Ziegfeld Follies, which opened a five month run in January, 1936. Judy was suddenly elevated to co-star status with Fanny Brice, Bob Hope and Eve Arden - all Network Radio luminaries in the years to come.
Her separation from the family act extended into motion pictures. After several two-reel and uncredited feature roles, she landed a minor supporting role in 1935’s Warner Brothers comedy Going Highbrow. Her big break came in 1937 Paramount comedy, Artists & Models, starring Jack Benny, in which she sang the hit duet with comedian Ben Blue, Stop, You’re Breaking My Heart.
She was elevated to star billing in Paramount’s B-film release later that year, Thrill of A Lifetime - reuniting with Annie and Zeke for a musical routine. The movie seemed to have stalled Judy Canova’s future in motion pictures so she turned to radio and struck gold with a 13 week contract for NBC’s Chase & Sanborn Hour in the fall of 1938 - fast becoming the most popular Network Radio show in America.
The series is remembered as the launching pad for Edgar Bergen and his Charlie McCarthy, but in the fall of 1938 it was a pure variety show, featuring the ventriloquist, Nelson Eddy, Dorothy Lamour and Judy Canova, (along with Annie and Zeke), all hosted by Don Ameche. The Chase & Sanborn Hour from October 30, 1938, Is posted. (2)
This episode opens with a short exchange between Judy and Charlie McCarthy "refereed" by Ameche and preceding Eddy’s performance of The Song of The Vagabonds. An Eddy operatic aria opening the second half hour of the show is oddly and immediately followed by an eight minute exchange between Ameche and Judy at 35:40 before he introduces the Canova Family for a country novelty.
It was back to Broadway in 1939 when producer Lew Brown chose Judy to co-star with Buddy Ebsen for his musical comedy, Yokel Boy, which opened at the Majestic Theater on July 6, 1939 and ran for 208 performances. Annie and Zeke had minor roles in the hit but July clearly emerged as the star of the family, introducing the hit song, Comes Love.
One Hollywood studio head who was quietly watching and listening to Judy Canova at the time was Herbert J. Yates, owner of Republic Studios, home of the popular and highly profitable Gene Autry and Roy Rogers musical westerns. Yates was considering expanding his studio’s output to low-budget musical comedies appealing to America’s rural audiences. He signed Judy for what became her first in a string of eight pictures for Republic, Scatterbrain, which was released in July, 1940.
Variety was kind in its July 10th review: “Judy Canova displays sufficient personality and ability in her backwoods characterization to indicate sticking around for several pictures and possible box office rating for the rural and family houses as time goes on. … Key audiences in the metropolitan areas may not savvy her Ozarkian twang and humor, but it’s surefire for the rustics.”
The film was a hit and Yates ordered more beginning with Sis Hopkins and Puddin’ Head in 1941, Sleepytime Gal, True To The Army and Joan of Ozark in 1942, then Chatterbox co-starring Joe E. Brown in April, 1943, when after starring in seven films she was finally "re-discovered" for radio by CBS and Colgate-Palmolive-Peet.
The Judy Canova Show debuted on CBS Tuesday nights at 8:30 on July 6, 1943, just 60 days before the premiere of her eighth and final film for Republic, Sleepy Lagoon, co-starring Dennis Day from Jack Benny’s radio cast.
The August 24, 1943 episode from her CBS series - with the theme “Scatterbrain” - depicts Judy as the country bumpkin from her films. After a monologue remindful of Minnie Pearl she breaks into Just Because with yodeling breaks and impressive vocal gymnastics. This episode introduces her maid Geranium (Ruby Dandridge) and Mel Blanc as Sylvester, in a lisping sound alike to his Sylvester The Cat of cartoons. (3)
Her appeal to audiences won the 8:30 time period for CBS, over Duffy’s Tavern on Blue and Tums’ Treasure Chest on NBC. The Judy Canova Show, shot immediately into the season’s Top 50 at 43rd, her first of eight consecutive years among Network Radio’s most popular programs.
After her first season’s success on CBS, sponsor Colgate packed up the show and moved it almost intact to NBC as a mid-season replacement in January at 10:00 on Saturday nights for Colgate’s struggling Palmolive Party. (4) Judy immediately joined her lead-in, Can You Top This?, in Saturday’s Top Ten and her country-themed persona became the perfect lead into NBC’s half-hour broadcast of Nashville’s Grand Ol’ Opry at 10:30.
In overall season ratings, Canova moved up to 32nd in the 1944-45 Top 50 easily worth the $10,500 weekly production budget sponsor Colgate allocated for the program. The season’s final show from June 30, 1945 is posted which displays Judy’s remarkable vocal talents from the opening novelty, I Can’t Give You Anything But Love, to the closing ballad, Tears On My Piillow.
While her radio shows met with increasing popularity, Canova left Republic over a salary dispute and signed a three year agreement with Columbia Pictures in 1944 calling for a film per year beginning with Louisiana Hayride and followed with Hit The Hay and Singin’ In The Corn - still presenting Judy as the stereotyped, pigtailed country bumpkin.
However, her radio show from this period, November 10, 1945, presents an increasingly sophisticated Canova, opening the show unintroduced with Ma, He’s Eyes At Me, loaded with her multi-ranged vocal tricks, and following it at 17:30 with the wartime torch song It’s Been A Long Long Time accompanied by the Sportsmen quartet. The unexpected highlight of this program is Judy’s solo of her complete closing theme during World War II, Goodnight, Soldier...which could hardly be called Singin‘ In The Corn.
Her musical transition seemed complete with the entertaining broadcast of February 23, 1946 when she opened the show with Let It Snow. She sang There’ll Be Some Changes Made at the 18:00 mid-break and closed with a surprisingly citified version of Ernest Tubb’s I’m Walkin’ The Floor Over You. With the war over, her closing theme became Go To Sleep, My Little Baby. Audiences responded to the “new” Canova, pushing her show into second place on Saturday night behind Ralph Edward’s Truth Or Consequences.
The December 14, 1946 episode from the 1946-47 underscores the increasing emphasis on Judy’s vocals with her opening number, That’s The Beginning of The End , followed at 10:45 by a medley of songs associated with Al Jolson and concluded with the ballad For You, For Me, For Evermore. The 1946-47 season proved to be Canova’ peak in the Annual Top 50 rankings, finishing in 22nd place.
Colgate shed Can You Top This? and moved The Judy Canova Show back half an hour to 9:30 on Saturday nights at the beginning of the 1947-48 season to make room for its "leased" Kay Kyser College of Musical Knowledge. (See Kay Kyser.) Judy's season ranking slipped to 28th place. Nevertheless, her ratings jumped four points to a personal high of 17.3 over the season.
Recognizing the show’s sustained popularity, Eddie Cantor appeared as a guest on the show of January 17, 1948 on behalf of The March of Dimes. The show of May 1, 1948 returns to its familiar format with Judy’s opening number, I May Be Wrong (But I Think You’re Wonderful) , a mid-show novelty at 11:00, Old Paint, (sounding much like Fannie Brice), and a closing ballad, Now Is The Hour.
The 1948-49 season had Canova’s ratings leveling out at 13.9 and her season ranking inching up to 27th with the familiar format of a sitcom featuring Ruby Dandridge and Mel Blanc sandwiched between three songs performed by the star. The last episode in this collection, from December 25, 1948, opens with the upbeat It’s Easy When You Know How, weaves a mid-show novelty, Shortnin’ Bread complete with Judy‘s vocal gymnastics into the storyline at 11:15, and closes with Irving Berlin’s ballad, What’ll I Do?
The Judy Canova Show finished second place among Saturday night’s most popular shows in both the 1948-49 and 1949-50 seasons, both behind Colgate’s newest sitcom with musical overtones, A Day In The Life of Dennis Day. Like The Judy Canova Show, it starred a singer with an innocent persona supported by a cast of leading Hollywood character actors. (5) For a time both shows shared writer Fred Fox and musical director Bud Dant. Canova edged ahead of the Irish tenor’s show in Saturday night’s Top Ten over the 1950-51 season, but Network Radio was losing audience to television at an alarming rate. Colgate cancelled both shows on June 30, 1951.
Judy saw Network Radio’s collapse coming and returned to Republic in 1951 for six more pictures, beginning with Honeychile in October and followed in six-month intervals with Oklahoma Annie and The WAC From Walla Walla. Then, surprisingly, NBC called her back for a new series of shows with Mel Blanc and many of her old radio gang beginning on December 15, 1951. A sample broadcast from this series, January 5, 1952, follows Canova established format of an opening upbeat number, Let's Stay Home Tonight, a midshow standard, Alexander's Ragtime Band, and closing ballad, The Tennessee Waltz. No ratings are available from the 26 week run sold to spot advertisers.
But when the series ended on June 28, 1952, she received another surprise: NBC invited her back for a full season on Thursday nights at 10:00 - again for participating sponsors but also with ratings. The final Judy Canova Show was broadcast by NBC on Thursday, September 17, 1953. She left Network Radio with her head high, just missing the Annual Top 50 at 51st place.
Judy took 1953 off from film work to give birth to daughter Diana then resumed her work at Republic with Untamed Heiress and Carolina Cannonball in 1954, and 1955’s Lay That Rifle Down. (6) Her film and radio careers over and her future secure at age 42, the Queen of Hillbillies welcomed semi-retirement at age 42. She enjoyed occasional television and voice work for the next 22 years.
One can only wonder how Judy Canova would be remembered today - if at all - had she not first done her hair in pigtails and joined her brother and sister to clown around as an awkward teenager singing simple country harmonies back when the family needed money.
(1) At the time, the family act temporarily included another brother, Peter Canova.
(2) This Chase & Sanborn Hour of October 30, 1938 scored its fourth highest Hooperating to date - a whopping 34.8 - although its opposition on CBS was Orson Welles’ infamous War of The Worlds drama.
(3) The CBS series also featured songs from cowboy movie star Eddie Dean.
(4) The only noticeable change in the show was Mel Blanc’s new “Mexican” character, Pedro The Gardener, (“Pardon me or talking in your face, Senorita”…), remarkably similar to his Speedy Gonzales of cartoons and Frito Bandito of commercials, now considered “politically incorrect.”
(5) Dennis Day was also Judy Canova’s co-star in her 1943 film, Sleepy Lagoon.
(6) An older daughter, Julieta, (aka Tweeny) was born in August, 1944.
Copyright © 2020, Jim Ramsburg, Estero FL Email: tojimramsburg@gmail.com
Judy Canova was a triple-threat who brought country humor and music to the Broadway stage, Hollywood movies and Network Radio for more than a decade. She starred in 17 money-making films and led her Saturday night NBC show to eight Top 50 seasons as the pig-tailed, calico-clothed hick with a great singing voice, down-home humor and old fashioned common sense. For the most part it was all an act and a great one.
Juliette Judy Canova was born November, 20, 1913, into the Starke, Florida, family of Joseph and Henrietta Canova. Henrietta was an amateur singer who encouraged her four offspring to develop their musical talents. Young Judy proved to be especially adept with an exceptional vocal range worthy of classical training. But her talents blossomed in an unexpected direction when the family's financial need pushed the teenager into joining her older siblings, Annie and Zeke, as The Three Georgia Crackers, a hillbilly act of songs and jokes that became popular across the deep South.
Work in the South became incresingly scarce in the early 1930’s as the Depression deepened, so the family act headed to New York City on the outside chance that they might find an outlet for their talents. (1) They found it, however briefly, in the December, 1934 review, Calling All Stars, which ran for less than a month. More importantly, it led to solo showcases for 21 year old Judy as the charming new singing comedienne from the South on important NBC variety hours led by Rudy Vallee and Paul Whiteman.
Given the endorsements of the these two star makers, the biggest break of Judy’s Broadway stage career came in late 1935 when the Shubert brothers hired her for their revival of The Ziegfeld Follies, which opened a five month run in January, 1936. Judy was suddenly elevated to co-star status with Fanny Brice, Bob Hope and Eve Arden - all Network Radio luminaries in the years to come.
Her separation from the family act extended into motion pictures. After several two-reel and uncredited feature roles, she landed a minor supporting role in 1935’s Warner Brothers comedy Going Highbrow. Her big break came in 1937 Paramount comedy, Artists & Models, starring Jack Benny, in which she sang the hit duet with comedian Ben Blue, Stop, You’re Breaking My Heart.
She was elevated to star billing in Paramount’s B-film release later that year, Thrill of A Lifetime - reuniting with Annie and Zeke for a musical routine. The movie seemed to have stalled Judy Canova’s future in motion pictures so she turned to radio and struck gold with a 13 week contract for NBC’s Chase & Sanborn Hour in the fall of 1938 - fast becoming the most popular Network Radio show in America.
The series is remembered as the launching pad for Edgar Bergen and his Charlie McCarthy, but in the fall of 1938 it was a pure variety show, featuring the ventriloquist, Nelson Eddy, Dorothy Lamour and Judy Canova, (along with Annie and Zeke), all hosted by Don Ameche. The Chase & Sanborn Hour from October 30, 1938, Is posted. (2)
This episode opens with a short exchange between Judy and Charlie McCarthy "refereed" by Ameche and preceding Eddy’s performance of The Song of The Vagabonds. An Eddy operatic aria opening the second half hour of the show is oddly and immediately followed by an eight minute exchange between Ameche and Judy at 35:40 before he introduces the Canova Family for a country novelty.
It was back to Broadway in 1939 when producer Lew Brown chose Judy to co-star with Buddy Ebsen for his musical comedy, Yokel Boy, which opened at the Majestic Theater on July 6, 1939 and ran for 208 performances. Annie and Zeke had minor roles in the hit but July clearly emerged as the star of the family, introducing the hit song, Comes Love.
One Hollywood studio head who was quietly watching and listening to Judy Canova at the time was Herbert J. Yates, owner of Republic Studios, home of the popular and highly profitable Gene Autry and Roy Rogers musical westerns. Yates was considering expanding his studio’s output to low-budget musical comedies appealing to America’s rural audiences. He signed Judy for what became her first in a string of eight pictures for Republic, Scatterbrain, which was released in July, 1940.
Variety was kind in its July 10th review: “Judy Canova displays sufficient personality and ability in her backwoods characterization to indicate sticking around for several pictures and possible box office rating for the rural and family houses as time goes on. … Key audiences in the metropolitan areas may not savvy her Ozarkian twang and humor, but it’s surefire for the rustics.”
The film was a hit and Yates ordered more beginning with Sis Hopkins and Puddin’ Head in 1941, Sleepytime Gal, True To The Army and Joan of Ozark in 1942, then Chatterbox co-starring Joe E. Brown in April, 1943, when after starring in seven films she was finally "re-discovered" for radio by CBS and Colgate-Palmolive-Peet.
The Judy Canova Show debuted on CBS Tuesday nights at 8:30 on July 6, 1943, just 60 days before the premiere of her eighth and final film for Republic, Sleepy Lagoon, co-starring Dennis Day from Jack Benny’s radio cast.
The August 24, 1943 episode from her CBS series - with the theme “Scatterbrain” - depicts Judy as the country bumpkin from her films. After a monologue remindful of Minnie Pearl she breaks into Just Because with yodeling breaks and impressive vocal gymnastics. This episode introduces her maid Geranium (Ruby Dandridge) and Mel Blanc as Sylvester, in a lisping sound alike to his Sylvester The Cat of cartoons. (3)
Her appeal to audiences won the 8:30 time period for CBS, over Duffy’s Tavern on Blue and Tums’ Treasure Chest on NBC. The Judy Canova Show, shot immediately into the season’s Top 50 at 43rd, her first of eight consecutive years among Network Radio’s most popular programs.
After her first season’s success on CBS, sponsor Colgate packed up the show and moved it almost intact to NBC as a mid-season replacement in January at 10:00 on Saturday nights for Colgate’s struggling Palmolive Party. (4) Judy immediately joined her lead-in, Can You Top This?, in Saturday’s Top Ten and her country-themed persona became the perfect lead into NBC’s half-hour broadcast of Nashville’s Grand Ol’ Opry at 10:30.
In overall season ratings, Canova moved up to 32nd in the 1944-45 Top 50 easily worth the $10,500 weekly production budget sponsor Colgate allocated for the program. The season’s final show from June 30, 1945 is posted which displays Judy’s remarkable vocal talents from the opening novelty, I Can’t Give You Anything But Love, to the closing ballad, Tears On My Piillow.
While her radio shows met with increasing popularity, Canova left Republic over a salary dispute and signed a three year agreement with Columbia Pictures in 1944 calling for a film per year beginning with Louisiana Hayride and followed with Hit The Hay and Singin’ In The Corn - still presenting Judy as the stereotyped, pigtailed country bumpkin.
However, her radio show from this period, November 10, 1945, presents an increasingly sophisticated Canova, opening the show unintroduced with Ma, He’s Eyes At Me, loaded with her multi-ranged vocal tricks, and following it at 17:30 with the wartime torch song It’s Been A Long Long Time accompanied by the Sportsmen quartet. The unexpected highlight of this program is Judy’s solo of her complete closing theme during World War II, Goodnight, Soldier...which could hardly be called Singin‘ In The Corn.
Her musical transition seemed complete with the entertaining broadcast of February 23, 1946 when she opened the show with Let It Snow. She sang There’ll Be Some Changes Made at the 18:00 mid-break and closed with a surprisingly citified version of Ernest Tubb’s I’m Walkin’ The Floor Over You. With the war over, her closing theme became Go To Sleep, My Little Baby. Audiences responded to the “new” Canova, pushing her show into second place on Saturday night behind Ralph Edward’s Truth Or Consequences.
The December 14, 1946 episode from the 1946-47 underscores the increasing emphasis on Judy’s vocals with her opening number, That’s The Beginning of The End , followed at 10:45 by a medley of songs associated with Al Jolson and concluded with the ballad For You, For Me, For Evermore. The 1946-47 season proved to be Canova’ peak in the Annual Top 50 rankings, finishing in 22nd place.
Colgate shed Can You Top This? and moved The Judy Canova Show back half an hour to 9:30 on Saturday nights at the beginning of the 1947-48 season to make room for its "leased" Kay Kyser College of Musical Knowledge. (See Kay Kyser.) Judy's season ranking slipped to 28th place. Nevertheless, her ratings jumped four points to a personal high of 17.3 over the season.
Recognizing the show’s sustained popularity, Eddie Cantor appeared as a guest on the show of January 17, 1948 on behalf of The March of Dimes. The show of May 1, 1948 returns to its familiar format with Judy’s opening number, I May Be Wrong (But I Think You’re Wonderful) , a mid-show novelty at 11:00, Old Paint, (sounding much like Fannie Brice), and a closing ballad, Now Is The Hour.
The 1948-49 season had Canova’s ratings leveling out at 13.9 and her season ranking inching up to 27th with the familiar format of a sitcom featuring Ruby Dandridge and Mel Blanc sandwiched between three songs performed by the star. The last episode in this collection, from December 25, 1948, opens with the upbeat It’s Easy When You Know How, weaves a mid-show novelty, Shortnin’ Bread complete with Judy‘s vocal gymnastics into the storyline at 11:15, and closes with Irving Berlin’s ballad, What’ll I Do?
The Judy Canova Show finished second place among Saturday night’s most popular shows in both the 1948-49 and 1949-50 seasons, both behind Colgate’s newest sitcom with musical overtones, A Day In The Life of Dennis Day. Like The Judy Canova Show, it starred a singer with an innocent persona supported by a cast of leading Hollywood character actors. (5) For a time both shows shared writer Fred Fox and musical director Bud Dant. Canova edged ahead of the Irish tenor’s show in Saturday night’s Top Ten over the 1950-51 season, but Network Radio was losing audience to television at an alarming rate. Colgate cancelled both shows on June 30, 1951.
Judy saw Network Radio’s collapse coming and returned to Republic in 1951 for six more pictures, beginning with Honeychile in October and followed in six-month intervals with Oklahoma Annie and The WAC From Walla Walla. Then, surprisingly, NBC called her back for a new series of shows with Mel Blanc and many of her old radio gang beginning on December 15, 1951. A sample broadcast from this series, January 5, 1952, follows Canova established format of an opening upbeat number, Let's Stay Home Tonight, a midshow standard, Alexander's Ragtime Band, and closing ballad, The Tennessee Waltz. No ratings are available from the 26 week run sold to spot advertisers.
But when the series ended on June 28, 1952, she received another surprise: NBC invited her back for a full season on Thursday nights at 10:00 - again for participating sponsors but also with ratings. The final Judy Canova Show was broadcast by NBC on Thursday, September 17, 1953. She left Network Radio with her head high, just missing the Annual Top 50 at 51st place.
Judy took 1953 off from film work to give birth to daughter Diana then resumed her work at Republic with Untamed Heiress and Carolina Cannonball in 1954, and 1955’s Lay That Rifle Down. (6) Her film and radio careers over and her future secure at age 42, the Queen of Hillbillies welcomed semi-retirement at age 42. She enjoyed occasional television and voice work for the next 22 years.
One can only wonder how Judy Canova would be remembered today - if at all - had she not first done her hair in pigtails and joined her brother and sister to clown around as an awkward teenager singing simple country harmonies back when the family needed money.
(1) At the time, the family act temporarily included another brother, Peter Canova.
(2) This Chase & Sanborn Hour of October 30, 1938 scored its fourth highest Hooperating to date - a whopping 34.8 - although its opposition on CBS was Orson Welles’ infamous War of The Worlds drama.
(3) The CBS series also featured songs from cowboy movie star Eddie Dean.
(4) The only noticeable change in the show was Mel Blanc’s new “Mexican” character, Pedro The Gardener, (“Pardon me or talking in your face, Senorita”…), remarkably similar to his Speedy Gonzales of cartoons and Frito Bandito of commercials, now considered “politically incorrect.”
(5) Dennis Day was also Judy Canova’s co-star in her 1943 film, Sleepy Lagoon.
(6) An older daughter, Julieta, (aka Tweeny) was born in August, 1944.
Copyright © 2020, Jim Ramsburg, Estero FL Email: tojimramsburg@gmail.com