PHIL SPITALNY WITHHIS STAR - EVELYN (KLEIN) & HER MAGIC VIOLIN.
THE HOUR OF CHARM
No performer is hired who can’t give a finished rendition of two sonatas and two concerti, who hasn’t the individual gifts of rhythm and melodic perception, who can’t read music fluently and who hasn’t a good deal of experience. - Phil Spitalny, Current Biography, 1940.
That was conductor Spitalny’s dismissal of those who thought his concept an all “all-girl orchestra” put glamour ahead of musical ability. He first realized the misconception most held toward female musicians in 1932 when the 42 year old Ukrainian immigrant already recognized for his conducting talents set out to organize what many thought to be a Quixotic project - a full concert orchestra and chorus made up completely of women.
At first, his naysayers seemed right. Where would he find a female drummer or tuba player who could play the complicated charts that were executed by professional (male) musicians? Then he met Evelyn Kaye Klein, an extraordinarily talented violinist 20 years his junior who understood his reasoning and shared his enthusiasm. She became his first recruit, his concertmistress and achieved fame with her 1756 Bergonzi as Evelyn & Her Magic Violin. (1)
Together, Spitalny and Klein swept her alma mater, Julliard School of Music, clean of prospects and continued their exhaustive nationwide search for a year, auditioning over a thousand aspirants and going through $20,000 of Spitalny’s savings to find the perfect combination of 22 women who were often proficient on more than one instrument and could also sing in Spitalny’s choral arrangements. Finally, in early 1934, they accomplished their goal.
While Spitalny attempted to find radio and concert bookings for the group, his 23 year old “house mother” established rules for the group who would live, travel and perform together for the next 20 years. All members signed two year contracts during which they agreed to remain single and weigh no more than 122 pounds. They “lost” their last names when performing with the orchestra and all dressed in identical evening gowns except for the orchestra’s three principals, violinist Evelyn, soprano Vivian and contralto Maxine. The group was expected to rehearse daily and memorize every arrangement because Spitalny forbade the use of music stands.
It was worth the extra effort. Members of the group were making more money from music in Network Radio and concert dates than they ever dreamed possible. Meanwhile, Evelyn built a family spirit of teamwork and cooperation. “It’s much like a sorority,” she said in a 1942 interview. “A committee of five members settles all off-stage disputes and determines who the girls may and may not date. The well-being of the girl and reputation of the orchestra always come first.”
Their effort paid off quickly. Their first radio engagement, a 13-week run of Friday night quarter-hours, began on CBS, May 14, 1934. Warner Brothers was fast to spot the visual appeal of Spitalny’s girls. The group made its movie debut on August 23, 1934 in an eleven minute Warner Brothers recital titled Phil Spitalny & His Musical Queens. Four months later Paramount featured Spitalny’s all-girl orchestra in its Headliner series of shorts with the intriguing title, Ladies That Play.
Linit Bath Oil picked up the All-Girl Orchestra for its first half-hour show on CBS in January, 1935. The 26 week Thursday night run was opposite Rudy Vallee’s Top Five Fleischmann Hour on NBC but still managed to register a respectable 7.2 CAB rating. Their fame was further spread with movie shorts Sirens of Syncopation, (Paramount, 1935) and Phil Spitalny & His All Girl Orchestra, (Warner Brothers, 1935). Another 26 week series on CBS followed on Sunday nights at 6:00 in early 1936 for Zotos Machineless Permanent Wave but the CAB rating dropped to what would be the group‘s all-time low of 3.1.
Then came the big breakthough. After a six-month retreat from radio in 1936, General Electric launched Phil Spitalny’s All Girl Orchestra into its Hour of Charm, a ten-year series on NBC that struggled with a 3.3 rating during its first half-season on the network’s Monday night schedule, Nevertheless, Variety saw promise in this review from February, 1936: Luscious orchestrating for which Spitalny is noted is well exemplified anew. With Maxine for warm vocals and Evelyn for zowie fiddling and the girls hopping into glee-club formation at frequent intervals, the program has plenty of change if pace as it unrolls.
The show caught fire in the 1937-38 season when its rating soared to an 8.8 and The Hour of Charm became a Top 50 show in 48th place for the season. (2) Variety continued to praise the program in this 1937 review: Their third year in radio finds them more entrenched than ever as a staple program article, making no pretense to being anything but a deftly knit organization devoted to tickling femme taste with soothingly contrived melodies. The program brought out the aggregation’s wide range of talents.
Spitalny’s talented girls were still Hollywood favorites for short subjects, too, appearing in Musical Charmers, (Paramount, 1936) and Queens of Harmony, (Paramount, 1937). The string of shorts ended in November, 1939, with Paramount Pictures’ first Cinecolor release in its Headliner series, Moments of Charm. Along with radio and movie commitments, Spitalny had all the concert and theater engagements he could handle and former skeptics were encouraging him to establish more touring units of female musicians - an idea he rejected.
The Hour of Charm finished its Monday night run after the 1938-39 season with a 7.9 Hooperating good for 69th place in the year’s rankings. Then GE moved it to what would be its NBC home for the next seven years, Sunday nights at 10:00 where it averaged a 9.2 rating against the comedy quiz Take It Or Leave It on CBS, a Top 20 show through most of its run. (3)
Spitalny’s girls finally made their feature film debut on Christmas Eve, 1942, in Universal’s low-budget musical, When Johnny Comes Marching Home. Good reviews for Spitalny in that picture were topped by a concert the same week in New York City’s Town Hall.
Variety’s review of that event began, When show business talks in terms of versatility, put down the name Phil Spitalny. From radio and film presentation houses came Spitalny and his all-girl orchestra last week to achieve what may have been their epitome performance. They played New York’s staid Town Hall and made Town Hall like it.” After another hundred words of praise, it concluded, ...Still featured with Spitalny are Evelyn, violinist and arranger for the orchestra, Vivian, soprano of classical and light opera, Rosalinda the pianist and Maxine, contralto. All were excellent. This was an hour and a half of delightful charm.
Charming indeed, but also excellent musicianship. The October 14, 1945 Hour of Charm is a prime example, opening as all of the shows did with The American Hymn of Liberty and closing with a weekly hymn coupled with We Must Be Vigilant to the melody of American Patrol. The show begins with Spiltany’s full orchestral and choral treatment of Rogers & Hammerstein’s A Grand Night For Singing and climaxes with Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue. (4)
A broadcast from November 8, 1944, while the orchestra was completing its next and last film is posted. Their movie role was in support to Abbott & Costello in Universal’s 1945 comedy Here Come The Co-eds which was set in a mythical girls’ college. Spitalny’s ensemble could have made more pictures, but the concert and vaudeville stages were far more profitable.
Also posted is the group’s tenth anniversary broadcast from May 14, 1944, its Hits of Broadway of December 3, 1944, an all Victor Herbert concert from November 11,1945 and the patriotic American Fantasy of February 11, 1945. If you think something seems “missing” from these broadcasts, you’re right - Phil Spitalny’s voice was never heard. For that matter, his name was only mentioned once, at the beginning of the programs.
When the GE series ended in 1946, The Hour of Charm moved back to CBS and its Sunday afternoon schedule for a two year run sponsored by America’s Electric Co-ops. The show finally left the air on May 2, 1948 but the group remained popular on concert stages until Spitalny decided to disband the group in 1955. He, his wife Evelyn and her “magic” violin retired to Miami where he died 15 years later the most successful musical entrepreneur of the Golden Age.
(1) Phil Spitalny, 55, and Evelyn Klein, 35, were married in June, 1946, a union that lasted until his death in 1970 at age 79. She died in 1990 at 79.
(2) The Hour of Charm’s all-time high ranking was the result of slotting it between Fibber McGee & Molly and The Carnation Contented Hour, yet opposite the last half of Lux Radio Theater on CBS.
(3) Sunday night’s scheduling of The Hour of Charm on NBC gave it the lead-in of Hummert’s Manhattan Merry Go Round and American Album of Familiar Music from 9:00 to 10:00 p.m. for all seven seasons. Hour of Charm's season average ratings and rankings were: 1939-40: 9.9/65th, 1940-41: 8.3/75th. 1941-42: 8.4/79th, 1942-43: 9.6/66th, 1943-44: 9.2/73rd, 1944-45: 9.6/79th, 1945-46: 9.6/67th.
(4) All of the Hour of Charm broadcasts posted are edited transcriptions from AFRS. Inquiries to General Electric in search of unedited recordings were unanswered.
Copyright © 2018, Jim Ramsburg, Estero FL Email: tojimramsburg@gmail.com
No performer is hired who can’t give a finished rendition of two sonatas and two concerti, who hasn’t the individual gifts of rhythm and melodic perception, who can’t read music fluently and who hasn’t a good deal of experience. - Phil Spitalny, Current Biography, 1940.
That was conductor Spitalny’s dismissal of those who thought his concept an all “all-girl orchestra” put glamour ahead of musical ability. He first realized the misconception most held toward female musicians in 1932 when the 42 year old Ukrainian immigrant already recognized for his conducting talents set out to organize what many thought to be a Quixotic project - a full concert orchestra and chorus made up completely of women.
At first, his naysayers seemed right. Where would he find a female drummer or tuba player who could play the complicated charts that were executed by professional (male) musicians? Then he met Evelyn Kaye Klein, an extraordinarily talented violinist 20 years his junior who understood his reasoning and shared his enthusiasm. She became his first recruit, his concertmistress and achieved fame with her 1756 Bergonzi as Evelyn & Her Magic Violin. (1)
Together, Spitalny and Klein swept her alma mater, Julliard School of Music, clean of prospects and continued their exhaustive nationwide search for a year, auditioning over a thousand aspirants and going through $20,000 of Spitalny’s savings to find the perfect combination of 22 women who were often proficient on more than one instrument and could also sing in Spitalny’s choral arrangements. Finally, in early 1934, they accomplished their goal.
While Spitalny attempted to find radio and concert bookings for the group, his 23 year old “house mother” established rules for the group who would live, travel and perform together for the next 20 years. All members signed two year contracts during which they agreed to remain single and weigh no more than 122 pounds. They “lost” their last names when performing with the orchestra and all dressed in identical evening gowns except for the orchestra’s three principals, violinist Evelyn, soprano Vivian and contralto Maxine. The group was expected to rehearse daily and memorize every arrangement because Spitalny forbade the use of music stands.
It was worth the extra effort. Members of the group were making more money from music in Network Radio and concert dates than they ever dreamed possible. Meanwhile, Evelyn built a family spirit of teamwork and cooperation. “It’s much like a sorority,” she said in a 1942 interview. “A committee of five members settles all off-stage disputes and determines who the girls may and may not date. The well-being of the girl and reputation of the orchestra always come first.”
Their effort paid off quickly. Their first radio engagement, a 13-week run of Friday night quarter-hours, began on CBS, May 14, 1934. Warner Brothers was fast to spot the visual appeal of Spitalny’s girls. The group made its movie debut on August 23, 1934 in an eleven minute Warner Brothers recital titled Phil Spitalny & His Musical Queens. Four months later Paramount featured Spitalny’s all-girl orchestra in its Headliner series of shorts with the intriguing title, Ladies That Play.
Linit Bath Oil picked up the All-Girl Orchestra for its first half-hour show on CBS in January, 1935. The 26 week Thursday night run was opposite Rudy Vallee’s Top Five Fleischmann Hour on NBC but still managed to register a respectable 7.2 CAB rating. Their fame was further spread with movie shorts Sirens of Syncopation, (Paramount, 1935) and Phil Spitalny & His All Girl Orchestra, (Warner Brothers, 1935). Another 26 week series on CBS followed on Sunday nights at 6:00 in early 1936 for Zotos Machineless Permanent Wave but the CAB rating dropped to what would be the group‘s all-time low of 3.1.
Then came the big breakthough. After a six-month retreat from radio in 1936, General Electric launched Phil Spitalny’s All Girl Orchestra into its Hour of Charm, a ten-year series on NBC that struggled with a 3.3 rating during its first half-season on the network’s Monday night schedule, Nevertheless, Variety saw promise in this review from February, 1936: Luscious orchestrating for which Spitalny is noted is well exemplified anew. With Maxine for warm vocals and Evelyn for zowie fiddling and the girls hopping into glee-club formation at frequent intervals, the program has plenty of change if pace as it unrolls.
The show caught fire in the 1937-38 season when its rating soared to an 8.8 and The Hour of Charm became a Top 50 show in 48th place for the season. (2) Variety continued to praise the program in this 1937 review: Their third year in radio finds them more entrenched than ever as a staple program article, making no pretense to being anything but a deftly knit organization devoted to tickling femme taste with soothingly contrived melodies. The program brought out the aggregation’s wide range of talents.
Spitalny’s talented girls were still Hollywood favorites for short subjects, too, appearing in Musical Charmers, (Paramount, 1936) and Queens of Harmony, (Paramount, 1937). The string of shorts ended in November, 1939, with Paramount Pictures’ first Cinecolor release in its Headliner series, Moments of Charm. Along with radio and movie commitments, Spitalny had all the concert and theater engagements he could handle and former skeptics were encouraging him to establish more touring units of female musicians - an idea he rejected.
The Hour of Charm finished its Monday night run after the 1938-39 season with a 7.9 Hooperating good for 69th place in the year’s rankings. Then GE moved it to what would be its NBC home for the next seven years, Sunday nights at 10:00 where it averaged a 9.2 rating against the comedy quiz Take It Or Leave It on CBS, a Top 20 show through most of its run. (3)
Spitalny’s girls finally made their feature film debut on Christmas Eve, 1942, in Universal’s low-budget musical, When Johnny Comes Marching Home. Good reviews for Spitalny in that picture were topped by a concert the same week in New York City’s Town Hall.
Variety’s review of that event began, When show business talks in terms of versatility, put down the name Phil Spitalny. From radio and film presentation houses came Spitalny and his all-girl orchestra last week to achieve what may have been their epitome performance. They played New York’s staid Town Hall and made Town Hall like it.” After another hundred words of praise, it concluded, ...Still featured with Spitalny are Evelyn, violinist and arranger for the orchestra, Vivian, soprano of classical and light opera, Rosalinda the pianist and Maxine, contralto. All were excellent. This was an hour and a half of delightful charm.
Charming indeed, but also excellent musicianship. The October 14, 1945 Hour of Charm is a prime example, opening as all of the shows did with The American Hymn of Liberty and closing with a weekly hymn coupled with We Must Be Vigilant to the melody of American Patrol. The show begins with Spiltany’s full orchestral and choral treatment of Rogers & Hammerstein’s A Grand Night For Singing and climaxes with Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue. (4)
A broadcast from November 8, 1944, while the orchestra was completing its next and last film is posted. Their movie role was in support to Abbott & Costello in Universal’s 1945 comedy Here Come The Co-eds which was set in a mythical girls’ college. Spitalny’s ensemble could have made more pictures, but the concert and vaudeville stages were far more profitable.
Also posted is the group’s tenth anniversary broadcast from May 14, 1944, its Hits of Broadway of December 3, 1944, an all Victor Herbert concert from November 11,1945 and the patriotic American Fantasy of February 11, 1945. If you think something seems “missing” from these broadcasts, you’re right - Phil Spitalny’s voice was never heard. For that matter, his name was only mentioned once, at the beginning of the programs.
When the GE series ended in 1946, The Hour of Charm moved back to CBS and its Sunday afternoon schedule for a two year run sponsored by America’s Electric Co-ops. The show finally left the air on May 2, 1948 but the group remained popular on concert stages until Spitalny decided to disband the group in 1955. He, his wife Evelyn and her “magic” violin retired to Miami where he died 15 years later the most successful musical entrepreneur of the Golden Age.
(1) Phil Spitalny, 55, and Evelyn Klein, 35, were married in June, 1946, a union that lasted until his death in 1970 at age 79. She died in 1990 at 79.
(2) The Hour of Charm’s all-time high ranking was the result of slotting it between Fibber McGee & Molly and The Carnation Contented Hour, yet opposite the last half of Lux Radio Theater on CBS.
(3) Sunday night’s scheduling of The Hour of Charm on NBC gave it the lead-in of Hummert’s Manhattan Merry Go Round and American Album of Familiar Music from 9:00 to 10:00 p.m. for all seven seasons. Hour of Charm's season average ratings and rankings were: 1939-40: 9.9/65th, 1940-41: 8.3/75th. 1941-42: 8.4/79th, 1942-43: 9.6/66th, 1943-44: 9.2/73rd, 1944-45: 9.6/79th, 1945-46: 9.6/67th.
(4) All of the Hour of Charm broadcasts posted are edited transcriptions from AFRS. Inquiries to General Electric in search of unedited recordings were unanswered.
Copyright © 2018, Jim Ramsburg, Estero FL Email: tojimramsburg@gmail.com
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