BW - EP156—004: Halloween 1944—The Hour Of Charm

Breaking Walls: The Podcast on the History of American Network Radio Broadcasting

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers The Hour of Charm, radio’s “most-celebrated all-girl orchestra” first took to the air on May 18th, 1934 over CBS. In the fall of 1944 it was airing on NBC for General Electric, Sundays at 10PM eastern time. The brainchild of Phil Spitalny, The Spitalnys had a deep musical heritage. Immigrants from Russia, they had settled in Cleveland, where Phil Spitalny and his brother Leopold played in local bands. By the time Phil was 30, Spitalny had directed a 50-piece symphony orchestra in Boston, had led bands in theaters, on radio, and in recording sessions, and had just completed a successful world tour. The Hour of Charm’s featured player was Evelyn Kaye Klein, billed as “Evelyn and Her Magic Violin.” The orchestra specialized in familiar music, played in a style described by Spitalny as a cross between popular and symphonic. All of the girls sang in chorus, some solo, and all were proficient on more than one instrument. Jan Baker could play a dozen instruments; she took on the tuba and mastered it when Spitalny could find no woman to play it even after a nationwide search. Spitalny’s hiring practices were influenced by voice and good looks, but musicianship was always his first consideration. “No performer is hired who can’t give a finished rendition of two sonatas and two concetti, who hasn’t the individual gifts of rhythm and melodic perception, who can’t read music fluently, and who hasn’t had a good deal of experience,” said his 1940 Current Biography entry. He was also looking for “sweetness and charm,” and it is doubtful that any other orchestra has ever been so stringently governed. The girls were not allowed to marry: they signed contracts to that effect, agreeing to stay single for two years. They wore uniform attire, with the exception of the three principals, Evelyn, Vivien, and Maxine. They wore evening gowns, with no jewelry, their hair styled in “long, soft bobs.” No one would weigh more than 122 pounds. Curbs were enforced on personal behavior, with Evelyn in charge of backstage disputes and Spitalny handling such professional matters as musical arrangements, themes, and dress. “Associations in the all-girl orchestra are much like sorority life,” wrote Evelyn in a 1942 Radio Life article. A committee of five was formed to pass judgment on all offstage matters, including dating. “Whenever a girl wants to go out, she goes to the committee and says, ‘I want a date with Mr. So-and-So.’ They ask her who the man is, what he does, and for references. If he passes muster, she gets her date. But if the committee feels that it would hurt the orchestra for a member to be seen with that man, the engagement doesn’t materialize.” Spitalny staunchly defended the musicianship of all his girls, and he once bet bandleader Abe Lyman $1,000 that they could outplay Lyman’s all-male group. The women had professional pride, said Spitalny: they didn’t have problems with alcohol, and, when the war broke out, his was the only band in the land that didn’t have trouble with the draft. He continued lecturing newcomers about the need to be good; they had to be better than their male counterparts to be taken seriously. If a man muffed a note, nobody cared; if a woman did, the attitude was “well, what can you expect?” The show opened and closed with hymns, especially during the war. The opening theme was “The American Hymn of Liberty,” the closer, often a favored hymn of someone in the service. This gave the show a serious, almost solemn air. The closing signature blended out of the theme and into the song We Must Be Vigilant, sung by the orchestra to the tune of American Patrol. Spitalny married Evelyn in June 1946. They lived in Miami, where Spitalny died in 1970.