Lawrence Hopper

Floating around amidst collectors has been a little heard gem which encapsulates a transitional period in two great American music acts; the Sons of the Pioneers and Jo Stafford. Jo, with sisters Christine and Pauline, joined the Sons of the Pioneers to produce a program demo disc, or pilot, to sell to radio stations a show featuring their combined talents. The quality of the preserved piece has not lent itself to easy listening. Heavy mid-range distortion and a slight echo muffle the performances rendering details of the original presentation lost to the casual listener. Thanks to sound processing software this problem as been imperfectly alleviated, allowing a better appreciation of a unique melding of talent and affording an aural glimpse, the earliest recording, of 19 year old Jo Stafford’s solo work supported by her sisters and the talents of the Sons of the Pioneers.

(Listen to the recording)

In the mid thirties radio was a medium expanding exponentially. Live talent filled a variety of showcases for which there was no pay, only the opportunity to be heard and perhaps gain personal appearance work from the exposure. A fortunate few, like the Sons of the Pioneers, were lucky to be employed as staff musicians, sometimes performing under pseudonyms, and picking up outside work together or separately. “The Open Spaces” on KFWB, the Warner brothers owned station, was such a showcase and regularly scheduled programs devoted to music of the mountains, plains and western life. In 1938 a confluence of events would put The Sons and Daughters of the Pioneers on the air for the first and only time but the story begins earlier.

Christine and Pauline Stafford with friend Joan Schaefer formed the Stafford Sisters trio and began doing radio shows in the Los Angeles area. They worked the Hollywood Barn Dance with the Crockett Family before either the Sons of the Pioneers or Peter Potter became part of the program. They had also appeared in the Ken Maynard film Avenging Waters (1936 04 10) and recorded backup with Louis Prima’s New Orleans Gang on May 17th for Brunswick. This was before Jo Stafford joined the group following high school graduation. The Sons of the Pioneers already had commercial and transcription recording experience behind them by July 1936 having completed the Standard Transcriptions in January of that year and made their last recordings for Decca July 10th. Peter Potter, a pseudonym of William Moore, worked in several films and at various radio programs before drifting into obscurity. He can be seen clowning and singing with Smiley Burnette under his real name in The Phantom Empire.

The Stafford Sisters, with Jo worked several of the KFWB broadcasts with the Sons of the Pioneers and became friends. Bob Nolan dated Christine for a time. Jo had an unfulfilled crush on Len (Roy Rogers).

By September of 1936 the membership of the Sons of the Pioneers, Bob Nolan, Tim Spencer, Len Slye, Hugh Farr and Karl Farr, was about to change due to growing tensions centered on the group’s management by Leo Spencer, Tim’s brother. He was let go and Tim departed. The Sons had been particularly dissatisfied with their lack of monetary return on the Standard Transcription project and film work. Appearances in shorts for various studios, two westerns apiece with Charles Starrett and Gene Autry and non-appearance sound track work for live and animated shorts had been sporadic over the past couple of years.

Lloyd Perryman was brought in but Tim would still appear with the group in Gene Autry’s The Old Corral and The Big Show due to contract obligations. It was during this period from September 1936 when Lloyd joined and October 1937 when Len left to work in Republic films that the demo of the Sons and Daughters of the Pioneers originated. It was an attempt to sell a transcribed program from which the group could financially benefit.

The spring and summer of 1937 were fairly quiet career-wise for the Pioneers with only radio and personal appearances to keep them busy so it is most likely the demo was recorded in late July or August. Events would prove the timing poor.

The Pioneers signed a contract with Columbia Pictures and began working a series of westerns in August 1937 starring Charles Starrett in which they would perform and provide songs. The films were generally made once a month on a two week production schedule. In October their work load grew. They obtained a contract to record for the American Record Corporation. With film work, recording sessions, radio programs and personal appearances the additional burden of doing a regular transcribed program may have seemed too much. Another change took place in October – Jo Stafford left her group to pursue other interests which eventually led to joining the Pied Pipers and working with the Tommy Dorsey orchestra. The remaining sisters, once again with Joan Schaefer filling out the trio, continued working into 1938 making two Gene Autry films, The Big Show and Gold Mine in the Sky, before the act was permanently broken up by marriages.

The demo itself was probably recorded at KFWB studios and ended up on a shelf in the library. The usual process was to have a written continuity accompanying transcribed programs for announcers on local stations so they could give the impression of working with the featured artists and inject local news or ads where appropriate.

One evening in 1938 the live talent for The Open Spaces cancelled. Either Harry Hall, or the program producer grabbed the demo disc but couldn’t find the continuity sheet. With the aid of the station sound effects man they came up with ‘The Night Rider’ gimmick and used the sounds of hoof-beats, crickets and birds to bridge the transitions from song to song. With the show over, the demo disc was returned to the library. We can hear it today because someone with a home disc- machine recorded it off the air from speaker to microphone to disc. This accounts to some degree for the measure of distortion in the sound that survives on tapes. Had the tape been made from a possible file copy the sound would have been much different. Many stations were in the habit of keeping file recordings of live broadcasts by transcribing them. It is this habit that has allowed many early radio programs to remain in existence that were not originally transcribed themselves but broadcast live.

The program begins with a sudden “ooooooh” vocal chorus leading into the opening theme. This was heavily distorted due to improper volume settings by the recordist. After equalizing the sound and removing clicks I have changed the sudden opening to a fade in leading to Harry Hall’s opening and brought down the volume under his narrative. Following this minor change the program runs with only the improved equalization and de-clicking for a better listening experience.

Theme: “Tumbling Tumbleweeds” and Intro – Sons of the Pioneers and Stafford Sisters. Announcer: Harry Hall.

“Cool Water” – Len Slye (Roy Rogers) takes the lead with chorus backing by the Stafford Sisters. From time to time a careful listener can discern Bob Nolan’s voice in the chorus.

“Riding Down the Canyon” – Showcases Jo Stafford’s vocal talents working with her sisters.

“Chant of the Plains” – Sons of the Pioneers. Bob Nolan stepping forward for a brief solo.

“Blue Prairie” – Sons of the Pioneers and Stafford Sisters. Vocal lead by Bob Nolan with brief response from Lloyd Perryman.

Theme: “Tumbling Tumbleweeds” and Outro – Sons of the Pioneers and Stafford Sisters. Announcer: Harry Hall.

One final note: The American Broadcasting System referred to by Harry Hall is not the ABC radio or television network most people would be familiar with. This was an early attempt at chain (network) broadcasting by the Storer Broadcast Company owner George Storer. His business model was to buy and sell radio stations like he did gasoline stations. When RCA was forced to divest itself of the Blue Network in 1943 the new owners bought the rights to the name “The American Broadcasting System” from George.

It has been said of Lawrence Hopper that “He is an American intellectual gadfly. He knows more about more than most and less about little than many.” He is the author of “Bob Nolan: A Biographical Guide and Annotations to the Lyric Archive.” Larry has been an invaluable contributor to this site for many years. He lives in New Jersey.

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