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#10711: TEX AND JINX SHOW: TEX MCCRARY AND JINX FALKENBURG

1954-07-29, WNBC, min.

TEX AND JINX Radio & Television BROADCAST HISTORY:

April 22, 1946- February 27, 1959.

WEAF (WNBC, WRCA), New York weekdays at 8:30 A.M. until 1954; at 1:00pm,1954-1955; then at 6:30 and 10:35pm until July 31, 1958, moving briefly to WOR, broadcasting at 2:15pm.

In addition to the Kollmars (Dorothy Kilgallen and husband Richard Kollmar) and the Fitzgeralds (Pegeen and husband Ed Fitzgerald), another well-recognized New York couple, newlyweds Tex McCrary and Jinx Falkenburg, added their own bread-and-bacon banter to the local airwaves between 1946 and 1959. Their gabfest, initially Hi Jinx but later revised to Tex and Jinx, was beamed over WEAF which was subsequently re-lettered WNBC and later WRCA. In limited doses, the flagship outlet of the National Broadcasting Company transmitted Meet Tex and Jinx to the whole country during 1947 and 1948.

Tex and Jinx devoted most of their airtime to lofty and noble concepts, visitors and sidebars. Tex and Jinx [on WEAF-WNBC-WRCA] were interviewing Bernard Baruch, Margaret Truman, or Ethel Waters…. McCrary built the show on the assumption that the early morning audience was not stupid, as programmers generally assumed; that people in general had fresher minds and were more open to serious topics at the beginning of the day.”

Their joint radio venture began in April 1946 just 10 months following their nuptials (June 10, 1945). Launched as a breakfast feature, the series later shifted to afternoons and finally into the evening hours before departing the ether a dozen years afterward. They were branded by one journalist “Mr. Brains and Mrs. Beauty.”

In early 1947 NBC put them on its television network as a portion of a Sunday evening quarter-hour dubbed Bristol-Myers Tele-Varieties. “The McCrarys were naturals for TV,” wrote a reviewer, “with their combination of friendly chatter, interviews, and features.” That summer the web awarded them an exclusive Sunday night half-hour format under the appellation At Home with Tex and Jinx. A decade later, in the 1957-58 season, the duo hosted a daytime NBC-TV showcase, The Tex and Jinx Show.

When hepatitis sidetracked Falkenburg in 1958 from their broadcast commitments, McCrary carried on solo on their radio show for another couple of years. In the 1980s, however, the couple separated, remaining on genial terms. McCrary died in New York on July 29, 2003 and Falkenburg expired just 29 days later in the same city, on August 27, 2003.

NOTE::
The scores of TEX AND JINX SHOWS archived by Archival Television Audio, Inc. were originally obtained as original 16" Electronic Discs from Barry Farber, producer of the show (1957-1959), in 1960 after he had begun his own career in front of the mike at WINS Radio. These discs were subsequently transferred to 1/4" reel to reel tape, and then disposed. These broadcasts are rare and represent the largest known collection of TEX AND JINX extant broadcasts in the world.

Today's Guest: Guy Lombardo.

#13129: GUY LOMBARDO NEW YEAR'S EVE PARTY AT THE WALDORF ASTORIA, THE

1956-12-31, CBS, 10 min.

Beginning in 1929, a New Year's Eve Tradition...Guy Lombardo & his Royal Canadians. Guy Lombardo was best known to TV audiences for his annual New Year's Eve telecasts. His brothers Carmen (the band's musical director), Victor, & Lebert were all members of the orchestra. Guy, the eldest, was designated the leader. For most of his years in television, Guy Lombardo represented nostalgia for the '30s and '40s. At midnight the traditional welcoming in of the New Year at Times Square is presented. Jack Lescoulie brings in the New Year at Times Square.

The best-known New Year's Eve shows on radio and then television was hosted by bandleader Guy Lombardo, who hosted 21 consecutive New Year's Eve shows from 1956 to 1976 on CBS, and for a time in syndication. Lombardo's first radio broadcast on New Year's Eve was heard on December 31, 1928 over CBS Radio, and for a time he even split hosting duties by broadcasting on CBS Radio before 12 Midnight EST and on NBC Radio after Midnight. Lombardo would host 48 straight New Year's Eve broadcasts until his death in 1977, and famously performed "Auld Lang Syne" by his Royal Canadians as the clock struck 12 Midnight, ushering in the start of a New Year.

Once the Lombardo orchestra began their annual television shows, there would be a live segment from Times Square, which was (and still is) the focal point of the nation's largest New Year's celebration. In the early years of Lombardo's television specials, Robert Trout reported on and counted down to Midnight in New York's Times Square; but for most of Lombardo's years on television, another legendary newsman, Ben Grauer, had the honor. (Grauer, by the way, also reported from Times Square for NBC Radio on celebrations following the surrender of Japan on August 14, 1945.

The first New Year's Eve special on television was broadcast on December 31, 1941 on WNBT New York, and consisted of entertainment broadcast from the Rainbow Room, atop the RCA Building in New York's Rockefeller Center.[3]

Due to World War II, there would be no more New Year's Eve specials on television until December 31, 1945. WNBT produced a remote broadcast of festivities in Times Square. While NBC had begun to feed programs to WRGB is the Albany area and WPTZ in Philadelphia, information is unavailable as to whether either or both of these stations broadcast the program, or if it was seen just locally in New York.[4]

Unless New Year's Eve fell on a weekend, NBC would carry a special New Year's version of "The Tonight Show" each year beginning in 1954, including coverage of the arrival of the New Year in Times Square.

Dick Clark himself had actually emceed one New Year's Eve TV special prior to 1972; on December 31, 1959, he emceed a 90-minute New Year's special on ABC. One of the guests was Frankie Avalon. But it would be the last time Clark would do a New Year's Eve television special for the next thirteen years.

By the 1970s, Lombardo's big band music skewed to an older generation, so Dick Clark started his telecast in 1972 to compete.

New Year's Eve celebration, ushering in 1957 with bandleader Guy Lombardo. Robert Trout reports from Times Square.

#13261: NEW YEAR'S EVE REPORT, THE

1957-12-31, CBS, 10 min.

Robert Trout reports live from Times Square in New York City, ushering in the year 1958. Music by Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians.

#13515: NEW YEAR'S EVE CELEBRATION AT TIMES SQUARE

1960-12-31, CBS, 8 min.

Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians usher in the year 1961 along with Vincent Lopez and his orchestra. Robert Trout reports the festivities from Times Square.

#13582: GUY LOMBARDO'S NEW YEAR'S EVE PARTY AT THE ROOSEVELT HOTEL, THE