General Motors Concerts, offering classical music on the radio, were heard in different formats on the NBC Red and NBC Blue networks between 1929 and 1937. The concerts began 1929-31 as a 30-minute series on the Red Network with Frank Black as the musical conductor on Mondays at 9:30pm. It also aired as General Motors Family Party.

The 1935-37 Red series, expanding to a full hour on Sundays at 10pm, featured Ernö Rapée

Erno Rapee

Ernö Rapée was one of the most prolific American symphonic conductors in the first half of the 20th Century...

 conducting, along with violinists Yehudi Menuhin

Yehudi Menuhin

Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin, OM, KBE was a Russian Jewish American violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in the United Kingdom. He was born to Russian Jewish parents in the United States, but became a citizen of Switzerland in 1970, and of the United Kingdom in 1985...

 and Erica Morini, tenor Lauritz Melchior

Lauritz Melchior

Lauritz Melchior was a Danish and later American opera singer. He was the pre-eminent Wagnerian tenor of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, and has since come to be considered the quintessence of his voice type.-Biography:...

, and sopranos Kirsten Flagstad

Kirsten Flagstad

Kirsten Målfrid Flagstad was a Norwegian opera singer and a highly regarded Wagnerian soprano...

, Lotte Lehmann

Lotte Lehmann

Charlotte "Lotte" Lehmann was a German soprano who was especially associated with German repertory. She gave memorable performances in the operas of Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Ludwig van Beethoven, Puccini, Mozart and Massenet. The Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier was considered her greatest...

 and Florence Easton

Florence Easton

Florence Easton was a popular English dramatic soprano in the early 20th century. She was one of the most versatile singers of all time. She sang more than 100 parts, covering a wide range of styles and periods, from Mozart, Meyerbeer, Gounod, Verdi, Wagner, Puccini, Strauss, Schreker and Krenek...

.

With a title change to The General Motors Promenade Concerts, the program moved April 1937 to the Blue Network for a series of hour-long thematic shows with male/female leads, including one show of Victor Herbert

Victor Herbert

Victor August Herbert was an Irish-born, German-raised American composer, cellist and conductor. Although Herbert enjoyed important careers as a cello soloist and conductor, he is best known for composing many successful operettas that premiered on Broadway from the 1890s to World War I...

 music with Jan Peerce

Jan Peerce

Jan Peerce was an American operatic tenor. Peerce was an accomplished performer on the operatic and Broadway concert stages, in solo recitals, and as a recording artist. He is the father of film director Larry Peerce....

 and Rose Bampton

Rose Bampton

Rose Bampton was a celebrated American opera singer who had an active international career during the 1930s and 1940s. She began her professional career performing mostly minor roles from the mezzo-soprano repertoire in 1929 but later switched to singing primarily leading soprano roles in 1937...

. Broadcast on Sundays at 8pm, this series continued until June 1937.

As General Motors Concert, the final 13-week series brought together radio's first concert stock company on October 3, 1937. With Rapee conducting the General Motors Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, these broadcasts were part of a Sunday Nights at Carnegie Hall series sponsored by General Motors.

Swedish tenor Jussi Björling

Jussi Björling

Johan Jonatan "Jussi" Björling was a Swedish tenor. One of the leading operatic singers of the 20th Century, Björling appeared frequently at the Royal Opera House in London, La Scala in Milan, and the Metropolitan Opera in New York City as well as at other major European opera...

 made his American debut as part of this series on November 28, 1937. The rotating line-up of leading name performers featured Björling, Donald Dickson, Helen Jepson

Helen Jepson

Helen Jepson was an American lyric soprano noted for being a "stunning blond beauty" as well as for her voice....

, Maria Jeritza

Maria Jeritza

Maria Jeritza , born Marie Jedličková, was a celebrated Moravian soprano singer, long associated with the Vienna State Opera and the Metropolitan Opera...

, Grace Moore

Grace Moore

Grace Moore was an American operatic soprano and actress in musical theatre and film. She was nicknamed the "Tennessee Nightingale." Her films helped to popularize opera by bringing it to a larger audience.-Early life:...

, Erna Sack

Erna Sack

Erna Sack was a German coloratura soprano of exceptional talent.-Biography:Erna Sack was born in Spandau, Berlin. Her maiden name was Weber, and as a child her voice attracted attention both at school and in the church choir in which she sang. In 1921, Erna married Hermann Sack...

, Joseph Schmidt and Richard Tauper. In addition to the music, John B. Kennedy narrated science stories. The announcer was Milton Cross

Milton Cross

Milton John Cross was an American radio announcer famous for his work on the NBC and ABC radio networks.He was best known as the voice of the Metropolitan Opera, hosting its Saturday afternoon radio broadcasts for 43 years, from the time of their inception in 1931 until his death in...

. The series presented its final broadcast on December 26, 1937.

Listen to

• Telephone interview with Grace Moore prior to her October 1937 appearance on General Motors Concert

External links

• Echo (Fall 2003): "Music and Advertising in Early Radio" by Timothy D. Taylor