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Major Bowes Amateur Hour
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Major Bowes Amateur Hour, radio's best-known talent show, was one of the most popular programs broadcast in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s. It was created and hosted by Edward Bowes (1874–1946).
In the 1920s Bowes was the imposing manager of New York's equally imposing Capitol Theatre and would insist on being addressed as "Major Bowes." He acted the part to the hilt, complete with military bearing and imperious manner.
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Encyclopedia
Major Bowes Amateur Hour, radio's best-known talent show, was one of the most popular programs broadcast in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s. It was created and hosted by Edward Bowes (1874–1946).
In the 1920s Bowes was the imposing manager of New York's equally imposing Capitol Theatre and would insist on being addressed as "Major Bowes." He acted the part to the hilt, complete with military bearing and imperious manner. He once admonished an underling, "How will people think you're important if you don't act important?"
Radio
Bowes brought his amateur hour to the New York City radio station WHN in April 1934. On March 24 1935, Chase and Sanborn chose this show to fill The Chase and Sanborn Hour on NBC. This arrangement only lasted until September 17 1936, when the show moved to the CBS Radio Network. The show remained on CBS for the remainder of its run on radio.
Each week, Bowes would chat with the contestants and listen to their performances. He usually seemed vaguely impatient with the proceedings, and his constant refrain of "All right, all right" was lampooned by radio and films of the day. Bowes was known for his quick dispatch of untalented performers by sounding either a loud bell (similar to that used to denote the end of a boxing round) or a gong (thus inspiring a later series, The Gong Show).
Bowes's theatrical and managerial savvy extended the hit radio show into a profitable stage franchise. Bowes sent the more talented contestants on "Major Bowes" vaudeville tours, often with several units roaming the country simultaneously. Bowes presided over his radio program until his death on his 72nd birthday, June 14, 1946.
Television
Ted Mack, who had supervised the auditions for Bowes, became the interim host of the radio show and a few months later moved it to the fledgling medium of television. It was intermittently broadcast on the DuMont Television Network during 1947 and began regular weekly programs January 18, 1948, still using Bowes' name in the title, Major Bowes' Original Amateur Hour. The TV show subsequently moved to each of the four commercial networks, eventually ending up on its original network, CBS, where the radio show continued to run until 1952. Starting with the 1950-51 season, both the radio and television versions became simply Original Amateur Hour and in 1955, the TV version was renamed Ted Mack and The Original Amateur Hour. Future stars who appeared on the show included Pat Boone and Gladys Knight.
Mack's style was decidedly more charitable than that of Bowes. The Major made a strong impression on a young Alan King, who had appeared on the Bowes program as a teen. He was discussing Bowes with Johnny Carson once, and suddenly stomped on the floor and yelled, "Can you hear me down there, Major Bowes?" suggesting that the late radio host had been consigned to Hell as punishment for his treatment of young performers.
In his comic monologue on his album Sinatra at the Sands (1966), Frank Sinatra describes how his vocal group, The Hoboken Five's appearances were so popular on Major Bowes Amateur Hour in the mid-1930s that they were brought back week after week, under a different name each time.
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