Montana labor news., 1937-09-23
ABsENT-MINDED PROFESSOR
KALTENMEYER DISCOVERS IT'S
9TH ANhIVERSARX

9TH ANNIVERSARY
With characteristic professional absent
mlndedness, Professor August Kaltenmey-
er (Bruce Kamman) admitted today he
mad been wrong in announcing Saturday,
September rs, as the fifth anniversary
of his famed kindergarten and that, as
matter OF fact, it Will be the crazy
classrOOms sixth anniversary.
Although the show has been heard over
NBC networks five years, it began a year
previously over WMAQ, NBC Chicago
station, a checkup by the absent-minded
professor showed.
it was Daisy Dean CCecn Roy) who,
although one of the latest additions to
the kindergarten ranks, called Kamman's
attention to the clerical error. She re-
called the chronological order of things
due to the birth of her 6-year-Old son and
recalled hearing her first kindergarten
broadcast that year.
Cecil was born in st. Paul, Mimi, but
lived there only short time as her
family moved TO Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas
ana finally to Pueblo, Colo. After gradu-
alton from Oklahoma Agricultural and
Mechanical College, she taught country
schools for two years before touring 40
states as a text book publishers repre-
sentative, then marrying and settling in
Chicago. She won her place as Daisy
Dean after a single addition.
Percy Van Schuyler (Merriu Fugit) was
born IN Chicago and has been in the
comic air show since its inception in 1881
He attended Parker High School in Chi
cagO, deVOting most of his spare time to
dramatlcs ana football. having won all
city ment0in at one time in a newspapers
nlgh school team rating.
After graduation he played two years
with road show, then returned to Chi
cagO and decided to become a radio
writer, but c. l.. Menser, NBC Central
DIVISION production manager, changed his
mind for him one afternoon when Fugit
dropped in TO sell Menser a script. Fugit
became an actor.
Thor Ericsson, who is Yohnny johnson,
hnra in C,Ern n V1nfru asrf
5, 1908, of Swedish-bOrn parents He at
tended high school and Crane College in
Chicago and had made up his mind to
become a newspaperman before tuning IN
ON Kaltenmeyer Kindergarten broadcast
one Saturday afternoon while cOnvalescing
from an attack of double pneumonia in
Chicago hospital. He wrote Kamman
letter suggesting he should have
addition, Thor got the job
Cornelius Callahan (Billy White), the
kindergarten's silver-voiced tenor, was
born in Chicago, September 20, 1905,
where he attended school and learned to
play a banjo. He worked for 10 years as
a rate clerk for Chicago corporation.
Then he quit clerking and played his
banjo and sang with Johnny Maitland
and his orchestra and Ted Flo RitO. In
1880 he and another promising young
tenor, Bing Crosby, were singing with Gus
Arnheim in Los Angeles. White Later
played stock, led his own band and Joined
the kindergarten cast in November, 1885.
Izzy Finkelstein (Johnny Wolff also was
a member of the original kindergarten
cast. Another native ChicagOan, he was
a featured trumpet solOist with Chicago
theater orchestra at the age of l3. lie
Joined NBC as a member of the National
Farm and Home Hour orchestra ana MADE
his debut as a network comedian rather
Unexpectedly one day when some OF the
talent failed TO show up for broadcast.
To fill in, Johnny laughinngSly offered to
tell some dialect jokes. The production
director told Johnny to tsgO to it," Johnny
thought he'd had his dramatic career,
but when 10000 letters arrived in the
next few mail deliveries asking for more,
NBC officials took Johnny seriously ana
kamman cast him in his original SHOW.
Kamman, the professor himself, was
member of that same Farm and Home
Hour band. Born of German parents IN
Cincinnati, February lS, 1899, kamman
began playing cOrnet at the age OF ~.
He attended high school in New YORK
and after graduation joined John Wanna
makers famous Boys Band and worked
nights in movie theater orchestras he
then joined a band with the Hagenbeck
and Wallace circus and still Later joined
an "Uncle Toms Cabin" troupe and drove
tent stakes with a l6-pOund sledge When
not playing in the band. He then landed
another band job at an old soldiers nome
in Fort Leavenworth, kan, and when Ihe
World War came along, became soldier
himself and emerged with the rank oil
assistant bandmaster. He played with
Coon Sanders, Jean GOldkette, Roxy's
Gang and other widely-kn0wn groups be-
fore joining the NBC staff band. He later
became an NBC production director ana
conceived the idea of the kindergarten
one evening while reading a book on the
life of Frederick Froebel who founded
the first kindergartens in Germany.
year later he wrote the first show and
continued to write the scripts for year
before turning the assignment over TO
Harry Lawrence, who still turns out the
Kaltenmeyer script each week.