page_title: Wayne and Shuster
section_title: Radio
hierarchical_section_title: Wayne and Shuster / Radio
caption_attribution_description: English: Newspaper ad from a Washington DC newspaper for the duo's new comedy/variety radio show.
context_page_description: Wayne and Shuster were a Canadian comedy duo formed by Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster. They were active professionally from the early 1940s until the late 1980s, first as a live act, then on radio, then as part of The Army Show that entertained troops in Europe during World War II, and then on both Canadian and American television.
  Wayne and Shuster were well known in Canada, and were Ed Sullivan's most frequently recurring guests, appearing a record 67 times on his show. Despite repeated suggestions that they should move to the United States to further their careers, the duo chose to stay in Canada.
context_section_description: In 1941, they made their radio debut on CFRB in their own show, The Javex Wife Preservers, for which they were each paid $12.50 per week to dispense household hints in a humorous fashion.  Their popularity on CFRB, at the time a top-rated Toronto radio station, soon landed the pair on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)'s Trans-Canada Network as part of the Buckingham Cigarette "Blended Rhythm Show".
  They enlisted in the Canadian Army in 1942, and were immediately assigned to The Canadian Army Radio Show, which was produced in Montreal. Shuster and Wayne wrote most of the music, lyrics and skits, and were part of a cast that featured the singers Jimmie Shields and Raymonde Maranda. The radio show was a success, resulting in The Army Show, a touring stage version that opened in Toronto in April 1943 to popular acclaim. Time Magazine called it "a high-spirited, always likeable, often lavish soldier show... Two Toronto sergeants, 26-year-old Frank Shuster and 24-year-old Johnny Wayne, had authored a peppy book, some perky tunes and lyrics."  The revue travelled across Canada in 1943 to entertain troops and help with the sale of Victory Bonds, and included a stop at the Quebec Conference. In addition to Shuster and Wayne, the cast included the singer Roger Doucet, Brian and Dennis Farnon, Denny Vaughan, and Lois Hooker (who later, as Lois Maxwell, starred as Miss Moneypenny in fourteen James Bond films). In late 1943, the revue was split up into five units and sent to England to entertain troops. Shuster and Wayne again prepared most of the material for all the units, and were assigned to a unit that followed Canadian troops into France following D-Day. The duo often performed close enough to the front lines that they had to contend with snipers, strafing and even a relatively close encounter with an exploding V-1 "buzz bomb".
  After demobilization, Shuster and Wayne returned to Toronto and started The RCA Victor Show on CBC Radio. An advertising executive suggested that "Wayne & Shuster" sounded better than "Shuster & Wayne". Since the order of their names wasn't important to the two, they agreed to the change. (Alex Barris later recalled that they had a CBC office with two doors — one read "Wayne & Shuster", the other was "Shuster & Wayne".) Their popularity rapidly grew and CBC changed the name of their radio programme to The Wayne & Shuster Show. By 1950, their Canadian weekly audience numbered 3 million. They also began to make a name for themselves in the U.S. when they were hired to make a radio network series to replace William Bendix's The Life of Riley while it was on summer hiatus in 1947.
caption: Listing for the pair's new comedy/variety radio show, airing in the US in 1947.
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