Figure 1.--The Children's Hour had a 30-year fun. This is the cast portrait for the Horn & Hardart Children's Hour 10th Anniversary Photograph in 1940. Not sure why the 10th anniversary wasn't 1937. May have to do with the production in two cities. It began as a local program, but was syndicated nationally. Put your cursor on the image to see the rest of the cast.

'The Children's Hour' was a long-running variety show featuring children and youth which made the transition on television. The full name of the show was first 'The Horn and Hardart Children's Hour', but later known as just 'The Children's Hour'. There was a substantial cast of children. Some essentially grew up on the show. A few became popular adult performers. The program ran for more than three decades on radio and television. Horn & Hardart was a company which owned restaurants, bakeshops, and automats in New York City and Philadelphia. It was not uncommon for radio and at first television programs to be known by their long-term sponsors. The program was launched on Halloween day, October 31, 1927. It began on WCAU Radio in Philadelphia, hosted by Stan Lee Broza, and was later aired on NBC Radio in New York City (1940s and 1950s). Here we see the cast (1940). We believe it was primarily a Sunday morning program. The original New York host was Paul Douglas, followed by Ralph Edwards and finally Ed Herlihy. The transition to television begn as a simulcast. The television premiere was on WCAU-TV in Philadelphia (1948). It was followed by WNBT (TV) in New York (1949). It was broadcast on Sunday mornings. The hosts were Broza in Philadelphia and Herlihy in New York. Some of the children who aoppared oin the show that had successful adukt careers inluded: Ted Arnold (musical director for Glenn Yarbrough and José Feliciano), Frankie Avalon, Rosemary Clooney, Buddy DeFranco, Eddie Fisher, Connie Francis, Dan Gralick, Joey Heatherton, Kitty Kallen, Rose Marie, Bernadette Peters, Ann Sheridan, Arnold Stang, Ezra Stone (radio's original Henry Aldrich) and Bea Wain. Al Alberts (of The Four Aces) had a 30-year children's variety show modeled on the Horn & Hardart show where he had appeared as a child. The series ended (summer of 1958).

Created: 3:59 AM 9/26/2018
Last updated: 3:59 AM 9/26/2018