The run
- Network
- Syndicated
- Years active
- 1940–1950
- Surviving broadcasts
- 25
- Genre
- western
SHELL CHATEAU Shell Chateau was a musical variety series that began on June 29, 1935, with Al Jolson serving as its host. Some sources even mention that the program was developed around Jolson and his talents. However, Jolson left the series briefly in the fall of 1935 due to a movie commitment. Wallace Beery, one of the country’s most popular film stars of the period took over the host position following a one week stint by radio newsman, Walter Winchell. Jolson returned in January of 1936, but didn’t hang around for long and departed permanently in April 1936. Based on a recommendation by the program’s music director, Victor Young, Smith Ballew was installed as the new host and remained with the program for the remainder of 1936. Smith Ballew had previously worked extensively on records with Victor Young; they had been friends since 1926. Digitised by the Old Time Radio Researchers and streamed from the Internet Archive item “OTRR_Shell_Chateau_Singles”; these recordings are in the public domain.
Source collection
Old Time Radio Researchers Group
Rights
Public domain — no renewed US copyright
Cataloguing
Air dates and notes from the Archive item record
The shape of the run
What survives, year by year
0 dated broadcasts across 11 years on the air, with 11 years where nothing is known to survive. Brightness is transfer quality; empty cells are months lost to time.
Episodes
Start here
Listen to the run in order
Restored broadcasts from NaN, in original transmission order.
- 1. Guest - Otto Kruger · Date unknown
- 2. Guest - Loretta Turnbull · Date unknown
- 3. Guest - Marge Keeler · Date unknown
Guest - Otto Kruger
Date unknown · 1h 0m
Broadcast on Syndicated. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
Guest - Loretta Turnbull
Date unknown · 59 min
Broadcast on Syndicated. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
Guest - Marge Keeler
Date unknown · 58 min
Broadcast on Syndicated. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
Guest - June Marlowe
Date unknown · 56 min
Broadcast on Syndicated. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
Guest - Deanna Durbin
Date unknown · 1h 0m
Broadcast on Syndicated. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
Guest - The Happiness Boys
Date unknown · 56 min
Broadcast on Syndicated. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
Guest - Walter Hampton
Date unknown · 1h 0m
Broadcast on Syndicated. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
Guest - Ruth Chatterton
Date unknown · 59 min
Broadcast on Syndicated. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
Also on Syndicated
Syndicated in 1940–1950
Other series the network carried while Shell Chateau was on the air.
Same seasons
western on the air then
Series in the same genre whose runs overlapped this one.
What it became
The adult western
Gunsmoke was sold as the first adult western: moral ambiguity, weather, silence. Serialised folk horror and long-form fiction inherited its patience.
Lineage is written by our editors, not inferred from listening data.
Descendants
Working in the tradition of Shell Chateau
Modern series carrying this form forward.
If you liked this
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