Broadcasting from past

Before the advent of TV, radio shows dominated the broadcast world. There were news programs and audio dramas. With musical acts, comedians and fun giveaways, radio variety shows were prevalent World War II-era entertainment.

Networks didn’t broadcast recorded material until the late 1940s, so the shows were done live, often in front of a studio audience from the swankiest hotels and ballrooms of the era.

It was the Golden Age of Radio, yet with entertainment options in a seemingly unlimited supply today, the style is largely forgotten.

So when students in the Huntington Beach Academy for the Performing Arts Musical Theater Ensembles class found out they were to perform “1940’s Radio Hour,” it meant they would be getting a history lesson along with the performance.

The show, by Walton Jones and originally performed on Broadway in 1979, takes the audience back to a fictional Dec. 21, 1942, broadcast of the Mutual Manhattan Variety Cavalcade on the New York radio station WOV.

It includes a Sinatra-esque drunken star, a sound effects man and a trumpet player eager to get into the fight in Europe.

The students began working on the show at the beginning of the school year.

When APA junior Stephanie Bull found out she was to play Geneva Lee Browne in the show, director Tim Nelson told her to think “Mae West.”

Bull’s reaction was “Mae who?” But modern technology came to her rescue as she researched West performances on www.youtube.com.

Some of the history lessons have come from people who lived through the era and experienced radio’s heyday.

Junior Nick Johnsen, who plays head honcho Clifton A. Feddington, was approached after a show by a man who worked for CBS in the ’40s.

He told Johnsen they would give the time 28 minutes ahead because that was the length of the delay between live performance and broadcast.

APA senior Jared Marino took the music home to play for his grandmother. “She knew every single song I played her,” Marino said.

But the show, which premiered Dec. 14 and will run through Dec. 23, is fun for everyone, the cast says.

“It’s music that puts you in a good mood,” says cast member Samantha Bullat. With classic Big Band hits like “Chattanooga Choo Choo” and “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,” it’s got music for everyone.

“It’s always been one of my favorite shows,” Nelson says. “Everything was so upbeat in the ’40s.”

Unlike many musicals, the radio setting also provides a purpose for the musical numbers that come along.

“It’s not like a musical where songs are randomly coming along,” Dannielle Green, another cast member, says.

The show features a live band made up of APA students and alumni who blast swing numbers. They also provide the musical backdrop for the jingles and commercials the students perform as part of the show.

They were surprised to see many of the products that are still around today, like Pepsi-Cola. The show even features a Carmen Miranda-esque Chiquita banana dancer with the fruit atop her head.

The audience gets involved too, just like they would if they were sitting in a New York City ballroom in 1942. Some audience members are called onstage for a classic radio giveaway contest.

“It’s cool because we’re performing in a performance,” junior Kelsey Schulte said.

IF YOU GO

Who: Huntington Beach Academy for the Performing Arts

What: “1940’s Radio Hour”

Where: Rose Center Theater, 14140 All American Way, Westminster

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday

Cost: $15 general admission, $12 students and seniors, $10 per member of families of four or more.

Info: (714) 793-1150