Radio history — WNBZ talent contests

It was billed as “real amateurs — real fun — real talent.”

Stevens House Grill in Lake Placid in 1936 launched a weekly amateur night contest.

“Winners will be judged by popular applause,” The Lake Placid News reported on July 31, 1936.

Amateur singers, instrumentalists, comics, dancers and orators competed for a weekly cash prize, and, perhaps more important, an appearance on WNBZ radio of Saranac Lake with Bob Reinert and his Miami-Biltmore Orchestra, as they were known in the winter months in Florida, or Bob Reinert and his Miamilodians, as they were known as the summer house band at the Stevens House.

Reinert and his band could be heard on WNBZ from 6:30 to 6:45 every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

“Their repertoire included not only dance tunes but ensemble singing and harmony of the highest order.”

In 1937, WNBZ and the Palace Theater in Lake Placid collaborated on the “Children’s Amateur Radio Tryouts.”

On two consecutive Saturdays, child entertainers aged 15 and younger auditioned at the theater for the opportunity to appear on one of two hour-long radio studio broadcasts.

It made it handy for parents to bring their talented youngster for a try out and then stay to watch a movie.

Some “for lack of practice or insufficient preparation” did not appear on the air.

Of those that appeared on the air, 14 acts were selected to appear in an 8:30 p.m. Saturday Nov. 27 show to be broadcast live from the theater.

Those appearing in the final show were as follows: Donald Rand, Vivian McNeil, Eunice Benedict, Walter Dashnaw, Ethel Trudell, Mary Kelly, Harry Potter, Clara Fragassi, Jean DeLoria, Dene DeMais and Eugene Maynard, Isabel Jones, Connie Fry, Teresa Kendrick, Yvonne Hurlburt.

Sources: The Lake Placid News — July 3, 31, Aug. 14, 1936; Oct. 28, Nov. 12, 26,1937

Click here to read a previous post about WNBZ.