OSCAR LEVANT COLLECTION OLD TIME RADIO - 4 CD-ROM - 177 mp3 - Total Playtime: 85:06:53 Oscar Levant (December 27, 1906 – August 14, 1972) was an American pianist, composer, author, comedian, and actor. He was as famous for his mordant character and witticisms, on the radio and in movies and television, as for his music. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1906 to an Orthodox Jewish family from Russia, Levant moved to New York in 1922, following the death of his father, Max. He began studying under Zygmunt Stojowski, a well-established piano pedagogue. In 1924, aged 18, he appeared with Ben Bernie in a short film, Ben Bernie and All the Lads, made in New York City in the DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film system. In 1928, Levant traveled to Hollywood where his career took a turn for the better. During his stay, he met and befriended George Gershwin. From 1929 to 1948 he composed the music for more than twenty movies. During this period, he also wrote or co-wrote numerous popular songs that made the Hit Parade, the most noteworthy being "Blame It on My Youth" (1934), now considered a standard. Around 1932, Levant began composing seriously. He studied under Arnold Schoenberg and impressed him sufficiently to be offered an assistantship (which he turned down, considering himself unqualified). His formal studies led to a request by Aaron Copland to play at the Yaddo Festival of contemporary American music on April 30 of that year. Successful, Levant began composing a new orchestral work, a sinfonietta. He married actress Barbara Woodell; they divorced in 1932. In 1939, Levant married for the second time, to singer and actress June Gale (née Doris Gilmartin; June 6, 1911 – November 13, 1996), one of the Gale Sisters. Oscar and June were married for 33 years, until his death in 1972. They had three children: Marcia, Lorna, and Amanda. At this time, Levant was perhaps best known to American audiences as one of the regular panelists on the radio quiz show Information Please. Originally scheduled as a guest panelist, Levant proved so quick-witted and popular that he became a regular fixture on the show in the late 1930s and 1940s, along with fellow panelists Franklin P. Adams and John Kieran, and moderator Clifton Fadiman. "Mr. Levant", as he was always called, was often challenged with musical questions, and he impressed audiences with his depth of knowledge and facility with a joke. Kieran praised Levant as having a "positive genius for making offhand cutting remarks that couldn't have been sharper if he'd honed them a week in his mind. Oscar was always good for a bright response edged with acid". In 1942, Levant premiered and recorded a one-movement piano concerto he had composed, accompanied by the NBC Symphony Orchestra. From 1947 to 1949, Levant regularly appeared on NBC radio's Kraft Music Hall, starring Al Jolson. He not only accompanied singer Jolson on the piano with classical and popular songs, but often joked and ad-libbed with Jolson and his guests. This included comedy sketches. The pairing of the two entertainers was inspired. Their individual ties to George Gershwin -- Jolson introduced Gershwin's "Swanee" -- undoubtedly had much to do with their rapport. Both Levant and Jolson appeared as themselves in the Gershwin biopic Rhapsody in Blue (1945). He also had a career as an actor, appearing in movies like Rhapsody in Blue (1945), The Barkleys of Broadway (1949) and An American in Paris (1951) where he was able to play original songs as well as deliver wise-cracks to Gene Kelly. In the early 1950s, Levant was an occasional panelist on the NBC game show, Who Said That?, in which celebrities would try to determine the speaker of quotations taken from recent news reports. Between 1958 and 1960, Levant hosted a television talk show on KCOP-TV in Los Angeles, The Oscar Levant Show, which later became syndicated. It featured his piano playing along with monologues and interviews with top-name guests such as Fred Astaire and Linus Pauling. A full recording of only two shows is known to exist, one with Astaire, who paid to have a kinescope recording of the broadcast made, so that he could assess his performance. This is likely the only Astaire performance to have imperfections, as it was live, and Levant would repeatedly change the tempo of his accompaniment to Astaire's singing during the bridges between verses, which appeared to get him quite off balance at first. He did not dance, as the studio space was extremely small. The show was highly controversial, eventually being taken from the air after a comment about Marilyn Monroe's conversion to Judaism: "Now that Marilyn Monroe is kosher, Arthur Miller can eat her". He later stated that he "hadn't meant it that way". Several months later, the show began to be broadcast in a slightly revised format—it was taped in order to provide a buffer for Levant's antics. This, however, failed to prevent Levant from making comments about Mae West's sex life that caused the show to be canceled for good. Levant was also a frequent guest on Jack Paar's talk show, prompting Paar in later years to sign off by saying, "Good night, Oscar Levant, wherever you are." On an appearance on The Tonight Show, from New York, Levant once quipped that his Jaguar ambulance was waiting outside for him. The 1920s and 1930s wit Alexander Woollcott, a member of the Algonquin Round Table, once said of him: "There isn't anything the matter with Levant that a few miracles wouldn't cure." Open about his neuroses and hypochondria, in later life Levant became addicted to prescription drugs and was frequently committed to mental hospitals by his wife. Despite his afflictions, Levant was considered a genius by some, in many areas. (He himself wisecracked "There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line.") Levant withdrew increasingly from the limelight in his later years. He died in Beverly Hills, California, of a heart attack at the age of 65. His death was discovered by his wife when she went to get him from their bedroom to sit for an interview with Candice Bergen, a photo-journalist at the time. Levant was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. In their routines, some comics have claimed, apocryphally, and citing an old joke, that hypochondriac Levant's epitaph is inscribed, "I told them I was ill." EPISODES LIST DISC 1 Bell Telephone Hour 440918 098 Oscar Levant Bing Crosby Show 48-11-10 Oscar Levant Command Performance - 42-03-29 - George Jessel, Connie Boswell, Oscar Levant - Copy Fred Allen - Fred Allen Show 46-06-23 (076) 50th Anniversary of the Telephone Company Fred Allen 43-01-31 018 Oscar Levant Fred Allen 44-04-23 059 Oscar Levant - South Dakota Fred Allen 46-06-23 037 50th Anniversary Of The Telephone Company guest Oscar Levant Guest Star 48-05-02 Al Jolson It's Time To Smile 41-04-02 (027) Guest - Oscar Levant Jack Benny Program 43-01-17 (465) Spoof on Information Please Kraft Music Hall 47-10-02 First Song - Sonny Boy, Guest - Edgar Bergen Kraft Music Hall 47-10-16 First Song - For Me And My Gal, Guest - Bing Crosby Kraft Music Hall 47-10-23 First Song - I'm Sitting On Top Of The World, Guest - Groucho Marx Kraft Music Hall 47-10-30 First Song - Almost Like Being In Love, Guest - William Bendix Kraft Music Hall 47-11-06 First Song - Golden Gate, Guest - Humphrey Bogart Kraft Music Hall 47-11-13 First Song - A Fella Needs A Girl, Guest - Victor Moore Kraft Music Hall 47-11-20 First Song - Hello, 'Tucky, Hello, Guest - Charles Boyer Kraft Music Hall 47-11-27 First Song - California, Here I Come, Guest - Dorothy Lamour Kraft Music Hall 47-12-04 First Song - There's A Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder Kraft Music Hall 47-12-18 First Song - Swanee, Guest - Jimmy Durante Kraft Music Hall 47-12-25 First Song - Is It True What They Say About Dixie, Guest - Boris Karloff Kraft Music Hall 48-01-01 First Song - Avalon, Guest - Madeleine Carroll Kraft Music Hall 48-01-08 First Song - Where Did Robinson Crusoe Go, Guest - William Powell Kraft Music Hall 48-01-15 First Song - Toot Toot Tootsie, Guest - Bing Crosby Kraft Music Hall 48-01-22 First Song - Yacka Hula, Hickey Dula, Guest - Lucille Ball Kraft Music Hall 48-01-29 First Song - Alabamy Bound, Guest - Walter O'Keefe Kraft Music Hall 48-02-05 First Song - I'm Just Wild About Harry, Guest - Ed Gardner Kraft Music Hall 48-02-12 First Song - For Me And My Gal, Guest - Charles Laughton Kraft Music Hall 48-02-19 First Song - I'm Sitting On Top Of The World, Guest - Charles Boyer Kraft Music Hall 48-02-26 First Song - Chicago, Guest - David Niven Kraft Music Hall 48-03-04 First Song - Yacka Hula, Hickey Dula, Guest - Cary Grant Kraft Music Hall 48-03-11 First Song - I'm Looking Over A Four Leaf Clover Kraft Music Hall 48-03-18 First Song - Margie, Guest - Edward G. Robinson Kraft Music Hall 48-03-25 First Song - Baby Face, Guest - Clifton Webb Kraft Music Hall 48-04-01 First Song - She's A Latin From Manhattan, Guest - Jimmy Durante Kraft Music Hall 48-04-08 First Song - I'm Just Wild About Harry, Guest - Vera Vague Kraft Music Hall 48-04-22 First Song - Alexander's Ragtime Band, Guest - Dorothy Kirsten Kraft Music Hall 48-05-13 First Song - Baby Face, Guest - Dorothy Kirsten Kraft Music Hall 48-05-20 First Song - April Showers, Guest - Henry Morgan Kraft Music Hall 48-06-03 First Song - When The Red-Red-Robin DISC 2 Kraft Music Hall 48-06-10 First Song - Alexander's Ragtime Band, Guest - Dorothy Kirsten Kraft Music Hall 48-09-30 First Song - Is It True What They Say About Dixie Kraft Music Hall 48-10-07 First Song - Baby Face, Guest - Edward G. Robinson Kraft Music Hall 48-10-14 First Song - Just One Of Those Things, Guest - Ezio Pinza Kraft Music Hall 48-10-21 First Song - For Me And My Gal Kraft Music Hall 48-10-28 First Song - I'm Just Wild About Harry, Guest - Dorothy Kirsten Kraft Music Hall 48-11-04 First Song - Swanee, Guest - George Burns and Gracie Allen Kraft Music Hall 48-11-11 First Song - Bright Eyes, Guest - George Jessel Kraft Music Hall 48-11-18 First Song - Bright Eyes, Guest - Groucho Marx Kraft Music Hall 48-11-25 First Song - That Certain Party, Guest - Victor Mature Kraft Music Hall 48-12-02 First Song - When The Red-Red-Robin Comes Bob-Bob-Bobbin' Along Kraft Music Hall 48-12-09 First Song - Ma! She's Making Eyes At Me, Guest - Dennis Day Kraft Music Hall 48-12-16 First Song - I'm Sitting On Top Of The World, Guest - Dinah Shore Kraft Music Hall 48-12-23 First Song - Is It True What They Say About Dixie Kraft Music Hall 48-12-30 First Song - Smile, Guest - Doris Day Kraft Music Hall 49-01-06 First Song - Yacka Hula, Hickey Dula, Guest - Larry Parks Kraft Music Hall 49-01-13 First Song - That Certain Party, Guest - Groucho Marx Kraft Music Hall 49-01-20 First Song - I'm Just Wild About Harry, Guest - Victor Moore Kraft Music Hall 49-01-27 First Song - When The Red-Red-Robin Comes Bob-Bob-Bobbin' Along Kraft Music Hall 49-02-03 First Song - Hello, 'Tucky, Hello, Guest - Dennis Day Kraft Music Hall 49-02-10 First Song - Oh, You Beautiful Doll, Guest - Peggy Lee Kraft Music Hall 49-02-17 First Song - Hello, My Baby, Guest - Joan Davis Kraft Music Hall 49-02-24 First Song - Bright Eyes, Guest - The Andrews Sisters Kraft Music Hall 49-03-03 First Song - Waiting For The Robert E. Lee Kraft Music Hall 49-03-04 Kraft Music Hall 49-03-10 First Song - After You've Gone, Guest - Jimmy Durante Kraft Music Hall 49-03-17 First Song - At Sundown, Guest - Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Kraft Music Hall 49-03-24 First Song - Chinatown, My Chinatown, Guest - George Jessel Kraft Music Hall 49-04-07 First Song - When The Red-Red-Robin Comes Bob-Bob-Bobbin' Along Kraft Music Hall 49-04-14 First Song - Give My Regards To Broadway Kraft Music Hall 49-04-21 First Song - Ma! She's Making Eyes At Me, Guest - Jimmy Durante Kraft Music Hall 49-04-28 First Song - Swanee, Guest - Doris Day Kraft Music Hall 49-05-05 First Song - California, Here I Come, Guest - Dennis Day Kraft Music Hall 49-05-12 First Song - Melancholy Baby, Guest - Victor Moore Kraft Music Hall 49-05-19 First Song - Look For The Silver Lining Kraft Music Hall 49-05-26 First Song - Waiting For The Robert E. Lee, Guest - Groucho Marx Philco Radio Time - 48-02-11 Oscar Levant Philco Radio Time - 48-11-10 Oscar Levant Radio Hall of Fame 45-11-11 Honoring Oscar Levant DISC 3 Information Please 38-06-21 (006) Guest - Oscar Levant Information Please 38-07-05 (008) Guest - Oscar Levant Information Please 38-07-26 (011) Guest - Oscar Levant, John Gunther Information Please 38-08-09 (013) Guest - Alton Cook, Alice Dever Miller Information Please 38-09-13 (018) Guest - Percy Waxman Information Please 38-10-11 (022) Guest - Lillian Gish Information Please 38-11-15 (027) Guest - John Gunther Information Please 38-11-29 (029) Guest - Kathleen Norris Information Please 38-12-27 (033) Guest - William Lyon Phelps, Yale Professor Information Please 39-01-10 (035) Guest - Alxander Wolcott Information Please 39-01-24 (037) Guest - General Hugh Johnson Information Please 39-02-07 (039) Guest - University of Michigan Student - Myron Wallace Information Please 39-02-21 (041) Guest - Moe Berg Information Please 39-03-21 (046) Guest - John Gunther Information Please 39-04-18 (050) Guest - H V Kaltenborn Information Please 39-05-16 (054) Guest - John P Marquand Information Please 39-05-30 (056) Guest - Stanley Walker Information Please 39-06-13 (058) Guest - Helen Wills Moody Information Please 39-06-27 (060) Guest - Wilber Cross Information Please 39-07-11 (062) Guest - Elliot Roosevelt Information Please 39-07-25 (064) Guest - Maury Maverick Information Please 39-08-22 (068) Guest - H Napier Moore Information Please 39-09-05 (070) Guest - Raymond Graham Swing Information Please 39-09-19 (072) Guest - P Cal Simms Information Please 39-10-03 (074) Guest - Dean C Mildred Thompson of Vasser College Information Please 39-10-31 (078) Guest - Carl Sandberg Information Please 39-11-14 (080) Guest - James Farley Information Please 39-12-12 (084) Guest - Walter B Pitkin Information Please 40-08-20 (120) Guest Walter Wanger Information Please 40-09-03 (122) Guest Henry Beedle Hough Information Please 40-09-17 (124) Guest Otto Tallicious Information Please 40-09-24 (125) Guest - 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Leon Henderson Information Please 42-10-09 (231) Gregory Ratoff Information Please 42-11-06 (235) Hanson W Baldwin Information Please 42-11-20 (237) Louie Bromfield Information Please 42-12-04 (239) Senator Henry Cabot Lodge Jr, Governor Leverett Saltenstahl Information Please 42-12-18 (241) Guest - Ilka Chase Information Please 43-01-01 (243) Gregory Ratoff Information Please 43-01-08 (244) Will Rogers, Jr Information Please 43-01-22 (246) Guest - Alfred Hitchcock Information Please 43-02-05 (248) Guest - Jan Struther Information Please 43-02-15 (249) Guest - Fred Allen Information Please 43-03-01 (251) Guest - Will Rogers, Jr Information Please 43-03-08 (252) Guest - Gregory Ratoff Information Please 43-03-29 (255) Guest - Colonel Carlos Romules Information Please 43-04-12 (257) Guest - Wendell Willkie Information Please 43-04-26 (259) Guest - Leon Henderson Information Please 43-05-10 (261) Guest - George V Denny, Jr Information Please 43-05-31 (264) Guest - Sir Thomas Beecham Information Please 43-06-14 (266) Guest - George Saunders Information Please 43-06-28 (268) Guest - Walter Yust Information Please 43-07-12 (270) Guest - Jan Struther Information Please 43-09-20 (272) Guest - Clair Booth Luce Information Please 43-09-27 (273) Guest - James W Fulbright Information Please 43-11-01 (278) Guest - Bette Smith Information Please 43-11-15 (280) Guest - Gregory Ratoff Information Please 43-11-29 (282) Guest - Artur Rubenstein Information Please 43-12-20 (285) Guest - Jesse Stewart, Oscar Levant Information Please 44-01-03 (287) Guest - Louis Bromfield Information Please 44-01-17 (289) Guest - John P Marquand Information Please 44-02-28 (295) Guest - Franchot Tone Information Please 44-06-12 (310) Guest - Admiral Emory Land Be Aware: MP3 CD WILL NOT PLAY IN REGULAR CD PLAYERS. Mp3 CD will play in mp3 CD players and car mp3 CD players. You can, also, upload the mp3 files to your ipod or itunes. Will, also, play in your computer, some regular DVD players and all Blu Ray Players. PUBLIC DOMAIN NOTE This item is the public domain and was created between January 1, 1923 and December 31, 1971 This item is in the public domain due to failure to comply with required formalities After a careful search of the Library of Congress and the United States Trademark and Patent Office, it has been determined that the programs listed for sale here are in the Public Domain. They are being offered with the understanding that no valid or active copyright, trademark, and/or patent exist for them. These recordings are sold for private home listening and use only. No broadcast rights are stated, implied, or given. I assume no responsibility for unauthorized use of these programs. They are listed in accordance with current policies concerning selling Public Domain materials.