Major Bowes Amateur Hour

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Major Bowes Amateur Hour, radio's best-known talent show, was one of the most popular programs broadcast in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s. It was created and hosted by Edward Bowes (1874–1946).

In the 1920s Bowes was the imposing manager of New York's equally imposing Capitol Theatre, and would insist on being addressed as "Major Bowes." He acted the part to the hilt, complete with military bearing and imperious manner. (He once admonished an underling, "How will people think you're important if you don't act important?")

He brought his amateur hour to the CBS Radio Network in 1934. Each week the Major would chat with the contestants and listen to their performances. He usually seemed vaguely impatient with the proceedings, and his constant refrain of "All right, all right" was lampooned by radio and films of the day. Anticipating American Idol's Simon Cowell by generations, Bowes was known for his quick dispatch of untalented performers by sounding either a loud bell (similar to that used to denote the end of a round of boxing) or a gong (thus inspiring The Gong Show).

Bowes's theatrical and managerial savvy extended the hit radio show into a profitable stage franchise. Bowes would assemble the more talented contestants and send them out on "Major Bowes" vaudeville tours, often with several units roaming the country at once. Bowes presided over his radio program until his death (on his 72nd birthday, June 14, 1946).

Ted Mack, who had supervised the auditions for Bowes, became the interim host of the radio show and a few months later moved it to the fledgling medium of television. It was intermittently broadcast on the DuMont Television Network during 1947 and began regular weekly programs as of January 18, 1948, still using Major Bowes' name in the title, Major Bowes' Original Amateur Hour. The TV show would subsequently move to each of the four original commercial networks, eventually ending up on its original network CBS, where the radio show continued to run until 1952. Starting with the 1950-51 season both the radio and the TV versions became simply Original Amateur Hour and in 1955, the TV version was renamed Ted Mack and The Original Amateur Hour.

Mack's style was decidely more charitable than that of Bowes. The Major made a strong impression on a young Alan King, who had appeared on the Bowes program as a teen. He was discussing Bowes with Johnny Carson once, and suddenly stomped on the floor and yelled, "Can you hear me down there, Major Bowes?" suggesting that the late radio host had been consigned to Hell as punishment for his treatment of young performers.

In his comic monologue on his 1966 album, Sinatra at the Sands, Frank Sinatra describes how his own group's appearances were so popular on Major Bowes Amateur Hour that they were brought back week after week, under a different name each time.