THE EARLY YEARS

HOMEPAGE

BIOGRAPHIES
    Karl
    Jack
    Dan

HISTORY
    Getting Started
    Early Years
    Later Years

CATALOG

FEEDBACK

In the early years, the Landt Trio really only existed as the Landt Trio and White. Howard White's talent and unique style was a central component of their success. Howard had been a professional pianist on the radio in Scranton and his style created and supported much of what became familiar to audiences as the group's unique sound.

The Landt Trio and White was an immediate hit in New York. They were signed to a contract on NBC red and blue networks and became an exclusive property of NBC. The first program of their own, starting in December 1928, was a fifteen minute program called "On the 8:15" and was part of an experiment in which the network moved their first program of the day from 10:00 am back to 7:00 am. This program was called a sustaining program, that is, one that did not have a sponsor but was paid for by the network. The Trio was to direct their programming to commuters who were preparing to leave for work. At first they felt all their songs needed to be wake up and sunshine songs, but soon learned that even an early morning audience would accept a variety of songs.

Other programs on which they appeared regularly during that period included "Morning Showers," "The Lucky Strike Hour," "The Gilbert Hour," "The Wriggly Hour," and "The Mobil Oil Hour." We know that, besides the New York metropolitan area, their music was broadcast throughout the East Coast, in Cleveland, Saint Louis, Denver, and Oklahoma City.

Throughout this period, they also performed regularly on the vaudeville circuit including appearances at the Palace, the Roxie, and the Hippodrome in New York City, the Fox in Brooklyn, the RKO Capital in Union City, New Jersey, the RKO Palace in Albany, New York, Hershey Park in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Dorney Park in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in venues in Atlantic City, New Jersey and Newburg, New York, and for a number of organizations.

In 1933, NBC replaced their morning spot with a less expensive one-man program, and sent the Landt Trio and White to Cleveland where they broadcast for Spang Bakery for 39 weeks. It is said that in their first week there, they shattered all records for fan mail. They continued to broadast programming to the New York market. They were able to move the entire family to Cleveland with them and rented a large house with a maid. The stories from that period spoke of horseback riding and golfing, and in general, a lifestyle quite a bit more elegant than that which they had been able to afford in the preceding years. And this was at the height of the Depression.

The Landt Trio and White returned at the end of their Cleveland contract to New York and continued on a number of programs there. In January of 1937, they started on a new program called Pick and Pat, but just two weeks into it, Howard White died suddenly. This put the Trio in a very difficult situation. They did not have written arrangements, at least written in a form that could be read by other accompanists. Although, after a few months, they found some success working with Curly Mahr as their accompanist, within that short period of time, they had lost most of their New York work except a little advertising.