The run
- Network
- ABC
- Years active
- 1940–1950
- Surviving broadcasts
- 36
- Genre
- comedy
ALADDIN LAMP What little is known about this series is gleaned from the pages of 'Aladdin Electric Lamps' and is used by express permission of the Aladdin Lamp Company. In the early 1930s Smilin' Ed McConnell promoted Aladdin Kerosene Lamps with remarkable success over WLW in Cincinnati, Ohio. He became a well known radio personality as 'The Aladdin Lamp Man' who sang songs, told stories and sold Aladdin lamps over the air. By 1948, 145 ABC stations were subscribing to his 15 minute programs. Smilin' Ed's humor, songs, and music were condensed into a five-minute program especially for electric lamp dealers. So it is very likely that this series originated after 1948. Through his personable style, Smilin' Ed touched the lives of millions of housewives. Digitised by the Old Time Radio Researchers and streamed from the Internet Archive item “OTRR_Aladdin_Lamp_Singles”; these recordings are in the public domain.
Source collection
Old Time Radio Researchers Group
Rights
Public domain — no renewed US copyright
Cataloguing
Air dates and notes from the Archive item record
The shape of the run
What survives, year by year
0 dated broadcasts across 11 years on the air, with 11 years where nothing is known to survive. Brightness is transfer quality; empty cells are months lost to time.
Episodes
Start here
Listen to the run in order
Restored broadcasts from NaN, in original transmission order.
- 1. First Tune - Heaven Only Knows · Date unknown
- 2. First Tune - Five Foot Blue, Eyes of Blue · Date unknown
- 3. First Tune - Sweet Child, I'm Wild About You · Date unknown
First Tune - Heaven Only Knows
Date unknown · 4 min
Broadcast on ABC. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
First Tune - Five Foot Blue, Eyes of Blue
Date unknown · 4 min
Broadcast on ABC. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
First Tune - Sweet Child, I'm Wild About You
Date unknown · 4 min
Broadcast on ABC. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
First Tune - I Miss a Little Miss
Date unknown · 4 min
Broadcast on ABC. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
First Tune - It Looks Like Rain in Cherry Blossom Lane
Date unknown · 4 min
Broadcast on ABC. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
First Tune - Someday You'll Say O K
Date unknown · 4 min
Broadcast on ABC. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
First Tune - I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles
Date unknown · 4 min
Broadcast on ABC. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
First Tune - Mexicali Rose
Date unknown · 4 min
Broadcast on ABC. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
Also on ABC
ABC in 1940–1950
Other series the network carried while Aladdin Lamp was on the air.
Same seasons
comedy on the air then
Series in the same genre whose runs overlapped this one.
What it became
Friends in front of a microphone
Jack Benny and Fibber McGee sold intimacy: recurring characters, in-jokes, a house style. The modern hang-out show is the same trick without the script.
Lineage is written by our editors, not inferred from listening data.
Descendants
Working in the tradition of Aladdin Lamp
Modern series carrying this form forward.
If you liked this
More to explore
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