Other than people who are interested in old time radio, Kay Kyser is largely forgotten today and that's a shame. His musical/ quiz/ comedy radio show "Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge" was wildly popular for 11 years on NBC and he was a true showman, especially as he wasn't much of a musician, he couldn't read music. He was more of a comedian than a bandleader, with his southern drawl, dressing for his show in a cap and gown, calling his band members and the audience "children" and when a contestant would answer one of his quiz questions incorrectly, he would ask the audience for the right answer by yelling "STUDENTS??".

Just because Kyser's show was comedy didn't mean it didn't have great music too. A tall man with a bowl shaped "Moe Howard" haircut named Ish Kibibble did the comedy numbers, singing songs like "Like the Fellow Once Said" in which one of the lines went "Like the fellow once said while shaving his mush, "I'ma tellin' you, baby, you're gettin' the brush". Singers like Harry Babbitt, Ginny Simms, (who it was rumored Kyser had a romance with) and Georgia Carroll, (who he did have a romance with because they were later married), sang the more serious songs such as "Can't Get Out of this Mood", "(There'll be bluebirds over) The White Cliffs of Dover" and "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition".

Kyser also made several moves with his band, but despite his popularity he decided to leave showbiz in 1950 without much notice and unfortunately practically making sure he would be forgotten to posterity, but because of his radio show, we can still hear the ol' professor saying "C'mon chillen, yess'dance!!!"

C.M.