Harvest of Stars

Last updated April 06, 2019

Harvest of Stars is a concert music series, produced and directed by Glen Heisch and starring James Melton. Sponsored by International Harvester, the program was broadcast on NBC and CBS from 1945 to 1950.

James Melton, a popular singer in the 1920s and early 1930s, later began a career as an operatic singer when tenor voices went out of style in popular music around 1932–35. His singing talent was similar to that of Richard Crooks, John Charles Thomas or Nelson Eddy.

The International Harvester Company was a United States manufacturer of agricultural machinery, construction equipment, trucks, automobiles, and household and commercial products. Its reorganized successor, after spin-off of several of those businesses, is Navistar International.

Raymond Massey was the host when the show began October 7, 1945, on Sunday afternoons from 2:30pm to 3:00pm, offering opera selections along with standards and show tunes under the direction of Howard Barlow. Frank Black was the musical director in the 1947 series. On April 7, 1948, the show moved to Wednesday evenings at 9:30pm. Victor Young took over as musical director on January 5, 1949.

Raymond Hart Massey was a Canadian actor, known for his commanding, stage-trained voice. For his lead role in Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940), Massey was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. He also was well known for playing Dr. Gillespie in the NBC television series Dr. Kildare (1961–1966). Today he is most often seen in his role as the malevolent Jonathan Brewster, who looks like Boris Karloff, and violently attacks anyone who mentions the resemblance, in Arsenic and Old Lace (1944).

Victor Young was an American composer, arranger, violinist and conductor.

Although usually emanating from New York, Harvest of Stars also toured for sell-out shows in major cities from San Francisco to Memphis. Guests included Bob Burns (doing a bazooka solo), Alfred Drake. Burl Ives. Dorothy Kirsten, Lauritz Melchior. Robert Merrill. Jan Peerce, Jane Powell, the Revelers (their first reunion since 1938), Lanny Ross, Rise Stevens and Alec Templeton.^[1]

Alfred Drake was an American actor and singer.

Burl Ives American actor, writer and folk music singer

Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives was an American singer and actor of stage, screen, radio and television.

Dorothy Kirsten was an American operatic soprano.

Local International Harvester dealers ran tie-in ads with the radio series. For example, on April 20, 1949, the Orscheln Bros. dealership in Moberly, Missouri, advertised the company's Farmall tractor in the Moberly Monitor-Index and Democrat with a box at the bottom of the ad:

Moberly is a city in Randolph County, Missouri, United States. The population was 13,974 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Columbia, Missouri metropolitan area.

Listen!

Sunday afternoon

Listen!

Harvest of Stars starring James Melton will be heard on the NBC network Sunday afternoons at 4:30pm. Listen to it over Stations WDAF, Kansas City or KSD, St. Louis.^[2]

The final run of the program began April 3, 1949, on Sundays at 5:30pm, and the series concluded September 5, 1950.

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References

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[1] Jerry Haendiges Vintage Radio Logs: The Harvest of Stars

[2] Newspaper Archive