Singin' Sam aka Harry Frankel (January 27, 1888, Springfield, Ohio -June 12, 1948, Richmond, Indiana) was a minstrel performer, vaudevillian [1] and popular personality during the early days of radio. He was best known as "Singin' Sam, the Barbasol Man" for his long association with that company.
The son of clothing merchant Sol Frankel, Harry grew up in Danville, Kentucky, singing in various quartets, moving with his parents to Richmond, Indiana, when he was nine years old. He joined Coburn's Minstrels in 1908 and later toured with Al G. Field's Minstrels. Frankel and Joe Dunlevy were known as the "Two Blackbirds" when they performed in vaudeville theaters during the late 1920s. [2]
When Frankel began in radio in 1930 on WLW (Cincinnati, Ohio), sponsored by the Great States Lawn Mower Company, he started using Singin' Sam as his professional name, and he was also known at that time as "The Lawnmower Man." [3] In New York he began as "Singin' Sam the Barbasol Man" on WABC on July 20, 1931. [4] He disliked New York, and three years later, he returned to Richmond, Indiana, with vocalist Helene "Smiles" Davis, [lower-alpha 1] so named because of her identification with the (then new) song "Smiles" while singing to the troops during World War I. The couple married May 2, 1934, in Richmond and lived first on their 5-acre (20,000 m2) farm, known as Just-a-Mere Farm, ll miles west of town on the National Road (now U.S. Route 40). They later lived on small farm on the southeast side of Richmond with a large colonial revival house with a pool and several outbuildings. In late 1934, Singin' Sam returned to broadcasting after Barbasol arranged to do his show live from Cincinnati, an easy commute.
He continued with Barbasol until 1941, and during that time, he also did shows for Coca-Cola, flying to New York on alternate weeks to make transcriptions for his weekly 15-minute Refreshment Time with Singin' Sam, which aired from 1937 to 1942. [5] In total, he made 260 transcriptions for the syndicated program. [1]
He retired about a year before his death. [6]
He died in hospital [6] in Richmond of a heart attack in 1948. [5]
Harry Frankel should not be confused with country singer Singin' Sam Agins (1919–1996) and others who adopted the name. [7]
Richmond is a city in east central Indiana, United States, bordering on Ohio. It is the county seat of Wayne County, and in the 2010 census had a population of 36,812. Situated largely within Wayne Township, its area includes a non-contiguous portion in nearby Boston Township, where Richmond Municipal Airport is.
Gennett was an American record company and label in Richmond, Indiana, United States, which flourished in the 1920s. Gennett produced some of the earliest recordings of Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Bix Beiderbecke, and Hoagy Carmichael. Its roster also included Jelly Roll Morton, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charley Patton, and Gene Autry.
Claude Augustus Swanson was an American lawyer and Democratic politician from Virginia. He served as U.S. Representative (1893-1906), Governor of Virginia (1906-1910), and U.S. Senator from Virginia (1910-1933), before becoming U.S. Secretary of the Navy under President Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1933 until his death. Swanson and fellow U.S. Senator Thomas Staples Martin led a Democratic political machine in Virginia for decades in the late 19th and early 20th century, which later became known as the Byrd Organization for Swanson's successor as U.S. Senator, Harry Flood Byrd.
Will Geer was an American actor, musician, and social activist, who was active in labor organizing and other movements in New York and Southern California in the 1930s and 1940s. In California he befriended rising singer Woody Guthrie. They both lived in New York for a time in the 1940s. He was blacklisted in the 1950s, by Hollywood, after refusing, in testimony before Congress, to name persons who had joined the Communist Party.
Harry Revel was a British-American composer of musical theatre.
Solomon Meredith was a prominent Indiana farmer, politician, and lawman who became a controversial Union Army general in the American Civil War. One of the commanders of the Iron Brigade of the Army of the Potomac, Meredith led the brigade in the Battle of Gettysburg. Although he never fully recovered from the wounds he received that day, he became a prize winning farmer and cattleman at home and hosted veterans of his unit.
Thomas Warren Bennett was governor of Idaho Territory from 1871 to 1875. He also served as a Congressional delegate from the territory from March 4, 1875 to June 23, 1876. He also served in the Indiana State Senate.
Richmond High School is a public high school in Richmond, Indiana, United States. It is the home of the Richmond Red Devils, who are members of the North Central Conference of the Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA). Prior to 1939, the school was known as Morton High School in honor of Indiana's Civil War Governor, Oliver P. Morton. The current principal of Richmond High is Rae Woolpy.
George Herbert Baker was an American Impressionist artist who worked primarily in the Richmond, Indiana area and was a member of the "Richmond Group" of painters. He worked in oil, watercolor and pastels. He worked for a time in Brown County, Indiana and is sometimes associated with that group of artists.
Tommy Riggs and Betty Lou was a radio situation comedy broadcast in various time slots from 1938 to 1946.
George Alan Cleveland was a Canadian film actor. He appeared in more than 180 films between 1930 and 1954.
Jan Garber was an American violinist and jazz bandleader.
Barbasol is an American brand of shaving cream, aftershave, and disposable razors created by MIT Professor Frank Shields in 1919 in Indianapolis. It is currently owned by Perio, Inc.
Charles Denier Warren was an Anglo-American actor who appeared extensively on stage and screen from the early 1930s to late 1960s, mostly in Great Britain. He was the son of Charles Warren and Marguerite Warren, née Fish.
Francois "Frank" Joseph Girardin was an American impressionist artist who worked in the Cincinnati, Ohio, Richmond, Indiana and Los Angeles, California areas. He was also an early player for the Cincinnati Reds baseball team.
Samuel Rufus McDaniel was an American actor who appeared in over 210 television shows and films between 1929 and 1950. He was the older brother of actresses Hattie McDaniel and Etta McDaniel.
Milt G. Barlow was an American blackface comedian and actor popular in minstrel and vaudeville shows over the latter half of the 19th century.
Swayne, Robinson and Company also known as "Swayne, Robinson & Co." or simple "Swayne, Robinson" was an iron and aluminum casting factory founded in 1842 by Francis W. Robinson. The company operated until 1997, when it closed and its owners filed for bankruptcy. The building was located at 214 East Main Street Richmond, Indiana until 2001. A fire in 1999 destroyed a third of the building. It is the current site of the Wayne County Jail. Until it closed, it was the oldest family-owned business in America.
Several different minor league ballclubs have been based in the town of Danville, Illinois, fielding teams in 38 seasons between 1888 and 1982 under various monikers. The Danville Suns (1982), Danville Dodgers (1975–1976), Danville Warriors (1970–1974), Danville Dans (1951–1954), Danville Dodgers (1946–1950), Danville Veterans (1922–1932), Danville Speakers, Danville Old Soldiers (1906), Danville Champions (1900) and Danville Browns were the minor league teams. Danville teams played at Soldiers Home Park (1922–1932) and Danville Stadium (1946–1982).
Mary F. Thomas (1816–1888) was a pioneer American woman physician, abolitionist, and temperance and women's rights leader who advocated for women, as well as those in need. Born into a Quaker family, she grew up in Ohio and spent most of her life in Indiana. Thomas was an active member of the women's suffrage movement and a founding member of the Woman's Rights Association of Indiana, serving as a vice president and president of the Indiana organization. In 1859 she became the first woman to present a petition before the Indiana General Assembly, calling for passage of laws to provide property rights for married women and a women's suffrage amendment to the Indiana Constitution. At the national level she served a one-year term as president of the American Woman Suffrage Association. In the mid-1850s she was a coeditor of Mary Birdsall's national woman's rights magazine, The Lily, and later an associate editor of the Mayflower with Lizzie Bunnel and a contributor to Woman's Journal.
