THE LANDT TRIO
MY DAD, DANIEL LANDT,was one of the Landt Trio and White, pioneers in early radio. In 1928, he and his brothers (Karl and Jack) with friend Howard White, borrowed money from their Sunday school teacher and, though having no contacts at all, headed for New York City with the hope of getting into vaudeville. They were a vocal trio, with piano accompaniment. With the blessings of the innocent, they instead chanced into an audition with NBC and ended up "on the air." Here's how John Dunning describes them in the Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio: "The Landt Trio...came from Scranton, Pa., and became one of early radio's busiest singing groups. They had learned harmony while singing at home for the entertainment of their parents. Their professional act materialized when they began singing with Howard White, a local banker [error: baker!] who happened to be a pianist, also self-taught. Their first air appearances were with White on Stations WGBI and WQAM, Scranton. Encouraged by the response, the four went to New York and successfully auditioned at NBC. They subsequently took part in many prime-time broadcasts and held their own morning series on various networks for more than a dozen years."
As indicated above, Dunning errs on some details. More important, he misses some of the Trio's accomplishments. Their "Sing Along with the Landt Trio" was radio's first "sing along" program, and, as far as we know, they were the first to involve the audience in on-the-air contests -- including a "dig for silver" in which Audience members came up on stage and plunged their hand into a jar of coins. Another first was a write-in "name these tunes" competition, which drew almost 100,000 responses from all over the nation, and provided evidence to sponsors of the outreach of the radio medium. For a fuller account, see landttrio.netfirms.com, a site maintained by Kitsie Landt, daughter of Karl.
Now, the Landt Trio is remembered mostly by our family, through a few old off-the-air records. We've found some on line - an awful June 6th D-Day recording when Karl had larengitis and What we'd love to have, though, is a series of recordings they made for the "NBC Thesaurus" -- promotional disks for affiliate stations; these included the trio's best songs. We've searched for this without success.
If you have ideas of where we can find copies of the NBC Thesaurus, let us know.We'd sure appreciate any help!
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FOOD
THE LANDT FAMILY COOKBOOK, subtitled "Recipes, Fried and True," was published (very privately) in 1996. But recipes are made for sharing -- after all, what is more communal than breaking bread (or baking cookies)? Here are a few recipes for your consideration.
CHICAGO BARNDANCE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES are a recipe, if it can be called that, passed along to us at a Monday night barndance. The nice part is that it is easily memorable. Better yet -- hold on to your hats on this -- the product is arguably an improvement on the standard chocolate chip cookie recipe on the Tollhouse chocolate chip package.
What you do is to make that recipe as ordained by the great anonymous cookiemaker of years past. But you ADD to it a cup of oats (not the quick kind, but any other), a cup of Rice Krispies, a cup of coconut flakes, and a cup of vegetable oil. (Additional chocolate chips are optional). The result shows no trace of its heritage: no taste of coconut, no oatmeal cookie aspect, and no oiliness. But it produces a great chocolate chip cookie that has a fascinating, mysterious "sandy" quality. And, of course, you produce more cookies. Try it and let us know.
THE GREAT FLANK STEAK RECIPE came from my friend Lee Schwarz. Again, you don't need to write it down. And may people already know this. But if you don't - wow! - it will be a real joy. (Apologies to vegetarians).
Take a flank steak, score it with a knife on both sides. Then marinate it overnight in a combination of soy sauce (pretty much any quantity), brown sugar, and maybe a teaspoonful of garlic salt, turning at least once. Broil to taste.
This is good enough for a company dish as well as a fine dinner for the family, maybe with a baked potato. (When you try this dish, see if it reminds you of any other dish. Can't quite place it? Ask me.)
Do you have a recipe to share? Pass it along!
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