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29 Kids who didn’t have a dime for the movies could listen to the radio, the most
popular form of home entertainment during the 1930s (commercial television
didn’t arrive until the late 1940s). Back then, radio offered a much greater variety of
programs than it does today. Hundreds of stations across the country broadcast

soap operas, talent shows, serious dramas, comedy shows, mysteries, quizzes,
sports events (especially baseball), and both classical and popular music programs.
30 Music was as important in the lives of young people then as it is now. The top
bandleaders and vocalists of the era were as famous as movie stars. Fans drew a
sharp distinction between “sweet” bands, popularized by leaders such as Guy

Lombardo, which featured a dreamy, sentimental (some said schmaltzy) sound,
and “swing” bands, led by Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, and
others, with their driving rhythm and improvised solos akin to jazz. Teenagers

clustered around their radios to listen to their favorite bands on weekly
broadcasts. On Saturday evenings—before disc jockeys and Top 40 charts were
commonplace—kids tuned in to Your Hit Parade, which presented the top ten
tunes of the week, saving the top three hits for the end of the show.

improvised If something is improvised, it is done without any planning.

Some Hit Tunes of the 1930s

And the Angels Sing
A-Tisket A-Tasket

Deep Purple

Harbor Lights
Love Walked In

Moon over Miami

Over the Rainbow
Pennies from Heaven

Red Sails in the Sunset Listening to the radio in
The Way You Look Tonight Aberdeen, South Dakota

You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby

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