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Saxophone Blues

Ernest Hare

Ernest Hare, Rudy Wiedoeft

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On this 1919 recording baritone singer Ernest Hare is accompanied by the "Brunswick Studio Orchestra" which includes Rudy Wiedoeft c-melody sax.

*"Saxophone Blues" was composed by Al Bernard and Rudy Wiedoeft.

Thomas Ernest Hare (March 16, 1883 - March 9, 1939) was a baritone vocalist who recorded prolifically during the 1920's and 1930's, finding fame as a radio star on The Happiness Boys radio program.

Hare's recording career began in 1918. He was Al Jolson's understudy in the Broadway musical Sinbad during 1919-20. He recorded with "The Cleartone Four", "The Crescent Trio", "The Harmonizers Quartet", and "The Premier Quartet". Hare would also make a series of recordings with Al Bernard in the late 1910's and the start of the 1920's. As a soloist, he worked under a variety of names among them Wallace Daniels, Arthur Grant, Henry Jones, Robert Judson, Walter Lang, Walter Leslie, Roy Roberts, Bob Thomas, Bob Thompson, "Hobo" Jack Turner, and Frank Mann.

After he met Billy Jones in 1919, they teamed up in 1920 when Brunswick executive Gus Haenschen had them sing an accompaniment on a Brunswick recording. They went on to do numerous recordings together for Brunswick, Edison and most other major U.S. record companies of the era. Similarities between the two singers were often noted: same height, same weight, and ironically birthdays just a few days apart.

They began on radio October 18th 1921 on W.J.Z. in Newark, New Jersey. Sponsored by Happiness Candy, they were heard as the Happiness Boys beginning August 22nd 1923 on New York's W.E.A.F., moving to NBC for a run from 1926 to 1929. As the Happiness Boys, they sang popular tunes, mostly light fare and comic songs, with jokes and patter between numbers.

By 1928, they were the highest-paid singers in radio, earning $1,250 a week. After Hare's death in 1939 of bronchopneumonia, Jones continued to perform, teaming in 1939-40 with Hare's 16-year-old daughter, Marilyn Hare (1923-1981). Jones died November 23rd 1940. Marilyn Hare went on to a career as an actress in films, Soundies, and television, and also toured as a singer.