The ABC Breakfast Club with Don McNeil Also Known as The Don McNeil Show and later NBC Breakfast Club

I love being able to get so many "Breakfast Club" shows at such a reasonable price. I'm 76, and listened to it every day from age 6-8 in Chicago with my folks, at least my mother after Dad had gone to work at Swift, the sponsor. I do wish that the compilation somehow had the dates of the shows. (I realize that could be a lot of work.) One particular show would be important: Sept. 13, 1949. I'm assuming that was the date -- my late brother Jim's 5th birthday -- when Dad took Jim to a "Breakfast Show" broadcast. One feature at the time was the March Around the Breakfast Table, which got audience members up on their feet. We heard McNeil coax an uncooperative kid: "C'mon, the boy in the cowboy hat -- let's get up and march!" Jim was kind of a shy kid and was wearing his new cowboy hat when he left the house. I'm hoping to find that episode and confirm that I really heard it.

I hope your brother Jim still had a good time marching around the table! I'm sorry to say I don't believe I have the 1949 recording you had in mind unfortunately. You can see the list of contents is listed down below on the log page of each series. The numbers on the episodes are the broadcast dates listed as YYMMDD (so for example a July 4, 1947 show would appear as '470704').

It probably wasn't all that different from a lot of early television shows. The early Today Show, for example, where Dave Garroway sat at a desk with monitors behind him and a lot of clocks showing the time in various cities. Or "You Bet Your Life," which actually was a radio show shown on television, Groucho sitting at a high desk with a microphone in front of him and contestants standing at floor mics. Yet YBYL did well on television and Breakfast Club didn't.

It was on our radio, every morning, when I was a kid. "Once more around the breakfast table!"

I Tell ANYONE who will listen how much & WHY I love OTR; but that of ALL the places that have OTR; OTRCat ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!

My mother, Irene Verner sang as a regular on the show in the early days. Prior to that she and one sister, Ebba, and another lady sang as the Sophisticates. They even went to the same high school with the Andrews Sisters and competed with one another. I'm not sure she continued on the Breakfast club up until 1937, as that was when my older sister was born, but I sure would be delighted to find a few of the shows that she sang on. She and my Dad, Robert S. Gebhardt, Trombone, worked many of the big bands in the 30's and were all over the US. Thanks for the opportunity.

Love the Breakfast Show! So glad that this collection exists. I real insight into the every day routine of my parents and grandparents generation. I got this as a birthday present for my father who will be 76 this September, and says that this show is one of the only one he remembers hearing, every day, without fail!

One of your long time OTRCAT customers and an avid radio listener since the early 1940’s. Thanks for making THE BREAKFAST RECORDINGS available to your customers during these unsettled days. From the time I was in the first grade in 1944, my four older siblings and myself listened to that entertaining show as we got dressed for school. We tuned in on our beloved ABC affiliate station, WGCM (WIRELESS GULF COAST MISSISSIPPI), the first radio station established to serve that area. Those call letters, including the FM affiliate still exist, and in fact are the flag station of the BILOXI SHUCKERS, the Double A Affiliate Of The Milwaukee Brewers. The owner of that station lived right down the street. We especially enjoyed the daily MARCH AOUND THE BREAKFAST TABLE segment of the show. Incredibly one of my First Grade classmates and her family were interviewed by Don McNeil on that show during a visit to their hometown of Chicago. That classmate became an instant celebrity when she returned to school. Thanks for making all of the variety of nostalgic radio shows of THE GOLDEN DAYS OF RADIO available for purchase on OTRCAT, including AFRS recordings. As a Retired Infantry Officer and 3-time Vietnam Veteran, these recordings are especially meaningful.

"Once more around the breakfast table!"

As a kid, I loved that show, which was on the kitchen radio, as I got ready for school.

John Doolittle's book about this program, Don McNeill and His Breakfast Club (University of Notre Dame Press, 2001), was reviewed by Susan M. Colowick in Library Journal: Before Garrison was even a twinkle in Mr. Keillor's eye, Don McNeill launched a radio show with a unique mix of humor, music and audience participation. From 1933 to 1968, the Chicago-based Breakfast Club aired every weekday on the ABC radio network (originally NBC's Blue Network). Millions of Americans tuned in to hear songs, jokes, interviews, the "March Around the Breakfast Table," the "Moment of Silent Prayer" and other regular features. (Except for his strong support of public prayer, McNeill eschewed politics, though he did run for president in 1948 on the Laugh Party ticket.) In this thoroughly researched and highly readable account, Doolittle reminds us just how popular Breakfast Club really was, especially with homemakers of modest means but also with the likes of J. Edgar Hoover and Justice William O. Douglas. Many show business celebrities were guests on the show, including Jimmy Stewart, Lucille Ball and Jerry Lewis. The book is accompanied by a CD that features clips from actual shows. Don McNeill's Breakfast Club was a long-run morning variety show on NBC Blue Network/ABC radio (and briefly on television) originating in Chicago, Illinois. Hosted by Don McNeill, the radio program ran from June 23, 1933, through December 27, 1968. McNeil's 35½-year run as host remains the longest tenure for an emcee of a network entertainment program, surpassing Johnny Carson (29½ years) on The Tonight Show and Bob Barker (34⅔ years) on The Price Is Right, albeit split between radio and television, whereas the latter two were television only.