Record From the Radio Show That Saved the San Francisco Symphony
The desire to reach all of the public with good music.
(San Francisco Chronicle, Oct. 17, 1926)
This acetate disk is one of many records that remain from the Chevron Standard Hour, a live weekly radio program that aired symphonic concerts from 1926-1955. It was the first series of concerts brought to homes all over the West through radio broadcasting.
"My story starts in 1926, when Standard Oil Company of California stepped up to save the San Francisco Symphony from bankruptcy. In gratitude, the Symphony granted the oil company the right to broadcast that season’s concerts. The public was so receptive that the program ran weekly for twenty-nine years.
Although half of my fellow discs arrived at the Museum in 1988, I myself didn’t arrive until ten years later. I lived with many other Standard Hour discs in the home of Adrian Michaelis, who served as the show’s program manager for the entire run of the series. When he passed away, his wife donated us, along with an incredible collection of photographs and other material documenting our show, to the Museum."
