This ad in the Sept. 16, 1948 newspaper brought back memories of listening to The Happy Gang on the radio. We had a big wooden radio that sat on a table – I still have the table, and still refer to it as “the radio table” much to the confusion of my family who had no idea which table I meant. The Happy Gang was on CBC radio from 1937 to 1959. It always began with the sound of knocking on a door, followed by the question “Who’s there?” and the reply “It’s the Happy Gang” and Bert Pearl saying “Well come on in”. The format included skits, comedy routines and a variety of musical items. A couple of interesting things that turned up when I was looking this up was that during World War II, “They’ll Always Be An England” was sung daily on the program. The other was that they used to play a song called “The Barrel Polka”, the word beer not being allowed on radio in those days. There is a feature about the program on Rewind with Michael Enright, easily found – just Google the Happy Gang or click the picture of the Happy Gang and it will take you to the website.
Written and researched by Kathryn Auger