Diamond City News

Here’s what I have found on the series Diamond City News. I still can’t tell the extent to which the Texas Rangers played a role on the series. You’ll see a reference for Travels of Mary Ward. That was another KMBC program featuring Caroline Ellis selling items from the Montgomery Wards catalog.

July 1, 1936 (Broadcasting):

Diamond City News Broadcasting 7-1-36

August 5, 1936 (Variety):

Diamond City News Variety 8-5-36

September 1, 1936 (Broadcasting):

Diamond City News Broadcasting 9-1-36

September 26, 1936 (Lawrence Journal-World):

KMBC Will Present Tom Collins In “Diamond City News”

A small town weekly newspaper office will be the locale of a new comedy series, “Diamond City News,” which begins on KMBC Monday, to be heard Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 6:30 p.m. Tom Collins will have the principal role as a country editor.

Collins, Sunday editor of the Kansas City Journal-Post is well known in Lawrence as a humorist and public speaker. Last spring he gave the commencement address for Lawrence high school and he was the principal speaker at the annual meeting of the Chamber of Commerce.

October 1, 1936 (Broadcasting):

Diamond City News Broadcasting 10-1-36

October 1, 1936 (Broadcasting):

Diamond City News Broadcasting 10-1-36b

The 1938 Radio Annual

Diamond City News Radio Annual 1938

The 1938 Radio Annual

Diamond City News Radio Annual 1938b

The 1938 Radio Annual

Diamond City News Radio Annual 1938c

Texas Rangers Promotional Portfolio pg. 20

The weekly Brush Creek Follies was a weekly showcase of KMBC musical talent. The Texas Rangers often appeared, either as a band or in various musical configurations. My working hypothesis is that the Follies grew out of the Happy Hollow Barndance, a Saturday night musical broadcast in the early 1930s that was an off-shoot of the daily Happy Hollow serial originated from the station. Considering all the KMBC documents that have been archived in at least three different libraries, surprisingly little seems to have been preserved about this long-running radio (later television) show. The University of Missouri – Kansas City has a little bit on it here.

IMG_4555