The All-Negro Hour, Radio's First Black Variety Show

November 3 1929 would be a historic date in radio history. It was on that date that The All-Colored Hour, very quickly renamed The All-Negro Hour, debuted on Chicago radio station WSBC. It was not the first African American radio show by any means. The first appears to have been The Pittsburgh Courier Hour, which debuted in 1927 on New York radio station WGBS. It wasn't even the second, which was The Negro Achievement Hour, which debuted in 1928 on New York radio station WABC. That having been said, both The Pittsburgh Courier Hour and The Negro Achievement Hour could best be described as public affairs programmes. In contrast, The All-Negro Hour was the first African American variety show.

The All-Negro Hour was hosted by Jack L. Cooper, a former boxer, semi-professional baseball player, and vaudevillian. Like other variety shows, The All-Negro Hour featured a mixture of music and comedy sketches. Through the years it featured some notable performers, including jazz musician W. E. "Buddy" Burton, blues musician "Big Boy" Teddy Edwards, blues musician Ezra Howlett Shelton, and others.

Aside from featuring significant black performers in the late Twenties and Thirties, The All-Negro Hour is also significant in that its comedy sketches do not appear to have featured the sort of stereotypes and characters speaking in dialect that occurred on so many radio shows of the era. Sadly, stereotypes were part and parcel of Old Time Radio, with such programs as Amos 'n' Andy and still later Beulah.

The All-Negro Hour proved successful, so much so that it would run until 1936. Its success would also provide Jack L. Cooper with a prosperous career in radio. Indeed, by the late Forties, Mr. Cooper produced around 40 hours worth of radio programming for four different stations in Chicago. He produced a wide variety of programming, from music shows to public affairs shows to religious programmes to Negro League Baseball Games.

Sadly, no recordings of The All-Negro Hour are known to exist. That having been said, the show was historic as the first black variety show. It was also historic in launching Jack L. Cooper on a career in radio that would span thirty years.