The Matchcover Storyteller

In the 1940s, in Los Angeles, California, Tom Breneman was radio; he was an icon.

Thomas Breneman Smith was born in Pennsylvania in June, 1900.  There’s little of his early life besides schooling (Columbia U.) , but we know he entered radio in 1927, making his way to California. .  The earliest reference I have on him is a 1932 note that he was going back east to join the staff of NBC in New York.  By 1936 he was back on the west coast as manager of KFRC in San Francisco.  A year later, as CBS producer and MC in Hollywood, he was shifted back to ‘Frisco at the new CBS affiliate KSDO.

There were so many more Breneman shows and promotions but in January 1941 he launched Breakfast On The Boulevard” on KFWB in Hollywood, a show that newspapers were calling “Breakfast At Sardi’s”.  He’d been having lunch there one day in 1940 when he recognized its potential as a radio home The show ran  5 mornings a week, limited to the 3 Pacific coast states until the NBC Blue Network picked it up in 1942.  By 1945 he had 10 million listeners and the show was the second highest rate daytime radio show each month after “When A Girl Marries”.

In 1945, it became “Breakfast In Hollywood” and that same year he opened Tom Breneman’s Restaurant, (this 30-strike front strike matchcover) and moved the show there.  The show typically had 400-500 in the audience and featured little if any theatrical contrivance or “sophisticated” chatter.  John Dunning’s Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio calls it “one of the liveliest shows on radio, pure human interest”.   Tom was noted for pinning orchids on many of his audience members who thought his show “the best on the air”.

All this also led to Tom launching his own magazine.  Then came the 1946 movie “Breakfast in Hollywood” featuring Nat King Cole’s Trio, Bonita Granville, Zazu Pitts, Billie Burke (the good witch Glinda in 1939’s  “The Wizard Of Oz), a slew of others and of course, Breneman himself.   It’s still around on DVD and who knows what other platforms?

Tom Breneman died suddenly of a heart attack on April 28th, 1948.  He was 47.   His death came about an hour before air time; several hundredpotential audience members were lined up outside the restaurant, unaware of the news.  Other hosts tried to fill in on shows including people like Garry Moore & Cliff Arquette, but without Tom, the ratings slid and the program went off the air in January 1949.

The legacy of Tom Breneman, his impact on radio is both acknowledged and also difficult to quantify.   But in 1960, radio’s Tom Breneman got his star on Hollywood’s Walk OfFame.  If you’re out that way, it’s at 6200 Hollywood Boulevard.