Hum and Strum
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Hum and Strum were a popular vaudevillian musical duo from the Boston, Massachusetts area. Their singing career began in the early 1920s and lasted through the late 1950s, on the stage, on radio, and then on television.[1]
Max Zides (Hum) and Tom Currier (Strum) met at Boston's High School of Commerce; they were both Class of 1921.[2] At Commerce, they were on the track team together, and they became friends.[3] But it was not until a few years later that they became a vocal duo.[4] Before that happened, Zides, who played the ukulele, was performing as a solo artist over WBZ radio.[5] His day job was working in the advertising department of the Boston Globe, but he hoped to become a full-time radio performer. One day, at the offices of a music publisher, Zides ran into Currier, who would later play piano for Hum and Strum.[6] At the time, Currier was driving a truck,[7] but he too hoped to get a break and work in the entertainment business. They decided to form a vocal duo, which became known as Hum and Strum.[8] Zides and Currier first began performing together over greater Boston's pioneering radio station WGI at Medford Hillside in April 1924.[9] They quickly became regulars on Boston radio, mostly performing on WBZ, but sometimes being heard on WEEI.[10] They were hard-working musicians: in addition to singing on radio, they regularly performed in area clubs; their first series of performances was at the Loew's State Theater in Boston, where they were paid $100 a week.[11] They were soon playing other key venues, like Boston's Keith-Albee Theatre,[12] and The Palace in New York.[11] In one of their early vaudeville performances, they shared the bill with George Burns and Gracie Allen.[8] Hum and Strum built a loyal following by developing a formula that served them well throughout their career: audiences liked their close vocal harmonies, and appreciated their humorous banter; critics noted that the two men were unpretentious, and genuinely enthusiastic about entertaining their listeners.[13] In the late 1920s, Hum and Strum were being heard on stations outside of Boston, including performances on the NBC Blue Network.[14] Beginning in early July 1929, they performed in Cleveland on station WHK as the Oxiton Joy Boys, sponsored by a company that made mouthwash.[15] One 1929 listeners' poll ranked them in the top 3 nationally among all radio performers.[11]