Description
The Sportsmen Quartet were a Barbershop Quartet that performed renditions of songs written in the early half of the twentieth
century. Many of their performances occurred between the late 1930s and late 1960s where they often performed on both radio
and television. The Sportsmen Quartet Collection comprises the musical scores that were written for the various programs they
appeared on, most notably for the Jack Benny Program. Robert Garsen, the later member of the Quartet and collector of this
collection, also contributed photographs and publicity material pertaining to the Sportsmen Quartet; along with photographs
pertaining to his earlier career with the quartet The Continentals as well as inscribed photographs of various performers
of the time.
Background
The Sportsmen Quartet was founded in 1938 by Bill Days and Max Smith, who had left the Paul Taylor Choristers to form their
own quartet. They joined with Don Craig and Art McCullough as a group they called The Metropolitans, later renamed The
Sportsmen. Over the years the membership of the quartet changed frequently. By 1947, the Sportsmen were best
known for their work on the Jack Benny Program, where they often provided a "singing commercial," in
which the group poked fun at or parodied the sponsor of the program. As a recurring gag on the
program, Benny threatened to fire the group, which he pretended to actually do on March 9, 1947,
replacing them the next week with a quartet that included Bing Crosby, Andy Russell, Dick Haymes,
and Dennis Day.
The Sportsmen did not perform exclusively with Benny, but also appeared on other radio programs such
as Burns and Allen, the Eddie Cantor Show, the Judy Canova Show, and the Sealtest Village Store. On
many of these programs they performed comic songs or commercials, similar to their work on Benny's
program. In addition, they appeared in films, worked with other singing groups, recorded albums, and in
the 1950s appeared on television programs as well, including the televised version of the Jack Benny
Show.
Tenor Robert Garsen founded a musical-comedy group called The Continentals in 1954. They
performed in live venues, such as the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York, and also on several television
programs, including the Red Skelton Show, the Milton Berle Show, and the Ed Sullivan Show. Garsen
was best known within the group for his whistling rendition of "Flight of the Bumblebee," and for
portraying the character of Casey in "Casey at the Bat" - acts he continued to perform with The
Sportsmen, whom he joined in 1957.
Restrictions
Property rights to the collection and physical objects belong to the Regents of the University of California acting through
the Department of Special Research Collections at the UCSB Library. All applicable literary rights, including copyright to
the collection and physical objects, are protected under Chapter 17 of the U.S. Copyright Code and are retained by the creator
and the copyright owner, heir(s), or assigns.