Mr. and Mrs Halpern had a very nice Steinway grand piano in their Tarrytown, NY living room and they said it used to belong to their friend Mischa (Elman! the famous violinist). Recently, after seeing this blog, Dr. Rika Asai of Utah State University Music Department contacted me regarding the Josef Bonime Collection of Radio Music at Brigham Young University. It turns out Mrs. Halpern was a younger sister of Mr. Josef Bonime who spent about 10 years with Mischa Elman as his piano accompanist for Elman’s concert tour before he joined a prominent advertising agency McCann-Erickson where he composed, directed, played, and organized radio programs including "Edison Hour,” “Let's Dance" and many others. The radio music collection was donated to BYU by Polychrome where he joined after his retirement as the special assistant to the president. Apparently, Dr. Delos Bown who once taught at BYU was the bridge between Polychrome and the college. According to Dr. Asai's research the collection was almost forgotten and some of the documents were misplaced or disappeared. As the radio era progressed, early programs sponsored by only one single sponsor was gradually replaced by multi-sponsor or spot commercial format and then the radio program itself was taken over by the progress of television. Dr. Asai's 500+ page dissertation points out the back stage activities of now almost forgotten era when Josef used segments of music composed for various "mood" of the scene and used effectively for the program.
Her research appears to me almost an archaeological dig in a forgotten music field. Her findings brought out the lifework of this radio program pioneer in an almost fossilized record in this BYU collection.
I am happy to learn Polychrome was instrumental in safekeeping / time capsuling the record this way and also happy Dr. Asai was able to bring a new life into the historical background of early radio music. Thank you Dr. Asai as well as Erica B. who gave me her family background. (Erica's grandfather was a brother of Josef and another Polychrome employee Leopold "Lee" was Josef’s son.)
(I would be happy to forward you a copy of her dissertation upon request if you are interested in the subject further. The blogger did not allow me to upload PDF file directly)