Rusty Reuben Radio Gang

I did a pretty decent job last year scheduling out blog posts for once a week, and while I missed a few weeks at the end of the year, here’s to a new start this year!

First up is this photo card for the Rusty Reuben Radio Gang, including a group photo at center of Ted, Ickey, Freddie, and Tex, and individual photos around it of Betty Lou, Rusty, Barbara, Jean, and Uncle Jim.  Rusty Reuben was the stage name for Harry Edward Brest (1907-1994).  His obituary is posted online here, and has a load of information about his life and family.

As far as the other people in the group, a magazine posted here mentions that the, “cast comprises Ozzie Gile, Elmer Peabody, Tex Richards, Tex Hart, Ickey Pepin, and Freddie Stone.”  It seems like the lineup of other performers switched up fairly often though from other newspaper articles.  In the photo, the girl at top center, Barbara, appears from census records to be the daughter of Rusty and, I’m assuming, Jean, since Edward’s wife’s name was Genevieve.

The majority of the newspaper results come from about 1932-1939, and if grandma saw them, I’d imagine it would be when they were doing larger tours later in their career, which may have been when she picked up this card.  She would’ve been in her early 20s in the late 1930s, so that fits pretty well.  Just a neat piece of ephemera that grandma loved enough to tuck into a scrapbook!