BARBERSHOP HISTORY – GENERAL KNOWLEDGE QUIZ

1-Society founder, O.C. Cash, was a relentless promoter of barbershopping. He was successful in getting two major national publications to take note of the society in its very early days. Name these famous periodicals and when the articles about us were published.

2- Was the society egalitarian and democratically run during its first few years of existence?

3- Many big names in show biz were early society members and contributed to our early PR successes. Name as many of these people as you can.

4- Some early society celebs included political types and captains of industry. Name as many as you can.

5- What did early society members Bing Crosby, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello personally and specifically do to promote the Society?

Answers to Barbershop History – General Knowledge Quiz

1- Reader's Digest (very late 1930’s or very early 1940’s, my source did not specify) and Time magazine (August 5, 1940 issue).

2- Anything but. Think absolute monarchy with Cash as king and with input allowed only from Rupert Hall and a few other close advisors and confidants.

3- Bing Crosby, Groucho Marx, Sigmund Spaeth (the "Tune Detective" and chronicler of barbershop harmony in its golden age), Pat O'Brien, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, and Major Bowes, host of Major Bowes' Amateur Hour. (Trivia bonus…In 1935 a then unknown twenty-year-old kid from northern NJ sang lead in a barbershop quartet by the name of the "Hoboken Four" which appeared on the Amateur Hour. I refer, of course, to Frank Sinatra, whose unknown days were soon to be forever in his past).

4- The politicians included five state governors (only Ralph Carr, Gov. of Colorado, was mentioned by name by my source), and Treasury Secretary James Farley. A noteworthy “big league” (groan) businessman was Sam Breedon, then the owner of the St. Louis Cardinals.

5- Crosby brought attention to the existence of the recently launched society in announcements he made on his radio show in LA. Abbott and Costello gave the then new (and now long defunct) chapter in Passaic, NJ, - their hometown - and by extension all of barbershopping, plenty of exposure by very publicly becoming members of that chapter.