The Landt Trio began as a brothers duo - Karl and Jack Landt - singing on a local
Scranton radio station. Older brother Dan came home after several years in Florida and
saw an opportunity. He began to sing with his young brothers and they found a talented
self-taught pianist, Howard White, who was working as a baker. In September 1928,
funded by a loan from Karl's Sunday School teacher, they took a train to New York City to
seek their fortunes. Karl tells the story in
Coming to New York
.
After about two months, as their funds were very close to being exhausted, they were
discovered and were hired on the NBC blue network which had been established in April
of that same year. They were naive home town boys and none of them but Karl read
music. Howard White played primarily on the black keys. These facts never bothered
them when they sang together because they developed their own notation system, but it
led to some interesting challenges when they were asked to perform with other groups.
Karl tells one of these stories in the
Lucky Strike story
.
The Landt Trio and White became a very popular group in early radio and on vaudeville.
Then in 1937, Howard White died suddenly. This left the brothers in a very difficult
situation because they did not have written arrangements for their music. They
struggled through the next few years using several different accompanists. Finally they
found Curly Mahr whose style was a good fit for their own, and they went on CBS with
the original Sing Along program.
Bill Cullen
was their announcer and met his wife (vocalist Carol Ames who sang with the Trio)
while working on the Sing Along program.
In the late 1940s television began to take the lead in live programming. Television was
looking for young faces, and all three brothers were in or near their forties. They
continued with a mix of live programs and advertising work until 1951 when Jack was in a
very serious accident. He was unable to work for about six months. That was the end, for
most purposes, of the Landt Trio as a performing group. All went on to other careers, but
their days in old time radio and vaudeville remain fond memories for their many fans.
