The A&P Gypsies

The A&P Gypsies was a musical series broadcast on radio beginning in 1924. With the opening theme of "Two Guitars," the host and band leader was Harry Horlick, who had learned gypsy folk music while traveling with gypsy bands in Istanbul.

Born July 20, 1896, in Tiflis, Russia, Horlick remained in Russia when his family left for America at the beginning on World War I, and he became a prisoner of war. His family and the American consul helped him get to the United States where he performed in cafés in the early 1920s. Horlick's six-piece ensemble was playing unsponsored on New York's WEAF (the station on which the group had its first broadcast) in the winter of 1923 when they were seen by a Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company executive who was taking a tour of the radio studio. The music group began regular broadcasts, sponsored by A&P, on Monday nights, beginning March 17, 1924.

As noted by Elizabeth McLeod, such musical features were central to programming of the period:

On January 3, 1927, the show moved to NBC, heard for an hour on Mondays at 9pm and then at 8:30pm from 1928 until 1931 when it split into two half-hours, one on the Blue Network Thursdays at 10pm and the other on the Red Network Mondays at 9pm. Beginning in 1932, the show was reduced to a half-hour on the Red Network only, heard on Mondays at 9pm. Phillips Carlin and Milton Cross were the show's announcers.

In 1933, A&P took part in the World's Fair in Chicago with a canopied boardwalk where tea dances were held, and free tea and coffee samples were distributed. The many listeners to The A&P Gypsies came by the thousands to the A&P Carnival, a 2,000-seat amphitheater featuring shows by the A&P Marionette Revue, Harry Horlick and the A&P Gypsies and other entertainments. In Popular Music for Orchestra, Dick O'Connor described the appeal of the radio program:

The musicians performed while wearing gypsy costumes, and over time the six-man ensemble expanded to the 25-piece A&P Red Circle Orchestra, plus a singing quartet. One member of the quartet was Frank Parker who later became a regular on the shows of Arthur Godfrey and Jack Benny. Guest stars included Frank Munn, Kate Smith and Jessica Dragonette. When the series came to an end on September 7, 1936, A&P was forming a new alliance and product identification with Kate Smith by sponsoring Kate Smith's Coffee Time (1935–36) and The Kate Smith A&P Bandwagon (1936–37).

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