The Fleischmann’s Yeast Hour was also known as The Rudy Vallee Show. When Jimmy Stewart on the Air was published, the evidence for Stewart having appeared on this program was slim at best. Since the show was not available, it was based on this listing from the New York Times:
We knew that Stewart was a cast member of Yellow Jack, but didn’t know for sure that he was one of those appearing in the scene to be presented on the Vallee show.
Since then, we have located several other newspaper previews, including the following which appeared in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Brooklyn, NY, on May 3, 1934.
In this article, Stewart is named as one of the guests on the program. This would mark only his second documented appearance on radio, the first having come nearly a year earlier in May of 1933.
Jimmy would appear in the scene as Medical Corps Private John O’Hara, Edward Acuff as Private McClelland, Samuel Levene as Private Busch, Myron McCormick as Private Brinkerhof and Katherine Wilson as Miss Blake, a special nurse in charge of the yellow fever ward.
The play had debuted at the Martin Beck Theatre on March 6, 1934, and ran for 79 performances. The play is about Dr. Walter Reed and his search for an inoculation against yellow fever. Private O’Hara is one of those who volunteers to allow Reed to experiment on him.
Other guests this evening were Cab Calloway, Igor Gorin and Frances Williams. Graham McNamee was the show’s announcer, Dr. R.E. Lee was the spokesman for Fleischmann’s and Vallee’s Connecticut Yankees supplied the music.
