The Frank Cyrano Byfar Hour

At long last, the Frank Cyrano Byfar Hour returns to the airwaves after a sixty year hiatus! Frank Cyrano’s infamous program was a prominent Boston comedy/variety show in the fashion of Jack Benny and Fred Allen, keeping to to a “show-within-a-show” format. Each episode began its first Act with preparations for the evening’s entertainment by Frank’s cast: his off-stage wife Amelia Adams, announcer Charley Kendall, Lex the bandleader and vocalist Jenny Brennan. The popular local band The Minutemen kept the audience swinging with their instrumental numbers, which included one vocal number each week for Jenny, who herself was hired right off the floor of the Putnam-Moore toy department.

Act 1 would always end with a break for lunch, at which point Frank would head over to the Hub Chowderhouse for his meal. Much like Fred Allen visiting his friends in Allen’s Alley, Frank would discuss topics of the day with the colorful regulars in the restaurant, including a crimson-dyed-in-the-wool Harvard man, a corrupt yet lovable politician, and an overzealous librarian.

Act 2 would feature more music from the Minutemen and Jenny, and the show would end with the “performance” they’d all been working up to: an original skit performed by the Putnam-Moore Rooftop Garden Players, usually written by Frank and satirizing the popular culture of the day. One week they might present a series in the vein of The Untouchables (“Sgt. Farby’s Gang Blasters”), a Klondike melodrama, or a film parody (“Goodbye, Mr. Chumps”).

Director Rob Noyes has adapted the script to fit the needs of the PMRP show, changing the musical numbers for licensing purposes and making some revisions for continuity. Most of what you’ll hear comes directly from 1938, and marks the first time these characters have been heard in sixty years.