From the bandshell at the Mall in Central Park we hear a portion of the 1939 American Ballad Contest for Barbershop Quartets and Gibson Girl Trios sponsored by the New York City Department of Parks. The except begins with an unnamed quartet singing a ballad about the river Jordan (There's One More River to Cross?). This is followed by a rendition of The Voice of the Old Village Choir, by a women's trio calling themselves The Sewing Circle Girls from The Bronx YMCA. Up next are the Singing Waiters of Richmond, Staten Island, who sing the Down by the Old Mill Stream and Aunt Dinah's Quilting Party. The White House Quartet of Brooklyn, with some difficulty, sing Sweet Adeline and Way Down Yonder in the Cornfield.   

First prize presented to the Grand Central Red Caps at the June 26, 1941 Barbershop Quartet Finals in Central Park.

(New York City Parks Department Archives)

The second broadcast item we have is from the 1941 New York Daily Mirror Barbershop Quartet finals hosted by Commissioner Robert Moses. It begins with an unidentified quartet singing Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen. They are followed by Four Boys of The Bronx singing Nellie Was a Lady and Mandy Lee. Next up are The Jackson Heights Quartet of Queens singing I Love You Truly and Down by the old Mill Stream. The Harmonizers of Manhattan, an African American group, performing Swing Low Sweet Chariot and I Stood on the River Jordan.  

The above two audio selections are courtesy of the New York City Municipal Archives WNYC Collection. 

Barbershop quartet performing over WNYC circa late 1930s/early 1940s.

(NYPL Digital/World's Fair Collection)

The following item we found in our Cinema Sound collection dating from 1962. It appears to be a recording from the 24th annual convention at the Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri of the SPEBSQSA, the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America, Inc. The organization is dedicated to amateur harmonizers with some 30,000 members. We hear from the convention's finalists: The Nighthawks of London, Ontario; The Four Renegade of Skokie, Illinois; The Town and Country Four of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and the first-place winners for 1962, The Gala Lads of Alhambra, California. Closing the program are The Colonials of East Liverpool, Ohio. The tape is missing the opening with The Four Domatics of Seattle, Washington. 

NYPD Barbershop quartet performing on the steps of Federal Hall at Wall Street in lower Manhattan, late 1930s, early 1940s.

(NYPL Digital World's Fair Collection)