Shell Chateau
Shell Chateau was a musical variety series that began on June 29, 1935, with Al Jolson serving as its host. Some sources even mention that the program was developed around Jolson and his talents. However,  Jolson left the series briefly in the fall of 1935 due to a movie commitment. Wallace Beery, one of the country’s most popular film stars of the  period took over the host position following a one week stint by radio newsman, Walter Winchell. Jolson returned in January of 1936, but didn’t hang around for long and departed permanently in April 1936.
Based on a recommendation by the program’s music director, Victor Young,  Smith Ballew was installed as the new host and remained with the program for the remainder of 1936.  Smith Ballew had previously worked extensively on records with Victor Young; they had been friends since 1926. The Shell Chateau program appears to be one of Ballew’s last gig’s as a big band musican  and he started carving out a name for himself as an actor, when Sol Lesser invited Ballew to do a series of 'B' Westerns for Twentieth Century Fox as a singing cowboy. 
In 1937, the program was reorganized around the Legendary Broadway comic Joe Cook. The essential format remained the same until the series ended in June 1937. 
It’s unfortunate that this certified series is missing the episodes featuring Walter Winchell and Joe Cook, perhaps one day representative episodes will became available.
And now a few brief comments about the series and Al  Jolson:.
Al Jolson was known in the industry as "The World's Greatest Entertainer," for well over 40 years. During that time such performers as Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, and many others spoke of Jolson in this way. After his death his influence continued unabated with such performers as Elvis Presley, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Jackie Wilson and Jerry Lee Lewis, all mentioning Jolson as an inspiration. 
Jolson on radio faired better, at the time of the Shell Chateau broadcasts, than in the movies.  Though Jolson ushered in the sound era in movies with the landmark 1926 film, “Jazz Singer” for Warner Brothers. Critics generally viewed his screen appearances as a pale ghost of the stage Jolson. On film, with a few exceptions, Jolson come across as stiff and wooden. He continued into the 1930s making but was most popular on radio. 
This situation continued until the mid 40s when Columbia Pictures, inspired by the success of its film "Yankee Doodle Dandy," decided a Jolson biography might work as well. So in 1946 Columbia rolled out TheJolson Story, starring Larry Parks miming to Jolson's vocals. It was the surprise smash hit of the season, and the highest grossing film of the year. Parks received an Academy Award Nomination for Best Actor. 
Because of the film, Jolson was now as big, or bigger, than ever.  
Al Jolson had a life-long devotion to entertaining American troops, servicemen and women, and against the advice of his doctors, agreed to entertain the troops in Korea in 1950 it was during this overseas tour that his heart began to fail.
He died on October 23, 1950, in San Francisco, California at the age of 64, evidently of a heart attack, and was interred in the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California. On the day he died, the bright lights of Broadway were turned off  for 10 minutes in his honor.
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A brief comment on the program of  November 16, 1935, a  program that features "twelve year old" Judy Garland
The Shell Chateau program was a very important vehicle in the career of Judy Garland. She had been performing with her sisters as "The Gumm Sisters" accompanied by her father on piano. Judy finally passed her second audition with MGM when the studio realized the problem was her accompaniment, not the singer.   
Judy Garland's first appearance on the "Shell Chateau Hour," was within a month of her signing the MGM film contract. Garland made several appearances on the program while hosted by her studio mate Wallace Beery. The performance of November 16, 1936 stands out as very special for two reasons. It's the earliest known recording of ZING! WENT THE STRINGS OF MY HEART, a song she would sing throughout her career (in varying arrangements) as well as being the song that she sang at her successful audition for MGM.
However, most importantly about this broadcast, while Judy was giving this performance, her beloved father, Frank Gumm, was listening from his hospital room, having come down with spinal meningitis that very day. Judy was aware of this, and according to scholars her performance has an added intensity. Judy never saw her father alive again. He passed away later that night, but the family had put a radio in his room, and he was able to listen to his beloved "Baby" sing her heart out for her father one last time.

Information for this audio clip came from Paul Urbahns and your Audio Series Descriptions Moderator ( Roger Hohenbrink).
This audio clip is provided by The Old Time Radio Researcher Group a group of volunteers dedicated to preserving radio's past. If you are interested in assisting to preserve radio's golden past so that future generations might also enjoy it, we urge you to look into membership in the Old Time Radio Researchers Group.  Visit our home on the web at www.otterprojectonline.info.

Your announcer  Doug Hopkinson