Biographical Information

 

Adrian Michaelis was born in San Francisco on December 1, 1901. In 1908, his family moved to Oakland, where he attended Oakland public schools and graduated from Oakland Technical High School. Following graduation, Michaelis began work for the Standard Oil Company as a hall boy. Over the next few years, he progressed to positions such as typist, clerk, editor of the employees' magazine, photographer, writer, and finally into positions in advertising and public relations. In 1926, through a collaboration with the then-struggling San Francisco Symphony, Standard Oil sponsored a series of broadcasts of the Symphony's performances. Due to his background with the company and strong interest in music, Michaelis was appointed as the Program Manager for the newly created Standard Symphony Hour Broadcast, later simply known as The Standard Hour, a role he would retain until the show's final broadcast in 1955. Alongside this role, Michaelis worked as the Producer-Writer for The Standard Hour's companion broadcast, the Standard School Broadcast. Michaelis also served as creator and producer for the short-lived The Standard Hour television series in 1952. Michaelis remained with Standard Oil Company until his retirement in 1966 and worked subsequently as a consultant.

 

Following his retirement, Michaelis became actively involved with the Los Californianos organization. He was a charter member when the group formed in 1968 and served as their genealogist for years. He designed distinctive genealogical charts, created an audiovisual program on the history of Spanish California, and wrote a series of genealogical-historical articles titled California Hispanica for Los Californianos members.

 

Michaelis died on May 6, 2000 in Oakland, California.

 

 

In the fall of 1926, the San Francisco Symphony Association faced a deficit, resulting in the Standard Oil Company gifting the Symphony with the $10,000 needed to save it from bankruptcy. This gift is said to be one of the earliest U.S. corporate donations to the arts on record, so in gratitude, the Symphony offered Standard Oil the broadcast rights to their concerts played that season. The Company named Michaelis the program director and created Standard Symphony Hour broadcast, later referred to simply as The Standard Hour. The premiere broadcast was on October 24, 1926 on the NBC Pacific Network. The concerts were broadcast live from the War Memorial Opera House, which would continue for most of the show's run. The public response was impressive. Shortly thereafter, featured singers from the San Francisco Opera began making regular appearances on the program. A year later, the program was established as a weekly full-hour concert. This continued until its final performance on June 5, 1955.

 

Throughout its run, the broadcast featured prominent local musicians and singers as well popular singers of the era, such as Louis Armstrong. Renowned conductors such as Carmen Dragon, Gaetano Merola, Pierre Monteux, Arthur Fiedler also appeared on the program several times over its run. The Standard Symphony and NBC Pacific Coast Network radio was honored with the Peabody Award in 1943 for Outstanding Entertainment in Music. NBC and the Standard Symphony received the award again in 1952 for the contributions of the Standard Symphony and The Standard Hour broadcasts for television.

 

A companion project was shortly developed as the Standard School Broadcast, premiering in 1928. The program quickly grew to become a part of the curriculum of schools in the West, continuing its run after the original The Standard Hour broadcast went off the airwaves. Lesson plans were drawn out for the radio programs to be used in the classrooms. In 1958, this program was also honored with a Peabody Award. This broadcast continued to 1970.

 

In 1952, Standard Oil decided to run an experimental televised version of The Standard Hour broadcast. Michaelis produced the series and thirteen episodes were aired. This allowed for televised broadcasts of previously radio-only performances. The telecast featured minimal sets and performers in costume, and for the first time allowed for the participation of San Francisco Ballet, working in collaboration with then-director Lew Christensen. Unfortunately, production costs for continuing the series overrode the experiment and the "Thirteen Week Spectacular" was not repeated.