National Museum of Play Online Collections

Major Bowes' Amateur Hour Game

board game

ca. 1945

"Major Bowes Amateur Hour," American radio's best-known talent show, was one of the most popular programs broadcast in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s. It was created and hosted by Edward Bowes (1874-1946). In the 1920s Bowes was the imposing manager of New York's equally imposing Capitol Theatre and would insist on being addressed as "Major Bowes." He acted the part to the hilt, complete with military bearing and imperious manner. He once admonished an underling, "How will people think you're important if you don't act important?" He worked on the radio program until his death, at which point his assistant Ted Mack took over the job of hosting. Mack soon brought the show to the fledgling medium of Television, where "Ted Mack's Amateur Hour" became one of the best known early programs.

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