The Happy Gang

[4] The series also served as the template for CBC's French language service, Les Joyeux Troubadours (fr), which was broadcast from 1941 to 1977.

"[5] His fellow musicians were trumpeter Robert (Bob) Farnon, violinist Blain Mathé and organist Kathleen (Kay) Stokes.

Stokes was already a popular entertainer; she had been the staff organist at CFRB in Toronto, and was also known in vaudeville and on the air as "Canada's Sweetheart of the Theatre Organ.

We hope you’ll like our music and our songs and our jokes..."[8] Herb May, who served his apprenticeship with CBO Ottawa and had been moved to Toronto, became the show’s first regular announcer.

[11] The show had an iconic opening which became a catch-phrase for Canadian listeners: first there was the sound of someone knocking at the door—it was actually violinist Blain Mathé, rapping on his violin.

[17] Canadian ships at sea played phonograph records by the Happy Gang during the war years; the members also received a number of awards from the government.

According to an anonymous CBC producer Callwood spoke to, "It’s killing him to slosh around with that always-smiling routine.” Regardless of disharmony behind the scenes, the programme continued to be successful with an estimated audience of 2.5 million in 1950.

[20] In 1952, Barry Wood took over from Hugh Bartlett as the Happy Gang's new announcer, and served in that role for the show's final years.

[25] Long after The Happy Gang had left the air, replaced by The Tommy Hunter Show in the summer of 1959,[26] the troupe (except for Blain Mathé and Robert Farnon), reunited in 1975 at the Canadian National Exhibition; a record 20,000 fans attended their performance; Bert Pearl came back for that concert.

A small display, featuring Kay Stokes' organ, photos and news clippings, remains in the Ivan Harris Gallery in the lower level of the CBC's Canadian Broadcasting Centre.