Uncle Don

Carney sang, played the piano, told stories and introduced a variety of features: the "Earnest Savers Club" which encouraged setting up accounts at the Greenwich Savings Bank; a "Healthy Child Contest"; a "Talent Quest" that provided screen tests for winners.

The rumor was later resurrected in the 1950s, when an audio recording of the "mistake" turned up on a Kermit Schaefer Bloopers album, though this was later shown to be a fake recreation.

(Some sources, such as John Dunning's Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, claim that Carney always denied the rumours;[5] others say that he actually admitted the gaffe to friends, even though he knew it never happened.)

[2] This scenario, a host inadvertently talking into an open microphone at the end of a live show, was used as a comeuppance for lead character Lonesome Rhodes in the fictional film drama, A Face in the Crowd.

As a play on the urban legend, jazz musician Sonny Rollins sometimes introduced himself, facetiously, as "Uncle Don", a nickname that continues to this day.