As a student, Studebaker was the male lead in the opera "King Hal," produced by his high school in Kansas City, Kansas. Studebaker served in the United States Navy in World War I. After being discharged "at an early age," he took lessons to learn to sing and play the organ and "worked respectively as a blacksmith, salesman and postal clerk -- and didn't do well at any of them." As a member of a quartet, the Night Hawks, Studebaker sang in night clubs and theaters across the United States. In his early 20s, Studebaker was a member of The Marion Quartette, which toured "under the auspices of the Redpath-Horner institute," Redpath-Horner was part of the Chatauqua movement.
Career
Studebaker first performed on radio in 1927 as part of "Georgie and Porgie, the Breakfast Food Boys." Later, a job at KOIL radio in Omaha, Nebraska, provided "a daily fifteen-minute piano and conversational spot." In 1929, he was hired as an organist at KMBC in Kansas City, Missouri, and soon had acting roles in dramas added to his duties. While at KMBC, he was organist for Ted Malone'sBetween the Bookends program. By 1933, Studebaker had a program that was carried on CBS. A radio listing in a 1933 issue of a Fresno, California, newspaper lists "4 P.M., Hugh Studebaker's One Man Show, CBS." He moved to Chicago, Illinois, in 1934. There he "was a free-lance announcer, a disc jockey and occasionally got assignments in daytime dramas." His roles on network radio programs included the following:
Studebaker also appeared in other programs, including The Romance of Helen Trent, Curtain Time, and Knickerbocker Playhouse, and he played Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. Studebaker's mannerisms during broadcasts sometimes gave people in the studio an added dimension of entertainment. In 1937, a writer commented about the actor's role in Fibber McGee and Molly:
When tall, thin Studebaker shuffles up to the mike as Silly Watson, Fibber, along with the audience, thinks that's very funny. Laughs as much as anyone else. It's not a prop laugh, either; it comes from deep down inside.
Studebaker married Bertina Congdon in 1934. She had been his boss at KMBC. He had two brothers, Joseph W. Studebaker and A.A. Studebaker, and a sister, Mrs. Paul Holbrook.
