Al Pearce had always been a performer, but his guitar and songs had been strictly a hobby until the mid 1920's, when his real estate business suddenly failed. A KFRC executive saw he and his brother Cal performing a vaudeville sketch at a real estate convention, and they were immediately hired. Their program on KFRC, "The Happy Go Lucky Hour", debuted in 1929 and was an immediate hit on the Don Lee Network.

The popular program graduated from a West Coast offering to nationwide on CBS. It moved to NBC in 1933 and became "Al Pearce and His Gang", a network staple until 1947.