people braved the elements for the bargain Block advertised; by 1941 potential sponsors for his show had to be put on a waiting list for availabilities. In 1936, Block and his "Ballroom" inadvertently came to the aid of a young man accused of being a pickpocket. His alibi was that he was home at the time, listening to the show, describing how Guy Lombardo, who was to appear on Make Believe Ballroom, was unable to keep the engagement and sent a telegram, which was read on the air. His story was verified and all charges were dropped. Two years later, current events unwittingly entered the "Make Believe" world with Louis Armstrong singer Midge Williams' renditions of two American popular songs in Japanese. NBC received many telephone calls and telegrams protesting her performance from listeners who were irate over the recent Japanese invasion of China. Make Believe Ballroom was nationally syndicated in 1940. That same year, Block hosted what was billed as a "$20,000 Jam Session" on the show, featuring artists including both Dorsey brothers, Count Basie, Harry James, and Gene Krupa. The musicians improvised live for a half-hour. One segment of Ballroom was entitled "Saturday Night in Harlem". During this, Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and other jazz musicians' music was featured. Block and Make Believe Ballroom made the cover of Billboard magazine in April, 1942. During the 1942–44 musicians' strike (also known as the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) recording ban), he was able to obtain new records with full orchestral backing for his program by having friends in England send him UK recordings, as the ban applied to the United States only. When Spike Jones and his City Slickers returned from entertaining the troops in 1944, the New York hotel room shortage meant the musicians had nowhere to sleep. Jones telephoned Martin Block, who went on the air with the news. WNEW was flooded with listener calls offering to accommodate Jones and his band. In the 1940s Block hired a young record collector, Joe Franklin, as his "record picker." Franklin went on to host his own radio and television programs in the New York City market for more than 65 years. In 1947, there were two daily editions of the Make Believe Ballroom: one in the late morning and another around dinner time. The illusion was shattered by a 1948 musical short in which Block talked about