Breaking Walls: Recent Episodes
James Scully
This episode was originally released on 6/1/2022. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.____________In Breaking Walls episode 128 we wrap up our six month look at 1954 by ending in June with network cancellations.——————————Highlights:• The State of Radio and The Union• The End of Escape with John Dehner• News with Frank Edwards on Mutual• Let’s Pretend with Arnold Stang• Autolite Drops Suspense• Goodbye To Jack Benny (For Now)• What’s At Stake in the Fall 1954 Midterm Elections• CBS Cancels The Lux Radio Theatre• The End of James Stewart’s The Six Shooter• Looking Ahead to July and Roswell——————————The WallBreakers:thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:• On the Air — By John Dunning• Network Radio Ratings — by Jim Ramsburg• The Complete Escape and Suspense Logs — By Keith ScottAs well as articles from:• Broadcasting Magazine• LIFE Magazine• Newsweek• Radio Guide——————————On the interview front:• Parley Baer, Ken Carpenter, Elliott Lewis, and Paula Winslowe spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.• Herb Ellis, Virginia Gregg, Jack Johnstone, Elliott Lewis, and Herb Vigran spoke to SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com.• John Gibson, Elliott Lewis, Vincent Price, and Arnold Stang spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these full interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org.• John Dehner and Vic Perrin spoke with Neil Ross at KMPC.• Dennis Day spoke with John Dunning for 71KNUS.• Morton Fine was with Dan Haefele.• Orson Welles with Johnny Carson.• Jimmy Stewart with Larry King.• Jack Benny spoke with CBS.——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• Living Without You and Too Much Between Us — By George Winston• The Last Rose of Summer — By Tom Waits• Seance on a Wet Afternoon — By John Barry
This episode was originally released on 5/1/2022. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.____________In Breaking Walls episode 127 we keep on with our look at 1954 by picking up in May during one of the most important months of the decade.——————————Highlights:• The Big Sound in Nashville• Everett Sloane and The 21st Precinct• Ray Milland and Meet Mr McNutley• An Eisenhower Presser and Other Current Events• I Love a Mystery — Born Again• Wild Bill Hickok• Grace Kelly Guest Stars on Bob Hope’s Show• Brown vs. The Board of Education• Lewis and Clark on NBC’s Inheritance• The Army/McCarthy Hearings Continue with Roy Cohn’s Testimony• Bing Crosby on Anthology’s Memorial Day Show• Looking Ahead to June and The End as We Knew It——————————The WallBreakers:thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:On the Air — By John DunningNetwork Radio Ratings — by Jim RamsburgAs well as articles from:Broadcasting Magazine and LIFE Magazine——————————On the interview front:• Parley Baer, Jim Boles, Mercedes McCambridge, Carlton E. Morse, and Russell Thorson, spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.• Harry Bartell, Himan Brown, Lawrence Dobkin and Virginia Gregg spoke to SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com.• Vincent Price spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear this full interview at Goldenage-WTIC.org.• Bob Hope spoke to Johnny Carson• Andy Devine spoke to Betty Rogge——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• Once I Had a Secret Love — By Dolores Watson• The Battle Cry of Freedom — By Jacqueline Schwab• Bare Necessities — By Matthias Gohl, Jay Ungar, and John Kirk• Morning Prayer — By Matthias Gohl and Ken Littlehawk• Loch Lomond (arranged for Choir) — By Musica Intima
This episode was originally released on 4/1/2022. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.____________In Breaking Walls episode 126 we continue our mini-series in April of 1954.——————————Highlights:• Eisenhower talks fear• Lum and Abner’s April Fools’ Joke• The Eternal Light• Nightwatch — A New CBS Real Police Show• Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator• Illegal Immigrant Fears• Gildersleeve’s Dinner Party• Easter Sunday and The End of The Whistler• Jack Benny Holds a Seance• The Army-McCarthy Hearings Begin• Phil Harris and Alice Faye’s Red Cross Blood Drive• Looking Ahead to May——————————The WallBreakers:thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:• On the Air — By John Dunning• Network Radio Ratings — by Jim Ramsburg• The Complete Escape Log — By Keith ScottAs well as articles from• Broadcasting Magazine• LIFE Magazine——————————On the interview front:• Parley Baer, George Balzer, Himan Brown, Phil Harris, Elliott Lewis, and Willard Waterman, spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.• Himan Brown also spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these full interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org.• Himan Brown, Bill Froug, and Betty Lou Gerson spoke to SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com.• Elliott Lewis also spoke with John Dunning for his 71KNUS program from Denver.——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• Voodoo Dreams — By Les Baxter• Manhattan — By Blossom Dearie• Walking In The Air — By George Winston
This episode was originally released on 2/1/2022. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.____________In Breaking Walls episode 124 we pick up our 1954 mini series in February. We’ll focus on radio programming and national news from that month.——————————Highlights:• Radio Billings Are Down. Now What?• Dragnet—Still Going Strong• Lee Deforest and The Hallmark Hall of Fame• Americana• Jack Benny Turns 39? 40? 60?• Guest Star and The McCarthy News• The College Quiz Bowl• Mr and Mrs North• Polio• Stars Over Hollywood• Ending with Bergen and McCarthy• Looking Ahead to March with Edward R. Murrow——————————The WallBreakers:thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:• On the Air — By John Dunning• Network Radio Ratings — by Jim RamsburgAs well as articles from• Broadcasting Magazine• LIFE Magazine——————————On the interview front:• Jack Benny, Frank Nelson, and Don Wilson spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.• Jack Benny also spoke for Great Radio Comedians in 1972.• Harry Bartell, Himan Brown, Lilian Buyeff, Bill Froug, Virginia Gregg, Lou Krugman, and Peggy Webber were with SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com• Hans Conried and Edgar Bergen spoke with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear this full interview at Goldenage-wtic.org.• Dennis Day spoke with John Dunning for his 71KNUS program from Denver.• Lee Deforest spoke at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York.——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• Sh-Boom — By The Crewcuts• Serious Serenade — By Duke Ellington
How do we define a ghost? What makes us gravitate towards spooky stories, and not just in October?What causes these supposed paranormal things to happen? Are they trapped spirits who are unable to move on? Inter-dimensional visitors? Energetic imprints from the past history of a house? Or is it something ancient? Something tied to the land itself. I grew up in a house on Bay Parkway in Bensonhurst that had lots of strange activity. Don’t believe me? Just ask my mom.Want to take a ghost tour and see me in person? I’m leading Haunted Bay Ridge on Saturday June 6th at 6:30PM. Tickets can be found here — https://www.eventbrite.com/e/haunted-bay-ridge-revised-tickets-1987612124369, at the tours and events tab at BayRidgeDigest.com, or through the linktr.ee at @BayRidgeDigest or @TheWallBreakers on Instagram.
The Rise of the Communications Industry - by Kenneth Bilby• On the Air — By John Dunning• Network Radio Ratings — by Jim RamsburgAs well as articles from• Broadcasting Magazine• LIFE Magazine• Time Magazine——————————On the interview front:• John Guedel, Phil Leslie, and Don Wilson spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.• Norman MacDonnell and George Walsh spoke to John Hickman, the longtime host of WAMU’s Recollections. Today, this program is heard each Sunday evening as The Big Broadcast. For more information, please go to WAMU.org• Art Linkletter spoke to John Gassman.• Ozzie Nelson was with James Day.• Jack Benny spoke for Great Radio Comedians.• Jack Benny and Don Wilson spoke with Jack Carney.——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• Auld Lang Syne — By The Manhattan Strings• January Stars — By George Winston• The Klezmer’s Wedding — By André Moisan• Love in Bloom — By Bing Crosby• Seance on a Wet Afternoon — By John Barry• Danse Macabre — By Camille Saint-Saëns
This episode was originally released on 12/1/2021. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.____________In Breaking Walls episode 122 we spend the holidays in the old west with Jimmy Stewart, director Jack Johnstone, and The Six Shooter.——————————Highlights:• Jack Johnstone’s Early Radio Career• The State of Network Radio in December of 1953• James Stewart on the Hollywood Star Playhouse• The Six Shooter Launches• A Pressing Engagement• The Radio Industry - More Than Kin• Britt Ponsett’s Christmas Carol• Britt Ponsett Rides Off Into the Sunset• Looking Ahead of January 1954——————————The WallBreakers:thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:• On the Air - By John Dunning• Radio Rides The Range: A Reference Guide to Western Drama on the Air — by Jack French and David S. Siegel• Network Radio Ratings — By Jim RamsburgAs well as articles from• The Los Angeles Times——————————On the interview front:• Dick Beals, Virginia Gregg, and Herb Vigran spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.• Parley Baer, Harry Bartell, Sam Edwards, Jack Johnstone, Marvin Miller and Vic Perrin were with SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com.• Art Linkletter spoke with John Gassman.• Jimmy Stewart was with Larry King and Johnny Carson.——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• Somewhere in My Memory and Star of Bethlehem — By John Williams• The Klezmer’s Wedding — By André Moisan• Highland Lament — By The Corries• Sonata No. 1 for Violin, Opus 13: I. Molto Moderato — Played by Michael Davis
Voices• Simple Gifts, Pachelbel’s Canon, and Autumn Stars — By Michael Silverman• The Pavane — By Steve Erquiaga
This episode was originally released on 10/1/2021. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.____________In Breaking Walls episode 120, we continue our Americana mini-series in autumn with a host of harvest-centered radio programing. We’ll warm by the fire and listen in on stories from some of the medium’s most prominent.——————————Highlights:• Welcome to October, Welcome to Harvest Season• Fibber and Molly Launches• Feast from Cavalcade’s Harvest• Mel and Dennis Get Their Own Shows• Gale Gordon’s Green Acres• How Mild Can Richard Diamond on ABC Be?• From Peary to Waterman as Gildy Changes Leads• Escape From the Death of Network Dramatic Radio• Looking Ahead to the Homecoming——————————The WallBreakers:thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:• On the Air - By John Dunning• Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg——————————On the interview front:• Mel Blanc, Dennis Day, Gale Gordon, Phil Harris, Jim Jordan, Jim Jordan Jr., Harold Peary, and Willard Waterman spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats and many others from Chuck’s forty year career at SpeakingOfRadio.com.• Mel Blanc, Jim Jordan, and William N. Robson spoke with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these full interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org.• Harry Bartell and Virginia Gregg spoke to SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com.• Don Quinn was interviewed by Owen Cunningham in 1951.• Ozzie Nelson was a guest of Johnny Carson’s in 1969.• Mel Blanc also spoke with Jack Carney.• Dennis Day also spoke with John Dunning for his 71KNUS program from Denver.——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• Autumn — By Michael Silverman• Ghost Bus Tours — By George Fenton for High Spirits• Moon — By George Winston• Shine On Harvest Moon — By Joan Morris and William Bolcom
This episode was originally released on 9/1/2021. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.____________In Breaking Walls episode 119 we continue our Americana mini-series by bringing our appetites to the diner. We’ll hear stories from some of radio’s best and center ourselves around shows taking place in establishments.——————————Highlights:• What Exactly is a Diner?• Lux Presents Hollywood• Suspense At the End of World War II• The Diner After World War II• Bill Conrad, Burt Lancaster, and The Killers• ABC Takes Friday Nights With This Is Your FBI• Frank Sinatra and His Rocky Fortune• Going Back to Gunsmoke• James Earl Jones and Theater Five——————————The WallBreakers:thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:• On the Air - By John Dunning• Network Radio Ratings — By Jim RamsburgAs well as:• From Hash House to Family Restaurant: The Transformation of the Diner and Post-World War II Consumer Culture — By Andrew Hurley from The March 1997 Journal of American History.And other articles from:• Paste Magazine• Smithsonian Magazine——————————On the interview front:• Parley Baer, Conrad Binyon, Norman Corwin, and Lurene Tuttle spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.• Parley Baer, Jerry Devine, Lawrence Dobkin, Fred Foy, and Bob Maxwell, were with SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com.• William Spier spoke with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear this full interview at Goldenage-WTIC.org.• John Dehner was with Neil Ross for KMPC.• Frank Sinatra spoke with Arlene Francis, Walter Cronkite, and Larry King.• William Conrad with Chris Lambesis.• Norman Macdonnell with John Hickman of WAMU for his Gunsmoke documentary.——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• Theme From A Summer Place — By Percy Faith• I’ve Got The World on a String and Why Try To Change Me Now — By Frank Sinatra• The Venice Dreamer Pt1 and 2 — By George Winston• Across the Alley from the Alamo — By The Mills Brothers
This episode was originally released on 8/1/2021. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.____________In Breaking Walls episode 118 we hit the road with part one of an Americana mini-series. We’ll gas up with some of radio’s best and examine shows taking place at America’s filling stations.——————————Highlights:• Al Hodge and The Green Hornet• Getting a Checkup at Doctor Christian’s• Lux Presents: They Drive By Night with Lana Turner and Lucille Ball• Orson Welles and The Hitchhiker• ABC competes with NBC and CBS• Dragnet leads to The Lineup• Stacey Keach and The Last Tales of the Texas Rangers• The Gas Crisis and the CBS Radio Mystery Theater——————————The WallBreakers:thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:• On the Air - By John Dunning• Network Radio Ratings — by Jim RamsburgAs well as articles from• The Association For Convenience and Fuel Retailing• Family Tree Magazine• NationalParkService.Org• Newsweek• The Smithsonian Magazine——————————On the interview front:• Virginia Gregg and Lurene Tuttle spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.• Himan Brown, Larry Haines, Vincent Price, and Rudy Vallée spoke with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these full interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org.• Herb Ellis, Byron Kane, Stacy Keach Sr, and Herb Vigran were with SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com.• Bing Crosby and John Scott Trotter spoke with Same Time, Same Station.• Lucille Ball was with both Dick Cavett and Joan Rivers.• Orson Welles with Johnny Carson.• Al Hodge with Richard Lamparski.• Vic Perrin with Neill Ross for KMPC.• Joel McCrae was interviewed by Al Greenberg for Orco Development.——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• Route 66 — By Nat King Cole• Deep Night — By Rudy Vallée• The Klezmer’s Wedding — By Andre Moisan• Living Without You — By George Winston• Fly Me To The Moon — By Julie London
This episode was originally released on 7/1/2021. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.____________In Breaking Walls episode 117 we blast off with NBC in the fall of 1955 and spotlight its premiere science fiction series, X Minus One. We’ll listen to episodes, hear interviews with those involved, and find out why this series continues to be a favorite among listeners today.——————————Highlights:• The Beginning of the End for Network Radio Drama• Ernest Kinoy: NBC Staff Writer• Ray Bradbury’s Radio Memories• New York’s Radio Actors• Dimension X Leads to the Launching of X-Minus-One• In Late 1955 CBS is Radio’s Top Network• Mars is Heaven• Radio’s Vital Factor• Nightfall on X-Minus-One• Looking Ahead By Gassing Up——————————The WallBreakers:thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:On the Air - By John DunningArticles from:Broadcasting-Telecasting Magazine——————————On the interview front:• Jackson Beck, John Gibson, Larry Haines, Mary Jane Higby, Joseph Julian, Mandel Kramer, Jan Miner, Arnold Moss, and Guy Sorel, spoke with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these full interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org• Himan Brown and Nelson Olmsted were with SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com• Bob Hastings spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear this full chat at SpeakingOfRadio.com• Ernest Kinoy was with both Fran Stoddard for PBS and Walden Hughes for Yesterday USA• Ray Bradbury spoke with Jerry Haendiges• Santos Ortega was with Richard Lamparski——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• Ill Wind — By the John Buzon Trio• Rock Around the Clock — By Bill Haley and the Comets• Satan Takes a Holiday — By Jack Malmsteen
This episode was originally released on 6/1/2021. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.____________In Breaking Walls episode 116, it’s June of 1955 and network radio is in uncharted territory. TV’s encroachment has the entire industry looking for new ideas. We’ll focus on the launch of one of the most successful—Monitor—which will air in some form or fashion until January of 1975.——————————Highlights:• The Changing Network Radio Landscape• Who Is Sylvester “Pat” Weaver?• Monitor Origins• Building the Team• Radio Central• The Soft Launch• An Auto Tragedy at Le Mans• Going to San Quentin Prison• Lots of Tunes in Remote• A Potential United Automobile Workers Strike• Dave Garroway Interviews Marilyn Monroe, live on Monitor• Fibber McGee and Gildy Too• Here’s Henry Morgan• Monitor’s Last Hour• Miss Monitor Finally Makes an Appearance• The Full Launch• Looking Ahead in Time and Space——————————The WallBreakers:thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:On the Air - By John DunningMonitor: Take 2: By Dennis HartNetwork Radio Ratings — by Jim RamsburgArticles from:Broadcasting-Telecasting MagazineMonthly Labor ReviewThe New York Daily NewsThe New York TimesNewsweekPrinter’s InkVarietyAs well as the websites:accordions.com/ for their interview with Art Van DammeDennis Hart’s monitorbeacon.net/tipsontables.com/——————————On the interview front:• Pat Weaver was interviewed for Fred Allen’s May 29th, 1956 Biography In Sound.• Ben Grauer was interviewed for NBC’s 50th Anniversary and Westinghouse’ 50th Anniversary.• Dave Garroway and Willard Waterman spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.• Jim Jordan was with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear this full interview at Goldenage-WTIC.org.
Hail And Farewell• A Report on ESP• Subways Are For Sleeping• Winding down the Workshop• Looking ahead to Monitor——————————The WallBreakers:thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:On the Air - By John DunningAs well as articles from:Broadcasting MagazineThe New York Daily News——————————On the interview front:• Lilian Buyeff, Don Diamond, John Dehner, Lawrence Dobkin, Bill Froug, Jack Johnstone, Byron Kane, Elliott Lewis, and Peggy Webber were with SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com.• Norman Corwin, Virginia Gregg, Carlton E. Morse, Alan Reed, and Russell Thorson spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.• Bill Robson spoke with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear this full interview at Goldenage-WTIC.org.• William Paley spoke while receiving a citation in November of 1958.• Ray Bradbury was interviewed by Jerry Haendiges in October of 1976.——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• Don’t Fence Me In — By Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters• February Sea — By George Winston• Heartbreak Hotel — By Elvis Presley• Seance on a West Afternoon — By John Barry
This episode was originally released on 4/1/2021. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.____________In Breaking Walls episode 114, as America moves to the suburbs in the mid-1950s, we move with them and examine a radio western called Fort Laramie. Although it only aired for ten months, it’s one of the most critically acclaimed western shows the genre ever produced.——————————Highlights:• The Network Radio Landscape in 1956• Norman MacDonnell loses Gunsmoke’s TV Production• Who Is William Raymond Stacy Burr and What Has He Really Done?• Launching Fort Laramie• Easter Sunday, 1956• Lost Child• The Birth of Rock and Roll• Jeanette Nolan’s Stagecoach Stop• The New Recruit• Fort Laramie Dies, Gunsmoke Lives On• Looking Ahead to the CBS Radio Workshop——————————The WallBreakers:thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:• On the Air — By John Dunning• Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — By Jim RamsburgAs well as articles from• Broadcasting Magazine• The Los Angeles Times——————————On the interview front:• Eve Arden, Dick Beals, Edgar Bergen and Shirley Mitchell, spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.• Harry Bartell, Lilian Buyeff, Lawrence Dobkin, Lou Krugman, Jeanette Nolan, and Vic Perrin were with SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com.• John Dehner, John Dunkel, Norman MacDonnell and John Meston were with John Hickman for his History of Gunsmoke documentary.• John Dehner and Vic Perrin were with Neill Ross for KMPC.• Jack Kruschen and Shirley Mitchell were with Jim Bohannon.• Raymond Burr was with Jack Webster.——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• Don’t Fence Me In — By Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters• February Sea — By George Winston• Heartbreak Hotel — By Elvis Presley• Seance on a West Afternoon — By John Barry
2 — By George Winston• I’ll Be Seeing You — By the Harry James Band• Caravan — By Gordon Jenkins
This episode was originally released on 2/1/2021. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.____________In Breaking Walls episode 112, we finish our five-part mini-series by examining NBC’s business and programming during the 1949-50 radio season in the wake of the CBS talent raids by examining the steps NBC took to regain their footing as the television era began. ——————————Highlights:• Garroway• Frank Sinatra’s Tailspin• Monday Night of Music• Ivy College and their Hallowed Halls• Christopher London vs. Jack Benny• Randy Stone Prowls Chicago’s Night• Dimension X and Arnold Moss• Cloak and Dagger• Vincent Price and Simon Templar• Looking Ahead to Elliott Lewis——————————The WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:• On the Air — By John Dunning• Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — By Jim RamsburgAs well as articles from the archives of:• Broadcasting Magazine • Radio Daily • Variety ——————————On the interview front:• Ken Carpenter, Dave Garroway, Jim Jordan, Phil Leslie, Vincent Price, Lurene Tuttle, and Herb Vigran were with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.• Raymond Edward Johnson, Arnold Moss, Vincent Price, and Bill Robson were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these at Goldenage-WTIC.org.• Lawrence Dobkin and Elliott Lewis were with SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com.• Don Quinn was interviewed by Owen Cunningham in 1951,• Frank Sinatra was with Walter Cronkite in 1965,• Lurene Tuttle spoke with Same Time, Same Station in 1972.——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• I Can Dream, Can't I — By The Andrews Sisters• Salute to Charlie Christian — By Barney Kessel• Holo Holo Haa — With Lani McIntyre• It All Depends on You — By Frank Sinatra• The Look of Love — By Billy May• Moon Moods — By Les Baxter• Spooky — By Dusty Springfield
This episode was originally released on 1/1/2021. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.____________In Breaking Walls episode 111 we resume our mini-series in January of 1949. CBS is now the nation’s number one network, and NBC is left to come up with programming answers. We’ll focus on the shows they launched in the spring and summer of 1949. ——————————Highlights:• Jack Benny: Now on CBS• First The News• Network Radio Opens 1949 with Record Earnings• John Wayne, Claire Trevor, John Ford, and Ward Bond Open The NBC Theater • David Sarnoff and the Mass NBC Exodus• It’s the Martin and Lewis Show!• Alan Young and Henry Morgan• Richard Diamond• Jack Webb Launches Dragnet• Fred Allen Finally Has Enough• William Conrad, The Killers, and The Four Star Playhouse• Dangerous Assignment• San Francisco’s YUkon 3-8309 Lady Detective• Looking Ahead to the Fall of 1949——————————The WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:• On the Air — By John Dunning• Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — By Jim RamsburgAs well as articles from:• Billboard Magazine• Broadcasting Magazine• Radio Daily——————————On the interview front:• Virginia Gregg, Lurene Tuttle, Herb Vigran, Mike Wallace, Don Wilson were with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.• Parley Baer, Lilian Buyeff, Herb Ellis, Betty Lou Gerson, Virginia Gregg, and Peggy Webber were with SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com• Arnold Stang was with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these at Goldenage-WTIC.org.• Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin were with Cedric Adams• Fred Allen was on Tex and Jinx• Donald Vorhees was interviewed for Allen’s Biography In Sound• Jack Kruschen was with Jim Bohannon• John Dehner was with Neil Ross• William Conrad was with Chris Lambesis • E. Jack Neuman was with John Dunning• Frank Sinatra was with Walter Cronkite——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• Takin’ A Chance on Love — By Helen Forrest• The Pavane — By Steve Erquiaga• Lenore Overture Number 3 — By Ludwig Van Beethoven• And Fly Me To The Moon — By Frank Sinatra
This episode was originally released on 12/1/2020. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.____________In Breaking Walls episode 110 we continue our mini-series on the 1948-49 radio season by focusing on news and programming during Christmas week, 1948. ——————————Highlights:• Jack Benny: Leaving for CBS• A northeast blizzard starts holiday week• Edgar Bergen: Also leaving NBC• Walter Winchell’s big new ABC deal• Soaps, Queens, and the Chesterfield Supper Club• Monday night belongs to CBS• Lunch with WOR while NBC still owns Tuesday evenings• Fred Waring and Yukon King Gear up For Xmas• Blackie, Gildy, Duffy, and Bing• Abbott, Costello, and Jolson fade, while Suspense soars on Thursday• ABC wins Friday while Skelton gets ready to leave NBC too• Merry Christmas from the Royal Roost in Manhattan• Mary Lee, Grand Central, and Elgin Celebrate Xmas• Sinatra’s up-and-down 1948• Benny and Bergen say goodbye to NBC——————————The WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:• On the Air — By John Dunning• Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — By Jim Ramsburg As well as articles from:• Broadcasting Magazine• The Los Angeles Times• NationalParkService.gov• The New York Daily News• Radio Daily• WhiteHouseHistory.org——————————On the interview front:• Edgar Bergen, Mel Blanc, Himan Brown, Ken Carpenter, Gale Gordon, Jim Jordan, Harold Peary, Alan Reed, Lurene Tuttle, and Don Wilson were with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.• Edgar Bergen, Hans Conried, John Gibson, Jim Jordan, and Jan Miner were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these at Goldenage-WTIC.org.• Ralph Bell, Himan Brown, and Jack Johnstone were with SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com• Bing Crosby and John Scott Trotter were with Same Time, Same Station• Eve Arden was with John Dunning• Phil Harris with Jack Carney• Bob Hope with Johnny Carson• Jo Stafford with Michael Feinstein• Frank Sinatra with Larry King• Red Skelton was with Dini Petty——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year — By Andy Williams• Christmas Dreaming — By Frank Sinatra• Somewhere in My Memory and Star of Bethlehem — By John Williams for Home Alone• Christmas Blues — By Washboard Pete• Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day — By The Marlborough Cathedral Choir• Christmas Carols for 1928 — By Elsie Holt• White Christmas — By Bing Crosby• Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas — By Mel Torme• Ya Viene La Vieja — By JP Torres
Jimmy McGriff• Thanksgiving — By Michael Silverman• Greensleeves — By Steve Erquiaga• Night Pt. 1 - Snow — By George Winston• Deck The Halls — By J.P. Torres——————————
This episode was originally released on 10/1/2020. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.____________In Breaking Walls episode 108 we go back to October 31st, 1948 and open a five-part mini series on that season’s business and programming. ——————————Highlights:• You Are There• Dewey V Truman• Let’s Sit This One Out• Halloween 1948 in New York over the Mutual Broadcasting System• Ozzie and Harriet Visit a Haunted House• Jack Benny Goes Trick-or-Treating for a New Network• Phil Harris and Alice Faye• Sam Spade, Rocky Jordan, and Connie Brooks• Walter Winchell Spits Fire• Cabin B-13• A Tremendous Election Upset• Looking Ahead to Thanksgiving 1948——————————The WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:• Sunday Nights at Seven — By Jack and Joan Benny• On the Air — By John Dunning• Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — By Jim Ramsburg • WOR Radio 1922-1982As well as articles from the archives of • The Los Angeles Times • The New York Daily News • The New York Times• Radio Daily• The Saturday Evening Post.——————————On the interview front:• Eve Arden, Jack Benny, Alice Faye, Phil Harris, Elliott Lewis, Bret Morrison, and Lurene Tuttle were with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.• Hans Conried, Howard Duff, and June Havoc were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these at Goldenage-WTIC.org.• Dick Joy spoke with John Dunning for 71KNUS. • Ben Grauer spoke with Westinghouse in 1970.——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• Danse Macabre — by Camille Saint-Saëns (Camille San Sons)• I’ll Take Manhattan — By Blossom Dearie• Ghost Bus Tours — By George Fenton• The Look of Love — By Nelson Riddle• Verdi’s Macbeth Overture — Conducted by Giuseppe Sinopoli• Flag of Columbia — By Jacqueline Schwab• Over The River and Through The Woods — By the U.S. Air Force Band
This episode was originally released on 9/1/2020. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.____________In Breaking Walls episode 107, we go back to school with the Nelson family and find out why David and Ricky joined the program, and how it affected the entertainment industry forever.——————————Highlights:• Oswald George Nelson—Boy from New Jersey• The Ukulele Craze and the Boy scout Jamboree• Ozzie Starts a Band• Splitting Time Between Football and Music• Cleaning Up Around Town• On the Banks of the Old Raritan• Law School and WMCA• Ozzie Nelson and His Orchestra Gets on Radio• Ozzie Meet Harriet• Harriet Hilliard—One Heck of a Talent• Harriet Joins the Band• Joe Penner and Robert Ripley• Getting Married—Harriet Becomes a Film Star• Touring—David and Eric Are Born• Red Skelton• The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet is Born• Changing Networks in 1948• Jack Benny Jumps to CBS—David and Ricky Join the Show• Finding Their Groove as a Family• ABC and a Ten-Year Contract• Here Come The Nelsons to Television• Looking Ahead to Halloween ——————————The WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:• On the Air — By John Dunning• Ozzie — By Ozzie Nelson• Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — By Jim Ramsburg • Before Television — By Glenhall Taylor• As well as articles from the archives of Broadcasting Magazine, Sponsor Magazine, Radio Daily, and Radio Mirror. ——————————On the interview front:• Ozzie Nelson spoke with: Johnny Carson, Chuck Cecil, and James Day• Ricky Nelson spoke with Johnny Carson and David Hartman • David Nelson spoke with David Hartman, and KRLA• Jack Wagner and Johnny Hayes were also with KRLA• While Harriet Nelson spoke with David Hartman and Chuck Schaden• Chuck Schaden also interviewed Jack Benny, Lurene Tuttle and Janet Waldo Hear these chats and others from Chuck’s forty-year career at SpeakingOfRadio.com——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• Theme from A Summer Place — By The Ventures• Colorado Trail — From Stephen Ives’ The West• On The Banks of the Old Raritan — By The Rutgers Alma Mater Choir• Auld Lang Syne — By the Manhattan Strings• Dream a Little Dream of Me and Jersey Bounce — By Ozzie Nelson and His Orchestra• Get Thee Behind Me Satan — By Harriet Hilliard Nelson• I Will Follow You — By Ricky Nelson• The Haunted House Boogie — By Jack Rivers and Happy Wilson
This episode was originally released on 8/1/2020. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.____________In Breaking Walls episode 106, we join Eve Arden at Madison High School and find out why we all love Our Miss Brooks. ——————————Highlights:• Who is Eunice Quedens? • Eve the heroine with Elizabeth Arden cosmetics.• Starting out in Hollywood• Getting on the Radio• Teaming with Danny Kaye, Jack Haley, and Jack Carson• William Paley and his Packaged Program Initiative• My Friend Irma and Two New Proposed Female-driven Situation Comedies• Our Miss Booth—Not Happening• Eve Arden, meet Connie Brooks• Our Miss Brooks—The New Summer Hit• Colgate Signs on in the Fall of 1948• Cast Camaraderie• Eve Arden—Radio’s Top Comedienne• Miss Brooks Gains Traction• Taking the Show into TV without Jeff Chandler• Winding down the Radio Show• Looking Ahead to September——————————The WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:On the Air — By John DunningNetwork Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — By Jim Ramsburg As well as articles from the archives of Broadcasting Magazine, Radio Daily, and Radio Mirror. ——————————On the interview front:Eve Arden, Gale Gordon, Jack Haley and Gloria McMillan were with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingofRadio.com.Eve Arden was also with John Dunning on July 25th, 1982 for 71KNUSMary Jane Croft was with SPERDVAC on March 14th, 1992. For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com.Shirley Booth was with Dick Cavett in 1971. And Ozzie and Harriet Nelson were on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show on November 18th, 1969. ——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• It’s Been a Long Long Time — By The Harry James Band• Easy Street — By June Christy• Living Without You — By George Winston • Hello Mary Lou — By Ricky Nelson
McCarthy• 1947-48: Radio’s Highest-Rated Season• Spade Hits Its Stride• Stop The Music• June Havoc, Uncredited Spade Actress• Unamerican Hammett? Unamerican Duff?• Spade Gets Cancelled—Twice• Howard Duff: Radio Preservationist• What’s Next——————————The WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:On the Air — By John DunningNetwork Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — By Jim Ramsburg As well as articles from the archives of Billboard Magazine, Broadcasting Magazine, Radio Daily, and Variety. ——————————On the interview front:• Eve Arden, Howard Duff, and Lurene Tuttle were with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingofRadio.com.• Dick Joy, Elliott Lewis, and E. Jack Neuman were with John Dunning for his 71KNUS program from Denver.• Howard Duff, June Havoc, and Bill Spier were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear their full chats at https://goldenage-wtic.org/• Lurene Tuttle remembered radio with Same Time, Same Station on February 6th, 1972.• Frank Stanton spoke with CBS in honor of their 50th anniversary in 1977.• Mary Jane Croft was with SPERDVAC on March 14th, 1992. For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com.——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• Fever — By Peggy Lee• Smoke Gets In Your Eyes — By The Mallett Men• Young At Heart — By Frank Sinatra• The Prologue and Main Title piece from High Spirits — By George Fenton• Atomic Cocktail — By Slim Gaillard
This episode was originally released on 6/1/2020. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.____________In Breaking Walls Episode 104 we focus on Orson Welles’ radio career from Pearl Harbor through the end of radio’s peak, and pick up where we left off in Breaking Walls episode 79.——————————Highlights:• Orson Returns to Radio In the Fall of 1941• The Magnificent Ambersons Enters Productions• December 7th, 1941• Orson and Norman Corwin Collaborate• Orson is Named Pan-American Goodwill Ambassador• It’s All True and Brazil• Problems with RKO• Endings Changed, Others Destroyed• Orson gets fired—Returns to the United States in the fall of 1942• Ceiling Unlimited And Hello Americans• Jane Eyre• Jack Benny Gets Sick, Orson filles in as host• The Mercury Wonder Show• Rita• Marriage, again• Busy Radio Days in 1944• The Orson Welles Almanac• Campaigning for FDR• Donovan’s Brain• D Day• Election Day—1944• Rita and Orson meet Rebecca• Christmas 1944• This is My Best• Our President is Dead• More Collaborations with Corwin• The War Ends• The Stranger• Around the World in Eighty Days• The Mercury Summer Theater• The Lady From Shanghai• Divorce• Macbeth• Europe and the end for Welles on American radio——————————The WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:• Citizen Welles by Frank Brady• This is Orson Welles by Welles and Peter Bogdanovich• On the Air — By John Dunning• Discovering Orson Welles by Jonathan Rosenbaum• Orson Welles on the Air, at OrsonWelles.Indiana.edu• Wellesnet.com. ——————————On the interview front:• Orson Welles was with Peter Bogdonavich, Dick Cavett, Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin, Leslie MeGahey, Dinah Shore, and Huw Wheldon.• Byron Kane and Jeanette Nolan were with SPERDVAC, the Society to Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety, and Comedy. For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com• Norman Corwin was with Chuck Schaden. Hear the full chat at SpeakingofRadio.com.• Howard Duff was with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear their full chat at Goldenage-WTIC.org.• Robert Wise was with Leslie MeGahey.• Jack Benny spoke with Jack Carney.• Lurene Tuttle spoke with Same Time, Same Station in 1972.• Agnes Moorehead was with Dick Cavett in 1973.——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• Perfida — By Jimmy Dorsey and his Orchestra• The Klezmer’s Wedding — By Andre Moisan• The Third Man — By Anton Karas• Hooray for Hollywood — By Don Swan • The Battle Cry of Freedom — By Jacqueline Schwab• Star of Bethlehem — Conducted by John Williams
This episode was originally released on 5/1/2020. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.____________In Breaking Walls Episode 103 we visit the town of Wistful Vista to spend a weekend at Walt’s Malt Shop with Fibber McGee and Molly. While between 1938 and 1950, Jim and Marian Jordan’s comedy never finished lower than fifth in national radio ratings, in this episode, we’ll focus on the period after, when the show became a closed production and aired for fifteen minutes, five days per week.——————————Highlights:Jim Jordan—Saver of ThingsWho is this Fibber McGee and What does he do?First Smackout, by way of ChicagoMarian Jordan—Molly McGeeFibber and Molly join NBCWhen Tuesday Night was Comedy Night Television takes over as NBC’s Stars Jump ShipFibber and Molly Take a Ratings HitMarian’s Health DeterioratesNBC’s plan for the 1950sFibber and Molly Becomes a Serial Finding SuccessTaking Over Walt’s MaltAfter the WeekendWinding DownLooking Back to Look Forward——————————The WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:On the Air — By John DunningNetwork Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — by Jim RamsburgAs well as several articles from Broadcasting Magazine, Radio & TV Mirror, and Sponsor Magazine.——————————On the interview front:Parley Baer and Harry Bartell were with SPERDVAC, the Society to Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety, and Comedy. For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.comElvia Allman, Jim Jordan, Jim Jordan Jr, Phil Leslie, Willard Waterman, and Don Wilson were with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingofRadio.com.Jim Jordan was with John Dunning for his 71KNUS program from Denver in 1982.Don Quinn was interviewed in Hawaii by Owen Cunningham while on vacation in 1951. And John Gibson and Jim Jordan were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear their full chat at Goldenage—WTIC.org——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:Caravan — By Gordon JenkinsGoodbye Montana, Pt. 1 — By George WinstonI Forgot to Remember to Forget — By Elvis PresleyRoute 66 — By Nat King Cole
This episode was originally released on 4/1/2020. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.____________In Breaking Walls Episode 102, we travel back to the fall of 1955 for the re-launch of Yours Truly Johnny Dollar. Although the five-part Dollar format would last for only a year, listeners then and in the years since have praised the productions as some of the best ever.——————————Highlights:• Who is Johnny Dollar?• Dick Powell: Not Johnny Dollar• Dollar Launches in February of 1949• Enter The Movie Star• Enter The Second Movie Star• Dollar Signs Off• The Radio Networks Revamp Programming• Jack Johnstone and Jimmy Stewart• Dollar Reborn, with Gerald Mohr?• Bob Bailey Gets the Role• Relaunching Johnny Dollar• After The Final Curtain• Looking Back to Look Ahead——————————The WallBreakers:thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:• The 1955 Broadcasting Magazine Yearbook• The 1955 Radio Networks Annual• The Winter 1956 Journal of Broadcasting Quarterly• The Who Is Johnny Dollar Matter — By John C. Abbott• On the Air — By John Dunning• Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — by Jim Ramsburg• Broadcasting Magazine — September 19th, 1955; October 3rd, 1955; and April 2nd, 1956• Radio & TV Mirror — 1955——————————On the interview front:• Mary Jane Croft, Herb Ellis, Jack Johnstone, Elliott Lewis, Jeanette Nolan, were with SPERDVAC, the Society to Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety, and Comedy. For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com• Virginia Gregg and Parley Baer were with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingofRadio.com.• Roberta Bailey Goodwin and E. Jack Neuman were with John Dunning for his 71KNUS program from Denver• Hans Conried was with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear their full chat at Goldenage—WTIC.org——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• Caravan — By 80 Drums Around The World.• Pyramid to the Sun & Roller Coaster — By Les Baxter• Exotique Bossa Nova — By Martin Denny• I’ll Be Seeing You — By The Harry James Band• Sleep Walk — By Henri René• Good Timin’ — By Jimmy Jones
This episode was originally released on 3/1/2020. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.____________In Breaking Walls episode 101, we spotlight the career of John Dehner during 1958. In February of that year, Dehner was cast in the title role of J.B. Kendall in Antony Ellis’ short-lived western, Frontier Gentleman.We’ll focus on four episodes of the series which had a recurring character named Belle Siddons, a beautiful gambler and ex-Confederate spy.Although Frontier Gentleman only aired for nine months, it has left a lasting impression on listeners in the years since.——————————Highlights:• John Dehner: Artist and Disney Animator• How John Dehner Got Into Radio• Breaking Into the Inner Circle of CBS West-Coast Character Actors• Television Usurps Radio Drama in the 1950s• How Gunsmoke Influenced the Western Drama• Antony Ellis• CBS Radio Turns a Profit in 1957• Frontier Gentleman Is Launched• The Radio Landscape in February of 1958• The Travels of J.B. Kendall• Who Is Belle Siddons?• Love and Honor• Have Gun Will Travel Replaces Frontier Gentleman• Radio Drama Dies• Looking Ahead to the Return of Johnny Dollar——————————The WallBreakers:thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:• On The Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio - by John Dunning• Radio Rides The Range: A Reference Guide to Western Drama on the Air, 1929 - 1967 by Jack French and David S. Siegel• Network Radio Ratings, 1932-1953 - by Jim RamsburgAs well as articles from:• U.S. Radio, 2/1958, and Broadcasting Magazine 2/101958, and 12/8/1958——————————On the interview front:• Harry Bartell, Lilian Buyeff, John Dehner, Lawrence Dobkin, Sam Edwards, Virginia Gregg, Jack Johnstone, and Vic Perrin were with SPERDVAC, the Society to Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety, and Comedy. For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com• Virginia Gregg was also with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chat at SpeakingofRadio.com.• William Conrad, John Dehner, Norman Macdonnell, and William N. Robson were with John Hickman. Mr. Hickman was the longtime host of WAMU’s Recollections. Today, this program is heard each Sunday evening as The Big Broadcast. For more information, please go to WAMU.org• John Dehner and Vic Perrin were also heard with Neil Ross for KMPC in 1982.• Vincent Price and William N Robson were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. These interviews can be heard at GoldenAge-WTIC.org.• And Roberta Goodwin was with John Dunning for his 71KNUS program from Denver on February 7th, 1982.——————————Selected Music featured in today’s episode was:• Hog of The Forsaken - By Michael Hurley• Ghost Bus Tours - By George Fenton for High Spirits• Sligo Creek - By Al Petteway and Debi Smith for Ken Burns’ The National Parks—America’s Best Idea• Get a Job - By The Silhouettes• Someone to Watch Over Me - By Rosemary Squires & The Ken Thorne Orchestra• Young at Heart - By Frank Sinatra• Guess Things Happen That Way - By Johnny Cash
This episode was originally released on 2/1/2020. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.____________In Breaking Walls episode 100 we focus on the radio career of Lucille Ball, arguably the most famous comedienne of the twentieth century.She rose through the ranks in New York as a model before a small role in Eddie Cantor’s Roman Scandals brought her to Hollywood in 1933 where she gained prominence. When the 1940s began, Ball was a b-film actress known for playing the other woman. As she gained critical respect for both her dramatic and comedic ability, she insisted that her and Desi Arnaz made a perfect on-screen duo. It led to a revolution in the way TV was shot and produced in the 1950s, all under their company Desilu. ——————————Highlights:• Jack Haley, Phil Baker, and RKO• Lucy Meets Gale Gordon• How a Holiday Publicity Trip to New York changed Lucy’s Life• Lucy meets Desi• Too Many Girls• Lucy and Desi Elope in November 1940• Harold Lloyd’s A Girl, a Guy, and a Gob and The Old Gold Comedy Theater• The Tragic Death of Carole Lombard and Lucy’s First Miscarriage• Lucy Stars on Suspense• Desi Strays and Lucy Files for Divorce• The Couple Reconciles and Decides To Work in Radio• Desi and Bob Hope• CBS, My Sister Eileen, and My Friend Irma• Lucy Guests with Jimmy Durante and Bob Hope• Eve Arden and Our Miss Brooks• Lucy Says "Yes" to Bill Paley and My Favorite Husband is Born• Jess Oppenheimer, Bob Carroll Jr., and Madelyn Pugh Join The Team• Lucy Wants to Work With Desi• I Love Lucy is Developed and Philip Morris Signs On• The I Love Lucy Radio Pilot• Changing History and Looking Ahead——————————The WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:• The I Love Lucy Book - By Bart Andrews• Love Lucy - By Lucille Ball• On the Air - By John Dunning• Desilu - By Coyne Stevens Sanders and Tom Gilbert• The Complete History of the Most Popular TV Show Ever - By Michael McClay• Forever Lucy - By Joe Morella• Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — by Jim RamsburgAs well as several articles from:Broadcasting Magazine and Radio Daily, from between 1938 and 1951 ——————————On the interview front:• Lucille Ball was interviewed by Dick Cavett in 1970 and 1971; by Johnny Carson in 1974; and by Joan Rivers in 1984• Desi Arnaz was interviewed with Bob Hope by Johnny Carson in 1976 and by David Letterman in 1983• Jess Oppenheimer was interviewed in 1961. This interview came courtesy of Gregg Oppenheimer and I Love Lucy: The Untold Story. Gregg also provided My Favorite Husband outtakes. • Chuck Schaden spoke to Gale Gordon, Jack Haley, and Herb Vigran. Hear their full chats at SpeakingofRadio.com.• SPERDVAC was with Madeline Pugh Davis and Bob Carroll Jr. on March 12th, 1994• Hans Conried was with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. These interviews can be heard at GoldenAge-WTIC.org. • William Paley gave a speech while receiving an award on November 20th, 1958, and spoke in memoriam of Lucille Ball in 1989. • Lee Philip was with Connee Boswell.——————————Selected Music featured in today’s episode was:• Black Coffee and Fly Me To The Moon - By Julie London• The Look of Love - By Billy May• Cuban Pete - By Desi Arnaz
This episode was originally released on 1/1/2020. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.____________In Breaking Walls episode 99 we wrap up our trilogy on the most popular season in radio history with a look at the major network programming surrounding New Year’s 1948.——————————Highlights:• Scenes from the Post-Christmas Blizzard Aftermath• Breakfast in Hollywood• Checking in on Lora Lawton• Lois Lane Has Been Framed• Staats Cotsworth’s Other Gig, and Dennis Day’s Old One• Ringing in the New Year with The Mayor and Duffy• Mr. District Attorney and The Big Story• Bing Crosby’s Feeling Festive• Jimmy Durante is Sick• Happy New Year, 1948• Truman’s Lack of Popularity and a Severe Labor Strike Issue• The First Rose Bowl Telecast in Los Angeles• Mel Allen• Jack Benny, George Burns, Gracie Allen• Al Jolson and Casey• Radio Reader’s Digest, Mr. President, and Family Theater• CBS Takes on Eddie Cantor with The First Nighter• Wrapping Up The Holiday Season and Looking Ahead——————————The WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:• On the Air — By John Dunning• Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — by Jim RamsburgAs well as articles from:• Radio Daily — December 1947 and January 1948.• Broadcasting Magazine — May 31st, 1948——————————On the interview front:• Mel Allen, Jackson Beck, John Gibson, Jackie Kelk, Tony Marvin, Jan Miner, Rosa Rio, and William N. Robson were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. These interviews can be heard at GoldenAge-WTIC.org. • Chuck Schaden spoke to Barbara Luddy, Gloria McMillan, Olan Soule, Rudy Vallée, and Harry Von Zell. Hear their full chats at SpeakingofRadio.com.• William Paley gave a speech while receiving an award on November 20th, 1958.• Arthur Godrey and Andy Rooney spoke for CBS’ 50th anniversary.• George Burns and Jack Benny were interviewed for Great Radio Comedians. • Bing Crosby was interviewed for Same Time, Same Station in 1972, while SPERDVAC was with Betty Lou Gerson in 1979 and Dennis Day was with John Dunning for 71KNUS on Easter Sunday, April 11th, 1982. ——————————Selected Music featured in today’s episode was:• What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve? - By Margaret Whiting• Campana Sobre Campana - By J.P. Torres• Auld Lang Syne - By The Manhattan Strings and by Guy Lombardo• Someone to Watch Over Me - By Rosemary Squires & The Ken Thorne Orchestra• I’ll Be Seeing You - By The Harry James Band
This episode was originally released on 12/1/2019. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.____________In Breaking Walls Episode 98 we continue our trilogy on the most popular season in radio history with a look at Christmas Week 1947.——————————Highlights:• Ralph Edwards and Truth or Consequences—A Record Rated Show• It’s Christmas Week and Jerusalem is in Shambles• The Eternal Light and One Man’s Family• Jack Benny Does Last Minute Christmas Shopping• Fred Allen’s Highest Rated Season Becomes His Downfall When the Music Stops• Walter Winchell gives ABC a Ratings Win• Breakfast with Fred Waring• CBS Dominates Monday Nights and Lux Radio Broadcasts Miracle on 34th Street• Lora Lawton’s Husband is Missing• Milton Berle’s Finally Cracks the Top-50• NBC’s Tuesday Night Comedy Dominations• The Lone Ranger Hangs ‘Em High• Lionel Barrymore’s Christmas Tradition• Christmas Eve with Bing and Gildersleeve• Road to Rio Opens• Merry Christmas 1947 with King George VI• Don Ameche Hosts an Elgin Special• The Right to Happiness—December’s Highest-Rated Soap Opera• Gracie Allen is Sick, Al Jolson is Rich, and Casey is Lonely• Father Patrick and Family Theatre• A Crippling Blizzard and the Last Sustained Half-Hour Suspense• Looking Ahead to the End of the Year——————————The WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:• On the Air — By John Dunning• Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — by Jim RamsburgAs well as articles from:• Broadcasting Magazine: December 8th, and December 22nd, 1947• LIFE Magazine: December 22nd, 1947 and January 5th, 1948• Radio Daily From the entire month of December 1947——————————On the interview front:• Don Ameche, Mel Blanc, Himan Brown, Staats Cottsworth, John Gibson, Jim Jordan, Mandel Kramer, E.G. Marshall, Jan Miner, Vincent Price and Bill Spier were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. These interviews can be heard at GoldenAge-WTIC.org. • Chuck Schaden interviewed Milton Berle, Dennis Day, Ralph Edwards, Virginia Gregg, Jim Jordan, Mercedes McCambridge, Shirley Mitchell, Carlton E. Morse, Hal Peary, Lurene Tuttle, and Don Wilson. Hear their full chats at SpeakingofRadio.com.• Johnny Carson was with Orson Welles on The Tonight Show, and Fred Allen was with Tex and Jinx on November 24th, 1954.• John Dunning was with Roberta Goodwin Bailey, and Westinghouse interviewed Fran Carlon.• SPERDVAC with Vic Perrin, and Frank Brese was with Elliott Reid.——————————Selected Music featured in today’s episode was:• Sleigh Ride - By Lloyd Glenn and His Orchestra• White Christmas - By Booker T and the MGs• Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day - By the Marlborough Cathedral Choir• It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year - By Andy Williams• Jingle Bells - By J.P. Torres• I Saw Three Ships - By The Norwich Cathedral Choir• I’ll Be Home For Christmas and Baby It’s Cold Outside - By Jackie Gleason and Jack Marshall• Christmas Is - by Lou Rawls
This episode was originally released on 11/1/2019. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.____________In Breaking Walls Episode 97 we usher in the holiday season with the first of a three-part mini-series on the 1947-48 radio season. The 1947-48 season had the largest radio audience in history. Homes with radios jumped 6%, car radios 29%. The major networks—NBC, CBS, ABC, and the Mutual Broadcasting System added 147 new affiliates. 97% of the nation’s AM stations were now linked to one of the big four. Network revenue topped $200 Million. ——————————Highlights:Famine in Europe; Anti-Communism at Home—The World is ChangingBoomer Babes Fuel a Ratings IncreaseThe Annual Hollywood Santa ParadeHappy Thanksgiving 1947Breakfast with the CouplesPrepping With the SoapsThe Answer Man Takes to the AirThe Annual Elgin Thanksgiving SpecialJuvenile Adventure At DuskSettling Into Prime TimeGeorge Burns: French CroonerCasey Gets His TurkeyHome is Where the Heart IsEddie Cantor Has Been KidnappedLate Night and Looking Ahead——————————The WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:Frank and Anne Hummert’s Radio Factory - By Jim CoxOn the Air - By John DunningNetwork Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — by Jim RamsburgAs well as articles from:Broadcasting Magazine: January 20th, 1947; October 27th, 1947; December 1st, 1947——————————On the interview front:Jackson Beck, Hans Conried, Staats Cotsworth, John Gibson, Tony Marvin, and Jan Miner were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. These interviews can be heard at GoldenAge-WTIC.org. Chuck Schaden interviewed Ken Carpenter and Les Tremayne. Hear their full chats at SpeakingofRadio.com.While SPERDVAC was with Betty Lou Gerson and Jack Johnstone. For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com. Barbara Walters interviewed George Burns for 20/20.——————————Selected Music featured in today’s episode was:“Over the River and Through The Woods” — by the US Airforce Band“Holiday On Skis” - by Al Caiola & Riz Ortolani“Joy” - by George Winston“Star of Bethlehem” - by John Williams
This episode was originally released on 10/1/2019. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.____________In Breaking Walls Episode 96, we laugh, scream, and cry while we join radio’s best as they celebrate Halloween on the air.——————————Highlights:• The Birth of the Great Gildersleeve• Sam Spade has a Halloween adventure• Ernest Chappell says, “Don’t Tell Me About Halloween”• Spike Jones and His City Slickers Celebrate• Sherlock Holmes and the Laughing Lemur• The Story Behind Bing Crosby’s Departure from NBC and move to ABC• Ozzie, Harriet, David, and Ricky• Jack Benny goes Trick-Or-Treating• John Guedel, Art Linkletter, and People Are Funny• Looking Ahead to the Holiday Season——————————The WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:• On The Air — By John Dunning• Terror On The Air!, Horror Radio in America — By Richard J. Hand• Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — by Jim RamsburgAs well as articles by:• TUNE IN Magazine - September 1946• Broadcasting Magazine - April 14th, July14th, and September 15th, 1947——————————On the interview front:• Chuck Schaden interviewed Jack Benny, Ken Carpenter, John Guedel, Shirley Mitchell, Arch Oboler, Hal Peary, Lurene Tuttle, and Mike Wallace. Hear their full chats at SpeakingofRadio.com.• Howard Duff, June Havoc, and Bill Spier were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. These interviews can be heard at GoldenAge-WTIC.org. • John Gassman of SPERDVAC was with Art Linkletter in 1991. For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com.• Jack Kruschen and Shirley Mitchell were with Jim Bohannon on September 12th, 1987.• Chuck Cecil interviewed Ozzie Nelson.• Johnny Hayes, David Nelson, and Jack Wagner were interviewed by KRLA• Johnny Carson interviewed Orson Welles, Ozzie, Harriet, and Ricky Nelson for The Tonight Show, while David Hartman interviewed David, Harriet, and Ricky for Good Morning America.• Frank Bresee interviewed Bing Crosby, John Scott Trotter• And Dick Joy was with John Dunning for 71KNUS.——————————Selected Music featured in today’s episode was:• A Wicked Thought - By John Zacharely• Ghost Bus Tours - By George Fenton for High Spiritsand• Travelin Man - By Ricky Nelson
Hey everyone, James Scully here, producer and host of Breaking Walls, the docu-podcast on the history of US Network Radio Broadcasting. I wanted to let you know about a new webinar I’m doing next Thursday August 14th at 7PM eastern time. It's the final part of a 3-part mini series on Orson Welles' life and career. "Orson Welles' Career, Part 3: Welles In Europe (1948 - 1956)," is on an often-forgotten and underrated part of Orson Welles' career during his years living and working in Europe. It will focus on the radio, screen, and stage work he was involved in during this time, complete with visuals and audio clips. Here's a link to register — https://www.eventbrite.com/e/orson-welles-career-part-3-welles-in-europe-1948-1956-webinar-tickets-1445320836529?aff=oddtdtcreatorIf you can't make, don't worry, I'll be emailing all who register a video of the webinar once its done so you can watch it later. And if you missed the first two parts of this webinar series (Part 1 was on his early career and Part 2 focused on late 1941 through 1948), I'll email you a video link to watch the first two presentations (for free) when you register for the Part 3 event.Here's an overview of the webinar:Throughout the last one-hundred years of American entertainment, few people have gotten as strong a reaction as Orson Welles. A rare quadruple threat: writer, director, actor, producer, Welles found immense success on stage, in films, on television, and in radio. In fact, he took center stage in the United States on more than one occasion… and not always to a positive reaction, but always with pushing the creative envelope in mind.Welles managed to alienate the newspaper industry, the Hollywood studio system, and occasionally even the broadcasting networks, but he rarely had a door closed in his face.Welles was known to work himself to the bone, and party even harder. He had romances with some of the most famous and attractive women in the country, including Virginia Nicholson, Dolores del Rio, and Rita Hayworth.He was hailed as a genius, a charlatan, a magician, an incredible friend, an a***hole, a hard-driver, a steady worker, and a man who drank too much. Welles liked to joke that he began his career on top and spent the rest of his life working his way down. Such a strong-willed, creative person deserves an in-depth look.Join James Scully — Radio historian and producer/host of Breaking Walls, the docu-podcast on the history of U.S. network radio broadcasting for the last of a three-part webinar that deeply explores the life and career of Orson Welles, with a strong focus on his two decades working in American and British radio.In Part 3: Orson Welles In Europe (1948 - 1956) we’ll explore Welles’ time in Europe from the late 1940s through the mid 1950s, with audio clips and highlights including:• HUAC and Leaving the U.S• Harry Alan Towers, and Harry Lime• Othello and The Black Museum• Song of Myself and Theatre Royal• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Moriarity• The BBC Sketchbook and Moby Dick• Mr Lincoln and Mr Arkadin• Returning to the U.S.• Tomorrow and YesterdayAfterward, I’ll do a Q&A — any and all questions are welcomed and encouraged! Can't attend live? Not to worry! I'll be recording the event and sending the video out to all guests who register so you can watch it later. See you (virtually) there!
This episode was originally released on 9/1/2019. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.____________In Breaking Walls Episode 95, we go back to school with radio’s teacher’s pets, class clowns, and perhaps the most iconic “Miss” in radio history. ——————————Highlights:• How William Paley used The Columbia Workshop to launch shows and careers.• Suspense Moves to Hollywood and Gets Sponsorship• The Radio Rise of Eve Arden and the Launch of Our Miss Brooks• The NBC University Theater dramatizes a Washington Irving Classic• The New Mr. and Mrs. Ronald and Benita Colman Show• Johnny Dollar Investigates a Suspicious Schoolhouse Fire• Theater Five saves a Nursery• All Hallow’s Eve——————————The WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:• The Who Is Johnny Dollar Matter — by John C. Abbott• On The Air — By John Dunning• Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — by Jim RamsburgAs well as articles from:• Broadcasting Magazine - April 27th, September 14th, and November 30th 1964, as well as January 4th, January 11th, and June 28th, 1965.• Radio Daily - September 30th, 1949• Sponsor Magazine - September 2nd, 1952——————————On the interview front:• SPERDVAC was with Jack Johnstone, Al Lewis, Jeanette Nolan and Elliott Reid—For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com.• Chuck Schaden interviewed Eve Arden, Parley Baer, Ken Carpenter, Norman Corwin, Gale Gordon, Jack Haley, Agnes Moorehead, Russell Thorson, and Willard Waterman. Hear their full chats at SpeakingofRadio.com.• Hans Conried, William N. Robson, and William Spier were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. These interviews can be heard at GoldenAge-WTIC.org. • Eve Arden, Roberta Goodwin Bailey, and E. Jack Neuman were with John Dunning for 71KNUS.• Elliott Reid was with Frank Bresee and Walden Hughes on October 14th, 2002 and Don Quinn was interviewed by Owen Cunningham in 1951. ——————————Selected Music featured in today’s episode was:•I Wonder Why - by Dion and the Belmonts• Pyramid of the Sun - by Les Baxter• Moon - by George Winston• The Look of Love - by Billy May and his Orchestra• Young at Heart - by Frank Sinatra• I’ll be Seeing You - by the Harry James Band• Spooky - by Dusty Springfield——————————
This episode was originally released on 8/1/2019. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.____________In Breaking Walls episode 94 we visit the malt shops, drug stores, and soda counters in America’s heartland and spend time with radio’s best dramatic actors and actresses.Highlights• Norman Corwin, Margaret Sullavan, and Byron Kane’s Big Break• The Pharmacist Goes to War—and Saves a Life• Inner Sanctum and Santos Ortega• Dennis Day: Soda Jerk• The Rise of Jack Webb• Dragnet Is Born and Radio Changes Forever• Tales of the Texas Rangers and the Wheaties Big Parade• The End of Fibber McGee and Molly• Back to SchoolThe WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakersThe reading material used in today’s episode was:On The Air - By John DunningNetwork Radio Ratings, 1932-53 - by Jim RamsburgForecast: Is there a Sponsor in the House - by Martin Grams Jr. Just the Facts, Ma'am : The Authorized Biography of Jack Webb - by Eugene Alvarez & Daniel MoyerAnd articles from Radio Life, January 1949. On the interview front:• SPERDVAC was with Harry Bartel, Ralph Bell, Himan Brown, Lilian Buyeff, Lawrence Dobkin, Herb Ellis, Virginia Gregg, Byron Kane, Jeanette Nolan, Herb Vigran, and Peggy Webber—For more info, please go to SPERDVAC..com• Chuck Schaden interviewed Eve Arden, Himan Brown, Dennis Day, Phil Harris, Jim Jordan, Lurene Tuttle, and Herb Vigran. Hear their full chats at SpeakingofRadio.com.• Joel McCrea was with educator Al Greenberg. For more information please go to OrcoDevelopment— That’s O R C O Development (dot) org.• Jim Jordan was with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. This interview can be heard at GoldenAge-WTIC.org. • While Dennis Day and E. Jack Neuman were with John Dunning for 71KNUS and Vic Perrin was with Neil Ross for KMPC.Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• Sleep Walk — By Santo & Johnny• Go Slow — By Julie London• The Klezmer's Wedding — By André Moisan • Living Without You — By George Winston• See you in September — By The Happenings
This episode was originally released on 7/1/2019. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.____________In Breaking Walls episode 93 we ride the rails with some of the most famous stars in radio history.During radio’s golden age, there were three main production hubs: New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. With so much daily content to produce, radio’s greatest minds developed programs and episodes centered around every recognizable theme, like the New York city subway.While this episode will take place in or around New York’s public transportation system, we’ll focus just as much on the relationships forged by radio’s legends on both coasts.Highlights:• Mercedes McCambridge, Himan Brown, and Grand Central Station• How Bill Spier influenced the careers of his wife June Havoc and his protégé Elliott Lewis• From Suspense to Broadway is My Beat, Elliott Lewis shines• Jack Benny stars on Suspense• Cathy Lewis: Mrs Radio• Mandel Kramer, Jan Miner, and Subway Soaps from New York• Byron Kane and Subways Are For Sleeping• William N. Robson, Shirley Mitchell, Virginia Gregg and Jack Kruschen on radio in the 1950s• Bob and Ray head down into the Subway• Himan Brown brings dramatic radio back to life in the 1970s• Next Stop: The Soda ShopThe WallBreakers:thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:patreon.com/TheWallBreakersThe reading material used in today’s episode was:• On The Air - By John Dunning• The CBS Radio Mystery Theater Handbook - by Gordon Payton & Martin Grams Jr.• Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 - by Jim Ramsburg• The Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Radio - by Christopher H. Sterlingas well as articles from:• Broadcasting Magazine - November 3rd, 1947• And Billboard Magazine - May 1st, 1948On the interview front:• Himan Brown, June Havoc, Mandel Kramer, Elliott Lewis, E.G. Marshall, Jan Miner, William Spier and William N. Robson were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. These interview can be heard at GoldenAge-WTIC.org.• Ralph Bell, Himan Brown, Lawrence Dobkin, Betty Lou Gerson and Byron Kane, were with SPERDVAC. For more information, please go to S-P-E-R-D-V-A-C.com.• Himan Brown, Virginia Gregg, Elliott Lewis, Mercedees McCambridge, Shirley Mitchell and Alan Reed were interviewed by Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats and many others from Chuck’s over thirty-nine year career and SpeakingofRadio.com.• Ellott Lewis was with John Dunning on May 23rd, 1982.• Jack Kruschen, Shirley Mitchell, and George Walsh were with Jim Bohannon on September 12, 1987.• And Morton Fine was with Dan Haefele on August 9th, 1988.Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• It’s been a Long, Long Time - by Keely Smith• Smoke Gets in Your Eyes - by the Mallet Men• The Big Heist and Salute to Charlie Christian - by Barney Kessel• Atlantis and Roller Coaster - by Les Baxter• I’ll Take Manhattan - by Blossom Dearie• And Fly Me To the Moon - by Julie London
Hey everyone, James Scully here, producer and host of Breaking Walls, the docu-podcast on the history of US Network Radio Broadcasting. I wanted to let you know about a new webinar I’m doing this Thursday July 17th, at 7PM on Orson Welles' early career of Orson Welles through the end of 1941.If you can't make it live this Thursday July 17th at 7PM, don't worry, I’ll be emailing every person who registers a video of the webinar once it's over. Here's a link to register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/orson-welles-career-part-1-from-boy-wonder-to-trouble-maker-webinar-tickets-1445315741289?aff=oddtdtcreatorSome more information:Throughout the last one-hundred years of American entertainment, few people have gotten as strong a reaction as Orson Welles. A rare quadruple threat: writer, director, actor, producer, Welles found immense success on stage, in films, on television, and in radio. In fact, he took center stage in the United States on more than one occasion… and not always to a positive reaction, but always with pushing the creative envelope in mind.Welles managed to alienate the newspaper industry, the Hollywood studio system, and occasionally even the broadcasting networks, but he rarely had a door closed in his face.Welles was known to work himself to the bone, and party even harder. He had romances with some of the most famous and attractive women in the country, including Virginia Nicholson, Dolores del Rio, and Rita Hayworth.He was hailed as a genius, a charlatan, a magician, an incredible friend, an a***hole, a hard-driver, a steady worker, and a man who drank too much. Welles liked to joke that he began his career on top and spent the rest of his life working his way down. Such a strong-willed, creative person deserves an in-depth look.In Part 1: From Boy Wonder To Trouble Maker (1931-1941) we’ll explore Welles’ early life, through his explosion of success in the 1930s all the way to the end of 1941, complete with audio clips and highlights including:• Beginnings in Illinois and China — How they helped shape Orson• The Todd Seminary School — His first exposure to theater and Radio• Connections and Early Breaks — How his mentor Roger Hill, Thornton Wilder, Alexander Woollcott, and Katharine Cornell helped Orson get to Broadway• Orson meets John Houseman and Archibald MacLeish, and first appears on the March of Time• 1935-1937 — From the March of Time to the Columbia Workshop, and how Irvin Reis taught Orson how to create for radio• How the US Government shaped the opportunity for Orson to write, direct, and star in Les Misérables on the Mutual Broadcasting System in 1937• The Shadow Knows! — Agnes Moorehead and Orson Welles’ one season on The Shadow• The birth of the Mercury Theater on the Air as First Person singular. How its success led to the most infamous night in radio in October of 1938• Mainstream success with Campbell’s Soups• Orson goes to Hollywood, and signs the greatest autonomous film contract in history at 24• Citizen Kane — How William Randolph Hearst and RKO shaped the film• Lady Esther Presents — Orson comes back to radio in the autumn of 1941• Pearl Harbor Day and collaborating with Norman Corwin• How Joseph Cotton introduced Orson to Rita HayworthAfterward, I’ll do a Q&A — any and all questions are welcomed and encouraged! Can't attend live? Not to worry! I'll be recording the event and sending the video out to all guests who register so you can watch it later. See you (virtually) there!
This episode was originally released on 6/1/2019. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.____________In Breaking Walls episode 92 we open the summer season with a trip to Coney Island, Brooklyn. The New York city summer locale was frequented in radio programs and by radio performers. It was also, in the days of wireless telegraphy, an important station location for Guglielmo Marconi.Highlights:• Marconi’s last link• André Baruch Gets His Radio Start at Coney Island• Allen’s Alley Opens the Summer• Connee Boswell Sings• The Crime Club Uncovers a Coney Island Murder• Irma and Jane Go To the Beach• Broadway Is My Beat• Vincent Price in Coney Island• Jean Shepherd Stops By• We Take the Subway HomeThe WallBreakers:thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:patreon.com/TheWallBreakersThe reading material used in today’s episode was:On The Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio - by John DunningNetwork Radio Ratings, 1932-53 - by Jim RamsburgAs well three tremendous internet resources:Charles Denson's History Project at ConeyIslandHistory.orgDavid Sullivan’s Heart of ConeyIsland.comJeff Stanton’s research at Westland.net/ConeyIslandOn the interview front:• André Baruch, Larry Dobkin, Lou Krugman, and Herb Vigran, were with SPERDVAC. For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com• Hans Conried, June Havoc, Vincent Price, and William N. Robson were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. These interview can be heard at GoldenAge-WTIC.org.• Elliott Lewis and E. Jack Neuman were with John Dunning for his 1980s 71KNUS program from Denver.• Vincent Price and Allen Reed spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingofRadio.com.• Fred Allen was a guest of Tex and Jinx on November 24th, 1954.• Connee Boswell was interviewed by Lee Phillip in 1963.• And Morton Fine was with Dan Haefele on August 9th, 1988.Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• Under the Boardwalk - by the Drifters• And Shine on Harvest Moon - by Joan Morris & William Bolcom
This episode was originally released on 5/1/2019. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.____________In Breaking Walls episode 91, we finish the adult western trilogy with a focus on the period after television decimated radio’s listening audience, forever altering the broadcasting landscape. Dramatic radio’s time as America’s number one entertainment genre was over, but it was far from dead.Our story won’t conclude on that fabled date of September 30th, 1962 when radio drama supposedly ended forever. We’ll push down the trail through the 1960s, 70s, and 80s as dramatic radio continued to avoid the hangman’s noose.Highlights:• Dirty Saturdays• Gunsmoke Finds Sponsorship.• Gunsmoke’s TV launch• NBC and Dr. Sixgun• Norman Macdonnell and CBS bring a new Western to the Air• J.B. Kendall, Luke Slaughter, & Paladin• The End of Gunsmoke• Horizon’s West and One Last Gasp• Elliott Lewis—Young At Heart• Riding off Into the SunsetThe WallBreakers:thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:patreon.com/TheWallBreakersThe reading material used in today’s episode was:• On The Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio - by John Dunning• Radio Rides The Range: A Reference Guide to Western Drama on the Air, 1929 - 1967 by Jack French and David S. Siegel• Network Radio Ratings, 1932-1953 - by Jim Ramsburg• As well as numerous passages from Broadcast MagazineOn the Interview Front:• Lilian Buyeff, John Dehner, Lawrence Dobkin, Herb Ellis, Virginia Gregg, Elliott Lewis, Vic Perrin, and Herb Vigran, were with SPERDVAC, the Society to Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety, and Comedy. For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com• Parley Baer, William Conrad, John Dehner, Rex Koury, and Norman Macdonnell were with John Hickman. Mr. Hickman was the longtime host of WAMU’s Recollections. Today, this program is heard each Sunday evening as The Big Broadcast. For more information, please go to WAMU.org• William N Robson was with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. This interview can be heard at GoldenAge-WTIC.org.• Parley Baer was with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chat at SpeakingofRadio.com.•John Dehner was also heard with Neil Ross for KMPC on March 23rd, 1982. While Elliott Lewis was with John Dunning for his 1980s 71KNUS program from Denver. And Raymond Burr was with Jack Webster in 1963.Selected Music Featured in Today’s Episode Was:• The Theme to A Summer Place - by Percy Faith• Mr. Sandman - by The Chordettes• Young At Heart - by Frank Sinatra• And Come Down My Evening Star - by Joan Morris & William Bolcom
This episode was originally released on 4/1/2019. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.____________In Breaking Walls episode 90 and on the second part of our western trilogy, dramatic radio goes from boom to bust in a nine year period after World War II, as a group of actors become radio legends, while the radio western grows up.Highlights:• William S. Paley’s Plan to Overtake NBC• The West-Coast Hollywood Actors • Robson, Yarborough, Lewis, and Hawk Larabee• Escape Moves the Western Forward• The Life and Death of Jeff Chandler• CBS Becomes Number 1• NBC Fires Back with New Western Shows• Elliott Lewis, Suspense, On Stage, and Crime Classics• The Birth of Gunsmoke• Jack Johnstone, Jimmy Stewart, and The Six Shooter• The Networks Pull the Plug in 1954• What’s NextThe WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakersThe reading material used in today’s episode was:• On The Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio - by John Dunning• Radio Rides The Range: A Reference Guide to Western Drama on the Air, 1929 - 1967 by Jack French and David S. Siegel• Network Radio Ratings, 1932-1953 - by Jim RamsburgAs well as passages from• Broadcast Magazine — 12/22/1947, 2/16/1948, 3/1/1948• Sponsor Magazine — 10/1/1951On the Interview Front:• Parley Baer, Harry Bartell, Lillian Buyeff, Mary Jane Croft, John Dehner, Lawrence Dobkin, Sam Edwards, Herb Ellis, Virginia Gregg, Jack Johnstone, Byron Kane, Elliott Lewis, Jeanette Nolan, and Herb Vigran were with SPERDVAC, the Society to Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety, and Comedy. For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com• Hans Conried, Howard Duff, and Elliott Lewis with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. The full interviews can be heard at GoldenAge-WTIC.org • Jack Benny, Hans Conried, Betty Lou Gerson, Elliott Lewis, and Lurene Tuttle were with Chuck Schaden. Chuck’s interviews from an over 39-year career can be listened to for free at SpeakingofRadio.com• Eve Arden, Elliott Lewis, and E. Jack Neuman were with John Dunning for his 1980s 71KNUS Radio program from Denver. Some of his interviews can be found at OTRRLibrary.org• William Conrad, John Dehner, Rex Koury, Norman Macdonnell, John Meston, William N. Robson, and George Walsh were John Hickman of WAMU for his Gunsmoke documentary. • Mr. Hickman was the longtime host of “Recollections.” A modern version of this program is heard each Sunday evening as “The Big Broadcast.” For more information, please go to WAMU.org• William Conrad was also with collector Chris Lambesis for a December 15th, 1969 interview• Jimmy Stewart was with Larry King in 1986• And William S. Paley and Frank Stanton were interviewed for CBS’s 50th Anniversary program in 1977. Selected Music Featured in Today’s Episode Was:• I’ve Got the World on a String - by Frank Sinatra• Pyramid of the Sun & Voodoo Dreams - by Les Baxter• I’ll Be Seeing You - by The Harry James Orchestra• Route 66 - by Nat King Cole
Hey everyone, James Scully here, producer and host of Breaking Walls, the docu-podcast on the history of US Network Radio Broadcasting. I wanted to let you know about a new webinar I’m doing on Monday June 30th, 2025 at 7PM. It’s Part 2 of the CBS Talent Raids on the early Television era.This webinar focuses on the rise of TV throughout the 1940s and early 1950s as the CBS Talent Raids took hold. If you missed Part 1, don’t worry, when you register for Part 2 I’ll email you a video of the webinar for Part 1. And if you’re interested in this Part 2 webinar and can’t make it live on Monday, June 30th at 7PM, don’t worry I’ll be emailing every person who registers a video of Part 2’s webinar as soon as it’s done. Here's a link to register — https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-cbs-talent-raids-part-2-the-early-television-era-webinar-tickets-1419361692029?aff=oddtdtcreatorHere's an overview of the webinar below:When David Sarnoff officially launched network television at the 1939 World's Fair in New York City, he intended to have TV sets in everyone's homes by the early 1940s. World War II interrupted his plans. Meanwhile network radio soared in popularity throughout the 1940s. By the fall of 1948, three of the four major radio networks — ABC, CBS, and NBC — were funneling their soaring radio profits into the burgeoning television side of their businesses. And because all individual U.S. citizens were taxed 77% on all income over $70k (roughly $907k today), big stars of the day like Jack Benny, Bing Crosby, and Freeman Gosden had the idea to incorporate their popular shows as businesses in order to qualify for significant breaks under capital gains tax laws. What happened when David Sarnoff and RCA, the parent company of NBC, the nation's #1 network at the time, refused to make this deal with its stars? It's time to uncover how a smart bet by CBS helped it overtake its main rival during the golden age of radio and exactly how this affected the early years of television.Join James Scully — Radio historian and producer/host of Breaking Walls, the docu-podcast on the history of U.S. network radio broadcasting for the second part of this two-part series that explores the events surrounding the CBS Talent Raids of 1948, and the many men and women who benefited from this monumental period in entertainment.In Part Two: Early Network Television, we'll focus on the rise of TV throughout the 1940s and early 1950s as the CBS Talent Raids took hold, including:• From Farnsworth to the 1939 World’s Fair — Early TV History and How World War II slowed TV’s oncoming growth• How NBC, CBS, and ABC Launched into TV while siphoning radio profits into their TV networks• The Dumont Network and Pro Rasslin’ — Could the network have lasted longer?• Berle, Godfrey, Sullivan and The TV ratings landscape as we enter the 1950• I Love Lucy Launches, forever altering Television viewing• How Television’s explosive growth in the early 1950s changed America’s way of life• TV’s profits are radio’s lossesAfterward, I’ll do a Q&A — any and all questions are welcomed and encouraged!Can't attend live? Not to worry! I'll be recording the event and sending the video out to all guests who register so you can watch it later. See you (virtually) there!
This episode was originally released on 3/1/2019. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.____________In Breaking Walls episode 89, we explore the birth of the dramatic radio western show, specifically targeted to adult audiences. This is the first of a three-part mini-series on adult western radio shows.Highlights:• Back to the Very Beginning• What is a Western Show?• The Birth of Western Dramatic Radio Shows• Empire Builders• Death Valley Days• The Western show on local stations • ...And in syndication• Lux Presents Hollywood• The Triumph and Tragedy of Buck Jones• Americana and the Cavalcade of America• Howard McNear and Romance of the Ranchos• The First Western Soap Opera• The War Ends and the Western show grows up• What’s Next?The WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakersThe reading material used in today’s episode was:• On The Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio - by John Dunning• Radio Rides The Range: A Reference Guide to Western Drama on the Air, 1929 - 1967 by Jack French and David S. Siegel• Network Radio Ratings, 1932-1953 - by Jim Ramsburg• Hello Everybody! The Dawn of American Radio by Anthony Rudel &• The Network by Scott WoolleyOn the interview front:• Don Ameche, Joan Fontaine, Hans Conried, Rudy Vallée were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. The full interviews can be heard at GoldenAge-WTIC.org • Agnes Moorehead and Anne Seymour were with Chuck Schaden. Chuck’s interviews from an over 39-year career can be listened to for free at SpeakingofRadio.com• John Dunkel and William N. Robson were with John Hickman for his WAMU program “Recollections.” A modern version of this program is heard each Sunday evening as “The Big Broadcast.” For more information, please go to WAMU.org• Ruth Woodman was with Ida Blackburn in 1961 for KOCO. The full video clip can be seen on the Oklahoma Historical Society's Youtube page - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOnsye8K4SEsY9Ssi8EzzHg• and journalist Robert Bendiner was with Westinghouse for their 1970 50th Anniversary program. Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• The Colorado Trail Opus 28 by Elizabeth Hainen - http://www.elizabethhainen.com• The Last Rose of Summer by Tom Waits• Morning Prayer by Kenneth Little Hawk• All Mortal Flesh Be Silent by Deirdre Fay• Across the Wide Missouri, by Mathias Gohl, Molly Mason, Jay Unger, and Andy Stein• Jefferson and Liberty by John Owen Lardinois• Amazing Grace by Leta Rector• Across the Alley from the Alamo by the Mills BrothersI’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman. Listen to their shows on the Yesterday USA radio network.WallBreakers Links:Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakersSocial Media - @TheWallBreakersURL - thewallbreakers.comOnline Store - jamesthewallbreaker.com/shop/
In Breaking Walls episode 88, we spotlight the 1945-46 season of The Jack Benny Program. This season introduced characters like telephone operators Gertrude and Mabel, press agent Steve Bradley, hot dog vendor Mr. Kitzel, and Ronald and Benita Colman. This season featured guest appearances from Ingrid Bergman, Isaac Stern, Van Johnson, Ray Milland, Peter Lorre, Louella Parsons, Fred Allen, Ed Sullivan and others. It also was the season in which Dennis Day returned from the Navy and one of the most ingenious marketing campaigns in entertainment history took place: The “I Can’t Stand Jack Benny” Contest. Highlights:• Jack’s slipping ratings• Problems with General Foods• Jack changes sponsors• The War ends and a new season begins• Mabel Flapsaddle & Gertrude Gearshift • Steve Bradley and his big ideas• $10,000 and $646,000• Jack gets robbed• The Contest• Mail pours in• The Colmans can’t stand Jack Benny• Jack’s ratings soar• Christmas of 1945 & The Rose Bowl• Fred Allen and the end of the Contest• Isaac Stern• Palm Springs• Van Jackson• Ed Sullivan and the end of the season• King for a DayThe WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakersThe reading material used in today’s episode was:• Sunday Nights at Seven - by Jack and Joan Benny• On The Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio - by John Dunning• Network Radio Ratings, 1932-1953 - by Jim Ramsburg• As well as articles from Radio Life on January 27th and February 3rd, 1946On the interview front:•Jack Benny, Ezra Stone, Kate Smith, Don Wilson, Eliott Lewis, Phil Harris, Frank Nelson and Dennis Day were with Chuck Schaden. Chuck’s interviews from an over 39-year career can be listened to for free at SpeakingofRadio.com• Vincent Price and Mel Blanc were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. The full interviews can be heard at GoldenAge-WTIC.org • Dennis Day was also with John Dunning for his 1980s 71KNUS Radio program from Denver. Some of his interviews can be found at OTRRLibrary.org• And Finally Jack Benny, Dennis Day, Phil Harris, Frank Nelson, Don Wilson and Mel Blanc were also with Jack Carney for his early 1980s Comedy Program. Much of this audio was originally taken from a 1972 PBS Documentary on Great Radio Comedians. Thank you Goodmond Danielson for supplying me with the audio.Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• Love in Bloom by Bing Crosby• It’s Been a Long, Long, Time by the Harry James Orchestra• Chickery Chick by Sammy Kaye with Billy Williams & Nancy Norman• Manhattan Serenade by the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra with Jo Stafford • It Might as Well Be Spring by Larry Stephens• Danny Boy by Dennis Day• Along the Navajo Trail by Bing Crosby and the Andrews SistersWallBreakers Links:Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakersSocial Media - @TheWallBreakersURL - thewallbreakers.comOnline Store - jamesthewallbreaker.com/shop/
This episode was originally released on 1/1/2019. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.____________In Breaking Walls episode 87, we spotlight some New Year’s Day radio programming from the Golden Age of radio, specifically beginning in 1946 after the end of World War II and television's post-war rise.Highlights:• Skelton• Casey Crime Photographer and the Invasion of TV• Radio City Playhouse and Our Miss Brooks• The Railroad Hour and NBC’s Monday Night of Music• Memories from the 1939-40 World’s Fair• On Stage with Mr. and Mrs. Radio• The Greatest Western• Radio Drama’s DemiseThe WallBreakers:thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:patreon.com/TheWallBreakersThe reading material used in today’s episode was:• On The Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio - by John Dunning• Network Radio Ratings, 1932-1953 - by Jim Ramsburg• And Edison Research’s June 2018 Podcast Consumer Statistics www.podcastinsights.com/podcast-statistics/On the interview front:• John Gibson, Tony Marvin and Jan Miner were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. The full interviews can be heard at GoldenAge-WTIC.org• Jack Benny, Harriet Nelson, Elliott Lewis, Eve Arden, and Parley Baer were with Chuck Schaden. His interviews from an over 39-year career can be listened to at SpeakingofRadio.com• Elliott Lewis, E. Jack Neuman, and Eve Arden were with John Dunning for his 1980s 71K Newstalk Radio program from Denver. Some of his interviews can be found at OTRRLibrary.org• Al Lewis was with SPERDVAC’s Larry Gassman in 1998. For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com• And Norman Macdonnell, Bill Conrad, and WIlliam N. Robson were interviewed for a 5-part audio documentary on Gunsmoke in the early 1970s.Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• Voodoo Dreams, and Pyramid of the Sun by Les Baxter• Exotique Bossa Nova by Martin Denny• I’ll Be Seeing You, by Harry James• Auld Lang Syne by the Manhattan Strings• And Catch a Falling Star by Perry Como
Hey everyone, James Scully here. I've got a new webinar on Monday June 16th at 7PM that I'm very excited about on the story behind the CBS Talent Raids of the late 1940s and how it altered the radio landscape just as the TV era began. Here's a link for tickets and more info and if you can't make it live, don't worry I'll be emailing everyone who registers a video of it once it's over — https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-cbs-talent-raids-part-1-the-post-war-radio-era-webinar-tickets-1389789390479?aff=oddtdtcreatorHere's an overview of the webinar below:In the fall of 1948, three of the four major radio networks — ABC, CBS, and NBC — were funneling their soaring radio profits into the burgeoning television side of their businesses. And because all individual U.S. citizens were taxed 77% on all income over $70k (roughly $907k today), big stars of the day like Jack Benny, Bing Crosby, and Freeman Gosden had the idea to incorporate their popular shows as businesses in order to qualify for significant breaks under capital gains tax laws. What happened when the parent company of NBC, the nation's #1 network at the time, refused to make this deal? It's time to uncover how a smart bet by CBS helped it overtake its main rival during the golden age of radio and early television.Join James Scully — Radio historian and producer/host of Breaking Walls, the docu-podcast on the history of U.S. network radio broadcasting for a two-part series that explores the events surrounding the CBS Talent Raids of 1948, and the many men and women who benefited from this monumental period in entertainment.In Part One: Post-War Radio Era, we'll focus on how a tax code and the country's top comedian helped shift Network superiority from NBC to CBS right as the TV era began, including:• An overview of the radio and TV networks in the late 1940s, from how the radio industry grew from wireless telegraphy in the 1910s to one of the largest businesses in the United States• A look at the biggest stars of the day and their programs like Jack Benny, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Eve Arden, and Lucille Ball• Some of the big news stories of that era, including why the United States experienced so much labor turmoil as the baby boomer era began following the end of World War II• A play-by-play of the CBS Talent Raid, including why CBS head William S. Paley happily agreed to these capital gains deals when NBC's David Sarnoff was vehemently opposed; and which yet unknown stars benefited the most• How and why this deal changed the balance of power in the entertainment industry leading into the Television eraAfterward, I’ll do a Q&A — any and all questions are welcomed and encouraged!Can't attend live? Not to worry! I'll be recording the event and sending the video out to all guests who register so you can watch it later. See you (virtually) there!Part 2 on the early Television era will be presented at a later date.
This episode was originally released on 12/1/2018. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.____________In Breaking Walls episode 86, we spotlight what was on the air over the US’ major radio networks during December of 1945.Highlights:• The First Peacetime Holiday Season in Five Years Begins• Radio’s Three Main Production Hubs• Macabees• Frank Nelson, Lurene Tuttle, and Mandel Kramer• I Can’t Stand Jack Benny• Soap Operas and Kid’s Shows• NBC Dominates Sunday and Tuesday Nights• Falling Mid-Week Ratings Open the Door for CBS• Victory Bonds and Bing’s Strike• Christmas Draws Closer• Fibber, Molly, Red and Christmas Day• Dinah Shore and Groucho return Christmas Gifts• I Still Can’t Stand Jack Benny• New Year’s Eve• What Comes NextThe WallBreakers:thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:patreon.com/TheWallBreakersThe reading material used in today’s episode was:• On The Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio - by John Dunning• Christmas 1945: The Greatest Celebration in American History - by Matthew Litt• Network Radio Ratings, 1932-1953 - by Jim Ramsburg• The Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Radio - by Christopher H. SterlingAnd several articles from: • The New York Times• Broadcasting Magazine• Radio DailyThe InterviewsChuck Schaden was with:Mel BlancHiman BrownPhil HarrisDanny KayeBarbara LuddyMercedes McCambridgeShirley MitchellFrank NelsonOlan SouleLarry StevensLurene TuttleDon WilsonAll of Chuck’s Interviews can be found at SpeakingofRadio.comDick Bertel and Ed Corcoran were with:Jackson BeckEdgar BergenMel BlancStaats CotsworthHoward DuffJim JordanMandel KramerJan MinerAll of their interviews for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio can be found at GoldenAge-WTIC.orgSPERDVAC was withHarry BartelJack JohnstoneFor more information please go to SPERDVAC.com• Jo Stafford was with Matthew Feinstein for Jo Stafford’s “Ballad of the Blues”• Fran Carlon was with Westinghouse for their 1970 50th Anniversary Production• Bing Crosby was interviewed for Same Time, Same Station in 1972.Selected music featured in today’s episode was• Kay Starr’s The Man With The Bag• Nancy Wilson’s What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?• Bing Crosby’s White Christmas and I’ll Be Home For ChristmasThe clip of CBS’ Cimarron Tavern came courtesy of Jerry Haendiges. Visit his site at OTRsite.com. I’ve been visiting since 2002. Thank you Jerry.I’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman. Listen to their shows on the Yesterday USA radio network.
This episode was originally released on 11/1/2018. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.____________In Breaking Walls episode 85, we spotlight the radio career of Frank Sinatra. We’ll find out how a brash, skinny kid from Hoboken, New Jersey became one of the most popular and influential music artists of the 20th century, selling more than 150 million records worldwide, winning an academy award for Best Supporting Actor, and using radio to launch it all.Highlights:• How Sinatra’s Difficult Birth Affected The Rest of His Life• Growing Up In Hoboken• Not Interested in School, Interested in Singing• WAAT, WNEW, WOR and the Rustic Cabin• The Hoboken Four• Early Hustling• Harry James and Tommy Dorsey• Sinatra’s Popularity Explodes• Going Solo• Success on CBS during World War II• Marriage, Infidelity… and more infidelity• The Havana Conference• Problems with Sponsorship• The Decline Begins• Ava• Losing His Voice• Bottoming Out• The Slow Rise• Maggio and an Oscar• Rocky Fortune• A Reborn SinatraThe WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers The reading material used in tonight’s episode was:• The Encyclopedia of Old Time Radio by John Dunning• Why Sinatra Matters by Pete Hamill• Frank: The Voice by James Kaplan• The Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Radio - by Christopher H. SterlingLots and Lots of interviews in today’s episode:• Frank Sinatra was with: Walter Cronkite in 1965; Johnny Carson in 1976; Arlene Francis in the early 1980s; and Larry King in 1988• Nancy Sinatra was with: Walter Cronkite in 1965 and Larry King in 1995• Chuck Schaden interviewed Ken Carpenter And Carroll Carroll. Both of these conversations were recorded on February 17th, 1975. To listen to many complete interviews Chuck conducted throughout his career, please go to SpeakingofRadio.com• Bob Eberly was with Arnold Dean. Hear that full interview and many others at Goldenage-WTIC.org• Jo Stafford was with Matthew Feinstein for Jo Stafford’s “Ballad of the Blues”• Gary Moore and Andre Baruch spoke to Westinghouse in 1970.• Les Tremayne and Jack Brown were featured from their 1986 history of radio called “Please Stand By”
This episode was originally released on 10/1/2018. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes beginning with this episode on the birth of radio.___________In Breaking Walls Episode 84, it’s the Simple Art of Macabre, to your ears from the mouths of some of the best who ever produced radio’s stuff of nightmares. Highlights:• Why Do We Like To Be Scared? • What pre-dated the radio horror program in the United States of America? • The Witch’s Tale • Cooper, Oboler, and Lights Out • Orson Welles, Himan Brown, and Bill Spier • Macabre Programming during World War II • How Transcription Advanced the radio mystery program • Escape, The Saint, and Vincent Price • ABC and The Clock • Quiet Please and Crime Classics • The Decline of the American audio drama in the 1950s • Attempts at horror revivals • Where we are todayThe WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakersThe reading material used in today’s episode was: • The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio - by John Dunning• The Witch's Tale: Stories of Gothic Horror from the Golden Age of Radio - by Alonzo Dean Cole• The CBS Radio Mystery Theater Handbook by Martin Grams Jr’s and Gordon Payton• Forecast: Is there a Sponsor in a House by Martin Grams Jr.• The Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Radio - by Christopher H. Sterling• Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran’s Golden Age of Radio programs can be found at goldenage-wtic.org • John Dunning’s Interviews can be found through the Old-Time Radio Researcher’s Library at OTRRLibrary.org.• Chuck Schaden’s interviews can be found at his site, SpeakingofRadio.com Selected Music featured in today’s Episode was:• Seance on a Wet Afternoon composed by John Barry and rerecorded by Nic Raine* I’ve Got You Under My Skin - by Frank Sinatra
This episode was originally released on 9/1/2018. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes beginning with this episode on the birth of radio.___________In Breaking Walls Episode 83, we focus the radio industry of the 1930s and 40s—especially on the career of David Sarnoff, as RCA’s network, NBC begins to lose its grip on the top spot in the broadcasting industry while they introduce Television. We’ll also focus on the introduction of new talent to the industry, and the CBS talent raids of 1948-1949.Highlights:• David Sarnoff announces the birth of TV at The 1939 World’s Fair • Edwin Howard Armstrong Invents FM • Television Experiments in the 1920s and 1930s • Sarnoff and Armstrong’s Crumbling Friendship• How World War II Stopped Television’s Commercial Expansion • William S. Paley’s Plan to make CBS the #1 Network • The Rise of Arthur Godfrey • Sarnoff’s Court Battles • The Death of Edwin Howard Armstrong • The CBS Talent Raids of 1948-49 • Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis • The Simple Art of Macabre The WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakersThe reading material used in today’s episode was: • The General: David Sarnoff & The Rise of the Communications Industry - by Kenneth Bilby• The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio - by John Dunning• Empire: William S. Paley & The Making of CBS - by Lewis J. • The Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Radio - by Christopher H. Sterling• The Network - by Scott Wooley• As well as an article on Martin & Lewis from the August 2018 issue of SPERDVAC’s Radiogram, by Michael Hayde Selected Music featured in today’s Episode was:• Mr. Lucky, by Si Zentner• Begin the Beguine, by Artie Shaw and His Orchestra• Seance on a Wet Afternoon, arranged by John Barry
This episode was originally released on 8/1/2018. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.___________In Breaking Walls episode 82 we focus on the state of the radio broadcasting industry in the late 1930s and early 1940s, as Broadcasting booms while the world goes to War. Highlights:• Early days at NBC’s Radio City in New York• How Press Associations caused NBC and CBS to launch a news service• The Birth of the Mutual Broadcasting System and their Struggles• NBC Red and NBC Blue• The FCC and US Justice Department Get Involved with Radio• The Murrow Boys and Encroaching War in Europe• The War Comes Home• NBC sells The Blue Network• Norman Corwin and His World War II Work• Bing Crosby, Philco Radios, and Network Transcription• The Talent Raids of 1949The WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakersThe reading material used in today’s episode was: • The General: David Sarnoff & The Rise of the Communications Industry - by Kenneth Bilby• The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio - by John Dunning• Beating The Odds: The Untold Story Behind the Rise of ABC - by Leonard H. Goldenson with Marvin J. Wolf• Empire: William S. Paley & The Making of CBS - by Lewis J. Paper• The Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Radio - by Christopher H. SterlingAs well as four articles from the archives of TIME Magazine:• HAPPY BIRTHDAY MBS - September 15, 1941• Old Law v. New Thing - January 12, 1942• Black & Blue - January 11, 1943• Network Without Ulcers - April 21, 1947Norman Corwin was with Chuck Schaden on August 8th, 1976. You can stream this interview and many others for free on Chuck’s site, Speakingofradio.com Selected Music featured in today’s Episode was:• Rudy Vallee - Brother Can You Spare A Dime• Jaqueline Schwab - The Minstrel Boy & The Battle Cry for Freedom• Bing Crosby - Blues in the Night & Don’t Fence Me in with The Andrews Sisters
This episode was originally released on 7/1/2018. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.___________In Breaking Walls episode 81, we spotlight the life and career of one of the twentieth century’s most famous comedians, Fred Allen. Amongst other comedians and entertainers, almost no one was beloved as much as him. His comedic feud with Jack Benny was legendary, as were his battles with network executives and sponsors. Highlights:• John Sullivan is Born in Boston• What growing up in Boston with his aunt was like• How his job at the Boston Public library began his career in show business • Learning to Juggle and Early Amateur Performances• Harry LaToy and how Johnny Sullivan became Fred St. James• Freddie James: The World’s Worst Juggler• Becoming Fred Allen and going on Broadway• Allen’s Radio Birth—Bath Towels, Laxatives, and Mayonnaise• Town Hall Tonight is Born• Jack Benny—The Feud of the Century• Mr. Ramshaw— an Eagle on the loose• Changing networks• Texaco and Problems with NBC• King for a Day• Bowing out gracefully• Fred Allen: Memoirist • What’s my Line?• Final DaysThe reading material used in today’s episode was: • The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio by John Dunning• Treadmill to Oblivion & Much Ado About Me … both by Fred AllenSelected Music featured in today’s Episode was:• Swingin’ on a Star by Bing Crosby • Over There recorded live by George M. Cohan• Auld Lang Syne by Guy Lombardo
This episode was originally released on 6/1/2018. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.___________Question? What do starlets Marlene Dietrich, Kay Thompson, Margaret Sullivan, and Loretta Young have in common? How about writers and directors Norman Corwin, Helen Deutsch, and Bill Spier. How about Danny Kaye, Mel Allen, Gerald Mohr, Elliot Lewis, Byron Kane, Lurene Tuttle, Paula Winslowe, Joseph Kearns, and Arthur Q. Bryan?Answer: They guest-starred, grew, or launched their careers on CBS’s Forecast! Forecast was a summer replacement series for the Lux Radio Theatre which ran for two seasons in 1940 and 1941. It ushered in an era of show pilots for public viewing and helped give rise to countless actors, writers, and directors, as well as two huge shows: Suspense & Duffy’s Tavern. On Breaking Walls Episode 80, we present an in-depth look at Forecast featuring interviews, insights, and episode moments.Highlights:• Why would Forecast have come to the airwaves in the first place?• Hear CBS head William S. Paley’s insights on programming• How Alfred Hitchcock helped launch the famed mystery show, Suspense• Bill Spier: Music critic, turned producer and director of mystery• How Elliott Lewis got his start on Forecast• Mel Allen & Duffy’s Tavern: Where the Elite Meet To Eat• Norman Corwin’s Two pieces for Forecast that helped catapult his career• How radio actor Byron Kane got his first role on Forecast• Jim Backus & the Class of 1941* Hopalong Cassidy• The Country Lawyer: One of the most experimental radio broadcasts of its time• An all african-american jubilee to close ForecastThe WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.Featured in today’s episode were interviews with:• Bill Spier and Mel Allen for Dick Bertel & Ed Corcoran’s WTIC Golden Age of Radio program, who’s episodes can be found at GoldenAge-Wtic.org • Elliott Lewis and Byron Kane, for the Society to Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety, and Comedy, which can be found at SPERDVAC.com• and Jim Backus and Norman Corwin with Chuck Schaden, who’s interviews can be streamed for free at SpeakingofRadio.com. Norman Corwin was also interviewed by Michael James Kacey for his DVD The Poet Laureate of Radio: An Interview with Norman Corwin, which you can pick up on Amazon. Selected Music featured in today’s Episode was:• My Blue Heaven by Glenn Miller• Begin the Beguine & Stardust by Artie Shaw• Alcolba Azul, by Elliot GoldenthalThe Battle Cry for Freedom by Jaqueline Schwab for the Civil War, by Ken BurnsFalling played by Michael Silvermann• Catch a Falling Star, by Perry Como
This episode was originally released on 5/1/2018. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.___________In Breaking Walls Episode 79, we present a detailed look at Orson Welles’ radio career through the end of 1941. Highlights:• Beginnings in Illinois and China — How they helped shape Orson• The Todd Seminary School — His first exposure to theater and Radio• Connections and Early Breaks — How his mentor Roger Hill, Thornton Wilder, Alexander Woollcott, and Katharine Cornell helped Orson get to Broadway• Orson meets John Houseman and Archibald MacLeish, and first appears on the March of Time• 1935-1937 — From the March of Time to the Columbia Workshop, and how Irvin Reis taught Orson how to create for radio • How the US Government shaped the opportunity for Orson to write, direct, and star in Les Misérables on the Mutual Broadcasting System in 1937 • The Shadow Knows! — Agnes Moorehead and Orson Welles’ one season on The Shadow• The birth of the Mercury Theater on the Air as First Person singular. • How it’s success led to the most infamous night in radio in October of 1938• Mainstream success with Campbell’s Soups• Orson goes to Hollywood, and signs the greatest autonomous film contract in history at 24• Citizen Kane — How William Randolph Hearst and RKO shaped the film• Lady Esther Presents — Orson comes back to radio in the autumn of 1941• Pearl Harbor Day and collaborating with Norman Corwin• Joseph Cotton introduces Orson to Rita HayworthThe WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakersThe reading material used in today’s episode was: • Citizen Welles: A Biography of Orson Welles by Frank Brady• This is Orson Welles by Welles and Peter Bogdanovich• The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio by John Dunning• Discovering Orson Welles by Jonathan RosenbaumOther materials included:• http://www.wellesnet.com - an incredibly comprehensive website on Orson’s career• Orson Welles on the Air, 1938-1946 at https://orsonwelles.indiana.edu• The Radio Preservation Task Force also has a great Facebook group headed by Josh ShepperdSelected Interviews in this episode were:• Orson Welles with Dick Cavett, Johnny Carson, and Huw Wheldon, • Agnes Moorehead and Alan Reed were with radio Hall of Fame Member Chuck Schaden, who interviewed over 200 members of the radio community during his 39 year career. Chuck’s interviews can be streamed for free at SpeakingofRadio.com.• William Robson was with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio in January of 1976 and Kenny Delmare was with John Dunning in 1983. Those interviews can be found at the Old Time Radio Researcher’s Group at Otrrlibrary.org • William Herz was with Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman in 2013 for their program on the Yesterday USA Radio Network, which you can visit at http://www.yesterdayusa.com.
This episode was originally released on 3/1/2018. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes beginning with this episode on the birth of radio.——————————In Breaking Walls Episode 77 we pick up our story on the history of American radio broadcasting, as a few ramshackle radio stations become large national networks, giving rise to an entire generation of entertainment giants during the roaring 1920s.Highlights:• July 2, 1921— Jack Dempsey defends his heavyweight boxing title in front of 80,000 fans as RCA broadcasts the event Closed Circuit to over 300,000 fans. Its the first broadcast of its kind.• The Radio Craze begins as almost 600 stations sign on in 1922• Herbert Hoover tries to better organize the radio dial and put small stations out of business• AT&T’s attempt to monopolize radio broadcasting• The formation of the National Broadcasting Company• The Radio Act of 1927• William S. Paley buys The Columbia Broadcasting System and turns it into a 2nd major network• Rudy Vallee becomes radio’s first mega-star• Chicago becomes radio’s 2nd capital• Hollywood's radio recording rise in the late 1930s• The Mutual Broadcasting System is formed—The Shadow debuts• War, once again, comes to EuropeThe reading material for today’s episode was:• The Rise of Radio, From Marconi through The Golden Age by Alfred Balk• Inventing American Broadcasting 1899-1922 by Susan J. Douglas• The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio by John Dunning• A Pictorial History of Radio’s First 75 Years by B. Eric Rhoads• Hello Everybody! The Dawn of American Radio by Anthony Rudel &• The Network by Scott WoolleyFeatured on today’s show were interviews conducted by Dick Bertel and the late Ed Corcoran and numerous others for Westinghouse, CBS, and NBC.Harold Arlin’s was interviewed by author J. Fred McDonald for his book Don’t Touch That Dial.
This episode was originally released on 2/15/2018. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.——————————In Breaking Walls Episode 76, we pick up our story on the history of American dramatic radio after the sinking of the Titanic in April of 1912. The time between 1912 and 1922 saw three competing interests battle for control of the wireless airwaves as wireless telegraphy transitioned into radio broadcasting. These three interests were big private business, individual HAM radio operators, and the US Government.Highlights:• How the Titanic’s Sinking changed Guglielmo Marconi’s business• The Radio Act of 1912 - What it portended• Charles Herrold and KCBS San Francisco• Lee Deforest sells out to AT&T• Edwin Howard Armstrong invents regeneration, and later the superheterodyne receiver• War comes to Europe• The Navy takes over wireless• How World War I caused radio technology to boom• AT&T, Westinghouse, General Electric, and the newly formed RCA make a deal• David Sarnoff’s Rise to power• KDKA and the birth of regular broadcasting• Todays’ introduction music of Metamorphosis No. 2 was arranged for harp and vibraphone by David DePeters and played by Elizabeth Hainen. You can pick up her album, Home: Works for Solo Harp on iTunes and Amazon, and listen on Spotify and Pandora. Her website is ElizabethHainen.com and she is on youtube @ElizabethhainenharpThe WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakersThe reading material for today’s episode was:• Inventing American Broadcasting 1899-1922 by Susan J. Douglas• Empire of the Air by Tom Lewis• A Pictorial History of Radio’s First 75 Years by B. Eric Rhoads• Hello Everybody! The Dawn of American Radio by Anthony Rudel• The Network by Scott Woolley
This episode was originally released on 2/1/2018. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes beginning with this episode on the birth of radio. ——————————Highlights: Why the Blizzard of 1888 played such an important role in the need for wireless telegraphy Who Was Heinrich Hertz? What experiment made him the father of Hertzian Waves? What Oliver Lodge, Nikola Tesla, Alexander Graham Bell, and Amos DollBear have in common Guglielmo Marconi, father of radio? The benefits to wireless telegraphy David Sarnoff — His start between 1900 - 1906 Why the press want to get involved Lee Deforest — Inventor, Fraud, or both? What incredibly important event happened in December of 1901 in New Foundland Why the American Government wanted to regulate wireless telegraphy Reginald Fessenden, Christmas Eve, Oh Holy Night, and Brant Rock The Titanic Disaster — How it changed wireless telegraphy forever The Radio Box Memo What’s next?——————————The WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————A tremendous thank you to today’s cast:Samantha De GraciaOlga LysenkoJustin PeeleNancy PopFernando SanabriaWilliam Schallert &John Stephenson——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:• Inventing American Broadcasting 1899-1922 by Susan J. Douglas• Empire of the Air by Tom Lewis• A Pictorial History of Radio’s First 75 Years by B. Eric Rhoads• Hello Everybody! The Dawn of American Radio by Anthony Rudel &• The Network by Scott Woolley——————————The interview clips in today’s open:• Chuck Schaden, who’s interviews can be found at http://www.speakingofradio.com and• Dick Bertel and the late Ed Corcoran’s Golden Age of Radio program that ran on Hartford, CT’s WTIC in the 1970s, who’s interviews can be found at http://otrrlibrary.org——————————Todays’ introduction music of Clair de lune was arranged for harp and vibraphone by David DePeters and played by Elizabeth Hainen. You can pick up her album, Home: Works for Solo Harp on iTunes and Amazon, and listen on Spotify and Pandora. Her website is ElizabethHainen.com and she is on youtube @Elizabethhainenharp——————————I’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman of SPERDVAC - http://sperdvac.com/That thank you also extends to the late Les Tremayne and late Jack Brown for their wonderful 1986 documentary series, Please Stand By: A History of Radio.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersThe February 17th, 1950 episode of Broadway is My Beat took Danny Clover to Greenwich Village. By the early 1950s, the sound effects men working in radio had begun to refine their craft to a fine art. In September of 1987 Jack Kruschen and Shirley Mitchell were guests of Jim Bohannon on his radio show. They remembered some of those men.The actor playing Camden Drake was Elliot Reid. Here he is speaking with Frank Bresee. Featured in this cast was Virginia Gregg. By 1950, she was one of the most versatile actresses on the air.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersThe February 10th, 1950 episode of Broadway Is My Beat took Danny Clover to the wrestling matches in search of a missing woman. At that time New York City’s top wrestling promoter was Roderick James "Jess" McMahon. The patriarch of the McMahon wrestling family, Jess McMahon spent several decades as a sports promoter of all kinds, including professional wrestling matchmaking at Madison Square Garden.Featured in this episode was Lawrence Dobkin. Years later, he remembered how he got into radio. Another famous featured character actor was Virginia Gregg.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersAs Broadway Is My Beat was taking to the air on February 3rd, 1950, snow was on the ground. Three inches had fallen on the 1st.That Friday, nuclear physicist Klaus Fuchs was arrested by agents of Scotland Yard. He was charged with providing American atomic bomb secrets to the Soviet Union. The next day, U.S. Army Lieutenant General Leslie R. Groves testified before a joint congressional committee that, as a result of the secrets Fuchs gave the U.S.S.R., the Soviets had begun development of both atomic and hydrogen bombs.At the Cort Theatre In New York, Katharine Hepburn was starring in a production of Shakespeare’s comedy, As You Like It. Located at 138 West 48th Street, The Cort was renamed the James Earl Jones theatre in 2022. Meanwhile The New York Daily News cover showed Ingrid Bergman, who’d just given birth to her son Robin Rossellini. The child was born out of wedlock. She filed for divorce from husband Dr. Peter Lindstrom, and shortly thereafter Stromboli premiered in American theaters. It was accompanied by a great deal of controversy from the affair between Bergman and director Roberto Rossellini. The pair would marry on May 24th, 1950. The biggest international news was coming out of England where a general election was to be held on January 23rd. With that in mind, Elmo Roper took to the air on CBS’ The People Speak with more information.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersIn November of 1949 Broadway is My Beat returned to the air on Saturday evenings. It remained there until late January of 1950. The show couldn’t find national sponsorship, though companies like Ford were buying single episode sponsorship to promote their products. Beginning with the February 3rd, 1950 episode called “The Lieutenant Jimmy Hunt Murder Case,” the show moved to Friday evenings at 9:30PM eastern time. Featured in this episode was Jeanette Nolan. She and her husband John McIntire were longtime friends of both Lewis and his second wife Mary Jane Croft.Broadway is my Beat featured some of the best hollywood radio talent like Barney Phillips, Virginia Gregg, Tony Barrett, Herb Butterfield, Betty Lou Gerson, Hy Averback, Cathy Lewis, Harry Bartell, Lawrence Dobkin, Mary Jane Croft, and Herb Vigran. Years later, Jack Kruschen remembered how many of them, including himself, often played more than one part on radio shows.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersNetwork radio opened 1949 fresh off its fourteenth consecutive year of record earnings. Total network revenue exceeded Two-hundred-ten million dollars.Broadway Is My Beat first took to the air over CBS from New York on February 27th, 1949, It starred Anthony Ross and was directed by John Dietz. Dietz was a prolific radio man in the 1940s. He helped get Suspense off the ground and had success with New York-based shows like Casey, Crime Photographer. Early CBS press material for the show told how “as a kid, Danny Clover sold papers and shined shoes along the Great White Way. He later walked the beat as a policeman and knows everything along Broadway—from pan handler to operatic prima donna—but he’s still sentimental. The street is forever a wonderland of glamor to him.”CBS was in the middle of the “Packaged Program Initiative.” When head of CBS William Paley returned from World War II in 1946, he saw his network behind NBC in ratings, revenue, and star power. Paley decided to greenlight and cost-sustain shows in order to develop hits not controlled by advertising agencies. The gamble paid off. By February of 1949 CBS had found success with sitcoms like My Friend Irma and Our Miss Brooks. The network was also using capital gains tax laws to sign production deals with stars like Jack Benny, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Red Skelton, and Bing Crosby. For a deep dive on this, please tune into Breaking Walls episodes 108 through 112.Meanwhile, after fifteen weeks Broadway is My Beat was floundering. CBS was going to pull the plug at the end of May when NBC found its first post-talent raid hit. A new police procedural, Dragnet, launched on June 3rd, 1949. The brainchild of Jack Webb, it was unlike anything heard on the air at that point.CBS brass decided to move Broadway is My Beat’s production to Hollywood. Elliott Lewis was by then starring as Frankie Remley on The Phil Harris and Alice Faye Show and helping to edit scripts for Bill Spier on Suspense. With the urging of men like Spier and Bill Robson, Lewis was given the chance to direct the newly migrated series. He was born in Manhattan on November 28th, 1917. He told Radio Life, “You should hear the city constantly. Even the people in New York are noisy.” Three soundmen were often needed to re-create that New York flavor. Lewis immediately tabbed Morton Fine and David Friedkin to write the series. Here’s Morton Fine.Lewis’ first episode came on Thursday, July 7th, 1949 when the repackaged Broadway is My Beat debuted as a summer replacement for The FBI In Peace And War. Larry Thor would star as Danny Clover. The change in tenor was immediately evident. Rounding out the regular cast was Charles Calvert as Tartaglia and Jack Kruschen doubling as both Sergeant Muggavan and Doctor Sinski. The last episode of the seven week summer run was “The Val Dane Case,” airing on August 25th, 1949. By then the show had begun to hit its stride. Broadway is My Beat stretched for the poetic metaphor and if the tone was sometimes heavy and wordy, the scenes were gritty, and the crimes were less-than-glamorous. After the initial summer run, the CBS network executives were happy with Elliott Lewis’ work and decided to bring the show back in the fall.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersWell we’ve reached the end of our look at Yours Truly Johnny Dollar and New York City in January of 1956. It would be impossible to tell a complete story on either subject within one episode. For more info on the history of Yours Truly Johnny Dollar, please tune into Breaking Walls episode 102. As far as New York City goes, don’t worry we’ll be staying right here in the next episode of Breaking Walls.Next time on Breaking Walls, it’s February of 1950 and we’re following detective Danny Clover on his beat, from Times Square to Columbus Circle. It’s the gaudiest, the most violent, the lonesomest mile in the world.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersDespite a loyal audience, by January of 1956 it was clear that Yours Truly Johnny Dollar was failing to attract any kind of national sponsorship. The road to would have been difficult. Airing at 8:15PM weeknights on CBS radio, it was up against CBS’s own TV schedule, with Burns and Allen broadcast at 8PM eastern time on Mondays, The Phil Silvers Show on Tuesdays, Arthur Godfrey on Wednesdays, The Bob Cummings Show on Thursdays, and Mama on Fridays. The serial format was great for character development, but it also meant audiences needed to tune into all five parts to know what was going on. In April of 1956 Yours Truly Johnny Dollar was shifted to 9:15PM. By the summer CBS radio executives were looking to cut costs. Bob Bailey’s daughter Roberta remembered that time. CBS aired these five-part episodes until November 2nd, 1956. The show moved to Sunday afternoons where it enjoyed continuous airtime in a half-hour time slot. Bob Bailey became the actor most closely associated with the Dollar character, keeping the title role until November of 1960. It was then that CBS decided to move all remaining dramatic productions with the exception of Gunsmoke to New York. Neither Jack Johnstone or Bob Bailey would move with the production. The last Hollywood episode was appropriately entitled “The Empty Threat Matter.” It aired on November 27th, 1960. The trade papers made no mention of the production change. On December 4th, 1960, New York’s version of Yours Truly Johnny Dollar took to the air starring Bob Readick, son of New York radio legend Frank Readick. Former show director Jack Johnstone continued to write scripts, but Bob Readick had the unenviable task of following Bailey, who played Dollar in almost five-hundred episodes. Readick was replaced after just six months as of June 25th, 1961 by the final Johnny Dollar, Mandel Kramer. For Bob Bailey, the end of Dollar meant the end of his radio career.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersLawrence Dobkin played several roles in “The Todd Matter,” including Bill Powers. He was a longtime member of AFRA.Roberta Bailey-Goodwin remembered many of the actors that appeared with her father on Johnny Dollar.Although not in this particular Dollar episode, Virginia Gregg was an oft-featured character actress and close friend of the Bailey family. Shirley Mitchell, by then a radio legend, voiced Melva Charles.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersProduction was done for these serial episodes of Yours Truly Johnny Dollar in a single day. Bob Bailey was paid three-hundred-dollars per week. Adjusted for inflation, a single week’s work on Dollar paid a little less than thirty-five-hundred dollars.Between October of 1955 and November of 1956, fifty-five serials would air. To pen these scripts, Jack Johnstone tapped into his old writing mainstays.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersIt’s 6PM on Wednesday, January 11th, 1956. I’m at Colbee’s Restaurant on the ground floor of the CBS headquarters at 485 Madison Avenue. I’m about to have a bite to eat with the man you just heard, Mandel Kramer. Yesterday at Edwards Air Force Base in California, U.S. Air Force First Lt. Barty R. Brooks died in the crash of a F-100 Super Sabre. The accident was caught on film.Word from Memphis is that young singer Elvis Presley recorded a new song called “Heartbreak Hotel.”Today’s cover of The New York Daily News shows Grace Kelly in Monaco, but the interior pages talk about the rising problems in Vietnam. South Vietnam President Ngô Đình Diệm issued an ordinance giving his government almost unchecked power to deal with any opposition.Meanwhile, the Soviet Union has approved technical specifications for an R-13 submarine-launched missile.And earlier today, The 1956 Chevrolet Corvette was announced. It’ll cost three-thousand-one-hundred-twenty dollars. It features a new body, convertible top, optional power steering, optional hardtop, and rollup glass windows. The V6 option has been dropped in favor of either a two-hundred-ten or two-hundred-twenty horsepower V8 Engine. A 3-speed manual transmission is now standard.The main national news is the debate on whether or not President Dwight D. Eisenhower will seek a second term. After suffering a heart attack in September of 1955 Ike is still undeclared, meeting with an array of doctors to gauge whether the rigors of running for reelection will cause undue health issues. The United Press reported on Tuesday the 10th that sixty percent of the more than four hundred doctors polled felt that Dwight would be able to serve. Perhaps some insight into Ike’s psyche was gleaned when on Monday, January 9th, he once again took over full White House duties, including naming Bernard M. Shanley Appointments Secretary.Meanwhile, on NBC radio, Keys To The Capital is airing.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersThe man you just heard is Hans Conried. Famous for both his dramatic and comedic portrayals on both radio and TV, By January of 1956 he’d been involved in radio for two decades. Here he is on the February 24th, 1956 episode of Yours Truly Johnny Dollar.By early 1956, those still involved in dramatic radio had advanced the medium’s production to a high art. Most radio drama still remaining was by then based in Hollywood, with much of the news programming based in New York.For Roberta Bailey-Goodwin, then a teenager, accompanying her father to weekly recordings was a family ritual and she got a firsthand look at the artists plying their craft. “The Todd Matter” was written by E. Jack Neuman under the pen name of John Dawson. Gloria Tierney's landlady, Ethel Stromberg, was voiced by Vivi Janiss. The surname Stromberg has multiple origins. In Swedish “strom” means river, while “berg” means mountain. In Germany it's a habitational name from places like Rhineland and means “flat mountain.” Barbara Fuller was Gloria Tierney. Frank Gerstle played Dan Mapes. Marvin Miller, famed for both announcing and acting, also played a small role in “The Todd Matter.”
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersThe weather on Monday January 9th, 1956 warmed throughout the day. It hit forty degrees Fahrenheit by nightfall. The front cover of The New York Daily News featured a photo of patrolman Ray Cusack, who rescued many children from a fire in Hempstead, New York. Dwight Eisenhower was still undecided on whether or not to seek a second term, while Democrat hopeful Adlai Stevenson claimed Ike’s recent State of the Union Address was merely a veiled State on the Republican party.Meanwhile the families of both US diplomats and UN officials fled from the Jordanian sector of Jerusalem after violent anti-western riots broke out for the second day in a row. If you turned on your radio at 8:15PM eastern time, you’d have heard a Boston Symphony concert on NBC, and Metropolitan Opera auditions on ABC. WOR aired True Detective, but if you wanted the best in radio detective fiction you’d have turned on CBS, where Bob Bailey was starring in Jack Johnstone’s production of Yours Truly Johnny Dollar, written by E. Jack Neuman. The prison where Vance served time is Sing Sing, originally opening in Ossining, New York in 1825. Among the executions in their electric chair were Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, on June 19th, 1953, for Soviet espionage.A good mink coat cost about twenty-five-hundred dollars in 1956. Both Orin Vance and Don Freed were voiced by Lawrence Dobkin. By 1956 Dobkin was a radio legend with experience in both New York and Hollywood.The Westin Hotel Chain was launched in 1930 by Severt W. Thurston and Frank Dupar as Western Hotels. They were the first hotel chain to introduce credit cards in 1946. Today the chain, called Westin since 1981, is owned and operated by Mariott. There are Westin Hotels in both the Times Square and Grand Central area. In January of 1956, 57th street was home to various art exhibitions like Kay Sage’s surrealist paintings at the Catherine Viviano gallery, a contemporary Greek Art exhibition at Sagittarius gallery, a European group show at the Matisse gallery, and art and artifacts of various Central African tribes at 57th and Lexington. The Sutton theater, also on 57th street, was showing The Night My Number Came Up starring Michael Redgrave and Sheila Sim. Gloria Tierney’s fictional apartment at 1231 East 57th is an impossibility. The address would put it in the East River.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersIt’s a little after midnight on the morning of Monday January 9th. We’re at P.J. Clarke’s on the corner of 55th street and 3rd avenue, getting warm the best way we know how. The weather is nasty outside. It’s about fifteen degrees with freezing rain and gale force winds. Clarke’s is a bar from another time. It’s wonderfully trapped in nostalgia—all burnished wood and chased mirrors. Orson Welles is opening King Lear at The City Center to good reviews. The years in Europe did him well, but he’s happy to be back in New York. Welles is in the back with none other than Frank Sinatra. They’ve known each other since the 1930s, and since they both missed each other’s fortieth birthdays last year, we’re celebrating. Joining us is Jilly Rizzo and Bill Stern. The next round of drinks is on me. That’s Daniel Levazzo. He bought the bar from the Clarke family a few years ago. Hey Dan, three Jacks straight up, a negroni for Orson, and I’ll have Hendricks on the rocks. You want something? Hey Dan, let me borrow your phone, I’ve got to file my story. Hello Operator, give me CBS at 485 Madison Avenue please. (Beat) Yes I know what time it is. I’m a producer there. (Beat) Put me through. (Beat) Thank you.Some things never change.Hello Cindy, it's Scully. Is Ed Murrow still there? (Beat) Could you put me through to him? (Beat) Thank you. (Beat) Hey Ed, It’s James Scully. I’m glad I caught you. Bill Paley’s got you burning the midnight oil huh? (Beat) I did. Orson was good. I’m a P.J. Clarke’s with him and Sinatra right now. Bill Stern’s here too. You want to swing by? I’ll get Dan Levazzo to break out the moonshine. (Beat) With those two? We’ll be here a while. (Beat) Ha! Ok I’ll see you soon. Ed Murrow’s a good man. The gang will be happy to see him. Dan, Do me a favor, turn the TV up for a second. The Tonight Show with Steve Allen is just finishing on NBC-TV and there’s a little news item on the tube before programming signs off. Everyone is talking about Grace Kelly’s engagement to Prince Rainier III of Monaco. It was announced in Philadelphia on January 5th and their party is going to be at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel here in New York. Grace and Rainier went their separate ways on Saturday. She’s going back to Hollywood to keep working on High Society. The only thing is, one of her co-stars is Sinatra, and he’ll be in no mood to fly to the coast tomorrow. That’s not the only talk of love and marriage going on around New York City. Look at that Sunday Daily News cover. Heiress Juliette Wehle stood up her husband-to-be on their wedding day. She supposedly slipped away at 2AM wearing just a negligee to elope with another man. Don’t worry, it’s not a roving producer from CBS. The twenty-year-old heiress later returned home, unmarried.Excuse me, I’m missing out on the fun. Oh, before I go, I should say that the story of a woman jilting one man for another is ironically a centerpiece in the upcoming plot within Yours Truly Johnny Dollar’s “The Todd Matter.” The first episode will air later tonight at 8:15PM over CBS radio. And remember, it stars Bob Bailey.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersIt’s a cold, rainy Sunday evening on January 8th, 1956. We’re heading south on Riverside Drive in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. On the air is NBC’s Monitor with a New World Today discussion about the differences in American life in the past twenty years. The United States is changing. Psychiatry is on the rise as the cold war rages onward. The internal Red Scare has subsided, but Secretary of State John Foster Dulles said this week that the U.S. won’t stop testing nuclear weapons, despite pleas from Pope Pius XII on Christmas Day. While nuclear fears are understandable, the U.S. government thinks the USSR’s presence in emerging nations means they can’t be trusted to follow suit and stop their own testing. In Ecuador today, five evangelical American Christian missionaries were speared to death by members of the Huaorani people after attempting to introduce Christianity to them.Meanwhile, Algeria is in the midst of a war for Independence between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front. It began in November of 1954 and by now it’s considered the world’s only active war of note. It’s a complex conflict characterized by guerrilla warfare and the use of torture. Gunsmoke is far and away radio’s highest-rated dramatic show. It airs on CBS Sunday evenings with a Saturday afternoon repeat broadcast. The combined rating of 6.5 means somewhere between six and seven million people are still tuning in from their homes. When factoring in car and transistor radios, nearly ten million people are listening. CBS remains the home for the top-rated prime-time shows. Our Miss Brooks is pulling a rating of 4.3, and both Edgar Bergen and Two For The Money are pulling a 3.9. Meanwhile, on daytime radio, CBS has the twelve highest-rated programs.So where am I heading? I’m a roving CBS producer. I’ve worked on both coasts, including with Norman MacDonell on Gunsmoke in Hollywood, but last year programming directors Guy Della Choppa and Howard Barnes sent me back home to New York.I’m heading to the City Center at 131 West 55th street. I’m to cover a preview of Shakespeare’s King Lear starring Orson Welles. It features Viveca Lindfors and Geraldine Fitzgerald and begins at 8:30PM. I helped with Welles’ Omnibus production of Lear on CBS-TV in October 1953. I had drinks with him last week. He kept raving about two things: Carl Perkins’ new hit, “Blue Suede Shoes,” and friend Jack Johnstone’s production of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. Johnstone directed Welles’ Almanac series from the west coast during World War II. I phoned Jack yesterday. He had this to say.Jack was sure to mention that this week’s upcoming Dollar story would take place in New York. If all goes well, Orson might be interested in returning to network radio in some capacity. Welles is once again a father. His daughter Beatrice was born last November 13th. He’s been looking for more stable projects and wants to get dinner after the performance. Lear doesn’t officially open until Thursday the 12th. The City Center was built as The Mecca Temple and opened in 1923. It’s part of a small section of galleries, apartments, and performing spaces, but development is possibly encroaching. Last April, The Mayor's Slum Clearance Committee, chaired by Robert Moses, was approved to designate the area just west in Lincoln Square for urban renewal. The residents, many of them Hispanic, have been protesting the decision, but Robert Moses usually gets his way.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersAt a CBS radio meeting in September 1955 at 485 Madison Avenue, John Karole VP of Sales, predicted CBS’s time sold would be more than the other three networks combined. Radio affiliates were given a Segmented Selling Plan. The plan offered a five-minute segment for twenty-one hundred dollars. Frank Stanton, President of CBS, boasted that since the birth of radio advertising, more than eight billion dollars had been spent on commercials. Network radio advertising in 1955 was up and year-over-year revenue would finish four million dollars ahead of 1954, but privately, many of the local stations grumbled. CBS had recently instituted income-slashing one-year contracts and added a standard six-month cancellation clause, while cutting compensation by twenty percent. Eight million new radios were manufactured in 1955—forty-five percent more the previous year. Car radios were now standard and transistor sets were on the rise. It was estimated that mobile listening added anywhere from thirty to seventy percent to overall radio ratings.On-the-go ratings polls were still rudimentary, but Richard M. Mall in The Journal of Broadcasting speculated that the days of families listening together in the parlor were over. Five-minute newscasts now dominate the tops of most hours. CBS was selling news advertising at its highest rate in history and New York was CBS’ major news hub. CBS announced new evening radio programs with name-brand talent and The $64,000 Question would now be simulcast on both radio and TV. They were also increasing dramatic production. This included two evening strips at 8PM that would air five nights per week for fifteen minutes each night. One was a reboot of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. It was to star Gerald Mohr, who had just finished a successful run as Christopher Storm on TV’s Foreign Intrigue. Mohr recorded an audition on August 29th, 1955. Veteran radio director Jack Johnstone was brought in, but Mohr didn’t take the part. New auditions were held the next month. Each actor had twenty minutes to pitch themselves and audition with actress Lillian Buyeff. Amongst those who read were radio mainstays Paul Dubev, Larry Thor, Jack Moyes, Tony Barrett, Vic Perrin, and the man they selected, Bob Bailey. The rebooted Yours Truly Johnny Dollar debuted over CBS airwaves at 8:15PM eastern time on October 3rd, 1955. The new format offered seventy-five minutes of weekly time, allowing tremendous character development. It wasn’t long before letters were pouring into CBS.While the CBS sales team looked for national sponsorship, in early 1956 a new case took Johnny Dollar to New York City. Dollar would be in town between January 9th and 13th. Tonight, we’ll focus on Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, stolen goods, and what was happening in New York that week in January, 1956.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersOn the Sunday, December 31st, 1944 episode of The Jack Benny Program, it’s New Year’s Eve and Jack resolves to be friends with Fred Allen in 1945.For more information on Jack Benny in 1944, including how and why he changed sponsors, please tune into Breaking Walls Episode 151 which covers Benny’s 1944 in great detail.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersAt 9PM on Monday, December 25th, 1944, The Whistler, broadcast from KNX, went on the air over CBS’ regional West Coast Network.The Whistler’s narration acted as a modern version of the Greek chorus, omnisciently taunting the characters. The narrator proved so popular that it was adapted into eight film noirs by Columbia Pictures between 1944 and 1948.Whistler radio dramas were usually told through the perspective of the guilty person. His or her guilt is never in doubt, and there’s always a strange twist at the end. Since it was Christmas Night, this episode “Christmas Bonus,” instead has a positive twist at the end for the main character.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersThe General Mills sponsored Lone Ranger from WXYZ in Detroit first began airing on January 31st, 1933. The next year it became one of the cornerstone programs which led to the formation of the Mutual Broadcasting System. The show moved to the Blue Network in 1942 and would remain on the network after it became ABC in 1945. The Christmas Day, 1944 episode was entitled, “A Present for Janey.”
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersAt 4PM eastern time on Christmas Day, CBS broadcast the third annual Elgin watches Christmas party for the men and women in the Armed Forces, guest-starring Jack Benny, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Ginny Simms, and many others. It was hosted by Don Ameche and the announcer was Ken Carpenter.Don Ameche had been an integral part of The Chase and Sanborn Hour, earning a reputation from Edgar Bergen as one of the best comedic ad-libbers in the business. Elgin Watches was first incorporated in August 1864 as the National Watch Company. The founders eventually based their operations in the growing city of Elgin, Illinois and changed the company name. By the turn of the 20th century, it was one of the largest watch manufacturers in the world. During World War II all civilian manufacturing was halted and the company moved into the defense industry, manufacturing military watches, chronometers, fuzes for artillery shells, aircraft instruments, and cannon bearings.Their agency of record J. Walter Thompson confined radio sponsorship to their annual Thanksgiving and Christmas specials, which began in 1942.
The Cavalcade of America’s sponsor, The Du Pont Company, had profited from gunpowder during the first World War. Years of bad press led them to hire the ad agency Batten, Barton, Durstine, and Osborne. They wanted a brand perception change. The Cavalcade of America was the answer. In 1944 The Cavalcade of America was in the midst of a thirteen-year primetime run on NBC. Sponsored by Dupont, the program dramatized history and historical fiction, focusing intensely on the war at home and abroad.On Christmas night at 8PM, Walter Huston emceed a program called “America For Christmas” which took listeners around the country to showcase all the things that made different states in the United States so unique.
On the Sunday, December 24th 1944 episode of The Great Gildersleeve, Gildy overcomes depression and recent legal issues to have a wonderful celebration at his home. All the most-famous townspeople of Summerfield stopped by. This episode pulled a rating of 14.9. Roughly ten million people tuned in. For more information on the launch of The Great Gildersleeve and the show’s 1944, please tune into Breaking Walls Episode 149.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersOn the Sunday, December 24th, 1944 episode of The Jack Benny Program, it’s Christmas Eve and Jack Benny is trimming the Christmas tree with Mary Livingstone and Rochester’s help. The gang drops by to exchange gifts too.For more information on Jack Benny in 1944, including how and why he changed sponsors, please tune into Breaking Walls Episode 151 which covers Benny’s 1944 in great detail.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersAt 10PM eastern time on Friday December 22nd, 1944, Jimmy Durante and Garry Moore signed on over CBS with Georgia Gibbs and Roy Bargy’s orchestra. The show pulled a rating of 11.8 opposite Amos ‘n’ Andy on NBC. Roughly eight million people tuned in.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersOriginally part of CBS’s experimental pilot summer series Forecast in 1940, Duffy’s Tavern had moved to the Blue Network in October of 1942, and then to NBC’s main network before the Blue Network was sold in September of 1944.Sponsored by Bristol Myers, it starred Ed Gardner as Archie, the manager of Duffy’s Tavern, “the eyesore of the east side, where the elite meet to eat.”Gardner’s heavily New York accented portrayal of Archie has inspired several characters in the years since.On Friday December 22nd, 1944 Monty Wooley guest-starred on the program. The episode pulled a rating of 13.4. Roughly nine million people tuned in.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersOn Thursday December 21st, 1944 We Came This Way took to the air as part of NBC’s University of the Air. The series illustrated various struggles for freedom throughout history. This episode highlighted Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette who fought for the Continental Army under George Washington during the American Revolution, and was later one of the voices of reason during the French Revolution.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersOn the Sunday, December 17th, 1944 episode of The Jack Benny Program, Jack meets Frank Sinatra in a pharmacy. For more information on Jack Benny in 1944, including how and why he changed sponsors, please tune into Breaking Walls Episode 151 which covers Benny’s 1944 in great detail. For more information on the life and career of Frank Sinatra, please tune into Breaking Walls Episode 85.
This is the Thanksgiving 1947 episode of The Jack Benny Program, which originally aired Sunday, November 23rd, 1947.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersBy 1944 Rudy Vallée was one of the most famous American entertainers in history. Vallée spent much of early 1944 conducting the 11th Naval District Coast Guard Band, known as one of the best military units in the nation. He returned to civilian life, and to radio over NBC, on September 9th, 1944 with the launch of a new show, called Villa Vallée, and sponsored by Drene shampoo. It co-starred Monte Woolley. This 10:30PM eastern time episode pulled a rating of 12.3.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersOn the Sunday, November 26th, 1944 episode of The Jack Benny Program, Jack and the gang discuss how they spent Thanksgiving. For more information on Jack Benny in 1944, including how and why he changed sponsors, please tune into Breaking Walls Episode 151 which covers Benny’s 1944 in great detail
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersAlthough Bud Abbott and Lou Costello are remembered for their movies, they got their start toward national fame in radio.They’d met in 1929, when Costello was booked with a vaudeville act into a neighborhood theater. Abbott worked in the box office and soon found himself playing Costello’s straight man. In 1938 they appeared at Loew’s in New York, where they were seen by Ted Collins, architect of Kate Smith’s career. Their slaphappy style was perfect for radio, and their rise to frontline stardom was rapid.For two seasons, beginning Feb. 3rd, 1938, they were regulars on The Kate Smith Hour, while also appearing on Edgar Bergen’s Chase and Sanborn show. Signed by Universal in 1939, the duo pulled the studio out of financial trouble with a string of low-budget hits. NBC gave them a summer replacement show for Fred Allen in 1940. Then in the fall of 1942 they went on the air full-time for Camel Cigarettes. They were an immediate top-ten ratings hit, and became a Thursday night comedy staple. On Thanksgiving night in 1944 their 10PM NBC rating was 20.5, good for eighth overall on radio that week. More than sixteen million people tuned in.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersIn November of 1944 Bing Crosby’s Kraft Music Hall was Thursday night’s highest-rated program. Airing at 9PM eastern time, singing with Bing was heard by more than eighteen million people as they wound down around the fire and radio. That evening’s first song was “Dance with a Dolly” and the guest was thirty-one year old opera soprano Risë Stevens.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersThis program, originally airing on KPO San Francisco, was in conjunction with the 5th War Loan Drive. Thanksgiving 1944 was also called “War Bond Day.” It featured the likes of Rudy Vallée and others.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersThis program, originally airing on KPO San Francisco, was in conjunction with the 5th War Loan Drive. Thanksgiving 1944 was also called “War Bond Day.” It featured the likes of Rudy Vallée and others.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersIn November of 1944 Lum and Abner was airing as a weekday, fifteen minute serial. In New York the show aired over WJZ. The show was syndicated out of KECA in Los Angeles. KECA was the flagship station of the newly independent Blue Network, which would soon become ABC. Chester Lauck was Lum Edwards. Norris Goff was Abner Peabody. Set in the fictional hamlet of Pine Ridge, Arkansas, in real life Lauck and Goff disliked the term “hillbilly,” believing it mocked people unfairly. The biggest building in Pine Ridge was Dick Huddleston’s, who ran the general store and post office. Across the road was the blacksmith shop, run by Caleb Weehunt. Next door Mose Moots’ barbershop. Above the barbershop was the lodge hall, where the town council met and the Pine Ridge Silver Comet Band practiced. Next to the tonsorial emporium was Luke Spears’s Lunch Room. A short distance down the road from Luke’s place was the Jot ’Em Down Store, run by Lum Edwards and Abner Peabody.On Thanksgiving in 1944 Lum is suddenly lonely and alone because Abner is out of town. Lum is trying to find someone to spend his holiday with.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersMuch ink has been spilled on Breaking Walls this year talking about Suspense. For more information on the series in 1944, please tune into Breaking Walls episode 154. The Thanksgiving 1944 episode was called “The Fountain Plays” starring Charles Laughton. It’s a story filled with murder, blackmail, and cover-up. The original tale was penned by Dorothy L. Sayers adapted by Robert L. Richards. Richards is famous for having written “The House in Cypress Canyon,” a noted Suspense classic. This is the first of twenty-nine weeks of Roma commercials featuring society figure and entertaining expert Elsa Maxwell. She offers her hard-earned wisdom about wine and other beverage selections. Maxwell was a gossip columnist and writer with occasional movie appearances, but known for her elaborate parties. She is credited with adding games to parties, such as scavenger hunts, to make them more interesting beyond the idle chatter of who was seen with whom or who was invited and who wasn’t. Maxwell rose from a lower middle class life in San Francisco to being the host of parties that included big stars and royalty. Elsa Maxwell does not play herself, instead she’s played by noted radio actress Lucille Meredith.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersMail Call began airing on August 11th, 1942 over the Armed Forces Radio Service to entertain troops with songs, skits, and questions (via the mail) answered by celebrities in order to boost the morale of soldiers stationed far from their homesIn 1944 Lt. Col. Thomas A.H. Lewis, commander of the Armed Forces Radio Service, wrote that "The initial production of the Armed Forces Radio Service was 'Mail Call,' a morale-building half hour which brought famed performers to the microphone to sing and gag in the best American manner." Lewis added, "To a fellow who has spent months guarding an outpost in the South Seas, Iceland or Africa a cheery greeting from a favorite comedian, a song hit direct from Broadway, or the beating rhythm of a hot band, mean a tie with the home to which he hopes soon to return.”The show was produced from AFRS’s California headquarters at 6011 Santa Monica Boulevard. On Thanksgiving Day in 1944, the program’s guests were Groucho Marx and Lionel Barrymore.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersMuch ink has been spilled on Breaking Walls this year talking about Suspense. For more information on the series in 1944, please tune into Breaking Walls episode 154. On Thursday November 2nd, 1944, Van Johnson made his first appearance on “radio’s outstanding theater of thrills” in “The Singing Walls.” In this Cornell Woolrich story, a man is drugged by gangsters to be framed for a crime. All he can remember is that music seemed to be coming out of the walls that surround him.Van Johnson started on Broadway in the mid-1930s and was selected as the understudy for Gene Kelly in Pal Joey. Lucille Ball got him an audition in Hollywood. From then on he was a “boy next door” handsome Hollywood star. At the time of this Suspense appearance, radio columns were commenting about the frequency of his appearances on radio’s biggest programs. He was on all of the big comedy and variety shows as well as dramatic programs, often appearing on radio multiple times a week, sometimes daily, during this period of his career.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersIn the fall of 1944 Fibber McGee and Molly were in the midst of their tenth season on the air. The comedic duo was part of NBC’s blockbuster Tuesday night comedy lineup. Between 1939 and 1949 their show was never ranked lower than third overall in the ratings. On Halloween night their rating was 25.6. More than twenty million people tuned in to hear Fibber McGee add duck hunting to the list of activities he is supposedly good at.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersBy the fall of 1944, George Burns and Gracie Allen had been married for eighteen years and on radio for twelve. Their program had been officially titled The Burns And Allen Show in the fall of 1936, and they’d spent time at both NBC and CBS. With their ratings slipping in 1942, George Burns transformed their show from vaudeville-style banter into a situation comedy. It was the jolt the couple needed. In the fall of 1944 the couple was on for Lever Brothers and Swan Soap Tuesdays at 9PM eastern time from CBS. On Halloween night, Grace Allen had a make believe romance with actor Van Johnson.NBC dominated Tuesday’s ratings in most timeslots, but running opposite of The Burns and Allen Show on NBC was The Molle Mystery Theater. Burns and Allen won their timeslot, but the show would still move to Monday evenings in January of 1945.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersIn October of 1944 Lum and Abner was airing as a weekday, fifteen minute serial. In New York the show aired over WJZ. The show was syndicated out of KECA in Los Angeles. KECA was the flagship station of the newly independent Blue Network, which would soon become ABC. Chester Lauck was Lum Edwards. Norris Goff was Abner Peabody. Set in the fictional hamlet of Pine Ridge, Arkansas, in real life Lauck and Goff disliked the term “hillbilly,” believing it mocked people unfairly. The biggest building in Pine Ridge was Dick Huddleston’s, who ran the general store and post office. Across the road was the blacksmith shop, run by Caleb Weehunt. Next door Mose Moots’ barbershop. Above the barbershop was the lodge hall, where the town council met and the Pine Ridge Silver Comet Band practiced. Next to the tonsorial emporium was Luke Spears’s Lunch Room. A short distance down the road from Luke’s place was the Jot ’Em Down Store, run by Lum Edwards and Abner Peabody.On Halloween in 1944 the duo discussed Halloween pranks.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersDespite its west-coast regional status for most of its days. The Whistler had one of radio’s best-known crime-show formats and one of the longest runs. The signature ranks with radio’s greatest, playing perfectly into the host’s “man of mystery” role. Like the Shadow and the Mysterious Traveler, the Whistler was a voice of fate, baiting the guilty with his smiling malevolence.Originally taking to the air May 16th, 1942 from CBS’s KNX studios in Los Angeles, The show opened with echoing footsteps and a lingering whistle, destined to become one of the all-time haunting melodies. The whistle got louder, then louder, finally blending with the orchestra in a high-pitched sting. When the Whistler spoke he said, “I am the Whistler, and I know many things, for I walk by night. I know many strange tales, many secrets hidden in the hearts of men and women who have stepped into the shadows. Yes, I know the nameless terrors of which they dare not speak.”The unstated theme that ran the distance was “this could happen to you.” The Whistler told stories of the everyday gone haywire, of common men driven to murder and then being tripped up in a cunning double-twist. These were not mysteries: the identity of the killer was never in doubt, from the first hint that the deed must be done until the moment when the killer trapped himself. The stories were told by the Whistler from the killer’s viewpoint, the narration done in the unusual second-person, present tense. In the earliest days, producer J. Donald Wilson sometimes had the Whistler engage in open dialogue with the characters, the host playing the conscience, arguing with the murderer and goading him to the inevitable doom. The final act was not played out, but was summarized by the Whistler in an epilogue as, like the Shadow, he laughed and sealed the killer’s fate with a few terse lines of plot twist.One of the first changes made by George Allen when he arrived as director in 1944 was to fully dramatize that closing turnabout. This was far more satisfying. The Whistler remained the great omniscient storyteller of the air, for the Shadow had long since become his own hero, and the Mysterious Traveler never packed quite the same punch. The voice was an unforgettable tenor, the message dripping with grim irony. “It all worked out so perfectly, didn't it, Roger,” he would coo, while listeners waited for the shoe to drop. This would come in “the strange ending to tonight’s story,” the little epilogue when the finger of fate struck, some fatal flaw of character or deficiency in the master plan that was so obvious that everyone had overlooked it.By October 30th, 1944 Signal Oil was sponsoring the program with the supporting cast being made up of Hollywood’s famous character actors, like Cathy and Elliott Lewis, Joseph Keams. Betty Lou Gerson, Wally Maher, John Brown, Hans Conried, Gerald Mohr, Lurene Tuttle, and Jeanette Nolan. Dorothy Roberts, whistled the notes. On that night The Whistler took to the air with “The Beloved Fraud.”
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersThe Hour of Charm, radio’s “most-celebrated all-girl orchestra” first took to the air on May 18th, 1934 over CBS. In the fall of 1944 it was airing on NBC for General Electric, Sundays at 10PM eastern time. The brainchild of Phil Spitalny, The Spitalnys had a deep musical heritage. Immigrants from Russia, they had settled in Cleveland, where Phil Spitalny and his brother Leopold played in local bands. By the time Phil was 30, Spitalny had directed a 50-piece symphony orchestra in Boston, had led bands in theaters, on radio, and in recording sessions, and had just completed a successful world tour.The Hour of Charm’s featured player was Evelyn Kaye Klein, billed as “Evelyn and Her Magic Violin.” The orchestra specialized in familiar music, played in a style described by Spitalny as a cross between popular and symphonic. All of the girls sang in chorus, some solo, and all were proficient on more than one instrument. Jan Baker could play a dozen instruments; she took on the tuba and mastered it when Spitalny could find no woman to play it even after a nationwide search. Spitalny’s hiring practices were influenced by voice and good looks, but musicianship was always his first consideration. “No performer is hired who can’t give a finished rendition of two sonatas and two concetti, who hasn’t the individual gifts of rhythm and melodic perception, who can’t read music fluently, and who hasn’t had a good deal of experience,” said his 1940 Current Biography entry.He was also looking for “sweetness and charm,” and it is doubtful that any other orchestra has ever been so stringently governed. The girls were not allowed to marry: they signed contracts to that effect, agreeing to stay single for two years. They wore uniform attire, with the exception of the three principals, Evelyn, Vivien, and Maxine. They wore evening gowns, with no jewelry, their hair styled in “long, soft bobs.” No one would weigh more than 122 pounds. Curbs were enforced on personal behavior, with Evelyn in charge of backstage disputes and Spitalny handling such professional matters as musical arrangements, themes, and dress. “Associations in the all-girl orchestra are much like sorority life,” wrote Evelyn in a 1942 Radio Life article. A committee of five was formed to pass judgment on all offstage matters, including dating. “Whenever a girl wants to go out, she goes to the committee and says, ‘I want a date with Mr. So-and-So.’ They ask her who the man is, what he does, and for references. If he passes muster, she gets her date. But if the committee feels that it would hurt the orchestra for a member to be seen with that man, the engagement doesn’t materialize.”Spitalny staunchly defended the musicianship of all his girls, and he once bet bandleader Abe Lyman $1,000 that they could outplay Lyman’s all-male group. The women had professional pride, said Spitalny: they didn’t have problems with alcohol, and, when the war broke out, his was the only band in the land that didn’t have trouble with the draft. He continued lecturing newcomers about the need to be good; they had to be better than their male counterparts to be taken seriously. If a man muffed a note, nobody cared; if a woman did, the attitude was “well, what can you expect?”The show opened and closed with hymns, especially during the war. The opening theme was “The American Hymn of Liberty,” the closer, often a favored hymn of someone in the service. This gave the show a serious, almost solemn air. The closing signature blended out of the theme and into the song We Must Be Vigilant, sung by the orchestra to the tune of American Patrol.Spitalny married Evelyn in June 1946. They lived in Miami, where Spitalny died in 1970.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersCreated by Irving Brecher, the best-known incarnation of The Life of Riley came to the air Sunday January 16th, 1944 at 3PM eastern time over The Blue Network. It starred William Bendix as Chester A. Riley and was sponsored by The American Meat Institute. Riley was easily exasperated, but difficult to defeat. The difficulty increased by degrees with the flimsiness of Riley’s cause. Bendix was born on January 14th, 1906 in Manhattan, New York. He came out of the New Jersey Federal Theater project, a latecomer to the profession, beginning at thirty when the grocery store he was running went out of business. His film career began in 1942. He was often the hooligan with the heart of gold. Riley was his most famous character.It co-starred the previously heard Hans Conreid as Uncle Baxter with John Brown as both Riley’s friend Gillis and the undertaker, Digger O’Dell. Paula Winslowe was Riley’s long-suffering wife Peg. Sharon Douglas was Babs and Conrad Binyon played Junior.The Life of Riley proved popular enough that in June of 1944 it was moved to Sundays at 10PM. When the series returned for the fall, its October 1944 rating was 4.7. On Sunday, October 29th, 1944 Junior was dared by his friends to visit the haunted Sherman house. He ropes Riley into going with him. Jeanette Nolan guest-stars on the show as Mrs. Sherman, who isn’t a ghost, but is in fact a widow who lost her husband in the War and became a shut-in afterwards.Beginning in the fall of 1945 it moved to NBC where it was a mainstay for six seasons. It peaked in 1947-48 with a rating of 20.1, good for fourteenth overall that year. A TV version debuted in October of 1949, first with Jackie Gleason as Riley and later with William Bendix playing the familiar role for five years.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersEdgar Bergen came to the attention of American audiences on Rudy Vallée’s NBC Royal Gelatin Hour on December 17th, 1936. Five months later NBC gave Bergen his own show Sundays at 8PM. He was an instant smash hit. Don Ameche worked with Bergen in those years. He was emcee on December 12th, 1937 when Mae West was the guest for an innuendo heavy skit called “Adam and Eve.” Over the next six seasons his show was never rated lower than fourth. Twice it was the country’s top program. In October of 1944 Bergen’s rating was 22.5. Roughly eighteen million people tuned in on October 29th when the guest was Orson Welles for the first of back-to-back appearances on the show.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersOn the October 29th, 1944 episode of The Jack Benny Program, an Allen's Alley spoof rekindles Benny's love/hate relationship with Fred Allen. This episode had a rating of 19.8. Roughly sixteen million people tuned in.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersWell, we’re back where we started, but we’re not the same. I mentioned at the beginning of this episode that when you run on the treadmill to oblivion, you don’t always go where you want, but you get in shape doing it.When I began Breaking Walls ten years ago I envisioned it as a sit-down interview show. Over time it slowly morphed into on the scene reporting, and eventually a history of U.S. Network Radio Broadcasting. When I made this programming switch permanent in February of 2018 I didn’t know how long I’d be able to keep it up. In many ways these documentaries have been a means of teaching myself the business of broadcasting in order to use the past to inform the present. They’ve also been about teaching myself how to be a good writer, sound designer, and narrator. My life has undergone many changes in the past six and a half years. I now have paid work in the world of audio thanks to Breaking Walls. This paid work is encroaching upon my time and honestly, it’s paid. It needs to be a priority. This is a long-winded way of saying that I need to take a break from the treadmill. So, for the next three months Breaking Walls is undergoing a change. Don’t worry! I’m still going to put out new content. You’ll still see an episode 156 of Breaking Walls, which, incidentally, will feature shows from Halloween 1944. Rather than contain my narration and sound design as one giant documentary, they’ll be standalone radio shows with the usual information written into the description of each track. I’m also going to continue to post the Breaking Walls archives to Youtube, and post additional content on Patreon.com/TheWallBreakers. On Patreon the next episode will drop early as one giant playlist of shows. I’ve been on the fence about how and when to pause. Eighty months is a long time to run on any treadmill without a break. Given that this was the tenth anniversary of the launch of Breaking Walls, I feel like it’s a good time to give myself that break. You never know, when you close one door — even temporarily like this is — what good things can come in through a window or a side. My plan is to come back to documentary-style episodes of Breaking Walls on January 1st, 2025.(Half Pause)The reading material used in today’s episode was:• On The Air — By John Dunning• Gleason's Second Honeymoon — By Pete Hammil • The Great One: The Life and Legend of Jackie Gleason — By William A. Henry• Network Radio Ratings — By Jim RamsburgAs well as articles and features from• Broadcasting Magazine• Ephemeral New York• The Library of Congress• Naval History and Heritage Command• The New York Times• The Sydney Morning Herald(Half Pause)On the interview front:• Don Ameche spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear this full chat at Speakingofradio.com.• Mel Allen and Edgar Bergen spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org• Norman Corwin spoke with John Dunning for his 71KNUS program from Denver. • Bob Hope spoke with Dick Cavett• Gene Tierney spoke with Mike Douglas• Fred Allen spoke with Tex McCrary and Jinx Falkenburg(Half Pause)I’d like to thank Chuck Schaden, the late Dick Bertel, the late John Dunning, and SPERDVAC. Without these people and their tremendous work I’d never have been able to do a single episode of Breaking Walls. I’d also like to thank Dr. Joseph Webb for opening the door for me into this world.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersOn Christmas night, 1944, Fred Allen was one of the guests on Information Please when the show aired on NBC at 9:30PM. The Christmas broadcast came from the St. Albans Naval Hospital in Queens. The hospital was commissioned in 1943 on the site of a golf course. At its peak it housed more than forty-five hundred patients. After the war, the hospital workload increased, but in the spring of 1973, the Navy decommissioned the hospital and turned it over to the Veterans’ Administration. More recently it evolved into the Veterans Administration St. Albans Primary and Extended Care Facility. A portion of the hospital site became Roy Wilkins Park in the 1980s.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersWhat you’re about to hear is the Sunday, December 24th, 1944 at 3PM WMCA broadcast of New World A’ Coming. It’s a Christmas musical show. For more info on New World A’ Coming, please tune into the previous act on this series within this episode of Breaking Walls.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersEdgar Bergen came to the attention of American audiences on Rudy Vallée’s NBC Royal Gelatin Hour on December 17th, 1936. How could ventriloquism work on radio? Perhaps Rudy Vallée himself put it best the night Bergen debuted.Five months later NBC gave Bergen his own show Sundays at 8PM. He was an instant smash hit. Don Ameche worked with Bergen in those years. He was emcee on December 12th, 1937 when Mae West was the guest for an innuendo heavy skit called “Adam and Eve.”Over the next six seasons his show was never rated lower than fourth. Twice it was the country’s top program. In November of 1944 Bergen’s rating was 22.7. Roughly eighteen million people tuned in on November 5th when the guest was Orson Welles for the second of back-to-back appearances on the show.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersJubilee first took to the air on October 9th, 1942 transcribed by the Special Services Division of the War Department, then by the Armed Forces Radio Service. It featured Jazz and Swing bands and filled an important gap in the musical history of radio, gearing itself towards African American men stationed overseas. Jubilee luminaries included Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Lena Horne, Ethel Waters, and Ella Fitzgerald. Most of the shows were recorded before live audiences in Los Angeles. This particular episode featured bandleaders known for their New York flavor, like Claude Hopkins. Songstress Ida James was emcee. Mel Allen, later the famed voice of the New York Yankees, announced.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersIn October 1944, in conjunction with the Jewish Theological Seminary, NBC began one of the longest-running religious programs in radio history. It was called The Eternal Light. The dramatized stories from ancient Judaea, along with contemporary works like The Diary of Anne Frank. It was produced by Milton Krents. Many top New York radio actors appeared. NBC donated the air time and the Seminary paid for the show's production.As part of this second episode, which aired on Sunday, October 15th, 1944, listeners heard about the founding of Temple Emanuel, the first reform Jewish synagogue in New York. It was formed in 1845 in a rented hall near Grand and Clinton Streets in Manhattan's Lower East Side. By 1944 the congregation had moved to its current location, at 1 East 65th Street, just off Fifth Avenue, on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersThe woman you just heard is Gene Tierney. She was born on November 19th, 1920 in Brooklyn, New York. Raised in Connecticut, she excelled in poetry, took up student acting, and eventually spent two years attending school in Switzerland, where she learned to speak French. On a family trip to the West Coast, she visited Warner Bros. studios, where her cousin Gordon Hollingshead worked as a producer. Director Anatole Litvak, taken by her beauty, convinced Gene to take a screen test. Warner Brothers wanted to sign her, but her father convinced her to stay home, enter society, and become a theater actress. She studied acting in Greenwich Village and soon found herself getting increasing roles on Broadway along with reviews about her acting prowess and natural beauty. Eventually Gene’s father set up a company to fund her acting interests. She met Howard Hughes, who became a lifelong friend. In 1940 she starred as Patricia Stanley on Broadway in The Male Animal. Features in Life, Harper's Bazaar, and Vogue soon followed.Darryl Zanuck, head of 20th Century Fox, saw her both acting and later dancing at The Stork Club, and signed her to a contract. She debuted later that year in a supporting role, opposite Henry Fonda, in Fritz Lang's western, The Return of Frank James.By 1944 she’d made eleven films. That Autumn she wrapped up filming of Laura opposite Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, and Vincent Price. Before its premiere in November she guest-starred on Duffy’s Tavern on Friday, September 22nd. The brainchild of star Ed Gardner, Duffy’s Tavern debuted as part of CBS’s Forecast pilot series in 1940. It was hailed by critics as the most-original comedy of 1941. The fictitious bar was allegedly located in Manhattan on 3rd avenue and 23rd street. It was the “eyesore of the East side” where the “elite meet to eat.” Duffy never made an appearance, but his frequent phone calls were a constant source of anxiety. Gardner’s heavily New York-accented Archie has inspired several characters in the years since, like Moe in The Simpsons. Eddie Green was Eddie, Marvin Miller announced, Sandra Gould was Miss Duffy, and Charlie Cantor was Finnegan.In September 1944 the show moved to NBC. This was the season’s second episode. It pulled a rating of 11.3. Roughly nine million people tuned in.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersJohn Herbert “Jackie” Gleason was born on February 26th, 1916, on Chauncey Street in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. The younger of two children, his brother Clement died from meningitis at fourteen in 1919.Six years later his father left the family. Gleason’s mother Mae got a job as a subway attendant for the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation. Jackie spent his youth hustling pool and performing in class plays. He quit high school and took a job to perform at local theaters, putting on acts with friends, and then emceed at the Folly Theater. When Jackie was nineteen in 1935 his mother died from complications of sepsis. He worked his way up to a job at Manhattan’s Club 18. Jack Warner saw him, signing Gleason to a contract for two-hundred-fifty dollars per-week. Jackie married dancer Genevieve Halford on September 20th, 1936. The couple had two children: Geraldine, born in 1940, and Linda, born in 1942. Classified as 4-F and rejected for military service, by the summer of 1944 a twenty-eight year-old Gleason had appeared in films opposite Ann Sheridan, Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, and Betty Grable. He also became known for hosting all-night parties in his hotel suite. His hotel soundproofed his apartment out of consideration for its other guests. NBC, seeing something in the brash, outspoken Brooklynite, added him to Double Feature, co-starring Les Tremayne and Alfred Drake, Sunday nights at 10:30PM. Rebranded The Les Tremayne-Jackie Gleason Show, he debuted this episode on August 13th, 1944. Edgar Bergen was the special guest. This is that debut. The show would air until October 22nd.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersBroadcast over WMCA in New York, New World A’ Coming was based on the work of journalist Roi Ottley. Ottley was a journalist for The Amsterdam News from 1931 to 1937 before joining The New York City Writers' Project as an editor. In 1943 Ottley published New World A-Coming: Inside Black America, which described life for African Americans in Harlem in the 1920s and 1930s. The book won the Life in America prize and a Peabody Award.Ottley became the national CIO War Relief Committee publicity director in 1943 and was commissioned as a lieutenant in the US Army in 1944. Meanwhile his book was adapted for this radio series over WMCA, which pushed for equal rights and better racial communication. The frequent narrator was boxer and actor Canada Lee. On Sunday June 4th, 1944 at 3PM eastern time, in honor of Harlem Week, New World A’ Coming broadcast a story called “Life in the Ghetto” to draw attention to the kind of social plights African Americans had to deal with in New York. Two days after this broadcast the Normandy Invasion began. Roi Ottley would cover that event as well as the hanging of Mussolini the following year.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersThe man you just heard is Norman Corwin. The piece of his, which Orson Welles is narrating, that you’ve heard thus far throughout this episode of Breaking Walls, is “New York: A Tapestry For Radio.” The first broadcast of this piece originally aired on May 16th, 1944 as part of a City Trilogy within CBS’ Columbia Presents Corwin. That version had Martin Gabel as narrator. One year later it was rebroadcast with Welles taking over for Mr. Gabel.By 1944 Norman Corwin had free rein over his productions. In six years he’d gone from a network rookie to the most-lauded creator on the air. He was now the poet-laureate of radio, a nickname which would stick with him the rest of his life. One of his favorite people to work with was Orson Welles.I’ve recently covered Norman Corwin in great detail within episode 153 of Breaking Walls. For more info, please tune into that. In the meantime, here’s the rest of “New York: A Tapestry for Radio.”
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersIt’s February 1944 and we’re in the U.S. Fleet Post Office at 80 Varick Street. 80 Varick Street is in the Hudson Square area of Manhattan just north of Canal Street and southeast of the Holland Tunnel to New Jersey. The street itself is named for Richard Varick, an early New York lawmaker, landowner, and mayor from 1789 to 1801.The Fleet Post Office was established on July 1st, 1943. Previously, mail addressed to naval personnel serving overseas was handled by Navy mailmen at the Morgan Annex of the New York General Post Office.When CBS’ World News Today signed on Sunday February 20th, 1944 at 2:30PM eastern time, the allied forces had just begun “Big Week,” a six-day strategic bombing campaign against the Third Reich. By the time it ended on February 25th, German cities Rostock and Augsburg had been bombed, as well as several Dutch cities near the German border. The Germans also lost more than three-hundred-fifty aircrafts, and most importantly, more than one-hundred pilots. Lieutenant. A. E. Newton is in charge of this post office, but with forces in the European Theater growing larger by the day, it was already obvious this post-office has reached max capacity. Space was being acquired on Pier 51 of the Hudson River to handle the expected increase of letters and parcels to fighting servicemen. Here’s Bill Slocum Jr. at the Fleet Post Office discussing how V-Mail works.In September 1944 the Parcel Post Section was moved to Pier 51. The Fleet Post Office continued until the end of the War. By January 1946, with many troops home, most of its functions had been moved back to the General Post Office. World News Today’s sponsor, The Admiral Corporation, was originally known as the Transformer Corporation of America. By 1929 it was the biggest supplier of radio parts in the world. Bankruptcy ensued, but in 1936 owner Ross D. Siragusa purchased the right to change the name to Admiral Corporation America Inc. They began sponsoring World News Today in 1942.For a longer look at the news from this week, tune into Breaking Walls episode 148.Meanwhile, as the weather warmed on April 6th, 1944 the U.S. celebrated “Army Day,” while Al Trace and His Silly Symphonists took to the air over Mutual Broadcasting from the Plantation Room in the Dixie Hotel.The Dixie Hotel opened on West 43rd street between 7th and 8th avenue in 1930. It featured one-thousand rooms and a bus terminal which occupied the entire ground floor. Buses arriving at the terminal would drive onto a turntable, which would then rotate to the proper slip. Two sets of doors, one on either side of the terminal, led from the loading area to the waiting room. The waiting room had a cafe, newsstand, ticket booths, and elevators leading to the hotel's lobby.The hotel was developed by the Uris Buildings Corporation, which announced plans for the site in September 1928. A year after it opened it was foreclosed on. The Bowery Savings Bank ran it until in 1942, when the Dixie became part of the Carter Hotels chain. That year the Dixie Lounge Bar opened on the first floor. Decorated in a Southern Colonial style, it could be accessed from the lobby, the dining room, and directly from the street. The nightclub, along with the adjacent Plantation Room restaurant, fit five-hundred people.The Bus depot became redundant when the Port Authority Bus Terminal opened nearby in 1950. It was closed in 1957. Carter attempted to rehabilitate the hotel several times, even renaming it The Carter Hotel in 1976. They sold it the next year. New Yorkers knew this hotel as one of the worst in the city. It was closed in 2014.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersOur first stop is January, 1944. We’re at Central Park. By 1944 Central Park, nearly one-hundred years old, was in the midst of renewal. Parks Commissioner Robert Moses had spent the past decade developing playgrounds, ballfields, handball courts, and other working class elements. In 1943 the restoration of the Harlem Meer was completed. "Please Keep off the Grass" signs, which had once dotted the meadows, were a thing of the past. Why are we in Central Park? Because over on the west coast, on Saturday January 22nd, Bob Hope, Dennis Day, and Joan Leslie appeared in a skit for Command Performance entitled “She Slapped His Face Under The Elevated Because He Only Had A One-Track Mind.” It was set in Central Park. In January of 1944 Bob Hope was radio’s top comedian. His own show rating that month was 34.6. More than twenty-six million people were tuning in to hear him each week. Hope spent most of his time entertaining troops. For more info on Bob Hope in 1944, please tune into Breaking Walls episode 148.Five days after D-Day on June 11th, 1944, the park opened Weapons of War: An Exhibit of the Army Service Forces on the Great Lawn. Over the next two weeks, six-hundred thousand people came to see displays contrasting America’s War Equipment with that of the Axis. The exhibit was organized by units: The Quartermaster Corps, the Chemical Warfare Service, the Medical Department, the Signal Corps, Ordnance, the Corps of Engineers, and the Transportation Corps. Each hour a flamethrower demonstration was staged for a grandstand which seated twenty-five-hundred people. The expo was in conjunction with the fifth War Bond Drive. #podcast #oldradioshows #oldtimeradio #historypodcast #oldtimeradioshows #editorial #1944 #centralpark #bobhope #joanleslie #dennisday
https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersI’ve mentioned a few times before within Breaking Walls episodes that I try to be as unbiased as possible. I want Breaking Walls to be a true documentary, so I leave the op-eds for everyone else. But this is my tenth anniversary as a podcaster so I’ll share. I spent the first ten years of my life living in a house where the people there were born between 1918 and 1989. It was in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. There was a park across the street. Around 1900 that park wouldn’t have been there. It would have been Indian Pond. Who knows how many thousands of years people congregated at that pond. My great-grandmother was in my life until I was 24. She grew up on Cherry Street in Manhattan's Lower East Side. By the time I came along everyone had heard her stories ten times over, but I loved sitting with her, playing cards and sharing bagels with Country Crock Shedspread, while she told me about her Italian immigrant parents, living through the depression and World War II. She had mixed feelings about Mussolini, but was a deep supporter of FDR. She loved Lawrence Welk and watched Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. Her father was a believer in women’s rights and a huge New York Giants baseball fan. He died of a heart attack on June 26th, 1951, one hundred days before Bobby Thompson’s shot heard round the world.The interesting thing is, I have no recollection of talking to her about the radio shows she loved to listen to in the 1930s and 40s.Her second daughter is my grandmother. Tough, outspoken, smart, she takes no guff from anyone and can curse with the best of them. Her husband, my grandfather, was the person I spent the most time with, playing baseball, going to Coney Island, and eventually, introducing me to radio shows on Christmas Day 1999.He was the 9th of 11 kids from an Irish Catholic family in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. What was his favorite radio show growing up?Thanks to him, I’ve spent the past twenty-five years listening to radio shows from the “Golden Age of Radio” be they comedy, drama, detective, western, soap opera, news broadcasts or otherwise. Occasionally, someone with my last name would crop up, like on the Saturday, May 12th, 1951 episode of Broadway is My Beat.I’ve spent the past seven years making monthly documentaries on radio history; More than eighty of them now. One a month, without fail. I’ve also found the time to write new audio fiction, like Burning Gotham, the historical fiction audio soap opera set in 1835 New York City. It was a 2022 Tribeca Film Festival audio selection.People often don’t know how to introduce me at professional functions. Am I a radio historian? Audio fiction developer? Director? Narrator? Actor? Like a lot of people who figure something out on their own, I’m a little bit of everything. I’m now as much a New York historian as I am a radio historian. I guess all roads do lead home.I’ve won awards, been complimented and critiqued, passed up social and other life opportunities, and you know what, I found direction, not just through a hobby, but with some kind of desire that burns deep inside of myself. It’s what I wanted ten years ago. Or maybe it’s because I can’t share these documentaries with my grandfather anymore. He’s out there in the ether somewhere. I hope he tunes in once in a while.The flame doesn’t always burn with the same degree of brightness. I’m a New Yorker. Ambitious unmonetized hobbies are like masochistic anchors.Would stopping this be an act of cowardice or would it lighten the load? Any time I want to pack up and move on I think, how can I? I want to help preserve and grow this medium, both creatively and financially. Blood of my blood, flesh of my flesh. If I’m in for a penny, I’m in for a pound.Would my 2014 self be proud seeing where I’ve come to? Ultimately, yes. That’s the thing about running on the treadmill to oblivion, you don’t always go where you want to, but you get in shape doing it.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersThat brings our look at the early years of Suspense to a close. Suspense would remain a hollywood production until the waning days of radio drama in 1959 when Bill Robson was directing it and this happened.Ordinarily here’s where you’d get a sneak peek at next month’s episode of Breaking Walls. Next month’s episode, however, is significant. Sometimes you’ve got to go back to the beginning in order to know where you’ve been.Next month on Breaking Walls we celebrate the tenth anniversary of the show with what? Well, I can’t reveal everything, you’ll just have to stay tuned.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersBack on December 2nd, 1943 when Suspense first became sponsored by Roma Wines, the script chosen for the first Roma episode was “The Black Curtain” starring Cary Grant. Of the performance Grant said, “If I ever do any more radio work, I want to do it on Suspense, where I get a good chance to act.” The just-heard Lurene Tuttle felt the same way about acting in radio. On November 30th, 1944 Grant was back on Suspense for a repeat performance of “The Black Curtain.” He requested that Lurene Tuttle join him again as the female lead. “The Black Curtain” is an adaptation of a Cornell Woolrich story about a man who wakes up after a fall on a city sidewalk and realizes he can’t remember his name or events of the last three years. He soon learns he’s been accused of murder. Somehow he has to prove his innocence, which means finding the real killer.The repeat performance wasn’t initially planned. The original script, “To Find Help” starring Frank Sinatra had to be postponed due to a scheduling conflict. Grant happened to be available and it also happened to be the one-year anniversary of Roma’s sponsorship. More than eight million people heard this broadcast.The cast features the aforementioned Lurene Tuttle, Wally Maher, Pat McGeehan, Harry Lang, and a young Conrad Binyon, who had previously played an uncredited part in The Howards of Virginia with Grant. Binyon was amazed that Cary Grant remembered him.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersBy November of 1944 Suspense was pulling a rating of 10.4. There were now more than eight million people tuning in. Roma wines was satisfied as Suspense was providing stiff competition to The Frank Morgan Show running opposite on NBC Thursday nights at 8PM eastern time. On November 9th Lena Horne guest-starred in a Robert L. Richards script called “You Were Wonderful” about the murder of a nightclub singer in South America. Horne is the visiting American singer intent on solving the crime. Lena Horne was born on June 30th, 1917 in Brooklyn, New York. Both sides of her family were multi-racial with both African and Native American heritage. Her father Teddy was a one-time owner of a restaurant and hotel while her mother Edna was an actress with a traveling theater troupe. As a young girl Lena’s father left the family to move to Pittsburgh, while Lena traveled with her mother around the country before returning to New York City when she was twelve. Lena dropped out of high school at sixteen and joined the chorus line at the Cotton Club. In 1935 she made her first screen appearance as a dancer in Cab Calloway’s musical short Jitterbug Party.She got married in 1937, but soon separated from her husband, first touring with bandleader Charlie Barnet in 1940 before returning to New York to work at Cafe Society in Greenwich Village. She soon replaced Dinah Shore as vocalist on NBC's The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street and recorded with Henry Levine and Paul Laval, in June 1941 for RCA Victor. Horne then left New York City for Hollywood, being hired to perform in a Cotton Club-style revue for Cafe Trocadero on the Sunset Strip. In 1942, when she became the first African-American with a major studio contract, it was with the understanding that she wouldn’t be obligated to portray servants—a condition that handicapped her entrée into mainstream Hollywood movies.She soon appeared in the films Panama Hattie, Cabin in the Sky, Stormy Weather, Thousands Cheer, Swing Feever, Broadway Rhythm, and Two Girls and a Sailor. With the exceptions of Cabin in the Sky and Stormy Weather, Lena’s early screen appearances were often designed as standalone musical numbers that could easily be cut out in prejudice Southern markets unaccepting of African American performers.Horne’s Suspense appearance was big news. Both Spier and his wife Kay Thompson, a friend who worked with her at MGM, pressed the movie studio to allow her to headline the show. Network executives at CBS were concerned that Roma might pull its contract if Southern stations didn’t want to air the program. Thompson agreed to appear as Horne’s uncredited backup singer in three musical numbers, which Thompson arranged. MGM’s publicity department got to work and given the unfortunate day’s climate, Horne’s appearance was heralded as one of the more daring and successful half hours of network drama at the time. She is the first and only African American to headline Suspense. “It was an event of terrific importance to Lena,” noted Movieland magazine, “for the first time a performance of hers was judged on merit alone; she was announced only as the star of the play, without reference to her race.” Spier noted that in the studio, Lena “seemed so poised, so sure of herself and her every speech, so business-like in her approach to the role.” However when she grabbed his hand for encouragement, she was ice cold. Part of it was performance nerves, but a lot of it came from the anxiety of getting the chance to publicly justify her talent. Horne later said, “Bill was marvelous and intelligent. Anyone married to Kay would have to be strong.” It was an especially memorable and proud evening for members of the African-American community who were glued to their radios in record numbers.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersSpeaking of actors playing roles on Suspense that went against their usual type, on September 28th, 1944 Gene Kelly guest-starred in an episode called “The Man Who Couldn't Lose.” Kelly, already known as a singer and actor, became famous in For Me and My Gal, Du Barry Was a Lady, and Thousands Cheer. However, it was his dramatic debut in Pilot No. 5 where Kelly played an antagonist that portended this appearance on Suspense.In “The Man Who Couldn't Lose” Kelly plays Leonard Snell, gambler, two-timer, and all around heel who runs into a string of good fortune that causes the audience to hate him more and more as the play goes on.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersBill Spier recovered from his second heart attack in the fall, just in time for cooling weather, Friday night football games, and autumn dances. While Suspense aired all-year-round, it was perfect for brisk evenings. With Spier’s musical aptitude, a swelling orchestra had become a Suspense staple. Lud Gluskin and Lucien Morawek worked together to produce and conduct haunting, functional scores. Morawek told Radio Life that Spier was the most musically adept radio director he had ever worked with.On September 7th, 1944 Olivia De Havilland made her only appearance on Suspense in a play entitled “Voyage Through Darkness,” written by Joel Malone who was best known for his work on The Whistler. In this episode, De Havilland’s character is on a cruise home from England. Her deceased employer’s coffin is on board. She was directed to supervise his burial-at-sea. A stowaway is found. He’s believed to be “the Blackout Killer” of London. This would be the last episode of Suspense to air on different nights for the East and West coast. Beginning on September 14th all episodes of Suspense would air on the same night, making it easier for the Hollywood stars that were now lining up to work on the show. Roughly seven million people heard this broadcast.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersThe man you just heard is famed actor Vincent Price. While Price was a film star, he had a unique contract which allowed him to act in as much radio as he wanted. By early June 1944 Price was thirty-three years old and had starred on Broadway and appeared in more than ten films. On Thursday June 1st and then again on Monday June 5th for the west coast, Price appeared with Ida Lupino in an episode of Suspense called “Fugue in C Minor.” Written by Lucille Fletcher, it’s a horror story about a widower and woman who fall in love through their sharing of classical music. As their relationship progresses, the woman learns the man’s children think their father murdered their mother and hid her body in a room behind the mechanism of their home’s pipe organ. The instrument is so large it is part of the very structure of the house.While Vincent Price was very comfortable working in radio, many film stars weren’t.By the time this west coast version of Suspense was airing Monday June 5th, 1944 at 9PM over KNX, allied soldiers were in their boats, slowly making their way across the English channel to begin their invasion of the Normandy coast of France. This would be Vincent Price’s last broadcast before departing for military service. For more info on the D Day invasion, tune into Breaking Walls episode 152 which covers the entire broadcast day.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersIn May of 1944 Orson Welles appeared on Suspense three times. The first of which was on May 4th in “The Dark Tower,” a play originally written by George S. Kaufman and Alexander Woollcott. Adapted for Suspense by Peter Barry, Woollcott had died in January of 1943. In many ways, the play is a satire of Welles’ friend, John Barrymore, and it's ripe with innuendo and other inside humor. Featured in this episode as Jessica was Jeanette Nolan. Like so often in Bill Spier’s productions of Suspense, Hans Conreid played a villain. Here’s fellow actor Byron Kane talking about Orson Welles and Hans Conreid. On May 15th, 1944, Orson Welles was placed on the U.S. Treasury payroll to consult for the duration of the war. His pay: an honorary one dollar. On May 18th Welles starred in part one of “Donovan’s Brain,” based on the 1942 Curt Siodmak novel. Welles played Dr. Patrick Cory, who successfully learns to keep a brain alive outside the human body. The sound-effects were outstanding for their time. “Donovan’s Brain” is considered one of the first adult science-fiction broadcasts.After this evening’s show, Orson Welles and Bill Spier were having dinner at the Players Restaurant in Los Angeles when Spier suffered his second major heart attack in ten months. He was immediately placed on bed rest. In the studio he was replaced by CBS executive Robert Lewis Shayon. Although he’s once again recovered, heart problems continued to plague Bill Spier for the rest of his life. Just two days after the west coast broadcast of part two of “Donovan’s Brain”, Welles spoofed it on his Orson Welles Almanac program. Performed live at the Air Transport Command in Long Beach, California, among those in the cast for the parody were Suspense regulars John McIntire and Hans Conried. For more info on this time in Welles’ career, tune into Breaking Walls episode 104.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersThe man you just heard is Joseph Cotten. In 1944 he was guest-starring on various shows while also hosting Ceiling Unlimited.On March 23rd, 1944 Cotten starred in “Sneak Preview” written by Robert L. Richards. It’s a story about a film director who becomes a temporary detective as he tracks down a double agent. Richards is perhaps most famous amongst Suspense fans for his 1946 script, “The House in Cypress Canyon.” Richards, Joe Cotten and Bill Spier had known each other since The March of Time in the 1930s. The rating for this episode was 9.5. More than seven million people tuned in. Suspense had gained a full ratings point and more than a million listeners in eight weeks. To hear Joseph Cotten on Ceiling Unlimited in 1944, please tune into Breaking Walls episode 150.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersThe man you just heard is Hans Conried. In late 1943 he was thirty-six years old and all over radio. When Suspense moved to Hollywood, Conried quickly became part of William Spier’s trusted circle of character actors, often playing more than one part. Conried honed his craft in the 1930s.To Bill Spier’s credit, he did his best to allow them the time to have parts on other shows. Spier’s rehearsals were known for their loose atmosphere. He selected the best radio actors to be part of the Suspense troupe. This circle included Wally Mayer, Jeannette Nolan, Joseph Kearns, John McIntire, and Lurene Tuttle. Lurene Tuttle later worked with Spier on The Adventures of Sam Spade.Spier had a habit of purposely going into a broadcast with a script that was a minute or two long so the actors were forced into high tension. Spier wouldn’t allow a studio audience. He placed the orchestra behind a screen, out of sight of the cast so that the actors could better concentrate on their performance.Suspense found sponsorship in the fall of 1943 with Roma Wines. The show moved to Thursdays at 8PM eastern time. The first sponsored episode was called “The Black Curtain” and starred Cary Grant. It’s the first time listeners heard both the phrases “A tale well calculated to keep you in Suspense” and “radio's outstanding theater of thrills.”Uniquely, West Coast and Mountain time would get a separate broadcast on Monday December 6th. This broadcast split would continue until September of 1944.The next month on January 13th, 1944 Lucille Ball starred in an episode called “Dime a Dance.” The script was based on a story by Cornell Woolrich and adapted by Bob Tallman. Tallman wrote scripts in a single day with edits done in the hour between rehearsal and broadcast. Thirty-two and a seasoned film actress, in 1944 Ball began to carve out a second career on the radio. She appeared on Duffy’s Tavern, Abbott & Costello, and The Screen Guild Theater. In “Dime a Dance” she plays a dancer in a hall. A serial killer is targeting young women. Her character, Ginger Allen, gets involved in tracking the killer down. This episode’s rating was 8.5. Roughly six million people tuned in. For more info on Lucille Ball’s radio career, tune into Breaking Walls episode 100.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersBill Spier’s Hollywood Suspense episodes got good reviews. He returned to New York for seven more shows while he got the green light to move Suspense to the West Coast. The first permanent Hollywood show was “Fear Paints a Picture” on April 13th, 1943. John Dickson Carr continued as writer until June, but Spier began to look for other voices, like Lucille Fletcher, who followed up “The Hitch-hiker” with “The Diary of Sophronia Winters,” starring Agnes Moorehead. The two would reunite a month later, on May 25th, 1943, for the most famous Suspense episode of all-time, “Sorry, Wrong Number.” Bill Spier did not direct this episode. It was handled by Ted Bliss. Although only thirty-six, Spier had recently suffered a heart attack. “Sorry, Wrong Number” was so harrowing, and Agnes Moorehead’s tour-de-force performance was so gripping to even the rest of the people in the studio, that a now-famous missed cue happened. I’ll let Ms Moorehead explain.Although Spier wanted to repeat the broadcast immediately, it was finally redone on August 21st. At that time CBS was in talks with Colgate to sponsor the series. The performance was heavily promoted, along with a time change. Suspense would be moving to Saturdays with this show. The August 21st, 1943 episode was the first time two different productions for each coast were done. CBS was attempting to deliver a large audience to entice Colgate to buy the series. The first broadcast was done at 4:30PM Pacific time for the East, while the second was done at 8PM for local audiences. Here’s the ending to the August 21st, 1943 broadcast of “Sorry, Wrong Number,” coming from the East Coast broadcast, as it was intended to have been performed the first time. Four days later Variety was enthusiastic in its praise for the broadcast. Hans Conried played the murderer.Besides the slightly missed cue, why was this story repeated so soon after? CBS was flooded with letters and phone calls. A funny thing happens as you listen to Mrs. Stevenson complain, you begin to like her less and less. This was intentional. Writer Lucille Fletcher was born in New York City on March 28th, 1912 and patterned the character after snooty women she’d had obnoxious dealings with in New York. At that time, only forty percent of U.S. homes had a phone. The fictional Stevenson home address of North Sutton Place was patterned after Sutton Place in New York City. It was one of the most exclusive areas on Manhattan’s east side. As researcher Dr. Joseph Webb put it, “regular people” were dealing with the scarcities and uncertainty of the War. Everyone was sacrificing in one way or another or had family members in the service.” Mrs Stevenson’s complaints slowly erode the audience's sympathy for her, but still no one was expecting her to actually be murdered at the end, atypical of climaxes at that time.Despite the praise, the Saturday experiment ended the following week. Spier recovered from his heart attack and returned on September 23rd, 1943, taking over direction. Colgate passed on sponsoring the series. Suspense went back to one national broadcast, but by November, Roma Wines would sign on, becoming the sponsor, and increasing Suspense’s budgets exponentially. #suspense #oldtimeradio #oldtimeradioshows #otr #historypodcast #oldhollywood #mysteryfiction
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersWillam Spier was born on 10/16/1906 in New York City. He began his career as an editor at Musical America Magazine, eventually becoming its chief critic. His radio career began in 1929, when he produced and directed The Atwater-Kent Hour, a Met Opera presentation. He soon became a valuable member of BBD&O’s growing staff of radio writers & directors. In 1931 Spier went to Hollywood to direct one of the first big budget radio programs in southern California. Coming back to New York, he was one of the people responsible for the creation of The March of Time. In 1940 Spier left BBD&O & began working for CBS. He was soon their story editor. Meanwhile, CBS decided to bring Forecast back. Season two premiered on 7/14/1941, with a play from Hollywood called The Arabian Nights. It starred Marlene Dietrich & was directed by Charles Vanda. The following week Kay Thompson starred in 51 East 51 from New York. It was an on-the-scene comedy at a fictitious upscale New York bar. Her director that evening was Bill Spier. The two were soon dating, marrying in 1942.Two weeks later, Spier produced & directed a Forecast episode called Song Without End, starring Burgess Meredith & Margo. It was to be a biopic on musicians and composers. That autumn Vanda & Spier were in New York, pushing for the launch of Suspense as a CBS cost-sustained show. On Sunday 12/71941 Japan attacked Pearl Harbor & Manilla, finally thrusting the US into World War II. The next Sunday, as CBS prepared for the Monday multi-network broadcast of Norman Corwin’s We Hold These Truths, Bill Paley finally approved Suspense’s launch as a thirteen-week summer series in 1942.Vanda got Harold Medford to come East to write. Although Bill Spier was head of CBS’s New York Story Department, it was Harold Medford who polished the first seven shows. Vanda also got CBS musician Bernard Herrmann to compose the show’s score.Suspense premiered on Wednesday June 17th, 1942 at 10:30PM eastern time. The first episode, “The Burning Court” was adapted from a story by John Dickson Carr. Seeking a star, Vanda chose Charlie Ruggles. Known for his comedic flair, Ruggles was in New York for the opening of his latest film, Friendly Enemies. Vanda believed that Suspense could cast against type. It came to be a show staple.Charles Vanda wound up only being in charge of the first five shows. He went into the army. The second show was the John Collier mystery “Wet Saturday,” a grim tongue-in-cheek tale of murder. The final three shows by Vanda were a take on the Lizzie Borden case, a murder story aboard a train, & a thrill kill, “Rope” that Alfred Hichcock later shot with James Stewart. With Vanda entering the service Bill Spier took over the production.Spier’s first episode as producer was on 7/22/1942. On 9/2 Suspense broadcast Lucille Fletcher’s “The Hitchhiker.” At the time Fletcher was married to Bernard Herrmann. “The Hitchhiker” starred Orson Welles. Welles & Spier had known each other since The March of Time. Welles just returned from Brazil where he’d been promoting greater Pan-Americanism on behalf of RKO. It was his first appearance on Suspense. When the thirteen-week summer run ended, CBS was set to cancel the series. The last episode was called, “One Hundred In the Dark.” It aired on September 30th, 1942.In the end Suspense was saved by the amount of fan mail & phone calls to CBS. Spier pushed to link the show with a prestigious mystery author. He approached the agent of John Dickson Carr, who’d written “The Burning Court,” & a deal was soon in place for him to write exclusively for the program.CBS picked up Suspense for the fall season and put it on the air Tuesdays at 9:30PM beginning 10/27. John Dietz returned as director and a foreboding narrator, “The Man In Black,” was played by Ted Osborne.
Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakersIn July of 1940 CBS’ Lux Radio Theatre was scheduled for its summer hiatus. Lux aired sixty-minute condensations of films Mondays at 9PM. Pulling a rating of 23.7, it was CBS’s highest-rated show and Monday’s most-listened to program. Head of CBS William Paley and Program Director Bill Lewis wanted to use the vacated time slot to attract both audience participation and potential sponsors. At that time, CBS’s story editor was William Spier. They decided to launch a pilot series to workshop new shows. They called it Forecast. It debuted on July 15th, 1940. Each week two thirty minute shows — one from New York and one from Hollywood — aired live. CBS petitioned their audience to write in about the pilots they liked. On July 22nd at 9:30PM, a Forecast took to the air starring Herbert Marshall, Edmund Gwenn, and Noreen Gammill. This particular one was conceived by Charles Vanda.Born in New York on June 6th, 1903, Charles Vanda got into radio and moved to Los Angeles in 1935 to be the CBS West Coast Program Director. Although Los Angeles was still a minor outpost for radio, by decade's end it overtook Chicago and matched New York as a major broadcasting hub.William Paley was keen on pushing programming in Hollywood and Vanda’s boss Bill Lewis was a man who proudly championed shows like The Columbia Workshop. Among the people Lewis helped was Norman Corwin.Vanda conceived the mystery program as a drama with famous stars, a large orchestra, and a well-known host. The man Vanda wanted was Alfred Hitchcock. It was Hitchcock who came up with the show name, Suspense.On July 22nd, the day Suspense was to air, Hitchcock was unexpectedly called to New York and wouldn't be able to appear. Rather than change directions, British actor Edmond Stevens imitated Hitchcock. But, the broadcast flopped. Variety said, “Alfy, old boy, don't ever do that to us again,” referring to the open ending. That, along with Hitchcock’s spotty availability spooked advertisers. No one wanted to sponsor the program. Suspense was mothballed. Of all the pilots that aired during season one of Forecast, only Duffy’s Tavern got picked up, and even that didn’t happen until March of 1941. Charles Vanda was soon called back to New York to produce shows like The Columbia Workshop. There he worked with William Spier. Within two years the duo would finally bring Suspense to the air.
Thank you to those who recently supported the show at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers. If you support Breaking Walls for as little as $1 a month, you'll get each episode's show early and in one long documentary. Each month's episode takes me somewhere between 30-60 hours of work time to complete and supporting through the Patreon does a LOT to help me keep doing the show and paying for hosting and other costs. I’ve been doing the show since February of 2018 and I’m honestly not sure how much longer I can do the show without being able to support it. At the $5 and up tier I'm posting other goodies and clips of historic radio interest. Right now I’m posting digitized transcriptions of CBS Dimension, CBS’s magazine of the air in vignette form. It was sent to affiliates via records in the early 1960s and in some ways was an answer to NBC’s Monitor. Expect these kinds of posts a couple of times per week. Also, a couple of times per month I'm going to release an old episode of Breaking Walls, which has fallen off the RSS feed, beginning with episode 75 to the Patreon feed. These will be available at the $1 and up tier and episodes 75, 76 and 77 have been uploaded.Anyway, in the next couple of days I’m going to have August’s episode of Breaking Walls, #154: Stars on Suspense in 1944, uploaded to Patreon. Thank you for being listeners of this show, I really appreciate it. By the way, I don’t always get a ton of feedback, so I don’t know who’s listening to Breaking Walls and who isn’t. I just see the numbers. So if you have anything that you’d like to say or ask me about the show, please send me an email at James@TheWallBreakers.com.
By 1944 Norman Corwin had free rein over his productions. In six years he’d gone from a network rookie to the most-lauded creator on the air. He was now the poet-laureate of radio, a nickname which would stick with him the rest of his life. That March, The Columbia Workshop was rechristened as Columbia Presents Corwin for a twenty-two week run.At 10PM eastern time on Independence Day 1944 Corwin broadcast "Home For the Fourth." In this play, two brothers are away at war. One, played by Dane Clark, gets a two-day pass to see his family and fiance.It’s a slice of American life written and directed in a way that came to define Corwin. He understood that people were a part of, and yet transcended their own time. This play is eighty years old, but sounds like we could have spent time with these people eighty minutes ago.
Words at War was an anthology of war stories “told by the men and women who have seen them happen.” It was produced in cooperation with the Council on Books in Wartime, promising “stories of the battlefronts, of behind-the scenes diplomacy, of underground warfare, of action on the seas, and of the home front.” Each show was to be “a living record of this war and the things for which we fight.”Debuting on June 24th, 1943 from New York, during its first year on the air despite being given a late-night timeslot, it was praised by Variety as “one of the most outstanding programs in radio,” by the New York Times as the “boldest, hardest-hitting program of 1944,” and by Newsweek as “one of the best contributions to serious commercial radio in many a year.” Initially network cost-sustained, it was given stirring music by NBC’s symphony orchestra. The sound patterns had Japanese dive bombers: the growl of heavy machinery, the chatter of machine guns, the steady drone of an airplane as two pilots stood on a runway and spoke what might be their last thoughts. Though sonically important, the success of Words at War could be attributed to the immediacy of its subject matter. There were dramatizations of “the most significant books to thus far come out of this great world conflict,” with the war’s outcome by no means assured. This atmosphere—of a country fighting for its life—gave the stories maximum impact.In the summer of 1944, the show was sponsored by Johnson’s Wax and took over Fibber McGee and Molly’s Tuesday 9:30PM eastern time slot. On Independence Day 1944, the episode was called “War Criminals And Punishment.”
The man you just heard was Raymond Edward Johnson. He is best-remembered for being the longtime host on Inner Sanctum Mysteries on CBS. After returning from the War, Johnson left the show to pursue more diversified acting interests. However by then, NBC had launched their own mystery program which Johnson often found himself appearing in. It was called The Molle Mystery Theater.Launched on September 7th, 1943 and sponsored by Molle Brushless Shaving Cream, Mystery Theater was hosted by Bernard Lenrow as Geoffrey Barnes, crime fiction connoisseur. Veteran radio actor Bernard Lenrow routinely read one-hundred mystery novels each year and personally selected the stories to be dramatized on the show. Molle featured ’‘the best in mystery and detective fiction,” with tales running from classics by Poe, to moderns by Raymond Chandler. The trademarks were high tension and shocking endings.In July of 1944 it was pulling a rating of 9.1 Tuesdays at 9PM. Many of New York’s most-famous radio actors appeared, like Richard Widmark, Elspeth Eric, Anne Seymour, and Joseph Julian.
Opposite of A Date With Judy at 8:30PM, CBS broadcast Theater of Romance, hosted by the just-heard Arnold Moss, who was also known for his acting prowess. Romance first took to the air on April 19th, 1943 with host Frank Gallop as “your guide through the pages of the great stories of all-time.” It went off the airwaves June 20th, 1944 before re-debuting on July 4th as Theater of Romance, sponsored by Colgate Tooth Powder.This episode featured Gertrude Warner and Karl Swenson in James Hilton’s Goodbye Mr. Chips. In 1975 Swenson was interviewed with his wife and fellow actress, Joan Tompkins, by Chuck Schaden.
Debuting on June 24th, 1941, A Date With Judy was the teenage girl’s answer to Archie Andrews and The Aldrich Family. Billed as the adventures of the “lovable teenage girl who’s close to all our hearts,” it initially starred Ann Gillis in a summer replacement for Bob Hope. While filming at Paramount, Hope met Gillis and introduced her to his radio sponsors. They cast her in the adolescent comedy being prepared by writer Aleen Leslie.Leslie had come up through the Hollywood ranks working for Columbia Pictures, and writing for Deanna Durbin, Mickey Rooney, and Henry Aldrich films.Leslie wrote the lead with her friend Helen Mack in mind, but Mack was pregnant and declined. After the birth of her child. Mack came in as producer-director, the only woman to do so in a prime-time role at the time. In three summertime runs, two for Hope and one for Eddie Cantor, Judy was played by Gillis, Joan Lorring, and finally Louise Erickson. Erickson also played Marjorie on The Great Gildersleeve. In January of 1944, Judy was given a full-time run and Erickson held the role for the next six years.In July of 1944 the show was pulling a rating of 9.1 on NBC. On Independence Day at 8:30PM, an overheard election mixup causes comedic embarrassment for Judy’s father.
Virginia Ellen, “Ginny” Simms was born in San Antonio, Texas on May 25rd, 1913. Her family moved to California, where she attended Fresno High School and Fresno State Teachers College. There she studied piano and began performing. Singing with her sorority sisters, she formed a popular vocal trio. In 1932, Simms became the vocalist for the Tom Gerun band in San Francisco. In 1934, she joined the Kay Kyser Orchestra, receiving her first national exposure on his radio program.Simms appeared in three films with Kyser: That's Right—You're Wrong in 1939, You'll Find Out, in 1940, and Playmates in 1941. On April 6th, 1941, Simms and Kyser co-starred in an original comedy, “Niagara to Reno,” on CBS' Silver Theater. The two nearly married, but upon breaking up, she left his orchestra in September. Just a few days later, on September 19th 1941, Simms was on CBS solo for five minutes on Fridays at 9:55. Then on Tuesday September 8th, 1942 at 8PM, she took to the air with her own show for Philip Morris. Originally called Johnny Presents, it was later changed to The Purple Heart Show, with an emphasis on wounded and decorated servicemen. Edgar “Cookie” Fairchild led the orchestra.She starred in more films, including Here We Go Again in 1942, Hit The Ice, in 1943, and Broadway Rhythm, which premiered in January of 1944. On Independence Day 1944 at 8PM, Ginny Simms took to the air with her Purple Heart Show. Opposite in New York, CBS aired Big Town, and both ABC and Mutual aired news commentary.
In early 1942 Norman Corwin began a unique show over all four major radio networks. It was a thirteen episode, non-commercial broadcast called This is War, bringing together the best talent and resources of the broadcast and entertainment industry, like actor Joe Julian.That summer, Corwin went to England to produce a series helping to improve relations between the English and Americans, which were, surprisingly, strained. People like aviation legend Charles Lindbergh were anticommunism, but pro-isolationism and pro-eugenics. All three views were supported by the Nazi party. President Roosevelt was deeply angry at Lindbergh's opposition to his administration's interventionist policies. He told Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau in 1941, "If I should die tomorrow, I want you to know this, I am absolutely convinced Lindbergh is a Nazi." Linbergh publicly denounced anti-semitism in 1941, but many people remained anti-anglo throughout the country, with some even citing the American Revolution and the War of 1812 as reasons.Called An American In England, it was a joint effort from BBC and U.S. broadcasters. Edward R. Murrow would produce. The entire available London Philharmonic Orchestra would be used.The series would be sent back to the states by short-wave. Because it was to be heard live at 10PM for Eastern War time, that meant it was broadcast overnight in England. The result was a limited-release series considered to be among the most important works Corwin ever produced.
At 5:30PM eastern time over Mutual Broadcasting on Independence Day, 1944, The Tom Mix Ralston Straight Shooters took to the air. Originally airing from NBC in Chicago in 1933, it featured the just-heard Hal Peary, and the ever-present Willard Waterman.Tom Mix was created as an advertising vehicle for the Ralston Purina Company. Its format was devised by Charles Claggett, a St. Louis adman and based on the life of a real cowboy, Tom Mix. Born in Pennsylvania in 1880, he became a soldier and champion roper, winning a national title in 1909. Mix began appearing in movies, and much like Buffalo Bill Cody, his legend soon outgrew his actual exploits thanks to natural showmanship. By the time radio got him, he was seldom mentioned in print without a platoon of fantastic adjectives.Perhaps the most famous actor to play Tom Mix was Russell Thorson, who held the role for the Blue Network in the early 1940s, until it was canceled on March 27th, 1942. Tom Mix was revived and moved to Mutual beginning June 5th, 1944 in a fifteen minute serial. By then, Mix joined others like Jack Armstrong, Captain Midnight, and even Superman in the war against the axis. The show became known as “radio’s biggest western-detective program.” Joe “Curley” Bradley played Mix throughout the later run. Bradley was a former Oklahoma cowboy and Hollywood stuntman who had learned to sing around bonfires. As for the real Tom Mix, he had nothing to do with the serial. He died in a car accident near Florence, Arizona on October 12th, 1940.At 6:15PM it was Hop Harrigan’s turn to sign on, over The Blue Network’s WJZ. It starred Chester Stratton as Hop Harrigan, young aviator known as “America’s ace of the airways,” with Jackson Beck as Tank Tinker. Beck was all over radio.Hop Harrigan first took to the air on August 31st, 1942, running on The Blue Network and later ABC until August 2nd, 1946. It was revived from October 2nd, 1946 through February 6th, 1948 over Mutual Broadcasting.Hop went on missions in dangerous territory behind enemy lines. He had dogfights, went underground in war-torn Berlin, and saw heavy service in the Pacific during the battle for Okinawa.
At 4:45PM on Independence Day 1944, The Raymond Scott Orchestra took to the air for fifteen minutes of music on CBS’ WABC in New York. Born Harry Warnow on September 10th, 1908 in Brooklyn to Ukrainian Jewish parents, his older brother Mark, also a musician, encouraged Harry’s career. He graduated from the Juilliard School of Music in 1931 where he studied piano, theory, and composition. He began his professional career as a pianist for the CBS Radio house band under his birth name. Mark, older by eight years, conducted the orchestra. Harry adopted the pseudonym "Raymond Scott" to spare his brother charges of nepotism when the orchestra began performing the pianist's unique compositions.In late 1936, Scott assembled a band from among his CBS colleagues. Although it was a six-piece group, he called it the Raymond Scott Quintette, joking with a reporter that calling at a sextet might take one’s mind off the music.Scott believed in composing and playing by ear. He composed not on paper, but "on his band"—by humming phrases to his sidemen or by demonstrating riffs and rhythms on the keyboard, instructing players to interpret his cues.Also a sound engineer, he recorded the band's rehearsals, using them as references to develop his compositions. Scott reworked, re-sequenced, and deleted passages, and added themes from other discs to construct finished pieces. While he controlled the band's repertoire and style, he rarely took piano solos, preferring to direct the band from the keyboard and leave solos and leads to his sidemen. He also had a penchant for adapting classical motifs into his work.Independence Day 1944 was celebrated with remembrance, prayer, and War Bond drives. Norman Rockwell’s July 1st Saturday Evening Post cover featured a wounded veteran holding up a $100 war bond. The July 3rd cover of LIFE Magazine featured a G.I with a leg wound being helped by a compatriot. There was a prominent sticker on top that said “buy war bonds.”Meanwhile in Bedford, New Hampshire, an unexpected explosion at the John P. Bedricks powder works sent nearly seventy-miles of New England into a panic as windows as far away as Worchester, Massachusetts were destroyed. Despite this, there were no fatalities. At 4PM, NBC celebrated the Treasury Department’s “Salute To the Navy” from Philadelphia’s Navy Yard. Speakers included Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthaur Jr., and Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal.In New York, Edward J. Nathan, Manhattan’s Borough President, addressed a rally of Jewish war veterans at the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Riverside Drive, while the Knights of Columbus and sixty-seven affiliated councils, sponsored a parade and band concert in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. That evening, a Special Fifth War Bond Rally was held at Lewisohn Stadium in City College.
On Tuesday July 4th, 1944 at 11:15AM, the homespun Vic and Sade took to the air over NBC’s WEAF in New York.First airing on June 29th, 1932, Vic and Sade was created by Paul Rhymer. Known as “radio’s home folks,” the show was broadcast from The Merchandise Mart in Chicago. Rhymer wrote the script each morning before heading to watch the rehearsal and broadcast. On good days, one rewrite sufficed. On difficult days, the script would be ripped up again and again and poured over. The result was a standalone twelve-minute sketch that, over time, told the life story of Mr. and Mrs Victor Gook and their family and friends at “the small house halfway up in the next block” in a rural town somewhere in Illinois. The town was populated by strange eccentrics with some of the most wonderful names ever heard in fiction. Most of the characters were only spoken about and sound effects were purposely sparse, save for the ever-present telephone.In radio circles, the show was regarded as one of the all-time best. Among its devoted fans were Jean Shepherd, Norman Corwin, Jim and Marion Jordan, Carlton E. Morse, Stan Freberg, Ray Bradbury, and Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.
Tuesday, July 4th, 1944. It’s been twenty-nine days since the Allies first stormed the beaches of Normandy. They’ve continued to slowly push inland, but the battle for control of the Caen has raged onward. CBS is there with up-to-the-minute news. On Saturday July 1st, A counterattack by German Panzer Corps failed to dislodge the British Second Army around Caen. When OB West Gerd von Rundstedt phoned Berlin to report the failure, Chief of Staff Wilhelm Keitel asked, “what shall we do?” Rundstedt replied, “Make peace you fools!” He was fired the next day. Meanwhile the U.S. 133rd Infantry Regiment captured Cecina in Tuscany, Italy. They’d enter Siena on Monday the 3rd. At the same time Allies and Japanese forces began battling in New Guinea and The Battle of Imphal in India ended in Allied victory. On the morning of the Fourth, Minsk, the last big German stronghold on Soviet soil, finally fell.This kind of war created a need for fast news relays, so much so that for the first time, news was being recorded on the battlefront. On Independence Day 1944, needing to push further inland from Normandy, the task fell to the 79th and 90th Divisions as well as the 82nd Airborne, all of whom had to assault uphill and around a large marsh in the low ground, while twelve Nazi divisions lay in wait, including several Panzer units. The troops fought yard by yard, making slow but steady progress at a high cost. The 90th Division alone lost over 500 men that day.This same day, General Omar Bradley had artillery units in the US First Army open fire on the German lines precisely at noon. Some units fired red, white, and blue smoke shells at the Germans. The message was clear: The Americans were in Western Europe and they wouldn’t be leaving until victory was achieved.____________The man you just heard was Norman Lewis Corwin. He was born on May 3rd, 1910 in Boston, Massachusetts. The third of four children, his mother Rose was a homemaker, and his father, Samuel, a printer. Norman graduated from Winthrop High School, but unlike his brothers, he did not attend college. Instead, he got a job at the Greenfield Reporter as a Cub newsman at seventeen. Corwin was later hired by the Springfield Republican where he worked as an editor. He became known for his column "Radiosyncracies." His first exposure to professional Radio broadcasting came with an opportunity to air an interview regarding one of the human interest stories he'd written. Station WBZA soon needed a newsreader and sought to have the position filled with someone from the local paper. Corwin got the job. By 1929 Corwin fashioned his own broadcast over WBZA, a combination of piano interludes interwoven with Corwin's original poetry readings. He called the program Rhymes and Cadences. In 1931, Corwin traveled to Europe with his older brother, witnessing the growing fascism, social and religious unrest, and political turmoil. It helped shape his broadcasting career. In June 1935, he went to Cincinnati to work at WLW. He soon learned that any on-air reportage of collective bargaining efforts were grounds for immediate dismissal. Objecting, he was fired. Eventually he got the ACLU’s backing and got the policy changed.Corwin came to New York, finding work as a publicist for 20th Century-Fox. He soon proposed a poetry and music program for WQXR. The program was called Poetic License, and it wasn’t long before both NBC and CBS took notice. A few days shy of his twenty-eighth birthday in 1938, CBS hired Corwin as a director for One-Hundred-Twenty-Five-Dollars per-week. Within a few months he directed his first Columbia Workshop experimental drama, “The Red Badge of Courage,” airing July 9th, 1938.On the night of Sunday October 30th, 1938, Corwin was rehearsing the pilot for a new program, Words Without Music. Downstairs, Orson Welles was broadcasting his infamous Mercury Theater “War of The Worlds.”
Hey everybody James Scully here, host of Breaking Walls. If you've been listening to this show for years on this RSS feed, I want you to know that you can also subscribe to the show on Youtube — www.youtube.com/@thewallbreakersllc.I'm asking people who listen here on the RSS feed to subscribe on Youtube because Youtube offers the easiest path to monetizing this show.I'm going to be fully transparent right now: There have been times in the history of this podcast that via RSS feed, Breaking Walls has had as many as 27000 - 30000 monthly downloads, but even with that, it's very hard to monetize the show via traditional podcast channels. However, I've been able to clear the monetization hurdles on Youtube, so please subscribe there. If you happen to listen on a computer or on a phone, I would appreciate if you listened via Youtube.I'm also going into Youtube and slowly uploading all shows from Breaking Walls' archive in individual podcast playlists on Youtube. This way, everything that for years now has fallen off the RSS feed here doesn't matter. You can get all those archived shows FREE OF CHARGE on Youtube. Your listening for free will enable me to earn money, and I'd appreciate that very much.So once again — www.youtube.com/@thewallbreakersllcKeep getting out there, keep breaking those walls, and I'll catch you on the flip side.
Here we are, back at Bill Pogue’s. It’s after 11PM. What do we know? Well, there are less people drinking here than last night, most would rather stay in and listen for updates. On the air over CBS right now is Joan Brooks. Me? I’m just trying to have that nightcap I started yesterday.There are still news bulletins coming out of Europe. It’s almost dawn there. The men will be continuing their missions with D-Day: Plus 1So far, we know that at least four-thousand Allied soldiers have been killed in the initial attack, but the German forces on the Normandy peninsula have either been killed, captured or forced to withdraw to Caen.I’m sure as we speak troops and equipment are being ferried across the Channel. I know the hope is that by the end of June we’ll have nearly a million men in western Europe as we advance north from Italy simultaneously. With the Russians pushing Germany west it’s only a matter of time, but the Germans won’t go down without a fight. But, I know American resolve. We’ll be up for the task, no matter how long it takes. It’s why next month on Breaking Walls we’ll move just a few weeks into the future and focus on Independence Day, 1944. ——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:• Radio Speakers--A Biographical Dictionary — By Jim Cox• On The Air — By John Dunning• Network Radio Ratings — By Jim RamsburgAs well as articles from• Broadcasting Magazine• CBSNews.com• GlobalNews.ca• LIFE Magazine• Military-History.org• The New York Times• The New York Daily News• Presidency.UCSB.edu• RadioArchives.com• Radio Daily ——————————On the interview front:• André Baruch, Mel Blanc, Ken Carpenter, Norman Corwin, Alice Frost, Barbara Luddy, Bret Morrison, Ken Roberts, Kate Smith, and Olan Soule spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear these full chats at Speakingofradio.com.• Himan Brown, Staats Cotsworth, Jim Jordan, Mandel Kramer, and Jan Miner, spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org• Joan Banks spoke to SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com• Fran Carlon, John Daly, and Ben Grauer spoke for Westinghouse’s 50th anniversary.• Ned Calmer, Doug Edwards, Lowell Thomas, Charles Osgood, and Bob Trout spoke to CBS for their 50th anniversary.• HV Kaltenborn spoke to NBC for their 50th anniversary• Charles Collingwood and Bob Trout spoke to the makers of Please Stand By• Bob Trout also spoke to the Television Academy• George Burns spoke with Barbara Walters• Red Skelton spoke with Dini Petty——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• Romanian Folk Dances #3 — By Béla Bartók, played by Avi Avital• Wilderness Trail — By Walter Scharf for National Geographic——————————A massive special thank you to Walden Hughes for supplying so many master quality recordings used in this D-Day episode. Listen to Walden’s shows on the Yesterday USA radio network.
At 10:50PM on D-Day, The Red Skelton Show took to the air with a final abbreviated episode before Skelton left for World War II.When his show debuted on October 7th, 1941 critics were skeptical. Skelton was a pantomimist. How could he succeed on radio? But he was soon getting laughs every eleven seconds and for three seasons more than twenty-five million people were tuning in as he pulled ratings in the 30s. His supporting cast of Lurene Tuttle, Ozzie, and Harriet Nelson were heavily featured.But then Skelton got divorced and lost his marriage deferment. The army drafted him in 1944. MGM and radio sponsor Raleigh Cigarettes tried to help with no avail. The Draft Board also turned down his request to join the Special Services branch for entertainers. This was questioned by some critics, who noted that he had worked tirelessly to entertain servicemen.Skelton’s last radio program was on D-Day, June 6th, 1944. The next day the thirty-year-old Skelton was formally inducted as a private. Without its star, the program was discontinued until he could come back from the war. Skelton lost eighteen months of his career, eventually suffering a nervous breakdown in Italy, and having to be hospitalized for three months. He would be discharged in September of 1945.
At 10PM, across all networks, the President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt, took to the air with a special prayer for the invading troops. Thirty-Five million Americans tuned in. It was the most-listened to broadcast of any kind which aired in 1944. At 10:15 Bob Hope took to the air with a special D-Day Broadcast. For more information on this year of Bob’s life, tune into Breaking Walls episode 148. This is FDR's D-Day Prayer below:My fellow Americans: Last night, when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far.And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer:Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest-until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men's souls will be shaken with the violences of war.For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and good will among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.And for us at home - fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas - whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them - help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.Many people have urged that I call the Nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.Give us strength, too - strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be.And, O Lord, give us Faith. Give us Faith in Thee; Faith in our sons; Faith in each other; Faith in our united crusade. Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogancies. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister Nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.Thy will be done, Almighty God.Amen.
D-Day, June 6th, 1944 was a Tuesday. Ordinarily on Tuesday evenings NBC had a comedy lineup that rivaled the greatest in history. A main part of it was the man you just heard, Jim Jordan, who starred on Fibber McGee and Molly. The normal Fibber McGee and Molly show was canceled on D-Day. Instead, they presented a special musical program at 9:30PM featuring Billy Mills and the King’s Men, leaving room for late-breaking news bulletins. Opposite, CBS presented the first in a new series, The Doctor Fights, starring Raymond Massey in a new portrait each week of a doctor on some far-flung battlefield.The purpose of The Doctor Fights was two-fold: to honor the nation’s one-hundred eighty-thousand doctors, one-third of whom were in the theaters of battle, and to acquaint the public with penicillin. The sponsor, Schenley Laboratories, was one of twenty-two companies making penicillin, and often the stories described wondrous cures resulting from its use by doctors in distant and primitive outposts. Many listeners at that time had never heard of the drug.
Opposite of The Burns and Allen Show at 9PM, NBC ran a special “Cross Country D-Day tour”, hosted by the just-heard Ben Grauer. It was a program from every part of the nation to show what everyone was thinking and doing on this historic and momentous day. The theme was the same: Work, Pray, Fight. The stations included remotes from WTIC in Hartford, WSYR in Syracuse, WTAR in Norfolk, WSPD in Toledo, WLW in Cincinnati, WMC in Memphis, KTSP in St. Paul, and WKY in Oklahoma City.
At 9PM on CBS, Burns and Allen took to the air with a special episode called “Kansas City’s Favorite Singer” with guest-star Dinah Shore. It featured Bea Benaderet and Mel Blanc.Like George Burns and Grace Allen, Blanc and Benaderet spent decades working together, especially on Blanc’s own show after the war and later on The Flintstones.
Norman Corwin was twenty-seven years old when he was hired by CBS in April of 1938. For three years he honed his craft on shows like Words Without Music, The Pursuit of Happiness, So This is Radio and Forecast. In 1941 he was tasked with taking over The Columbia Workshop for twenty-six weeks. These plays are today known as “Twenty-Six By Corwin.” They ranged from whimsy, to romance, to high drama, to coming of age tales. CBS refused to offer the series up for sponsorship. Corwin’s programs weren’t about revenue, they were about advancing the medium itself. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor and Manilla on December 7th, 1941, Corwin penned a play in honor of the 150th anniversary of The Bill of Rights. It was at the behest of President Roosevelt. The play was called “We Hold These Truths,” and broadcast on December 15th. Simultaneously heard on all four networks, sixty-million tuned in. It was at that time, the largest ratings share of any dramatic program ever.By 1944 Corwin had free rein over his productions. The Workshop essentially became branded as Columbia Presents Corwin. Corwin had previously adapted Carl Sandburg’s The People, Yes three times. At 8PM over CBS on D-Day, Corwin presented the first in An American Trilogy on Carl Sandburg featuring Charles Laughton. The following two weeks he’d present part two on Thomas Wolfe and part three on Walt Whitman.Opposite, NBC broadcast a special version of the Ginny Simms show.
At the conclusion of Ronald Colman’s reading of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s poem, legendary commentator H. V. Kaltenborn took to the air with news and comments on the day’s invasion.
John Nesbitt was born in Victoria, British Columbia on August 23rd, 1910. The grandson of actor Edwin Booth, the family moved to Alameda, California. Nesbitt was active in stock theater in Vancouver and Spokane and began working for NBC in San Francisco in 1933. By 1935, he was an announcer at KFRC in San Francisco.Nesbitt produced a series called Headlines of the Past which spun off into his signature program, The Passing Parade, in 1937. The inspiration came from a trunk inherited from his father that contained news clippings of odd stories from around the world. He utilized a research staff to verify the details, but wrote the final scripts himself, often within an hour of airtime.This led to a series of one-reel shorts produced by MGM. On the evening of June 6th, 1944, the just-heard Ken Carpenter was announcer for a Passing Parade broadcast on CBS at 7:15PM in which Nesbitt attempted to capture, in real time, the historic significance of D-Day by imagining its story being retold to schoolchildren in the year 2044. At 7:30PM over NBC, Ronald Colman read a special “Poem and Prayer for an Invading Army” by Edna St. Vincent Millay.
It’s nearly 6:45PM and I’m at an automat getting some dinner. People around here are feeling a little looser as, by all accounts, the Normandy landings had been a success. They’ve got NBC on the air. Just ending is a “Serenade to America'' with Winifred Hite, Nora Sterling, Milton Katims and his Orchestra. Legendary newscaster Lowell Thomas is about to go on over WEAF with a summary and commentary on the day’s events. Thomas has been on radio since the dawn of the network era. He took over as the host of NBC’s Sunday Literary Digest program in 1930. By October of 1930, he was including more news stories. He moved to CBS, but was back on NBC two years later.
At 3PM The British King George VI issued a D-Day speech. The Transcription is below.Four years ago, our Nation and Empire stood alone against an overwhelming enemy, with our backs to the wall. Tested as never before in our history, in God's providence we survived that test; the spirit of the people, resolute, dedicated, burned like a bright flame, lit surely from those unseen fires which nothing can quench.Now once more a supreme test has to be faced. This time, the challenge is not to fight to survive, but to fight to win the final victory for the good cause. Once again what is demanded from us all is something more than courage and endurance; we need a revival of spirit, a new unconquerable resolve. After nearly five years of toil and suffering, we must renew that crusading impulse on which we entered the war and met its darkest hour. We and our Allies are sure that our fight is against evil and for a world in which goodness and honor may be the foundation of the life of men in every land.That we may be worthily matched with this new summons of destiny, I desire solemnly to call my people to prayer and dedication. We are not unmindful of our own shortcomings, past and present. We shall ask not that God may do our will, but that we may be enabled to do the will of God: and we dare to believe that God has used our Nation and Empire as an instrument for fulfilling his high purpose.I hope that throughout the present crisis of the liberation of Europe there may be offered up earnest, continuous and widespread prayer. We who remain in this land can most effectively enter into the sufferings of subjugated Europe by prayer, whereby we can fortify the determination of our sailors, soldiers and airmen who go forth to set the captives free.The Queen joins with me in sending you this message. She well understands the anxieties and cares of our womenfolk at this time and she knows that many of them will find, as she does herself, fresh strength and comfort in such waiting upon God. She feels that many women will be glad in this way to keep vigil with their menfolk as they man the ships, storm the beaches and fill the skies.At this historic moment surely not one of us is too busy, too young or too old to play a part in a nationwide, perchance a worldwide, vigil of prayer as the great crusade sets forth. If from every place of worship, from home and factory, from men and women of all ages and many races and occupations, our intercessions rise, then, please God, both now and in a future not remote, the predictions of an ancient Psalm may be fulfilled: "The Lord will give strength unto his people: the Lord will give his people the blessing of peace."By this time, Allied reinforcements from Britain had already arrived in Normandy. Ground troops linked up with the paratroopers further inland and pressed on toward Caen. However, the allies wouldn’t capture the city for more than a month. Once King George VI’s speech was over, CBS switched back to Alan Jackson with a news update.At 4:40PM the just-heard John Daly, Bill Shirer, and Quincy Howe took to CBS’ airwaves with more news updates.
Perry Mason debuted over CBS airwaves on October 18th, 1943. On D-Day it was airing at 2:45PM from New York. Mason was a crime-busting lawyer, famous in fiction for unmasking killers in court. Though it came in the guise of crime drama, the show was full-bore soap opera. At points, Jan Miner played Della Street, Mason’s secretary. Mandel Kramer played Police Lieutenant Tragg.
That was the voice of Joan Banks Lovejoy who played the scheming Arline Harrison Manning on Portia Faces Life. During World War II she was all over New York radio.On Portia Faces Life, Lucille Wall starred as Portia Blake, a young woman lawyer who battled corruption in the small town of Parkerstown. The show debuted with a crisis on October 7th, 1940 and throughout its entire nearly eleven-year run, the crises never ended. The show moved to CBS in April of 1944 and on D-Day it was airing weekdays at 2PM. The run on CBS would be relatively brief, as on October 3rd, 1944 Portia Faces Life would move back to NBC. ____________That was the voice of Fran Carlon, who at times starred as Joyce Jordan, MD. Jordan started as a girl intern at Heights Hospital, slowly progressing to a doctor, facing the difficulty of being an intelligent woman in a man’s world. Ken Roberts was the announcer. He’d been a radio staple since the mid-1920s, beginning first at WMCA in New York before becoming a CBS staff announcer. On D-Day, Ken was thirty-five years old. Here’s Ken talking with Chuck Schaden about those early days of Network radio. Himan Brown was often the director.
12:45PM brought a forty-minute CBS news update featuring Edward R. Murrow from London, Douglas Edwards recapping CBS coverage, and a Quincy Howe analysis.Following this broadcast John Daly immediately signed on.
At 12:15PM Big Sister took to the air over CBS starring the just-heard Alice Frost as Ruth Evans.Ruth centered her life around her sister Sue and their crippled brother Neddie. When Sue married reporter Jerry Miller, Ruth was able to give her full attention to the care of little Ned. Then, unexpectedly, Ruth fell in love with Neddie’s new doctor, John Wayne, played first by Martin Gabel and later by Staats Cotsworth.
It’s nearly twelve o’clock and time for me to get back to 485 Madison Avenue. At least I got about five hours sleep, that’s more than I can say for many of my colleagues. I just phoned in. The allies are pushing inland in France. A few thousand have been killed on the beaches of Normandy, but the German resistance has been much lighter than expected. The Luftwaffe are nowhere to be found. The Allied command is uneasy, we know it won’t be all quiet on the western front forever. Kate Smith is signing on CBS. There’ll be news updates to follow.
At 11:45AM on D-Day, Aunt Jenny’s Real Life Stories took to the air over CBS featuring Dan Seymour as both announcer and actor. Later this year Seymour would play Vichy French Captain Renard in To Have and Have Not. Unlike most daytime serials, Aunt Jenny confined its tales to five-chapter stories which were completed each week. The cast shifted with the only continuing characters being Aunt Jenny and announcer Dan Seymour, who dropped in each day to hear her tale.
At 11:30AM CBS interrupted their scheduled mid-day programming for a newsbreak and a speech from Charles De Gaulle. Born in 1890, De Gaulle was a decorated soldier during the First World War. He repeatedly admonished his superiors for outdated nineteenth century fighting techniques which included bayonet charges against heavy artillery. De Gaulle’s company became known for sneaking into German territory to spy on the enemy. He was a fierce combat veteran, having been shot in the knee, the left hand, being gassed, and receiving a bayonet wound. He was eventually captured by the Germans, spending thirty-two months as a POW.In between the wars he was a strong supporter of tanks and mobile armored divisions. During the German invasion of May 1940, De Gaulle led an armored division counterattack, and was soon appointed Undersecretary for War. Refusing to accept his government's armistice with Germany, De Gaulle fled to England. He led the Free French Forces and later headed the French National Liberation Committee, emerging as the undisputed leader of Free France. De Gaulle became head of the Provisional Government of the French Republic three days before D-Day. On D-Day he was campaigning for his Provisional Government to be recognized as an official full government.
The woman you just heard is famed New York character actress Jan Miner. In the mid-1940s Jan was on multiple soap operas, like Lora Lawton. Many top shows were produced by Frank and Anne Hummert. The Hummert radio ties grew from the prominent Chicago advertising agency, Blackett-Sample-and Hummert. Frank Hummert was a celebrated copywriter. His wife, Anne Schumacher Ashenhurst Hummert began as an editorial assistant and quickly earned respect throughout the organization thanks to her ingenuity, insight, and resolve. By the 1940s, the duo controlled four-and-a-half hours of national weekday broadcast schedules. They brought in more than half of the network daytime hour advertising revenue and their shows received more than five million pieces of correspondence annually. When they switched their productions from Chicago to New York, they began employing some of New York’s most famous character actors. At 11AM eastern time from New York, Amanda of Honeymoon Hill signed on starring Joy Hathaway. The show used a familiar Hummert theme: The common girl who marries into a rich, aristocratic family. She lived in the fictional Honeymoon Hill in Virginia.When Amanda Of Honeymoon Hill signed off, another Hummert show, Second Husband, signed on at 11:30 starring Helen Menken. Ms. Menken is perhaps best remembered today as Humphrey Bogart’s first wife, but she was a talented actress in her own right. Throughout its history, one of the show’s announcers was Andre Baruch.
At 10AM CBS resumed programming with their mid-morning soap operas. First up was Valiant Lady, starring Joan Blaine. Joan was a valiant lady because she sacrificed a promising Broadway career for her father’s sake, then married a “brilliant but unstable" surgeon. People like the just-heard Mandel Kramer loved working on soap operas from New York.At 10:15AM Light of the World signed on starring Bret Morrison as “the Speaker.”The show was a soap opera version of the stories of the bible and featured some of New York’s best talent like Mandel Kramer, Louise Fitch, and Alexander Scourby.This D-Day broadcast was the very first episode of Light of the World on CBS. It had been running on NBC since March of 1940. It would run on CBS until August of 1946 before once again being picked up by NBC until June 2nd, 1950.When Light of the World signed off, The Open Door signed on at 10:30. Created by Sandra Michael, The Open Door was a purposely slow-moving, character building show built around Dean Eric Hansen of the fictional Vernon University. The stories involved people in his life: their problems, lives, and loves. The star, Dr. Alfred Dorf had known Sandra Michael since her childhood in Denmark. He’d come to America to establish a church in Brooklyn and was the true inspiration behind the character. Unfortunately, the agency handling the sponsor’s account didn’t like the direction of the series. They pressured Sandra Michael into changing the show, but she resisted and the show was canceled after June 30th, 1944.Once The Open Door signed off, Bachelor’s Children signed on at 10:45. It featured Hugh Studebaker as Dr. Bob Graham, a bachelor who took in his dying friend's 18-year-old twin daughters. Marjorie Hannan played Ruth Ann, the kind, thoughtful twin, and Patricia Dunlap played Janet, the fiery and impulsive twin. Olan Soule played Sam Ryder. He was, perhaps, best known for co-starring with Barbara Luddy on The First Nighter.
At 9AM eastern war time, CBS World News signed on with Douglas Edwards reporting. On D-Day Edwards was twenty-six years old. He’d been hired in 1942 by CBS as a reporter and understudy for John Daly. When Daly was sent overseas to cover the war in 1943 Edwards was promoted to lead The World Today, World News Today, and Report to the Nation. In 1945, Edwards was sent to London to cover the final weeks of the war with Edward R. Murrow. He was then appointed the network's news bureau chief in Paris and assigned to cover post-war elections in Germany and the start of the Nuremberg trials.By this time, fourteen thousand Canadian troops had taken Juno Beach, pressing inland. British and American forces, including those at Omaha, took control of their beachheads. The Allies brought in tanks, tended to the wounded and cleared away mines on the beaches. They also started pressuring German forces at Caen. Hitler finally agreed to send reinforcements to Normandy.Once World News Today signed off Robert Trout was back on the air for the final forty-five minutes of the special news broadcast.
At 9AM eastern war time, CBS World News signed on with Douglas Edwards reporting. On D-Day Edwards was twenty-six years old. He’d been hired in 1942 by CBS as a reporter and understudy for John Daly. When Daly was sent overseas to cover the war in 1943 Edwards was promoted to lead The World Today, World News Today, and Report to the Nation. In 1945, Edwards was sent to London to cover the final weeks of the war with Edward R. Murrow. He was then appointed the network's news bureau chief in Paris and assigned to cover post-war elections in Germany and the start of the Nuremberg trials.By this time, fourteen thousand Canadian troops had taken Juno Beach, pressing inland. British and American forces, including those at Omaha, took control of their beachheads. The Allies brought in tanks, tended to the wounded and cleared away mines on the beaches. They also started pressuring German forces at Caen. Hitler finally agreed to send reinforcements to Normandy.Once World News Today signed off Robert Trout was back on the air for the final forty-five minutes of the special news broadcast.
As part of my job I’ve been sent by CBS to Union Square. I decided to stop by my high school alma mater, I’m at the Church of St. Francis Xavier on sixteenth street. They’re having a sunrise mass filled with prayer for our soldiers and other war workers. The people are stoic. Now isn’t the time to lose ourselves in emotion.Sunrise is at 5:25AM. I hear American troops have turned the tide of battle at the Omaha landing point, with warships backing them up at sea.Give a listen to the CBS broadcast. David Anderson, Arthur Mann, Paul White, and Edward R. Murrow have reports from London. Quentin Reynolds will describe Eisenhower’s speech to occupied Europe, while Bill Henry and Joe McCaffrey report from Washington.
The man you just heard was CBS news reporter Robert Trout. Born in Wake County, North Carolina on October 15th, 1909, he grew up in Washington, D.C., entering broadcasting in 1931 as an announcer at WJSV, an independent station in Alexandria, Virginia. In the summer of 1932 WJSV was acquired by CBS, bringing Trout into the young network. He soon became an invaluable member of William S. Paley’s team, and was the first person to publicly refer to FDR’s radio programs as Fireside Chats. On Sunday night, March 13th, 1938, after Adolf Hitler's Germany had annexed Austria in the Anschluss, Trout hosted a shortwave "roundup" of reaction from multiple cities in Europe—the first such multi-point live broadcast on network radio. Years later, journalist Ned Calmer remembered that moment. Trout also played a key role in Edward R. Murrow’s development as a broadcaster. By the time war had come to the US, Trout was in New York and Murrow had put together the staff of international war correspondents known as the Murrow Boys. At 4:15 AM eastern war time on the morning of Tuesday June 6th, 1944, Bob Trout was in the CBS newsroom at 485 Madison Avenue emceeing an overnight broadcast that brought the first eye witness account of the invasion from reporter Wright Bryan. Bryan stood an imposing six-foot-five and covered the story from a transport plane dropping airborne troops. Later in 1944 Bryan was wounded and captured by the Germans. He spent six months in hospitals and in a POW camp in Poland before being freed by Russian troops in January 1945.This broadcast took listeners up to 5 AM. eastern war time. Along with Wright Bryan, it featured analysis from George Fielding Elliot, commentary by Quentin Reynolds, and reports from John W. Vandercook and James Willard.At 5AM over CBS Major George Fielding Elliot gave an analysis of the known information. Elliot was a second lieutenant in the Australian army during World War I. He became a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and later a major in the Military Intelligence Reserve of the US Army. He wrote fifteen books on military and political matters and was a longtime staff writer for the New York Herald Tribune. After Elliot spoke, Richard C. Hottelet reported from London with the first eye witness account of the seaborne side of the invasion. Edward R. Murrow hired Hottelet that January. On this day he was riding in a bomber that attacked Utah Beach six minutes before H-Hour and watched the first minutes of the attack. He would later cover the Battle of the Bulge.At 7AM French time, the Allies began deploying amphibious tanks on the beaches of Normandy to support the ground troops and sweep for defensive mines. American troops faced heavy machine-gun fire on Omaha Beach, the most heavily fortified landing point of the invasion. Roughly twenty-five-hundred U.S. soldiers were killed on the beach in the bloodiest fight of the day.This fighting took the timeline to Eisenhower’s official announcement at 3:32 Eastern War time.
Tuesday, June 6th, 1944 at about 12:45 in the morning. We’re at Bill Pogue’s Bar on the Corner of 88th street and Columbus Avenue in Manhattan. I just finished a twelve hour shift. I need a nightcap before I go back into that low-hanging fog. Did you hear the President tonight? We took Rome. One up and two to go. ____________Only the German outlets that are saying the invasion has started. Paris radio just aired news bulletins and didn’t say anything. London radio told Hollanders to stay off bridges and roads, but that could be normal instructions. You want to know something? I don’t think the Germans are lying. I think this is it. This is D-Day, June 6th, 1944. ____________It’s 3:30 in the morning on June 6th, 1944. I’ve just left CBS news headquarters at 485 Madison Avenue. I parked in Times Square on purpose. I wanted to see if there was any reaction. A few servicemen came out of a bar. I told them the news. They joined others in front of cabs who were tuned to either CBS or NBC. The news cutaway from band remotes sounded haunting. There are scattered lights in apartment windows and one radio shop, closed for the evening, has a loudspeaker blaring CBS. I won’t be sleeping tonight. I’ve been assigned to take the temperature of the emotions people are feeling. The long and short of it is that we still have no allied confirmation about a French coastline invasion. The president was on the radio last night with one of his fireside chats talking about the allies taking Rome. If he knew something about France, he didn’t tip his hand. Bob Trout should be on the air right about now. Bob’s a good man. To kill time he was going to take his microphone into the CBS newsroom, giving a taste of what a nerve center is like with chaos brimming. 10PM New York time on June 5th was 4AM on the morning of the 6th in France. At that moment seven-thousand allied ships left England under cover of darkness. They were loaded with allied troops, primarily from Britain, the US, and Canada for Operation Overlord. The soldiers were split up to invade five landing points along the coast of northern France. The beachheads were code named Utah, Omaha, Gold, Sword, and Juno. At midnight, while I was drinking at Bill Pogue’s allied bombers were bombarding the coastline. Personnel carriers flew inland to drop off paratroopers. The paratroopers' job was to attack bridges and seize several key points to cut off the Nazi supply lines.An hour later, while distracting the Germans at Pas-de-Calais, allied warships dropped anchor off the coast of Normandy to wait for dawn and provide cover for the landing ships.By 2AM, more than thirteen-thousand paratroopers had been dropped into France, with four-thousand more flying in on gliders. They continued landing troops for the next two hours. The Germans saw the paratroopers, but failed to grasp just how big the invasion was to be. By 5AM, Allied battleships had begun firing on the Nazi defenses while the first landing ships went ashore. German and Allied ships clashed in the first skirmishes at sea. As the sun rose, the landing operation was fully underway. The Allied battleships stopped firing as their landing boats approached the shore at 6:30AM, dubbed “H-Hour” for the designated moment of the invasion.The landing ships were tightly packed together. Allied troops dealt with heavy gunfire. Many men were killed before they could reach the beach. Nevertheless, the Allies managed to land their troops, and the fight for the beaches began.
In Breaking Walls episode 151 it’s the spring of 1944 and Jack Benny’s sponsor, General Foods, thinks he’s in a slump. Benny got mad and it changed the broadcasting landscape forever. Tonight, we’ll find out how and why.——————————Highlights:• Benny's Early Radio Career in the 1930s and Ratings Peak• Early Problems with General Foods• Dennis Day Leaves for World War II• Jack Fires General Foods, Signs with American Tobacco• Dick Haymes Replaces Dennis Day as Singer• The Importance of Benny’s Supporting Cast• Jack’s Split Personality• Danny Kaye Guest Stars To Play Jack in A Movie• The Last General Foods Sponsored Show• Looking Ahead to D-Day’s 80th Anniversary——————————The WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:• Sunday Nights at Seven — by Jack and Joan Benny• On The Air — By John Dunning• Network Radio Ratings — By Jim RamsburgAs well as articles from• Broadcasting Magazine• Radio Daily • VarietyAnd a massive special thank you to William Cairns for providing me with invaluable research on Benny’s 1940s run. William has a Jack Benny book on its way. ——————————On the interview front:• Jack Benny, Dennis Day, Phil Harris, Frank Nelson, and Don Wilson spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear these full chats at Speakingofradio.com.• Mel Blanc and Mary Jane Higby spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org• Jack Benny, Dennis Day, Phil Harris, and Don Wilson were with Jack Carney• Dennis Day was also with John Dunning for his 1980s 71KNUS Radio program from Denver. • Orson Welles spoke to Johnny Carson——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• The Hut on Fowl's Legs — By Modest Mussorgsky——————————A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.——————————Thank you to:Tony AdamsSteven AllmonOrson Orsen ChandlerPhil EricksonGerrit LaneJessica HannaPerri HarperThomas M. JoyceRyan KramerEarl MillardGary MollicaBarry NadlerChristian NeuhausRay ShawFilipe A SilvaJohn WilliamsJim W.WildEyeWheel——————————WallBreakers Links:Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakersSocial Media - @TheWallBreakers
In the fall of 1944 after Jack’s switch to Lucky Strike, General Foods did move a show opposite Jack. It wound up being The Kate Smith Show. The company uprooted Smith’s Friday program, countering Benny with a One-Hundred-Seventy-Thousand-Dollar ad campaign. While they did temporarily put a dent into Benny’s rating, Kate Smith lost forty-percent of her audience, dropping to ninety-third place in the overall ratings. The following season General Foods moved her back to Friday, but Kate Smith never again had another Top-fifty show.Well, that brings our look at Jack Benny’s show in the spring of 1944 to a close. I mentioned that Benny’s last episode for General Foods aired on June 4th, 1944.Our next episode of Breaking Walls will move only two days into the future, for perhaps the most important day in broadcasting history.Next time on Breaking Walls, we spotlight radio broadcasting on June 6th, 1944 to align ourselves with the Country’s heartbeat on the day the invasion of western Europe finally began.The reading material used in today’s episode was:• Sunday Nights at Seven — by Jack and Joan Benny• On The Air — By John Dunning• Network Radio Ratings — By Jim RamsburgAs well as articles from• Broadcasting Magazine• Radio Daily • VarietyAnd a massive special thank you to William Cairns for providing me with invaluable research on Benny’s 1940s run. William has a Jack Benny book on its way.On the interview front:• Jack Benny, Dennis Day, Phil Harris, Frank Nelson, and Don Wilson spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear these full chats at Speakingofradio.com.• Mel Blanc and Mary Jane Higby spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org• Jack Benny, Dennis Day, Phil Harris, and Don Wilson were with Jack Carney• Dennis Day was also with John Dunning for his 1980s 71KNUS Radio program from Denver. • Orson Welles spoke to Johnny CarsonSelected music featured in today’s episode was:• The Hut on Fowl's Legs — By Modest Mussorgsky
June 4th, 1944 was the last Grape Nuts Flakes sponsored Jack Benny Program. Jack took out a full page ad in Variety thanking General Foods and their agency Young and Rubicam for ten years of partnership. Six days later, the American Cigarette and Cigar Company deposited two hundred thousand dollars in a special exploitation account for the program. On June 23rd they wrote to Jack stipulating some terms of the agreement. The program would be broadcast live coast-to-coast 7:00PM eastern war time, with a transcribed rebroadcast by transcription between 12:30 and 1:00AM New York time for West Coast stations.In August, Benny left on a three-week USO tour of Australia and the South Pacific.On August 28th, American Tobacco announced that Pall Mall’s product scarcity didn’t justify a twenty-five thousand dollar per week expenditure. Lucky Strike would sponsor the show. The following week they announced a comprehensive, multimedia ad campaign. It was estimated to cost over a quarter million dollars. This changed the company with which Jack was signed from the American Cigarette & Cigar Company to the American Tobacco Company, and was made official on September 26th, 1944.
While the cast of Jack Benny became famous in their own right, Benny’s show had great guest-stars, as Dennis Day remembered.On the May 28th, 1944 episode Jack is in talks with Warner Brothers to make a film about his life. Naturally Jack thinks he’ll star, write, and direct it. Unfortunately for him, Warner Brothers has other ideas. They want Danny Kaye to play Jack and Jack to play Jack’s father.
With Jack’s contract with General Foods nearing its close, the only thing left to do was count down the remaining episodes. On May 21st, 1944, Jack and the gang discussed split personalities. Jack thinks it's ridiculous, but later realizes he has one too. In other news this episode marks the debut of the spoof commercial for Sympathy Cough Syrup. Its tagline “Sympathy spelled backwards is Yhtapmys” became famous.
By the Spring of 1944 Jack Benny’s cast had become its most familiar incarnation. Frank Nelson had begun to develop into Benny’s nemesis, as he remembered in this interview clip. Phil Harris was a lovable and vain drunk. Mel Blanc could play any character imaginable. Others like Bea Benaderet, John Brown, and Sarah Berner rounded out the cast. Most importantly Jack was known to be the exact opposite of his character.On May 14th, 1944 The Jack Benny Program was broadcast live at Camp Adair, Oregon.
In early May 1944 Jack and the rest of his cast were still traveling around military bases in the Pacific Northwest. On May 7th they were at the Naval Air Station in Whidbey Island, Washington as Dick Haymes continued substituting for the now departed Dennis Day.The rating for this episode was 20.1, although lower than his season average, it was still tied for third overall, and first on Sunday evenings.
Hey everybody James Scully here, host of Breaking Walls. If you've been listening to this show for years on this RSS feed, I want you to know that you can also subscribe to the show on Youtube — www.youtube.com/@thewallbreakersllc.I'm asking people who listen here on the RSS feed to subscribe on Youtube because Youtube offers the easiest path to monetizing this show.I'm going to be fully transparent right now: There have been times in the history of this podcast that via RSS feed, Breaking Walls has had as many as 27000 - 30000 monthly downloads, but even with that, it's very hard to monetize the show via traditional podcast channels. However, I've been able to clear the monetization hurdles on Youtube, so please subscribe there. If you happen to listen on a computer or on a phone, I would appreciate if you listened via Youtube.I'm also going into Youtube and slowly uploading all shows from Breaking Walls' archive in individual podcast playlists on Youtube. This way, everything that for years now has fallen off the RSS feed here doesn't matter. You can get all those archived shows FREE OF CHARGE on Youtube. Your listening for free will enable me to earn money, and I'd appreciate that very much.So once again — www.youtube.com/@thewallbreakersllcKeep getting out there, keep breaking those walls, and I'll catch you on the flip side.
By the spring of 1944, Benny’s ratings had continued slipping. That season, his 23.7 rating meant he’d lost roughly four million weekly listeners in just three years. At the end of this season, his contract with General Foods was up. Here's Jack Benny talking about that time.There was tension between the two parties because Benny had helped save Jell-O from going out of business. Jack was also upset with what he felt were second-rate accommodations provided by General Foods during the cast’s ongoing army base trips.Since Benny had full control of his show as NBC guaranteed him the Sunday time slot over any sponsor Benny could sell his program to the highest bidder. Benny’s management team quietly held a sealed auction for sponsorship on February 24th. George W. Hill, the President of American Tobacco, wanted Benny’s show. His chief account executive was thirty-six-year-old Pat Weaver, the future president of NBC. A surprise winner was announced: Ruthrauff & Ryan, agency for American Tobacco’s Pall Mall cigarettes, bid twenty-five thousand dollars per-week for three thirty-five week seasons. That’s roughly Four-Hundred-Forty Thousand Dollars today. The weekly money was payable to Benny for all payroll and production costs. They also included an additional two-hundred-thousand dollars, or three-point-five million today, over the three years for marketing and promotion. American Tobacco also agreed to pay for any network and carrier line charges. The advertising community was stunned.General Foods considered retaliating against Jack by moving The Fanny Brice Show to CBS opposite the Benny program. They also publicized the fact that they were now sponsoring three programs, The Aldrich Family, The Meredith Wilson Show, and Mr. Ace and Jane, for the same cost as just the Benny program.On April 10th, 1944, Jack officially signed a three-year contract with the American Cigarette & Cigar Company to advertise Pall Mall cigarettes for twenty-two thousand dollars per broadcast, including a West Coast rebroadcast.The three-year contract would begin on July 1st, 1944, and run through June 30th, 1947. American Tobacco also had a three year option to renew. Benny was the executive producer. He funded the entire production cost out of his pay. In the case that any cast member, or Jack himself, missed a program, Jack was to furnish a substitute actor for ten thousand dollars, at his own expense. If Jack was absent for six consecutive broadcasts, American had the right to terminate the current season, but not the entire contract. Jack also had to make up for any of his absences by adding additional programs at the end of the season.In the midst of this, on April 30th, 1944 The Jack Benny Program signed on from the Puget Sound Navy Yard in Seattle, Washington. With Dennis Day gone to war, Dick Haymes substituted as the program’s singer.
On April 23rd, 1944 The Jack Benny Program took to the air, broadcasting from Vancouver, British Columbia. It would be Dennis Day’s last show until March 17th, 1946. He’d be departing for the Navy.In April of 1944 Dennis Day was twenty-seven years old. He’d been starring on Jack Benny’s show since 1939, rounding into a very talented performer. Day had great comic timing and the ability to mimic voices well. That year, he’d appear on film in Music in Manhattan opposite Anne Shirley.
Mel Blanc joined the show on February 19th, 1939. Benny was adding a new touch to the miser theme: a polar bear, who would live in his basement and help protect his money. The bear was christened Carmichael, and in 1941, according to Rochester, he ate the gas man. On Sunday December 7th, 1941 Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and Manila, thrusting the United States into World War II. That evening, The Jell-O Program signed on at 7PM eastern time. This is audio from that night.Benny’s show peaked in 1941 with an average rating of 30.8. By 1942 Jack was beginning to get into disagreements with General Foods. Variety reported as early as 1939 that the sponsor wanted to change Jack’s sponsorship to Grape Nuts Flakes. Jack resisted the move. The Jell-O brand had become uniquely associated with Benny. However, by 1942 with wartime sugar rationing, General Foods pushed the product change through. Variety reported on March 4th, 1942 that Benny would take Grape Nuts Flakes, while Kate Smith would now be sponsored by Jell-O.General Foods claimed the output of Jell-O would be so limited by the fall that they couldn’t justify the cost of Benny’s show. The Jack Benny Program cost General Foods twenty-two-thousand dollars per week. Kate Smith’s show only cost ten thousand. With the October 4th, 1942 season premiere the show became The Grape-Nuts Flakes Program Starring Jack Benny. Benny wasn’t thrilled, also feeling General Foods hadn’t done enough to promote his show. After back-to-back seasons with a rating over thirty points, Benny 1942-43 rating slipped to 26.3, losing roughly two million listeners.Jack had a unique contract. Thanks to a verbal agreement with NBC’s President Niles Trammel, Jack controlled his Sunday timeslot. At the end of Jack’s next contract he was free to approach any sponsor, pending NBC’s approval. It meant that General Foods could lose their top star and their top time slot.
In March of 1932 Jack Benny was headlining on Broadway as part of Earl Carroll’s Vanities when friend Ed Sullivan invited him to appear on Ed’s radio show. At the time Benny had no great interest in radio, but he went on Sullivan’s quarter-hour show March 19th, 1932, as a favor. His first line was “Ladies and gentlemen, this is Jack Benny talking. There will be a slight pause while you say, ‘Who cares?”Canada Dry Ginger Ale’s advertising agency heard Benny and offered him a show. Benny debuted on NBC’s Blue Network on May 2nd, 1932.This initial series aired Mondays and Wednesdays. Benny’s wife of five years, Sadye Marks, who’d performed with him on Vaudeville, joined the cast on August 3rd as Mary Livingstone. In storyline she was a young Benny fan from Plainfield, New Jersey. Eventually she read humorous poetry and letters from her mother, and much later she would become a main deflator of Benny’s ego. On October 30th, 1932 the show moved to CBS. During this time Benny began ribbing his sponsor in a gentle, good-natured way. Canada Dry got upset, and despite a rating in radio’s top twenty, they canceled the show after January 26th, 1933. Chevrolet, which had recently lost Al Jolson, was waiting in the wings. On Friday, March 17th, 1933 at 10PM from New York, Benny debuted with The Chevrolet Program over NBC’s Red Network.The June 23rd, 1933 episode was the last of the season as well as Mary Livingstone’s twenty-eighth birthday. Howard Claney was announcer with Frank Black as orchestra leader and James Melton as the tenor.When the show returned in the fall it was on Sundays at 10PM from New York. Benny’s program slowly began to morph from variety into more developed comedic skits. He also started to show the character traits that would come to define his persona. Unfortunately, Chevrolet didn’t like the series and fired him after the April 1st, 1934 episode. But, the General Tire Company immediately scooped him up. Benny debuted on their program the following Friday, April 6th, 1934 at 10PM. There, he first worked with announcer Don Wilson. Wilson would remain with Benny until 1965. Often the butt of weight-based jokes, Wilson’s deep belly laugh that could often be heard above the studio audience and his deep, rich voice became a show trademark. This is audio from that April 6th, 1934 episode.That summer Mary and Jack adopted their daughter Joan. She was two weeks old. Jack later said in his autobiography that as Joan grew older, she came to look like he and Mary. She had Mary’s face with Jack’s blue eyes and his love for music. Benny, Don Wilson, and Mary Livingstone worked together, along with tenor Frank Parker and orchestra leader Don Bestor on The General Tire Show until September 28th, 1934. Then, General Foods came calling. They wanted Benny’s help saving a gelatin product of theirs called Jell-O, which was getting badly beaten by Knox Gelatin in sales. On October 14th, 1934 Benny moved to Sunday nights at 7PM from NBC’s Blue Network. His rating immediately leapt into the top five. On April 7th, 1935 the show was regularly broadcast from New York for the final time. The Jell-O Program would be moving to Hollywood. Benny simultaneously made Broadway Melody of 1936 and It’s In The Air on film. Until the mid-1930s, New York and Chicago were the main broadcasting hubs. Frank Nelson remembered early Hollywood radio. Nelson began working with Benny in June of 1934.Even in 1935, it was still more costly for shows to originate from Southern California. Here’s actress Mary Jane Higby, who grew up in Los Angeles, but moved to New York in 1937, explaining why.On November 3rd, 1935 Kenny Baker joined the show as the new singer. That year, Benny’s show climbed to second overall in the ratings. The following year Benny made The Big Broadcast of 1937 on film, and on October 4th, 1936 Phil Harris debuted as the new band leader. With Phil Harris in place, Benny’s most-famous cast was taking shape.
In Breaking Walls episode 150 we parachute into Easter Sunday, 1944 for a day of radio, recollections, and reconciliation. It’s now less than two months before D-Day and U.S. citizens are awaiting word of a full-scale European invasion with held breath. ——————————Highlights:• Cracks In The Nazi Foundation• Invitation To Learning at 11:30AM• Ceiling Unlimited with Joseph Cotton at 2PM• The Life of Riley at 3PM• Bulldog Drummond at 3:30PM• The Shadow at 5:30PM• The Catholic Hour & Radio Hall of Fame at 6PM• The Great Gildersleeve at 6:30PM• Jack Benny and The Mysterious Traveler at 7PM• Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy at 8PM• Fred Allen at 9:30PM• Bob Crosby and The Thin Man at 10PM• Duke Ellington and The News at 11:15PM• Looking Ahead to Jack Benny Changing Sponsors——————————The WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:• Treadmill to Oblivion & Much Ado About Me — By Fred Allen• Citizen Welles — By Frank Brady• On The Air — By John Dunning• Invitation To Learning — By Martin Grams Jr. • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg——————————On the interview front:• Don Ameche, George Balzer, Jack Benny, Conrad Binyon, Himan Brown, Joseph Cotton, Shirley Mitchell, Brett Morrison, Les Tremayne, and Paula Winslowe spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear these full chats at Speakingofradio.com.• Jackson Beck, Edgar Bergen, and Hans Conreid spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org• Ralph Bell and Himan Brown spoke to SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com• Jack Kruschen and Shirley Mitchell spoke to Jim Bohannon in 1987• Jack Benny spoke with Jack Carney• Fred Allen spoke with Tex McCrary and Jinx Falkenburg• Parker Fennelly spoke with David S. Siegel• Duke Ellington spoke with Dick Cavett——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• Besame Mucho — By Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra• Danse Macabre — By Camille Saint-Saëns——————————A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.——————————Thank you to:Tony AdamsSteven AllmonOrson Orsen ChandlerPhil EricksonGerrit LaneJessica HannaPerri HarperThomas M. JoyceRyan KramerEarl MillardGary MollicaBarry NadlerChristian NeuhausRay ShawFilipe A SilvaJohn WilliamsJim W.WildEyeWheel
At 11:15PM over Mutual’s WOR in New York, Duke Ellington was on the air with music from The famous Hurricane Nightclub on 49th street and broadway in New York City.The next day, The British Royal Air Force dropped a record thirty-six hundred tons of bombs in a single raid on Germany, France and Belgium.On Tuesday April 11th, the Soviets took more northern territory in Crimea. German forces immediately began a withdrawal. That same day, the U.S. sunk a Japanese destroyer and a German submarine.One thing was clear as the calendar turned to mid-April, the Allies were piling up victories and the Axis powers knew they needed to do something to stem the turning tide of war. Although we know now that D-Day would happen in June, both sides knew a big invasion was coming.In the meantime, those people in midtown Manhattan could dance and drink the night away. After all, tomorrow is never guaranteed.
At 10:30PM eastern time on NBC’s WEAF, The Bob Crosby Show took to the air in New York with the just-heard Les Tremayne as co-host and Shirley Mitchell as the special guest. This episode’s rating was 13.8. Earlier this evening, Shirley Mitchell played Leila Ransom on NBC’s The Great Gildersleeve.Opposite The Bob Crosby Show, The Adventures of The Thin Man took to the air on CBS. Based on the 1934 film starring William Powell and Myrna Loy, both Les Tremayne and Les Damon at times co-starred with Claudia Morgan as Nick and Nora Charles. Nick Charles was a retired private eye who just couldn’t stay away from murder. The Thin Man gave its listeners all the censor would allow. Morgan cooed invitingly: she mouthed long, drawn-out kisses and kidded Nicky-darling about his outlandish pajamas. One critic strongly objected to the “oohhs” and “aahhs” and “mmmm’s’’ during kisses. But as feminine and cozy as Claudia Morgan played Nora, LIFE noted that “she can step across pools of blood with all the calm delicacy of a lady-in-waiting.” Parker Fennelly played Sheriff Ebenezer Williams. The rating for this episode was 16.1. Roughly twelve million people tuned in.
In the Spring of 1944, Fred Allen was finishing up his fourth season as host of The Texaco Star Theater on CBS. He’d been on the air for over a decade, but it was while he was hosting Texaco on December 6th, 1942 that Fred debuted Allen’s Alley.Allen used to read the newspaper column of O.O. McIntyre, called “Thoughts While Strolling.” McIntyre wrote about sights and sounds he’d met walking through the shabby streets of New York’s Chinatown and The Bowery. Allen felt that this kind of routine could come off very well on radio.A loud-mouth politician had possibilities. Actor Jack Smart voiced Senator Bloat. John Doe was another early character. Portrayed by John Brown, Doe was an average man squeezed by life from all angles. Alan Reed voiced Falstaff Openshaw, the poet. There was a Greek restaurant owner, an old maid, and a Russian. The segment was always launched with Portland Hoffa asking what question Alen had for the Alley occupants that week. Then they’d knock on various doors. Eventually many of these characters gave way to the most popular incarnation of the Alley with Minerva Pious’ jewish Mrs. Nussbaum, Peter Donald’s irish Ajax Cassidy, Kenny Delmare’s the Southern Senator Claghorn, and Parker Fennelly’s rural New England Titus Moody.The entire alley was allotted five minutes with laughter. Each character had seventy-five seconds for their lines. This was an issue because the program often ran overtime. It eventually caused the whole show to get cut off the air by network executives. The New York Herald-Tribune critic John Crosby later wrote that part of what made Fred's battles with censorship so difficult was that "the man assigned to review his scripts frankly admitted he didn't understand Allen's peculiar brand of humor at all."Regardless, the agency and network people couldn’t argue with Allen’s ratings. He was consistently a top-twenty show, and in April of 1944 he was being heard by more than thirteen million people. On Easter Sunday at 9:30PM New York time, his special guest was actor Reginald Gardiner. Together they presented a sketch spoofing Sherlock Holmes called Fetlock Bones. Unfortunately, the fight was getting to Fred Allen. After this season, Allen quit The Texaco Star Theater as high blood pressure forced him off the air.
Edgar Bergen first came to the attention of American audiences on Rudy Vallée’s NBC Royal Gelatin Hour on December 17th, 1936. How could ventriloquism work on radio? Perhaps Rudy Vallée himself put it best the night Bergen debuted.Five months later NBC gave Bergen his own show on Sundays at 8PM. He was an instant smash hit. Don Ameche worked with Bergen in those years. He was emcee on December 12th, 1937 when Mae West was the guest for an innuendo heavy skit called “Adam and Eve.”Over the next six seasons his show was never rated lower than fourth. Twice it was the country’s top program. On April 9th, 1944 Bergen’s rating was 27.1. Roughly twenty million people were tuned in live, coast-to-coast from WEAF in New York at 8PM eastern and 5PM pacific over KFI. This is that entire Easter Sunday broadcast.
At 7PM eastern time over Mutual Broadcasting’s flagship WOR, The Mysterious Traveler went on the air. Written and directed by Robert Arthur and David Kogan, The Mysterious Traveler debuted on Mutual December 5th, 1943. Maurice Tarplin played the title role with a good-natured malevolence. The traveler mostly narrated from an omniscient perch. He rode a phantom train by night. The opening signature was the distant wail of a locomotive whistle, fading in gradually until the rumble of the train could be heard.David Kogan and Robert Arthur had met in Greenwich Village, New York, partnering on Mutual’s Dark Destiny. After it was canceled, they came up with the Mysterious Traveler concept and prepared three sample scripts. Norman Livingston bought it for WOR. As independent producers, they were paid a flat rate for the whole package. Any money they saved by using the same actor in multiple roles went into their own pockets, so they used the best character actors in New York. Kogan also directed the series. On Easter Sunday, episode 19, “Beware of Tomorrow,” aired just as a gloomy dusk descended upon New York. Opposite The Mysterious Traveler, The Jack Benny Program signed on live, coast-to-coast at 7PM from WEAF in New York and at 4PM from KFI in Los Angeles. By April of 1944, Benny’s writing team consisted of Sam Perrin, Milt Josefsberg, John Tackaberry, and this man, George Balzer.By the spring of 1944, General Foods had been sponsoring the program for ten years, first with Jell-O and then Grape Nuts Flakes. Benny’s ratings had quietly been slipping since 1941. At the end of this season, his contract with General Foods was up. There was tension between the two parties because Benny had helped save Jell-O from going out of business. Benny had full control of his show. NBC also guaranteed his Sunday time slot for as long as he wanted it. This position allowed Benny to sell his program to the highest bidder.George W. Hill, the President of American Tobacco, wanted Benny’s show. His chief account executive was thirty-six-year-old Pat Weaver, the future president of NBC. Benny’s management team quietly held a sealed auction for sponsorship on February 24th. A surprise winner was announced: Ruthrauff & Ryan, agency for American Tobacco’s Pall Mall cigarettes, bid twenty-five thousand dollars per-week for three thirty-five week seasons. The weekly money was payable to Benny for all payroll and production costs. They also included an additional two-hundred-thousand dollars over the three years for marketing and promotion. American Tobacco also agreed to pay for any network and carrier line charges. The advertising community was stunned.The Easter Sunday program was Pall Mall’s audition. In the end, this would be the only Jack Benny episode to have a Pall Mall commercial. Pat Weaver and George W. Hill knew no one would take Ruthrauff & Ryan’s bid for Pall Mall seriously. Had Foote, Cone & Belding, American Tobacco’s agency for its top cigarette, Lucky Strike, entered the fray, the attention would have driven up the price. The last Benny show sponsored by General Foods was June 4th, 1944. Benny took out a full page ad in Variety thanking General Foods for ten years of sponsorship. In August, he left on a three-week USO tour of Australia and the South Pacific.On August 28th, American Tobacco announced that Pall Mall’s sales didn’t justify a twenty-five thousand dollar per week expenditure. Lucky Strike would sponsor the show. The following week they announced a comprehensive, multimedia ad campaign. It was estimated to cost over a quarter million dollars. Lucky Strike would sponsor The Jack Benny Program beginning October 1st, 1944.
When we were last with Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve in episode 149 of Breaking Walls he was gearing up for his local mayoral campaign, while simultaneously struggling to break away from his ex-fiancé Leila Ransom, voiced by the just-heart Shirley Mitchell. On Easter Sunday, Gildy’s mayoral campaign for Summerfield officially began, and he went to church.This episode took to the air at 6:30PM eastern time over WEAF in New York. Its rating was 17.9. Nearly fourteen million people tuned in while having Easter Sunday dinner.
At 6PM over NBC’s WEAF, The Catholic Hour took to the air with an address from Monsignor Fulton J. Sheen.Fulton John Sheen was born on May 8th, 1895 in El Paso, Illinois. He was ordained a priest in 1919, quickly becoming a renowned theologian. He won the Cardinal Mercier Prize for International Philosophy in 1923 and went on to teach theology and philosophy at the Catholic University of America. Beginning in 1930, Father Sheen began a twenty-year run hosting The Catholic Hour on NBC before moving into TV to present Life is Worth Living and The Fulton Sheen Program. Twice winning an Emmy for Most Outstanding TV personality, he was also featured on the cover of TIME magazine. He was appointed an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of New York in 1951, holding the position until 1966 when he was made Bishop of Rochester. He resigned in 1969 near his seventy-fifth birthday and would live until December 9th, 1979.In 2002, twenty-two years after his death, an official cause for canonization into sainthood was opened. Pope Benedict XVI officially recognized his life of "heroic virtues." However, his 2019 beatification was postponed after the current Bishop of Rochester expressed concern that Sheen mishandled a sexual misconduct case against a priest. Although the Diocese of Peoria countered that his handling of the case had already been thoroughly investigated, as of 2024 Fulton J. Sheen’s beatification is still postponed.Opposite The Catholic Hour, The Blue Network aired The Radio Hall of Fame on WJZ.Hosted by Deems Taylor and sponsored by Philco, The Radio Hall of Fame was conceived as a weekly Academy Award of radio through Variety Magazine, focusing on that week’s hits.When it was launched in December of 1943, there was serious questioning as to whether it was proper for Variety to be so intimately involved. How could a trade paper whose business was reviewing show business enter into its production? Ben Bodec, a fifteen-year Variety reporter quit in protest, but the show went on without a hitch.It was a glittering spectacle, stars like Fred Allen, Bob Hope, Sophie Tucker, Groucho Marx, Bing Crosby, George Burns, Gracie Allen, and the Andrews Sisters all appeared. It would air until April 28th, 1946.
Between 4PM and 5:30 eastern war time, NBC broadcast Easter services from the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, as well as the NBC symphony with Arturo Toscanini. CBS broadcast Orchestra music and The Family Hour. The Blue Network aired Music and the Mary Small Revue. Mutual Broadcasting’s flagship WOR aired Abe Lincoln’s Story and Green Valley, U.S.A.. At 5:30, Mutual’s most popular program took to the air. It was their only show in the top-50 and the highest-rated weekend daytime program on the air. Pulling a rating that month of 14.1, roughly eleven million people tuned it. Sponsored by Blue Coal, It starred the just-heard Brett Morrison. The show? None other than The Shadow. In this particular episode, an evil fiend uses an experimental Television device to see anything he wishes remotely. The Shadow’s powers of mesmer don’t affect a TV screen. This fiend therefore finds out the true identity of the Shadow.
At 3:30PM over Mutual’s WOR in New York, Bulldog Drummond took to the air. It was directed by the just-heard Himan Brown. It starred Santos Ortega, known as Sandy to his friends. Jackson Beck was the announcer.Bulldog Drummond was a British inspector popularized in the Paramount detective films of the 1930s. It was first broadcast April 13th, 1941. It spent its entire nearly eight year run on the Mutual Broadcasting System. Opposite Bulldog Drummond, WEAF ran The Army Hour, while WJZ aired Hot Copy.
The man you just heard was radio legend Hans Conreid, known as one of the most versatile actors of the 20th century. He could adroitly handle comedy, variety, or serious drama while speaking any dialect convincingly.On April 9th 1944 at 3PM eastern time over WJZ and at 12PM pacific time on KECA, Conreid was busy playing Uncle Baxter on The Life of Riley.Created by Irving Brecher, the best-known incarnation of The Life of Riley came to the air Sunday January 16th, 1944 at 3PM eastern time over The Blue Network. It starred William Bendix as Chester A. Riley and was sponsored by The American Meat Institute. Riley was easily exasperated, but difficult to defeat. The difficulty increased by degrees with the flimsiness of Riley’s cause.Bendix came out of the New Jersey Federal Theater project, a latecomer to the profession, beginning at thirty when the grocery store he was running went out of business. His film career began in 1942. He was often the hooligan with the heart of gold. Riley was his most famous character.It co-starred the previously heard Hans Conreid as Uncle Baxter with John Brown as both Riley’s friend Gillis and the undertaker, Digger O’Dell. Paula Winslowe was Riley’s long-suffering wife Peg. Sharon Douglas was Babs and Conrad Binyon played Junior.The Life of Riley proved popular enough that in June it was moved to Sundays at 10PM. Beginning in the fall of 1945 it moved to NBC where it was a mainstay for six seasons. It peaked in 1947-48 with a rating of 20.1, good for fourteenth overall that year. A TV version debuted in October of 1949, first with Jackie Gleason as Riley and later with William Bendix playing the familiar role for five years.
Between 12 and 2PM, news, religious, and war programming filled the radio dial. Standouts included the Salt Lake City Tabernacle Choir and Organ at noon on CBS, Soldiers of the Press at 12:30 on Mutual, and The Chicago Roundtable at 1:30 on NBC. Ceiling Unlimited began as a series of informative dramas by Orson Welles in November 1942. It was sponsored by Lockheed Vega Aircrafts and showcased aviation's role in World War II. Welles walked out in February 1943 after a blowup with one of the ad agency men. Author James Hilton took over. It became a Hollywood variety series in August 1943. Joseph Cotten hosted with Patrick McGeehan as announcer and both Connie Moore and Nan Wynn providing vocals arranged by Wilbur Hatch. This Easter episode took to the air at 2:00PM, from WABC, which at that time were still the call letters for CBS’ New York City Affiliate. The Blue Network’s New York flagship, WJZ aired Chaplain Jim U.S.A., while WEAF aired a play called “Those We Love.”
Saturday April 8th, 1944. New York City. It’s a rainy day before Easter and World War II news is dominating consciousness. There are cracks in Germany’s foundation. On Tuesday April 4th, allied surveillance aircrafts photographed the Auschwitz concentration camp. Knowing this, the Nazis will spend the next four months using the gas chambers and incinerators to their full capacity. Twenty-thousand people could be murdered each day. The Germans have lost five u-boats in three days on both fronts while simultaneously facing heavy fighting against the Soviets in Ukraine. They’ve been repeatedly forced to retreat. On Good Friday, April 7th, Adolph Hitler suspended all law in Berlin and made Joseph Goebbels the sole administrator of the city.On this day, April 8th, The Battle of the Tennis Court began in Burma, while Soviet forces invaded Romania. At the same time, U.S. bombers shelled Brunswick. The early 1944 Bombings of German cities gave German citizens their first hard evidence that the tide of the war had turned. And everyone in Europe knew a full scale Allied western invasion was coming.Amidst the gloom, at 1:45PM from WEAF in New York, John McVane took to the air with NBC’s War Telescope looking at both war news and peacetime negotiation. Saturday’s New York Daily News reported on the U.S. navy’s recent sinking of forty-six Japanese ships, while they shot down more than two hundred planes in a three day period. Inflation hadn’t risen in an entire year, as Americans looked forward to international air travel after the war. It made for an interesting Easter Sunday forecast. ___________It’s 11:30AM on a rainy Easter Sunday, April 9th, 1944 in New York. We’re taking a ride inside a 1942 Oldsmobile B44 coupe. There have been no new automobiles manufactured in the U.S. since February 1942. All resources have been put towards the war effort. We’ve just switched on the radio to CBS’s New York affiliate. Invitation To Learning is about to air.First taking to the air on May 26th, 1940, it was chaired by Lyman Bryson with a rotating panel. Based on a class at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Invitation To Learning was developed at the suggestion of Stringfellow Barr, school president, who also served on the CBS Adult Education board. By exploring classic literature, Barr contended that radio could be a keynote in liberal education. Three or four people had a spontaneous discussion about a particular book. For twenty-four years and more than twelve-hundred episodes, the show sparked as much debate amongst listeners and rival networks as the programs themselves. Notable guests included Norman Corwin, John Houseman, Eva LeGallienne, Herbert Hoover,, Hans Conried, and Lillian Gish. Opposite on NBC’s WEAF was a commentary from Don Hollenbeck, while Mutual’s WOR broadcast an Easter Sunrise Service from the Hollywood Bowl, and The Blue Network’s WJZ broadcast The Hour of Faith.
In Breaking Walls episode 149 we’ll spend March of 1944 with Hal Peary and The Great Gildersleeve.——————————Highlights:• The Men And Women On The Front Lines of War War II in March 1944• Hal Peary and the Birth of Gildersleeve on Fibber McGee and Molly• The First Ever Sitcom Spin Off and The Great Gildersleeve Premieres• Registering To Vote• Mid March 1944 News with NBC War Telescope• Gildy Wants to Run For Mayor• The Campaign Photo• A Night In A Foxhole• Looking Ahead to Easter Sunday 1944——————————The WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:• On The Air — By John Dunning• Network Radio Ratings — By Jim RamsburgAs well as articles from:• Broadcasting Magazine• The Library of Congress• The New York Times• Radio Daily——————————On the interview front:• Ken Carpenter, Alice Faye, Shirley Mitchell, Frank Nelson, Hal Peary, Lilian Randolph and Lurene Tuttle spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear these chats at Speakingofradio.com.• Shirley Mitchell also spoke with Jim Bohannon in 1987.• Howard Duff spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org• Don Quinn spoke with Owen Cunningham——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• Besame Mucho — By Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra• Danse Macabre — By Camille Saint-Saëns——————————A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.——————————Thank you to:Tony AdamsSteven AllmonOrson Orsen ChandlerPhil EricksonGerrit LaneJessica HannaPerri HarperThomas M. JoyceRyan KramerEarl MillardGary MollicaBarry NadlerChristian NeuhausRay ShawFilipe A SilvaJohn WilliamsJim W.——————————WallBreakers Links:Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakersSocial Media - @TheWallBreakers
This is the trailer for The People's Recorder (https://www.peoplesrecorder.info/). Brought to you by the award-winning Spark Media, The People's Recorder is a national podcast on the 1930s Federal Writers' Project: what it achieved, where it fell short, and what it means for Americans today.The Federal Writers' Project employed thousands of out-of-work writers across the country to document American life during a national disaster -- the Great Depression -- and “hold a mirror up to America.” What they produced was a series of state and city guidebooks and life-story interviews and recordings with everyday Americans. In creating the nation’s first self-portrait, they sparked questions about how we document history and whose stories get told.The People's Recorder takes you on a journey with the people who lived it. We explore the Project’s legacy, what it achieved, where it fell short, and what it means for Americans today. The first season of 10 episodes will take listeners on a wild ride across the country: undercover Black historians behind the frontlines of the Jim Crow South, documentarians of the Gulf Coast’s cultures, champions of indigenous history in the Midwest, and gurus of migration in the West. Episodes will drop monthly with bonus material released between each episode.You can subscribe and download anywhere you'd get a podcast.
Hey everybody James Scully here, host of Breaking Walls. If you've been listening to this show for years on this RSS feed, I want you to know that you can also subscribe to the show on Youtube — https://www.youtube.com/@thewallbreakersllc. I'm asking people who listen here on the RSS feed to subscribe on Youtube because Youtube offers the easiest path to monetizing this show.I'm going to be fully transparent right now: There have been times in the history of this podcast that via RSS feed, Breaking Walls has had as many as 27000 - 30000 monthly downloads, but even with that, it's very hard to monetize the show via traditional podcast channels. However, I've been able to clear the monetization hurdles on Youtube, so please subscribe there. If you happen to listen on a computer or on a phone, I would appreciate if you listened via Youtube. I'm also going into Youtube and slowly uploading all shows from Breaking Walls' archive in individual podcast playlists on Youtube. This way, everything that for years now has fallen off the RSS feed here doesn't matter. You can get all those archived shows FREE OF CHARGE on Youtube. Your listening for free will enable me to earn money, and I'd appreciate that very much.So once again — https://www.youtube.com/@thewallbreakersllcKeep getting out there, keep breaking those walls, and I'll catch you on the flip side.
On Sunday, March 19th, 1944 Germany forcefully occupied Hungary to prevent the country from making a separate peace agreement with the Soviet Union. Within two days, German authorities forced all Jewish businesses to close, sending hundreds to internment camps. On March 20th, The Battle of Sangshak began in Manipur, India, while U.S. Marines landed on Emirau as part of Operation Cartwheel. The next day they linked with Australian troops on New Guinea's Huon Peninsula.On Wednesday March 22nd, the US OSS began Operation Ginny II, intending to cut German lines of communication in Italy, but once again failed when the team landed in the wrong place and were captured.Volcanic rock of all sizes from Mount Vesuvius began raining down from the sky, forcing massive evacuations.German soldiers killed several civilians in Montaldo, Italy who were part of an Italian resistance group. The next day the group planted a bomb, killing thirty-three SS members in Rome. The Nazis swiftly retaliated, killing three-hundred-thirty-five people accused of helping the cause. Meanwhile, allied forces withdrew from Monte Cassino and the offensive was called off in favor of Operation Strangle, a series of air maneuvers aimed to cut German supplies from the Italian front.That Friday, March 24th, 1944, the Mutual Broadcasting System broadcast a special recording made by marine Technical Sergeants Fred Welker and Keene Hepburn.During the early part of the war Dr. Harold Spivack, Chief of the Music Division of the Library of Congress, and Brigadier General Robert Denig, wartime director of Marine Corps public information, formulated a plan to give a few Marines recording devices to take into the field so the public at large would understand what these men were experiencing. Recordings began in late 1943.
By Sunday March 26th, 1944, with Easter only two weeks away, Gildy had decided to run for mayor. Naturally, he needed a good campaign photo to go with it. By this time, Peary had become a film star, starring as Gildersleeve in both shorts and feature-length films.
As the first day of Spring approached, Gildersleeve contemplated running for Mayor of Summerfield on March 19th. Shirley Mitchell voiced Leila Ransom. Ken Carpenter, by then a famous announcer, was the Kraft spokesperson.
On Wednesday March 15th, 1944 during battle, the allies dropped nearly one-thousand tons of bombs and two hundred thousand rounds of artillery on the Monte Cassino Monastery, while trying to storm the building. They were unable to dislodge the Germans. The allies were having more success sinking submarines. Over the next forty-eight hours Allied forces sank one Japanese and three German subs.On Thursday at a National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics seminar in Washington, D.C., NACA personnel suggested a jet-propelled airplane be developed.On Friday the 17th Mount Vesuvius erupted, destroying nearly ninety American aircraft and displacing twelve-thousand italians, while Soviet forces took Dubno and Zhmerynka.The Soviets were set to begin their third Narva Offensive on Saturday as German soldiers began massacring people in both Romania and Italy. The Germans were facing heavy bombing at home, and all of Europe knew an allied invasion was coming.NBC’s War Telescope took to the air over WEAF in New York at 1:45PM.
By December of 1941 The Great Gildersleeve was such a hit that Kraft ordered thirteen weeks of repeats for eight more west-coast NBC stations to air Thursdays at 6:30PM beginning in January. The program would now air on sixty total NBC stations. Summerfield was a pleasant slice of rural Americana. Most of the action took place in an eight-block area. There was a city park with an old-fashioned bandstand and a large reservoir that would soon come to play a major role. On October 18th, 1942 Gildersleeve would be appointed water commissioner, beginning an illustrious career that might be described as doing nothing at all.The Great Gildersleeve’s rating cracked the top fifty in the first year. It rose to twenty-fourth in 1943, and by November it was pulling an 18.1. In the middle of March 1944 it was up to 19 points, good for fifth overall on Sundays. On March 12th at 6:30PM eastern time, The Great Gildersleeve took to the air with an episode on the importance of registering to vote.In his early twenties, Walter Tetley was already a radio veteran, having worked on The Children’s Hour, The Fred Allen Show, Raising Junior, and many other programs. As Leroy, he was a perfect deflater of Gildy’s tender ego. "Are you kiddin’?” he would snarl, bringing out the inevitable Gildersleeve retort—“Leee-eee-roy!” To Leroy, Gildy was simply “Unk,” a guy whose performance was usually out-stripped by his intentions. "What a character!” Leroy would bleat as he caught his uncle in the fib of the week. He later worked with Phil Harris and Alice Faye.By 1944, then thirty-seven, Lurene Tuttle was one of the most versatile actresses on the air, capable of playing any part that required any age, and almost any dialect. Lilian Randolph played Birdie Lee Coggins, housekeeper and voice of reason.Of note, this recording came courtesy of the Armed Forces Radio Service. At this time, Howard Duff, still an unknown actor, was working for the AFRS and recutting many shows to get them on the air for enlisted servicemen around the world.
Hal Peary was born Harrold José de Faria to Portuguese parents on July 25th, 1908. He was fourteen when, in January of 1923, he made his radio debut on KZM in Oakland. By the late 1920s he was working for NBC in San Francisco. Migrating to Chicago in 1937, he soon became one of radio’s insiders, gaining a reputation as a top utility man.In 1937 he joined the cast of Fibber McGee and Molly playing every kind of bit part imaginable. In the late 1930s, Peary approached McGee’s head writer Don Quinn with an idea for a recurring role. He wanted to play a pompous windbag who himself ran the biggest bluff in Wistful Vista. He thought it would be the perfect foil for McGee. Quinn was the kind of man who innately understood how to write for radio. For Quinn it was simply a matter of creating Throckmorton Gildersleeve, moving him to 83 Wistful Vista, and letting the fur fly.Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve’s first appearance was on September 26th, 1939. Quinn knew the value of sarcasm in comedy. It was also later revealed that Gildersleeve’s middle name was “Philharmonic.”By 1941 the character proved so popular that it was decided to spin Gildersleeve off into its own show. An audition was recorded on May 16th. Peary’s last regular appearance on Fibber McGee and Molly was on June 24th in a memorable scene. McGee and Molly are headed to Hollywood for the summer. Oddly enough by the time they got back, it was Gildersleeve who’d permanently departed from Wistful Vista. Tragically, Gildersleeve’s sister and brother-in-law were killed in a car accident and he needed to go to Summerfield to oversee their estate and raise his orphaned niece and nephew, Marjorie and Leroy Forrester. He left on August 8th, 1941, creating with him a new American concept: the sitcom spinoff. The show premiered at 2:30PM Pacific Time over KFI in Los Angeles, and at 6:30PM Eastern Time over WEAF in New York. Kraft would sponsor the series. They signed on for thirty-nine weeks over twenty-eight NBC Red Network stations. Gildersleeve’s first head writer was Leonard Levinson. The character’s long-running feud with Judge Hooker began right from this first train ride. Music was done by William Randolph’s orchestra. Cecil Underwood produced the show and Jim Bannon announced. Radio legend Frank Nelson, then on twenty-nine, provided multiple supporting parts in this episode. Walter Tetley played Leroy and Lurene Tuttle played Marjorie.
In Breaking Walls episode 148 we spend February of 1944 with America’s top comedian, Bob Hope, as he whisks himself around the country, entertaining troops and broadcasting to the masses.——————————Highlights:• Leslie Townes Hope’s Rise to Stardom• Broadway and Early Radio Shows• The Big Broadcast of 1938• The Pepsodent Program• Early February 1944 World War II News• NBC Dominates Tuesday Nights in 1944• Bob with Guest Ginger Rogers• The 4th War Bond Drive• Command Performance with Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, and Judy Garland• Mid February World News Roundup• Bob with Guest Bing Crosby• Bob with Guest Carole Landis• News as we Leave February• Bob Gets Sick, Is Honored by The Academy• Looking Ahead to March with The Great GIldersleeve——————————The WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:• On The Air — By John Dunning• Bob Hope: The Road Well-Traveled — By Lawrence J. Quirk• The Spirit of Bob Hope: One Hundred Years, One Million Laughs — By Richard Grudens• Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg• Bob Hope: The Road from Eltham — By Charles ThompsonAs well as articles from:• Aces of World War II• Broadcasting Magazine• The Military Times• Radio Daily• The Seattle Times——————————On the interview front:• Bob Hope was with both Dick Cavett in 1972 and Johnny Carson in 1974.• Ken Carpenter, Jim Jordan, Hariet Nelson, Wendell Niles, Hal Peary, and Lurene Tuttle spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear these chats at Speakingofradio.com• Jim Jordan also spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org• Red Skelton spoke with Merv Griffin in 1975• Bing Crosby spoke with Same Time, Same Station——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• Thanks For the Memory — By Bob Hope and Shirley Ross• Ghost Bus Tours — By George Fenton——————————A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.An extra special thanks to Doug Hopkinson who provided the Bob Hope episode with Bing Crosby that aired February 15th, 1944.——————————Thank you to:Tony AdamsSteven AllmonOrson Orsen ChandlerPhil EricksonGerrit LaneJessica HannaPerri HarperThomas M. JoyceRyan KramerEarl MillardGary MollicaBarry NadlerChristian NeuhausRay ShawFilipe A SilvaJohn WilliamsJim W.——————————WallBreakers Links:Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakersSocial Media - @TheWallBreakers
Well, that brings our look at Bob Hope’s career in February of 1944 to a close. We’ll be staying in 1944 the remainder of the year and next month we’ll spend March 1944 with a program considered to be the first spin-off in sitcom history.Next time on Breaking Walls we spotlight Hal Peary and The Great Gildersleeve, which between February and March of 1944 pulled a rating of nineteen points, making it the most-listened to show airing at 6:30PM in radio history.The reading material used in today’s episode was:• On The Air — By John Dunning• Bob Hope: The Road Well-Traveled — By Lawrence J. Quirk• The Spirit of Bob Hope: One Hundred Years, One Million Laughs — By Richard Grudens• Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg• Bob Hope: The Road from Eltham — By Charles ThompsonAs well as articles from:• Aces of World War II• Broadcasting Magazine• The Military Times• Radio Daily• The Seattle Times——————————On the interview front:• Bob Hope was with both Dick Cavett in 1972 and Johnny Carson in 1974. • Ken Carpenter, Jim Jordan, Hariet Nelson, Wendell Niles, Hal Peary, and Lurene Tuttle spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear these chats at Speakingofradio.com• Jim Jordan also spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org• Red Skelton spoke with Merv Griffin in 1975• Bing Crosby spoke with Same Time, Same Station——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• Thanks For the Memory — By Bob Hope and Shirley Ross• Ghost Bus Tours — By George Fenton——————————A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.An extra special thanks to Doug Hopkinson who provided the Bob Hope episode with Bing Crosby that aired February 15th, 1944. ——————————Thank you to:Tony AdamsSteven AllmonOrson Orsen ChandlerPhil EricksonGerrit LaneJessica HannaPerri HarperThomas M. JoyceRyan KramerEarl MillardGary MollicaBarry NadlerChristian NeuhausRay ShawFilipe A SilvaJohn WilliamsJim W.——————————WallBreakers Links:Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakersSocial Media - @TheWallBreakers
On February 29th, 1944 Bob Hope was supposed to be in Mobile, Alabama for the first leg of a tour. He was unfortunately grounded by a cold. Instead, he broadcast his portion of the show from Hollywood, while the cast broadcast from Mobile. Once able to travel, Hope met his crew in transit, but not before being given a special award for his many services to the Academy at the March 2nd, 1944 Oscars. The Hope show’s itinerary included the Annual White House Correspondents dinner for President Roosevelt on March 4th. On March 7th, the cast would be in Miami; On March 14th in Jacksonville; On March 21st in Macon, Georgia; On March 25th a special from the Cleveland Canteen; and on March 28th, they’d be in Colorado Springs.
On Friday February 25th, 1944 "Big Week," the allies six-day strategic bombing campaign against the Third Reich ended with a successful bombing of German cities Rostock and Augsburg, as well as several Dutch cities near the German border. Unfortunately, many civilians were killed or left homeless. The Germans also lost more than three-hundred-fifty aircrafts, and most importantly, more than one-hundred pilots. Meanwhile two large Japanese ships were torpedoed, killing five-thousand Japanese soldiers, but also thirty-five hundred Japanese laborers and hundreds of allied POWs.On Saturday the 26th, more than six-hundred Soviet bombers raided Helsinki. That day at 1:45 PM, NBC’s War Telescope signed on at 1:45PM eastern time. With the U.S. congress squabbling, Europe looked on. On Sunday February 27th, The U.S. Office of Strategic Services began Operation Ginny I with the objective of blowing up railway tunnels in Italy to cut German lines of communication. The mission failed when the OSS team landed in the wrong place and couldn’t locate the tunnel.That same day, the Soviets massacred more than seven-hundred villagers in Chechnya they deemed non transportable. On Monday the 28th, the German 14th Army mounted new attacks against the U.S. VI Corps at Anzio, while also massacring roughly one thousand ethnic Poles in the village of Huta Pieniacka.Although the tide of war was slowly turning, there were atrocities and accidents on both sides, and neither the Allies or the Axis was fighting a pristine campaign.Regardless, Europe understood that in a post war world, if victory was achieved, the U.S. needed to be a main part of whatever League of Nations could be built after, while the U.S. didn’t yet fully grasp just how much responsibility the country would have in rebuilding Europe.
On Tuesday February 22nd, 1944 The Bob Hope Show took to the air with a special broadcast for the Coast Guard. The guest was Carole Landis.Hope’s radio cast from this era is his most famous. Along with Jerry Colona and songstress Frances Langford, the squeaky, man-crazed Vera Vague, voiced by Barbara Jo Allen was tremendous. Blanche Stewart and Elvia Allman played high-society nitwits Brenda and Cobina, modeled after real-life socialites Brenda Frazier and Cobina Wright Jr. Wright filed suit but settled, Hope remembered, when he invited her on the show as a guest. Wendell Niles was often Hope’s announcer for Pepsodent.
On February 15th, 1944 Bob Hope broadcast his program from Santa Ana’s Classification Center. His guest of honor was none other than good friend Bing Crosby.In February of 1944 Frances Langford was twenty-eight years old. She grew up in Florida, and originally trained as an opera singer. A tonsillectomy changed her range and she instead shifted her vocal approach to a more contemporary big band, popular music style. As a teenager, cigar manufacturer Eli Witt heard her sing at an American Legion party and hired her to sing on a local radio show he sponsored.In 1931 Langford moved to Hollywood, appearing on Louella Parsons' radio show. She was soon heard by Rudy Vallée, and in 1935 she made her film debut in Every Night at Eight. That year she became a regular performer on Dick Powell's radio show, which Bob Hope joined in 1937.When The Pepsodent Program launched in 1938 she began a long term engagement with Hope.In February of 1944 Hope, Crosby, and Dorothy Lamour were wrapping filming of Road To Utopia, the fourth in their series of Road To films. Written by Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, the film is about two vaudeville performers at the turn of the twentieth century who go to Alaska to make their fortune. Along the way they find a map to a secret gold mine.While shooting wrapped in 1944, the film wasn’t released until February 27th, 1946. Its screenplay was nominated for an Academy Award the next year.
The week of February 13th, 1944 began with the Allies raiding Hong Kong and giving supplies to French resistance fighters. The next day a British submarine sank a German u-boat in a rare Pacific theater battle involving Germans. On Tuesday the 15th, the Soviets began their first offensive in the Battle of Narva while a Japanese cruiser was torpedoed by a U.S. submarine.By the middle of the week the Battle of the Korsun–Cherkassy Pocket ended in a Soviet victory with German forces fleeing for their lives, while American forces launched Operation Hailstone, a massive attack against a Japanese naval and air base in the Caroline Islands.As that was happening the U.S. scored an important victory against Japan in The Battle of Karavia Bay.Simultaneously, eight-hundred allied planes raided Berlin. The Germans would counter two days later by shelling London in the heaviest bombing of the British capital since 1941. This helped lead to NBC’s War Telescope news program on Saturday February 19th, entitled “Britain is a Fortress.” It took to the air at 1:45PM from WEAF in New York.The lieutenant Elmer Peterson interviewed was James Forrest Luma, born on August 27th, 1922 in Helena, Montana. At eighteen he was too young to enter flight training for the U.S., so he signed up for the Royal Canadian Air Force and was sent to England.A month after this broadcast, Lieutenant Luma was involved with only one other pilot in an air raid that saw three German planes shot down and seventeen others retreat in flames. Overall, he shot down five enemy planes in combat and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his efforts. Later this year, he was transferred to a U.S. Army Air Forces Squadron, serving until July of 1945.James Luma lived to be ninety-six, passing away February 4th, 2019, just shy of seventy-five years to the date of giving this interview to Elmer Peterson.The day after this broadcast, The Allies launched "Big Week", a six-day strategic bombing campaign against the Third Reich, while Erwin Rommel completed a four-day inspection tour of Germany's Atlantic Wall which stretched from Southern France all the way to Northern Norway. He reported to Hitler that the German coastal defenses were up to all requirements, but the Germans knew that the day of a full scale western European invasion by the allied powers was coming.
On Saturday February 12th, 1944, Ken Carpenter was announcer for a Command Performance guest-starring Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, and Judy Garland. Hope had just co-hosted, with Bing Crosby, a pro-amateur golf charity event.Bob Hope did his first remote broadcast from March Field on May 6th, 1941. Initially reluctant to leave the studio, the roar of laughter and applause from that first crowd was so loud, he would recall, that he “got goose pimples” during the broadcast. He was hooked.He spent most of the next seven years on the road, broadcasting from bases, camps, and hospitals. The cast was put on alert, ready to go at the drop of a hat. Frances Langford was given 24-hour notice to “hop a bomber” for Alaska in 1943. They hit one-hundred camps that year, in addition to their weekly radio show. They also went to Europe, doing a show at Messina just after the enemy had fled the town and was still bombarding the area with its artillery.This year, 1944, on a trip to the South Pacific, Hope’s plane had to make a crash landing in Australia. John Steinbeck wrote of Hope, “It is impossible to see how he can do so much, can cover so much ground, can work so hard, and can be so effective.”Newsweek called it “the biggest entertainment giveaway in history.” Many times Hope appeared on Command Performance, broadcast over the Armed Forces Radio Service. Ken Carpenter recalled those shows.
After Bob Hope’s program signed off at 10:30PM eastern war time, The Red Skelton Show signed on. It debuted on Tuesday October 7th, 1941. By February of 1944 it was pulling a rating of 29.9. Ozzie and Harriet Nelson were heavily featured.Skelton was so supercharged that he couldn’t do a pre-show warm up. It left his audience exhausted and practically catatonic during the main show. So Skelton reversed the formula and gave his fans an after-show. Among his peers it was considered the hottest comedy act in town. Lurene Tuttle, who later appeared with Ozzie and Harriet on their own show, also starred on The Red Skelton Show.For three seasons Skelton’s popularity soared, but then he got divorced and lost his marriage deferment. The army drafted Skelton in 1944. MGM and radio sponsor Raleigh Cigarettes tried to help with no avail. The Draft Board also turned down his request to join the Special Services branch for entertainers. Skelton’s last radio program was on D-Day, June 6th, 1944. The next day he was formally inducted as a private. Without its star, the program was discontinued until he could come back from the war. Words at War was an anthology of war stories, “told by the men and women who have seen them happen.” It was produced in cooperation with the Council on Books in Wartime, promising “stories of the battlefronts, of behind-the scenes diplomacy, of underground warfare, of the home front, of action on the seas.” Each show was to be “a living record of this war and the things for which we fight.”First taking to the air on June 24th, 1943 from New York, it was praised by Variety as “one of the most outstanding programs in radio”; by the New York Times as the “boldest, hardest-hitting program of 1944”; and by Newsweek as “one of the best contributions to serious commercial radio in many a year.” Despite airing at 11:30PM on Tuesdays, Words at War stimulated conversation and controversy throughout its two-year run.On Tuesday, February 8th 1944 a story on George Washington Carver was broadcast. When Words At War signed off at midnight, NBC broadcast a ninety minute program for the fourth war bond drive. It was part of an extended effort to raise funds. The night prior at midnight, Ben Grauer hosted this show over NBC.
On Tuesday February 8th, 1944 at 10 PM eastern time over WEAF, and at 7PM pacific time over KFI, Bob Hope’s Pepsodent Program signed on live, coast-to-coast from Oceanside, California. The guest was Ginger Rogers, the program features a salute to her new film, Lady In The Dark. It was radio’s top show, pulling a rating that month of 36.2. Nearly twenty-eight million people heard this show, which is even more impressive when you consider how many were overseas fighting World War II.Hope’s top sidekick was Jerry Colonna, perhaps the wildest comic presence on 1940s radio. Colonna had once been a serious trombonist, playing with Goodman, Shaw, and the Dorseys: now he infused Hope’s program with verbal and vocal mayhem. He sported a four-inch walrus mustache and had a comedy style that blew away any attempt at logic. As soon as Colonna began walking to the microphone, the studio audience warned listeners with laughter.” Hope later wrote, there were two sides to Colonna’s persona: “One is the zany, silly moron, and the other is the deep thinking, serious moron.” His songstress was the immensely talented Frances Langford, equally adept at both comedy and drama.But, Hope was the star. As the late John Dunning once said, No one had ever told jokes quite like Bob Hope. His monologues were rapid-fire blasts of comedy, extremely topical and wildly appreciated by his live audience. Radio Life wrote, “Hope tells a gag in three lines. He’ll work for an hour on a one-word change. By the time he goes on the air, he knows his gags by heart.” He employed a team of twelve writers in three, two-man teams. Each were assigned to write the show’s three sections. First came the monologue; then a midshow routine with Colonna or another member of the regular cast; and finally, a sketch for the guest star. It was a true test of endurance. Hope demanded long rehearsals, including a sixty-minute runthrough with a live audience. He’d stand at the microphone, highlighting his script where the big laughs came. When you consider that Hope’s weekly audience was more than each of the first two Super Bowls, it’s easier to understand his point of view.The biggest problem with Hope, said producer Al Capstaff in 1945, was his inevitable tendency to pack the script. It was always thirty-seven minutes long and had to be whittled down joke by joke until only the surefire material remained. The result on the air was a breathless gush, with six laughs a minute guaranteed.But, that was Hope. Even in his 1972 Dick Cavett interview which has been featured throughout this episode of Breaking Walls, an off-the-cuff Hope can’t help but pack one-liner after one-liner in the midst of a genuine, serious, conversation.The Pepsodent Program was enhanced by Hope’s film career. By February of 1944 Hope had starred in seventeen films since the release of The Big Broadcast of 1938, including the first three Road To films with Bing Crosby.
If you’d have tuned your radio to NBC’s New York flagship, WEAF, at 7:30 PM on Tuesday February 8th, 1944 you’d have heard Ronald Coleman host the Autolite Sponsored, Everything For the Boys. The guest star was Greer Garson.NBC owned the ratings on Tuesdays with six of the top seven shows. Opposite of Everything For The Boys, CBS ran a concert, WOR-Mutual ran news, and WJZ of the Blue Network ran The Girl Back Home. “Barkley Square” is a fantasy play about a man who desires so much to go back in time that he somehow achieves it. At 8:00PM, The Ginny Simms Show took to the air. That month, the show’s rating was 14.6. Roughly eleven million people tuned in. Opposite, CBS aired Big Town, WOR aired The Black Castle, while WJZ aired news. At 8:30 NBC aired A Date With Judy, a female-driven situation comedy starring Louise Erickson. Opposite CBS ran The Judy Canova Show, while WJZ aired Duffy’s Tavern and WOR ran the quiz show, Battle of the Boroughs. This was the most competitive time slot as far as ratings went. In February A Date With Judy pulled a 9.6, while The Judy Canova Show pulled a 12.6, and Duffy’s Tavern had a 14.6. Louise Erickson was three weeks shy of her sixteenth birthday. She held the role until 1949. The series was popular enough that, in response, CBS developed Meet Corliss Archer. After The Molle Mystery Theater aired at 9 PM, the three top-rated shows on radio aired in succession, beginning with the just-heard Jim Jordan co-starring in Fibber McGee and Molly.The February 8th episode was called “Homemade Ice Cream” and had a rating of 35.7. More than twenty-seven million people tuned in. After Fibber McGee and Molly signed off, Bob Hope’s Pepsodent Program signed on at 10PM.
As February 1944 got underway the Soviet Leningrad Front was fighting a heavy ground war against the German eighteenth army in Estonia. The battle would last the entire month with the Soviet’s eventually winning. French Resistance unified under the French Forces of the Interior.The Germans won the Battle of Cisterna in Italy against the Allied army, but at that point, four months before the Normandy invasion, the Allies kept pushing into Italy.Meanwhile, the Battle of the Admin Box began in the Burma campaign with Japanese forces attempting to counter-attack an Allied offensive, trying to draw Allied reserves from the Central Front in Assam, where the Japanese were preparing their own major offense.On the morning of Saturday February 5th, 1944 at 7AM eastern war time, the NBC World News Roundup signed on from WEAF in New York.On the date of this broadcast, Allied powers were slowly inching into western Europe with the body count mounting, while Soviet forces captured cities in Ukraine.Overnight on February 6th into the 7th Soviet bombers attacked Helsinki, the heaviest bombing of the Finnish capital since the war began.Meanwhile, a growing border issue between Poland and Russia caused President Roosevelt to step in, Asking Stalin not to allow it to undermine future international co-operation. Roosevelt proposed that the Polish Prime Minister accept the desired territorial changes and then be allowed to alter the makeup of his government without any evidence of foreign pressure.Wartime needs stretched agricultural production. The U.S. not only had to feed its own civilian and military population, but many of the Allies relied on America’s bread basket. In addition, German U-boats sank hundreds of food-laden ships bound for Britain. Canned fruits and vegetables were rationed starting March 1st, 1943. Less canned goods meant less civilian tin use and less strain on the heavily taxed rail and road systems. Even as early as 1941, civilians were encouraged to grow their own produce to supplement their food. These were referred to as Victory Gardens. The Department of Agriculture produced pamphlets to guide urban and suburban gardeners. Magazines and newspapers published helpful articles, and patriotic posters urged participation.In the Pacific northwest state of Oregon, wartime farm labor shortages led to the creation of the U.S. Crop Corps in 1943. It umbrellaed labor services like the Women's Land Army and the Victory Farm Volunteers. The latter was a group that got parental consent to employ youths aged eleven to seventeen.Migrant workers from Mexico also helped, made possible thanks to the joint U.S./Mexican "Bracero Program."By 1944 farmers could request help from POW laborers held at Oregon Army camps. More than thirty-five-hundred prisoners, mostly Germans, worked in Oregon fields.
He was born Leslie Townes Hope on May 29th, 1903 in Eltham, England. The fifth of seven sons, his parents were William Henry Hope, a stonemason from Somerset, and Welsh mother Avis, a light opera singer who later worked as a cleaner. The family eventually moved to Bristol for a time before emigrating to the U.S. aboard the SS Philadelphia, passing through Ellis Island on March 30th, 1908, before settling in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned pocket money by singing, dancing, and performing, winning a prize in 1915 for his impersonation of Charlie Chaplin. In December 1920, Hope and his brothers became U.S. citizens when their British parents became naturalized Americans. The next year, he was assisting his brother with the electric company when a horrific accident crushed his face. The reconstruction of which led to his distinctive appearance. In the 1920s Hope formed a dance act called the "Dancemedians" with George Byrne and the Hilton Sisters, conjoined twins who performed a tap-dancing routine on the vaudeville circuit. He acted in a double with Byrne, eventually making his way to New York. The act flopped, pushing Hope to strike out on his own, changing his first name to Bob in 1929. He spent five years on the Vaudeville circuit, failing an RKO screen test in 1930, but he broke out on Broadway, first in Ballyhoo of 1932, and then opposite Tamara Drasin and Fred MacMurray in Roberta, which played two-hundred ninety-four times between November of 1933 and July of 1934. Meanwhile in 1932, he appeared on Major Bowes’ Capitol Family Hour and later on Rudy Vallee’s Fleischmann Yeast Hour on June 3rd, 1933 alongside Jimmy Wallington.In 1933 he married his vaudeville partner Grace Troxell. They divorced the next year and Hope was soon with another performer, Dolores Reade. Though they spent the rest of their lives together, and Hope was notoriously unfaithful, a legal record of their marriage is vague at best. The couple would eventually adopt four children.In 1934 Hope signed a six-short contract with Educational Pictures. Radio soon followed. By then, he’d developed performing chops so strong, he could sing, dance, or act in any number of ways. On Friday January 4th, 1935 over NBC’s Blue Network, he debuted in The Intimate Review. This first series was short-lived: ratings were mediocre, but Hope found his first radio foil, comedienne Patricia Wilder, who, with her thick southern accent, went by Honey Chile. The Intimate Review went off the air in April, but on September 14th, 1935, Hope was back on radio over CBS with The Atlantic Family. While he was on for CBS in 1936, Hope starred on Broadway in Ziegfeld’s Follies with Fanny Brice; and in Cole Porter’s Red, Hot, and Blue, with Ethel Merman and Jimmy Durante.The next May 9th, 1937, Hope was back on radio for NBC’s Blue Network on Sundays at 9PM with The Rippling Rhythm Revue. During this run Paramount beckoned: The Big Broadcast of 1938 was to begin filming, and Hope was offered a part. He moved to Hollywood, continuing his monologues by transcontinental wire. The Rippling Rhythm Revue was canceled in September, but three months later Hope joined The Dick Powell Variety Show on December 29th, 1937. The Big Broadcast of 1938 was released on February 11th, and suddenly, Hope was a huge star. On Tuesday, September 27th, 1938 at 10PM, The Pepsodent Show took to the air. That first season, Hope’s 15.4 rating was good enough for twelfth overall. In 1939 he was up to 23.1 and fifth. In 1941 his rating was 26.6 and fourth, and finally in 1942 his Crossley rating cracked thirty points, while his Hooper cracked forty. Hope soon began a five year run as radio’s top comedian.
In Breaking Walls episode 147 we go into the studio with Himan Brown for the CBS radio drama relaunch in 1974.——————————Highlights:• First a January 1974 World News Roundup• Himan Brown’s Big Idea to Relaunch Radio Drama on CBS in 1974• Tuning Into January 8, 1974’s Episode of The CBS Radio Mystery Theater• Mason Adams in I Warn You Three Times• January 13, 1974 World News Roundup — Nixon Still On Hot Seat• Producing The CBS Radio Mystery Theater With The New York Radio Crew• Dead For a Dollar• The CBS Radio Mystery Theater Beyond January 1974• Looking Ahead to February by Looking Back to Bob Hope——————————The WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:• On The Air — By John Dunning• The CBS Radio Mystery Theater, An Episode Guide and Handbook to Nine Years of Broadcasting — By Gordon Payton and Martin Grams, Jr.As well as articles from:• The Cleveland Plain Dealer——————————On the interview front:• Himan Brown, Larry Haines, Mary Jane Higby, Joseph Julian, and E.G. Marshall spoke with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org• Joan Banks and George Petrie were with SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com• Mason Adams spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear these chats at Speakingofradio.com——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• January Stars — By George Winston• Amid Flowers, Beside the River, Under a Spring Moon — By Elizabeth Hainen• Perfida — By Jimmy Dorsey And His Orchestra——————————A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.——————————Thank you to:Tony AdamsSteven AllmonOrson Orsen ChandlerPhil EricksonJessica HannaPerri HarperThomas M. JoyceRyan KramerGerrit LaneEarl MillardGary MollicaBarry NadlerChristian NeuhausRay ShawFilipe A SilvaJohn WilliamsJim W.——————————WallBreakers Links:Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakersSocial Media - @TheWallBreakers
This is the fifth episode of The CBS Radio Mystery Theater. Entitled "No Hiding Place," it was written by longtime writer of The Shadow, Sidney Slon. It stars Larry Haines, Jackson Beck, Anne Meacham, Sidney Walker and Tom Keena.The Plot: Charles Powel, executive vice president of a large company and engaged to the boss’ daughter, seems to have everything going for him. But Clint Livets, who knows the secret of Charles’ past, shows up with a dirty hand and blackmail on his mind.
Well, that brings our look at the launch of The CBS Radio Mystery Theater to a close. We’ve spent the past five months making our way forward in time from 1957, to 1963, to 1973, and finally 1974.But, next month on Breaking Walls we’ll head back to the middle of radio’s golden age and focus on one of the most successful comedians of all-time.Next time on Breaking Walls, it’s February of 1944 and between entertaining troops, smashing box office numbers, and notoriously carousing, the man jokingly referred to by friend Bing Crosby as “ol trowel nose,” Bob Hope, is radio’s top comedian. For the first time in six years of Breaking Walls episodes, we’ll focus on the man who always reminded us to say, thanks for the memories.The reading material used in today’s episode was:• On The Air — By John Dunning• The CBS Radio Mystery Theater, An Episode Guide and Handbook to Nine Years of Broadcasting — By Gordon Payton and Martin Grams, Jr. As well as articles from:• The Cleveland Plain Dealer——————————On the interview front:• Himan Brown, Larry Haines, Mary Jane Higby, Joseph Julian, and E.G. Marshall spoke with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org• Joan Banks and George Petrie were with SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com• Mason Adams spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear these chats at Speakingofradio.com——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• January Stars — By George Winston• Amid Flowers, Beside the River, Under a Spring Moon — By Elizabeth Hainen• Perfida — By Jimmy Dorsey And His Orchestra——————————A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.——————————Thank you to:Tony AdamsSteven AllmonOrson Orsen ChandlerPhil EricksonJessica HannaPerri HarperThomas M. JoyceRyan KramerEarl MillardGary MollicaBarry NadlerChristian NeuhausRay ShawFilipe A SilvaJohn WilliamsJim W.——————————
Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 28th, 1974 — CBS 'Theater's' Brown Burns about Serling "I'm proud of every minute we're on the air...and I'll stand up for every single show I do." Speaking of The CBS Radio Mystery Theater was Himan Brown, executive producer of the nationwide show that premiered January 6th and has garnered good ratings.His comments were the beginning of a rebuttal to negative remarks made about the show and The Zero Hour on these pages June 16th by Rod Serling, who narrated the latter program, which was dropped by Mutual last Friday.Brown burned. “My stories have complete relevancy to all that's going on now--exorcism, reincarnation--all stories of the moment. We're doing contemporary stories with the best writers and actors in the business. I think radio drama, contrary to what Serling says, is here forever and a day--and never will be off the networks again."Serling has written TV shows, movies, and books, but his only previous radio drama was written while he was a summer replacement at WLW in Cincinnati. "It’s all sour grapes. Serling's relationship to radio has been a total failure," Brown said. “His criticism of his own show is a complete slur of his own integrity, because in the past he lent his narrative name or talents to what he wrote. The implication is that he was much involved with the stories on The Zero Hour and that's a fake.”Brown believes in Mystery Theater with all his heart. “It took me fifteen years to sell it, but it's been a happy fulfillment."The show has gone so well that Brown has a verbal renewal to go into a second year. He wouldn't discuss it, but Brown admitted that he has packaged a two-hour weekly Sunday drama series for CBS Radio that would debut early next year.Getting back to Mystery Theater, Brown admitted that he can't bat one-thousand on the series. "But I'll bat eight-hundred." He produces, directs, edits scripts, casts the shows and signs the checks.“The show has gone far beyond anything I ever hoped for. People are listening seven nights a week. The minute we put on the first repeats, the stations' switchboards lit up.” The first year's contract calls for one-hundred ninety-five new shows and one-hundred seventy repeats. Usually produced in New York, the program will invade Hollywood for talent there for the recording of eight mysteries, beginning August 5th.Born in Manhattan and with degrees from City College of New York and Brooklyn Law School--although he has never practiced law--Brown moved into TV production when radio drama fell by the wayside some fifteen years ago.Now, with The CBS Radio Mystery Theater, he's back home. "It's the greatest homecoming a man could possibly want." — Raymond P. HartAlthough Rod Serling was disappointed with Mutual broadcasting’s treatment of The Zero Hour, as covered in the previous episode of Breaking Walls, in 1974 Himan Brown’s Mystery Theater won a Peabody Award for helping to usher in a new era of radio entertainment.It would run for eight more years until finally going off the air on December 31st, 1982. More than fifteen hundred episodes were produced. Most survive in listening quality.
On Monday January 21st, 1974 the just-heard Joe Julian co-starred with Paul Hecht, Joan Banks, Mary Jane Higby, Tony Roberts, and George Petrie in Murray Burnett’s story “Dead for a Dollar” on The CBS Radio Mystery Theater.Radio legend Joan Banks played secretary Kay Woodhouse. George Petrie played Jason Grant. He’d been appearing on radio since the early days of the Great Depression. Mary Jane Higby played Denise Grant. She’d come to New York City from Hollywood in 1937.
By the time The CBS Radio Mystery Theater debuted, the men and women associated with the show had been involved with each other for nearly forty years.Mary Jane Higby grew up in Los Angeles and remembered Hollywood before it was a radio hub. She was once called Queen of the soaps. Joan Banks, who later married Frank Lovejoy, remembered the New York hangouts. There she spent time with men and women like the oft-heavy Larry Haines. These men and women were usually overbooked. Joan Banks went to the west coast in 1948.It was about then that Television came into the picture. E.G. Marshall was a part of it from the start. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before radio began to decline, as Joe Julian remembered. But nearly twenty years later, thanks to Himan Brown, CBS was back in the radio drama business in 1974.
On Thursday, January 10th, 1974 the crew of Skylab 4, which had been orbiting the earth for more than fifty days, was granted a day off. The week prior, during a televised news conference Mission commander Gerald Carr said he missed cold beer and football.That same day the U.S. carried out three simultaneous nuclear explosions as part of Operation Arbor in Nevada. January 13th was Super Bowl VIII Sunday. The defending champion Miami Dolphins faced off against the Minnesota Vikings at Rice Stadium in Houston. More than seventy thousand were in attendance. That evening. Floyd Kalber signed on for NBC’s news with coverage of potential peace between Egypt and Israel, brokered by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Looking for a solution to the ongoing Middle East crisis, Kissinger spent ten hours meeting with Israeli officials, hammering out a proposal for a peace settlement with Egypt. He next flew to Cairo to present the document to Anwar Sadat.After meeting Sadat, the plan was to return to Tel-Aviv with Sadat’s version of the proposal for Israel’s acceptance or rejection. This was good for President Nixon, who despite an eighteen day birthday vacation in California, and an insistence that he would leave the past behind and focus on 1974, couldn’t seem to shake Watergate, the energy crisis, and continued high inflation.
On Saturday, January 12th, 1974, the just heard Mason Adams starred alongside Joan Loring, Tom Keena, Sam Gray, and Alan Manson in the seventh episode of The CBS Radio Mystery Theater.This aircheck comes from WOR and it's a mystery in the truest sense of the word. Joan Lorring, who voiced Hedy, was at the time of this broadcast forty-seven years old. She’d already been nominated for an Academy Award in The Corn Is Green in 1945, and won a Donaldson, the predecessor of the Tony, in 1950 for her portrayal of Marie Buckholder in Come Back, Little Sheba.On radio, her career spanned the gamut. She starred as Judy Foster in the second season of A Date With Judy, played on Suspense in the 1940s, in Theater Five in the 1960s, and finally on The CBS Radio Mystery Theater in the 1970s. Later this year she appeared in Burt Lancaster’s neo noir mystery film The Midnight Man.
The New York Daily News was unenthusiastic in its review of the first two episodes, however the third episode caught their attention. On the evening of Tuesday, January 8th, 1974 The CBS Radio Mystery Theater took to the air with their third installment, called “The Bullet,” guest-starring the just-heard radio, TV, and stage legend Larry Haines. Larry Haines had been involved with New York radio for decades. The same month he was starring in this episode of The CBS Radio Mystery Theater he spoke with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcordan for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio.Also featured in this cast was Evelyn Juster, Martin Newman, Danny Ocko, Leon Janney, and Ralph Bell. It was written by radio writing legend Sam Dann.
Tuesday, January 8th, 1974.It’s a cold night in Brooklyn, New York. There’s snow in the forecast. We’re driving north on Shore Road, towards the Belt Parkway in a 1973 Ford Maverick. Thanks to the oil crisis, smaller cars like the Maverick are becoming increasingly popular.On January 2nd, President Nixon signed a law lowering the maximum speed limit on U.S. highways to fifty-five miles per hour. It conserved gasoline during the embargo. Highway fatalities dropped twenty three percent over the next year. The limit remained in effect for thirteen years.Unfortunately for Nixon, the Watergate scandal wouldn’t go away. Citing executive privilege, on January 4th, Nixon refused to surrender over five hundred subpoenaed tapes to the Watergate Committee. On this night, Tuesday January 8th, John Chancellor signed on with news and updates from NBC. On this day, New York City instituted measures against gas shortage abuse.The day after this broadcast, Representatives from the twelve member nations of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries finished a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, voting for a three-month freeze on oil prices. But this isn’t why we’re here. As Mutual Broadcasting was getting back into radio drama with The Zero Hour, longtime director Himan Brown finally convinced CBS to give him a nightly hour of time to produce new eerie radio plays. Tonight, we’ll go back to January 1974 and study how this moment in time came to be. ____________In January 1974 Himan Brown was sixty-three years old, having been on the air since the age of eighteen. Brown is noted for having created Bulldog Drummond, Grand Central Station, Dick Tracy, and Inner Sanctum Mysteries. He was itching for the chance to create new dramatic radio.CBS executive Sam Digges was fifty-seven, and close friends with Brown, but the CBS network board could perhaps have been a harder sell for a program that was to air every night of the week. CBS hadn’t produced any dramatic shows since September of 1962. Over the eleven years since, numerous technological advancements had been made. In order to produce a show that was to air every night of the week, a dedicated studio would be developed. They used Studio G on the sixth floor of the old CBS Radio Annex on East 52nd street. The writers would be paid three-hundred fifty dollars per script. That’s a little more than two thousand dollars today. As Himan Brown mentioned, in New York City CBS aired news, so Mutual Broadcasting’s flagship WOR picked up the series just one month after Mutual began airing The Zero Hour.Acting talent would work for SAG-AFTRA scale. Actor E.G. Marshall was tabbed to be the host. In 1973 Marshall was known for his prominent role in the 1957 Twelve Angry Men, and on TV’s The Defenders. As a host, he harkened back to the Golden Age of Radio when characters such as The Man In Black, The Whistler, The Mysterious Traveler, and Raymond hosted macabre programs. The CBS Radio Mystery Theater would debut on Sunday January 6th, 1974 with Agnes Moorehead starring in “The Old Ones Are Hard To Kill.” Two-hundred eighteen stations carried the series, including twenty-one which were not CBS affiliates.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2sZTlF006NpivktbnUVn-gHey everyone, James Scully here. Happy holidays! For those that don't know, once I get to 500 Youtube subscribers I can begin to earn through Youtube's earning program. I'm less than 50 subscribers away and I'm trying to get there by the end of the year. If you like the show, please subscribe and tell a few friends! It's free to subscribe. The link is above.All episodes of Breaking Walls from January 2022 onward have been uploaded to the youtube page. I've also begun to add the archive of 2018-2021 episodes as well.And just so you know, the next episode of Breaking Walls, #147,which will debut next week, will feature the launch of the CBS Radio Mystery Theater in honor of the 50th anniversary of its launch in 1974.Please subscribe on Youtube if you don't. You'll get the same feed there, but I'll be able to being earning through the earning program and I'd appreciate that very much.So, my name is James Scully. Keep getting out there, keep breaking those walls, and I'll catch you on the flip side. Thank you very much.
In Breaking Walls episode 146 we spotlight the Jay Kholos, Elliott Lewis, and Rod Serling series The Zero Hour in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of its debut on the Mutual Broadcasting System in December of 1973.——————————Highlights:• Radio Drama Coming Back in 1973• Jay Kholos Conceives The Zero Hour — Rod Serling Will Host• The Zero Hour Is On the Air• WRVR and Selling Radio Shows In the 1970s• Nixon On The Hot Seat• AFTRA’s Moving Goal Posts — Kholos Must Sell The Zero Hour’s Rights• Selling The Zero Hour to Mutual• Elliott Lewis and Jay Kholos Leave The Zero Hour• Mutual Cancels The Zero Hour and Rod Serling is Disappointed• Life After Radio Drama• Looking Ahead to the CBS Radio Mystery Theater——————————The WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:• On The Air — By John Dunning• A Pictorial History of Radio’s First 75 Years — By B. Eric Rhoads• The Radio Career of Rod Serling — By Martin Grams Jr’sThe archive from Digital Deli’s Zero Hour page.As well as articles from:• The Arizona Republic• The Associated Press The Cleveland Plain Dealer Pacific Stars and Stripes• The San Mateo Times• The Van Wert Times Bulletin——————————On the interview front:• Himan Brown and Howard Duff spoke with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org• Howard Duff, Elliott Lewis, Les Tremayne, Janet Waldo, and Paula Winslowe spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear these chats at Speakingofradio.com• Mary Jane Croft, Byron Kane, and Elliott Lewis spoke with SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com• Jay M. Kholos was interviewed by Yours Truly, James Scully in January 2018——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• Caravan — By Eighty Drums Around The World• What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve — By Nancy Wilson——————————A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.——————————Thank you to:Tony AdamsSteven AllmonOrson Orsen ChandlerPhil EricksonJessica HannaPerri HarperThomas M. JoyceRyan KramerEarl MillardGary MollicaBarry NadlerChristian NeuhausRay ShawFilipe A SilvaJohn WilliamsJim W.——————————WallBreakers Links:Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakersSocial Media - @TheWallBreakers
Although The Zero Hour went off the air in the spring of 1974, the people involved didn’t stop working. Rod Serling always kept a full schedule. His final radio performance was part of Fantasy Park. A fantasy rock concert aired by nearly two-hundred stations in 1974 and 1975. Always a heavy smoker, on May 3rd, 1975, Serling had a heart attack. A second heart attack two weeks later forced doctors to agree that a risky open-heart surgery was necessary. On June 26th, Serling had a third heart attack on the operating table and died two days later at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York. He was just fifty. His funeral and burial took place on July 2nd in Seneca, New York.Elliott Lewis would continue in Television, before again working with Mutual on radio dramas at the end of the decade.Jay Kholos continued innovating, eventually forming the theater company, Orchard Street Productions, in 2001. These days he lives in Nashville, where Kholos writes music and scripts for his own productions, while Orchard Street also licenses musicals and plays for local, regional and North American tours.
Once Mutual finished running the last of the Lewis-directed Jay Kholos episodes of The Zero Hour on March 14th, 1974, they went dark for six weeks. They were busy completely changing the format.Now, one star would be featured in five different anthologies during a week. The show returned on April 29th. The first week’s star was Mel Torme. “Bye Bye Narco” was the first new script produced under Mutual’s umbrella.Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 16th, 1974 “Rod Serling, master writer of the mysterious and macabre, is playing a game of suspense with the good earth. On the side, he serves as host of The Zero Hour, a weekday radio mystery series beamed by the Mutual Broadcasting System.“Serling's feelings about the recent upsurge in radio drama prompted a call to his rural home. It soon became apparent that he is disappointed with radio drama and TV. “Serling made it clear that he has nothing to do with the writing or producing of the twenty-five minute dramas. "I've caught the show about three times. One was passable and two I would have flunked off the air. What they're trying to do—and they may succeed—is a show that is contemporary. But it sounds campy.”“Serling said, "The same thing applies to The CBS Radio Mystery Theater. It has to be relevant stuff for 1974. Short of that, why not resurrect old Shadow recordings? So far, I have yet to see either show relate to our time, either in story or technique. if they're selling us nostalgia, they've succeeded. It's thoroughly reminiscent of radio thirty years ago.”“I'm not bad rapping it,” he said. “It's just not what I expected. I realize the economics of the situation. I wouldn’t want to spend my time writing a provocative radio drama and get a check that would buy me a carton of cigarettes. Radio drama currently has the value of an antique."“Won't it change for the better? “I don't know," Serling said. “I have no idea. I'm frequently wrong, anyhow. I thought Nixon would be out of office by now. And I thought Sonny Liston would be heavyweight boxing champion for 20 years.”“Summing up his feelings about radio and television, Serling said, “I feel the same way about radio as I do television as an art form. It doesn't rise to the occasion like it should...although television occasionally has.”“Radio today is more of a display case than an art form.” — Raymond P. HartThe Zero Hour in the new format ran thirteen additional weeks before being canceled after the July 26th, 1974, episode. In total, one-hundred-thirty episodes of The Zero Hour were produced. Most can be heard today.
Associated Press, December 21st, 1973, New York City.“The script appears strange at first. Its directions are for the ear, not the eye, and say things like: "DOORBELL ON. FOOTSTEPS. DOOR OPENED. TRAFFIC IN BG.""That traffic noise is 25 years old," laughs Jimmy Dwan, a veteran CBS sound effects man. "You can hear a doorman shouting on it somewhere. That doorman, he's been dead twenty years." Dwan's recorded sound effects are old, but not his script. It's of 1973 vintage, written solely for radio. “Yes, radio. “It's part of a brave new effort by two networks to bring back, in limited form, the golden days of coast-to-coast radio drama that most everyone remembers, but hasn't heard in more than a decade.“The Mutual Broadcasting System fired the first shot Monday with The Zero Hour, a 30-minute five-nights-a-week thriller serial hosted by writer-narrator Rod Serling of Twilight Zone fame.“Mutual, which says it has six-hundred-thirty affiliates, bought the series after lengthy studies proved there existed a sufficient market for radio drama on a network basis. Advertisers liked the idea, too, according to Mutual's president C. Edward Little: "We got a tremendous amount of client interest after we announced it," adding that the show will be fed from Mutual's Washington D.C., headquarters each weeknight at 7PM. "We feel that we'll start off with one-hundred-fifty to two-hundred stations." “The series will be offered on a "first refusal" basis to Mutual affiliates. “They also said that if the show clicks, other radio projects such as new comedy or anthology series, may follow. But they emphasized that such shows are strictly in the talking stages.” — Jay SharbuttOnce Mutual purchased the rights to The Zero Hour, they removed Elliott Lewis as director and Jay Kholos no longer had anything to do with the production. Both had good things to say about each other, but not for Mutual.
Hey everyone, James Scully here. This Saturday, December 16th, is the 188th anniversary of the Great Fire of 1835. It burned the entire financial district in New York City to the ground. The fire was so big it could be seen from Philadelphia, 90 miles away.I’m doing two walking tours, one at 12PM and one at 4PM on the anniversary in conjunction with the audio fiction soap opera set in 1835 NYC I've developed called Burning Gotham — http://burninggotham.com/. Burning Gotham was a 2022 Tribeca Film Festival audio selection. Join us as we explore lower Manhattan and the notable sights and scandals of 1830s New York, with a close look at 1835 and how a single year forever changed New York City in big ways.Included here are links where you can buy tickets to both — https://linktr.ee/thewallbreakersI hope to see you there!
One of the radio veterans featured in this episode was Byron Kane. Another was Paula Winslowe.By October 1973, it was obvious that Jay Kholos couldn’t afford to keep funding new episodes of The Zero Hour thanks to AFTRA’s changing terms. He looked to make a deal with a network. The Mutual Broadcasting System and C. Edward Little were interested. A deal came together quickly. A press conference announcing the move was set for November 1st. We heard that presser at the beginning of this episode. The Zero Hour would be moving to Mutual on December 17th, 1973. Before new episodes could be broadcast, Mutual would air the thirteen five-part episodes already directed by Elliott Lewis.
Janet Waldo, famous for her portrayal of Corliss Archer as well as Judy Jetson, Penelope Pitstop, and Emmy Lou on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, was featured in this episode of The Zero Hour. With AFTRA’s moving goal posts meaning that producing more episodes of The Zero Hour would cost significantly more money, in the fall of 1973, Jay Kholos had to look for either a potential production partner or a buyer.In the meantime, The Zero Hour continued to air in syndication over stations like WRVR in New York.
A year after his re-election, President Nixon was knee-deep in the Watergate scandal. On October 10th, 1973, VP Spiro Agnew resigned, pleading no contest to charges of tax evasion and money laundering, part of a negotiated resolution to a scheme in which he accepted nearly thirty-thousand dollars in bribes while governor of Maryland. According to The New York Times, Nixon “sought advice from senior Congressional leaders about a replacement.” The advice was unanimous in favor of Gerald Ford. Ford agreed to the nomination, telling his wife that the Vice Presidency would be “a nice conclusion” to his career.On October 12th, President Nixon officially named Gerald Ford as Veep.The energy crisis was becoming a major issue. Nixon assured the public saying Americans wouldn’t be running out of gasoline, air travel wouldn’t stop, and heating oil would be plentiful in the winter months. Though the crisis would require some sacrifice on everyone’s part. He outlined a plan which included using less heat, less gasoline, cutting down on highway speeds as well as cutting down on lighting at home and at work. General consensus felt things would get worse before they got better.Meanwhile on November 10th a ceasefire was achieved in the Middle-East. A tenuous agreement was reached between Egypt and Israel that put an end to military conflict.By the middle of November, the Nixon White House sought to put a positive spin on things – launching what was called “The President Fights For His Administration’s Credibility.” Nixon’s dwindling support from Capitol Hill Republicans caused him to make a round of addresses, primarily in Republican stronghold cities, in order to reiterate his case and help approval.The reviews were mixed – some thought it was a valiant attempt to rescue a bad situation, while others were more convinced than ever that Nixon needed to step down.
Once Jay Kholos sold the show to various radio stations, it was generally up to those stations to sell the show to sponsors. In New York, The Zero Hour was running on WRVR 106.7-FM.WRVR-FM was initially a public radio station owned and operated by The Riverside Church in New York. It began broadcasting on January 1st, 1961. The Riverside Church, located in Morningside Heights, is an interdenominational, interracial, and international church, and has long been a center of activism and social justice.WRVR was the first station to win a Peabody for its entire programming, in part for its documentary coverage of the civil rights movement in Birmingham in 1963. In addition to religious and philosophical discussions with Riverside clergy and theologians, WRVR programming included addresses by political and cultural leaders, like Indira Gandhi, Aldous Huxley, John F. Kennedy, and Margaret Mead. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his pivotal “Beyond Vietnam” speech at the Riverside Church over WRVR-FM on April 4th, 1967. The station also featured the heralded weekly program Just Jazz with Ed Beach. In September 1971, WRVR went commercial and shifted to a news format, with the exception of Just Jazz, which continued until 1973. By then, WRVR was experimenting with radio drama in both golden age and new time productions. On September 4th, 1973, part two of The Zero Hour’s “Wife of the Red-Haired Man” took to the air.Radio legend Mary Jane Croft, who was also the wife of Elliott Lewis, was featured in this episode. Years later, she spoke to SPERDVAC about her radio career and late husband. In September of 1973, WRVR was advertising a World Hockey Association exhibition matchup which featured legends Gordie Howe and Bobby Hull. The New York Raiders and later The Golden Blades were intended to be the upstart WHA’s flagship franchise. They were, however, unable to compete with the NHL’s New York Rangers and the expansion New York Islanders. After just two seasons, The Golden Blades moved to San Diego. The WHA folded after eight years in 1979 with four teams: The Edmonton Oilers, Hartford Whalers, Quebec Nordiques, and Winnipeg Jets, joining the NHL.
Arizona Republic, June 11th, 1973“If you loved the old radio shows, you'll like what KOOL-FM has in store for you. The station has bought the brand-new radio drama series, The Zero Hour, which promises to revive the good old days, but in a modern format. “Announcing the new series was E. Morgan Skinner Jr., promoted last week from KOOL-AM account executive to KOOL-FM assistant station manager. Judging from the pilot tape, it should be an interesting show. Each story lasts a week. A half-hour episode is presented nightly, Monday through Friday, with the climax coming on Friday. A new show starts the following Monday.“KOOL has bought twenty-six weeks of the series, all that Hollywood Radio Theater has available so far. The program originally was to be started in mid-June, but the unsettled Writers Guild of America strike apparently has created some delay. “Current plans are to begin in mid-July. Each show will be broadcast at 7:30 p.m. on KOOL-FM and then rebroadcast on KOOL-AM at 10:30 p.m. "But that's during television's prime time," you say? That's the whole point. "Zero Hour is contemporary, but reflective of radio's golden era," said Skinner. “And they're doing the thing in such a way as to leave people free to utilize their minds.“By Beginning in July, it takes the series into the fall to compete against the new shows on TV. A lot of us have become disenchanted with what television has to deliver. "It's going to be interesting to see what a top-quality radio series will do against prime-time TV. The quality of this show is superb. It's crisp and well-done." “Hollywood Radio Theater is the brainchild of Jay M. Kholos, a veteran in the advertising and communications field. Rod Serling hosts the series. The first episode, titled "The Wife of the Red-Haired Man," stars Patty Duke Astin, John Astin and Howard Duff. The yarn is about the pursuit of a dead couple. Duff, of course, does the pursuing.” — Jack SwansonBefore this September 3rd, 1973 debut episode of The Zero Hour, over WRVR 106.7FM in New York, Kholos spent the summer of 1973 traveling around, selling the series to stations in Syndication. After that, he was joined by Rod Serling on a promotional tour.Radio legend Les Tremayne played Patty Duke’s husband Albert. In November 1973, Howard Duff was a guest of Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran’s WTIC Golden Age of Radio program. He spoke positively about his experience with The Zero Hour.
November 1st, 1973. The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York City.We’re listening in on a press conference hosted by the Mutual Broadcasting System. They’ve purchased the rights to air The Zero Hour from the just-heard Jay M. Kholos. The Zero Hour has thus far been hosted by Rod Serling and directed by Elliott Lewis. It’s Mutual’s first dramatic radio show in nearly twenty years.As Mutual Broadcasting spent much of the 1950s changing ownership groups, while national advertising was slowly abandoning radio for TV, Mutual ended its last two remaining half-hour dramas, Counterspy and Gangbusters, in November of 1957. Sports and news began to take up the majority of the network’s programming.Throughout the 1960s more frequent ownership and management changes continued to create network instability, before C. Edward Little was named president in 1972. During his time as President, Little created the Mutual Black Network, the Mutual Spanish Network, and the Mutual Southwest Network. Under Little's administration, Mutual became the first commercial broadcasting entity to use satellite technology for program delivery. He also hired Larry King to host an all-night phone-in talk show. King was a one-time announcer for Little at WGMA in Florida. He went on to national fame in both radio and TV, winning a coveted Peabody Award along the way.But that’s not why we’re eavesdropping in 1973. We’re here for the return of dramatic programming on network radio in the form of The Zero Hour which had been airing in syndication since the fall. Why is this such a momentous event? How did we get to this point? Tonight, we’ll find out. ____________The last network big four radio drama, Theater Five, ran on ABC and was launched on August 3rd, 1964. Unfortunately by the mid 1960s network radio had undergone a transformation. Theater Five’s half-hour time slot only allocated twenty-one minutes for story-time. The other nine minutes went to news, station identification, and local advertising. ABC’s affiliates also had the first right of refusal. In some big markets Theater Five ran on other radio stations. Two-hundred-fifty-six total episodes were produced before Theater Five was canceled after the July 30th, 1965 episode. For the next seven years, except for any dramatic vignettes on NBC’s Monitor, NBC, CBS, ABC, and Mutual broadcasting’s network fed programming was relegated to news, sports, talk, and music. Then in early 1973, an entrepreneurial ad man named Jay M. Kholos had a big idea. He grew up in Southern California around the entertainment and media industry. Kholos’ idea? He sensed an oncoming nostalgia wave and wanted to relaunch a high-production, serialized audio drama, but updated for the modern sensibilities of 1973.Kholos needed a hook. He felt by telling one story in five half hours over the course of a contained week, he could keep the listener’s attention and get them to tune back in. Enter Rod Serling, famed creator of The Twilight Zone. Serling had worked in radio, in Springfield, Marion, Columbus, and Cincinnati, Ohio. Kholos was soon in touch with Elliott Lewis. By 1973, he had nearly forty years of experience as a writer, director, actor, and producer. Kholos was able to secure the rights to several stories. Now, he needed acting talent.The goal was to pair name brand film and TV talent with the best Hollywood radio veterans. Howard Duff could have fit into either category. By the 1970s, Duff and Elliott Lewis had been friends for thirty years. They both helped grow the Armed Forces Radio Service during World War II.Duff was chosen, along with Patty Duke and John Astin to lead the first cast in an adaptation of Bill S. Ballanger’s The Wife of the Red-Haired Man. Kholos put the program under the umbrella of The Hollywood Radio Theater. They chose Radio Recorders, the largest independent studio in Los Angeles, for the program.The Zero Hour would debut in late summer.
In Breaking Walls episode 145 it’s the fall of 1963 and network radio drama is dead while American life is changing. If you’re listening to this in real time, this month marks the sixtieth anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination. To go beyond its public horror and understand American society three generations ago, we’ll focus on Jean Shepherd. ——————————Highlights:• I, Libertine• Jean Shepherd Gets His Familiar WOR Time Slot• November 1963 Begins• Veteran's Day, Malcolm X, and Lenny Bruce• President Kennedy’s Last Trip to Florida• Shep's Show During JFK Last Week• John F. Kennedy’s Last Day• An Unfortunate Arthur Godfrey Episode• Live News Coverage As The Unthinkable Happens To President Kennedy In Dallas• John Kennedy Has Passed, Lee Harvey Oswald Is Arrested• A Weekend of Mourning With the Boston Symphony Orchestra• President Kennedy's Funeral Coverage• Jean Shepherd Eulogizes John F Kennedy• A Subdued Christmas Eve With Shep• Looking Ahead to Rod Serling and The Zero Hour——————————The WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material for today’s episode was:• Excelsior You Fathead! The Art and Enigma of Jean Shepherd — By Eugene Bergmann• Boom!: Talking About the Sixties — By Tom Brokaw• Four Days In November: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy — By Vincent Bugliosi• On The Air — By John Dunning• Oswald's Tale: An American Mystery — By Norman MailerAs well as articles from:• The Bridgeport Post• The Chicago Tribune• The Cincinnati Enquirer• The Hammond Times• The Kansas City Times• The Library of Congress• The Los Angeles Times• The Miami News• The New York Daily News• The New York Times• The Orlando Sentinel And the Assassination Report of the Warren Commission——————————On the interview front:• Andy Rooney spoke with CBS for their 50th anniversary in 1977——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• The John Coltrane Quartet in concert — November 19th, 1962• Pachelbel's Canon In D — By Michael Silverman• All I’ve Got To Do — By The Beatles• The Boston Symphony in concert — November 23rd, 1963• Some Children See Him — By George Winston——————————A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.——————————Thank you to:Tony AdamsSteven AllmonOrson Orsen ChandlerPhil EricksonJessica HannaPerri HarperThomas M. JoyceRyan KramerEarl MillardGary MollicaBarry NadlerChristian NeuhausRay ShawFilipe A SilvaJohn WilliamsJim W.——————————WallBreakers Links:Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakersSocial Media - @TheWallBreakers
Well, that brings our look at November 1963 through the eyes of Jean Shepherd and President Kennedy to a close. Frankly, I wasn’t completely sure what this episode would become until I finished producing it. Speaking of anniversaries, we have one in December that’s a bit more recent and much happier if you like radio drama.Next time on Breaking Walls, in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of The Zero Hour’s debut on the Mutual Broadcasting System, we spotlight the rebirth of radio drama in 1973. It’s the first of a two-part mini series on radio drama in the 1970s. The reading material used in today’s episode was:• Excelsior You Fathead! The Art and Enigma of Jean Shepherd — By Eugene Bergmann• Boom!: Talking About the Sixties — By Tom Brokaw• Four Days In November: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy — By Vincent Bugliosi• On The Air — By John Dunning• Oswald's Tale: An American Mystery — By Norman MailerAs well as articles from:• The Bridgeport Post• The Chicago Tribune• The Cincinnati Enquirer• The Hammond Times• The Kansas City Times• The Library of Congress• The Los Angeles Times• The Miami News• The New York Daily News• The New York Times• The Orlando Sentinel And the Assassination Report of the Warren CommissionOn the interview front:• Andy Rooney spoke with CBS for their 50th anniversary in 1977Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• The John Coltrane Quartet in concert — November 19th, 1962• Pachelbel's Canon In D — By Michael Silverman• All I’ve Got To Do — By The Beatles• The Boston Symphony in concert — November 23rd, 1963• Some Children See Him — By George WinstonBreaking Walls Episode 146 will spotlight Rod Serling and The Zero Hour in honor of the 50th anniversary of its debut on Mutual Broadcasting. This episode will be available beginning December 1st, 2023 everywhere you get your podcasts, and at TheWallBreakers.com.In the meantime, give Breaking Walls a quick rating on whatever platform you listen, especially itunes. You can also join The Breaking Walls Facebook group at Facebook.com/Groups/TheWallBreakers.And support this show for as little as a buck a month at Patreon.com/TheWallBreakers. So until December 1st, my name is James Scully, this has been Breaking Walls Episode 145, and I’ll catch you on the flip side. Thank you very much.
On the morning of Tuesday November 26th, 1963 all regularly scheduled TV and radio programming resumed in the U.S. President Johnson issued NSAM 273, a modification of the American policy in Vietnam. Included in President Kennedy’s original memo, was Johnson adding the word “win” to the U.S. objective. At the same time, The American satellite Explorer 18 was launched to study the magnetic field around the Moon.Jack Ruby was indicted for the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald. He was found guilty on March 14th, 1964. Although a court demanded a retrial in 1966, Ruby died of lung cancer on January 3rd, 1967. The Federal Reserve Bank began the removal of silver certificates from circulation, starting with the discontinuation of one dollar notes. Big Butte School, in Butte, Montana, became the first of almost one-thousand schools to be renamed in honor of President Kennedy. And on Wednesday November 27th, Lyndon Johnson gave his first speech as President of the United States. It has since become known as “Let Us Continue.”The next day, November 28th, was Thanksgiving. President Johnson issued an Executive Order renaming Cape Canaveral in Florida, to Cape Kennedy. The holiday season, albeit the most subdued one the people of the U.S. had since 1944, had begun. On the November 25th broadcast of The Jean Shepherd Show, Shep wondered how people would still be feeling thirty days after the assassination.Well, Tuesday December 24th was Christmas Eve. On that day the New York International Airport, commonly referred to as "Idlewild", was officially renamed as John F. Kennedy International Airport, popularly referred to as "JFK."That night, Jean Shepherd took to the air telling a story about a Christmas season in the days of yore.
On Friday November 22nd, 1963, New York’s Village Voice co-founder Dan Wolf’s office was swarmed with people. Journalist Jerry Tallmer later remembered being there, talking and grieving, when in burst Jean Shepherd, excited and full of fire. Shep said, “Wouldn’t you know! Wouldn’t you know! It was a Fair Play for Cuba guy who did it!” Lee Harvey Oswald had connections with the Fair Play for Cuba group, an organization protesting the U.S.’ treatment of Communist Cuba under Fidel Castro.Although Shepherd was a noted liberal, the idea that Oswald wasn’t some right-wing fascist, but a nutcase of the left excited Shep, and Shep was mad. Commentator Barry Farber remembered that Shep was incensed that he couldn’t get on the air. He said, “for crying out loud, we finally have something to talk about and they took us off the air.”On Monday, November 25th, 1963 at 11:15PM, Jean Shepherd was finally able to sign on for WOR. What follows is a sober, serious commentary on the state of the United States and what John Kennedy meant to Jean Shepherd. This is the full forty-five minute broadcast.
On Monday, November 25th, 1963, John F. Kennedy was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. NBC Radio was on hand with press coverage of the event.Millions of viewers watched the funeral on live TV. Present were foreign dignitaries from ninety-two countries, including eight heads of state and ten prime ministers. In addition to President Johnson, former Presidents Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower were in attendance, as was Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II; and Anastas Mikoyan, First Deputy Prime Minister of the USSR.The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Boston, Richard Cardinal Cushing, delivered the funeral mass at St. Matthew's Cathedral.For only the third time in history, telephone service in the US was halted for one minute at noon, Eastern time. Las Vegas closed all of its casinos for only the third time in its history.Three hours later, graveside services were held for Lee Harvey Oswald at the Rose Hill Cemetery near Fort Worth, Texas. The only people allowed were Oswald's wife, mother, brother, and two daughters. After a Lutheran minister from Dallas reconsidered appearing for the service, the Reverend Louis Saunders appeared on behalf of the Fort Worth Council of Churches, telling newsmen, "We do not want it said a man can be buried in Fort Worth without a minister." Oswald was buried in a family plot that had been owned for several years by his mother. Six reporters were pallbearers.Abraham Zapruder sold all rights to his famed eight millimeter film of the Kennedy assassination to LIFE Magazine for One-hundred-fifty-thousand dollars, to be paid in twenty-five-thousand dollar yearly installments. Two days later, Zapruder donated the first full payment to the widow of officer J.D. Tippit.
On Saturday November 23rd, 1963, with the country in a state of shock and mourning, Music Director Erich Leinsdorf led the Boston Symphony orchestra in the compositions of Gluck, Wagner, and Beethoven. John Kennedy was the grandchild of former famous Boston mayor John “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald. The concert was given at Symphony Hall in honor of the slain son of Boston.Elsewhere, numerous famous people gave statements on the assassination.The next morning, Sunday November 24th, despite being surrounded by a crowd of police officers at the Dallas Police headquarters, Lee Harvey Oswald was shot and mortally wounded by nightclub owner Jack Ruby on live TV while being transported to the Dallas County jail. Ruby shot Oswald in the abdomen, at point blank range, with a .38 caliber revolver. The shooting took place at 11:21 a.m. local time. Oswald was taken into surgery at Parkland Memorial Hospital. He died at 1:07 p.m., never to face trial.That Sunday, thousands of people around the world went to Sunday mass in memory of the fallen President. Later an LP called That Day With God was produced with excerpts from several of these inspirational expressions. It included Pope Paul VI, The Archbishop of Canterbury and Richard Cardinal Cushing. I’ll let Henry Fonda read the last one.
All regularly scheduled network programming from every radio and TV station around the country was immediately suspended. This audio comes from shortly after 2PM eastern time from ABC. Right after the shooting, witness Howard Brennan notified the police that he was sitting across the street from the Texas School Book Depository, watching the President’s motorcade go by. He heard a shot come from above and looked up to see a man with a rifle fire another shot from the southeast corner window on the sixth floor. He said he had seen the same man minutes earlier looking through the window.Brennan gave a description of the shooter, and Dallas police subsequently broadcast descriptions at Dallas time 12:45., 12:48, and 12:55 p.m.At 12:45 fifteen minutes after President Kennedy was shot, Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit received a radio order to drive to the central Oak Cliff area as part of a concentration of police around the center of the city. At 12:54, Tippit radioed that he moved as directed. By then, several messages had been broadcast describing a suspect in Kennedy’s shooting as a five-foot-ten, slender white male. At roughly 1:10, Tippit was driving slowly eastward on East 10th street past the intersection at Patton Avenue when he pulled alongside a man who resembled the police description. Although conspiracy theorists dispute this, officially the man was twenty-four year-old Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald walked over to Tippit's car and exchanged words with him through an open window. Tippit opened his car door and walked toward the front of the car. Oswald drew a handgun and fired five shots in rapid succession. Tippit was shot in the chest and head, dying almost instantly. His body was transported from the scene of the shooting by ambulance to Methodist Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 1:25 p.m.Meanwhile, Johnny Brewer, a nearby shoe store manager later testified that he saw Oswald ducking into the entrance alcove of his store. Suspicious, Brewer watched Oswald continue up the street and slip without paying into the nearby Texas Theatre. He alerted the theater's ticket clerk, who telephoned the police at about 1:40 p.m.As police arrived, the house lights were brought up and Brewer pointed out Oswald sitting near the rear of the theater. Police Officer Nick McDonald testified that he was the first to reach Oswald and that Oswald seemed ready to surrender saying, "Well, it is all over now." McDonald said that Oswald pulled out a pistol tucked into the front of his pants, then pointed the pistol at him, and pulled the trigger. McDonald stated that the pistol did not fire because the pistol's hammer came down on the webbing between the thumb and index finger as he grabbed it. McDonald also said that Oswald struck him, but that he struck back and Oswald was disarmed.As he was led from the theater, Oswald shouted he was a victim of police brutality.Soon after his arrest, Oswald encountered reporters, declared, "I didn't shoot anybody. They've taken me in because I lived in the Soviet Union. I'm just a patsy!" This is audio from an arranged press meeting later that day. The voice you’ll hear is that of Lee Harvey Oswald.Oswald was formally arraigned for the murder of Officer Tippit at 7:10 p.m. By early the next morning, he had been arraigned for the assassination of President Kennedy.At 2:38 p.m. Dallas time on Friday the 22nd aboard Air Force One, Lyndon Baines Johnson took the oath of office as the 36th President of the United States. Standing next to him as he took the oath were both his wife and Jacqueline Kennedy.
On Friday, November 22nd, 1963, President Kennedy awoke at 7:30AM. He ate a light breakfast with Jackie before going out by himself to the square in front of his hotel to address a crowd of a few thousand people. Someone shouted, “where’s Jackie?”He pointed to their eighth floor suite and replied "Mrs Kennedy is organizing herself, It takes her a little longer, but of course she looks better than we do when she does it." The First Couple, together with Vice President Johnson and Texas Governor Connaly then took a short flight to Dallas. At 11:55 the President's motorcade left Love Field in Dallas. Thirty-five minutes later, history changed forever.This is soundcheck audio from the collection of Gordon Skene. On the morning of Friday, November 22nd, 1963 Gordon was twelve years old and home from school, recovering from an operation. Out of boredom he switched on his parent’s tape recorder and tuned to KNX, CBS’ affiliate in Los Angeles. On the air was Arthur Godfrey Time, talking from Miami, Florida with journalist Morris McLemore and commentator Gabriel Heater. Longtime CBS journalist and host Andy Rooney remembered Godfrey’s influence.In the late 1930s, a red-head from New York with a slight southern drawl named Arthur Godfrey was making a name for himself, hosting an all-night CBS show in Washington, DC on WJSV. He spent the overnight air-time playing records and chatting.Audiences were drawn to Godfrey’s informal approach. In April of 1941, CBS picked up the emcee for a national broadcast. The next October 4th, he began announcing for Fred Allen’s Texaco Star Theater. Unfortunately Allen and Godfrey didn’t mix well on-air. Allen dropped him after six weeks. Godfrey continued to appear on CBS special broadcasts. His star catapulted when he was a tearful reporter at Franklin D. Roosevelt’s funeral in April of 1945. CBS gave him a new morning show. Arthur Godfrey Time debuted less than two weeks later on April 30th. Unfortunately Godfrey’s popularity nosedived on October 19th, 1953. After years of working both himself and his supporting cast to the bone, he’d begun to treat them like children. Godfrey had a falling out with singer Julius LaRosa, firing him live on the air. Many felt Godfrey was jealous of his popularity. Once the show signed off for the day, Godfrey fired his bandleader Archie Bleyer. When Ed Sullivan invited LaRosa on his Toast of the Town TV show, Godfrey called Sullivan a dope. The reporters covering the story were “a bunch of jerks.” Rather than back off, Godfrey fired the rest of his cast and continued broadcasting, but the press, the public, and Godfrey never forgot or forgave what happened. His problems continued. He lost his pilot's license after buzzing an airport tower. One by one his shows folded. Then he got lung cancer and later, pronouncing himself cured, devoted much of his time to the fight against the disease. He professed to be writing a book that would tell “the whole story” of his incredible life and claimed to be working out a new deal for a TV show. In the end CBS, and William Paley, who never liked Godfrey, but liked his ratings, refused to put him on TV. Godfrey continued his network radio show until 1972, when he finally quit. In his seventies, he still talked occasionally about coming back, but he died March 16th, 1983, in New York city.While this exact recording isn’t the original that Gordon Skene air checked, he later said about recording that morning, “Why was I doing it? I have no idea, and to this day I couldn’t tell you exactly what made me pick this day and this hour to hit the record button.” Suddenly, it all became very serious. What follows here is a living nightmare, now sixty years old, and not a moment of it is dated by time.
On the morning of Thursday, November 21st, 1963 President Kennedy had breakfast with his children. He said goodbye to his daughter Caroline when she left for school at 9:15. President Kennedy arrived at his office for the last time at 9:55. The President left the White House for the last time at 10:50AM. He flew to Andrews Air Force Base where he and the First Lady departed for San Antonio Texas. John Jr accompanied them to the airport. Once in Texas, he was at the dedication of the Aerospace Medical Health Center, Brooks Air Force Base. He then went to Houston. There he made brief remarks to the League of United Latin American Citizens at the Rice Hotel. He then addressed a dinner in honor of Representative Albert Thomas. Some of that speech was just heard. The President and First Lady then traveled to Fort Worth where they stayed at the Texas Hotel. He had speeches set for Fort Worth and Dallas the next day. In world news, Robert Stroud, “the birdman of Alcatraz” died while incarcerated in Springfield, Missouri. In Japan’s general election, the Liberal Democratic Party retained a majority in the Shugiin (SHOO GEEN), or House of Representatives.While India began its space program with the launching of a rocket at the far south end of the Indian subcontinent. And by the time the President went to sleep, it was the 22nd in the UK. That day, The Beatles released their second studio album, With The Beatles. Produced by George Martin, it featured eight original compositions and six covers. The famous black and white portrait on the cover, with Ringo underneath John, George, and Paul, was widely copied afterwards.
On November 19th, 1963, nine days before Thanksgiving, President Kennedy received a turkey from the Poultry and Egg Board. The President always looked forward to New England Thanksgivings.That same day, in the concluding event for the three-day centennial celebration of the Gettysburg Address, former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower addressed the crowd at the rededication for the Gettysburg National Cemetery. He told the audience, "My friends, Lincoln reminded his hearers that they had no power to dedicate this ground. So we, today, have no power to rededicate it. But with the playing of Taps, the soldier's farewell, we can share the grief of every family who has heard that a son or father or sweetheart has fallen. If we can do this, we will begin to do our part to solve the unfinished business of which Lincoln spoke."That evening, Jean Shepherd signed on talking family folk stories and poking fun at WOR.The next day, at the UN General Assembly, the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination was adopted, while the deathbed wish of author Aldous Huxley was honored by his wife Laura. She injected him with two-hundred micrograms of LSD. Huxley would die two days later.
On Sunday, November 17th, 1963, Frank McGee signed on for NBC’s Monitor with a look at Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address. Lincoln’s famous speech was about to celebrate its one-hundredth anniversary.Meanwhile, President Kennedy was in Florida, unofficially on the 1964 campaign trail. On Saturday November 16th, President Kennedy traveled to Cape Canaveral where he inspected the Saturn Control Center and watched a Polaris missile test launch.The next morning he and Special Assistant Dave Powers went to Sunday Mass at St. Ann’s Church in Palm Beach. On the day of this special broadcast, the President began his day at MacDill Air Force Base.Photos from this trip, which would be the President’s last to Florida, which had voted Republican in the previous two Presidential elections, show Kennedy smiling brightly, as did fellow Americans, especially those who shook his hand or lined the roads alongside the twenty-eight mile path his motorcade took in Tampa Bay. When Kennedy traveled to Miami, he addressed a democrat crowd at the airport. That same day, a fire killed twenty-six people at the Surfside Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey. During the offseason the hotel served as a convalescent home for elderly people. Ten bodies were never recovered and only two of the other fifteen could be identified. A former mental patient and convicted arsonist would be arrested for the crime. He confessed he poured gasoline into the hotel's boiler and set it ablaze. However, an Atlantic City grand jury did not find probable cause to return an indictment.That evening, NBC-TV’s Huntley–Brinkley Report featured a four-minute news feature on The Beatles. It was the group’s first appearance on American TV.
James Scully here. I wanted to let you know that I’m doing a webinar this Wednesday, November 8th, 2023 at 5:30PM with the New York Adventure Club on the CBS Talent Raids of 1949 and how they drastically changed the broadcasting landscape just as TV was about to boom.Included here in the show notes is a link where you can buy tickets, which are only $10 — https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-cbs-talent-raids-a-rebalance-of-network-power-in-early-tv-webinar-registration-735611121667?aff=oddtdtcreator. I'll also send anyone who buys tix the PDF presentation deck after the webinar (if they want it).
On Saturday November 9th, fans rioted at Roosevelt Field Raceway in Long Island, battling police and setting fires. At least fifteen were hurt and the head of security died of a heart attack during the riot. Sunday November 10th was the evening before Veteran’s Day. On NBC, Frank McGee signed on for Monitor with a salute to the holiday. Andrew Pearson had correspondence from Vietnam, while President Kennedy spent much of the weekend in New York City.On this same day, Black Muslim activist Malcolm X delivered what would become a widely re-quoted speech to the Northern Negro Leadership Conference at the King Solomon Baptist Church in Detroit. His message was one of revolution. He heavily criticized civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., who he said sold out and added that the March on Washington was "nothing but a circus, with clowns and all... white and black clowns."The next morning President Kennedy and his family flew to the white house. The President and John Jr. went to Arlington National Cemetery to take part in Veterans Day Ceremonies.Meanwhile, The first interplanetary probe in the Soviet Union's Zond program, Kosmos 21, failed to escape Earth orbit after rocket misfire and a failure of proper altitude control.On November 12th, The President met with Portuguese and Uruguayan Ambassadors before hosting an off the record meeting on Cuba that included Robert Kennedy, Dean Rusk and Robert McNamara. He also signed off on National Security Memorandum 271, a then-secret memo to NASA Administrator James E. Webb, telling him "to assume personally the initiative and central responsibility" to develop specific technical proposals "for broader cooperation between the U.S. and the USSR in outer space, including cooperation in lunar landing programs."On Wednesday, November 13th, at 11:15PM, Jean Shepherd signed on from WOR talking about protests, intellectuals, and angry demagogues. Two days after this broadcast, on Friday November 15th, 1963, seven days before President Kennedy's scheduled visit to Dallas, Democratic Party leader Baxton Bryant sent an angry telegram to President Kennedy complaining that Democratic supporters were being shut out of the planned November 22nd luncheon by Dallas Republicans who were in control of the Dallas Citizens Council. The plea was for the President to do something or face a boycott by his most loyal supporters. A motorcade from Dallas Love Field to downtown Dallas was arranged for the Kennedys after another Bryant complaint.That evening, the President flew to Palm Beach, Florida.
As November 1963 began, President Kennedy had emergency meetings on Vietnam. He also received members of the US Industrial Payroll Savings Committee and had meetings on the goings on in Berlin.Meanwhile, The U.S. Secret Service concluded that the more secure and the larger of two locations for the President’s upcoming fundraising luncheon in Dallas would be the "Women's Building" at Fair Park at the east side of downtown, rather than the Trade Mart on the west side near Dealey Plaza. Despite the recommendation, the state Democratic Party leaders in Texas settled on the Trade Mart. On November 6th, Jean Shepherd signed on from WOR talking about, and poking fun at, the 1964 World’s Fair, slated to open the next April.Part of what made Shepherd so popular was that no one was safe from his scrutinizing eye, even himself, and his biting style was perfect for late night radio.Perhaps Shep was wrong. Cassius Clay beat Sonny Liston twice, changing his name to Muhammad Ali in the process, while the cover of the next day’s New York Daily News, Wednesday November 7th, told the story of a bartender from Connecticut who won nearly eighty thousand dollars, an all-time record twin double at Roosevelt Raceway.That same day, Nelson Rockefeller, the Governor of New York, announced on NBC's Today Show that he would be a candidate for the 1964 Republican Party nomination. U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, the front-runner, made no comment, but was expected to enter the race. President Kennedy was not expected to face opposition in his nomination as the Democratic Party candidate for 1964.
Support For Breaking Walls is provided by our patrons. If you like the documentaries I've been producing, you can become a show supporter for as little as $1 here — https://www.patreon.com/TheWallBreakersBy 1960, Shep’s homespun wit could be tweaked depending on what time of the day he took to the air. At that time he was broadcasting on both Saturdays and Sundays during the middle of the day for just under two hours. On Saturday April 9th, 1960, he took to the air discussing a solitary trip to Coney Island. The batting cages Shep spoke of were located on Stillwell avenue near the Coney Island boardwalk, just down the block from Nathans. I spent many a winter afternoon on this street taking batting practice and eating at Nathans with my grandfather in the 1990s. For more information on Coney Island’s place in radio history, tune into Breaking Walls episode 92.Shepherd’s Sunday show was terminated and for five months he was only on Saturday afternoons at 1:15PM. His program was then shifted to weeknights at 11:15PM for forty-five minutes. On February 27th, 1961 Shepherd spoke about shifting back to a late night time slot. This format, at 11:15PM until 1964, and then 10:15 until 1977, became what Shepherd is today most remembered for in terms of radio broadcasting.On Monday, October 21st, 1963 he had this to say about how his peers perceived their era, as well as why some college kids were gravitating towards Barry Goldwater, rather than John Kennedy.
Jean Shepherd was born on July 26th, 1921 on the South Side of Chicago to Jean and Anna Shepherd. He grew up in Hammond, Indiana, which according to Shep was a “tough and mean” industrial city. As an adolescent, Shepherd worked as a mail boy in a steel mill. He began his radio career at the age of sixteen, doing weekly sportscasts for WJOB in Hammond. That job led to juvenile roles on network radio in Chicago, including that of Billy Fairchild in the serial “Jack Armstrong, the All American Boy.”One of the programs that later came to symbolize Shepherd’s childhood, thanks to his 1983 film A Christmas Story, was Red Ryder.During World War II, Shepherd served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, installing radar equipment and furthering a lifelong dislike for authority figures. After the war, he studied acting in Chicago at the Goodman Theatre and briefly engineering and psychology at Indiana University. He left Indiana without a degree to take a radio gig in Cincinnati, which led him to a series of radio jobs, each better than the previous.After working at WTOD in Toledo, Ohio, Shepherd spent the early 1950s at WSAI and WLW in Cincinnati, and had a late-night broadcast on KYW in Philadelphia. He moved to New York for WOR and debuted on February 26th, 1955. WOR is a fifty-thousand watt clear-channel AM station and was the flagship affiliate of the Mutual Broadcasting System.Mutual Broadcasting had formed on September 28th, 1934 as a cooperative of stations WOR New York, WGN Chicago, WXYZ Detroit, and WLW Cincinnati. The members shared telephone-line transmission facilities and agreed to collectively enter into contracts with advertisers for their network shows. After a deal with Don Lee’s chain of west coast networks, Mutual went coast-to-coast on December 29th, 1936. The other major networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC, were corporations. When World War II ended, domestic manufacturing restrictions were lifted. TV became a focal point as the other networks pumped their radio profits into the new medium. Mutual’s cooperative status meant it never had the resources to move into TV, although affiliates like WOR did run a local TV station in New York. Mutual remained a cooperative until 1952 when General Tire became the parent company.By 1955 radio was changing. Drama, which had dominated the dial for more than two decades, was on its way out due to both its and TV production costs. More and more network programming was being turned over to local affiliates. These local affiliates employed a new generation of hosts that had grown up with Jack Benny, Fred Allen, and other observant humorists. Shepherd’s peers were Johnny Carson, Jack Paar, Rod Serling, and Steve Allen.Shepherd was working an overnight slot for WOR in 1956. Facing a lack of sponsorship, he was about to be fired when he did an unauthorized commercial for Sweetheart Soap who didn’t sponsor his program. WOR immediately canned him. But, listeners complained in droves and Sweetheart actually offered to sponsor him. WOR immediately brought him back. The overnight slot allowed him to riff with little need for the kind of corporate oversight that faced daytime and primetime hosts. That year, during a discussion on how easy it was to manipulate the best-seller lists, Shepherd suggested that his listeners visit bookstores and ask for a copy of a fictional novel called I, Libertine by a Frederick R. Ewing.Fans of the show planted references so widely that there were claims it made The New York Times Best Seller list. It led to an actual book deal with Ballantine. Theodore Sturgeon wrote most of it with Shepherd’s outline guiding him. Betty Ballantine finished the novel when Sturgeon fell asleep during a marathon writing session to meet the deadline. Famed illustrator Frank Kelly Freas did the cover art. The book was published on September 13th, 1956 with all proceeds going to charity.
In Breaking Walls episode 144 we present part two of our mini-series on radio and the world in the fall of 1957.——————————Highlights:• The 1957 World Series• Unit 99• Sputnik, Bing Crosby, and Current Events• The Eternal Light and The Glastonbury Cows• Algeria Aflame• Stan Freberg• Bill Kemp, ABC, and More News• School Integration Update• Sorry, Wrong Number• You Bet Your Life• NATO, Syria, and Sputnik• LIFE and The World with Carl Sandberg and Frank Lloyd Wright• Looking Ahead to Jean Shepherd and JFK——————————The WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material for today’s episode was:• I Have a Lady in the Balcony: Memories of a Broadcaster in Radio and Television — By George Ansbro• On the Air — By John Dunning• Network Radio Ratings — By Jim RamsburgAs well as articles from• Broadcasting Magazine• The New England Historical Society• The New York Times• Sponsor Magazine——————————On the interview front:• Stan Freberg, Byron Kane, and Peggy Webber spoke to SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com.• Andre Baruch, Ken Carpenter, Virginia Gregg, John Guedel, and Agnes Moorehead spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at Speakingofradio.com.• Jackson Beck, Vincent Price, and Bill Spier spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these interviews at GoldenAge-WTIC.org.• Jack Benny’s snippet was recorded by CBS and played for their 50th anniversary in 1977——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• Plunkett’s Lament — By George Fenton• The Pavane and Window To The Sky — By Michael Silverman• As Time Goes By — By Herman Hupfeld• Road — By George Winston• Metamorphosis 2 — By Elizabeth Hainen• Amazing Grace — By Wind Drum Spirit——————————A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.——————————Thank you to:Tony AdamsSteven AllmonOrson Orsen ChandlerPhil EricksonJessica HannaPerri HarperThomas M. JoyceRyan KramerEarl MillardGary MollicaBarry NadlerChristian NeuhausRay ShawFilipe A SilvaJohn WilliamsJim W.——————————WallBreakers Links:Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakersSocial Media - @TheWallBreakers
Next time on Breaking Walls, in honor of the sixtieth anniversary of John Kennedy’s Assassination, we spotlight Jean Shepherd and his November 1963 broadcasts. ——————————Highlights:• The 1957 World Series• Unit 99• Sputnik, Bing Crosby, and Current Events• The Eternal Light and The Glastonbury Cows• Algeria Aflame• Stan Freberg• Bill Kemp, ABC, and More News• School Integration Update• Sorry, Wrong Number• You Bet Your Life• NATO, Syria, and Sputnik• LIFE and The World with Carl Sandberg and Frank Lloyd Wright• Looking Ahead to Jean Shepherd and JFK——————————The WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material for today’s episode was:• I Have a Lady in the Balcony: Memories of a Broadcaster in Radio and Television — By George Ansbro• On the Air — By John Dunning• Network Radio Ratings — By Jim RamsburgAs well as articles from• Broadcasting Magazine• The New England Historical Society• The New York Times• Sponsor Magazine——————————On the interview front:• Stan Freberg, Byron Kane, and Peggy Webber spoke to SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com.• Andre Baruch, Ken Carpenter, Virginia Gregg, John Guedel, and Agnes Moorehead spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at Speakingofradio.com.• Jackson Beck, Vincent Price, and Bill Spier spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these interviews at GoldenAge-WTIC.org.• Jack Benny’s snippet was recorded by CBS and played for their 50th anniversary in 1977——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• Plunkett’s Lament — By George Fenton• The Pavane and Window To The Sky — By Michael Silverman• As Time Goes By — By Herman Hupfeld• Road — By George Winston• Metamorphosis 2 — By Elizabeth Hainen• Amazing Grace — By Wind Drum Spirit——————————A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.——————————Thank you to:Tony AdamsSteven AllmonOrson Orsen ChandlerPhil EricksonJessica HannaPerri HarperThomas M. JoyceRyan KramerEarl MillardGary MollicaBarry NadlerChristian NeuhausRay ShawFilipe A SilvaJohn WilliamsJim W.——————————WallBreakers Links:Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakersSocial Media - @TheWallBreakers
As the clock ticks toward All Hallow’s Eve, we’ll wind down where we began in last month’s episode of Breaking Walls, with the October 30th, 1957 episode of LIFE and the World on NBC.The October 14th LIFE Magazine cover featured Little Central High School in Arkansas; the October 21st cover featured American scientists plotting Sputnik’s orbit; while the October 28th’s cover featured Queen Elizabeth opening Canadian Parliament. This episode features a speech by poet Carl Sandburg and a rare interview with Frank Lloyd Wright, both speaking about Chicago. Both Sandberg and Wright spent significant time in Chicago. Sandburg was back in Chicago debuting a new poem about the city. His speech from the banquet by The Chicago Dynamic Committee, was recorded. Frank Lloyd Wright settled in Chicago shortly after the Great Fire of 1871. He was ninety at the time of this interview, and as passionate as ever. His Guggenheim Museum was under construction in New York, while he dreamed of a mile-high office building for Chicago. On October 29th, 1957, head of MGM, Louis B. Mayer died of leukemia. He was seventy-three.The next day, Variety Magazine carried his obituary. Although Mayer was often disliked and even feared by many, director Clarence Brown said, “he made more stars than all the rest of the producers in Hollywood put together. “He knew how to handle talent; he knew that to be successful, he had to have the most successful people in the business working for him. He was like Hearst in the newspaper business. He made an empire out of this thing.”However, both movie studios and the entertainment industry were rapidly changing. As was America. But the only way passed is through. So, forward we go, in time that is, in the next episode of Breaking Walls.
On October 21st, 1957 Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip visited New York City. It was the final stop on their tour. The next day they returned to the United Kingdom. Meanwhile in Washington, President Eisenhower was meeting with the U.K.’s Prime Minister Harold MacMillan and NATO Chief Paul-Henri Spaak. Their chat was over Middle East policy, rocket deployment, and the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik. On Friday October 25th at 7:30AM, the NBC World News Roundup took to the air talking of developments.The British and US were butting heads on Middle East policy, while Britain wanted the two countries to share nuclear secrets. France was complaining that the U.S. and England weren’t allowing technological access. NATO Chief Spaak was expected to invite France to the upcoming talks. After this meeting Prime Minister MacMillan was to give Canadian PM John Diefenbaker an in-person report on the talk.In London, the Prime Minister’s Conservative party’s grip was loosening. The Socialist Labour Party had recently taken a seat in the House of Commons and the leaders of two major trade unions were going ahead with wage demands to counter inflation.All countries were listening for word from Moscow on how Sputnik was doing. The U.S. was focusing on reports that its carrier rocket was outpacing the satellite, while also continuing to push its own space advancements.On Saturday October 26th, Sputnik 1’s batteries ran out after its three-hundred-twenty-sixth orbit around the Earth. The following Monday Ytzak Ben-Zvi was reelected president of Israel by the Knesset congress. The next day, October 29th, Moshe Dwek threw a grenade in the Knesset chambers injuring several ministers. In the wake of Turkish elections, riots broke out in six different locations. And in Flagstaff, Arizona, a U.S. Air Force tanker plane crashed into a mountain, killing all sixteen crew members.
You Bet Your Life, conceived by the just-heard John Guedel and hosted by comedian Groucho Marx, debuted over ABC’s airwaves on October 27th, 1947. Three couples were brought onstage to be interviewed and quizzed by Groucho. Each couple was given twenty dollars and told to bet as much as they dared risk on four questions from a category of their choosing. The money would double with each successive step. Couples could win three-hundred twenty dollars, go broke on the first question, or finish anywhere in between.The couple with the largest money total got a chance at the jackpot question, worth at least one-thousand dollars. There was also a “secret word” each week, with bonus money to be divided if someone said the word while the show was on the air.Although 1947 was radio’s highest-rated season, the quiz show aired against NBC’s Mr. District Attorney on Wednesdays at 9:30. At season’s end You Bet Your Life only pulled a rating of thirteen.Groucho felt uncomfortable trying to be funny on a live radio show. Guedel’s answer was to record the show, which allowed Groucho to relax. The program could then be edited for time later. The idea worked. The show moved to CBS in 1949. You Bet Your Life became network radio’s top-rated quiz show, finishing the season in eleventh place overall. The contract with DeSoto-Plymouth of Chrysler was worth four million dollars over ten years. It also moved the show to NBC Radio and TV beginning on October 4th, 1950. The program remained a top-fifteen hit into 1957. That October 23rd, it was airing on radio Wednesday evenings at 9PM. This episode’s secret word was “Money.”You Bet Your Life continued on radio until June 10th, 1960.
Hey everyone, James Scully here. I wanted to let you know I’ve got a walking tour on Sunday 10/22/2023 with The New York Adventure Club in conjunction with Burning Gotham, the audio soap opera set in 1835 NYC that I developed. Burning Gotham was a 2022 official Tribeca Film Festival audio selection.Included here is a link where you can buy tickets. — https://www.nyadventureclub.com/event/exploring-1830s-new-york-from-the-great-fire-to-south-street-seaport-registration-726888130967/Join us as we explore lower Manhattan and the notable sights and scandals of 1830s New York, with a close look at 1835 and how a single year forever changed New York City in big ways.Highlights Include:A trip to important landmarks in the neighborhood dating back to the 1830s including Fraunces Tavern, Bowling Green, South Street Seaport, Stone Street and others.Topics Covered will include:Why the US was on the verge of war with France, why there was no clean running water in New York, and the greatest hoax of the 19th century, The full scoop surrounding the Great Fire of 1835, which destroyed everything in Manhattan's chief merchant districtOur experience will conclude on Stone Street with the opportunity to grab a pint or bite. Hope to see you there!
On Sunday, October 20th, 1957 at 4:35PM eastern time, the just-heard Agnes Moorehead starred for the seventh time in Suspense’ adaptation of Lucille Fletcher’s harrowing story, “Sorry, Wrong Number.” In this play, a bed-ridden invalid, attempting to call her husband, accidentally overhears a plot between two men to kill some woman thanks to crossed phone lines. Over the course of the story she desperately attempts to get uninterested phone operators and policemen to care, until she finds out who the intended really victim is. It is, quite possibly, the most famous thriller in radio history. Ms. Moorehead played this part eight times in the years Suspense was on the air.This particular adaptation co-stars a who’s who of radio veterans, including Jeanette Nolan, Virginia Gregg, and Byron Kane.
As we covered in the previous episode, number 143, of Breaking Walls, In Little Rock, Arkansas on September 4th, 1957, nine African-American students attempted to attend their first day of high school at the newly integrated Little Rock Central High. The National Guard, on the orders of Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus, prevented the students from entering the school.The Governor then locked himself in his mansion, refusing to come out. President Dwight D. Eisenhower soon met with the Governor, and the National Guard was removed.On September 23rd, the nine students entered Little Rock Central High for the first time, ignoring verbal abuse and threats from a crowd outside. When the mob realized the students had entered the school, violence erupted, and seven journalists were attacked. As the situation deteriorated, school officials, fearing for the students’ safety, dismissed the Little Rock Nine at lunchtime.The next day, President Eisenhower ordered paratroopers from the 101st Airborne Division to escort the students to the building, signaling out those bent on disrupting the federal integration mandate.Over the following days, Eisenhower federalized ten-thousand Arkansas National Guardsmen, removing them from the control of the Governor. The Little Rock Nine were finally able to attend classes in late September, but they faced threats, verbal abuse, and hazing from both white students and adults alike. On Thursday October 17th, 1957 NBC Radio broadcast a special with students from Little Rock Central High about their feelings on integration.Although the conditions the Little Rock Nine had to endure were deplorable, when the Spring of 1958 came around eight of the nine had successfully completed the school year.
On Wednesday October 9th, 1957 at 8PM eastern time, The Bill Kemp Show took to the air over ABC. Bill Kemp was born on July 10th, 1921 in Toronto, Canada. An up and coming performer in the 1950s, his daily radio show ran weeknights at 8PM. His show was the final in a twelve-hour daily live broadcast project by ABC called “The Live and Lively Radio Network.” ABC’s intention was to raise ratings by going back to live broadcasts in an era of taped shows. Interestingly, it was ABC that helped launch the non-Mutual Broadcasting transcribed primetime era with Bing Crosby’s Philco Radio Time in 1946. Kemp’s show featured an orchestra, vocalist and guest stars such as Jonathon Winters. Kemp’s announcer George Ansbro remembered that Kemp once went laugh for laugh with Winters after a particularly successful broadcast, and continued the antics all the way to a nearby steakhouse. Unfortunately, Kemp also developed a debilitating drinking problem. Merv Griffin and Jim Backus were called on several occasions to cover for Kemp during absences for "personal reasons." One week after this broadcast on Wednesday October 16th, Queen Elizabeth II departed from Ottawa and arrived in Williamsburg, Virginia. The next day she was in Washington, D.C. While at the White House, Prince Philip received the gold medal of the National Geographic Society.On October 18th, two U.S. Navy balloonists flew to an altitude of sixteen miles, landing near Hermansville, Michigan. On October 19th, the Queen and Prince Philip attended an American football game in College Park, Maryland, and then visited a supermarket in West Hyattsville.That same day a beauty pageant winner was killed en route to her coronation in a helicopter crash in Farmingdale, New York, while Montreal Canadiens’ star Maurice “The Rocket” Richard became the first player in National Hockey League history to score five-hundred career goals.
Stan Freberg was born on August 7th, 1926 in Pasadena, California. Shortly after graduating from high school, he found work as a voice actor in both radio and animation.In 1957, now thirty-one, he was given his own thirty-minute comedy program on CBS, Sundays at 7:30PM eastern time from Hollywood. He debuted on July 14th, 1957. His cast featured Peter Leeds, June Foray, Daws Butler, Marvin Miller with vocalist Peggy Taylor, Billy May's orchestra, and the Jud Conlon Rhythmaires. His comedic style was biting. He was a shrewd satirist who targeted mediocrity, complacency, and stuffed shirts. He specialized in lampooning American life. On his first show he ripped American capitalism with a long skit about two competing Las Vegas nightclubs, the El Sodom and Rancho Gomorrah, set in the near future. The CBS higher-ups didn’t get it. So, he destroyed Lawrence Welk in a skit that became known as “Wunnerful, Wunnerful.” Billy May’s orchestra played a Welkian arrangement of “Bubbles in the Wine” while Freberg—doing a credible Welk imitation—kept yelling, “Turn off the bubble machine!” until he was drowned in the foam. Freberg “interviewed” the abominable snowman, presented a group of musical sheep, and staged a western skit, “Bang Gunley, U.S. Marshall Fields” spoofing the overdone sound effects of many classic films. He attacked censorship, with Freberg attempting to sing Kern and Hammerstein’s “Ol’ Man River,” only to be stopped by a “citizens committee censor,” who sounded a buzzer at any line he found objectionable, leading to rewriting the lyrics as “Elderly man river.”In August Sponsor Magazine reported that CBS thought network radio could see a return to sponsors buying full programs that fall. CBS was pitching The Stan Freberg show for ten-thousand dollars per week. However, by October it was obvious that network comedy couldn’t return to its previous highs and The Stan Freberg Show was canceled after the October 20th episode.
In October of 1957, Algeria was in the midst of a war for Independence and control between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front. The conflict began in November of 1954 and by October of 1957 was considered the world’s only active war of note. It was a complex conflict characterized by guerrilla warfare and the use of torture. When the War finally came to an end in 1962 with France granting Algeria Independence, nine-hundred-thousand Algerian refugees fled to France in fear of the NLF taking revenge on them for siding with France. The majority of Algerian Muslims who had worked for the French were left behind. Algerian authorities promised France they’d take no action against them. However, these Algerian Muslims were branded as traitors and many were soon murdered. On October 14th, 1957 at 10:30PM Eastern Time, CBS radio broadcast a documentary on the first three years of the conflict entitled, “Algeria Aflame.”
In October 1944, in conjunction with the Jewish Theological Seminary, NBC began one of the longest-running religious programs in radio history. It was called The Eternal Light.Then in its thirteenth year, The Eternal Light dramatized stories from ancient Judaea, along with contemporary works like The Diary of Anne Frank. It was produced by Milton Krents. Many top New York radio actors appeared. NBC donated the air time and the Seminary paid for the show's production.On Sunday October 13th, 1957 at 12:30PM eastern time over NBC’s WRCA in New York, The Eternal Light took to the air with a story on the Glastonbury Cows. In Glastonbury, Connecticut in 1869, tax collectors asked two elderly sisters, Abby and Julia Smith, to pay their road taxes early. They did, but were surprised to find the town accidentally billed them a second time later in the year.The Smiths were wealthy. Their father left his daughters a large land holding, investments and a farm. Their mother left them a sizable inheritance, as well.When the sisters asked the town to correct the matter, the tax collector refused. When they tried to enter a Town Meeting to raise the issue, they were turned away because they were women. The frustrated sisters paid the tax a second time, but their lack of political power infuriated them. They began attending women’s suffrage rallies. And as their frustration grew, so did their taxes. In 1874, they were told they could not delay their taxes in exchange for a twelve percent interest charge – a courtesy afforded other taxpayers. They became convinced that modern women needed a vote, and decided to stop paying taxes until they could. The tax collector seized seven cows to pay off back taxes. The sisters used a straw buyer to retrieve most of them, sparking much written debate. Critics who compared them to children only made their supporters more united. The cows became celebrities. Knickknacks woven out of their hair sold like hotcakes at fundraising bazaars that promoted women’s suffrage. Julia published a popular book, Abby Smith and Her Cows.This seizing continued through 1878. Eventually the sisters testified before Congress. In 1878, at the age of 81, Abby died in July. The next year, Julia, age 87, decided to marry for the first time. Her husband began paying the taxes on her property, and she repaid him in a compromise of love.Although many radio programs were being canceled, The Eternal Light would air on radio and then television until 1989.
On Friday October 4th, 1957 the U.S. received confirmation of the USSR’s launch of Sputnik 1, the first artificial earth orbiting satellite.It was a polished metal sphere twenty-three inches in diameter with four external radio antennas to broadcast radio pulses. Its radio signal was easily detectable by amateur radio operators. Its sixty-five degree orbital inclination gave it a flight path that completely covered all parts of the inhabited earth. While traveling at peak speed, the satellite took 96.20 minutes to complete each orbit. It transmitted on the bandwidth of roughly twenty and forty megahertz. These signals were monitored throughout the world and continued for twenty-one days until the transmitter’s batteries died on October 26th. The satellite's success was unanticipated by the U.S., setting the space Race into orbit as part of the Cold War. That same day, Bring Crosby signed on with The Ford Road Show for five minutes over CBS, announced by Ken Carpenter. The next Wednesday, October 9th, The Lovell Telescope was activated in Cheshire, England, while a Boeing B-47 Stratojet bomber crashed in Orlando, Florida killing all four military officers on board. On October 10th, a nuclear reactor fire on the north-west coast of England released radioactive material into the air, as President Eisenhower hosted breakfast at the White House with Ghanese minister to France, Komla Agbeli Gbedemah, who’d been recently refused at a Howard Johnson’s in Delaware because of his race. The next day an IBM computer at MIT Computation Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts calculated the last stage of the R-7 Semyorka rocket that carried Sputnik 1. On Saturday October 12th, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, arrived in Ottawa, the capital of Canada, for a royal visit. On the fourteenth, the Queen opened the Canadian Parliament, the first monarch to do so.
Unit 99, first aired over ABC’s KFBK Sacramento on August 23rd, 1957. The radio station was part of the McClatchy media empire along with The Sacramento Bee and other radio and TV stations, as well as newspapers in the Western U.S.The show was born from Jack Webb’s Dragnet mode of realistic police portrayals, then furthered by shows like Night Watch which removed the script, followed actual officers, and made the drama real. Tony Kester directed the show under the auspices of the Sacramento police department. It featured Police Chief James B. Hicks as host and sergeant Dan Meredith recording his nightly police beat, interviewing witnesses of various crimes and police calls. Unit 99 ran until June 13th, 1958.
At 12:45PM on Wednesday October 2nd, Game one of the 1957 World Series took to the air. It pitted The Milwaukee Braves against The New York Yankees from Yankee Stadium in The Bronx. Bob Neal and Earl Gillespie were on the call for NBC Radio, while Mel Allen and Al Helfer telecast the game.The upstart Braves were led by future hall-of-famers Hank Aaron, Eddie Matthews and Warren Spahn. The defending champion Yankees were led by Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, and manager Casey Stengel.The Braves moved to Milwaukee from Boston after the 1952 season, leaving beantown to the Red Sox, finishing in the first division the previous four seasons before breaking through and winning the 1957 NL pennant.The Yankees were playing in their twenty-third world series in thirty-seven seasons. The Braves would win the series four games to three. The next year the two teams would meet again, this time with the Yankees taking the series in seven games. The following day, comedian Artie Auerbach, best known for playing Mr. Kitzel on The Jack Benny Program passed away of a heart attack. That same day New York Times columnist Jack Gould criticized NBC for attempting to televise the World Series in color.
In Breaking Walls episode 143 we begin a mini series on radio and the world in the fall of 1957.——————————Highlights:• LIFE and The World• The Man from Tomorrow• The American Forum of the Air• Atomic Testing• Pat Buttram and Just Entertainment on Labor Day• Ray Bradbury and the End of X-Minus One• Ms America• The Hattie Cotton School Bombing• Biography in Sound• Howard Miller and Steve Allen• The End of Family Theater• The Grand Ole Opry• Meet The Press and The Right of Self Determination• CBS Still Doing Drama on Sundays• Bing Crosby’s Road Show• School Integration• The Dodgers and Giants Leave New York• Looking Ahead to October and Sputnik——————————The WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material for today’s episode was:• On the Air — By John Dunning• Network Radio Ratings — By Jim RamsburgAs well as articles from• Broadcasting Magazine• The Los Angeles Times• The New York Times• Radio Daily• U.S. Radio Magazine——————————On the interview front:• Lilian Buyeff, Mary Jane Croft, Sam Edwards, Herb Ellis, Bill Froug, Jack Johnstone, Jeanette Nolan, and Herb Vigran spoke to SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com.• John Scott Trotter spoke with Same Time, Same Station.• Jackson Beck, John Gibson, Larry Haines, Mary Jane Higby, Jim Jordan, Joe Julian, Mandel Kramer, Jan Miner, Arnold Moss, Bill Robson, and Guy Sorel spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these interviews at GoldenAge-WTIC.org.• Parley Baer, Ken Carpenter, Bob Hastings, Jim Jordan, and Herb Vigran spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at Speakingofradio.com.• Roberta Bailey-Goodwin spoke with John Dunning for his KNUS program from Denver* Norman Macdonnell was with John Hickman for his Gunsmoke documentary• Jack Kruschen and George Walsh spoke with Jim Bohannon in 1987• Ray Bradbury spoke with Jerry Haendiges• Ernest Kinoy spoke with Walden Hughes• Ben Grauer spoke with Westinghouse for their 50th anniversary• William S. Paley gave a speech on November 20th, 1958 in New York——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• Scarborough Fair, Shenandoah, and Autumn Stars — By Michael Silverman• The Last Rose of Summer — By Tom Waits• Corrina, Corrina, Old Friends, and Where Are You Now — By George Winston• Death Runs Riot — By Matthias Gohl• This Room is My Castle of Quiet — By Billy May and His Orchestra——————————A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.——————————Thank you to:Tony AdamsSteven AllmonOrson Orsen ChandlerPhil EricksonJessica HannaPerri HarperThomas M. JoyceRyan KramerEarl MillardGary MollicaBarry NadlerChristian NeuhausRay ShawFilipe A SilvaJohn WilliamsJim W.——————————WallBreakers Links:Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakersSocial Media - @TheWallBreakers
Next time on Breaking Walls, we continue our 1957 mini series by picking up in October with Sputnik, Algeria, Queen Elizabeth’s royal tour, and dying radio drama. ——————————The WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material for today’s episode was:• On the Air — By John Dunning• Network Radio Ratings — By Jim RamsburgAs well as articles from• Broadcasting Magazine• The Los Angeles Times• The New York Times• Radio Daily• U.S. Radio Magazine——————————On the interview front:• Lilian Buyeff, Mary Jane Croft, Sam Edwards, Herb Ellis, Bill Froug, Jack Johnstone, Jeanette Nolan, and Herb Vigran spoke to SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com.• John Scott Trotter spoke with Same Time, Same Station.• Jackson Beck, John Gibson, Larry Haines, Mary Jane Higby, Jim Jordan, Joe Julian, Mandel Kramer, Jan Miner, Arnold Moss, Bill Robson, and Guy Sorel spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these interviews at GoldenAge-WTIC.org.• Parley Baer, Ken Carpenter, Bob Hastings, Jim Jordan, and Herb Vigran spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at Speakingofradio.com.• Roberta Bailey-Goodwin spoke with John Dunning for his KNUS program from Denver* Norman Macdonnell was with John Hickman for his Gunsmoke documentary• Jack Kruschen and George Walsh spoke with Jim Bohannon in 1987• Ray Bradbury spoke with Jerry Haendiges• Ernest Kinoy spoke with Walden Hughes• Ben Grauer spoke with Westinghouse for their 50th anniversary• William S. Paley gave a speech on November 20th, 1958 in New York——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• Scarborough Fair, Shenandoah, and Autumn Stars — By Michael Silverman• The Last Rose of Summer — By Tom Waits• Corrina, Corrina, Old Friends, and Where Are You Now — By George Winston• Death Runs Riot — By Matthias Gohl• This Room is My Castle of Quiet — By Billy May and His Orchestra
In September 1957 baseball’s Dodgers, who’d called Brooklyn home since 1884, and Ebbets Field since 1913, played their final games in Flatbush. They’d been World Champions just two years earlier.Simultaneously, over in northern Manhattan, The New York Giants, champions in 1954, and at home near Coogan’s Bluff since 1883, played their final game overlooking the Harlem River. Both teams would move three-thousand miles west to California. The Dodgers would settle in Los Angeles, first at Memorial Coliseum and then in the famed Dodger Stadium, winning the 1959 World Series, and five more in the years since.The Giants moved to San Francisco, played their home games at the mercilessly windy Candlestick Park, before moving to a new stadium in 2000, winning three world titles in the twenty-first century.New York would be left without a National League team to rival the cross-town Yankees for five years, until the New York Metropolitans, colloquially known as the Mets, were formed. They're winners of two world championships of their own. In 1960 hall of fame pitcher Bob Feller, hosting a syndicated show, spoke about that last Giants baseball weekend at the Polo Grounds.There’s an old adage that says “change is life’s only constant.” Post-War hope turned into labor strife and a baby boom, which gave rise to the most profitable radio year in history—1948—leading directly to the TV era. The new deal was more than ten years old and an urban diaspora, guided by white flight and atomic fear, brought families to newly blossomed suburban communities and left cities wondering what the future held. More uncertainty lay ahead. Four days into October, the USSR would launch Sputnik I, the first artificial Earth-orbiting satellite. Everybody’s lives got a little nearer, and yet a little further apart. But, if they wanted to feel close, all they had to do was tune on a radio to a CBS affiliate Sunday afternoons as George Walsh breathed “and now” to open for Suspense. They’d perhaps remember a time when Jack Benny drove radio ratings, while his cast drove him crazy. To a time when Tuesday nights meant NBC with Fibber Mcgee and Molly, Bob Hope, and Red Skelton. When Thursdays meant Crosby, Suspense, and Burns and Allen. And to a time when Norman Corwin helped remember what brought us home. It’s where we’re all going anyway. More specifically, it’s where we’re heading next month.
In September of 1957, Bing Crosby, now fifty-four years old, was gearing up to host the Edsel TV special and generating praise for his recent dramatic role as Earl Carlton in Man On Fire. He’d won an Academy Award, had his own radio show since 1931, and championed the widespread use of Prime Time, network transcription. The Ford Road Show featuring Bing Crosby debuted on September 2nd, 1957. It aired five days per week on CBS for five minutes. These were taped segments edited by Murdo MacKenzie and written and produced by Bill Morrow The just-heard John Scott Trotter conducted the orchestra. It included an opening theme, one or two songs by Bing and commercials by Ken Carpenter. This episode aired on September 24th. Ford’s Agency of Record J. Walter Thompson saturated radio with five-minute segments. They also sponsored a show with Rosemary Clooney, a chit chat by Arthur Godfrey and news by Edward R. Murrow.Earlier in this episode we spoke about The Civil Rights Act of 1957 and the Hattie Cotton Elementary School bombing in Nashville, Tennessee.With forced integration underway, federal troops needed to be called out to Little Rock, Arkansas where a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School were stopped from attending by the state’s governor. On September 27th CBS Radio ran a special report on the progress, or lack thereof, in southern school integration in the three years following Brown vs. The Board of Education.
The man you’re listening to is William Froug. He was instrumental in bringing the CBS Radio Workshop back to the air. CBS was still airing dramatic programming on Sunday afternoons. In 1957 Froug became the VP of Programming. He took the position against his will. The CBS Radio Workshop, a reimagining of the old Columbia Workshop had debuted with the critically acclaimed two-part adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World on January 27th, 1956. It was in its second season in 1957 and unfortunately on the chopping block. Froug stayed with The CBS Radio Workshop until 1957. Afterwards Antony Ellis took over Hollywood’s production. Paul Roberts was the New York counterpart. On Sunday September 22nd, 1957, with no national sponsorship forthcoming, The CBS Radio Workshop went off the air with an adaptation of Sinclair Lewis’ “Young Man Axelrod.” After the workshop signed off for the final time, Suspense signed on, directed by William N. Robson and guest-starring Jackie Kelk and Jeanette Nolan. At 5:05PM Indictment signed on starring Nat Polen and Jack Arthur. Indictment debuted on January 29th, 1956. It told stories from the files of former ADA Eleazar Lipsky. Episodes presented the step-by-step details that went into gathering evidence which led to an indictment. That was the voice of director and writer Jack Johnstone. In September of 1957 he was in his third year directing Bob Bailey in Yours Truly Johnny Dollar. This is Bob Bailey’s daughter Roberta Bailey-Goodwin. Parley Baer was featured in this cast. After The FBI in Peace and War went on at 6:05PM, Gunsmoke signed on. Baer had been part of the cast since its first broadcast in 1952. By 1957 Gunsmoke was, quite simply, one of the most influential western in history. Norman MacDonnell was its director. Sez Who! Debuted alongside The Stan Freberg Show on Sunday, July 14th, 1957 as part of a week in which CBS Radio added $765,000 in new billings. Sez Who! Would be sponsored every other week by Look Magazine.
On Saturday, September 14th, 1957 The Grand Ole Opry signed on from WSM and the Ryman Auditorium.WSM is a fifty-thousand-watt clear channel station located in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded by the National Life and Accident Insurance Company, the station’s call sign stands for We Shield Millions. WSM first signed on October 5th, 1925. The next month on November 28th, The WSM Barn Dance took to the air for the first time. On December 10th, 1927, the program's host, "Judge" George D. Hay referred to the show for the first time, as The Grand Ole Opry. The Opry began running coast-to-coast on Saturday evenings in 1939. The show moved to the Ryman Auditorium in 1943. As it developed in importance, so did the city of Nashville, which became America's country music capital.By 1954, WSM was considered the outstanding music station in the country. That October 2nd a teenage Elvis Presley would have his only Opry performance. ___________Meet The Press grew out of a partnership between Martha Rountree and Lawrence Spivak. Rountree, a freelance writer, broke into radio in the late 1930s. She created the panel show Leave It to the Girls in 1945, before teaming with American Mercury editor Lawrence Spivak, to produce a radio show promoting his magazine. Spivak would be the permanent panelist representing the press. They would invite top newsmakers to be put on the spot, “without preparation or oratory,” and thus “find out what they stand for.”The show debuted on October 5th, 1945 over Mutual Broadcasting.Meet the Press was soon making its own headlines. The panelists purposely pitted two editors known for their opposition to the guest’s viewpoint, with one middle-of-the-road type, and Spivak.In 1947 while still airing over Mutual, a TV version began airing on NBC. The radio version aired over Mutual for five years before going off the air and moving to NBC in May of 1952. On September 15th, 1957 the guest was Archbishop Makarios of Cyprus. The discussion regarded Cyprus’ quest for independence. The population was made up of both Greeks and Turkish Cypriots and had been under British rule since 1878. Greeks wanted British removal and a union with Greece. The Archbishop was one of the loudest voices in this quest. Makarios, who was in favor of bombing attacks that had occurred against government offices in 1955, was exiled in 1956, and by 1957 most leaders in the National Organization Of Cypriot Fighters’ had been killed or captured. So, they turned to organizing school children riots, and killing the families of police and military personnel. The rebellion continued throughout 1958, even after Makarios had abandoned his initial demands. They finally ended in February 1959 when agreement was reached for Cyprus to become an independent republic.The radio version of Meet The Press aired until July 27th, 1986. The TV version is still being seen.
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The man you just heard is Herb Vigran, being interviewed by Chuck Schaden in 1984. He’s about to be featured on Family Theater.
The show was created by Patrick Peyton of the Holy Cross Fathers. Mutual Broadcasting donated time under four conditions: It had to be a drama of top quality; strictly nonsectarian; feature a film star; and Father Peyton had to pay the production costs.
Peyton met Loretta Young, who advised him on how to approach A-listers. She became the “first lady” of Family Theater. Between 1947 and 1957, there were hundreds of dramas broadcast. Few used religion of any kind in the plot.
However, by September of 1957 Mutual Broadcasting was phasing out radio drama. As Herb Vigran mentioned, Hollywood’s character actors were doing as much TV as possible. When Family Theater aired its last episode on Wednesday, September 11th at 8:35PM Pacific time over KHJ in Los Angeles, the only other dramatic radio shows on KHJ that night were Gangbusters and Horatio Hornblower.
This is from that last episode, fittingly called “Roadshow.” Lilian Buyeff played Helen Blackwell. After the episode ended, Joan Leslie came back on with the final PSA in Family Theater history.
At 10:45 AM central time on the morning of September 11th, 1957, Howard Miller signed on from WBBM with fifteen minutes of music, and an interview with Steve Allen.
Howard Miller was born on December 7th, 1912 in Chicago. From 1945 through 1949 he was WIND’s program director before beginning an eighteen year run as the Windy City’s top-rated morning DJ. In between he acted in Jamboree!, Senior Prom, and The Big Beat.
In September of 1957 Steve Allen was coming off starring in The Benny Goodman Story. He left The Tonight Show in January after three successful years when NBC asked Allen to focus on his Sunday prime time Steve Allen Show.
By then Allen was famous as a humorist, musician, emcee, and actor. He was promoting his new song, “Gotta Have Something in the Bank, Frank” when he spoke to Miller.
On Saturday September 7th, 1957 Marilyn Van Derbur was crowned 1958’s Miss America in Atlantic City. She was a twenty-year old Phi Beta Kappa scholar at the University of Colorado, She later moved to New York City, becoming the TV spokeswoman for AT&T’s Bell Telephone Hour and hosted ten episodes of Candid Camera, as well as five Miss America Pageants. In 1975 she established the Marilyn Van Derbur Motivational Institute. When she was fifty three, she revealed herself to be the victim of incestual abuse from her father. Her story was featured on the cover of People magazine on June 10th, 1991. She and her husband angel invested an adult incest survivor program at The Kempe Center, and she founded the Survivors United Network.On Monday September 9th President Eisenhower signed The Civil Rights Act of 1957. The law was the first civil rights legislation since 1875. Deep south Democrat leaders were resisting desegregation. In this midst, Eisenhower proposed a civil rights bill designed to provide federal protection for African American voting rights against state and local law.The law also established a U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and a Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. That day, the Hattie Cotton Elementary School in Nashville, Tennessee admitted one African American student, Patricia Watson. She was six years old. Shortly after midnight on September 10th, dynamite was set off at the east end of the school’s entrance hall. It tore down walls and knocked out every window, forcing the school to close for nine days. When it reopened, Patricia’s mother had her transferred to an all-black school. The act was condemned by Nashville Police Chief Douglass E. Hosse who offered a seven-thousand dollar cash reward for any information. Six suspects were detained, but no one was ever charged. Biography in Sound began when NBC newsman Joseph O. Meyers was assigned to produce a documentary on Winston Churchill for his eightieth birthday on November 30th, 1954. He felt blending actualities of the subject’s voice with recollections of his friends, associates, and antagonists could prove successful. A vast resource was available at NBC. Meyers had been building a tape library of interview clips since 1949. In five years, more than one-hundred-fifty-thousand historic statements had been recorded and indexed. In addition, Meyers had Bennett Cerf tell Churchill anecdotes. Laurence Olivier and Lynn Fontanne read from British poetry, and sound effects and music were added for drama. Meyers’ finished product was cheered around the industry. “He had done the impossible,” said Radio Life, “turning people’s attention once more to radio.”The clamor for another show was immediate and loud. A month later, Meyers answered with a piece on Ernest Hemingway, again to great acclaim. A biography of Gertrude Lawrence followed in another month, and in February it was decided to run the series weekly.On Tuesday September 10th, 1957 at 9:05PM eastern time, Biography In Sound: Danny Kaye took to the air over NBC.
The man you’re listening to is one of the most celebrated authors of the 20th-century: Ray Bradbury. By the spring of 1955 he’d authored more than one-hundred short stories and one novel, Fahrenheit 451, born out of a collection of earlier works. These stories were published in magazines like Astounding Science Fiction, Street and Smith, Weird Tales, Thrilling Wonder Stories, and The Saturday Evening Post. Among sci-fi enthusiasts, Bradbury was regarded as one of America’s preeminent writers. In April of 1955, NBC staff writer Ernest Kinoy was tabbed to adapt one of the sections of Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles, “And the Moon Be Still as Bright'' for a new audition. The show would be called X Minus One.X Minus One was picked up. The network formed a partnership with the aforementioned sci-fi magazines to choose stories for adaptation. The magazines would plug the show, and the show would mention the magazine during the introduction. X Minus One debuted on Sunday, April 24th, 1955. Its scheduling was erratic. NBC had long been known for impatience with new programs. If a series wasn’t generating big numbers and sponsors straight away, NBC often dropped or moved the show. Unfairly, the onus was on Street and Smith and their magazines to make X Minus One profitable. By September 5th, 1957 the show was airing Thursday evenings at 8:05PM. It was NBC’s only dramatic offering of the evening. Fittingly the episode was called “Saucer of Loneliness.” We’ve spent a good deal of time in past Breaking Walls episodes discussing Hollywood radio’s famed actors. There was a concurrent equally-talented group of New York actors. Like Bob Hastings. Bob Hastings spoke of Arnold Moss. There was Jan Miner, John Gibson, Joe Julian, Jackson Beck, Mandel Kramer, another oft-heavy was Larry Haines, and of course, the husband-wife team of Mary Jane Higby and Guy Sorel.These are just some of the people who appeared on countless shows originating from New York during radio’s golden age. Many were able to make the transition to television, many others weren’t. Once X Minus One signed off at 8:30, Nightline signed on for ninety minutes. News had become more valuable than drama in prime time. X Minus One would be canceled after the January 9th, 1958 broadcast.
Labor Day is a U.S. federal holiday celebrated on the first Monday in September to honor and recognize the contributions of laborers to the development and achievements of the United States.
As trade unions and labor movements reached their peak during the Industrial Revolution, the Central Labor Union and the Knights of Labor organized the first parade in New York City. In 1887, Oregon was the first state to make it an official public holiday. By the time it became an official federal holiday in 1894, thirty states in the U.S. officially celebrated Labor Day.
On Labor Day in 1957, LIFE Magazine’s cover featured Major David Simons and his hot air balloon flight, also talking about the asiatic flu threat.
Meanwhile, The Saturday Evening Post wrote about the drastic toll life without parole prison sentences wrought and a warden’s plea for drastic reform in the American concept of punishment.
Originally hosted by Gene Autry, Just Entertainment was in 1957 hosted by sidekick Pat Buttram.
Pat Buttram was born in Addison, Alabama on June 19th, 1915. The seventh child of a Methodist minister, he was set to follow in his father’s footsteps when, just before his eighteenth birthday, he attended the 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago.
Station WLS sent an announcer to the fairgrounds for a remote broadcast interviewing fair attendees, and the announcer picked Pat as a "typical" visitor from the South. To everyone's delight and surprise, his comic observations and bits of country wisdom kept the announcer and the audience in stitches. WLS hired him for their National Barn Dance program, giving him a nation-wide audience. Pat soon became friends with Gene Autry.
He went to Hollywood in the 1940s, appearing in more than forty Gene Autry pictures and became a regular on the Melody Ranch radio program. He later played Mr. Haney on CBS-TV’s Green Acres.
countrymusic #geneautry #patbuttram #oldtimeradio #otr #1950s #podcast #radio #audiofiction #grandoleopry #radiodrama #goldenageofhollywood #western #yellowstone #laborday
On September 1st, 1957 at 10:30PM eastern time over NBC, The American Forum of the Air signed on with a talk on the dangers of nuclear testing. The day prior a nuclear test was conducted in Nevada, only roughly three hundred miles from Los Angeles. Later that month, The Rocky Flats Nuclear Plant, just fifteen miles northwest of Denver, Colorado experienced a major plutonium fire, which caused plutonium, americium, and uranium contamination within and outside its boundaries.Six years later, on August 5th, 1963 in Moscow, thanks to worldwide fallout level side effects and concerns, the Partial Test Ban Treaty was signed. Ratification came from the Soviet Union, U.K., and the U.S.. It limited testing to underground facilities. The U.S. and USSR were, at that time, responsible for eighty-six percent of all nuclear tests.
August, 1957. We’re driving east on Route 50 from West Sacramento in a 1957 Ford Skyliner. The convertible costs roughly three-thousand dollars, has a Y-block Thunderbird V-8 engine and two-hundred-twelve horsepower. It’s got something else too: car radios have become Standard. U.S. Radio Magazine will soon state that fifty-five percent of all peak listening came from cars. Auto-rating measurements are underway, but still ineffective. Radio stations are having a good year. Sixty percent of National stations expect their total revenue to grow. Total radio revenue is expected to increase three percent year-over-year. A median station in 1957 is expected to make nearly one-hundred-three thousand dollars in revenue, with a profit of eleven-thousand five-hundred dollars. Urban stations are enjoying higher numbers thanks to higher populations and more national ad spots, though local sponsors are paying eighty-seven percent of ad costs.Programming accounts for thirty-three percent of all expenses. Gunsmoke was dramatic radio’s highest-rated show, with its Saturday afternoon repeat broadcast attracting even more listeners than its Sunday evening primetime installment. Somewhere between four and five million people were still tuning in from their homes. When factoring in car and transistor radios, nearly ten million people were listening. Meanwhile, Major David Simons just piloted the first hot-air balloon to reach over one-hundred-thousand feet of altitude, skirting the outer rim of our atmosphere. With the experiment lasting more than twenty-four hours, it was the precursor to manned space flights. On August 28th, the Major appeared on LIFE And The World over NBC radio in conjunction with the September 2nd, issue of LIFE Magazine. The rocket age, the Cold War, integration and civil rights are all upon us, while radio drama hangs on for dear life. Tonight, we’ll step into a portal to a time with Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, and Fibber McGee and Molly. And along the way, we might just remember where we’ve been, so we know where we’re going. ___________On June 1st, 1957 after three seasons as a five-a-week serial, Jim and Marian Jordan joined NBC’s Monitor in short segments. The Monitor service had been airing for two years, offering NBC affiliates a full weekend block of available programming. In New York, On Sunday September 1st, NBC’s WRCA began airing Monitor at 12PM. That day Fibber and Molly told a version of their origin story. In 1958, tests found that Marian had a terminal form of cancer. She continued to work as long as possible. The couple had vignettes on Monitor until September of 1959. Fibber McGee and Molly were the subject of Breaking Walls episode 103. If you’d have tuned into WCBS in New York on Sunday, September 1st, 1957 you’d have heard news reports at the tops of most hours. Concerts and other music programs filled the dial between 11:30AM and 4:00PM. At 4:05 The CBS Radio Workshop signed on with the network’s first dramatic offering of the day.Next up was Suspense. In 1957 William N. Robson was in the middle of a three year run as director. CBS had found multiple sponsorship for the series in late 1956. Ten months later, it was airing on Sundays at 4:35 from WCBS in New York, and at 4PM from KNX in Los Angeles. By 1957 Robson had more than twenty years of experience writing, producing, and directing radio shows. The September 1st episode was called “The Man From Tomorrow.” It starred Frank Lovejoy and Joan Banks. At that time, they’d been married for seventeen years. One thing that was most certainly successful: CBS’s handling of radio during the oncoming TV era. A large part of this was because of chairman William Paley’s belief in the medium. By 1957 he’d been head of CBS for thirty years. At the CBS company convention in November of 1957 upper management predicted that radio was becoming fashionable again.
This is the trailer for RED ODYSSEY, a Lovecraftian horror story you will never forget. Premiering September 8 wherever you get your podcasts from Denouncer Media (https://denouncermedia.com/).
"I Was Thirteen" by Taras Shevchenko, translation by John Weir.
Edited by Benton Hodges
Music by Jacob Zeranski
Sound Mix and Design by Manas Kunder
Right now, experience New York City like you’ve never before. Will you make the right deal? Or fall to greed? But whatever you choose, just make sure you get out in time.
Out now on your favorite podcast app, Burning Gotham — The 2022 Tribeca Select audio soap opera about the fastest growing city in the world, and the opportunists who shaped it.
Find out more at BurningGotham.com
In Breaking Walls episode 142 we feature one of Brooklyn’s native sons, Bill Gargan, who made more than sixty films, and good money on radio in the 1950s.
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Highlights: • Brooklyn’s Native Son • Hollywood and An Oscar Nomination • The War and Being a Radio Detective • Martin Kane • Launching Barrie Craig • Radio Ratings in 1954 • Hollywood vs. New York • Hay is For Homicide • Ghosts Don’t Die in Bed • Throat Cancer and Thereafter • Looking Ahead to 1957
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com
Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
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The reading material for today’s episode was: • On the Air — By John Dunning • Why Me? An Autobiography — By William Gargan • The Big Show — By Martin Grams Jr. • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg
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On the interview front: • Parley Baer, Himan Brown, Lawrence Dobkin, Betty Lou Gerson, Virginia Gregg, Herb Ellis, and Herb Vigran spoke to SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com.
• Bing Crosby and Lurene Tuttle spoke with Same Time, Same Station.
• Himan Brown spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these interviews at GoldenAge-WTIC.org.
• Parley Baer and Himan Brown also spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at Speakingofradio.com.
• Connee Boswell spoke with Lee Philip.
• Ernest Konoy spoke with Walden Hughes for Yesterday USA.
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • The Man With The Golden Arm — By Elmer Bernstein • String Quartet No. 12 in F Major, Op. 96 — By Avi Avital • Pyramid of the Sun and Voodoo Dreams — By Les Baxter • Living Without You — By George Winston, who recently passed away
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A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.
For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.
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Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva John Williams Jim W.
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WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers
While this brings our look at the life of William Gargan to a close, we’ll be staying in this time period for the next episode of Breaking Walls.
Next time on Breaking Walls, it’s the fall of 1957 and the world is in transition. Both the Civil Rights movement and the space race are underway. We’ll begin a four-month arc, covering all things through the lens of radio for the month of September.
After Barrie Craig went off the air, Gargan continued to occasionally host Family Theater. He also made films Miracle in The Rain and The Rawhide Years. He starred on the west-coast stage in a version of The Desperate Hours for Randy Hale and went to Europe to film thirty-nine episodes of The New Adventures of Martin Kane for Ziv Productions.
In 1960 Hale was set to cast Gargan on stage in The Best Man, but a bout with Laryngitis forced Gargan to get some tests on his throat done.
It was throat cancer. Doctors were forced to remove his larynx On November 10th, 1960. A breathing stoma was cut into the bottom of his throat. A man whose voice made him famous no longer had one.
For a time he was depressed. Friends Bing Crosby, Dennis Day, Phil Harris, Alice Faye, and many others came by. It helped. Gargan couldn’t bear the thought of not speaking again. He made his first vocal lesson through The American Cancer Society in January of 1961.
It took him more than a year, but by the following February he was making progress. The ACS was looking for a Southern California Vice Chairman for their 1962 drive. Gargan agreed to serve.
In 1963, he met President Kennedy. He had a meeting set with the President for November 23rd. It was one that President Kennedy never made it to.
By then his brother Ed was ill with diabetes and emphysema. He passed away in 1964. That year, Gargan was hired by the ACS for their full-time national staff.
Within three years, Gargan mastered esophageal speech. He wouldn’t use a vocal amplifier and worked tirelessly to be able to speak in both low and high tones.
Bill thanked his wife Mary for refusing to let him give up and for his faith that kept him asking why. That’s what he titled his autobiography, Why Me?
By then he knew the answer. Bill Gargan spent the next two decades raising money, awareness, and the spirits of fellow cancer patients around the country.
On February 16th, 1979 while on a flight between New York City and San Diego following a tour lecturing for the ACS, Gargan suffered a fatal heart attack. He was seventy-three. William Dennis Gargan is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in San Diego, California.
In September of 1954 as the last new episode of The Lone Ranger was broadcast, Barry Craig, Confidential Investigator took to the air on Tuesday September 7th at 8:30PM eastern time with an episode called “Ghosts Don’t Die in Bed.”
Betty Lou Gerson played Ruth Adams. Virginia Gregg played Mrs. Dunn. The series announced its cancellation at the end of this episode, but a month later it was back on the air in a twenty-five minute format for another thirty-nine episodes recorded in Hollywood.
The last Barrie Craig episode aired on September 30th, 1955, replaced thereafter with the science fiction series X-Minus One, produced in New York. One-hundred-ninety-two episodes were broadcast.
On Tuesday August 31st, 1954 as President Eisenhower addressed the American Legion, it had been a busy ten days for American aviation.
On Sunday, August 22nd, Braniff Airways’ Douglas C-47-DL Skytrain crashed during a flight from Waterloo, to Mason City, Iowa. Twelve of the nineteen aboard died.
The next day, A U.S. Air Force Lockheed C-130 Hercules flew its first flight at Burbank, California.
And on August 25th, U.S. Air Force Captain Joseph C. McConnell, the top-scoring American jet ace in history, died in a crash when his F-86H Sabre fighter-bomber malfunctioned during a test flight at Edwards Air Force Base, California.
Meanwhile, Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator took to the air with a play called “Hay is For Homicide.”
Parley Baer played Jake. Also heard in the cast was Jack Moyles, Vivi Janiss, and Joyce McClusky. Arthur Jacobson directed the production. Airing opposite Barrie Craig at 8:30PM eastern time was High Adventure over WOR-Mutual, Stop The Music over CBS, and Watkins Committee Testimonies concerning Senator Joseph McCarthy on ABC.
McCarthy would be censured by the senate in December. Senator McCarthy and the Red Scare has been covered extensively on episodes 123 through 128 of Breaking Walls on the first six months of 1954.
After eleven orders of thirteen Barrie Craig installments, production of the show moved from New York to Hollywood with the July 6th, 1954 episode. The August 24th episode was called “Blood Money.”
The west coast broadcasts were supported by people like Joan Banks, Olan Soule, Parley Baer, Howard McNear, Herb Vigran, Virgina Gregg, Betty Lou Gerson, and Lawrence Dobkin.
By 1954 ninety-eight percent of homes had a radio set. There were still nineteen million U.S. houses that could only be reached by radio.
Procter & Gamble led the way with over fourteen million dollars spent, and forty companies, including General Foods, Colgate-Palmolive, Liggett & Myers, Campbell’s Soups, S.C. Johnson, and Coca-Cola spent at least one million dollars on radio advertising.
However, the four national networks continued a five-year downward trend in radio ad sales. Network radio gross revenue peaked in 1948 at just under two-hundred million dollars. In 1953, it was down to one-hundred sixty million.
While TV hadn’t fully supplanted radio’s total reach, it had decimated its prime-time audience share. On CBS-TV I Love Lucy led all shows with a rating of 58.8. It was seen in over fifteen million homes.
Radio’s top show, The Lux Radio Theater, was heard in just under three million.
The networks reduced ad sale charges for the sixth consecutive year, hoping to offset TVs broadening market share. It didn’t work. For the first time in sixteen years revenue fell. The only category to see an increase in sales was local advertising, and even that rose less than one percent.
Shows canceled in the first half of 1954 included The Quiz Kids, Dr. Christian, Front Page Farrell, Bulldog Drummond, Rocky Fortune, Ozzie and Harriet, and The Six Shooter.
West-coast actors, like Herb Vigran and Herb Ellis were moving into TV, but television was already going through budgetary changes.
Radio’s top show, People Are Funny had a rating of 8.4. Along with oncoming transistor sets, nearly thirty million cars now had radios, but there was still no system to measure this audience.
The next year it was estimated that out-of-home listening added an additional forty percent to at-home audiences. People Are Funny’s actual rating was closer to twelve.
But these incidentals didn’t matter to the industry’s character actors. Network production habits were changing. More and more documentaries and news were airing from New York, more and more drama was airing from Los Angeles. That summer, NBC shifted the production of Barrie Craig to hollywood.
When Bill Gargan was fired from Martin Kane he planned to star in a Broadway rendition of Doctor Knock. In late September of 1951, Gargan signed a one-million-dollar contract that made him the exclusive property of NBC for the next five years. The deal required him to participate in a minimum of four guest spots on radio and TV each year.
At the same time, Gargan was invited by Frank Folsom of RCA to accompany him to Rome to meet the Pope. Along the way, Gargan went to Paris to appear in the October 7th, 1951 episode of The Big Show.
He participated in a sketch involving a poker game with George Sanders, Fernand Gravey, and Meredith Willson. Two weeks after his Big Show appearance, William Gargan was starring in a new series for NBC.
Launched as part of NBC’s year-long Silver Jubilee, Barrie Crane, Confidential Investigator, first aired over NBC from New York on Wednesday October 3rd, 1951 at 10PM eastern time.
Bill Gargan debuted as the detective opposite Mr. President on ABC, Frank Edwards on Mutual, and boxing on CBS. The show was directed by the just-heard Himan Brown. By 1952 Brown had been involved in radio for decades.
The Barrie was inspired by the nickname of William Gargan’s oldest son, then twenty-two. The title of the show was soon changed to Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator. Episode three was called “The Judge and The Champ.”
In conjunction with NBC’s twenty-fifth anniversary, the network launched a series of both Radio and TV offerings highlighting the growth of NBC's technology, talent, infrastructure and advertising success.
Block-sharing advertising was in full-effect. The network sold commercial time spots, rather than full shows and called it “Operation Tandem.”
Gargan was back on The Big Show the next March 16th, 1952 to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with Tallulah Bankhead and good friend and fellow Catholic, Fred Allen.
Now with transcription wide-spread, Barrie Craig could be heard on different days each week, based on the region. Listeners would also hear different commercials, depending on what local affiliate they were tuning into. These could also be a mix of local and national ad spots.
Blocked-sharing was being used by the other networks. ABC touted theirs as 'The Pyramid Plan,' CBS as The Power Plan, and Mutual called their’s MBS Plus.
In a further refinement of MBS Plus, Mutual introduced an exclusive package of MGM programming for 1952. Both The Adventures of Harry Lime, and The Black Museum aired as part of this deal. For more information, tune into Breaking Walls episode 141.
Launched with their tandem plan, NBC provided a "pay as you sell" opportunity for local affiliates. Local sponsors could pick from one-hundred-nineteen one-minute spots. The goal was to accommodate sponsors without a long contract.
Craig occupied an office on the third floor of the Mercantile Building on Manhattan's Madison Avenue. Barrie Craig’s writers included Frank Kane, Louis Vittes, John Roeburt, and Ernest Kinoy.
William Gargan was supported by some of the finest east coast voice talents of the era. This included Santos Ortega, Elspeth Eric, Arlene Blackburn, Barbara Weeks, Joan Alexander, Parker Fennelly, Arnold Moss, Luis Van Rooten, and Herb Ellis.
NBC announcers included Don Pardo and Ed King with John Daly as spokesperson for 1952 Pontiac spots and Carl Caruso for Bromo-Seltzer spots.
In 1949 Bill Gargan appeared in Dynamite for Paramount Pictures. It would be his last film until 1956. On March 3rd he appeared on Guest Star.
That year he was in New York City when he phoned acquaintance Frank Folsom of RCA. Folsom invited Gargan for lunch. He went to the fifty-third floor of 30 Rockefeller Center. Inside were executives from BBD&O, The New York Stock Exchange, and others. During lunch Gargan mentioned that he was looking for a job in TV.
Folsom phoned Norm Blackburn, VP of TV and Radio at NBC and a good friend of Gargan’s. Gargan was asked if he’d be interested in playing a pipe-smoking detective, sponsored by the U.S. Tobacco Company. The show became Martin Kane, Private Eye. It would be shot for TV and separately done for radio as well.
Mutual Broadcasting carried the radio series. It debuted on Sunday August 7th, 1949 at 4:30PM eastern time. Meanwhile, the TV version aired on NBC Thursdays at 10PM.
It was live, and the first detective series on network TV with an enormous following. Gargan realized early on that there was only so much you could do with a plot in a half-hour, so he made the series a showcase for himself. He developed a tongue-in-cheek style.
Kane’s 37.8 TV rating for the 1950-51 season was twelfth overall.
Gargan later said “This was TV’s early era, but a few people tried to make the casual intimacy of TV a sexual intimacy. The sight of pretty women, a touch of deep cleavage, a show of thigh became—to these producers—more important than the content of the show. The result was we often had pretty, empty headed girls blowing their lines all over the lot.
“In Desperation, I began to mug for the camera more and the script writers began to write more blatantly. You get into a terrible rut this way. Everybody works harder to undo the damage, and the result is more screeching, overacting, and overwriting. It drives the viewers away, and to get them back you come up with more and more desperate gimmickry.
“What was worse, to me, was the embarrassment. I’m no prude. Probably the best part I ever did on film was that of Joe in The Knew What They Wanted, a wife-stealer. But this was just sleazy.”
The next season the show’s rating fell out of the top thirty. By then, Gargan was friends with New York’s Cardinal Spellman. A friend of Gargan’s mentioned that the Cardinal watched the show. Gargan went to the studio execs and told them to write better scripts or get another star. They got another star — Lloyd Nolan. After eighty-five weeks, Bill Gargan was no longer Martin Kane.
Shortly after, Gargan signed a deal with Sonny Werblin, then of MCA, to do a new private eye show for NBC. The show would eventually be called Barry Craig, Confidential Investigator.
During the War, Bill Gargan led a USO group that featured Paulette Goddard, Keenan Wynn, and accordionist Andy Arcari.
They toured China-Burma-India. He spent four months overseas in some of the poorest and worst conditions of the War, putting on shows and flying in various prop planes despite a lingering ear infection, drinking whatever alcohol he could to help keep sane.
When Bill finally got home his ear was so swollen wife Mary jokingly called him Dumbo. Under contract at MGM, he borrowed an apartment in New York and went on stage. His first night he got word that friend Leslie Howard had been killed in a plane crash.
The War marked a dividing line in Bill’s life.
He went back to Hollywood and made Swing Fever, She Gets Her Man, and finally in 1945, he starred with Bing Crosby, Ingrid Bergman, and Martha Sleeper as Joe Gallagher in The Bells of St. Mary's.
Television sets began to show up in homes as Bill and his agent Ken Dolan conceived a half-hour mystery radio show called Murder Will Out for ABC. It failed to find a long-term sponsor and was canceled.
Gargan next starred in I Deal In Crime, beginning on January 21st, 1946 on ABC. He played private investigator Ross Dolan for the next twenty months. During that time, Gargan also guest-starred on Family Theater, hosting the second episode on February 20th, 1947.
Family Theater was created by Patrick Peyton of the Holy Cross Fathers. Mutual Broadcasting donated time under four conditions:
The show had to be a drama of top quality; strictly nonsectarian; feature a film star; and Father Peyton had to pay the production costs.
Peyton met Loretta Young, who advised him on how to approach A-listers. She became the “first lady” of Family Theater. Between 1947 and 1956, there were four-hundred eighty-two dramas broadcast. Few used religion of any kind in the plot.
Bill continued to make guest-appearances on radio, like on the October 13th, 1948 episode of Bing Crosby’s Philco Radio Time on ABC. It would be in 1949 that William Gargan took on his most famous role, and in the process became one of the first television drama detectives in broadcasting.
William Gargan appeared in more than fifty films in the 1930s. In between, he and Mary’s second son, Leslie, was born on June 28th, 1933. The Gargans bought the late Jean Harlow’s house at 512 North Palm Drive for twenty-seven thousand dollars. They’d live there for the next quarter century. Bill’s parents passed away in the middle of the decade.
Gargan soon signed a Warner Bros. two-year contract that paid him one-hundred-thousand dollars, turning down the role of Duke Mantee in Robert Sherwood’s The Petrified Forest on Broadway to sign. The role went to friend Humphrey Bogart. For more info on Bogie, tune into Breaking Walls episode 140.
Bill made his Lux Radio Theater debut on March 6th, 1939 in an adaptation of One Way Passage.
Gargan hated working for Warner Bros. He likened it to sleeping on a bed of nails. The press labeled him “Bill Gargan, King of the B movies.” He later broke his contract.
Perhaps his most famous role was as Joe in the 1940 RKO film, They Knew What They Wanted. Gargan received third billing behind Carole Lombard and Charles Laughton and was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar.
The plot is: while visiting San Francisco, Tony Patucci — played by Laughton — an aging illiterate winegrower from the Napa Valley, sees waitress Amy Peters — played by Lombard — and falls in love. Tony gets his foreman Joe, a womanizer, to write her a letter in Tony's name. Tony's courtship culminates with a proposal. When she requests a picture of him, one of Joe is sent. Amy goes to Napa to be married, only to find that Joe isn’t her husband-to-be. She decides to go through with the marriage. However, while Tony is in bed after an accident, Amy and Joe have an affair. Two months later Amy discovers she’s pregnant. Upon learning of the infidelity, Tony pummels Joe, but forgives Amy, insisting they still be married. Unable to forgive herself, she leaves with the priest.
Meanwhile, Gargan did more radio. He appeared on the January 4th, 1940 episode of The Good News with his former co-star Ann Sothern. Good News aired Thursdays at 9PM eastern time over NBC’s Red Network. Its 16.9 rating was twelfth overall.
Good News was the first major collaboration of a movie studio and a broadcasting system for a commercial sponsor.”
The idea was, simply put, to “dazzle ’em with glitter.” MGM produced. Every star except Garbo was available. There would be songs, stories, comedy, and drama. In short, it promised an intimate glimpse of Hollywood with its hair down. The result cost Maxwell House $25,000 a week.
Gargan was back on the program the following week in a one-act play opposite Lurene Tuttle.
Bill was nominated for a best supporting actor Oscar, won by good friend Walter Brennan for The Westerner. He later joked that Brennan spent ninety minutes spitting and Gargan lost to a spittoon. The joking was short-lived. Gargan would soon begin work on another film with the appropriate title, I Wake Up Screaming.
William Dennis Gargan was born to an irish-american Catholic family in Brooklyn, New York on July 17th, 1905. His parents—Bill and Irene—had seven children, but only Bill and his brother Ed survived infancy. Ed was four years older than Bill. The pair were close. Bill’s mother had been a teacher, but his father was a book maker and a gambler, which didn’t sit well with Irene’s parents.
Gargan’s dad made book in the copy room at the New York World and in Room 9 of City Hall. The four-story brownstone they lived in at 427 Henry Street in Brooklyn Heights was won in a poker game. Today P.S. 29 stands on the site. Bill got his first silent movie job at seven for Vitagraph Studios. He was paid Three dollars and eighty-five cents. That’s roughly one-hundred twenty dollars today. It portended things to come. By ten, Bill was hanging out at his father’s bar in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Gargan later said that his mother was more straight-laced, a bit of a prude on the surface, but in reality, she ran with dad all her life and his.” Both parents had good senses of humor.
He grew up going to Sea Gate in the summer and fighting for the Irish kids from Bay Ridge against the Italian kids in empty lots. He played baseball and basketball for St. Francis Xavier grade school and St. James High. He ditched school in the spring to scale the Ebbets Field wall to watch the Dodgers and their stars of the 1910s.
When he was fourteen and working as an ice brusher at the Prospect Park skating rink, Gargan met a girl named Mary Elizabeth Kenny. He was so taken that he used his broom to knock her down! Gargan recalled that “She got up, her eyes spitting fire and her mouth not doing badly either. I knew I was in love.”
Gargan loved the theater. By high school he was playing in school productions of Hamlet, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet. However, a teacher who’d been out to get Bill for his comedic behavior made life so miserable during Bill’s senior year that he dropped out.
Gargan became a message runner for a Broad Street brokerage firm, then a cop for a clothing store, then one for a Wall Street agency until he was fired for losing a tail. He sold Wesson Oil to grocers, sneaking away to watch plays. One day the lights went up and Gargan noticed his boss was sitting next to him. “Good show,” Gargan said, “you’re fired,” said his boss.
Bill’s brother Ed was an actor. While having lunch with Ed one day at the Lamb’s Club a man named Le Roy Clemens mentioned to Bill that a play he’d written was having tryouts. Bill read a line and was hired, beginning his career in Aloma of the South Seas. They opened in Baltimore in 1924. Gargan was a quick study, learning everyone’s parts as well as the stage manager’s. Within a year he was directing the Philadelphia production of the play. Aloma of the South Seas ran for forty weeks.
Gargan spent the next years playing all over the country with people like George Jessel and Richard Bennett. Jessel would be godfather to Bill’s first son Bill Jr, affectionately known as Barrie. Barrie was born on February 25th, 1929.
After the stock market crashed, Bill got a short-term job on stage in New York where he met William Bendix. Soon a casting director at Paramount called and after that Leslie Howard cast Bill in a play. Bill later said that Leslie helped make him a star.
That same year, on January 12, 1932 Gargan opened at the Broadhurst theater in New York with Leslie Howard in Philip Barry’s The Animal Kingdom. It was a smash hit. His success led MGM to call. They offered him the part of Sergeant O’Hara in the 1932 feature Rain, starring Joan Crawford and Walter Huston. He’d be paid fifteen-hundred dollars per week. That’s over thirty-three grand today. Bill bought out his contract with The Animal Kingdom, playing on May 2nd for the last time.
The next morning, Bill, Mary, and young Barrie left for Hollywood. Rain was shot on Catalina Island.
Hey everybody James Scully here, the host, producer, and director of Breaking Walls. If you've been enjoying Breaking Walls please consider giving the show a rating or review on whatever platform you listen. The most listened-to platforms are iTunes, Spotify, and Youtube.
For those who don't know, the series is available on Youtube. And for those who didn't know, the series is also available anywhere you could get a podcast (and at https://www.thewallbreakers.com/breaking-walls) if you've been watching on Youtube.
If you like the show, consider donating $1 per month at https://www.patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
Breaking Walls Episode 142 will be on William Gargan and Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator. This will be out in full on August 1st, 2023 at the Patreon and in parts throughout the month of August in the main show feed.
After that, we'll begin a mini series on radio and world news in September and October of 1957.
So, once again, if you appreciate the show, these are monthly four-hour documentaries that I produce in my own time. I'd very much love if you would subscribe on Patreon for $1 (or more) a month.
Or, if you really like the show and can't, the next best thing I could ask for besides a review is to please tell people. Word of mouth is the best way this show can grow effectively. A lot of podcast marketing isn't nearly as good as you, the listener who enjoys this, telling someone you know, "hey check this out."
If you have any questions, please reach me at my email — James@TheWallBreakers.com.
Thanks! I'll catch you on the flip side.
In Breaking Walls episode 141, we finish a three part series on the radio career of Orson Welles by picking up as he left The United States for Europe in the late 1940s.
For full appreciation, tune into episodes 79 and 104 before hearing this.
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Highlights: • Macbeth, HUAC and Leaving the U.S • Harry Alan Towers, and Harry Lime • Othello and The Black Museum • Song of Myself and Theatre Royal • Moriarity • The BBC Sketchbook and Moby Dick • Mr Lincoln and Mr Arkadin • Returning to the U.S. • Tomorrow and Yesterday • Looking Ahead to Barrie Craig
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com
Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
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The reading material for today’s episode was:
• A Book by Desi Arnaz • Citizen Welles by Frank Brady • This is Orson Welles by Welles and Peter Bogdanovich • On the Air — By John Dunning • Discovering Orson Welles by Jonathan Rosenbaum • Orson Welles on the Air, at OrsonWelles.Indiana.edu • Wellesnet.com.
As well as articles from:
• Broadcasting Magazine • Life Magazine
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On the interview front:
• Orson Welles was with BBC’s Monitor, Peter Bogdonavich, Dick Cavett, Michael Parkinson, and Dinah Shore. • Harry Alan Towers spoke with Sheridan Morley and the BBC. • Joseph Cotton was with Chuck Schaden. Hear the full chat at SpeakingofRadio.com. • Jeanette Nolan was with SPERDVAC, the Society to Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety, and Comedy. For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com • Lurene Tuttle spoke with Same Time, Same Station in 1972.
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Wilderness Trail — By Walter Scharf for National Geographic • Irish & Celtic Waltz — By The Irish & Celtic Folk Wanderers • The Colorado Trail, Op. 28 Fantaisie for Harp — By Elizabeth Hainen • Seance on a Wet Afternoon — By John Barry
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A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.
For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.
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Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva John Williams
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WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers
It seems fitting that the way in which Orson Welles described Alexander Woollcott is the same way many who knew Welles would have described him.
That’s going to bring our look at Orson Welles’ radio career to a close. We’ve now covered Mr. Welles in long form three times — in episodes 79, 104, and now 141. We also covered his time as The Shadow in depth in episode 131.
Is this the last time we focus on Orson Welles? That remains to be seen, but next month on Breaking Walls we’ll move to NBC where we’ll focus on one of the more underrated detective shows of the mid-1950s.
That show? Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator.
The reading material used in today’s episode was: • A Book by Desi Arnaz • Citizen Welles by Frank Brady • This is Orson Welles by Welles and Peter Bogdanovich • On the Air — By John Dunning • Discovering Orson Welles by Jonathan Rosenbaum • Orson Welles on the Air, at OrsonWelles.Indiana.edu • Wellesnet.com.
As well as articles from: • Broadcasting Magazine •Life Magazine
On the interview front: •Orson Welles was with BBC’s Monitor, Peter Bogdonavich, Dick Cavett, Michael Parkinson, and Dinah Shore. • Harry Alan Towers spoke with Sheridan Morley and the BBC. • Joseph Cotton was with Chuck Schaden. Hear the full chat at SpeakingofRadio.com. • Jeanette Nolan was with SPERDVAC, the Society to Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety, and Comedy. For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com •Lurene Tuttle spoke with Same Time, Same Station in 1972.
Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Wilderness Trail — By Walter Scharf for National Geographic • Irish & Celtic Waltz — By The Irish & Celtic Folk Wanderers • The Colorado Trail, Op. 28 Fantaisie for Harp — By Elizabeth Hainen • Seance on a Wet Afternoon — By John Barry
Breaking Walls Episode 142 will spotlight William Gargan and Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator. This episode will be available beginning August 1st, 2023 everywhere you get your podcasts, and at TheWallBreakers.com.
In the meantime, give Breaking Walls a quick rating on whatever platform you listen, especially itunes.
You can also join The Breaking Walls Facebook group at Facebook.com/Groups/TheWallBreakers.
And support this show for as little as a buck a month at Patreon.com/TheWallBreakers.
On Sunday January 1st, 1956 NBC’s Monitor broadcast New World Today.
1956 was a Presidential election year. At the time of this broadcast, Dwight Eisenhower, who’d had a heart attack in September, was still debating whether he would run for a second term. He’d decide in February, eventually winning re-election.
After the censuring of Senator Joseph McCarthy in 1954, the Red Scare had subsided, overtaken by fear of communism in other parts of the world and general war with Russia.
Meanwhile, In January of 1956 Orson Welles appeared with The New York City Center Theater Company playing King Lear. He was finally home again.
In February he traveled to Las Vegas where he performed a variety act at the Riviera Hotel. Welles was then contracted by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz to create a TV pilot for Desilu Productions.
The short film was written and directed by Orson Welles, based on the short story "Youth from Vienna" by John Collier. Joi Lansing and Rick Jason star as a narcissistic couple faced with an irresistible temptation concocted by a scientist. Welles was the on-screen narrator. It was called The Fountain of Youth and considered a dark comedy.
Desi Arnaz conceived the series, proposing to Welles that he host and narrate. Arnaz later wrote that before signing the deal he clarified the finances with Welles: "I am not RKO. This is my 'Babalu' money." Filming took five days in early May. The total cost was nearly fifty-five thousand dollars.
Arnaz reported that CBS gave the series a slot, with General Foods as a sponsor, but the challenges in getting Welles to commit to a series lasting more than thirty weeks were daunting. The series did not go to air. The pilot was later broadcast on September 16th, 1958, during NBC's Colgate Theatre.
That Spring, the Rock n’ Roll era officially arrived. On April 6th, 1956, Elvis Presely signed a three-film deal with Paramount Pictures. By the end of the month, his single, “Heartbreak Hotel” rose to the top of the charts. It would remain there into June.
Meanwhile, Orson Welles appeared as himself on October 15th, 1956 in a very famous episode of I Love Lucy.
Two days later, he was on the radio for a special one-off program adapting Philip Wylie’s 1954 novel about post-nuclear civilization. It was called Tomorrow and syndicated by ABC and the Federal Civil Defense Administration.
The next month, on November 13th, 1956, his daughter’s first birthday, Welles appeared on NBC Radio’s Biography In Sound for his old mentor Alexander Woollcott, who had passed away in 1943.
On February 13th, 1955 Orson Welles appeared on an episode of NBC’s Anthology in salute to Abraham Lincoln. Directed by John Malcom Brennen, produced by Steve White, and announced by Harry Fleetwood, Anthology offered dramatic readings of famous and lesser-known plays. Its last episode aired on June 12th, 1955, coinciding with the launch of NBC’s Monitor.
On May 8th, 1955 at Caxton Hall in London, Orson and Paola Mori tied the knot. Welles was simultaneously finishing the editing on a film that would be called Confidential Report in Britain and Mr. Arkadin elsewhere. He cast Paola as Raina in the film.
In Mr. Arkadin, American smuggler Guy Van Stratten gets a tip that Russian oligarch Gregory Arkadin, has a dark secret. Wanting to blackmail him, Van Stratten travels to Spain, striking up a friendship with Arkadin’s daughter.
The movie was shot throughout Europe in 1954, with scenes filmed in Spain, London, Munich, Paris, the French Riviera and at the Château de Chillon in Switzerland.
The story was based on several episodes of The Adventures of Harry Lime and was originally released in Spain in October of 1955. Orson and Paola welcomed the birth of their daughter Beatrice Welles on November 13th, 1955. It was Welles’ third daughter.
By then, Welles was planning a return to the U.S.
On March 15th, 1955, Orson Welles premiered as Lord Mountdrago in the British Omnibus horror film, Three Cases of Murder. The film consisted of three stories, Welles appeared in the one titled after his character.
Ten days later he premiered in the french historical epic film Napoléon. He had a small part as Sir Hudson Lowe.
Then on April 2nd, Welles appeared for BBC’s TV network in the first of a six-part series entitled, Orson Welles' Sketch Book.
Written and presented by Welles, the fifteen-minute episodes present his commentaries on a range of subjects. The six episodes were called, “The Early Days,” “Critics,” “The Police,” “People I Miss,” “War of the Worlds,” and “Bullfighting.”
Later that year Welles took part in another series of shorts called Around the World with Orson Welles.
Between June 16th and July 9th, 1955 at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London, Orson Welles staged a two-act version of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick.
Welles used minimal design. The stage was bare, the props were minimal, and the actors, which included Christopher Lee, Joan Plowright, Kenneth Williams, Patrick McGoohan, and Gordon Jackson, wore street clothes.
Brooms were used for oars, and a stick was used for a telescope. The actors provided the action, and the audience's imagination provided the ocean, costumes, and the whale.
Welles filmed approximately seventy-five minutes of the production, hoping to sell it to Omnibus for a TV film, but he was disappointed in the result.
The next year, old friend John Huston cast Welles as Father Mapple in his 1956 film adaptation of Moby Dick, which starred Gregory Peck.
Welles later cast John Huston as director Jake Hannaford in The Other Side of The Wind. The film wouldn’t be completed and released until 2018, more than thirty-three years after Orson’s death. Welles modeled Jake Hannaford on his good friend Ernest Hemingway.
In 1953 Orson Welles met Italian actress Paola Mori. She was twenty-four, beautiful, and had lived for eight months in a concentration camp during World War II. Her father, a colonel in the Italian army under King Victor Emmanuel III, was a member of the anti-Mussolini resistance. They were soon dating.
In early 1954, Welles played a small part as Benjamin Franklin in the French/Italian historical drama Royal Affairs in Versailles.
Later in the year he was cast by director Herbert Wilcox as the main antagonist in Trouble In the Glen, opposite Margaret Lockwood, Forrest Tucker and Victor McLaglen. It portended things to come, as Harry Alan Towers was still producing a series of Sherlock Holmes radio adventures, starring John Gielgud as Holmes and Ralph Richardson as Watson.
On December 21st, 1954, Orson Welles appeared as Holmes villain Professor Moriarity in the last production of the series. The tale was called “The Final Problem.”
In September of 1952, Orson Welles worked with the BBC for a portrait of early American director Robert Flaherty. Flaherty, who directed the first docu-drama film, Nanook of the North in 1922, had passed away the previous July.
As Welles just mentioned, when he got to Hollywood in the late 1930s, he was fascinated by the early film people, and they were more than happy to share their stories with the then-Boy Wonder.
In April of 1953 the BBC hired Welles to read one hour of poetry from Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself.”
The next month the Italian comedy Man, Beast and Virtue debuted, in which Welles co-starred.
From September 7th into October, Welles was involved with Ballet de Paris at the Stoll Theatre in London for a production of The Lady in the Ice. In October the production moved to Paris.
Welles directed, wrote the libretto and was the ballet's costume and set designer.
He later told Peter Bogdonovich, “It was very successful in London, and only moderately so in Paris, where it was very badly lit — as everything always is in Paris. The plot is: a girl's been found, like dinosaurs have been found, in a block of ice. And she's on display in a sort of carnival. A young man falls in love with her, and his love melts the ice. And when she kisses him, he turns to ice. A little parable for our times.” It would be the only ballet Orson Welles’ ever directed.
In late September of 1953 Broadcasting Magazine reported that Harry Alan Towers had sold shows to both ABC and NBC for the fall. ABC would welcome Horatio Hornblower back for a second season, starring Michael Redgrave.
Meanwhile on NBC, a new half-hour anthology program starring Sir Lawrence Olivier called Theatre Royal would take to the air.
The program debuted on October 4th, 1953 with Orson Welles starring in an adaptation of Alexander Pushkin’s “The Queen of Spades.” Pushkin wrote “The Queen of Spades” in the fall of 1833. It’s a short story about how human greed can lead to madness.
Theatre Royal was developed to capitalize on Lawrence Olivier’s name. At the time the program launched, Olivier and then-wife Vivian Leigh were getting set to appear in Terence Rattigan's comedy, The Sleeping Prince in the West End. The play would run for eight months. It made Olivier temporarily unable to star in his own program.
Many fine actors of the British stage and screen were involved in individual episodes of Theatre Royal, like Robert Morley, Harry Andrews, Muriel Forbes, and Daphne Maddox. The music was credited to Sidney Torch.
Once Sir Lawrence Olivier could no longer appear, Sir Ralph Richardson took over as host of Theatre Royal.
Selected episodes were repeated, with a different series opening and closing on ABC Mystery Time in the late 1950s. The show remained in active syndication in the U.S. into the 1970s.
Welles briefly returned to America to make his first appearance on TV, starring in the Omnibus presentation of King Lear, broadcast live on CBS on October 18th, 1953. It was directed by Peter Brook, and co-starred Natasha Parry, Beatrice Straight and Arnold Moss.
One of the first projects Orson Welles undertook after moving to Europe was a film version of Othello. Despite Macbeth’s criticism, he was still confident he could produce a successful Shakespearean film.
However, filming was erratic. Its original Italian producer announced on one of the first days of shooting that he was bankrupt. Instead of abandoning filming altogether, Welles as director began pouring his own money into the project.
He took acting jobs to ensure continued production. He also raised money by going on the stage. In the summer of 1950 Welles appeared in Paris in his own play called The Blessed and The Damned, which consisted of a short film, called The Miracle of St. Anne, and two one-act plays. It received positive reviews.
In August he traveled to Frankfurt, Hamburg, and Munich, where he starred in An Evening With Orson Welles.
Filming of Othello stopped for months at a time to raise money. It took more than two years to complete and was shot in Morocco, Venice, Tuscany and Rome.
Before the film’s release, Welles played the Shakespearean drama on stage to audiences in Newcastle and London.
A dubbed version of Othello premiered in Rome In November of 1951. Welles' original English-language version premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May of 1952. It won the Grand Prix and was released in Europe thereafter.
When David O’Selznick got word that Harry Alan Towers had distributed The Adventures of Harry Lime to MGM, he refused to air it, so Towers took the series elsewhere. He quickly found out that MGM was now contractually obligated to provide a series with Welles to the Mutual Broadcasting System.
So, in 1951 Towers went to Welles with another radio series. He’d already produced a series called The Secrets of Scotland Yard with Clive Brook.
The new series would be called The Black Museum. It was based on real-life cases from the files of Scotland Yard. Walking through the museum, Welles would pause at one of the exhibits, describing an artifact that led into a dramatized tale of a brutal murder or a vicious crime.
Towers visited Australia in the late 1940s and set up production facilities in Sydney. The Black Museum was produced there by Creswick Jenkinson. Ira Marion was scriptwriter and music for the series was composed and conducted by Sidney Torch.
Orson Welles's introductions were recorded on tape in London, then flown to Australia to be added to the locally recorded performances. This was the first series to be produced in Australia in this way.
The program was transcribed in 1951. In the U.S. Mutual Broadcasting carried the series, with more than five-hundred stations airing it. In New York it began airing Tuesdays at 8PM on New Year’s Day, 1952. Episode twenty-seven was called “The Notes” or “Kilroy Was Here.”
“Kilroy Was Here” is a graffiti scrawl or meme of debated origin that became popular during World War II. It was associated with GIs stationed in Europe, depicting a bald-headed man with prominent nose clutching at and peeking over a wall. Next to him was the phrase.
Robert Rietti played leads and Keith Pyott was often in the cast. Beginning In May of 1953, The Black Museum was also broadcast over Radio Luxembourg, a commercial radio station, and was not broadcast by the BBC until 1991.
The Black Museum aired for the calendar year of 1952 over Mutual. It was rebroadcast on KABC, Los Angeles, in 1963 and 1964, and on KUAC—FM in Fairbanks, Alaska, in 1967.
In 2002, Harry Alan Towers produced The Black Museum for TV, hiring Gregory Mackenzie to be director and showrunner. The anthology series used Welles’ original narration.
The adaptation was shot on location in London in a film noir style and the pilot starred Michael York as Scotland Yard Inspector Russell.
In 1948 author Graham Greene was in Vienna getting a tour of the city, its back alleys, less-reputable nightclubs, and even its sewers. He was also introduced by actress Elizabeth Montagu to Peter Smolka, the central European correspondent for The Times. Greene was working on a novella that would become a screenplay called The Third Man. Greene sold the film rights to producers Alexander Korda and David O’Selznick.
In the story a man named Holly Martins comes to Vienna to accept a job with his friend Harry Lime, only to learn that Lime has died. Martins is a writer. He’s told Lime was killed by a car while crossing the street.
At Lime's funeral, Martins meets two British Royal Military Police: Sergeant Paine, a fan of Martins' books, and Major Calloway. Martins thinks the death is suspicious, so he stays in Vienna to investigate the matter.
Orson Welles was cast as Lime with longtime Mercury Theater friend Joseph Cotton cast as Martins. Principal photography began in Vienna in early November of 1948 and lasted for six weeks. The rest was done around London and completed by March of 1949.
Then-unknown composer Anton Karas was hired to create the musical score, performing it on a zither.
The film was released in the UK in September of 1949, quickly becoming that year’s most popular.
When released in the U.S. audiences loved it. Time wrote that the film was "crammed with cinematic plums that would do Hitchcock proud—ingenious twists and turns of plot, subtle detail, full-bodied bit characters, atmospheric backgrounds that become an intrinsic part of the story, a deft commingling of the sinister with the ludicrous, the casual with the bizarre.”
At the 1951 Academy Awards, the film took home the award for Best Black and White Cinematography, while at the British equivalent, it won for Best British Film.
In the meantime Welles and Tyrone Power made The Black Rose in 1950, directed by Henry Hathaway. Welles played Mongolian warrior Bayan of the Hundred Eyes. Hathaway, who liked Welles, later said the casting was poor, with Welles purposely outwitting people during shooting.
While in England making The Third Man, Orson Welles became acquainted with Harry Alan Towers. Towers was a thirty-year-old radio producer whose company, Towers of London, was heavily into syndicated productions in British, American, Australian, and Canadian markets. His anthology series Secrets of Scotland Yard had proven that there was a lucrative market for high-end entertainment and, in Welles, he saw a personality and a talent that could quickly make his production company a leading one.
Towers and Greene had the same literary agent. Finding out that Greene hadn’t sold Harry Lime’s character rights when he sold the screenplay, Towers quickly bought the rights to the character with plans to put a syndicated radio series into production.
Welles signed with Towers to produce The Adventures of Harry Lime. They were prequel stories showcasing some of the more good-hearted things Harry Lime was supposed to have done.
Only sixteen of the episodes were acquired and broadcast by the BBC. It was the first time that the BBC broadcast episodes of a dramatic series that it did not produce. The full fifty-five episodes were syndicated to radio stations in the U.S.
Welles is credited as the author of ten scripts, including the first episode, “Too Many Crooks” which aired on August 3rd, 1951. The fifth episode was called, “Voodoo,” something Orson Welles had a lot of experience with, dating back to his time in South America during World War II.
In 1947, wanting to bring Macbeth to film, Welles teamed with producer Charles K. Feldman to convince Herbert Yates, President of Republic Pictures, to finance.
Welles guaranteed to deliver Macbeth on a budget of seven-hundred thousand dollars. When some members of Republic’s board expressed misgivings on the project, Welles agreed to personally pay any amount over the initial ask.
He brought in Irish actor Dan O'Herlihy as Macduff, and cast former child star Roddy McDowall as Malcolm. To cast Lady Macbeth, Welles visited longtime friend and radio legend Jeanette Nolan. The two had known each other since the 1930s in New York. Nolan and her husband, fellow actor John McIntire, were excited to work with Orson.
Welles made several changes to Shakespeare's original, like adding significance to the witches. They were played by two other Hollywood radio legends: Peggy Webber, and Lurene Tuttle.
Welles expressed frustrations with wardrobes and the tight schedule. He had the cast pre-record all their dialogue. Locations were leftover sets from westerns normally made at Republic. The entire production was done in twenty-three days in July of 1947. In September, Welles signed on to star in Gregory Ratoff’s Black Magic. Shooting would take place in Rome. He wouldn’t return until 1948.
Republic initially trumpeted the film as an important work, entering it in the 1948 Venice Film Festival. It was abruptly withdrawn after poor comparisons with Lawrence Olivier's version of Hamlet, also being screened. LIFE Magazine gave the film a terrible review in October of 1948, saying that Welles’ days as the “boy wonder” were long over.
When he returned from Europe in the Spring, Welles cut twenty minutes from the film at Republic's request and recorded narration to cover some gaps. But when finally released, it too was called a disaster.
In July of 1948 Welles signed on to co-star with Tyrone Power in the Italian film, Prince of Foxes. The film would be released in December of 1949. Welles’ last appearance in the 1940s on American radio was in a pre-recorded segment on Mail Call over the Armed Forces Radio Service, on October 13th, 1948.
Now thirty-three years old, Orson Welles had enough of Hollywood. He was in deep debt and needed to move to Europe, full-time. His first main stop would be in Vienna, to star with Joseph Cotton in a new film called The Third Man.
In Breaking Walls episode 140, we examine the under-appreciated radio career of the one and only Humphrey Bogart.
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Highlights:
• The Broadway Kid • Lux Presents Hollywood • High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon • Bogie with Hope, Benny, and Vallée • Casablanca • Suspense, Lauren Bacall, and Command Performance • Staying at Home for More Radio • HUAC • Fatherhood and Bold Venture • The African Queen and The Academy Award • The Final Years • Looking Ahead to July and Orson Welles
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com
Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show:
http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
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The reading material for today’s episode was:
• Lauren Bacall By Myself — By Lauren Bacall • Humphrey Bogart — By Alan G. Barbour • On The Air — By John Dunning • Bogart: A Life in Hollywood — By Jeffrey Meyers • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg • Bogart — By A.M. Sperber & Eric Lax
As well as articles from: • The Chicago Sun-Times • The New York Times • Variety
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On the interview front:
• Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall spoke with Edward R. Murrow in 1954
• Humphrey Bogart and John Huston spoke to George Fisher
• Humphrey Bogart also spoke to Ed Sullivan
• Morton Fine spoke with Dan Haefele for SPERDVAC in 1988
• Howard Duff and William Spier spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Here these interviews at GoldenAge-WTIC.org
• Lurene Tuttle spoke to Chuck Schaden. Here this chat at SpeakingOfRadio.com
• Ingrid Bergman spoke to the CBC
• William Holden spoke to Dick Cavett
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was:
• Manhattan Serenade — By Richard Alden • As Time Goes By — By Herman Hupfeld • Danse Macabre — By Camille Saint-Saëns
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A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.
For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.
——————————
Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva John Williams
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WallBreakers Links:
Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers
Social Media - @TheWallBreakers
That brings our look at Humphrey Bogart’s life and career to a close.
Next time on Breaking Walls? Well… next time we head to Europe to follow someone who got out of dodge, just in time for HUAC.
On Wednesday March 12th, 1952 at 9:30PM eastern time, Bogie and Bacall guest-starred on Bing Crosby’s CBS Chesterfield Show.
Two days later, Bogart’s next film, Deadline – U.S.A premiered in New York City. Bogie plays Ed Hutcheson, a newspaper editor who exposes a gangster's crimes, while also trying to reconcile with his ex-wife. His performance was well-received.
Bogart and Bacall’s appearance on The Bing Crosby Show pulled a rating of 9.1.
On August 23rd, 1952 Lauren Bacall gave birth to their second child, a daughter, Leslie Howard Bogart, named in honor of actor Leslie Howard who got Bogart his first major film role in The Petrified Forest.
The next day Bogart spoke to George Fisher about the experience. Both were soon back working as Bogart made Battle Circus and Bacall made How To Marry a Millionaire.
Bogart’s next big role and final Academy Award nomination came in an adaptation of Herman Wouk’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1951 novel, The Caine Mutiny. Bogart plays Captain Queeg.
In 1954 Bogart starred opposite Audrey Hepburn and the just-heard William Holden in Billy Wilder’s Sabrina. Bogart and Holden are brothers — Linus and David Larabee, competing for the love of Sabrina Fairchild.
Bogart agreed to it on a handshake with Wilder, although the script wasn’t finished. It was not a happy set. Bogart didn’t get along with Holden nor Hepburn, and didn’t like Wilder’s hands-on approach. There were also numerous last-minute script changes. Bogart later said “I got sick and tired of who gets Sabrina.” But the film proved to be a hit. The New York Times particularly praised Bogart's performance.
In the mid-1950s Bogart and Bacall’s social circle began to be jokingly known as the "Holmby Hills Rat Pack." The original members included Frank Sinatra, pack master; Judy Garland, first vice-president; Sid Luft, Judy’s husband, the cage master; agent Swifty Lazar, recording secretary; novelist Nathaniel Benchley pack historian; and Bacall, den mother.
Bogart simultaneously made The Barefoot Contessa opposite Rita Hayworth and Sinatra’s ex-wife Ava Gardner. Then in 1955 he made We’re No Angels, The Left Hand of God, and The Desperate Hours.
Just before Christmas in 1955, Bogart was honored with a roast at the Friar’s Club. But by then Bogart’s persistent cough and difficulty eating became too serious to ignore. He went for a battery of tests in January of 1956. The results were bleak: He had esophageal cancer.
He still managed to make his final film, The Harder They Fall opposite Rod Steiger. Bogart plays a newspaper man turned boxing PR writer, bent on exposing the corruption he sees. Critics gave the film, and his performance, especially considering his condition glowing reviews. This is the last scene Humphrey Bogart ever did in any film.
On March 1st, 1956 Humphrey Bogart had surgery to remove his esophagus, two lymph nodes and a rib. It was unsuccessful. Chemotherapy followed. He had another surgery in November. Although he became too weak to walk up and down stairs, he joked despite the pain: "Put me in the dumbwaiter and I'll ride down to the first floor in style.
Frank Sinatra, Katharine Hepburn, and Spencer Tracy visited him on January 13th, 1957. In a later interview, Hepburn said:
Spence patted him on the shoulder and said, "Goodnight, Bogie." Bogie turned his eyes to Spence very quietly and with a sweet smile covered Spence's hand with his own and said, "Goodbye, Spence." Spence's heart stood still. He understood.
Bogart lapsed into a coma and died the following day, January 14th, 1957, twenty days after his fifty-seventh birthday. At the time of his death he weighed only eighty pounds.
His funeral was held at All Saints Episcopal Church. It seemed like all of Hollywood came to mourn his passing. Spencer Tracy was to give the eulogy, but he was too moved to do so. John Huston spoke instead.
In 1951 Humphrey Bogart once again partnered with John Huston on an adaptation of C. S. Forester’s 1935 novel The African Queen.
Bogart plays the rough-and-ready Canadian mechanic Charlie Allnut, whose coarse behavior is barely tolerated by Katharine Hepburn’s Rose Sayer and her brother, Robert Morley’s Reverend Samuel Sayer.
The film takes place in German East Africa in August 1914 as Charlie is hired to take the Sayers and their goods to be delivered on his small steamboat, The African Queen.
When Charlie warns the Sayers that war has broken out between Germany and Britain, they choose to remain in Kungdu, only to witness German colonial troops burn down the village and press villagers into service. When Samuel protests, he’s struck by a soldier and soon becomes delirious with fever, dying shortly afterward. Charlie helps Rose bury her brother and escape in the African Queen.
Much of the film was shot on location in Uganda and the Congo in Africa. This was unusual for the time. The cast and crew endured sickness from the food, water, and hot conditions. Bogart later joked that he and Huston were the only members of the cast and crew who escaped illness, which he credited to having drunk whiskey on location rather than the water.
The African Queen premiered on December 26th, 1951 at the Fox Wilshire Theatre in Beverly Hills the day after Christmas and the day after Bogart’s fifty-first birthday.
The African Queen debuted just in time to qualify for the 1952 Academy Awards, which turned out to be of utmost significance for Humphrey Bogart. Promising friends that if he won his speech would break the convention of thanking everyone in sight, he was instead modest and subdued.
The kid from Manhattan that disappointed his parents and never took an acting lesson in his life was, at that moment, the best lead actor of the year. Bogart himself considered his role in The African Queen his finest performance.
On January 6th, 1949 Lauren Bacall gave birth to their first child, Stephen Humphrey Bogart, named in honor of his character in To Have and Have Not.
Meanwhile Bogart made Knock on Any Door and Tokyo Joe for his Santana Productions company. Both were moderately panned by critics. In 1950 he made Chain Lightning for Warner Brothers and In A Lonely Place for Santana.
In A Lonely Place sees Bogart star as Dixon Steele, a troubled, violence-prone screenwriter suspected of murder. Gloria Grahame co-stars as Laurel Gray, his neighbor who soon falls for Dix.
The film is considered among Bogart’s best and perhaps a character with personality traits most like the real man. It was among a trio of films released that year, along with Sunset Boulevard and All About Eve, which comment on the dark side of Hollywood. Simultaneously, Bogart and Bacall looked for a vehicle on radio for their talents.
Santana Productions partnered with the Frederic W. Ziv Company to develop a series called Bold Venture. It would be written by Morton Fine and David Friedkin, who famously wrote for Broadway is My Beat and Crime Classics.
Bogart had long interest in starring in his own series, but had resisted due to the constraints of live radio. By 1950, due to widespread transcription, that was no longer an issue. He could do the show in takes and have music and sound effects added later. Three or four shows a week could be done, leaving Bogart and Bacall free for the rest of the year.
Bogart plays Slate Shannon, hotel owner and owner of a boat called the "Bold Venture." Bacall, plays Sailor Duval, and Jester Hairson plays calypso singer King Moses. Shannon, based out of Havana, is always ready to rescue a friend in need or hunt down an enemy.
Seventy-eight thirty minute shows were produced. The first show aired on March 26th, 1951.
The Ziv Company distributed the series, putting up twelve-thousand dollars per episode. Bogart and Bacall were each paid four-thousand-dollars per show.
Four-hundred twenty-three stations bought the series, paying weekly fees to Ziv ranging from fifteen dollars for small stations to seven-hundred-fifty dollars for big ones. Newsweek noted that although the series was set in Havana, it could just have easily been in Casablanca.
While the series was first airing, the Bogarts were in Africa. Humphrey was set to star opposite Kathryn Hepburn in The African Queen.
In 1947 Humphrey Bogart signed a new Warner Brothers contract. It gave him limited script refusal and the right to form his own production company. He and Bacall soon made the thriller Dark Passage based on the 1946 novel of the same name by David Goodis. Critics gave the film, and Bogart’s performance mixed reviews, but generally praised Bacall and the cinematography.
On the eve of Thanksgiving, as NBC broadcast News of the World with Morgan Beatty, the United States was a country in transition.
World War two had created fundamental changes in society. While men of all races and creeds were overseas spilling the same colored blood, women had taken charge of the workforce. When veterans collected enough points for an honorable discharge, they returned home with different ideals, and what we’d now call PTSD.
As new cars, roads, and homes brought young families to the suburbs, racial discrimination came to the forefront in the face of the G.I. Bill, where a much higher percentage of white Americans were having their applications accepted.
Americans were organizing. In the year after VJ Day, more than five million struck for better wages and benefits. This debilitated key sectors of the economy and stifled production. Consumer goods were slow to appear on shelves and in showrooms, frustrating Americans who desperately wanted to purchase items they’d forsaken during the war.
It caused the largest inflation rise in the country’s modern history, and the Taft-Hartley Act, limiting the power of Labor Unions.
President Truman was seemingly at odds with Congress over every domestic policy and his approval rating sank to thirty-two percent.
The U.S. War Debt topped $240 Billion. Because the nation emerged as one of the world’s leaders, America was expected to have the largest hand in rebuilding Europe.
On the eve of Thanksgiving, news outlets reported that in order to stabilize Europe, Americans should be ready to resume sacrifices they made during the war. Not agreeing to do so could result in political enemies taking over the continent.
The changing world stoked people’s fears. Anti-communism was abound. On Monday November 24th, The House Committee on Un-American Activities declared a list of ten "unfriendly witnesses" who’d refused to answer questions about alleged communist influence in Hollywood.
Bogart, who’d been questioned and cleared the first time the committee came to Hollywood, organized the Committee for the First Amendment. He felt HUAC was abusing its power, harassing writers and actors, and went to Washington to state his case.
Bogart was later forced to recant to counter negative publicity. He wrote an article for Photoplay Magazine. Entitled “I’m No Communist,” he said, “the ten men cited for contempt by HUAC weren’t defended by us."
Part of the reason for the article was Head of Warner Brothers Jack Warner, who was the first person to volunteer testimony before HUAC in September of 1947.
Bogart’s next Warner Brothers film, The Treasure of The Sierra Madre, was to be written and directed by John Huston.
Huston and Bogart were liberal democrats, but they knew better than to commit career suicide. The film was critically praised, but ticket sales were lukewarm. It received four Oscar nominations, winning three — Best Supporting Actor for Walter Huston, and Best Director and Best Screenplay for John Huston.
It’s been long-held that Bogart should have been nominated as best actor, but his involvement against HUAC led to the snub. The Lux Radio Theatre adapted The Treasure of The Sierra Madre on April 18th, 1949.
Later in 1948 Bogart and Bacall made Key Largo with Edward G. Robinson, and Bogart formed Santana Productions. One of its early missions was to develop a radio series for the couple.
Bogart and Bacall moved into a white brick mansion in Holmby Hills, and he bought a fifty-five foot yacht called the Santana from Dick Powell, spending about thirty weekends each year on the water.
With World War II over, Bogart wanted to do more radio. On September 17th, 1945 he hosted an audition for a new mystery/thriller program called Humphrey Bogart Presents.
Meanwhile Bogart and Bacall were on screen together again in 1946, this time in an adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe novel, The Big Sleep.
During World War II, comedy, drama, news, and variety dominated the radio dial, but after the war, detective shows gained network popularity as programming shifted to smaller studios. They were considered a good deal for advertisers.
Although Bill Spier was entrenched at CBS, he still had ties with his old agency BBD&O, as well as with Lawrence White, Dashiel Hammett’s literary agent.
Both ABC and CBS wanted to bring The Adventures of Sam Spade to the air. Initially, everyone wanted Bogart to be the star.
Even with Bogart’s drawbacks, it was assumed no other actor could fill Spade’s shoes. Auditions were held in April of 1946. Enter Howard Duff. An audition was recorded on May 1st.
In June, Wildroot officially signed on as sponsor. Spade would make its debut in July over ABC’s airwaves. Not to be outdone, on July 2nd, CBS broadcast an episode of Academy Award adapting “The Maltese Falcon.” Humphrey Bogart reprised his role. We heard the opening portion earlier in this episode of Breaking Walls, here’s the close.
Meanwhile on October 14th, 1946 Bogart and Bacall reprised their roles from To Have and Have Not for The Lux Radio Theatre. The next January 5th, 1947, Bogart and Lauren Bacall were guests on The Jack Benny Program.
In 1943 and 1944 Bogart went on War effort tours with his third wife Mayo Methot, making trips to Italy and North Africa. He produced shorts for The American Red Cross effort and the Victory Bond drive. The relationship with Mayo was strained. She accused Bogart of having an affair with Ingrid Bergman during the filming of Casablanca. Bergman later remembered that Bogart barely spoke to her off camera, let alone had an affair.
Back stateside, Bogart was cast as Steve Morgan for an adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not.
In casting "Slim" Browning, Howard Hawks’ wife Nancy Keith saw a Harper’s Bazaar cover that featured an eighteen year-old model and actress named Betty Joan Perske. Hawks immediately signed her to a contract. She’d soon change her name to Lauren Bacall.
Mayo Methot had long accused Bogart of affairs with all his co-stars, something he’d actually never done. When Bogie and Bacall met, he was attracted to her outspoken personality, poise, looks, and long, lean figure.
Bogart kept Bacall at ease during filming and their chemistry was apparent from the beginning, with their twenty-five year age difference creating a mentor-student acting dynamic.
At first Bogart made sure his meetings with her were discreet and brief. They wrote heart-felt letters and made sure to be publicly professional, while Bogart encouraged her to steal scenes, delighting Howard Hawks. But when Hawks realized there was more to their chemistry than friendship, he disapproved of the affair.
The film premiered on October 11th, 1944 while Bogart refused to stop seeing Bacall. His marriage to Mayo Methot was finally over. He filed for divorce in February of 1945.
The next month, Bogart appeared on the Thursday March 8th 1945 episode of Suspense in Bill Spier’s production of “Love’s Lovely Counterfeit” at 8PM eastern time. This episode had a rating of 13.6, winning its time slot against NBC’s Frank Morgan Show. Playing opposite Bogart was Lurene Tuttle.
Bogart and Lauren Bacall married in a small ceremony at the country home of Bogart's close friend, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Louis Bromfield, on May 21st, 1945.
On August 30th, the couple appeared with Frank Sinatra on Command Performance.
In 1941, Warner Brothers story editor Irene Diamond was in New York when she discovered the script to an un-produced play called Everybody Comes to Rick’s. She convinced Hal Wallis to buy the rights to the script in January of 1942 for twenty-thousand dollars.
The project was renamed Casablanca. Humphrey Bogart was cast as Rick Blaine, an expatriate nightclub owner hiding from a suspicious past and negotiating a fine line among Nazis, the French underground, the Vichy prefect, and unresolved feelings for his ex-girlfriend.
Ingrid Bergman was cast opposite Bogart with Claude Rains, Sydney Greenstreet, Paul Henreid, Peter Lorre, and Dooley Wilson in supporting roles.
Michael Curtiz directed. Principal photography began on May 25th, 1942. The film was shot entirely at Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, California, with the exception of one sequence at Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles.
As Ingrid Bergman mentioned in an interview with the CBC, no one involved with Casablanca’s production expected it to be good. It was rushed to take advantage of the publicity from the Allied invasion of North Africa and had its world premiere on November 26th, 1942, in New York City. It was nationally released on January 23rd, 1943.
But Casablanca quickly became iconic. Many exiled and cause-sympathetic film actors appeared in cameos, including Helmut Dantine, Dan Seymour, Madeleine Lebeau, Frank Puglia, Jack Benny, Marcel Dalio, Leonid Kinskey, Torben Meyer, Ilka Grünig, Ludwig Stössel, and Wolfgang Zilzer.
A witness to the filming of the "duel of the anthems" sequence said he saw many of the actors crying because they knew that they were all real-life refugees.
The film was nominated for eight Oscars, including Bogart for best actor, and Casablanca won best picture, best direction, and best adapted screenplay at the 1943 Academy awards.
On April 26th, 1943, six weeks after the awards, the Screen Guild Theater broadcast an adaptation of the film.
Humphrey Bogart’s film success led to more radio appearances on comedy programs, giving Bogie the chance to show off his comedic timing. On June 3rd, 1941 Bogart appeared on The Bob Hope Show. The program had a rating of 25.3.The next February, Bogart appeared on The Jack Benny Program. Benny and Bogart had tremendous natural chemistry.Years later, Bogart was talking to friend and columnist George Fisher about the top ten characters he’d met through the years. John Barrymore was one Bogart mentioned. That one time Bogart met Barrymore was on the February 19th, 1942 episode of The Rudy Vallée Show. John Barrymore passed away three months later.
As the 1940s got underway, bringing the U.S. closer to World War II, Humphrey Bogart drifted socially and professionally. That year he made four films: Virginia City, It All Came True, Brother Orchid, and They Drive By Night.
On Sunday January 7th, 1940 at 7:30PM eastern time over CBS, he reprised his role of Duke Mantee in a Screen Guild Theater adaptation of The Petrified Forest.
The Screen Guild Theater drew several Hollywood stars a week for radio adaptations. First taking to the air on January 8th, 1939 for Gulf Oil, all fees that would normally go to stars instead were given to the Motion Picture Relief Fund. This money was used to build and maintain the Motion Picture Country House: forty bungalow units for housing aging and needy film stars.
By the summer of 1942 almost eight-hundred-thousand-dollars had been raised. This episode’s rating was a 13. Roughly nine million listeners tuned in.
In late 1940, John Huston was adapting a script for a new film, High Sierra. Produced by Mark Hellinger and directed by Raoul Walsh, Paul Muni, George Raft, James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson all turned down the lead role, much to the delight of Huston.
The character gave Bogart the chance to show his range. Finally playing someone with depth, the film was Bogart's career breakthrough, transforming him from supporting player to leading man. He played opposite Ida Lupino.
The film's success also led to a breakthrough for Huston, giving him the leverage needed to transition from screenwriter to director, setting Bogart up for Huston’s next project: an adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon.
The Maltese Falcon was Huston’s directorial debut. Although a pre-code version of the film had been made ten years earlier, the 1941 version with Bogart starring as private detective Sam Spade was considered an instant classic film noir. Complementing Bogart were co-stars Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Mary Astor, and Elisha Cook Jr.
Bogart's sharp timing and facial expressions were praised as vital to the film's quick action and hard-boiled dialogue. It was a commercial hit, and Bogart was unusually happy with the film. He later said, "It’s practically a masterpiece. I don't have many things I'm proud of, but that's one."
The film was nominated for three Academy Awards, including best picture and best direction. Bogart reprised his role on the July 3rd, 1946 episode of Academy Award Theater.
Despite his success in The Petrified Forest, Bogart signed a tepid twenty-six-week contract at five-hundred-fifty dollars per week. He was immediately typecast as a gangster in a series of B movie crime dramas.
He played a supporting role in Bullets or Ballots released in 1936. Bogart reprised the role of Bugs Fenner on the Monday April 17th, 1939 episode of The Lux Radio Theatre opposite Edward G. Robinson, Mary Astor, and Otto Kruger. It aired at 10PM eastern time on CBS.
Lux was Monday night’s highest-rated and CBS’s highest-rated show of the 1938-39 season. This episode’s rating was 21.1. Roughly fourteen million listeners tuned in.
Cecil B. DeMille was introduced at the beginning of every episode as producer, but was actually a well-paid front man. His duties were reading the scripted introductions to each act and commercial-laden interviews with the stars at the end of each show. The real man behind the program was the J. Walter Thompson agency’s Danny Danker.
Each show was a five day commitment beginning with a Thursday table read. Rehearsals were Friday, run-throughs with sound effects on Saturday, and Sunday had readings with sound and orchestra.
The first dress rehearsal on Monday morning was recorded for director Frank Woodruff’s final critique. A final dress rehearsal was held with an audience at 4:30, and the broadcast aired live at 6:00 PM Pacific Time.
But, Warner Brothers had no interest in raising Bogart's profile. Their studios were often unairconditioned. He thought the Warner’s wardrobe department was cheap, and often wore his own suits. His jobs were tightly scheduled and repetitive, but he worked steadily. He played wrestling promoters, gangsters, a scientist, and a few good men dragged into bad situations they didn’t deserve to be in.
Bogart and his second wife Mary divorced in 1937. He married actress Mayo Methot on August 21st, 1938. It was an unhappy one filled with outbursts and mutual violence. The press called them "the Battling Bogarts."
Dissatisfied with his work, Bogart rarely watched his own films and avoided premieres. He issued fake press releases about his life to satisfy public curiosity. When interviewed in person, he was too candid, later saying “All over Hollywood, they advise me, ‘Oh, you mustn't say that. That will get you in a lot of trouble’, when I remark that some picture or writer or director or producer is no good.
“I don't get it. If he isn't any good, why can't I say so? If more people would mention it, pretty soon it might start having some effect. The idea that anyone making a thousand dollars a week is sacred and beyond the realm of criticism never strikes me as particularly sound.”
Bogart made twenty-nine films between 1936 and 1940, developing his now-famous film persona—cynical, self-mocking, vulnerable, charming, and above all, a loner with a code of honor.
It was his two next roles, however, both with John Huston, that would catapult him into A-list status.
Humphrey Bogart was born to Belmont Bogart and Maud Humphrey on Christmas Day, 1899 in New York City. The eldest child, his father came from a long line of Dutch New Yorkers, while his mother could trace her heritage back to the Mayflower. Belmont was a surgeon, while Maud was a commercial illustrator and suffragette. Young Humphrey was sometimes the subject of her artwork—a detail that got him teased in school. Maud earned over fifty-thousand dollars per year at the peak of her career. They lived in an Upper West Side apartment, and had land on the Canandaigua Lake in upstate New York.Bogart and his two younger sisters watched as their parents — both career-driven — frequently fought and rarely showed affection to them. His mother insisted they call her Maud. Bogart remembered her as straightforward and unsentimental.Bogie inherited his father’s sarcastic and self-deprecating sense of humor, a fondness for the water, and an attraction to strong-willed women. He attended the prestigious Trinity School and later Phillips Academy. He dropped out of Phillips after one semester in 1918, deeply disappointing his parents.Bogart enlisted in the Navy in the Spring of 1918, serving as a Boatswain's mate. He later recalled, "At eighteen, war was great stuff. Paris! Sexy French girls! Hot damn!" He left the service on June 18th, 1919 with a pristine record. Bogart returned home to find his father’s health and wealth doing poorly. Bogart’s liberal ways also put him at odds with his family, so he joined the Coast Guard Reserve and worked as a shipper and bond salesman. Unhappy with his choices, he got a job with William A. Brady’s World Films. He was stage manager for daughter Alice Brady’s production of A Ruined Lady. He made his stage debut a few months later as a butler in Alice’s 1921 production of Drifting. He had one line, and remembered delivering it nervously, but it began a working relationship that saw Bogart appear in several of her productions.Bogart liked the hours actors kept and the attention they received. He was a man who loved the nightlife, enjoying trips to speakeasies. He later joked that he "was born to be indolent and this was the softest of rackets."The man never took an acting lesson, preferring to learn on the job. He appeared in at least eighteen Broadway productions between 1922 and 1935, playing juveniles or romantic supporting roles, more in comedy than anything else. While playing in Drifting at the Playhouse Theatre in 1922, he met actress Helen Menken. They married in May, 1926. They divorced eighteen months later, but remained friends. In April 1928, he married actress Mary Philips. Both women cited that Bogart cared more about his career than marriage. Broadway productions dropped off after the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Many actors were heading for Hollywood. Bogart debuted on film with Helen Hayes in The Dancing Town. He signed a contract with The Fox Film Corporation for seven-hundred-fifty dollars per-week. There he met Spencer Tracey. They became close friends. Tracy made his feature film debut in his only movie with Bogart, John Ford’s early sound film Up The River, from 1930. They played inmates. Bogart next appeared opposite Bette Davis and Sidney Fox in Bad Sister. Shuffling back and forth between Hollywood and New York and out of work for long periods, his father died in 1934. That year, Bogart starred in the Broadway play Invitation to a Murder. During rehearsal producer Arthur Hopkins heard the play from offstage and sent for Bogart, offering him the role of a lifetime. He cast Bogart as escaped murderer Duke Mantee in Robert Sherwood's The Petrified Forest.
Have you been enjoying Breaking Walls? If so, give the show a quick rating on whatever platform you listen, especially iTunes.
In Breaking Walls episode 139 we spotlight The Martin & Lewis show, and pay close attention to Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe.——————————Highlights:• Capital Gains and Thanksgiving on NBC• The Nightclub Act• Opportunity Flops• The My Friend Irma Movie• Dragnet• The Show Relaunches — Frank Sinatra Guests• Marilyn Monroe Makes a Rare Radio Appearance• Splitting, Then Reuniting• Looking ahead to Bogie——————————The WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material for today’s episode was:• On The Air — By John Dunning• Dean & Me: A Love Story — By Jerry Lewis• Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime (Especially Himself): The Story of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis — by Arthur Marx• Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg• Marilyn Monroe: The Biography — By Donald SpotoAs well as articles from:• Billboard• The Cleveland Plain Dealer• LIFE Magazine• The Los Angeles Times• The New York Times• Variety——————————On the interview front:• Jack Benny and Virginia Gregg spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear these interviews at SpeakingofRadio.com.• John Gibson spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these full interviews at GoldenAge-WTIC.org.• Both Frank and Nancy Sinatra Jr. spoke with Larry King.• Marilyn Monroe spoke with Dave Garroway for NBC’s Monitor in 1955.• Both Martin and Lewis spoke with Cedric Adams for WCCO in 1952.• Dean Martin spoke with Edward R. Murrow in 1958 and with Randi Oakes in 1984• Jerry Lewis spoke with Sam Denoff for The Television Academy in 2000.——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• Hen Ferchetan — By Avi Avital• Memories Are Made of This — By Dean Martin• Manhattan Serenade — By Richard Alden——————————A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.——————————Thank you to:Tony AdamsSteven AllmonOrson Orsen ChandlerPhil EricksonJessica HannaPerri HarperThomas M. JoyceRyan KramerEarl MillardGary MollicaBarry NadlerChristian NeuhausRay ShawFilipe A SilvaJohn Williams——————————WallBreakers Links:Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakersSocial Media - @TheWallBreakers
Well, that brings our look at The Martin & Lewis Show to a close. Incidentally, we’ll be staying with this energy next month. I mentioned earlier that Dean made films with The Rat Pack. Frank Sinatra was also a member. Some people called Frank the leader. Some others have incorrectly attributed him as the founder of this crew. But, our focus in Breaking Walls episode 140 will spotlight the true creator of The Rat Pack. Next time on Breaking Walls, we focus on Bogie, and Bacall too, when we spotlight the unsung radio career of Humphrey Bogart.——————————The reading material for today’s episode was:• On The Air — By John Dunning• Dean & Me: A Love Story — By Jerry Lewis• Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime (Especially Himself): The Story of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis — by Arthur Marx• Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg • Marilyn Monroe: The Biography — By Donald SpotoAs well as articles from:• Billboard• The Cleveland Plain Dealer• LIFE Magazine• The Los Angeles Times• The New York Times• Variety——————————On the interview front:• Jack Benny and Virginia Gregg spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear these interviews at SpeakingofRadio.com.• John Gibson spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these full interviews at GoldenAge-WTIC.org.• Both Frank and Nancy Sinatra Jr. spoke with Larry King.• Marilyn Monroe spoke with Dave Garroway for NBC’s Monitor in 1955.• Both Martin and Lewis spoke with Cedric Adams for WCCO in 1952.• Dean Martin spoke with Edward R. Murrow in 1958 and with Randi Oakes in 1984 • Jerry Lewis spoke with Sam Denoff for The Television Academy in 2000.
By the summer of 1953 network radio was allocating increasing time to local affiliates. Budgets were shifting to TV. The final episode of The Martin & Lewis show aired on July 14th at 9PM eastern time. Gloria Graham was the guest. Opposite on CBS, Yours Truly Johnny Dollar aired starring John Lund. Dean and Jerry made six more films together. Their last was Hollywood Or Bust in 1956. During shooting in 1956, their mutual animosity reached the point where Lewis would only speak to Martin through director Frank Tashlin, and Martin told Lewis he was nothing but a dollar sign. After the film completed principal photography on June 19th, their breakup was widely reported. They fulfilled their contractual obligations with a farewell engagement at the Copacabana Club. Their last appearance was on July 25th, 1956, exactly ten years after their first teaming in Atlantic City.Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis didn’t speak again privately for twenty years. Although both continued to thank each other publicly, like in this Dean Martin interview with Edward R. Murrow from 1958.They crossed paths that year when Lewis was a guest on Eddie Fisher’s TV show. Martin jumped out from behind a curtain with a memorable line. The crowd—and Lewis—couldn’t contain their affection.Free from Lewis, Dean Martin became a huge star, both as a recording artist, as a movie actor on his own and as a member of the Rat Pack. He also hosted his own hugely successful TV variety series, The Dean Martin Show.Lewis remained with Paramount Pictures, appearing in and directing a succession of commercially successful films, at one point becoming Paramount's biggest star. He continued philanthropic work, which led to mutual good friend Frank Sinatra finally reuniting the duo on live TV during Jerry Lewis’ 1976 Labor Day telethon.They embraced, with Lewis in tears, and their friendship renewed. Both claimed they spoke every day from then on.
Marilyn Monroe broke through as an actress in 1950 with small, but acclaimed roles in All About Eve and The Asphalt Jungle. She was then a mistress of Johnny Hyde, head of the William Morris Agency. Hyde negotiated a seven year contract with 20th Century Fox and then unexpectedly passed away of a heart attack. In 1951, Monroe had supporting roles in three Fox comedies: As Young as You Feel, Love Nest, and Let's Make It Legal. With her star on the rise, she received several thousand fan letters a week, and was declared "Miss Cheesecake" by the army newspaper Stars and Stripes.In early 1952 as she began a much-publicized romance with ex-Yankee Joe DiMaggio, Monroe revealed she’d posed nude in 1949, thus getting ahead of the scandal and gaining sympathy from the public. She explained she’d been broke and needed the money and was soon featured on the cover of Life magazine as the "Talk of Hollywood." Gossip columnist Hedda Hopper declared her the "cheesecake queen" turned "box office smash." Wanting to improve her acting, she studied hard with Michael Chekhov. Two of Monroe's films — Clash by Night and Don't Bother to Knock — were released soon after to capitalize on public interest. The films showed her range, as Monroe played a fish cannery worker in the former and a disturbed babysitter in the latter. In Howard Hawks's Monkey Business, she played a secretary opposite Cary Grant. In O. Henry's Full House, with Charles Laughton, she appeared in a passing vignette as a nineteenth-century street walker.Monroe added to her sex symbol reputation by wearing a revealing dress when acting as Grand Marshal at the Miss America Pageant parade, and told gossip columnist Earl Wilson that she usually wore no underwear. By the end of the year, gossip columnist Florabel Muir named Monroe the "it girl" of 1952.When Niagara was released in January 1953, women's clubs protested it as immoral. In some scenes, Monroe's body was covered only by a sheet or a towel, considered shocking by contemporary audiences. The film’s most famous scene is a long shot of Monroe from behind walking with hips swaying. Audiences turned out in droves.The next month, Marilyn Monroe was the guest of Dean and Jerry’s February 24th, 1953 episode.
On Sunday November 5th, 1950 at 6PM, NBC launched a new ninety-minute star-studded program called The Big Show. Each episode cost over one-hundred-thousand dollars to produce. Hopes were high. Martin and Lewis appeared twice. This is from the December 17th broadcast. They also became regulars on TV’s Colgate Comedy Hour, which had over sixty-million million weekly viewers.By the summer of 1951, Martin and Lewis had scored with blockbuster films in That’s My Boy and The Stooge, and a sell-out touring act. LIFE Magazine reported tour audience members refused to leave. They began doing free shows afterwards on their hotel fire escapes. The streets were jammed with onlookers.Abby Greshler booked appearances on NBC-TV’s Colgate Comedy Hour, but it still bothered the pair that they’d flopped in radio. They wanted another chance.NBC hired Ed Simmons and Norman Lear—Martin & Lewis’ comedy writers—to write the new program. Dick Mack was the director. NBC offered it as part of their new multi-sponsor experiment called Operation Tandem. Chesterfield Cigarettes, Anacin Tablets, and the makers of Chiclets gum signed on. The new show premiered on October 5th, 1951 to great reviews. Dinah Shore was the guest star.In 1951, Frank Sinatra, at a low point in his career, didn’t make a single significant appearance on radio. Rejected by Hollywood, he turned to Las Vegas and made his debut at the Desert Inn in September. Sinatra became one of Las Vegas's pioneer entertainers.Frank’s first wife, Nancy, filed for divorce. It became final on October 29th, 1951. Daughter Nancy Jr. remembered that time. Frank and Ava Gardner were married in a small ceremony less than two weeks later on November 7th. In financial difficulty following his divorce and career decline, Sinatra was forced to borrow $200,000 from Columbia to pay his back taxes.On Friday, January 18th, 1952 The Martin & Lewis Show took to the air with good friend Frank Sinatra as the guest of honor. This particular episode was a forty-five minute special.This episode’s rating was a 6.0. The overall season rating was 5.5. This is Your F.B.I. over ABC won the 8:30 time slot with a 7.2. Opposite on TV, NBC telecast We The People, and CBS’ Man Against Crime starring Ralph Bellamy pulled a rating of 32. For more information on the career of Frank Sinatra, tune into Breaking Walls episode 85. Even with audiences leaving for TV, Readers of TV-Radio Life voted The Martin & Lewis Show their favorite comedy show of 1952, while the two made the films Jumping Jacks and Sailor Beware.
The U.S. spent the first ten months of 1949 in a recession. Competition for the advertising dollars was stiffer. There were now over two-thousand-six-hundred AM and FM stations. Television was becoming a serious threat. Over a hundred TV stations were on the air. Only two Network Radio shows had a rating higher than 20. Just two years earlier, there were fifteen. Radio’s average Top 50 ratings dropped 30% to its lowest level since 1937. Suddenly the reality of radio drama’s demise was staring men and women in the face, like the just-heard John Gibson who played Ethelbert on Casey, Crime Photographer.Meanwhile, NBC, ABC, CBS, and the Dumont Network reported a combined TV income of $29.4 Million. But advertisers were learning that TV production costs were much greater than radio’s. The extra money had to come from somewhere and radio budgets were the likely source.Seven of radio’s top nine shows now aired on CBS, but that’s not to say there weren’t NBC radio successes.Jack Webb’s Dragnet premiered coast-to-coast on Friday June 3rd, 1949 at 10PM eastern time over NBC. It featured some of Hollywood radio’s most talented character actors, like the just-heard Virginia Gregg. It wasn’t long before Liggett and Myers tobacco signed on as sponsor. CBS took notice. A month after Dragnet’s premiere, they shifted Broadway is My Beat to Hollywood and put it under Elliott Lewis’ direction. For more information on the launch of Dragnet, tune into Breaking Walls episode 111. For more information on Elliott Lewis, tune into Breaking Walls episode 113.
Although their radio show got canceled, Martin and Lewis were concurrently guest-appearing in a My Friend Irma film. Irma was one of CBS’ top shows starring Marie Wilson. The movie debuted on August 16th, 1949. Critics panned everything about the film, except Martin and Lewis, and the duo continued to be a smash at live shows. NBC brought the program back on Friday October 7th 1949. The network had to allow the duo to plug their CBS-inspired film on air. Thirteen additional weeks with no sponsorship ensued. NBC claimed fourteen sponsors wanted the duo as a TV show, but Dean and Jerry wanted to make it on radio first.Radio and TV Life called them blind. They were a hit with all the live crowds, but something was missing over the air. NBC seemingly canceled them for good on January 30th, 1950.
As part of NBC’s programming development, One-point-five Million dollars was allocated towards new shows. The network’s first major signing was Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. In August of 1948 they made their Hollywood debut at Slapsie Maxie’s. They were soon guest-starring on Milton Berle’s TV show, and other comedians thought their Elgin appearance groundbreaking. On December 22nd the duo recorded an audition with Bob Hope. Hope recorded a new set with Martin & Lewis on March 24th, 1949. Things quickly fell apart as the trio couldn’t help but adlib.NBC picked the series, marketing the team as the next big sensation in radio. Their agent, Abby Greshler, negotiated a great deal with Paramount’s Hal Wallis. They’d receive seventy-five thousand dollars for films and were free to do one outside film a year, which they would co-produce through their own York Productions. The duo also had complete control of their club, radio, and TV appearances, as well as their recording contracts.In the lead up to the premiere of their radio show, Martin and Lewis appeared on the March of Dimes, the Chesterfield Supper Club, the Sealtest Variety Theatre, and The Bob Hope Show. The Martin & Lewis Show finally debuted on April 3rd, 1949. Their first guest was Lucille Ball. It has a similar script to the audition recorded with Bob Hope. But The Martin & Lewis Show was a flop. No sponsor was interested in advertising such a visual team on a sound-only medium. They switched broadcasting locations from Hollywood, to New York, then back to Hollywood. They also brought in new writers and characters. Nothing worked. NBC pulled the plug after the September 6th broadcast.
Jerry Lewis was born Jerome Joseph Levitch on March 16th, 1926 in Newark, New Jersey. His father was a Vaudevillian and his mother was a pianist for WOR. By fifteen, Lewis had developed a "Record Act", miming lyrics to songs while a phonograph played offstage. To supplement his income he worked as a soda jerk at the Paramount Theater while he honed his act. In 1943, Lewis met singer Dino Paul Crocetti thanks to Frank Sinatra’s mother Dolly. They became friends.Dino Crocetti was born on June 7th, 1917 in Steubenville, Ohio. He spoke only Italian until age five, got bullied for his broken English in school, and eventually dropped out in the tenth grade. By fifteen Crocetti had bootlegged liquor, worked in a steel mill, served as a croupier at a speakeasy, and was a welterweight boxer. Boxing got him, among other things, a broken nose and a scarred lip. He’d later get the nose fixed.Dino then worked as a roulette stickman in an illegal casino behind a tobacco shop, and started singing with local bands, calling himself "Dino Martini." By late 1940 he had begun singing for Cleveland bandleader Sammy Watkins, who suggested he change his name to Dean Martin. In the fall of 1943 he’d begun performing in New York, but was drafted into the military during World War II. Dean served fourteen months before being discharged due to a hernia.Although they were friends for more than a year, Dean and Jerry didn’t officially team up until debuting at Atlantic City's 500 Club as Martin and Lewis on July 25th, 1946. The highlights of their act included Lewis heckling Martin while he was trying to sing, which ultimately led to them chasing each other around the stage. People loved their improvisational style. And Lewis knew that Martin was his comic equal. Martin and Lewis’ success at the 500 Club led to a series of well-paying engagements along the Eastern Seaboard, culminating with a run at New York's Copacabana Club. Almost overnight, the two were the biggest smash hit in clubs across the country.
It’s 4PM eastern time on November 25th, 1948. Elgin Watches annual Thanksgiving Day special is on the air from NBC’s KFI in Hollywood. Don Ameche is the emcee. Ken Carpenter is announcing. This November Radio ratings are robust. Eleven shows have ratings higher than twenty points, and Lux Radio Theatre’s 33.2 is the most listened-to show on the air. But a major shift is about to happen just as the TV era launches. In 1948 comedian Jack Benny organized his activities into a corporation. At that time American individuals were taxed seventy-seven percent on all income over seventy thousand dollars. Benny’s hope was to secure a deal with NBC for his company, so that he could be taxed under capital gains laws at 25%. NBC’s parent company was the Radio Corporation of America. Their head, David Saroff, refused.Amos N’ Andy were the first to secure such a deal. They jumped to CBS in October of 1948. Then Lew Wasserman and Taft Shreiber—President and VP of The Music Corporation of America, called head of CBS William Paley to see if he was interested in a similar deal for Jack Benny.In November, David Sarnoff got word and sent NBC president Niles Trammel to California with orders to keep Benny at NBC, but Sarnoff refused to be there. William Paley flew to LA to meet in person, agreeing for CBS to buy Benny’s corporation for $2.26 Million. NBC responded by doubling their offer. However, Lew Wasserman again intervened, obtained the NBC contract, changed every mention of NBC to CBS, and re-offered the deal to Benny, who then signed it. Although Benny was signed, Paley next had to convince Benny’s sponsor American Tobacco to make the move. He did so by guaranteeing that CBS would pay the cigarette giant three thousand dollars per week for every ratings point lost after the migration. Floored that Paley would offer this, all parties agreed immediately. On Thanksgiving in 1948, William Paley had plenty to be thankful for. While Jack Benny was appearing on NBC for this Elgin Special, CBS announced on their evening news that The Jack Benny Program would be jumping to CBS. When asked that evening by the United Press, Benny declined to comment. It touched off a firestorm between the two networks. NBC claimed any such deal was unlawful. David Sarnoff said “leadership built on a foundation of solid service can’t be snatched overnight by a few high-priced comedians. Leadership is no laughing matter.”It was the biggest mistake of Sarnoff’s career. Jack Benny left NBC at the end of the year. Edgar Bergen too. There was suddenly a glaring hole in NBC’s Sunday night lineup. Between Benny and Bergen, NBC would need to replace roughly forty-five million listeners come January. In 1949, Burns and Allen, and Bing Crosby followed to CBS. NBC’s desperation created major opportunities. Among those to benefit were a comedic duo who’d been selling out nightclubs all over the country. Their names were Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.
In Breaking Walls episode 138 in honor of opening day, we’ll share stories, and sounds from Baseball history and the radio.——————————Highlights:• Dots and Dashes• The Babe• Mel Allen• Dizzy• The War• Jackie• The Death of Babe Ruth• Baseball Radio Drama• The Shot Heard Round The World• Westward Ho!• The TV Era and the Death of Jackie Robinson• Looking Ahead To May with Frank, Dean, Jerry, and Marilyn——————————The WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material for today’s episode was:• On The Air — By John Dunning• The Voice: Mel Allen’s Untold Story — By Curt Smith• Those Great Old-Time Radio Years — By Aubrey J. SherAs well as countless other references and websites for baseball stats and history. ——————————On the interview front:• Mel Allen and Vincent Price spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these full interviews at GoldenAge-WTIC.org• Vincent Price also spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear this interview at SpeakingofRadio.com• Red Barber and Ben Gross spoke to Westinghouse for their anniversary special in 1970• Red Barber spoke for Please Stand By in 1986• Red Barber and Phil Rizzuto spoke to CBS for their Fiftieth Anniversary Special in 1977• Marilyn Monroe spoke to Dave Garroway for NBC’s Monitor in 1955. ——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• Take Me Out To the Ball Game — By Dorris Day and Frank Sinatra• Love Echoes in the Pine Hills — By George Winston• Someone To Watch Over Me — By Rosemary Squires & The Ken Thorne Orchestra• Swing Into Spring — By Benny Goodman• I’m a Fool To Want You — By Billie Holiday• Battle Cry of Freedom and Steal Away — By Jacqueline Schwab • The Colorado Trail, Opus 28 Fantaisie for Harp — By Elizabeth Hainen• There Used to Be A Ballpark — By Frank Sinatra• The First Baseball Game — By Nat King Cole• Danse Macabre — By Camille Saint-Saens——————————A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.——————————Thank you to:Tony AdamsSteven AllmonOrson Orsen ChandlerPhil EricksonJessica HannaPerri HarperBriana IsaacThomas M. JoyceRyan KramerEarl MillardGary MollicaBarry NadlerChristian NeuhausAimee PavyRay ShawFilipe A SilvaJohn Williams——————————WallBreakers Links:Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakersSocial Media - @TheWallBreakers
Well, that brings our episode of baseball stories to a close. But speaking of heroes and heroines. Next time on Breaking Walls, it’s the 1950s and four people are taking the world by storm for different reasons. We’ll cover all four of them under the guise of one show. Who are the four? Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Frank Sinatra, and Ms. Marilyn Monroe.
Radio ratings peaked in 1948 and the networks used excess profits to help launch TV. By 1950 NBC, CBS, and ABC were filling their entire primetime TV schedule. After eighteen years as one of radio’s highest-rated weekly shows, the just-heard Fibber McGee and Molly began airing five nights per week for fifteen minutes on October 5th, 1953.As America moved west after World War II, turning farms into suburbs and western towns into cities, the pattern of radio listening was changing. The desire to expand the Major Leagues into new cities gained traction thanks to an upstart league known as The Continental League. In order to block its entry into the marketplace, Major League Baseball finally expanded in 1961. When the Washington Senators moved to Minnesota before the ‘61 season to become the Twins, Washington received a new Senators franchise. Thanks to the success of the Dodgers, The American League added the Los Angeles Angels, upping the junior circuit to ten teams.The following year, the National League added two new teams: The Colt 45s, who, in 1964 changed their name to the Astros, and the New York Metropolitans, colloquially known as the Mets.One by one, old ballparks were being torn down—Ebbets field in 1960, The Polo Grounds in 1964. Both sites are now occupied by housing projects. New stadiums were often multipurpose —able to accommodate both football and baseball.Like with baseball, how America got its entertainment was also changing. By 1960, scripted radio drama was dying out as shows either moved to TV or were canceled. Although baseball would still be broadcast on the radio, fans now tuned into TV for their favorite games. A new generation of sportscasters emerged, like former Yankees shortstop Phil Rizzuto. He called Roger Maris’ record-breaking sixty-first home run at Yankee Stadium on October 1st, 1961. Rizzuto had a respectable playing career—winning the 1950 AL MVP award, but it was his work as a Yankees announcer that got him voted into the MLB Hall Of Fame in 1994.In 1956, while the Dodgers were still in Brooklyn, Jackie Robinson was putting the finishing touches on his remarkable career. That December 13th, the Dodgers traded Robinson to the Giants for Dick Littlefield and thirty-thousand dollars. Jackie Robinson opted to retire, rather than report and move to San Francisco. Within a few years he was hosting his own syndicated radio show, Jackie Robinson’s Radio Shots. In 1960, he interviewed perhaps the most famous African-American pitcher in history, Satchel Paige. Jackie Robinson was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. Robinson was also the first African-American television analyst in MLB history, and the first African-American vice president of a major corporation, Chock full o'Nuts. On October 15th, 1972, at the second game of the World Series between the Oakland Athletics and the Cincinnati Reds, at Cincinnati’s Riverfront Stadium, Jackie Robinson was invited to throw out a ceremonial first pitch in honor of his twenty-five years of service to Major League Baseball.Complications from heart disease and diabetes made him almost blind by middle age. He used the opportunity to make one last statement to the baseball establishment. It would be Jackie Robinson’s last public appearance. Jackie Robinson died nine days later at his home. He was fifty-three. His Manhattan funeral service attracted twenty-five hundred mourners. Many of his former teammates were pallbearers. Reverend Jesse Jackson delivered the eulogy.On April 15th, 1997, the fiftieth anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s first game at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, Major League Baseball unanimously retired Robinson's number forty-two across the league. He is the only man to receive such an honor.
In 1954, it took a historic season to dethrone the Yankees who were five-time defending world champions. Although they won one-hundred three games, the Cleveland Indians won a then-American League record one-hundred eleven. The Indians were led by Center Fielder Larry Doby, the first African-American player in the AL, Third Basemen Al Rosen, and slugger Vic Wertz. Their pitching staff was anchored by Early Wynn, Bob Lemon and Bob Feller.In the National League, the pennant winners were the underdog New York Giants, who won ninety-seven games, once again beating out the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Giants drew 1.15 million fans to the Polo Grounds, second in the National League. Built in a hollow overlooking Coogan’s Bluff near the western shore of the Harlem River in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan, a Polo Grounds ballpark had been on this site since 1890. The quirky park was shaped like a bathtub. It was only two-hundred-eighty feet from home plate down the left field line, and only two-hundred-sixty feet down the right. Center field however was over four-hundred-eighty feet away. But, the surrounding neighborhood was changing and Giants owner Horace Stonham began to wonder if he could draw more fans elsewhere.In the eighth inning of game one, the score was tied at two. Cleveland’s Al Rosen and Larry Doby had both reached base on Giants pitcher Sal Maglie. Vic Wertz came up to bat. Wertz hit a ball to deep center field, where Giants superstar Willy Mays was playing. Mays ran straight backwards and caught the ball over his shoulder with his back to the field. Later nicknamed “the catch,” it changed the entire complexion of the series. The Giants would go on to sweep the Indians to claim the 1954 World Series title. It would be their last World Championship in New York.Baseball’s economic model was changing. As great as the Yankees were, their dominance over the game created a league problem. The G.I. Bill was bringing families to the suburbs in the 1950s — and most of these families were white — radio and TV were embedding deeper into local markets. Major League cities were struggling to support two teams. After the 1952 season, the National League’s Boston Braves, unable to compete with the Red Sox, moved to Milwaukee and won the World Series in five years. The AL St. Louis Browns moved to Baltimore after the 1953 season and became the Orioles, where they won 6 American League pennants in their first thirty years. The next year the Philadelphia Athletics moved to Kansas City, where they would remain until moving again, to Oakland, in 1968. Oakland won three consecutive championships in the 1970s. Although fans of every other team loved to hate the Yankees, the franchise was a lightning rod for celebrities and other heroes. Throughout the years Mel Allen had many interesting guests in the booth, like noted Pirates fan Bing Crosby. The team the Yankees often defeated in the World Series? The Brooklyn Dodgers, who lost to the Yankees in 1941, 1947, 1949, 1952, and 1953. In 1955 the tide finally turned and the Bums from Brooklyn became World Champions. Later, retired Hall of Fame player and then broadcaster Frankie Frisch was inside the Brooklyn Dodgers clubhouse speaking to the victorious team. Two years later, owner Walter O’Malley was in a dispute with New York City Park’s Commissioner Robert Moses. Ebbets Field, open since 1913 was falling apart. The success of the Dodgers, and the population explosion in Brooklyn had made Ebbets Field too small. The 1957 seating capacity was a tiny thirty-two thousand. Yankee Stadium could seat nearly double. O’Malley wanted to build a stadium at the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues in Brooklyn. Robert Moses wanted the team moved to Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens.
1951 seemed like the season it would all finally come together in Brooklyn. The Dodgers were led by Catcher Roy Campanella, First baseman Gil Hodges, Outfielder Duke Snider, and now second-baseman, Jackie Robinson.Through one-hundred sixteen games, Brooklyn had seventy wins. On August 11th the New York Giants trailed the Dodgers in the standings by thirteen games. Then, Giants manager Leo Durocher put coach Herman Franks in the Polo Grounds offices in the Giants’ clubhouse beyond center field. His objective was to steal opposing catchers’ signals. Franks used a telescope to relay signs through an electrical-buzzer system to the Giants’ bullpen. From there, the signs would be flashed to the Giants’ hitters.The Giants won thirty-seven of forty-four games down the stretch. It forced a tie with the Dodgers in the standings. A three game series was announced to decide the winner of the pennant. At Ebbets field in Game 1, Giants pitcher Jim Hearn out-dueled Dodgers starter Ralph Branca, and the Giants won three to one behind solo home runs from Andy Pafko, Bobby Thomson, and Monty Irvin.The second game, played at The Polo Grounds was a rout, but in favor of Brooklyn. Jackie Robinson had three hits, including a home run, and Dodgers starter Clem Labine went nine.October 3rd, 1951: Game three. The tight, tense affair was played before more than thirty-four thousand fans at the Polo Grounds. Brooklyn struck first when Jackie Robinson had an RBI single in the first inning. The Giants tied it in the seventh when Bobby Thomson hit a Sacrifice Fly. But the Dodgers struck right back, scoring three runs in the eighth. Jackie Robinson was once again in the middle of the action. With Dodgers pitcher Don Newcombe dealing, the game seemed all, but over.Then in the bottom of the 9th, The Giants put back-to-back men on. Whitey Lockman doubled to center field to score two runs. It made the score four-to-three. The winning run came up to bat. Ralph Branca came in to relieve Newcombe. Bobby Thompson was the Giants batter.The Giants would face the Yankees in the World Series and the Dodgers would again have to wait until next year.
The man you just heard is acting legend Vincent Price. Price’s only continuous radio role was as star of The Saint where he played Simon Templar. Leslie Charteris created the character as a suave private eye. He was a dapper dresser, equally at home at the wheel of a fast car, in an airplane, or on horseback. The Saint would also break the law if the result justified it. The show had begun on CBS in 1945. After a tour on The Mutual Broadcasting System, The Saint moved to NBC beginning on Sunday June 11th, 1950 at 7:30PM. Games and sports speculation weren’t the only form baseball took on the radio. It showed up in drama radio as well, Like on The Saint’s September 3rd, 1950 episode. Lawrence Dobkin was Louie the Cabbie.And of course, there were no two institutions in America somehow more intertwined in the twentieth century than baseball and comedy legend Jack Benny.
In 1946, Babe Ruth, always a heavy smoker, began to experience severe pain over his left eye and difficulty swallowing. Tests were bleak. Ruth had an inoperable malignant tumor at the base of his skull. He was one of the first cancer patients to receive both drugs and radiation treatment simultaneously. He lost eighty pounds and was discharged from the hospital in February of 1947. Baseball commissioner Happy Chandler proclaimed April 27th, 1947 Babe Ruth Day around the major leagues. At Yankee Stadium a number of teammates and others spoke in honor of Ruth, who briefly addressed the crowd of almost sixty-thousand. By then, his voice was barely more than a soft whisper.Around this time, developments in chemotherapy offered some hope. Doctors treated Ruth with a folic acid derivative. He showed dramatic improvement. During the summer of 1947 he was able to travel around the country doing promotional work for the Ford Motor Company on American Legion Baseball. On August 12th he appeared on Red Barber’s radio show.The improvement was temporary. By late 1947 he was unable to help write his autobiography. In and out of the hospital in Manhattan, Ruth traveled to and from Florida that winter. The next June 5th, 1948, a "gaunt and hollowed out" Babe visited Yale University to donate a manuscript of his autobiography to its library. There he met Yale’s baseball captain, future president George H. W. Bush. Eight days later he visited Yankee Stadium for the final time. Ruth used a bat as a cane. Nat Fein’s photo of Ruth taken from behind, standing near home plate won the Pulitzer Prize and is one of the most famous Baseball photos in history, Ruth made one final trip on behalf of American Legion Baseball, then entered Memorial Hospital. George Herman “Babe” Ruth died on August 16th, 1948, at 8:01 p.m. He was just fifty-three. His open casket was placed on display in the rotunda of Yankee Stadium. In two days more than seventy-seven thousand people paid tribute. His Requiem Mass was held at St. Patrick's Cathedral; a crowd estimated at seventy-five thousand waited outside. Babe Ruth is still widely considered the greatest baseball player of all-time.
Tuesday, April 15th, 1947. 12:30PM. It’s damp and overcast. We’re at Ebbets field in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York. The visiting Boston Braves are playing the Brooklyn Dodgers on opening day. We can smell hot dogs, pretzels, popcorn, knishes, and beer. Manager Leo Deroucher has been suspended by MLB’s offices for conduct detrimental to the team. He’ll have to sit out the whole season. Burt Shotton, known to be calm and steady, is managing the Dodgers. They’re expected to contend.Red Barber is up in the press booth calling the action for CBS and Gladys Gooding is on the organ. Here with us are stadium celebs like the Dodgers Sym-phony and Hilda Chester the Cowbell Lady, along with more than twenty-six thousand others. These men, women, and children are wearing Dodgers caps, windbreakers, flannel jackets, letterman’s sweaters, sport coats, and suits. They’re Italian, African-American, Jewish, Irish, Polish, Norwegian. At 12:45 the melting pot stirs as the Dodgers trot out of the clubhouse. There’s Second Baseman Eddie Stanky, Center Fielder Peter Reiser, Catcher Bruce Edwards, and pitcher Joe Hatten. Hatten warms up as one by one the rest of the Dodgers starters come out. Right fielder Dixie Walker. Left Fielder Gene Hermanski. Third Baseman Spider Jorgensen, Shortstop Pee Wee Reese. There’s an audible buzz as the Dodgers first baseman and final starter comes out. This man was born in Cairo, Georgia. The youngest son of a sharecropper, he was a four-sport letterman at UCLA, and an Army second lieutenant in World War II. His name is Jack Roosevelt Robinson and he’s the first African-American to play in the Major Leagues since Moses Fleetwood Walker in 1884. Robinson tosses infield practice until Home Plate umpire Babe Pinell signals for the start of the game. Robinson smooths the dirt in a playing path by first base and sets himself, knees bent, slightly crouched. His glove is on the ground and open. Boston’s Shortstop Dick Culler digs in. Brooklyn’s lefty Joe Hatton winds and delivers the pitch. Culler swings and slaps a ground ball towards third base. He digs out of the batter’s box as Spider Jorgensen charges in and fields the ball on a high hop, throwing slightly off balance towards first base. Robinson, right foot on the bag, stretches as far as he can, catching Jorgensen’s throw and getting Culler out by a step.And just like that, a fifty-year old gentleman’s agreement between changing owners and the commissioner’s office, that had barred any dark skinned men from playing in the league, was dead. It died here in Flatbush at 1PM, on Tuesday April 15th, 1947 as twenty-six thousand people looked on, and wildly cheered.Later, in the bottom of the Seventh inning, after an error while batting allowed him to reach second base, Robinson scored the Dodgers fifth run of the game on a double from Pete Reiser. The Dodgers would win five to three.Although he was the subject of taunts, bean balls, spikes, and scuffles with opposing players and fans all season, Jackie Robinson had the faith of African-Americans and Brooklyn Dodgers fans, as well as the quickly-earned support of his teammates. Robinson would go on to hit .297 with one-hundred-twenty-five runs scored, forty-eight extra-base hits, and lead the league with twenty-nine stolen bases en route to winning the Rookie of the Year as the Brooklyn Dodgers went ninety-four and sixty, winning the National League pennant.
As recounted by hall of famer Bob Feller, the summer of 1941 proved to be one of the greatest seasons in Baseball history. Ted Williams hit .401 for the Boston Red Sox — the last man ever to do so, while Joe Dimaggio hit in fifty-six consecutive games and won the AL MVP for the New York Yankees.The Yankees met the surprising Brooklyn Dodgers in the world series. The Dodgers drew the most fans in baseball that year, but lost to the Yankees in five games.Two months and one day after the last world series game...Both players and citizens alike joined the war effort. The Dodgers drew 1.2 million fans in 1941. They still led the league, but drew only 661,000 in 1943. Many stars lost three seasons to World War II. A few would never return. Almost 420,000 Americans died during the war. When the war finally ended, jubilation turned to atomic fears. Meanwhile in Brooklyn, the Dodgers drew 1.7 million fans in 1946 and again led The National League in attendance. It set the stage for the most important moment in Baseball history.
Jerome Hanna "Dizzy" Dean was born on January 16th, 1910 in Lucas, Arkansas, only attending school into the second grade. He made his professional debut in 1930 for the St. Louis Cardinals, sticking with the big club in 1932. The team was soon nicknamed the Gashouse Gang for their on and off field exploits. Two years later Dean was the 1934 World Series team’s ace. His brother Paul was also on the pitching staff. For the next three years Dean won seventy-eight and lost just thirty-two. Paul won forty-three games of his own. The Cardinals biggest rivals in the 1930s were the New York Giants. Even with Dean’s brilliance, his Cardinals won only one world series before arm troubles derailed his career. He then went into broadcasting, calling Baseball for radio, and then TV, from 1941 through 1965.He had his own radio show for NBC in the summer of 1948. During that summer’s all-star break, the Brooklyn Dodgers fired their longtime manager Leo Durocher. Durocher signed with the Giants, who moved their manager Mel Ott to a front office position. All three New York teams missed the playoffs that year. That same summer Gordon McLendon founded a U.S. radio network called the Liberty Broadcasting System. McLendon built the network up to nearly five-hundred affiliates, second in size only to the Mutual Broadcasting System. His success led to restrictions on Major League Baseball broadcasts in minor league franchise areas and blackouts within a seventy-five mile range of major league cities. It was a disaster for the network, which folded on May 16th, 1952.
In 1939 the just-heard Mel Allen became the New York Yankees radio announcer. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama on February 14th, 1913. While attending the University of Alabama he became the public address announcer for the Crimson Tide football team. In 1933, when radio station WBRC asked Alabama coach Frank Thomas to recommend a new play-by-play announcer, he suggested Allen. Allen graduated from the University of Alabama School of Law in 1937. Shortly after he took a train to New York City for a week's vacation. While there, he auditioned for a staff announcer's job at CBS. CBS’ top sportscaster, Ted Husing, had heard many Crimson Tide broadcasts. Allen was hired for forty-five dollars per week. Although he was calling Baseball, Allen continued to announce other shows on the Network. He was CBS announcer for the Duffy’s Tavern pilot, which aired on Forecast July 30th, 1940. After Ruth and Gehrig retired, Joe DiMaggio became the next Yankee legend. The Yankees main rival, the Boston Red Sox, were led by fellow future Hall-of-Famer Ted Williams. Norman Corwin riffed on this rivalry during his production of “Between Americans”, for Screen Guild Theatre which aired the night of December 7th, 1941. Both players missed three seasons in the mid 1940s while at war. Ted Williams missed most of two more during the Korean conflict.
In forty-four seasons from 1921 to 1964, The New York Yankees won the World Series twenty times. The dynasty began with Babe Ruth’s sale from the Boston Red Sox after the 1919 season. Ruth learned his craft in an orphanage in Baltimore, making the Red Sox as a teenager in 1914. He quickly established himself as the best left-handed pitcher in the American League, but he could hit a ball further than anyone had seen.Over the next few seasons, the Red Sox slowly converted him into an outfielder. In 1919, he broke the Major League record, hitting twenty-nine home runs. The Red Sox drew 417,000 fans to Fenway Park, but they finished in sixth place. After that season, Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sold Ruth to the Yankees. The Red Sox had won five of the first fifteen world championships. They wouldn’t win another for eighty-six years. The 1919 Yankees were competitive. They finished seven games out of first place and drew 619,000 fans to the Polo Grounds. But the stadium’s main tenant was The New York Giants. The Giants drew 708,000 fans. Neither team won the pennant. The National League was represented by The Cincinnati Reds, while the American League champions were the Chicago White Sox. The White Sox lost the series five games to three under suspicious circumstances, and eight men — including Shoeless Joe Jackson — were barred for life for throwing games. Baseball needed a hero and Babe Ruth, now in the nation’s biggest city, was that man. In 1920, his first year with the Yankees, the team drew 1.2 million fans. The Giants drew 929,000 fans. Giants manager John McGraw wasn’t happy with Ruth’s popularity. McGraw was a savage competitor who’d been involved in baseball since the late nineteenth century. Grantland Rice’s show once dramatized a story about McGraw. Meanwhile in Brooklyn, The Robbins drew 613,000 people to Ebbets Field in Flatbush. New York was the capital of baseball. The Giants and Yankees would meet in three straight World Series, and the Yankees would open up Yankee Stadium in the Bronx in 1923. Throughout the course of his legendary career, Babe Ruth hit .342 with 714 Home Runs, a lifetime on-base percentage of .474, and a lifetime Slugging percentage of .690. Bill Stern interviewed The Babe for his March 22nd, 1946 Colgate Sports Newsreel. Any conversation about Ruth’s Yankees always included teammate Lou Gehrig, who was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in 1939 and forced to retire. Lou Gehrig’s farewell speech was broadcast on Independence Day, 1939. His disease is now also known by his name. Lou Gehrig passed away on June 2nd, 1941. He was thirty-seven.
If you’ve tuned into Breaking Walls episodes before, you know I rarely editorialize. I’m just the messenger bringing the news. The origins belong to men and women who gave radio their blood, sweat, and tears through radio’s highest highs and lowest lows. I grew up in a home with my grandparents and great-grandparents listening to The Golden Age of Radio. It was a hobby and nothing more. By the time I was a sophomore in high school, I came to a crux: Do I attempt to live out my childhood dream of being on the pitcher's mound in game seven of some future World Series, or do I focus on getting into one of the top art colleges in the country? I chose the latter. But it wasn’t an easy choice.My high school art thesis centered around a rhetorical question: “What does it mean to me to be an American?” Since age eight Baseball has been one the strongest answers.For those tuning in that aren’t baseball fans, I’m sorry. There’s nothing I can say to make you feel emotion towards the game, but I can also try. Take this clip for instance. It’s Wednesday, October 4th, 1995 and those damned New York Yankees are back in the playoffs for the first time in fourteen years. The Yankees captain is Don Mattingly. A beloved family man from Evansville, Indiana, for six seasons he was arguably baseball’s best player. Though only thirty-four, a bad back made him a shell of his former self. Mattingly played seventeen-hundred-eighty-five regular season games before getting the chance to play in the playoffs. If you’ve watched enough baseball — especially with the Yankees — you know that ghosts are always around the corner.And that’s essentially what tonight’s episode is: A ghost story. Some ghost stories are scary and some are sentimental. Sometimes, they’re a little of both.
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In Breaking Walls episode 137 we celebrate the Irish by focusing on St. Patrick’s Day on the air.——————————Highlights:• Fred Allen — The End and the Beginning• Beat the Band• Burns and Allen at the NYC Parade• Bill Stern’s Sports Newsreel• Dennis Day Returns from the Navy• Fred Allen is King For a Day• Elliott Lewis and Broadway Is My Beat• The Death of Fred Allen• Ending with Jean Shepherd• Looking Ahead to Opening Day——————————The WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material for today’s episode was:• Treadmill to Oblivion and Much Ado About Me — By Fred Allen• On The Air — By John Dunning• Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg• The Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Radio — By Christopher H. SterlingAs well as articles from• The New York Daily News• The New York Times——————————On the interview front:• Fred Allen was interviewed by Tex and Jinx on NBC Radio — November 24th, 1954• Goodman Ace, Tallulah Bankhead, Jack Benny, Mort Greene, Jim Harkins, George Jessel, Doc Rockwell, Donald Vorhees, Pat Weaver, Roger White, and Herman Wouk spoke for Biography In Sound — May 29th, 1956• Dennis Day and Phil Harris spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear these full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com• Dennis Day and Elliott Lewis spoke to John Dunning for his 71KNUS program from Denver.• Morton Fine was with Dan Haefele• Jack Kruschen with Jim Bohannan in 1987.• Orson Welles on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson• George Burns spoke to Barbara Walters——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• The Sails of Galway — By W.B. Snuffy Walden• Overture on Hebrew Themes, Opus 34 — By Andre Moisan• Someone To Watch Over Me — By Blossom Dearie• The Minstrel Boy — By Jacqueline Schwab• Swing into Spring — By Benny Goodman——————————A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.——————————Thank you to:Tony AdamsSteven AllmonOrson Orsen ChandlerPhil EricksonJessica HannaPerri HarperBriana IsaacThomas M. JoyceRyan KramerEarl MillardGary MollicaBarry NadlerChristian NeuhausAimee PavyRay ShawFilipe A SilvaJohn Williams——————————WallBreakers Links:Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakersSocial Media - @TheWallBreakers
Well, that brings our look at St. Patrick’s Day to the close, but not to worry the green fields of the mind will remain in April.Next time on Breaking Walls, in honor of Major League Baseball’s opening day, we take a trip to the batter’s box and bring our radios with us. We’ll tell and hear baseball stories from some of the most famous broadcasters and players in American history.
Although Fred Allen’s death left an unfillable hole in mid-century comedy, it’s not as though there weren’t other humorists battling with networks and sponsors. Just ask Jean Shepherd.Jean Shepherd was born on July 26th, 1921 in Hammond, Indiana. He served in the Army Signal Corps in World War II, and briefly attended Indiana University. Shepherd began his broadcast radio career in early 1945 on WJOB, later working at WTOD in Toledo, Ohio, in 1946. He spent the early 1950s at WSAI and WLW in Cincinnati, and had a late-night broadcast on KYW in Philadelphia. He moved to New York for WOR and debuted on February 26th, 1955. The Jean Shepherd Show broadcast for almost twenty-one years to an audience all along the eastern seaboard, thanks to WOR's fifty-thousand watt clear channel signal. This is audio from his March 17th, 1967 broadcast.
By January of 1949 Fred Allen was worn out. He’d spent years battling with sponsors and with NBC. In December of 1948 his Sunday at 8:30 rating was a healthy 20 points, but after Edgar Bergen left NBC’s airwaves the network moved Allen’s show up a half hour to 8PM.Meanwhile on ABC, Stop the Music’s popularity was soaring. Allen lost nearly half his audience in a single month. By March Stop The Music’s rating would reach 17.6, while Allen’s fell to 9.4 and Sam Spade’s fell to 11.3 on CBS. Allen was a voracious reader, sometimes scouring ten newspapers a day for topical material. In the end, perhaps he just cared too much. By June with his rating down to an unthinkable 5.8, he’d had enough. The fifty-five year-old called it a seventeen-year radio career after June 26th, 1949. Jack Benny and Henry Morgan were his final guests. Fittingly, the program ran long and Allen’s network feed was cut off.Although Fred Allen’s program came to a close, he was still under contract to NBC. When the network launched The Big Show, Allen became a regular. The ninety-minute program debuted on November 5th, 1950. It was an attempt to revive NBC’s Sunday night ratings. It was hosted by Tallulah Bankhead, written by Goodman Ace with music by Meredith Wilson, announced by Jimmy Wallington, and a rotating star-studded cast. Ace had long been an admirer of Fred's work. Allen appeared on twenty-four of the show's fifty-seven episodes, including the landmark premiere. Each episode cost over one-hundred thousand dollars to produce. Hopes were high. Before the show's launch the entire cast flew out to London for a lavish publicity stunt. Although Allen was as funny as ever, the British press was unimpressed and the show was a flop. Amazingly the show was brought back for a second season, but by the end NBC had lost a million dollars and made no dent into CBS's Sunday night ratings. After the final broadcast on April 20, 1952, Fred Allen was happy to walk away. Allen did eventually break into television, first as the emcee of Judge For Yourself, and finally as a regular panel guest on the CBS quiz show, What's My Line. Between 1954 and 1956 he also worked as a newspaper columnist and as a memoirist, renting a small New York office to work without distractions. There he wrote Treadmill to Oblivion, published in 1954, which reviewed his radio and television years, and Much Ado About Me, published in 1956, which covered the early years of his life.Treadmill was the best-selling book on radio's classic period for many years. When it was published, he appeared on the Tex and Jinx radio show out of WNBC in New York on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, November 24th, 1954 to talk about his career. The show was broadcast from Peacock Alley at The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The weather was dreary, which only added to Fred's usual sense of sarcastic humor.By 1954 Allen already had a heart attack. Always a letter-writer, he reflected upon the lifestyle changes he was forced to adopt in a note to friend Doc Rockwell. Taking a late night stroll up New York's West 57th Street on a blustery, cold Saturday night — St. Patrick's Day, 1956, Allen suffered a heart attack and died on the spot. Fred Allen was 61.Due to the public nature of his death, reporters were quick to arrive at the scene. The next day’s Sunday Daily News cover featured a photo of his body with the headline “Fred Allen Dies in Street.” His death sent the entertainment industry into deep mourning. Jack Benny was profoundly shaken. In truth, as funny as Benny was, he was never exactly the same without his old sparring partner.During the following night's Sunday broadcast of What's My Line? host John Daly preceded the program with a special message to the viewing audience. Steve Allen took Fred's place on the panel. During the final ninety seconds of the program Steve Allen, Arlene Francis and Bennett Cerf gave heartfelt tributes to Fred.
Broadway Is My Beat first took to the air on CBS from New York on February 27th, 1949, starring Anthony Ross and directed by John Dietz. After fifteen weeks, with Dragnet breaking new ground on NBC, CBS moved the show’s production to Hollywood. Elliott Lewis was by then helping to edit scripts for Bill Spier on Suspense. With the urging of men like Spier and Bill Robson, the twenty-eight-year-old Lewis was given the chance to direct the show. He was born in Manhattan on November 28th, 1917. He told Radio Life, “You should hear the city constantly. Even the people in New York are noisy.” Three sound men were often needed to re-create that New York flavor. Lewis’ first regular turn as a director came on July 7th, 1949 when the repackaged Broadway is My Beat debuted as a summer replacement for The FBI In Peace And War. Along with David Friedkin, Morton Fine would become one of Lewis’ go-to writers. Larry Thor would star as Danny Clover. Rounding out the regular cast was Charles Calvert as Tartaglia and Jack Kruschen doubling as both Sgt. Muggavan and Doctor Sinski. Broadway is my Beat featured some of the best hollywood radio talent like Barney Phillips, Virginia Gregg, Tony Barrett, Herb Butterfield, Betty Lou Gerson, Hy Averback, Cathy Lewis, Harry Bartell, Lawrence Dobkin, Mary Jane Croft, and Herb Vigran. Although no sponsorship was forthcoming, CBS brass was impressed with Elliott Lewis’ capabilities. The March 17th, 1950 episode was called “The Charles and Jane Kimball Murder Case.”
After Fred Allen passed away on St. Patrick's Day in 1956, the entire radio community mourned. That May 29th, in honor of what would have been his 62nd birthday, NBC Broadcast a Biography in Sound on Fred Allen. As part of the broadcast lyricist, writer, and TV producer Mort Greene shared a story about Fred Allen and a pan handler named The Whistler. Within the industry, Fred Allen was known as "the easiest touch on Broadway" due to his generosity.
In 1944 Fred Allen had to quit the Texaco Star Theatre as a battle with high blood pressure forced him off the air. The next fall, in 1945, he returned to NBC Sundays at 8:30PM with The Fred Allen Show, sponsored by Blue Bonnet Margarine & Tender Leaf Tea.With he and Jack Benny back on the same network, the two rekindled their feud. It came to a climax on the May 26th, 1946 episode of Fred’s show with a sketch entitled, "King for a Day." Benny pretended to be a contestant named Myron Proudfoot on Allen's new quiz show. The skit is mostly ad-libbed, and the ending was a surprise to everyone, including Jack Benny.You’ll notice that announcer Kenny Delmar is unable to say the final Tender Leaf Tea promo before the program’s time ran out. NBC executives were incensed. Allen tried to explain that there was no way to predict how long an audience would laugh. That October, Allen wrote a skit called “The Radio Mikado,” about the hucksters of radio—the “vice presidents and clerks who were confidentially, a bunch of jerks.” He was censored by NBC and told he couldn’t ad-lib any longer. Allen told reporters censors were the “executive fungus that forms on a desk.” Shortly thereafter when on air, the network cut him off in the middle of a joke, but now other disgruntled NBC comedians joined in. Red Skelton mentioned Allen on his show and was immediately cut off, but he kept talking for his studio audience telling them, “you know what NBC means don’t you? Nothing but cuts. Nothing but confusion. Nobody’s certain.” Bob Hope mentioned Allen and got censored. Finally, Dennis Day took the last shot at NBC on his Day in the Life Wednesday night sitcom. “I’m listening to the radio” he said to his girlfriend Mildred. “I don’t hear anything” said Mildred. “I know” said Dennis, “Fred Allen’s on.” NBC announced shortly thereafter that its comedians were free to say whatever they liked. It didn’t matter. Fred Allen had finally won.
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Jack Benny’s most famous Irish Tenor, Dennis Day was born on May 21st, 1916 in New York City and raised in the Throggs Neck section of The Bronx.Day graduated from Cathedral Preparatory Seminary and attended Manhattan College, where he sang in the glee club. Eventually he made his way to radio. Dennis Day made his Benny debut on October 8th, 1939. During World War II, Day enlisted in the Navy. He made his return on the St. Patrick’s Day episode, March 17th, 1946. For the remainder of the season, the Jack Benny cast was reunited in its classic 1940s incarnation. It was the last season before Phil Harris took over the Fitch Bandwagon with his wife Alice Faye. Because the program aired immediately after Jack’s, Phil could generally only take part in the first half of Jack’s show before rushing over to broadcast his own.Beginning that October, Dennis Day too would get his own show on NBC.
Bill Stern’s Colgate Newsreel first took to the air on December 5th, 1937 over NBC’s Blue network. Born on July 1st, 1907, Stern began in vaudeville and by 1931, he was the assistant stage manager at the Roxy Theater and later Radio City in New York. In 1934 he got the role of broadcaster for NBC’s Friday Night Fights. He became one of the most famous sportscasters in the country. Four years later he partnered with MGM for their News Of The Day reel. Stern's career flourished despite a 1935 car accident, which injured him severely enough that his left leg had to be amputated just above the knee. By March 17th, 1944, his colgate program was running over NBC on Fridays at 10:30PM eastern. Constance Bennett was the guest on this broadcast.After nearly sixteen years with NBC, Stern switched to ABC for three final seasons. While at ABC Stern was a regular panelist on the game show The Name's the Same.
By the spring of 1941, George Burns and Gracie Allen had been married for fifteen years and on radio for nine. Their program had been officially titled The Burns And Allen Show in the fall of 1936, and they’d spent time at both NBC and CBS. Unhappy with their Friday time slot on CBS, they’d moved back to NBC for Hormel Meats on Mondays at 7:30. Jimmy Wallington announced and Artie Shaw’s band provided the orchestra. But their vaudeville-style show was beginning to show its age. In January of 1941 their rating had slipped to 14.8. While they pondered what to do, they took to the air with the March 17th, 1941 episode.
Originally broadcast from Chicago, NBC’s Beat The Band began airing January 28th, 1940 at 6:30PM eastern time. It was sponsored by Kix Cereal. Listeners submitted riddles with song title answers. If the band couldn’t figure out the answer, the riddle submitter got thirty dollars and a box of Kix cereal. Garry Moore emceed, and Ted Weems conducted his orchestra. His three singers were Parker Gibbs, Marvel Marylin Maxwell, and the soon-to-breakout Perry Como. The March 17th, 1940 episode was called, “The Wearing of the Green.”The show lost its time slot against CBS’ Gateway To Hollywood. It went off the air on February 23rd, 1941, but was revived from New York in June of 1943. Submitters won twenty-five dollars and a carton of Raleighs and fifty dollars for beating the band. Packs of Raleighs were sent to servicemen in the war effort. The show went off the air for good on September 6th, 1944.
In 1922 a twenty-eight-year-old Fred Allen, already a vaudeville veteran, was hired by J.J. Shubert for his broadway production of The Passing Show of 1922. Allen was gaining fame as a monologist. He was in charge of writing his own material. One popular gag was the "Old Joke Cemetery." Allen had a curtain painted as a graveyard, on the tombstones were the punch lines to forty-six old jokes.When Allen moved with the show to Chicago, he met a dancer named Portland Hoffa. There the producers told Allen to drop the cemetery gag. The show was moving to Hollywood. Allen quit. Back in New York he demanded royalties from the Shuberts when the gag turned up in their other acts.They re-hired him, to emcee Artists and Models. In the revue, the chorus women were topless. Allen came on after the women were finished. The Shuberts and Allen soon came to a mutual release. Fred and Portland were married in 1927 and Allen starred in similar revues until Portland joined him on stage. Together they were a hit. Four years later Allen was contemplating radio. By 1932 big names like Ed Sullivan, Ed Wynn, and George Jessel were on radio. Jessel convinced Allen to audition.Allen felt that writing a sketch show centered around characters in different business backgrounds would appeal. The Corn Products Company hired him. Their Linit Beauty Powder would be the featured product. Allen was paid one-thousand dollars per week, but he had to produce the show out of his own pocket. He co-wrote it with Harry Tugent. Producer Roger White remembered that time. The Linit Bath Club Review premiered on Sunday, October 23rd, 1932 over CBS. Right from the beginning Allen had trouble with his sponsors. The season rating was 11.9, thirty-ninth overall. Roughly five million people tuned in and the show bested the Manhattan Merry-Go-Round opposite on NBC. But, the program was canceled after six months. Fred returned to radio on Friday August 4th, 1933 over NBC. His new show was The Salad Bowl Review for Hellmann’s Mayonnaise. It would mark the beginning of a six-year relationship with the National Broadcasting Company. Allen was paid four-thousand dollars per week. Minerva Pious joined the cast. She’d later be known for her ethnic character portrayals. Allen introduced the Etiquette Department and the Question box. People could write in to have questions answered on-air, with instructions to try to slip things by the censors. He started a newsreel. It was the forerunner to the satirical comedy that would become a program staple. The ad agency who held the Helmann’s account liked the program so much that they aired it through autumn, long-passed mayonnaise’s shelf-life in a time when it was a seasonal condiment for salads. However, by December 1st, 1933 the show had to exit the air. Now Sal Hepatica laxatives from Bristol Myers wanted in. Beginning on January 4th, 1934, Fred Allen debuted as emcee for The Sal Hepatica Review. On March 21st, 1934 the broadcast was expanded to an hour. It now included Ipana Toothpaste and was called The Hour of Smiles. Allen was given no additional budget and each show had to be performed twice—once for each coast. Allen hired a couple of script-writers to help. One of them was Herman Wouk, who’d later win a Pulitzer Prize for his 1951 novel, The Caine Mutiny.By then, the program had become a local review with news. On July 11th the show was retitled Town Hall Tonight. The tight budget left no room for big guest stars. Allen had to develop plot lines. Things were running smoothly until Allen was called into the agency offices. They objected to some of his jokes and didn’t like the concept of a running gag—something Allen had begun to develop. Allen later explained that running gags were very important because they stimulated a listener’s memory and interest. The ad agency disagreed. Allen paid them no mind.
In early 1943 Orson Welles was in production alongside Joan Fontaine with 20th Century Fox for Jane Eyre.Although Welles enjoyed acting for the screen, he preferred live radio. In March, when Jack Benny took ill with pneumonia, Welles filled in as host of The Jack Benny Program.Jack returns on April 11th, but Orson isn’t quite ready to let go.(Photo: Actors Mickey Rooney, Jack Benny, and Orson Welles talk things over before going on the air in a recent broadcast here in connection with the March of Dimes for the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis.)
On February 24th, 1953 Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis played host on their radio show to Marilyn Monroe. All three of the entertainers were on the rise. Martin introduced the play she'd perform in as, "Tonight's play is the story of a cold-blooded newspaper editor who has no friends, but who is loved by Marilyn Monroe, entitled, 'So Who Needs Friends?"Both Dean and Jerry were on their game, and Marilyn plays ditzy, sultry, and sensual to the t. Breaking Walls, Episode 83 will feature the era of radio after World War II and be available on September 1st, 2018 wherever you get your podcasts and at TheWallBreakers.com
On November 18th, 1969 Ozzie and Harriet Nelson were guests of Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show. During the segment, Ozzie told a funny story about the couple visiting Rutgers (his alma-matter) for a centennial parade.
On November 24th, 1954 Fred Allen was a guest of Tex and Jinx's New York talk show for a discussion about his life and career. During the course of the interview, Allen recounted a demonstration he gave to a friend about the power of radio as an advertising medium.
When NBC launched Monitor on June 12th, 1955, it was a true magazine of the air, running over NBC radio stations from Saturday mornings until Midnight Sunday in four hour blocks, completely taking over NBC’s airtime on the weekends. The program offered actualities, remotes, comedy, and variety. Affiliates were free to pick up or put down the show in four hour increments.In the early 1960s, CBS countered with their own version called, Dimension. Burgess Meredith hosted a show called American Landscape. He brought the listener to various American cultural institutions, like this trip to the old drug store.This audio is hard to find and was digitized from an original transcription record.
In Breaking Walls episode 136 we spotlight John Dehner and Have Gun, Will Travel.——————————Highlights:• John Dehner’s radio career• Norman MacDonnell and Palladin• The Radio Dial on Sunday November 23rd 1958• A Matter of Ethics• Killer’s Widow• The Lady Doctor• From Here To Boston• Looking Ahead to March——————————The WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:• On the Air — By John Dunning• Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg• Martin Grams’ article on the origin of Have Gun Will Travel. ——————————On the interview front:• Harry Bartell, John Dehner, Lawrence Dobkin, and Jack Johnstone were with SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com.• William N. Robson was with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these at Goldenage-WTIC.org.• Bill Conrad, John Dehner, Norman Macdonnell, John Meston and William N. Robson spoke to John Hickman for his Gunsmoke documentary. • John Dehner and Vic Perrin spoke to Neil Ross for KMPC in 1982.• Jack Kruschen and Shirley Mitchell were guests of Jim Bohannan in 1987.• Dennis Day spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear this full chat at speakingofradio.com——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• Living In The Country and February Sea — By George Winston• Ghost Bus Tours — By George Fenton• It’s Only Make Believe – By Conway Twitty• Loch Lomond — By Musica Intima• Danny Boy — By Dennis Day——————————A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.——————————Thank you to:Tony AdamsSteven AllmonOrson Orsen ChandlerPhil EricksonJessica HannaPerri HarperBriana IsaacThomas M. JoyceRyan KramerEarl MillardGary MollicaBarry NadlerChristian NeuhausAimee PavyRay ShawFilipe A SilvaJohn Williams——————————WallBreakers Links:Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakersSocial Media - @TheWallBreakers
Well that brings our look at the radio version of Have Gun Will Travel to a close. So, what’s in store for March?Next time on Breaking Walls, in honor of St. Patrick’s Day and the luck of the Irish, we focus on radio programming from March 17ths of days gone by.
By 1960, Have Gun and Gunsmoke were the last dramatic productions being recorded for CBS in Hollywood. Network radio drama was dying. The U.S. was changing. President Eisenhower’s second term was almost over. The next year, John Kennedy entered the White House. He defeated Republican Richard Nixon in the 1960 Presidential election.Have Gun, Will Travel’s final episode aired on November 27th, 1960. Called, “From Here to Boston,” it is regarded as a landmark episode. Paladin receives an attorney letter notifying him of a large inheritance. He must travel to Boston to claim it. He has no idea that his latest romantic interest, Louvena Todd Hunter, is responsible for his aunt's death and plans to murder Paladin with the help of her brother.Have Gun Will Travel closed with no mention in the trade columns. All remaining radio dramas, with the exception of Gunsmoke, were now produced in New York. Lawrence Dobkin remembered that time.Gunsmoke finally went off the air on June 18th, 1961.
Thirty-five of the first thirty-nine Have Gun Will Travel scripts were TV script adaptations. Beginning with episode forty, all new scripts were original for the radio version of the series.The February 15th, 1959 show was called “The Return of Doctor Thackery.” This episode featured Ben Wright, Jean Bates, Lou Krugman, Sam Edwards, and Harry Bartell. By 1959 this Hollywood crew of actors had been working together for nearly two decades.
The February 9th, 1959 episode of Have Gun Will Travel was called “Killer’s Widow.” Among those featured was the just-heard Vic Perrin. Perrin worked closely with Norman MacDonnell on Gunsmoke and Fort Laramie.On TV, Dick Boone’s Paladin was a smash-hit. That year’s program rating was 34.3 — third overall. Both the show and Boone were nominated for Emmys. Its success helped the radio version find sponsorship from multiple advertisers, like this commercial from Lysol.
On February 1st, 1959, Have Gun Will Travel broadcast an episode called “A Matter of Ethics.” The program's opening was a four-note motif composed and conducted by Bernard Herrmann. The show's closing song, "The Ballad of Paladin", was written by Johnny Western, Dick Boone, and program creator Sam Rolfe. Western played the song for the TV show.Paladin studied at West Point and emerged from the Civil War a mercenary with morals. His card had a simple message. It said: Have Gun, Will Travel/Wire Paladin/San Francisco. The only symbol on the card was a white chess knight—a Paladin. John Dehner approached the radio role as if Boone had never existed. He didn’t imitate.The first set of scripts were all adapted from the second season of the TV show. The writers were paid no residuals. Norman Macdonell used the same Hollywood regulars he used for Gunsmoke. Jack Kruschen was often one of them.Perhaps you’d have listened to this episode in Clear Lake, Iowa with anticipation for the next evening’s Winter Dance Party. If you’d gone, you’d have been witness to the last concert ever by Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens. The morning hours of February 3rd, 1959 have since become known as “The Day The Music Died.” It’s one of the most infamous moments in Rock-N-Roll history.
Sunday, November 23rd, 1958 was a sunny, cold day in New York. Conway Twitty had the nation’s top song with “It’s Only Make Believe.” The inside cover of the New York Daily News spoke of President Eisenhower’s slashes to the 1960 government budget. Meanwhile Texan Democrat Rep. George H. Mahan demanded the military budget remain robust. West Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt called for allied powers to stop Russia’s campaigns aimed at destroying democracy in western Europe. And a mechanics strike grounded all but four of TWA’s more than 200 planes.If you’d have turned on your radio to WCBS in New York that Sunday, you’d have heard news reports at the tops of most hours. Concerts, talk, and other music programs filled the dial between 11:30AM and 5:00PM. At 5:05, Yours Truly Johnny Dollar signed on starring Bob Bailey. Bailey had been playing the lead since the fall of 1955. He’d hold it until November 1960 when the program shifted production from Hollywood, to New York. For more info, tune into Breaking Walls episode 102.After Dollar, Suspense signed on at 5:30 with a play called “A Statement of Fact.” Directed by William N. Robson, it guest-starred Cathy Lewis as an international beauty accused of murdering her husband. As further proof of Hollywood radio’s tight-knit community, it also featured John Dehner. George Walsh announced.After Suspense went off the air, Have Gun Will Travel debuted over CBS with “Strange Vendetta.” The show aired on Sundays at 6PM in New York and at 7PM in Los Angeles. This episode was broadcast just one week after the end of Frontier Gentleman.When Have Gun Will Travel signed off, Gunsmoke signed on with “The Correspondent.” George Walsh, in a completely different voice, also announced the show. Gunsmoke was the final CBS dramatic offering of the evening.
By 1958, Norman Macdonnell was a radio veteran with thousands of broadcast hours under his belt. He’d been producing and directing Gunsmoke since 1952. Gunsmoke’s radio show was one of the first to offer a more-accurate portrayal of events and relationships from the Western era, as writer John Meston remembered.MacDonnell also directed the critically acclaimed Fort Laramie in 1956, but unlike with Gunsmoke, Fort Laramie was never able to secure national sponsorship. For more info on that series, tune into Breaking Walls episode 114.Frontier Gentleman ran into the same issues. The show was superb, but thanks to Television, there was no national advertiser appeal.So, when CBS canceled Frontier Gentleman they did so with another western in mind. Have Gun, Will Travel was in the midst of a successful second-TV season starring Dick Boone. Its lead character, Paladin, was a gun for hire based out of a posh San Francisco hotel. He advertised his services with a card that featured the series’ title words.CBS felt the crossover appeal could attract national advertising dollars. Norman MacDonnell was given the task of directing the show.On November 8th, 1958, Macdonnell conducted three tests for the lead. Harry Bartell, Vic Perrin, and John Dehner all auditioned. They delivered the opening lines from what would become the debut episode. This is Mr. Bartell’s. John Dehner would ultimately win the role.
John Dehner was born John Forkum on November 23rd, 1915 in Staten Island, New York. His father Leroy was an artist. His career allowed John to attend school in Norway and France. John was also a gifted artist, and pianist. He studied at the Grand Central School of Art in New York, while simultaneously getting into acting.Forkum’s talent took him west. He found animation work at Disney before landing a job at KMPC. At the radio station, John did everything from dramatic work to newscasting. He later earned a Peabody Award for his coverage of the first U.N. Conference.He spent the last half of World War II in the Army. After being honorably discharged, he returned to California. Now using his mother’s maiden name, Dehner, hoped to act. Lawrence Dobkin remembered how difficult it was for an outsider to find Hollywood work.But Dehner had good timing. Thanks to William Paley’s Packaged Program initiative, CBS was piloting dozens of shows. By 1948, he was a regular on the network, where a new crop of directors like Elliott Lewis and Norman MacDonnell were joining veterans like Bill Robson and Bill Spier. On August 1st, Dehner appeared on Escape in Bill Robson’s production of “The Man Who Would Be King.”On April 11th, 1950 Dehner appeared in an episode of The Adventures of Philip Marlowe. It was noted because Bill Conrad subbed for star Gerald Mohr. The pair’s relationship went back to their days at KMPC. By the early 1950s, Dehner had appeared on The NBC University Theater, The Screen Directors Playhouse, Escape, and The Whistler. Dehner became a regular on Gunsmoke after its 1952 debut. This is from the December 27th, 1952 episode called, “The Cabin.”Dehner spent the next six years playing a variety of parts on shows like Gunsmoke and Johnny Dollar. He was a toothless drunk, dashing leading man, vile psychopath, pillar of the community, and no nonsense anti-hero.In 1955 Gunsmoke’s success led CBS and director Norman Macdonnell to launch a second adult western called Fort Laramie. John Dehner auditioned for the lead on July 25th, 1955. But he was worried about being typecast and Captain Lee Quince went to Raymund Burr. With no sponsorship Fort Laramie lasted only ten months before being canceled after the October 28th, 1956 episode.Gunsmoke remained CBS’s only western until February of 1958 when Dehner was cast as J.B. Kendall in Antony Ellis’ production of Frontier Gentleman. Kendall was an English journalist writing for the London Times, weaving his way through the Western territories of the US in the late nineteenth century.In the September 1st, 1958 issue of Broadcasting Magazine WCBS Radio in New York took out a local ad touting their station as having the city’s most persuasive radio salesmen. They also hailed their star personalities like Jack Sterling, Lanny Ross, Jim Lowe, Martha Wright, and Galen Drake. More and more network programming was being left to local stations. William N. Robson remembered that time.Frontier Gentleman lasted nine months. In November, the network announced it was dropping several shows, including Nora Drake, Our Gal Sunday, Backstage Wife, The FBI in Peace and War, Indictment, The Galen Drake Show, City Hospital, and Frontier Gentleman.
James Scully here. Hell Gate City is an award-winning comedy fiction podcast about Kirby Bevins, a neurotic radio jockey in a dystopian cyberpunk version of NYC. After Kirby uses a newfangled device to broadcast his nightmares for ratings – and accidentally shares a repressed memory of a murder – he must overcome dark forces and folly to solve the crime before he becomes the next victim. The entire first season is out right now everywhere you’d get a podcast. Go to HellGateCity.com for more information.Here’s the trailer.
In June of 1983, Jack Carney broadcast a two-part audio documentary on the life and career of Jack Benny featuring interviews and recollections with the cast, and audio from the show. During the first part of the documentary, in an interview recorded years before, the late Jack Benny spoke of the importance of organic character and joke development on the Jack Benny Program.
In late 1972, Vincent Price sat down with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio (full interview here - https://www.goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-32.html). During the course of their conversation, Price spoke about the power of dramatic radio for the listening audience.
In Breaking Walls episode 135 it’s February of 1958 and CBS has just launched a new western, Luke Slaughter, of Tombstone. It’s a forgotten sixteen episode gem. Five years earlier it might have been a hit.——————————Highlights:• William N. Robson and The Hollywood Radio Western• Planning Luke Slaughter• Slaughter Launches• The Radio Dial on February 23rd, 1958• Tracks Out of Tombstone• The End of Slaughter• Looking Ahead to Paladin——————————The WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:• On the Air — By John Dunning• Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg• “Luke Slaughter of Tombstone: The Man Too Tough To Die.” by Stewart Wright’s for the April 2018 SPERDVAC RadioGram——————————On the interview front:• Lilian Buyeff, Mary Jane Croft, John Dehner, Lawrence Dobkin, Sam Edwards and Jeanette Nolan were with SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com.• William N. Robson was with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these at Goldenage-WTIC.org.• Norman Macdonnell, and William N. Robson spoke to John Hickman for his Gunsmoke documentary.• Roberta Bailey-Goodwin and E. Jack Neuman spoke with John Dunning for his 1980s 71KNUS Radio program from Denver.• Vic Perrin spoke to Neil Ross for KMPC in 1982.• Jack Kruschen and Shirley Mitchell were guests of Jim Bohannan in 1987.——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• Pavane — By Steve Erquiaga• I’ll Be Seeing You — By The Harry James Orchestra• Who Lives Up There — By Snuffy Walden——————————A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.——————————Thank you to:Tony AdamsSteven AllmonOrson Orsen ChandlerPhil EricksonJessica HannaPerri HarperBriana IsaacThomas M. JoyceRyan KramerEarl MillardGary MollicaBarry NadlerChristian NeuhausAimee PavyRay ShawFilipe A SilvaJohn Williams——————————WallBreakers Links:Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakersSocial Media - @TheWallBreakers
In 1961, William N. Robson joined The Voice of America. It’s the civilian overseas broadcast agency for the US government. During his fifteen years there, Robson wrote, directed and produced documentaries. He won four more Peabody Awards.Frontier Gentleman lasted five months longer than Slaughter. CBS canceled it in November, but with another western in mind. It’ll be the focus of our next Breaking Walls episode.Next time on Breaking Walls, it’s 1875 and we’re at the Carlton Hotel in San Francisco. We’ve got a meeting with a man who calls himself Paladin. His card has four simple words: Have Gun, Will Travel.
Despite the CBS sales team’s best efforts, national sponsorship for Luke Slaughter was non-existent. Only the May 4th episode managed to get sponsorship from O'brien Paints. All the components for an excellent series were there, except the timing. By Memorial Day, the writing was on the wall.This is audio from the final episode of Luke Slaughter, which aired on June 15th, 1958. In it we learn that Slaughter was once a young lawyer, and his birth name was Lucien. With his commanding voice, Buffington could have been a radio leading man. His physical features — short, stocky, and balding — relegated him to character parts in film and TV.On May 15, 1960 Less than two years after Luke Slaughter was cancelled, Sam Buffington committed suicide by asphyxiation. He was 28 years-old.
The front cover of the March 2nd, 1958 Sunday edition of The Los Angeles Times spoke of President Eisenhower’s recovery from a mild stroke. Two civilian airplanes crashed over Upland, killing four. Racehorse Round Table, won at Santa Anita. Meanwhile, at 12:05PM Pacific Time, Luke Slaughter signed on from KNX.Lawrence Dobkin was featured in the cast. Years later, he and Lilian Buyeff, who played Carlotta in the previous episode, spoke with SPERDVAC.
After Luke Slaughter signed off, Frontier Gentleman signed on with its fourth episode. It was called “Kendall’s Last Stand,” and was one of the most gripping shows in the run. John Dehner starred.Five minutes of a Road Show followed and then five more minutes of news. After a New York Philharmonic Concert, Suspense signed on at 4:35, guest-starring Karl Swenson and Cathy Lewis. The story, “Five-Buck Tip.” is a thriller about a twin trying to escape the electric chair at the expense of his brother. It aired at 4PM from KNX in Los Angeles. CBS had found multi-sponsorship for the series in late 1956. William N. Robson was also in charge of this production.At 5:05PM, as a cold winter’s sunset overtook the east coast, Yours Truly Johnny Dollar signed on starring Bob Bailey in “The Durango Laramie Matter.” Bob Bailey’s daughter Roberta was a teenager at the time.Yours Truly Johnny Dollar has been covered extensively in Episode 102 of Breaking Walls. When Johnny Dollar signed off,The FBI In Peace and War signed on from New York. After which, dramatic programming shifted back to the west coast. Radio’s remaining Hollywood directors cast familiar character actors for union scale wages.Throughout the 1950s, Norman Macdonnell’s Gunsmoke remained radio’s most popular show. It aired Sundays at 6:30 with a repeat the following Saturday at 12:30PM. On February 23rd, 1958 they presented “The Surgery.”Although the last new episode of The Jack Benny Program aired on May 22nd, 1955, Between October of 1956 and June of 1958, CBS aired The Best of Benny in his familiar 7:05 time slot. With the Home Insurance Company paying for the time, even Benny repeats attracted a sponsor.After Benny, Henry Morgan’s Comedy-Panel show Sez Who! Took to the air. Sez Who! debuted alongside The Stan Freberg Show on Sunday, July 14th, 1957 as part of a week in which CBS Radio added $765,000 in new billings. Sez Who! Would be sponsored every other week by Look Magazine.
When Luke Slaughter debuted on Sunday, February 23rd, 1958 over CBS, network radio had shifted focus. Car radios had become standard. That month, U.S. Radio Magazine reported fifty-five percent of all peak listening came from cars. Auto-rating measurements were underway, but ineffective. If you’d have turned on your radio to WCBS in New York that Sunday, you’d have heard news reports at the tops of most hours. Concerts and other music programs filled the dial between 11:30AM and 2:00PM. Slaughter signed on at 2:05 with CBS’s first fiction show of the day. Chairman William Paley still believed in radio drama. Americans were on the move and there was still an audience to reach. Opposite Slaughter, NBC broadcast a talk show The Sound of Science. ABC was in the midst of Dr. Oral Roberts. Mutual—WOR aired Studio X Matinee. Junius Matthews played Wichita. Vic Perrin guest-starred. Sam Edwards appeared as well.
William Robson attracted talented people into Slaughter’s creative process. The going rate in 1958 for a radio script was four-hundred fifty dollars. Lucian Davis would produce script writers like Allen Botzer, Don Clark, Robert Stanley, and Tom Hanley, who also provided editorial supervision. Hanley shared sound duties with Bill James. Gunsmoke director Norman MacDonnell remembered their work.Luke Slaughter would be set in the 1880s around Southwest Tombstone, Arizona. The title character was based on John Horton Slaughter, a Civil War cavalryman and Texas Ranger, noted as a trail-driver, gambler and cattleman. Slaughter also served as the sheriff of Cochise County in Arizona, and inspired a series on ABC TV the same year.The supporting cast would be filled out by Hollywood radio’s most famous character actors, like Harry Bartell, Lilian Buyeff, Lawrence Dobkin, Jack Kruschen, Junius Matthews, Shirley Mitchell, Jeanette Nolan, Virginia Gregg, Vic Perrin, Parley Baer, Howard McNear, and Sam Edwards. They were like a family. They looked out for each other, including those less fortunate, as Jack Kruschen and Shirley Mitchell remembered.Jerry Goldsmith, then a CBS staff musician, was tasked with creating the musical score. Picked to star was a twenty-six year old named Sam Buffington. Buffington appeared in at least thirty-nine TV shows and nine movies in less than four years. Luke Slaughter would be his only radio credit.
In February of 1958, CBS’ Gunsmoke, considered by many to be the greatest western of all-time, was in its sixth radio year. The TV version was the medium’s most-watched show, with a rating of 39.6. Although the 1950s proved to be a great time for radio westerns, in 1958 Gunsmoke was the only one of note on the air. Gunsmoke’s cast and crew had little overlap with its TV counterpart.CBS was contractually obligated to provide their radio affiliates with a promised slate of shows, and because advertisers were now investing most of their dollars into TV, CBS officials left radio to the radio people. Producers and directors, like Elliot Lewis, Jack Johnstone, Norman MacDonnell, and William N. Robson enjoyed less second-guessing and more creative freedom. However, these men and women also faced with shrinking budgets.This is William N. Robson. By 1958 he had more than twenty years of experience writing, producing, and directing radio shows. He was also no stranger to westerns, having been in charge of Hawk Larabee a decade before. Robson had also been in control of Suspense since 1956.In 1957 CBS Radio saw a rise in revenue for the first time since 1950. At the company convention that November, upper management predicted that radio was becoming fashionable again. In early 1958, the network ordered two new western programs to air on Sunday afternoons, replacing an hour of concert broadcasts. The goal was to interest national advertisers. In the meantime, unsold commercial spots would be filled with PSAs. The first was created by Antony Ellis and called Frontier Gentleman. It came to the air on February 2nd, 1958. Breaking Walls covered Frontier Gentleman in episode 101.The second one’s assignment fell to Robson. It would be called Luke Slaughter, of Tombstone.
When Jack Benny passed away on December 26th, 1974 after a short battle with cancer at the age of 80, it was Jack's best friend George Burns who was supposed to eulogize him at Benny's funeral. Burns attempted to, but was overcome with emotion and unable to continue.Bob Hope, another close friend and long-time comedy peer, delivered one of the most poignant speeches of his lifetime. This is a portion of it, recorded live at Jack Benny's funeral.
This is the preamble from Andy Williams before his Radio Spirits selection of 60 greatest old-time radio Christmas shows. This collection is ©2000. The recording is from ca. 1999-2000.Origin - radiospirits.com
In Breaking Walls episode 134 we spend our holidays with one of the most-beloved figures of the twentieth century: Jack Benny.——————————Highlights:• Picking Up with Benny Leaving NBC for CBS• A World in Turmoil• Benny Launches his Fall 1949 Season• The Texas Benefit• What About 1950?• Jack Goes Christmas Shopping• Christmas Week 1949 in World News• Christmas Day with Jack and the Gang• Bringing 1949 To a Close — Looking Ahead to January——————————The WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:• Sunday Nights at Seven — By Jack and Joan Benny• On the Air — By John Dunning• Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg——————————On the interview front:• Jack Benny, Dennis Day, Phil Harris, Frank Nelson, and Don Wilson, were with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.• Mel Allen, Mel Blanc, and Vincent Price were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these at Goldenage-WTIC.org.• Jack Benny, George Burns, Phil Harris, Frank Nelson, and Don Wilson were also interviewed by Jack Carney.• Dennis Day and Dick Joy spoke with John Dunning for his 1980s 71KNUS Radio program from Denver.• Don Quinn was interviewed by Owen Cunningham in 1951——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:• Somewhere In My Memory — By John Williams• What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve — By Nancy Wilson——————————A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.——————————Thank you to:Tony AdamsSteven AllmonOrson Orsen ChandlerPhil EricksonJessica HannaPerri HarperBriana IsaacThomas M. JoyceRyan KramerEarl MillardGary MollicaBarry NadlerChristian NeuhausAimee PavyRay ShawFilipe A SilvaJohn Williams——————————WallBreakers Links:Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakersSocial Media - @TheWallBreakers
As the curtain closed on 1949, Jack Benny had his most lucrative year to date. CBS was now the number one network in the country, and both were poised for big things in the oncoming TV era. Benny’s January 1950 rating would rise again, to 25.6.This brings our look at December of 1949 with Jack Benny to a close. Although we’ll be moving on you shouldn’t worry, Jack will still be around the periphery in January.
On Christmas Day 1949, The Czech government outlawed all people who’d fled the country during the 1948 Communist coup. While Cary Grant and Besty Drake were married in a private ceremony.At 5PM eastern time, CBS put on a star-studded holiday rendition of “The Man Who Came to Dinner.” Jack Benny played the male title role in this screwball comedy. Holiday specials were a network tradition, and Benny was no stranger to them.At 7PM eastern, The Jack Benny show signed on CBS. This episode was heard by roughly twenty-five million people.
On Tuesday December 20th, Clark Gable and Sylvia Ashley were married at a ranch in Solvang, California. It was the fourth marriage for both of them. They’d divorce in 1952. The next day, Samson and Delilah directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Hedy Lamarr and Victor Mature was released. It would earn more than nine million dollars at the box office — the highest grossing film of 1950. Meanwhile on Friday, December 23rd, The New York Stock Exchange rose to its highest levels since August of 1946. While Pope Pius XII invited all Protestants and Jews to "return to the one true church" to unite against militant atheism. Protestant and Jewish leaders said they had no intention of accepting the invitation.The December 24th issue of The Saturday Evening Post featured articles on The Berlin Blockade, fiction on the galaxy’s outer limit, and editorials on political advisor David Niles, dubbed Harry Truman’s “mystery man.”The cover of The New York Daily News had a story on the U.S. barring ships from entering Chinese waters. The Los Angeles Times told of a boy skier who was found frozen to death, and a forecast of holiday snow for much of the country.
At 7PM eastern time on December 18th, 1949 Jack Benny took to the air with what had become a programming staple: His Christmas shopping episode.
The U.S. spent the first ten months of 1949 in a recession. Competition for the advertising dollar was stiffer. There were now over two-thousand-six-hundred AM and FM radio stations in the country, and TV was becoming a serious threat. Over one-hundred Television stations were on the air. Only two Network Radio shows had ratings higher than a 20. Just two years earlier, there were fifteen. Radio’s average Top 50 ratings were their lowest since 1937 and network radio revenue dropped for the first time since 1933. Meanwhile, NBC, ABC, CBS, and the Dumont Network reported a combined TV income of $29.4 Million. But advertisers were learning that TV production costs were much greater than radio’s. The extra money had to come from somewhere. Radio budgets were the likely source.On December 18th, 1949, NBC broadcast an episode of America United with a panel discussion on estimates and predictions concerning 1950. It was moderated by David Brinkley, at the time NBC’s Washington commentator.The post-World War II world had been chaotic. Europe was rebuilding slowly as the US and Russia became the two superpowers. That same day, as the Philadelphia Eagles were beating the Los Angeles Rams in the 1949 NFL Championship Game, Nikita Khrushchev was made The Soviet Communist Party’s secretary of the Central Committee, and single-party Communist elections were held in Bulgaria. Two days later, Josef Stalin was awarded the Order of Lenin as part of celebrations for his seventieth birthday.
By December Jack Benny’s rating was up to 25.4, tops on radio. On December 11th, 1949, Jack attempted to make arrangements for his Texas benefit appearance. Notre Dame football coach Frank Leahy was the guest star.
To take advantage of Capital Gains laws, Jack Benny had formed his holdings into a corporation and sold it to CBS for Two-point-two-six Million dollars. Benny opened the fall 1949 season by taking stock of his pantry. The October 2nd program got a rating of 20.3.On election night, New York City Mayor William O’Dwyer, who’d succeeded Fiorello La Guardia, won reelection. He was soon confronted with a police corruption scandal uncovered by Kings County DA, Miles McDonald. O'Dwyer would resign from office on August 31st, 1950. President Truman appointed him U.S. Ambassador to Mexico. O’Dwyer would return to New York in 1951 to answer questions about his association with organized crime. He resigned as ambassador in 1952.
By the time Mel Allen broadcast Game four of the 1949 world series at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn on October 8th, the world was in turmoil. The Yankees would win that day and take the series four games to one, but people's attention was turned toward world politics.The Communist People’s Republic of China was formed on October 1st and recognized by the USSR the next day. The Democratic Republic of East Germany was formed on October 7th. On October 14th, Ten Communist Party USA leaders were sentenced to jail time. Two days later the Greek Civil war ended with a Communist surrender, and on October 24th the cornerstone of the United Nations Headquarters was laid in New York.As 1949’s holiday season approached, India adopted a constitution, while the labor government was defeated in Australian Federal elections. A growing red scare was now deeply embedded in the media. Alger Hiss’ second perjury trial began in November, while Mahatma Gandhi's assassins were executed, and Chinese communist troops continued their march to Taiwan. Members of the media had been claiming there were potential communist cells in the entertainment industry for more than two years.
On December 23rd, 1948, CBS Chairman William Paley and CEO Frank Stanton broadcast a special closed circuit press conference to their affiliates and staff. The move was to officially announce that Jack Benny was switching his program from NBC to CBS. The change would begin with the first broadcast of the new year. When William Paley signed Jack Benny in November, he’d convinced sponsor American Tobacco to make the jump to CBS by agreeing to pay the cigarette giant $3K per week for every ratings point lost after the migration. The move signaled that Paley was intent on not just equalling Benny’s audience on NBC, but growing it. In December of 1948, Benny’s last month on NBC, his program rating was 25.8. His first episode rating for CBS? — 28.3. It was the most-listened to show in the U.S. Benny ended the 48-49 season in May on a high note. His combined rating for his last three months on NBC was 22.7. His combined rating for his first three months on CBS was 25.8.
James Scully here, wanting to remind you that Burning Gotham 002: Bankruptcy is now available in the Burning Gotham feed. You can subscribe (for free) anywhere you'd get a podcast by searching for Burning Gotham or going to http://burninggotham.com/.Also, Breaking Walls EP134: Christmas With Jack Benny in a Changing World (1949)will be out this Thursday, 12/1/2022 in full on the Breaking Walls Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/TheWallBreakers) feed, and in parts beginning in the normal Breaking Walls feed as well.You can support the Burning Gotham Patreon for as little as $2 per month (https://www.patreon.com/BurningGotham) and the Breaking Walls Patreon for as little as $1 per month. The combined cost — $3 — is frankly. less than the cost of one cup of Starbucks coffee.So keep getting out there, keep breaking those walls. My name is James Scully, and you'll hear from me soon.
BURNING GOTHAM 001: MOVING DAYMay 1st, 1835 — It’s a cold and rainy Moving Day. Every renter in New York is out on the street looking for lodging. Most of the city’s quarter-million live below Houston Street in buildings four stories or smaller, but construction is booming. New people are pouring onto New York’s dangerously overcrowded streets by the thousands. Rich and poor, many come to earn an honest living. Others for more nefarious reasons. It’s the perfect place to begin.Aaron Columbus is an illegitimate son, desperate to make his fortune. Together with Aaron’s brother Wyndham Bowen—an African man born in Europe—they involve themselves in backroom deals, Abolitionism, potential war with France, and City politics. Aaron has struck an illegal import deal with John Jacob Astor, America’s richest man. The import? Two exiled Russian Countesses; Sorina and Raisa Zubov, and their inheritance—eleven pounds of diamonds. The two women have just arrived in New York.___________Download Episode Transcript___________Written By:Olga Lysenko & James Scully___________Cast:Eirik GislasonKacie LaforestRoland LaneMary MurphyAnna PirogovNancy PopMatt RoperJames Scully___________Music:The Hesperus Early Music EnsembleThe Itinerant Band___________Engineer:Josh Wilcox of Brooklyn Podcasting Studio___________Director & Post-Producer:James Scully___________Support Burning Gotham on Patreon
In Breaking Walls episode 133 we spend Thanksgiving 1949 with the cast of I Love a Mystery.——————————Highlights:• Thanksgiving Eve, 1949• Carlton E. Morse—Budget Stretcher• The First Two I Love a Mystery Runs• Mutual Broadcasting in 1949—I Love a Mystery Relaunches• Thanksgiving Day 1949—Thorson and Boles• Mercedes McCambridge—Oscar Winner• Tony Randall’s Early Career• I Love a Mystery is Canceled• Parley Baer and One Final Pilot• Wrapping Things Up• Looking Ahead to Christmas With Jack Benny——————————The WallBreakers:http://thewallbreakers.comSubscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.To support the show:http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers——————————The reading material used in today’s episode was:On the Air — By John DunningThe I Love A Mystery Companion — By Martin Grams Jr.Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg——————————On the interview front:• Parley Baer, Jim Boles, Mercedes McCambridge, Carlton E. Morse, Tony Randall, Russell and Don Wilson, were with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.• Parley Baer and Himan Brown were with SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com.——————————Selected music featured in today’s episode was:Sligo Creek — By Al PettewayIt All Depends on You — By Frank SinatraShenandoah — By Michael HannaThe Holly and the Ivy — By George Winston——————————A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.——————————Thank you to:Tony AdamsSteven AllmonRon BaronOrson Orsen ChandlerPhil EricksonEirik Davey-GislasonJessica HannaPerri HarperBriana IsaacThomas M. JoyceRyan KramerGary MollicaBarry NadlerChristian NeuhausAimee PavyMartin SchwartzRay ShawJohn Williams——————————WallBreakers Links:Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakersSocial Media - @TheWallBreakers
Well, that brings our look at I Love A Mystery to a close, but there’s no mystery about what people thought of the subject of our next Breaking Walls episode. Next time on Breaking Walls, we celebrate the holidays by going shopping with the one and only Jack Benny.
Chuck Schaden interviewed Tony Randall on September 16th, 1970 at the Ambassador Hotel in Chicago. Eight days later Randall’s new series The Odd Couple debuted on ABC. Randall played Felix Unger. The show ran for five seasons and became Randall’s most-remembered role. He continued acting until passing away on May 17th, 2004.After I Love A Mystery went off the air, Carlton E. Morse penned a new serial drama entitled Family Skeleton. He cast Mercedes McCambridge in the lead role. The Program would air weeknights on CBS from June 8th, 1953 through March 5th, 1954. It pulled a rating of 3.3 for Sweetheart Soap.Mercedes McCambridge had many trials and tribulations. She was nominated for a second Academy Award for her role in Giant in 1956. She also voiced the demon in The Exorcist.She won a battle with alcoholism and penned an autobiography in 1981 called The Qualities of Mercy.Six years later her son John—a futures trader—was caught embezzling funds under McCambridge’s name after she’d given him money to invest. Mercedes refused to cooperate with her son and the company he worked for. They wanted to institute a repayment scheme which would have kept the matter from becoming public.In November of 1987 John wrote a scathing note blaming her for his problems before killing his wife, children, and then himself. Mercedes appeared in one final TV role in 1988. Her second husband, radio and tv writer/producer/director Fletcher Markle, passed away in 1991. She died on March 2nd, 2004 in La Jolla, California.
Although the serial went off the air in 1952, in May of 1954 a new audition record was produced for CBS in Hollywood. With Russell Thorson back in Los Angeles he carried over the role of Jack, with Ben Wright as Reggie, and Parley Baer as Doc. Parley Baer was most-known for playing Chester Proudfoot on Gunsmoke.CBS didn’t pick up the series and I Love A Mystery went off the air for good.
Initially running at 7:45PM, Mutual moved I Love a Mystery to 10:15 in 1950. Although geared for teenagers, it was obviously not standard juvenile programming. Many listeners remembered tuning in under blankets with the lights down low.But, as entertaining as the program was, by 1952, television was taking over in big cities. One Man’s Family began running on TV in 1949. Tony Randall appeared in telecasts. Mutual ran as a cooperative, rather than a corporation. The network’s top stations — WOR in New York, WGN in Chicago, and Don Lee’s KHJ in Los Angeles — all boasted powerful signals. But, while Mutual had the most affiliated stations of the big four networks, many of these were small stations in rural areas. This limited their advertiser appeal.As families left cities and farms for the suburbs, the network’s shared programming structure left it at a distinct disadvantage against NBC, CBS, and ABC. Those three networks would use their soaring revenue to move into TV. Although some Mutual affiliates developed television programming, the full network was never able to launch into TV.With dramatic radio on its way out, the writing was on the wall. The final Mutual I Love A Mystery adventure aired on December 26th, 1952. By then the Red Scare was a major issue in the entertainment industry, as Himan Brown remembered.
Tony Randall was born Aryeh Leonard Rosenberg on February 16th, 1920 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He attended Northwestern University for a year before going to New York City to study under Sanford Meisner and choreographer Martha Graham. Randall worked as an announcer at WTAG in Worcester, Massachusetts. As Anthony Randall, he starred with Jane Cowl in George Bernard Shaw's Candida and with Ethel Barrymore in Emlyn Williams's The Corn Is Green.After serving with the U.S. Army Signal Corps in World War II, he came back to New York City. In 1946, Randall was cast in Katharine Cornell's revival of The Barretts of Wimpole Street. The following year in Antony and Cleopatra and in 1949 he appeared in Caesar and Cleopatra. Simultaneously, Randall found work in radio.Randall was twenty-nine and in New York when I Love a Mystery was revived. He originally auditioned for the part of Doc, but Carlton Morse felt he was better suited for Reggie York. As much as Randall loved I Love A Mystery, he wasn’t a huge fan of many of the soap operas he appeared on.
Carlotta Mercedes McCambridge was born to farming parents in Joliet, Illinois on March 16th, 1916. She graduated from Mundelein College. McCambridge began her radio career in the 1930s first in Chicago, and then in New York while also performing on Broadway.In 1949 she made her film debut opposite Broderick Crawford in All the King's Men, for which she won an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and the New Star of the Year.But no one who knew her was surprised. Orson Welles heralded McCambridge as the greatest living radio actress. Himan Brown almost never failed to cast her. Although she was an Academy Award winner, she was still a proud cast member of I Love A Mystery.
Thursday, November 24th, 1949 was Thanksgiving Day. It was clear and crisp in New York as Macy’s put on its twenty-third annual parade. Floats included The Chef’s Turkey Dinner, the Snowman, and Santa’s Sleigh. Milton Berle guest-starred.WOR—Mutual aired Cornell vs. Penn at 1PM, Queen for a Day and Luncheon at Sardi’s in the late afternoon, Gabriel Heater at 7:30, and I Love A Mystery at 7:45.By November of 1949, Russell Thorson was forty-three and Jim Boles thirty-five. They had a wealth of experience in both Chicago and New York radio. With radio in decline, both made their first TV appearances that year. Ford Motors intermittently sponsored roughly two out of every twenty I Love A Mystery episodes, but for the most part, Mutual picked up the financial tab for all three years of the New York run.
In the summer of 1949 NBC-TV approached Carlton Morse with the possibility of coming to New York to put One Man’s Family on TV. Because the entire production would need to be re-cast, Morse had to audition a whole new group of actors.Mercedes McCambridge, who’d played on I Love A Mystery in Hollywood, was now working in New York and cast, while Russell Thorson was cast as Henry Barbour. Morse flew back and forth from New York to Los Angeles. On May 25th, 1949, Mutual Broadcasting presented an episode of The Family Theater called “The Man With a Plow.” Morse wrote and directed the episode from Hollywood. It was then that Morse had the idea of rebooting I Love A Mystery. Episodes would be recorded and transcribed, allowing actors with other commitments to take roles. Morse approached Thorson about starring and McCambridge about doing supporting parts. The cast soon rounded out with Jim Boles as Doc, and Tony Randall as Reggie.Morse received one-thousand dollars per week from Mutual to write the show, but rather than write new scripts, Morse simply re-recorded the original scripts with minor revisions and title changes. Russell Thorson and his wife helped Morse out with continuity. I Love A Mystery would re-debut over Mutual Broadcasting on October 3rd, 1949 at 7:45PM eastern time. The cast assembled a couple of times per week to record. Each show was recorded on sixteen-inch discs, airing on weeknights for fifteen minutes.
I Love A Mystery first took to the air Weekdays at 3:15PM on NBC’s West-Coast network in January of 1939.
Michael Raffetto starred as Jack Packard, head of the A-1 Detective Agency, with Barton Yarborough as Texan Doc Long, and Walter Paterson as the British Reggie Yorke. The three world travelers searched for action, thrills, and mystery. From the ghost towns of wind-swept Nevada, to the jungles of vampire-infested Nicaragua, they righted wrongs, rescued women, battled evil, and explored unknown parts of the globe.
Morse utilized threatening elements: dark jungles, bizarre rituals, strange languages, sacred amulets, thick fogs. Three characters could be murdered in a single episode. There were ancient curses, hidden panels, piercing cries in the night, and the gathering of a diverse group of suspicious people, all of whom had secrets to hide.
Jack Packard was once a medical student. He shrugged off superstition in favor of logic. Reggie Yorke was British and clever. Doc Long was a red-headed Texan. He defied the laws of chance and always had time for women.
By that autumn it was airing nationally. The show ran from the west coast for five years, first over NBC’s Red Network, then its Blue, and then CBS. The original I Love A Mystery run ended on December 29th, 1944.
A 1945 film with its title starred Jim Bannon, Barton Yarborough, George Macready, and Nina Foch. Two more movies followed with Bannon and Yarborough followed in 1946.
Morse recorded a new radio audition for ABC in May of 1945, but the show wasn’t picked up again until it was briefly revived on ABC as I Love Adventure in the spring of 1948. It lasted thirteen weeks before going off the air.
On the eve of Thanksgiving in 1949, Russian diplomat Andrey Vyshinsky told the UN General Assembly Russia fully supported Communist China’s in removing the Nationalist Chinese delegation from the UN. While US, British and French commissioners agreed to lift many industrial and diplomatic restrictions on West Germany. And Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett rejected a compromise proposal from the UN to internationalize Jerusalem.
Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox was named American League MVP, and smog was becoming a serious issue in Los Angeles.
The Cold War and communist fears were reaching new heights as celebrities listed in the Red Channels found themselves blacklisted in Hollywood.
The U.S. spent the first ten months of 1949 in a recession. Competition for the advertising dollar was stiffer. There were now over two-thousand-six-hundred AM and FM radio stations in the country, and TV was becoming a serious threat.
Over one-hundred Television stations were on the air. Only two Network Radio shows had ratings higher than a 20. Just two years earlier, there were fifteen. Radio’s average Top 50 ratings were their lowest since 1937 and network radio revenue dropped for the first time since 1933.
Meanwhile, NBC, ABC, CBS, and the Dumont Network reported a combined TV income of $29.4 Million. But advertisers were learning that TV production costs were much greater than radio’s. The extra money had to come from somewhere. Radio budgets were the likely source.
But if there was anyone who knew how to stretch a dollar, it was radio writer and director Carlton E. Morse. Tonight we’ll join him in a boxcar somewhere in the lonely west, and celebrate Thanksgiving by burying our dead in Arizona.
In Breaking Walls episode 132 we go back to the late 1940s and say Happy Halloween with Mutual Broadcasting.
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Highlights:
• The Seedy Underbelly of Coney Island on The Crime Club • Take a Ride with The Mysterious Traveler • Mystery is My Hobby • Quiet Please • 1948 Halloween News with Arthur Bario • The House of Mystery • True Detective Mysteries • Halloween 1948 with Holmes and The Shadow • Truman Wins a Stunning Reelection • Murder By Experts • Finishing With I Love a Mystery • Looking Ahead to Thanksgiving
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com
Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
——————————
The reading material used in today’s episode was:
American Radio Networks: A History — By Jim Cox • On the Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg • The Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Radio — By Christopher Sterling • WOR: The First Sixty Years
As well as articles from the archives of • The Los Angeles Times • The New York Daily News • The New York Times • Radio Daily • The Saturday Evening Post
——————————
On the interview front:
• Jim Boles, Bret Morrison, Carlton E. Morse, and Russell Thorson, were with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.
• Joseph Julian was with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these at Goldenage-WTIC.org.
• Harry Bartell and André Baruch were with SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com.
•Orson Welles was with Johnny Carson
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Halloween — By Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians • Manhattan — By Blossom Dearie • Flag of Columbia — By Jacqueline Schwab • Danse Macabre — By Camille Saint-Saëns
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A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.
For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.
——————————
Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva John Williams
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WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers
We’re going to stop here, but we’re not even close to finishing with I Love A Mystery. Next time on Breaking Walls, while we spend Thanksgiving with Carlton E. Morse, Russell Thorson, Jim Boles, and Tony Randall, we utter a simple statement: Bury Your Dead, Arizona.
The reading material used in this episode was: American Radio Networks: A History — By Jim Cox On the Air — By John Dunning Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg The Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Radio — By Christopher Sterling WOR: The First Sixty Years
As well as articles from the archives of • The Los Angeles Times • The New York Daily News • The New York Times • Radio Daily • The Saturday Evening Post
——————————
On the interview front: • Jim Boles, Bret Morrison, Carlton E. Morse, and Russell Thorson, were with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.
• Joseph Julian was with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these at Goldenage-WTIC.org.
• Harry Bartell and André Baruch were with SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com.
•Orson Welles was with Johnny Carson
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Halloween — By Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians • Manhattan — By Blossom Dearie • Flag of Columbia — By Jacqueline Schwab • Danse Macabre — By Camille Saint-Saëns
——————————
A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.
For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.
——————————
Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva John Williams
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WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers The reading material used in today’s episode was: American Radio Networks: A History — By Jim Cox On the Air — By John Dunning Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg The Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Radio — By Christopher Sterling WOR: The First Sixty Years
As well as articles from the archives of • The Los Angeles Times • The New York Daily News • The New York Times • Radio Daily • The Saturday Evening Post
——————————
On the interview front: • Jim Boles, Bret Morrison, Carlton E. Morse, and Russell Thorson, were with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.
• Joseph Julian was with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these at Goldenage-WTIC.org.
• Harry Bartell and André Baruch were with SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com.
•Orson Welles was with Johnny Carson
——————————
Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Halloween — By Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians • Manhattan — By Blossom Dearie • Flag of Columbia — By Jacqueline Schwab • Danse Macabre — By Camille Saint-Saëns
——————————
A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.
For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.
——————————
Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva John Williams
——————————
WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers
Have you been enjoying Breaking Walls? If so, give the show a quick rating on whatever platform you listen, especially iTunes.
James Scully here. You’re about to listen to the pilot episode of a reimagined Frontier Gentleman, which was originally created by Antony Ellis for CBS.
In 2020 I met Mr. Ellis’ daughter, Briana Ellis-Isaac thanks to an episode on the original series I produced for Breaking Walls. Briana and I became fast friends who shared an appreciation for the Golden Age of Radio, and a mutual belief in the growth of new scripted audio fiction productions.
In 2021 Briana hired me to help bring Frontier Gentleman back to life in a new adaptation using Mr. Ellis’ previously written scripts and updating the story in order to introduce Frontier Gentleman to current audiences.
This is that pilot episode. To find out more about the new Frontier Gentleman. Please go to FrontierGentleman.com
And now, enjoy the show.
Carlton E. Morse’ I Love A Mystery first took to the air Weekdays at 3:15PM on NBC’s West-Coast network in January of 1939.
Michael Raffetto starred as Jack Packard, head of the A-1 Detective Agency, with Barton Yarborough as Texan Doc Long, and Walter Paterson as the British Reggie Yorke. The show told of three world travelers in search of action, thrills, and mystery. From the ghost towns of wind-swept Nevada, to the jungles of vampire-infested Nicaragua, they righted wrongs, rescued women, battled evil, and explored unknown parts of the globe.
By that autumn it was airing nationally. The show ran from the west coast for five years, first over NBC’s Red Network, then its Blue, and then CBS.
It went off the air at the end of 1944, but was revived in the spring of 1948 on ABC and then from New York for Mutual Broadcasting in October of 1949. It ran for three more years, this time starring Russell Thorson, Jim Boles, and Tony Randall, as Thorson remembered.
Jack Packard was a hero with quiet strength. Once a medical student, he shrugged off superstition in favor of logic.
Reggie Yorke was educated, strong, and had the British stiff upper lip.
Doc Long was a red-headed alley fighter from Texas who defied the laws of chance and loved women.
Three characters could be murdered in a single episode. People were killed in ghoulish, imaginative, and sometimes mystifying ways. Throats were ripped out by wolves; there were garrotings, poisonings, and mysterious slashings.
On Halloween, 1949, part one of a new story, “The Thing That Cries in The Night” aired over Mutual.
Murder By Experts debuted over Mutual on June 13th, 1949. Written by David Kogan and Bob Arthur, it quickly gained the respect and approval from the radio world at large.
Mystery writers like John Dickson Carr and Brett Halliday hosted with New York’s best character talent like Lawson Zerbe, Ann Shepherd, Santos Ortega, Ralph Bell, and William Zuckert being featured.
This is from the debut episode, “Summer Heat” which aired on June 13th, 1949. Murder By Experts won a prestigious Edgar Award in 1950, and aired until December 17th, 1951.
On Tuesday November 2nd, 1948 The United States held its forty-first presidential election. If you’d tuned into the results early in the evening, you’d have been convinced that the pre-election polls were correct and Thomas Dewey would become the next president.
You’d have been wrong.
Dewey ran a low-risk campaign. His advisers believed all he had to do to win was avoid major mistakes. So Dewey spoke in platitudes, avoided controversial issues, and was vague on what he planned to do as president.
But, many republicans disliked Dewey, feeling he was too cold and stiff, and surprisingly against outlawing the Communist Party. Believing he had nothing to lose, Harry Truman ran a feisty campaign. He ridiculed Dewey’s platitudes, and claimed Communists were rooting for a GOP victory to ensure another Great Depression. Energizing traditional Democrats, as well as Catholic and Jewish voters, Truman also fared surprisingly well with Midwestern farmers.
When it was all over, Harry Truman’s victory was considered one of the greatest election upsets in American history, garnering 303 electoral votes to Thomas Dewey's 189.
With simultaneous success in the 1948 congressional elections, the Democrats also regained control of both the House and Senate, which they lost in 1946.
At 5PM Mutual’s most famous program, The Shadow signed on. The show was in its eleventh season on the air in 1948. Andre Baruch handled emcee duties while Grace Matthews played Margo Lane.
Bret Morrison was Lamont Cranston. Halloween’s episode was called “Murder By A Corpse.” This season’s Shadow rating was 13.2. It was Mutual’s highest-rated show.
As night descended on New York on October 31st, temperatures dropped into the upper 40s and an eerie fog rolled in. Police were ready for mischief as children went trick or treating. The Halloween tradition was still seen by many as an act of begging and vandalism. In response, members of the Madison Square Boys Club paraded through the Lower East Side carrying a banner that read "American Boys Don't Beg.”
Politically, Progressive Henry Wallace was making a dent in Harry Truman’s campaign. On Election Day, Truman still carried the City, collecting 1.6 million votes to Dewey’s 1.1 million, but Henry Wallace received over four-hundred thousand votes.
It’s this split that allowed Thomas Dewey to narrowly win New York state by sixty-thousand votes, giving the republicans forty-seven important electorates.
At home, the Mutual Broadcasting System’s prime time programming featured news and music, but at 7PM literature’s most famous detective—Sherlock Holmes—took to the air from WOR.
Sherlock Holmes peaked on radio between 1939 and 1946 with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce playing Holmes and Watson. They made over a dozen films and their rating climbed to 14.1 in 1942 on NBC. The next year, the entire cast moved to the Mutual Broadcasting System. Petri wine sponsored the series. Famed radio character actor Harry Bartel became the announcer.
They remained on Mutual for three seasons until Holmes left for ABC. Basil Rathbone stayed with Mutual to star in a new series called Scotland Yard.
Nigel Bruce still played Watson while Tom Conway became Holmes. When the Semler Company discontinued sponsorship in the spring of 1947, ABC canceled the show.
That summer Clipper Craft Clothing signed to pay the bills. The program moved back to Mutual with John Stanley as Holmes and Alfred Shirley as Watson. By Halloween 1948 it was airing Sundays at 7PM.
As radio audiences changed, Holmes and Watson couldn’t keep up. That Spring Mutual canceled the series. ABC revived it for one final season before the last version of an American Sherlock Holmes series departed the air.
At 4:30PM on Sunday October 31st, 1948, True Detective Mysteries signed on. The program had a rating of 10.7. It was Mutual’s number two show overall. Based on items from True Detective magazine, the series was sponsored by Oh Henry Candy bars.
Many of the stories unfolded from the criminal’s viewpoint: the show was much like Gangbusters in allowing the audience to witness the fatal mistakes that led to the culprit’s capture. Borrowing yet another page from Gangbusters, the magazine offered rewards of $500 (later $1000) for information leading to the arrest of real criminals. Clues were given after each broadcast: these were highly descriptive, focusing on scars and deformities, and the show resulted in many arrests.
By October 31st, 1948, The Mutual Broadcasting System’s flagship WOR in New York was approaching its twenty-seventh anniversary. It was argued that no station matched its signal coverage. WOR-Mutual was known for its cop shows, soap operas, and on Sundays, it’s mysteries.
At 4PM eastern time, House of Mystery signed on for General Foods. John Griggs was Roger Elliott, ghost hunter and scientist of the supernatural. The show was directed by Olga Druce, who guided the program along a fine line. Because House of Mystery was geared for children, it couldn’t be overtly gruesome or vulgar.
Have you been enjoying Breaking Walls? If so, give the show a quick rating on whatever platform you listen, especially iTunes.
The 1948 DNC convened in July with President Truman’s approval rating as low as 32%. Northern Democrats pushed for a strong civil rights platform, which the President was in favor of.
Conservative southern Dems were opposed. Moderates feared voter alienation. When the convention adopted the civil rights plank in a close vote, Southern Dems walked out and split off, nominating Strom Thurmond for President.
They became known as Dixiecrats, hoping to force a contingency in the House of Representatives, extracting concessions from either Truman or Republican nominee Thomas Dewey.
The post-war strikes didn’t end. On October 26th the Radio Writers Guild struck for fair wages and for RWG guideline adherence by ad agencies. Their focus was the coming new medium: Television. Negotiations would continue into 1949.
On Halloween 1948, the Presidential election was on everyone’s mind. The night before, Thomas Dewey ended his campaign at Madison Square Garden. He’d run against FDR in 1944, losing, but received 46% of the popular vote.
After President Roosevelt passed away, there were many who felt Dewey made a better post-war choice than Harry Truman. In the 1946 New York Gubernatorial election, Dewey won by nearly 700,000 votes, the most in New York history to that point.
Tuesday, November 2nd was the 41st U.S. presidential election in history. Truman was a massive underdog with South Carolina’s Governor Strom Thurmond opposing on the Dixiecrat ticket, and another FDR VP, Henry Wallace as the Progressive Party nominee.
Meanwhile in the Middle East, The Arab-Israeli war raged on. Fighting started the previous November. It ramped after Palestine was officially dissolved, and Israel declared Independence on May 14th.
Count Bernadotte of Visborg was assassinated in September by four members of Lehi, a Jewish Zionist group. One of whom—Yitzhak Shamir would go on to be the Seventh Prime Minister of Israel.
Operation Hiram ended on Halloween with Israeli forces claiming to have complete control of Galilee. The fighting would continue into 1949.
The Cold War was growing, with Americans investigating potential communist cells within the government, fearing the world could split into two distinct groups: those who supported democracy, and those who supported totalitarianism.
In 1934 Chicago was the center for radio production. Writer and director Wyllis Cooper created a program for NBC affiliate WENR that drastically altered the tone of horror. Cooper had been writing advertising copy in the late 1920s when he entered radio, working first as a continuity editor, then for NBC's Empire Builders.
His idea was to offer listeners a late-night terror program, at a time when other stations were mostly airing music. It emphasized crime thrillers and the supernatural. The first series of shows were fifteen minutes and ran on Wednesdays at midnight to local audiences. It was called Lights Out.
In April, the series expanded to a half-hour. The following year, it went national. Cooper stayed on until 1936 when he left to write film scripts in Los Angeles.
He wrote The Phantom Creeps and The Son of Frankenstein before returning for the final season of The Campbell Playhouse on CBS and The Army Hour on NBC.
Then in the Spring of 1947 a new opportunity arose in New York. Quiet Please debuted on Sunday June 8th, 1947 at 3:30PM over the Mutual Broadcasting System.
Quiet Please elevated the genre to high art. For the weekly lead, Cooper cast Ernest Chappell, The Campbell Playhouse announcer. He proved a natural, playing Scotsman, oil riggers, drunks, and archaeologists. They were every-men who got tied up in the otherworldly.
Few supporting voices could be afforded or deployed. Those few were part of New York radio’s elite like Frank and Claudia Morgan. The cast was told to play it straight. It resulted in an almost dream-like study in horror, like on October 27th, 1947 when Quiet Please presented “Don’t Tell Me About Halloween.”
In March of 1948, CBS executive Davidson Taylor sent an internal memo expressing his interest in purchasing the Mutual-sustained series for CBS. Taylor had a keen eye for talent, but nothing materialized. Quiet Please shifted to ABC in September of 1948, but never found sponsorship and went off the air on June 25th, 1949.
This November, experience New York City like you’ve never before. Will you make the right deal? Or fall to greed? But whatever you choose, just make sure you get out in time.
Coming This November to your favorite podcast app, Burning Gotham — The new audio fiction soap opera about the fastest growing city in the world, and the opportunists who shaped it.
Subscribe anywhere you'd get a podcast and find out more at BurningGotham.com
Mystery is My Hobby originally came to Don Lee’s west coast airwaves in April of 1945, before going full network over Mutual that October as Murder Is My Hobby. It starred Glenn Langan as Barton Drake, a police inspector and the author of the book Mystery Is My Hobby. Drake combined his professions by collecting material for stories while he solved crimes.
The program went off the air in July of 1946, but returned the next summer under the Mystery title. Barton Drake was now a writer who worked with the police. Each episode was presented as cases from his book.
The October 29th, 1947 episode was called “Death Speaks with Ten Fingers,” and guest-starred Barney Phillips, Gloria Blondell, Ken Christy, and Jean Vander Pyl, who was later famous as the voice of Wilma Flintsone.
Written and directed by Robert Arthur and David Kogan, The Mysterious Traveler first aired over the Mutual Broadcasting System on December 5th, 1943.
Mostly sustained, the show was heard on virtually every night of the week. There were frequent gaps in its runs, but it was always good for a revival. It was cheap to produce; there were no major film stars to pay, and plenty of New York radio actors willing to work for union scale. With that said, it was popular enough to spawn a comic book and magazine.
Maurice Tarplin played the title role with a good-natured malevolence. The traveler mostly narrated from an omniscient perch. He came to his listeners in the night, riding a phantom train. The opening signature was the distant wail of a locomotive whistle, fading in gradually until the rumble of the train could be heard.
The stories ran from crime drama to wild science fiction. David Kogan later recalled that he broke into radio with Bulldog Drummond, Shadow and Thin Man scripts. He met Robert Arthur in Greenwich Village, suggesting they team up. The pair developed Dark Destiny, which aired on Mutual from August 26th, 1942 through March 11th, 1943.
They came up with the Mysterious Traveler concept and prepared three sample scripts. Norman Livingston bought it for WOR. As independent producers, they were paid a flat rate for the whole package. Any money they saved by using the same actor in multiple roles went into their own pockets, so they used the best character actors in New York radio. Kogan also directed the series.
This episode, “Death is My Caller” featured Santos Ortega, Agnes Young, Ted Jewett, and Neil O’Malley.
Along with The Mysterious Traveler, Kogan and Arthur also wrote a season of Nick Carter, The Strange Dr. Weird, The Sealed Book, and later Murder By Experts. The Mysterious Traveler would air until September of 1952.
By October of 1947, nearly eleven million babies had been born in the U.S. since the end of World War II. Young parents were staying home with their children. Movie attendance bombed.
The 1947-48 season had the largest radio audience in history. Homes with radios jumped 6%, car radios 29%.
NBC, CBS, ABC, and Mutual added nearly one-hundred fifty affiliates. Ninety-seven percent of the nation’s AM stations were now linked to one of the big four. Network revenue topped $200 Million.
World War two had created fundamental changes in society. While men of all races and creeds were overseas spilling the same colored blood, women mobilized and took charge of the workforce. When veterans were discharged, they returned home with different ideals, and what we’d now call PTSD.
As new cars, roads, and homes brought young families to the suburbs, racial descrimination came to the forefront in the face of the G.I. Bill, where a much higher percentage of white Americans were having their applications accepted.
On October 29th, the national civil rights committee delivered a report to the White House. The document made thirty-five specific recommendations, including asking the President to create a permanent Federal commission on civil rights. President Truman said that he’d study the report with great care and recommend that all citizens do the same thing.
Americans were organizing. In the year after VJ Day, more than five million struck for better wages and benefits. This hurt key sectors of the economy and stifled production. Consumer goods in high-demand were slow to appear on shelves and in showrooms, frustrating Americans who desperately wanted to purchase items forsaken during the war.
It caused the largest inflation rise in the country’s modern history, and the Taft-Hartley Act, limiting the power of Labor Unions.
President Truman was seemingly at odds with Congress over every domestic policy and his approval rating sank to 32%. Reelection the following year seemed unlikely.
The U.S. War Debt topped two-hundred-forty billion dollars. Emerging as one of the world’s leaders, America was expected to have the largest hand in rebuilding Europe.
News outlets reported that, to create European stability, Americans should resume sacrifices they made during the war. Not agreeing to do so could result in political enemies taking over the continent.
That October, as the major networks were enjoying the largest ratings in radio history, one network, The Mutual Broadcasting System, was still struggling to grab audiences. Airing out of WOR in New York, The Shadow was the network’s most-listened to program. While it pulled a rating of thirteen — strong for a show airing on Sundays at 5PM easten — it was nowhere near radio’s top fifty.
Mutual’s top stations — WOR in New York, WGN in Chicago, and Don Lee’s KHJ in Los Angeles — all boasted powerful signals and had equal shares in the network. And, while Mutual reached four-hundred affiliates in 1947 and would add another hundred over the next year, many of these were small stations in rural areas. This limited their advertiser appeal.
Mutual was run as a cooperative, rather than a corporation. As families left cities and farms for the suburbs, the network’s shared programming structure left it at a distinct disadvantage against NBC, CBS, and ABC. Those three networks would use their soaring revenue to move into TV. Although some Mutual affiliates developed television programming, the full network was never able to launch into TV.
That’s not to say MBS didn’t have quality programming. Just the opposite, and with Halloween around the corner, tonight we’ll delve into Mutual’s horror, mystery, and suspense shows of the late 1940s.
In Breaking Walls episode 132 we spotlight Orson Welles’ time as The Shadow in 1937-38.
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Highlights:
• Orson Welles’ on The March of Time and The Columbia Workshop • The Shadow as Narrator • Les Misérables • WOR and Network Radio In The Fall of 1937 • The Shadow Launches With Orson Welles • Jeanette Nolan and The Temple Bells of Neban • Early Reviews • Agnes Moorehead and The Three Ghosts • The Circle of Death • The Mercury Theater Leaves The Shadow • Orson In The Fall of 1938 • Looking Ahead to Halloween with Mutual Broadcasting
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com
Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
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The reading material used in today’s episode was: • This is Orson Welles — by Peter Bogdanovich with Orson Welles • Citizen Welles — by Frank Brady • On the Air — By John Dunning • The Shadow: History and Mystery of the Radio Program — By Martin Grams Jr. • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg • Discovering Orson Welles — by Jonathan Rosenbaum • WOR: The First Sixty Years
As well as articles from • Billboard • The New York Times • Variety
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On the interview front:
• Agnes Moorhead spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear the full chat at SpeakingOfRadio.com.
• Rosa Rio and William N. Robson spoke with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these full chats at Goldenage-WTIC.org
• Jeanette Nolan spoke with SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com.
• Agnes Moorehead and Orson Welles spoke with Dick Cavett.
• Orson Welles also spoke with Peter Bogdanovich, Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin, and Dinah Shore.
• Jack Poppele spoke with Westinghouse.
• And Walter B. Gibson, Rosa Rio, Ken Roberts, and Sidney Sloan spoke for the 1984 documentary, The Story of the Shadow
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Teenage Brain Surgeon — By Spike Jones and His Orchestra
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A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.
For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.
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Thank you to:
Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva John Williams
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WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers
In the fall of 1938 as Orson Welles was launching The Mercury Theater of The Air, radio character actor Bill Johnstone became The Shadow. Johnstone held the role until March 21st, 1943, when Brett Morison took over. Morison had the title role for most of the rest of the radio run. The Shadow would air until December 26th, 1954.
We’re going to stop here. I’ve covered Welles from his birth through Pearl Harbor in episode 79 and from there to the early 1950s in episode 104.
While we’re wrapping up our coverage of The Shadow, we’re staying with The Mutual Broadcasting System in October and getting into the Halloween spirit. Next time on Breaking Walls, we’ll spend Halloween with Mutual Broadcasting mystery shows of the 1940s.
In late June 1938, Orson Welles was approached by CBS. He was offered a one-hour, network sustained time slot on Mondays at 9PM.
William Paley’s concept: A Mercury Theater of the air for a nine-week trial run. Unlike Welles and Houseman’s theater productions which had several weeks of rehearsal, the show would begin in just two, on July 11th.
Houseman was nervous. He’d never done radio. Welles would direct, narrate, and star. The Mercury theater troupe would support. Bernard Hermann would be musical director and Davidson Taylor supervisor.
Welles called the show First Person Singular. A take on Bram Stoker's Dracula was selected for the first episode. Welles and Houseman had total creative control. The premiere set the tone.
Over the next nine weeks, listeners heard adaptations of classics like Treasure Island, A Tale of Two Cities, The 39 Steps, The Man Who Was Thursday, The Affairs of Anatole, and The Count of Monte Cristo, for which, Welles simulated the sound of a dungeon by having the actors play their scene from the floor of the CBS restroom. He placed two dynamic microphones against the bases of the toilet seat in order to achieve realistic subterranean reverberations.
After September 5th, 1938, CBS renewed the series under a new name: The Mercury Theater of The Air, moving it to Sundays at 8PM, opposite NBC’s highest-rated show: Edgar Bergen’s Chase and Sanborn Hour.
It set the stage for a series of events which would forever alter the course of Orson Welles’ life.
The success of The Shadow was shared by Blue Coal. Billboard reported that twelve months after the premiere their sales were up nearly eleven percent. Blue Coal was selling for as much as two dollars per ton more than their competitors.
In February of 1938 Orson Welles opined that “radio’s future big-wigs will be college graduates.” By then more than ninety colleges offered courses in radio speech, while radio writing was taught at fifty-seven colleges, and fifty-three colleges were teaching radio acting. Both radio music and radio law were also becoming class offerings.
The last episode of The Shadow’s autumn run aired on March 20th, 1938. Although everyone knew who played Lamont, for the first time on air, Orson Welles was given credit for his role. Welles was contracted to produce twenty-six more episodes for a syndicated summer run. They co-starred Margot Stevenson as Margot Lane. Ironically, the character was named for Miss Stevenson who was originally supposed to play the role that fall.
Goodrich Tires would sponsor the summer run, with Blue Coal immediately signing on for another season in the fall. Agnes Moorehead would again play Margot, but Welles would be leaving for CBS that summer and taking the Mercury Theater troupe with him. Welles was contracted to produce twenty-six more episodes for a syndicated summer run. They co-starred Margot Stevenson as Margot Lane. Ironically, the character was named for Miss Stevenson who was originally supposed to play the role that fall.
Goodrich Tires would sponsor the summer run, with Blue Coal immediately signing on for another season in the fall. Agnes Moorehead would again play Margot, but Welles would be leaving for CBS that summer and taking the Mercury Theater troupe with him.
Orson Welles opened in Julius Caesar on November 11th, 1937. He also made time to perform in guest appearances elsewhere on radio with Tallulah Bankhead and Cedric Hardwicke.
Thursday, November 25th, 1937 was Thanksgiving Day. The New York Daily News headline spoke of Consolidated Edison finally getting on board with F.D.R.’s new deal program.
November 28th’s episode of The Shadow was called “The Circle of Death.” It’s a story about a mad man who plants bombs across the city, creating a reign of terror in his wake.
On Halloween 1937, Benito Mussolini removed Italy’s foreign minister to France due to strained relations between the two countries over Italy's participation in the Spanish Civil War. Adolph Hitler gave the Order of the German Eagle to the Japanese emperor’s son, while Chinese forces abandoned its defense of the Sihang Warehouse.
Sunday was Halloween and at 5:30PM eastern, The Shadow took to the air over Mutual with a story called “The Three Ghosts.”
The September 29th, 1937 issue of Variety said “that melodramatic and at times astonishing crime fighter, “The Shadow,” returns to the ether to probably find a rather sizable slice of listeners waiting for him. In this series the sponsor will benefit from having a program aimed right at the vulnerability of the audience it seeks. Orson Welles, a young and good actor still riding a crest of recognition won with the Federal Theatre Project, does the title role.
“The Shadow is a bit fantastic, but as with these things, the stunt stands muster with the show’s listeners and appreciably colors the proceedings. Well done, both as to script, acting, and producing.”
Both Billboard and Radio Daily also gave the program positive reviews. A blizzard of mail came into WOR. Shadow fan clubs sprang up across the country. Welles would occasionally appear at promotions donning a black cape, hat, and mask.
Oddly enough, because Welles was constantly rushing from one part of New York to the other, Frank Readick, who’d previously voiced the Shadow as narrator, was kept on to record the show’s opening signature, giving Welles a few more minutes to get into the studio.
On the October 24th, 1937 episode of The Shadow called “The Temple Bells of Neban,” Lamont meets an Indian woman and drug smuggler named Sadi Bel-Adda. She knows The Shadow’s true identity. She’s the niece of the man who trained Lamont, and capable of using the same powers. This cast featured Ray Collins as Commissioner Weston with Carl Frank as Jerry Gleason and Everett Sloane playing bit parts. Jeanette Nolan, then just twenty-five, played Sadi Bel-Adda. Rosa Rio was the program’s organist.
In the fall of 1937, Orson Welles was busy readying for a Mercury Theater broadway production of Julius Caesar. The agency Ruthrauff and Ryan approached Welles about the possibility of starring in a weekly radio series. His signing was announced in The New York Times on August 29th, 1937. Welles’ contract allowed him to miss rehearsals and readings. He was paid seventy-five dollars per week, or roughly fifteen hundred today, for one-half hour of weekly work.
On Sunday September 26th, at 5:30PM the new version of The Shadow debuted. The program's announcer was Ken Roberts. Opposite Welles as Margot Lane was Agnes Moorhead, along with many of the Mercury Theater players.
The Shadow was Lamont Cranston, a wealthy man about town. He had the ability to cloak himself with invisibility and to read minds. They were tools of Mesmer, learned through years of study in the orient and India.
Walter Gibson’s involvement in the radio series was minimal. Clark Andrews directed the first few broadcasts with Martin Gabel becoming the de facto director thereafter.
The voice at the top of this clip is that of former WOR chief engineer Jack Poppele. The station went online on February 22nd, 1922.
In 1934, WOR became one of the flagship stations of the Mutual Broadcasting System. The next March, Poppele was chiefly responsible for the creation of radio’s first directional antenna just as WOR increased its power to fifty-thousand watts.
In December of 1936, Don Lee’s west coast chain of networks joined Mutual, giving it coast-to-coast access. But in the fall of 1937 The Mutual Broadcasting System had no top-fifty rated shows.
Seventy-four percent of the U.S. population now had a radio set. Sunday evening’s most-heard shows belonged to Edgar Bergen, who pulled a 32.1, and Jack Benny, who pulled a 29.5. Both ran on NBC Red. Overall NBC’s Red Network had twenty-six of the nation’s top fifty shows, while CBS had nineteen, and NBC’s Blue Network had five.
WOR’s Sunday afternoon programming had concerts, sports, and news bulletins. Their schedule was ripe for a new melodrama.
By late spring in 1937, the Federal Theater Project was under intense scrutiny for staging what some felt were too many left-leaning labor plays. In Washington, there were rumors funds would be cut.
At the same time, Welles and John Houseman were rehearsing a production of The Cradle Will Rock. The play took place in "Steeltown, USA.” It followed the efforts of Larry Foreman to unionize the town's workers. This was to combat the wicked Mister Mister, who controls Steeltown’s factory, press, church, and social organizations.
Less than three weeks before the play was to open on June 23rd, The WPA shut down the project. Welles went to Washington to argue his case. He failed. Next, he threatened to open the play himself. The government’s response was severe.
A dozen uniformed guards took over the building. They stood at the front entrance, the box office, and in the alley outside the dressing rooms to ensure no government property was touched. But, John Houseman discovered an out. As U.S. citizens, the actors were free to enter as audience members and rise from their seats to speak their lines, so long as they weren’t on stage. The Cradle Will Rock played in the aisles. The next day everyone was fired, but it was front-page news.
That summer NBC featured a series of Shakespeare dramas with John Barrymore, while CBS aired Shakespeare adaptations featuring Humphrey Bogart and Leslie Howard. To battle for listeners, Mutual scheduled a seven-week take on Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, hiring Orson Welles to write, direct, and star in the production.
Les Misérables debted on Friday, July 23rd, 1937 at 10PM, over WOR in New York. The production also marked the radio debut of the Mercury Theatre troupe. Martin Gabel was Javert. Alice Frost, Fantine. Virginia Nicolson, the adult Cosette, and it also featured soon-to-be radio mainstays like Ray Collins, Everett Sloane, Betty Garde, Hiram Sherman, Frank Readick, Richard Widmark, and Welles’ good friend, Agnes Moorehead.
From July 23rd through September 3rd, Les Misérables captured public interest. In a press release, Welles referred to the broadcast as a “projection” of what radio could dramatically evolve into. The series had begun solely on the east coast, but audience reaction induced Mutual’s officials to give it full coast-to-coast coverage. It cemented Welles as someone who could write, produce, direct, and act for radio.
In 1930 publisher Street and Smith decided to try radio with hopes of boosting pulp sales. Each week a drama would be adapted from an upcoming issue of Detective Story Magazine.
They added a mysterious host, called The Shadow, and left the link to the magazine somewhat tenuous. The show premiered over CBS on July 31st, 1930.
Ken Roberts soon became the announcer. It wasn’t long before people were asking for a Shadow magazine. Walter Gibson became its chief writer. Meanwhile, on the air, the host became Frank Readick.
In the fall of 1931 Detective Story Hour became The Blue Coal Radio Review. The Shadow character proved so popular, beginning on Thursday October 1st, 1931 at 9:30PM, he also narrated Street and Smith’s Love Story Hour.
In January 1932, the first program using The Shadow as its title debuted on CBS. That fall it shifted to NBC, and then back to CBS in 1934. The success led to copycats. People kept asking for The Shadow to appear in the dramatic portions of the broadcasts. By then Gibson was writing pulp stories which featured the Shadow as the crime fighting hero. The series disappeared from CBS airwaves on March 27th, 1935. It wouldn’t reappear until the fall of 1937.
In the spring of 1935, nineteen year-old Orson Welles was living in New York, appearing on stage in Katharine Cornell’s stock company and workin on CBS’ American School of the Air and The March of Time.
The next year, Welles was on the debut episode of CBS’s Columbia Workshop. The program’s creator Irving Reiss recognized Orson’s talent, while Welles studied the creative risks The Workshop took. He began to assemble his Mercury Theater troupe just as FDR launched the Federal Theater Project.
John Houseman invited Welles to be part of an African-American theater unit in Harlem. Their first co-production was an adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth. Welles changed the setting to a mythical island. Voodoo took the place of Scottish witchcraft. The play opened on April 14th, 1936, at the Lafayette Theater in Harlem. It received incredible reviews.
By that autumn, Welles was traveling between Chicago and New York, appearing on Mutual Broadcasting’s Wonder Show, and on The Columbia Workshop.
On Sunday April 11th, 1937 The Workshop broadcast a verse-play written especially for radio by Archibald MacLeish. It was called The Fall of the City.
It was an allegory on the rise of fascism. The broadcast took place at the massive Seventh regiment armory on 67th street and Park avenue in New York. Reiss used over one-hundred fifty extras, and entrusted Welles to be the narrator. To get proper sonic differentiation, they built radio’s first narration booth.
The Fall of The City was selected by The New York Times as one of the outstanding broadcasts of 1937. Time magazine noted that it proved to listeners radio was science's gift to poetry and poetic drama.
The Fall of the City made Orson Welles a star. Mutual Broadcasting was about to give him the opportunity of a lifetime.
Have you been enjoying Breaking Walls? If so, give the show a quick rating on whatever platform you listen, especially iTunes.
In Breaking Walls episode 130 we head to the summer of 1947 to get to the bottom of NBC’s Philip Marlowe caper.
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Highlights:
• Who was Raymond Chandler?
• Who is Philip Marlowe?
• Van Heflin, Movie Star
• Radio Ratings in the Spring of 1947
• Marlowe Launches with Red Wind
• Initial Reviews
• The King in Yellow
• The Celebrated Life and Tragic Death of Jeff Chandler
• Marlowe Leaves NBC, but CBS Picks It Up
• Marlowe After CBS
• Looking Ahead to Orson Welles and The Shadow
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The WallBreakers:
http://thewallbreakers.com
Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show:
http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
——————————
The reading material used in today’s episode was:
• The Simple Art of Murder — By Raymond Chandler
• Trouble Is My Business — By Raymond Chandler
• The World of Raymond Chandler — By Raymond Chandler
• On the Air — By John Dunning
• The Life of Raymond Chandler — By Frank MacShane
• Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg
• The Adventures of Philip Marlowe Program Guide — By Tom Nolan
As well as articles from:
• Billboard Magazine
• Broadcasting Magazine
• And Sponsor Magazine
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On the interview front:
• Eve Arden, Wendell Niles, Lurene Tuttle, and Willard Waterman spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.
• Parley Baer, Mary Jane Croft, and Harry Bartell spoke to SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com.
• Eve Arden also spoke with John Dunning for his 71KNUS program from Denver.
• Lurene Tuttle also spoke with Frank Bresee for Same Time, Same Station.
• William Conrad spoke with Chris Lambesis
• Norman Macdonnell with John Hickman
• Bob Hope with Johnny Carson
• Raymond Chandler spoke to Ian Flemming
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was:
• Cool — By Martin Denny
• Perfida — By Jimmy Dorsey and his Orchestra
• Living Without You — By George Winston
• Danse Macabre — By Camille Saint-Saens
• Loch Lomond (arranged for Choir) — By Musica Intima
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A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.
For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.
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Thank you to:
Tony Adams
Steven Allmon
Orson Orsen Chandler
Phil Erickson
Jessica Hanna
Perri Harper
Briana Isaac
Thomas M. Joyce
Ryan Kramer
Earl Millard
Gary Mollica
Barry Nadler
Christian Neuhaus
Aimee Pavy
Ray Shaw
Filipe A Silva
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WallBreakers Links:
Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers
Social Media - @TheWallBreakers
Well, that brings our episode on The Adventures of Philip Marlowe to a close. We’re not leaving the genre though, just going back ten years in time to 1937.
Next time on Breaking Walls we spotlight Orson Welles’ one season as star of The Shadow and find out how the legendary radio show came to air.
Raymond Chandler wrote three more Philip Marlowe novels: The Little Sister in 1949, The Long Goodbye in 1953, and Playback in 1958. He became a dual citizen of the U.S. and Great Britain.
His wife, Cissy died in 1954. In 1955, he attempted suicide. Heartbroken and drunk, Chandler neglected to inter her cremated remains. They sat for fifty-seven years in a storage locker at Cypress View Mausoleum.
Chandler was in the midst of a new Marlowe novel, Poodle Springs, when he passed away on March 26th, 1959. Robert B. Parker finished the novel thirty years later. Chandler is buried at Mount Hope Cemetery, in San Diego, California. Later that year ABC brought Marlowe to TV for the first time in a series starring Philip Carey. It lasted five months.
James Garner starred as Marlowe in a 1969 film, while Elliott Gould played Marlowe in the cult classic Long Goodbye from 1973, and a middle-aged Robert Mitchum starred in the 1975 Farewell, My Lovely and the 1978 Big Sleep.
Between September of 1977 and January of 1978 BBC dramatized The Big Sleep, The High Window, The Lady in the Lake, The Little Sister, and The Long Goodbye. Ed Bishop starred as Marlowe. Ten years later, BBC did a version of Farewell, My Lovely. The shows were later heard in Los Angeles over NPR’s affiliate KCRW-FM. BBC was back at it again with new adaptations of Chandler’s novels starring Toby Stephens in 2011.
Meanwhile HBO produced two series of Marlowe TV episodes in the mid-1980s starring Powers Boothe, and both Danny Glover and James Caan have played Marlowe in made-for-TV films in the years since.
It has recently been announced that Liam Neeson will star in a new Marlowe film in 2023.
In September, Bob Hope reclaimed his Tuesday night time slot and NBC’s Philip Marlowe radio adventures were over.
1947 was a good year for Van Heflin. Green Dolphin Street hit theaters in November. It co-starred Lana Turner and was that year’s biggest MGM hit. On Thanksgiving he guest-starred on an episode of Radio Reader’s Digest called “Why Keep Your Heart In Cold Storage?” It was well-received, but MGM would no longer allow Heflin to play Marlowe. He continued to appear on radio into the 1950s.
A new Hollywood agent, Ray Stark, went to work for Chandler in 1948, and in September, a revived Philip Marlowe series began a two-year run on CBS, this time starring Gerald Mohr.
Mohr played King Leopardi in the summer series’ version of “The King in Yellow.” He’d done movie work, but his face was unknown to most radio listeners. Chandler preferred his voice, which he thought packed more punch. Norman Macdonnell was in charge of the production.
Chandler made a list of suggestions for the show’s writers: Don’t always let Marlowe have the last word. Don’t make him utter knee-jerk wisecracks. Don’t let him gloat. For the most part, Mohr’s Marlowe always got the last word, added quick-one liners, and gloated.
CBS paid Chandler two-hundred fifty dollars per week, roughly 3K today. That amount was raised to four-hundred if the series found a sponsor, which it briefly did, with both Wrigley’s Spearmint Gum and Ford.
On CBS Marlowe took up the commercial slack with product-placement. Cars were Nash’s. Gas Stations pumped Mobile. Phil reached for Johnny Walker and Lifesavers candy. As he drove around L.A. he found a handy way to keep track of addresses: Their proximity to an Arthur Murray Dance Studio. Even Chandler got a plug In “The Hairpin Turn.”
On April 11th, 1950, William Conrad subbed for Gerald Mohr. Sometime around 1950, head of CBS William Paley said the network should develop a “Philip Marlowe in the Old West” – a no-nonsense, tough-as-nails frontier saga unlike any cowboy show ever heard. The show would be called Gunsmoke and debut in 1952 starring William Conrad. It was directed by Norman Macdonnell and generally considered the best radio Western of all time.
The Adventures of Philip Marlowe was canceled in September of 1950, but revived the following July for a summer run. The final CBS Philip Marlowe Adventure was on September 15th, 1951.
The August 8th episode of Philip Marlowe was called “Robin and The Hood.” Jeff Chandler guest-starred playing a dual role.
Born Ira Grossel in Brooklyn, New York on December 15th, 1918, he acted in high school with classmate Susan Hayward. Chandler went to the Feagin School of Dramatic Art and had a stint with a theater troupe. He served in the Pacific, finishing World War II as a Lieutenant.
After being discharged in December of 1945, he moved to Los Angeles. By August of 1947 he was all over radio as one of hollywood's reliable character men. That autumn he was cast as the lead in The New Adventures of Michael Shayne, a syndicated program produced by Bill Rousseau and Don W. Sharpe.
In July of 1948, Chandler was cast opposite Eve Arden in Our Miss Brooks. But on August 8th, 1947, he was featured on The Adventures of Philip Marlowe.
In 1949 Chandler was cast as Israeli leader “Kurta” in the film, Sword in the Desert. He impressed studio executives so much with his work that shortly into filming, Universal signed him to a seven-year contract. The next year, 20th Century Fox borrowed Chandler for the role of Cochise in Broken Arrow. He starred alongside James Stewart.
The performance earned him an Academy Award nomination and established him as an A-list star. Radio suddenly was less of a possibility due to time constraints, but if Chandler was leaving radio, it was against his will. In May of 1951 Chandler told the Chicago Tribune that he didn’t find film acting nearly as gratifying as radio. He wanted to eventually branch off into writing and directing. When Our Miss Brooks moved into TV in 1952, he wasn’t allowed to make the transition with the rest of the cast. Chandler would spend the rest of the decade making films.
On April 15th, 1961, Jeff Chandler was in the Philippines while working on Merrill’s Marauders. While playing a pickup game of basketball with some soldiers he severely injured his back. He was given injections to deaden the pain so he could finish the film. On May 13th, he entered a Culver City hospital to have surgery for a spinal disc herniation. An artery was damaged during surgery and Chandler hemorrhaged.
Four days later, in a seven-and-a-half-hour emergency operation, he was given fifty-five pints of blood. A third operation followed, on May 27th. An infection followed, complicated by pneumonia he caught at the hospital in his weakened state. Jeff Chandler never recovered. He died on June 17th, 1961. He was forty-two.
More than fifteen hundred people attended his funeral. Pallbearers included Tony Curtis and Gerald Mohr. For more information on Jeff Chandler, tune into Breaking Walls episode 90, or episode 106.
On July 8th, 1947, NBC broadcast an adaptation of “The King In Yellow,” originally published in Dime Detective Magazine in March of 1938. It’s a seedy saga of a hot trumpet player whose boorish behavior gets him killed.
Among those featured in this episode were Gerald Mohr, Gloria Blondell, Bill Johnstone, Willard Waterman, and Howard McNear. By the late 1940s many of Chicago’s radio stars had migrated to Hollywood, working on shows across all four networks.
By the end of July, Marlowe’s 8.0 rating was seventh overall, and the show’s production cost just one dollar per the number of urban listeners.
The June 17th, 1947 edition of Billboard Magazine reviewed the first Marlowe episode. It was noted that similar shows were expected to pull a rating of 7.5. The magazine stated that “Milton Geiger's adaptation adhered to Red Wind's language almost to the letter, and captured most of the colorful, almost poetic flavor.
“On the debit side was the enormity of the job of breaking down Chandler's complex plotting within the thirty minute limit. The program galloped through the first fifteen minutes as the action unfolded.
“The Second half pace slowed down to a crawl, however, as everyone desperately strove to clarify the proceedings. Repeated conjecture and explanation of the cast's intricate relationships unfortunately had confusion rampant by the end.”
The reviewer was quick to point out that “Even films, found that ninety minutes was hardly enough to cram in all of Chandler’s ideas. Perhaps the shorter stories will prove more suited for air. Their flair for mood and language certainly is hard to surpass.
“The commercials were harsh and repetitive, stressing that Pepsodent is "preferred three to one" by American families. Foote, Cone & Belding seems to be trying its Lucky Strike technique on the dentifrice. It's a three to one bet that the incessant "three to one" chatter becomes as notorious as LS/MFT.”
On the lead Billboard stated: “Heflin's emoting in the role of the tough guy with a heart was effective, with excellent character projection. Lurene Tuttle, as the woman in the case, put on her usual good performance. Producer James Fonda struggled valiantly to keep the pacing level, but was handcuffed by the urgency of the story.
The script contained an inside joke. The name of Lola’s dead lover was changed to Johnny Dalmas, the name of the original detective in Chandler’s “Red Wind” before the story became Marlowe’s.
Chandler thought it was flat. Van Heflin was too recognizable. He didn’t like picturing Heflin’s face emoting Marlowe’s lines. Erle Stanley Gardner told Chandler the show’s plot and narration moved too fast to be understood.
There was a bigger argument at stake within the industry: Were summer replacements a worthwhile investment? Sponsor Magazine claimed that it cost advertisers money to take a thirteen-week hiatus. It was money lost in the form of lower summertime ratings. But, You couldn’t just blame it on Summer replacements though. For example, Bob Hope’s 1946-47 rating was 27.6, but his combined rating for June and September 1947 was 14.4. People spent more time outdoors in warm months. It didn’t matter what was on the air. Plus, there was still no way to effectively measure car radio ratings. Given that Hope’s show cost twenty-one thousand weekly dollars to produce, while Marlowe cost just four thousand, Pepsodent was getting a bargain. By the end of summer, Marlowe was the highest-rated summer replacement series on the air.
The Adventures of Philip Marlowe debuted on NBC with “Red Wind” on June 17th, 1947. The 1938 short story is set on one of those evenings when the hot, dry Santa Ana wind gusts through Los Angeles, turning the mood sour.
The program aired live at 10PM on the east coast, with a second broadcast done at 9PM for the west. The script was adapted by Milton Geiger. Jim Fonda directed. Wendell Niles announced. Harry Bartell played the bartender. Lurene Tuttle was Lola Barsley. The episode also featured Elliot Reid, Bill Johnstone, and William Conrad.
By the summer of 1947, Lurene Tuttle was well-known for co-starring on The Adventures of Sam Spade. It was a decidedly different character.
By the middle of 1947, nearly eleven million babies had been born in the U.S. since the end of World War II. Young parents were staying home with their children. Homes with radios jumped six percent, car radios twenty-nine percent. Over the next year, radio would have its largest audience in history. The four major networks added one-hundred forty-seven affiliates. Network revenue topped two-hundred million dollars.
NBC had the top seven shows. The Bob Hope Show closed the 1946-47 season as radio’s highest-rated program. The comedian pulled a rating of 27.6. Network fed programs generally had thirteen, twenty-six, thirty-nine, or fifty-two weeks contracts. Hope’s NBC contract ran for thirty-nine.
Pepsodent would sponsor the new Philip Marlowe series in Hope’s time slot. Hope’s show cost twenty-one thousand dollars each week to produce. Marlowe would cost four-thousand. Heflin guest-starred on Hope’s June 3rd program to help promote the series. The Adventures of Philip Marlowe would begin the first week of June.
For more information on the state of the world in 1947, tune into Breaking Walls episodes 97, 98, and 99.
On August 26th, 1975 Chuck Schaden sat down with radio legend Lurene Tuttle (seen in the image with Marilyn Monroe) for a conversation about her life and career (full interview here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/tuttle-lurene-actress/). During the course of the chat, Ms. Tuttle spoke of early radio and her first radio role.
Van Heflin was born on December 13th, 1908 in Walters, Oklahoma. The son of a dentist, he began his acting career on Broadway in the late 1920s. Between 1928 and 1936 he appeared in. Mr. Moneypenny, The Bride of Torozko, The Night Remembers, Mid-West, and End of Summer.
That year Heflin signed with RKO and made his film debut opposite Katherine Hepburn in A Woman Rebels. He spent the next five years playing character parts. He made his radio debut on The Columbia Workshop in 1938.
Heflin signed with MGM as the U.S. was getting into World War II. In 1942 his role as Jeff Hartnett in Johnny Eager won him a best-supporting actor academy award. He got top billing in two B-Films, Kid Glove Killer and Grand Central Murder. Both were popular.
Encouraged, MGM cast him as Kathryn Grayson's love interest in a musical, Seven Sweethearts. He soon played Judy Garland's love interest in Presenting Lily Mars, before enlisting in the US army airforce as a combat cameraman.
He made a radio appearance too, in Arch Oboler’s Parade over Mutual on August 2nd, 1945. This was less than two weeks before the end of the war.
After the war, MGM loaned him to Hal Wallis to appear opposite Barbara Stanwyck in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, and to Warner Bros to co-star with Joan Crawford in Possessed. It was a hit and more radio followed.
On January 30th, 1947 Heflin guest-starred on this episode of Suspense. A month later he guest-starred on Family Theater, and in May, he was featured on Lux Radio’s “Vacation From Marriage.” Three weeks later, Heflin would begin playing Philip Marlowe.
On the July 5th, 1950 episode of The Adventures of Philip Marlowe starring Gerald Mohr, Donna Rollins has hired Marlowe by special delivery letter. The letter includes $50. He's to find out where Arnold Latimore went. When Marlowe is unable to locate Latimore he goes to Donna Rollins to return her $50. Marlowe is alarmed and put off when Ms. Reed is now unconcerned about Latimore, but nervous about something else.
Philip Marlowe, born in Santa Rosa, California, is six feet tall and weighs one-hundred ninety pounds. He has dark wavy hair. In Chandler’s first Marlowe novel, The Big Sleep, set in 1936, he’s thirty-three. Marlowe had two years of college and was an investigator for the LA District Attorney. He was fired for insubordination.
His office is in the Cahuenga Building on Hollywood Boulevard near Ivar. James Bond author Ian Fleming once asked Raymond Chandler why he set the Marlowe stories in Los Angeles. Through Marlowe’s eyes, L.A. comes to life. He frequents everything from the nightclubs of West Hollywood to the seedy downtown hotels, from the Pasadena mansions to the Santa Monica gambling ships, from the Hollywood glamor factories to the rundown bus depots.
He drinks whiskey, usually Four Roses or Old Forester, and sometimes drinks Gin. His preferred coffee is black and his cigarette brand is Camel. At home, he smokes a pipe, especially while playing chess by himself. It was said that Chandler wrote like “a slumming angel invested in the sun-blinded streets of LA with a romantic presence.”
The second Marlowe novel, Farewell, My Lovely, was published in 1940. This was followed by The High Window in 1942 and The Lady In The Lake in 1943. The first official Marlowe film was Murder My Sweet with Dick Powell in 1944. Powell played the adaptation of Farewell, My Lovely on the June 11th, 1945 episode of The Lux Radio Theatre.
Humphrey Bogart starred in the 1946 adaptation of The Big Sleep heard opposite Lauren Bacall at the beginning of this act. That same year Chandler and his wife bought a home in La Jolla.
In early 1947 two new Marlowe films came to theaters. The Lady In The Lake starring Robert Montgomery was released in January. Montgomery reprised his role on the February 9th, 1948 episode of Lux. Then in February, an adaptation of The High Window called The Brasher Doubloon came to theaters starring the unrelated George Montgomery.
Marlowe was a hot commodity. On March 22nd, it was announced that NBC would be bringing a summer series to the air. Tuesday nights were NBC’s highest-rated evening, and although summer ratings were always the year’s lowest, NBC executives had high-hopes that Marlowe would be a perfect fit Tuesday nights at 10PM eastern, 9PM pacific.
The ad agency Foote, Cone, and Belding made a deal with MGM. They tabbed rising leading man Van Heflin to play Marlowe.
La Jolla, California. 1947. We’re at 6005 Camino de la Costa at the home of Raymond Chandler. It’s been three years since the fifty-nine year-old wrote a full length novel. Instead he’s worked on two screen plays. Chandler co-adapted Double Indemnity with Billy Wilder, and penned The Blue Dahlia. Both earned him Academy Award nominations.
Looking for more income, his agent has negotiated a deal for Chandler to help bring a thirteen-week summer series to NBC. It’ll sub for Bob Hope on Tuesday nights.
The main character? Chandler’s detective Philip Marlowe. To date Marlowe had been the focal point of four novels and four films — including two almost simultaneously released this past winter.
This will, however, be the first time that Philip Marlowe comes to radio’s airwaves in a regular show. Tonight, we’ll go back in time and spotlight that summer’s highest-rated replacement series The Adventures of Philip Marlowe, starring Van Heflin.
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Raymond Chandler was born on July 23rd, 1888 in Chicago, Illinois. He spent his early years in Nebraska until his father, an alcoholic railway civil engineer, abandoned the family. In 1900 his Irish mother Florence moved with Raymond to England.
Chandler went to Dulwich College in London. In 1907 he became a naturalized British subject and took a job as an Admiral, but resigned. He grabbed a reporter position at the Daily Express and later the Westminster Gazette. Unhappy in England, Chandler wanted to be a writer, so he returned to America in 1912. He settled in San Francisco, where he took a correspondence course in bookkeeping. His mother joined him there soon after.
They moved to Los Angeles in 1913, where he strung tennis rackets, picked fruit, and found steady employment with the Los Angeles Creamery. But then, The U.S. and Canada finally joined World War I.
In 1917 Chandler enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. He saw combat in the trenches in France and was twice hospitalized with Spanish flu. He was in flight training with the Royal Air Force when the war ended.
He returned to Los Angeles and began a love affair with Cissy Pascal, a married woman eighteen years his senior. She amicably divorced her husband in 1920, but Chandler's mother disapproved of the relationship and refused to sanction the marriage. For the next four years Chandler supported both. His mother passed away in 1923. Raymond married Cissy on February 6th, 1924.
Having begun in 1922 as a bookkeeper and auditor, by 1931 he was a highly paid VP at the Dabney Oil Syndicate. But he suffered frequent mental health breakdowns. He drank too much, skipped work, was promiscuous with female employees, and he publicly threatened suicide. Chandler was fired in 1932.
Detective and suspense shows had been on radio since the medium’s inception. They were often similar to dime store novels. Sherlock Holmes began in 1930.
Chandler taught himself to write pulp-style fiction by analyzing a novelette by Erle Stanley Gardner. His first story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in Black Mask Magazine in 1933. His lead character was called “Mallory.” It took him five months to finish the story. Erle Stanley Gardner wrote entire stories in three or four days.
He later said, “Wandering up and down the Pacific Coast in an automobile, I began to read pulp magazines. This was in the great days of Black Mask. It struck me that some of the writing was pretty forceful and honest, even though it had a crude aspect. I decided that this might be a good way to try to learn to write fiction and get paid a small amount of money at the same time. I spent five months on an eighteen-thousand word novelette and sold it for one-hundred-eighty dollars. After that I never looked back, although I had many uneasy periods looking forward.”
In Breaking Walls episode 129 we honor the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Roswell incident by focusing on Radio and the mid-century flying saucer craze.
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Highlights: • World War II, Kenneth Arnold, Roswell, and “Project Saucer” • The Chicago Roundtable Attempts to Answer What Life on Other Planets Would Look Like • Sightings in The Spring of 1950 — Dimension X Launches • The 1950 Radio Landscape with Red Skelton • Fibber McGee Sees a UFO • Harris And Remley’s UFO Hoax • Edward R. Murrow’s Report on Flying Saucers • Dangerous Assignment’s UFOs in Ecuador • UFO Sightings during the Korean War • You Bet Your Life’s UFO Enthusiast • KNX, Ralph Story, And UFO Mania • Roy Rogers Takes Us Home • Conclusions? Closing Credits and a New Mystery
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
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The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On the Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — by Jim Ramsburg
As well as articles from: • Broadcasting Magazine • LIFE Magazine • Radio Daily
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On the interview front: • Alice Faye, Jim Jordan, Elliott Lewis, and Lurene Tuttle spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.
• John Gibson, Jim Jordan, and Arnold Moss spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these full interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org.
• Jim Jordan also spoke with John Dunning for his 71KNUS program from Denver
• Lilian Buyeff and Sam Edwards spoke to SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com.
• Elliott Reid spoke with Frank Bresee
• Red Skelton spoke with Dini Petty
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • I Put a Spell on You — By Screaming Jay Hawkins • Pyramid of the Sun — By Les Baxter • What A Fool I Was — By Percy Mayfield • Happy Trails To You — By Dale Evans and Roy Rogers • Someone To Watch Over Me — By Blossom Dearie
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A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.
For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.
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Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva
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WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers
By 1955 radio’s days as America’s chief entertainment medium were over. However, while radio drama was dying out, UFO sightings were becoming more prevalent. Some were so outlandish they were hard to believe. Others were chillingly real.
For example: On September 19th, 1961 Betty and Barney Hill had a widely known abduction experience. The Hills saw a huge flying disc while driving home one night on Route 3 in New Hampshire. They later awoke back in their car with missing time, something common for abductees.
Hypnosis later revealed they were abducted and medically examined by small extraterrestrials. What added to the Hills’ credibility was the fact that both were afraid to tell their story. They were an interracial couple, and concerned it would hurt their credibility as they were active in the Civil Rights movement. Their experience was most certainly not for publicity.
In recent years, Unidentified Aerial Phenomena has been verified by various world governments, and the public’s fascination with the mystery remains. Well, it’s a good thing that the subject of our next Breaking Walls episode knows how to get to the bottom of a hard-boiled mystery.
Next time on Breaking Walls we head back to the Summer of 1947 as for the first time in a major series, Raymond Chandler’s famous detective Philip Marlowe signs on the air.
Roy Rogers was born on November 5th, 1911 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He spent much of the early 1930s performing with groups like Uncle Tom Murray’s Hollywood Hillbillies, The Texas Outlaws, and The Rocky Mountaineers.
In mid-decade he joined up with Bob Nolan to form the Sons of the Pioneers. By 1935, they were appearing in bit parts for Republic Pictures. Two years later Republic’s top cowboy, Gene Autry, quit in a dispute, and Rogers became a star.
He bought a palomino colt, named it Trigger, and taught it tricks that were guaranteed crowd- pleasers. Rogers was soon nip-and-tuck with Autry at the box office.
In the mid-1940s he was among the top ten money-makers in the entire industry. He came to radio in 1944 over Mutual. His second wife, Arline, died in 1946. He married his co-star Dale Evans on New Year’s Eve, 1947.
Hollywood radio’s best loved working with Roy. His radio show moved to NBC in 1951 where he also ventured into TV. In 1953 new sponsor Dodge, asked the show to be more adult-oriented. Writer-director Ralph Rose came up with a mystery format, with Evans’s song usually figuring in the plot.
The January 27th, 1955, episode was called “Faraway Places.” The Roy Rogers Show went off the air on July 21st, 1955. His television series ran until June 9th, 1957.
Ralph Story was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan on August 19th, 1920. He served as a US Army Fighter Pilot during World War II and started a career in broadcasting after the war.
His big break came in 1948 when he was hired to host and direct an early morning show on KNX in Los Angeles. Story's casual style and witty observations about life in LA won him national recognition. He went on to do various shows before going to TV in the 1950s.
This afternoon show, Ralph Story’s Backyard featured Story, sidekicks and musical accompaniment. On July 16th, 1953 his guest was UFO follower George Adamski. (A Damn Ski)
Adamski claimed to have met with friendly Nordic aliens, and to have taken flights with them to the Moon and other planets.
Many of Adamski’s assertions were widely disputed. Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, head of Project Blue Book, the U.S. Government’s Air Force group assigned to investigate UFOs, considered Adamski a talented con artist and likened him to P.T. Barnum.
Have you been enjoying Breaking Walls? If so, give the show a quick rating on whatever platform you listen, especially iTunes.
In October of 1952 You Bet Your Life was in the middle of its sixth season on the air and third over NBC. That month’s rating was 8.8, down significantly from its peak, but still good enough for fifth overall.
The October 15th’s secret word was “water,” and the male member of the middle couple had a very unusual hobby.
In 1955 CBS was relaunching Yours Truly Johnny Dollar as a transcribed, fifteen minute evening strip serial, which was set to air weeknights at 8:15PM eastern, 8:30 pacific.
On August 29th, 1955 Gerald Mohr recorded an audition for the lead. Mohr recently finished a successful run as Christopher Storm on TV’s Foreign Intrigue. The role eventually went to Bob Bailey.
This is Mohr's audition for parts one and two of the "Trans-Pacific Matter"
Like with Germany, Korea was divided into occupation zones after World War II. The Soviets helped establish communism in the North, while the US supported the South. By June of 1950 fighting along the border had been going on for months. However on the weekend of June 24th, bulletins increased and it became clear a major crisis was underway.
After a UN Security Council meeting President Truman‘s motion to send troops was approved. Less than five years after the end of World War II, the U.S. was back at war.
That August the manager of a Montana semi-pro baseball team took color film of two UFOs flying over Great Falls. The next year, several V-Shaped formations were spotted flying over Lubbock, Texas. Witnesses included professors and students from Texas Tech University.Then in the summer of 1952 some of the most famous UFO sightings of the 20th Century occurred.
In July, a series of sightings happened at three separate airports in Washington, D.C. Simultaneously in Norfolk, Virginia, Pan-American pilots saw eight large, glowing red objects.The sightings made front-page headlines around the nation, and led to the formation of a CIA Panel.
Ten days later, two US Air force Colonels saw three unusual aircrafts flying in formation over Carson Sink, Nevada.
And perhaps most sensationally, in Flatwoods, West Virginia on September 12th, six local boys and a woman reported seeing a UFO land and a spade-headed creature near the landing site. It was met with considerable skepticism.
On Saturday July 9th, 1949, Dangerous Assignment debuted on NBC starring Brian Donlevy as Steve Mitchell. Each week Mitchell was sent to a different location to crack into the bed of discontent and rout the perpetrators. Herb Butterfield and Betty Moran co-starred, with Hollywood regulars, like the just-heard Sam Edwards filling out the supporting roles.
The initial Summer run ended on August 20th, but NBC picked the series up in February of 1950. That April Ford Motors signed on for a few broadcasts. April 17th’s episode was called “UFOs in Ecuador.” This episode featured Elliott Reid as Drake.
After Ford, Wheaties sponsored the program for their Big Parade in the summer of 1950, but it was short-lived.
Dangerous Assignment ran in the States until February 13th, 1953, but never achieved widespread fame. A syndicated version was produced the following year in Australia with Lloyd Burrell as Mitchell.
On April 7th, 1950, Edward R. Murrow broadcast the CBS Special “Report on Flying Saucers.” By then, Murrow was long-known for his journalistic integrity and tenacity in chasing down answers.
A turbo jet that could fly up to six-hundred miles per hour didn’t exactly line up with witness accounts. Speed of travel aside, It wasn’t at all what Dr. Craig Hunter had described earlier.
There were clearly conflicting points of view.
On Sunday April 2nd, 1950 at 7:30PM eastern time, The Phil Harris and Alice Faye Show took to the air over NBC. The Harris/Faye show peaked in December of 1948 with a rating of 26, but by this month it was down 8.5. Harris resisted taking the program into TV, as his wife Alice Faye remembered.
Elliott Lewis’ friendship with Phil Harris went all the way back to their days on Jack Benny’s program. On that Sunday, the episode was called “Frankie’s Flying Saucer.”
On Tuesday nights at 9:30PM eastern time in the spring of 1950, Fibber McGee and Molly was NBC’s highest-rated show. They’d stuck with NBC while stars like Jack Benny, Edgar Bergen, George Burns, and Gracie Allen jumped to CBS. Their 17.7 was fourth overall, but their rating fell by almost six points from the year prior.
Opposite on TV, NBC aired The Life of Riley, while CBS aired Suspense. The days of NBC’s Tuesday night comedy schedule being appointment radio were over.
On March 28th, Fibber McGee saw a UFO.
In the spring of 1950, network radio revenue was falling for the first time since 1933. There were now over twenty-six-hundred AM and FM stations vying for advertising dollars. The US also spent the first ten months of 1949 in a recession while TV was becoming a serious threat to both prime time Network Radio and Hollywood films.
Over a hundred TV stations were on the air, and radio’s top fifty program ratings were down thirty-percent in just two years since the record high of 1947-48. Only The Lux Radio Theater and Jack Benny had ratings higher than twenty. Meanwhile, the TV networks reported a combined income of more than twenty-nine-million dollars.
The world was changing too. The U.S. was on the brink of war with Korea. During the week of March 26th, Wisconsin junior senator Joseph McCarthy named five U.S. State Department employees as potential Communists. The senator’s actions placed him firmly in the crosshairs of Edward R. Murrow. Two-time Republican Presidential nominee Thomas Dewey was relegated to voice of reason. It would be four years before McCarthyism came to an end while Cold War fears continued to escalate.
That Spring, with both science-fiction and UFOs en vogue, multiple shows focused on flying saucers within individual episode plots. On March 26th, 1950 The Red Skelton Show presented “Flying Saucers.” One of the co-stars was famed radio character actress Lurene Tuttle. Skelton was airing over CBS Sunday nights at 8:30PM eastern time. His March rating was 15.6, but his season number was 13.5. It was 14th overall, but down seven points from two years prior.
On March 29th, RCA made their first color television demonstration. Their system would eventually be accepted by the FCC and would become the standard for broadcasting.The next fall Skelton took his show into TV where it would air until 1971.
Until March of 1950, most reported UFO observations were seen from a great distance. On March 16th, a physician and pilot — Dr. Craig Hunter of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia — saw one close up.
That same month, the Mutual Broadcasting System launched a series called 2000 Plus. Considered the first adult science fiction show in radio history, a month later NBC launched their own. Produced from Radio City in New York, It would be called Dimension X, and debut on Saturday April 8th at 8PM.
The man you’re listening to is Arnold Moss. An accomplished New York actor, by 1950 he was all over the radio dial. Moss was also no stranger to playing multiple parts in a single broadcast. On May 6th, 1950 Arnold Moss starred in Dimension X’s “Knock.”
For its time. Dimension X was a wonder. Two and sometimes three sound effects men worked each show. Each show was produced in a huge, two-story studio, giving the crew the ability to obtain tremendous echo effects.
Blended in were futuristic musical scores, composed by Albert Berman and played on the organ. Host-narrator Norman Rose was the perfect voice, combining an authoritative resonance with a touch of dark irony.
Arnold Moss was right at home in these futuristic dramas. He was flanked by Joan Alexander and Luis Van Rooten.
The show was produced live for the first thirteen weeks and transcribed thereafter. It ran against Gene Autry on CBS. To help promote it, the NBC press department sent out a Radio Editors' Flying Saucer Mail Service. It was a promotional piece made up of a white saucer-shaped cardboard lettered in red and white and attached to a blue square.
It wasn’t long before Wheaties grabbed the series with their Big Parade in the summer of 1950. They began sponsorship on July 7th. But, aside from Friday, Saturday night was radio’s lowest-rated evening. NBC won three of the four time slots between 8:30 and 10PM, but they were all comedies. While Dimension X was well-produced, it was an outlier sandwiched between The Joe Dimaggio Show and Truth of Consequences.
Wheaties ended their big parade in August and NBC began to bump Dimension X around its schedule. It was picked up and dropped without announcement, and finally went off the air for good on September 29th, 1951.
The University of Chicago Roundtable grew out of arguments had by professors at the faculty club. In 1931 they were convinced their forum would make for good radio. WMAQ agreed. The show premiered on February 1st of that year. It began running nationally over NBC on October 15th, 1933.
The thirty-minute time slot allowed for little grandstanding. Professors rotated with each broadcast according to their expertise. They sat at a triangular table, which put the speakers face-to-face. It had time-warning lights facing each chair and was built like a sloping pyramid, with a microphone at the top.
If people really were seeing UFOs in the sky they had to be coming from other worlds. On December 19th, 1948 The Roundtable attempted to answer the question from a scientific point of view.
There were no scripts, but Roundtable was the first show of its kind to issue a weekly magazine. It contained a transcript of the previous program, biographies of the participants, listener feedback, suggested topical reading, and a schedule of coming broadcasts. The University of Chicago Roundtable would air until June 12th, 1955, finally going off the air when NBC launched Monitor.
Early on the morning of February 25th, 1942 several aerial objects were spotted over Los Angeles. It triggered the firing of thousands of anti-aircraft rounds. This was ten weeks after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and Manilla. Initially, it was thought to be a Japanese attack, but shortly after Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox said it was a false alarm. The hysteria was blamed on a weather balloon.
During World War II soldiers reported seeing metallic spheres in the sky. The allies dubbed them “Foo Fighters.” In 1946, numerous UFO sightings were reported in Sweden. Known as “Ghost Rockets,” they put the Swedish Defense Staff on high alert. No confirmation of what they were was ever achieved. All of these paled in comparison to what happened in Washington State in June of 1947.
On June 24th a transport with thirty-two marines on board crashed near Mount Rainier, Washington. A private pilot, Kenneth Arnold, was flying from Chehalis (SHA HAY LISS) to Yakima on a business trip. Arnold had six years of experience flying in and around the rugged Mount Rainier terrain. He went off course to look for wreckage. On April 6th, 1950 he spoke with Edward R. Murrow about his experience.
As the objects passed Mount Rainier, Arnold turned his plane parallel to their course. He timed their rate of passage. They moved from Mount Rainier to Mount Adams —a distance of about fifty miles—in one minute forty-two seconds. That put their speed at over seventeen-hundred miles per hour. That was three times faster than any manned aircraft in 1947. The next day Arnold told his story to a newspaper in Pendleton, Oregon. The military questioned Arnold on three occasions, doubting his experience.
But, other pilots soon told of sightings. On July 4th, The Oregon Journal received a letter from an L. G. Bernier of Richland, Washington who saw three objects flying toward Mount Rainier about one half-hour before Arnold. Bernier suggested they might have been extraterrestrial in origin. Arnold soon agreed.
The problem with simply dismissing what Arnold saw lies in the fact that he was a credible witness. Sure, he could have been seeing things, but here was a man both highly trained and highly observational.
Two weeks later, the most speculated UFO crash of the twentieth century was reported in Roswell, New Mexico.
In Breaking Walls episode 128 we wrap up our six month look at 1954 by ending in June with network cancellations.
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Highlights:
• The State of Radio and The Union • The End of Escape with John Dehner • News with Frank Edwards on Mutual • Let’s Pretend with Arnold Stang • Autolite Drops Suspense • Goodbye To Jack Benny (For Now) • What’s At Stake in the Fall 1954 Midterm Elections • CBS Cancels The Lux Radio Theatre • The End of James Stewart’s The Six Shooter • Looking Ahead to July and Roswell
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com
Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
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The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On the Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — by Jim Ramsburg • The Complete Escape and Suspense Logs — By Keith Scott
As well as articles from: • Broadcasting Magazine • LIFE Magazine • Newsweek • Radio Guide
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On the interview front:
• Parley Baer, Ken Carpenter, Elliott Lewis, and Paula Winslowe spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.
• Herb Ellis, Virginia Gregg, Jack Johnstone, Elliott Lewis, and Herb Vigran spoke to SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com.
• John Gibson, Elliott Lewis, Vincent Price, and Arnold Stang spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these full interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org.
• John Dehner and Vic Perrin spoke with Neil Ross at KMPC.
• Dennis Day spoke with John Dunning for 71KNUS.
• Morton Fine was with Dan Haefele.
• Orson Welles with Johnny Carson.
• Jimmy Stewart with Larry King.
• Jack Benny spoke with CBS.
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Living Without You and Too Much Between Us — By George Winston • The Last Rose of Summer — By Tom Waits • Seance on a Wet Afternoon — By John Barry
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A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.
For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.
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Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva
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WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers
Airing out of KNBC in San Francisco was a ground-breaking lady detective anthology named Candy Matson.
Produced, written and directed by Monty Masters and starring his wife, Natalie Masters, Candy Matson debuted on Saturday June 26th, 1949 at 8:30PM Pacific Time on NBC’s west-coast circuit.
Natalie was from San Francisco and began her career with the Wayfarers Repertory of the San Francisco Little Theatre Group. The creative couple were locally successful and had nearly fifteen years of experience by 1949.
Henry Leff was Police Detective Ray Mallas, with Jack Thomas as Rembrandt Watson.
Candy’s number was YUkon 3-8309, and each episode began with a telephone call. The Masters' leaned heavily on their prior associations in the Bay Area. Plots were also reliant on the audience’s knowledge of local San Francisco.
Unfortunately, because NBC was sustaining production costs, they moved the show around frequently. They’d often air a program a day or hours ahead its scheduled air date, apologizing later to the growing body of Candy Matson fans.
Candy solved almost ninety cases. The series ran until May 20th, 1951.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls EP92: Radio and Coney Island (1906 - 1960)
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Late in 1956, CBS was able to sell individual commercial breaks for Suspense at reduced prices. On November 4th, 1956, the show moved to Sunday afternoons at 4:30. Now directed by William N. Robson.
On June 9th, 1957 Suspense broadcast a play called “The Green and Gold String” starring Vincent Price as a Coney Island fortune teller. Although Price was a film star, he’d long had a clause in his contract for radio.
Well, this brings our six-month look at 1954 to a close.
Jack Benny again had radio’s highest-rated show the following season in what would ultimately turn out to be his swan song. Benny’s last new radio episode aired in May of 1955.
Joseph McCarthy would finally be censured by the Senate in December. He never recovered from that political storm, and died three years later, ravaged by disease and addiction, at the age of forty-eight. Although in some ways the Red Scare ended in 1954, the cold war was just reaching its height.
But fears of nuclear bombers were only half the reason people were looking up. It’s time we focused on the other.
Next time on Breaking Walls, in honor of its seventy-fifth anniversary, we examine our places in the universe with the utterance of a single word: Roswell.
On August 14th, 1982, Parley Baer was a guest of SPERDVAC (https://www.sperdvac.com/) along with John Dehner, Virginia Gregg, Peggy Webber, Harry Bartell, and Vic Perrin.
Throughout the course of the interview, they told many stories about Jack Webb, including this great one by Parley Baer about his eight-year feud with Dragnet's creator.
Even with James Stewart leading the cast and Jack Johnstone directing, without a national sponsor cancellation was around the corner for The Six Shooter. Unlike with CBS, it was uncommon for NBC to sustain shows for long. Stewart had turned down sponsorship from Liggett and Myers Tobacco. The Six Shooter would be canceled after the June 24th, 1954 episode. Thirty-nine shows were produced.
Parley Baer played parts in many episodes. The next year Baer would work with Johnstone on CBS’ Yours Truly Johnny Dollar.
In the finale Ponset falls in love with Myra Barker. He proposes, but at the conclusion they realize married life isn’t possible so long as Ponset still has wrongs to right and people to save. In the end, Britt rides off into the sunset.
Fortunately for radio fans, the entirety of The Six-Shooter’s one season survives. For more info, tune into Breaking Walls episode 122.
On the June 7th, 1950 episode of The Halls of Ivy, it’s a lazy Saturday morning. The college staff members who live on faculty row are enjoying their free time. Professor Quinn-cannon is trimming a hedge, Professor Warren is transplanting some flowering quince, Professor Heslip is weeding his lawn, and Dr William Toddhunter Hall, Ivy’s president is upstairs in his bedroom fast asleep. Of course, that doesn't last very long.
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The Halls of Ivy premiered coast-to-coast on NBC on Friday January 6th, 1950 at 8PM eastern time. NBC programmed the show opposite the evening’s highest-rated show: ABC’s The Fat Man. The program debuted with a rating of 9.
Don Quinn was a master of quips and puns, but much of the actual writing was left first to playwrights Jerome Lawrence and Robert Lee, and later to Milton and Barbara Merlin. Quinn acted as editor and creative director.
For the half-season, The Halls of Ivy pulled a rating of just 6.5. It was ABC who had reason to celebrate. For the first time since its 1927 inception as NBC‘s Blue Network, it placed five programs in a night’s Top Ten.
At network radio’s height, no dramatic show was more popular than CBS’ Lux Radio Theatre. Between 1936 and 1954 it never finished lower than eighth in the ratings, and it was radio’s top show between 1947 and 1952. Ken Carpenter announced. Radio’s best supporting talent, like Paula Winslowe, worked opposite Hollywood's biggest stars.
Mondays at 9PM eastern was appointment radio, and CBS built the rest of its powerhouse Monday schedule around Lux. It helped shows like My Friend Irma, Inner Sanctum, Screen Guild, and Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts reach new heights. It was also radio’s most-rehearsed show. All the players were expected to be available for an entire week leading up to the live Monday broadcast. John Gibson, best known as Ethelbert on Crime Photographer, remembered the schedule.
Vincent Price, one of the only Hollywood stars contractually allowed to do as much radio as he wanted, remembered working the show. A TV version of Lux premiered in 1950.
Near the end of the radio run it was estimated that Lux had gone through more than fifty thousand pages of script, five-hundred stars, fifteen-hundred supporting players, twenty-thousand music cues, and twenty-thousand sound effects.
In 1954 Lux was still rated fifth overall with a 6.2, but even radio’s most famous dramatic show wasn’t immune to the times. Towards the end of the season it was announced that CBS and Lux would be cutting ties in June. All that was left was to put a bow on one of the most successful shows in radio history.
Lux would run one more season, moving to NBC where it was still a top-four show. The Lux Video Theatre also shifted to NBC. It ran until 1957 before changing formats and bringing in Rosemary Clooney as star. In its final season in 1959, the show became The Lux Playhouse before being canceled.
Have you been enjoying Breaking Walls? If so, give the show a quick rating on whatever platform you listen, especially iTunes.
On Sunday June 13th, 1954 at 6PM Eastern, The American Forum of the Air signed on Mutual with a discussion on the 1954 midterm elections. The featured Senators were Republican Homer Ferguson of Michigan and Democrat Mike Monroney of Oklahoma.
The two political parties had deep divides within on key issues. While many Republicans were conservative, they didn’t support Joseph McCarthy’s communist raids. Northern democrats were likely to be liberal and in favor of the underway de-segregation. Many southern Dems were known as Dixiecrats and upset at the recent Brown vs. Board of Ed. ruling.
The 1954 elections were held on November 2nd. The Republicans would lose both the House and Senate, a direct result of anti-McCarthy backlash. The elections caused a divided government that continued to the end of Eisenhower’s presidency.
Republicans wouldn’t retake the Senate until 1980 and the House until 1994.
This is an excerpt from an episode of Johnny Carson's Tonight Show in 1973 featuring Jack Benny. In this clip Jack talks about his love of the violin.
On June 6th, 1954 Jack Benny closed his broadcast for the end of the season. Jack was going to headline in Dallas. The show featured a semi-rare appearance from Mary Livingston.
Although radio audiences were rapidly waning and Benny was a TV star as well, he kept his radio program going. Out of home listening was adding an additional forty percent to primetime radio audiences. That means Benny’s 8.2 1954 rating was actually closer to 11.5.
In the early 1980s, radio actor/writer/producer/director Elliott Lewis was a guest of John Dunning's Old-Time Radio program for 71K Newstalk Radio in Denver, CO.
During the course of the conversation the two were talking about the need for ad execs to be less paranoid and to butt out of the creative process more often.
By June of 1954, the thirty-six year-old Elliott Lewis was producer/director of four shows and the star of two. His peers affectionately dubbed him “Mr. Radio.” Perhaps most prominently, he’d been producer and director of Suspense since the fall of 1950.
Program sponsor Autolite preferred to keep its commercials humorous, feeling that the change of pace shocked the audience to attention. Each 30-minute episode required over five-hundred total hours of work from fifty people. With Lewis at the helm, Suspense was able to stave off some of the decline in ratings other shows succumbed to. This was partly due to his partnership with Morton Fine and David Friedkin.
Although the series, now airing on Mondays at 8PM, was still heard by roughly 12.5 million people each week, at season’s end Autolite decided to discontinue their sponsorship after six years.
The last Autolite Suspense episode was “A Terribly Strange Bed” on June 7th. Adapted by Morton Fine, it guest-starred Peter Lawford as an English cop in France who wins big at a gambling table, gets drunk, and ends up in a hotel room in a booby-trapped bed. Featured in this episode as The Croupier was Vic Perrin.
After the episode climax, announcer Harlow Wilcox signed off for the two-hundred-forty-sixth and final time. Elliott Lewis left the production after July 27th. Suspense would remain a sustained show until finding multiple sponsorship in late 1956.
Unfortunately for Lewis, his other shows would soon be canceled. Phil Harris and Alice Faye went off the air on June 18th. Crime Classics on June 30th. Broadway is My Beat on August 1st. And On Stage on September 30th. For more info on Elliott Lewis’ career, tune into Breaking Walls episode 113.
Originally broadcast as The Adventures of Helen and Mary, radio’s preeminent children’s show first took to the air on September 7th, 1929 over CBS. It became Let’s Pretend on March 24th, 1934.
Hosted by “Uncle” Bill Adams, it was in many ways the brainchild of Nila Mack, who penned, produced, and directed each show.
Ms Mack was born in 1891 in Kansas and became an ingenue on Broadway and in vaudeville. She arrived at CBS in 1928, and in August 1930 assumed control of the show. Mack felt the best way to tell a children’s story was to let the children tell it. Acting talent could play a lead one week and a character part the next.
She soon became CBS director of children’s programming. One of Ms. Mack’s staples was her open door policy. Any child could audition. She was responsible for developing two generations of some of the best child-turned-adult acting talent in radio history, like Arnold Stang.
Radio Guide wrote that Ms Mack instantly knew if a child had it. If so, he or she would be given a small part and slowly work their way up to lead roles.
Perhaps Newsweek said it best in 1943: “Let's Pretend is filled with kings and queens who ride talking horses through enchanted forests. It has maidens who must be rescued from witches, dragons, and dwarfs. Its characters travel in coaches, wear purple robes through emerald halls into jade rooms, and drink from golden goblets.” Cream of Wheat became the sponsor that year. It was a partnership that lasted until 1952.
At 2PM on Saturday June 5th, 1954, Let’s Pretend signed on the air over CBS in New York. Unfortunately, Nila Mack passed away from a heart attack on January 20th, 1953, but the show kept on. In its final two years the Nila Mack Award was given to the top players. The show would air until October 23rd, 1954. And thanks to Ms Mack, men and women like Arnold Stang were able to have long careers.
This is the first confirmed bulletin to take to the airwaves on the morning of D Day, June 6th, 1944 at 3:30AM Eastern War Time.
NBC newsman Robert St. John made the announcement from the New York newsroom: "Men and women of the United States, this is a momentous hour in world history. This is the invasion of Hitler's Europe—the zero hour."
On June 4th, 1954 at 10PM, The Frank Edwards news program signed on from WOR in New York. During this month there were more than one-hundred-twenty major American cities with significant unemployment. The Secretary of Commerce officially announced the country was in a recession.
Meanwhile, Vietnam was given technical independence within the French Union. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles (DUH LUSS) felt the U.S would have to send troops to Southeast Asia to prevent Communist expansion.
In other news, on June 6th the San Francisco Chief debuted. On June 13th, NASCAR held its first ever event in Linden, New Jersey. It was won by Al Keller. That same day, the last steam locomotive ran on the Maine Central Railroad. And on Flag Day, June 14th, the words “under God” were officially added to the Pledge of Allegiance.
Have you been enjoying Breaking Walls? If so, give the show a quick rating on whatever platform you listen, especially iTunes.
As Escape and shows like it were canceled, there were fewer opportunities for radio’s west-coast actors on network sustained programs.
This episode, “An Ordinary Man” was written by Kathleen Hite and starred John Dehner and Virginia Gregg, with Tony Barrett, Edgar Barrier, and Harry Bartell. It aired on June 3rd, 1954.
Escape would be canceled on September 25th. Gregg, Bartell, and Dehner would continue to work together on shows like Yours Truly Johnny Dollar, Gunsmoke, Frontier Gentleman, and Have Gun, Will Travel.
For more info on John Dehner’s career, tune into Breaking Walls episode 101.
By June 1954 network radio drama was facing huge sponsor disinterest. Shows canceled in the first half of the year included The Quiz Kids, Dr. Christian, Front Page Farrell, Bulldog Drummond, Rocky Fortune, Ozzie and Harriet, and The Six Shooter.
ABC, CBS, Mutual, and NBC reduced ad sale charges for the sixth consecutive year. It was an attempt to offset TVs broadening market share. It didn’t work.
For the first time in sixteen years revenue fell. The only category to see an increase in sales was local advertising, and even that rose less than one percent.
In 1948, radio’s top show was heard by roughly twenty-eight million people. In 1950, by twenty million. In 1952, by fourteen million. And in 1954, by roughly nine million.
West-coast radio actors, like Herb Vigran and Herb Ellis were moving into TV, but television was already going through budgetary changes.
By the summer of 1954, more than sixty percent of U.S. homes had a TV set. I Love Lucy pulled a rating of nearly sixty. Radio’s top show, People Are Funny had a rating of 8.4.
Along with oncoming transistor sets, nearly thirty million cars now had radios, but there was still no system to measure this audience. The next year it was estimated that out-of-home listening added an additional forty percent to at-home audiences. People Are Funny’s actual rating was closer to twelve.
But these incidentals didn’t matter to the industry’s character actors. Network production habits were changing. More and more documentaries and news were airing from New York, more and more drama was airing from Los Angeles.
Things would be tougher by the end of the decade, but we’re not there yet. Tonight, we’ll head to June of 1954 as network radio reaches a point of no return.
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As June got underway, the Army-McCarthy hearings dragged on. This early focus was on the continued testimony from McCarthy attorney Roy Cohn, cross-examined by Ray Jenkins.
After lunch Vermont Republican Senator Ralph Flanders compared McCarthy, his own party mate, to Adolph Hitler. He accused him of “axe-happy attempts to divide the country and split the Republican party.” He also compared McCarthy to Dennis The Menace. Flanders speculated that if McCarthy were a double-agent for the Communists, he would have been doing a perfect job. Later on McCarthy accused Flanders of being a senile, racist, religious bigot.
On the May 30th, 1941 Memorial Day episode of Lum & Abner, the duo take a holiday from their duties at the Jot ‘Em Down Store. Lum has recently given a Memorial Day speech at the school house. In this episode of the serial, Abner stops by Lum's home to talk about how the speech went.
In May of 1955, radio’s highest rated show was still The Jack Benny Program. Just under three-million homes tuned in, and many more in their cars. On May 22nd after twenty-three seasons on the air, Jack Benny brought his radio show to a close. At the time, the cast and crew didn't realize this would be their last new radio program, so there was no big sendoff. However, In the fall, Benny and his program would move solely into TV.
This is the last episode.
In Breaking Walls episode 127 we keep on with our look at 1954 by picking up in May during one of the most important months of the decade.
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Highlights:
• The Big Sound in Nashville • Everett Sloane and The 21st Precinct • Ray Milland and Meet Mr McNutley • An Eisenhower Presser and Other Current Events • I Love a Mystery — Born Again • Wild Bill Hickok • Grace Kelly Guest Stars on Bob Hope’s Show • Brown vs. The Board of Education • Lewis and Clark on NBC’s Inheritance • The Army/McCarthy Hearings Continue with Roy Cohn’s Testimony • Bing Crosby on Anthology’s Memorial Day Show • Looking Ahead to June and The End as We Knew It
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com
Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
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The reading material used in today’s episode was:
On the Air — By John Dunning Network Radio Ratings — by Jim Ramsburg As well as articles from: Broadcasting Magazine and LIFE Magazine
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On the interview front:
• Parley Baer, Jim Boles, Mercedes McCambridge, Carlton E. Morse, and Russell Thorson, spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.
• Harry Bartell, Himan Brown, Lawrence Dobkin and Virginia Gregg spoke to SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com.
• Vincent Price spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear this full interview at Goldenage-WTIC.org.
• Bob Hope spoke to Johnny Carson
• Andy Devine spoke to Betty Rogge
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was:
• Once I Had a Secret Love — By Dolores Watson • The Battle Cry of Freedom — By Jacqueline Schwab • Bare Necessities — By Matthias Gohl, Jay Ungar, and John Kirk • Morning Prayer — By Matthias Gohl and Ken Littlehawk • Loch Lomond (arranged for Choir) — By Musica Intima
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A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.
For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.
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Thank you to:
Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Ray Shaw
Next time on Breaking Walls, we finish our mini-series in June of 1954 and mourn the end of an era with The Road To Happiness, Crime Classics, The Phil Harris & Alice Faye Show, The Six Shooter, The Lux Radio Theatre, Suspense, and Jack Benny.
Have you been enjoying Breaking Walls? If so, give the show a quick rating on whatever platform you listen, especially iTunes.
At 3PM on Sunday, May 30th, 1954, Anthology signed on NBC. Directed by John Malcom Brennen, produced by Steve White, and announced by Harry Fleetwood, Anthology offered dramatic readings of famous and lesser-known plays.
Memorial Day weekend’s episode featured Agnes Moorehead reading “Barbara Fritchie,” and Frank Lovejoy and Bing Crosby performing “The Man Without a Country.”
Anthology would air into June of 1955 when it was canceled in favor of the debuting Monitor. For more information on that, tune into Breaking Walls episode 116.
On the February 13th, 1975 episode of The Tonight Show, Mel Brooks was the guest for an interview not long after the debut of Young Frankenstein.
During the chat, Mel told a hilarious story of a prank he pulled on top level NBC brass David Sarnoff and Pat Weaver while employed as a writer for Sid Caesar.
On October 21st, 1993, Larry and John Gassman of SPERDVAC interviewed radio producer/director Himan Brown and actor Ralph Bell at Brown's home in New York city. During the course of the interview Himan was asked about the Red Scare, which damaged his career in the 1950s.
On Friday May 28th, 1954 as beaches and public parks opened for Memorial Day weekend, families hopped in their cars, turned on the radio dial, and heard the continuing testimony of McCarthy’s Attorney Roy Cohn during the Army-McCarthy Hearing. CBS radio was there.
Cohn played a major role in McCarthy’s crusade. He helped create the Lavender Scare, which claimed overseas Communists blackmailed closeted government employee homosexuals into passing on secrets.
Convinced that the employment of homosexuals was now a threat to national security, President Eisenhower signed an executive order on April 29th, 1953, banning homosexuals from working for the federal government.
Cohn also saw that colleague G. David Schine receive special treatment when he was drafted in the U.S. Army in 1953. He contacted military officials from the Secretary of the Army down to Schine’s company commander and demanded that Schine be given light duties, extra leave, and exemption from an overseas assignment.
It was this behavior that hastened McCarthy’s downfall, as during these hearings both Cohn and McCarthy claimed the Army was holding Schine “hostage” to squelch McCarthy’s Communist investigations.
Cohn testified from May 27th through June 2nd.
Inheritance was a joint production of NBC and The American Legion at the height of The Red Scare. It first took to the air on April 4th, 1954.
The American Legion was at the forefront of The Red Channels pamphlet which outed alleged communist sympathizers. The Legion’s connection to The Red Channels had long been disclosed by the time Inheritance took to the air.
It has been speculated that perhaps both NBC and The Legion hoped to distance themselves from McCarthyism as criticism for his tactics was rapidly growing. Fifty-seven episodes were produced featuring the best west-coast radio actors available. The writing staff spanned both coasts and included Ernest Kinoy and George Lefferts.
This episode on The Lewis and Clark expedition aired on Memorial Day weekend: Sunday, May 30th, 1954 at 10PM eastern time.
On Sunday May 23rd, 1954 at 6PM Eastern, The American Forum of the Air signed on Mutual with a discussion on the Supreme Court Decision of Brown versus The Board of Education. On May 17th, The Court ruled that racial segregation within the U.S. public school system was unconstitutional. It repealed the “separate but equal” doctrine from 1896.
By the early 1950s the NAACP was filing lawsuits on behalf of plaintiffs in South Carolina, Virginia and Delaware, with Thurgood Marshall as attorney.
In the most famous case, Oliver Brown filed suit against the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas after his daughter, Linda Brown, was denied access to Topeka’s all-white elementary schools. Brown claimed it violated the fourteenth Amendment. This case and four others eventually went before the U.S. Supreme court in December of 1952.
At first, the justices were divided on how to rule. Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson felt the 1896 verdict should stand. But, he died in September of 1953 and President Eisenhower replaced him with California governor Earl Warren.
Eisenhower knew this appointment would help overturn the nineteenth century verdict. In the decision, issued on May 17, 1954, Warren wrote that “in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place,” as segregated schools are “inherently unequal.”
Days after that decision, there was considerable debate in the media over whether desegregation was fair. In this episode of The American Forum, the debate is between Democrat Senator Paul Douglas of Illinois and Democrat Senator Price Daniel of Texas.
The American Forum of the Air’s roots were planted in Gimbels department store in 1928.
Gimbels owned WGBS. Theodore Granik, a young law student who worked for Gimbels, did continuity, wrote dialogue, and reported sports events.
He had an idea for a panel discussion on all kinds of legal issues. When the station was sold, WOR gave Granik a similar job. The American Forum of the Air premiered in 1934. By 1943, it had become a staple for those looking to stay abreast of socio-economics and politics.
The format was tight. Proponents and opponents were allowed an opening statement; a panel discussion followed, questions were taken from the audience, and closing summations wrapped it all up. It was the only radio show printed verbatim in the Congressional Record and won a Peabody Award in 1949.
Bob Hope joined NBC’s red network in December of 1937. For the next ten years he starred on The Pepsodent Program, racking up the top-rated show five consecutive seasons between the fall of 1942 and the spring of 1947.
Then, as radio’s ratings were hitting an all-time high, Hope opened the fall of 1947 to harsh reviews. Both the critics and public were bored with his formula. Ratings dropped and Hope responded with a shakeup the following year. Gone were Vera Vague and Jerry Colonna: the show became more of a situation comedy.
It was the radio itself that had begun to fade. Hope spent two seasons being sponsored by Swan Soap, and then by Chesterfield, Jell-O, and American Dairy. His top show fell to fifth overall, then seventh, then tenth, thirty-third, and finally to forty-seventh in 1953. In 1954 his Friday at 8:30 rating was under 3.3.
On May 14th his guest was the twenty-four year-old actress Grace Kelly. She’d won the Academy Award for best actress in Country Girl two months prior.
Her fourth starring role, Dial M For Murder was about to premiere.
Grace Kelly would appear in seven more films over the next two years. She retired after her marriage to Prince Rainier III of Monaco. Her last film was High Society, opposite Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra.
By 1954 Hope was appearing on TV. He did commentary for NBC’s coverage of the 1952 political conventions, and although he never had a regular TV series, he starred in two-hundred seventy two TV specials between 1950 and 1996.
In later years he became the network’s senior statesman and his theme song, “Thanks for the Memory,” became synonymous with his comedy.
In August of 1982, SPERDVAC hosted a CBS character actor panel featuring Virginia Gregg, Peggy Webber, Parley Baer, Vic Perrin, Harry Bartell, and John Dehner. In this clip Mr. Dehner explains how he came to be a radio actor in the 1940s.
For more information on John Dehner, tune into BW - EP101: Frontier Gentleman and The Saga of Belle Siddons (1958)
James Butler “Bill” Hickok was born on May 27th, 1837 in LaSalle County, Illinois. An excellent marksman from a young age, in 1855 he became a Kansas Abolitionist Jayhawker. From there he became a constable, joined the Pony Express parent company, was badly wounded by a bear, and committed his first justifiable homicide. This was all before the age of twenty-five.
During the Civil War, Hickok became a Union Army teamster, a wagon master, joined the Kansas Brigade, and became a spy for the provost marshall of Missouri.
He was also a gambler and drinker, known to carouse for days at a time. On July 21st, 1865, Hickok took part in his first duel, killing a man named Davis Tutt. He shot Tutt through the heart from seventy-five yards away.
A subsequent interview with Harper’s New Monthly Magazine labeled him Wild Bill for the first time.
Rather than become an outlaw, Hickok became a lawman. He was soon a deputy Marshal at Fort Riley, and scouted for Custer’s Seventh Cavalry. By December of 1867 he was a Marshall in Hays City, and later sheriff of the same town. In April of 1871 he became Marshall in Abilene, Kansas.
That October, Hickok justifiably killed a saloon owner named Phil Coe. But, during the fight, Hickok saw a man running towards him. He wheeled and fired, killing what turned out to be his own deputy. The event haunted Hickok the rest of his life. It was the last time he was ever involved in a gunfight.
Radio’s version bore little resemblance to the real man. The format was the same used by the producers of Hopalong Cassidy and The Cisco Kid. Bill’s comic sidekick, Jingles B. Jones was voiced by the famed Andy Devine. Guy Madison was Wild Bill. Hollywood regulars supported. It was directed by Paul Pierce.
The show first aired over Mutual on May 27th, 1951. On May 14th, 1954 the episode was called “Dangerous Advice.” Wild Bill Hickok aired until New Year’s Eve 1954. Mutual brought it back the following July. It ran until February of 1956.
In early 1876 Hickok was diagnosed with glaucoma. Fearing blindness, he joined friends Charlie Utter and Calamity Jane Cannary in Deadwood, Dakota Territory.
On August 2nd, 1876 he was playing poker. He’d badly beaten a man named Jack McCall the night before at cards. Although Hickok usually sat facing the door, no such seats were available. That afternoon he was playing five-card poker and holding a pair of Aces and Eights. Jack McCall walked in and shot Hickok in the back of the head from point blank range. Wild Bill died instantly.
He was thirty-nine.
Carlton E. Morse’ I Love A Mystery first took to the air Weekdays at 3:15PM on NBC’s West-Coast network in January of 1939. Michael Raffetto starred as Jack Packard, head of the A-1 Detective Agency, with Barton Yarborough as Texan Doc Long, and Walter Paterson as the British Reggie Yorke.
The show told of three world travelers in search of action, thrills, and mystery. From the ghost towns of wind-swept Nevada, to the jungles of vampire-infested Nicaragua, they righted wrongs, rescued women, battled evil, and explored unknown parts of the globe.
By that autumn it was airing nationally. The show ran from the west coast for five years, first over NBC’s Red Network, then its Blue, and then CBS.
It went off the air at the end of 1944, but was revived in the spring of 1948 on ABC and then from New York for Mutual Broadcasting in October of 1949. It ran for three more years, this time starring Russell Thorson, Jim Boles, and Tony Randall, as Thorson remembered.
Jack Packard was a hero with quiet strength. Once a medical student, he shrugged off superstition in favor of logic. Reggie Yorke was educated, strong, and had the British stiff upper lip. Doc Long was a red-headed alley fighter from Texas who defied the laws of chance and loved women.
Three characters could be murdered in a single episode. People were killed in ghoulish, imaginative, and sometimes mystifying ways. Throats were ripped out by wolves; there were garrotings, poisonings, and mysterious slashings.
Although the serial went off the air in 1952, in May of 1954 a new audition record was produced for CBS in Hollywood. It starred Thorson, Ben Wright, and Parley Baer.
Have you been enjoying Breaking Walls? If so, give the show a quick rating on whatever platform you listen, especially iTunes.
On Friday, May 14th, 1954 President Eisenhower gave a news conference, immediately opening the floor to reporters for general questions.
The day prior The World Chess Championship was won by Mikhail Botvinnik in Moscow. On this day, The Boeing 707 was released.
On Monday the 16th, The Kengir uprising broke out at a Soviet Labor camp. Political prisoners forced out guards and administration. It would last over a month.
Meanwhile in the U.S., Senator McCarthy’s tirade had resulted in each political party’s questioning of the other’s loyalty, as well as talks of treason within the armed forces. Eisenhower simultaneously had both nothing, and a lot to say on these matters.
On Tuesday, May 17th, Brown versus The Board of Education of Topeka would finally be decided.
Meet Mr. McNutley first took to CBS’ airwaves on September 17th, 1953. Ray Milland played Ray McNutley, English professor at Lynnhaven College. Phyllis Avery was Peggy, his wife. It aired concurrently on TV with much of the same cast.
The show would be short-lived, going off the air after June 10th, 1954. The TV show lasted one more season, changing the character’s name to McNulty in the process.
In October of 1976, Chuck Schaden sat down with famed actress Mercedes McCambridge to talk about her career (full interview available to stream for free here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/mccambridge-mercedes/). During the course of the conversation, Ms. McCambridge spoke of why radio drama was—to her—the most powerful imaginative entertainment medium.
As the US began May of 1954, there was word that a new Soviet bomber had the ability to reach the United States. It was displayed for the public for the first time at the Moscow May Day Parade.
On May 7th, the Battle of Dien Bien Phu would end in a French defeat. U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles declared Vietnam non-essential to security in Southeast Asia. The U.S. would not intervene for France.
And as several massive U.S. fishing vessels were sinking off the coast of Alaska, the Boeing 707 was being released after two years of development.
On May 1st, NBC affiliate WSM signed on with The Big Sound. WSM is a 50,000-watt clear channel station located in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded by the National Life and Accident Insurance Company, the station’s call sign stands for We Shield Millions. WSM first signed on October 5th, 1925.
The next month on November 28th, The WSM Barn Dance took to the air for the first time. On December 10th, 1927, the program's host, "Judge" George D. Hay referred to the show for the first time, as The Grand Ole Opry.
The Opry began running coast-to-coast on Saturday evenings in 1939. The show moved to the Ryman Auditorium in 1943. As it developed in importance, so did the city of Nashville, which became America's country music capital.
By 1954, WSM was considered the outstanding music station in the country. That October 2nd a teenage Elvis Presley would have his only Opry performance. The times, they were a-changin’. Tonight, we’ll dive in for a closer look.
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Welcome to Breaking Walls episode 127. My name is James Scully. Tonight we keep on with our look at 1954 by picking up in May during one of the most important months of the decade.
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Everett Sloane was born in New York City on October 1st, 1909. At age of seven, he played Puck of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, and decided to become an actor. In 1927 he joined a Theater company. He made his New York stage debut in 1928.
In the 1930s Sloane was appearing on The March of Time. It was there he met a young Orson Welles. Welles hired Sloane to be part of his Mercury Theatre. He moved from New York City to Los Angeles after Welles signed his contract with RKO. Sloane had a prominent role in Citizen Kane.
In the 1940s, he worked on both coasts, guest-starring in radio on Inner Sanctum Mysteries, The Shadow, The Mysterious Traveler, and in films such as The Lady From Shanghai, Journey Into Fear, and Prince of Foxes. By 1953 he was being featured on TV and starring on radio in The 21st Precinct as Captain Frank Kennelly.
The 21st Precinct debuted on July 7th, 1953 over WCBS radio in New York. It put the listener into the drama from the opening phone call until the final report.
In May of 1954 it was airing Wednesdays at 8:30PM against The Great Gildersleeve on NBC. Starring with Sloane was Ken Lynch as Lieutenant Matt King and Harold Stone as Sergeant Waters. John Ives produced and Stanley Niss directed.
Everett Sloane continued to be a busy actor until 1965. On August 6th of that year, recently diagnosed with Glaucoma and fearing blindness, he took his own life. He was survived by his wife Lilian and two children. Everett Sloane is buried at Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles.
On May 13th, 1988, Frank Sinatra was a guest of Larry King's for an incredible chat about the legend's life and career. During the course of the chat, the conversation turned to Frank's acting career. He had this to say about it.
The full interview can be watched here - www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-xkTDhOpCY
Don Wilson remembers Jack's brilliance, and explains how Jack Benny differed from most "funny" comedians in this clip.
In Breaking Walls episode 126 we continue our mini-series in April of 1954.
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Highlights: • Eisenhower talks fear • Lum and Abner’s April Fools’ Joke • The Eternal Light • Nightwatch — A New CBS Real Police Show • Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator • Illegal Immigrant Fears • Gildersleeve’s Dinner Party • Easter Sunday and The End of The Whistler • Jack Benny Holds a Seance • The Army-McCarthy Hearings Begin • Phil Harris and Alice Faye’s Red Cross Blood Drive • Looking Ahead to May
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com
Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show:
http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
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The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On the Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — by Jim Ramsburg • The Complete Escape Log — By Keith Scott
As well as articles from • Broadcasting Magazine • LIFE Magazine
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On the interview front:
• Parley Baer, George Balzer, Himan Brown, Phil Harris, Elliott Lewis, and Willard Waterman, spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.
• Himan Brown also spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these full interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org.
• Himan Brown, Bill Froug, and Betty Lou Gerson spoke to SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com.
• Elliott Lewis also spoke with John Dunning for his 71KNUS program from Denver.
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Voodoo Dreams — By Les Baxter • Manhattan — By Blossom Dearie • Walking In The Air — By George Winston
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A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.
For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.
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Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Ray Shaw
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WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers
Have you been enjoying Breaking Walls? If so, give the show a quick rating on whatever platform you listen, especially iTunes.
Next time on Breaking Walls, as the weather heats up in May of 1954, Brown vs. The Board of Education delivers a landmark decision. It decreed racial segregation within the U.S. School system to be unconstitutional.
Dixiecrats opposed the ruling, while many others felt it was an injustice rectified ninety-years too late. We’ll cover this and every other radio and national happening, as we move towards Memorial Day, 1954.
In April 1954, Phil Harris and Alice Faye were in the midst of their last season on the air. The husband-wife duo had been starring together on radio since 1946. Harris spent the better part of the last decade working with Elliott Lewis. They both worked under Jack Benny for years.
On April 30th, they presented a special Red Cross Blood Drive program. Opposite on NBC-TV, The Big Story pulled a rating of 29.5, while the season rating for Harris/Faye was under 3.3. With radio on its way out, RCA cancelled the show at the end of the season. The last episode aired on June 18th. By then, Elliott Lewis was getting sick of dealing with agency and network red tape.
For more information on The Phil Harris and Alice Faye Show, tune into Breaking Walls Episode 108: Halloween 1948—Dewey Vs. Truman. For more information on Elliott Lewis, tune into Breaking Walls Episode 113: A Week With Elliott Lewis in 1953.
In January 1953, Joseph McCarthy began his second term as U.S. Senator from Wisconsin as the Republican Party regained control of the Senate. McCarthy was made chairman of the Committee on Government Operations. This included a permanent subcommittee that allowed McCarthy to continue Communist investigations within the government. He appointed Roy Cohn as chief counsel and Bobby Kennedy as assistant.
McCarthy’s committee investigated the U.S. Army. They believed the Army Signal Corps at Fort Monmouth had been infiltrated. At the time, the investigation was largely fruitless. Then the Army accused McCarthy of seeking special treatment for Private G. David Schine, a chief consultant and close friend of Cohn's. Schine had been drafted the previous year.
The Senate decided that these conflicting charges should be investigated. South Dakota Republican Senator Karl Mundt chaired the subcommittee. John G. Adams was the Army's Counsel. Joseph Welch, Special Counsel.
The hearings were telecast nationally on both ABC and the DuMont network. Eighty million people saw these hearings that lasted thirty-six days. They began on April 22nd. CBS Radio was there. Early in the hearings, a photo of Private Schine was produced, with Joseph Welch accusing Roy Cohn of doctoring the image to show Schine alone with Army Secretary Robert T. Stevens.
Cohn and Schine both insisted the picture was unedited. Welch then produced a wider shot of Stevens and Schine with Colonel Jack Bradley and McCarthy aide Frank Carr. This lie hurt McCarthy’s side.
McCarthy was quickly losing steam and allies. His policies were turning up little evidence. His “list of two-hundred known Communists” never materialized and this turn of attention to the Army was a political gamble. It wouldn’t work and later would cost McCarthy his position in the Senate.
As The Jack Benny Program moved into the spring of 1954, the comedian was still seen as a ratings boon. Through the years, Benny made little tweaks to his team without losing his audience.
Bob Crosby replaced Phil Harris as bandleader in the fall of 1952. In 1954, Mary Livingstone, always a victim of stage fright, began to record her lines at home. Joan Benny or Jeanette Eymann played the Mary role for the audience, and the real Mary was dubbed in for the broadcast tape.
If a household had both a radio and TV they could tune into Benny’s CBS radio show at 7PM eastern time on Sundays, and then switch over to his TV show, which aired at 7:30. Benny’s 1949 deal with CBS helped make the network the 1950s powerhouse.
For more info on Benny’s landmark deal and the CBS talent raids which followed, tune into the Breaking Walls episodes 108, 109, and 110.
April 18th, 1954 was both the first day of Passover and Easter Sunday. In Los Angeles, the weather was warm and foggy. The front page of The LA Times predicted record crowds at Easter services.
The Major League baseball season was underway. It would be three years before Los Angeles imported the Dodgers from Brooklyn. Two days prior, V.P. Richard Nixon told the press he feared the U.S. would be forced to send troops to Vietnam.
That evening, at 7:30PM over CBS’ KNX, The Whistler signed on the air, guest-starring Betty Lou Gerson and John Stephenson.
The Whistler had been one of west-coast radio’s most-famous regional programs since its launch in 1942. For much of its run it was sponsored by Signal Oil.
Voiced by Bill Forman, the Whistler’s narration omnisciently taunted the characters. Stories were often told from the guilty party’s perspective. Their guilt was known, but the outcome was in doubt. The Whistler character was so popular that Columbia Pictures made eight films between 1944 and 1948. Dorothy Roberts whistled the notes.
The Whistler would finally go off the air after the September 8th, 1955 episode.
Willard Waterman had been portraying Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve since the fall of 1950 when Harold Peary left the program.
In the spring of 1954 The Great Gildersleeve was airing Wednesdays at 8:30PM eastern time over NBC. Kraft had sponsored the program since its debut in 1941. The show’s 5.8 rating was good enough for fourteenth overall, and NBC’s fourth-highest program. It easily beat out CBS’ 21st Precinct, airing opposite at the same time.
On April 14th, Gildersleeve hosted a “Dinner Party for Bronco’s Boss.” Parley Baer played Mr. Hammond. In the fall, Gildersleeve shifted formats, becoming a weeknight fifteen-minute serial, before returning to a half-hour in the fall of 1955. The last Great Gildersleeve radio episode would air on March 21st, 1957.
For more info on the show’s transition from Peary to Waterman, tune into Breaking Walls episode 120.
In 1954, CBS Radio’s documentary unit presented a special feature series on a variety of hot-button topics. On April 11th, illegal Immigration from Mexico was their focus.
Today, the term Wetback is rightfully one of derision and insult. It might have privately been considered the same in 1954, but in the mainstream it was used to describe anyone who swam into the US from across the Rio Grande River.
At the height of Red Scare Mania, the fear was a communist spy could pose as a Mexican migrant. The next day in New York City, Bill Haley and the Comets recorded the ground-breaking single, “Rock Around The Clock.”
By April 1954, Himan Brown had been involved in radio for more than two decades. He’d directed, produced, or created shows like Inner Sanctum Mysteries, The Adventures of the Thin Man, Grand Central Station, Bulldog Drummond, Dick Tracy, Flash Gordon, and Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator.
William Gargan was born in Brooklyn, New York on July 17th, 1905. His father was a detective, and his mother a teacher. Gargan became a bootleg whiskey salesman, and later a private eye. His brother Edward was an actor. One day while visiting him at rehearsal, Gargan was offered a stage job. He began his career in Aloma of the South Seas.
Gargan's first film was Rain. Later, he played in Misleading Lady and starred in three Ellery Queens. In 1940, he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as Joe in They Knew What They Wanted. And in 1945, he starred with Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman in The Bells of St. Mary's.
He was perhaps most famous for his role as Martin Kane, Private Eye. It was conceived as one of TV’s earliest detective shows, and ran concurrently on radio.
Gargan played the lead on both mediums, until the TV show became—as he alleged in his autobiography, “a vehicle for the flesh parade.” He balked when actresses were hired more for cleavage than ability. Gargan’s last performance as Kane occured in June of 1951.
That October 3rd, he began playing Barrie Craig in a similar sounding series. Craig worked alone from a Madison Avenue office, and had good relationships with the cops. NBC produced the show in New York until the Summer of 1954. Himan Brown directed. Production of Barrie Craig moved to Hollywood in the summer. It ran until June 30th, 1955.
Gargan's acting career came to an end in 1958 when he developed throat cancer. Doctors were forced to remove his larynx. Speaking through an artificial voice box, he became an activist and spokesman for the American Cancer Society. No longer able to act, he formed William Gargan Productions, making film and tv shows in Hollywood.
In April 1954 Bill Froug was supervisor for a new CBS series called Night Watch. The show attempted to take Dragnet’s realism to the next level. It placed reporter Donn Reid in Culver City Officer Ron Perkins’ car. Reid rode the 6PM to 2AM shift, wearing a hidden wire to capture the high drama of the job.
Before the premiere broadcast, Reid accumulated one-hundred reels of tape. It included criminals caught in the act, a homicide confession, and the statement of a drug addict.
The show was produced by Sterling Tracy and announced by Dan Cubberly. Vernon McKenny was the engineer, and Ray Gerhardt the editor, removing all traces of real names and locales. Night Watch premiered on Monday April 5th at 10PM with an episode called “Nude Prowler.”
Traveling in an unmarked car, Reed used a reel-to-reel tape recorder, with a microphone hidden in a flashlight. These were authentic, unscripted, and unrehearsed. In one case, Reid was nearly shot; in another, he was stabbed but was saved by a leather jacket.
At the end of each show, Police Chief W. N. Hildebrand gave listeners updates on what happened to the people in each incident.
Night Watch aired until April 21st, 1955. Donn Reed went on to be one of the first traffic helicopter reporters, and Ron Perkins eventually was elected Mayor of Culver City.
In October 1944, in conjunction with the Jewish Theological Seminary, NBC began one of the longest-running religious programs in radio history. It was called The Eternal Light.
Then in its tenth year, The Eternal Light dramatized stories from ancient Judaea, along with contemporary works like The Diary of Anne Frank. It was produced by Milton Krents. Many top New York radio actors appeared. NBC donated the air time and the Seminary paid for the show's production.
On April 4th at 12:30PM eastern time over NBC’s WRCA in New York, The Eternal Light took to the air with a story entitled “Children of Liberty.” Although many radio programs were being canceled, The Eternal Light would air on radio and then television until 1989.
As the United States entered April 1954 with the cold war at its height, Congress and The President authorized the founding of the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado. Walt Disney was signing a contract with ABC—TV for a Disneyland series, with plans to build a new theme park in Southern California. Legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini was retiring, as Elvis Presley was recording his debut single, “That’s All Right.” The hydrogen bomb now existed. Brown vs. The Board of Education was being decided. A certain senator from Wisconsin was claiming the armed forces were rife with communist spies. And there was worry about involvement in present-day Vietnam.
On April 4th, Dwight Eisenhower gave this speech on fear. Three days later, he unveiled his “Domino Theory,” portending that for every country who fell under Communism’s grip, more were likely to follow. It was no secret that Eisenhower didn’t see eye-to-eye with Senator McCarthy, and the former Supreme Commander of World War II’s Allied Forces understood how internal division could make a country vulnerable.
That was the same for the radio industry, where those who could find work in TV were doing so with rapidity. Of the top fifteen TV shows, at least nine had begun on radio in some form. This included Dragnet, Arthur Godfrey, The Life of Riley, Our Miss Brooks, This Is Your Life, and The Jack Benny Show.
But, American forefather Alexander Hamilton once said that, “in times of great chaos, people can make their name.” That was never truer than in the spring of 1954. Of course, as Joseph McCarthy would find out, people who create great chaos, can at times, lose theirs.
Tonight, we’ll find out more.
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In April 1954 Lum and Abner was airing as a weekday, fifteen minute serial. The show was syndicated out of KABC in Los Angeles. That year, The American Broadcasting Company’s flagship L.A. station had changed its call letters from KECA.
Chester Lauck was Lum Edwards. Norris Goff was Abner Peabody. Although the comedy was reaching the end of the line, it was still one of the most beloved, folksy radio shows of all-time. On this day, Lum found out he needed famous ancestors if he wanted to marry Miss Priddle, while Abner set up a prank.
Lum and Abner would sign off the air for the final time on May 7th. However the duo would star in one more film: Lum and Abner Abroad, in 1956.
The 1954 Academy Awards were held on March 25th. That same day, RCA announced the first color television set. It was a twelve-inch screen, priced at one-thousand dollars, or roughly ten grand today.
On the Sundays bookending those awards, Frank Sinatra was a guest on Bing Crosby’s General Electric radio program. Frank would win a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Maggio in From Here to Eternity. On this latter program from March 28th, Frank talks and jokes about his experience. The two are in rare form, especially with a trio of songs.
The April 2nd. 1955 episode of Gunsmoke was incredibly unique to the rest of the radio series. Matt Dillon has had enough death and destruction for his lifetime and quits as Marshall. Unfortunately, he's the only one who can stop the trouble coming Dodge City's way, proving that whether he likes it or not, there's only one man the killers and spoilers look for and don't want to meet.
This John Meston script was, in many ways, well ahead of its time. Although it wasn't expressed as such, Matt is suffering from PTSD.
In Breaking Walls episode 125 we continue our mini-series in March of 1954.
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Highlights: • Edward R. Murrow Sees It Now • Perry Mason Busts The Syndicate • The 1954 DNC in Florida • Cathy and Elliott Lewis Can’t Fight City Hall • Groucho Marx Bets His Life • Phil Harris and Alice Faye: Happy Couple In Cancellation • The End of the Expense Account For Johnny Dollar? • Escape’s Violent Night • Bing and Frank Swap Oscar Stories and Sing Songs • The 1954 Tony Awards from NBC with Audrey Hepburn • Looking Ahead to April with The Army/McCarthy Hearings
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
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The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On the Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — by Jim Ramsburg • The Complete Escape Log — By Keith Scott
As well as articles from • Broadcasting Magazine • LIFE Magazine
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On the interview front: • Alice Faye and John Guedel spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.
• Mandel Kramer and William N. Robson spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these full interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org.
• Harry Bartell, Mary Jane Croft, Don Diamond, Jack Johnstone and Byron Kane spoke to SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com.
• Dick Joy, Elliott Lewis, and E. Jack Neuman spoke with John Dunning for his 71KNUS program from Denver.
• Norman Macdonnell was with John Hickman for his Gunsmoke documentary.
• William Conrad spoke to collector Chris Lambesis in 1969.
• And Bing Crosby spoke with Barbara Walters in 1977.
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Fever — By Peggy Lee • Sleep Walk — By Henri René • Exotique Bossa Nova — By Martin Denny • The Venice Dreamer Parts 1 & 2 — By George Winston • Danse Macabre — By Camille Saint-Saëns
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A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.
For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.
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Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Ray Shaw
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WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers
As March drew to a close, Mutual Broadcasting’s Frank Hemingway took to the air on March 30th with the evening news from KHJ in Los Angeles.
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With the hydrogen bomb in development, Russia wanted to join NATO. In Washington, President Eisenhower was making changes to the Taft-Hartley Labor Law. And in present-day Vietnam, a massive battle was taking place at the French military base at Dien Bien Phu. The March 30th news broadcast hinted at things to come.
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Next time on Breaking Walls, April ushers in the Army-McCarthy Hearings, Presidential Speeches, Schemers, Slanderers, Nude Prowlers, and even a Benny Seance.
Have you been enjoying Breaking Walls? If so, give the show a quick rating on whatever platform you listen, especially iTunes.
The eighth-annual Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Broadway Theatre were held at the Plaza Hotel’s Grand Ballroom on March 28th, 1954. Broadcast on radio by NBC, it was emceed by Ben Grauer and Faye Emerson.
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The entire post-dinner awards ceremony took thirty minutes. Some of the plays and musicals of note that season were Ondine, Kismet, Can-Can, The Teahouse of The August Moon, and John Murray Anderson's Almanac.
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Dolores Grey won a Tony for Carnival in Flanders, even though this Broadway musical ran for only six performances. It’s a still-standing record for the briefest run by a Tony winner.
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This was David Wayne's second and final Tony award. He would appear in numerous films and TV, including starring alongside Paul Muni in the 1959 film, The Last Angry Man.
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1954 was a banner year for the twenty-five year old Audrey Hepburn. Three days earlier she won a Best Actress Oscar for her starring role in Roman Holiday. She’d also won a Golden Globe for the same film. In September, Sabrina would premiere, for which she was again Oscar nominated the following year.
By March of 1954 Bing Crosby’d been in the public eye for more than two decades. He had numerous hit records, and won an Oscar for best actor in Going My Way in 1944.
On Radio, Bing helped usher in primetime transcription with Philco in 1946. Crosby had been on CBS radio since 1949 and sponsored by General Electric since 1952. He was reluctant to star in a regular TV show, fearing overexposure.
The 1954 Academy Awards were held on March 25th. That same day, RCA announced the first color television set. It was a twelve-inch screen, priced at one-thousand dollars, or roughly ten grand today.
On the Sundays bookending those awards, Frank Sinatra was a guest on Bing’s program. Frank would win a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Maggio in From Here to Eternity. On this latter program from March 28th, Frank talks and jokes about his experience. The two are in rare form, especially with a trio of songs.
The series ended on May 30th, 1954. With radio audiences in steep decline, Crosby decided against a weekly radio show with expensive guest stars and a twenty-two piece orchestra.
Bing’s son Gary took over the timeslot in June for thirteen weeks. In November 1954, Bing returned to the airwaves with a weeknight fifteen-minute program. He spoke about all manner of different subjects and usually included three songs. Broadcasting Magazine estimated the production cost to be twenty-seven hundred dollars per episode.
In March of 1954, Escape was still airing on CBS. Although it was frequently dropped and moved around the network schedule, it was popular and cheap enough to consistently come back.
During its heyday, Escape was produced and directed by William N. Robson and Harry Bartell was a frequently featured actor. Les Crutchfield often penned scripts for the series. Escape’s original assistant director was Norman Macdonnell. He later became famous for being at the helm of Gunsmoke.
The two-hundred eighteenth episode was entitled “Violent Night.” It starred William Conrad, with Joyce McCluskey as Maria, as Don Diamond as Alceran. Ben Wright, Edgar Barrier, Michael Ann Barrett, Dick Beals, and Byron Kane were also featured.
As good as Escape was, the writing was on the wall. With no sponsorship forthcoming, the last episode would air on September 25th, 1954.
Often written by the just-heard E. Jack Neuman, the fourth actor to voice Johnny Dollar, John Lund, grabbed the role in November of 1952. Lund had starred with Olivia De Havilland in To Each His Own, Marlene Dietrich in A Foreign Affair, and Betty Hutton in The Perils of Pauline.
In spite of radio’s falling ratings, in March of 1953, Wrigley’s gum signed on to sponsor the show. On Tuesdays at 9PM, Dollar peaked in May with a 7.3 rating. Among the writers who contributed scripts along with E. Jack Neuman, were Les Crutchfield, Blake Edwards, Gil Doud, Morton Fine, and David Friedkin.
On March 8th, 1954 Dollar’s expense account took him to southeast Asia. Wrigley sponsored Dollar until August. Lund’s last episode was “The Upjohn Matter,” on September 19th.
It seemed that like many other radio shows, Johnny Dollar’s time on the air was coming to an unremarkable end. However the show would be revived the following year.
Bob Bailey would star and Jack Johnstone would direct. For more information on Bob Bailey’s run as Johnny Dollar, tune into Breaking Walls episode 102.
It Pays To Be Married was a daytime game show in which married couples told stories of obstacles they overcame to build a healthier relationship. They were later quizzed for cash and prizes. Hosted by Jay Stewart, it first came to Mutual’s airwaves on September 28th, 1953.
On March 8th, 1954 the celebrity guests were Phil Harris and Alice Faye.
By 1954 Harris and Faye were national icons. After years on Jack Benny’s and later his own program, Phil Harris’ character was one of the most established in the entertainment business. However, The Harris and Faye show’s rating that season was under 3.3. With radio on its way out, NBC cancelled their program at the end of the season. The last episode aired on June 18th, 1954.
It Pays To Be Married would shift to NBC before being cancelled in October of 1955.
You Bet Your Life, conceived by John Guedel and hosted by comedian Groucho Marx, debuted over ABC’s airwaves on October 27th, 1947.
Three couples were brought onstage to be interviewed and quizzed by Groucho. Each couple was given twenty dollars and told to bet as much as they dared risk on four questions from a category of their choosing. The money would double with each successive step. Couples could win three-hundred twenty dollars, go broke on the first question, or finish anywhere in between.
The couple with the largest money total got a chance at the jackpot question, worth at least one-thousand dollars. There was also a “secret word” each week, with bonus money to be divided if someone said the word while the show was on the air.
Although 1947 was radio’s highest-rated season, the quiz show aired against NBC’s Mr. District Attorney on Wednesdays at 9:30. At season’s end You Bet Your Life only pulled a rating of thirteen.
Groucho felt uncomfortable trying to be funny on a live radio show. Guedel’s answer was to record the show, which allowed Groucho to relax. The program could then be edited for time later. The idea worked. The show moved to CBS in 1949. You Bet Your Life became Network Radio’s top-rated quiz show, finishing the season in eleventh place overall.
The show eventually signed a sponsorship contract with DeSoto-Plymouth of Chrysler for four million dollars over ten years. It also moved the show to NBC Radio and TV beginning on October 4th, 1950.
The program remained a top-ten hit into 1954. That March it was airing on radio Wednesday evenings at 9PM. The March 10th episode’s secret word was “street.”
You Bet Your Life aired on NBC radio until September 19th, 1956. The original TV series ran until 1961.
As radio audiences left for TV, Elliott Lewis continued to champion radio as a stronger dramatic medium. On Thursday January 1st, 1953, he and wife Cathy, debuted a new dramatic anthology program over CBS. It was On Stage.
On Stage was geared for adults, showcasing an eclectic array of scripts across multiple genres. To get the show off the ground, the Lewis’ tabbed some of the best writers in radio, like E Jack Neuman.
Stories would be rooted in powerful male-female situations, with two characters of equal strength being a main goal. They used a mix of classic and original tales, cutting across all dramatic disciplines with mysteries, adventures, melodramas, satires, and comedy.
Cathy was the perfect female foil, not just because she was Elliott’s wife, but because she was a superb actress. By then the west-coast’s character actors were like a family. A frequent co-star was Byron Kane. Ray Noble, Fred Steiner, and Lud Gluskin’s music beautifully fit the production. Ross Murray and Berne Surrey’s sound patterns were exceptional.
The March 10th, 1954 episode was called “The Crusade of Stanley Finston.”
On Stage came at a bittersweet time in Cathy and Elliott lives. Even as CBS referred to them as Mr. and Mrs. radio, their marriage of ten years was in trouble.
Cathy and Elliott divorced in 1958. Elliott would soon marry another noted actress Mary Jane Croft.
For more information on Elliott Lewis’ career, tune into Breaking Walls episode 113.
Have you been enjoying Breaking Walls? If so, give the show a quick rating on whatever platform you listen, especially iTunes.
On March 6th, 1954, 1952’s Democrat Presidential nominee, Adlai Stevenson gave a dinner speech at the Florida DNC.
In 1952 Stevenson was a heavy underdog against Dwight Eisenhower. He carried only nine states, but did get more than forty-four percent of the popular vote.
He was quick to lash out at the McCarthy driven political state of affairs. There were many who feared the Red Scare would destroy the country, and the divisions felt between Americans were so deep, they might never be repaired.
Stevenson would again receive the Democrat nomination in 1956. He’d lose, this time carrying only seven states and receiving forty-two percent of the popular vote.
As the United States entered March 1954, U.S. officials announced a successful hydrogen bomb test, while four Puerto Rican nationalists opened fire in the House of Representatives chamber. Five were wounded.
On March 9th, Edward R. Murrow’s news team produced a CBS See It Now episode, “A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy." They used excerpts from McCarthy's own speeches to point out his contradictions. Murrow and head of CBS News Fred W. Friendly paid for the program’s marketing. CBS wouldn’t allow the team to use the company logo.
The broadcast provoked thousands of letters, telegrams, and phone calls to CBS headquarters. They ran fifteen-to-one in favor of Murrow’s sentiment.
McCarthy went on the program to reject Murrow's criticism. He said, “Ordinarily, I wouldn’t take time out from important work to answer Murrow. However, in this case I feel justified because Murrow is a symbol, a leader, and the cleverest of the jackal pack that’s always found at the throat of anyone who dares to expose individual Communists and traitors.”
The rebuttal served only to further decrease McCarthy’s already fading popularity. However, his Army hearings were set to convene on March 16th. They would help emphasize the fact that the United States of America, like the radio industry itself, was during this year, in a state of turmoil. Unlike Howard Hughes though, tonight we will talk about it.
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Airing weekdays at 2:15PM over WCBS in New York was Perry Mason. The show debuted on October 18th, 1943.
Mason was a crime-busting lawyer. It often featured the just-heard Mandel Kramer. On March 1st, Mason, who was voiced by John Larkin, and Della Street, voiced by Claudia Morgan, wondered who was behind an underworld syndicate.
While Perry Mason’s directors were men like Carlo DeAngelo and Carl Eastman, women were as likely to be in the mid-day director’s chair as men, and they often exuded confidence that put fear into young radio actors.
By 1954 Mason’s cast had greatly expanded. On radio, he was as much a detective as a lawyer. The version Raymond Burr played on TV was markedly different. The radio version of Perry Mason ran until December 30th, 1955. Mandel Kramer could be seen starring in The Edge of Night.
In Breaking Walls episode 124 we pick up our 1954 mini series in February. We’ll focus on radio programming and national news from that month.
—————————— Highlights: • Radio Billings Are Down. Now What? • Dragnet—Still Going Strong • Lee Deforest and The Hallmark Hall of Fame • Americana • Jack Benny Turns 39? 40? 60? • Guest Star and The McCarthy News • The College Quiz Bowl • Mr and Mrs North • Polio • Stars Over Hollywood • Ending with Bergen and McCarthy • Looking Ahead to March with Edward R. Murrow
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
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The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On the Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — by Jim Ramsburg
As well as articles from • Broadcasting Magazine • LIFE Magazine
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On the interview front: • Jack Benny, Frank Nelson, and Don Wilson spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com. • Jack Benny also spoke for Great Radio Comedians in 1972. • Harry Bartell, Himan Brown, Lilian Buyeff, Bill Froug, Virginia Gregg, Lou Krugman, and Peggy Webber were with SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com • Hans Conried and Edgar Bergen spoke with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear this full interview at Goldenage-wtic.org. • Dennis Day spoke with John Dunning for his 71KNUS program from Denver. • Lee Deforest spoke at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York.
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Sh-Boom — By The Crewcuts • Serious Serenade — By Duke Ellington
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A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.
—————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Ray Shaw —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers
Well, that brings February to a close, but for many of these topics, we’ve only just begun. Next time on Breaking Walls, it’s March of 1954, and Senator Joseph McCarthy’s four-year anti-communist tirade begins to come to a head.
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The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On the Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — by Jim Ramsburg
As well as articles from • Broadcasting Magazine • LIFE Magazine
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On the interview front: • Jack Benny, Frank Nelson, and Don Wilson spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.
• Jack Benny also spoke for Great Radio Comedians in 1972.
• Harry Bartell, Himan Brown, Lilian Buyeff, Bill Froug, Virginia Gregg, Lou Krugman, and Peggy Webber were with SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com
• Hans Conried and Edgar Bergen spoke with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear this full interview at Goldenage-wtic.org.
• Dennis Day spoke with John Dunning for his 71KNUS program from Denver.
• Lee Deforest spoke at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York.
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Sh-Boom — By The Crewcuts • Serious Serenade — By Duke Ellington
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A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.
For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.
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Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Ray Shaw ___________
WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers
Airing on CBS since 1949, Edgar Bergen’s 1954 Sunday at 9:30PM eastern rating was 4.7, twelfth overall. His show was sponsored by Lanolin Plus. On February 28th, the celebrity guests were the husband-wife duo June Allyson and Dick Powell.
In the fall, Bergen’s show would go back to sixty minutes. It would air for two more seasons before Bergen wrapped up his radio run on July 1st, 1956.
Bergen did little TV. He was a radio man, even though his art was primarily visual. With Charlie and Mortimer, he emceed the 1956 CBS audience show Do You Trust Your Wife?, and he made numerous guest appearances on TV variety shows of the 1950s. He later appeared in films such as The Phynx, Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood, and The Muppet Movie.
Stars over Hollywood broke one of radio's strongest prejudices: That Saturday daytime was a programming wasteland.
When Paul Pierce, CBS production superintendent on the West Coast, announced plans to launch a star-packed dramatic series on Saturday morning, few observers gave it a chance. Getting movie stars to cooperate at 9:30 AM would be impossible, and no one would listen anyway.
The stories were generally light comedies. The set was loose and informal; the dress code casual. Occasionally the stars arrived in bathrobes and pajamas. Ivan Ditmars, musical director, used three instruments: the organ, harp, and violin, and sounded more like a small combo than a one-man show.
Stars over Hollywood ran for thirteen years in the same time slot, with only two changes in sponsor. This season had a rating of 5.5, first overall for daytime weekend programs. On February 27th, 1954, Barry Sullivan guest-starred in “The Hundred Dollar Bill.”
During 1952 and 1953, the U.S. experienced an outbreak of roughly ninety-five thousand polio cases, with a death count of over forty-six hundred. Millions of dollars were invested in finding a vaccine.
The first effective polio vaccine was developed in 1952 by Jonas Salk and a team at the University of Pittsburgh. On March 26th, 1953 Salk went on CBS radio to report the first round of successful tests. Beginning on February 23rd, 1954, the vaccine was tested at Arsenal Elementary School and the Watson Home for Children in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Jonas Edward Salk was born October 28, 1914 in New York City, the eldest son to Russian-Jewish immigrants. He earned a medical degree from the NYU School of Medicine in 1939 and became a doctor at Mount Sinai Hospital.
In 1942, Salk went to the University of Michigan to develop a Flu vaccine. He soon became assistant professor of epidemiology. Five years later he was appointed director of the Virus Research Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. His main mission: develop a polio vaccine.
Salk believed his vaccine, composed of “killed” polio virus, could immunize without risk of infecting the patient. Salk gave the vaccine to volunteers who had not had polio. All developed polio antibodies and experienced no reaction to the vaccine.
In 1954, national testing began on one million children. But, in April 1955, soon after mass vaccination began in the US, some patients contracted the disease after being vaccinated. These vaccines were manufactured by the Cutter Pharmaceutical Company. In response, the Surgeon General yanked all polio vaccines made by Cutter Laboratories from the market.
Soon, the Wyeth polio vaccine was also reported to have paralyzed and killed several children. It was discovered that some vaccines made by Cutter and Wyeth had not been properly inactivated, allowing live poliovirus into more than 100,000 doses.
The next month, the National Institutes of Health and Public Health Services established a Technical Committee to review all polio vaccine lots. The problem was quickly remedied.
In the two years before the vaccine the average number of polio cases in the U.S. was more than forty-five thousand. By 1962, that number had dropped to nine-hundred ten. Jonas Salk purposely never patented the vaccine or earned any money from his discovery.
When Mr and Mrs North took to the air on Tuesday February 23rd at 8:30PM for CBS, it had radio’s sixth-highest overall rating. With a 6.1 it topped Dragnet, which aired in direct competition on NBC.
Jerry and Pam North were average people who managed to solve murders. Jerry, played by Richard Denning, was a book publisher. Pam, played by Barbara Britton, was a housewife who loved cats, liked to play cupid, and somehow found her way to a killer’s identity. Neither was trained in any science of deduction, they were just intelligent, with a highly communicative marriage.
The February 23rd episode was called “Winter Honeymoon.” Mr and Mrs North would air until April 18th, 1955.
Originating as a USO activity created by Canadian Don Reid for World War II soldiers, The College Quiz Bowl was developed into a radio show by Reid and John Moses. It debuted on NBC in the fall of 1953. Two teams of All-American Varsity students from different universities competed for prizes and recognition.
On Sunday, February 21st, 1954 at 6PM eastern time, the ladies of Smith College defended their title against the men of Washington and Lee University.
Washington and Lee would win this evening and defend their title for five consecutive weeks until losing to Syracuse on March 28th.
The College Quiz Bowl moved to CBS TV in 1955. In 1963 it moved to NBC where it remained on the air until 1970. Various non-televised versions of this competition continued to air into the 21st Century. In November of 2020 NBC announced a revival of the show. It premiered on June 22nd, 2021.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 116: The Launch of NBC’s Monitor (1955) ___________
With Monitor announced, a huge facility was being built on the fifth floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza. It would be called Radio Central. NBC’s next steps were to identify key personalities to be featured. Jim Fleming was named executive producer.
In a memo he detailed why the name “Monitor” was chosen. During the war, newsmen monitored the short-waves for information, now they’d be monitoring the entire country and NBC’s network. The name suggested alertness, service, vigilance, and a sense of responsibility. These men and women wouldn’t be announcers, they’d be “communicators.”
One radio veteran in the fold was Ben Grauer. Born in New York in 1908, he was a child actor who became an NBC staff announcer in 1930. Grauer covered olympic games, announced for Walter Winchell’s Jergen’s Journal, and was hand selected by Arturo Tuscani to support NBC’s Symphony Orchestra. By World War II he was a senior commentator and reporter.
Communicators would be drawn from a wide-pool of talent and paired. Some of the people suggested were Alene Francis, Morgan Beatty, Hugh Downs, Red Barber, Goodman & Jane Ace, Fred Allen, Bob Trout, Faye Emerson, Bob & Ray, Frank Blair, Burgess Meredith, Boris Karloff, Bennett Cerf, and Dave Garroway.
Garroway was a radio veteran and jazz hound who had an unusual, homespun way of talking to his audience. He’d entered TV in 1949 with Garroway At Large. As he mentioned earlier, he’d been hosting Today since January of 1952. But Garroway initially wanted no part of Monitor. However, Pat Weaver asked him personally, and Garroway trusted Weaver implicitly. He agreed.
On Monday May 2nd, the network produced a closed circuit practice hour. With the format all but set, it was time for a soft launch.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 115: The CBS Radio Workshop (1956 - 1957) ___________
William Froug was born on May 26th, 1922 in Brooklyn, New York. He was adopted, and grew up first in Little Rock, Arkansas and then Tulsa, Oklahoma. He graduated from the Missouri School of Journalism in 1943 before enlisting in the U.S. Navy. After he was discharged in 1946, he found himself living with friend and fellow writer, E. Jack Neuman.
In 1948 and 49 he freelanced for CBS’ west-coast network, writing scripts for Rocky Jordan, Jeff Regan, and The Whistler. Froug spent the early 1950s in charge of the Hallmark Hall of Fame. The show began in the 1940s as Radio Reader’s Digest before rebranding as The Hallmark Playhouse until 1953.
With radio audiences leaving in droves for TV, the sponsor abruptly changed format on February 8th, 1953. They brought in Lionel Barrymore to host true stories of Americana. When Barrymore passed away in 1954, The Hall of Fame dedicated their November 21st show to his memory.
Unfortunately, by March of 1955 fewer and fewer network shows were sponsored. Hallmark canceled the show. However, In 1955 there were fifteen million radio sets produced, the most since 1948. There were now nearly 150 million radio sets in the U.S. Out of home listening now equaled TV viewing. During primetime hours, auto listeners added an additional forty percent to at-home radio audiences. CBS wasn’t ready to give up on radio drama just yet. In January, they’d launch three new shows: Indictment, Fort Laramie, and a revived CBS Radio Workshop.
In February of 1954, Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy was touring the circuit, giving speeches entitled “Twenty Years of Treason.” He claimed that President Eisenhower didn’t want a whitewash government and the Democratic label was “stitched with the idiocy of Truman, rotted by the deceit of Acheson and corrupted by a Red slime of a White.”
Indiana Senator William Jenner claimed democrats deliberately tried to lose the Korean War. The President’s assistant Sherman Adams charged the dems with being political sadists. Democrats cried foul. The Republican Eisenhower asked for conflict resolution. On February 10th, as he authorized three-hundred-eighty-five million dollars over the four-hundred million already budgeted for military aid, the President warned against his country's intervention in Vietnam.
When asked if he would change tactics, Senator McCarthy said “The price is too high.” He’d smeared homosexuals as subversives, liberals as anti-American, and moderates as weak-minded saps.
McCarthy’s downfall had ultimately already begun. In 1953, his committee started investigating the U.S. Army for supposed Communist infiltration. On February 18th, two generals refused to obey their summons to appear before McCarthy’s committee. They stayed away on order of Robert T. Stevens, Secretary of the Army. Undaunted, McCarthy accused the Army of rampant communism, but this time, when asked to back up his claims, he had very little to reveal.
This stunt bolstered President Eisenhower and both Republicans and Democrats who were growing weary of McCarthy’s tirade.
The public too was getting sick of him.
This turning point was strengthened when the Army revealed that McCarthy had asked favored treatment for a former aide who’d been drafted. In December, the Senate would finally censure McCarthy, an option exercised only three other times in the Senate’s history. He never recovered and died in 1957 at the age of forty-eight from an alcohol-related illness.
This will be covered in much more detail during the next episodes of Breaking Walls.
Have you been enjoying Breaking Walls? If so, give the show a quick rating on whatever platform you listen, especially iTunes.
In February of 1954, Jack Benny was in the midst of his sixth year on CBS, and his twenty-second in radio.
Although his TV program was in the midst of its fourth season, his radio show was still airing in the familiar Sunday 7PM eastern time slot. It had a radio rating of 8.2, second-highest on the air.
To many, he was simply the most famous comedian alive. February 14th, 1954 was Jack Benny’s real-life sixtieth birthday. Of course, here was a man who’d been claiming to be thirty-nine for years. That night, the entire Benny cast celebrated Jack's birthday on air. This is that episode.
During the 1953-54 season, NBC Chicago’s WMAQ and the Speech Department at Northwestern University, jointly broadcast a series of radio essays entitled Americana. Each episode explored a facet of American life or history and the characters who made it come alive.
Hosted by Professor Martin Maloney, It followed the previous season’s The Meaning of America. The February 13th, 1954 episode was called “A Study in Villainy.”
The first voice you'll hear is that of Lee de Forest. The second is of Bill Froug. Producer/Director Bill Froug spent the early 1950s in charge of The Hallmark Hall of Fame. The show began in the 1940s as Radio Reader’s Digest before rebranding as The Hallmark Playhouse until 1953.
With radio audiences leaving in droves for TV, the sponsor abruptly changed format. They brought in Lionel Barrymore to host true stories of Americana. The February 7th, 1954 episode was a profile on de Forest, one of radio broadcasting’s pioneers.
Unfortunately, by March of 1955 fewer and fewer network shows were sponsored. Hallmark cancelled the show.
When ABC radio took out a Broadcasting Magazine ad in 1954 touting their year-over-year sales growth, they juxtaposed theirs against the decline of the other three networks’ in the same period. It painted a bleak picture for the industry.
In November of 1952, total network monthly advertising billing was fourteen million, four-hundred seventy-seven thousand dollars. The next year, advertising numbers were down to thirteen million, six-hundred sixty four thousand dollars.
The loss of revenue was reflected in the loss of ratings. As drastic as the ratings decline was at the decade's beginning, it was the mid-1950s that saw radio ratings die on the vine. During the 1952-53 season five shows still had ratings higher than ten, with Amos ‘N’ Andy leading at 14.2. A year later, People Are Funny led all shows with a rating of 8.7. In 1955, Jack Benny would lead with a 5.7.
But for those people working in radio who also found their way to TV, this period was a golden age for the character actor. They were now recognized for their performances on both mediums, and with their increased profile, came an increase in opportunities.
It was apparent to everyone that TV had moved in and taken over. What the radio industry would do about it was still uncertain. As February of 1954 got underway, both new shows and old shared the spotlight. ___________
When Dragnet debuted in the ratings in the fall of 1949 under the sponsorship of Liggett and Myers, it did so with an 8.5. That number was sixty-fourth overall. Two years later in the midst of TV’s surge, Dragnet’s radio rating had climbed to 8.7, now fourteenth overall.
The TV version debuted in 1951. In 1954 its TV rating was second, only behind I Love Lucy. Part of the reason the radio version was able to stave off a rating’s decline longer than most other shows was creator Jack Webb’s ingenuity.
In February of 1954, Dragnet’s radio version was airing Tuesday evenings at 9PM eastern time on NBC. The February 2nd episode was entitled “The Big Filth.” Dragnet would continue to air new broadcasts on radio until the fall of 1955, and in repeats until February of 1957. While many shows lost sponsorship, Chesterfield continued to sponsor Dragnet until the very end, with good reason; In 1955 Dragnet was the second-highest rated radio show on the air.
On Friday, January 27th, the revived CBS Radio Workshop took to the air for the first time with an adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.”
The sound of artificial human life took three men and an engineer more than five hours to create. They used a ticking metronome, the beat of a tom-tom, bubbling water, an air hose, the mooing of a cow, a couple of “boings,” and three different wine glasses clinking against each other. The sounds were blended and recorded, then played backward on the air with a slight echo effect.
Bernard Herrmann composed and conducted a slender musical score. “Brave New World” would air in two parts over the first weeks of production.
The February 13th issue of Broadcasting Magazine gave the returning CBS Radio Workshop a glowing review, calling out producer William Froug for his ingenious guided laboratory tour at the beginning of “Brave New World.” Production was slated to cost roughly Seventeen-hundred dollars per episode, or just over sixteen-thousand today.
This is part one of "Brave New World." For more info on the CBS Radio Workshop, tune into Breaking Walls episode 115: The CBS Radio Workshop (1956 - 1957).
Have you heard Madison On The Air?
Starring Chrisi Talyn Saje, in this scripted comedy podcast Modern Day Madison gets zapped into old-time radio dramas. Season 1 had fifteen episodes. Thus far, she’s joined Joe Friday, Superman, Sherlock Holmes, Candy Matson, and many others.
New episodes premiere on the first of every month. February’s episode is the special, extended one-year anniversary show. Madison will be joining Johnny Dollar.
To find out more, go to MadisonOnTheAir.com. You can also listen for free just about anywhere you’d get a podcast.
Airing in his familiar Sundays at 7PM eastern time slot, in 1954 Benny had a radio rating of 8.2, second-highest on the air. For twenty years, Benny’s rating had never fallen out of the top ten, and twelve times he’d had a top-three show.
On January 24th, 1954 Jack went to the race track.
Hey everyone, James Scully from Breaking Walls here to give you the schedule of Breaking Walls episodes for the rest of 2022. I'll be putting out more of these informal snippets throughout the rest of the year.
02.01.22 - BW - EP124: February 1954—Benny, McCarthy, and McCarthy 03.01.22 - BW - EP125: March 1954—A World In Turmoil 04.01.22 - BW - EP126: April 1954—Joseph McCarthy vs. The US Army 05.01.22 - BW - EP127: May 1954—A Portrait of The United States 06.01.22 - BW - EP128: June 1954—The End as We Knew It 07.01.22 - BW - EP129: Radio, Roswell and The Flying Saucer Craze 08.01.22 - BW - EP130: Philip Marlowe Comes to Radio (1947) 09.01.22 - BW - EP131: Radio and the Squared Circle Wrestling Ring 10.01.22 - BW - EP132: Orson Welles is The Shadow (1937 - 1938) 11.01.22 - BW - EP133: The Birth of the Mutual Broadcasting System 12.01.22 - BW - EP134: Christmas With Jean Shepherd and WOR
Reach me with questions, comments, and concerns at James@TheWallBreakers.com
Support the show for as little as $1 per month at https://www.patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
For those who wanted Breaking Walls episode 123 in the traditional format. ___________ In Breaking Walls episode 123 we open 2022 with a six-part mini-series on radio business and programming in 1954. We’ll begin with January, in a radio half-season that was for many, the end of the line.
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Highlights:
• Ringing in the New Year with Fibber McGee and Molly
• Gunsmoke’s Stage Holdup
• People Are Funny is Radio’s Top-Rated Show
• January 1954 with Ozzie, Harriet, David, and Ricky
• Jack Benny’s Face is Familiar on Suspense
• Smog and Other Current Events
• Beulah
• The Death of Edward Howard Armstrong
• Looking Ahead to February 1954
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The WallBreakers:
http://thewallbreakers.com
Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show:
http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
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The reading material used in today’s episode was:
•The General: David Sarnoff & The Rise of the Communications Industry - by Kenneth Bilby
• On the Air — By John Dunning
• Network Radio Ratings — by Jim Ramsburg
As well as articles from
• Broadcasting Magazine
• LIFE Magazine
• Time Magazine
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On the interview front:
• John Guedel, Phil Leslie, and Don Wilson spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.
• Norman MacDonnell and George Walsh spoke to John Hickman, the longtime host of WAMU’s Recollections. Today, this program is heard each Sunday evening as The Big Broadcast. For more information, please go to WAMU.org
• Art Linkletter spoke to John Gassman.
• Ozzie Nelson was with James Day.
• Jack Benny spoke for Great Radio Comedians.
• Jack Benny and Don Wilson spoke with Jack Carney.
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was:
• Auld Lang Syne — By The Manhattan Strings
• January Stars — By George Winston
• The Klezmer’s Wedding — By André Moisan
• Love in Bloom — By Bing Crosby
• Seance on a Wet Afternoon — By John Barry
• Danse Macabre — By Camille Saint-Saëns
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A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.
For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.
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Thank you to:
Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Ray Shaw
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WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers
I hope you like pepperoni on your pizza. Reach me at James@TheWallBreakers.com
Special thanks to Brett Solimine for lending his voice talents. You can find out more about Brett here - https://brettsolimine.com/
Next time on Breaking Walls, we move into February and discuss polio, falling ratings points, and radio profit margins. ___________ The reading material used in today’s episode was: • The General: David Sarnoff & The Rise of the Communications Industry - by Kenneth Bilby • On the Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — by Jim Ramsburg
As well as articles from: • Broadcasting Magazine • LIFE Magazine • Time Magazine ___________ On the interview front: • John Guedel, Phil Leslie, and Don Wilson spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com. • Norman MacDonnell and George Walsh spoke to John Hickman, the longtime host of WAMU’s Recollections. Today, this program is heard each Sunday evening as The Big Broadcast. For more information, please go to WAMU.org • Art Linkletter spoke to John Gassman. • Ozzie Nelson was with James Day. • Jack Benny spoke for Great Radio Comedians. • He and Don Wilson also spoke with Jack Carney. ___________ Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Auld Lang Syne — By The Manhattan Strings • January Stars — By George Winston • The Klezmer’s Wedding — By André Moisan • Love in Bloom — By Bing Crosby • Seance on a Wet Afternoon — By John Barry • Danse Macabre — By Camille Saint-Saëns ___________ A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. I’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman of SPERDVAC. Listen to their shows on the Yesterday USA radio network. ___________
Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Ray Shaw
___________
WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers
Back in July of 1935, head of RCA David Sarnoff asked friend and inventor Edwin Howard Armstrong to remove his experimental FM equipment from RCA’s Empire State Building Laboratory. RCA wanted to test its TV system. ___________ Armstrong saw FM as a revolutionary new communications service that would make AM obsolete. Sarnoff thought it an important advancement and wanted it to be TVs audio supplement, but he didn’t see FM as a new core technology. Without the backing of Sarnoff, Armstrong decided to pursue FM development on his own. He got a license from the FCC, and built a station in Alpine, New Jersey. In 1938 he began broadcasting classical music and other test frequencies. Armstrong broadcast from station to station over the length of the East Coast, with virtually no signal deterioration. ___________ By the end of 1940, the FCC had received over five-hundred applications for FM licenses. Commercial FM broadcasting was authorized to begin on January 1st, 1941. Armstrong struck patent-licensing deals with all major radio manufacturers except RCA. They agreed to pay Armstrong two percent of all earnings from the sale of FM receivers and related equipment. ___________ When RCA engineers soon countered with their own version of an FM system, Armstrong sued. Sarnoff, wanting to avoid litigation, offered Armstrong one million dollars for a non-exclusionary license to use the FM technology. Armstrong refused. It led to the end of their close friendship. ___________ During World War II, construction restrictions limited the growth of FM. In the interest of national advancement, Armstrong turned over his patents to the government for the duration of the War. ___________ Although the Germans had the superior Panzer tanks, they were AM equipped. U.S. Sherman tanks were equipped with FM. The German's communication systems often jammed. As the War wound down, the FCC investigated spectrum allocation. It was feared that the lowest layers of the earth's atmosphere could cause bad FM interference. Both Armstrong and other scientists felt this was baseless. ___________ Then, both RCA and AT&T spearheaded a campaign to shift the FM band to higher frequencies. It also required radio stations to lease equipment from the companies. ___________ On June 27th, 1945, The FCC shifted the FM band. Today, FM operates between eighty-eight and one-hundred eight megahertz. It made more than fifty FM radio station transmitters and five-hundred thousand receivers obsolete. It nearly terminated FM radio broadcasting for more than a decade. The industry turned to TV and AM expansion. ___________ Meanwhile, unwilling to pay Armstrong the royalties he sought, RCA began developing FM circuits of its own. It also meant RCA owed Armstrong no royalties for the sale of their TV sets, which all used FM. RCA convinced other TV manufacturers to do the same. In 1948, Armstrong filed suit against RCA and NBC, accusing them of patent infringement and deliberately impairing his invention’s value. ___________ Although he was confident the suit would be successful, the protracted legal maneuvering impaired his finances, especially after his primary patents expired in late 1950. Armstrong lacked the capital of the giant corporation. He ran out of money in 1952, and relied on credit to pay his lawyers. ___________ Armstrong now wanted to settle. He asked for three-point-four million dollars over a ten year period. In December of 1953, RCA offered him two-hundred thousand dollars. Armstrong rejected the offer. ___________ In a fit of rage in November of 1953, Armstrong hit his wife Marion. She fled their New York City apartment. Bankrupt and ashamed by his actions, on the evening of January 31st, 1954, Armstrong wrote an apology note to his wife. He then opened a window in their thirteenth floor apartment, and stepped out. He was sixty three. David Sarnoff claimed no responsibility for Armstrong’s actions.
Amanda Randolph was born on September 2nd, 1896 in Louisville, Kentucky. Her father was a methodist minister and her mother a teacher, but she would find her calling in music, vaudeville, and eventually radio. ___________ A star by 1948, she led her own musical TV program for the DuMont network. It made her the first African-American woman with her own daytime TV show. ___________ Her sister Lilian was also a big radio performer, starring in both The Great Gildersleeve, and Amos ‘n’ Andy. ___________ In September of 1953 Randolph took over the title role of Beulah. It had been Hattie McDaniel’s until she got sick in 1951. For a time Amanda and Lilian alternated the lead. This incarnation of the show aired on CBS weeknights at 7:15PM. ___________ Beulah was supposed to be in her mid-30s and man crazy. She worked hard and played harder, and had an affinity for high heels and short skirts. The cast featured Hugh Studebaker, Mary Jane Croft, Henry Blair, Ruby Dandridge, and Bubbles Whitman. ___________ Randolph simultaneously starred in Amos ‘n’ Andy while leading this cast. On January 26th, Beulah broadcast an episode called “Bill’s Streetcar Lunchroom.” ___________ Beulah would air until May 28th, 1954.
By the mid 1950s, smog was becoming a serious problem in American cities, especially Los Angeles. On January 15th, 1954 KNX broadcast a special called “The Troubled Air.” ___________ Residents of Los Angeles suffered from burning eyes, runny noses, persistent cough and shortness of breath. It came from pollutants caused by automobiles, factories, and garbage incinerators. This documentary aired in an effort to drive awareness, and speed-up City Hall’s solution to the problem. ___________ Five days later, The National Negro Network was formed by Chicago ad executive W. Leonard Evans. Evans was the first African-American radio network owner in the country. ___________ Other partners were Ms. Reggie Schuebel, VP and Treasurer, and John M. Wyatt, Executive VP. The duo owned a New York-based radio and TV consulting company. Among those on the board was Cab Calloway. The network launched with forty-six affiliates. Broadcasting Magazine reported that twelve to fifteen million African-Americans were expected to be reached. ___________ In other news, on January 21st, The first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, was launched. Four days later The Berlin Conference launched with ministers from The U.S., U.K., France, and The Soviet Union. Its purpose was to discuss a settlement to the recent Korean War and the ongoing First Indochina War. ___________ The conference would last until February 18th.
Although Jack Benny spent his TV time on September 13th, 1953 dreaming of being with Marilyn Monroe, on January 15th, 1954 she was officially taken off the market. That day she and retired baseball star Joe DiMaggio were married at San Francisco’s city hall. They would divorce the following year, but remain close friends for the rest of her life. ___________ Airing in his familiar Sundays at 7PM eastern time slot, in 1954 Benny had a radio rating of 8.2, second-highest on the air. For twenty years, Benny’s rating had never fallen out of the top ten, and twelve times he’d had a top-three show. ___________ The January 10th episode celebrated announcer Don Wilson’s twentieth anniversary with the program. In further evidence of the changing broadcast landscape, that season Benny had a TV rating of 33.3. Jack Benny would air one more season of original radio shows. ___________ Eight days later, Benny appeared on Suspense in a story called “The Face is Familiar.” 1954 was Autolite’s final season sponsoring the program. Airing Mondays at 8PM, Suspense pulled a rating of 6. While it was a far cry from the listener heights of just five years earlier, it was tied for seventh overall. ___________ The final autolite Suspense episode aired on June 7th. CBS refused to cancel the series. That fall, Antony Ellis took over as producer/director. The show would continue to air sustained by CBS until the ad department found multiple sponsorship, and the program moved to Sunday afternoons in November of 1956.
On March 8th, 1974 Rick Nelson was a guest of Johnny Carson's on the Tonight Show. During the interview the (then) thirty-three year-old Nelson briefly spoke with Johnny about people still thinking of him as the child star he was during the 1940s-1950s.
Under the sponsorship of Heinz Foods, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet moved to ABC’s potent Friday night schedule on October 14th, 1949. Ozzie Nelson had negotiated a ten year, non-cancellable contract. It guaranteed him complete creative control.
ABC also had the option to bring the show to TV after 1951.
Ozzie and Harriet were weary of the new medium. Universal Studios gave them the opportunity to make a film, and in 1952 the family starred in Here Come The Nelsons. The film was a hit, and everyone was convinced the Nelsons could all make the transition from radio's airwaves to TV’s small screen. The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet made its TV debut on Friday, October 3rd, 1952.
Although the show never cracked radio’s top-fifty ratings during the 1940s, they did so in each of their final three seasons on ABC. The radio version of Ozzie and Harriet remained on the air until the end of this season.
This January 8th, 1954 episode was called “FiFi La Plume.”
The TV series would turn Ricky into a teenage heartthrob. It helped springboard his music career in 1957. For more information on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, tune into Breaking Walls episode 107.
People are Funny debuted on April 10th, 1942 on NBC. It was created by gameshow maven John Guedel. He was a jack of all trades who’d spent time as a WPA ditch digger, a traveling salesman, and a collector of his own rejection slips. By the fall of 1943, Guedel had negotiated a large raise from the initial production offer and made Art Linkletter the sole emcee.
People Are Funny became a Friday night staple throughout the 1940s. In addition Guedel would create House Party and You Bet Your Life.
By January of 1954, People Are Funny was airing on CBS Tuesday nights at 8PM for Mars Candy. With a rating of 8.4 it was radio’s top-rated show.
This is audio from the January 5th, 1954 episode.
On December 15th, 1969 William Conrad sat down with interviewer Chris Lambesis for a conversation about his career in radio. During the course of the conversation, Conrad gave his feelings on former Gunsmoke co-star Howard McNear, and told a beautiful story about Parley Baer's eulogy for Howard earlier that year.
When Gunsmoke was sponsored for a single broadcast on November 21st 1952, by Chrysler Plymouth, the show drew a good rating against ABC’s This is Your FBI, and was heard by roughly 8 million people.
After eighteen months on the air, on October 3rd, 1953, the critically acclaimed show got sponsorship from General Foods’ Post Toasties. But the sponsorship ended thirteen weeks later on December 26th. The show continued to air, sustained by CBS, on Saturdays at 8:30PM. The next week, on January 2nd, 1954, Gunsmoke broadcast an episode called “Stage Holdup.”
It would take Jimmy Stewart’s aversion to Liggett & Myers Tobacco to land Gunsmoke its big sponsor. They wanted to sponsor The Six Shooter. Stewart declined, fearful of what a tobacco brand might do to his wholesome image.
The Six Shooter went off the air in June, while Liggett & Myers sponsored Gunsmoke, beginning with the July 5th, 1954 episode.
By 1956, Gunsmoke was the top rated show on radio. It was one of the few able to temporarily hold its audience in the TV era, even with the launch of Gunsmoke’s TV version.
The United States entered 1954 in an uncertain position. Years of racial discrimination were coming to the forefront. In May, Brown vs. the Board of Education would make racial segregation in schools illegal. ___________ The Korean War was over, but the communist Red Scare was reaching its height.Dwight D. Eisenhower was completing his first year as U.S. President. Elizabeth II was now Queen of England. Joseph Stalin was dead. So was Hank Williams, Maude Adams, Jim Thorpe, Herman Mankiewicz, Dooley Wilson, Robert Taft, Edwin Hubble, and Dylan Thomas. ___________ Meanwhile, radio achieved total saturation. Ninety-eight percent of homes had a radio set. There were still nineteen million U.S. houses that could only be reached by radio. However, the four national networks continued a five-year downward trend in radio ad sales. Network radio gross revenue peaked in 1948 at just under two-hundred million dollars. In 1953, it was down to one-hundred sixty million. ___________ Procter & Gamble led the way with over fourteen million dollars spent, and forty companies, including General Foods, Colgate-Palmolive, Liggett & Myers, Campbell’s Soups, S.C. Johnson, and Coca-Cola spent at least one million dollars on radio advertising. ___________ While TV hadn’t fully supplanted radio’s total reach, it had decimated it’s prime-time audience share. On CBS-TV I Love Lucy led all shows with a 58.8 rating. It was seen in over fifteen million homes each Monday evening at 9PM. Opposite on the other medium, The Lux Radio Theater was heard in just under three million. ___________ And it turned out that as McCarthyism reached its zenith, dramatic radio would spend the first six months of 1954 facing wide-spread network cancellations. These were shows that just six years earlier were at the forefront of national consciousness. ___________ Radio’s heyday was over. Tonight, we’ll go back to January of 1954 and search for more answers. ___________ Welcome to Breaking Walls, episode 123. My name is James Scully. Tonight on Breaking Walls, we open 2022 with a six-part mini-series on radio business and programming in 1954. We’ll begin with January, in a radio half-season that was for many, the end of the line. ___________ If this is your first time listening to Breaking Walls, welcome to the show! You can find this series for free on every podcasting platform, and at TheWallBreakers.com. ___________ Tonight we’ll also begin a new programming format on Breaking Walls. Going forward, I’ll be releasing each episode in parts. These parts will be available on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. Once all parts of an episode are released, I’ll release the full-length episode for those who want to listen to it in the traditional format. For those listening on Youtube for the first time, please go to TheWallBreakers.com for the full lineup of past episodes in feature length.
There will be a programming format change coming to Breaking Walls beginning on January 1st, 2022.
Going forward, I’ll be releasing each episode in parts. These parts will be available on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. Once all parts of an episode are released, I’ll release the full-length episode for those who want to listen to it in the traditional format.
It's an easier way to break down content, to get content up onto Youtube, which requires all files uploaded to be a movie file, and to make the parts of each episode more easily digestible for you, the audience.
If you want to listen to new episodes in the traditional full-length format immediately, as of January 1st, you'll be able to do so at Patreon.com/TheWallBreakers for as little as $1 per month.
If you have any questions, email me: James@TheWallBreakers.com
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 99: New Year's 1948 On The Air
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Between nine and ten o’clock on Wednesday nights during 1947-48, NBC aired two of the top-fifteen shows on the air. The first was Duffy’s Tavern, who broadcast to a 23.9 rating in January 1948.
The brainchild of star Ed Gardner, the show debuted as part of CBS’s Forecast pilot series on July 30th, 1940. By the winter of 1947 it was in the midst of its fourth season on NBC.
Duffy’s Tavern was allegedly located in manhattan on 3rd avenue and 23rd street. It was the “eyesore of the East side” where the “elite meet to eat.”
Duffy never made an appearance, but his disagreeable nature was a constant source of anxiety for Archie, thanks to his frequent telephone calls.
Gardner’s heavily New York-accented Archie has inspired several characters in the years since.
Garry Moore was the special guest for the evening and Alan Reed voices the accountant who has come to check on Duffy's books.
In November of 1947, Roma Wines announced they were dropping their sponsorship of Suspense. Roma’s last episode was on November 20th, 1947.
As CBS began to sustain the show’s cost, they indicated they were no longer interested in offering Suspense to an alcohol brand. For the next five weeks Suspense shifted to Friday evenings live, coast-to-coast at 9:30PM eastern time.
December 26th, 1947 was the last of those Fridays. Director William Spier chose Ozzie and Harriet Nelson to star as a husband and wife driven to despair by a hateful invalid uncle. It was called “Too Little To Live On,” and written by Robert L. Richards, who also wrote “The House in Cypress Canyon.”
“Too Little To Live On” is a masterpiece in long-scene radio drama.
The next week, Suspense began a new hour-long format, hosted by Robert Montgomery. William Spier’s last date with the production was January 24th, 1948. He married June Havoc the next day.
The Nelsons vacated their Sunday at 6PM time slot to take over the Friday at 9:30 position Suspense occupied here. Although their CBS rating climbed to 13.4 that season, in the fall Ozzie and Harriet Nelson left for NBC.
On Christmas night, 1948, The Judy Canova Show and its 16.6 rating signed on live coast-to-coast for NBC from Hollywood at 9:30PM eastern time. Then in its sixth season on the air, the show had settled into a solid Saturday audience get.
Born in November of 1913, Judy Canova was from Jacksonville, Florida. Early in her career she was typed as a hayseed. Publicity for her show in the fall of 1943 depicted her with shotgun and wolf traps. It created a pigtails-and-calico fad on college campuses everywhere.
Canova told tall tales about her pig, Loverboy, or about Cousin Ureenus, who loved chopped-liver ice cream. Mel Blanc and Ruby Dandridge were large parts of the cast.
On Christmas night, Judy was convinced that her publicity agent was getting her the wrong kind of publicity.
In June of 1980 famed radio announcer Don Wilson, who starred on Jack Benny's program for decades, sat down with Chuck Schaden for a conversation about his life and career (full interview here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/wilson-don-announcer/).
During the conversation Don Wilson spoke of Jack Benny's comedic philosophy and the program's yearly Palm Springs Christmas season shows.
Although not part of any major network, WMCA in New York spent its Friday evenings at The Royal Roost—the heppest Jazz club in New York City.
Early on Christmas morning, 1948, from midnight to six AM, the station and the club jumped, with Miles Davis and Charlie Parker be-bopping and Symphony Sid offering Christmas cheer.
At 7PM eastern time on December 19th, 1948, Jack Benny signed on from NBC’s KFI in Los Angeles. By then his move to CBS was a done deal. The episode was his penultimate on NBC.
There were hard feelings from the National Broadcasting Company. David Sarnoff said “leadership built on a foundation of solid service can’t be snatched overnight by a few high-priced comedians. Leadership is no laughing matter.”
But if Sarnoff was mad, he’d only himself to blame. Benny would have happily stayed at NBC, but felt slighted by Sarnoff, who’d never met Benny in person, and elated with William Paley.
Between 1935 and 1948, Benny’s rating had never been lower than 20.4, and ten times he’d had a top-five rated show. His departure from NBC would leave an un-fillable void, despite Sarnoff’s sarcastic comments.
In late 1972, Vincent Price sat down with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio (full interview here - https://www.goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-32.html).
During the course of their conversation, Price spoke about how he became a radio actor even though he wasn't part of any radio stock company. Price acted in numerous dramatic radio productions in both in the United States and Europe.
The Right to Happiness began as an experiment. Series creator Irna (ERNA) Phillips liked to cross-plot characters from one of her soaps into another. The Right to Happiness began by following the troubled Rose Kransky from The Guiding Light. It became the story of Carolyn Allen, much-married heroine of Chicago radio.
Known as ‘Queen of the Soaps’, Irna Phillips’ creations included The Guiding Light and As The World Turns. In her writing, she focused on the psychological realism of her characters and introduced many of the soap opera motifs – such has cliff-hanger endings.
Ms. Phillips wrote the serial until 1942, when she sold it to Procter & Gamble. P&G moved it to New York, with a new lead: Claudia Morgan.
Ms. Morgan was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1911 to actors Ralph Morgan and Grace Arnold. Actor Frank Morgan was her uncle.
Airing at 3:45PM Eastern Time over NBC, In December of 1947, The Right To Happiness was the most-listened to daytime soap opera on radio, and the only one to post double-digit ratings nationally. Roughly nine million people spent their Christmas Day tuning in.
Normally after Suspense aired at 8:00 over CBS stations on Thursdays, The FBI in Peace and War followed at 8:30. Thursday December 6th 1945’s usually scheduled FBI in Peace and War was preempted for a special Victory Bond program, hosted by Bing Crosby and orchestra leader Paul Whiteman. ___________ Although In December of 1945 Bing Crosby was on strike with NBC, he had no problem donating his time and talent to CBS to help sell Victory Bonds. ___________ US Government Series E Bonds were first issued in 1941 to help pay for the US’ Entry into World War II. Seven War bond drives had taken place throughout the war. The budgetary expenses for the years 1941–1945 amounted to $317 billion, of which $281 billion was directly related to the war effort. ___________ Expenditures had also fiscally climbed from $9.6 billion in 1940 to nearly $100 billion in 1945. The result of which was that in December of 1945, the U.S. War Debt was $240 Billion. ___________ The Victory bond effort was part of a renewed public service marketing campaign to help sell these US Bonds which accrued interest for 40 years. Print ads appeared in major newspapers and trade periodicals. Radio—long a patriotic organ—did its part of help. ___________ 407,316 American men and women had lost their lives in World War II. Another 671,278 were wounded. With these Victory Bonds, Americans could help make sure their wounded countrymen and women would be cared for. ___________ NBC dedicated its entire Saturday December 8th block of programming to the Victory Bond selling effort on the final day of the drive. Denominations were incrementally available between $25 and $10,000.
In 1975, long-time New York radio actor Staats Cotsworth sat down with Ed Corcoran at a radio convention to chat about his career. This interview was later featured in a 1977 episode of WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio (https://goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-82.html). In this clip Staats talks about his acting and radio beginnings.
Casey debuted in July of 1943 as Flashgun Casey, and had undergone a series of name changes before finding success. Anchor Hocking signed on as sponsor in 1946 and by Christmas Day 1947, the show was in the midst of its highest-rated season.
This Christmas episode gave writer Alonzo Deen Cole an opportunity to give the program’s lead characters more depth. Jan Miner of Lora Lawton co-starred with Staats Cottsworth as Ms. Ann Williams.
In August of 1971, radio, television, and voice over actor Hans Conried sat for an interview with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for their WTIC "Golden Age of Radio" program (full interview here - goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-17.html).
During the interview Hans talked about being able to double and triple different voices in one broadcast during radio's heyday.
It's Christmas Eve, all is serene and quiet in Apartment 3b on My Friend Irma. Irma is reading and planning a surprise Christmas party for her friends. The surprise is on Irma though as one by one her guests have an excuse not to come.
On November 10th, 1970, comedy legend Milton Berle was a guest of Chuck Schaden's radio program (full interview here - www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/be…milton-actor/)... Early in the conversation recorded in the Green Room at the Mill Run Theatre in suburban Chicago, Berle recalled his first showbiz gig.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 98: Christmas Week 1947 with Radio's Biggest Stars
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For the four major radio networks, 1947 was a year or record business:
ABC saw a 7.25% gross billings increase. NBC sold out its entire primetime programming block. CBS had seventeen shows with ratings higher than fifteen. And Mutual Broadcasting had the most affiliates in the country. Total radio revenue was over five-hundred million dollars. There were now more than thirty-six million radio homes, and urban centers accounted for 60% of the US population.
It was in this season that Milton Berle finally established himself on radio. The Milton Berle Show was one of a half-dozen titles showcasing Berle in his star-crossed radio career. Until 1946 he was considered radio’s best-known ratings failure.
But NBC saw potential in Berle where CBS had failed. In March of 1947 they gave him his own variety show, sponsored by Philip Morris. It featured some of radio’s top comedic talent, like Arnold Stang, Pert Kelton, Arthur Q. Bryan, Jack Albertson, Ed Begley and Frank Gallop.
In its second season on NBC Tuesdays at 8:00 p.m, the show’s audience jumped 40% and Berle finally cracked radio’s Top 50. In December his rating was 17.5 against Big Town on CBS.
On October 17th, 1984, Chuck Schaden sat down for a conversation with longtime friend Jim Jordan about his life and career (full interview here - www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/jo…m-1984-actor/). During the course of the chat Jim Jordan spoke about working after his late wife, actress Marian Driscoll Jordan, passed away in 1961.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 98: Christmas Week 1947 with Radio's Biggest Stars
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On Tuesday nights in December of 1947, NBC ran four of the top thirteen shows on the air with Amos n’ Andy, Fibber McGee & Molly, The Bob Hope Show, and The Red Skelton Show.
Jim and Marion Jordan were in the midst of their ninth consecutive season with a top-three rated show. In December, their show rating was 29.9. Unfortunately for Fibber, he's lost his keys right in the middle of a snowstorm. His key ring contains the key to his hall closet where all the Christmas presents are stored.
Eighty years ago when The University of Chicago Round Table took to the air over NBC's Red network at 2:30PM Eastern time, President Roosevelt had just announced the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
There were numerous cut-ins for further announcements during this program. A bulletin occurred at 2:39PM announcing the air attacks on Manila. At 2:52PM it was announced that the Japanese were bombing Burma. The United States of America would soon declare war on Japan.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 98: Christmas Week 1947 with Radio's Biggest Stars
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At 11:30AM Pacific Time on Christmas Morning in 1947, as families were opening their homes to loved ones, King George VI’s Royal Christmas Message was delivered from England, and broadcast over all CBS stations.
King George said "the unity and steadfastness of the British Commonwealth and Empire, saved the liberties of the world." He called on listeners not to doubt their will to win in the face of post-war challenges.
In Los Angeles, opposite on Mutual’s affiliate, KHJ in its regular time slot was Queen For a Day.
At 1PM Pacific Time over all CBS stations, The Elgin Watch Company broadcast their sixth annual Christmas Special. Like their Thanksgiving special the previous month, it featured a numerous entertainment celebs offering seasons greetings. Opposite NBC broadcast an orchestral Christmas concert featuring Thomas L. Thomas.
The morning NBC News broadcast with John Cameron Swayze from December 1st, 1947.
In December 1947, The UNs’ partitioning of Palestine into Arab and Jewish quarters touched off a series of riots on its only neutral site, Jerusalem. The holy ground was in shambles. The UN’s decision led to Civil War and riots in other parts of the world.
This is Your FBI debuted over ABC in New York in April of 1945. It ran stories from official Federal case files and was sponsored by the Equitable Life Assurance Society. After it cracked radio’s top-twenty-five in 1947, ABC moved the series to the west coast.
Now recording from KECA in Hollywood, famed radio character actor Stacy Harris took the lead of Special Agent Jim Taylor.
In December of 1948, This is Your FBI gave ABC something it lacked on any other evening: the highest rated show on the air. That month, the show’s rating was 16.2, while Jimmy Durante fell to a 14.3 for NBC and Easy Aces pulled a 13.4 on CBS.
On Christmas Eve 1948, This Is Your FBI broadcast an episode entitled “The Return of Saint Nick” about a pageant Santa who inexplicably runs away from his favorite holiday event.
This is Your FBI proved that even G-men celebrate Christmas.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 98: Christmas Week 1947 with Radio's Biggest Stars
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President Truman spent only two Christmas’ at the White House during his tenure. The first was in 1947. It preceded the extensive renovations the Presidential Mansion would undergo during Truman’s second term.
On Christmas Eve, at 5PM eastern time, live from The White House, all four networks broadcast the annual Christmas Tree ceremony. President Truman and his daughter Margaret lit the main tree on the South Grounds before heading back inside to celebrate the Holiday. The President spent his Christmas Morning visiting with patients at the Naval Medical Center and the Walter Reed Hospital.
The General Mills sponsored Lone Ranger from WXYZ in Detroit first began airing on January 31st, 1933. The next year it became one of the cornerstone programs which led to the formation of the Mutual Broadcasting System. The show moved to the Blue Network in 1942 and would remain on the network after it became ABC.
In the fall of 1947, after 15 years in the same Monday-Wednesday-Friday time slots, The Lone Ranger nearly doubled its previous season’s rating. It was the only program airing multiple times per-week to crack the season’s top fifty, climbing all the way to 35th with a rating of 16.4.
It would remain the number one multiple run program for the next three seasons. On Christmas Eve, 1947 at 7:30PM Eastern Time while families gathered around the table, kids everywhere snuck away to hear The Lone Ranger’s broadcast of “The Mission Bells.”
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 98: Christmas Week 1947 with Radio's Biggest Stars
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Sunday nights at 7PM was appointment radio from the mid 1930s through the end of the 1940s. Why? Because of one man: Jack Benny.
It was the monumental success of Jack Benny’s 1945-46 season which led to solo shows for Phil Harris, Mel Blanc, and Dennis Day.
In the fall of 1947, Sunday night ratings were dominated by NBC. Their seven to nine PM programming block of Jack Benny, Harris & Faye, Fred Allen, and Bergen & McCarthy all had ratings over 20 points.
Jack Benny, and his program, was the network’s linchpin.
Meanwhile, at 8:30PM from New York, Fred Allen signed on NBC. The comedian was enjoying the best season of his career. His Sunday night rating was 27.4, third-highest on the air.
On April 16th, 1986 Jimmy Stewart was a guest of Larry King's for a wide ranging interview about his life and career. During the course of the interview Mr. Stewart spoke about his love for radio and acting on radio.
In Breaking Walls episode 122 we spend the holidays in the old west with Jimmy Stewart, director Jack Johnstone, and The Six Shooter.
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Highlights: • Jack Johnstone’s Early Radio Career • The State of Network Radio in December of 1953 • James Stewart on the Hollywood Star Playhouse • The Six Shooter Launches • A Pressing Engagement • The Radio Industry - More Than Kin • Britt Ponsett’s Christmas Carol • Britt Ponsett Rides Off Into the Sunset • Looking Ahead of January 1954
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
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The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On the Air - By John Dunning • Radio Rides The Range: A Reference Guide to Western Drama on the Air — by Jack French and David S. Siegel • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg
As well as articles from • The Los Angeles Times
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On the interview front: • Dick Beals, Virginia Gregg, and Herb Vigran spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.
• Parley Baer, Harry Bartell, Sam Edwards, Jack Johnstone, Marvin Miller and Vic Perrin were with SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com.
• Art Linkletter spoke with John Gassman.
• Jimmy Stewart was with Larry King and Johnny Carson.
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Somewhere in My Memory and Star of Bethlehem — By John Williams • The Klezmer’s Wedding — By André Moisan • Highland Lament — By The Corries • Sonata No. 1 for Violin, Opus 13: I. Molto Moderato — Played by Michael Davis
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A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.
For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.
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Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Chris Pilkington
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WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers
On Wednesday, December 3rd, 1947, Jean Sablon guest-starred on Duffy's Tavern. The hilarious episode features Eddie Green and stars Ed Gardner.
On Easter Sunday in 1982, Dennis Day was a guest of John Dunning's radio show for 71KNUS in Denver. The two spoke about Day's life and career, which naturally led to his association with Jack Benny. In this clip, Dennis Day talks about his first experience performing for TV in late 1946 and Benny's transition from radio to the small screen.
On October 12th, 1947 from Montreal over Canada's CBC airwaves, famed British fashion designer Sir Edwin Hardy Amies, KCVO spoke with Ms. Rita Greer about that winter's changes to that season's ready-made women's styles.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 97: Thanksgiving 1947—The Most Popular Season in Radio History ___________
At 10PM eastern time on Thanksgiving Day 1947, as families put their young children to bed, ABC broadcast Mr. President from its Los Angeles KECA affiliate, starring Edward Arnold and Betty Lou Gerson.
Mr. President first signed on June 26th, 1947. Producers picked Arnold to star because his voice had the “aggressiveness of Teddy Roosevelt, the humility of Abraham Lincoln, and the tenacity of Andrew Jackson.”
Listeners were challenged to guess the president’s identity before it was revealed at the end. Fittingly the 1947 Thanksgiving episode featured a tale from the life of George Washington.
Opposite Mr. President, live from Hollywood over all CBS stations Radio Reader’s Digest signed on, guest-starring Van Heflin.
1947 was a good year for the thirty-eight year-old actor. That summer he co-starred with Joan Crawford in Possessed and brought Philip Marlowe to radio as a summer replacement for Bob Hope. His latest film, Green Dolphin Street, just hit theaters. It co-starred Lana Turner and was that year’s biggest MGM hit.
Radio Reader’s Digest debuted on September 13th, 1942 on CBS. The famed magazine actually didn’t sponsor the show. They provided the material. Hallmark Greeting Cards was sponsor. In 1947 Les Tremayne was the host.
There are few homecoming traditions bigger than a football game. Harvard and Yale have been playing an annual game since 1875. It’s so steeped in our culture that American icon Damon Runyon incorporated Yale football into a story.
This story, “Hold Em Yale” made it into a syndicated episode of The Damon Runyon Theatre airing out of NBC’s KFI in Los Angeles on Sunday, March 27th, 1949.
The show starred character actor John Brown as Broadway. Brown was born on April 4th, 1904 in Yorkshire, England. He emigrated to New York and began finding work on the stage. His first radio credit was in 1932. By 1949 he was an esteemed veteran.
The Damon Runyon Theatre was one of Alan Ladd's Mayfair productions. Ladd was an admirer of the late-Runyon’s long-running “Brighter Side” newspaper column.
Damon Runyon had passed away on December 10th, 1946. He’d spun fascinating, tongue-in cheek tales of gamblers, actors, gangsters, and beautiful women. He gave his characters colorful names like “Harry the Horse Thief,” “Good Time Charlie,” and “The Lemon Drop Kid.”
Ladd tapped John Brown to play Broadway. Brown was already playing a similar character on My Friend Irma.
The transcribed Damon Runyon Theatre first aired over the independent station KSEL, in Lubbock, Texas.
Because it was a syndicated show, it wasn’t beholden to network lines. It aired over NBC’s KFI Los Angeles beginning in January of 1949. The following June, it began airing over Mutual’s WOR in New York.
Supporting Brown were Hollywood’s radio regulars like Herb Vigran, Jack Moyles, William Conrad, Gerald Mohr, and Anne Whitfield. Richard Sanville directed. Fifty-two shows were produced on records.
Unfortunately for John Brown, just as television was coming in and his career was cresting, trouble was around the corner.
This is movietone newsreel audio from the 1947 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Although the annual parade first began in 1924, it became world famous thanks to the 1947 release of Miracle on 34th Street, which used footage from the 1946 parade in the film.
Who will be watching or going to this year's parade?
In August of 1982 SPERDVAC (www.sperdvac.com) hosted a CBS panel at the Thousand Oaks Library in California. The panel featured some of the best known radio character actors of the 1940s and 1950s.
When the panel was asked about their recollections of Frontier Gentleman and Antony Ellis, Frontier Gentleman star John Dehner had this to say.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 97: Thanksgiving 1947—The Most Popular Season in Radio History ___________
Earlier in 1947 Bing Crosby and ABC signed Al Jolson to a $50,000 contract for ten Philco Radio Time guest appearances. Jolson showed up for just one Philco Radio Time appearance when Jolson signed another contract—to host Crosby’s former NBC show, The Kraft Music Hall.
Crosby was forced to rely on a mix of movie star guests and drop-ins from other ABC shows. In a season of inflated ratings Crosby lost 20% of his audience, falling out of the season’s Top 50 for the first and only time.
The Kraft people weren’t complaining. In the three seasons since Crosby’s acrimonious departure from NBC, Kraft had seen its Music Hall rating cut in half. Meanwhile, Al Jolson was hot again after the success of his filmed biography, The Jolson Story, which earned six Academy Award nominations and won two Oscars.
It proved to be a good investment. The 60-year-old singer pushed the show’s rating back into first place on Thursday and a return into the season’s Top 20 with a rating of 18.9.
At 9:30PM, opposite the Sealtest Village Store on NBC, Casey, Crime Photographer took to the air, live, coast-to-coast over all CBS stations. Casey was a newspaper photographer, which made for a decidedly unique kind of gumshoe. By the late 1940s, the show had established itself as a primetime hit. During the 1947-48 season, it had a rating of 15.6.
It starred Staats Cotsworth as Casey and was then sponsored by Anchor Hocking. Although by 1947 Staats was entrenched as a prime-time star, he also retained the male lead in the daytime melodrama Front Page Farrell.
On Wednesday November 26th, 1947, the annual Hollywood Christmas parade was taking place in Los Angeles. Each November beginning in 1928, extravagant holiday decorations adorned a one-mile stretch of Hollywood Boulevard between Vine and La Brea.
The brainchild of businessman Harry Blaine and the Hollywood Boulevard Association, they promoted the thoroughfare as the "world's largest department store." Complete with lights, a reindeer-drawn sleigh, and brightly decorated Christmas trees.
NBC News of The World was there on Sunset and Vine reporting.
It was an event that connected average Americans with celebrities. It reminded people that together we are better than we are alone.
On the morning of Thanksgiving, November 27th, 1947 40% of the US was still rural. For the country’s farmers who often lived miles from the nearest city, radio’s morning reports were an important piece of information. With inflation soaring, farmers needed to eke out every cent of profit they could.
Americans were organizing. In the year after VJ Day, more than five million struck for better wages and benefits. This debilitated key sectors of the economy and stifled production. Consumer goods in high-demand were slow to appear on shelves and in showrooms, frustrating Americans who desperately wanted to purchase items they had forsaken during the war.
It caused the largest inflation rise in the country’s modern history, and the Taft-Hartley Act, limiting the power of Labor Unions.
President Truman was seemingly at odds with Congress over every domestic policy and his approval rating sank to 32%.
The U.S. War Debt had topped $240 Billion. Because the nation emerged as one of the world’s leaders, America was expected to have the largest hand in rebuilding Europe.
On the eve of Thanksgiving, news outlets reported that, in order to stabilize Europe, Americans should to be ready to resume sacrifices they made during the war. The fear was that by not agreeing to do so, Americans would help create a situation where political enemies would take over Europe and Asia.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 97: Thanksgiving 1947—The Most Popular Season in Radio History
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At 12:45PM on Thanksgiving Day 1947, while CBS was broadcasting Our Gal Sunday, and NBC a Thanksgiving Food Conservation Program, The Answer Man took to the air over WOR in New York.
Each quarter-hour installment was filled with all kinds of information. New York’s answer man was Albert Mitchell. The series was sold as a concept and developed in individual markets. Joe Mansfield was the Answer Man in Los Angeles. As many as 2,500 questions per day came in. Co-creator Bruce Chapman and his staff answered almost a million pieces of mail a year.
On the Sunday, November 23rd, 1947 episode of The Jack Benny Program, the gang celebrates Thanksgiving with a movie of Jack's life.
This episode aired live over all NBC stations at 7PM Eastern Time, with an additional repeat for Pacific time listeners at 9:30 PM Pacific Time. Its rating was 22.0, heard by roughly 20 million listeners.
Hosted by Morgan Beatty, NBC's News of the World was broadcast twice per evening. On the eve of Thanksgiving in 1947, The Marshall Plan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan) was the most important piece of international news. Officially called the European Recovery Program, it was to help Europe rebuilt after World War II at a cost of over twelve billion dollars.
News of the World dissected the proposed terms.
In August of 1970, prolific New York stage, radio, TV, and commercial actress Jan Miner sat down with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for their WTIC Golden Age of Radio program (Full interview here - https://www.goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-05.html).
During the course of their conversation about her career, Jan explained how significant the Frank and Anne Hummert production company was. In 1947 the couple produced eighteen shows and owned a 4.5 hour block of mid-day programming, coast-to-coast.
On the November 9th, 1947 edition of Walter WInchell's Jergen's Journal on ABC, the outspoken journalist commented on the famine in Europe, Anti-communist fears, the latest James C. Petrillo Musician's Union strike, and other hard-hitting topics.
In Breaking Walls episode 121, we finish our Americana mini-series by coming home for November’s festivities. We’ll cheer for the home team, taste the best turkey dressing, and remember what’s most important with some of radio’s best.
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Highlights: • What Can We Be Thankful For? • Thanksgiving with The Answer Man and Radio’s Origin • Ken Carpenter and One Man’s Family • The Columbia Workshop Relaunches • Hearts in Harmony • Damon Runyon’s Football Homecoming • John Brown’s Communist Troubles • Thanksgiving with Miss Brooks • Bob Bailey and Let George Do It • Thanksgiving with Ozzie and Harriet • Checking in With Bob and Ray • Have Gun Will Travel • Ending with Jean Shepherd • Looking ahead to December
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
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The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On the Air - By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg
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On the interview front: • Eve Arden, Ken Carpenter, Norman Corwin, Gale Gordon, Virginia Gregg, Gloria McMillan, Carlton E. Morse and Janet Waldo spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.
• Eve Arden, Roberta Bailey-Goodwin and Dick Joy, spoke with John Dunning for his 71KNUS program from Denver.
• John Dehner spoke to SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com.
• John Dehner also spoke with Neil Ross for KMPC and John Hickman of WAMU.
• Ozzie Nelson spoke with Johnny Carson and James Day.
• Frank Stanton spoke with CBS for their 50th Anniversary in 1977
• William Paley spoke while receiving an award on November 20th, 1958.
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Thanksgiving and Joy — By George Winston • The Holly and the Ivy — By Velvet & Voices • Simple Gifts, Pachelbel’s Canon, and Autumn Stars — By Michael Silverman • The Pavane — By Steve Erquiaga
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Special thanks to:
The Fireside Mystery Theatre https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com/
The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society https://www.ghoulishdelights.com/
Twelve Chimes, It’s Midnight https://www.twelvechimesradio.com/
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Subscribe to Burning Gotham—the new audio drama set in 1835 New York City. It’s available everywhere you get your podcasts and at BurningGotham.com.
—————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.
For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.
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Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Chris Pilkington
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WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers
On January 31st, 1975 Eve Arden was a guest of Chuck Schaden's backstage at the Drury Lane Theater in Evergreen Park, Illinois (full chat here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/eve-arden/). They spoke about her life and professional career, touching on many subjects. During the chat, Chuck asked Ms. Arden if she'd ever worked with Jack Benny, to which she had a very interesting revelation. Do you think Eve could have pulled it off?
Radio actor John Gibson of Casey, Crime Photographer and Terry and the Pirates (seen here, far left, with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran) was a guest of the pair for their WTIC Golden Age of Radio Program in September of 1970 (full episode here https://www.goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-06.html).
During the course of their interview he told a story of when he sensed, during a moment in the late 1940s, that television would displace radio. This early realization helped John get a head start on breaking into television after World War II.
On Wednesday October 15th, 1947 at 6:30PM over ABC's New York City flagship station WJZ (today WABC), New York Tonight signed on with emcee Allen Prescott.
Prescott was born in St. Louis in 1904. By the post-war years he was an ABC panel host and radio commentator. This evening program featured news, his personal reflections, and music. It mentions Bing Crosby's Wednesday evening Philco Radio Time program and the new Lana Turner/Van Heflin film Green Dolphin Street which opened that day.
This recording only features the first half of the show. It's one of the only surviving of the series.
This is a snipper from Breaking Walls Episode 119: Radio and The Diner (1937 - 1965)
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The American Broadcasting Company never overtook NBC or CBS in ratings or revenue during the Golden Age of Radio. But by 1964, the only network drama airing was part of vignettes on NBC’s Monitor.
That spring, ABC announced they were launching a new show. They hired former NBC writer Jack Wilson as story editor and assigned the series to directors Warren Sommerville and Frederick Bell.
Edward Byron, creator of Mr. District Attorney was brought in to advise. Fred Foy, longtime Lone Ranger announcer, joined the production. The new series would be a weekday half-hour anthology called Theater Five in honor of its broadcast time in the New York market.
Theater Five premiered on August 3rd with a play called “Hit and Run.” A month after its launch, sixty-one stations were carrying the transcribed series. ABC President Robert Pauley announced they were hiring a dedicated salesman to pitch Theater Five in the country’s top markets.
The kinds of stories produced ran the gamut. Many plots were taken from contemporary newspapers.
A funny thing happened along the way: As young actors turned to TV in the 1950s, radio child actors became extinct. In November of 1964, Broadcasting Magazine announced that ABC Radio was setting up a Children’s Acting Workshop to teach kids how to perform for radio. Classes were ninety minutes long and students would work with director Ted Bell.
In January of 1965 ABC’s radio department reported a sixteen percent gross billing increase. That same month actor Lee Bowman joined the team as an executive producer.
On May 4th, Theater Five broadcast “Incident on U.S. One.” It guest-starred James Earl Jones.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 120: Radio and The Harvest (1936 - 1954) ____________________
Jim Jordan was born on a farm near Peoria, Illinois on November 16th, 1896. He met Marian Driscoll, a coal miner’s daughter, at choir practice. She was born on April 15th, 1898. Both wanted a life in the theater. He studied voice and she played the piano.
They were married on August 31st, 1918.
By the 1920s Jim and Marion were performing together on stage, playing in small-town movie houses and lodge halls throughout the midwest. Their two children, Kathryn, and Jim Jr. were born at the end of Vaudeville tours.
Vaudeville wasn’t paying off. They went broke in 1923 and Jim went to work in a department store, but the Jordans couldn’t stay away from the stage. Jim soon went to Chicago for a traveling musical show.
In 1924 the couple debuted on the radio. Under that first contract, they were heard on WIBO as The O’Henry Twins for twenty-six weeks.
From 1925 until 1927, they played over Chicago’s WENR, gradually making the transition to comedy. They were heard in a children’s show, The Air Scouts until December 31st, 1929 and both Jim’s Grab Bag and Luke and Mirandy until 1931. Over this early period they developed dozens of on-air voices.
In 1929 the Jordans met Don Quinn on The Farmer Rusk Hour. They became friends, with Quinn penning occasional gags for the couple. Their loose partnership led to success.
On Luke and Mirandy, Jordan played a character named Uncle Luke, a fibber of sorts, and Marian was Aunt Mirandy, his wife. They starred in skits on The National Farm and Home Hour over NBC’s WMAQ. This would last until 1935. They simultaneously were featured players in a soap opera, The Smith Family.
It was this partnership that eventually led to Smackout.
In 1971 Jim Jordan, better known as Fibber McGee, sat down with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC's the Golden Age of Radio to talk about his career (full interview here - https://goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-14.html). In this clip Jim explains how Fibber McGee and Molly came to be in the mid 1930s.
In August of 1971, radio, television, and cartoon character actor Hans Conried sat for an interview with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for their WTIC Golden Age of Radio program (full interview here - https://goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-17.html).
During the interview Hans explained what/who killed radio drama in the 1950s.
On the October 10th, 1948 episode of the Jack Benny Program Rochester reads Jack's diary recounting his summer trip to Europe, and the gang listens to the 1948 World Series featuring the Cleveland Indians and the Boston Braves.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 120: Radio and The Harvest (1936 - 1954) ____________________
Hal Peary spent the 1940s starring on radio and in films as Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve. Gildersleeve began as a character on Fibber McGee and Molly. Peary joined the cast in 1937, first playing every kind of bit part imaginable.
In the late 1930s, he approached Don Quinn with an idea for a recurring role. He wanted to play a pompous windbag who himself ran the biggest bluff in Wistful Vista. He thought it the perfect foil for McGee. Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve’s first appearance was on September 26th, 1939.
The Great Gildersleeve became radio’s first major spinoff series, debuting on NBC on August 31st, 1941.
In Summerfield, he was guardian to niece and nephew, Marjorie and Leroy Forrester. Marjorie was studious and curious and seldom gave Gildy trouble. Leroy, age 12, was the wiseguy. The household also had a voice for common sense, Birdie Lee Coggins, introduced in September.
By the autumn of 1943 Peary had become a film star.
The radio show’s rating peaked with a 16.3 in 1944. It was notable because the program served as a Sunday lead-in to The Jack Benny Program. A 16.3 was the highest rating ever for a program airing at 6:30PM.
Peary played the character through the rest of the decade, but in 1949 and 1950, Jack Benny, Amos N’ Andy, Red Skelton, Bing Crosby, and Burns and Allen all jumped to CBS. Peary jumped with them.
There were two problems, he didn’t own the Gildersleeve character, and Kraft foods wasn’t interested in making the jump.
Jack Benny's historic 1945-46 season began on the Sunday evening after Daylight Savings Time's expiration in 1945. In story, Benny needs to get ready for his program, but is unsure of what the time is. Hilarity ensues.
This season's open included the debuting telephone operators Mabel and Gertrude, voiced by Bea Benaderet and Sara Berner.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 112: Drama At NBC (1949 - 1950) ____________________
The last series we’ll examine from the 1949-50 season made it’s NBC debut on Sunday June 11th, 1950 at 7:30PM. It had begun on CBS in 1945, but like many shows launched by NBC this year, it was most recently airing on The Mutual Broadcasting System.
It starred radio, film, stage, and TV legend Vincent Price.
The series we’re speaking about is Price’s only continuous starring role: as Simon Templar in The Saint. Leslie Charteris created the character as a suave private eye. He was a dapper dresser, equally at home at the wheel of a fast car, in an airplane, or on horseback.
Sometimes the Saint simply broke the law, if the result justified it.
This episode “The Corpse Said Ouch” aired on Sunday August 6th opposite The Amazing Mr. Malone on ABC, and Hit The Jackpot on CBS. Shirley Mitchell was Francis Blake and Lawrence Dobkin was Louie the Cabbie.
In November of 1972 Vincent Price appeared on WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran (full interview here - https://goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-32.html). During the interview he spoke about why he loved radio drama so much and why he feels the networks made a big mistake in forgoing the medium for television.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 96: Halloween On The Air (1943 - 1953)
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In 1945 Bing Crosby decided that he wanted to pre-record his NBC Kraft Music Hall program. Although transcription had existed since the late 1920s, NBC and CBS forbade their use for prime-time network shows.
NBC and Kraft refused to budge. Crosby walked out. In the fall of 1945 The Kraft Music Hall went back on with comic Frank Morgan, pianist Eddy Duchin, and the Charioteers. Crosby declared his contract null and void. Kraft insisted they had options which ran until 1950. The sponsor took Bing and agency J. Walter Thompson to court.
The walkout would last seven months. A settlement brought Crosby back for the final thirteen weeks of the season.
In the midst of this Walgreen Drugs Stores sponsored a transcribed 45th Anniversary special on CBS at 10pm on June 18th, 1946. The program was one of the network’s first transcribed shows to be heard from coast to coast. It starred Bob Hope with talents including The Andrews Sisters, Frank Morgan, Harry Von Zell, Rochester, and Ginny Simms. The program cost $62,000 to produce. The Walgreen’s special was proof that transcription could be viable if the networks would allow it.
With Bing finishing his Kraft obligation he was now a free agent. The American Broadcasting Company quickly signed the star, announcing that they had no qualms with pre-recorded shows. They announced a to-be-titled musical program with a weekly budget of $35,000.
Now they just had to find a sponsor.
In 1965, CBS cameras followed Frank Sinatra around with unprecedented access to the performer's personal life. In this clip, seated at Jilly Rizzo's restaurant, he retells a joke to a group of friends and family, which included Sammy Davis Jr. and daughter Nancy Sinatra. After Nancy Sinatra explains that she wished her father caroused less, and stayed home more.
In the spring of 1973, longtime radio announcer Tony Marvin sat down with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio to discuss his life and career (full interview here - https://www.goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-39.html). During the course of the interview Marvin explained why it was so important for a staff announcer to be able to handle a wide variety of news, sports, and product hawking.
In Breaking Walls episode 120, we continue our Americana mini-series in autumn with a host of harvest-centered radio programing. We’ll warm by the fire and listen in on stories from some of the medium’s most prominent.
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Highlights: • Welcome to October, Welcome to Harvest Season • Fibber and Molly Launches • Feast from Cavalcade’s Harvest • Mel and Dennis Get Their Own Shows • Gale Gordon’s Green Acres • How Mild Can Richard Diamond on ABC Be? • From Peary to Waterman as Gildy Changes Leads • Escape From the Death of Network Dramatic Radio • Looking Ahead to the Homecoming
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
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The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On the Air - By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg
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On the interview front: • Mel Blanc, Dennis Day, Gale Gordon, Phil Harris, Jim Jordan, Jim Jordan Jr., Harold Peary, and Willard Waterman spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats and many others from Chuck’s forty year career at SpeakingOfRadio.com.
• Mel Blanc, Jim Jordan, and William N. Robson spoke with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these full interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org.
• Harry Bartell and Virginia Gregg spoke to SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com.
• Don Quinn was interviewed by Owen Cunningham in 1951.
• Ozzie Nelson was a guest of Johnny Carson’s in 1969.
• Mel Blanc also spoke with Jack Carney.
• Dennis Day also spoke with John Dunning for his 71KNUS program from Denver.
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Autumn — By Michael Silverman • Ghost Bus Tours — By George Fenton for High Spirits • Moon — By George Winston • Shine On Harvest Moon — By Joan Morris and William Bolcom
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Special thanks to:
The Fireside Mystery Theatre https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com/
The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society https://www.ghoulishdelights.com/
Twelve Chimes, It’s Midnight https://www.twelvechimesradio.com/
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Subscribe to Burning Gotham—the new audio drama set in 1835 New York City. It’s available everywhere you get your podcasts and at BurningGotham.com.
—————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.
For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.
——————————
Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Chris Pilkington
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WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers
An excerpt from an episode of Johnny Carson's Tonight Show in 1973 featuring Jack Benny. In this clip Jack talks about his love of the violin.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 96: Halloween On The Air (1943 - 1953)
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In the fall of 1948, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet moved to Sunday evenings at 6:30PM on NBC radio. Although critically acclaimed, the couple had failed to crack the overall top-50 ratings on CBS in any of its first four seasons.
The band-leading Ozzie Nelson and Harriet Hilliard met in New York and were married in 1935. They began working comedic bits into their musical performances, eventually making their way to radio in 1941 when they joined The Red Skelton Show on NBC. After Skelton was drafted in 1944, CBS nabbed the couple, giving them their own sitcom.
Ozzie led all aspects of production and was the show’s pivotal character, with his tangents the vehicles for confusion. Each week Harriet would gently guide him back to reason. Episodes usually ended with Ozzie suffering embarrassment while his sons got in a few comic jabs.
Both Ozzie and Harriet felt their children David and Ricky were too young to play themselves. And there were financial implications in big-time network radio. During the first four seasons child actors Tommy Bernard and Henry Blair played the Nelson children.
When the show moved to NBC in 1948 it was positioned as the lead-in for The Jack Benny Program. That Halloween Ozzie and Harriet visited a Haunted House.
On July 14th, 1979, radio writer/producer/actor/director Elliott Lewis was a guest of SPERDVAC in California. In this clip, he speaks about the importance of understanding the entire creative process and why it's important for a radio creator to do a little of everything.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 96: Halloween On The Air (1943 - 1953)
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In 1934, with Chicago the center for radio production, NBC Writer and director Wyllis Cooper created a program for NBC's affiliate WENR that drastically altered the tone of horror.
Cooper had been writing advertising copy in the late 1920s when he entered radio, working first as a continuity editor then for NBC's Empire Builders.
His idea was to offer listeners a late-night terror program, at a time when other stations were mostly airing music. It emphasized crime thrillers and the supernatural. The first series of shows (each 15 minutes long) ran on Wednesdays at midnight to local audiences.
It was called, Lights Out.
In April, the series expanded to a half-hour. The following year, it went national. Cooper stayed on until 1936 when he left to write film scripts in Los Angeles.
He wrote The Phantom Creeps and The Son of Frankenstein before returning for the final season of The Campbell Playhouse on CBS and The Army Hour on NBC.
Then in the Spring of 1947 a new opportunity arose in New York. Quiet Please debuted on Sunday June 8th, 1947 at 3:30PM over the Mutual Broadcasting System.
Quiet Please elevated the genre to a high art. For the weekly lead, Cooper selected Ernest Chappell, The Campbell Playhouse’s announcer..
Chappell proved a natural. He played Scotsman, oil riggers, drunks, and archaeologists. They were every-men who got tied up in the supernatural.
Few supporting voices could be afforded or deployed. Those who were were part of New York radio’s elite like Frank and Claudia Morgan. The cast was told to play it straight. It resulted in an almost dream-like study in horrific high-art, like on October 27th, 1947 when Quiet Please presented “Don’t Tell Me About Halloween.”
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 96: Halloween On The Air (1943 - 1953)
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Sherlock Holmes peaked on radio between 1939 and 1946 with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce playing Holmes and Watson. They made fourteen films during this time, and their rating climbed to 14.1 in 1942 on NBC.
The next year, the entire cast moved to the Mutual Broadcasting System. They remained for three seasons until Holmes left for ABC. Basil Rathbone stayed with Mutual to star in a new series called Scotland Yard.
Nigel Bruce stayed on as Watson while Tom Conway became Holmes. When the Semler Company discontinued sponsorship in the spring of 1947, ABC cancelled the show.
That summer Clipper Craft Clothing signed to pay the bills. The show moved back to Mutual with John Stanley as Holmes and Alfred Shirley as Watson.
The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes signed on the air Saturdays at 7PM. On October 26th, Holmes and Watson tackled the case of the Laughing Lemur.
That season, the Holmes rating was only 9.9. No incarnation cracked the top one-hundred programs on American radio ever again.
In November of 1970, Actress June Havoc and her husband, the prolific radio director Bill Spier were guests of Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio (full interview here -https://www.goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-08.html).
During the interview June Havoc remembered her experience listening to radio during the Golden Age, while Bill Spier pondered whether or not someone was at fault for dramatic radio's demise.
In October of 1984, Chuck Schaden sat down with actress Shirley Mitchell for a conversation about her life and career (full interview here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/mitchell-shirley-actress/). During the course of the chat, Shirley explained how she made it out to the West Coast from Chicago.
On the April 20th, 1958 episode of Frontier Gentleman, J.B. Kendall is in Deadwood, Dakota Territory where he meets Wild Bill Hickok. Kendall becomes fast friends with the ex-lawman. Hickok invited Kendall to join him, Colorado Charlie Utter, and Calamity Jane to play cards with them. Doing so makes Kendall an unintended part of American history.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 96: Halloween On The Air (1943 - 1953) ___________
One summer day in 1948, Willam S. Paley received a proposal from Lew Wasserman and Taft Shreiber—President and VP of The Music Corporation of America. They asked if CBS would be interested in buying The Amos N’ Andy Show, then airing on NBC.
At the time, U.S. Citizens were taxed 77% of all income over $70,000. However, if the duo behind Amos N’ Andy, Charles Correll and Freeman Gosden incorporated and sold their show to the network, they would be taxed under capital gains laws at 25%.
NBC wouldn’t allow the deal. But William Paley jumped at the chance. Amos n’ Andy moved over on October 10th. Shortly after, Lew Wasserman phoned again. He asked if CBS would be interested in purchasing The Jack Benny Program.
Benny organized his activities into a corporation. Paley and Wasserman negotiated an agreement for CBS to buy it for $2.26 Million.
NBC sent president Niles Trammel to California with orders to keep Benny at NBC. When William Paley heard that Trammel was on his way to California, he called Benny directly to arrange an in-person meeting. Benny invited him to Los Angeles.
Paley and CBS counsel Ralph Colin set up shop at the Beverly Hills Hotel. RCA head David Sarnoff was there as well, to help ensure Niles Trammel would secure the deal.
NBC responded with a major counteroffer. Lew Wasserman intervened. CBS matched the counteroffer, and an impressed Jack Benny signed it. Sponsor American Tobacco was uneasy. Paley convinced them to back the move by offering compensation for every rating point Benny’s show lost.
As all of this was happening, The Jack Benny Program broadcast live on the evening of Sunday, October 31st, 1948.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 95: Radio And The Classroom (1939 - 1965)
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As the end of Summer turns into Autumn, the weather cools off and Friday night football games, dances, and eventually All Hallow’s Eve become part of school functions.
In 1820 Washington Irving, one of America’s first great novelists, penned a short story called “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”
The tale is about a schoolmaster Ichabod Crane, a superstitious outsider. He’s competing for the hand of Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter and sole child of a wealthy farmer.
Sleepy Hollow is a small village in Westchester County, just north of New York City. This aired on NBC’s American Novels from WMAQ Chicago on Friday September 19th, 1947 at 10:30PM.
Part of a larger series called The World’s Great Novels, the concept was born from the NBC Education Department.
Ichabod Crane sees marriage to Katrina as path to wealth, but his rival Van Brunt plays a series of pranks on the jittery schoolmaster, and tensions among the three are soon brought to a head. On a cool autumn night, Crane attends a harvest party at the Van Tassels' homestead. He dances, feasts, and listens to ghostly legends told by Van Brunt and the locals. He leaves after failing to secure Katrina’s hand, riding his horse through woodland between the Homestead and Sleepy Hollow.
It was renamed The NBC University Theater of the Air, and production moved to Hollywood on July 30th, 1948,
The series was offered as a college accredited course and was considered one of the most ambitious radio programs on the air. It now featured intermission commentary from luminaries and won a Peabody Award before going off the air on February 14th, 1951.
On January 30th, 1958, Antony Ellis directed a pilot for Frontier Gentleman. Entitled "Remittance Man," this version would later make air with slight changes (and the same cast) as "The Shelton Brothers." This, however, is the audition performance.
On September 11th, 1976 famed radio actor and announcer Marvin Miller was a guest of SPERDVAC (https://www.sperdvac.com/) for a long conversation about his career. In this clip, he talks about how he got into radio.
In Breaking Walls episode 119 we continue our Americana mini-series by bringing our appetites to the diner. We’ll hear stories from some of radio’s best and center ourselves around shows taking place in establishments.
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Highlights: • What Exactly is a Diner? • Lux Presents Hollywood • Suspense At the End of World War II • The Diner After World War II • Bill Conrad, Burt Lancaster, and The Killers • ABC Takes Friday Nights With This Is Your FBI • Frank Sinatra and His Rocky Fortune • Going Back to Gunsmoke • James Earl Jones and Theater Five
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
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The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On the Air - By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg
As well as: • From Hash House to Family Restaurant: The Transformation of the Diner and Post-World War II Consumer Culture — By Andrew Hurley from The March 1997 Journal of American History.
And other articles from: • Paste Magazine • Smithsonian Magazine
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On the interview front: • Parley Baer, Conrad Binyon, Norman Corwin, and Lurene Tuttle spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.
• Parley Baer, Jerry Devine, Lawrence Dobkin, Fred Foy, and Bob Maxwell, were with SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com.
• William Spier spoke with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear this full interview at Goldenage-WTIC.org.
• John Dehner was with Neil Ross for KMPC.
• Frank Sinatra spoke with Arlene Francis, Walter Cronkite, and Larry King.
• William Conrad with Chris Lambesis.
• Norman Macdonnell with John Hickman of WAMU for his Gunsmoke documentary.
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Theme From A Summer Place — By Percy Faith • I’ve Got The World on a String and Why Try To Change Me Now — By Frank Sinatra • The Venice Dreamer Pt1 and 2 — By George Winston • Across the Alley from the Alamo — By The Mills Brothers
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Special thanks to:
Terror on the Air https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUbviBTC1CamzamykVCqN0A https://soundcloud.com/terrorontheair https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/terror-on-the-air/id1477581905 https://open.spotify.com/show/63o0AY4Zhv5hQsjGVbMbLk?si=YN_vUk3yTgqvOw73u59BtQ
The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society https://www.ghoulishdelights.com/
Twelve Chimes, It’s Midnight https://www.twelvechimesradio.com/ ——————————
Subscribe to Burning Gotham—the new audio drama set in 1835 New York City. It’s available everywhere you get your podcasts and at BurningGotham.com.
—————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.
For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.
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Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Chris Pilkington
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WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers
Conductor Howard Barlow, who'd later go on to be known as "the voice of Firestone," was conducting in-studio for CBS during their first big broadcast in 1927.
In this clip, recorded for Westinghouse's 50th anniversary in 1970, he talks about the in-studio confusion during those early days.
Barbara Walters interviewed George Burns for 20/20 in 1979. During the course of the interview George spoke about marrying Gracie while performing on the vaudeville circuit.
In August of 1982 SPERDVAC (www.sperdvac.com) hosted a CBS panel at the Thousand Oaks Library in California. The panel featured some of the best known radio character actors of the 1940s and 1950s.
When the panel was asked about their recollections of Frontier Gentleman and Antony Ellis, Frontier Gentleman star John Dehner had this to say.
Corey Ford was an American humorist, author, outdoorsman, screenwriter, and occasional member of the famed Algonquin Round Table in New York City. He penned several famous works, including the 1946 Cloak and Dagger. It became a film starring Gary Cooper, Lili Palmer, and Robert Alda.
It’s the story of an undercover agent for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II, on a mission to make contact with a Hungarian nuclear physicist, and thwart a German nuclear project. The film earned more than $4.5 million at the box office.
In May of 1950, NBC brought a version of these tales to the air, as part of their Sunday afternoon block of mystery programs. It would be produced in New York, and star some of the east coast’s most famous character actors, like Raymond Edward Johnson, Joseph Julian, Lili Darvas, Everett Sloan, and Santos Ortega.
Cloak and Dagger debuted on May 7th.
Twenty-two episodes aired with four preemptions over the next twenty-six weeks. With no sponsorship ensuing, NBC cancelled Cloak and Dagger after October 22nd. The network lacked the patience of CBS to sustain costs in growing their own internal productions.
In September of 1972, former NBC engineer and producer Aldo Gizalbert sat down with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for their Hartford, CT-based WTIC Golden Age of Radio Program (full interview here - https://goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-30.html).
Mr. Gizalbert speaks in this clip about the early days of NBC's programming at Radio City.
On August 6th, 1976 Chuck Schaden sat down with Norman Corwin for a conversation about the latter's life and career (full interview here). During the course of the conversation, they touched on Corwin's VJ-Day piece, "Fourteen August," which aired over CBS on August 14th, 1945.
On August 14th, 1945 after the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan accepted the United States' terms of surrender, officially ending World War II.
That evening, Norman Corwin produced a special broadcast commemorating this event. Because the staff at CBS was unsure if and when Japan would accept the US' surrender terms, Corwin had very little time to prepare this piece. What he did prepare was a self-aware, fitting epitaph for the people of an exhausted nation.
Orson Welles was the narrator. It was broadcast coast-to-coast on CBS.
In the winter of 1945 there were many soldiers who were still injured and recovering in army hospitals across the world. To help pay back its war debt, the people of the United States banded together through donations, bond purchasing, and spreading glad tidings and good cheer. Sadie Marks (Mary Livingston) spoke this Red Cross PSA at the end of the December 2nd, 1945 episode of the Jack Benny Program.
The PSA is followed by a show-closing Lucky Strike commercial that is comical by today's standards and knowledge of the dangers of smoking cigarettes.
When Fred Allen passed away unexpectedly of a heart attack on St. Patrick's Day in 1956, it sent the entire radio community into mourning. That May 29th, in honor of what would have been his 62nd birthday, NBC Broadcast a Biography in Sound on Fred Allen. As part of the broadcast, Jack Benny talked about how his comedic feud with Fred Allen began in the 1930s.
In early 1943 Orson Welles was in production alongside Joan Fontaine with 20th Century Fox for Jane Eyre.
Although Welles enjoyed acting for the screen, he preferred live radio. In March, when Jack Benny took ill with pneumonia, Welles filled in as host of The Jack Benny Program.
Jack returns on April 11th, but Orson isn’t quite ready to let go.
(Photo: Actors Mickey Rooney, Jack Benny, and Orson Welles talk things over before going on the air in a recent broadcast here in connection with the March of Dimes for the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis.)
This clip, from early in the 1950s during Edward R. Murrow's This I Believe CBS Radio program takes aim at Senator Joseph McCarthy during the height of McCarthyism.
It was Murrow's work that would help undue some of the harm the Senator caused to people in the entertainment industry during the Red Scare of the mid-1950s.
At a SPERDVAC meeting on March 14th, 1992 which featured Jeanette Nolan, Mary Jane Croft, and Sam Edwards, radio legend Jeanette Nolan explained how she got involved in radio during the 1930s.
On the August 4th, 1949 episode of CBS' Escape, "You are isolated on a remote plantation in the crawling Amazon Jungle and an immense army of ravenous ants is closing in on you - swarming in to eat you alive. A deadly black army from which there is no escape."
This is the third broadcast of "Leiningen Versus The Ants" broadcast on Escape. This version features Gerald Mohr and Tudor Owen.
In the early 1990s, Red Skelton was a guest of Canadian television host Dini Petty's talk show. They spoke about his life and career. In this clip, Red Skelton explains how comedian Ed Wynn got him started in show-biz when he was just a kid.
Breaking Walls is the podcast on the history of American network radio broadcasting. It focuses on people, places, stories, and events from the Golden Age of American Radio. Find us and subscribe everywhere you get your podcasts and at TheWallBreakers.com
In Breaking Walls episode 118 we hit the road with part one of an Americana mini-series. We’ll gas up with some of radio’s best and examine shows taking place at America’s filling stations.
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Highlights: • Al Hodge and The Green Hornet • Getting a Checkup at Doctor Christian’s • Lux Presents: They Drive By Night with Lana Turner and Lucille Ball • Orson Welles and The Hitchhiker • ABC competes with NBC and CBS • Dragnet leads to The Lineup • Stacey Keach and The Last Tales of the Texas Rangers • The Gas Crisis and the CBS Radio Mystery Theater
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
——————————
The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On the Air - By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — by Jim Ramsburg
As well as articles from • The Association For Convenience and Fuel Retailing • Family Tree Magazine • NationalParkService.Org • Newsweek • The Smithsonian Magazine
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On the interview front: • Virginia Gregg and Lurene Tuttle spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.
• Himan Brown, Larry Haines, Vincent Price, and Rudy Vallée spoke with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these full interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org.
• Herb Ellis, Byron Kane, Stacy Keach Sr, and Herb Vigran were with SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com.
• Bing Crosby and John Scott Trotter spoke with Same Time, Same Station.
• Lucille Ball was with both Dick Cavett and Joan Rivers.
• Orson Welles with Johnny Carson.
• Al Hodge with Richard Lamparski.
• Vic Perrin with Neill Ross for KMPC.
• Joel McCrae was interviewed by Al Greenberg for Orco Development.
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Route 66 — By Nat King Cole • Deep Night — By Rudy Vallée • The Klezmer’s Wedding — By Andre Moisan • Living Without You — By George Winston • Fly Me To The Moon — By Julie London
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Special thanks to:
The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society https://www.ghoulishdelights.com/
The Fireside Mystery Theatre https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com/
Twelve Chimes, It’s Midnight https://www.twelvechimesradio.com/
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Subscribe to Burning Gotham—the new audio drama set in 1835 New York City. It’s available everywhere you get your podcasts and at BurningGotham.com.
—————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.
For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.
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Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Chris Pilkington
——————————
WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 90: The Hollywood People Behind Radio’s Baby Boomer Boom (1945 - 1954).
By 1946 Los Angeles was the number one location for dramatic radio’s production. Hollywood had the country’s biggest stars and radio’s most famous performers. Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Red Skelton, and many others called Hollywood home.
Even before the war, Los Angeles had been attracting hopeful radio actors, writers, and producers. By America’s first year of peace, a troupe of hungry professionals had assembled.
These are some of their thoughts on the people they knew and the industry they worked so closely with.
On October 7th, 1971 Chuck Schaden interviewed famous host and emcee Ralph Edwards about his life and career (full interview here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/edwards-ralph/). During the course of the conversation Mr. Edwards explained how he found himself at CBS in New York very early in his career after giving radio up on the West Coast.
On February 7th, 1982, Bob Bailey's daughter Roberta Bailey-Goodwin joined John Dunning on 71KNUS for a chat about her father's life and career. Bailey was famous on radio for playing the lead in Let George Do It and later Yours Truly Johnny Dollar.
In the July 23rd, 1956 episode of Yours Truly Johnny Dollar starring Bob Bailey, Dollar receives a telephone call from Ralph Kearns of Great Plains Guarantee. The company is investigating a fifty-two-year-old man who married a twenty-seven-year-old woman eight months ago. The man is the Chief of Police in Greensport, Missouri.
One month after they were married an insurance policy was taken out for $50,000 on his life, with his wife as the beneficiary. Three days ago, the man was shot to death. Twenty-four hours later the man's "grieving widow" filed a claim on the policy. Great Plains wants Johnny to go to Greensport to investigate.
To listen to the next four episodes in this storyline, go to - https://archive.org/details/OTRR_YoursTrulyJohnnyDollar_Singles
In August of 1987, famed radio director Jack Johnstone was a guest of SPERDVAC's at the Thousand Oaks Library in California. During the course of the conversation on Johnstone's life and career he told a brief story about the Johnny Dollar recording process. Jack Johnstone directed the show between 1955 and 1960 when Bob Bailey was the star.
In the July 19th, 1952 episode of Gunsmoke, Doc Holiday comes to Dodge City. Holiday is a gunman, but on the right side of the law and a friend of Matt Dillon's. In this episode, Big Jack Finley, self-made "King of Southern Kansas" has a son named Thorne Finley. Thorne is a rotten apple. That rotten apple and Doc Holiday have a problem. It's Matt's job to intervene before Big Jack has his way.
Noted radio and tv actor and narrator Les Tremayne had a career that spanned eight decades. Here he spoke with Chuck Schaden (full interview here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/tremayne-les-announcer/) about some of the great things radio acting afforded the lay actor/actress.
On May 13th, 1988, Frank Sinatra was a guest of Larry King's for an incredible chat about the legend's life and career. During the course of the chat, the conversation turned to Frank's acting career. He had this to say about it.
The full interview can be watched here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-xkTDhOpCY
On May 10th, 1986, SPERDVAC (https://www.sperdvac.com/) was host to a This is Your FBI Panel and show recreation which featured creator Jerry Devine and several actors, including Parley Baer, Peggy Webber, and Lou Krugman. During the course of the afternoon Jerry Devine answered several questions, including this one, on how the show originated.
In August of 1982 SPERDVAC (http://www.sperdvac.com) hosted a CBS panel at the Thousand Oaks Library in California. The panel featured some of the best known radio character actors of the 1940s and 1950s. One of them, Virginia Gregg, told a funny story of a joke John Dehner played on her while they were on the air together.
On August 9th, 1986, Lawrence Dobkin, Don Diamond, and Lilian Buyeff were guests of SPERDVAC (http://sperdvac.com/) for a conversation about their lives and acting careers.
During the chat, the conversation swung around to working for Jack Webb, which was something Lawrence Dobkin struggled to do. Here he explained why.
On the July 12th, 1951 episode of Dragnet, Detective Sergeant Joe Friday is assigned to burglary detail. A gang of clever thieves has been at work for three months. They've looted fashionable homes to the tune of $100,000 in furs and Jewels. There are no clues to their identity. It’s Friday’s job to get them.
In 2010 Walden Hughes of SPERDVAC and YesterdayUSA Radio interviewed longtime NBC Staff Writer Ernest Kinoy on his radio experiences. It wasn't long before the conversation got around to X-Minus-One, a program Kinoy adapted and wrote many original scripts for between 1955 and 1958.
By the summer of 1951, Martin and Lewis had become the biggest act in show business, with both blockbuster film roles and a touring act selling out venues everywhere. After previously failing, the duo were ready to jump back into radio.
NBC hired Ed Simmons and Norman Lear—Martin & Lewis’ comedy writers—to write the new program. Dick Mack was the director.
NBC offered it as part of their new multi-sponsor Tandem Plan. Chesterfield Cigarettes, Anacin Tablets, and the makers of Chiclets gum signed on.The new show premiered on October 5th, 1951 to great reviews. Readers of TV-Radio Life voted it their favorite comedy show of 1952.
On February 24th, 1953, Marilyn Monroe was the guest for a skit about the story of a cold-blooded newspaper editor who has no friends, but who is also loved by Marilyn Monroe. The play was entitled, "So Who Needs Friends?"
On March 12th, 1983, SPERDVAC (https://www.sperdvac.com/) hosted a conversation with actors Herb Ellis and Herb Vigran. During the course of their chat, Herb Ellis spoke about his friendship and working relationship with hollywood character actor Gerald Mohr, who starred as Philip Marlowe for CBS.
On the July 5th, 1950 episode of The Adventures of Philip Marlowe starring Gerald Mohr, Donna Rollins has hired Marlowe by special delivery letter. The letter includes $50. He's to find out where Arnold Latimore went. When Marlowe is unable to locate Latimore he goes to Donna Rollins to return her $50. Marlowe is alarmed and put off when Ms. Reed is now unconcerned about Latimore, but nervous about something else.
On the Independence Day, 1948 episode of CBS' high-adventure drama, Escape, "you are spurring a lathered horse through darkened streets, trapped by two hostile armies, with a kit of magic in your pocket, and the American revolution in the balance."
"A Tooth for Paul Revere" is a short story written in 1942 by Stephen Vincent Benét, who was born on 22nd July 1898 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It's a humorous look at a Yankee farmer's point of view of how the American Revolution really started.
Escape debuted on CBS radio on July 7th, 1947 and on Sunday, July 4th, 1948 it aired at 10:30PM eastern time.
This episode features names you will recognize: Harry Bartell (Lige Butterwick), Parley Baer (Paul Revere), Berry Kroeger (Narrator + Tavern Keeper + British Soldier), Gil Stratton, Jr. (Boy + William), Peggy Webber (Aunt + Boatshed Proprietress), Ann Morrison (Martha Butterwick + Customer), Dick Ryan (The Barber + Soldier + Horse Man), Paul Frees (Neighbor Williams + British Soldier No. 2), Bill Conrad (Loyalist + Signature voice), David Light (Special effects [sound]).
Actor Parley Baer was interviewed in the mid 1970s for a Gunsmoke radio documentary by WAMU's John Hickman. During one of their conversations Baer told a funny story about a running gag the Gunsmoke radio cast shared during their recording days.
On the July 2nd, 1955 episode of Gunsmoke, Marshall Matt Dillon arrives back in Dodge to discover a new bank has opened in town. The owner is Drew Holt (voiced by Vic Perrin), a man he has never heard of. Shortly thereafter, a General Parsley Smith (voiced by John Dehner) of the third Illinois Cavalry comes to see Dillon. Smith tells Dillon that the new bank owner, Drew Holt is a thief and a former double agent from during the Civil War. Smith wants Dillon to look into the matter.
On the June 30th, 1957 episode of Yours Truly Johnny Dollar, George Reed from Floyd's of England (like Lloyd's of London) calls Johnny to investigate a client. This client has paid his latest premium, $4500 USD ($43,109.52 today). The problem is, every single one of the hundred dollar bills used for payment is counterfeit. Sounds like the perfect job for the man with the action packed expense account!
This episode originally aired on Sunday 6/30/1957 at 5:30PM Eastern Daylight Time. It features Virginia Gregg and John McIntire in the cast.
In late 1972, Vincent Price sat down with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio (full interview here - https://www.goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-32.html).
During the course of their conversation, Price spoke about being accepted by the regular radio character actors even though he came to radio from Broadway.
In Breaking Walls episode 117 we blast off with NBC in the fall of 1955 and spotlight its premiere science fiction series, X Minus One. We’ll listen to episodes, hear interviews with those involved, and find out why this series continues to be a favorite among listeners today.
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Highlights: • The Beginning of the End for Network Radio Drama • Ernest Kinoy: NBC Staff Writer • Ray Bradbury’s Radio Memories • New York’s Radio Actors • Dimension X Leads to the Launching of X-Minus-One • In Late 1955 CBS is Radio’s Top Network • Mars is Heaven • Radio’s Vital Factor • Nightfall on X-Minus-One • Looking Ahead By Gassing Up
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
——————————
The reading material used in today’s episode was:
On the Air - By John Dunning
Articles from: Broadcasting-Telecasting Magazine
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On the interview front:
• Jackson Beck, John Gibson, Larry Haines, Mary Jane Higby, Joseph Julian, Mandel Kramer, Jan Miner, Arnold Moss, and Guy Sorel, spoke with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these full interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org
• Himan Brown and Nelson Olmsted were with SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com
• Bob Hastings spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear this full chat at SpeakingOfRadio.com
• Ernest Kinoy was with both Fran Stoddard for PBS and Walden Hughes for Yesterday USA
• Ray Bradbury spoke with Jerry Haendiges
• Santos Ortega was with Richard Lamparski
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Ill Wind — By the John Buzon Trio • Rock Around the Clock — By Bill Haley and the Comets • Satan Takes a Holiday — By Jack Malmsteen
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Special thanks to:
The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society https://www.ghoulishdelights.com/
Twelve Chimes, It’s Midnight https://www.twelvechimesradio.com/
Terror on the Air https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUbviBTC1CamzamykVCqN0A https://soundcloud.com/terrorontheair https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/terror-on-the-air/id1477581905 https://open.spotify.com/show/63o0AY4Zhv5hQsjGVbMbLk?si=YN_vUk3yTgqvOw73u59BtQ
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Subscribe to Burning Gotham—the new audio drama set in 1835 New York City. It’s available everywhere you get your podcasts and at BurningGotham.com.
—————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.
For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.
——————————
Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Chris Pilkington
——————————
WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers
On November 12th, 1976 Frank Sinatra was a guest of Johnny Carson's for an interview about his life and career, which preceded a surprise visit from Don Rickles and a Sinatra performance. During the course of the conversation, Johnny Carson asked Frank about some of the high points in his career. This was Frank's response.
On February 7th, 1982, Bob Bailey's daughter Robert Goodwin Bailey joined John Dunning on 71KNUS for a chat about her father's life and career. Bailey was famous on radio for playing the lead in Let George Do It and later Yours Truly Johnny Dollar. When his radio career ended in 1960, Bob Bailey struggled with alcoholism and although he recovered, eventually had a stroke.
In the last interview of his life on October 9th, 1985, Orson Welles appeared on Merv Griffin's TV show for a wide-ranging conversation about his life and career. During the course of the chat Orson spoke about the prime-time soaps of the 1980s and how they differed with the prime time radio Welles' was at the helm of early in his career.
After the show, Welles had dinner with his (unauthorized) biographer Barbara Leaming at Ma Maison in Los Angeles. A man named Patrick Terrail joined Welles after Leaming had left their table. “He was happy about everything that night”, said Terrail. “He was happy about the Griffin show because he thought it went well. Everything was going his way, and he was in a good mood. He was just in good spirits all the way around.”
Welles finished his dinner, went home, and died.
He was 70 at the time of his death. He is estimated to have died about three hours after the taping of the show. Welles was discovered by his driver, Fred Gillette, the next morning lying on a bed on the second floor of his home.
On December 3rd, 1984, with Joan Rivers subbing for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show, Lucille Ball appeared as special guest. During the course of the chat, Lucy explained how she found herself working in Hollywood on short notice in the early days of her career.
On the June 22nd, 1944 episode of Suspense: radio's outstanding theater of thrills, Lucille Ball guest-starred as a chorus girl who inexplicably finds ten thousand dollars in her purse after it's been temporarily stolen on the subway. She's not sure what to do about it, and it soon leads to trouble. Ball's character has been set up.
In early 1944 between films, Lucy began carving out a second career on the radio. She appeared on Duffy’s Tavern, Abbott & Costello, The Screen Guild Theater, and Suspense.
Simultaneously, with the biggest war effort in full-swing, Desi was put to the task of organizing entertainment shows for the army, using his and Lucy’s influence to snag stars for guest appearances. Word began to circulate about his abilities as a producer. He was soon put in charge of events at the Birmingham Hospital in San Fernando. Lucy threw herself into the fundraising efforts.
For more information on Lucille Ball's radio career and how it led to I Love Lucy, tune into Breaking Walls Episode 100: The Radio Career of Lucille Ball (1938-1952). It's available to stream and download for free anywhere you might get a podcast, and at http://thewallbreakers.com/
On the debut episode of NBC's Monitor on June 12th, 1955, Dave Garroway sat down for an interview with Marilyn Monroe. He'd heard she was permanently moving to New York, but was surprised to hear where she really wanted to live.
To hear this entire interview, tune into Breaking Walls Episode 116: The Launch of NBC’s Monitor (1955).
Photo: Marilyn Monroe in New York City, as photographed by Eve Arnold in 1955.
In 1976 John Hickman of WAMU put together an outstanding five-part documentary on the history of Gunsmoke. One of the people interviewed was Gunsmoke director Norman Macdonnell. Macdonnell directed the series during its entire radio run from 1952-1961.
In this clip he speaks about the sound effects patterns that SFX men Bill James, Ray Kemper, & Tom Hanley employed, and how "dead air" became a tool of theirs.
On the June 18th, 1955 episode of Gunsmoke, Lucy Middlecamp is a former dance hall girl who married Ethan Hunt, a soon-to-be preacher.
Chester never could understand the relationship between them two. Both he and Lucy are worried that Ethan is going to kill her. Lucy admitted that Ethan is cruel and hides it well from the town's people. Ethan told her that when she married him she lead in him to sin and now she had to pay.
After Rick Nelson tragically passed away in a plane crash on New Year's Eve 1985, KRLA in Southern California broadcast a retrospective on his career, which featured many interviews, including one with older brother David Nelson. In this clip, David talks about when he and Ricky began to perform on their parents' radio show in 1949.
On the 1st anniversary of Dragnet's debut, Detective Sergeant Joe Friday is assigned to Robbery Detail. Women are being beaten and robbed. The victims have been unable to identify the criminals.
It’s Friday’s job to get them…
On April 28th, 1971, Chuck Schaden interviewed radio legend and the original Great Gildersleeve, Hal Peary (full interview here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/peary-harold-actor/) about his life and career. During the course of the chat, Hal Peary spoke about starting the character of Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve and the character's relationship with Fibber McGee.
On December 13th, 1973 Chuck Schaden sat down with radio writer Phil Leslie (full Conversation here -http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/leslie-phil/) for a chat about his life and career. Mr. Leslie was perhaps best known for being a Fibber McGee and Molly writer. Here he shares his tenure.
On the June 9th, 1955 episode of Fibber McGee and Molly, after Fibber discovers the couple has an extra $22.50 ($225.50 today) in their checking account, he decides to take Molly out "steppin" at the new nightclub three miles out of town, the Copacabbibbo.
By 1955, Fibber McGee and Molly was running on NBC as a Sunday—Thursday serial. They were one of the few shows to remain on NBC's Sunday schedule after the network debuted Monitor on June 12th.
For more information on this era of Fibber McGee and Molly, tune into Breaking Walls Episode 103: A Weekend at the Malt Shop with Fibber McGee and Molly (1955). For more information on the launch of Monitor, tune into Breaking Walls Episode 116: The Launch of NBC’s Monitor (1955).
In 1951, longtime radio writer Don Quinn was on vacation with his family in Hawaii when he sat down with Owen Cunningham for an interview about his two most famous shows: Fibber McGee and Molly and The Halls of Ivy. During the course of the chat, Quinn was his opinion on the best radio writing.
On the June 7th, 1950 episode of The Halls of Ivy, it’s a lazy Saturday morning. The college staff members who live on faculty row are enjoying their free time. Professor Quinn-cannon is trimming a hedge, Professor Warren is transplanting some flowering quince, Professor Heslip is weeding his lawn, and Dr William Toddhunter Hall, Ivy’s president is upstairs in his bedroom fast asleep. Of course, that doesn't last very long.
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The Halls of Ivy premiered coast-to-coast on NBC on Friday January 6th, 1950 at 8PM eastern time. NBC programmed the show opposite the evening’s highest-rated show: ABC’s The Fat Man. The program debuted with a rating of 9.
Don Quinn was a master of quips and puns, but much of the actual writing was left first to playwrights Jerome Lawrence and Robert Lee, and later to Milton and Barbara Merlin. Quinn acted as editor and creative director.
For the half-season, The Halls of Ivy pulled a rating of just 6.5. It was ABC who had reason to celebrate. For the first time since its 1927 inception as NBC‘s Blue Network, it placed five programs in a night’s Top Ten.
Radio Actress Fran Carlon speaks about why radio actors and actresses needed to be on their toes for script cuts and news cutaways during World War II.
On March 12th, 1983 Herb Ellis and Herb Vigran were guests of SPERDVAC (http://www.sperdvac.com) for a conversation about their intersecting lives and careers in radio, film, and TV. During the course of the conversation Herb Vigran was asked how he came to work for both Jack Benny and Jimmy Durante during his radio career.
This is the first confirmed bulletin to take to the airwaves on the morning of D Day, June 6th, 1944 at 3:30AM Eastern War Time.
NBC newsman Robert St. John made the announcement from the New York newsroom: "Men and women of the United States, this is a momentous hour in world history. This is the invasion of Hitler's Europe—the zero hour."
In 1971 Jim Jordan, better known as Fibber McGee, sat down with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC's the Golden Age of Radio to talk about his career (full interview here - https://www.goldenage-wtic.org/log.html). In this clip Jim talks about the origins of Fibber's hall closet and the famous gag.
By 1955, Fibber McGee and Molly was running on NBC as a Sunday—Thursday serial. They were one of the few shows to remain on NBC's Sunday schedule after the network debuted Monitor on June 12th.
For more information on this era of Fibber McGee and Molly, tune into Breaking Walls Episode 103: A Weekend at the Malt Shop with Fibber McGee and Molly (1955). For more information on the launch of Monitor, tune into Breaking Walls Episode 116: The Launch of NBC’s Monitor (1955).
For Westinghouse's 50th Anniversary in 1970, longtime NBC radio announcer Ben Grauer spoke about being on his toes with news relays during World War II.
Born in New York in 1908, he was a child actor who became an NBC staff announcer in 1930. Grauer covered olympic games, announced for Walter Winchell’s Jergen’s Journal, and was hand selected by Arturo Tuscani to support NBC’s Symphony Orchestra.
By World War II he was a senior commentator and reporter.
On Friday April 1st, 1955, NBC's President Sylvester "Pat" Weaver held a closed circuit press conference for NBC affiliates to announce a new weekend programming format which would be called Monitor. Monitor would completely take over NBC's weekend schedule from 8AM Saturday morning until the end of Sunday night.
In this clip, Weaver explains why he feels Monitor can work, and why radio's national network revenue had gotten into trouble.
For more on the launch of Monitor, tune into Breaking Walls Episode 116: https://soundcloud.com/thewallbreakers/bw-ep116-the-launch-of-nbcs-monitor-1955?in=thewallbreakers/sets/breaking-walls-the-wall
In 1982, radio actor Byron Kane was a guest of SPERDVAC (http://www.sperdvac.com) in California for a conversation about his life and career. During the chat he told this funny story about a line flub on an Arch Oboler-directed show.
In 1975, long-time New York radio actor Staats Cotsworth sat down with Ed Corcoran at a radio convention to chat about his career. This interview was later featured in a 1977 episode of WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio (https://www.goldenage-wtic.org/log.html).
In this clip Staats talks about his acting and radio beginnings.
Enjoy this classic 1968 musical bumper from NBC's Monitor, and tune into Breaking Walls Episode 116: The Launch of NBC’s Monitor (1955) to learn more about this seminal radio programming service that ran for almost twenty years.
In Breaking Walls episode 116, it’s June of 1955 and network radio is in uncharted territory. TV’s encroachment has the entire industry looking for new ideas. We’ll focus on the launch of one of the most successful—Monitor—which will air in some form or fashion until January of 1975.
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Highlights: • The Changing Network Radio Landscape • Who Is Sylvester “Pat” Weaver? • Monitor Origins • Building the Team • Radio Central • The Soft Launch • An Auto Tragedy at Le Mans • Going to San Quentin Prison • Lots of Tunes in Remote • A Potential United Automobile Workers Strike • Dave Garroway Interviews Marilyn Monroe, live on Monitor • Fibber McGee and Gildy Too • Here’s Henry Morgan • Monitor’s Last Hour • Miss Monitor Finally Makes an Appearance • The Full Launch • Looking Ahead in Time and Space
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
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The reading material used in today’s episode was:
On the Air - By John Dunning Monitor: Take 2: By Dennis Hart Network Radio Ratings — by Jim Ramsburg
Articles from: Broadcasting-Telecasting Magazine Monthly Labor Review The New York Daily News The New York Times Newsweek Printer’s Ink Variety
As well as the websites: http://accordions.com/ for their interview with Art Van Damme Dennis Hart’s http://monitorbeacon.net/ http://tipsontables.com/
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On the interview front: • Pat Weaver was interviewed for Fred Allen’s May 29th, 1956 Biography In Sound.
• Ben Grauer was interviewed for NBC’s 50th Anniversary and Westinghouse’ 50th Anniversary.
• Dave Garroway and Willard Waterman spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.
• Jim Jordan was with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear this full interview at Goldenage-WTIC.org.
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Shangri-La — By the New Spike Jones Band • Maris’ Farewell — By George Winston • Moon Moods — By Les Baxter & His Orchestra
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Special thanks to:
The Fireside Mystery Theatre https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com/
The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society https://www.ghoulishdelights.com/
Twelve Chimes, It’s Midnight https://www.twelvechimesradio.com/
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Subscribe to Burning Gotham—the new audio drama set in 1835 New York City. It’s available everywhere you get your podcasts and at BurningGotham.com.
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A massive thank you to Gordon Skene and Dennis Hart for their contributions to this episode. Gordon maintains a tremendous sound collection. You can visit his site at PastDaily.com.
Dennis Hart is the preeminent Monitor researcher. If this subject interests you pick up Monitor: Take 2, or go to MonitorBeacon.net.
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Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Chris Pilkington
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WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers
On November 24th, 1954 Fred Allen was a guest of Tex and Jinx's New York talk show for a discussion about his life and career. It was recorded on a grey, rainy Wednesday before Thanksgiving in Peacock Alley at The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York city.
In Fred's first memoir, Treadmill to Oblivion, he explained that giveaway programs played a large part in killing radio. During the course of the interview, he explained how.
Allen shows up in numerous episodes of Breaking Walls, including BW - EP81: The Fred Allen Show—His Life On The Air (1932 - 1956), BW - EP92: Radio And Coney Island (1906 - 1960), and BW - EP111: NBC Answers the CBS Talent Raids (1949)
On May 25th, 1943 Agnes Moorehead guest-starred on The Columbia Broadcasting System's Suspense. The play was the very first broadcast of Lucille Fletcher's soon-to-be famous, "Sorry, Wrong Number." This is that broadcast in its original form, complete with the blown ending that necessitated (along with the popularity of the broadcast with listeners) for the play to be redone in August.
Joseph Kearns was The Man in Black. It is, perhaps, the single most famous Suspense play in radio history.
On November 24th, 1954 Fred Allen was a guest of Tex and Jinx's New York talk show for a discussion about his life and career. During the course of the interview, Allen recounted a demonstration he gave to a friend about the power of radio as an advertising medium.
Allen shows up in numerous episodes of Breaking Walls, including BW - EP81: The Fred Allen Show—His Life On The Air (1932 - 1956), BW - EP92: Radio And Coney Island (1906 - 1960), and BW - EP111: NBC Answers the CBS Talent Raids (1949)
When Jack Benny passed away on December 26th, 1974 after a short battle with cancer at the age of 80, it was Jack's best friend George Burns who was supposed to eulogize him at Benny's funeral. Burns attempted to, but was overcome with emotion and unable to continue.
Bob Hope, another close friend and long-time comedy peer, delivered one of the most poignant speeches of his lifetime. This is a portion of it, recorded live at Jack Benny's funeral.
In June of 1983, Jack Carney broadcast a two-part audio documentary on the life and career of Jack Benny featuring interviews and recollections with the cast, and audio from the show.
During the first part of the documentary, in an interview recorded years before, the late Jack Benny spoke of the importance of organic character and joke development on the Jack Benny Program.
In May of 1955, radio’s highest rated show was still The Jack Benny Program. Just under three-million homes tuned in, and many more in their cars. On May 22nd after twenty-three seasons on the air, Jack Benny brought his radio show to a close. At the time, the cast and crew didn't realize this would be their last new radio program, so there was no big sendoff. However, In the fall, Benny and his program would move solely into TV.
This is the last episode.
In January of 1976, famed radio director William N. Robson was a guest of Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran's on WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio (full interview here - https://www.goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-70.html).
During the course of the conversation, Mr. Robson expressed his feelings on the death of dramatic radio, a medium in which he captivated audiences for almost thirty years. He didn't hold back. Rarely did he ever.
Escape, CBS’s high-adventure anthology, debuted on July 7th, 1947.
During its erratic seven year run it was shifted and dropped frequently, almost always cost-sustained by the network. It developed into an experimental training ground in the late 1940s for those who’d come to dominate radio in the next decade.
Escape's one period of national sponsorship came in the summer of 1950 when the Richfield Oil Company sponsored the show. This episode is part of that run. In Pass to Berlin, written by Morton Fine and David Friedkin, an occupation G.I. is desperately trying to break through a web of death that is being spun around him.
This episode was produced and directed by William N. Robson. Featured in the cast were Stacy Harris, Peggy Webber, and Ben Wright. Paul Frees was the voice of Escape. The music was arranged by Ivan Ditmars. Tom Hanlon was the announcer.
On the May 17th, 1959 episode of Gunsmoke, Cora meadows and her young son Tad are visited by a dying man named Rourke, who is seeking refuge at their home. The man is soon murdered in cold-blood right in front of their eyes. The killer says he will leave them alone if they mind their own business. However, Mrs Meadows is worried when her son goes missing, as she fears the brave little boy may have gone after the man.
(Photo from the private collection of Harry Bartell)
On August 14th, 1982, Parley Baer was a guest of SPERDVAC (https://www.sperdvac.com/) along with John Dehner, Virginia Gregg, Peggy Webber, Harry Bartell, and Vic Perrin.
Throughout the course of the interview, they told many stories about Jack Webb, including this great one by Parley Baer about his eight-year feud with Dragnet's creator.
Detective Sergeant Joe Friday is assigned to Robbery detail. A United States mail truck is held up and robbed. Twenty-two sacks of registered mail are taken, the hold-up men escape and there’s no lead to their identity. It’s Friday’s job to get them.
Barbara Walters interviewed George Burns for 20/20 in 1979. During the course of the interview George spoke about how Gracie forever altered his life.
On the May 12th, 1949 episode of Burns and Allen, Burns is still convinced that he has no place in TV. He's been trying to conceal his anxiety from Gracie, but she can see that all is not well with her little man. Burns lets it slip that he's nervous, so Gracie comes up with a brilliant idea. It's going to make him a sensation! What's the idea? George should combine the biggest things on TV right now, like Hopalong Cassidy and Baseball. That's sure to make George a star!
In 1982, John Dehner was an in-studio guest of Neil Ross' at KMPC for a conversation about his acting career. During the course of the chat, Dehner explained how be became an actor.
The May 11th, 1958 episode of Frontier Gentleman took J.B. Kendall to Chugwater, Wyoming Territory. There is a rail station for the Cheyenne and Black Hills stage line and because of a rain storm Kendall, ever the faithful reporter for the London Times, witnessed a tragedy there.
In September of 1975 Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran of WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio sat down with famed New York actor Joseph Julian for a conversation about his life and career (Full interview here - https://goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-66.html). During the course of the conversation Julian told a funny story about double booking radio roles and needing to call an ambulance to get from one radio studio to the other.
In March of 1973, Jackson Beck was a guest of Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran on WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio (full interview here - https://www.goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-36.html). Beck was a New York city native that'd had a forty year career as a voice actor and announcer for radio drama, commercial work, and cartoons.
In this clip, Mr. Beck talks about his feelings on the radio industry back in the (then contemporary) 1970s.
Jean Shepherd was a guest of David Letterman on March 10th, 1982. In this clip he tells funny stories about growing up in Hammond, Indiana.
In August of 1971 Hans Conried was a guest of Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for the 17th episode of WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio (full interview here - https://www.goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-17.html). During the course of the chat, which thematically spanned the length of Conried's career, the hosts asked him about his role on My Friend Irma.
On August 9th, 1988, SPERDVAC's Dan Haefele sat down with radio/tv writer Morton Fine for a conversation about his life and career. Fine had a longtime partnership with David Friedkin, as well as with Elliott Lewis. One of their main projects was Broadway is My Beat. Here, Fine talks about the writing formula for the show.
On the May 2nd, 1953 episode of Broadway is My Beat, Danny Clover is about to go home for the day when he finds Lila Royce at the front desk, reporting her sister missing. Margaret's apartment has been torn apart, and Lila is convinced that Margaret is dead.
This episode features Charles Calvert, Jack Kruschen, Mary Jane Croft, Whitfield Connor, Lillian Buyeff, and Hy Averback.
In March of 1983 radio actors Herb Vigran and Herb Ellis were guests of SPERDVAC (http://www.sperdvac.com) to talk about their radio careers. During the course of the conversation, Herb Vigran shed some much needed light on what exactly happened to most radio actors and actresses after TV killed the dramatic radio industry. It's a story that very few Americans today know.
For CBS's 50th Anniversary broadcast in 1977, CBS Chairman William S. Paley spoke about why he loved radio. Paley grew CBS from a ragtag group of near-bankrupt affiliates into one of the world's leading broadcast companies, using radio to do so.
In Breaking Walls episode 115, we focus on one of the last experimental programs on the air, The CBS Radio Workshop, and the man at its Hollywood helm, William Froug. We’ll listen to episodes, hear interviews with men and women known and unknown, and find out why this show was so critically acclaimed in its day.
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Highlights: • Who is Bill Froug and what does he do? • What do Norman Corwin, Orson Welles, Ray Bradbury, Burgess Meredith, and Bernard Hermann have in common? • Network radio in 1936 • Network radio in 1956 • The CBS Radio Workshop is revived • Season Of Disbelief & Hail And Farewell • A Report on ESP • Subways Are For Sleeping • Winding down the Workshop • Looking ahead to Monitor
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
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The reading material used in today’s episode was:
On the Air - By John Dunning
As well as articles from: Broadcasting Magazine The New York Daily News
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On the interview front: • Lilian Buyeff, Don Diamond, John Dehner, Lawrence Dobkin, Bill Froug, Jack Johnstone, Byron Kane, Elliott Lewis, and Peggy Webber were with SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com.
• Norman Corwin, Virginia Gregg, Carlton E. Morse, Alan Reed, and Russell Thorson spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.
• Bill Robson spoke with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear this full interview at Goldenage-WTIC.org.
• William Paley spoke while receiving a citation in November of 1958.
• Ray Bradbury was interviewed by Jerry Haendiges in October of 1976.
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Don’t Fence Me In — By Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters • February Sea — By George Winston • Heartbreak Hotel — By Elvis Presley • Seance on a West Afternoon — By John Barry
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Special thanks to:
Terror on the Air https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUbviBTC1CamzamykVCqN0A https://soundcloud.com/terrorontheair https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/terror-on-the-air/id1477581905 https://open.spotify.com/show/63o0AY4Zhv5hQsjGVbMbLk?si=YN_vUk3yTgqvOw73u59BtQ
Varial https://www.shaebwrites.com/the-veiled-monarch
Twelve Chimes, It’s Midnight https://www.twelvechimesradio.com/
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Subscribe to Burning Gotham—the new audio drama set in 1835 New York City. It’s available everywhere you get your podcasts and at BurningGotham.com.
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A special thank you to Ted Davenport and Jerry Haendiges: two radio show collectors who helped supply material for this episode. They’re who the large retailers go to.
Ted’s got a Facebook group - https://www.facebook.com/otrteddavenport/ For Jerry, please visit http://otrsite.com/
I’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman of SPERDVAC - http://sperdvac.com/
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Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Chris Pilkington
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WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 96: Halloween On The Air (1943 - 1953) ___________
On August 31st, 1941, Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve stepped off a train in the town of Summerfield, bringing with a now common concept in American entertainment: The series spinoff.
Gildersleeve began as a character on Fibber McGee and Molly. The man behind its voice was Harold Peary. Peary joined the cast in 1937, first playing every kind of bit part imaginable.
Peary was born Harold José Pereira de Faria to Portugese parents on July 25th, 1908. In January of 1923, at the age of fourteen, Harold had his first radio appearance at KZM in Oakland. By the late 1920s he was working for NBC in San Francisco. Migrating to Chicago in 1937, he soon became one of radio’s insiders, gaining a reputation as a top utility man.
In the late 1930s, Peary approached McGee’s head writer Don Quinn with an idea for a recurring role. He wanted to play a pompous windbag who himself ran the biggest bluff in Wistful Vista. He thought it the perfect foil for McGee.
Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve’s first appearance was on September 26th, 1939.
In September of 1974 east-coast radio actor Mandel Kramer sat down with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio (the full interview is available here - https://www.goldenage-wtic.org/log.html) to speak about his career. During the interview, Kramer spoke about how he found work in the early part of his career, and the great camaraderie that radio actors had with each other.
Shortly after CBS debuted Frontier Gentleman in February of 1958, a second new western show, Luke Slaughter of Tombstone, debuted on Sunday February 23rd, 1958 at 2PM eastern time.
Sam Buffington starred in the title role, with a vocal quality in line with William Conrad’s Marshall Dillon of Gunsmoke and Raymond Burr’s Captain Lee Quince of Fort Laramie.
Buffington was only 26, and a relative stranger to American audiences. Born in Swansea, MA on October 12th, 1931, he was balding and husky, with a big mustache. He had the physicality of a man much older than his age, which lent itself to portraying an Arizona cavalryman turned cattleman. He’d found Hollywood western work in television for network shows like Tales of Wells Fargo, Maverick, and Cheyenne.
The series was produced and directed by William N. Robson, who’d stuck by radio from its earliest days to its waning moments in the late 1950s. Tom Hanley expanded his abilities to include script writing. On Slaughter, he doubled as editorial supervisor, while also laying sound patterns with Ray Kemper and Bill James.
Although CBS ad sales managed to get the May 4th, 1958 episode sponsored by O’Brien Paints, finding regular sponsorship for a Sunday at 2PM western with little name value was impossible.
CBS cancelled the show after just sixteen episodes. The last Luke Slaughter of Tombstone aired on June 15th.
On November 24th, 1954 Fred Allen was a guest of Tex and Jinx's New York talk show for a discussion about his life and career. During the course of the interview, Allen talked about leaving radio in 1949 and his feelings on television.
On September 23rd, 1989, legendary radio and tv announcer and interviewer Mike Wallace was a guest of Chuck Schaden's (full interview here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/wallace-mike-announcer/) during Chuck's Those Were The Days program at the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago. Here, Mr. Wallace recalled his early radio days.
In the April 20th, 1958 episode of Frontier Gentleman, starring John Dehner, J.B. Kendall meets Wild Bill Hickok and sits in on a card game that becomes part of American history.
For more information on Antony Ellis' wonderful production of Frontier Gentleman, please tune into Breaking Walls Episode 101: Frontier Gentleman and The Saga of Belle Siddons (1958), available for free anywhere you might download or stream a podcast, and at http://thewallbreakers.com/
On August 5th, 1976, Chuck Schaden was a guest at Arch Oboler's home for a conversation about the noted writer and director's career (full interview here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/oboler-arch/). Throughout the course of the conversation, Mr. Oboler told a funny story about Boris Karloff being afraid of children.
On the April 15th, 1951 episode of The Jack Benny program, Jack's in trouble with the IRS for spending $17 on entertainment. The trouble began the previous week, and would continue into the following week when Jack took his cast to the circus.
On August 9th, 1986, Lawrence Dobkin, Lillian Buyeff, and Don Diamond were guests of SPERDVAC for a conversation about their radio careers. During the course of the conversation, Dobkin (who started in New York before moving to Los Angeles) explained the difference in attitudes between the two cities.
In 1955 CBS was relaunching Yours Truly Johnny Dollar as an evening strip to air weeknights for fifteen minutes.
On August 29th, 1955 Gerald Mohr recorded an audition for the lead. Mohr recently finished a successful run as Christopher Storm on TV’s Foreign Intrigue.
On the April 12th, 1953 episode of Dragnet, Detective Sergeant Joe Friday is assigned to Robbery Detail. Somewhere in the city a man has been making phony calls, endangering the lives officers. With a simple dime, this man is disrupting law and order in the city of Los Angeles, for a joke. The detectives don't like it. It’s Friday’s job to get him
It's bargain day at the Bon Ton department store in Wistful Vista. Naturally Fibber McGee is caught in the crowds. He has to be saved by Molly. Fibber asks what they're doing there in the first place. Can you guess what her answer is?
These fifteen-minute serial episodes of Fibber McGee and Molly from 1953-1956 are often overlooked and underrated. For more on this era of the show, listen to Breaking Walls Episode 103: A Weekend at the Malt Shop with Fibber McGee and Molly (1955)
In the 1950s, Orson Welles sat down with the BBC for a wide-ranging chat on his career. In this short clip he shares his thoughts on Hollywood.
Photo: Orson Welles with then-wife Rita Hayworth and Ann Southern.
This is the May 14th, 1954 episode of Bob Hope's radio show featuring Grace Kelly in a rare radio appearance by the Hollywood star. Ms. Kelly was twenty-five at the time.
The April 2nd. 1955 episode of Gunsmoke was incredibly unique to the rest of the radio series. Matt Dillon has had enough death and destruction for his lifetime and quits as Marshall. Unfortunately, he's the only one who can stop the trouble coming Dodge City's way, proving that whether he likes it or not, there's only one man the killers and spoilers look for and don't want to meet.
This John Meston script was, in many ways, well ahead of its time. Although it wasn't expressed as such, Matt is suffering from PTSD.
In 1976 Radio producer/director Norman Macdonnell sat down for a documentary interview with John Hickman on Gunsmoke. Macdonnell directed the series during its entire radio run from 1952-1961. During the interview, he spoke of how radio's changing executive in the 1950s helped hasten radio drama's network demise.
The late John Hickman was the longtime host of WAMU's "Recollections" which today is known as "The Big Broadcast."
At the end of the Sunday, May 6th, 1956 episode of Fort Laramie entitled "Never the Twain," CBS broadcast a promotional spot for Yours Truly Johnny Dollar, which was then airing five nights per-week in a fifteen-minute serial format.
The Dollar five-part story which began the next night was called "The Silver Blue Matter." Neither show was sponsored. Fort Laramie would air its last episode on October 28th, and the following week Johnny Dollar aired the last of its five-part serials.
In 1976 John Hickman of WAMU put together an expansive five-part audio documentary on the history of the radio version of Gunsmoke, complete with cast and production crew interviews, show clips, and reflections.
During the course of his interview, Bill Conrad joked about how he was cast as the lead, Matt Dillon in 1952.
In 1976 Desi Arnaz appeared on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show to promote his newly released autobiography, "A Book." In this clip, Desi jokes about his family lineage prior to revolution in Cuba.
In 1963, during the height of Perry Mason's television fame, Raymond Burr sat down with Jack Webster for an interview about his career and the changes that playing Perry Mason brought into his life. During the course of the conversation, Webster asked Burr about his first professional acting role.
In Breaking Walls episode 114, as America moves to the suburbs in the mid-1950s, we move with them and examine a radio western called Fort Laramie. Although it only aired for ten months, it’s one of the most critically acclaimed western shows the genre ever produced.
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Highlights: • The Network Radio Landscape in 1956 • Norman MacDonnell loses Gunsmoke’s TV Production • Who Is William Raymond Stacy Burr and What Has He Really Done? • Launching Fort Laramie • Easter Sunday, 1956 • Lost Child • The Birth of Rock and Roll • Jeanette Nolan’s Stagecoach Stop • The New Recruit • Fort Laramie Dies, Gunsmoke Lives On • Looking Ahead to the CBS Radio Workshop
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
——————————
The reading material used in today’s episode was:
• On the Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — By Jim Ramsburg
As well as articles from • Broadcasting Magazine • The Los Angeles Times
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On the interview front: • Eve Arden, Dick Beals, Edgar Bergen and Shirley Mitchell, spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.
• Harry Bartell, Lilian Buyeff, Lawrence Dobkin, Lou Krugman, Jeanette Nolan, and Vic Perrin were with SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com.
• John Dehner, John Dunkel, Norman MacDonnell and John Meston were with John Hickman for his History of Gunsmoke documentary.
• John Dehner and Vic Perrin were with Neill Ross for KMPC.
• Jack Kruschen and Shirley Mitchell were with Jim Bohannon.
• Raymond Burr was with Jack Webster.
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Don’t Fence Me In — By Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters • February Sea — By George Winston • Heartbreak Hotel — By Elvis Presley • Seance on a West Afternoon — By John Barry
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Special thanks to:
The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society https://www.ghoulishdelights.com/series/themorls/
The Veiled West from https://www.shaebwrites.com/the-veiled-monarch
The Fireside Mystery Theatre https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com/
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Subscribe to Burning Gotham—the new audio drama set in 1835 New York City. It’s available everywhere you get your podcasts and at BurningGotham.com.
——————————
A special thank you to Ted Davenport and Jerry Haendiges: two radio show collectors who helped supply material for this episode. They’re who the large retailers go to.
Ted’s got a Facebook group - https://www.facebook.com/otrteddavenport/ For Jerry, please visit http://otrsite.com/
The Clip from Camel’s Rock N Roll dance party comes courtesy of Gordon Skene and his extensive sound collection. Please find out more at PastDaily.com.
I’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman of SPERDVAC - http://sperdvac.com/
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Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy
——————————
WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers
At 4:30PM on March 20th, 1949 Robert Trout took to the air for NBC with five minutes of news, sponsored by Pillsbury.
As Spring of 1949 began five of radio’s top-ten programs aired on CBS, four on NBC, and one on ABC. Just one year prior, NBC controlled thirteen of the top fifteen shows on the air. The broadcasting landscape was shifting.
Internationally, the Cold War in Berlin had grown tense.
On March 19th, the East German People's Council in Berlin adopted a constitution. It called for the creation of a central government in unified Germany after the Allied occupation. It was meant to impede the establishment of a West German state.
Meanwhile, Allied authorities in Germany declared the Deutsche Mark the sole currency of West Berlin. It made the East German mark virtually worthless.
In France, local elections were being held as The U.N. feared the oncoming growing communist sentiment in the western world.
On March 20th in London, a parade by members of Oswald Mosley's Union Movement was disrupted by violent clashes with Communists. Ten policemen were injured and thirty-five Communists were arrested. As a result, the UK Home Office prohibited all political marches in the city for three months.
On March 23rd In the middle east, Lebanon and Israel signed an agreement to settle the international Lebanese-Palestinian border line and exchange prisoners of war.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 90: The Hollywood People Behind Radio’s Baby Boomer Boom (1945 - 1954) ___________
By 1951 director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston were working on multiple projects at CBS and continuing their refinement of the radio western.
On August 6th the series Romance broadcast a western named “Pagosa,” which starred William Conrad in the title role of Jeff Spain.
Macdonnell approached CBS brass about the possibility of doing a Jeff Spain series. His timing was right. CBS already had the title for a series in mind: Gunsmoke.
Two audition programs were recorded in the middle of 1949 with a title character named Mark Dillon. Neither sold.
CBS gave Macdonnell and Meston one week to put production together.
Jack Benny’s most famous Irish Tenor, Dennis Day was born on May 21st, 1916 and raised in the Throggs Neck section of The Bronx, New York City—The second of five children born to Irish immigrants Patrick & Mary McNulty.
Day graduated from Cathedral Preparatory Seminary in New York City, and attended Manhattan College in the Bronx, where he sang in the glee club.
Eventually he made his way to radio and made his Jack Benny Program debut on the October 8th, 1939 broadcast. During World War II, Day enlisted in the Navy. He was replaced by Larry Stephens on The show beginning in 1944.
He made his return on the St. Patrick’s Day episode, March 17th, 1946.
In 1982 Vic Perrin was a guest of Neil Ross' for his KMPC radio show for a conversation about Vic's life and career. During the course of the conversation, Mr. Perrin recounted a funny story about a writer who was still writing his script while the show was being performed on the air.
In 1976 Orson Welles was a guest of Johnny Carson's on the Tonight Show for a segment on Orson's life and career (full segment here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meikuHb6024). The duo focused more on the radio days than anything else, including sharing stories of jokes and ribs they saw pulled on people during the Golden Age of Radio.
On September 3rd, 1970 Chuck Schaden interviewed Jack Benny backstage at the Mill Run Playhouse in suburban Niles, Illinois (full interview here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/benny-jack/). During the course of their conversation they spoke about Mr. Benny incorporating a comedy commercial right into his radio show.
In 1948 a syndicated Coca-Cola sponsored version of the soap opera Claudia, starring Katharine Bard and Paul Crabtree produced an episode for airing on August 25th called “A Visit To Coney Island.” This is that episode.
For more on radio and Coney Island, tune into Breaking Walls EP92: Radio And Coney Island (1906 - 1960).
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 91: The Hollywood Radio Western Renaissance (1954 - 1980).
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One of the only western series of note to begin on television and then transition to radio was Have Gun Will Travel.
On TV, Richard Boone starred as Paladin, a gun for hire. It proved popular enough that CBS decided to drop Frontier Gentleman in favor of a radio version of this series in an attempt to attract sponsorship.
The idea worked.
When CBS took Gunsmoke to TV, director Norman Macdonnell wanted to be heavily involved in the production, but when network execs chose a totally new roster of people, Macdonnell was incensed. To help ease his disappointment, CBS brass gave him the radio version of Have Gun, Will Travel. Macdonnell wanted to prove he could make the radio version better than the TV.
On November 8th, 1958, one week before the final episode of Frontier Gentleman, Macdonnell conducted three voice tests for the lead. Harry Bartell, Vic Perrin, and John Dehner read lines from the opening script, “Strange Vendetta.” Dehner was chosen.
On November 23rd, exactly one week after J.B. Kendall vanished from the air, Have Gun premiered.
On May 13th, 1990 radio and TV legend Gale Gordon joined Chuck Schaden on his WBBM News Radio 78 radio show for a conversation about Gale's life and career (Full interview here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/gordon-gale-actor/). During the interview, a caller asked Mr. Gordon if he did a lot of ad-libbing with Lucille Ball.
In 1967 musician and composer Rex Koury sat down for a documentary interview with John Hickman on Gunsmoke. During the course of the chat he explained how he came to be associated with the show, and how he composed the music, including the famous theme.
When the 1939 World’s Fair opened in Flushing Meadows, David Sarnoff was there to share the spotlight with President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Fiorello LaGuardia, Mayor of New York City.
Sarnoff announced, via a single mobile NBC television camera unit connected from a coaxial cable to a transmitting van, which was placed fifty feet from the speakers’ platform, that NBC TV was ready to go on the air.
In the background, it showed the Fair’s symbols—The Trylon and the Perisphere, swept across the Court of Peace, panned the gathering throng, and captured the arrival of the president’s motorcade.
This same camera captured the first television close-up: Mayor La Guardia. Never the bashful sort, he casually strode up and ogled it.
In 1970 Orson Welles was a guest of Dick Cavett's for a great interview about the artist's life and career. During the course of the show, Welles told a story about his first night in Hollywood and how his new-found belief in the hereafter also led to the end of his good luck.
During Sunday March 9th, 1958's episode of Luke Slaughter of Tombstone, CBS dedicated the network-sustained show's mid-episode break spot to a promo for the upcoming episode of Frontier Gentleman.
The two shows ran back to back during the early afternoon on Sundays that winter and spring. Neither was able to find a sponsor. Slaughter was cancelled in June and Frontier Gentleman in November.
In August of 1987, famed radio director Jack Johnstone was a guest of SPERDVAC's at the Thousand Oaks Library in California. During the course of the conversation on Johnstone's life and career, he was asked by a guest about directing Marilyn Monroe on the Hollywood Star's Playhouse. Johnstone, never one to hold back, apologetically confessed (very seriously) that he felt she was one of the worst actresses he'd ever worked with.
In this clip he explains why.
During the Korean War, NBC sent reporters to talk to the soldiers on the front lines during the conflict. This is some of what they said.
In the 1980s, radio writer/actor/director/producer Elliott Lewis was a guest of John Dunning on his 71K Newstalk Radio program out of Denver, CO.
During the course of this wide-ranging interview, Lewis spoke about why the attempted Network radio drama revival of the 1970s ultimately didn't lead to a huge boom in radio drama.
In Breaking Walls episode 113 it’s September of 1953 and Elliott Lewis is one of the busiest men in radio. He’s the producer/director of four shows and the star of two. We’ll join him that fall, following for a week to find out what life was like for the man affectionately dubbed by his peers as “Mr. Radio.”
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Highlights: • Phil and Alice Court Elliott Lewis • Broadway is My Beat, Still Going Strong • Agnes Moorehead Guest-Stars on Suspense • Finding and Losing Love On Stage • The Very Suspicious Borden Family Murders • Radio’s Golden Age Draws to a Close • Looking Ahead to Go Back in time to Wyoming
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
——————————
The reading material used in today’s episode was:
• On the Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — By Jim Ramsburg ——————————
On the interview front: • Sam Edwards, Alice Faye, Phil Harris, Elliott Lewis, Agnes Moorehead, Arch Oboler, and Paula Winslowe were with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.
• Lilian Buyeff, Mary Jane Croft, Sam Edwards, Betty Lou Gerson, Byron Kane, Lou Krugman, Elliott Lewis, and Jeanette Nolan were with SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com.
• Elliott Lewis and E. Jack Neuman were with John Dunning for his 71KNUS program from Denver.
• Elliott Lewis was also with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear this full interview at Goldenage-WTIC.org.
• Jack Kruschen, Shirley Mitchell, and George Walsh were with Jim Bohannon.
• Morton Fine spoke with Dan Hafele for SPERDVAC in 1988.
• WIlliam Conrad spoke with Chris Lambesis.
• Norman MacDonnell with John Hickman.
• Raymond Burr was with Jack Webster.
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Rags to Riches — By Tony Bennett • Manhattan — By Blossom Dearie • Pyramid of the Sun — By Les Baxter • The Venice Dreamer Parts 1 & 2 — By George Winston • I’ll Be Seeing You — By the Harry James Band • Caravan — By Gordon Jenkins
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Special thanks to:
The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society https://www.ghoulishdelights.com/series/themorls/
Terror on the Air https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUbviBTC1CamzamykVCqN0A https://soundcloud.com/terrorontheair https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/terror-on-the-air/id1477581905 https://open.spotify.com/show/63o0AY4Zhv5hQsjGVbMbLk?si=YN_vUk3yTgqvOw73u59BtQ
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Subscribe to Burning Gotham—the new audio drama set in 1835 New York City. It’s available everywhere you get your podcasts and at BurningGotham.com.
——————————
A special thank you to Ted Davenport and Jerry Haendiges: two radio show collectors who helped supply material for this episode. They’re who the large retailers go to.
Ted’s got a Facebook group - https://www.facebook.com/otrteddavenport/ For Jerry, please visit http://otrsite.com/
I’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman of SPERDVAC - http://sperdvac.com/
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Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy John Williams
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WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers
At the close of the November 30th, 1947 episode of The Jack Benny Program, Jack Benny spoke eloquently about the problems teachers were facing in the post-War world. His plea mirrors many we might hear today.
In 1982, John Dehner was an in-studio guest of Neil Ross' at KMPC for a conversation about his acting career. During the course of the chat, Dehner shed some light on oncoming stereo audio in the late 1950s and early 1960s just as radio drama petered out on the major US networks.
On the February 13th, 1975 episode of The Tonight Show, Mel Brooks was the guest for an interview not long after the debut of Young Frankenstein.
During the chat, Mel told a hilarious story of a prank he pulled on top level NBC brass David Sarnoff and Pat Weaver while employed as a writer for Sid Caesar.
On August 14th, 1982, SPERDVAC (http://www.sperdvac.com/) hosted a conversation with some of radio's most famous character actors: Harry Bartell, Vic Perrin, John Dehner, Virginia Gregg, Parley Baer, and Peggy Webber.
During the conversation, Harry Bartell recalled the natural reactions Jack Webb wanted his cast to have.when working on Dragnet.
On Easter Sunday in April of 1982, Dennis Day was a guest of John Dunning's on 71KNUS Newstalk radio program in Denver, CO. They spoke about Day's life and career—especially his quarter-century association with Jack Benny. During the course of the interview Day tells a funny story on how his character was written specifically to annoy Jack Benny.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 91: The Hollywood Radio Western Renaissance (1954 - 1980).
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After Have Gun, Will Travel went off the air in November of 1960 and production of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, and the revived Suspense had shifted to New York, Gunsmoke was the last prime time radio drama originating from Hollywood. The end was near.
On Saturday April 29th, 1961, the Gunsmoke crew gathered for the last time to record episodes for the series. They did not know the show was to be cancelled. The final episode aired on June 18th, 1961.
Although Gunsmoke’s TV version with its different crew aired into the mid 1970s, the most influential radio western of the last decade of the Golden Age was over.
There was now no network dramatic radio originating from Hollywood.
If there is a silver lining, its that because Gunsmoke came to radio in 1952 after transcription became wide-spread, many episodes exist today in good to master quality. A new listener can begin with the first episode, “Billy the Kid” and listen straight through.
The following year, on September 30th, 1962, CBS cancelled Johnny Dollar and Suspense. The network would have no dramatic shows in their programming block until 1974.
In 1955 when Gunsmoke debuted on television they turned to John Wayne for a one-minute promo spot to give the show credibility.
When Wayne heard that the television version of Gunsmoke wouldn't be using William Conrad—radio's Matt Dillon—in the lead. He suggested James Arness.
Arness was a friend and protégé of Wayne's, having co-starred with him in Big Jim McLain, Hondo, Island in the Sky, and The Sea Chase, and starred in Gun the Man Down for Wayne's company.
CBS asked Wayne to do a TV promo in order to give Arness the proverbial rub. Wayne was happy to oblige.
In August of 1982, SPERDVAC hosted a CBS character actor panel featuring Virginia Gregg, Peggy Webber, Parley Baer, Vic Perrin, Harry Bartell, and John Dehner. In this clip Mr. Dehner explains how he came to be a radio actor in the 1940s.
In late 1972, Vincent Price sat down with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio (full interview here - https://www.goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-32.html).
During the course of their conversation, Price spoke about the power of dramatic radio for the listening audience.
In the late 1980s, famed radio director and writer (Superman, The Six Shooter, Johnny Dollar) Jack Johnstone was in California to be interviewed by SPERDVAC (https://www.sperdvac.com/). During the course of the interview, he explained how his radio directing methods were different from most other directors.
In Breaking Walls episode 112, we finish our five-part mini-series by examining NBC’s business and programming during the 1949-50 radio season in the wake of the CBS talent raids by examining the steps NBC took to regain their footing as the television era began.
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Highlights: • Garroway • Frank Sinatra’s Tailspin • Monday Night of Music • Ivy College and their Hallowed Halls • Christopher London vs. Jack Benny • Randy Stone Prowls Chicago’s Night • Dimension X and Arnold Moss • Cloak and Dagger • Vincent Price and Simon Templar • Looking Ahead to Elliott Lewis
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
——————————
The reading material used in today’s episode was:
• On the Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — By Jim Ramsburg
As well as articles from the archives of: Broadcasting Magazine Radio Daily and Variety ——————————
On the interview front: • Ken Carpenter, Dave Garroway, Jim Jordan, Phil Leslie, Vincent Price, Lurene Tuttle, and Herb Vigran were with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.
• Raymond Edward Johnson, Arnold Moss, Vincent Price, and Bill Robson were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these at Goldenage-WTIC.org.
• Lawrence Dobkin and Elliott Lewis were with SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com.
• Don Quinn was interviewed by Owen Cunningham in 1951,
• Frank Sinatra was with Walter Cronkite in 1965,
• Lurene Tuttle spoke with Same Time, Same Station in 1972.
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • I Can Dream, Can't I — By The Andrews Sisters • Salute to Charlie Christian — By Barney Kessel • Holo Holo Haa — With Lani McIntyre • It All Depends on You — By Frank Sinatra • The Look of Love — By Billy May • Moon Moods — By Les Baxter • Spooky — By Dusty Springfield
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Special thanks to
The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society https://www.ghoulishdelights.com/series/themorls/
The Fireside Mystery Theatre https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com/
Terror on the Air https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUbviBTC1CamzamykVCqN0A https://soundcloud.com/terrorontheair https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/terror-on-the-air/id1477581905 https://open.spotify.com/show/63o0AY4Zhv5hQsjGVbMbLk?si=YN_vUk3yTgqvOw73u59BtQ
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Subscribe to Burning Gotham—the new audio drama set in 1835 New York City. It’s available everywhere you get your podcasts and at BurningGotham.com.
——————————
A special thank you to Ted Davenport and Jerry Haendiges: two radio show collectors who helped supply material for this episode. They’re who the large retailers go to.
Ted’s got a Facebook group - https://www.facebook.com/otrteddavenport/ For Jerry, please visit http://otrsite.com/
I’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman of SPERDVAC - http://sperdvac.com/
——————————
Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy John Williams
——————————
WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers
In the early 1980s, radio actor/writer/producer/director Elliott Lewis was a guest of John Dunning's Old-Time Radio program for 71K Newstalk Radio in Denver, CO.
During the course of the conversation the two were talking about the need for ad execs to be less paranoid and to butt out of the creative process more often.
In 1982, SPERDVAC hosted a panel discussion with some of CBS's well-known Hollywood radio character actors. During the discussion, Harry Bartell told a quick funny story about Jeanette Nolan, who once starred as Lady MacBeth opposite Orson Welles, and who was known for her tremendous vocal range on radio.
On May 5th, 1982, actor Vic Perrin was a guest of Neil Ross' for his KMPC program. During the course of the interview, which touched on many subjects, the conversation turned to Barton Yarborough, who passed away unexpectedly of a heart attack in December of 1951 right as his own fame was cresting.
Radio legend and Chief Engineer Jack Poppele (02.04.1898 - 10.07.1986) recalls his part in the launch of WOR on 2.22.1922 during an interview he gave in 1970.
WOR took to the air from Bamberger's department store in Newark, NJ on February 22nd, 1922. The station cost $20,000 to start. It transmitted at 250 watts, and was the nation's sixth licensed radio station.
The transmitter had been assembled in Bamberger's by a salesman in the radio department whose specialty was selling crystal sets. When it failed to work, an experienced radio engineer from the Weston Instrument Corp. on Frelinghuysen Avenue, W. Nelson Goodwin, Jr., was called in to help. Goodwin redesigned and rebuilt the transmitter, and got it into working order, enabling WOR to come on the air.
The WOR call sign was reissued from the U.S. maritime radio service. The station initially operated limited hours, sharing time with two other stations, WDT and WJY, which also operated on 833 kc.
In June of 1923, WOR changed frequency to 740 kc. and shared time with WJY until July 1926, when WJY signed off for good and WOR received full use of the frequency. In December 1924, WOR acquired a studio in Manhattan. On June 17, 1927, as a result of General Order 40, WOR moved to 710 kc., the channel it has occupied ever since.
Impresario Samuel 'Roxy' Rothafel in rehearsal for his radio show to be broadcast from Radio City in New York City, 1932. In this clip, Roxy Rothafel stands at microphone onstage in front of orchestra talking to comic duo Lew Fields and Joe Weber prior to broadcast of The Roxy Hour.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 95: Radio And The Classroom (1939 - 1965)
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In the summer of 1955, CBS executives were looking for a way to increase weeknight listenership in a cost-effective manner. They decided to revive a once popular programming format: the fifteen-minute weeknight serial.
The show they picked to relaunch was Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.
Radio veteran Jack Johnstone, most recently at the helm of Jimmy Stewart’s The Six Shooter, was brought in to direct. The new format allowed for significant character development time.
Because the show was unsponsored and CBS cost-sustained, many of Hollywood radio’s affordable best were involved. Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar re-debuted over CBS airwaves at 8:15PM on October 3rd, 1955.
In August of 1987, famed radio director Jack Johnstone was a guest of SPERDVAC (www.sperdvac.com) at the Thousand Oaks Library in California. During the course of the conversation on Johnstone's life and career, Johnstone explained that he wrote both the last episodes of Suspense and Yours Truly Johnny Dollar, which both aired on September 30th, 1962.
In the early 1960s, CBS produced a transcribed series of shorts entitled, Dimension. In this grouping, called "American Landscape" Burgess Meredith brought the listener to various American cultural institutions, like this trip to the Attic.
This audio is hard to find and was digitized from an original transcription record.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 94: Radio And The Drugstore/Malt Shop (1940 - 1955) For the full story, listen to Breaking Walls Episode 103: A Weekend at the Malt Shop with Fibber McGee and Molly (1955)
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Jim and Marian Jordan’s Fibber McGee and Molly, was Tuesday at 9:30PM appointment radio. Upwards of forty million people tuned in each week. Fibber’s hall closet became one of radio’s most famous running gags.
After television’s proliferation, the program’s audience rapidly shrunk. Longtime sponsor Johnson’s Wax left in 1950 and by January of 1952 the show’s rating was down to 10.7.
In 1953 with her health deteriorating, a doctor suggested to Marian Jordan that she take a long rest. She refused.
She would continue performing. Production moved to the couple’s home in Encino. The music was pre-recorded and the commercials were no longer built into the show.
At 1PM on a rain-soaked Wednesday before Thanksgiving on November 24th, 1954, Fred Allen appeared on NBC's Tex and Jinx Show out of the flagship WRCA in New York. It was recorded near Peacock Alley at The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York city.
Allen was there to promote his new autobiography, Treadmill to Oblivion, in which he spoke about his radio career and battles with sponsors, ratings, and network executives.
This enlightening interview gives rare long-form insight into a man hailed by peers like Jack Benny and John Steinbeck as a borderline genius. It's a must-listen.
Allen would pass away of a heart attack less than two years later on St. Patricks Day, March 17th, 1956.
Airing out of KNBC in San Francisco was a ground-breaking lady detective anthology named Candy Matson.
Produced, written and directed by Monty Masters and starring his wife, Natalie Masters, Candy Matson debuted on Saturday June 26th, 1949 at 8:30PM Pacific Time on NBC’s west-coast circuit.
Natalie was from San Francisco and began her career with the Wayfarers Repertory of the San Francisco Little Theatre Group. The creative couple were locally successful and had nearly fifteen years of experience by 1949.
Henry Leff was Police Detective Ray Mallas, with Jack Thomas as Rembrandt Watson.
Candy’s number was YUkon 3-8309, and each episode began with a telephone call. The Masters' leaned heavily on their prior associations in the Bay Area. Plots were also reliant on the audience’s knowledge of local San Francisco.
Unfortunately, because NBC was sustaining production costs, they moved the show around frequently. They’d often air a program a day or hours ahead its scheduled air date, apologizing later to the growing body of Candy Matson fans.
Candy solved almost ninety cases. The series ran until May 20th, 1951.
During a 1980s Interview with John Dunning for 71KNUS in Denver, Dennis Day explained how he came to be hired by Jack Benny and the interview process.
This photos shows Dennis with Jack and Margaret Truman.
By July of 1948 Jack Webb was twenty-eight and bored. After emceeing the short lived Jack Webb Show and One Out of Seven for ABC in San Francisco, he’d collaborated with writer Dick Breen in the cult hit in Pat Novak, For Hire.
Early in 1947, Pat Novak’s success took Jack Webb home to his native Los Angeles.
With Novak still airing from San Francisco, Webb and Breen teamed up again for Mutual with Johnny Modero, Pier 23. It debuted in April and was Webb’s first coast-to-coast show.
Although it only lasted five months, it allowed Webb to work with some of the most talented people in Hollywood radio. He began to act in CBS’ Escape, and was soon doing bit parts for William Spier on Suspense.
In July of 1948, Webb was back at it again with writer E. Jack Neuman in Jeff Regan, Investigator. It aired on CBS’ west-coast network into December. However, after playing one hard-boiled P.I. after another, Webb was looking for a role he could really sink his teeth into.
That summer, Webb was cast as a forensics specialist in the film He Walked By Night. He became friends with the police technical advisor Detective Sergeant Marty Wynn.
Their conversations became the inspiration for a new police procedural—one that would become one of the most famous shows in radio and tv history, and turn Jack Webb into an American icon.
Webb spent the entire fall doing his own leg work, He hung out at police stations, took night classes, and rode with detectives on house calls.
NBC skeptically green lit an audition. They thought the idea sounded flat. Like with Richard Diamond, booze, innuendo, and shootouts were the spice that made detective shows interesting.
To help secure the deal, Webb got cooperation from the LAPD. So long he didn’t go out of his way to portray the department in a negative light, they’d allow him to use closed case files.
In January of 1949 Jack Webb intimated to Radio Life that his days playing guys like Novak were almost over. His next character would be “Joe Friday.”
Dragnet premiered, coat-to-coast on Friday June 3rd, 1949 at 10PM eastern time over NBC. it was the first of its kind—A realistic, documentational portrayal of the Los Angeles police force at work.
NBC sustained production costs for the first thirteen weeks during its Summer run.
By the time the seventh episode aired on July 21st, the show had found its rhythm. Barton Yarborough played Sgt. Ben Romero and Raymond Burr was Chief Ed Backstrand. Jack Webb leaned on James Moser for writing and Bill Rousseau for early direction. Vic Perrin was an often-featured guest-star.
This episode featured Parley Baer in a masterpiece performance.
NBC finally had a hit. It wasn’t long before Liggett and Myers tobacco signed on as sponsor.
CBS took notice. A month after Dragnet’s premiere, they shifted Broadway is My Beat to Hollywood and put it under Elliott Lewis’ direction.
Dick Powell was born on November 14th, 1904 in Mountain View, Arkansas. He’d been an A-list crooner in the 1930s, starring in both musicals and comedies at Warner Brothers and Paramount. He was also the emcee of radio’s Campana Serenade.
After several attempts, Powell changed his career in 1944 when he was cast as Raymond Chandler’s private eye Philip Marlowe, in Murder My Sweet.
The Lux Radio Theater broadcast an adaptation on June 6th, 1945. Two weeks later Powell was starring as Richard Rogue in Rogue’s Gallery on NBC. The series was a summer replacement for the Fitch Bandwagon.
When Fitch returned in the Fall, Mutual Broadcasting picked up the show. It lasted for one season on Mutual before returning for a final thirteen weeks on NBC in the summer of 1946. Simultaneously on film Powell made Cornered, Johnny O’Clock, To The Ends of the Earth, and Pitfall.
In December of 1948, wanting to get back into radio, Powell recorded an audition for a new CBS series called Yours Truly Johnny Dollar. He was set to take the role when writer and director Blake Edwards called him to star in a new NBC series, Richard Diamond, Private Detective.
It premiered on April 24th, 1949.
Diamond answered his telephone with atrocious commercial jingles and was a master of the verbal put-down. His relationship with Lieutenant Walt Levinson was abrasive, but affectionate. And he loved to rib Sergeant Otis.
Virginia Gregg was Richard’s girlfriend Helen. Ed Begley was Lieutenant Levinson. In this episode from May 22nd, Betty Lou Gerson played the female heavy and Jack Kruschen played one of the hoods.
Richard Diamond, Private Detective would find sponsorship with Rexall in April of 1950.
———————— All this week at www.patreon.com/TheWallBreakers I'll be publishing full episodes from Breaking Walls Episode 111: NBC Answers the CBS Talent Raids—1949 (https://soundcloud.com/thewallbreakers/bw-ep111-nbc-answers-the-cbs-talent-raids-1949?in=thewallbreakers/sets/breaking-walls-the-wall)
These full episodes will be available with show notes to all Patreon subscribers for $1 per month.
This is Jack Benny's first program for CBS after leaving NBC at the end of 1948. It aired, live, coast-to-coast at 7PM eastern time on January 2nd, 1949 from Columbia Square in Hollywood. It was heard in Los Angeles over KNX 1070.
On November 20, 1958 head of CBS William S. Paley received an award for his thirty years of work in the field of programming.
Paley had purchased a then struggling Columbia Broadcasting System for $417,000 on September 25, 1928. Within those first two years he focused on two things—gaining as many coast-to-coast network affiliates as possible, and putting together the most complete, experimental programming schedule on network radio.
In this clip from that speech, he explains how he came to purchase CBS.
On August 9th, 1986, actor and director Lawrence Dobkin was part of a SPERDVAC ( www.sperdvac.com ) panel along with Don Diamond and Lilian Buyeff to discuss their lives and careers. During the course of the conversation, Dobkin spoke about working for Cecil B. DeMille shortly after AFRA lifted DeMille's membership card.
In 1944 DeMille was at odds with the American Federation of Radio Actors because of a ballot proposal called Proposition 12. It threatened unions by making California a “right to work” state. If passed it would have allowed any non-union member to work in radio at a reduced scale.
AFRA chose to take one dollar from every Union member to fight the bill. DeMille was sympathetic to union ideals, he just disagreed with being forced to donate to the cause.
The argument dragged through late 1944. Eventually, the courts ruled against DeMille and he left the show on January 22, 1945.
On July 14th, 1979 writer/actor/producer/director Elliott Lewis was a guest of SPERDVAC's to talk about his radio career. This interview was conducted while Mr. Lewis was in the midst of the Sears Radio Theater, a major network attempt at reviving radio drama.
In this clip, he spoke about why people involved with creative productions should understand the entire creative process.
In Breaking Walls episode 111 we resume our mini-series in January of 1949. CBS is now the nation’s number one network, and NBC is left to come up with programming answers. We’ll focus on the shows they launched in the spring and summer of 1949.
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Highlights: • Jack Benny: Now on CBS • First The News • Network Radio Opens 1949 with Record Earnings • John Wayne, Claire Trevor, John Ford, and Ward Bond Open The NBC Theater • David Sarnoff and the Mass NBC Exodus • It’s the Martin and Lewis Show! • Alan Young and Henry Morgan • Richard Diamond • Jack Webb Launches Dragnet • Fred Allen Finally Has Enough • William Conrad, The Killers, and The Four Star Playhouse • Dangerous Assignment • San Francisco’s YUkon 3-8309 Lady Detective • Looking Ahead to the Fall of 1949
——————————
The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
——————————
The reading material used in today’s episode was:
• On the Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — By Jim Ramsburg
As well as articles from: • Billboard Magazine • Broadcasting Magazine • Radio Daily
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On the interview front: • Virginia Gregg, Lurene Tuttle, Herb Vigran, Mike Wallace, Don Wilson were with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.
• Parley Baer, Lilian Buyeff, Herb Ellis, Betty Lou Gerson, Virginia Gregg, and Peggy Webber were with SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com
• Arnold Stang was with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these at Goldenage-WTIC.org.
• Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin were with Cedric Adams
• Fred Allen was on Tex and Jinx
• Donald Vorhees was interviewed for Allen’s Biography In Sound
• Jack Kruschen was with Jim Bohannon
• John Dehner was with Neil Ross
• William Conrad was with Chris Lambesis
• E. Jack Neuman was with John Dunning
• Frank Sinatra was with Walter Cronkite
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Takin’ A Chance on Love — By Helen Forrest • The Pavane — By Steve Erquiaga • Lenore Overture Number 3 — By Ludwig Van Beethoven • And Fly Me To The Moon — By Frank Sinatra
——————————
Special thanks to
The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society https://www.ghoulishdelights.com/series/themorls/ The Fireside Mystery Theatre https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com/
Terror on the Air https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUbviBTC1CamzamykVCqN0A https://soundcloud.com/terrorontheair https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/terror-on-the-air/id1477581905 https://open.spotify.com/show/63o0AY4Zhv5hQsjGVbMbLk?si=YN_vUk3yTgqvOw73u59BtQ
——————————
Subscribe to Burning Gotham—the new audio drama set in 1835 New York City. It’s available everywhere you get your podcasts and at BurningGotham.com.
——————————
A special thank you to Ted Davenport and Jerry Haendiges: two radio show collectors who helped supply material for this episode. They’re who the large retailers go to.
Ted’s got a Facebook group - https://www.facebook.com/otrteddavenport/ For Jerry, please visit http://otrsite.com/
I’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman of SPERDVAC - http://sperdvac.com/
——————————
Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy
——————————
WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers URL - thewallbreakers.com
December 26th, 1948 was a seminal day in radio history. NBC had dominated Sunday’s prime time ratings for every season since the late 1920s. Now, in one evening, two of their most famous comedians would depart from their airwaves at the same time.
First it was Jack Benny, who signed on NBC for the last time at 7PM eastern time. Jack made sure to get in one parting joke and thank you to NBC. Benny would debut on CBS at the same time on January 2nd, 1949.
One, semi-related oddity: Jack Benny passed away exactly twenty-six years later on December 26th, 1974 at the age of eighty.
In the fall of 1948, CBS programmed radio’s "Outstanding Theater of Thrills," Suspense, opposite the Kraft Music Hall at 9PM on NBC, and took with it much of Al Jolson’s audience. The show’s rating was an 18.5 in September. By Christmas 1948, it was up to nearly 22 and was radio’s highest rated mystery show.
On December 23rd, it broadcast “Holiday Story” starring Herbert Marshall. It's the classic story of a henpecked man who finds new love, and desires to get rid of his current wife with the perfect crime.
At 10AM eastern time on the morning of Wednesday, December 22nd, 1948, Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians signed on NBC with the most expensive daytime show on radio.
Waring’s enormous glee club gave his show a distinctive musical body and spirit. He was described as genial and affable away from the bandstand, but a tireless perfectionist at work. His people talked of constant rehearsals, sometimes lasting eight hours.
He prepared twice the material needed, then chose numbers that were fresh despite the hours of rehearsal.
Waring also arranged tunes three ways—in straight time, as a waltz, and in jive. He wouldn’t reveal which he wanted until the Pennsylvanians were on the air. It kept the group alert and ready to play anything.
At 9:30PM on December 21st, 1948, Jim and Marion Jordan signed on NBC. The couple was in the midst of their tenth consecutive season with a top-three rated show. That month, their rating was 26.6.
That night, Jim Jordan had a cold and Gale Gordon was his usual self. McGee gets a letter from a secret admirer before taking packages down to the post office.
On December 20th, 1948 at 7PM eastern time, The Chesterfield Supper Club took to the air on NBC, featuring a rotating cast of singers Perry Como, Jo Stafford, Peggy Lee, and Mary Ashford and the Satisfiers.
Como appeared on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, while Stafford appeared on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
By 1948, Como had thirteen top-five hits to his credit, and Stafford had sixteen top-ten.
The Supper Club aired weeknights for fifteen minutes. 1948-49 season was the first in which no multiple run shows cracked radio’s top-fifty. The Supper Club’s rating that month was 10.4, while opposite on CBS, Beulah, starring Hattie McDaniel, pulled a rating of 14.1.
This is the last episode of Jeff Regan, Investigator starring Jack Webb. The following month, Webb intimated to Radio Life Magazine that his days playing hard-boiled private eyes were over. His next character would be called Joe Friday.
Miss Carrer is associated with the famous psychic consultant Prince Nemo, she handled all of his outside contacts. The “Lion” wanted Regan to drive out with Miss Carrer to speak with the Prince at his home in Ocean Town about a very delicate matter that he wanted to discuss personally. Regan wanted more specifics but the Lion was happy with the payment so insisted he went.
The Greatest Story Ever Told came to the air on January 26th, 1947. It was ambitious, with a full orchestra and sixteen-person chorus. It dramatized the life of Jesus and was the first series to use Christ as a continuing character.
There were no cast credits: Warren Parker played Jesus. No pictures were taken of the performers at work, and there was no studio audience. There were also no commercials: just a simple tag reminding listeners that the program was brought by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company.
The show was guided by an interdenominational advisory board. The sound effects were praised, with sandals simulated and animal noises recorded at the Bronx Zoo.
This episode told the story of “The Good Samaritan” from the Gospel of Luke.
It’s about a traveller stripped, beaten, and left half dead along the roadside. First a Jewish priest and then a Levite comes by, but both avoid the man. Finally, a Samaritan happens upon the traveller. Samaritans and Jews despised each other, but the Samaritan helps the injured man.
It’s a parable to remind people that we are always our brothers and sister’s keepers.
On March 12th, 1983, SPERDVAC (http://sperdvac.com/) hosted a conversation with actors Herb Ellis and Herb Vigran. During the course of their chat, Herb Ellis spoke about his friendship and working relationship with Jack Webb on Dragnet.
In our remastered Breaking Walls Episode 75 we go back in time to the beginning of radio to tell the story of how this medium began. This episode was originally released on 2/1/2018.
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Highlights: * Why the Blizzard of 1888 played such an important role in the need for wireless telegraphy * Who Was Heinrich Hertz? What experiment made him the father of Hertzian Waves? * What Oliver Lodge, Nikola Tesla, Alexander Graham Bell, and Amos DollBear have in common * Guglielmo Marconi, father of radio? * The benefits to wireless telegraphy * David Sarnoff — His start between 1900 - 1906 * Why the press want to get involved * Lee Deforest — Inventor, Fraud, or both? * What incredibly important event happened in December of 1901 in New Foundland * Why the American Government wanted to regulate wireless telegraphy * Reginald Fessenden, Christmas Eve, Oh Holy Night, and Brant Rock * The Titanic Disaster — How it changed wireless telegraphy forever * The Radio Box Memo * What’s next?
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
—————————— A tremendous thank you to today’s cast: Samantha De Gracia Olga Lysenko Justin Peele Nancy Pop Fernando Sanabria William Schallert & John Stephenson ——————————
The reading material used in today’s episode was: • Inventing American Broadcasting 1899-1922 by Susan J. Douglas • Empire of the Air by Tom Lewis • A Pictorial History of Radio’s First 75 Years by B. Eric Rhoads • Hello Everybody! The Dawn of American Radio by Anthony Rudel & • The Network by Scott Woolley
—————————— The interview clips in today’s open:
• Chuck Schaden, who’s interviews can be found at http://www.speakingofradio.com and
• Dick Bertel and the late Ed Corcoran’s Golden Age of Radio program that ran on Hartford, CT’s WTIC in the 1970s, who’s interviews can be found at http://otrrlibrary.org
—————————— Todays’ introduction music of Clair de lune was arranged for harp and vibraphone by David DePeters and played by Elizabeth Hainen. You can pick up her album, Home: Works for Solo Harp on iTunes and Amazon, and listen on Spotify and Pandora. Her website is ElizabethHainen.com and she is on youtube @Elizabethhainenharp ——————————
I’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman of SPERDVAC - http://sperdvac.com/
That thank you also extends to the late Les Tremayne and late Jack Brown for their wonderful 1986 documentary series, Please Stand By: A History of Radio.
—————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy ——————————
WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers URL - thewallbreakers.com
In February of 1973 Don Ameche sat down with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for their WTIC Golden Age of Radio program for a conversation about his life and career (full interview here - https://goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-35.html).
Early in the interview, Dick Bertel asked Don Ameche how he got started in network radio.
In this interview clip, Jack Benny speaks about why he got along so well with his writers and how he became an easy character to write for.
The Wednesday December 7th, 1955 Ernest Kinoy adaptation of Isaac Asimov's "Nightfall," as broadcast for Daniel Sutter's production of X Minus One on NBC from New York. It aired on the 14th anniversary of Pearl Harbor day.
The citizens of a world bathed in constant light from its six suns await the planetary nightfall that occurs once every 2050 years, bringing madness to a people who have never experienced darkness—and a fiery inferno predicted by the fanatical believers of the Cult of Revelations.
It starred Wendell Holmes as Dr. Aton, John Larkin as Theramin, Santos Ortega as the High Priest, and Mercer McLeod as Dr. Sharin. The cast also featured Alan Collins, Bob Hastings, and Roy Fant. Floyd Mack narrated, and Fred Collins announced.
Brooklyn-born bandleader Vincent Lopez (12.30.1895 – 9.20.1975) talks about his first night on the air for WJZ on November 27, 1921. Lopez, who began leading his own band at age 17, was 25 at the time. Lopez worked occasionally in feature films, notably The Big Broadcast, which starred Bing Crosby.
The band's weekly 90-minute show would go on to boost the popularity of both himself and of radio. He became one of America's most popular bandleaders, and would retain that status through the 1940s.
In 1970 Westinghouse put together a retrospective on the history of radio broadcasting in honor of the 50th anniversary of KDKA broadcasting the 1920 election returns.
Years prior, Dr. Frank Conrad, who received numerous awards for his work, including, from the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, the 1930 Edison Medal "for his contributions to radio broadcasting and short wave radio transmission", and the 1936 Lamme Medal "for pioneering and basic developments in the fields of electric metering and protective services" was interviewed by Westinghouse about how KDKA began. This is what he had to say.
As an aside, Dr. Conrad suffered a heart attack on November 6th, 1941 while driving to his winter home in Miami, Florida, and died there three days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and Manilla on December 10th, 1941.
In May of 1974, radio, film, tv, and theater veteran Arnold Moss was a guest of Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran's on WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio (full interview here - https://goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-50.html). During the course of this great, far-reaching chat, Mr. Moss told a funny story about how playing a heavy on radio often traumatized his young son.
In 1976 Orson Welles was a guest of Johnny Carson's on the Tonight Show for a segment on Orson's life and career (full segment here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meikuHb6024). The duo focused more on the radio days than anything else, including this story told by Johnny Carson about a joke that George Burns played on Jack Benny.
In 1965 while Fran Sinatra was recording his album, "September of My Years," he allowed CBS to record the process, and gave Walter Cronkite an unprecedented interview on his life. During the course of the interview, Walter Cronkite asked Frank how he wanted to be remembered.
In Breaking Walls episode 110 we continue our mini-series on the 1948-49 radio season by focusing on news and programming during Christmas week, 1948.
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Highlights: • Jack Benny: Leaving for CBS • A northeast blizzard starts holiday week • Edgar Bergen: Also leaving NBC • Walter Winchell’s big new ABC deal • Soaps, Queens, and the Chesterfield Supper Club • Monday night belongs to CBS • Lunch with WOR while NBC still owns Tuesday evenings • Fred Waring and Yukon King Gear up For Xmas • Blackie, Gildy, Duffy, and Bing • Abbott, Costello, and Jolson fade, while Suspense soars on Thursday • ABC wins Friday while Skelton gets ready to leave NBC too • Merry Christmas from the Royal Roost in Manhattan • Mary Lee, Grand Central, and Elgin Celebrate Xmas • Sinatra’s up-and-down 1948 • Benny and Bergen say goodbye to NBC
——————————
The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
——————————
The reading material used in today’s episode was:
• On the Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — By Jim Ramsburg
As well as articles from: • Broadcasting Magazine • The Los Angeles Times • NationalParkService.gov • The New York Daily News • Radio Daily • WhiteHouseHistory.org
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On the interview front:
• Edgar Bergen, Mel Blanc, Himan Brown, Ken Carpenter, Gale Gordon, Jim Jordan, Harold Peary, Alan Reed, Lurene Tuttle, and Don Wilson were with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.
• Edgar Bergen, Hans Conried, John Gibson, Jim Jordan, and Jan Miner were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these at Goldenage-WTIC.org.
• Ralph Bell, Himan Brown, and Jack Johnstone were with SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com
• Bing Crosby and John Scott Trotter were with Same Time, Same Station
• Eve Arden was with John Dunning
• Phil Harris with Jack Carney
• Bob Hope with Johnny Carson
• Jo Stafford with Michael Feinstein
• Frank Sinatra with Larry King
• Red Skelton was with Dini Petty
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was:
• It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year — By Andy Williams • Christmas Dreaming — By Frank Sinatra • Somewhere in My Memory and Star of Bethlehem — By John Williams for Home Alone • Christmas Blues — By Washboard Pete • Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day — By The Marlborough Cathedral Choir • Christmas Carols for 1928 — By Elsie Holt • White Christmas — By Bing Crosby • Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas — By Mel Torme • Ya Viene La Vieja — By JP Torres
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Subscribe to Burning Gotham—the new audio drama set in 1835 New York City. It’s available everywhere you get your podcasts and at BurningGotham.com.
—————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport and Jerry Haendiges: two radio show collectors who helped supply material for this episode. They’re who the large retailers go to.
Ted’s got a Facebook group - https://www.facebook.com/otrteddavenport/ For Jerry, please visit http://otrsite.com/
I’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman of SPERDVAC - http://sperdvac.com/
——————————
Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy
——————————
WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers URL - thewallbreakers.com
Orson Welles and Agnes Moorehead star in the October 24th, 1937 episode of The Shadow, originally broadcast from WOR in New York over the Mutual Broadcasting System. In this episode, a mysterious beautiful woman knows who The Shadow really is. The mysterious woman is played by a young soon-to-be radio legend, Jeanette Nolan.
In November of 1972, Vincent Price sat down with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio to discuss his career (full interview here - https://goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-32.html). During the chat he told a great story about being invited to dinner at Ronald and Benita Colman's residence, only to have gotten the address wrong because of the Jack Benny Program.
On March 17th, 1984 radio actor Willard Waterman was a guest of Chuck Schaden's for an interview about his life and career (full chat here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/test-interview/). During the course of the interview, Waterman remembered how he became The Great Gildersleeve when he took the role over from Hal Peary on NBC.
John Reagan McCrary Jr. was born on October 13th, 1910 in Calvert, Texas. He graduated in 1932 from Yale and began working for The New York Daily Mirror. In 1940 he was sent to interview actress Eugenia Lincoln Falkenburg, who was nine years his junior.
She was the daughter of Eugene, a Westinghouse engineer, and Marguerite, a Brazilian tennis champion. By 1937 Jinx was modeling and acting, becoming one of America’s leading cover girls.
When interviewed for the musical comedy Hold On to Your Hats, she was struck by the charming southern gentleman who had a way of getting her to open up. They were to be engaged when Pearl Harbor was attacked, and both spent the duration of the war performing various duties overseas.
They were finally married on June 15th, 1945. The following year, on April 22nd, the duo debuted their morning talk show on NBC’s New York affiliate as Hi Jinx.
It was unique to other breakfast talk shows in that Tex refused to sidestep controversial issues. There were discussions on the atomic bomb, the UN, and this interview with Hungarian photographer Robert Capa, considered one of the best adventure and combat shooters in history.
Capa fled political repression in Hungary when he was a teenager, moving to Berlin, where he enrolled in college. He witnessed the rise of Hitler, which led him to move to Paris, where he formed a partnership with Gerda Taro.
He covered The Spanish Civil War, the Second Sino-Japanese War, World War Two’s European front, and in 1948, the Arab–Israeli War.
During his career he risked his life numerous times, most dramatically as the only civilian photographer landing on Omaha Beach on D-Day. His friends and colleagues included Ernest Hemingway, Irwin Shaw, John Steinbeck and director John Huston.
In 1948, the Cold War was in full effect and Capa was one of the only men able to get into the USSR.
On October 21st, 1993, Larry and John Gassman of SPERDVAC interviewed radio producer/director Himan Brown and actor Ralph Bell at Brown's home in New York city. During the course of the interview Himan was asked about the Red Scare, which damaged his career in the 1950s.
In the early 1960s, CBS produced a transcribed series of shorts entitled, Dimension. In this grouping, called "American Landscape" Burgess Meredith brought the listener to various American cultural institutions, like this trip to the Statue of Liberty
This audio is hard to find and was digitized from an original transcription record.
Don Wilson remembers Jack's brilliance, and explains how Jack Benny differed from most "funny" comedians in this clip.
The team of Jack Webb and writer Dick Breen were at their best in Pat Novak, For Hire. It was a cult, hard-boiled detective hit that existed almost solely for Webb to deliver one-liners. The show's regional popularity (it was broadcast from ABC in San Francisco) took Webb to Los Angeles in late 1947 and soon had him developing Dragnet.
In Breaking Walls episode 109 we continue our mini-series on the 1948-49 radio season by focusing on news and programming from Thanksgiving Day, 1948.
——————————
Highlights:
• Tex and Jinx for WNBC with photographer Robert Capa • John Nesbitt’s Passing Parade for WOR while CBS broadcasts the Macy’s parade • Cornell vs. Penn in the Turkey Bowl Game • Norma Young’s Happy Homes for KHJ in Los Angeles • Let’s Get Married with Bride and Groom on KECA • The Elgin Thanksgiving Special with Don Ameche • Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis with Vera Vague • Jack Benny Gets a Turkey on the Cheap — Signs A Big Contract with CBS • David Sarnoff Overplays his Hand • Fulton Lewis Jr. with the News from Mutual Broadcasting • Henry Aldrich’s Turkey Run • Burns and Allen Loose a Wedding Ring • Pre-teen Margaret O’Brien Stars on Suspense • Casey, Crime Photographer’s Holiday • James Hilton Hosts The Hallmark Playhouse with Free Land • Virginia Gregg and Willard Waterman Guest-Star on The First Nighter Program • Thanksgiving Leftovers and Looking Ahead to Christmas
——————————
The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
——————————
The reading material used in today’s episode was:
• On the Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — By Jim Ramsburg
• The fantastic work by Doctor Joseph Webb on Suspense — https://sites.google.com/view/suspense-collectors-companion?fbclid=IwAR1L18Vl___MNGzqrDnJQd9fMgoyzxFboroMVC2akJBkfhDe5DHJHXgrYsE)
Casey Crime Photographer — https://sites.google.com/view/ethelbertsarchives/home?fbclid=IwAR1MRDebzXn8uVYd36uaJBcwIcKV-PEu_IFMKOqOo12S38ka3UXlT39wAmo
As well as articles from the archives of • Broadcasting Magazine • Radio Daily • The New York Times
I’d also like to thank Mark Greenspan for supplying the audio from Penn vs. Cornell.
——————————
On the interview front:
• Virginia Gregg, Barbara Luddy, Margaret O’Brien, Olan Soule, Ezra Stone, Willard Waterman, and Don Wilson, were with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at http://www.speakingofradio.com/
• Don Ameche, Hans Conried, Staats Cotsworth, John Gibson, Jan Miner, and Vincent Price were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these at https://goldenage-wtic.org/
• Cedric Adams spoke with Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin in 1952.
• Jack Poppele spoke with Westinghouse in 1970.
• Jack Benny was interviewed for a 1972 PBS Documentary on Great Radio Comedians.
• Barbara Walters spoke with George Burns in 1979.
• Virginia Gregg spoke with SPERDVAC on August 14th, 1982. For more information, go to https://www.sperdvac.com/
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was:
• Sleigh Ride and Jingle Bells — By Al Caiola, Riz Ortolani & Jimmy McGriff • Thanksgiving — By Michael Silverman • Greensleeves — By Steve Erquiaga • Night Pt. 1 - Snow — By George Winston • Deck The Halls — By J.P. Torres
——————————
Subscribe to Burning Gotham—the new audio drama set in 1835 New York City. It’s available everywhere you get your podcasts and at BurningGotham.com.
——————————
Special thanks to:
The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society https://www.ghoulishdelights.com/series/themorls/
Twelve Chimes, It’s Midnight https://www.twelvechimesradio.com/
The Fireside Mystery Theatre https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com/
——————————
A special thank you to Ted Davenport and Jerry Haendiges: two radio show collectors who helped supply material for this episode. They’re who the large retailers go to.
Ted’s got a Facebook group - https://www.facebook.com/otrteddavenport/ For Jerry, please visit http://otrsite.com/
I’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman of SPERDVAC - http://sperdvac.com/
——————————
Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy
On October 31st, 1948 at 4:35PM from WNBC in New York, Living 1948 took to the air with a drama called “Let’s Sit This One Out” focused on registered voters who don’t vote.
Living 1948 was conceived as a “radio mirror” of contemporary U.S. life. The shows ranged from surveys, to dramatic histories, to commentaries. Hosted by Ben Grauer, it featured some of New York’s best radio actors like Art Carney, Alexander Scourby, Claudia Morgan, Marilyn Erskine, and Barry Thomson.
CBS taking note, launched The People Act to rival the program. By late 1948, their network competition was in its third decade.
In June of 1973, Tony Marvin was the guest of Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio (Full interview here - https://goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-39.html). Marvin was a long-time radio announcer who spent a good portion of his career working with the divisive Arthur Godfrey. Here he talks about those days.
In 2003 singer and musician Jo Stafford, who had 10 top-5 hits between 1944 and 1959, sat down with musician Michael Feinstein to talk about her career.
During the conversation she touched on many subjects like her playing with the Pied Pipers, The Tommy Dorsey Band, and how she got her start on radio with her sisters.
The show starts with Dennis singing the hit from the score Pale Face entitled Buttons & Bows.
Well there’s nothing more thrilling to a red-blooded man on a crisp October morning than to be crouched beside a lovely lake with his trusty gun and a flock of ducks circling overhead. It's why Mr. Anderson asked permission of his wife yesterday to do just that. And so today we find him beside a body of water. Unfortunately, he’s at the kitchen sink with his trusty washcloth and a flock of dirty dishes. His retriever is our young hero Dennis Day who takes charge of each plate as it leaves the suds
The CBS Western Luke Slaughter of Tombstone came to radio at a time when both sponsorship and listenership were at an all-time low. The program lasted just sixteen episodes. It was nationally sustained by CBS, but local sponsors were able to sell some spots, including this one from the May 4th, 1958 episode, "Worth Its Salt," when O'Brien Paints ran a sixty-second spot. This is that commercial.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 108: Halloween 1948—Dewey Vs. Truman ____________ On Halloween 1948, after Jack Benny signed off at 5:30 Pacific time, Phil Harris & Alice Faye signed on.
Benny’s famous bandleader joined The Fitch Bandwagon in 1946. In October 1948 he and starlet wife Alice Faye were given name billing. Rexall signed on as sponsor. That month, their rating was 21.2, fourth-highest on air, and a point higher than Benny’s.
Radio writer, director, and actor Elliott Lewis played Frank Remley, in a take on Phil’s real-life band member. Remley had worked Benny’s show, who often singled him out for critical comment.
Harris’ character was lazy, shiftless, stupid, and alcoholic, and Remley, though never given voice on Benny’s programs, became the point man for Harris’ virtues.
On the Harris show, the “Frank Remley gag” was expanded into a speaking role: Remley played the part in the first episode, but it didn’t work. Elliott Lewis turned the role into a comic masterpiece. The cast also featured Gale Gordon, Robert North, Jeanine Roose, Anne Whitfield, and Walter Tetley.
The show would peak in December with a twenty-six point rating. Writers Ray Singer and Dick Chevillat had to account for five-minutes of necessary cuts because of audience laughter.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 108: Halloween 1948—Dewey Vs. Truman ____________
Halloween 1948 was windy in New York. While John Dewey headlined the New York Daily News, in Brooklyn, James Edward Heller penned a Daily Eagle editorial claiming the current generation of kids celebrated Halloween too feebly.
By October 31st, 1948, The Mutual Broadcasting System’s flagship WOR in New York was approaching its twenty-seventh anniversary. It was argued that no station matched its signal coverage. WOR-Mutual was known for its cop shows, soap operas, and on Sundays, it’s mysteries.
At 4PM eastern time, House of Mystery signed on for General Foods.
On February 11th, 1929, the very first broadcast of The Edison Hour took to the airwaves over NBC's Blue Network from their WJZ New York City studios.
With Edison's company manufacturing radios, it was thought to be a good idea to help promote their product by bringing concert music to the air.
This special first broadcast was in honor of Thomas Edison himself, who was celebrating his 82nd birthday. Edison (seen here that very day with President-Elect Herbert Hoover, Henry Ford, and Harvey Firestone) was in Fort Myers, Florida working on new rubber experiments.
During the broadcast, a feed was relayed to Florida where Edison addressed the American listening audience live on-the-air. This is what he said.
(Special thanks to Mr. Jerry Haendiges for supplying the full audio of the episode in fantastic quality).
At 8:30PM Pacific Time on October 31st, 1948, live from KNX Hollywood studios, Rocky Jordan re-debuted on CBS. It was a revival of A Man Named Jordan. It aired over CBS’ west-coast network and starred Hollywood character actor Jack Moyles.
Jordan’s code of ethics was rooted in practicality. He was strongly motivated by money, and his search for fortune was often wrapped up in dangerous adventure.
The main change from A Man Named Jordan was the moving of Rocky’s Café Tamborine from Istanbul to Cairo.
Writers Larry Roman and Corner Cool strove for authenticity and flavor: The Cafe was given no street or number, but the surrounding Cairo streets were real. Most of the information came from the Army’s Pocket Guide to Egypt. Roman and Cool were also aided at one point by Egyptian writer, Anderoux Bittar.
Ideas came from true tales in newspapers. Jordan usually got involved by happenstance. This brought him into contact with Capt. Sam Sabaaya of the Cairo Police, voiced by Jay Novello.
Original music was by Richard Aurandt, and Larry Thor handled announcing.
Famed radio announcer André Baruch served in the original invasion of North Africa during World War II and spent almost four years overseas before being honorably discharged as a major. Baruch was involved in the launching of the Armed Forces Radio Service and also helped thwart the messages of "Axis Sally."
Axis Sally was Mildred Gillars, a German-American woman who broadcast propaganda messages in Europe for the Nazi Party which were designed to crush the spirit and morale of American soldiers. These messages would emphasize the value of surrender, stoke fears that soldiers' wives and girlfriends were cheating on them, and point out that the Axis powers knew their locations.
American soldiers listened to Gillars' broadcasts for the entertaining music even as they found her attempts at propaganda "laughable." After the War, Mildred Gillars became the first woman in US history to be convicted of treason by the United States and on March 8th, 1949 was sentenced to ten to thirty years' imprisonment.
Gillars served her sentence at the Federal Reformatory for Women in Alderson, West Virginia. She became eligible for parole in 1959, but did not apply until 1961. She was released on June 10, 1961. Having converted to Roman Catholicism while in prison, Gillars went to live at the Our Lady of Bethlehem Convent in Columbus, Ohio, and taught German, French, and music at St. Joseph Academy, Columbus.
On December 13th, 1973, Chuck Schaden sat down with Bret Morrison for a chat about his life and career (full interview available here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/morrison-bret/). During the course of the conversation, Mr. Morrison spoke about how he unexpectedly got the role of The Shadow in April of 1943.
The Shadow was broadcast over the Mutual Broadcasting System from their flagship WOR station in New York. Broadcasts were done live before an audience at the still-active Longacre Theater at 220 W 48th St in the heart of New York City's theater district.
Chuck's full chat with Bret Morrison is available to stream for free at the above link. It's a great one.
John Bradley Gambling (4.9.1897 – 11.21. 1974)was the host from 1925 to 1959 of "Rambling with Gambling" on WOR. In an interview from 1970 he talks about how he was hired by WOR in 1925 and how his early-morning exercise program began.
As David Hinkley from the NY Daily News tells it, there was no indication when John B. Gambling arrived at WOR's New York studio on this chilly winter morning that he would handle anything other than the engineering for the three-year-old radio station.
But fate sometimes gets bored with the way things are expected to be, and on this day some say late February 1925, some say March 8 the hour for the morning exercise show was approaching and the regular announcer, alas, had a serious case of laryngitis.
So John B. cleared his throat and filled the breach, calling cadence for the exercises that comprised the backbone of a typical morning radio program in the Roaring '20s.
WOR took to the air from Bamberger’s department store in Newark, NJ on February 22nd, 1922. The station cost $20,000 to start. It transmitted at 250 watts, and was the nation's sixth licensed radio station.
On September 12th, 1987 actors Shirley Mitchell, Jack Kruschen and radio announcer George Walsh were guests of Jim Bohannon for a special broadcast of his radio show from Westwood One in Los Angeles, California.
In this clip, Shirley Mitchell and Jack Kruschen talk about the little known "actors in the hall." These were aspiring radio actors who'd hang out at the NBC and CBS studios looking for opportunities to get on the air. It's a small aspect of radio history that often gets overlooked.
In August of 1971, radio and television character actor Hans Conried spoke with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC's Golden Age of Radio (full conversation here - https://goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-17.html). In this clip he talks about the dangers of doing spec work as a young, hungry actor or actress.
In Breaking Walls episode 108 we go back to October 31st, 1948 and open a five-part mini series on that season’s business and programming.
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Highlights:
• You Are There • Dewey V Truman • Let’s Sit This One Out • Halloween 1948 in New York over the Mutual Broadcasting System • Ozzie and Harriet Visit a Haunted House • Jack Benny Goes Trick-or-Treating for a New Network • Phil Harris and Alice Faye • Sam Spade, Rocky Jordan, and Connie Brooks • Walter Winchell Spits Fire • Cabin B-13 • A Tremendous Election Upset • Looking Ahead to Thanksgiving 1948
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
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The reading material used in today’s episode was:
• Sunday Nights at Seven — By Jack and Joan Benny • On the Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — By Jim Ramsburg • WOR Radio 1922-1982
As well as articles from the archives of • The Los Angeles Times • The New York Daily News • The New York Times • Radio Daily • The Saturday Evening Post.
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On the interview front:
• Eve Arden, Jack Benny, Alice Faye, Phil Harris, Elliott Lewis, Bret Morrison, and Lurene Tuttle were with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.
• Hans Conried, Howard Duff, and June Havoc were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these at Goldenage-WTIC.org.
• Dick Joy spoke with John Dunning for 71KNUS.
• Ben Grauer spoke with Westinghouse in 1970.
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was:
• Danse Macabre — by Camille Saint-Saëns (Camille San Sons) • I’ll Take Manhattan — By Blossom Dearie • Ghost Bus Tours — By George Fenton • The Look of Love — By Nelson Riddle • Verdi’s Macbeth Overture — Conducted by Giuseppe Sinopoli • Flag of Columbia — By Jacqueline Schwab • Over The River and Through The Woods — By the U.S. Air Force Band
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Subscribe to Burning Gotham—the new audio drama set in 1835 New York City. It’s available everywhere you get your podcasts and at BurningGotham.com.
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A special thank you to Ted Davenport and Jerry Haendiges: two radio show collectors who helped supply material for this episode. They’re who the large retailers go to.
Ted’s got a Facebook group - https://www.facebook.com/otrteddavenport/ For Jerry, please visit http://otrsite.com/
I’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman of SPERDVAC - http://sperdvac.com/
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Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Chris Pilkington
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WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers URL - thewallbreakers.com
In 1979 Elliott Lewis teamed up with fellow radio veteran Fletcher Markle for a unique method towards reviving dramatic radio. The buying network would air a new one-hour anthology each weeknight. Each day would have a different theme.
Ingrid Carlson—at that time, a Sears' TV commercials supervisor—persuaded Sears Vice President John Beebe to underwrite 130 episodes. Production cost $1.2 Million, over 4 million today.
CBS bought the show.
The Sears Radio Theater debuted on Monday, February 5th, 1979 with a western, entitled “Retribution.” It was hosted by Bonanza’s Lorne Greene. This promo opened the debut episode.
On February 17th, 1975 Chuck Schaden interviewed well-known radio announcer Ken Carpenter about his life and career (full-interview here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/carpenter-ken/). One of Mr. Carpenter's longest associations was with Bing Crosby. Ken was present for the controversy that Bing created by wanting to pre-record his musical programs in 1945.
The story begins at a police headquarters in an eastern metropolis. In a small shabbily furnished office Horace Striker, a patrol officer for the prison commission is seated at his desk, which is completely covered with gift packages from his friends and colleagues to celebrate 25 years in service. However, one of the gifts seem to be ticking and turns out to be a bomb.
Lorenzo Jones was a successful departure for Frank and Anne Hummert—a comedy serial that enjoyed fine ratings from beginning to end with comparatively few touches of misery. It was aptly described by its opening signature: “We all know couples like lovable, impractical Lorenzo Jones and his devoted wife. Belle. Lorenzo’s inventions have made him a character to the town, but not to Belle, who loves him. Their struggle for security is anybody’s story, but somehow, with Lorenzo, it has mote smiles than tears.”
For many years, the show opened with the cheery invitation, “And now let’s smile awhile with Lorenzo Jones and his wife, Belle.”
In late 1948, the show was airing weekdays on NBC radio at 5:30PM Eastern Time. Karl Swenson starred as Lorenzo with Betty Garde and later Lucille Wall as Belle.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 94: Radio And The Drugstore/Malt Shop (1940 - 1955)
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Jack Benny’s most famous Irish Tenor, Dennis Day was born on May 21st, 1916 in New York City, to Irish immigrants Patrick & Mary McNulty.
Day graduated from Cathedral Prep in New York City, and attended Manhattan College in the Bronx, where he sang in the glee club. Eventually he made his way to radio, making his debut on the Jack Benny Program on October 8th, 1939.
Day was a man of many talents, with both a supreme singing voice and impeccable comedic timing. During World War II, he enlisted in the Navy. By the time he was back on the air in March of 1946, NBC was ready to give him a chance at carrying his own show.
A Day in the Life of Dennis Day premiered on Thursday, October 3rd, 1946 at 7:30PM.
On September 16th, 1948 Gregory Peck guest-starred as Ridge Fowler in Suspense, radio's outstanding theatre of thrills. It's a story about a student on his way home from Berkley. He hitches a lift. A canary yellow convertible stops to pick him up and takes him on a ride he'll be a long time forgetting.
On June 15th, 1988 Chuck Schaden interviewed bandleader and comedian Phil Harris about his life and career (full interview here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/harris-phil/). During the course of this fantastic chat, Phil Harris expanded upon the hectic nature of working the Jack Benny Program and the Fitch Bandwagon/Phil Harris & Alice Faye Show back-to-back on Sunday nights.
On the Halloween 1948 episode of Our Miss Brooks, Connie Brooks took a trip to the Clay City Football game, hoping for some alone time with Philip Boyton in the car ride over.
Before she could leave, she had to deal with her mechanic.
On April 9th, 1960, Jean Shepherd told a great story about an old man and a batting cage for his WOR radio show. The batting cages Shepherd speaks of were located on Stillwell Avenue right near where the avenue dead ends against the Boardwalk in Coney Island.
The comedic duo of Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding first appeared on radio in 1946 for WHDH in Boston. In July of 1951 they joined NBC’s full network with two shows. One was a daily-morning show, and another was a sixty-minute primetime show. With radio audiences leaving for television and NBC’s bouncing both programs around its schedule, both shows achieved only mediocre success.
Bob and Ray next appeared on Saturday Mornings for NBC’s Monitor and In October of 1955 they joined the Mutual Broadcasting System for a 45 minute weekday disc jockey series. That lasted until September 20th, 1957.
By the time they joined CBS radio on June 29th, 1959 the team had refined their spoof-character approach. One famous character was the bumbling reporter Wally Ballou. Voiced by Bob Elliott, in 1963 Wally was reporting from down in the new "quiet" subway in New York.
In January of 1986, KRLA broadcast a tribute to Ricky Nelson after his tragic death in a plane crash on New Year's Eve 1985. One of the people spoken to was Jack Wagner, famous as the Malt Shop Man on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.
Jack's show business career began at age 4 in Hollywood films as a French-speaking child actor. By age 17, he was a contract player at MGM. He became a radio personality at KHJ and the Mutual Network while performing in tv shows, including Dragnet, Sea Hunt, The Ann Sothern Show and 144 episodes of The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet as "Jack in the Malt Shop."
Jack started an association with the Disney organization when he and his family were guests for the opening of Disneyland. Beginning in 1970 Jack handled the voice work at the park and production of over 40 master tapes that contained background music for the theme areas at Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris. His taped messages included "Keep your arms and legs inside the coach," "All aboard" or "Enjoy your stay." For many years, he supplied the authentic voices of some 20 various Disney cartoon characters that were heard at the parks. His radio career spanned a period of special programs to popular music.
At KHJ in 1957, he hosted an all-night talk/music show with guest stars. During his first job at KNX, Jack was the announcer for a live music program featuring performances by his older brother, Roger Wagner. Jack was the last pd at KNX before the station switched to all-News. At KMPC and KABC, he was the guest host for Dick Whittinghill and Gene Norman. In the 1990s, Jack was a consultant to Las Vegas casino owner Stephen Wynn and produced the music for the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino. Jack's son, Mike, was pd of KRLA for a decade. Jack passed away after collapsing at a rest stop on his way to Palm Springs on June 16, 1995. He was 69.
In Breaking Walls episode 107, we go back to school with the Nelson family and find out why David and Ricky joined the program, and how it affected the entertainment industry forever.
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Highlights: • Oswald George Nelson—Boy from New Jersey • The Ukulele Craze and the Boy scout Jamboree • Ozzie Starts a Band • Splitting Time Between Football and Music • Cleaning Up Around Town • On the Banks of the Old Raritan • Law School and WMCA • Ozzie Nelson and His Orchestra Gets on Radio • Ozzie Meet Harriet • Harriet Hilliard—One Heck of a Talent • Harriet Joins the Band • Joe Penner and Robert Ripley • Getting Married—Harriet Becomes a Film Star • Touring—David and Eric Are Born • Red Skelton • The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet is Born • Changing Networks in 1948 • Jack Benny Jumps to CBS—David and Ricky Join the Show • Finding Their Groove as a Family • ABC and a Ten-Year Contract • Here Come The Nelsons to Television • Looking Ahead to Halloween
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
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The reading material used in today’s episode was:
• On the Air — By John Dunning • Ozzie — By Ozzie Nelson • Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — By Jim Ramsburg • Before Television — By Glenhall Taylor • As well as articles from the archives of Broadcasting Magazine, Sponsor Magazine, Radio Daily, and Radio Mirror.
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On the interview front:
• Ozzie Nelson spoke with: Johnny Carson, Chuck Cecil, and James Day • Ricky Nelson spoke with Johnny Carson and David Hartman • David Nelson spoke with David Hartman, and KRLA • Jack Wagner and Johnny Hayes were also with KRLA • While Harriet Nelson spoke with David Hartman and Chuck Schaden • Chuck Schaden also interviewed Jack Benny, Lurene Tuttle and Janet Waldo Hear these chats and others from Chuck’s forty-year career at SpeakingOfRadio.com
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was:
• Theme from A Summer Place — By The Ventures • Colorado Trail — From Stephen Ives’ The West • On The Banks of the Old Raritan — By The Rutgers Alma Mater Choir • Auld Lang Syne — By the Manhattan Strings • Dream a Little Dream of Me and Jersey Bounce — By Ozzie Nelson and His Orchestra • Get Thee Behind Me Satan — By Harriet Hilliard Nelson • I Will Follow You — By Ricky Nelson • The Haunted House Boogie — By Jack Rivers and Happy Wilson
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Subscribe to Burning Gotham—the new audio drama set in 1835 New York City. It’s available everywhere you get your podcasts and at BurningGotham.com.
——————————
Special thanks to:
The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society https://www.ghoulishdelights.com/series/themorls/
Twelve Chimes, It’s Midnight https://www.twelvechimesradio.com/
The Fireside Mystery Theatre https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com/
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A special thank you to Ted Davenport and Jerry Haendiges: two radio show collectors who helped supply material for this episode. They’re who the large retailers go to.
Ted’s got a Facebook group - https://www.facebook.com/otrteddavenport/ For Jerry, please visit http://otrsite.com/
I’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman of SPERDVAC - http://sperdvac.com/
——————————
Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy
——————————
WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers URL - thewallbreakers.com
On November 18th, 1969 Ozzie and Harriet Nelson were guests of Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show. During the segment, Ozzie told a funny story about the couple visiting Rutgers (his alma-matter) for a centennial parade.
For Westinghouse's 50th Anniversary in 1970, longtime NBC radio announcer Ben Grauer spoke about being on his toes with news relays during World War II.
On Saturday, April 16th, 1960, Jean Shepherd took to the air over WOR airwaves in New York City. Jean was in his usual talkative mood. On that Saturday he'd reported to work only to find the lock had been changed in his office. He speculated that at that moment numerous locks were being changed around New York to throw society into chaos that coming Monday!
In the winter of 1951, Dick Powell was starring as Richard Diamond Private Detective Friday evenings at 8PM on ABC. The program was sponsored by Camels cigarettes.
Their ad campaign touted the lack of throat irritation from smoking unfiltered camels and that more doctors were smoking their brand than any others.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 95: Radio And The Classroom (1939 - 1965)
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Radio’s Don Quinn rose to fame as Jim and Marion Jordan’s head writer. Throughout the 1940s as he wrote Fibber McGee and Molly, Quinn mulled over the idea of creating a college-centered comedy. Entitled, The Halls of Ivy, in June of 1949 an audition tape was produced with Gale Gordon and Edna Best in the title roles.
When both had to back out, Nat Wolff, who was Edna Best’s husband and Don Quinn’s agent thought of his friend Ronald Colman.
In the fall of 1935 Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra was the featured band on The Baker's Broadcast, starring Robert Ripley of soon-to-be Ripley's "Believe it Or Not" fame. The program was produced and directed by Ed Gardner, who'd go on to create Duffy's Tavern. Ozzie and Harriet were recently married when this broadcast aired over NBC's Blue Network on Sunday nights at 7:30PM from New York.
On August 14th, 1982 SPERDVAC (http://sperdvac.com/) was host to a panel of radio actors and actresses which included Parley Baer, Harry Bartell, John Dehner, Virginia Gregg, Vic Perrin, and Peggy Webber. The old-acting stalwarts swapped fantastic radio stories, including this great one about a time in which a very pregnant Virginia Gregg had a wardrobe malfunction while live, on the air.
On January 21st, 1974, Ozzie Nelson was a guest of James Day for a conversation about his life and career. Ozzie was doing media rounds for his self-titled autobiography. During the course of the chat, Ozzie talked about getting a lot of, and answering letters for advice.
This is a BBC recording of Royal Air Force Pilot and Group Captain Leonard Cheshire describing what he witnessed upon viewing the detonating of the second atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki on August 9th, 1945.
Mr. Cheshire was so moved by his experience during World War II that after the War ended, he founded a hospice which grew into the charity Leonard Cheshire Disability. He became known for his work in conflict resolution. Although Mr. Cheshire passed away in 1992, his organization still exists.
On November 5th, 1947 Ozzie & Harriet Nelson were guests of Bing Crosby on his transcribed ABC Philco Radio Time program. Ozzie later recollected in his autobiography that Bing Crosby was the most casually confident performer he ever worked with.
In August of 1971, radio, television, and cartoon character actor Hans Conried sat for an interview with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for their WTIC "Golden Age of Radio" program (full interview here - https://goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-17.html).
During the interview Hans explained the differences between New York, Chicago, and Hollywood as radio drama recording hubs.
On January 21st, 1974, Ozzie Nelson was a guest of James Day for a conversation about his life and career. Ozzie was doing media rounds for his self-titled autobiography. During the course of the chat, James Day asked Ozzie why The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet was so successful.
In October of 1976, Chuck Schaden sat down with famed actress Mercedes McCambridge to talk about her career (full interview available to stream for free here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/mccambridge-mercedes/). During the course of the conversation, Ms. McCambridge spoke of why radio drama was—to her—the most powerful imaginative entertainment medium.
On March 17th, 1984 radio actor Willard Waterman was a guest of Chuck Schaden's for an interview about his life and career (full chat here and it's a great one - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/test-interview/). During the course of the interview, Waterman remembered playing The Great Gildersleeve in the 1950s as radio drama was in decline.
In 1981 David Hartman interviewed Harriet, David, and Rick Nelson for Good Morning America. It was a fantastic conversation that touched on all three of their combined and individual careers and lives. They also spoke about how Ozzie and Harriet were able to give their children as normal a childhood as possible.
In the early 1980s, the legendary Eve Arden was a guest on John Dunning's 71KNUS Old Time Radio program from Denver, Co. During the course of the conversation, they spoke about Our Miss Brooks and Eve's original Mr. Boynton, Jeff Chandler, with whom she had tremendous on-air chemistry.
In Breaking Walls episode 106, we join Eve Arden at Madison High School and find out why we all love Our Miss Brooks.
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Highlights: • Who is Eunice Quedens? • Eve the heroine with Elizabeth Arden cosmetics. • Starting out in Hollywood • Getting on the Radio • Teaming with Danny Kaye, Jack Haley, and Jack Carson • William Paley and his Packaged Program Initiative • My Friend Irma and Two New Proposed Female-driven Situation Comedies • Our Miss Booth—Not Happening • Eve Arden, meet Connie Brooks • Our Miss Brooks—The New Summer Hit • Colgate Signs on in the Fall of 1948 • Cast Camaraderie • Eve Arden—Radio’s Top Comedienne • Miss Brooks Gains Traction • Taking the Show into TV without Jeff Chandler • Winding down the Radio Show • Looking Ahead to September
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
——————————
The reading material used in today’s episode was:
On the Air — By John Dunning Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — By Jim Ramsburg
As well as articles from the archives of Broadcasting Magazine, Radio Daily, and Radio Mirror.
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On the interview front:
Eve Arden, Gale Gordon, Jack Haley and Gloria McMillan were with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingofRadio.com.
Eve Arden was also with John Dunning on July 25th, 1982 for 71KNUS
Mary Jane Croft was with SPERDVAC on March 14th, 1992. For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com.
Shirley Booth was with Dick Cavett in 1971.
And Ozzie and Harriet Nelson were on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show on November 18th, 1969.
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was:
• It’s Been a Long Long Time — By The Harry James Band • Easy Street — By June Christy • Living Without You — By George Winston • Hello Mary Lou — By Ricky Nelson
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Subscribe to Burning Gotham—the new audio drama set in 1835 New York City. It’s available everywhere you get your podcasts and at BurningGotham.com.
——————————
Special thanks to our Sponsors:
The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society https://www.ghoulishdelights.com/series/themorls/
Twelve Chimes, It’s Midnight https://www.twelvechimesradio.com/
The Fireside Mystery Theatre https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com/
——————————
A special thank you to Ted Davenport and Jerry Haendiges: two radio show collectors who helped supply material for this episode. They’re who the large retailers go to.
Ted’s got a Facebook group - https://www.facebook.com/otrteddavenport/ For Jerry, please visit http://otrsite.com/
I’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman of SPERDVAC - http://sperdvac.com/
——————————
A Special Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy
——————————
WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers URL - thewallbreakers.com
On May 13th, 1990 radio and TV legend Gale Gordon joined Chuck Schaden on his WBBM News Radio 78 radio show for a conversation about Gale's life and career (Full interview here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/gordon-gale-actor/). Towards the end of the conversation Gale Gordon expanded on why radio was such an important artistic medium for its audience.
James Scully here, presenting a trailer for Christopher Affonco Bradley’s new podcast, Crime Is Up, a hybrid podcast featuring original crime fiction and film noir appreciations.
Chris appeared in A Man Named Marlowe in 2018, as did Will Benson, whom you’ll hear in the trailer.
Go to CrimeIsUpPodcast.com for more information, and search for "The Crime Is Up Podcast" wherever you listen to your shows.
On September 7th, 1944, Olivia De Havilland starred in an episode of Suspense called "Voyage Through Darkness" as Judith Webster, who found herself embarked upon a journey in to darkness.
It is 1939 shortly before England and Germany were at war. Judith was in London serving as traveling companion to wealthy American Mrs. Prescott. When Mrs. Prescott died Judith had promised to arrange her a burial at sea. It was on this journey that she learned of the “Blackout Killer,” and feared that he was the man she had befriended and fallen in love with.
In January of 1976 famed radio director William N. Robson was a guest of Dick Bertel and Ed Corcorcan for WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio (full interview here - https://www.goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-70.html). During the course of the conversation, the interviewing duo brought up Suspense, which Robson directed in the late 1950s. Robson explained how budget cuts killed the show (and many others).
This is the third episode of Jeff Regan, Investigator, starring Jack Webb. The series grew out of the groundswell of success that Webb had voicing Pat Novak, For Hire, and later Johnny Modero: Pier 23. It aired on CBS’ west-coast network Saturday nights at 9:30 through December. Herb Butterfield voiced Anthony J. Lion, however William Conrad voiced him in this episode.
By the time Webb began voicing Regan he was working on a new series which would take to the air the following summer on NBC. That series would be called, Dragnet.
On April 9th, 1948 actress Shirley Booth recorded an audition for a new show to be entitled, Our Miss Brooks. Booth turned the part down, feeling that the script wasn't funny enough.
When the part was later offered to Eve Arden, Arden agreed. The pilot script Arden later recorded is an edited version of this Booth audition.
On April 28th, 1971, Chuck Schaden interviewed radio legend and the original Great Gildersleeve, Hal Peary (full interview here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/peary-harold-actor/) about his life and career. During the course of the chat, Hal Peary spoke about why he left The Great Gildersleeve and his relationship with Willard Waterman.
In August of 1987, famed radio director Jack Johnstone was a guest of SPERDVAC (http://www.sperdvac.com) at the Thousand Oaks Library in California. During the course of the conversation on Johnstone's life and career, SPERDVAC's Larry Gassman asked Johnstone to tell a somewhat inappropriate, funny story involving Al Jolson. Mr. Johnstone was happy to oblige.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls EP92: Radio and Coney Island (1906 - 1960)
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Late in 1956, CBS was able to sell individual commercial breaks for Suspense at reduced prices. On November 4th, 1956, the show moved to Sunday afternoons at 4:30. Now directed by William N. Robson.
On June 9th, 1957 Suspense broadcast a play called “The Green and Gold String” starring Vincent Price as a Coney Island fortune teller. Although Price was a film star, he’d long had a clause in his contract for radio.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 92: Radio And Coney Island (1906 - 1960)
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Broadway Is My Beat first took to the air from New York on February 27th, 1949, starring Anthony Ross and directed by John Dietz. Shortly thereafter, CBS executives decided the show sounded flat when compared with NBC's new police procedural Dragnet, which debuted on June 3rd. CBS moved production to Hollywood beginning on July 7th, and turned its direction over to Elliott Lewis.
Lewis cast Larry Thor as Danny Clover, with Charles Calvert as Tartaglia and Jack Kruschen as Muggavan. The show’s chief scriptwriting duo was Morton Fine and David Friedkin. They wrote poetic prose, fit into the gritty world of a sardonic, case-hardened detective.
This episode, “The Joey Croft Murder Case” was broadcast on Saturday June 23rd, 1952 at 9:30PM.
This is audio recorded at Coney Island in the summer of 1932 of fairground rides, carnival barkers, and general fun-time ambience.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls EP92: Radio And Coney Island (1906 - 1960)
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On Friday, April 11th, 1947, CBS debuted a new situation comedy called My Friend Irma.
Marie Wilson starred as Irma Peterson, a kind-hearted, simple-minded, buxom blonde stenographer, while a tremendously versatile actress—Cathy Lewis—portrayed her completely opposite roommate Jane Stacy.
The show was created by Cy Howard during the time after World War II when head of CBS William Paley was championing new, experimental programming. Howard cast Cathy Lewis after hearing her read, and Marie Wilson after seeing her in Ken Murray’s Blackouts.
Gloria Gordon played Mrs. O’Reilly. Hans Conried was Professor Kropotkin. John Brown played Irma’s boyfriend Al, and Alan Reed played Mr. Clyde, Irma’s boss.
By the time this episode, “Irma and Jane Visit Coney Island” aired on Monday, June 7th, 1948 at 8:30PM, My Friend Irma was being sponsored by the Lever Brothers. That season, Irma was the 2nd highest rated show on Monday evenings behind The Lux Radio Theater.
On August 26th, 1975 Chuck Schaden sat down with radio legend Lurene Tuttle for a conversation about her life and career (full interview here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/tuttle-lurene-actress/). During the course of the chat, Ms. Tuttle spoke of early radio and her first radio role.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 90: The Hollywood People Behind Radio’s Baby Boomer Boom (1945 - 1954).
Jeff Chandler was born Ira Grossel in Brooklyn, New York on December 15th, 1918. Raised by his mother, Ira went to Erasmus High School. There he acted in school plays with classmate Susan Hayward.He later took courses at the Feagin School of Dramatic Art in New York and was briefly in radio before getting a job with a troupe on Long Island as an actor and stage manager.
He worked for various stock companies over the next two years, including a performance in The Trojan Horse opposite Gordon and Sheila MacRae, to whom he became good friends.
Chandler served in the Pacific and finished World War II war as a Lieutenant. In December of 1945 after being discharged, he moved to Los Angeles.
Although he struggled to find work in film, by May of 1946 he was appearing on radio, becoming one of Hollywood's reliable character men. The next autumn he was cast as the lead in The New Adventures of Michael Shayne, a syndicated program written by Larry Marcus and produced by Bill Rousseau and Don W. Sharpe. It was the first program sold through the Broadcaster’s Guild. The series was ready for release at the beginning of March, 1948. Michael Shayne led Jeff Chandler to the radio role of a lifetime opposite Eve Arden.
Alan Reed, TV's Fred Flintstone, was also a prolific radio and film character actor. On February 17th, 1975, Mr. Reed sat down with Chuck Schaden for an interview about his life and career (full interview here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/reed-alan/).
During the course of the interview, Reed told a hysterical story about how he got an early gangster role on radio even though he looked too young for the part.
After the November 20th, 1947 episode of Suspense, Roma Wines wrapped up its sponsorship of the series. For the next five weeks CBS broadcast Suspense on Friday evenings. Beginning on January 3rd, 1948 the program changed directions.
William Spier’s last date with the production was January 24th, with the episode “Eve,” starring June Havoc. They were married the next day.
When the couple finished honeymooning, Spier looked for his next project. He found it on the American Broadcasting Company.
On the July 18th, 1948 episode of Sam Spade, entitled "The Missing Newshawk Caper," Lurene Tuttle returned to the series as secretary Effie Perine after taking the previous three episodes off.
In New York, this episode ran at 8PM on WCBS opposite The Robert Shaw Chorale on NBC, Alexander's Meditation Board on WOR/MBS, and Stop the Music on WJZ/ABC.
In Los Angeles, it ran at 9PM on KNX/CBS opposite The Symphony Hour on KFI/NBC, news on KHJ/MBS, and Unexpected on KECA/ABC.
At 9PM on Independence Day in 1944 CBS presented an episode of Columbia Presents Corwin called "Home For The Fourth." Written and directed by Norman Corwin and starring Dane Clark. It's a story that could have been about your family or mine, and how World War II affected them.
July 4th, 1944 was less than a month after the Normandy Invasions on D Day. On that Independence Day the millionth allied soldier landed on Normandy and one-thousand one-hundred allied guns fired a Fourth of July salute at German enemy lines.
In the Pacific theater, US Navy Task Force 58 bombards and bombs Iwo Jima, Haha Jima, and Chichi Jima, forcing the Japanese air force to leave the islands.
In this program, a soldier is given a forty-eight-hour Fourth of July home pass. While the family argues the meaning of World War II and the subsequent international pacts, they learn the true meaning of what they're arguing over. It's is incredibly well-written, timeless, and moving.
The cast featured Dane Clark as Ed, Wally Maher as Bill, Betsy Kelly as Rita, Paul McVey as Pa, and Regina Wallace as Ma. Bernard Herrmann composed and conducted the music.
In 1977 for CBS' 50th anniversary, Frank Stanton, President of CBS, sat down with interviewers to talk about his life at the broadcasting network. It was here that he explained how CBS programming changed when CBS Head William Paley returned from serving in World War II.
In November of 1970, Bill Spier was a guest of Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran's for WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio (Full show here - https://goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-08.html). During the course of the wide-ranging interview with both he and his wife, actress June Havoc, Dick Bertel asked Bill Spier about how he came to direct The Adventures of Sam Spade right at the height of his run directing Suspense.
In early 1982, longtime radio announcer Richard Joy was a guest of John Dunning's on 71KNUS for a chat about his life and career. During the chat, Joy relayed a funny Jack Benny story from Joy's days working at a local Palm Springs radio station.
In Breaking Walls Episode 105 we pour shots and take dictation with The Adventures of Sam Spade.
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Highlights: • Bill Spier’s Musical Beginnings Lead to Suspense • Howard Duff: Unknown Actor • How About Now For Sam Spade? • CBS and ABC compete for Spade • Spade Versus Bergen & McCarthy • 1947-48: Radio’s Highest-Rated Season • Spade Hits Its Stride • Stop The Music • June Havoc, Uncredited Spade Actress • Unamerican Hammett? Unamerican Duff? • Spade Gets Cancelled—Twice • Howard Duff: Radio Preservationist • What’s Next
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
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The reading material used in today’s episode was:
On the Air — By John Dunning Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — By Jim Ramsburg
As well as articles from the archives of Billboard Magazine, Broadcasting Magazine, Radio Daily, and Variety.
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On the interview front:
• Eve Arden, Howard Duff, and Lurene Tuttle were with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingofRadio.com.
• Dick Joy, Elliott Lewis, and E. Jack Neuman were with John Dunning for his 71KNUS program from Denver.
• Howard Duff, June Havoc, and Bill Spier were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear their full chats at https://goldenage-wtic.org/
• Lurene Tuttle remembered radio with Same Time, Same Station on February 6th, 1972.
• Frank Stanton spoke with CBS in honor of their 50th anniversary in 1977.
• Mary Jane Croft was with SPERDVAC on March 14th, 1992. For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com.
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was:
• Fever — By Peggy Lee • Smoke Gets In Your Eyes — By The Mallett Men • Young At Heart — By Frank Sinatra • The Prologue and Main Title piece from High Spirits — By George Fenton • Atomic Cocktail — By Slim Gaillard
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Subscribe to Burning Gotham—the new audio drama set in 1835 New York City. It’s available everywhere you get your podcasts and at BurningGotham.com.
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A special thank you to Ted Davenport and Jerry Haendiges: two radio show collectors who helped supply material for this episode. They’re who the large retailers go to.
Ted’s got a Facebook group - https://www.facebook.com/otrteddavenport/ For Jerry, please visit http://otrsite.com/
I’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman of SPERDVAC - http://sperdvac.com/
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A Special Thank you to: Tony Adams Briana Isaac Ryan Kramer Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Terry Wallace
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WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers URL - thewallbreakers.com
On August 9th, 1986 Lawrence Dobkin, Lillian Buyeff, and Don Diamond were guests of SPERDVAC (http://sperdvac.com/) for a conversation about their long-running radio, tv, and film careers. During the course of the conversation, Dobkin recalled playing Louie the Cabbie on NBC's version of The Saint, which starred Vincent Price.
New York City Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia had his own radio show on WNYC from 1941-1945 and on ABC for the first six months of 1946. In this clip from January of 1945, when LaGuardia was still Mayor, he rails on corruption in regards to the need for more at-home phone service in New York.
Here is the full episode as one track for those who requested! — In Breaking Walls Episode 104 we focus on Orson Welles’ radio career from Pearl Harbor through the end of radio’s peak, and pick up where we left off in Breaking Walls episode 79.
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Highlights: • Orson Returns to Radio In the Fall of 1941 • The Magnificent Ambersons Enters Productions • December 7th, 1941 • Orson and Norman Corwin Collaborate • Orson is Named Pan-American Goodwill Ambassador • It’s All True and Brazil • Problems with RKO • Endings Changed, Others Destroyed • Orson gets fired—Returns to the United States in the fall of 1942 • Ceiling Unlimited And Hello Americans • Jane Eyre • Jack Benny Gets Sick, Orson filles in as host • The Mercury Wonder Show • Rita • Marriage, again • Busy Radio Days in 1944 • The Orson Welles Almanac • Campaigning for FDR • Donovan’s Brain • D Day • Election Day—1944 • Rita and Orson meet Rebecca • Christmas 1944 • This is My Best • Our President is Dead • More Collaborations with Corwin • The War Ends • The Stranger • Around the World in Eighty Days • The Mercury Summer Theater • The Lady From Shanghai • Divorce • Macbeth • Europe and the end for Welles on American radio
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
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The reading material used in today’s episode was: • Citizen Welles by Frank Brady • This is Orson Welles by Welles and Peter Bogdanovich • On the Air — By John Dunning • Discovering Orson Welles by Jonathan Rosenbaum • Orson Welles on the Air, at OrsonWelles.Indiana.edu • Wellesnet.com.
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On the interview front: • Orson Welles was with Peter Bogdonavich, Dick Cavett, Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin, Leslie MeGahey, Dinah Shore, and Huw Wheldon.
• Byron Kane and Jeanette Nolan were with SPERDVAC, the Society to Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety, and Comedy. For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com
• Norman Corwin was with Chuck Schaden. Hear the full chat at SpeakingofRadio.com.
• Howard Duff was with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear their full chat at Goldenage-WTIC.org.
• Robert Wise was with Leslie MeGahey.
• Jack Benny spoke with Jack Carney.
• Lurene Tuttle spoke with Same Time, Same Station in 1972.
• Agnes Moorehead was with Dick Cavett in 1973.
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was:
• Perfida — By Jimmy Dorsey and his Orchestra • The Klezmer’s Wedding — By Andre Moisan • The Third Man — By Anton Karas • Hooray for Hollywood — By Don Swan • The Battle Cry of Freedom — By Jacqueline Schwab • Star of Bethlehem — Conducted by John Williams
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Subscribe to Burning Gotham—the new audio drama set in 1835 New York City. It’s available everywhere you get your podcasts and at BurningGotham.com.
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A special thank you to Ted Davenport and Jerry Haendiges: two radio show collectors who helped supply material for this episode. They’re who the large retailers go to.
Ted’s got a Facebook group - https://www.facebook.com/otrteddavenport/ For Jerry, please visit http://otrsite.com/
I’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman of SPERDVAC - http://sperdvac.com/
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A Special Thank you to: Tony Adams Briana Isaac Ryan Kramer Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Terry Wallace
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WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers URL - thewallbreakers.com
In 1974, Mel Blanc sat down with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran to talk about his career as a voice actor for their WTIC program, "The Golden Age of Radio" (full interview here - https://www.goldenage-wtic.org/log.html). In this clip Mel talks about how he was originally hired by Jack Benny and the many voices he could do.
In November of 1973 Howard Duff was a guest of Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran's for WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio (full interview here - https://goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-44.html). During the course of the conversation, which focused mostly on Duff's radio career, he spoke about those Sam Spade rehearsal sessions in the late 1940s.
In Breaking Walls Episode 104 Part 5, we finish off our story on Orson Welles’ radio career in the 1940s.
PRODUCTION NOTE: This episode will be split into five parts and released on 6/1/2020 ; 6/5/2020 ; 6/10/2020 ; 6/15/2020; and 6/20/2020. On 6/25/2020 the entire episode will be available in long form.
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Highlights: • Around the World in Eighty Days • The Mercury Summer Theater • The Lady From Shanghai • Divorce • Macbeth • Europe and the end for Welles on American radio
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
——————————
WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers URL - thewallbreakers.com
On September 12th, 1987 actors Shirley Mitchell and Jack Kruschen were in-studio guests of Jim Bohannon for a special broadcast of his radio show from Westwood One in Los Angeles, California. During the course of the conversation, Jim asked the duo what separated a great radio actor from the rest of his/her talented peers.
This is My Best debuted over CBS airwaves on Tuesday September 5th, 1944.
Originally, it was a book of the book of the month club. Producer Homer Fickett chose works from modern authors to be adapted for Hollywood radio stars.
Six months later Orson Welles abruptly took over. He initiated a shift to classics, debuting with Heart of Darkness on March 13th, 1945.
It’s the Spring of 1835. We’re at the offices of The New York Sun, published by Benjamin Day and edited by George Wisner. When the Sun launched in 1833, it became New York’s first successful one-cent newspaper.
Prior to the Sun’s launch, the most widely-read city papers were the Courier and Enquirer, Evening Post, Evening Star, and Commercial Advertiser. The City’s eleven merchant papers had a combined circulation of only 26,500. All were produced within a few blocks of each other near Wall Street, William and Nassau. The papers covered foreign affairs, Washington dealings, and little of local culture.
But, by 1833 as New York City’s population soared passed two-hundred thousand, you’d have heard English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, and any number of other foreign languages on the streets of New York. These six-cent merchant papers were missing an opportunity, and Benjamin Day stepped in.
The New York Sun was dramatically different. It was smaller in size, and just below the nameplate was the price: ONE PENNY.
Many of the reports on tariffs and trade politics were replaced by stories littered with sex, romance, intrigue, violence, and death. The Sun’s daily circulation soon reached over ten thousand.
Then an old rival, James Gordon Bennett, launched a new penny paper—The New York Morning Herald—and his readership was catching up.
Benjamin Day needed help. He wanted an editor capable of captivating the entire city, and changing the literary landscape in New York forever.
With a well-timed hire, and a well-timed fire, Benjamin Day will get his wish.
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Coming soon to your favorite podcast app, Burning Gotham, the new scripted audio fiction set in 1835 New York City. Subscribe everywhere you get your podcasts by searching for Burning Gotham, or go to BurningGotham.com.
In Breaking Walls Episode 104 Part 4, we pick up with Orson Welles as the calendar turns to 1945 and World War II comes to an end.
PRODUCTION NOTE: This episode will be split into five parts and released on 6/1/2020 ; 6/5/2020 ; 6/10/2020 ; 6/15/2020; and 6/20/2020. On 6/25/2020 the entire episode will be available in long form.
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Highlights: • Christmas 1944 • This is My Best • Our President is Dead • More Collaborations with Corwin • The War Ends • The Stranger
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
——————————
WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers URL - thewallbreakers.com
In November of 1970, famed actress June Havoc—along with her husband, acclaimed radio producer and director Bill Spier—sat down with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for their Hartford, CT-based WTIC radio show, "The Golden Age of Radio." (full interview here - https://goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-08.html) In this clip, June talks about her radio career and her love for the medium.
At a SPERDVAC meeting on March 14th, 1992 which featured Jeanette Nolan, Mary Jane Croft, and Sam Edwards, radio legend Jeanette Nolan explained how Orson Welles asked her and husband John McIntire to appear in his 1948 version of Macbeth.
This Halloween 1944 episode of the Chase and Sanborn program starring Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy featured Orson Welles. It aired on October 29th, 1944 on NBC.
Welles was then heavily campaigning for President Franklin D. Rosevelt's third re-election. Election day was the following week.
In Breaking Walls Episode 104 Part 3, we pick up with Orson Welles as he joins the Democratic campaign for President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s reelection in 1944.
PRODUCTION NOTE: This episode will be split into five parts and released on 6/1/2020 ; 6/5/2020 ; 6/10/2020 ; 6/15/2020; and 6/20/2020. On 6/25/2020 the entire episode will be available in long form.
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Highlights: • Campaigning for FDR • Donovan’s Brain • D Day • Election Day—1944 • Rita and Orson meet Rebecca
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
——————————
WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers URL - thewallbreakers.com
In the summer of 1946 Orson Welles was in New York appearing on broadway in Around the World in Eighty Days. While there, CBS gave him a thirteen-week summer series of past Mercury Theatre adaptations.
On June 21st, they broadcast Lucille Fletcher's "The Hitchhiker."
(Photo: Orson Welles with Cole Porter—1946)
In Breaking Walls Episode 104 Part 2, we pick up with Orson Welles after he comes back to the United States from South America in late 1942.
PRODUCTION NOTE: This episode will be split into five parts and released on 6/1/2020 ; 6/5/2020 ; 6/10/2020 ; 6/15/2020; and 6/20/2020. On 6/25/2020 the entire episode will be available in long form.
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Highlights: • Ceiling Unlimited And Hello Americans • Jane Eyre • Jack Benny Gets Sick, Orson filles in as host • The Mercury Wonder Show • Rita • Marriage, again • Busy Radio Days in 1944 • The Orson Welles Almanac
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
——————————
WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers URL - thewallbreakers.com
On the evening of December 7th, 1941, with the United States reeling from the attacks on Pearl Harbor and Manilla, Orson Welles took to the air on CBS in collaboration with Norman Corwin.
Corwin was hired by CBS in April of 1938. For the next three years he honed his craft on shows like Words Without Music, Forecast, and The Pursuit of Happiness.
In 1941 Corwin was given the task of taking over the famed Columbia Workshop . He wrote and directed twenty-six plays—today considered great work. The final one was “Between Americans.”
On an evening unlike any prior in American radio history, Corwin tabbed Orson Welles to talk directly to the country. It was the first time they’d worked together.
In 1976 Orson Welles was a guest of Johnny Carson's on The Tonight Show. In this clip the two share radio stories and Orson Welles talks about why he hired an ambulance to take him around New York city during the Golden Age of Radio.
In Breaking Walls Episode 104 Part 1, we focus on Orson Welles’ radio career as he returns to Hollywood radio after production of Citizen Kane wrapped in the fall of 1941.
PRODUCTION NOTE: This episode will be split into five parts and released on 6/1/2020 ; 6/5/2020 ; 6/10/2020 ; 6/15/2020; and 6/20/2020. On 6/25/2020 the entire episode will be available as one full episode.
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Highlights: • Orson Returns to Radio In the Fall of 1941 • The Magnificent Ambersons Enters Productions • December 7th, 1941 • Orson and Norman Corwin Collaborate • Orson is Named Pan-American Goodwill Ambassador • It’s All True and Brazil • Problems with RKO • Endings Changed, Others Destroyed • Orson gets fired—Returns to the United States in the fall of 1942
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
——————————
WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers URL - thewallbreakers.com
At The Mercury Wonder Show's intermission on September 7th, 1943, Hal Styles interviewed the Wonder Show audience and cast — including Orson Welles, Rita Hayworth, and Marlene Dietrich.
Welles and Hayworth had been married earlier in the day.
On Wednesday January 26th, 1944, CBS, Mobil Oil, and Orson Welles launched a variety program, with comedy, jazz, and a weekly guest star. It would be a true radio almanac.
On February 9th, Ann Sothern appeared. The Mercury team of veterans like Agnes Moorehead, Hans Conried, and Ray Collins supported. This episode aired at 9:30PM Pacific Time.
In early 1950 as NBC launched Night Beat starring Frank Lovejoy as Chicago night beat reporter Randy Stone, they sent this recording of the episode "Zero" out to potential sponsors with a sales message taking the place of an opening commercial. Night Beat was a high-adventure human interest series.
The program would get sponsorship starting in July as part of General Mills' Wheaties "Big Parade," but the cereal company would drop the entire campaign after just eight weeks. Night Beat was taken off the air in November of 1950, but revived the following March. It would continue to air until September 25, 1952, never again having a regular national sponsor.
In 1946, Orson Welles decided to make a musical out of Around The World In Eighty Days. He wanted a circus on stage, traveling by a train running through the West. When the show cast ballooned to seventy, including four mechanical elephants, his original producer Mike Todd, pulled out.
Welles went to Harry Cohn of Columbia Pictures for money. In exchange, Welles would put the play on Broadway, and direct a film at no fee. The problem was, Welles' wife Rita Hayworth had a long-standing hatred for Cohn, even though she was still employed by RKO.
In late Spring Welles moved to New York. Around The World In Eighty Days premiered on Broadway at the Adelphi Theatre on May 31st, 1946.
The film that Welles agreed to do in exchange for Cohn's help became The Lady From Shanghai.
May 1st, 1835.
It’s a cold and rainy Moving Day. Every renter in New York is out on the street looking for lodging. Most of the city’s quarter-million live below Houston Street in buildings four stories or smaller, but construction is booming. New people are pouring onto New York’s dangerously overcrowded streets by the thousands. Rich and poor, many come to earn an honest living. Others for more nefarious reasons.
And it’s the perfect place to begin.
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Coming soon to your favorite podcast app, Burning Gotham—a new scripted audio fiction series about the fastest growing city in the world, and the opportunists who shaped it. To find out more, please subscribe to this audio feed or go to BurningGotham.com.
The American Broadcasting Company was never able to overtake NBC or CBS in ratings or revenue during the Golden Age of Radio. But by 1964, the only network dramatic radio airing was part of vignettes on NBC’s Monitor.
That spring, ABC announced they were launching a new show. They hired former NBC writer Jack Wilson as story editor and assigned the series to directors Warren Sommerville and Frederick Bell. Edward Byron, creator of Mr. District Attorney was brought in to advise.
The new series would be a weekday half-hour anthology called Theater Five in honor of its broadcast time in the New York market.
Theater Five premiered on August 3rd with a play called “Hit and Run.” This episode, "April Snowfall" aired on March 5th, 1965 and starred Elliott Reid and Bryna Raeburn.
On August 14th, 1982 actress Peggy Webber was part of a SPERDVAC (http://sperdvac.com/) event featuring some of the great radio character actors from the Golden Age of Radio. The panel, which also included Parley Baer, Harry Bartell, John Dehner, Virginia Gregg, and Vic Perrin, spoke of their memories of Orson Welles.
In this clip, Peggy Webber tells a funny Orson Welles story about last minute script edits while live on the air.
In November of 1972, Vincent Price was a guest on WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio, with hosts Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran (Full interview here - https://goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-32.html). Price lauded radio's power as a medium and spoke happily of his past and (then) present radio drama work. He also provided good insight on how to get started in acting while going to college.
In 1976 Orson Welles was a guest of Johnny Carson's on the Tonight Show for a segment on Orson's life and career (full segment here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meikuHb6024). The duo focused more on the radio days than anything else.
For CBS's 50th anniversary celebration in 1977, CBS anchors Doug Edwards and Charles Osgood spoke about on-air flubs. Mr. Edwards told a great story about a time he got Edward R. Murrow to lose his composure.
On March 24th, 1940 Jack Benny was guest-star for a dramatic role on Orson Welles' Campbell Playhouse over CBS airwaves.
The story they chose was "June Moon," a play by George S. Kaufman and Ring Lardner, based on the Lardner short story "Some Like Them Cold," about a love affair that loses steam before it ever gets started.
At the center of June Moon is Fred Stevens, a young aspiring lyricist who journeys from Schenectady to New York City, where he hopes to make a name for himself in the world of song publishing and night clubs. On the train he meets dental assistant Edna Baker, and the two embark upon a friendship that evolves into love for her and fondness for him. While struggling to become a Tin Pan Alley notable, Fred takes a shine to his composer partner Paul's glamorous, gold-digging sister-in-law Eileen. The two men sell a song to a music publisher and it develops into a hit. Ultimately, revelations about Eileen's true character help return Fred to his senses and Edna, whom he realizes he truly loves.
The cast included Orson Welles (Candy Butcher), Jack Benny (Fred Stevens), Benny Rubin (Maxie Schwartz), Gus Schilling (Paul Sears), Bea Benaderet (Lucille Sears) and Virginia Gordon (Edna Baker). Lee Patrick reprised her Broadway role as Eileen. Ernest Chappell was the announcer.
"June Moon" was Orson Welles penultimate episode with The Campbell Playhouse. He would leave the series after March 31st to focus on the production of his first feature film, Citizen Kane.
In this hilarious excerpt from the April 11th, 1943 episode of The Jack Benny Program, Jack has been sick with pneumonia the previous weeks and Orson Welles has been guest-host. Jack is feeling well enough to come back to the show, but Welles isn't quite ready to give up the gig.
Jack flubs Orson's name after Dennis' song and hilarity ensues.
Bold Venture was a syndicated radio series starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall that aired in 1951-52. Morton Fine and David Friedkin scripted the taped series for Bogart's Santana Productions.
Beginning in March 1951, the Frederic W. Ziv Company syndicated 78 episodes via electrical transcription. Some sources have claimed that the 78 episodes include reruns, and that there were only around 30 episodes but more than 50 shows have now come to light. Heard on 423 stations, the 30-minute series earned $5,000 weekly for Bogart and Bacall. 57 episodes are now known to exist, some are known by more than one title which can make it appear that there are more.
This is the debut episode, "Deadly Merchandise."
In the fall of 1953, thanks to From Here to Eternity, Frank Sinatra's star was again on the rise. He was, however, in need of a pay day. NBC radio presented two new opportunities for Frank.
On October 6th, 1953, at Radio City West on Sunset and Vine, Frank Sinatra taped the first episode of a new detective series called Rocky Fortune. The show premiered that Tuesday evening at 9:30.
Sinatra played the title character. It was hard-boiled in the vein of Pat Novak, For Hire.
Each week Fortune went out on a new job assignment from the Gridley Employment Agency. Over the show’s twenty-five week run, Rocky would find work as a process server, museum tour guide, oyster shucker, cabbie, bodyguard, the social director for a Catskills resort, and even Santa Claus.
He chased skirts, got himself knocked out, helped kids in need, and somehow always managed to come through relatively unscathed.
On Friday, July 23rd, 1937 at 10PM eastern time from the Mutual Broadcasting System’s flagship station WOR in New York, a seven-part adaptation of Victor Hugo’s famed novel Les Misérables debuted.
It was written, directed, and starred a twenty-two year-old Orson Welles. The production also marked the radio debut of the Mercury Theatre troupe It co-starred Martin Gabel as Javert, Alice Frost as Fantine, Virginia Nicolson Welles as the adult Cosette, and Ray Collins, Agnes Moorehead, Everett Sloane, Betty Garde, Hiram Sherman, Frank Readick, and Richard Widmark.
Welles' Les Miserables adaptation was considered to be one of the finest dramatic anthologies ever broadcast. It cemented Welles as a very rare "quadruple threat." He could write, produce, direct, and act. The humanizing way in which he played Jean Valjean, emphasized both the tones of the story, and the ability of the actor.
Les Miserables increased the cache of the Mutual Broadcasting System, and soon landed Welles another role of a lifetime. On Sunday September 26th, 1937, Three weeks after the broadcast of the final chapter of Les Miserables from WOR, Orson Welles debuted as a new crime-fighting hero, The Shadow, on the same network.
In January of 1981 Bob Hope made an appearance on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. In this conversation they spoke about radio, playing golf, performing for US Presidents, and Bob's formative years.
March 1835: Paris, France.
What does an inheritance, a proposition, and two lovely Russian countesses have in common?
Don’t be fooled, danger is coming. ___________
Premiering soon on your favorite podcast app, Burning Gotham, the new scripted audio fiction podcast, set in 1835 New York City. Subscribe to this audio feed to learn more, or go to BurningGotham.com.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, director Peter Bogdanovich recorded conversations with friend and mentor Orson Welles about his life and career. These later turned into a biography, finally published in 1992.
During one chat, Welles told a funny story about working with the emotional Irving Reis and equally emotional Bernard Herrmann on a radio adaptation of Hamlet.
On February 18th, 1973, Agnes Moorehead was a guest of Dick Cavett's for his late night ABC television program. During the course of the conversation, Ms. Moorehead recounted the first time she met her close friend Orson Welles. Welles was fifteen years younger than her. They met one Summer afternoon when he was seven years old.
On October 28, 1940, Orson Welles and H.G. Wells met for the first time in San Antonio, TX. They appeared on a panel for KTSA discussing H.G. Wells' take on Orson's War of the Worlds broadcast as well as the upcoming Citizen Kane. It was an incredible, foreboding few minutes.
In May of 1955, CBS' duel broadcast of Gunsmoke’s pulled in radio’s highest combined rating. New episodes aired on Saturday evenings with a repeat the following Saturday afternoon.
On May 21st, CBS broadcast an episode entitled "The Liar from Blackhawk" about what happens when a man pretends to be a gunman.
Gunsmoke’s success led to its TV incarnation, and several CBS western radio dramas in the late 1950s.
Hal Styles of KMDR interviews Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth on the day of their marriage at the Mercury Wonder Show.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 90: The Hollywood People Behind Radio’s Baby Boomer Boom (1945 - 1954).
By 1946 Los Angeles was the number one location for dramatic radio’s production. Hollywood had the country’s biggest stars and radio’s most famous performers. Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Red Skelton, and many others called Hollywood home. Even before the war, Los Angeles had been attracting hopeful radio actors, writers, and producers. By America’s first year of peace, a troupe of hungry professionals had assembled. These are some of their thoughts on the people they knew and the industry they worked so closely with.
COMING SOON New York, 1835: A city at its tipping point.
It’s ten years since the completion of the Erie Canal. New York City’s population is now over 270,000. Most of these people live below Fourteenth Street in wooden or brick buildings no taller than five stories. The gap between rich and poor is rapidly expanding as each week thousands of new men and women pour onto New York’s dangerously overcrowded streets. Many come to earn an honest living.
Others for more nefarious reasons. ___________
As New York grows, widening old streets and creating new ones is paramount. It raises property value, but property taxes can only increase if the land is improved upon. Buyers are purchasing land on credit and selling to someone new before needing to pay back the original balance.
This artificial inflation is creating a very unstable economy. ___________
The city has no reliable source of drinking water. Although New Yorkers vote in favor of the Croton Aqueduct in April, construction is yet to begin. The aqueduct needs to be paid for. That same month, officials place a twenty-four hour guard in the cupola of City Hall to ring a large bell and hang a light in the direction of any fire. The potential for a cholera epidemic or a crippling blaze is a constant source of fear. ___________
These fears are stirred by the City’s penny papers, chiefly The Sun and The New York Herald, whose publishers Benjamin Day and James Gordon Bennett are battling for readership. In August, this battle leads to the greatest literary hoax of the nineteenth century—fooling both layman and scholar—portending the existence of intelligent life on the Moon. ___________
Even as he calls the hoax remarkable, Phineas T. Barnum is orchestrating one of his own. With the help of William Niblo, Barnum is set to display a woman named Joice Heth: Ms. Heth claims to be the one-hundred-sixty-one year-old nursemaid of George Washington. Remarkable indeed. ___________
New York is a powder keg. On the frigid, blustery night of December 16th, 1835, it finally explodes as the worst fire in city history sweeps through Manhattan. The East River is frozen solid. The undermanned and exhausted team of volunteer firefighters are no match. Everything south of Maiden Lane and east of Broad Street—the chief merchant district and the one with the highest property value—turns to ash.
The fire causes the modern equivalent of $500 million in damages. The official investigation finds it to have been caused by a leaky gas valve near a lit coal stove. No public blame is assigned.
But what if New York’s greatest fire was no accident? ___________
Coming soon to your favorite podcast app: Burning Gotham, the new audio drama about the fastest growing city in the world, and the opportunists who shaped it.
During the Korean War, NBC sent reporters to talk to the soldiers on the front lines during the conflict. This is some of what they said.
After the November 20th, 1947 episode of Suspense, Roma Wines wrapped up its sponsorship of the series. For the next five weeks CBS broadcast Suspense on Friday evenings. Beginning on January 3rd, 1948 the program changed directions.
William Spier’s last date with the production was January 24th, with the episode “Eve,” starring June Havoc. They were married the next day.
When the couple finished honeymooning, Spier looked for his next project. He found it on the American Broadcasting Company with The Clock.
This is a tale of struggle. Set in the Lower East Side of New York City. A Jewish immigrant and his wife are trying to realize their American dream, but another dream is getting in the way. The dream that he has every night, which he wakes from covered in sweat, shaking, that seems more real with each dreaming, the dream that he has done the unthinkable, and is paying the price... for murder.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 103: A Weekend at the Malt Shop with Fibber McGee and Molly (1955) ___________
In May of 1955 NBC’s programming department was busy readying for the launch of Monitor. It would debut in June and quickly revamp NBC’s weekend programming. Although dramatic radio took up less and less network airtime, there was still interest in creating new dramatic programming for NBC.
"... Well everyone knows that our school system out of necessity is a carefully budgeted operation and our Miss Brooks, who teaches English at Madison High School has some very definite ideas on the subject of economy."
The Sunday, April 23rd, 1950 episode of Our Miss Brooks aired on CBS. It starred Eve Arden and had a rating of 11.1.
On February 3rd, 1949 comedians Jim and Marian Jordan appeared as Fibber McGee and Molly on "Radio's Outstanding Theater of Thrills" Suspense.
By 1949, Fibber and Molly been radio’s most popular couple for a decade. When Anton M. Leader took over the production of Suspense, he continued Bill Spear’s method of casting non-traditional roles. It was the first time the Jordans had appeared on the program.
In Breaking Walls Episode 103 we visit the town of Wistful Vista to spend a weekend at Walt’s Malt Shop with Fibber McGee and Molly. While between 1938 and 1950, Jim and Marian Jordan’s comedy never finished lower than fifth in national radio ratings, in this episode, we’ll focus on the period after, when the show became a closed production and aired for fifteen minutes, five days per week.
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Highlights:
Jim Jordan—Saver of Things Who is this Fibber McGee and What does he do? First Smackout, by way of Chicago Marian Jordan—Molly McGee Fibber and Molly join NBC When Tuesday Night was Comedy Night Television takes over as NBC’s Stars Jump Ship Fibber and Molly Take a Ratings Hit Marian’s Health Deteriorates NBC’s plan for the 1950s Fibber and Molly Becomes a Serial Finding Success Taking Over Walt’s Malt After the Weekend Winding Down Looking Back to Look Forward
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
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The reading material used in today’s episode was: On the Air — By John Dunning Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — by Jim Ramsburg
As well as several articles from Broadcasting Magazine, Radio & TV Mirror, and Sponsor Magazine.
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On the interview front: Parley Baer and Harry Bartell were with SPERDVAC, the Society to Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety, and Comedy. For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com
Elvia Allman, Jim Jordan, Jim Jordan Jr, Phil Leslie, Willard Waterman, and Don Wilson were with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingofRadio.com.
Jim Jordan was with John Dunning for his 71KNUS program from Denver in 1982.
Don Quinn was interviewed in Hawaii by Owen Cunningham while on vacation in 1951.
And John Gibson and Jim Jordan were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear their full chat at Goldenage—WTIC.org
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was: Caravan — By Gordon Jenkins Goodbye Montana, Pt. 1 — By George Winston I Forgot to Remember to Forget — By Elvis Presley Route 66 — By Nat King Cole
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Special thanks to our Sponsors:
The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society https://www.ghoulishdelights.com/series/themorls/
Hey It’s Jali Entertainment https://www.heyitsjali.com/
The Fireside Mystery Theatre https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com/
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A special thank you to Ted Davenport and Jerry Haendiges: two radio show collectors who helped supply material for this episode. They’re who the large retailers go to.
Ted’s got a Facebook group - https://www.facebook.com/otrteddavenport/ For Jerry, please visit http://otrsite.com/
I’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman of SPERDVAC - http://sperdvac.com/
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A Special Thank you to: Tony Adams Briana Isaac Ryan Kramer Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Terry Wallace
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WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers URL - thewallbreakers.com
In November of 1970, Actress June Havoc and her husband, the prolific radio director Bill Spier were guests of Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio (full interview here -https://www.goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-08.html).
During the interview June Havoc remembered her experience listening to radio during the Golden Age, while Bill Spier pondered whether or not someone was at fault for dramatic radio's demise.
In the Spring of 1947, the cast of Casey, Crime Photographer recorded a special presentation at sponsor Anchor-Hocking Glass' convention in Lancaster Pa. It includes the introduction of the cast and Anchor-Hocking commercials and was fictionally broadcast from The Blue Note Cafe.
On May 29th, 1982 John Dunning had famous radio comedian Jim Jordan on Dunning's 71KNUS radio show, via the telephone. During the course of the chat, Dunning asked Jim Jordan if people still called him "Fibber McGee."
On Easter Sunday 1950, The Jack Benny Program, then airing Sunday evenings on CBS radio to a season rating of 20.7, broadcast their Easter episodes, aptly titled "Fifty Cents to a Bum."
When NBC launched Monitor on June 12th, 1955, it was a true magazine of the air, running over NBC radio stations from Saturday mornings until Midnight Sunday in four hour blocks, completely taking over NBC’s airtime on the weekends. The program offered actualities, remotes, comedy, and variety. Affiliates were free to pick up or put down the show in four hour increments.
In the early 1960s, CBS countered with their own version called, Dimension. Burgess Meredith hosted a show called American Landscape. He brought the listener to various American cultural institutions, like this trip to the old drug store.
This audio is hard to find and was digitized from an original transcription record.
One of the last original episodes of Jack Benny's radio program to air was the April 10th, 1955 show, which aired on CBS. In this episode an Easter stroll results in high jinks and hilarity.
In the midst of radio's highest-rated season, on Tuesday January 6th, 1948 Fibber McGee and Molly broadcast an episode from Hollywood in which the McGees get robbed. Too bad the robber opened the wrong door upon exiting.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 102: The Return of Johnny Dollar (1955)
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At a CBS radio affiliates meeting in September of 1955, John Karole VP of Sales, predicted CBS’s time sold would be more than the other three networks combined.
Affiliates were given a Segmented Selling Plan. The plan offered a five-minute segment for twenty-one hundred dollars. Privately, many of the local stations grumbled. CBS had recently instituted income-slashing one-year contracts. Affiliate compensation was cut twenty percent.
But, Frank Stanton, President of CBS, boasted that since the birth of radio advertising, more than eight billion dollars had been spent on commercials. Eight million new radios had been manufactured in 1955—forty-five percent more the previous year.
Five-minute newscasts would dominate the tops of most hours. The network was now selling news advertising at its highest rate in history. CBS was excited to announce evening programs with name-brand talent and The $64,000 Question would air simulcast on CBS Radio.
They were also substantially increasing dramatic production.
This included two evening strips at 8PM that would air five nights per week for fifteen minutes each night. One was to be Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, starring Gerald Mohr, who had just finished a successful run as Christopher Storm on TV’s Foreign Intrigue. Mohr recorded an audition on August 29th, 1955.
After the story end of the July 30th, 1950 episode of The Saint on NBC airwaves called "The Case of the Previewed Crime," Vincent Price came on for a PSA on racial and religious tolerance.
Written and directed by Robert Arthur and David Kogan, The Mysterious Traveler fired aired on the Mutual Broadcasting System on December 5th, 1943.
The lonely sound of a distant locomotive heralded the arrival of the sinister narrator (portrayed by Maurice Tarplin), who introduced himself each week.
Although mostly sustained and often discontinued and revived, The show was popular enough with Mutual listening audiences that it later spawned a comic book and a magazine.
In 1982 Jim Jordan, famous from the radio era as Fibber McGee, spoke via the telephone with John Dunning for his 71KNUS radio program from Denver. During the course of the conversation, Jordan recalled not taking Fibber McGee and Molly into TV with his late-wife Marian.
On February 2nd, 1958, Vincent Price was the special guest star (playing himself) alongside Bob Bailey in Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. The episode is entitled, "The Price of Fame Matter."
This recording is from the Armed Forces Radio Network, and therefore all station identification and advertising spots have been removed.
On March 28th, 1943, Orson Welles subbed as host on Jack Benny's Grape Nuts Flakes Program on NBC. This is that broadcast.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 102: The Return of Johnny Dollar (1955)
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On December 7th, 1948, film veteran Dick Powell recorded an audition for a new detective series called, Yours Truly Johnny Dollar. Powell had been an a-list crooner in the 1930s, starring in both musicals and comedies at Warner Brothers and Paramount. He was also the emcee of radio’s Campana Serenade.
His career changed in 1944 when Powell was cast as Raymond Chandler’s private eye Philip Marlowe, in Murder My Sweet. The Lux Radio Theater broadcast an adaptation on June 6th, 1945.
Two weeks later Powell was starring as Richard Rogue in Rogue’s Gallery on NBC. The series was a summer replacement for the Fitch Bandwagon. When Fitch returned in the Fall, Mutual Broadcasting picked the show up. It lasted for one season on Mutual before returning for a final thirteen weeks on NBC in the summer of 1946.
Simultaneously on film Powell made Cornered, Johnny O’Clock, To The Ends of the Earth, and Pitfall. Wanting to get back into network radio, he recorded this Dollar audition just before Christmas.
In July of 1945 during a newspaper deliveryman's strike, New York City mayor Fiorello LaGuardia took to the air on WNYC and read comics to the kids. Here he reads some Dick Tracy.
In this short clip, Yours Truly Johnny Dollar director Jack Johnstone offers some glowing praise for his star, Bob Bailey.
In Breaking Walls Episode 102, we travel back to the fall of 1955 for the re-launch of Yours Truly Johnny Dollar. Although the five-part Dollar format would last for only a year, listeners then and in the years since have praised the productions as some of the best ever.
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Highlights:
• Who is Johnny Dollar? • Dick Powell: Not Johnny Dollar • Dollar Launches in February of 1949 • Enter The Movie Star • Enter The Second Movie Star • Dollar Signs Off • The Radio Networks Revamp Programming • Jack Johnstone and Jimmy Stewart • Dollar Reborn, with Gerald Mohr? • Bob Bailey Gets the Role • Relaunching Johnny Dollar • After The Final Curtain • Looking Back to Look Ahead
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
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The reading material used in today’s episode was: • The 1955 Broadcasting Magazine Yearbook • The 1955 Radio Networks Annual • The Winter 1956 Journal of Broadcasting Quarterly • The Who Is Johnny Dollar Matter — By John C. Abbott • On the Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — by Jim Ramsburg • Broadcasting Magazine — September 19th, 1955; October 3rd, 1955; and April 2nd, 1956 • Radio & TV Mirror — 1955
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On the interview front: • Mary Jane Croft, Herb Ellis, Jack Johnstone, Elliott Lewis, Jeanette Nolan, were with SPERDVAC, the Society to Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety, and Comedy. For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com
• Virginia Gregg and Parley Baer were with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingofRadio.com.
• Roberta Bailey Goodwin and E. Jack Neuman were with John Dunning for his 71KNUS program from Denver
• Hans Conried was with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear their full chat at Goldenage—WTIC.org
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Caravan — By 80 Drums Around The World. • Pyramid to the Sun & Roller Coaster — By Les Baxter • Exotique Bossa Nova — By Martin Denny • I’ll Be Seeing You — By The Harry James Band • Sleep Walk — By Henri René • Good Timin’ — By Jimmy Jones
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Special thanks to our Sponsors: The Fireside Mystery Theatre https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com/
Radio Drama Revival, https://www.radiodramarevival.com/
Twelve Chimes, It’s Midnight https://www.twelvechimesradio.com/
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A special thank you to Ted Davenport and Jerry Haendiges: two radio show collectors who helped supply material for this episode. They’re who the large retailers go to.
Ted’s got a Facebook group - https://www.facebook.com/otrteddavenport/ For Jerry, please visit http://otrsite.com/
I’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman of SPERDVAC - http://sperdvac.com/
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A Special Thank you to: Tony Adams Briana Isaac Ryan Kramer Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Terry Wallace
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WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers
On the March 17th, 1937 episode of Town Hall Tonight, Fred Allen joked about his new-found friendship with Jack Benny. This episode aired three days after the two comedians famously squashed their beef in a sensational broadcast of Benny's program live from the Hotel Pierre in New York City.
In 1967 Radio producer/director Norman Macdonnell sat down for a documentary interview with John Hickman on Gunsmoke. Macdonnell directed the series during its entire radio run from 1952-1961. During the interview, he spoke of how radio's changing executive in the 1950s helped hasten radio drama's network demise.
The late John Hickman was the longtime host of WAMU's "Recollections" which today is known as "The Big Broadcast."
On August 14th, 1982, Harry Bartell and several other prominent CBS radio character actors were guests of SPERDVAC for a conversation on their intersecting lives and careers. During the course of the chat, Bartell remembered being the Petri Wine announcer on Sherlock Holmes in the mid-1940s.
In January of 1976 famed radio producer/director William N. Robson sat down with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran to discuss his career for WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio (Full episode here: https://www.goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-70.html). Robson was a huge part of the evolution of audio sound effects.
During World War II he was in charge of the production of a very popular program called "The Man Behind The Gun." Part of his job was to try to get the most realistic sound effects possible. In this clip he explains how they were achieved.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 101: Frontier Gentleman and The Saga of Belle Siddons (1958)
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In 1957, CBS Radio saw a rise in revenue for the first time since 1950. For all of that year, Gunsmoke remained the only adult western radio drama on the air. They recorded at the KNX Hollywood Studios on Saturday afternoons.
In early 1958, CBS ordered two new western programs to air on Sunday afternoons, replacing an hour of concert broadcasts. The first would be created by CBS director Antony Ellis. Ellis’ new show would be called Frontier Gentleman.
The title character would be an Englishman named J.B. Kendall. Kendall was a journalist writing for the London Times, weaving his way through the Western territories of the US in the late nineteenth century.
Frontier Gentleman would be recorded in Los Angeles. It was set to debut on February 2nd, 1958.
On the March 17th, 1941 episode of Burns & Allen, Gracie Allen recounts her afternoon marching in the St. Patrick's Day Parade. It results in a hilarious round of banter with George.
The twice-broadcast episode of Frontier Gentleman called "Random Notes" told a series of stories in vignette form, one of which had J.B. Kendall (voiced by John Dehner) speaking with a man who was about to hang for murder.
In August of 1987, famed radio director Jack Johnstone was a guest of SPERDVAC's at the Thousand Oaks Library in California. During the course of the conversation on Johnstone's life and career, he was asked by a guest about directing Marilyn Monroe on the Hollywood Star's Playhouse. Johnstone, never one to hold back, apologetically confessed (very seriously) that he felt she was the stupidest actress he'd ever worked with.
In this clip he explains why.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 101: Frontier Gentleman and The Saga of Belle Siddons (1958)
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When Frontier Gentleman debuted on Sunday, February 2nd, 1958 over CBS airwaves, TV’s most-watched show was Gunsmoke, with a rating of 39.6.
Network radio programming had shifted focus from a decade prior.
Back in 1948, with the radio industry enjoying its highest-rated season, NBC, CBS, and ABC used excess revenue from their slate of dramatic shows to launch full force into television programming.
Ten years later at the close of the 1950s, major network radio drama was on life support.
Programming had begun to shift. That month, U.S. Radio Magazine reported that 55% of all peak listening came from automobiles. With more than 36.5 million U.S. cars equipped, the automobile radio had suddenly become standard. Formulas for measuring these ratings were underway, but ineffective.
In the winter of 1958, CBS’s Sunday programming from New York called for news reports at the tops of most hours.
Concerts and other music programs filled the dial between 11:30 and 2:30. When Frontier Gentleman signed on for the first time at 2:35PM, it was the network’s first scripted dramatic offering of the day.
However, CBS Chairman William Paley believed in radio drama and with Americans on the move, many of the medium’s best, like William N. Robson, were involved in the fictional shows still on the air.
On the afternoon of February 23rd, 1958, CBS premiered Luke Slaughter of Tombstone and ran the fourth episode of Frontier Gentlemen back-to-back at 2:05 and 2:30PM. Both of the shows were unsponsored and cost-sustained by CBS.
These are their mid-show and end-show program bumpers.
John Dehner speaking with John Hickman for Mr. Hickman's "History of Gunsmoke" documentary on the character Paladin in Have Gun, Will Travel. John Dehner played Paladin in the radio version of the series from November of 1958 through November of 1960.
Mr. Hickman was the longtime host of WAMU’s Recollections. Today, this program is heard each Sunday evening as The Big Broadcast.
In Breaking Walls episode 101, we spotlight the career of John Dehner during 1958. In February of that year, Dehner was cast in the title role of J.B. Kendall in Antony Ellis’ short-lived western, Frontier Gentleman.
We’ll focus on four episodes of the series which had a recurring character named Belle Siddons, a beautiful gambler and ex-Confederate spy.
Although Frontier Gentleman only aired for nine months, it has left a lasting impression on listeners in the years since.
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Highlights: • John Dehner: Artist and Disney Animator • How John Dehner Got Into Radio • Breaking Into the Inner Circle of CBS West-Coast Character Actors • Television Usurps Radio Drama in the 1950s • How Gunsmoke Influenced the Western Drama • Antony Ellis • CBS Radio Turns a Profit in 1957 • Frontier Gentleman Is Launched • The Radio Landscape in February of 1958 • The Travels of J.B. Kendall • Who Is Belle Siddons? • Love and Honor • Have Gun Will Travel Replaces Frontier Gentleman • Radio Drama Dies • Looking Ahead to the Return of Johnny Dollar
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
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The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On The Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio - by John Dunning • Radio Rides The Range: A Reference Guide to Western Drama on the Air, 1929 - 1967 by Jack French and David S. Siegel • Network Radio Ratings, 1932-1953 - by Jim Ramsburg
As well as articles from: • U.S. Radio, 2/1958, and Broadcasting Magazine 2/101958, and 12/8/1958
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On the interview front: • Harry Bartell, Lilian Buyeff, John Dehner, Lawrence Dobkin, Sam Edwards, Virginia Gregg, Jack Johnstone, and Vic Perrin were with SPERDVAC, the Society to Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety, and Comedy. For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com
• Virginia Gregg was also with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chat at SpeakingofRadio.com.
• William Conrad, John Dehner, Norman Macdonnell, and William N. Robson were with John Hickman. Mr. Hickman was the longtime host of WAMU’s Recollections. Today, this program is heard each Sunday evening as The Big Broadcast. For more information, please go to WAMU.org
• John Dehner and Vic Perrin were also heard with Neil Ross for KMPC in 1982.
• Vincent Price and William N Robson were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. These interviews can be heard at GoldenAge-WTIC.org.
• And Roberta Goodwin was with John Dunning for his 71KNUS program from Denver on February 7th, 1982.
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Selected Music featured in today’s episode was: • Hog of The Forsaken - By Michael Hurley • Ghost Bus Tours - By George Fenton for High Spirits • Sligo Creek - By Al Petteway and Debi Smith for Ken Burns’ The National Parks—America’s Best Idea • Get a Job - By The Silhouettes • Someone to Watch Over Me - By Rosemary Squires & The Ken Thorne Orchestra • Young at Heart - By Frank Sinatra • Guess Things Happen That Way - By Johnny Cash
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Special thanks to our sponsors! The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society https://www.ghoulishdelights.com/series/themorls/
The Mutual Audio Network https://www.mutualaudionetwork.com/
Hey It’s Jali Entertainment https://www.heyitsjali.com/
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A Special Thank you to: Tony Adams Ryan Kramer Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Terry Wallace
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WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers URL - thewallbreakers.com
In this interview clip, Jack Benny speaks about why he got along so well with his writers and how he became an easy character to write for.
In the winter of 1951, Dick Powell was starring as Richard Diamond Private Detective Friday evenings at 8PM on ABC. The program was sponsored by Camels cigarettes.
Their ad campaign touted the lack of throat irritation from smoking unfiltered camels and that more doctors were smoking their brand than any others.
On February 7th, 1982, Bob Bailey's daughter Roberta Goodwin joined John Dunning on his 71KNUS radio program for a chat about her father's life and career. Bob Bailey was famous for playing the lead in Let George Do It and later Yours Truly Johnny Dollar. In this clip, Mrs. Goodwin speaks about the demise of dramatic radio in the late 1950s.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 100: The Radio Career of Lucille Ball (1938 - 1952)
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When the first episode of I Love Lucy aired on October 15th, 1951, the sponsor, network, and even the crew were unsure if the series would work.
Amos ‘n’ Andy was the first TV show to be filmed, and NBC’s Public Prosecutor used a three-camera technique, but filming with multiple cameras in front of a live audience had never been done. There were interesting production issues that had to be ironed out.
The first-season success of I Love Lucy was such that CBS wanted a radio version. This pilot was recorded on Feb. 27th, 1952, using audio from the eighteenth episode, “Breaking The Lease” which aired on February 11th. Desi was narrator and John Stephenson the announcer for Philip Morris.
On August 14th, 1982, SPERDVAC (Full interview: http://www.sperdvac.com/sperdvac_presents.html) hosted a conversation with some of radio's most famous character actors: Harry Bartell, Vic Perrin, John Dehner, Virginia Gregg, Parley Baer, and Peggy Webber.
During the conversation, Harry Bartell recalled his experiences working for Bill Robson on Escape.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 100: The Radio Career of Lucille Ball (1938 - 1952)
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During the 1949-1950 radio season, Network revenue dropped for the first time since 1933. Radio’s ratings had dropped 30% since 1947.
The U.S. was in an economic recession and television was becoming a serious threat. Over one-hundred TV stations were now on the air.
Advertisers were learning that production costs for new medium were much greater. NBC, CBS, and ABC used their radio profits to fund TV.
On May 8th, 1950, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz officially formed their own production company. They called it Desilu, Inc. If the networks and agencies didn’t believe in the couple, maybe a paying audience would.
On June 2nd, Lucy and Desi’s new act debuted at the Chicago Paramount Theater. It was a combination of vaudeville routine and song. Variety called it “one of the best bills to play the house in recent months.”
The next week they opened at New York’s Roxy to rave reviews.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 100: The Radio Career of Lucille Ball (1938 - 1952)
___________
In November of 1947, The Lux Radio Theater was the CBS Monday night centerpiece for an evening of audience domination, with a rating of 31.2.
On November 10th, Lucille Ball guest-starred in a condensation of “The Dark Corner.”
In late fall with Lucy appearing in Dream Girl in Detroit, Desi left his band in Wisconsin for a surprise one-night reunion. He was to charter a flight to catch up. A phone call awoke Lucy and Desi in the middle of the night. The bus was in an accident. Although no one was killed, the spot on the bus with the most damage was where Desi normally sat. The couple took it as a serious omen to spend more time together.
After Lux went off the air, My Friend Irma signed on at 10PM. By February of 1948 the new hit comedy had a rating of 28.3. Now more than ever, William Paley wanted Lucille Ball for a new CBS series.
She said yes.
On May 13th, 1990 radio and TV legend Gale Gordon joined Chuck Schaden on his WBBM News Radio 78 radio show for a conversation about Gale's life and career (Full interview here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/gordon-gale-actor/).
During the interview Mr. Gordon spoke briefly of playing Richard Denning's boss on CBS Radio's 1948-1951 series, Mr Favorite Husband.
In 1961, My Favorite Husband/I Love Lucy Producer and Director Jess Oppenheimer sat down for a wide-ranging interview on his life and career. During the course of the chat, he spoke about why he was so lucky to work with two of the most popular female comedians of all-time, Lucille Ball and Fanny Brice.
This clip comes courtesy of Jess' son, Gregg Oppenheimer, and Gregg's book, "I Love Lucy: The Untold Story."
In Breaking Walls episode 100 we focus on the radio career of Lucille Ball, arguably the most famous comedienne of the twentieth century.
She rose through the ranks in New York as a model before a small role in Eddie Cantor’s Roman Scandals brought her to Hollywood in 1933 where she gained prominence.
When the 1940s began, Ball was a b-film actress known for playing the other woman. As she gained critical respect for both her dramatic and comedic ability, she insisted that her and Desi Arnaz made a perfect on-screen duo. It led to a revolution in the way TV was shot and produced in the 1950s, all under their company Desilu.
—————————— Highlights: • Jack Haley, Phil Baker, and RKO • Lucy Meets Gale Gordon • How a Holiday Publicity Trip to New York changed Lucy’s Life • Lucy meets Desi • Too Many Girls • Lucy and Desi Elope in November 1940 • Harold Lloyd’s A Girl, a Guy, and a Gob and The Old Gold Comedy Theater • The Tragic Death of Carole Lombard and Lucy’s First Miscarriage • Lucy Stars on Suspense • Desi Strays and Lucy Files for Divorce • The Couple Reconciles and Decides To Work in Radio • Desi and Bob Hope • CBS, My Sister Eileen, and My Friend Irma • Lucy Guests with Jimmy Durante and Bob Hope • Eve Arden and Our Miss Brooks • Lucy Says "Yes" to Bill Paley and My Favorite Husband is Born • Jess Oppenheimer, Bob Carroll Jr., and Madelyn Pugh Join The Team • Lucy Wants to Work With Desi • I Love Lucy is Developed and Philip Morris Signs On • The I Love Lucy Radio Pilot • Changing History and Looking Ahead
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
——————————
The reading material used in today’s episode was: • The I Love Lucy Book - By Bart Andrews • Love Lucy - By Lucille Ball • On the Air - By John Dunning • Desilu - By Coyne Stevens Sanders and Tom Gilbert • The Complete History of the Most Popular TV Show Ever - By Michael McClay • Forever Lucy - By Joe Morella • Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — by Jim Ramsburg
As well as several articles from: Broadcasting Magazine and Radio Daily, from between 1938 and 1951
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On the interview front: • Lucille Ball was interviewed by Dick Cavett in 1970 and 1971; by Johnny Carson in 1974; and by Joan Rivers in 1984
• Desi Arnaz was interviewed with Bob Hope by Johnny Carson in 1976 and by David Letterman in 1983
• Jess Oppenheimer was interviewed in 1961. This interview came courtesy of Gregg Oppenheimer and I Love Lucy: The Untold Story. Gregg also provided My Favorite Husband outtakes.
• Chuck Schaden spoke to Gale Gordon, Jack Haley, and Herb Vigran. Hear their full chats at SpeakingofRadio.com.
• SPERDVAC was with Madeline Pugh Davis and Bob Carroll Jr. on March 12th, 1994
• Hans Conried was with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. These interviews can be heard at GoldenAge-WTIC.org.
• William Paley gave a speech while receiving an award on November 20th, 1958, and spoke in memoriam of Lucille Ball in 1989.
• Lee Philip was with Connee Boswell.
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Selected Music featured in today’s episode was: • Black Coffee and Fly Me To The Moon - By Julie London • The Look of Love - By Billy May • Cuban Pete - By Desi Arnaz
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Special thanks to our sponsors!
The Fireside Mystery Theatre https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com/
Radio Drama Revival https://www.radiodramarevival.com/
Twelve Chimes, It’s Midnight https://www.twelvechimesradio.com/
——————————
A special thank you to Ted Davenport and Jerry Haendiges: two radio show collectors who helped supply material for this episode. They’re who the large retailers go to.
Ted’s got a Facebook group - https://www.facebook.com/otrteddavenport/ For Jerry, please visit http://otrsite.com/
I’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman of SPERDVAC - http://sperdvac.com/
In the 1980s with Joan Rivers subbing for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show, Lucille Ball was guest for a conversation about her life and career. During the chat, Joan asked Lucy if she was uncomfortable being a living legend.
In August of 1982 SPERDVAC (http://www.sperdvac.com) hosted a CBS panel at the Thousand Oaks Library in California. The panel featured some of the best known radio character actors of the 1940s and 1950s. One of them, Parley Baer told a funny story about fellow radio actor Howard McNear.
In the Spring of 1948 as Lucille Ball readied herself to star in My Favorite Husband, she appeared as a guest on friend Jimmy Durante's radio show. In this episode, Lucy tries to convince Jimmy that if he wants to be elected President of the US in 1948, he should champion women in industry.
On March 20th, 1984, Chuck Schaden sat down with noted radio and TV character actor Herb Vigran for a fantastic conversation about his life and career (full interview here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/vigran-herb/). During the course of their chat, Chuck asked Herb about transitioning to Television. In the 1950s, Herb Vigran did a lot of TV character work on shows like I Love Lucy and Our Miss Brooks.
Here, Herb shares why he accurately felt I Love Lucy will be rerun forever
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 99: New Year's 1948 On The Air
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On Wednesday nights at 10PM eastern time during the 1947-48 radio season, The Big Story took to the air live from New York on NBC. Ernest Chappell announced and some of New York’s most well-known character actors appeared.
The series grew out of a real crime case. Bernard J. Prockter, independent producer of radio shows, read a Newsweek account of how two Chicago Times reporters had worked for months on a 14-year-old murder case, writing more than 30 stories before uncovering evidence that led to a pardon for a man wrongly convicted. He wondered if a series built around reporters and their "big stories” would work on the air.
It did better than that.
The show premiered on April 2nd, 1947 and by the Autumn was topping Bing Crosby on ABC in their head-to-head ratings battle. In a season of inflated audiences, The Big Story played a tremendous role in Bing’s ratings nosedive. It won its time slot with a 16.1.
In Prockter’s eyes, crime thrillers were the stuff of radio drama. The show concentrated on long-closed murder cases or other violent crimes against society.
The reporter’s and his or her profession was lionized. The names of all characters were changed, except the name of the reporter and the newspaper. At the end of each drama, the real reporter was brought before the microphone and given a $500 reward in the name of the sponsor, Pall Mall Cigarettes.
Many reporters looked upon the award with amusement, their real-life characteristics were often changed to the point that, within the story, they barely recognized themselves.
On May 13th, 1990 radio and TV legend Gale Gordon joined Chuck Schaden on his WBBM News Radio 78 radio show for a conversation about Gale's life and career (Full interview here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/gordon-gale-actor/). During the interview, a caller asked Mr. Gordon if he did a lot of ad-libbing with Lucille Ball.
The Old Gold Comedy Theater was an NBC attempt to replicate the success of CBS’ Lux Radio Theatre. It debuted on October 29th, 1944. Silent film star and producer Harold Lloyd introduced condensations of movie comedies. This film happened to be his own.
NBC programmed the series Sunday nights at 10:30PM for east coast audiences. Although ratings peaked at 12.4 in December, by April the ratings shrunk to under 7.
It was cancelled after June 10th, 1945.
In the early 1990s, Red Skelton was a guest of Canadian television host Dini Petty's talk show. They spoke about his life and career. In this clip, Red Skelton explains how comedian Ed Wynn got him started in show-biz when he was just a kid.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 99: New Year's 1948 On The Air ____________
Much like Tuesday nights in 1948, NBC also dominated Wednesday’s audience. CBS managed just a single show in the top-ten and NBC’s only competition came from the American Broadcasting Company.
At 8PM Eastern Time, live from Hollywood over NBC, The Dennis Day show took to the air.
Jack Benny’s famous Irish tenor had been given his own solo show in October of 1946. He was zany… easily confused, and exhibited many of the same characteristics as his character on the Benny show, even if in solo show storyline, the same name and voice was said to be a coincidence. The show’s rating would be a healthy 18.2 in January of 1948.
Opposite The Dennis Day show on ABC, Lionel Barrymore took to the air in Mayor of the Town.
With the New Year here, it was a good time for the characters to sit in reflection—that is, if the Mayor’s housekeeper, Marilly—voiced by Agnes Moorehead—could just manage to keep quiet. Along with Ms. Moorehead and Mr. Barrymore, Mayor of the Town featured Conrad Binyon, Priscilla Lyon and Gloria McMillion.
Despite a rating that peaked at 18.9 in February, Mayor of the Town left ABC’s airwaves at the end of the season. In late May, Noxima’s agency announced the sponsor was cancelling its sponsorship, effective June 30th, after four seasons.
It was revived on MBS on January 2nd, 1949 with Mutual Benefit Insurance as the sponsor, but managed no higher than a 5 point rating in any month for the remainder of the season.
Mayor of the Town departed the radio airwaves for good on July 3rd, 1949.
In 1976 Bob Hope and Desi Arnaz both appeared on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. Desi had just released his autobiography. In this clip, Bob Hope speaks about Desi working as his radio program musical director in 1946-47.
In December of 1973, Himan Brown was a guest of Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran's on their WTIC Hartford, CT-based "Golden Age of Radio" Program (full interview here - https://goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-45.html). During the course of the conversation, Dick Bertel asked Himan to estimate how many shows he'd been a part of.
On March 12th, 1994, SPERDVAC (http://sperdvac.com/) was host to a chat featuring celebrated radio and tv writers Bob Carroll Jr. and Madelyn Pugh Davis. The duo achieved their biggest success writing for My Favorite Husband and I Love Lucy.
During the course of the chat the duo spoke about what it was like being a staff writer at CBS' KNX Hollywood station in the 1940s.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 99: New Year's 1948 On The Air
____________
On New Year's Day, 1948 As Hollywood’s Open House featuring Jim Ameche signed on NBC at 7:30PM eastern time, the four major networks had every reason to celebrate. In the past five years, total radio revenue had almost doubled. 97% of the nation’s AM stations were now linked to one of the big four.
NBC, ABC, and CBS would use the profits to launch full force into the Television era. On New Year’s Day in 1947 there were only 12,000 TV sets in the US.
By New Year’s Day 1951 there were ten million.
___________
At 8:30PM eastern time, live from Los Angeles, Burns and Allen signed on for Maxwell House. With it being the new year, George Burns and Jack Benny both resolved to be taken seriously as musicians.
In the 1980s, radio writer/actor/director/producer Elliott Lewis was a guest of John Dunning on his 71K Newstalk Radio program out of Denver, CO.
During the course of this wide-ranging interview, Lewis spoke about why the attempted Network radio drama revival of the 1970s ultimately didn't lead to a huge boom in radio drama.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 99: New Year's 1948 On The Air
____________
In the mid-1940s Al Jolson’s career hit a low point. He’d spent only one season as host of his own radio program since 1939, when his Colgate Toothpaste Program was cancelled in June of 1943.
Then in 1946 Columbia filmed a biography of his life. Larry Parks played the young Jolson, but Jolson’s voice was used in the soundtrack. The film won two Oscars, and again he was a hot property.
Jolson was soon doing so many radio guest spots that it became a running gag among comedians. With Kraft’s ratings in a tailspin following Bing Crosby’s departure for ABC, Jolson was a wise investment. Kraft signed the star for $7500 per week and the Music Hall was once again Thursday’s ratings winner, with a 23.5 in January of 1948.
**
At 9:30PM Eastern Time from New York, Casey, Anne Williams, Ethelbert, and Tony Marvin could be found where they were found on both Thanksgiving and Christmas: At work.
This episode of Crime Photographer involves an arson, manslaughter, and a kidnapping, all taking place in the wee hours of the morning on January 1st.
By January 1st, 1948, John Gibson, Staats Cotsworth, and Jan Miner were three of the busiest character actors on radio.
The December 26th, 1947 blizzard which struck the eastern seaboard of the U.S. saw, In New York, 25.8 inches of snow fall in less than twenty-four hours. It was the worst storm since the Great Blizzard of 1888.
Ocean liners were unable to move. Railroad stations were filled with stranded people. Importing and exporting out of New York ground to a halt, and the Nation’s reliance on truck transportation was immediately evident.
A fuel strike ensued.
By the morning of December 31st, many people had gone without some combination of a newspaper, fresh bread, milk, fuel, or coal for almost a week. Fire officials declared it a state of emergency. Mayor O’Dwyer took the first available plane home from his holiday vacation in southern California.
The radio industry was struck as well. On January 1st, James C. Petrillo, president of the American Federation of Musicians, instituted a nationwide ban on music recording.
The ban was aimed at a provision in the Taft-Hartley Act which criminalized a union's collection of money from members for services that are not performed or not to be performed. It made the AFM's Unemployed Musicians slush fund illegal.
To make matters worse, week-over-week consumer inflation was reaching highs not seen in modern U.S. history.
As President Truman began his full-scale re-election bid, his National approval rating sat at 32%. New York’s Republican governor Thomas Dewey was positioning himself as the most serious challenger for the Presidency. While in the south, Strom Thurmond was moving towards running on what would come to be known as a “Dixiecrat” ticket.
In 1960, Orson Welles sat down with BBC's Huw Wheldon for their Monitor program. The conversation centered around Orson's work as an actor, director and filmmaker, with special attention paid to the 1941 Citizen Kane. In this clip Huw Wheldon asks Orson about the attempt to stop Citizen Kane from premiering.
On May 13th, 1990 radio and TV legend Gale Gordon joined Chuck Schaden on his WBBM News Radio 78 radio show for a conversation about Gale's life and career (Full interview here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/gordon-gale-actor/). They spoke about many things, including Mr. Gordon being typecast as a blowhard.
In Breaking Walls episode 99 we wrap up our trilogy on the most popular season in radio history with a look at the major network programming surrounding New Year’s 1948.
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Highlights:
• Scenes from the Post-Christmas Blizzard Aftermath • Breakfast in Hollywood • Checking in on Lora Lawton • Lois Lane Has Been Framed • Staats Cotsworth’s Other Gig, and Dennis Day’s Old One • Ringing in the New Year with The Mayor and Duffy • Mr. District Attorney and The Big Story • Bing Crosby’s Feeling Festive • Jimmy Durante is Sick • Happy New Year, 1948 • Truman’s Lack of Popularity and a Severe Labor Strike Issue • The First Rose Bowl Telecast in Los Angeles • Mel Allen • Jack Benny, George Burns, Gracie Allen • Al Jolson and Casey • Radio Reader’s Digest, Mr. President, and Family Theater • CBS Takes on Eddie Cantor with The First Nighter • Wrapping Up The Holiday Season and Looking Ahead
——————————
The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
——————————
The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On the Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — by Jim Ramsburg
As well as articles from: • Radio Daily — December 1947 and January 1948. • Broadcasting Magazine — May 31st, 1948
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On the interview front: • Mel Allen, Jackson Beck, John Gibson, Jackie Kelk, Tony Marvin, Jan Miner, Rosa Rio, and William N. Robson were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. These interviews can be heard at GoldenAge-WTIC.org.
• Chuck Schaden spoke to Barbara Luddy, Gloria McMillan, Olan Soule, Rudy Vallée, and Harry Von Zell. Hear their full chats at SpeakingofRadio.com.
• William Paley gave a speech while receiving an award on November 20th, 1958.
• Arthur Godrey and Andy Rooney spoke for CBS’ 50th anniversary.
• George Burns and Jack Benny were interviewed for Great Radio Comedians.
• Bing Crosby was interviewed for Same Time, Same Station in 1972, while SPERDVAC was with Betty Lou Gerson in 1979 and Dennis Day was with John Dunning for 71KNUS on Easter Sunday, April 11th, 1982.
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Selected Music featured in today’s episode was: • What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve? - By Margaret Whiting • Campana Sobre Campana - By J.P. Torres • Auld Lang Syne - By The Manhattan Strings and by Guy Lombardo • Someone to Watch Over Me - By Rosemary Squires & The Ken Thorne Orchestra • I’ll Be Seeing You - By The Harry James Band
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Special thanks to our sponsors!
Twelve Chimes, It’s Midnight https://www.twelvechimesradio.com/
The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society https://www.ghoulishdelights.com/series/themorls/
Hey It’s Jali Entertainment https://www.heyitsjali.com/
——————————
A special thank you to Ted Davenport and Jerry Haendiges: two radio show collectors who helped supply material for this episode. They’re who the large retailers go to.
Ted’s got a Facebook group - https://www.facebook.com/otrteddavenport/ For Jerry, please visit http://otrsite.com/
I’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman of SPERDVAC - http://sperdvac.com/
——————————
A Special Thank you to: Tony Adams Ryan Kramer Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Terry Wallace
——————————
WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers URL - thewallbreakers.com
In 1965, CBS cameras followed Frank Sinatra around with unprecedented access to the performer's personal life as Sinatra worked on arrangements for his LP September of My Years.
In this clip, Frank Sinatra explains to Walter Cronkite why he feels his supposed mob ties are unjustified.
On September 12th, 1987 actors Shirley Mitchell, Jack Kruschen and radio announcer George Walsh were guests of Jim Bohannon for a special broadcast of his radio show from Westwood One in Los Angeles, California.
In this clip the trio jokes about receiving scale pay during the Golden Age of Radio.
In March of 1973, Jackson Beck was a guest of Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran on WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio (full interview here - https://www.goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-36.html). Beck was a New York city native that had, to that point, had a forty year career as a voice actor and announcer in every format from radio (The Adventures of Superman, Philo Vance), commercials, and cartoons (Bluto in Popeye).
In this clip, Mr. Beck talks about some of those roles and tells a funny Louis Armstrong story.
In July of 1975 legendary sportscaster Mel Allen sat down with WTIC's Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for a conversation about his life and career (full interview here - https://goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-64.html).
Before Allen became famous for calling baseball he was working as a staff announcer at CBS. In the late 1930s and early 1940s as CBS and NBC were jockeying for position as the nation's number one network, the competitors tried various underhanded tactics to get a leg up in the sportscasting world. Allen shared some of those memories.
In June of 2007, Chuck Schaden had the pleasure of interviewing actress Gloria McMillan at Radio Enthusiasts of Puget Sound convention in Seattle, Washington (Full interview here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/mcmillan-gloria-actress/). During the conversation, Chuck asked Ms. McMillan how she landed the role of Harriet Conklin as a teenager on Our Miss Brooks.
In February of 1971, Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran interviewed famed organist Rosa Rio about her long career in radio (Full interview here - https://goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-11.html). During the course of the conversation, Ms. Rio explained how shortened time in live radio led to much improvisation while playing.
In April of 1971, radio child-actor legend Jackie Kelk, famous on both Superman and The Aldrich Family, sat down with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio (full interview here - https://goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-13.html). During the course of the interview Dick asked Jackie Kelk about his time on The Adventures of Superman. Jackie had a funny story.
In Breaking Walls Episode 98 we continue our trilogy on the most popular season in radio history with a look at Christmas Week 1947.
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Highlights: • Ralph Edwards and Truth or Consequences—A Record Rated Show • It’s Christmas Week and Jerusalem is in Shambles • The Eternal Light and One Man’s Family • Jack Benny Does Last Minute Christmas Shopping • Fred Allen’s Highest Rated Season Becomes His Downfall When the Music Stops • Walter Winchell gives ABC a Ratings Win • Breakfast with Fred Waring • CBS Dominates Monday Nights and Lux Radio Broadcasts Miracle on 34th Street • Lora Lawton’s Husband is Missing • Milton Berle’s Finally Cracks the Top-50 • NBC’s Tuesday Night Comedy Dominations • The Lone Ranger Hangs ‘Em High • Lionel Barrymore’s Christmas Tradition • Christmas Eve with Bing and Gildersleeve • Road to Rio Opens • Merry Christmas 1947 with King George VI • Don Ameche Hosts an Elgin Special • The Right to Happiness—December’s Highest-Rated Soap Opera • Gracie Allen is Sick, Al Jolson is Rich, and Casey is Lonely • Father Patrick and Family Theatre • A Crippling Blizzard and the Last Sustained Half-Hour Suspense • Looking Ahead to the End of the Year
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
——————————
The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On the Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — by Jim Ramsburg
As well as articles from: • Broadcasting Magazine: December 8th, and December 22nd, 1947 • LIFE Magazine: December 22nd, 1947 and January 5th, 1948 • Radio Daily From the entire month of December 1947
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On the interview front:
• Don Ameche, Mel Blanc, Himan Brown, Staats Cottsworth, John Gibson, Jim Jordan, Mandel Kramer, E.G. Marshall, Jan Miner, Vincent Price and Bill Spier were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. These interviews can be heard at GoldenAge-WTIC.org.
• Chuck Schaden interviewed Milton Berle, Dennis Day, Ralph Edwards, Virginia Gregg, Jim Jordan, Mercedes McCambridge, Shirley Mitchell, Carlton E. Morse, Hal Peary, Lurene Tuttle, and Don Wilson. Hear their full chats at SpeakingofRadio.com.
• Johnny Carson was with Orson Welles on The Tonight Show, and Fred Allen was with Tex and Jinx on November 24th, 1954.
• John Dunning was with Roberta Goodwin Bailey, and Westinghouse interviewed Fran Carlon.
• SPERDVAC with Vic Perrin, and Frank Brese was with Elliott Reid.
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Selected Music featured in today’s episode was: • Sleigh Ride - By Lloyd Glenn and His Orchestra • White Christmas - By Booker T and the MGs • Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day - By the Marlborough Cathedral Choir • It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year - By Andy Williams • Jingle Bells - By J.P. Torres • I Saw Three Ships - By The Norwich Cathedral Choir • I’ll Be Home For Christmas and Baby It’s Cold Outside - By Jackie Gleason and Jack Marshall • Christmas Is - by Lou Rawls
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Special thanks to our sponsors!
The Fireside Mystery Theater https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com/
Radio Drama Revival https://www.radiodramarevival.com/
Hey It’s Jali Entertainment https://www.heyitsjali.com/
——————————
A special thank you to Ted Davenport and Jerry Haendiges: two radio show collectors who helped supply material for this episode. They’re who the large retailers go to.
Ted’s got a Facebook group - https://www.facebook.com/otrteddavenport/ For Jerry, please visit http://otrsite.com/
I’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman of SPERDVAC - http://sperdvac.com/
——————————
A Special Thank you to: Tony Adams Ryan Kramer Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Terry Wallace
——————————
WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers URL - thewallbreakers.com
On the evening of December 22nd, 1947, The Cavalcade of America presented their annual Dupont Christmas Chorus program over NBC.
In 2003 singer and musician Jo Stafford, who had 10 top-5 hits between 1944 and 1959, sat down with musician Michael Feinstein to talk about her career. During the conversation she touched on many subjects like her playing with the Pied Pipers, The Tommy Dorsey Band, and Mitch Miller's struggles as a music repertoire man—something echoed by many, including her former Pied Piper partner with Dorsey, Frank Sinatra.
Favorite Story was a nationally syndicated Ziv production, which grew from a local dramatic offering, developed and continued on KFI, Los Angeles.
The fare was classic literature, both the novel and short story, with adaptations of Vanity Fair, Pride and Prejudice, and The Three Musketeers.
In 1947 writers Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee approached frequent star Ronald Colman and asked him to host it. The format—that of having the “favorite stories” of prominent personalities—was continued. Production stopped in late 1949, after 118 episodes, but the shows were heard in various local markets for years.
When NBC launched Monitor on June 12th, 1955, it was a true magazine of the air, running over NBC radio stations from Saturday mornings until Midnight Sunday in four hour blocks, completely taking over NBC’s airtime on the weekends. The program offered actualities, remotes, comedy, and variety. Affiliates were free to pick up or put down the show in four hour increments.
In the early 1960s, CBS countered with their own version: Dimensions. Burgess Meredith hosted a show called American Landscape. He brought the listener to various American cultural institutions, like this trip to The Liberty Bell in Philadelphia
This audio is hard to find and was digitized from an original transcription record.
In January of 1971, prolific radio writer and humorist Goodman Ace sat down with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for their WTIC Golden Age of Radio program (full interview here - https://goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-10.html). During the chat, Dick Bertel asked Mr. Ace how he got into radio.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 97: Thanksgiving 1947—The Most Popular Season in Radio History ___________
On Thanksgiving Night 1947, Live from KFI Hollywood At 7:30 PM pacific time, The Eddie Cantor show signed on NBC. In storyline Cantor has been kidnapped by Gerald Mohr, and Harry Von Zell has taken over the show. Sara Berner guests as Hildegarde.
The show aired at 10:30 PM in the east opposite a Thanksgiving Day documentary on CBS and a drama on ABC. While Cantor was still a successful showman, his rating fell out of the Top 50 for the first time in his long career.
In Breaking Walls Episode 97 we usher in the holiday season with the first of a three-part mini-series on the 1947-48 radio season. The 1947-48 season had the largest radio audience in history. Homes with radios jumped 6%, car radios 29%.
The major networks—NBC, CBS, ABC, and the Mutual Broadcasting System added 147 new affiliates. 97% of the nation’s AM stations were now linked to one of the big four. Network revenue topped $200 Million.
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Highlights:
Famine in Europe; Anti-Communism at Home—The World is Changing Boomer Babes Fuel a Ratings Increase The Annual Hollywood Santa Parade Happy Thanksgiving 1947 Breakfast with the Couples Prepping With the Soaps The Answer Man Takes to the Air The Annual Elgin Thanksgiving Special Juvenile Adventure At Dusk Settling Into Prime Time George Burns: French Crooner Casey Gets His Turkey Home is Where the Heart Is Eddie Cantor Has Been Kidnapped Late Night and Looking Ahead
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
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The reading material used in today’s episode was: Frank and Anne Hummert’s Radio Factory - By Jim Cox On the Air - By John Dunning Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — by Jim Ramsburg
As well as articles from: Broadcasting Magazine: January 20th, 1947; October 27th, 1947; December 1st, 1947
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On the interview front: Jackson Beck, Hans Conried, Staats Cotsworth, John Gibson, Tony Marvin, and Jan Miner were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. These interviews can be heard at GoldenAge-WTIC.org.
Chuck Schaden interviewed Ken Carpenter and Les Tremayne. Hear their full chats at SpeakingofRadio.com.
While SPERDVAC was with Betty Lou Gerson and Jack Johnstone. For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com.
And Barbara Walters interviewed George Burns for 20/20.
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Selected Music featured in today’s episode was: “Over the River and Through The Woods” — by the US Airforce Band “Holiday On Skis” - by Al Caiola & Riz Ortolani “Joy” - by George Winston
and
“Star of Bethlehem” - by John Williams
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Special thanks to our sponsors!
The Fireside Mystery Theater https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com/
Twelve Chimes, It's Midnight https://www.twelvechimesradio.com/
The Fireside Mystery Theater will be taping their next podcast on Sunday November 17th at the Slipper Room at 167 Orchard Street in New York City.
The theme is: Holiday Haunts. Doors open at 4:30PM and yours truly will be a member of the cast. Come out and support great, new audio drama. I’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman of SPERDVAC. Listen to their shows on the Yesterday USA radio network.
By the way, SPERDVAC - The Society To Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety and Comedy will be having their next convention this coming November 7th through 10th at the Crowne Plaza Hotel at 3131 Bristol St. in Costa Mesa, CA.
For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com
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A Special Thank you to: Tony Adams Ryan Kramer Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Terry Wallace
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WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers URL - thewallbreakers.com
This is the open to the first episode of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet in which David and Ricky Nelson played themselves on air. During the previous four seasons child actors played the duo.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 96: Halloween On The Air (1943 - 1953)
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On Friday April 10th, 1942 People Are Funny debuted over NBC airwaves, sponsored by Brown & Williamson Tobacco.
It was the brain-child of gameshow maven John Guedel. Guedel was a jack-of-all-trades. In addition to writing he’d spent time as a WPA ditch-digger, traveling salesman, and a collector of rejection slips for his own failed ideas.
With People Are Funny set to go on the air in April of 1942, Guedel brought both Linkletter and Baker in as co-MCs. Within a month Guedel negotiated a raise to $850 an episode.
When B&W was ready to renew for a full season Art Baker made it known he resented sharing duties with Linkletter and gave an ultimatum. Guedel preferred Linkletter, but Baker was the bigger name and the sponsor took his side.
The 1942-43 season was a ratings success. People Are Funny scored the first of its six consecutive seasons in Friday’s Top Ten and was NBC’s highest rated entertainment show of the night.
Behind the scenes Baker continually sniped at Guedel and complained to the sponsor.
But, John Guedel knew of a clause in Baker’s contract that allowed for a potential termination every thirteen weeks. After October 1st, 1943 he exercised it. Baker sued. Linkletter took over in the midst of Baker’s lawsuit. He’d never give the role up.
Have you been enjoying Breaking Walls? If so, give us a quick iTunes rating. The more people who do, the more people who will be able to discover Breaking Walls through the iTunes show algorithms.
In early 1982, longtime radio announcer Richard Joy was a guest of John Dunning's on 71KNUS for a chat about his life and career. Joy was the longtime announcer for The Adventures of Sam Spade, which was directed by Bill Spier and starred Howard Duff and Lurene Tuttle. Here, Joy talks about some of his experiences working on the series.
In Breaking Walls Episode 96, we laugh, scream, and cry while we join radio’s best as they celebrate Halloween on the air.
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Highlights:
• The Birth of the Great Gildersleeve • Sam Spade has a Halloween adventure • Ernest Chappell says, “Don’t Tell Me About Halloween” • Spike Jones and His City Slickers Celebrate • Sherlock Holmes and the Laughing Lemur • The Story Behind Bing Crosby’s Departure from NBC and move to ABC • Ozzie, Harriet, David, and Ricky • Jack Benny goes Trick-Or-Treating • John Guedel, Art Linkletter, and People Are Funny • Looking Ahead to the Holiday Season
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
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The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On The Air — By John Dunning • Terror On The Air!, Horror Radio in America — By Richard J. Hand • Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — by Jim Ramsburg
As well as articles by: • TUNE IN Magazine - September 1946 • Broadcasting Magazine - April 14th, July14th, and September 15th, 1947
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On the interview front: • Chuck Schaden interviewed Jack Benny, Ken Carpenter, John Guedel, Shirley Mitchell, Arch Oboler, Hal Peary, Lurene Tuttle, and Mike Wallace. Hear their full chats at SpeakingofRadio.com.
• Howard Duff, June Havoc, and Bill Spier were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. These interviews can be heard at GoldenAge-WTIC.org.
• John Gassman of SPERDVAC was with Art Linkletter in 1991. For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com.
• Jack Kruschen and Shirley Mitchell were with Jim Bohannon on September 12th, 1987.
• Chuck Cecil interviewed Ozzie Nelson.
• Johnny Hayes, David Nelson, and Jack Wagner were interviewed by KRLA
• Johnny Carson interviewed Orson Welles, Ozzie, Harriet, and Ricky Nelson for The Tonight Show, while David Hartman interviewed David, Harriet, and Ricky for Good Morning America.
• Frank Bresee interviewed Bing Crosby, John Scott Trotter
• And Dick Joy was with John Dunning for 71KNUS.
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Selected Music featured in today’s episode was: • A Wicked Thought - By John Zacharely • Ghost Bus Tours - By George Fenton for High Spirits and • Travelin Man - By Ricky Nelson
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Special thanks to our Sponsors: The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society https://www.ghoulishdelights.com/series/themorls/
The Fireside Mystery Theater https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com/
Quietly Yours https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/quietly-yours/id1372389345
I’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman of SPERDVAC. Listen to their shows on the Yesterday USA radio network.
By the way, SPERDVAC - The Society To Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety and Comedy will be having their next convention this coming November 7th through 10th at the Crowne Plaza Hotel at 3131 Bristol St. in Costa Mesa, CA.
For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com
A Special Thank you to: Tony Adams Ryan Kramer Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Terry Wallace
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WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers URL - thewallbreakers.com
On Saturday October 1st, 1948 Frank Sinatra was a guest on Spike Jones' Spotlight Review, over the CBS airwaves. Sinatra's natural ability to drift between comedic routine and singing performances was on display.
On March 9th, 1971, Lucille Ball, Lucie Arnaz, and Carol Burnett were guests of Dick Cavett's on his ABC late-night show. During the course of the interview Lucille Ball discussed being "fired" by renowned Broadway producer Florenz Ziegfeld at the tender age of sixteen.
After Ricky Nelson tragically passed away in a plane crash on New Year's Eve 1985, KRLA in Southern California broadcast a retrospective on his career, which featured many interviews, including one with older brother David Nelson. In this clip, David talks about when he and Ricky began to perform on their parents' radio show in 1949.
On October 2nd, 1991 legendary radio and TV emcee Art Linkletter had a call with John Gassman of SPERDVAC (http://sperdvac.com/) to discuss his life and career. Here Mr. Linkletter talks about how he got involved in radio.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 95: Radio And The Classroom (1939 - 1965)
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In the summer of 1955, CBS executives were looking for a way to increase weeknight listenership in a cost-effective manner. They decided to revive a once popular programming format: the fifteen-minute weeknight serial.
The show they picked to relaunch was Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.
Radio veteran Jack Johnstone, most recently at the helm of Jimmy Stewart’s The Six Shooter, was brought in to direct. The new format allowed for significant character development time.
Because the show was unsponsored and CBS cost-sustained, many of Hollywood radio’s affordable best were involved. Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar re-debuted over CBS airwaves at 8:15PM on October 3rd, 1955.
On February 7th, 1982, Bob Bailey's daughter Robert Goodwin Bailey joined John Dunning on 71KNUS for a chat about her father's life and career. Bailey was famous on radio for playing the lead in Let George Do It and later Yours Truly Johnny Dollar. When his radio career ended in 1960, Bob Bailey struggled with alcoholism and although he recovered, eventually had a stroke.
In Breaking Walls Episode 95, we go back to school with radio’s teacher’s pets, class clowns, and perhaps the most iconic “Miss” in radio history.
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Highlights: • How William Paley used The Columbia Workshop to launch shows and careers. • Suspense Moves to Hollywood and Gets Sponsorship • The Radio Rise of Eve Arden and the Launch of Our Miss Brooks • The NBC University Theater dramatizes a Washington Irving Classic • The New Mr. and Mrs. Ronald and Benita Colman Show • Johnny Dollar Investigates a Suspicious Schoolhouse Fire • Theater Five saves a Nursery • All Hallow’s Eve
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The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
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The reading material used in today’s episode was: • The Who Is Johnny Dollar Matter — by John C. Abbott • On The Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — by Jim Ramsburg
As well as articles from: • Broadcasting Magazine - April 27th, September 14th, and November 30th 1964, as well as January 4th, January 11th, and June 28th, 1965. • Radio Daily - September 30th, 1949 • Sponsor Magazine - September 2nd, 1952
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On the interview front:
• SPERDVAC was with Jack Johnstone, Al Lewis, Jeanette Nolan and Elliott Reid—For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com.
• Chuck Schaden interviewed Eve Arden, Parley Baer, Ken Carpenter, Norman Corwin, Gale Gordon, Jack Haley, Agnes Moorehead, Russell Thorson, and Willard Waterman. Hear their full chats at SpeakingofRadio.com.
• Hans Conried, William N. Robson, and William Spier were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. These interviews can be heard at GoldenAge-WTIC.org.
• Eve Arden, Roberta Goodwin Bailey, and E. Jack Neuman were with John Dunning for 71KNUS.
• Elliott Reid was with Frank Bresee and Walden Hughes on October 14th, 2002 and Don Quinn was interviewed by Owen Cunningham in 1951.
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Selected Music featured in today’s episode was: •I Wonder Why - by Dion and the Belmonts • Pyramid of the Sun - by Les Baxter • Moon - by George Winston • The Look of Love - by Billy May and his Orchestra • Young at Heart - by Frank Sinatra • I’ll be Seeing You - by the Harry James Band • Spooky - by Dusty Springfield
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Special Thanks to our sponsors: • Radio Drama Revival https://www.radiodramarevival.com/
• The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society https://www.ghoulishdelights.com/series/themorls/
There are three other gentlemen who deserve my thanks: Jerry Haendiges, Ted Davenport, and Goodmond Danielson, who’s high quality audio recordings are available for purchase. Goodmond also has a facebook group and corresponding podcast. It’s called “The Radio Show Collector’s Group” and his most recent podcast features Yours Truly Johnny Dollar.
I’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman of SPERDVAC. Listen to their shows on the Yesterday USA radio network.
By the way, SPERDVAC - The Society To Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety and Comedy will be having their next convention this coming November 7th through 10th at the Crowne Plaza Hotel at 3131 Bristol St. in Costa Mesa, CA.
For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com
A Special Thank you to: Tony Adams Ryan Kramer Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Terry Wallace
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WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers URL - thewallbreakers.com
In November of 1970, Bill Spier was a guest of Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran's for WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio (Full show here - https://goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-08.html). During the course of the wide-ranging interview with both he and his wife, actress June Havoc, Dick Bertel asked Bill Spier about how he came to direct The Adventures of Sam Spade right at the height of his run directing Suspense.
Elliott Reid was a prolific radio actor, perhaps best-known for his supporting role in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes . In October of 2002 he was a guest of Frank Bresee and Walden Hughes for a chat about his life and career. The trio quickly touched on Elliot playing in New York on the melodrama Grand Central Station. He recounted the fun of the light-hearted program.
In February of 1975, Chuck Schaden sat down with actor, singer, and comedian Jack Haley (who is today perhaps best known as the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz) for a conversation about his life and career (full interview here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/haley-jack-actor/). During the course of the conversation, Jack Haley elaborated on why New York City's Palace Theater was one of the country's premiere places for a Vaudeville performer.
In November of 1970, Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran were joined by radio director Bill Spier and his wife, acting legend June Havoc on the 8th episode of The Golden Age of Radio for WTIC (full interview here - https://goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-08.html).
During the course of this far ranging chat, Dick asked Bill Spier about the origin of "Radio's Outstanding Theater of Thrills," Suspense.
On May 13th, 1990 radio and TV legend Gale Gordon joined Chuck Schaden on his WBBM News Radio 78 radio show for a conversation about Gale's life and career (Full interview here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/gordon-gale-actor/). Towards the end of the conversation Gale Gordon expanded on why radio was such an important artistic medium for its audience.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 94: Radio And The Drugstore/Malt Shop (1940 - 1955)
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By 1945 Inner Sanctum Mysteries was on CBS Tuesdays at 9PM from New York for Lipton’s Tea.
The original host Raymond Edward Johnson had left the cast and Paul McGrath took over. Each week Himan Brown employed some of the best New York radio talent. He balanced the program's macabre humor with carefully chosen organ sounds, blood-curdling screams, and other heinous effects, creating some of the most iconic sounds on radio.
The violence and gore got Brown in trouble with the FCC who were concerned that youth might be unduly traumatized or might act out the horrors they heard.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 94: Radio And The Drugstore/Malt Shop (1940 - 1955)
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On February 2nd, 1946, ABC premiered a fifteen-minute serial from KGO in San Francisco called One out of Seven. It starred a twenty-five year old actor named Jack Webb.
He was born in Santa Monica, California on April 2nd, 1920 and grew up in a Bunker Hill boarding house run by his Irish and Native American mother Margaret. One of their tenants was a former jazz musician who gave Jack a record of Bix Beiderbecke's "At the Jazz Band Ball.” He became an instant fan.
He attended High School near downtown Los Angeles and St. John's University in Minnesota, where he studied art.
Following his World War II discharge from the US Army Air Corps he moved to San Francisco, where a shortage of radio announcers led to an opportunity.
In 1951, longtime radio writer Don Quinn was on vacation with his family in Hawaii when he sat down with Owen Cunningham for an interview about his two most famous shows: Fibber McGee and Molly and The Halls of Ivy. During the course of the chat, Quinn was asked how he got into radio.
In Breaking Walls episode 94 we visit the malt shops, drug stores, and soda counters in America’s heartland and spend time with radio’s best dramatic actors and actresses.
Highlights • Norman Corwin, Margaret Sullavan, and Byron Kane’s Big Break • The Pharmacist Goes to War—and Saves a Life • Inner Sanctum and Santos Ortega • Dennis Day: Soda Jerk • The Rise of Jack Webb • Dragnet Is Born and Radio Changes Forever • Tales of the Texas Rangers and the Wheaties Big Parade • The End of Fibber McGee and Molly • Back to School
The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
The reading material used in today’s episode was: On The Air - By John Dunning Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 - by Jim Ramsburg Forecast: Is there a Sponsor in the House - by Martin Grams Jr. Just the Facts, Ma'am : The Authorized Biography of Jack Webb - by Eugene Alvarez & Daniel Moyer
And articles from Radio Life, January 1949.
On the interview front:
• SPERDVAC was with Harry Bartel, Ralph Bell, Himan Brown, Lilian Buyeff, Lawrence Dobkin, Herb Ellis, Virginia Gregg, Byron Kane, Jeanette Nolan, Herb Vigran, and Peggy Webber—For more info, please go to SPERDVAC..com
• Chuck Schaden interviewed Eve Arden, Himan Brown, Dennis Day, Phil Harris, Jim Jordan, Lurene Tuttle, and Herb Vigran. Hear their full chats at SpeakingofRadio.com.
• Joel McCrea was with educator Al Greenberg. For more information please go to OrcoDevelopment— That’s O R C O Development (dot) org.
• Jim Jordan was with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. This interview can be heard at GoldenAge-WTIC.org.
• While Dennis Day and E. Jack Neuman were with John Dunning for 71KNUS and Vic Perrin was with Neil Ross for KMPC.
Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Sleep Walk — By Santo & Johnny • Go Slow — By Julie London • The Klezmer's Wedding — By André Moisan • Living Without You — By George Winston • See you in September — By The Happenings
Special thanks to our Sponsors:
The Fireside Mystery Theater - https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com/
Radio Drama Revival - https://www.radiodramarevival.com/
I’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman of SPERDVAC. Listen to their shows on the Yesterday USA radio network.
A Special Thank you to: Ryan Kramer Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Terry Wallace
WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers URL - thewallbreakers.com
In Breaking Walls episode 93 we ride the rails with some of the most famous stars in radio history.
During radio’s golden age, there were three main production hubs: New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. With so much daily content to produce, radio’s greatest minds developed programs and episodes centered around every recognizable theme, like the New York city subway.
While this episode will take place in or around New York’s public transportation system, we’ll focus just as much on the relationships forged by radio’s legends on both coasts.
Highlights: • Mercedes McCambridge, Himan Brown, and Grand Central Station • How Bill Spier influenced the careers of his wife June Havoc and his protégé Elliott Lewis • From Suspense to Broadway is My Beat, Elliott Lewis shines • Jack Benny stars on Suspense • Cathy Lewis: Mrs Radio • Mandel Kramer, Jan Miner, and Subway Soaps from New York • Byron Kane and Subways Are For Sleeping • William N. Robson, Shirley Mitchell, Virginia Gregg and Jack Kruschen on radio in the 1950s • Bob and Ray head down into the Subway • Himan Brown brings dramatic radio back to life in the 1970s • Next Stop: The Soda Shop
The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com
Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On The Air - By John Dunning • The CBS Radio Mystery Theater Handbook - by Gordon Payton & Martin Grams Jr. • Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 - by Jim Ramsburg • The Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Radio - by Christopher H. Sterling
as well as articles from: • Broadcasting Magazine - November 3rd, 1947 • And Billboard Magazine - May 1st, 1948
On the interview front: • Himan Brown, June Havoc, Mandel Kramer, Elliott Lewis, E.G. Marshall, Jan Miner, William Spier and William N. Robson were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. These interview can be heard at GoldenAge-WTIC.org.
• Ralph Bell, Himan Brown, Lawrence Dobkin, Betty Lou Gerson and Byron Kane, were with SPERDVAC. For more information, please go to S-P-E-R-D-V-A-C.com.
• Himan Brown, Virginia Gregg, Elliott Lewis, Mercedees McCambridge, Shirley Mitchell and Alan Reed were interviewed by Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats and many others from Chuck’s over thirty-nine year career and SpeakingofRadio.com.
• Ellott Lewis was with John Dunning on May 23rd, 1982.
• Jack Kruschen, Shirley Mitchell, and George Walsh were with Jim Bohannon on September 12, 1987.
• And Morton Fine was with Dan Haefele on August 9th, 1988.
Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • It’s been a Long, Long Time - by Keely Smith • Smoke Gets in Your Eyes - by the Mallet Men • The Big Heist and Salute to Charlie Christian - by Barney Kessel • Atlantis and Roller Coaster - by Les Baxter • I’ll Take Manhattan - by Blossom Dearie • And Fly Me To the Moon - by Julie London
Special thanks to our Sponsors: • The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society - https://www.ghoulishdelights.com/series/themorls/
• The Fireside Mystery Theater - https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com/
I’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman of SPERDVAC. Listen to their shows on the Yesterday USA radio network.
A Special Thank you to: Ryan Kramer Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Terry Wallace
WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers URL - thewallbreakers.com Online Store - jamesthewallbreaker.com/shop/
In Breaking Walls episode 92 we open the summer season with a trip to Coney Island, Brooklyn. The New York city summer locale was frequented in radio programs and by radio performers. It was also, in the days of wireless telegraphy, an important station location for Guglielmo Marconi.
Highlights: • Marconi’s last link • André Baruch Gets His Radio Start at Coney Island • Allen’s Alley Opens the Summer • Connee Boswell Sings • The Crime Club Uncovers a Coney Island Murder • Irma and Jane Go To the Beach • Broadway Is My Beat • Vincent Price in Coney Island • Jean Shepherd Stops By • We Take the Subway Home
The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com
Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
The reading material used in today’s episode was: On The Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio - by John Dunning Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 - by Jim Ramsburg
As well three tremendous internet resources: Charles Denson's History Project at ConeyIslandHistory.org David Sullivan’s Heart of ConeyIsland.com Jeff Stanton’s research at Westland.net/ConeyIsland
On the interview front: • André Baruch, Larry Dobkin, Lou Krugman, and Herb Vigran, were with SPERDVAC. For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com
• Hans Conried, June Havoc, Vincent Price, and William N. Robson were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. These interview can be heard at GoldenAge-WTIC.org.
• Elliott Lewis and E. Jack Neuman were with John Dunning for his 1980s 71KNUS program from Denver.
• Vincent Price and Allen Reed spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingofRadio.com.
• Fred Allen was a guest of Tex and Jinx on November 24th, 1954.
• Connee Boswell was interviewed by Lee Phillip in 1963.
• And Morton Fine was with Dan Haefele on August 9th, 1988.
Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Under the Boardwalk - by the Drifters • And Shine on Harvest Moon - by Joan Morris & William Bolcom
Special thanks to our Sponsors: The Fireside Mystery Theatre https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com
Twelve Chimes It’s Midnight https://www.twelvechimesradio.com
I’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman of SPERDVAC. Listen to their shows on the Yesterday USA radio network.
A Special Thank you to: Ryan Kramer Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Terry Wallace
WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers URL - thewallbreakers.com Online Store - jamesthewallbreaker.com/shop/
In Breaking Walls episode 91, we finish the adult western trilogy with a focus on the period after television decimated radio’s listening audience, forever altering the broadcasting landscape. Dramatic radio’s time as America’s number one entertainment genre was over, but it was far from dead.
Our story won’t conclude on that fabled date of September 30th, 1962 when radio drama supposedly ended forever. We’ll push down the trail through the 1960s, 70s, and 80s as dramatic radio continued to avoid the hangman’s noose.
Highlights: • Dirty Saturdays • Gunsmoke Finds Sponsorship. • Gunsmoke’s TV launch • NBC and Dr. Sixgun • Norman Macdonnell and CBS bring a new Western to the Air • J.B. Kendall, Luke Slaughter, & Paladin • The End of Gunsmoke • Horizon’s West and One Last Gasp • Elliott Lewis—Young At Heart • Riding off Into the Sunset
The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On The Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio - by John Dunning • Radio Rides The Range: A Reference Guide to Western Drama on the Air, 1929 - 1967 by Jack French and David S. Siegel • Network Radio Ratings, 1932-1953 - by Jim Ramsburg • As well as numerous passages from Broadcast Magazine
On the Interview Front:
• Lilian Buyeff, John Dehner, Lawrence Dobkin, Herb Ellis, Virginia Gregg, Elliott Lewis, Vic Perrin, and Herb Vigran, were with SPERDVAC, the Society to Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety, and Comedy. For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com
• Parley Baer, William Conrad, John Dehner, Rex Koury, and Norman Macdonnell were with John Hickman. Mr. Hickman was the longtime host of WAMU’s Recollections. Today, this program is heard each Sunday evening as The Big Broadcast. For more information, please go to WAMU.org
• William N Robson was with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. This interview can be heard at GoldenAge-WTIC.org.
• Parley Baer was with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chat at SpeakingofRadio.com.
•John Dehner was also heard with Neil Ross for KMPC on March 23rd, 1982. While Elliott Lewis was with John Dunning for his 1980s 71KNUS program from Denver. And Raymond Burr was with Jack Webster in 1963.
Special Thanks to Our Sponsors: • The Fireside Mystery Theatre https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com
• The Mutual Audio Network http://mutualaudionetwork.com
• Twelve Chimes, It’s Midnight https://www.twelvechimesradio.com
Selected Music Featured in Today’s Episode Was: • The Theme to A Summer Place - by Percy Faith • Mr. Sandman - by The Chordettes • Young At Heart - by Frank Sinatra • And Come Down My Evening Star - by Joan Morris & William Bolcom
I’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman of SPERDVAC. Listen to their shows on the Yesterday USA radio network.
A Special Thank you to: Ryan Kramer Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Terry Wallace
WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers URL - thewallbreakers.com Online Store - jamesthewallbreaker.com/shop/
In Breaking Walls episode 90 and on the second part of our western trilogy, dramatic radio goes from boom to bust in a nine year period after World War II, as a group of actors become radio legends, while the radio western grows up.
Highlights: • William S. Paley’s Plan to Overtake NBC • The West-Coast Hollywood Actors • Robson, Yarborough, Lewis, and Hawk Larabee • Escape Moves the Western Forward • The Life and Death of Jeff Chandler • CBS Becomes Number 1 • NBC Fires Back with New Western Shows • Elliott Lewis, Suspense, On Stage, and Crime Classics • The Birth of Gunsmoke • Jack Johnstone, Jimmy Stewart, and The Six Shooter • The Networks Pull the Plug in 1954 • What’s Next
The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On The Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio - by John Dunning • Radio Rides The Range: A Reference Guide to Western Drama on the Air, 1929 - 1967 by Jack French and David S. Siegel • Network Radio Ratings, 1932-1953 - by Jim Ramsburg
As well as passages from • Broadcast Magazine — 12/22/1947, 2/16/1948, 3/1/1948 • Sponsor Magazine — 10/1/1951
On the Interview Front: • Parley Baer, Harry Bartell, Lillian Buyeff, Mary Jane Croft, John Dehner, Lawrence Dobkin, Sam Edwards, Herb Ellis, Virginia Gregg, Jack Johnstone, Byron Kane, Elliott Lewis, Jeanette Nolan, and Herb Vigran were with SPERDVAC, the Society to Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety, and Comedy. For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com
• Hans Conried, Howard Duff, and Elliott Lewis with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. The full interviews can be heard at GoldenAge-WTIC.org
• Jack Benny, Hans Conried, Betty Lou Gerson, Elliott Lewis, and Lurene Tuttle were with Chuck Schaden. Chuck’s interviews from an over 39-year career can be listened to for free at SpeakingofRadio.com
• Eve Arden, Elliott Lewis, and E. Jack Neuman were with John Dunning for his 1980s 71KNUS Radio program from Denver. Some of his interviews can be found at OTRRLibrary.org
• William Conrad, John Dehner, Rex Koury, Norman Macdonnell, John Meston, William N. Robson, and George Walsh were John Hickman of WAMU for his Gunsmoke documentary.
• Mr. Hickman was the longtime host of “Recollections.” A modern version of this program is heard each Sunday evening as “The Big Broadcast.” For more information, please go to WAMU.org
• William Conrad was also with collector Chris Lambesis for a December 15th, 1969 interview
• Jimmy Stewart was with Larry King in 1986
• And William S. Paley and Frank Stanton were interviewed for CBS’s 50th Anniversary program in 1977.
Special Thanks to Our Sponsors: • The Fireside Mystery Theatre https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com
• The Mutual Audio Network http://mutualaudionetwork.com
• Twelve Chimes, It’s Midnight https://www.twelvechimesradio.com
Find them all on itunes or at their links in the written credits
Selected Music Featured in Today’s Episode Was: • I’ve Got the World on a String - by Frank Sinatra • Pyramid of the Sun & Voodoo Dreams - by Les Baxter • I’ll Be Seeing You - by The Harry James Orchestra • Route 66 - by Nat King Cole
I’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman of SPERDVAC. Listen to their shows on the Yesterday USA radio network.
A Special Thank you to: Ryan Kramer Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Terry Wallace
WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers URL - thewallbreakers.com Online Store - jamesthewallbreaker.com/shop/
In Breaking Walls episode 89, we explore the birth of the dramatic radio western show, specifically targeted to adult audiences. This is the first of a three-part mini-series on adult western radio shows.
Highlights: • Back to the Very Beginning • What is a Western Show? • The Birth of Western Dramatic Radio Shows • Empire Builders • Death Valley Days • The Western show on local stations • ...And in syndication • Lux Presents Hollywood • The Triumph and Tragedy of Buck Jones • Americana and the Cavalcade of America • Howard McNear and Romance of the Ranchos • The First Western Soap Opera • The War Ends and the Western show grows up • What’s Next?
The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On The Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio - by John Dunning • Radio Rides The Range: A Reference Guide to Western Drama on the Air, 1929 - 1967 by Jack French and David S. Siegel • Network Radio Ratings, 1932-1953 - by Jim Ramsburg • Hello Everybody! The Dawn of American Radio by Anthony Rudel & • The Network by Scott Woolley
On the interview front: • Don Ameche, Joan Fontaine, Hans Conried, Rudy Vallée were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. The full interviews can be heard at GoldenAge-WTIC.org
• Agnes Moorehead and Anne Seymour were with Chuck Schaden. Chuck’s interviews from an over 39-year career can be listened to for free at SpeakingofRadio.com
• John Dunkel and William N. Robson were with John Hickman for his WAMU program “Recollections.” A modern version of this program is heard each Sunday evening as “The Big Broadcast.” For more information, please go to WAMU.org
• Ruth Woodman was with Ida Blackburn in 1961 for KOCO. The full video clip can be seen on the Oklahoma Historical Society's Youtube page - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOnsye8K4SEsY9Ssi8EzzHg
• and journalist Robert Bendiner was with Westinghouse for their 1970 50th Anniversary program.
Special thanks to our Sponsors: • The Fireside Mystery Theatre https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com
• The Mutual Audio Network http://mutualaudionetwork.com
Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • The Colorado Trail Opus 28 by Elizabeth Hainen - http://www.elizabethhainen.com • The Last Rose of Summer by Tom Waits • Morning Prayer by Kenneth Little Hawk • All Mortal Flesh Be Silent by Deirdre Fay • Across the Wide Missouri, by Mathias Gohl, Molly Mason, Jay Unger, and Andy Stein • Jefferson and Liberty by John Owen Lardinois • Amazing Grace by Leta Rector • Across the Alley from the Alamo by the Mills Brothers
I’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman. Listen to their shows on the Yesterday USA radio network.
A Special Thank you to: Ryan Kramer Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Terry Wallace
WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers URL - thewallbreakers.com Online Store - jamesthewallbreaker.com/shop/
In Breaking Walls episode 88, we spotlight the 1945-46 season of The Jack Benny Program. This season introduced characters like telephone operators Gertrude and Mabel, press agent Steve Bradley, hot dog vendor Mr. Kitzel, and Ronald and Benita Colman. This season featured guest appearances from Ingrid Bergman, Isaac Stern, Van Johnson, Ray Milland, Peter Lorre, Louella Parsons, Fred Allen, Ed Sullivan and others. It also was the season in which Dennis Day returned from the Navy and one of the most ingenious marketing campaigns in entertainment history took place: The “I Can’t Stand Jack Benny” Contest.
Highlights: • Jack’s slipping ratings • Problems with General Foods • Jack changes sponsors • The War ends and a new season begins • Mabel Flapsaddle & Gertrude Gearshift • Steve Bradley and his big ideas • $10,000 and $646,000 • Jack gets robbed • The Contest • Mail pours in • The Colmans can’t stand Jack Benny • Jack’s ratings soar • Christmas of 1945 & The Rose Bowl • Fred Allen and the end of the Contest • Isaac Stern • Palm Springs • Van Jackson • Ed Sullivan and the end of the season • King for a Day
The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
The reading material used in today’s episode was: • Sunday Nights at Seven - by Jack and Joan Benny • On The Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio - by John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings, 1932-1953 - by Jim Ramsburg • As well as articles from Radio Life on January 27th and February 3rd, 1946
On the interview front: •Jack Benny, Ezra Stone, Kate Smith, Don Wilson, Eliott Lewis, Phil Harris, Frank Nelson and Dennis Day were with Chuck Schaden. Chuck’s interviews from an over 39-year career can be listened to for free at SpeakingofRadio.com
• Vincent Price and Mel Blanc were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. The full interviews can be heard at GoldenAge-WTIC.org
• Dennis Day was also with John Dunning for his 1980s 71KNUS Radio program from Denver. Some of his interviews can be found at OTRRLibrary.org
• And Finally Jack Benny, Dennis Day, Phil Harris, Frank Nelson, Don Wilson and Mel Blanc were also with Jack Carney for his early 1980s Comedy Program. Much of this audio was originally taken from a 1972 PBS Documentary on Great Radio Comedians. Thank you Goodmond Danielson for supplying me with the audio.
Special thanks to our Sponsors:
• Twelve Chimes, It’s Midnight https://twelvechimesradio.blogspot.com
• The Fireside Mystery Theatre https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com
• The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society https://www.ghoulishdelights.com/series/themorls/
Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Love in Bloom by Bing Crosby • It’s Been a Long, Long, Time by the Harry James Orchestra • Chickery Chick by Sammy Kaye with Billy Williams & Nancy Norman • Manhattan Serenade by the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra with Jo Stafford • It Might as Well Be Spring by Larry Stephens • Danny Boy by Dennis Day • Along the Navajo Trail by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters
I’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman. Listen to their shows on the Yesterday USA radio network.
A Special Thank you to: Ron Baron Ryan Kramer Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy
WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers URL - thewallbreakers.com Online Store - jamesthewallbreaker.com/shop/
In Breaking Walls episode 87, we spotlight some New Year’s Day radio programming from the Golden Age of radio, specifically beginning in 1946 after the end of World War II and television's post-war rise.
Highlights: • Skelton • Casey Crime Photographer and the Invasion of TV • Radio City Playhouse and Our Miss Brooks • The Railroad Hour and NBC’s Monday Night of Music • Memories from the 1939-40 World’s Fair • On Stage with Mr. and Mrs. Radio • The Greatest Western • Radio Drama’s Demise
The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
The reading material used in today’s episode was:
• On The Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio - by John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings, 1932-1953 - by Jim Ramsburg • And Edison Research’s June 2018 Podcast Consumer Statistics https://www.podcastinsights.com/podcast-statistics/
On the interview front:
• John Gibson, Tony Marvin and Jan Miner were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. The full interviews can be heard at GoldenAge-WTIC.org
• Jack Benny, Harriet Nelson, Elliott Lewis, Eve Arden, and Parley Baer were with Chuck Schaden. His interviews from an over 39-year career can be listened to at SpeakingofRadio.com
• Elliott Lewis, E. Jack Neuman, and Eve Arden were with John Dunning for his 1980s 71K Newstalk Radio program from Denver. Some of his interviews can be found at OTRRLibrary.org
• Al Lewis was with SPERDVAC’s Larry Gassman in 1998. For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com
• And Norman Macdonnell, Bill Conrad, and WIlliam N. Robson were interviewed for a 5-part audio documentary on Gunsmoke in the early 1970s.
Special thanks to our Sponsors:
• Twelve Chimes, It’s Midnight https://twelvechimesradio.blogspot.com
• The Fireside Mystery Theatre https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com
Selected music featured in today’s episode was:
• Voodoo Dreams, and Pyramid of the Sun by Les Baxter • Exotique Bossa Nova by Martin Denny • I’ll Be Seeing You, by Harry James • Auld Lang Syne by the Manhattan Strings • And Catch a Falling Star by Perry Como
I’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman. Listen to their shows on the Yesterday USA radio network.
A Special Thank you to: Ron Baron Ryan Kramer Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Rebecca Shield
WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers URL - thewallbreakers.com Online Store - jamesthewallbreaker.com/shop/
In Breaking Walls Episode 86, we spotlight what was on the air over the US’ major radio networks during December of 1945.
Highlights: • The First Peacetime Holiday Season in Five Years Begins • Radio’s Three Main Production Hubs • Macabees • Frank Nelson, Lurene Tuttle, and Mandel Kramer • I Can’t Stand Jack Benny • Soap Operas and Kid’s Shows • NBC Dominates Sunday and Tuesday Nights • Falling Mid-Week Ratings Open the Door for CBS • Victory Bonds and Bing’s Strike • Christmas Draws Closer • Fibber, Molly, Red and Christmas Day • Dinah Shore and Groucho return Christmas Gifts • I Still Can’t Stand Jack Benny • New Year’s Eve • What Comes Next
The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On The Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio - by John Dunning
• Christmas 1945: The Greatest Celebration in American History - by Matthew Litt
• Network Radio Ratings, 1932-1953 - by Jim Ramsburg
• The Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Radio - by Christopher H. Sterling
• And several articles from The New York Times, Broadcasting Magazine, and Radio Daily from 1945.
The Interviews Chuck Schaden was with: Mel Blanc Himan Brown Phil Harris Danny Kaye Barbara Luddy Mercedes McCambridge Shirley Mitchell Frank Nelson Olan Soule Larry Stevens Lureen Tuttle and Don Wilson
All of Chuck’s Interviews can be found at SpeakingofRadio.com
Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran were with: Jackson Beck Edgar Bergen Mel Blanc Staats Cotsworth Howard Duff Jim Jordan Mandel Kramer and Jan Miner
All of their interviews for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio can be found at GoldenAge-WTIC.org
SPERDVAC was with Harry Bartel and Jack Johnstone
For more information please go to SPERDVAC.com
Jo Stafford was with Matthew Feinstein for Jo Stafford’s “Ballad of the Blues” Fran Carlon was with Westinghouse for their 1970 50th Anniversary Production And Bing Crosby was interviewed for Same Time, Same Station in 1972.
Special thanks to our Sponsors:
• Join The Party https://www.multitude.productions
• Twelve Chimes, It’s Midnight https://twelvechimesradio.blogspot.com
• The Fireside Mystery Theatre https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com
Selected music featured in today’s episode was
• Kay Starr’s The Man With The Bag • Nancy Wilson’s What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve? • Bing Crosby’s White Christmas and I’ll Be Home For Christmas
The clip of CBS’ Cimarron Tavern came courtesy of Jerry Haendiges. Visit his site at OTRsite.com. I’ve been visiting since 2002. Thank you Jerry.
I’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman. Listen to their shows on the Yesterday USA radio network.
A Special Thank you to: Ron Baron Ryan Kramer Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Rebecca Shield
WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers URL - thewallbreakers.com Online Store - jamesthewallbreaker.com/shop/
In Breaking Walls episode 85, we spotlight the radio career of Frank Sinatra. We’ll find out how a brash, skinny kid from Hoboken, New Jersey became one of the most popular and influential music artists of the 20th century, selling more than 150 million records worldwide, winning an academy award for Best Supporting Actor, and using radio to launch it all.
Highlights:
• How Sinatra’s Difficult Birth Affected The Rest of His Life • Growing Up In Hoboken • Not Interested in School, Interested in Singing • WAAT, WNEW, WOR and the Rustic Cabin • The Hoboken Four • Early Hustling • Harry James and Tommy Dorsey • Sinatra’s Popularity Explodes • Going Solo • Success on CBS during World War II • Marriage, Infidelity… and more infidelity • The Havana Conference • Problems with Sponsorship • The Decline Begins • Ava • Losing His Voice • Bottoming Out • The Slow Rise • Maggio and an Oscar • Rocky Fortune • A Reborn Sinatra
The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers Special thanks to our Sponsors:
• Join The Party https://www.multitude.productions • Twelve Chimes, It’s Midnight https://twelvechimesradio.blogspot.com • The Fireside Mystery Theatre https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com • The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society http://www.ghoulishdelights.com/series/themorls/
The reading material used in tonight’s episode was: • The Encyclopedia of Old Time Radio by John Dunning • Why Sinatra Matters by Pete Hamill • Frank: The Voice by James Kaplan • The Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Radio - by Christopher H. Sterling
Lots and Lots of interviews in today’s episode:
• Frank Sinatra was with: Walter Cronkite in 1965; Johnny Carson in 1976; Arlene Francis in the early 1980s; and Larry King in 1988
• Nancy Sinatra was with: Walter Cronkite in 1965 and Larry King in 1995
• Chuck Schaden interviewed Ken Carpenter And Carroll Carroll. Both of these conversations were recorded on February 17th, 1975. To listen to many complete interviews Chuck conducted throughout his career, please go to SpeakingofRadio.com
• Bob Eberly was with Arnold Dean. Hear that full interview and many others at Goldenage-WTIC.org
• Jo Stafford was with Matthew Feinstein for Jo Stafford’s “Ballad of the Blues”
• Gary Moore and Andre Baruch spoke to Westinghouse in 1970.
• Les Tremayne and Jack Brown were featured from their 1986 history of radio called “Please Stand By”
Too much music to credit it all here, but Frank Sinatra: A Voice on Air - https://www.amazon.com/Voice-Air-1935-1955-Frank-Sinatra/dp/B014GJSL88 was incredibly helpful with finding additional research audio
I’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman. Listen to their shows on the Yesterday USA radio network.
Frank Sinatra’s appearance on Fred Allen’s show in 1937 comes via Jerry Haendiges. Visit his site at OTRsite.com. I’ve been visiting since 2002.
A Special Thank you to: Ron Baron Ryan Kramer Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Rebecca Shield
WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers URL - thewallbreakers.com Online Store - jamesthewallbreaker.com/shop/
In Breaking Walls Episode 84, it’s the Simple Art of Macabre, to your ears from the mouths of some of the best who ever produced radio’s stuff of nightmares.
Highlights:
• Why Do We Like To Be Scared? • What pre-dated the radio horror program in the United States of America? • The Witch’s Tale • Cooper, Oboler, and Lights Out • Orson Welles, Himan Brown, and Bill Spier • Macabre Programming during World War II • How Transcription Advanced the radio mystery program • Escape, The Saint, and Vincent Price • ABC and The Clock • Quiet Please and Crime Classics • The Decline of the American audio drama in the 1950s • Attempts at horror revivals • Where we are today
The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers Special thanks to our Sponsors:
• Twelve Chimes, It’s Midnight https://twelvechimesradio.blogspot.com
• The Fireside Mystery Theatre https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com
• The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society http://www.ghoulishdelights.com/series/themorls/
The reading material used in today’s episode was: • The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio - by John Dunning • The Witch's Tale: Stories of Gothic Horror from the Golden Age of Radio - by Alonzo Dean Cole • The CBS Radio Mystery Theater Handbook by Martin Grams Jr’s and Gordon Payton • Forecast: Is there a Sponsor in a House by Martin Grams Jr. • The Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Radio - by Christopher H. Sterling
Today’s episode of Breaking Walls could not have been done without the interviews by Dick Bertel, Ed Corcoran, John Dunning, SPERDVAC, and Chuck Schaden.
• The Society To Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety and Comedy will be having their next convention this coming November 1st through 3rd at the Crowne Plaza Hotel at 3131 Bristol St. in Costa Mesa, CA. For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com
• Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran’s Golden Age of Radio programs can be found at goldenage-wtic.org
• John Dunning’s Interviews can be found through the Old-Time Radio Researcher’s Library at OTRRLibrary.org.
• Chuck Schaden’s interviews can be found at his site, SpeakingofRadio.com
Selected Music featured in today’s Episode was: • Seance on a Wet Afternoon composed by John Barry and rerecorded by Nic Raine * I’ve Got You Under My Skin - by Frank Sinatra
A Special Thank you to: Ron Baron Ryan Kramer Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Rebecca Shield
WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers URL - thewallbreakers.com Online Store - jamesthewallbreaker.com/shop/
In Breaking Walls Episode 83, we focus the radio industry of the 1930s and 40s—especially on the career of David Sarnoff, as RCA’s network, NBC begins to lose its grip on the top spot in the broadcasting industry while they introduce Television. We’ll also focus on the introduction of new talent to the industry, and the CBS talent raids of 1948-1949.
Highlights: • David Sarnoff announces the birth of TV at The 1939 World’s Fair • Edwin Howard Armstrong Invents FM • Television Experiments in the 1920s and 1930s • Sarnoff and Armstrong’s Crumbling Friendship • How World War II Stopped Television’s Commercial Expansion • William S. Paley’s Plan to make CBS the #1 Network • The Rise of Arthur Godfrey • Sarnoff’s Court Battles • The Death of Edwin Howard Armstrong • The CBS Talent Raids of 1948-49 • Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis • The Simple Art of Macabre
The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers Special thanks to our Sponsors: • Join The Party https://www.multitude.productions
• Twelve Chimes, It’s Midnight https://twelvechimesradio.blogspot.com
• The Fireside Mystery Theatre https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com
The reading material used in today’s episode was: • The General: David Sarnoff & The Rise of the Communications Industry - by Kenneth Bilby • The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio - by John Dunning • Empire: William S. Paley & The Making of CBS - by Lewis J. • The Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Radio - by Christopher H. Sterling • The Network - by Scott Wooley • As well as an article on Martin & Lewis from the August 2018 issue of SPERDVAC’s Radiogram, by Michael Hayde
Selected Music featured in today’s Episode was: • Mr. Lucky, by Si Zentner • Begin the Beguine, by Artie Shaw and His Orchestra • Seance on a Wet Afternoon, arranged by John Barry
I’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman. Listen to their shows on the Yesterday USA radio network, and if you’re going to be in California this November, SPERDVAC - The Society To Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety and Comedy—will be having their next convention this coming November 1st through 3rd at the Crowne Plaza Hotel at 3131 Bristol St. in Costa Mesa, CA.
For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com
A Special Thank you to: Ron Baron Ryan Kramer Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Rebecca Shield
WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers URL - thewallbreakers.com Online Store - jamesthewallbreaker.com/shop/
In Breaking Walls episode 82 we focus on the state of the radio broadcasting industry in the late 1930s and early 1940s, as Broadcasting booms while the world goes to War.
Highlights: • Early days at NBC’s Radio City in New York • How Press Associations caused NBC and CBS to launch a news service • The Birth of the Mutual Broadcasting System and their Struggles • NBC Red and NBC Blue • The FCC and US Justice Department Get Involved with Radio • The Murrow Boys and Encroaching War in Europe • The War Comes Home • NBC sells The Blue Network • Norman Corwin and His World War II Work • Bing Crosby, Philco Radios, and Network Transcription • The Talent Raids of 1949 The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
Special thanks to our Sponsors: • Twelve Chimes, It’s Midnight https://twelvechimesradio.blogspot.com
• The Fireside Mystery Theatre https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com
The reading material used in today’s episode was: • The General: David Sarnoff & The Rise of the Communications Industry - by Kenneth Bilby • The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio - by John Dunning • Beating The Odds: The Untold Story Behind the Rise of ABC - by Leonard H. Goldenson with Marvin J. Wolf • Empire: William S. Paley & The Making of CBS - by Lewis J. Paper • The Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Radio - by Christopher H. Sterling
As well as four articles from the archives of TIME Magazine:
• HAPPY BIRTHDAY MBS - September 15, 1941 • Old Law v. New Thing - January 12, 1942 • Black & Blue - January 11, 1943 • Network Without Ulcers - April 21, 1947
Norman Corwin was with Chuck Schaden on August 8th, 1976. You can stream this interview and many others for free on Chuck’s site, Speakingofradio.com
Selected Music featured in today’s Episode was:
• Rudy Vallee - Brother Can You Spare A Dime • Jaqueline Schwab - The Minstrel Boy & The Battle Cry for Freedom • Bing Crosby - Blues in the Night & Don’t Fence Me in with The Andrews Sisters
I’d like to especially thank Larry and John Gassman as well as Walden Hughes for continued help and support. They host a program on the Yesterday USA Radio Network, which you can visit at http://www.yesterdayusa.com. The three gentleman are also members of SPERDVAC - The Society To Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety and Comedy.
They’re having their next convention this coming November 1st through 3rd at the Crowne Plaza Hotel at 3131 Bristol St. in Costa Mesa, CA for more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com
A Special Thank you to: Ron Baron Ryan Kramer Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Rebecca Shield
WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers URL - thewallbreakers.com Online Store - jamesthewallbreaker.com/shop/
Previously on A Man Named Marlowe: At 4:30 in the morning the woman who hired Marlowe comes to his hotel room in Spokane. She explains what happened and why she lied to Phillip. Her real name is Janice Thomlinson. Marlowe decides he’s still working for her and will try to protect her against Benny Chance and John Moriarity. She stays in his room overnight. The next day he goes to see William W. Powell Jr. who owns mining property around Spokane. He lies about his reasons for the visit and arranges a meeting with William T. Phillips. Phillips and Marlowe meet at the lobby bar of the Davenport hotel. After the meeting Marlowe goes back up to his room when he’s slugged and knocked out.
In Episode 6, it’s the finale! The Windup… and what a windup!
The complete cast for this series was:
Will Benson as Benny Chance Christopher Bradley as Lou Parker & Gus Javan Ivey as Joe Briggs Dr. David Linton as William T. Phillips Olga Lysenko as The Telephone Operator Dan Mountain as Bernie Ohls Fernando Sanabria as The Homicide Detective Brett Solimine as Miles The Desk Clerk Sam T. Wilson as Henry Long & William W. Powell Jr.
With Nancy Pop as Janice Tomlinson Gustavo Rodriguez as John Moriarity
and James Scully as Philip Marlowe
Featured Music in this episode: On The Good Ship Lollipop - Shirley Temple Rockin’ Chair - The Mills Brothers Ain’t Misbehavin - Fats Waller and His Rhythm
A Man Named Marlowe has been available in the same feed as Breaking Walls. Subscribe on iTunes and everywhere else you get your podcasts by searching for Breaking Walls or at TheWallBreakers.com.
If you enjoyed A Man Named Marlowe, give a quick i-tunes rating so more people can discover this show and Breaking Walls, The podcast on the history of American Radio Broadcasting. Episode 82 will premiere 8.1.2018 and focus on the state of the radio industry between 1932 1945, as broadcasting booms while the world goes to War.
To support these shows for as little as $1 per month, please go to patreon.com/TheWallBreakers.