Curated clips of live broadcasts from popular radio shows of the day.

September 21 – September 28, 1939

History through the eyes of people as they lived it, reported by radio.

In today’s SoundScape:

Tap Dancing on the Radio!

Charlie McCarthy back to School!

Funny stories from David Niven

Women can be Boss and make the Men Like It!

And More!!

Featuring:

Major Bowes

The Teddy Powell Orchestra

Orson Welles

Don Ameche

Charlie McCarthy

Edgar Bergen

Dorothy Lamour

David Niven

Anita Louise

Robert Armbruster

Fibber McGee and Molly

And More!

Early American entertainment included the circus, the minstrel show, vaudeville, broadway revues, all popular forms of the variety show.

And it was talent from those stage shows that created radio.

 But radio wasn’t the same as the stage.

 Radio was different manifesting new possibilities for entertainment.

 An opportunity to entertain with new formats.

 The situation comedy was one such format, brand new, a child of radio, never before seen in the history of man.

 Although the situation comedy format is only a hundred or so years old, there is still a mystery surrounding who was the first and when.

My research indicates three radio shows have claim to be the first situation comedy. But the early recordings that exist casts some doubt on each claim. 

That is, according to my definition of Situation Comedy.

 If you know others who might be the first, or have recordings I have failed to discover, or want to argue a different definition of SitCom, please let me know in a comment on BeforeTvBlog.com.

FEATURING:

Sam ‘n Henry

Jim and Marion Jordan

George Burns

Gracie Allen

Fibber McGee and Molly

Groucho Marx

Chico Marx

Jack Benny

Phil Harris

Mary Livingstone

Kenny Baker

Eddie “Rochester” Anderson

And More!!

Curated clips of live broadcasts from popular radio shows of the day.

September 10 – September 21, 1939

History through the eyes of people as they lived it, reported by radio.

In today’s SoundScape:

Fibber and Molly Celebrate their Anniversary!

George G. Nathan Talks Eugene O’Neil!

Smoking Hot Swing Tunes!

And More!!

Featuring:

Orson Welles

Cary Grant

Fibber McGee and Molly

Don Ameche

 Edgar Bergen

Charlie McCarthy

Dorothy Lamour

Nelson Eddy

Robert Armbruster

Fred MacMurray

Helen Broderick

George G. Nathan

Myrt and Marge

Louis Prima’s Orchestra

And More!

Click Here to Drink in 1939 with Your Thirsty Ears!!

The first generation of radio talent, performers, directors, and writers came from the worlds of vaudeville, minstrel shows and Broadway revues. All forms of variety theater, so it isn’t any wonder that the variety show quickly emerged as a common Radio format.

Here are the three Old Time Radio shows from the 1930’s I feel best exemplify the variety format, and the reasons why.

I expect you, dear listener, might respectfully disagree with my choices. Leave me a comment on my blog, BeforeTVBlog.com, I’d love to hear your opinions.

Meanwhile, give a listen to:

Al Jolson

Fred Allen

Portland Hoffa

Rudy Vallee

Charlie McCarthy

Edgar Bergen

Don Ameche

Dorothy Lamour

Nelson Eddie

Jimmy Dorsey

Bob Burns

And More

Curated clips of live broadcasts from popular radio shows of the day.

August 27 – September 5, 1939

History through the eyes of people as they lived it, reported by radio.

In today’s SoundScape:

Picking up Girls with Alan Mowbray!

The Most Fateful Broadcast in History!

On the Boat with Edgar and Charlie!

Nutrition with Vera Vague!

The Invasion of Poland!

And More!!

Featuring:

Dorothy Lamour

Don Ameche

Donald Dixon

Alan Mowbray

Robert Young

Meredith Wilson

Alice Faye

Louis B. Mayer

Fanny Brice

Hanley Stafford

John Steele

Charlie McCarthy

Edgar Bergen

Vera Vague

President Franklin Roosevelt

Fibber McGee and Molly

And More!

Sometimes an actor playing a character becomes so popular with their audience that it becomes more than a character, it becomes a persona that the actor inhabits.

Such was the case with Vera Vague, a creation of actor/writer Babara Jo Allen.

Vera Vague was a constant presence on Old Time Radio, man-hungry, misinformed, and most amusing.

Guest Starring:

Edgar Bergen

Charlie McCarthy

Don Ameche

And

Rudy Vallee

Curated clips of live broadcasts from popular radio shows of the day.

History through the eyes of people as they lived it, reported by radio.

In today’s SoundScape:

Donald Dixon Tries to Tell a Joke!

Charlie McCarthy Interior Decorator!

Charlie McCarthy Astronomer!

Charlie McCarthy Coin Collector!

Charlie McCarthy Boy Scout!

Charlie McCarthy Talent Agent!

And More!!

Featuring:

Don Ameche

Dorothy Lamour

Charlie McCarthy

Edgar Bergen

Donald Dixon

Kay Frances

Josephine Hutchinson

Mischa Auer

Beatrice Kay

Nelson Eddy

Vera Vague

Joan Blondell

And More!

Fred Allen and the people you didn’t expect to meet 1939. 

Fred Allen was famously a control freak on his radio shows. Although he used a staff of writers, it was just to generate ideas and jokes that would be incorporated into the final script that Fred always wrote personally.

Each minute of those shows were a reflection of Fred, including his frequent on air conversations from many folks from many walks of life.

I, personally, am grateful to Fred for helping me to appreciate the lives lived by folks in that past by allowing those folks to tell their own stories.

I think you will also enjoy those  real life stories.

Curated clips of live broadcasts from popular radio shows of the day.

History through the eyes of people as they lived it, reported by radio.

In today’s SoundScape:

Meet a Real English Butler!

Edgar Bergen Gets Airsick!

The Pie Eyed Piper of Hamlin!

And More!!

Featuring:

Cecil B Demille

Charlie McCarthy

Dorothy Lamour

Don Ameche

Edgar Bergen

Andrea Leeds

Donald Dixon

Vera Vague

Ida Lupino

And More!

Old Time Radio was dog eat dog, CBS and NBC scooped up the all the best stations and biggest talent, leaving all the little local stations in the dust

Not all the independent stations wanted to let NBC and CBS run away with their audiences

In 1934 WGN and 3 other independents, WOR in New York, WLW in Cincinnatti, and WXYZ in Detroit entered into a program sharing agreement. They called themselves the Mutual Network but they were more Mutual than Network. There was a coordination committee, but the real power was with the individual stations who maintained their autonomy as equals.

It was a bottom-up business model. Socialized Radio that shared shows for a several hours a week, but also did their own local thing with the lion’s share of their airtime.

From these humble beginnings, Mutual would grow to cover the entire country and compete head to head with NBC and CBS.