Breaking Walls

On the May 12th, 1946 episode of the Fred Allen Show, Fred and Portland take a trip to Allen's Alley to ask the residents how they feel about Coney Island re-opening for the new season. The third door they visited was Mrs. Nussbaum's voiced by Minerva Pious, whom Fred Allen once said was the most accomplished woman dialectician ever to appear in radio.

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, Dimensions. Burgess Meredith hosted a show called American Landscape. He 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.

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 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/

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 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.

This is a snippet from Breaking Walls EP91: The Hollywood Radio Western Renaissance (1954 - 1980)

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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. Along with The CBS Radio Mystery Theater, the network now aired two dramatic shows.

Between February 5th, 1979 and February 28th, 1980 CBS offered two weeknight hours of revival drama to its affiliates. Writers were paid $350 per script. Actors were paid a union scale wage of $80 per hour.

Former CBS news correspondent and "Murrow Boy" William L. Shirer recounts his experience at work on the day Germany surrendered in May of 1945.

Former CBS news correspondent and "Murrow Boy" William L. Shirer recounts his experience at work on the day Germany surrendered in May of 1945.

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.