Breaking Walls

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.

Have you been enjoying Breaking Walls? If so, give the show a quick rating on whatever platform you listen, especially iTunes.

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.