Breaking Walls

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

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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:

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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.

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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