Breaking Walls

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)

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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)

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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.