Breaking Walls

This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 96: Halloween On The Air (1943 - 1953)

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Sherlock Holmes peaked on radio between 1939 and 1946 with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce playing Holmes and Watson. They made fourteen films during this time, and their rating climbed to 14.1 in 1942 on NBC.

The next year, the entire cast moved to the Mutual Broadcasting System. They remained for three seasons until Holmes left for ABC. Basil Rathbone stayed with Mutual to star in a new series called Scotland Yard.

Nigel Bruce stayed on as Watson while Tom Conway became Holmes. When the Semler Company discontinued sponsorship in the spring of 1947, ABC cancelled the show.

That summer Clipper Craft Clothing signed to pay the bills. The show moved back to Mutual with John Stanley as Holmes and Alfred Shirley as Watson.

The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes signed on the air Saturdays at 7PM. On October 26th, Holmes and Watson tackled the case of the Laughing Lemur.

That season, the Holmes rating was only 9.9. No incarnation cracked the top one-hundred programs on American radio ever again.

In November of 1970, Actress June Havoc and her husband, the prolific radio director Bill Spier were guests of Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio (full interview here -https://www.goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-08.html).

During the interview June Havoc remembered her experience listening to radio during the Golden Age, while Bill Spier pondered whether or not someone was at fault for dramatic radio's demise.

In October of 1984, Chuck Schaden sat down with actress Shirley Mitchell for a conversation about her life and career (full interview here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/mitchell-shirley-actress/). During the course of the chat, Shirley explained how she made it out to the West Coast from Chicago.

On the April 20th, 1958 episode of Frontier Gentleman, J.B. Kendall is in Deadwood, Dakota Territory where he meets Wild Bill Hickok. Kendall becomes fast friends with the ex-lawman. Hickok invited Kendall to join him, Colorado Charlie Utter, and Calamity Jane to play cards with them. Doing so makes Kendall an unintended part of American history.

This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 96: Halloween On The Air (1943 - 1953)

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One summer day in 1948, Willam S. Paley received a proposal from Lew Wasserman and Taft Shreiber—President and VP of The Music Corporation of America. They asked if CBS would be interested in buying The Amos N’ Andy Show, then airing on NBC.

At the time, U.S. Citizens were taxed 77% of all income over $70,000. However, if the duo behind Amos N’ Andy, Charles Correll and Freeman Gosden incorporated and sold their show to the network, they would be taxed under capital gains laws at 25%.

NBC wouldn’t allow the deal. But William Paley jumped at the chance. Amos n’ Andy moved over on October 10th. Shortly after, Lew Wasserman phoned again. He asked if CBS would be interested in purchasing The Jack Benny Program.

Benny organized his activities into a corporation. Paley and Wasserman negotiated an agreement for CBS to buy it for $2.26 Million.

NBC sent president Niles Trammel to California with orders to keep Benny at NBC. When William Paley heard that Trammel was on his way to California, he called Benny directly to arrange an in-person meeting. Benny invited him to Los Angeles.

Paley and CBS counsel Ralph Colin set up shop at the Beverly Hills Hotel. RCA head David Sarnoff was there as well, to help ensure Niles Trammel would secure the deal.

NBC responded with a major counteroffer. Lew Wasserman intervened. CBS matched the counteroffer, and an impressed Jack Benny signed it. Sponsor American Tobacco was uneasy. Paley convinced them to back the move by offering compensation for every rating point Benny’s show lost.

As all of this was happening, The Jack Benny Program broadcast live on the evening of Sunday, October 31st, 1948.

This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 95: Radio And The Classroom (1939 - 1965)

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As the end of Summer turns into Autumn, the weather cools off and Friday night football games, dances, and eventually All Hallow’s Eve become part of school functions.

In 1820 Washington Irving, one of America’s first great novelists, penned a short story called “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”

The tale is about a schoolmaster Ichabod Crane, a superstitious outsider. He’s competing for the hand of Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter and sole child of a wealthy farmer.

Sleepy Hollow is a small village in Westchester County, just north of New York City. This aired on NBC’s American Novels from WMAQ Chicago on Friday September 19th, 1947 at 10:30PM.

Part of a larger series called The World’s Great Novels, the concept was born from the NBC Education Department.

Ichabod Crane sees marriage to Katrina as path to wealth, but his rival Van Brunt plays a series of pranks on the jittery schoolmaster, and tensions among the three are soon brought to a head. On a cool autumn night, Crane attends a harvest party at the Van Tassels' homestead. He dances, feasts, and listens to ghostly legends told by Van Brunt and the locals. He leaves after failing to secure Katrina’s hand, riding his horse through woodland between the Homestead and Sleepy Hollow.

It was renamed The NBC University Theater of the Air, and production moved to Hollywood on July 30th, 1948,

The series was offered as a college accredited course and was considered one of the most ambitious radio programs on the air. It now featured intermission commentary from luminaries and won a Peabody Award before going off the air on February 14th, 1951.

On January 30th, 1958, Antony Ellis directed a pilot for Frontier Gentleman. Entitled "Remittance Man," this version would later make air with slight changes (and the same cast) as "The Shelton Brothers." This, however, is the audition performance.

On September 11th, 1976 famed radio actor and announcer Marvin Miller was a guest of SPERDVAC (https://www.sperdvac.com/) for a long conversation about his career. In this clip, he talks about how he got into radio.

In Breaking Walls episode 119 we continue our Americana mini-series by bringing our appetites to the diner. We’ll hear stories from some of radio’s best and center ourselves around shows taking place in establishments.

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Highlights:

• What Exactly is a Diner?

• Lux Presents Hollywood

• Suspense At the End of World War II

• The Diner After World War II

• Bill Conrad, Burt Lancaster, and The Killers

• ABC Takes Friday Nights With This Is Your FBI

• Frank Sinatra and His Rocky Fortune

• Going Back to Gunsmoke

• James Earl Jones and Theater Five

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The WallBreakers:

http://thewallbreakers.com

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

As well as:

• From Hash House to Family Restaurant: The Transformation of the Diner and Post-World War II Consumer Culture — By Andrew Hurley from The March 1997 Journal of American History.

And other articles from:

• Paste Magazine

• Smithsonian Magazine

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On the interview front:

• Parley Baer, Conrad Binyon, Norman Corwin, and Lurene Tuttle spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.

• Parley Baer, Jerry Devine, Lawrence Dobkin, Fred Foy, and Bob Maxwell, were with SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com.

• William Spier spoke with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear this full interview at Goldenage-WTIC.org.

• John Dehner was with Neil Ross for KMPC.

• Frank Sinatra spoke with Arlene Francis, Walter Cronkite, and Larry King.

• William Conrad with Chris Lambesis.

• Norman Macdonnell with John Hickman of WAMU for his Gunsmoke documentary.

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Selected music featured in today’s episode was:

• Theme From A Summer Place — By Percy Faith

• I’ve Got The World on a String and Why Try To Change Me Now — By Frank Sinatra

• The Venice Dreamer Pt1 and 2 — By George Winston

• Across the Alley from the Alamo — By The Mills Brothers

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Special thanks to:

Terror on the Air

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUbviBTC1CamzamykVCqN0A

https://soundcloud.com/terrorontheair

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/terror-on-the-air/id1477581905

https://open.spotify.com/show/63o0AY4Zhv5hQsjGVbMbLk?si=YN_vUk3yTgqvOw73u59BtQ

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

Conductor Howard Barlow, who'd later go on to be known as "the voice of Firestone," was conducting in-studio for CBS during their first big broadcast in 1927.

In this clip, recorded for Westinghouse's 50th anniversary in 1970, he talks about the in-studio confusion during those early days.