Breaking Walls

In March of 1973, Jackson Beck was a guest of Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran on WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio (full interview here - https://www.goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-36.html). Beck was a New York city native that'd had a forty year career as a voice actor and announcer for radio drama, commercial work, and cartoons.

In this clip, Mr. Beck talks about his feelings on the radio industry back in the (then contemporary) 1970s.

Jean Shepherd was a guest of David Letterman on March 10th, 1982. In this clip he tells funny stories about growing up in Hammond, Indiana.

In August of 1971 Hans Conried was a guest of Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for the 17th episode of WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio (full interview here - https://www.goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-17.html). During the course of the chat, which thematically spanned the length of Conried's career, the hosts asked him about his role on My Friend Irma.

On August 9th, 1988, SPERDVAC's Dan Haefele sat down with radio/tv writer Morton Fine for a conversation about his life and career. Fine had a longtime partnership with David Friedkin, as well as with Elliott Lewis. One of their main projects was Broadway is My Beat. Here, Fine talks about the writing formula for the show.

On the May 2nd, 1953 episode of Broadway is My Beat, Danny Clover is about to go home for the day when he finds Lila Royce at the front desk, reporting her sister missing. Margaret's apartment has been torn apart, and Lila is convinced that Margaret is dead.

This episode features Charles Calvert, Jack Kruschen, Mary Jane Croft, Whitfield Connor, Lillian Buyeff, and Hy Averback.

In March of 1983 radio actors Herb Vigran and Herb Ellis were guests of SPERDVAC (http://www.sperdvac.com) to talk about their radio careers. During the course of the conversation, Herb Vigran shed some much needed light on what exactly happened to most radio actors and actresses after TV killed the dramatic radio industry. It's a story that very few Americans today know.

For CBS's 50th Anniversary broadcast in 1977, CBS Chairman William S. Paley spoke about why he loved radio. Paley grew CBS from a ragtag group of near-bankrupt affiliates into one of the world's leading broadcast companies, using radio to do so.

In Breaking Walls episode 115, we focus on one of the last experimental programs on the air, The CBS Radio Workshop, and the man at its Hollywood helm, William Froug. We’ll listen to episodes, hear interviews with men and women known and unknown, and find out why this show was so critically acclaimed in its day.

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Highlights:

• Who is Bill Froug and what does he do?

• What do Norman Corwin, Orson Welles, Ray Bradbury, Burgess Meredith, and Bernard Hermann have in common?

• Network radio in 1936

• Network radio in 1956

• The CBS Radio Workshop is revived

• Season Of Disbelief & Hail And Farewell

• A Report on ESP

• Subways Are For Sleeping

• Winding down the Workshop

• Looking ahead to Monitor

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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

As well as articles from:

Broadcasting Magazine

The New York Daily News

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On the interview front:

• Lilian Buyeff, Don Diamond, John Dehner, Lawrence Dobkin, Bill Froug, Jack Johnstone, Byron Kane, Elliott Lewis, and Peggy Webber were with SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com.

• Norman Corwin, Virginia Gregg, Carlton E. Morse, Alan Reed, and Russell Thorson spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.

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

• William Paley spoke while receiving a citation in November of 1958.

• Ray Bradbury was interviewed by Jerry Haendiges in October of 1976.

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Selected music featured in today’s episode was:

• Don’t Fence Me In — By Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters

• February Sea — By George Winston

• Heartbreak Hotel — By Elvis Presley

• Seance on a West Afternoon — By John Barry

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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

Varial

https://www.shaebwrites.com/the-veiled-monarch

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 and Jerry Haendiges: two radio show collectors who helped supply material for this episode. They’re who the large retailers go to.

Ted’s got a Facebook group - https://www.facebook.com/otrteddavenport/

For Jerry, please visit http://otrsite.com/

I’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman of SPERDVAC - http://sperdvac.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

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

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On August 31st, 1941, Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve stepped off a train in the town of Summerfield, bringing with a now common concept in American entertainment: The series spinoff.

Gildersleeve began as a character on Fibber McGee and Molly. The man behind its voice was Harold Peary. Peary joined the cast in 1937, first playing every kind of bit part imaginable.

Peary was born Harold José Pereira de Faria to Portugese parents on July 25th, 1908. In January of 1923, at the age of fourteen, Harold had his first radio appearance at KZM in Oakland. By the late 1920s he was working for NBC in San Francisco. Migrating to Chicago in 1937, he soon became one of radio’s insiders, gaining a reputation as a top utility man.

In the late 1930s, Peary approached McGee’s head writer 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.

In September of 1974 east-coast radio actor Mandel Kramer sat down with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio (the full interview is available here - https://www.goldenage-wtic.org/log.html) to speak about his career. During the interview, Kramer spoke about how he found work in the early part of his career, and the great camaraderie that radio actors had with each other.