Breaking Walls

This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 90: The Hollywood People Behind Radio’s Baby Boomer Boom (1945 - 1954)

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By 1951 director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston were working on multiple projects at CBS and continuing their refinement of the radio western.

On August 6th the series Romance broadcast a western named “Pagosa,” which starred William Conrad in the title role of Jeff Spain.

Macdonnell approached CBS brass about the possibility of doing a Jeff Spain series. His timing was right. CBS already had the title for a series in mind: Gunsmoke.

Two audition programs were recorded in the middle of 1949 with a title character named Mark Dillon. Neither sold.

CBS gave Macdonnell and Meston one week to put production together.

Jack Benny’s most famous Irish Tenor, Dennis Day was born on May 21st, 1916 and raised in the Throggs Neck section of The Bronx, New York City—The second of five children born to Irish immigrants Patrick & Mary McNulty.

Day graduated from Cathedral Preparatory Seminary in New York City, and attended Manhattan College in the Bronx, where he sang in the glee club.

Eventually he made his way to radio and made his Jack Benny Program debut on the October 8th, 1939 broadcast. During World War II, Day enlisted in the Navy. He was replaced by Larry Stephens on The show beginning in 1944.

He made his return on the St. Patrick’s Day episode, March 17th, 1946.

In 1982 Vic Perrin was a guest of Neil Ross' for his KMPC radio show for a conversation about Vic's life and career. During the course of the conversation, Mr. Perrin recounted a funny story about a writer who was still writing his script while the show was being performed on the air.

In 1976 Orson Welles was a guest of Johnny Carson's on the Tonight Show for a segment on Orson's life and career (full segment here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meikuHb6024). The duo focused more on the radio days than anything else, including sharing stories of jokes and ribs they saw pulled on people during the Golden Age of Radio.

On September 3rd, 1970 Chuck Schaden interviewed Jack Benny backstage at the Mill Run Playhouse in suburban Niles, Illinois (full interview here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/benny-jack/). During the course of their conversation they spoke about Mr. Benny incorporating a comedy commercial right into his radio show.

In 1948 a syndicated Coca-Cola sponsored version of the soap opera Claudia, starring Katharine Bard and Paul Crabtree produced an episode for airing on August 25th called “A Visit To Coney Island.” This is that episode.

For more on radio and Coney Island, tune into Breaking Walls EP92: Radio And Coney Island (1906 - 1960).

This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 91: The Hollywood Radio Western Renaissance (1954 - 1980).

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One of the only western series of note to begin on television and then transition to radio was Have Gun Will Travel.

On TV, Richard Boone starred as Paladin, a gun for hire. It proved popular enough that CBS decided to drop Frontier Gentleman in favor of a radio version of this series in an attempt to attract sponsorship.

The idea worked.

When CBS took Gunsmoke to TV, director Norman Macdonnell wanted to be heavily involved in the production, but when network execs chose a totally new roster of people, Macdonnell was incensed. To help ease his disappointment, CBS brass gave him the radio version of Have Gun, Will Travel. Macdonnell wanted to prove he could make the radio version better than the TV.

On November 8th, 1958, one week before the final episode of Frontier Gentleman, Macdonnell conducted three voice tests for the lead. Harry Bartell, Vic Perrin, and John Dehner read lines from the opening script, “Strange Vendetta.” Dehner was chosen.

On November 23rd, exactly one week after J.B. Kendall vanished from the air, Have Gun premiered.

On May 13th, 1990 radio and TV legend Gale Gordon joined Chuck Schaden on his WBBM News Radio 78 radio show for a conversation about Gale's life and career (Full interview here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/gordon-gale-actor/). During the interview, a caller asked Mr. Gordon if he did a lot of ad-libbing with Lucille Ball.

In 1967 musician and composer Rex Koury sat down for a documentary interview with John Hickman on Gunsmoke. During the course of the chat he explained how he came to be associated with the show, and how he composed the music, including the famous theme.

When the 1939 World’s Fair opened in Flushing Meadows, David Sarnoff was there to share the spotlight with President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Fiorello LaGuardia, Mayor of New York City.

Sarnoff announced, via a single mobile NBC television camera unit connected from a coaxial cable to a transmitting van, which was placed fifty feet from the speakers’ platform, that NBC TV was ready to go on the air.

In the background, it showed the Fair’s symbols—The Trylon and the Perisphere, swept across the Court of Peace, panned the gathering throng, and captured the arrival of the president’s motorcade.

This same camera captured the first television close-up: Mayor La Guardia. Never the bashful sort, he casually strode up and ogled it.