Breaking Walls

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.

In 1970 Orson Welles was a guest of Dick Cavett's for a great interview about the artist's life and career. During the course of the show, Welles told a story about his first night in Hollywood and how his new-found belief in the hereafter also led to the end of his good luck.

During Sunday March 9th, 1958's episode of Luke Slaughter of Tombstone, CBS dedicated the network-sustained show's mid-episode break spot to a promo for the upcoming episode of Frontier Gentleman.

The two shows ran back to back during the early afternoon on Sundays that winter and spring. Neither was able to find a sponsor. Slaughter was cancelled in June and Frontier Gentleman in November.

In August of 1987, famed radio director Jack Johnstone was a guest of SPERDVAC's at the Thousand Oaks Library in California. During the course of the conversation on Johnstone's life and career, he was asked by a guest about directing Marilyn Monroe on the Hollywood Star's Playhouse. Johnstone, never one to hold back, apologetically confessed (very seriously) that he felt she was one of the worst actresses he'd ever worked with.

In this clip he explains why.

During the Korean War, NBC sent reporters to talk to the soldiers on the front lines during the conflict. This is some of what they said.

In the 1980s, radio writer/actor/director/producer Elliott Lewis was a guest of John Dunning on his 71K Newstalk Radio program out of Denver, CO.

During the course of this wide-ranging interview, Lewis spoke about why the attempted Network radio drama revival of the 1970s ultimately didn't lead to a huge boom in radio drama.

In Breaking Walls episode 113 it’s September of 1953 and Elliott Lewis is one of the busiest men in radio. He’s the producer/director of four shows and the star of two. We’ll join him that fall, following for a week to find out what life was like for the man affectionately dubbed by his peers as “Mr. Radio.”

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Highlights:

• Phil and Alice Court Elliott Lewis

• Broadway is My Beat, Still Going Strong

• Agnes Moorehead Guest-Stars on Suspense

• Finding and Losing Love On Stage

• The Very Suspicious Borden Family Murders

• Radio’s Golden Age Draws to a Close

• Looking Ahead to Go Back in time to Wyoming

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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, 1932-53 — By Jim Ramsburg

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On the interview front:

• Sam Edwards, Alice Faye, Phil Harris, Elliott Lewis, Agnes Moorehead, Arch Oboler, and Paula Winslowe were with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.

• Lilian Buyeff, Mary Jane Croft, Sam Edwards, Betty Lou Gerson, Byron Kane, Lou Krugman, Elliott Lewis, and Jeanette Nolan were with SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com.

• Elliott Lewis and E. Jack Neuman were with John Dunning for his 71KNUS program from Denver.

• Elliott Lewis was also with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear this full interview at Goldenage-WTIC.org.

• Jack Kruschen, Shirley Mitchell, and George Walsh were with Jim Bohannon.

• Morton Fine spoke with Dan Hafele for SPERDVAC in 1988.

• WIlliam Conrad spoke with Chris Lambesis.

• Norman MacDonnell with John Hickman.

• Raymond Burr was with Jack Webster.

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Selected music featured in today’s episode was:

• Rags to Riches — By Tony Bennett

• Manhattan — By Blossom Dearie

• Pyramid of the Sun — By Les Baxter

• The Venice Dreamer Parts 1 & 2 — By George Winston

• I’ll Be Seeing You — By the Harry James Band

• Caravan — By Gordon Jenkins

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Special thanks to:

The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society

https://www.ghoulishdelights.com/series/themorls/

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

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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

Briana Isaac

Thomas M. Joyce

Ryan Kramer

Gary Mollica

Barry Nadler

Christian Neuhaus

Aimee Pavy

John Williams

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WallBreakers Links:

Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers

Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

At the close of the November 30th, 1947 episode of The Jack Benny Program, Jack Benny spoke eloquently about the problems teachers were facing in the post-War world. His plea mirrors many we might hear today.

In 1982, John Dehner was an in-studio guest of Neil Ross' at KMPC for a conversation about his acting career. During the course of the chat, Dehner shed some light on oncoming stereo audio in the late 1950s and early 1960s just as radio drama petered out on the major US networks.

On the February 13th, 1975 episode of The Tonight Show, Mel Brooks was the guest for an interview not long after the debut of Young Frankenstein.

During the chat, Mel told a hilarious story of a prank he pulled on top level NBC brass David Sarnoff and Pat Weaver while employed as a writer for Sid Caesar.