Breaking Walls

Dick Powell was born on November 14th, 1904 in Mountain View, Arkansas. He’d been an A-list crooner in the 1930s, starring in both musicals and comedies at Warner Brothers and Paramount. He was also the emcee of radio’s Campana Serenade.

After several attempts, Powell changed his career in 1944 when he was cast as Raymond Chandler’s private eye Philip Marlowe, in Murder My Sweet.

The Lux Radio Theater broadcast an adaptation on June 6th, 1945. Two weeks later Powell was starring as Richard Rogue in Rogue’s Gallery on NBC. The series was a summer replacement for the Fitch Bandwagon.

When Fitch returned in the Fall, Mutual Broadcasting picked up the show. It lasted for one season on Mutual before returning for a final thirteen weeks on NBC in the summer of 1946. Simultaneously on film Powell made Cornered, Johnny O’Clock, To The Ends of the Earth, and Pitfall.

In December of 1948, wanting to get back into radio, Powell recorded an audition for a new CBS series called Yours Truly Johnny Dollar. He was set to take the role when writer and director Blake Edwards called him to star in a new NBC series, Richard Diamond, Private Detective.

It premiered on April 24th, 1949.

Diamond answered his telephone with atrocious commercial jingles and was a master of the verbal put-down. His relationship with Lieutenant Walt Levinson was abrasive, but affectionate. And he loved to rib Sergeant Otis.

Virginia Gregg was Richard’s girlfriend Helen. Ed Begley was Lieutenant Levinson. In this episode from May 22nd, Betty Lou Gerson played the female heavy and Jack Kruschen played one of the hoods.

Richard Diamond, Private Detective would find sponsorship with Rexall in April of 1950.

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All this week at www.patreon.com/TheWallBreakers I'll be publishing full episodes from Breaking Walls Episode 111: NBC Answers the CBS Talent Raids—1949 (https://soundcloud.com/thewallbreakers/bw-ep111-nbc-answers-the-cbs-talent-raids-1949?in=thewallbreakers/sets/breaking-walls-the-wall)

These full episodes will be available with show notes to all Patreon subscribers for $1 per month.

This is Jack Benny's first program for CBS after leaving NBC at the end of 1948. It aired, live, coast-to-coast at 7PM eastern time on January 2nd, 1949 from Columbia Square in Hollywood. It was heard in Los Angeles over KNX 1070.

On November 20, 1958 head of CBS William S. Paley received an award for his thirty years of work in the field of programming.

Paley had purchased a then struggling Columbia Broadcasting System for $417,000 on September 25, 1928. Within those first two years he focused on two things—gaining as many coast-to-coast network affiliates as possible, and putting together the most complete, experimental programming schedule on network radio.

In this clip from that speech, he explains how he came to purchase CBS.

On August 9th, 1986, actor and director Lawrence Dobkin was part of a SPERDVAC ( www.sperdvac.com ) panel along with Don Diamond and Lilian Buyeff to discuss their lives and careers. During the course of the conversation, Dobkin spoke about working for Cecil B. DeMille shortly after AFRA lifted DeMille's membership card.

In 1944 DeMille was at odds with the American Federation of Radio Actors because of a ballot proposal called Proposition 12. It threatened unions by making California a “right to work” state. If passed it would have allowed any non-union member to work in radio at a reduced scale.

AFRA chose to take one dollar from every Union member to fight the bill. DeMille was sympathetic to union ideals, he just disagreed with being forced to donate to the cause.

The argument dragged through late 1944. Eventually, the courts ruled against DeMille and he left the show on January 22, 1945.

On July 14th, 1979 writer/actor/producer/director Elliott Lewis was a guest of SPERDVAC's to talk about his radio career. This interview was conducted while Mr. Lewis was in the midst of the Sears Radio Theater, a major network attempt at reviving radio drama.

In this clip, he spoke about why people involved with creative productions should understand the entire creative process.

In Breaking Walls episode 111 we resume our mini-series in January of 1949. CBS is now the nation’s number one network, and NBC is left to come up with programming answers. We’ll focus on the shows they launched in the spring and summer of 1949.

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Highlights:

• Jack Benny: Now on CBS

• First The News

• Network Radio Opens 1949 with Record Earnings

• John Wayne, Claire Trevor, John Ford, and Ward Bond Open The NBC Theater

• David Sarnoff and the Mass NBC Exodus

• It’s the Martin and Lewis Show!

• Alan Young and Henry Morgan

• Richard Diamond

• Jack Webb Launches Dragnet

• Fred Allen Finally Has Enough

• William Conrad, The Killers, and The Four Star Playhouse

• Dangerous Assignment

• San Francisco’s YUkon 3-8309 Lady Detective

• Looking Ahead to the Fall of 1949

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The WallBreakers:

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Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.

To support the show:

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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

As well as articles from:

• Billboard Magazine

• Broadcasting Magazine

• Radio Daily

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On the interview front:

• Virginia Gregg, Lurene Tuttle, Herb Vigran, Mike Wallace, Don Wilson were with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.

• Parley Baer, Lilian Buyeff, Herb Ellis, Betty Lou Gerson, Virginia Gregg, and Peggy Webber were with SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com

• Arnold Stang was with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these at Goldenage-WTIC.org.

• Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin were with Cedric Adams

• Fred Allen was on Tex and Jinx

• Donald Vorhees was interviewed for Allen’s Biography In Sound

• Jack Kruschen was with Jim Bohannon

• John Dehner was with Neil Ross

• William Conrad was with Chris Lambesis

• E. Jack Neuman was with John Dunning

• Frank Sinatra was with Walter Cronkite

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Selected music featured in today’s episode was:

• Takin’ A Chance on Love — By Helen Forrest

• The Pavane — By Steve Erquiaga

• Lenore Overture Number 3 — By Ludwig Van Beethoven

• And Fly Me To The Moon — By Frank Sinatra

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Special thanks to

The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society

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

The Fireside Mystery Theatre

https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com/

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

Barry Nadler

Christian Neuhaus

Aimee Pavy

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WallBreakers Links:

Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers

Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

URL - thewallbreakers.com

December 26th, 1948 was a seminal day in radio history. NBC had dominated Sunday’s prime time ratings for every season since the late 1920s. Now, in one evening, two of their most famous comedians would depart from their airwaves at the same time.

First it was Jack Benny, who signed on NBC for the last time at 7PM eastern time. Jack made sure to get in one parting joke and thank you to NBC. Benny would debut on CBS at the same time on January 2nd, 1949.

One, semi-related oddity: Jack Benny passed away exactly twenty-six years later on December 26th, 1974 at the age of eighty.

On Christmas night, 1948, The Judy Canova Show and its 16.6 rating signed on live coast-to-coast for NBC from Hollywood at 9:30PM eastern time. Then in its sixth season on the air, the show had settled into a solid Saturday audience get.

Born in November of 1913, Judy Canova was from Jacksonville, Florida. Early in her career she was typed as a hayseed. Publicity for her show in the fall of 1943 depicted her with shotgun and wolf traps. It created a pigtails-and-calico fad on college campuses everywhere.

Canova told tall tales about her pig, Loverboy, or about Cousin Ureenus, who loved chopped-liver ice cream. Mel Blanc and Ruby Dandridge were large parts of the cast.

On Christmas night, Judy was convinced that her publicity agent was getting her the wrong kind of publicity.

Although not part of any major network, WMCA in New York spent its Friday evenings at The Royal Roost—the heppest Jazz club in New York City.

Early on Christmas morning, 1948, from midnight to six AM, the station and the club jumped, with Miles Davis and Charlie Parker be-bopping and Symphony Sid offering Christmas cheer.

Why worry about tomorrow? Tonight is Christmas Eve.

In the fall of 1948, CBS programmed radio’s "Outstanding Theater of Thrills," Suspense, opposite the Kraft Music Hall at 9PM on NBC, and took with it much of Al Jolson’s audience. The show’s rating was an 18.5 in September. By Christmas 1948, it was up to nearly 22 and was radio’s highest rated mystery show.

On December 23rd, it broadcast “Holiday Story” starring Herbert Marshall. It's the classic story of a henpecked man who finds new love, and desires to get rid of his current wife with the perfect crime.