Breaking Walls

On June 15th, 1988 Chuck Schaden interviewed bandleader and comedian Phil Harris about his life and career (full interview here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/harris-phil/). During the course of this fantastic chat, Phil Harris expanded upon the hectic nature of working the Jack Benny Program and the Fitch Bandwagon/Phil Harris & Alice Faye Show back-to-back on Sunday nights.

On the Halloween 1948 episode of Our Miss Brooks, Connie Brooks took a trip to the Clay City Football game, hoping for some alone time with Philip Boyton in the car ride over.

Before she could leave, she had to deal with her mechanic.

On April 9th, 1960, Jean Shepherd told a great story about an old man and a batting cage for his WOR radio show. The batting cages Shepherd speaks of were located on Stillwell Avenue right near where the avenue dead ends against the Boardwalk in Coney Island.

The comedic duo of Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding first appeared on radio in 1946 for WHDH in Boston. In July of 1951 they joined NBC’s full network with two shows. One was a daily-morning show, and another was a sixty-minute primetime show. With radio audiences leaving for television and NBC’s bouncing both programs around its schedule, both shows achieved only mediocre success.

Bob and Ray next appeared on Saturday Mornings for NBC’s Monitor and In October of 1955 they joined the Mutual Broadcasting System for a 45 minute weekday disc jockey series. That lasted until September 20th, 1957.

By the time they joined CBS radio on June 29th, 1959 the team had refined their spoof-character approach. One famous character was the bumbling reporter Wally Ballou. Voiced by Bob Elliott, in 1963 Wally was reporting from down in the new "quiet" subway in New York.

In November of 1947, Roma Wines announced they were dropping their sponsorship of Suspense. Roma’s last episode was on November 20th, 1947.

As CBS began to sustain the show’s cost, they indicated they were no longer interested in offering Suspense to an alcohol brand. For the next five weeks Suspense shifted to Friday evenings live, coast-to-coast at 9:30PM eastern time.

December 26th, 1947 was the last of those Fridays. Director William Spier chose Ozzie and Harriet Nelson to star as a husband and wife driven to despair by a hateful invalid uncle. It was called “Too Little To Live On,” and written by Robert L. Richards, who also wrote “The House in Cypress Canyon.”

“Too Little To Live On” is a masterpiece in long-scene radio drama.

The next week, Suspense began a new hour-long format, hosted by Robert Montgomery. William Spier’s last date with the production was January 24th, 1948. He married June Havoc the next day.

The Nelsons vacated their Sunday at 6PM time slot to take over the Friday at 9:30 position Suspense occupied here. Although their CBS rating climbed to 13.4 that season, in the fall Ozzie and Harriet Nelson left for NBC.

In January of 1986, KRLA broadcast a tribute to Ricky Nelson after his tragic death in a plane crash on New Year's Eve 1985. One of the people spoken to was Jack Wagner, famous as the Malt Shop Man on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.

Jack's show business career began at age 4 in Hollywood films as a French-speaking child actor. By age 17, he was a contract player at MGM. He became a radio personality at KHJ and the Mutual Network while performing in tv shows, including Dragnet, Sea Hunt, The Ann Sothern Show and 144 episodes of The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet as "Jack in the Malt Shop."

Jack started an association with the Disney organization when he and his family were guests for the opening of Disneyland. Beginning in 1970 Jack handled the voice work at the park and production of over 40 master tapes that contained background music for the theme areas at Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris. His taped messages included "Keep your arms and legs inside the coach," "All aboard" or "Enjoy your stay." For many years, he supplied the authentic voices of some 20 various Disney cartoon characters that were heard at the parks. His radio career spanned a period of special programs to popular music.

At KHJ in 1957, he hosted an all-night talk/music show with guest stars. During his first job at KNX, Jack was the announcer for a live music program featuring performances by his older brother, Roger Wagner. Jack was the last pd at KNX before the station switched to all-News. At KMPC and KABC, he was the guest host for Dick Whittinghill and Gene Norman. In the 1990s, Jack was a consultant to Las Vegas casino owner Stephen Wynn and produced the music for the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino. Jack's son, Mike, was pd of KRLA for a decade. Jack passed away after collapsing at a rest stop on his way to Palm Springs on June 16, 1995. He was 69.

In Breaking Walls episode 107, we go back to school with the Nelson family and find out why David and Ricky joined the program, and how it affected the entertainment industry forever.

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Highlights:

• Oswald George Nelson—Boy from New Jersey

• The Ukulele Craze and the Boy scout Jamboree

• Ozzie Starts a Band

• Splitting Time Between Football and Music

• Cleaning Up Around Town

• On the Banks of the Old Raritan

• Law School and WMCA

• Ozzie Nelson and His Orchestra Gets on Radio

• Ozzie Meet Harriet

• Harriet Hilliard—One Heck of a Talent

• Harriet Joins the Band

• Joe Penner and Robert Ripley

• Getting Married—Harriet Becomes a Film Star

• Touring—David and Eric Are Born

• Red Skelton

• The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet is Born

• Changing Networks in 1948

• Jack Benny Jumps to CBS—David and Ricky Join the Show

• Finding Their Groove as a Family

• ABC and a Ten-Year Contract

• Here Come The Nelsons to Television

• Looking Ahead to Halloween

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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

• Ozzie — By Ozzie Nelson

• Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — By Jim Ramsburg

• Before Television — By Glenhall Taylor

• As well as articles from the archives of Broadcasting Magazine, Sponsor Magazine, Radio Daily, and Radio Mirror.

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On the interview front:

• Ozzie Nelson spoke with: Johnny Carson, Chuck Cecil, and James Day

• Ricky Nelson spoke with Johnny Carson and David Hartman

• David Nelson spoke with David Hartman, and KRLA

• Jack Wagner and Johnny Hayes were also with KRLA

• While Harriet Nelson spoke with David Hartman and Chuck Schaden

• Chuck Schaden also interviewed Jack Benny, Lurene Tuttle and Janet Waldo Hear these chats and others from Chuck’s forty-year career at SpeakingOfRadio.com

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Selected music featured in today’s episode was:

• Theme from A Summer Place — By The Ventures

• Colorado Trail — From Stephen Ives’ The West

• On The Banks of the Old Raritan — By The Rutgers Alma Mater Choir

• Auld Lang Syne — By the Manhattan Strings

• Dream a Little Dream of Me and Jersey Bounce — By Ozzie Nelson and His Orchestra

• Get Thee Behind Me Satan — By Harriet Hilliard Nelson

• I Will Follow You — By Ricky Nelson

• The Haunted House Boogie — By Jack Rivers and Happy Wilson

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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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Special thanks to:

The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society

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

Twelve Chimes, It’s Midnight

https://www.twelvechimesradio.com/

The Fireside Mystery Theatre

https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.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

On November 18th, 1969 Ozzie and Harriet Nelson were guests of Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show. During the segment, Ozzie told a funny story about the couple visiting Rutgers (his alma-matter) for a centennial parade.

For Westinghouse's 50th Anniversary in 1970, longtime NBC radio announcer Ben Grauer spoke about being on his toes with news relays during World War II.

On Saturday, April 16th, 1960, Jean Shepherd took to the air over WOR airwaves in New York City. Jean was in his usual talkative mood. On that Saturday he'd reported to work only to find the lock had been changed in his office. He speculated that at that moment numerous locks were being changed around New York to throw society into chaos that coming Monday!