Breaking Walls

On March 28th, 1943, Orson Welles subbed as host on Jack Benny's Grape Nuts Flakes Program on NBC. This is that broadcast.

This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 102: The Return of Johnny Dollar (1955)

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On December 7th, 1948, film veteran Dick Powell recorded an audition for a new detective series called, Yours Truly Johnny Dollar. Powell had 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.

His career changed in 1944 when Powell 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 the show up. 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. Wanting to get back into network radio, he recorded this Dollar audition just before Christmas.

In July of 1945 during a newspaper deliveryman's strike, New York City mayor Fiorello LaGuardia took to the air on WNYC and read comics to the kids. Here he reads some Dick Tracy.

In this short clip, Yours Truly Johnny Dollar director Jack Johnstone offers some glowing praise for his star, Bob Bailey.

In Breaking Walls Episode 102, we travel back to the fall of 1955 for the re-launch of Yours Truly Johnny Dollar. Although the five-part Dollar format would last for only a year, listeners then and in the years since have praised the productions as some of the best ever.

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Highlights:

• Who is Johnny Dollar?

• Dick Powell: Not Johnny Dollar

• Dollar Launches in February of 1949

• Enter The Movie Star

• Enter The Second Movie Star

• Dollar Signs Off

• The Radio Networks Revamp Programming

• Jack Johnstone and Jimmy Stewart

• Dollar Reborn, with Gerald Mohr?

• Bob Bailey Gets the Role

• Relaunching Johnny Dollar

• After The Final Curtain

• Looking Back to Look Ahead

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Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.

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The reading material used in today’s episode was:

• The 1955 Broadcasting Magazine Yearbook

• The 1955 Radio Networks Annual

• The Winter 1956 Journal of Broadcasting Quarterly

• The Who Is Johnny Dollar Matter — By John C. Abbott

• On the Air — By John Dunning

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

• Broadcasting Magazine — September 19th, 1955; October 3rd, 1955; and April 2nd, 1956

• Radio & TV Mirror — 1955

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On the interview front:

• Mary Jane Croft, Herb Ellis, Jack Johnstone, Elliott Lewis, Jeanette Nolan, were with SPERDVAC, the Society to Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety, and Comedy. For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com

• Virginia Gregg and Parley Baer were with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingofRadio.com.

• Roberta Bailey Goodwin and E. Jack Neuman were with John Dunning for his 71KNUS program from Denver

• Hans Conried was with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear their full chat at Goldenage—WTIC.org

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Selected music featured in today’s episode was:

• Caravan — By 80 Drums Around The World.

• Pyramid to the Sun & Roller Coaster — By Les Baxter

• Exotique Bossa Nova — By Martin Denny

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

• Sleep Walk — By Henri René

• Good Timin’ — By Jimmy Jones

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Special thanks to our Sponsors:

The Fireside Mystery Theatre

https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com/

Radio Drama Revival,

https://www.radiodramarevival.com/

Twelve Chimes, It’s Midnight

https://www.twelvechimesradio.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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A Special Thank you to:

Tony Adams

Briana Isaac

Ryan Kramer

Barry Nadler

Christian Neuhaus

Aimee Pavy

Terry Wallace

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WallBreakers Links:

Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers

Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

On the March 17th, 1937 episode of Town Hall Tonight, Fred Allen joked about his new-found friendship with Jack Benny. This episode aired three days after the two comedians famously squashed their beef in a sensational broadcast of Benny's program live from the Hotel Pierre in New York City.

In 1967 Radio producer/director Norman Macdonnell sat down for a documentary interview with John Hickman on Gunsmoke. Macdonnell directed the series during its entire radio run from 1952-1961. During the interview, he spoke of how radio's changing executive in the 1950s helped hasten radio drama's network demise.

The late John Hickman was the longtime host of WAMU's "Recollections" which today is known as "The Big Broadcast."

On August 14th, 1982, Harry Bartell and several other prominent CBS radio character actors were guests of SPERDVAC for a conversation on their intersecting lives and careers. During the course of the chat, Bartell remembered being the Petri Wine announcer on Sherlock Holmes in the mid-1940s.

In January of 1976 famed radio producer/director William N. Robson sat down with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran to discuss his career for WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio (Full episode here: https://www.goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-70.html). Robson was a huge part of the evolution of audio sound effects.

During World War II he was in charge of the production of a very popular program called "The Man Behind The Gun." Part of his job was to try to get the most realistic sound effects possible. In this clip he explains how they were achieved.

This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 101: Frontier Gentleman and The Saga of Belle Siddons (1958)

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In 1957, CBS Radio saw a rise in revenue for the first time since 1950. For all of that year, Gunsmoke remained the only adult western radio drama on the air. They recorded at the KNX Hollywood Studios on Saturday afternoons.

In early 1958, CBS ordered two new western programs to air on Sunday afternoons, replacing an hour of concert broadcasts. The first would be created by CBS director Antony Ellis. Ellis’ new show would be called Frontier Gentleman.

The title character would be an Englishman named J.B. Kendall. Kendall was a journalist writing for the London Times, weaving his way through the Western territories of the US in the late nineteenth century.

Frontier Gentleman would be recorded in Los Angeles. It was set to debut on February 2nd, 1958.