Breaking Walls: The Podcast on the History of American Network Radio Broadcasting

At 10:50PM on D-Day, The Red Skelton Show took to the air with a final abbreviated episode before Skelton left for World War II.

When his show debuted on October 7th, 1941 critics were skeptical. Skelton was a pantomimist. How could he succeed on radio? But he was soon getting laughs every eleven seconds and for three seasons more than twenty-five million people were tuning in as he pulled ratings in the 30s. His supporting cast of Lurene Tuttle, Ozzie, and Harriet Nelson were heavily featured.

But then Skelton got divorced and lost his marriage deferment. The army drafted him in 1944. MGM and radio sponsor Raleigh Cigarettes tried to help with no avail. The Draft Board also turned down his request to join the Special Services branch for entertainers. This was questioned by some critics, who noted that he had worked tirelessly to entertain servicemen.

Skelton’s last radio program was on D-Day, June 6th, 1944. The next day the thirty-year-old Skelton was formally inducted as a private. Without its star, the program was discontinued until he could come back from the war.

Skelton lost eighteen months of his career, eventually suffering a nervous breakdown in Italy, and having to be hospitalized for three months. He would be discharged in September of 1945.

At 10PM, across all networks, the President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt, took to the air with a special prayer for the invading troops. Thirty-Five million Americans tuned in. It was the most-listened to broadcast of any kind which aired in 1944.

At 10:15 Bob Hope took to the air with a special D-Day Broadcast. For more information on this year of Bob’s life, tune into Breaking Walls episode 148.

This is FDR's D-Day Prayer below:

My fellow Americans: Last night, when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far.

And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer:

Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.

Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.

They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.

They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest-until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men's souls will be shaken with the violences of war.

For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and good will among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.

Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.

And for us at home - fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas - whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them - help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.

Many people have urged that I call the Nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.

Give us strength, too - strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.

And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be.

And, O Lord, give us Faith. Give us Faith in Thee; Faith in our sons; Faith in each other; Faith in our united crusade. Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.

With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogancies. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister Nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.

Thy will be done, Almighty God.

Amen.

D-Day, June 6th, 1944 was a Tuesday. Ordinarily on Tuesday evenings NBC had a comedy lineup that rivaled the greatest in history. A main part of it was the man you just heard, Jim Jordan, who starred on Fibber McGee and Molly.

The normal Fibber McGee and Molly show was canceled on D-Day. Instead, they presented a special musical program at 9:30PM featuring Billy Mills and the King’s Men, leaving room for late-breaking news bulletins.

Opposite, CBS presented the first in a new series, The Doctor Fights, starring Raymond Massey in a new portrait each week of a doctor on some far-flung battlefield.

The purpose of The Doctor Fights was two-fold: to honor the nation’s one-hundred eighty-thousand doctors, one-third of whom were in the theaters of battle, and to acquaint the public with penicillin. The sponsor, Schenley Laboratories, was one of twenty-two companies making penicillin, and often the stories described wondrous cures resulting from its use by doctors in distant and primitive outposts. Many listeners at that time had never heard of the drug.

Opposite of The Burns and Allen Show at 9PM, NBC ran a special “Cross Country D-Day tour”, hosted by the just-heard Ben Grauer. It was a program from every part of the nation to show what everyone was thinking and doing on this historic and momentous day. The theme was the same: Work, Pray, Fight.

The stations included remotes from WTIC in Hartford, WSYR in Syracuse, WTAR in Norfolk, WSPD in Toledo, WLW in Cincinnati, WMC in Memphis, KTSP in St. Paul, and WKY in Oklahoma City.

At 9PM on CBS, Burns and Allen took to the air with a special episode called “Kansas City’s Favorite Singer” with guest-star Dinah Shore. It featured Bea Benaderet and Mel Blanc.

Like George Burns and Grace Allen, Blanc and Benaderet spent decades working together, especially on Blanc’s own show after the war and later on The Flintstones.

Norman Corwin was twenty-seven years old when he was hired by CBS in April of 1938. For three years he honed his craft on shows like Words Without Music, The Pursuit of Happiness, So This is Radio and Forecast.

In 1941 he was tasked with taking over The Columbia Workshop for twenty-six weeks. These plays are today known as “Twenty-Six By Corwin.” They ranged from whimsy, to romance, to high drama, to coming of age tales. CBS refused to offer the series up for sponsorship. Corwin’s programs weren’t about revenue, they were about advancing the medium itself.

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor and Manilla on December 7th, 1941, Corwin penned a play in honor of the 150th anniversary of The Bill of Rights. It was at the behest of President Roosevelt.

The play was called “We Hold These Truths,” and broadcast on December 15th. Simultaneously heard on all four networks, sixty-million tuned in. It was at that time, the largest ratings share of any dramatic program ever.

By 1944 Corwin had free rein over his productions. The Workshop essentially became branded as Columbia Presents Corwin.

Corwin had previously adapted Carl Sandburg’s The People, Yes three times. At 8PM over CBS on D-Day, Corwin presented the first in An American Trilogy on Carl Sandburg featuring Charles Laughton. The following two weeks he’d present part two on Thomas Wolfe and part three on Walt Whitman.

Opposite, NBC broadcast a special version of the Ginny Simms show.

At the conclusion of Ronald Colman’s reading of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s poem, legendary commentator H. V. Kaltenborn took to the air with news and comments on the day’s invasion.

John Nesbitt was born in Victoria, British Columbia on August 23rd, 1910. The grandson of actor Edwin Booth, the family moved to Alameda, California. Nesbitt was active in stock theater in Vancouver and Spokane and began working for NBC in San Francisco in 1933. By 1935, he was an announcer at KFRC in San Francisco.

Nesbitt produced a series called Headlines of the Past which spun off into his signature program, The Passing Parade, in 1937. The inspiration came from a trunk inherited from his father that contained news clippings of odd stories from around the world. He utilized a research staff to verify the details, but wrote the final scripts himself, often within an hour of airtime.

This led to a series of one-reel shorts produced by MGM.

On the evening of June 6th, 1944, the just-heard Ken Carpenter was announcer for a Passing Parade broadcast on CBS at 7:15PM in which Nesbitt attempted to capture, in real time, the historic significance of D-Day by imagining its story being retold to schoolchildren in the year 2044.

At 7:30PM over NBC, Ronald Colman read a special “Poem and Prayer for an Invading Army” by Edna St. Vincent Millay.

It’s nearly 6:45PM and I’m at an automat getting some dinner. People around here are feeling a little looser as, by all accounts, the Normandy landings had been a success.

They’ve got NBC on the air. Just ending is a “Serenade to America'' with Winifred Hite, Nora Sterling, Milton Katims and his Orchestra. Legendary newscaster Lowell Thomas is about to go on over WEAF with a summary and commentary on the day’s events.

Thomas has been on radio since the dawn of the network era. He took over as the host of NBC’s Sunday Literary Digest program in 1930. By October of 1930, he was including more news stories. He moved to CBS, but was back on NBC two years later.

At 3PM The British King George VI issued a D-Day speech. The Transcription is below.

Four years ago, our Nation and Empire stood alone against an overwhelming enemy, with our backs to the wall. Tested as never before in our history, in God's providence we survived that test; the spirit of the people, resolute, dedicated, burned like a bright flame, lit surely from those unseen fires which nothing can quench.

Now once more a supreme test has to be faced. This time, the challenge is not to fight to survive, but to fight to win the final victory for the good cause. Once again what is demanded from us all is something more than courage and endurance; we need a revival of spirit, a new unconquerable resolve. After nearly five years of toil and suffering, we must renew that crusading impulse on which we entered the war and met its darkest hour. We and our Allies are sure that our fight is against evil and for a world in which goodness and honor may be the foundation of the life of men in every land.

That we may be worthily matched with this new summons of destiny, I desire solemnly to call my people to prayer and dedication. We are not unmindful of our own shortcomings, past and present. We shall ask not that God may do our will, but that we may be enabled to do the will of God: and we dare to believe that God has used our Nation and Empire as an instrument for fulfilling his high purpose.

I hope that throughout the present crisis of the liberation of Europe there may be offered up earnest, continuous and widespread prayer. We who remain in this land can most effectively enter into the sufferings of subjugated Europe by prayer, whereby we can fortify the determination of our sailors, soldiers and airmen who go forth to set the captives free.

The Queen joins with me in sending you this message. She well understands the anxieties and cares of our womenfolk at this time and she knows that many of them will find, as she does herself, fresh strength and comfort in such waiting upon God. She feels that many women will be glad in this way to keep vigil with their menfolk as they man the ships, storm the beaches and fill the skies.

At this historic moment surely not one of us is too busy, too young or too old to play a part in a nationwide, perchance a worldwide, vigil of prayer as the great crusade sets forth. If from every place of worship, from home and factory, from men and women of all ages and many races and occupations, our intercessions rise, then, please God, both now and in a future not remote, the predictions of an ancient Psalm may be fulfilled: "The Lord will give strength unto his people: the Lord will give his people the blessing of peace."

By this time, Allied reinforcements from Britain had already arrived in Normandy. Ground troops linked up with the paratroopers further inland and pressed on toward Caen. However, the allies wouldn’t capture the city for more than a month.

Once King George VI’s speech was over, CBS switched back to Alan Jackson with a news update.

At 4:40PM the just-heard John Daly, Bill Shirer, and Quincy Howe took to CBS’ airwaves with more news updates.