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The Adventures Of Frank Merriwell - "The Ballot Box Mystery" (05-15-48) - My Friend Irma - "The Big Secret" (03-29-48)
EPISODE DESCRIPTION
The Ballot Box Mystery (Aired May 15, 1948)
The model for all later American juvenile sports fiction, Merriwell excelled at football, baseball, basketball, crew and track at Yale while solving mysteries and righting wrongs. He played with great strength and received traumatic blows without injury. A biographical entry on Patten noted dryly that Frank Merriwell "had little in common with his creator or his readers." Patten offered some background on his character: "The name was symbolic of the chief characteristics I desired my hero to have. Frank for frankness, merry for a happy disposition, well for health and abounding vitality." Merriwell's classmates observed, "He never drinks. That's how he keeps himself in such fine condition all the time. He will not smoke, either, and he takes his exercise regularly. He is really a remarkable freshie." American Olympic champion boxer and bobsledder Eddie Eagan commented in his autobiography: "To this day I have never used tobacco, because Frank Merriwell didn't. My first glass of wine, which I do not care for, was taken under social compulsion in Europe. Frank never drank." Merriwell originally appeared in a series of magazine stories starting April 18, 1896 ("Frank Merriwell: or, First Days at Fardale") in Tip Top Weekly, continuing through 1912, and later in dime novels and comic books. Patten would confine himself to a hotel room for a week to write an entire story. The Frank Merriwell comic strip began in 1928, continuing until 1936. Daily strips from 1934 provided illustrations for the 1937 Big Little Book.
THIS EPISODE:
May 15, 1948. NBC network. "The Ballot Box Mystery". Sustaining. An election of the Yale Drama Society is the setting for fraud. Two aspiring "Juliets" and a ham actor are involved. Lawson Zerbe, Hal Studer, Elaine Rost, Harlow Wilcox (announcer), Burt L. Standish (creator). 28:42. Episode Notes From The Radio Gold Index.
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EPISODE DESCRIPTION
The Big Secret (Aired March 29, 1948)
My Friend Irma, created by writer-director-producer Cy Howard, was a top-rated, long-run radio situation comedy, so popular in the late 1940s that its success escalated to films and television, while Howard scored with another radio comedy hit, Life with Luigi. Dependable and level-headed Jane Stacy (Cathy Lewis) narrated the misadventures of her innocent and bewildered roommate, Irma Peterson (Marie Wilson), a dim-bulb stenographer. Wilson portrayed the character on radio, in two films and a TV series. The successful radio series with Marie Wilson ran on CBS Radio from April 11, 1947 to August 23, 1954. The TV version, seen on CBS from January 8, 1952 until June 25, 1954, was the first series telecast from the CBS Television City facility in Hollywood. The movie My Friend Irma (1949) starred Marie Wilson and Diana Lynn but is mainly remembered today for introducing Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis to moviegoers, resulting in even more screen time for Martin and Lewis in the sequel, My Friend Irma Goes West (1950).
THIS EPISODE:
March 29, 1948. CBS network. "The Big Secret". Swan, Spry. Irma, Jane and Richard are all going to Washington, D.C. It's a secret, confidential trip, even though Professor Kropotkin and Mrs. O'Reilly go along. Marie Wilson, Cathy Lewis, Cy Howard (creator, writer, producer, director), Parke Levy (writer), Hans Conried, Gloria Gordon, John Brown, Frank Bingman (announcer), Leif Erickson. 29:02. Episode Notes From The Radio Gold Index.
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By Toad Slacks RadioEPISODE DESCRIPTION
The Ballot Box Mystery (Aired May 15, 1948)
The model for all later American juvenile sports fiction, Merriwell excelled at football, baseball, basketball, crew and track at Yale while solving mysteries and righting wrongs. He played with great strength and received traumatic blows without injury. A biographical entry on Patten noted dryly that Frank Merriwell "had little in common with his creator or his readers." Patten offered some background on his character: "The name was symbolic of the chief characteristics I desired my hero to have. Frank for frankness, merry for a happy disposition, well for health and abounding vitality." Merriwell's classmates observed, "He never drinks. That's how he keeps himself in such fine condition all the time. He will not smoke, either, and he takes his exercise regularly. He is really a remarkable freshie." American Olympic champion boxer and bobsledder Eddie Eagan commented in his autobiography: "To this day I have never used tobacco, because Frank Merriwell didn't. My first glass of wine, which I do not care for, was taken under social compulsion in Europe. Frank never drank." Merriwell originally appeared in a series of magazine stories starting April 18, 1896 ("Frank Merriwell: or, First Days at Fardale") in Tip Top Weekly, continuing through 1912, and later in dime novels and comic books. Patten would confine himself to a hotel room for a week to write an entire story. The Frank Merriwell comic strip began in 1928, continuing until 1936. Daily strips from 1934 provided illustrations for the 1937 Big Little Book.
THIS EPISODE:
May 15, 1948. NBC network. "The Ballot Box Mystery". Sustaining. An election of the Yale Drama Society is the setting for fraud. Two aspiring "Juliets" and a ham actor are involved. Lawson Zerbe, Hal Studer, Elaine Rost, Harlow Wilcox (announcer), Burt L. Standish (creator). 28:42. Episode Notes From The Radio Gold Index.
----------------------------------------
EPISODE DESCRIPTION
The Big Secret (Aired March 29, 1948)
My Friend Irma, created by writer-director-producer Cy Howard, was a top-rated, long-run radio situation comedy, so popular in the late 1940s that its success escalated to films and television, while Howard scored with another radio comedy hit, Life with Luigi. Dependable and level-headed Jane Stacy (Cathy Lewis) narrated the misadventures of her innocent and bewildered roommate, Irma Peterson (Marie Wilson), a dim-bulb stenographer. Wilson portrayed the character on radio, in two films and a TV series. The successful radio series with Marie Wilson ran on CBS Radio from April 11, 1947 to August 23, 1954. The TV version, seen on CBS from January 8, 1952 until June 25, 1954, was the first series telecast from the CBS Television City facility in Hollywood. The movie My Friend Irma (1949) starred Marie Wilson and Diana Lynn but is mainly remembered today for introducing Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis to moviegoers, resulting in even more screen time for Martin and Lewis in the sequel, My Friend Irma Goes West (1950).
THIS EPISODE:
March 29, 1948. CBS network. "The Big Secret". Swan, Spry. Irma, Jane and Richard are all going to Washington, D.C. It's a secret, confidential trip, even though Professor Kropotkin and Mrs. O'Reilly go along. Marie Wilson, Cathy Lewis, Cy Howard (creator, writer, producer, director), Parke Levy (writer), Hans Conried, Gloria Gordon, John Brown, Frank Bingman (announcer), Leif Erickson. 29:02. Episode Notes From The Radio Gold Index.