Those Great Old-Time Radio Years

By Aubrey J. Sher PH.D.

Those Great Old-Time Radio Years takes the listener on a memorable ride from the invention of the radio into its nostalgic Golden Age when the author brings back memories of programs that developed a listeners power of imagination before television made its debut. The book is comprised of an Introduction and eleven chapters, each headed by a picture that aptly pertains to it. The eleven chapters cover the following subjects: (1) The Golden Age of Radio; (2) Adventure, Mystery, and Suspense; (3) Broadcasting: News, Sports, Gossip and Disc Jockeys; (4) Childrens Programs; (5) Comedy and Variety; (6) Music; (7) Quiz and Panel; (8) Sitcom; (9) Soap Opera; (10) Theater; and (11) Western.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 15, 2013
• ISBN: 9781483679099

Aubrey J. Sher PH.D.

The author, Aubrey J. Sher, Ph.D., has published nineteen books spanning a period of twenty years. His books reflect several genres including history, mystery, international intrigue, music, memoir, and poetry. When asked about the books he enjoyed writing the most, he replied that his favorites were “Knights in Shining Armor-In Love and War,” a novel based upon his experiences during the Korean War as a combat infantry officer; “Web of Intrigue,” an international thriller, and “Romulus and Remus: The Imperfect Murders,” with its setting on a college campus in southern California Dr. Sher served as Superintendent of Schools in New Jersey for most of his professional career and currently is involved as an Educational Consultant.

Book preview

Copyright © 2013 by Aubrey J. Sher, Ph.D.

ISBN:      Softcover      978-1-4836-7908-2

                Ebook          978-1-4836-7909-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 08/13/2013

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris LLC

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

131129

CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter One   The Golden Age Of Radio

Chapter Two   Adventure, Mystery, Suspense

Chapter Three   Broadcasting: News, Gossip, Sports, Disc Jockeys

News:

Gossip:

Sports:

Disc Jockeys:

Chapter Four   Children’s Programming

Chapter Five   Comedy And Variety

Chapter Six   Music

Chapter Seven   Quiz, Panel, and Talent

Chapter Eight   Sitcoms

Chapter Nine   Soap Operas

Chapter Ten   Theaters

Chapter Eleven   Westerns

Conclusion

Appendix I   Old-Time Radio Commercials and Jingles

Appendix II   Research Resources and Suggested Readings

This book is dedicated to the memory of Marconi and Tesla, who brought the medium of radio into existence. The book is also dedicated to all those who lived during the Golden Age of Radio, and to all others who appreciated the old radio shows through reading about them or hearing about them from their parents or grandparents.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I thank my eagle-eyed editor, Lucy Stamilla, for continuing to serve as the head of my editorial staff, Roger Bowens for assisting Lucy in copy-editing, and Debbie Bayani, who did her usual terrific job as technical editor. I especially appreciate the excellent work done by the Xlibris publishing crew, Kim Oliver and Regina Beckman, in particular, who took the raw manuscript and turned it into a book that we all hope will be attractive and of great interest to the reading public.

ALSO WRITTEN

BY AUBREY J. SHER, PH.D.

In The Shadow Of Our Past: Lest We Forget (1994)

Night of Remembrance (1995)

Senioritis, We Got It (1997)

Retirement’s For the Birds (1998)

Say What? Senior Style (1998)

The Borscht Belt Remembered (2001)

The Stowaway (2002)

Knights In Shining Armor: In Love and War (2003)

Holocaust (1933-1945): Ultimate Crime Against Humanity (2004)

Web of Intrigue (2006)

A Chuckle, A Smile, Senior Style (2007)

Presidential Hopefuls: Who Won, Who Lost, and Why? (2008)

Leopold and Oskar: Page 173 of Schindler’s List (2009)

Par For The Course: A Murder Mystery (2009)

The Borscht Belt: Its Birth, Its Life, Its Demise (2010)

Romulus and Remus: The Imperfect Murders (2010)

The Big Band Era: When Music Was Music (2011)

Showcase Of The Century’s Legendary Singers (2012)

INTRODUCTION

1.jpg

T o the reader who lived through the magnificent radio years of yore, the following pages of this book will be a nostalgic experience, a smile here and there and perhaps a tear or two. To the reader who was denied the enjoyment of listening to the programs offered on old-time radio because of age, the opportunity to understand that which your parents and grandparents considered the best in entertainment during their lives is presented in this book for your edification.

Almost as soon as radio developed into a commercial entity, it established in its listeners of all ages a strange phenomenon called imagination. Radio was often referred to as the theater of the mind. The first to coin that phrase was the popular pianist-vocalist, Michael Feinstein, who, ironically, was too young to experience and enjoy the golden years of radio.

There is no need to rush into the descriptions of the on–the-air radio programs. There is much more to radio’s history to be explored. Radio burst upon the public as an extraordinary instrument of entertainment in the 1920s, following vaudeville, silent movies, and talking pictures, and serving as the precursor to television. Therefore, let us start with the definition of this earthshaking invention that involved the fertile and brilliant technological minds of the early 20th century.

As a non-technological individual, I define radio as a console similar to the Philco product that sat majestically in the corner of my family’s living room or as a small rectangular Silvertone that rested for years on my bedroom night table, each of the two radios with two dials. One dial served two purposes as the on/off dial and volume adjuster; and the other as the program locater. The radio console was a welcome addition as a new piece of furniture for the living room. It was built as an attractive furniture piece mostly because of the numerous large vacuum tubes in the circuitry, which were replaced years later by transistors and integrated circuits. The technology maven defines radio as the wireless transmission and reception of electric impulses or signals by means of electromagnetic waves.

Who were the experimenters in technology alluded to in paragraph two above? Who were those scientists who played important roles in the study and the eventual invention of the radio as we knew it when it first appeared as a commercial entity, entertaining us in a myriad of ways, morning, day, and night?

Although children learn in school that Guglielmo Marconi invented the radio, there is ample data available to cite Nikola Tesla as the one who initiated the experimenting with the idea of wireless communication. In actuality, both should share the laurels as the inventors of this mass media entertainment and information vehicle. Without a doubt, Tesla and Marconi never realized that their work would eventually become the medium resulting in the earning of millions of dollars in revenues from radio commercials and sponsorships. So began what is recognized today as the Golden Age of Radio or as Old-Time Radio, when, according to a survey, eighty-two out of one hundred Americans were radio listeners in early 1930, and, by 1939, more than 44 million radios were purchased in America alone.

The Golden Age of Radio blossomed forth in the 1920s and remained the popular medium until the advent of television in the 1950s. Reginald Fessenden on Christmas Eve in 1906 was believed to have broadcast the first radio program, consisting of some violin playing and passages from the Bible. It was not until the tragic Titanic incident in 1912, however, that radio became a vehicle of mass communication. The development of programs in the various genres began that included: comedy and variety; quiz and panel programs; theater; children programs; suspense, adventure, and horror; broadcasting news and sports; music; soap operas; cowboy (western) programs; and, finally, that which we term today as sitcom programs, all designed to enliven and satisfy the listening public’s hungry imagination, and having done a remarkable job of doing so.

The first news program was broadcast in 1920 on a station owned by the Detroit News. In the same year, the first commercial radio station in America, KDKA, was established in Pittsburgh. In 1921, the first sports program on radio was the Dempsey-Carpenter fight. The first regular entertainment programs were broadcast in 1922, and, during that year, radio was sweeping the United States with 1,000,000 radios in use. A year later, the first Rose Bowl football game was broadcast on the Los Angeles station KHJ.

In the 1930s, the most popular sponsored programs were those featuring music and the popular singers of the day including Al Jolson, Sophie Tucker, Dinah Shore, Kate Smith, Rudy Vallee, Bing Crosby, and Frank Sinatra as well as the big bands, because, while the Golden Age of Radio was developing, the Big Band Era was developing with it.

Two pioneers in the development of radio in the United States, who were involved in the transmission of radio programming from East Coast to West Coast, were singers Rudy Vallee and Bing Crosby. It was Crosby who prodded the scientists of the day into finding some tape recording process that would involve taping and then transcribing programs so that the shows could be heard at the same time on both coasts. Rudy Vallee, on his Fleischman Yeast sponsored show, hosted radio’s first variety program that was broadcast coast to coast. Vallee is also remembered for insisting that Louis Armstrong front for him when he took vacation time away from his radio work. It was the first time that an African-American had been given a hosting role on radio.

While the radio was in its initial development stage, the Great Depression of 1929 appeared on the scene, and, although the public scrimped and struggled to survive during this period in history, the radio rose to number one on the appliance-purchasing list, above the popular vacuum cleaner, toaster, and others of that ilk. As an aside, this was a period when a new car in 1931 was selling for $700, and a gallon of gas cost ten cents.

The creation of radio networks was a major element in broadcasting shows commercially. Their distribution made the old-time radio years possible, the most popular networks being National Broadcasting Company (NBC), Corporation of America (RCA), Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), Mutual Broadcasting System, and the American Broadcasting System (ABC). In the early 1960s these radio networks disappeared from the scene, due to the advent of television.

(Author’s note: In Chapter One, I introduced several of history’s most popular radio shows. Each of these shows fell into a specific genre, and each genre was assigned its own Chapter. Unfortunately, I found it impossible, because of space limitations, to include all the stars and programs of the Golden Age of Radio. There are 141 programs entered in this book. Therefore, I took the liberty of selecting the most popular ones, a subjective selection to be sure, and I apologize to the readers whose favorite radio personality or program I omitted.)

CHAPTER ONE

The Golden Age Of Radio

2.jpg

I ncluded in this Chapter are several references to those programs that are delved into in greater detail as you move along in your reading of this book.

Not only were the greatest singers of the era presented on radio along with almost every popular bandleader, but classical music was also featured. For example, Texaco sponsored operas presented at the Metropolitan. Still in the music genre, one of the most popular music programs featured conductor Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC orchestra. In addition, composers, such as George Gershwin, also appeared as guests on musical programs, while some other composers hosted their own shows.

Popular music found its niche in radio programming with numerous shows created to entertain "children of all ages from pre-teen to senior citizens." Country/ Western (cowboy) music also found its place on radio including the cowboy warbling and yodeling of such cowboys as Gene Autry and Tex Ritter. Of course, the kids preferred that their cowboy heroes put aside their guitars and instead draw their pistols from their holsters to shoot it out with the villains. The bad hombres wore black hats while most of the heroes wore white hats. Listeners were occasionally reminded of that fact through narration or dialogue. Also, devotees of western radio programs knew the names of the heroes’ horses as well as they knew the names of the cowboys who rode them.

Name the comedians, and you can be assured that they appeared as guests or as hosts of their own programs including Bob Hope, Red Skelton, Victor Borge, Burns and Allen, Groucho Marx, Jimmy Durante, Judy Canova, Abbott and Costello, Fanny Brice, Jack Benny, Fred Allen, and Ed Wynn, among a throng of other great comedians of the day. These laugh provokers, however, were not the only providers of comedy. Joining them were the forerunners of today’s sitcoms, all geared to entertain the family such as Amos ‘n’ Andy, Easy Aces, The Aldrich Family, The Bickersons, Fibber McGee and Molly, Ozzie and Harriet, and Lum and Abner,

Some of the most popular quiz and panel programs highlighted the listeners’ day. Included among the quiz programs were The Quiz Kids, Dr. I.Q., You Bet Your Life, Twenty Questions, Break The Bank, and Winner Take All.

Several radio shows were outgrowths of popular comic strips. Examples were Little Orphan Annie, Dick Tracy, Gasoline Alley, Adventures of Superman, The Gumps, "Blondie, Li’l Abner, Popeye the Sailor, Smilin’ Jack, Terry and the Pirates, and Tillie the Toiler. Conversely, there was also an instance where one radio program, My Friend Irma," developed into a comic strip later on.

The programs that attracted children of all ages not only included the comic strip shows listed above but also others such as Let’s Pretend (the show, in my estimation and through personal experience, that did the most to start the imagination juices flowing); Howdy Doody; Uncle Don; Lassie; Rin Tin Tin; "Buck Rogers; Tarzan; The Adventures of Superman; Jack Armstrong, All-American Boy;" and almost every other program offered on radio, since The Golden Age of Radio built its radio programming upon family values, meaning that it offered entertainment that could be enjoyed by children as well as by adults. The censors were not as busy then as they are today on television.

In the 1930s, soap operas made their appearance on daytime radio, the first being Clara, Lu, and Em. Following this popular soap were a slew of others such as Ma Perkins; One Man’s Family; John’s Other Wife; Young Widder Brown; and Young Doctor Malone, synopsized in an upcoming Chapter dealing exclusively with this genre.

The genre involving adventure, horror, and mystery included programs such as Inner Sanctum, Suspense, I Love A Mystery, Sherlock Holmes, Boston Blackie, The Shadow, and The Adventures of Charlie Chan. Many of the programs included in this genre remained on air for several years due to their popularity. Even though the radio networks offered a tremendous number of programs in this genre, the listening public craved for more. There were never enough of these dramas to satisfy the millions of listeners. Many of these shows were blockbusters that listeners remember to this day, and, in fact, a number of these popular radio programs later transitioned into television shows.

The radio theater listeners were offered a number of programs throughout each week during the afternoons as well as during the evenings, featuring the most famous movie stars of the early 20th century. And like the other genres, the most popular theater programs continued on television, with some running simultaneously on both radio and television. Examples of the most popular programs in this genre included Lux Radio Theatre, Campbell Playhouse, CBS Radio Workshop, Screen Directors’ Playhouse, Cavalcade of America, Ford Theater, Mercury Theater On the Air, Studio One, and The Damon Runyon Theater.

The radio stations did not miss out on offering the listening public the latest news of the day, the happenings in Hollywood and on Broadway, and the broadcasting of professional sports. The great newsmen of the day included Edward R. Morrow (From London), Gabriel Heatter, Lowell Thomas, H.V. Kaltenborn, Walter Cronkite, Paul Harvey, and Elmer Davis. The program, Meet The Press, started during the early days of radio and continues to this day on television. The gossip reporters were Walter Winchell, Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons along with Jimmy Fidler’s Hollywood.

Bill Stern/ Sports Newsreel was a must for sports enthusiasts as was listening to Marty Glickman broadcasting the New York Knicks basketball games; Connie Desmond; Red Barber and his protégé,Vince Scully, doing the Brooklyn Dodgers’ baseball games; Mel Allen, using his catchy and witty phrases in announcing and describing the Yankees baseball games; and, of course, Don Dunphy calling the Friday night fights at Madison Square Garden.

Let us not omit the disc jockeys, who brought us the popular songs of the 1930s through the 1950s. Martin Block and his Make Believe Ballroom; Andre Baruch and his wife, singer Bea Wain; and William B. Williams head this group.

Finally, there was one important feature of radio programming that we listeners invariably took for granted, and that had to do with sound effects. We naturally assumed that the gunshots on those adventure programs were actually