Breaking Walls

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Latest Episodes:

BW - EP157—008: Thanksgiving 1944—Thanksgiving with Rudy Vallee Nov 15, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers By 1944 Rudy Vallée was one of the most famous American entertainers in history. Vallée spent much of early 1944 conducting the 11th Naval District Coast Guard Band, known as one of the best military units in the nation. He returned to civilian life, and to radio over NBC, on September 9th, 1944 with the launch of a new show, called Villa Vallée, and sponsored by Drene shampoo. It co-starred Monte Woolley. This 10:30PM eastern time episode pulled a rating of 12.3.

BW - EP157—007: Thanksgiving 1944—How Jack Benny Spent Thanksgiving Nov 13, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers On the Sunday, November 26th, 1944 episode of The Jack Benny Program, Jack and the gang discuss how they spent Thanksgiving. For more information on Jack Benny in 1944, including how and why he changed sponsors, please tune into Breaking Walls Episode 151 which covers Benny’s 1944 in great detail

BW - EP157—006: Thanksgiving 1944—Thanksgiving Dinner with Abbott and Costello Nov 11, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers Although Bud Abbott and Lou Costello are remembered for their movies, they got their start toward national fame in radio. They’d met in 1929, when Costello was booked with a vaudeville act into a neighborhood theater. Abbott worked in the box office and soon found himself playing Costello’s straight man. In 1938 they appeared at Loew’s in New York, where they were seen by Ted Collins, architect of Kate Smith’s career. Their slaphappy style was perfect for radio, and their rise to frontline stardom was rapid. For two seasons, beginning Feb. 3rd, 1938, they were regulars on The Kate Smith Hour, while also appearing on Edgar Bergen’s Chase and Sanborn show. Signed by Universal in 1939, the duo pulled the studio out of financial trouble with a string of low-budget hits. NBC gave them a summer replacement show for Fred Allen in 1940. Then in the fall of 1942 they went on the air full-time for Camel Cigarettes. They were an immediate top-ten ratings hit, and became a Thursday night comedy staple. On Thanksgiving night in 1944 their 10PM NBC rating was 20.5, good for eighth overall on radio that week. More than sixteen million people tuned in.

BW - EP157—005: Thanksgiving 1944—Thanksgiving on the Kraft Music Hall with Bing Crosby Nov 10, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers In November of 1944 Bing Crosby’s Kraft Music Hall was Thursday night’s highest-rated program. Airing at 9PM eastern time, singing with Bing was heard by more than eighteen million people as they wound down around the fire and radio. That evening’s first song was “Dance with a Dolly” and the guest was thirty-one year old opera soprano Risë Stevens.

BW - EP157—004: Thanksgiving 1944—Thank You America with the War Bond Drive Nov 07, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers This program, originally airing on KPO San Francisco, was in conjunction with the 5th War Loan Drive. Thanksgiving 1944 was also called “War Bond Day.” It featured the likes of Rudy Vallée and others.

BW - EP157—004: Thanksgiving 1944—Thank You America with the War Bond Drive Nov 07, 2024

BW - EP157—003: Thanksgiving 1944—Thanksgiving in Pine Ridge with Lum and Abner Nov 05, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers In November of 1944 Lum and Abner was airing as a weekday, fifteen minute serial. In New York the show aired over WJZ. The show was syndicated out of KECA in Los Angeles. KECA was the flagship station of the newly independent Blue Network, which would soon become ABC. Chester Lauck was Lum Edwards. Norris Goff was Abner Peabody. Set in the fictional hamlet of Pine Ridge, Arkansas, in real life Lauck and Goff disliked the term “hillbilly,” believing it mocked people unfairly. The biggest building in Pine Ridge was Dick Huddleston’s, who ran the general store and post office. Across the road was the blacksmith shop, run by Caleb Weehunt. Next door Mose Moots’ barbershop. Above the barbershop was the lodge hall, where the town council met and the Pine Ridge Silver Comet Band practiced. Next to the tonsorial emporium was Luke Spears’s Lunch Room. A short distance down the road from Luke’s place was the Jot ’Em Down Store, run by Lum Edwards and Abner Peabody. On Thanksgiving in 1944 Lum is suddenly lonely and alone because Abner is out of town. Lum is trying to find someone to spend his holiday with.

BW - EP157—002: Thanksgiving 1944—Suspense with Charles Laughton Nov 03, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers Much ink has been spilled on Breaking Walls this year talking about Suspense. For more information on the series in 1944, please tune into Breaking Walls episode 154. The Thanksgiving 1944 episode was called “The Fountain Plays” starring Charles Laughton. It’s a story filled with murder, blackmail, and cover-up. The original tale was penned by Dorothy L. Sayers adapted by Robert L. Richards. Richards is famous for having written “The House in Cypress Canyon,” a noted Suspense classic. This is the first of twenty-nine weeks of Roma commercials featuring society figure and entertaining expert Elsa Maxwell. She offers her hard-earned wisdom about wine and other beverage selections. Maxwell was a gossip columnist and writer with occasional movie appearances, but known for her elaborate parties. She is credited with adding games to parties, such as scavenger hunts, to make them more interesting beyond the idle chatter of who was seen with whom or who was invited and who wasn’t. Maxwell rose from a lower middle class life in San Francisco to being the host of parties that included big stars and royalty. Elsa Maxwell does not play herself, instead she’s played by noted radio actress Lucille Meredith.

BW - EP157—001: Thanksgiving 1944—Mail Call With Groucho Marx And Lionel Barrymore Nov 01, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers Mail Call began airing on August 11th, 1942 over the Armed Forces Radio Service to entertain troops with songs, skits, and questions (via the mail) answered by celebrities in order to boost the morale of soldiers stationed far from their homes In 1944 Lt. Col. Thomas A.H. Lewis, commander of the Armed Forces Radio Service, wrote that "The initial production of the Armed Forces Radio Service was 'Mail Call,' a morale-building half hour which brought famed performers to the microphone to sing and gag in the best American manner." Lewis added, "To a fellow who has spent months guarding an outpost in the South Seas, Iceland or Africa a cheery greeting from a favorite comedian, a song hit direct from Broadway, or the beating rhythm of a hot band, mean a tie with the home to which he hopes soon to return.” The show was produced from AFRS’s California headquarters at 6011 Santa Monica Boulevard. On Thanksgiving Day in 1944, the program’s guests were Groucho Marx and Lionel Barrymore.

BW - EP156—009: Halloween 1944—Van Johnson Stars in his First Suspense Appearance Oct 17, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers Much ink has been spilled on Breaking Walls this year talking about Suspense. For more information on the series in 1944, please tune into Breaking Walls episode 154. On Thursday November 2nd, 1944, Van Johnson made his first appearance on “radio’s outstanding theater of thrills” in “The Singing Walls.” In this Cornell Woolrich story, a man is drugged by gangsters to be framed for a crime. All he can remember is that music seemed to be coming out of the walls that surround him. Van Johnson started on Broadway in the mid-1930s and was selected as the understudy for Gene Kelly in Pal Joey. Lucille Ball got him an audition in Hollywood. From then on he was a “boy next door” handsome Hollywood star. At the time of this Suspense appearance, radio columns were commenting about the frequency of his appearances on radio’s biggest programs. He was on all of the big comedy and variety shows as well as dramatic programs, often appearing on radio multiple times a week, sometimes daily, during this period of his career.

BW - EP156—008: Halloween 1944—Fibber McGee Goes Duck Hunting Oct 15, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers In the fall of 1944 Fibber McGee and Molly were in the midst of their tenth season on the air. The comedic duo was part of NBC’s blockbuster Tuesday night comedy lineup. Between 1939 and 1949 their show was never ranked lower than third overall in the ratings. On Halloween night their rating was 25.6. More than twenty million people tuned in to hear Fibber McGee add duck hunting to the list of activities he is supposedly good at.

BW - EP156—007: Halloween 1944—Gracie Allen’s Make Believe Romance with Van Johnson Oct 13, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers By the fall of 1944, George Burns and Gracie Allen had been married for eighteen years and on radio for twelve. Their program had been officially titled The Burns And Allen Show in the fall of 1936, and they’d spent time at both NBC and CBS. With their ratings slipping in 1942, George Burns transformed their show from vaudeville-style banter into a situation comedy. It was the jolt the couple needed. In the fall of 1944 the couple was on for Lever Brothers and Swan Soap Tuesdays at 9PM eastern time from CBS. On Halloween night, Grace Allen had a make believe romance with actor Van Johnson. NBC dominated Tuesday’s ratings in most timeslots, but running opposite of The Burns and Allen Show on NBC was The Molle Mystery Theater. Burns and Allen won their timeslot, but the show would still move to Monday evenings in January of 1945.

BW - EP156—006: Halloween 1944—Lum and Abner Share Halloween Pranks Oct 11, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers In October of 1944 Lum and Abner was airing as a weekday, fifteen minute serial. In New York the show aired over WJZ. The show was syndicated out of KECA in Los Angeles. KECA was the flagship station of the newly independent Blue Network, which would soon become ABC. Chester Lauck was Lum Edwards. Norris Goff was Abner Peabody. Set in the fictional hamlet of Pine Ridge, Arkansas, in real life Lauck and Goff disliked the term “hillbilly,” believing it mocked people unfairly. The biggest building in Pine Ridge was Dick Huddleston’s, who ran the general store and post office. Across the road was the blacksmith shop, run by Caleb Weehunt. Next door Mose Moots’ barbershop. Above the barbershop was the lodge hall, where the town council met and the Pine Ridge Silver Comet Band practiced. Next to the tonsorial emporium was Luke Spears’s Lunch Room. A short distance down the road from Luke’s place was the Jot ’Em Down Store, run by Lum Edwards and Abner Peabody. On Halloween in 1944 the duo discussed Halloween pranks.

BW - EP156—005: Halloween 1944—The Whistler’s Beloved Fraud Oct 09, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers Despite its west-coast regional status for most of its days. The Whistler had one of radio’s best-known crime-show formats and one of the longest runs. The signature ranks with radio’s greatest, playing perfectly into the host’s “man of mystery” role. Like the Shadow and the Mysterious Traveler, the Whistler was a voice of fate, baiting the guilty with his smiling malevolence. Originally taking to the air May 16th, 1942 from CBS’s KNX studios in Los Angeles, The show opened with echoing footsteps and a lingering whistle, destined to become one of the all-time haunting melodies. The whistle got louder, then louder, finally blending with the orchestra in a high-pitched sting. When the Whistler spoke he said, “I am the Whistler, and I know many things, for I walk by night. I know many strange tales, many secrets hidden in the hearts of men and women who have stepped into the shadows. Yes, I know the nameless terrors of which they dare not speak.” The unstated theme that ran the distance was “this could happen to you.” The Whistler told stories of the everyday gone haywire, of common men driven to murder and then being tripped up in a cunning double-twist. These were not mysteries: the identity of the killer was never in doubt, from the first hint that the deed must be done until the moment when the killer trapped himself. The stories were told by the Whistler from the killer’s viewpoint, the narration done in the unusual second-person, present tense. In the earliest days, producer J. Donald Wilson sometimes had the Whistler engage in open dialogue with the characters, the host playing the conscience, arguing with the murderer and goading him to the inevitable doom. The final act was not played out, but was summarized by the Whistler in an epilogue as, like the Shadow, he laughed and sealed the killer’s fate with a few terse lines of plot twist. One of the first changes made by George Allen when he arrived as director in 1944 was to fully dramatize that closing turnabout. This was far more satisfying. The Whistler remained the great omniscient storyteller of the air, for the Shadow had long since become his own hero, and the Mysterious Traveler never packed quite the same punch. The voice was an unforgettable tenor, the message dripping with grim irony. “It all worked out so perfectly, didn't it, Roger,” he would coo, while listeners waited for the shoe to drop. This would come in “the strange ending to tonight’s story,” the little epilogue when the finger of fate struck, some fatal flaw of character or deficiency in the master plan that was so obvious that everyone had overlooked it. By October 30th, 1944 Signal Oil was sponsoring the program with the supporting cast being made up of Hollywood’s famous character actors, like Cathy and Elliott Lewis, Joseph Keams. Betty Lou Gerson, Wally Maher, John Brown, Hans Conried, Gerald Mohr, Lurene Tuttle, and Jeanette Nolan. Dorothy Roberts, whistled the notes. On that night The Whistler took to the air with “The Beloved Fraud.”

BW - EP156—004: Halloween 1944—The Hour Of Charm Oct 07, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers The Hour of Charm, radio’s “most-celebrated all-girl orchestra” first took to the air on May 18th, 1934 over CBS. In the fall of 1944 it was airing on NBC for General Electric, Sundays at 10PM eastern time. The brainchild of Phil Spitalny, The Spitalnys had a deep musical heritage. Immigrants from Russia, they had settled in Cleveland, where Phil Spitalny and his brother Leopold played in local bands. By the time Phil was 30, Spitalny had directed a 50-piece symphony orchestra in Boston, had led bands in theaters, on radio, and in recording sessions, and had just completed a successful world tour. The Hour of Charm’s featured player was Evelyn Kaye Klein, billed as “Evelyn and Her Magic Violin.” The orchestra specialized in familiar music, played in a style described by Spitalny as a cross between popular and symphonic. All of the girls sang in chorus, some solo, and all were proficient on more than one instrument. Jan Baker could play a dozen instruments; she took on the tuba and mastered it when Spitalny could find no woman to play it even after a nationwide search. Spitalny’s hiring practices were influenced by voice and good looks, but musicianship was always his first consideration. “No performer is hired who can’t give a finished rendition of two sonatas and two concetti, who hasn’t the individual gifts of rhythm and melodic perception, who can’t read music fluently, and who hasn’t had a good deal of experience,” said his 1940 Current Biography entry. He was also looking for “sweetness and charm,” and it is doubtful that any other orchestra has ever been so stringently governed. The girls were not allowed to marry: they signed contracts to that effect, agreeing to stay single for two years. They wore uniform attire, with the exception of the three principals, Evelyn, Vivien, and Maxine. They wore evening gowns, with no jewelry, their hair styled in “long, soft bobs.” No one would weigh more than 122 pounds. Curbs were enforced on personal behavior, with Evelyn in charge of backstage disputes and Spitalny handling such professional matters as musical arrangements, themes, and dress. “Associations in the all-girl orchestra are much like sorority life,” wrote Evelyn in a 1942 Radio Life article. A committee of five was formed to pass judgment on all offstage matters, including dating. “Whenever a girl wants to go out, she goes to the committee and says, ‘I want a date with Mr. So-and-So.’ They ask her who the man is, what he does, and for references. If he passes muster, she gets her date. But if the committee feels that it would hurt the orchestra for a member to be seen with that man, the engagement doesn’t materialize.” Spitalny staunchly defended the musicianship of all his girls, and he once bet bandleader Abe Lyman $1,000 that they could outplay Lyman’s all-male group. The women had professional pride, said Spitalny: they didn’t have problems with alcohol, and, when the war broke out, his was the only band in the land that didn’t have trouble with the draft. He continued lecturing newcomers about the need to be good; they had to be better than their male counterparts to be taken seriously. If a man muffed a note, nobody cared; if a woman did, the attitude was “well, what can you expect?” The show opened and closed with hymns, especially during the war. The opening theme was “The American Hymn of Liberty,” the closer, often a favored hymn of someone in the service. This gave the show a serious, almost solemn air. The closing signature blended out of the theme and into the song We Must Be Vigilant, sung by the orchestra to the tune of American Patrol. Spitalny married Evelyn in June 1946. They lived in Miami, where Spitalny died in 1970.

BW - EP156—003: Halloween 1944—In a Haunted House with William Bendix on The Life of Riley Oct 05, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers Created by Irving Brecher, the best-known incarnation of The Life of Riley came to the air Sunday January 16th, 1944 at 3PM eastern time over The Blue Network. It starred William Bendix as Chester A. Riley and was sponsored by The American Meat Institute. Riley was easily exasperated, but difficult to defeat. The difficulty increased by degrees with the flimsiness of Riley’s cause. Bendix was born on January 14th, 1906 in Manhattan, New York. He came out of the New Jersey Federal Theater project, a latecomer to the profession, beginning at thirty when the grocery store he was running went out of business. His film career began in 1942. He was often the hooligan with the heart of gold. Riley was his most famous character. It co-starred the previously heard Hans Conreid as Uncle Baxter with John Brown as both Riley’s friend Gillis and the undertaker, Digger O’Dell. Paula Winslowe was Riley’s long-suffering wife Peg. Sharon Douglas was Babs and Conrad Binyon played Junior. The Life of Riley proved popular enough that in June of 1944 it was moved to Sundays at 10PM. When the series returned for the fall, its October 1944 rating was 4.7. On Sunday, October 29th, 1944 Junior was dared by his friends to visit the haunted Sherman house. He ropes Riley into going with him. Jeanette Nolan guest-stars on the show as Mrs. Sherman, who isn’t a ghost, but is in fact a widow who lost her husband in the War and became a shut-in afterwards. Beginning in the fall of 1945 it moved to NBC where it was a mainstay for six seasons. It peaked in 1947-48 with a rating of 20.1, good for fourteenth overall that year. A TV version debuted in October of 1949, first with Jackie Gleason as Riley and later with William Bendix playing the familiar role for five years.

BW - EP156—002: Halloween 1944—Bergen and McCarthy with Orson Welles Oct 03, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers Edgar Bergen came to the attention of American audiences on Rudy Vallée’s NBC Royal Gelatin Hour on December 17th, 1936. Five months later NBC gave Bergen his own show Sundays at 8PM. He was an instant smash hit. Don Ameche worked with Bergen in those years. He was emcee on December 12th, 1937 when Mae West was the guest for an innuendo heavy skit called “Adam and Eve.” Over the next six seasons his show was never rated lower than fourth. Twice it was the country’s top program. In October of 1944 Bergen’s rating was 22.5. Roughly eighteen million people tuned in on October 29th when the guest was Orson Welles for the first of back-to-back appearances on the show.

BW - EP156—001: Halloween 1944—Jack Benny and Fred Allen Rekindle Their Feud Oct 02, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers On the October 29th, 1944 episode of The Jack Benny Program, an Allen's Alley spoof rekindles Benny's love/hate relationship with Fred Allen. This episode had a rating of 19.8. Roughly sixteen million people tuned in.

BW - EP155—013: New York And The 1944 Radio World—Taking A Break From The Treadmill Sep 24, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers Well, we’re back where we started, but we’re not the same. I mentioned at the beginning of this episode that when you run on the treadmill to oblivion, you don’t always go where you want, but you get in shape doing it. When I began Breaking Walls ten years ago I envisioned it as a sit-down interview show. Over time it slowly morphed into on the scene reporting, and eventually a history of U.S. Network Radio Broadcasting. When I made this programming switch permanent in February of 2018 I didn’t know how long I’d be able to keep it up. In many ways these documentaries have been a means of teaching myself the business of broadcasting in order to use the past to inform the present. They’ve also been about teaching myself how to be a good writer, sound designer, and narrator. My life has undergone many changes in the past six and a half years. I now have paid work in the world of audio thanks to Breaking Walls. This paid work is encroaching upon my time and honestly, it’s paid. It needs to be a priority. This is a long-winded way of saying that I need to take a break from the treadmill. So, for the next three months Breaking Walls is undergoing a change. Don’t worry! I’m still going to put out new content. You’ll still see an episode 156 of Breaking Walls, which, incidentally, will feature shows from Halloween 1944. Rather than contain my narration and sound design as one giant documentary, they’ll be standalone radio shows with the usual information written into the description of each track. I’m also going to continue to post the Breaking Walls archives to Youtube, and post additional content on Patreon.com/TheWallBreakers. On Patreon the next episode will drop early as one giant playlist of shows. I’ve been on the fence about how and when to pause. Eighty months is a long time to run on any treadmill without a break. Given that this was the tenth anniversary of the launch of Breaking Walls, I feel like it’s a good time to give myself that break. You never know, when you close one door — even temporarily like this is — what good things can come in through a window or a side. My plan is to come back to documentary-style episodes of Breaking Walls on January 1st, 2025. (Half Pause) The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On The Air — By John Dunning • Gleason's Second Honeymoon — By Pete Hammil • The Great One: The Life and Legend of Jackie Gleason — By William A. Henry • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg As well as articles and features from • Broadcasting Magazine • Ephemeral New York • The Library of Congress • Naval History and Heritage Command • The New York Times • The Sydney Morning Herald (Half Pause) On the interview front: • Don Ameche spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear this full chat at Speakingofradio.com. • Mel Allen and Edgar Bergen spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org • Norman Corwin spoke with John Dunning for his 71KNUS program from Denver. • Bob Hope spoke with Dick Cavett • Gene Tierney spoke with Mike Douglas • Fred Allen spoke with Tex McCrary and Jinx Falkenburg (Half Pause) I’d like to thank Chuck Schaden, the late Dick Bertel, the late John Dunning, and SPERDVAC. Without these people and their tremendous work I’d never have been able to do a single episode of Breaking Walls. I’d also like to thank Dr. Joseph Webb for opening the door for me into this world.

BW - EP155—012: New York And The 1944 Radio World—Fred Allen Christmas Night on Information Please Sep 21, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers On Christmas night, 1944, Fred Allen was one of the guests on Information Please when the show aired on NBC at 9:30PM. The Christmas broadcast came from the St. Albans Naval Hospital in Queens. The hospital was commissioned in 1943 on the site of a golf course. At its peak it housed more than forty-five hundred patients. After the war, the hospital workload increased, but in the spring of 1973, the Navy decommissioned the hospital and turned it over to the Veterans’ Administration. More recently it evolved into the Veterans Administration St. Albans Primary and Extended Care Facility. A portion of the hospital site became Roy Wilkins Park in the 1980s.

BW - EP155—011: New York And The 1944 Radio World—New World A' Comin And The First Noel Sep 19, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers What you’re about to hear is the Sunday, December 24th, 1944 at 3PM WMCA broadcast of New World A’ Coming. It’s a Christmas musical show. For more info on New World A’ Coming, please tune into the previous act on this series within this episode of Breaking Walls.

BW - EP155—010: New York and the 1944 Radio World—Orson Welles & Edgar Bergen Go To NYC in 1995 Sep 18, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers Edgar Bergen came to the attention of American audiences on Rudy Vallée’s NBC Royal Gelatin Hour on December 17th, 1936. How could ventriloquism work on radio? Perhaps Rudy Vallée himself put it best the night Bergen debuted. Five months later NBC gave Bergen his own show Sundays at 8PM. He was an instant smash hit. Don Ameche worked with Bergen in those years. He was emcee on December 12th, 1937 when Mae West was the guest for an innuendo heavy skit called “Adam and Eve.” Over the next six seasons his show was never rated lower than fourth. Twice it was the country’s top program. In November of 1944 Bergen’s rating was 22.7. Roughly eighteen million people tuned in on November 5th when the guest was Orson Welles for the second of back-to-back appearances on the show.

BW - EP155—009: New York And The 1944 Radio World—Jubilee With Mel Allen Sep 15, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers Jubilee first took to the air on October 9th, 1942 transcribed by the Special Services Division of the War Department, then by the Armed Forces Radio Service. It featured Jazz and Swing bands and filled an important gap in the musical history of radio, gearing itself towards African American men stationed overseas. Jubilee luminaries included Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Lena Horne, Ethel Waters, and Ella Fitzgerald. Most of the shows were recorded before live audiences in Los Angeles. This particular episode featured bandleaders known for their New York flavor, like Claude Hopkins. Songstress Ida James was emcee. Mel Allen, later the famed voice of the New York Yankees, announced.

BW - EP155—008: New York And The 1944 Radio World—The Eternal Light & The Founding Of Temple Emanuel Sep 13, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers In October 1944, in conjunction with the Jewish Theological Seminary, NBC began one of the longest-running religious programs in radio history. It was called The Eternal Light. The dramatized stories from ancient Judaea, along with contemporary works like The Diary of Anne Frank. It was produced by Milton Krents. Many top New York radio actors appeared. NBC donated the air time and the Seminary paid for the show's production. As part of this second episode, which aired on Sunday, October 15th, 1944, listeners heard about the founding of Temple Emanuel, the first reform Jewish synagogue in New York. It was formed in 1845 in a rented hall near Grand and Clinton Streets in Manhattan's Lower East Side. By 1944 the congregation had moved to its current location, at 1 East 65th Street, just off Fifth Avenue, on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

BW - EP155—007: New York And The 1944 Radio World—Duffy's Tavern With Brooklynite Gene Tierney Sep 11, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers The woman you just heard is Gene Tierney. She was born on November 19th, 1920 in Brooklyn, New York. Raised in Connecticut, she excelled in poetry, took up student acting, and eventually spent two years attending school in Switzerland, where she learned to speak French. On a family trip to the West Coast, she visited Warner Bros. studios, where her cousin Gordon Hollingshead worked as a producer. Director Anatole Litvak, taken by her beauty, convinced Gene to take a screen test. Warner Brothers wanted to sign her, but her father convinced her to stay home, enter society, and become a theater actress. She studied acting in Greenwich Village and soon found herself getting increasing roles on Broadway along with reviews about her acting prowess and natural beauty. Eventually Gene’s father set up a company to fund her acting interests. She met Howard Hughes, who became a lifelong friend. In 1940 she starred as Patricia Stanley on Broadway in The Male Animal. Features in Life, Harper's Bazaar, and Vogue soon followed. Darryl Zanuck, head of 20th Century Fox, saw her both acting and later dancing at The Stork Club, and signed her to a contract. She debuted later that year in a supporting role, opposite Henry Fonda, in Fritz Lang's western, The Return of Frank James. By 1944 she’d made eleven films. That Autumn she wrapped up filming of Laura opposite Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, and Vincent Price. Before its premiere in November she guest-starred on Duffy’s Tavern on Friday, September 22nd. The brainchild of star Ed Gardner, Duffy’s Tavern debuted as part of CBS’s Forecast pilot series in 1940. It was hailed by critics as the most-original comedy of 1941. The fictitious bar was allegedly located in Manhattan on 3rd avenue and 23rd street. It was the “eyesore of the East side” where the “elite meet to eat.” Duffy never made an appearance, but his frequent phone calls were a constant source of anxiety. Gardner’s heavily New York-accented Archie has inspired several characters in the years since, like Moe in The Simpsons. Eddie Green was Eddie, Marvin Miller announced, Sandra Gould was Miss Duffy, and Charlie Cantor was Finnegan. In September 1944 the show moved to NBC. This was the season’s second episode. It pulled a rating of 11.3. Roughly nine million people tuned in.

BW - EP155—006: New York And The 1944 Radio World—Jackie Gleason's Radio Debut 08/13/1944 Sep 09, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers John Herbert “Jackie” Gleason was born on February 26th, 1916, on Chauncey Street in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. The younger of two children, his brother Clement died from meningitis at fourteen in 1919. Six years later his father left the family. Gleason’s mother Mae got a job as a subway attendant for the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation. Jackie spent his youth hustling pool and performing in class plays. He quit high school and took a job to perform at local theaters, putting on acts with friends, and then emceed at the Folly Theater. When Jackie was nineteen in 1935 his mother died from complications of sepsis. He worked his way up to a job at Manhattan’s Club 18. Jack Warner saw him, signing Gleason to a contract for two-hundred-fifty dollars per-week. Jackie married dancer Genevieve Halford on September 20th, 1936. The couple had two children: Geraldine, born in 1940, and Linda, born in 1942. Classified as 4-F and rejected for military service, by the summer of 1944 a twenty-eight year-old Gleason had appeared in films opposite Ann Sheridan, Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, and Betty Grable. He also became known for hosting all-night parties in his hotel suite. His hotel soundproofed his apartment out of consideration for its other guests. NBC, seeing something in the brash, outspoken Brooklynite, added him to Double Feature, co-starring Les Tremayne and Alfred Drake, Sunday nights at 10:30PM. Rebranded The Les Tremayne-Jackie Gleason Show, he debuted this episode on August 13th, 1944. Edgar Bergen was the special guest. This is that debut. The show would air until October 22nd.

BW - EP155—005: New York And The 1944 Radio World—Harlem's Fight For Civil Rights Sep 06, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers Broadcast over WMCA in New York, New World A’ Coming was based on the work of journalist Roi Ottley. Ottley was a journalist for The Amsterdam News from 1931 to 1937 before joining The New York City Writers' Project as an editor. In 1943 Ottley published New World A-Coming: Inside Black America, which described life for African Americans in Harlem in the 1920s and 1930s. The book won the Life in America prize and a Peabody Award. Ottley became the national CIO War Relief Committee publicity director in 1943 and was commissioned as a lieutenant in the US Army in 1944. Meanwhile his book was adapted for this radio series over WMCA, which pushed for equal rights and better racial communication. The frequent narrator was boxer and actor Canada Lee. On Sunday June 4th, 1944 at 3PM eastern time, in honor of Harlem Week, New World A’ Coming broadcast a story called “Life in the Ghetto” to draw attention to the kind of social plights African Americans had to deal with in New York. Two days after this broadcast the Normandy Invasion began. Roi Ottley would cover that event as well as the hanging of Mussolini the following year.

BW - EP155—004: New York And The 1944 Radio World—Orson Welles In New York: A Tapestry For Radio Sep 04, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers The man you just heard is Norman Corwin. The piece of his, which Orson Welles is narrating, that you’ve heard thus far throughout this episode of Breaking Walls, is “New York: A Tapestry For Radio.” The first broadcast of this piece originally aired on May 16th, 1944 as part of a City Trilogy within CBS’ Columbia Presents Corwin. That version had Martin Gabel as narrator. One year later it was rebroadcast with Welles taking over for Mr. Gabel. By 1944 Norman Corwin had free rein over his productions. In six years he’d gone from a network rookie to the most-lauded creator on the air. He was now the poet-laureate of radio, a nickname which would stick with him the rest of his life. One of his favorite people to work with was Orson Welles. I’ve recently covered Norman Corwin in great detail within episode 153 of Breaking Walls. For more info, please tune into that. In the meantime, here’s the rest of “New York: A Tapestry for Radio.”

BW - EP155—003: New York And The 1944 Radio World—The Fleet Post Office And The Hotel Dixie Sep 01, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers It’s February 1944 and we’re in the U.S. Fleet Post Office at 80 Varick Street. 80 Varick Street is in the Hudson Square area of Manhattan just north of Canal Street and southeast of the Holland Tunnel to New Jersey. The street itself is named for Richard Varick, an early New York lawmaker, landowner, and mayor from 1789 to 1801. The Fleet Post Office was established on July 1st, 1943. Previously, mail addressed to naval personnel serving overseas was handled by Navy mailmen at the Morgan Annex of the New York General Post Office. When CBS’ World News Today signed on Sunday February 20th, 1944 at 2:30PM eastern time, the allied forces had just begun “Big Week,” a six-day strategic bombing campaign against the Third Reich. By the time it ended on February 25th, German cities Rostock and Augsburg had been bombed, as well as several Dutch cities near the German border. The Germans also lost more than three-hundred-fifty aircrafts, and most importantly, more than one-hundred pilots. Lieutenant. A. E. Newton is in charge of this post office, but with forces in the European Theater growing larger by the day, it was already obvious this post-office has reached max capacity. Space was being acquired on Pier 51 of the Hudson River to handle the expected increase of letters and parcels to fighting servicemen. Here’s Bill Slocum Jr. at the Fleet Post Office discussing how V-Mail works. In September 1944 the Parcel Post Section was moved to Pier 51. The Fleet Post Office continued until the end of the War. By January 1946, with many troops home, most of its functions had been moved back to the General Post Office. World News Today’s sponsor, The Admiral Corporation, was originally known as the Transformer Corporation of America. By 1929 it was the biggest supplier of radio parts in the world. Bankruptcy ensued, but in 1936 owner Ross D. Siragusa purchased the right to change the name to Admiral Corporation America Inc. They began sponsoring World News Today in 1942. For a longer look at the news from this week, tune into Breaking Walls episode 148. Meanwhile, as the weather warmed on April 6th, 1944 the U.S. celebrated “Army Day,” while Al Trace and His Silly Symphonists took to the air over Mutual Broadcasting from the Plantation Room in the Dixie Hotel. The Dixie Hotel opened on West 43rd street between 7th and 8th avenue in 1930. It featured one-thousand rooms and a bus terminal which occupied the entire ground floor. Buses arriving at the terminal would drive onto a turntable, which would then rotate to the proper slip. Two sets of doors, one on either side of the terminal, led from the loading area to the waiting room. The waiting room had a cafe, newsstand, ticket booths, and elevators leading to the hotel's lobby. The hotel was developed by the Uris Buildings Corporation, which announced plans for the site in September 1928. A year after it opened it was foreclosed on. The Bowery Savings Bank ran it until in 1942, when the Dixie became part of the Carter Hotels chain. That year the Dixie Lounge Bar opened on the first floor. Decorated in a Southern Colonial style, it could be accessed from the lobby, the dining room, and directly from the street. The nightclub, along with the adjacent Plantation Room restaurant, fit five-hundred people. The Bus depot became redundant when the Port Authority Bus Terminal opened nearby in 1950. It was closed in 1957. Carter attempted to rehabilitate the hotel several times, even renaming it The Carter Hotel in 1976. They sold it the next year. New Yorkers knew this hotel as one of the worst in the city. It was closed in 2014.

BW - EP155—002: New York And The 1944 Radio World—Bob Hope, Joan Leslie & Dennis Day In Central Park Aug 30, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers Our first stop is January, 1944. We’re at Central Park. By 1944 Central Park, nearly one-hundred years old, was in the midst of renewal. Parks Commissioner Robert Moses had spent the past decade developing playgrounds, ballfields, handball courts, and other working class elements. In 1943 the restoration of the Harlem Meer was completed. "Please Keep off the Grass" signs, which had once dotted the meadows, were a thing of the past. Why are we in Central Park? Because over on the west coast, on Saturday January 22nd, Bob Hope, Dennis Day, and Joan Leslie appeared in a skit for Command Performance entitled “She Slapped His Face Under The Elevated Because He Only Had A One-Track Mind.” It was set in Central Park. In January of 1944 Bob Hope was radio’s top comedian. His own show rating that month was 34.6. More than twenty-six million people were tuning in to hear him each week. Hope spent most of his time entertaining troops. For more info on Bob Hope in 1944, please tune into Breaking Walls episode 148. Five days after D-Day on June 11th, 1944, the park opened Weapons of War: An Exhibit of the Army Service Forces on the Great Lawn. Over the next two weeks, six-hundred thousand people came to see displays contrasting America’s War Equipment with that of the Axis. The exhibit was organized by units: The Quartermaster Corps, the Chemical Warfare Service, the Medical Department, the Signal Corps, Ordnance, the Corps of Engineers, and the Transportation Corps. Each hour a flamethrower demonstration was staged for a grandstand which seated twenty-five-hundred people. The expo was in conjunction with the fifth War Bond Drive. #podcast #oldradioshows #oldtimeradio #historypodcast #oldtimeradioshows #editorial #1944 #centralpark #bobhope #joanleslie #dennisday

BW - EP155—001: New York And The 1944 Radio World—Why I'm Here—Breaking Walls' 10th Anniversary Aug 28, 2024

https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers I’ve mentioned a few times before within Breaking Walls episodes that I try to be as unbiased as possible. I want Breaking Walls to be a true documentary, so I leave the op-eds for everyone else. But this is my tenth anniversary as a podcaster so I’ll share. I spent the first ten years of my life living in a house where the people there were born between 1918 and 1989. It was in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. There was a park across the street. Around 1900 that park wouldn’t have been there. It would have been Indian Pond. Who knows how many thousands of years people congregated at that pond. My great-grandmother was in my life until I was 24. She grew up on Cherry Street in Manhattan's Lower East Side. By the time I came along everyone had heard her stories ten times over, but I loved sitting with her, playing cards and sharing bagels with Country Crock Shedspread, while she told me about her Italian immigrant parents, living through the depression and World War II. She had mixed feelings about Mussolini, but was a deep supporter of FDR. She loved Lawrence Welk and watched Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. Her father was a believer in women’s rights and a huge New York Giants baseball fan. He died of a heart attack on June 26th, 1951, one hundred days before Bobby Thompson’s shot heard round the world. The interesting thing is, I have no recollection of talking to her about the radio shows she loved to listen to in the 1930s and 40s. Her second daughter is my grandmother. Tough, outspoken, smart, she takes no guff from anyone and can curse with the best of them. Her husband, my grandfather, was the person I spent the most time with, playing baseball, going to Coney Island, and eventually, introducing me to radio shows on Christmas Day 1999. He was the 9th of 11 kids from an Irish Catholic family in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. What was his favorite radio show growing up? Thanks to him, I’ve spent the past twenty-five years listening to radio shows from the “Golden Age of Radio” be they comedy, drama, detective, western, soap opera, news broadcasts or otherwise. Occasionally, someone with my last name would crop up, like on the Saturday, May 12th, 1951 episode of Broadway is My Beat. I’ve spent the past seven years making monthly documentaries on radio history; More than eighty of them now. One a month, without fail. I’ve also found the time to write new audio fiction, like Burning Gotham, the historical fiction audio soap opera set in 1835 New York City. It was a 2022 Tribeca Film Festival audio selection. People often don’t know how to introduce me at professional functions. Am I a radio historian? Audio fiction developer? Director? Narrator? Actor? Like a lot of people who figure something out on their own, I’m a little bit of everything. I’m now as much a New York historian as I am a radio historian. I guess all roads do lead home. I’ve won awards, been complimented and critiqued, passed up social and other life opportunities, and you know what, I found direction, not just through a hobby, but with some kind of desire that burns deep inside of myself. It’s what I wanted ten years ago. Or maybe it’s because I can’t share these documentaries with my grandfather anymore. He’s out there in the ether somewhere. I hope he tunes in once in a while. The flame doesn’t always burn with the same degree of brightness. I’m a New Yorker. Ambitious unmonetized hobbies are like masochistic anchors. Would stopping this be an act of cowardice or would it lighten the load? Any time I want to pack up and move on I think, how can I? I want to help preserve and grow this medium, both creatively and financially. Blood of my blood, flesh of my flesh. If I’m in for a penny, I’m in for a pound. Would my 2014 self be proud seeing where I’ve come to? Ultimately, yes. That’s the thing about running on the treadmill to oblivion, you don’t always go where you want to, but you get in shape doing it.

BW - EP154—012: Stars On Suspense In 1944—Looking Ahead To The 10th Anniversary Of Breaking Walls Aug 14, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers That brings our look at the early years of Suspense to a close. Suspense would remain a hollywood production until the waning days of radio drama in 1959 when Bill Robson was directing it and this happened. Ordinarily here’s where you’d get a sneak peek at next month’s episode of Breaking Walls. Next month’s episode, however, is significant. Sometimes you’ve got to go back to the beginning in order to know where you’ve been. Next month on Breaking Walls we celebrate the tenth anniversary of the show with what? Well, I can’t reveal everything, you’ll just have to stay tuned.

BW - EP154—011: Stars on Suspense in 1944—Listen to Cary Grant in "The Black Curtain," 11/30/44 Aug 12, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers Back on December 2nd, 1943 when Suspense first became sponsored by Roma Wines, the script chosen for the first Roma episode was “The Black Curtain” starring Cary Grant. Of the performance Grant said, “If I ever do any more radio work, I want to do it on Suspense, where I get a good chance to act.” The just-heard Lurene Tuttle felt the same way about acting in radio. On November 30th, 1944 Grant was back on Suspense for a repeat performance of “The Black Curtain.” He requested that Lurene Tuttle join him again as the female lead. “The Black Curtain” is an adaptation of a Cornell Woolrich story about a man who wakes up after a fall on a city sidewalk and realizes he can’t remember his name or events of the last three years. He soon learns he’s been accused of murder. Somehow he has to prove his innocence, which means finding the real killer. The repeat performance wasn’t initially planned. The original script, “To Find Help” starring Frank Sinatra had to be postponed due to a scheduling conflict. Grant happened to be available and it also happened to be the one-year anniversary of Roma’s sponsorship. More than eight million people heard this broadcast. The cast features the aforementioned Lurene Tuttle, Wally Maher, Pat McGeehan, Harry Lang, and a young Conrad Binyon, who had previously played an uncredited part in The Howards of Virginia with Grant. Binyon was amazed that Cary Grant remembered him.

BW - EP154—010: Stars on Suspense in 1944—Listen To Lena Horne star in "You Were Wonderful," 11/9/44 Aug 09, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers By November of 1944 Suspense was pulling a rating of 10.4. There were now more than eight million people tuning in. Roma wines was satisfied as Suspense was providing stiff competition to The Frank Morgan Show running opposite on NBC Thursday nights at 8PM eastern time. On November 9th Lena Horne guest-starred in a Robert L. Richards script called “You Were Wonderful” about the murder of a nightclub singer in South America. Horne is the visiting American singer intent on solving the crime. Lena Horne was born on June 30th, 1917 in Brooklyn, New York. Both sides of her family were multi-racial with both African and Native American heritage. Her father Teddy was a one-time owner of a restaurant and hotel while her mother Edna was an actress with a traveling theater troupe. As a young girl Lena’s father left the family to move to Pittsburgh, while Lena traveled with her mother around the country before returning to New York City when she was twelve. Lena dropped out of high school at sixteen and joined the chorus line at the Cotton Club. In 1935 she made her first screen appearance as a dancer in Cab Calloway’s musical short Jitterbug Party. She got married in 1937, but soon separated from her husband, first touring with bandleader Charlie Barnet in 1940 before returning to New York to work at Cafe Society in Greenwich Village. She soon replaced Dinah Shore as vocalist on NBC's The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street and recorded with Henry Levine and Paul Laval, in June 1941 for RCA Victor. Horne then left New York City for Hollywood, being hired to perform in a Cotton Club-style revue for Cafe Trocadero on the Sunset Strip. In 1942, when she became the first African-American with a major studio contract, it was with the understanding that she wouldn’t be obligated to portray servants—a condition that handicapped her entrée into mainstream Hollywood movies. She soon appeared in the films Panama Hattie, Cabin in the Sky, Stormy Weather, Thousands Cheer, Swing Feever, Broadway Rhythm, and Two Girls and a Sailor. With the exceptions of Cabin in the Sky and Stormy Weather, Lena’s early screen appearances were often designed as standalone musical numbers that could easily be cut out in prejudice Southern markets unaccepting of African American performers. Horne’s Suspense appearance was big news. Both Spier and his wife Kay Thompson, a friend who worked with her at MGM, pressed the movie studio to allow her to headline the show. Network executives at CBS were concerned that Roma might pull its contract if Southern stations didn’t want to air the program. Thompson agreed to appear as Horne’s uncredited backup singer in three musical numbers, which Thompson arranged. MGM’s publicity department got to work and given the unfortunate day’s climate, Horne’s appearance was heralded as one of the more daring and successful half hours of network drama at the time. She is the first and only African American to headline Suspense. “It was an event of terrific importance to Lena,” noted Movieland magazine, “for the first time a performance of hers was judged on merit alone; she was announced only as the star of the play, without reference to her race.” Spier noted that in the studio, Lena “seemed so poised, so sure of herself and her every speech, so business-like in her approach to the role.” However when she grabbed his hand for encouragement, she was ice cold. Part of it was performance nerves, but a lot of it came from the anxiety of getting the chance to publicly justify her talent. Horne later said, “Bill was marvelous and intelligent. Anyone married to Kay would have to be strong.” It was an especially memorable and proud evening for members of the African-American community who were glued to their radios in record numbers.

BW - EP154—009: Stars on Suspense in 1944—Gene Kelly is a Villain in "The Man Who Couldn't Lose" Aug 07, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers Speaking of actors playing roles on Suspense that went against their usual type, on September 28th, 1944 Gene Kelly guest-starred in an episode called “The Man Who Couldn't Lose.” Kelly, already known as a singer and actor, became famous in For Me and My Gal, Du Barry Was a Lady, and Thousands Cheer. However, it was his dramatic debut in Pilot No. 5 where Kelly played an antagonist that portended this appearance on Suspense. In “The Man Who Couldn't Lose” Kelly plays Leonard Snell, gambler, two-timer, and all around heel who runs into a string of good fortune that causes the audience to hate him more and more as the play goes on.

BW - EP154—008: Stars on Suspense in 1944—Listen To Olivia De Havilland in "Voyage Through Darkness" Aug 06, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers Bill Spier recovered from his second heart attack in the fall, just in time for cooling weather, Friday night football games, and autumn dances. While Suspense aired all-year-round, it was perfect for brisk evenings. With Spier’s musical aptitude, a swelling orchestra had become a Suspense staple. Lud Gluskin and Lucien Morawek worked together to produce and conduct haunting, functional scores. Morawek told Radio Life that Spier was the most musically adept radio director he had ever worked with. On September 7th, 1944 Olivia De Havilland made her only appearance on Suspense in a play entitled “Voyage Through Darkness,” written by Joel Malone who was best known for his work on The Whistler. In this episode, De Havilland’s character is on a cruise home from England. Her deceased employer’s coffin is on board. She was directed to supervise his burial-at-sea. A stowaway is found. He’s believed to be “the Blackout Killer” of London. This would be the last episode of Suspense to air on different nights for the East and West coast. Beginning on September 14th all episodes of Suspense would air on the same night, making it easier for the Hollywood stars that were now lining up to work on the show. Roughly seven million people heard this broadcast.

BW - EP154—007: Stars On Suspense In 1944—Listen to Vincent Price As A Mad Man In "Fugue In C Minor" Aug 05, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers The man you just heard is famed actor Vincent Price. While Price was a film star, he had a unique contract which allowed him to act in as much radio as he wanted. By early June 1944 Price was thirty-three years old and had starred on Broadway and appeared in more than ten films. On Thursday June 1st and then again on Monday June 5th for the west coast, Price appeared with Ida Lupino in an episode of Suspense called “Fugue in C Minor.” Written by Lucille Fletcher, it’s a horror story about a widower and woman who fall in love through their sharing of classical music. As their relationship progresses, the woman learns the man’s children think their father murdered their mother and hid her body in a room behind the mechanism of their home’s pipe organ. The instrument is so large it is part of the very structure of the house. While Vincent Price was very comfortable working in radio, many film stars weren’t. By the time this west coast version of Suspense was airing Monday June 5th, 1944 at 9PM over KNX, allied soldiers were in their boats, slowly making their way across the English channel to begin their invasion of the Normandy coast of France. This would be Vincent Price’s last broadcast before departing for military service. For more info on the D Day invasion, tune into Breaking Walls episode 152 which covers the entire broadcast day.

BW - EP154—006: Stars on Suspense in 1944—Listen To Orson Welles Take Over Suspense in May 1944 Aug 03, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers In May of 1944 Orson Welles appeared on Suspense three times. The first of which was on May 4th in “The Dark Tower,” a play originally written by George S. Kaufman and Alexander Woollcott. Adapted for Suspense by Peter Barry, Woollcott had died in January of 1943. In many ways, the play is a satire of Welles’ friend, John Barrymore, and it's ripe with innuendo and other inside humor. Featured in this episode as Jessica was Jeanette Nolan. Like so often in Bill Spier’s productions of Suspense, Hans Conreid played a villain. Here’s fellow actor Byron Kane talking about Orson Welles and Hans Conreid. On May 15th, 1944, Orson Welles was placed on the U.S. Treasury payroll to consult for the duration of the war. His pay: an honorary one dollar. On May 18th Welles starred in part one of “Donovan’s Brain,” based on the 1942 Curt Siodmak novel. Welles played Dr. Patrick Cory, who successfully learns to keep a brain alive outside the human body. The sound-effects were outstanding for their time. “Donovan’s Brain” is considered one of the first adult science-fiction broadcasts. After this evening’s show, Orson Welles and Bill Spier were having dinner at the Players Restaurant in Los Angeles when Spier suffered his second major heart attack in ten months. He was immediately placed on bed rest. In the studio he was replaced by CBS executive Robert Lewis Shayon. Although he’s once again recovered, heart problems continued to plague Bill Spier for the rest of his life. Just two days after the west coast broadcast of part two of “Donovan’s Brain”, Welles spoofed it on his Orson Welles Almanac program. Performed live at the Air Transport Command in Long Beach, California, among those in the cast for the parody were Suspense regulars John McIntire and Hans Conried. For more info on this time in Welles’ career, tune into Breaking Walls episode 104.

BW - EP154—005: Stars On Suspense In 1944—Listen to Joseph Cotten Stars In "Sneak Preview" Aug 01, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers The man you just heard is Joseph Cotten. In 1944 he was guest-starring on various shows while also hosting Ceiling Unlimited. On March 23rd, 1944 Cotten starred in “Sneak Preview” written by Robert L. Richards. It’s a story about a film director who becomes a temporary detective as he tracks down a double agent. Richards is perhaps most famous amongst Suspense fans for his 1946 script, “The House in Cypress Canyon.” Richards, Joe Cotten and Bill Spier had known each other since The March of Time in the 1930s. The rating for this episode was 9.5. More than seven million people tuned in. Suspense had gained a full ratings point and more than a million listeners in eight weeks. To hear Joseph Cotten on Ceiling Unlimited in 1944, please tune into Breaking Walls episode 150.

BW - EP154—004: Stars on Suspense in 1944—Listen to Lucille Ball Star in "Dime A Dance" Jul 30, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers The man you just heard is Hans Conried. In late 1943 he was thirty-six years old and all over radio. When Suspense moved to Hollywood, Conried quickly became part of William Spier’s trusted circle of character actors, often playing more than one part. Conried honed his craft in the 1930s. To Bill Spier’s credit, he did his best to allow them the time to have parts on other shows. Spier’s rehearsals were known for their loose atmosphere. He selected the best radio actors to be part of the Suspense troupe. This circle included Wally Mayer, Jeannette Nolan, Joseph Kearns, John McIntire, and Lurene Tuttle. Lurene Tuttle later worked with Spier on The Adventures of Sam Spade. Spier had a habit of purposely going into a broadcast with a script that was a minute or two long so the actors were forced into high tension. Spier wouldn’t allow a studio audience. He placed the orchestra behind a screen, out of sight of the cast so that the actors could better concentrate on their performance. Suspense found sponsorship in the fall of 1943 with Roma Wines. The show moved to Thursdays at 8PM eastern time. The first sponsored episode was called “The Black Curtain” and starred Cary Grant. It’s the first time listeners heard both the phrases “A tale well calculated to keep you in Suspense” and “radio's outstanding theater of thrills.” Uniquely, West Coast and Mountain time would get a separate broadcast on Monday December 6th. This broadcast split would continue until September of 1944. The next month on January 13th, 1944 Lucille Ball starred in an episode called “Dime a Dance.” The script was based on a story by Cornell Woolrich and adapted by Bob Tallman. Tallman wrote scripts in a single day with edits done in the hour between rehearsal and broadcast. Thirty-two and a seasoned film actress, in 1944 Ball began to carve out a second career on the radio. She appeared on Duffy’s Tavern, Abbott & Costello, and The Screen Guild Theater. In “Dime a Dance” she plays a dancer in a hall. A serial killer is targeting young women. Her character, Ginger Allen, gets involved in tracking the killer down. This episode’s rating was 8.5. Roughly six million people tuned in. For more info on Lucille Ball’s radio career, tune into Breaking Walls episode 100.

BW - EP154—003: Stars On Suspense In 1944—The Show Moves To Hollywood; Sorry Wrong Number Jul 28, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers Bill Spier’s Hollywood Suspense episodes got good reviews. He returned to New York for seven more shows while he got the green light to move Suspense to the West Coast. The first permanent Hollywood show was “Fear Paints a Picture” on April 13th, 1943. John Dickson Carr continued as writer until June, but Spier began to look for other voices, like Lucille Fletcher, who followed up “The Hitch-hiker” with “The Diary of Sophronia Winters,” starring Agnes Moorehead. The two would reunite a month later, on May 25th, 1943, for the most famous Suspense episode of all-time, “Sorry, Wrong Number.” Bill Spier did not direct this episode. It was handled by Ted Bliss. Although only thirty-six, Spier had recently suffered a heart attack. “Sorry, Wrong Number” was so harrowing, and Agnes Moorehead’s tour-de-force performance was so gripping to even the rest of the people in the studio, that a now-famous missed cue happened. I’ll let Ms Moorehead explain. Although Spier wanted to repeat the broadcast immediately, it was finally redone on August 21st. At that time CBS was in talks with Colgate to sponsor the series. The performance was heavily promoted, along with a time change. Suspense would be moving to Saturdays with this show. The August 21st, 1943 episode was the first time two different productions for each coast were done. CBS was attempting to deliver a large audience to entice Colgate to buy the series. The first broadcast was done at 4:30PM Pacific time for the East, while the second was done at 8PM for local audiences. Here’s the ending to the August 21st, 1943 broadcast of “Sorry, Wrong Number,” coming from the East Coast broadcast, as it was intended to have been performed the first time. Four days later Variety was enthusiastic in its praise for the broadcast. Hans Conried played the murderer. Besides the slightly missed cue, why was this story repeated so soon after? CBS was flooded with letters and phone calls. A funny thing happens as you listen to Mrs. Stevenson complain, you begin to like her less and less. This was intentional. Writer Lucille Fletcher was born in New York City on March 28th, 1912 and patterned the character after snooty women she’d had obnoxious dealings with in New York. At that time, only forty percent of U.S. homes had a phone. The fictional Stevenson home address of North Sutton Place was patterned after Sutton Place in New York City. It was one of the most exclusive areas on Manhattan’s east side. As researcher Dr. Joseph Webb put it, “regular people” were dealing with the scarcities and uncertainty of the War. Everyone was sacrificing in one way or another or had family members in the service.” Mrs Stevenson’s complaints slowly erode the audience's sympathy for her, but still no one was expecting her to actually be murdered at the end, atypical of climaxes at that time. Despite the praise, the Saturday experiment ended the following week. Spier recovered from his heart attack and returned on September 23rd, 1943, taking over direction. Colgate passed on sponsoring the series. Suspense went back to one national broadcast, but by November, Roma Wines would sign on, becoming the sponsor, and increasing Suspense’s budgets exponentially. #suspense #oldtimeradio #oldtimeradioshows #otr #historypodcast #oldhollywood #mysteryfiction

BW - EP154—002: Stars On Suspense In 1944—Suspense Launches In New York And Bill Spier Takes Over Jul 26, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers Willam Spier was born on 10/16/1906 in New York City. He began his career as an editor at Musical America Magazine, eventually becoming its chief critic. His radio career began in 1929, when he produced and directed The Atwater-Kent Hour, a Met Opera presentation. He soon became a valuable member of BBD&O’s growing staff of radio writers & directors. In 1931 Spier went to Hollywood to direct one of the first big budget radio programs in southern California. Coming back to New York, he was one of the people responsible for the creation of The March of Time. In 1940 Spier left BBD&O & began working for CBS. He was soon their story editor. Meanwhile, CBS decided to bring Forecast back. Season two premiered on 7/14/1941, with a play from Hollywood called The Arabian Nights. It starred Marlene Dietrich & was directed by Charles Vanda. The following week Kay Thompson starred in 51 East 51 from New York. It was an on-the-scene comedy at a fictitious upscale New York bar. Her director that evening was Bill Spier. The two were soon dating, marrying in 1942. Two weeks later, Spier produced & directed a Forecast episode called Song Without End, starring Burgess Meredith & Margo. It was to be a biopic on musicians and composers. That autumn Vanda & Spier were in New York, pushing for the launch of Suspense as a CBS cost-sustained show. On Sunday 12/71941 Japan attacked Pearl Harbor & Manilla, finally thrusting the US into World War II. The next Sunday, as CBS prepared for the Monday multi-network broadcast of Norman Corwin’s We Hold These Truths, Bill Paley finally approved Suspense’s launch as a thirteen-week summer series in 1942. Vanda got Harold Medford to come East to write. Although Bill Spier was head of CBS’s New York Story Department, it was Harold Medford who polished the first seven shows. Vanda also got CBS musician Bernard Herrmann to compose the show’s score. Suspense premiered on Wednesday June 17th, 1942 at 10:30PM eastern time. The first episode, “The Burning Court” was adapted from a story by John Dickson Carr. Seeking a star, Vanda chose Charlie Ruggles. Known for his comedic flair, Ruggles was in New York for the opening of his latest film, Friendly Enemies. Vanda believed that Suspense could cast against type. It came to be a show staple. Charles Vanda wound up only being in charge of the first five shows. He went into the army. The second show was the John Collier mystery “Wet Saturday,” a grim tongue-in-cheek tale of murder. The final three shows by Vanda were a take on the Lizzie Borden case, a murder story aboard a train, & a thrill kill, “Rope” that Alfred Hichcock later shot with James Stewart. With Vanda entering the service Bill Spier took over the production. Spier’s first episode as producer was on 7/22/1942. On 9/2 Suspense broadcast Lucille Fletcher’s “The Hitchhiker.” At the time Fletcher was married to Bernard Herrmann. “The Hitchhiker” starred Orson Welles. Welles & Spier had known each other since The March of Time. Welles just returned from Brazil where he’d been promoting greater Pan-Americanism on behalf of RKO. It was his first appearance on Suspense. When the thirteen-week summer run ended, CBS was set to cancel the series. The last episode was called, “One Hundred In the Dark.” It aired on September 30th, 1942. In the end Suspense was saved by the amount of fan mail & phone calls to CBS. Spier pushed to link the show with a prestigious mystery author. He approached the agent of John Dickson Carr, who’d written “The Burning Court,” & a deal was soon in place for him to write exclusively for the program. CBS picked up Suspense for the fall season and put it on the air Tuesdays at 9:30PM beginning 10/27. John Dietz returned as director and a foreboding narrator, “The Man In Black,” was played by Ted Osborne.

BW - EP154—001: Stars On Suspense In 1944—Suspense Is Born In Forecast Jul 25, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers In July of 1940 CBS’ Lux Radio Theatre was scheduled for its summer hiatus. Lux aired sixty-minute condensations of films Mondays at 9PM. Pulling a rating of 23.7, it was CBS’s highest-rated show and Monday’s most-listened to program. Head of CBS William Paley and Program Director Bill Lewis wanted to use the vacated time slot to attract both audience participation and potential sponsors. At that time, CBS’s story editor was William Spier. They decided to launch a pilot series to workshop new shows. They called it Forecast. It debuted on July 15th, 1940. Each week two thirty minute shows — one from New York and one from Hollywood — aired live. CBS petitioned their audience to write in about the pilots they liked. On July 22nd at 9:30PM, a Forecast took to the air starring Herbert Marshall, Edmund Gwenn, and Noreen Gammill. This particular one was conceived by Charles Vanda. Born in New York on June 6th, 1903, Charles Vanda got into radio and moved to Los Angeles in 1935 to be the CBS West Coast Program Director. Although Los Angeles was still a minor outpost for radio, by decade's end it overtook Chicago and matched New York as a major broadcasting hub. William Paley was keen on pushing programming in Hollywood and Vanda’s boss Bill Lewis was a man who proudly championed shows like The Columbia Workshop. Among the people Lewis helped was Norman Corwin. Vanda conceived the mystery program as a drama with famous stars, a large orchestra, and a well-known host. The man Vanda wanted was Alfred Hitchcock. It was Hitchcock who came up with the show name, Suspense. On July 22nd, the day Suspense was to air, Hitchcock was unexpectedly called to New York and wouldn't be able to appear. Rather than change directions, British actor Edmond Stevens imitated Hitchcock. But, the broadcast flopped. Variety said, “Alfy, old boy, don't ever do that to us again,” referring to the open ending. That, along with Hitchcock’s spotty availability spooked advertisers. No one wanted to sponsor the program. Suspense was mothballed. Of all the pilots that aired during season one of Forecast, only Duffy’s Tavern got picked up, and even that didn’t happen until March of 1941. Charles Vanda was soon called back to New York to produce shows like The Columbia Workshop. There he worked with William Spier. Within two years the duo would finally bring Suspense to the air.

Thank You To Those Who Have Recently Supported Breaking Walls On Patreon Jul 19, 2024

Thank you to those who recently supported the show at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers. If you support Breaking Walls for as little as $1 a month, you'll get each episode's show early and in one long documentary. Each month's episode takes me somewhere between 30-60 hours of work time to complete and supporting through the Patreon does a LOT to help me keep doing the show and paying for hosting and other costs. I’ve been doing the show since February of 2018 and I’m honestly not sure how much longer I can do the show without being able to support it. At the $5 and up tier I'm posting other goodies and clips of historic radio interest. Right now I’m posting digitized transcriptions of CBS Dimension, CBS’s magazine of the air in vignette form. It was sent to affiliates via records in the early 1960s and in some ways was an answer to NBC’s Monitor. Expect these kinds of posts a couple of times per week. Also, a couple of times per month I'm going to release an old episode of Breaking Walls, which has fallen off the RSS feed, beginning with episode 75 to the Patreon feed. These will be available at the $1 and up tier and episodes 75, 76 and 77 have been uploaded. Anyway, in the next couple of days I’m going to have August’s episode of Breaking Walls, #154: Stars on Suspense in 1944, uploaded to Patreon. Thank you for being listeners of this show, I really appreciate it. By the way, I don’t always get a ton of feedback, so I don’t know who’s listening to Breaking Walls and who isn’t. I just see the numbers. So if you have anything that you’d like to say or ask me about the show, please send me an email at James@TheWallBreakers.com.

BW - EP153—011: Independence Day 1944—Norman Corwin's Home For The Fourth Jul 11, 2024

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers By 1944 Norman Corwin had free rein over his productions. In six years he’d gone from a network rookie to the most-lauded creator on the air. He was now the poet-laureate of radio, a nickname which would stick with him the rest of his life. That March, The Columbia Workshop was rechristened as Columbia Presents Corwin for a twenty-two week run. At 10PM eastern time on Independence Day 1944 Corwin broadcast "Home For the Fourth." In this play, two brothers are away at war. One, played by Dane Clark, gets a two-day pass to see his family and fiance. It’s a slice of American life written and directed in a way that came to define Corwin. He understood that people were a part of, and yet transcended their own time. This play is eighty years old, but sounds like we could have spent time with these people eighty minutes ago.

BW - EP153—010: Independence Day 1944—Words At War Jul 10, 2024

Words at War was an anthology of war stories “told by the men and women who have seen them happen.” It was produced in cooperation with the Council on Books in Wartime, promising “stories of the battlefronts, of behind-the scenes diplomacy, of underground warfare, of action on the seas, and of the home front.” Each show was to be “a living record of this war and the things for which we fight.” Debuting on June 24th, 1943 from New York, during its first year on the air despite being given a late-night timeslot, it was praised by Variety as “one of the most outstanding programs in radio,” by the New York Times as the “boldest, hardest-hitting program of 1944,” and by Newsweek as “one of the best contributions to serious commercial radio in many a year.” Initially network cost-sustained, it was given stirring music by NBC’s symphony orchestra. The sound patterns had Japanese dive bombers: the growl of heavy machinery, the chatter of machine guns, the steady drone of an airplane as two pilots stood on a runway and spoke what might be their last thoughts. Though sonically important, the success of Words at War could be attributed to the immediacy of its subject matter. There were dramatizations of “the most significant books to thus far come out of this great world conflict,” with the war’s outcome by no means assured. This atmosphere—of a country fighting for its life—gave the stories maximum impact. In the summer of 1944, the show was sponsored by Johnson’s Wax and took over Fibber McGee and Molly’s Tuesday 9:30PM eastern time slot. On Independence Day 1944, the episode was called “War Criminals And Punishment.”

BW - EP153—009: Independence Day 1944—The Molle Mystery Theater Jul 09, 2024

The man you just heard was Raymond Edward Johnson. He is best-remembered for being the longtime host on Inner Sanctum Mysteries on CBS. After returning from the War, Johnson left the show to pursue more diversified acting interests. However by then, NBC had launched their own mystery program which Johnson often found himself appearing in. It was called The Molle Mystery Theater. Launched on September 7th, 1943 and sponsored by Molle Brushless Shaving Cream, Mystery Theater was hosted by Bernard Lenrow as Geoffrey Barnes, crime fiction connoisseur. Veteran radio actor Bernard Lenrow routinely read one-hundred mystery novels each year and personally selected the stories to be dramatized on the show. Molle featured ’‘the best in mystery and detective fiction,” with tales running from classics by Poe, to moderns by Raymond Chandler. The trademarks were high tension and shocking endings. In July of 1944 it was pulling a rating of 9.1 Tuesdays at 9PM. Many of New York’s most-famous radio actors appeared, like Richard Widmark, Elspeth Eric, Anne Seymour, and Joseph Julian.

BW - EP153—008: Independence Day 1944—Theater Of Romance Goodbye Mr. Chips Jul 07, 2024

Opposite of A Date With Judy at 8:30PM, CBS broadcast Theater of Romance, hosted by the just-heard Arnold Moss, who was also known for his acting prowess. Romance first took to the air on April 19th, 1943 with host Frank Gallop as “your guide through the pages of the great stories of all-time.” It went off the airwaves June 20th, 1944 before re-debuting on July 4th as Theater of Romance, sponsored by Colgate Tooth Powder. This episode featured Gertrude Warner and Karl Swenson in James Hilton’s Goodbye Mr. Chips. In 1975 Swenson was interviewed with his wife and fellow actress, Joan Tompkins, by Chuck Schaden.

BW - EP153—007: Independence Day 1944—A Date With Judy's Election Mixup Jul 07, 2024

Debuting on June 24th, 1941, A Date With Judy was the teenage girl’s answer to Archie Andrews and The Aldrich Family. Billed as the adventures of the “lovable teenage girl who’s close to all our hearts,” it initially starred Ann Gillis in a summer replacement for Bob Hope. While filming at Paramount, Hope met Gillis and introduced her to his radio sponsors. They cast her in the adolescent comedy being prepared by writer Aleen Leslie. Leslie had come up through the Hollywood ranks working for Columbia Pictures, and writing for Deanna Durbin, Mickey Rooney, and Henry Aldrich films. Leslie wrote the lead with her friend Helen Mack in mind, but Mack was pregnant and declined. After the birth of her child. Mack came in as producer-director, the only woman to do so in a prime-time role at the time. In three summertime runs, two for Hope and one for Eddie Cantor, Judy was played by Gillis, Joan Lorring, and finally Louise Erickson. Erickson also played Marjorie on The Great Gildersleeve. In January of 1944, Judy was given a full-time run and Erickson held the role for the next six years. In July of 1944 the show was pulling a rating of 9.1 on NBC. On Independence Day at 8:30PM, an overheard election mixup causes comedic embarrassment for Judy’s father.

BW - EP153—006: Independence Day 1944—The Ginny Simms Purple Heart Show Jul 05, 2024

Virginia Ellen, “Ginny” Simms was born in San Antonio, Texas on May 25rd, 1913. Her family moved to California, where she attended Fresno High School and Fresno State Teachers College. There she studied piano and began performing. Singing with her sorority sisters, she formed a popular vocal trio. In 1932, Simms became the vocalist for the Tom Gerun band in San Francisco. In 1934, she joined the Kay Kyser Orchestra, receiving her first national exposure on his radio program. Simms appeared in three films with Kyser: That's Right—You're Wrong in 1939, You'll Find Out, in 1940, and Playmates in 1941. On April 6th, 1941, Simms and Kyser co-starred in an original comedy, “Niagara to Reno,” on CBS' Silver Theater. The two nearly married, but upon breaking up, she left his orchestra in September. Just a few days later, on September 19th 1941, Simms was on CBS solo for five minutes on Fridays at 9:55. Then on Tuesday September 8th, 1942 at 8PM, she took to the air with her own show for Philip Morris. Originally called Johnny Presents, it was later changed to The Purple Heart Show, with an emphasis on wounded and decorated servicemen. Edgar “Cookie” Fairchild led the orchestra. She starred in more films, including Here We Go Again in 1942, Hit The Ice, in 1943, and Broadway Rhythm, which premiered in January of 1944. On Independence Day 1944 at 8PM, Ginny Simms took to the air with her Purple Heart Show. Opposite in New York, CBS aired Big Town, and both ABC and Mutual aired news commentary.

BW - EP153—005: Independence Day 1944—Norman Corwin In England With Edward R. Murrow Jul 04, 2024

In early 1942 Norman Corwin began a unique show over all four major radio networks. It was a thirteen episode, non-commercial broadcast called This is War, bringing together the best talent and resources of the broadcast and entertainment industry, like actor Joe Julian. That summer, Corwin went to England to produce a series helping to improve relations between the English and Americans, which were, surprisingly, strained. People like aviation legend Charles Lindbergh were anticommunism, but pro-isolationism and pro-eugenics. All three views were supported by the Nazi party. President Roosevelt was deeply angry at Lindbergh's opposition to his administration's interventionist policies. He told Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau in 1941, "If I should die tomorrow, I want you to know this, I am absolutely convinced Lindbergh is a Nazi." Linbergh publicly denounced anti-semitism in 1941, but many people remained anti-anglo throughout the country, with some even citing the American Revolution and the War of 1812 as reasons. Called An American In England, it was a joint effort from BBC and U.S. broadcasters. Edward R. Murrow would produce. The entire available London Philharmonic Orchestra would be used. The series would be sent back to the states by short-wave. Because it was to be heard live at 10PM for Eastern War time, that meant it was broadcast overnight in England. The result was a limited-release series considered to be among the most important works Corwin ever produced.

BW - EP153—004: Independence Day 1944—Tom Mix And Hop Harrigan Fight The War Jul 02, 2024

At 5:30PM eastern time over Mutual Broadcasting on Independence Day, 1944, The Tom Mix Ralston Straight Shooters took to the air. Originally airing from NBC in Chicago in 1933, it featured the just-heard Hal Peary, and the ever-present Willard Waterman. Tom Mix was created as an advertising vehicle for the Ralston Purina Company. Its format was devised by Charles Claggett, a St. Louis adman and based on the life of a real cowboy, Tom Mix. Born in Pennsylvania in 1880, he became a soldier and champion roper, winning a national title in 1909. Mix began appearing in movies, and much like Buffalo Bill Cody, his legend soon outgrew his actual exploits thanks to natural showmanship. By the time radio got him, he was seldom mentioned in print without a platoon of fantastic adjectives. Perhaps the most famous actor to play Tom Mix was Russell Thorson, who held the role for the Blue Network in the early 1940s, until it was canceled on March 27th, 1942. Tom Mix was revived and moved to Mutual beginning June 5th, 1944 in a fifteen minute serial. By then, Mix joined others like Jack Armstrong, Captain Midnight, and even Superman in the war against the axis. The show became known as “radio’s biggest western-detective program.” Joe “Curley” Bradley played Mix throughout the later run. Bradley was a former Oklahoma cowboy and Hollywood stuntman who had learned to sing around bonfires. As for the real Tom Mix, he had nothing to do with the serial. He died in a car accident near Florence, Arizona on October 12th, 1940. At 6:15PM it was Hop Harrigan’s turn to sign on, over The Blue Network’s WJZ. It starred Chester Stratton as Hop Harrigan, young aviator known as “America’s ace of the airways,” with Jackson Beck as Tank Tinker. Beck was all over radio. Hop Harrigan first took to the air on August 31st, 1942, running on The Blue Network and later ABC until August 2nd, 1946. It was revived from October 2nd, 1946 through February 6th, 1948 over Mutual Broadcasting. Hop went on missions in dangerous territory behind enemy lines. He had dogfights, went underground in war-torn Berlin, and saw heavy service in the Pacific during the battle for Okinawa.

BW - EP153—003: Independence Day 1944—Raymond Scott & Celebrations Around The Country Jun 30, 2024

At 4:45PM on Independence Day 1944, The Raymond Scott Orchestra took to the air for fifteen minutes of music on CBS’ WABC in New York. Born Harry Warnow on September 10th, 1908 in Brooklyn to Ukrainian Jewish parents, his older brother Mark, also a musician, encouraged Harry’s career. He graduated from the Juilliard School of Music in 1931 where he studied piano, theory, and composition. He began his professional career as a pianist for the CBS Radio house band under his birth name. Mark, older by eight years, conducted the orchestra. Harry adopted the pseudonym "Raymond Scott" to spare his brother charges of nepotism when the orchestra began performing the pianist's unique compositions. In late 1936, Scott assembled a band from among his CBS colleagues. Although it was a six-piece group, he called it the Raymond Scott Quintette, joking with a reporter that calling at a sextet might take one’s mind off the music. Scott believed in composing and playing by ear. He composed not on paper, but "on his band"—by humming phrases to his sidemen or by demonstrating riffs and rhythms on the keyboard, instructing players to interpret his cues. Also a sound engineer, he recorded the band's rehearsals, using them as references to develop his compositions. Scott reworked, re-sequenced, and deleted passages, and added themes from other discs to construct finished pieces. While he controlled the band's repertoire and style, he rarely took piano solos, preferring to direct the band from the keyboard and leave solos and leads to his sidemen. He also had a penchant for adapting classical motifs into his work. Independence Day 1944 was celebrated with remembrance, prayer, and War Bond drives. Norman Rockwell’s July 1st Saturday Evening Post cover featured a wounded veteran holding up a $100 war bond. The July 3rd cover of LIFE Magazine featured a G.I with a leg wound being helped by a compatriot. There was a prominent sticker on top that said “buy war bonds.” Meanwhile in Bedford, New Hampshire, an unexpected explosion at the John P. Bedricks powder works sent nearly seventy-miles of New England into a panic as windows as far away as Worchester, Massachusetts were destroyed. Despite this, there were no fatalities. At 4PM, NBC celebrated the Treasury Department’s “Salute To the Navy” from Philadelphia’s Navy Yard. Speakers included Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthaur Jr., and Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal. In New York, Edward J. Nathan, Manhattan’s Borough President, addressed a rally of Jewish war veterans at the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Riverside Drive, while the Knights of Columbus and sixty-seven affiliated councils, sponsored a parade and band concert in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. That evening, a Special Fifth War Bond Rally was held at Lewisohn Stadium in City College.

BW - EP153—002: Independence Day 1944—Vic And Sade Play Cards On Fourth Of July Jun 28, 2024

On Tuesday July 4th, 1944 at 11:15AM, the homespun Vic and Sade took to the air over NBC’s WEAF in New York. First airing on June 29th, 1932, Vic and Sade was created by Paul Rhymer. Known as “radio’s home folks,” the show was broadcast from The Merchandise Mart in Chicago. Rhymer wrote the script each morning before heading to watch the rehearsal and broadcast. On good days, one rewrite sufficed. On difficult days, the script would be ripped up again and again and poured over. The result was a standalone twelve-minute sketch that, over time, told the life story of Mr. and Mrs Victor Gook and their family and friends at “the small house halfway up in the next block” in a rural town somewhere in Illinois. The town was populated by strange eccentrics with some of the most wonderful names ever heard in fiction. Most of the characters were only spoken about and sound effects were purposely sparse, save for the ever-present telephone. In radio circles, the show was regarded as one of the all-time best. Among its devoted fans were Jean Shepherd, Norman Corwin, Jim and Marion Jordan, Carlton E. Morse, Stan Freberg, Ray Bradbury, and Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.

BW - EP153—001: Independence Day 1944—Norman Corwin From CBS To Pearl Harbor Jun 27, 2024

Tuesday, July 4th, 1944. It’s been twenty-nine days since the Allies first stormed the beaches of Normandy. They’ve continued to slowly push inland, but the battle for control of the Caen has raged onward. CBS is there with up-to-the-minute news. On Saturday July 1st, A counterattack by German Panzer Corps failed to dislodge the British Second Army around Caen. When OB West Gerd von Rundstedt phoned Berlin to report the failure, Chief of Staff Wilhelm Keitel asked, “what shall we do?” Rundstedt replied, “Make peace you fools!” He was fired the next day. Meanwhile the U.S. 133rd Infantry Regiment captured Cecina in Tuscany, Italy. They’d enter Siena on Monday the 3rd. At the same time Allies and Japanese forces began battling in New Guinea and The Battle of Imphal in India ended in Allied victory. On the morning of the Fourth, Minsk, the last big German stronghold on Soviet soil, finally fell. This kind of war created a need for fast news relays, so much so that for the first time, news was being recorded on the battlefront. On Independence Day 1944, needing to push further inland from Normandy, the task fell to the 79th and 90th Divisions as well as the 82nd Airborne, all of whom had to assault uphill and around a large marsh in the low ground, while twelve Nazi divisions lay in wait, including several Panzer units. The troops fought yard by yard, making slow but steady progress at a high cost. The 90th Division alone lost over 500 men that day. This same day, General Omar Bradley had artillery units in the US First Army open fire on the German lines precisely at noon. Some units fired red, white, and blue smoke shells at the Germans. The message was clear: The Americans were in Western Europe and they wouldn’t be leaving until victory was achieved. ____________ The man you just heard was Norman Lewis Corwin. He was born on May 3rd, 1910 in Boston, Massachusetts. The third of four children, his mother Rose was a homemaker, and his father, Samuel, a printer. Norman graduated from Winthrop High School, but unlike his brothers, he did not attend college. Instead, he got a job at the Greenfield Reporter as a Cub newsman at seventeen. Corwin was later hired by the Springfield Republican where he worked as an editor. He became known for his column "Radiosyncracies." His first exposure to professional Radio broadcasting came with an opportunity to air an interview regarding one of the human interest stories he'd written. Station WBZA soon needed a newsreader and sought to have the position filled with someone from the local paper. Corwin got the job. By 1929 Corwin fashioned his own broadcast over WBZA, a combination of piano interludes interwoven with Corwin's original poetry readings. He called the program Rhymes and Cadences. In 1931, Corwin traveled to Europe with his older brother, witnessing the growing fascism, social and religious unrest, and political turmoil. It helped shape his broadcasting career. In June 1935, he went to Cincinnati to work at WLW. He soon learned that any on-air reportage of collective bargaining efforts were grounds for immediate dismissal. Objecting, he was fired. Eventually he got the ACLU’s backing and got the policy changed. Corwin came to New York, finding work as a publicist for 20th Century-Fox. He soon proposed a poetry and music program for WQXR. The program was called Poetic License, and it wasn’t long before both NBC and CBS took notice. A few days shy of his twenty-eighth birthday in 1938, CBS hired Corwin as a director for One-Hundred-Twenty-Five-Dollars per-week. Within a few months he directed his first Columbia Workshop experimental drama, “The Red Badge of Courage,” airing July 9th, 1938. On the night of Sunday October 30th, 1938, Corwin was rehearsing the pilot for a new program, Words Without Music. Downstairs, Orson Welles was broadcasting his infamous Mercury Theater “War of The Worlds.”

Please Subscribe (For Free) To Breaking Walls on Youtube (Link in Notes) Jun 25, 2024

Hey everybody James Scully here, host of Breaking Walls. If you've been listening to this show for years on this RSS feed, I want you to know that you can also subscribe to the show on Youtube — www.youtube.com/@thewallbreakersllc. I'm asking people who listen here on the RSS feed to subscribe on Youtube because Youtube offers the easiest path to monetizing this show. I'm going to be fully transparent right now: There have been times in the history of this podcast that via RSS feed, Breaking Walls has had as many as 27000 - 30000 monthly downloads, but even with that, it's very hard to monetize the show via traditional podcast channels. However, I've been able to clear the monetization hurdles on Youtube, so please subscribe there. If you happen to listen on a computer or on a phone, I would appreciate if you listened via Youtube. I'm also going into Youtube and slowly uploading all shows from Breaking Walls' archive in individual podcast playlists on Youtube. This way, everything that for years now has fallen off the RSS feed here doesn't matter. You can get all those archived shows FREE OF CHARGE on Youtube. Your listening for free will enable me to earn money, and I'd appreciate that very much. So once again — www.youtube.com/@thewallbreakersllc Keep getting out there, keep breaking those walls, and I'll catch you on the flip side.

BW - EP152—025: D-Day's 80th Anniversary—Closing Out The Day & Looking Ahead To Independence Day Jun 14, 2024

Here we are, back at Bill Pogue’s. It’s after 11PM. What do we know? Well, there are less people drinking here than last night, most would rather stay in and listen for updates. On the air over CBS right now is Joan Brooks. Me? I’m just trying to have that nightcap I started yesterday. There are still news bulletins coming out of Europe. It’s almost dawn there. The men will be continuing their missions with D-Day: Plus 1 So far, we know that at least four-thousand Allied soldiers have been killed in the initial attack, but the German forces on the Normandy peninsula have either been killed, captured or forced to withdraw to Caen. I’m sure as we speak troops and equipment are being ferried across the Channel. I know the hope is that by the end of June we’ll have nearly a million men in western Europe as we advance north from Italy simultaneously. With the Russians pushing Germany west it’s only a matter of time, but the Germans won’t go down without a fight. But, I know American resolve. We’ll be up for the task, no matter how long it takes. It’s why next month on Breaking Walls we’ll move just a few weeks into the future and focus on Independence Day, 1944. —————————— The reading material used in today’s episode was: • Radio Speakers--A Biographical Dictionary — By Jim Cox • On The Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg As well as articles from • Broadcasting Magazine • CBSNews.com • GlobalNews.ca • LIFE Magazine • Military-History.org • The New York Times • The New York Daily News • Presidency.UCSB.edu • RadioArchives.com • Radio Daily —————————— On the interview front: • André Baruch, Mel Blanc, Ken Carpenter, Norman Corwin, Alice Frost, Barbara Luddy, Bret Morrison, Ken Roberts, Kate Smith, and Olan Soule spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear these full chats at Speakingofradio.com. • Himan Brown, Staats Cotsworth, Jim Jordan, Mandel Kramer, and Jan Miner, spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org • Joan Banks spoke to SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com • Fran Carlon, John Daly, and Ben Grauer spoke for Westinghouse’s 50th anniversary. • Ned Calmer, Doug Edwards, Lowell Thomas, Charles Osgood, and Bob Trout spoke to CBS for their 50th anniversary. • HV Kaltenborn spoke to NBC for their 50th anniversary • Charles Collingwood and Bob Trout spoke to the makers of Please Stand By • Bob Trout also spoke to the Television Academy • George Burns spoke with Barbara Walters • Red Skelton spoke with Dini Petty —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Romanian Folk Dances #3 — By Béla Bartók, played by Avi Avital • Wilderness Trail — By Walter Scharf for National Geographic —————————— A massive special thank you to Walden Hughes for supplying so many master quality recordings used in this D-Day episode. Listen to Walden’s shows on the Yesterday USA radio network.

BW - EP152—024: D-Day's 80th Anniversary—The Last Red Skelton Show Before He Left For The War Jun 13, 2024

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.

BW - EP152—023: D-Day's 80th Anniversary—FDR's D-Day Prayer & A Special Bob Hope Show Jun 12, 2024

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.

BW - EP152—022: D-Day's 80th Anniversary—A Rare Fibber McGee & Molly Musical & Raymond Massey Fights Jun 11, 2024

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.

BW - EP152—021: D-Day's 80th Anniversary—Reaction To The Invasion From Around The Country from NBC Jun 10, 2024

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.

BW - EP152—020: D-Day's 80th Anniversary—George Burns & Gracie Allen With Dinah Shore Jun 09, 2024

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.

BW - EP152—019: D-Day's 80th Anniversary—Norman Corwin's Ode To Carl Sandburg Jun 08, 2024

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.

BW - EP152—018: D-Day's 80th Anniversary—HV Kaltenborn Comments On The Invasion Jun 07, 2024

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.

BW - EP152—017: D-Day's 80th Anniversary—Ronald Colman Reads an Edna St. Vincent Millay Poem on NBC Jun 06, 2024

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.

BW - EP152—016: D-Day's 80th Anniversary—Lowell Thomas Reports On NBC At Dinnertime Jun 05, 2024

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.

BW - EP152—015: D-Day's 80th Anniversary—King George VI's Famous Speech And More Invasion Updates Jun 04, 2024

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.

BW - EP152—014: D-Day's 80th Anniversary—Perry Mason Jun 03, 2024

Perry Mason debuted over CBS airwaves on October 18th, 1943. On D-Day it was airing at 2:45PM from New York. Mason was a crime-busting lawyer, famous in fiction for unmasking killers in court. Though it came in the guise of crime drama, the show was full-bore soap opera. At points, Jan Miner played Della Street, Mason’s secretary. Mandel Kramer played Police Lieutenant Tragg.

BW - EP152—013: D-Day's 80th Anniversary—Portia Faces Life And Joyce Jordan, MD Jun 02, 2024

That was the voice of Joan Banks Lovejoy who played the scheming Arline Harrison Manning on Portia Faces Life. During World War II she was all over New York radio. On Portia Faces Life, Lucille Wall starred as Portia Blake, a young woman lawyer who battled corruption in the small town of Parkerstown. The show debuted with a crisis on October 7th, 1940 and throughout its entire nearly eleven-year run, the crises never ended. The show moved to CBS in April of 1944 and on D-Day it was airing weekdays at 2PM. The run on CBS would be relatively brief, as on October 3rd, 1944 Portia Faces Life would move back to NBC. ____________ That was the voice of Fran Carlon, who at times starred as Joyce Jordan, MD. Jordan started as a girl intern at Heights Hospital, slowly progressing to a doctor, facing the difficulty of being an intelligent woman in a man’s world. Ken Roberts was the announcer. He’d been a radio staple since the mid-1920s, beginning first at WMCA in New York before becoming a CBS staff announcer. On D-Day, Ken was thirty-five years old. Here’s Ken talking with Chuck Schaden about those early days of Network radio. Himan Brown was often the director.

BW - EP152—012: D-Day's 80th Anniversary—Mid-Day Reports From Edward R. Murrow And John Daly Jun 01, 2024

12:45PM brought a forty-minute CBS news update featuring Edward R. Murrow from London, Douglas Edwards recapping CBS coverage, and a Quincy Howe analysis. Following this broadcast John Daly immediately signed on.

BW - EP152—011: D-Day's 80th Anniversary—Big Sister May 31, 2024

At 12:15PM Big Sister took to the air over CBS starring the just-heard Alice Frost as Ruth Evans. Ruth centered her life around her sister Sue and their crippled brother Neddie. When Sue married reporter Jerry Miller, Ruth was able to give her full attention to the care of little Ned. Then, unexpectedly, Ruth fell in love with Neddie’s new doctor, John Wayne, played first by Martin Gabel and later by Staats Cotsworth.

BW - EP152—010: D-Day's 80th Anniversary—High Noon Prayer with Kate Smith and Invasion Updates May 30, 2024

It’s nearly twelve o’clock and time for me to get back to 485 Madison Avenue. At least I got about five hours sleep, that’s more than I can say for many of my colleagues. I just phoned in. The allies are pushing inland in France. A few thousand have been killed on the beaches of Normandy, but the German resistance has been much lighter than expected. The Luftwaffe are nowhere to be found. The Allied command is uneasy, we know it won’t be all quiet on the western front forever. Kate Smith is signing on CBS. There’ll be news updates to follow.

BW - EP152—009: D-Day's 80th Anniversary—Aunt Jenny's Real Life Stories May 29, 2024

At 11:45AM on D-Day, Aunt Jenny’s Real Life Stories took to the air over CBS featuring Dan Seymour as both announcer and actor. Later this year Seymour would play Vichy French Captain Renard in To Have and Have Not. Unlike most daytime serials, Aunt Jenny confined its tales to five-chapter stories which were completed each week. The cast shifted with the only continuing characters being Aunt Jenny and announcer Dan Seymour, who dropped in each day to hear her tale.

BW - EP152—008: D-Day's 80th Anniversary—Charles De Gaulle's Famous Speech May 28, 2024

At 11:30AM CBS interrupted their scheduled mid-day programming for a newsbreak and a speech from Charles De Gaulle. Born in 1890, De Gaulle was a decorated soldier during the First World War. He repeatedly admonished his superiors for outdated nineteenth century fighting techniques which included bayonet charges against heavy artillery. De Gaulle’s company became known for sneaking into German territory to spy on the enemy. He was a fierce combat veteran, having been shot in the knee, the left hand, being gassed, and receiving a bayonet wound. He was eventually captured by the Germans, spending thirty-two months as a POW. In between the wars he was a strong supporter of tanks and mobile armored divisions. During the German invasion of May 1940, De Gaulle led an armored division counterattack, and was soon appointed Undersecretary for War. Refusing to accept his government's armistice with Germany, De Gaulle fled to England. He led the Free French Forces and later headed the French National Liberation Committee, emerging as the undisputed leader of Free France. De Gaulle became head of the Provisional Government of the French Republic three days before D-Day. On D-Day he was campaigning for his Provisional Government to be recognized as an official full government.

BW - EP152—007: D-Day's 80th Anniversary—Amanda Of Honeymoon Hill & Second Husband May 27, 2024

The woman you just heard is famed New York character actress Jan Miner. In the mid-1940s Jan was on multiple soap operas, like Lora Lawton. Many top shows were produced by Frank and Anne Hummert. The Hummert radio ties grew from the prominent Chicago advertising agency, Blackett-Sample-and Hummert. Frank Hummert was a celebrated copywriter. His wife, Anne Schumacher Ashenhurst Hummert began as an editorial assistant and quickly earned respect throughout the organization thanks to her ingenuity, insight, and resolve. By the 1940s, the duo controlled four-and-a-half hours of national weekday broadcast schedules. They brought in more than half of the network daytime hour advertising revenue and their shows received more than five million pieces of correspondence annually. When they switched their productions from Chicago to New York, they began employing some of New York’s most famous character actors. At 11AM eastern time from New York, Amanda of Honeymoon Hill signed on starring Joy Hathaway. The show used a familiar Hummert theme: The common girl who marries into a rich, aristocratic family. She lived in the fictional Honeymoon Hill in Virginia. When Amanda Of Honeymoon Hill signed off, another Hummert show, Second Husband, signed on at 11:30 starring Helen Menken. Ms. Menken is perhaps best remembered today as Humphrey Bogart’s first wife, but she was a talented actress in her own right. Throughout its history, one of the show’s announcers was Andre Baruch.

BW - EP152—006: D-Day's 80th Anniversary—Four Morning Soap Operas At 10AM May 26, 2024

At 10AM CBS resumed programming with their mid-morning soap operas. First up was Valiant Lady, starring Joan Blaine. Joan was a valiant lady because she sacrificed a promising Broadway career for her father’s sake, then married a “brilliant but unstable" surgeon. People like the just-heard Mandel Kramer loved working on soap operas from New York. At 10:15AM Light of the World signed on starring Bret Morrison as “the Speaker.” The show was a soap opera version of the stories of the bible and featured some of New York’s best talent like Mandel Kramer, Louise Fitch, and Alexander Scourby. This D-Day broadcast was the very first episode of Light of the World on CBS. It had been running on NBC since March of 1940. It would run on CBS until August of 1946 before once again being picked up by NBC until June 2nd, 1950. When Light of the World signed off, The Open Door signed on at 10:30. Created by Sandra Michael, The Open Door was a purposely slow-moving, character building show built around Dean Eric Hansen of the fictional Vernon University. The stories involved people in his life: their problems, lives, and loves. The star, Dr. Alfred Dorf had known Sandra Michael since her childhood in Denmark. He’d come to America to establish a church in Brooklyn and was the true inspiration behind the character. Unfortunately, the agency handling the sponsor’s account didn’t like the direction of the series. They pressured Sandra Michael into changing the show, but she resisted and the show was canceled after June 30th, 1944. Once The Open Door signed off, Bachelor’s Children signed on at 10:45. It featured Hugh Studebaker as Dr. Bob Graham, a bachelor who took in his dying friend's 18-year-old twin daughters. Marjorie Hannan played Ruth Ann, the kind, thoughtful twin, and Patricia Dunlap played Janet, the fiery and impulsive twin. Olan Soule played Sam Ryder. He was, perhaps, best known for co-starring with Barbara Luddy on The First Nighter.

BW - EP152—005: D-Day's 80th Anniversary—CBS World News at 9AM with Douglas Edwards May 25, 2024

At 9AM eastern war time, CBS World News signed on with Douglas Edwards reporting. On D-Day Edwards was twenty-six years old. He’d been hired in 1942 by CBS as a reporter and understudy for John Daly. When Daly was sent overseas to cover the war in 1943 Edwards was promoted to lead The World Today, World News Today, and Report to the Nation. In 1945, Edwards was sent to London to cover the final weeks of the war with Edward R. Murrow. He was then appointed the network's news bureau chief in Paris and assigned to cover post-war elections in Germany and the start of the Nuremberg trials. By this time, fourteen thousand Canadian troops had taken Juno Beach, pressing inland. British and American forces, including those at Omaha, took control of their beachheads. The Allies brought in tanks, tended to the wounded and cleared away mines on the beaches. They also started pressuring German forces at Caen. Hitler finally agreed to send reinforcements to Normandy. Once World News Today signed off Robert Trout was back on the air for the final forty-five minutes of the special news broadcast.

BW - EP152—004: D-Day's 80th Anniversary—First Reports of London's Reaction to the Invasion May 24, 2024

I just phoned CBS news headquarters at 485 Madison Avenue. I’m told that they’ll resume scheduled programming at 10AM. NBC has canceled all programming until further notice. Mutual and The Blue Network are interspersing news throughout the day. The Stock Exchange will observe two minutes of silence and Mayor La Guardia will be holding a rally in Madison Square. As for me, I’ve been momentarily dismissed. I’m heading home to get some rest. Meanwhile, let’s listen to Bob Trout. Charles Shaw will report from London with a man-on-the-street reaction while Ned Calmer and Don Pryor will introduce French Colonel Morrison who’ll describe the area of the invasion landings. This will take us to 6:30 AM.

BW - EP152—003: D-Day's 80th Anniversary—Sunrise Reports in New York City May 23, 2024

As part of my job I’ve been sent by CBS to Union Square. I decided to stop by my high school alma mater, I’m at the Church of St. Francis Xavier on sixteenth street. They’re having a sunrise mass filled with prayer for our soldiers and other war workers. The people are stoic. Now isn’t the time to lose ourselves in emotion. Sunrise is at 5:25AM. I hear American troops have turned the tide of battle at the Omaha landing point, with warships backing them up at sea. Give a listen to the CBS broadcast. David Anderson, Arthur Mann, Paul White, and Edward R. Murrow have reports from London. Quentin Reynolds will describe Eisenhower’s speech to occupied Europe, while Bill Henry and Joe McCaffrey report from Washington.

BW - EP152—002: D-Day's 80th Anniversary—The First Eye Witness Account Of The Invasion May 22, 2024

The man you just heard was CBS news reporter Robert Trout. Born in Wake County, North Carolina on October 15th, 1909, he grew up in Washington, D.C., entering broadcasting in 1931 as an announcer at WJSV, an independent station in Alexandria, Virginia. In the summer of 1932 WJSV was acquired by CBS, bringing Trout into the young network. He soon became an invaluable member of William S. Paley’s team, and was the first person to publicly refer to FDR’s radio programs as Fireside Chats. On Sunday night, March 13th, 1938, after Adolf Hitler's Germany had annexed Austria in the Anschluss, Trout hosted a shortwave "roundup" of reaction from multiple cities in Europe—the first such multi-point live broadcast on network radio. Years later, journalist Ned Calmer remembered that moment. Trout also played a key role in Edward R. Murrow’s development as a broadcaster. By the time war had come to the US, Trout was in New York and Murrow had put together the staff of international war correspondents known as the Murrow Boys. At 4:15 AM eastern war time on the morning of Tuesday June 6th, 1944, Bob Trout was in the CBS newsroom at 485 Madison Avenue emceeing an overnight broadcast that brought the first eye witness account of the invasion from reporter Wright Bryan. Bryan stood an imposing six-foot-five and covered the story from a transport plane dropping airborne troops. Later in 1944 Bryan was wounded and captured by the Germans. He spent six months in hospitals and in a POW camp in Poland before being freed by Russian troops in January 1945. This broadcast took listeners up to 5 AM. eastern war time. Along with Wright Bryan, it featured analysis from George Fielding Elliot, commentary by Quentin Reynolds, and reports from John W. Vandercook and James Willard. At 5AM over CBS Major George Fielding Elliot gave an analysis of the known information. Elliot was a second lieutenant in the Australian army during World War I. He became a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and later a major in the Military Intelligence Reserve of the US Army. He wrote fifteen books on military and political matters and was a longtime staff writer for the New York Herald Tribune. After Elliot spoke, Richard C. Hottelet reported from London with the first eye witness account of the seaborne side of the invasion. Edward R. Murrow hired Hottelet that January. On this day he was riding in a bomber that attacked Utah Beach six minutes before H-Hour and watched the first minutes of the attack. He would later cover the Battle of the Bulge. At 7AM French time, the Allies began deploying amphibious tanks on the beaches of Normandy to support the ground troops and sweep for defensive mines. American troops faced heavy machine-gun fire on Omaha Beach, the most heavily fortified landing point of the invasion. Roughly twenty-five-hundred U.S. soldiers were killed on the beach in the bloodiest fight of the day. This fighting took the timeline to Eisenhower’s official announcement at 3:32 Eastern War time.

BW - EP152—001: D-Day's 80th Anniversary—The Invasion Begins May 21, 2024

Tuesday, June 6th, 1944 at about 12:45 in the morning. We’re at Bill Pogue’s Bar on the Corner of 88th street and Columbus Avenue in Manhattan. I just finished a twelve hour shift. I need a nightcap before I go back into that low-hanging fog. Did you hear the President tonight? We took Rome. One up and two to go. ____________ Only the German outlets that are saying the invasion has started. Paris radio just aired news bulletins and didn’t say anything. London radio told Hollanders to stay off bridges and roads, but that could be normal instructions. You want to know something? I don’t think the Germans are lying. I think this is it. This is D-Day, June 6th, 1944. ____________ It’s 3:30 in the morning on June 6th, 1944. I’ve just left CBS news headquarters at 485 Madison Avenue. I parked in Times Square on purpose. I wanted to see if there was any reaction. A few servicemen came out of a bar. I told them the news. They joined others in front of cabs who were tuned to either CBS or NBC. The news cutaway from band remotes sounded haunting. There are scattered lights in apartment windows and one radio shop, closed for the evening, has a loudspeaker blaring CBS. I won’t be sleeping tonight. I’ve been assigned to take the temperature of the emotions people are feeling. The long and short of it is that we still have no allied confirmation about a French coastline invasion. The president was on the radio last night with one of his fireside chats talking about the allies taking Rome. If he knew something about France, he didn’t tip his hand. Bob Trout should be on the air right about now. Bob’s a good man. To kill time he was going to take his microphone into the CBS newsroom, giving a taste of what a nerve center is like with chaos brimming. 10PM New York time on June 5th was 4AM on the morning of the 6th in France. At that moment seven-thousand allied ships left England under cover of darkness. They were loaded with allied troops, primarily from Britain, the US, and Canada for Operation Overlord. The soldiers were split up to invade five landing points along the coast of northern France. The beachheads were code named Utah, Omaha, Gold, Sword, and Juno. At midnight, while I was drinking at Bill Pogue’s allied bombers were bombarding the coastline. Personnel carriers flew inland to drop off paratroopers. The paratroopers' job was to attack bridges and seize several key points to cut off the Nazi supply lines. An hour later, while distracting the Germans at Pas-de-Calais, allied warships dropped anchor off the coast of Normandy to wait for dawn and provide cover for the landing ships. By 2AM, more than thirteen-thousand paratroopers had been dropped into France, with four-thousand more flying in on gliders. They continued landing troops for the next two hours. The Germans saw the paratroopers, but failed to grasp just how big the invasion was to be. By 5AM, Allied battleships had begun firing on the Nazi defenses while the first landing ships went ashore. German and Allied ships clashed in the first skirmishes at sea. As the sun rose, the landing operation was fully underway. The Allied battleships stopped firing as their landing boats approached the shore at 6:30AM, dubbed “H-Hour” for the designated moment of the invasion. The landing ships were tightly packed together. Allied troops dealt with heavy gunfire. Many men were killed before they could reach the beach. Nevertheless, the Allies managed to land their troops, and the fight for the beaches began.

BW - EP151: Jack Benny's Famous Slump (1944) May 16, 2024

In Breaking Walls episode 151 it’s the spring of 1944 and Jack Benny’s sponsor, General Foods, thinks he’s in a slump. Benny got mad and it changed the broadcasting landscape forever. Tonight, we’ll find out how and why. —————————— Highlights: • Benny's Early Radio Career in the 1930s and Ratings Peak • Early Problems with General Foods • Dennis Day Leaves for World War II • Jack Fires General Foods, Signs with American Tobacco • Dick Haymes Replaces Dennis Day as Singer • The Importance of Benny’s Supporting Cast • Jack’s Split Personality • Danny Kaye Guest Stars To Play Jack in A Movie • The Last General Foods Sponsored Show • Looking Ahead to D-Day’s 80th Anniversary —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material used in today’s episode was: • Sunday Nights at Seven — by Jack and Joan Benny • On The Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg As well as articles from • Broadcasting Magazine • Radio Daily • Variety And a massive special thank you to William Cairns for providing me with invaluable research on Benny’s 1940s run. William has a Jack Benny book on its way. —————————— On the interview front: • Jack Benny, Dennis Day, Phil Harris, Frank Nelson, and Don Wilson spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear these full chats at Speakingofradio.com. • Mel Blanc and Mary Jane Higby spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org • Jack Benny, Dennis Day, Phil Harris, and Don Wilson were with Jack Carney • Dennis Day was also with John Dunning for his 1980s 71KNUS Radio program from Denver. • Orson Welles spoke to Johnny Carson —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • The Hut on Fowl's Legs — By Modest Mussorgsky —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Gerrit Lane Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva John Williams Jim W. WildEyeWheel —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

BW - EP151—010: Jack Benny's Famous Slump—Looking Ahead to D-Day May 12, 2024

In the fall of 1944 after Jack’s switch to Lucky Strike, General Foods did move a show opposite Jack. It wound up being The Kate Smith Show. The company uprooted Smith’s Friday program, countering Benny with a One-Hundred-Seventy-Thousand-Dollar ad campaign. While they did temporarily put a dent into Benny’s rating, Kate Smith lost forty-percent of her audience, dropping to ninety-third place in the overall ratings. The following season General Foods moved her back to Friday, but Kate Smith never again had another Top-fifty show. Well, that brings our look at Jack Benny’s show in the spring of 1944 to a close. I mentioned that Benny’s last episode for General Foods aired on June 4th, 1944. Our next episode of Breaking Walls will move only two days into the future, for perhaps the most important day in broadcasting history. Next time on Breaking Walls, we spotlight radio broadcasting on June 6th, 1944 to align ourselves with the Country’s heartbeat on the day the invasion of western Europe finally began. The reading material used in today’s episode was: • Sunday Nights at Seven — by Jack and Joan Benny • On The Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg As well as articles from • Broadcasting Magazine • Radio Daily • Variety And a massive special thank you to William Cairns for providing me with invaluable research on Benny’s 1940s run. William has a Jack Benny book on its way. On the interview front: • Jack Benny, Dennis Day, Phil Harris, Frank Nelson, and Don Wilson spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear these full chats at Speakingofradio.com. • Mel Blanc and Mary Jane Higby spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org • Jack Benny, Dennis Day, Phil Harris, and Don Wilson were with Jack Carney • Dennis Day was also with John Dunning for his 1980s 71KNUS Radio program from Denver. • Orson Welles spoke to Johnny Carson Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • The Hut on Fowl's Legs — By Modest Mussorgsky

BW - EP151—009: Jack Benny's Famous Slump—The Last General Foods Sponsored Show May 10, 2024

June 4th, 1944 was the last Grape Nuts Flakes sponsored Jack Benny Program. Jack took out a full page ad in Variety thanking General Foods and their agency Young and Rubicam for ten years of partnership. Six days later, the American Cigarette and Cigar Company deposited two hundred thousand dollars in a special exploitation account for the program. On June 23rd they wrote to Jack stipulating some terms of the agreement. The program would be broadcast live coast-to-coast 7:00PM eastern war time, with a transcribed rebroadcast by transcription between 12:30 and 1:00AM New York time for West Coast stations. In August, Benny left on a three-week USO tour of Australia and the South Pacific. On August 28th, American Tobacco announced that Pall Mall’s product scarcity didn’t justify a twenty-five thousand dollar per week expenditure. Lucky Strike would sponsor the show. The following week they announced a comprehensive, multimedia ad campaign. It was estimated to cost over a quarter million dollars. This changed the company with which Jack was signed from the American Cigarette & Cigar Company to the American Tobacco Company, and was made official on September 26th, 1944.

BW - EP151—008: Jack Benny's Famous Slump—Danny Kaye Guest Stars To Play Jack in A Movie May 08, 2024

While the cast of Jack Benny became famous in their own right, Benny’s show had great guest-stars, as Dennis Day remembered. On the May 28th, 1944 episode Jack is in talks with Warner Brothers to make a film about his life. Naturally Jack thinks he’ll star, write, and direct it. Unfortunately for him, Warner Brothers has other ideas. They want Danny Kaye to play Jack and Jack to play Jack’s father.

BW - EP151—007: Jack Benny's Famous Slump—Jack's Split Personality May 06, 2024

With Jack’s contract with General Foods nearing its close, the only thing left to do was count down the remaining episodes. On May 21st, 1944, Jack and the gang discussed split personalities. Jack thinks it's ridiculous, but later realizes he has one too. In other news this episode marks the debut of the spoof commercial for Sympathy Cough Syrup. Its tagline “Sympathy spelled backwards is Yhtapmys” became famous.

BW - EP151—006: Jack Benny's Famous Slump—The Importance of Benny's Supporting Cast May 04, 2024

By the Spring of 1944 Jack Benny’s cast had become its most familiar incarnation. Frank Nelson had begun to develop into Benny’s nemesis, as he remembered in this interview clip. Phil Harris was a lovable and vain drunk. Mel Blanc could play any character imaginable. Others like Bea Benaderet, John Brown, and Sarah Berner rounded out the cast. Most importantly Jack was known to be the exact opposite of his character. On May 14th, 1944 The Jack Benny Program was broadcast live at Camp Adair, Oregon.

BW - EP151—005: Jack Benny's Famous Slump—Why Dick Haymes Replaced Dennis Day As Jack's Singer May 02, 2024

In early May 1944 Jack and the rest of his cast were still traveling around military bases in the Pacific Northwest. On May 7th they were at the Naval Air Station in Whidbey Island, Washington as Dick Haymes continued substituting for the now departed Dennis Day. The rating for this episode was 20.1, although lower than his season average, it was still tied for third overall, and first on Sunday evenings.

BW - EP151—004: Jack Benny's Famous Slump—Why Jack Fired General Foods & Signed w/ American Tobacco Apr 30, 2024

By the spring of 1944, Benny’s ratings had continued slipping. That season, his 23.7 rating meant he’d lost roughly four million weekly listeners in just three years. At the end of this season, his contract with General Foods was up. Here's Jack Benny talking about that time. There was tension between the two parties because Benny had helped save Jell-O from going out of business. Jack was also upset with what he felt were second-rate accommodations provided by General Foods during the cast’s ongoing army base trips. Since Benny had full control of his show as NBC guaranteed him the Sunday time slot over any sponsor Benny could sell his program to the highest bidder. Benny’s management team quietly held a sealed auction for sponsorship on February 24th. George W. Hill, the President of American Tobacco, wanted Benny’s show. His chief account executive was thirty-six-year-old Pat Weaver, the future president of NBC. A surprise winner was announced: Ruthrauff & Ryan, agency for American Tobacco’s Pall Mall cigarettes, bid twenty-five thousand dollars per-week for three thirty-five week seasons. That’s roughly Four-Hundred-Forty Thousand Dollars today. The weekly money was payable to Benny for all payroll and production costs. They also included an additional two-hundred-thousand dollars, or three-point-five million today, over the three years for marketing and promotion. American Tobacco also agreed to pay for any network and carrier line charges. The advertising community was stunned. General Foods considered retaliating against Jack by moving The Fanny Brice Show to CBS opposite the Benny program. They also publicized the fact that they were now sponsoring three programs, The Aldrich Family, The Meredith Wilson Show, and Mr. Ace and Jane, for the same cost as just the Benny program. On April 10th, 1944, Jack officially signed a three-year contract with the American Cigarette & Cigar Company to advertise Pall Mall cigarettes for twenty-two thousand dollars per broadcast, including a West Coast rebroadcast. The three-year contract would begin on July 1st, 1944, and run through June 30th, 1947. American Tobacco also had a three year option to renew. Benny was the executive producer. He funded the entire production cost out of his pay. In the case that any cast member, or Jack himself, missed a program, Jack was to furnish a substitute actor for ten thousand dollars, at his own expense. If Jack was absent for six consecutive broadcasts, American had the right to terminate the current season, but not the entire contract. Jack also had to make up for any of his absences by adding additional programs at the end of the season. In the midst of this, on April 30th, 1944 The Jack Benny Program signed on from the Puget Sound Navy Yard in Seattle, Washington. With Dennis Day gone to war, Dick Haymes substituted as the program’s singer.

BW - EP151—003: Jack Benny's Famous Slump—Dennis Day's Last Show, Leaves For The Navy & World War II Apr 29, 2024

On April 23rd, 1944 The Jack Benny Program took to the air, broadcasting from Vancouver, British Columbia. It would be Dennis Day’s last show until March 17th, 1946. He’d be departing for the Navy. In April of 1944 Dennis Day was twenty-seven years old. He’d been starring on Jack Benny’s show since 1939, rounding into a very talented performer. Day had great comic timing and the ability to mimic voices well. That year, he’d appear on film in Music in Manhattan opposite Anne Shirley.

BW - EP151—002: Jack Benny's Famous Slump—Early Problems With General Foods Apr 27, 2024

Mel Blanc joined the show on February 19th, 1939. Benny was adding a new touch to the miser theme: a polar bear, who would live in his basement and help protect his money. The bear was christened Carmichael, and in 1941, according to Rochester, he ate the gas man. On Sunday December 7th, 1941 Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and Manila, thrusting the United States into World War II. That evening, The Jell-O Program signed on at 7PM eastern time. This is audio from that night. Benny’s show peaked in 1941 with an average rating of 30.8. By 1942 Jack was beginning to get into disagreements with General Foods. Variety reported as early as 1939 that the sponsor wanted to change Jack’s sponsorship to Grape Nuts Flakes. Jack resisted the move. The Jell-O brand had become uniquely associated with Benny. However, by 1942 with wartime sugar rationing, General Foods pushed the product change through. Variety reported on March 4th, 1942 that Benny would take Grape Nuts Flakes, while Kate Smith would now be sponsored by Jell-O. General Foods claimed the output of Jell-O would be so limited by the fall that they couldn’t justify the cost of Benny’s show. The Jack Benny Program cost General Foods twenty-two-thousand dollars per week. Kate Smith’s show only cost ten thousand. With the October 4th, 1942 season premiere the show became The Grape-Nuts Flakes Program Starring Jack Benny. Benny wasn’t thrilled, also feeling General Foods hadn’t done enough to promote his show. After back-to-back seasons with a rating over thirty points, Benny 1942-43 rating slipped to 26.3, losing roughly two million listeners. Jack had a unique contract. Thanks to a verbal agreement with NBC’s President Niles Trammel, Jack controlled his Sunday timeslot. At the end of Jack’s next contract he was free to approach any sponsor, pending NBC’s approval. It meant that General Foods could lose their top star and their top time slot.

BW - EP151—001: Jack Benny's Famous Slump—Benny's 1930s Early Radio Career and Ratings Peak Apr 25, 2024

In March of 1932 Jack Benny was headlining on Broadway as part of Earl Carroll’s Vanities when friend Ed Sullivan invited him to appear on Ed’s radio show. At the time Benny had no great interest in radio, but he went on Sullivan’s quarter-hour show March 19th, 1932, as a favor. His first line was “Ladies and gentlemen, this is Jack Benny talking. There will be a slight pause while you say, ‘Who cares?” Canada Dry Ginger Ale’s advertising agency heard Benny and offered him a show. Benny debuted on NBC’s Blue Network on May 2nd, 1932. This initial series aired Mondays and Wednesdays. Benny’s wife of five years, Sadye Marks, who’d performed with him on Vaudeville, joined the cast on August 3rd as Mary Livingstone. In storyline she was a young Benny fan from Plainfield, New Jersey. Eventually she read humorous poetry and letters from her mother, and much later she would become a main deflator of Benny’s ego. On October 30th, 1932 the show moved to CBS. During this time Benny began ribbing his sponsor in a gentle, good-natured way. Canada Dry got upset, and despite a rating in radio’s top twenty, they canceled the show after January 26th, 1933. Chevrolet, which had recently lost Al Jolson, was waiting in the wings. On Friday, March 17th, 1933 at 10PM from New York, Benny debuted with The Chevrolet Program over NBC’s Red Network. The June 23rd, 1933 episode was the last of the season as well as Mary Livingstone’s twenty-eighth birthday. Howard Claney was announcer with Frank Black as orchestra leader and James Melton as the tenor. When the show returned in the fall it was on Sundays at 10PM from New York. Benny’s program slowly began to morph from variety into more developed comedic skits. He also started to show the character traits that would come to define his persona. Unfortunately, Chevrolet didn’t like the series and fired him after the April 1st, 1934 episode. But, the General Tire Company immediately scooped him up. Benny debuted on their program the following Friday, April 6th, 1934 at 10PM. There, he first worked with announcer Don Wilson. Wilson would remain with Benny until 1965. Often the butt of weight-based jokes, Wilson’s deep belly laugh that could often be heard above the studio audience and his deep, rich voice became a show trademark. This is audio from that April 6th, 1934 episode. That summer Mary and Jack adopted their daughter Joan. She was two weeks old. Jack later said in his autobiography that as Joan grew older, she came to look like he and Mary. She had Mary’s face with Jack’s blue eyes and his love for music. Benny, Don Wilson, and Mary Livingstone worked together, along with tenor Frank Parker and orchestra leader Don Bestor on The General Tire Show until September 28th, 1934. Then, General Foods came calling. They wanted Benny’s help saving a gelatin product of theirs called Jell-O, which was getting badly beaten by Knox Gelatin in sales. On October 14th, 1934 Benny moved to Sunday nights at 7PM from NBC’s Blue Network. His rating immediately leapt into the top five. On April 7th, 1935 the show was regularly broadcast from New York for the final time. The Jell-O Program would be moving to Hollywood. Benny simultaneously made Broadway Melody of 1936 and It’s In The Air on film. Until the mid-1930s, New York and Chicago were the main broadcasting hubs. Frank Nelson remembered early Hollywood radio. Nelson began working with Benny in June of 1934. Even in 1935, it was still more costly for shows to originate from Southern California. Here’s actress Mary Jane Higby, who grew up in Los Angeles, but moved to New York in 1937, explaining why. On November 3rd, 1935 Kenny Baker joined the show as the new singer. That year, Benny’s show climbed to second overall in the ratings. The following year Benny made The Big Broadcast of 1937 on film, and on October 4th, 1936 Phil Harris debuted as the new band leader. With Phil Harris in place, Benny’s most-famous cast was taking shape.

BW - EP150: Easter Sunday 1944 Apr 16, 2024

In Breaking Walls episode 150 we parachute into Easter Sunday, 1944 for a day of radio, recollections, and reconciliation. It’s now less than two months before D-Day and U.S. citizens are awaiting word of a full-scale European invasion with held breath. —————————— Highlights: • Cracks In The Nazi Foundation • Invitation To Learning at 11:30AM • Ceiling Unlimited with Joseph Cotton at 2PM • The Life of Riley at 3PM • Bulldog Drummond at 3:30PM • The Shadow at 5:30PM • The Catholic Hour & Radio Hall of Fame at 6PM • The Great Gildersleeve at 6:30PM • Jack Benny and The Mysterious Traveler at 7PM • Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy at 8PM • Fred Allen at 9:30PM • Bob Crosby and The Thin Man at 10PM • Duke Ellington and The News at 11:15PM • Looking Ahead to Jack Benny Changing Sponsors —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material used in today’s episode was: • Treadmill to Oblivion & Much Ado About Me — By Fred Allen • Citizen Welles — By Frank Brady • On The Air — By John Dunning • Invitation To Learning — By Martin Grams Jr. • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg —————————— On the interview front: • Don Ameche, George Balzer, Jack Benny, Conrad Binyon, Himan Brown, Joseph Cotton, Shirley Mitchell, Brett Morrison, Les Tremayne, and Paula Winslowe spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear these full chats at Speakingofradio.com. • Jackson Beck, Edgar Bergen, and Hans Conreid spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org • Ralph Bell and Himan Brown spoke to SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com • Jack Kruschen and Shirley Mitchell spoke to Jim Bohannon in 1987 • Jack Benny spoke with Jack Carney • Fred Allen spoke with Tex McCrary and Jinx Falkenburg • Parker Fennelly spoke with David S. Siegel • Duke Ellington spoke with Dick Cavett —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Besame Mucho — By Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra • Danse Macabre — By Camille Saint-Saëns —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Gerrit Lane Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva John Williams Jim W. WildEyeWheel

BW - EP150—012: Easter Sunday 1944—Duke Ellington At The Hurricane Night Club On Mutual Apr 12, 2024

At 11:15PM over Mutual’s WOR in New York, Duke Ellington was on the air with music from The famous Hurricane Nightclub on 49th street and broadway in New York City. The next day, The British Royal Air Force dropped a record thirty-six hundred tons of bombs in a single raid on Germany, France and Belgium. On Tuesday April 11th, the Soviets took more northern territory in Crimea. German forces immediately began a withdrawal. That same day, the U.S. sunk a Japanese destroyer and a German submarine. One thing was clear as the calendar turned to mid-April, the Allies were piling up victories and the Axis powers knew they needed to do something to stem the turning tide of war. Although we know now that D-Day would happen in June, both sides knew a big invasion was coming. In the meantime, those people in midtown Manhattan could dance and drink the night away. After all, tomorrow is never guaranteed.

BW - EP150—011: Easter Sunday 1944—Bob Crosby And The Thin Man Apr 10, 2024

At 10:30PM eastern time on NBC’s WEAF, The Bob Crosby Show took to the air in New York with the just-heard Les Tremayne as co-host and Shirley Mitchell as the special guest. This episode’s rating was 13.8. Earlier this evening, Shirley Mitchell played Leila Ransom on NBC’s The Great Gildersleeve. Opposite The Bob Crosby Show, The Adventures of The Thin Man took to the air on CBS. Based on the 1934 film starring William Powell and Myrna Loy, both Les Tremayne and Les Damon at times co-starred with Claudia Morgan as Nick and Nora Charles. Nick Charles was a retired private eye who just couldn’t stay away from murder. The Thin Man gave its listeners all the censor would allow. Morgan cooed invitingly: she mouthed long, drawn-out kisses and kidded Nicky-darling about his outlandish pajamas. One critic strongly objected to the “oohhs” and “aahhs” and “mmmm’s’’ during kisses. But as feminine and cozy as Claudia Morgan played Nora, LIFE noted that “she can step across pools of blood with all the calm delicacy of a lady-in-waiting.” Parker Fennelly played Sheriff Ebenezer Williams. The rating for this episode was 16.1. Roughly twelve million people tuned in.

BW - EP150—010: Easter Sunday 1944—Fred Allen Solves A Mystery & Takes Time Off For Hypertension Apr 09, 2024

In the Spring of 1944, Fred Allen was finishing up his fourth season as host of The Texaco Star Theater on CBS. He’d been on the air for over a decade, but it was while he was hosting Texaco on December 6th, 1942 that Fred debuted Allen’s Alley. Allen used to read the newspaper column of O.O. McIntyre, called “Thoughts While Strolling.” McIntyre wrote about sights and sounds he’d met walking through the shabby streets of New York’s Chinatown and The Bowery. Allen felt that this kind of routine could come off very well on radio. A loud-mouth politician had possibilities. Actor Jack Smart voiced Senator Bloat. John Doe was another early character. Portrayed by John Brown, Doe was an average man squeezed by life from all angles. Alan Reed voiced Falstaff Openshaw, the poet. There was a Greek restaurant owner, an old maid, and a Russian. The segment was always launched with Portland Hoffa asking what question Alen had for the Alley occupants that week. Then they’d knock on various doors. Eventually many of these characters gave way to the most popular incarnation of the Alley with Minerva Pious’ jewish Mrs. Nussbaum, Peter Donald’s irish Ajax Cassidy, Kenny Delmare’s the Southern Senator Claghorn, and Parker Fennelly’s rural New England Titus Moody. The entire alley was allotted five minutes with laughter. Each character had seventy-five seconds for their lines. This was an issue because the program often ran overtime. It eventually caused the whole show to get cut off the air by network executives. The New York Herald-Tribune critic John Crosby later wrote that part of what made Fred's battles with censorship so difficult was that "the man assigned to review his scripts frankly admitted he didn't understand Allen's peculiar brand of humor at all." Regardless, the agency and network people couldn’t argue with Allen’s ratings. He was consistently a top-twenty show, and in April of 1944 he was being heard by more than thirteen million people. On Easter Sunday at 9:30PM New York time, his special guest was actor Reginald Gardiner. Together they presented a sketch spoofing Sherlock Holmes called Fetlock Bones. Unfortunately, the fight was getting to Fred Allen. After this season, Allen quit The Texaco Star Theater as high blood pressure forced him off the air.

BW - EP150—009: Easter Sunday 1944—Edgar Bergen And Charlie McCarthy Apr 07, 2024

Edgar Bergen first came to the attention of American audiences on Rudy Vallée’s NBC Royal Gelatin Hour on December 17th, 1936. How could ventriloquism work on radio? Perhaps Rudy Vallée himself put it best the night Bergen debuted. Five months later NBC gave Bergen his own show on Sundays at 8PM. He was an instant smash hit. Don Ameche worked with Bergen in those years. He was emcee on December 12th, 1937 when Mae West was the guest for an innuendo heavy skit called “Adam and Eve.” Over the next six seasons his show was never rated lower than fourth. Twice it was the country’s top program. On April 9th, 1944 Bergen’s rating was 27.1. Roughly twenty million people were tuned in live, coast-to-coast from WEAF in New York at 8PM eastern and 5PM pacific over KFI. This is that entire Easter Sunday broadcast.

BW - EP150—008: Easter Sunday 1944—Jack Benny's Only Pall Mall Show & The Mysterious Traveler Rides Apr 05, 2024

At 7PM eastern time over Mutual Broadcasting’s flagship WOR, The Mysterious Traveler went on the air. Written and directed by Robert Arthur and David Kogan, The Mysterious Traveler debuted on Mutual December 5th, 1943. Maurice Tarplin played the title role with a good-natured malevolence. The traveler mostly narrated from an omniscient perch. He rode a phantom train by night. The opening signature was the distant wail of a locomotive whistle, fading in gradually until the rumble of the train could be heard. David Kogan and Robert Arthur had met in Greenwich Village, New York, partnering on Mutual’s Dark Destiny. After it was canceled, they came up with the Mysterious Traveler concept and prepared three sample scripts. Norman Livingston bought it for WOR. As independent producers, they were paid a flat rate for the whole package. Any money they saved by using the same actor in multiple roles went into their own pockets, so they used the best character actors in New York. Kogan also directed the series. On Easter Sunday, episode 19, “Beware of Tomorrow,” aired just as a gloomy dusk descended upon New York. Opposite The Mysterious Traveler, The Jack Benny Program signed on live, coast-to-coast at 7PM from WEAF in New York and at 4PM from KFI in Los Angeles. By April of 1944, Benny’s writing team consisted of Sam Perrin, Milt Josefsberg, John Tackaberry, and this man, George Balzer. By the spring of 1944, General Foods had been sponsoring the program for ten years, first with Jell-O and then Grape Nuts Flakes. Benny’s ratings had quietly been slipping since 1941. At the end of this season, his contract with General Foods was up. There was tension between the two parties because Benny had helped save Jell-O from going out of business. Benny had full control of his show. NBC also guaranteed his Sunday time slot for as long as he wanted it. This position allowed Benny to sell his program to the highest bidder. George W. Hill, the President of American Tobacco, wanted Benny’s show. His chief account executive was thirty-six-year-old Pat Weaver, the future president of NBC. Benny’s management team quietly held a sealed auction for sponsorship on February 24th. A surprise winner was announced: Ruthrauff & Ryan, agency for American Tobacco’s Pall Mall cigarettes, bid twenty-five thousand dollars per-week for three thirty-five week seasons. The weekly money was payable to Benny for all payroll and production costs. They also included an additional two-hundred-thousand dollars over the three years for marketing and promotion. American Tobacco also agreed to pay for any network and carrier line charges. The advertising community was stunned. The Easter Sunday program was Pall Mall’s audition. In the end, this would be the only Jack Benny episode to have a Pall Mall commercial. Pat Weaver and George W. Hill knew no one would take Ruthrauff & Ryan’s bid for Pall Mall seriously. Had Foote, Cone & Belding, American Tobacco’s agency for its top cigarette, Lucky Strike, entered the fray, the attention would have driven up the price. The last Benny show sponsored by General Foods was June 4th, 1944. Benny took out a full page ad in Variety thanking General Foods for ten years of sponsorship. In August, he left on a three-week USO tour of Australia and the South Pacific. On August 28th, American Tobacco announced that Pall Mall’s sales didn’t justify a twenty-five thousand dollar per week expenditure. Lucky Strike would sponsor the show. The following week they announced a comprehensive, multimedia ad campaign. It was estimated to cost over a quarter million dollars. Lucky Strike would sponsor The Jack Benny Program beginning October 1st, 1944.

BW - EP150—007: Easter Sunday 1944—The Great Gildersleeve Runs For Mayor Apr 04, 2024

When we were last with Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve in episode 149 of Breaking Walls he was gearing up for his local mayoral campaign, while simultaneously struggling to break away from his ex-fiancé Leila Ransom, voiced by the just-heart Shirley Mitchell. On Easter Sunday, Gildy’s mayoral campaign for Summerfield officially began, and he went to church. This episode took to the air at 6:30PM eastern time over WEAF in New York. Its rating was 17.9. Nearly fourteen million people tuned in while having Easter Sunday dinner.

BW - EP150—006: Easter Sunday 1944—The Catholic Hour and The Radio Hall of Fame Apr 03, 2024

At 6PM over NBC’s WEAF, The Catholic Hour took to the air with an address from Monsignor Fulton J. Sheen. Fulton John Sheen was born on May 8th, 1895 in El Paso, Illinois. He was ordained a priest in 1919, quickly becoming a renowned theologian. He won the Cardinal Mercier Prize for International Philosophy in 1923 and went on to teach theology and philosophy at the Catholic University of America. Beginning in 1930, Father Sheen began a twenty-year run hosting The Catholic Hour on NBC before moving into TV to present Life is Worth Living and The Fulton Sheen Program. Twice winning an Emmy for Most Outstanding TV personality, he was also featured on the cover of TIME magazine. He was appointed an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of New York in 1951, holding the position until 1966 when he was made Bishop of Rochester. He resigned in 1969 near his seventy-fifth birthday and would live until December 9th, 1979. In 2002, twenty-two years after his death, an official cause for canonization into sainthood was opened. Pope Benedict XVI officially recognized his life of "heroic virtues." However, his 2019 beatification was postponed after the current Bishop of Rochester expressed concern that Sheen mishandled a sexual misconduct case against a priest. Although the Diocese of Peoria countered that his handling of the case had already been thoroughly investigated, as of 2024 Fulton J. Sheen’s beatification is still postponed. Opposite The Catholic Hour, The Blue Network aired The Radio Hall of Fame on WJZ. Hosted by Deems Taylor and sponsored by Philco, The Radio Hall of Fame was conceived as a weekly Academy Award of radio through Variety Magazine, focusing on that week’s hits. When it was launched in December of 1943, there was serious questioning as to whether it was proper for Variety to be so intimately involved. How could a trade paper whose business was reviewing show business enter into its production? Ben Bodec, a fifteen-year Variety reporter quit in protest, but the show went on without a hitch. It was a glittering spectacle, stars like Fred Allen, Bob Hope, Sophie Tucker, Groucho Marx, Bing Crosby, George Burns, Gracie Allen, and the Andrews Sisters all appeared. It would air until April 28th, 1946.

BW - EP150—005: Easter Sunday 1944—The Shadow Apr 02, 2024

Between 4PM and 5:30 eastern war time, NBC broadcast Easter services from the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, as well as the NBC symphony with Arturo Toscanini. CBS broadcast Orchestra music and The Family Hour. The Blue Network aired Music and the Mary Small Revue. Mutual Broadcasting’s flagship WOR aired Abe Lincoln’s Story and Green Valley, U.S.A.. At 5:30, Mutual’s most popular program took to the air. It was their only show in the top-50 and the highest-rated weekend daytime program on the air. Pulling a rating that month of 14.1, roughly eleven million people tuned it. Sponsored by Blue Coal, It starred the just-heard Brett Morrison. The show? None other than The Shadow. In this particular episode, an evil fiend uses an experimental Television device to see anything he wishes remotely. The Shadow’s powers of mesmer don’t affect a TV screen. This fiend therefore finds out the true identity of the Shadow.

BW - EP150—004: Easter Sunday 1944—Bulldog Drummond Mar 31, 2024

At 3:30PM over Mutual’s WOR in New York, Bulldog Drummond took to the air. It was directed by the just-heard Himan Brown. It starred Santos Ortega, known as Sandy to his friends. Jackson Beck was the announcer. Bulldog Drummond was a British inspector popularized in the Paramount detective films of the 1930s. It was first broadcast April 13th, 1941. It spent its entire nearly eight year run on the Mutual Broadcasting System. Opposite Bulldog Drummond, WEAF ran The Army Hour, while WJZ aired Hot Copy.

BW - EP150—003: Easter Sunday 1944—The Life Of Riley With William Bendix Mar 29, 2024

The man you just heard was radio legend Hans Conreid, known as one of the most versatile actors of the 20th century. He could adroitly handle comedy, variety, or serious drama while speaking any dialect convincingly. On April 9th 1944 at 3PM eastern time over WJZ and at 12PM pacific time on KECA, Conreid was busy playing Uncle Baxter on The Life of Riley. Created by Irving Brecher, the best-known incarnation of The Life of Riley came to the air Sunday January 16th, 1944 at 3PM eastern time over The Blue Network. It starred William Bendix as Chester A. Riley and was sponsored by The American Meat Institute. Riley was easily exasperated, but difficult to defeat. The difficulty increased by degrees with the flimsiness of Riley’s cause. Bendix came out of the New Jersey Federal Theater project, a latecomer to the profession, beginning at thirty when the grocery store he was running went out of business. His film career began in 1942. He was often the hooligan with the heart of gold. Riley was his most famous character. It co-starred the previously heard Hans Conreid as Uncle Baxter with John Brown as both Riley’s friend Gillis and the undertaker, Digger O’Dell. Paula Winslowe was Riley’s long-suffering wife Peg. Sharon Douglas was Babs and Conrad Binyon played Junior. The Life of Riley proved popular enough that in June it was moved to Sundays at 10PM. Beginning in the fall of 1945 it moved to NBC where it was a mainstay for six seasons. It peaked in 1947-48 with a rating of 20.1, good for fourteenth overall that year. A TV version debuted in October of 1949, first with Jackie Gleason as Riley and later with William Bendix playing the familiar role for five years.

BW - EP150—002: Easter Sunday 1944—Ceiling Unlimited With Joseph Cotten Mar 27, 2024

Between 12 and 2PM, news, religious, and war programming filled the radio dial. Standouts included the Salt Lake City Tabernacle Choir and Organ at noon on CBS, Soldiers of the Press at 12:30 on Mutual, and The Chicago Roundtable at 1:30 on NBC. Ceiling Unlimited began as a series of informative dramas by Orson Welles in November 1942. It was sponsored by Lockheed Vega Aircrafts and showcased aviation's role in World War II. Welles walked out in February 1943 after a blowup with one of the ad agency men. Author James Hilton took over. It became a Hollywood variety series in August 1943. Joseph Cotten hosted with Patrick McGeehan as announcer and both Connie Moore and Nan Wynn providing vocals arranged by Wilbur Hatch. This Easter episode took to the air at 2:00PM, from WABC, which at that time were still the call letters for CBS’ New York City Affiliate. The Blue Network’s New York flagship, WJZ aired Chaplain Jim U.S.A., while WEAF aired a play called “Those We Love.”

BW - EP150—001: Easter Sunday 1944—Cracks In the Nazi Foundation and Invitation To Learning Mar 26, 2024

Saturday April 8th, 1944. New York City. It’s a rainy day before Easter and World War II news is dominating consciousness. There are cracks in Germany’s foundation. On Tuesday April 4th, allied surveillance aircrafts photographed the Auschwitz concentration camp. Knowing this, the Nazis will spend the next four months using the gas chambers and incinerators to their full capacity. Twenty-thousand people could be murdered each day. The Germans have lost five u-boats in three days on both fronts while simultaneously facing heavy fighting against the Soviets in Ukraine. They’ve been repeatedly forced to retreat. On Good Friday, April 7th, Adolph Hitler suspended all law in Berlin and made Joseph Goebbels the sole administrator of the city. On this day, April 8th, The Battle of the Tennis Court began in Burma, while Soviet forces invaded Romania. At the same time, U.S. bombers shelled Brunswick. The early 1944 Bombings of German cities gave German citizens their first hard evidence that the tide of the war had turned. And everyone in Europe knew a full scale Allied western invasion was coming. Amidst the gloom, at 1:45PM from WEAF in New York, John McVane took to the air with NBC’s War Telescope looking at both war news and peacetime negotiation. Saturday’s New York Daily News reported on the U.S. navy’s recent sinking of forty-six Japanese ships, while they shot down more than two hundred planes in a three day period. Inflation hadn’t risen in an entire year, as Americans looked forward to international air travel after the war. It made for an interesting Easter Sunday forecast. ___________ It’s 11:30AM on a rainy Easter Sunday, April 9th, 1944 in New York. We’re taking a ride inside a 1942 Oldsmobile B44 coupe. There have been no new automobiles manufactured in the U.S. since February 1942. All resources have been put towards the war effort. We’ve just switched on the radio to CBS’s New York affiliate. Invitation To Learning is about to air. First taking to the air on May 26th, 1940, it was chaired by Lyman Bryson with a rotating panel. Based on a class at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Invitation To Learning was developed at the suggestion of Stringfellow Barr, school president, who also served on the CBS Adult Education board. By exploring classic literature, Barr contended that radio could be a keynote in liberal education. Three or four people had a spontaneous discussion about a particular book. For twenty-four years and more than twelve-hundred episodes, the show sparked as much debate amongst listeners and rival networks as the programs themselves. Notable guests included Norman Corwin, John Houseman, Eva LeGallienne, Herbert Hoover,, Hans Conried, and Lillian Gish. Opposite on NBC’s WEAF was a commentary from Don Hollenbeck, while Mutual’s WOR broadcast an Easter Sunrise Service from the Hollywood Bowl, and The Blue Network’s WJZ broadcast The Hour of Faith.

BW - EP149: March 1944 With The Great Gildersleeve Mar 14, 2024

In Breaking Walls episode 149 we’ll spend March of 1944 with Hal Peary and The Great Gildersleeve. —————————— Highlights: • The Men And Women On The Front Lines of War War II in March 1944 • Hal Peary and the Birth of Gildersleeve on Fibber McGee and Molly • The First Ever Sitcom Spin Off and The Great Gildersleeve Premieres • Registering To Vote • Mid March 1944 News with NBC War Telescope • Gildy Wants to Run For Mayor • The Campaign Photo • A Night In A Foxhole • Looking Ahead to Easter Sunday 1944 —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On The Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg As well as articles from: • Broadcasting Magazine • The Library of Congress • The New York Times • Radio Daily —————————— On the interview front: • Ken Carpenter, Alice Faye, Shirley Mitchell, Frank Nelson, Hal Peary, Lilian Randolph and Lurene Tuttle spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear these chats at Speakingofradio.com. • Shirley Mitchell also spoke with Jim Bohannon in 1987. • Howard Duff spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org • Don Quinn spoke with Owen Cunningham —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Besame Mucho — By Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra • Danse Macabre — By Camille Saint-Saëns —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Gerrit Lane Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva John Williams Jim W. —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

TRAILER: The Peoples Recorder Mar 13, 2024

This is the trailer for The People's Recorder (https://www.peoplesrecorder.info/). Brought to you by the award-winning Spark Media, The People's Recorder is a national podcast on the 1930s Federal Writers' Project: what it achieved, where it fell short, and what it means for Americans today. The Federal Writers' Project employed thousands of out-of-work writers across the country to document American life during a national disaster -- the Great Depression -- and “hold a mirror up to America.” What they produced was a series of state and city guidebooks and life-story interviews and recordings with everyday Americans. In creating the nation’s first self-portrait, they sparked questions about how we document history and whose stories get told. The People's Recorder takes you on a journey with the people who lived it. We explore the Project’s legacy, what it achieved, where it fell short, and what it means for Americans today. The first season of 10 episodes will take listeners on a wild ride across the country: undercover Black historians behind the frontlines of the Jim Crow South, documentarians of the Gulf Coast’s cultures, champions of indigenous history in the Midwest, and gurus of migration in the West. Episodes will drop monthly with bonus material released between each episode. You can subscribe and download anywhere you'd get a podcast.

Please Subscribe (For Free) To Breaking Walls on Youtube (Link in Notes) Mar 12, 2024

Hey everybody James Scully here, host of Breaking Walls. If you've been listening to this show for years on this RSS feed, I want you to know that you can also subscribe to the show on Youtube — https://www.youtube.com/@thewallbreakersllc. I'm asking people who listen here on the RSS feed to subscribe on Youtube because Youtube offers the easiest path to monetizing this show. I'm going to be fully transparent right now: There have been times in the history of this podcast that via RSS feed, Breaking Walls has had as many as 27000 - 30000 monthly downloads, but even with that, it's very hard to monetize the show via traditional podcast channels. However, I've been able to clear the monetization hurdles on Youtube, so please subscribe there. If you happen to listen on a computer or on a phone, I would appreciate if you listened via Youtube. I'm also going into Youtube and slowly uploading all shows from Breaking Walls' archive in individual podcast playlists on Youtube. This way, everything that for years now has fallen off the RSS feed here doesn't matter. You can get all those archived shows FREE OF CHARGE on Youtube. Your listening for free will enable me to earn money, and I'd appreciate that very much. So once again — https://www.youtube.com/@thewallbreakersllc Keep getting out there, keep breaking those walls, and I'll catch you on the flip side.

BW - EP149—006: March 1944 With The Great Gildersleeve—A Night In A Foxhole Mar 10, 2024

On Sunday, March 19th, 1944 Germany forcefully occupied Hungary to prevent the country from making a separate peace agreement with the Soviet Union. Within two days, German authorities forced all Jewish businesses to close, sending hundreds to internment camps. On March 20th, The Battle of Sangshak began in Manipur, India, while U.S. Marines landed on Emirau as part of Operation Cartwheel. The next day they linked with Australian troops on New Guinea's Huon Peninsula. On Wednesday March 22nd, the US OSS began Operation Ginny II, intending to cut German lines of communication in Italy, but once again failed when the team landed in the wrong place and were captured. Volcanic rock of all sizes from Mount Vesuvius began raining down from the sky, forcing massive evacuations. German soldiers killed several civilians in Montaldo, Italy who were part of an Italian resistance group. The next day the group planted a bomb, killing thirty-three SS members in Rome. The Nazis swiftly retaliated, killing three-hundred-thirty-five people accused of helping the cause. Meanwhile, allied forces withdrew from Monte Cassino and the offensive was called off in favor of Operation Strangle, a series of air maneuvers aimed to cut German supplies from the Italian front. That Friday, March 24th, 1944, the Mutual Broadcasting System broadcast a special recording made by marine Technical Sergeants Fred Welker and Keene Hepburn. During the early part of the war Dr. Harold Spivack, Chief of the Music Division of the Library of Congress, and Brigadier General Robert Denig, wartime director of Marine Corps public information, formulated a plan to give a few Marines recording devices to take into the field so the public at large would understand what these men were experiencing. Recordings began in late 1943.

BW - EP149—005: March 1944 With The Great Gildersleeve—The Campaign Photo, 03/26/1944 Mar 08, 2024

By Sunday March 26th, 1944, with Easter only two weeks away, Gildy had decided to run for mayor. Naturally, he needed a good campaign photo to go with it. By this time, Peary had become a film star, starring as Gildersleeve in both shorts and feature-length films.

BW - EP149—004: March 1944 With The Great Gildersleeve—Gildy Wants To Run For Mayor Mar 06, 2024

As the first day of Spring approached, Gildersleeve contemplated running for Mayor of Summerfield on March 19th. Shirley Mitchell voiced Leila Ransom. Ken Carpenter, by then a famous announcer, was the Kraft spokesperson.

BW - EP149—003: March 1944 With The Great Gildersleeve—Mid-March News With NBC's War Telescope Mar 04, 2024

On Wednesday March 15th, 1944 during battle, the allies dropped nearly one-thousand tons of bombs and two hundred thousand rounds of artillery on the Monte Cassino Monastery, while trying to storm the building. They were unable to dislodge the Germans. The allies were having more success sinking submarines. Over the next forty-eight hours Allied forces sank one Japanese and three German subs. On Thursday at a National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics seminar in Washington, D.C., NACA personnel suggested a jet-propelled airplane be developed. On Friday the 17th Mount Vesuvius erupted, destroying nearly ninety American aircraft and displacing twelve-thousand italians, while Soviet forces took Dubno and Zhmerynka. The Soviets were set to begin their third Narva Offensive on Saturday as German soldiers began massacring people in both Romania and Italy. The Germans were facing heavy bombing at home, and all of Europe knew an allied invasion was coming. NBC’s War Telescope took to the air over WEAF in New York at 1:45PM.

BW - EP149—002: March 1944 with The Great Gildersleeve—Registering To Vote Mar 02, 2024

By December of 1941 The Great Gildersleeve was such a hit that Kraft ordered thirteen weeks of repeats for eight more west-coast NBC stations to air Thursdays at 6:30PM beginning in January. The program would now air on sixty total NBC stations. Summerfield was a pleasant slice of rural Americana. Most of the action took place in an eight-block area. There was a city park with an old-fashioned bandstand and a large reservoir that would soon come to play a major role. On October 18th, 1942 Gildersleeve would be appointed water commissioner, beginning an illustrious career that might be described as doing nothing at all. The Great Gildersleeve’s rating cracked the top fifty in the first year. It rose to twenty-fourth in 1943, and by November it was pulling an 18.1. In the middle of March 1944 it was up to 19 points, good for fifth overall on Sundays. On March 12th at 6:30PM eastern time, The Great Gildersleeve took to the air with an episode on the importance of registering to vote. In his early twenties, Walter Tetley was already a radio veteran, having worked on The Children’s Hour, The Fred Allen Show, Raising Junior, and many other programs. As Leroy, he was a perfect deflater of Gildy’s tender ego. "Are you kiddin’?” he would snarl, bringing out the inevitable Gildersleeve retort—“Leee-eee-roy!” To Leroy, Gildy was simply “Unk,” a guy whose performance was usually out-stripped by his intentions. "What a character!” Leroy would bleat as he caught his uncle in the fib of the week. He later worked with Phil Harris and Alice Faye. By 1944, then thirty-seven, Lurene Tuttle was one of the most versatile actresses on the air, capable of playing any part that required any age, and almost any dialect. Lilian Randolph played Birdie Lee Coggins, housekeeper and voice of reason. Of note, this recording came courtesy of the Armed Forces Radio Service. At this time, Howard Duff, still an unknown actor, was working for the AFRS and recutting many shows to get them on the air for enlisted servicemen around the world.

BW - EP149—001: March 1944 with The Great Gildersleeve—The First Ever Comedy Sitcom Spin Off Feb 29, 2024

Hal Peary was born Harrold José de Faria to Portuguese parents on July 25th, 1908. He was fourteen when, in January of 1923, he made his radio debut on KZM in Oakland. By the late 1920s he was working for NBC in San Francisco. Migrating to Chicago in 1937, he soon became one of radio’s insiders, gaining a reputation as a top utility man. In 1937 he joined the cast of Fibber McGee and Molly playing every kind of bit part imaginable. In the late 1930s, Peary approached McGee’s head writer Don Quinn with an idea for a recurring role. He wanted to play a pompous windbag who himself ran the biggest bluff in Wistful Vista. He thought it would be the perfect foil for McGee. Quinn was the kind of man who innately understood how to write for radio. For Quinn it was simply a matter of creating Throckmorton Gildersleeve, moving him to 83 Wistful Vista, and letting the fur fly. Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve’s first appearance was on September 26th, 1939. Quinn knew the value of sarcasm in comedy. It was also later revealed that Gildersleeve’s middle name was “Philharmonic.” By 1941 the character proved so popular that it was decided to spin Gildersleeve off into its own show. An audition was recorded on May 16th. Peary’s last regular appearance on Fibber McGee and Molly was on June 24th in a memorable scene. McGee and Molly are headed to Hollywood for the summer. Oddly enough by the time they got back, it was Gildersleeve who’d permanently departed from Wistful Vista. Tragically, Gildersleeve’s sister and brother-in-law were killed in a car accident and he needed to go to Summerfield to oversee their estate and raise his orphaned niece and nephew, Marjorie and Leroy Forrester. He left on August 8th, 1941, creating with him a new American concept: the sitcom spinoff. The show premiered at 2:30PM Pacific Time over KFI in Los Angeles, and at 6:30PM Eastern Time over WEAF in New York. Kraft would sponsor the series. They signed on for thirty-nine weeks over twenty-eight NBC Red Network stations. Gildersleeve’s first head writer was Leonard Levinson. The character’s long-running feud with Judge Hooker began right from this first train ride. Music was done by William Randolph’s orchestra. Cecil Underwood produced the show and Jim Bannon announced. Radio legend Frank Nelson, then on twenty-nine, provided multiple supporting parts in this episode. Walter Tetley played Leroy and Lurene Tuttle played Marjorie.

BW - EP148: February 1944 With Bob Hope Feb 18, 2024

In Breaking Walls episode 148 we spend February of 1944 with America’s top comedian, Bob Hope, as he whisks himself around the country, entertaining troops and broadcasting to the masses. —————————— Highlights: • Leslie Townes Hope’s Rise to Stardom • Broadway and Early Radio Shows • The Big Broadcast of 1938 • The Pepsodent Program • Early February 1944 World War II News • NBC Dominates Tuesday Nights in 1944 • Bob with Guest Ginger Rogers • The 4th War Bond Drive • Command Performance with Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, and Judy Garland • Mid February World News Roundup • Bob with Guest Bing Crosby • Bob with Guest Carole Landis • News as we Leave February • Bob Gets Sick, Is Honored by The Academy • Looking Ahead to March with The Great GIldersleeve —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On The Air — By John Dunning • Bob Hope: The Road Well-Traveled — By Lawrence J. Quirk • The Spirit of Bob Hope: One Hundred Years, One Million Laughs — By Richard Grudens • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg • Bob Hope: The Road from Eltham — By Charles Thompson As well as articles from: • Aces of World War II • Broadcasting Magazine • The Military Times • Radio Daily • The Seattle Times —————————— On the interview front: • Bob Hope was with both Dick Cavett in 1972 and Johnny Carson in 1974. • Ken Carpenter, Jim Jordan, Hariet Nelson, Wendell Niles, Hal Peary, and Lurene Tuttle spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear these chats at Speakingofradio.com • Jim Jordan also spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org • Red Skelton spoke with Merv Griffin in 1975 • Bing Crosby spoke with Same Time, Same Station —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Thanks For the Memory — By Bob Hope and Shirley Ross • Ghost Bus Tours — By George Fenton —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. An extra special thanks to Doug Hopkinson who provided the Bob Hope episode with Bing Crosby that aired February 15th, 1944. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Gerrit Lane Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva John Williams Jim W. —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

BW - EP148—012: February 1944 With Bob Hope—Looking Ahead to The Great Gildersleeve Feb 17, 2024

Well, that brings our look at Bob Hope’s career in February of 1944 to a close. We’ll be staying in 1944 the remainder of the year and next month we’ll spend March 1944 with a program considered to be the first spin-off in sitcom history. Next time on Breaking Walls we spotlight Hal Peary and The Great Gildersleeve, which between February and March of 1944 pulled a rating of nineteen points, making it the most-listened to show airing at 6:30PM in radio history. The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On The Air — By John Dunning • Bob Hope: The Road Well-Traveled — By Lawrence J. Quirk • The Spirit of Bob Hope: One Hundred Years, One Million Laughs — By Richard Grudens • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg • Bob Hope: The Road from Eltham — By Charles Thompson As well as articles from: • Aces of World War II • Broadcasting Magazine • The Military Times • Radio Daily • The Seattle Times —————————— On the interview front: • Bob Hope was with both Dick Cavett in 1972 and Johnny Carson in 1974. • Ken Carpenter, Jim Jordan, Hariet Nelson, Wendell Niles, Hal Peary, and Lurene Tuttle spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear these chats at Speakingofradio.com • Jim Jordan also spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org • Red Skelton spoke with Merv Griffin in 1975 • Bing Crosby spoke with Same Time, Same Station —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Thanks For the Memory — By Bob Hope and Shirley Ross • Ghost Bus Tours — By George Fenton —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. An extra special thanks to Doug Hopkinson who provided the Bob Hope episode with Bing Crosby that aired February 15th, 1944. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Gerrit Lane Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva John Williams Jim W. —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

BW - EP148—011: February 1944 With Bob Hope—Hope Gets Sick, Is Honored By Academy Awards Feb 15, 2024

On February 29th, 1944 Bob Hope was supposed to be in Mobile, Alabama for the first leg of a tour. He was unfortunately grounded by a cold. Instead, he broadcast his portion of the show from Hollywood, while the cast broadcast from Mobile. Once able to travel, Hope met his crew in transit, but not before being given a special award for his many services to the Academy at the March 2nd, 1944 Oscars. The Hope show’s itinerary included the Annual White House Correspondents dinner for President Roosevelt on March 4th. On March 7th, the cast would be in Miami; On March 14th in Jacksonville; On March 21st in Macon, Georgia; On March 25th a special from the Cleveland Canteen; and on March 28th, they’d be in Colorado Springs.

BW - EP148—010: February 1944 With Bob Hope—World War II News As We Leave February Feb 13, 2024

On Friday February 25th, 1944 "Big Week," the allies six-day strategic bombing campaign against the Third Reich ended with a successful bombing of German cities Rostock and Augsburg, as well as several Dutch cities near the German border. Unfortunately, many civilians were killed or left homeless. The Germans also lost more than three-hundred-fifty aircrafts, and most importantly, more than one-hundred pilots. Meanwhile two large Japanese ships were torpedoed, killing five-thousand Japanese soldiers, but also thirty-five hundred Japanese laborers and hundreds of allied POWs. On Saturday the 26th, more than six-hundred Soviet bombers raided Helsinki. That day at 1:45 PM, NBC’s War Telescope signed on at 1:45PM eastern time. With the U.S. congress squabbling, Europe looked on. On Sunday February 27th, The U.S. Office of Strategic Services began Operation Ginny I with the objective of blowing up railway tunnels in Italy to cut German lines of communication. The mission failed when the OSS team landed in the wrong place and couldn’t locate the tunnel. That same day, the Soviets massacred more than seven-hundred villagers in Chechnya they deemed non transportable. On Monday the 28th, the German 14th Army mounted new attacks against the U.S. VI Corps at Anzio, while also massacring roughly one thousand ethnic Poles in the village of Huta Pieniacka. Although the tide of war was slowly turning, there were atrocities and accidents on both sides, and neither the Allies or the Axis was fighting a pristine campaign. Regardless, Europe understood that in a post war world, if victory was achieved, the U.S. needed to be a main part of whatever League of Nations could be built after, while the U.S. didn’t yet fully grasp just how much responsibility the country would have in rebuilding Europe.

BW - EP148—009: February 1944 With Bob Hope—The Bob Hope Show with Guest Carole Landis 2/22/1944 Feb 11, 2024

On Tuesday February 22nd, 1944 The Bob Hope Show took to the air with a special broadcast for the Coast Guard. The guest was Carole Landis. Hope’s radio cast from this era is his most famous. Along with Jerry Colona and songstress Frances Langford, the squeaky, man-crazed Vera Vague, voiced by Barbara Jo Allen was tremendous. Blanche Stewart and Elvia Allman played high-society nitwits Brenda and Cobina, modeled after real-life socialites Brenda Frazier and Cobina Wright Jr. Wright filed suit but settled, Hope remembered, when he invited her on the show as a guest. Wendell Niles was often Hope’s announcer for Pepsodent.

BW - EP148—008: February 1944 With Bob Hope—The Bob Hope Show With Guest Bing Crosby 2/15/1944 Feb 09, 2024

On February 15th, 1944 Bob Hope broadcast his program from Santa Ana’s Classification Center. His guest of honor was none other than good friend Bing Crosby. In February of 1944 Frances Langford was twenty-eight years old. She grew up in Florida, and originally trained as an opera singer. A tonsillectomy changed her range and she instead shifted her vocal approach to a more contemporary big band, popular music style. As a teenager, cigar manufacturer Eli Witt heard her sing at an American Legion party and hired her to sing on a local radio show he sponsored. In 1931 Langford moved to Hollywood, appearing on Louella Parsons' radio show. She was soon heard by Rudy Vallée, and in 1935 she made her film debut in Every Night at Eight. That year she became a regular performer on Dick Powell's radio show, which Bob Hope joined in 1937. When The Pepsodent Program launched in 1938 she began a long term engagement with Hope. In February of 1944 Hope, Crosby, and Dorothy Lamour were wrapping filming of Road To Utopia, the fourth in their series of Road To films. Written by Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, the film is about two vaudeville performers at the turn of the twentieth century who go to Alaska to make their fortune. Along the way they find a map to a secret gold mine. While shooting wrapped in 1944, the film wasn’t released until February 27th, 1946. Its screenplay was nominated for an Academy Award the next year.

BW - EP148—007: February 1944 With Bob Hope—Mid February World War II News Feb 07, 2024

The week of February 13th, 1944 began with the Allies raiding Hong Kong and giving supplies to French resistance fighters. The next day a British submarine sank a German u-boat in a rare Pacific theater battle involving Germans. On Tuesday the 15th, the Soviets began their first offensive in the Battle of Narva while a Japanese cruiser was torpedoed by a U.S. submarine. By the middle of the week the Battle of the Korsun–Cherkassy Pocket ended in a Soviet victory with German forces fleeing for their lives, while American forces launched Operation Hailstone, a massive attack against a Japanese naval and air base in the Caroline Islands. As that was happening the U.S. scored an important victory against Japan in The Battle of Karavia Bay. Simultaneously, eight-hundred allied planes raided Berlin. The Germans would counter two days later by shelling London in the heaviest bombing of the British capital since 1941. This helped lead to NBC’s War Telescope news program on Saturday February 19th, entitled “Britain is a Fortress.” It took to the air at 1:45PM from WEAF in New York. The lieutenant Elmer Peterson interviewed was James Forrest Luma, born on August 27th, 1922 in Helena, Montana. At eighteen he was too young to enter flight training for the U.S., so he signed up for the Royal Canadian Air Force and was sent to England. A month after this broadcast, Lieutenant Luma was involved with only one other pilot in an air raid that saw three German planes shot down and seventeen others retreat in flames. Overall, he shot down five enemy planes in combat and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his efforts. Later this year, he was transferred to a U.S. Army Air Forces Squadron, serving until July of 1945. James Luma lived to be ninety-six, passing away February 4th, 2019, just shy of seventy-five years to the date of giving this interview to Elmer Peterson. The day after this broadcast, The Allies launched "Big Week", a six-day strategic bombing campaign against the Third Reich, while Erwin Rommel completed a four-day inspection tour of Germany's Atlantic Wall which stretched from Southern France all the way to Northern Norway. He reported to Hitler that the German coastal defenses were up to all requirements, but the Germans knew that the day of a full scale western European invasion by the allied powers was coming.

BW - EP148—006: February 1944 With Bob Hope—Command Performance with Frank Sinatra & Judy Garland Feb 05, 2024

On Saturday February 12th, 1944, Ken Carpenter was announcer for a Command Performance guest-starring Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, and Judy Garland. Hope had just co-hosted, with Bing Crosby, a pro-amateur golf charity event. Bob Hope did his first remote broadcast from March Field on May 6th, 1941. Initially reluctant to leave the studio, the roar of laughter and applause from that first crowd was so loud, he would recall, that he “got goose pimples” during the broadcast. He was hooked. He spent most of the next seven years on the road, broadcasting from bases, camps, and hospitals. The cast was put on alert, ready to go at the drop of a hat. Frances Langford was given 24-hour notice to “hop a bomber” for Alaska in 1943. They hit one-hundred camps that year, in addition to their weekly radio show. They also went to Europe, doing a show at Messina just after the enemy had fled the town and was still bombarding the area with its artillery. This year, 1944, on a trip to the South Pacific, Hope’s plane had to make a crash landing in Australia. John Steinbeck wrote of Hope, “It is impossible to see how he can do so much, can cover so much ground, can work so hard, and can be so effective.” Newsweek called it “the biggest entertainment giveaway in history.” Many times Hope appeared on Command Performance, broadcast over the Armed Forces Radio Service. Ken Carpenter recalled those shows.

BW - EP148—005: February 1944 With Bob Hope—Red Skelton, Words at War, & the 4th War Bond Drive Feb 03, 2024

After Bob Hope’s program signed off at 10:30PM eastern war time, The Red Skelton Show signed on. It debuted on Tuesday October 7th, 1941. By February of 1944 it was pulling a rating of 29.9. Ozzie and Harriet Nelson were heavily featured. Skelton was so supercharged that he couldn’t do a pre-show warm up. It left his audience exhausted and practically catatonic during the main show. So Skelton reversed the formula and gave his fans an after-show. Among his peers it was considered the hottest comedy act in town. Lurene Tuttle, who later appeared with Ozzie and Harriet on their own show, also starred on The Red Skelton Show. For three seasons Skelton’s popularity soared, but then he got divorced and lost his marriage deferment. The army drafted Skelton 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. Skelton’s last radio program was on D-Day, June 6th, 1944. The next day he was formally inducted as a private. Without its star, the program was discontinued until he could come back from the war. Words at War was an anthology of war stories, “told by the men and women who have seen them happen.” It was produced in cooperation with the Council on Books in Wartime, promising “stories of the battlefronts, of behind-the scenes diplomacy, of underground warfare, of the home front, of action on the seas.” Each show was to be “a living record of this war and the things for which we fight.” First taking to the air on June 24th, 1943 from New York, it was praised by Variety as “one of the most outstanding programs in radio”; by the New York Times as the “boldest, hardest-hitting program of 1944”; and by Newsweek as “one of the best contributions to serious commercial radio in many a year.” Despite airing at 11:30PM on Tuesdays, Words at War stimulated conversation and controversy throughout its two-year run. On Tuesday, February 8th 1944 a story on George Washington Carver was broadcast. When Words At War signed off at midnight, NBC broadcast a ninety minute program for the fourth war bond drive. It was part of an extended effort to raise funds. The night prior at midnight, Ben Grauer hosted this show over NBC.

BW - EP148—004: February 1944 With Bob Hope—The Bob Hope Show With Guest Ginger Rogers 2/8/1944 Feb 01, 2024

On Tuesday February 8th, 1944 at 10 PM eastern time over WEAF, and at 7PM pacific time over KFI, Bob Hope’s Pepsodent Program signed on live, coast-to-coast from Oceanside, California. The guest was Ginger Rogers, the program features a salute to her new film, Lady In The Dark. It was radio’s top show, pulling a rating that month of 36.2. Nearly twenty-eight million people heard this show, which is even more impressive when you consider how many were overseas fighting World War II. Hope’s top sidekick was Jerry Colonna, perhaps the wildest comic presence on 1940s radio. Colonna had once been a serious trombonist, playing with Goodman, Shaw, and the Dorseys: now he infused Hope’s program with verbal and vocal mayhem. He sported a four-inch walrus mustache and had a comedy style that blew away any attempt at logic. As soon as Colonna began walking to the microphone, the studio audience warned listeners with laughter.” Hope later wrote, there were two sides to Colonna’s persona: “One is the zany, silly moron, and the other is the deep thinking, serious moron.” His songstress was the immensely talented Frances Langford, equally adept at both comedy and drama. But, Hope was the star. As the late John Dunning once said, No one had ever told jokes quite like Bob Hope. His monologues were rapid-fire blasts of comedy, extremely topical and wildly appreciated by his live audience. Radio Life wrote, “Hope tells a gag in three lines. He’ll work for an hour on a one-word change. By the time he goes on the air, he knows his gags by heart.” He employed a team of twelve writers in three, two-man teams. Each were assigned to write the show’s three sections. First came the monologue; then a midshow routine with Colonna or another member of the regular cast; and finally, a sketch for the guest star. It was a true test of endurance. Hope demanded long rehearsals, including a sixty-minute runthrough with a live audience. He’d stand at the microphone, highlighting his script where the big laughs came. When you consider that Hope’s weekly audience was more than each of the first two Super Bowls, it’s easier to understand his point of view. The biggest problem with Hope, said producer Al Capstaff in 1945, was his inevitable tendency to pack the script. It was always thirty-seven minutes long and had to be whittled down joke by joke until only the surefire material remained. The result on the air was a breathless gush, with six laughs a minute guaranteed. But, that was Hope. Even in his 1972 Dick Cavett interview which has been featured throughout this episode of Breaking Walls, an off-the-cuff Hope can’t help but pack one-liner after one-liner in the midst of a genuine, serious, conversation. The Pepsodent Program was enhanced by Hope’s film career. By February of 1944 Hope had starred in seventeen films since the release of The Big Broadcast of 1938, including the first three Road To films with Bing Crosby.

BW - EP148—003: February 1944 With Bob Hope—NBC Dominates Tuesday Ratings Jan 31, 2024

If you’d have tuned your radio to NBC’s New York flagship, WEAF, at 7:30 PM on Tuesday February 8th, 1944 you’d have heard Ronald Coleman host the Autolite Sponsored, Everything For the Boys. The guest star was Greer Garson. NBC owned the ratings on Tuesdays with six of the top seven shows. Opposite of Everything For The Boys, CBS ran a concert, WOR-Mutual ran news, and WJZ of the Blue Network ran The Girl Back Home. “Barkley Square” is a fantasy play about a man who desires so much to go back in time that he somehow achieves it. At 8:00PM, The Ginny Simms Show took to the air. That month, the show’s rating was 14.6. Roughly eleven million people tuned in. Opposite, CBS aired Big Town, WOR aired The Black Castle, while WJZ aired news. At 8:30 NBC aired A Date With Judy, a female-driven situation comedy starring Louise Erickson. Opposite CBS ran The Judy Canova Show, while WJZ aired Duffy’s Tavern and WOR ran the quiz show, Battle of the Boroughs. This was the most competitive time slot as far as ratings went. In February A Date With Judy pulled a 9.6, while The Judy Canova Show pulled a 12.6, and Duffy’s Tavern had a 14.6. Louise Erickson was three weeks shy of her sixteenth birthday. She held the role until 1949. The series was popular enough that, in response, CBS developed Meet Corliss Archer. After The Molle Mystery Theater aired at 9 PM, the three top-rated shows on radio aired in succession, beginning with the just-heard Jim Jordan co-starring in Fibber McGee and Molly. The February 8th episode was called “Homemade Ice Cream” and had a rating of 35.7. More than twenty-seven million people tuned in. After Fibber McGee and Molly signed off, Bob Hope’s Pepsodent Program signed on at 10PM.

BW - EP148—002: February 1944 With Bob Hope—Early February World War II News Jan 29, 2024

As February 1944 got underway the Soviet Leningrad Front was fighting a heavy ground war against the German eighteenth army in Estonia. The battle would last the entire month with the Soviet’s eventually winning. French Resistance unified under the French Forces of the Interior. The Germans won the Battle of Cisterna in Italy against the Allied army, but at that point, four months before the Normandy invasion, the Allies kept pushing into Italy. Meanwhile, the Battle of the Admin Box began in the Burma campaign with Japanese forces attempting to counter-attack an Allied offensive, trying to draw Allied reserves from the Central Front in Assam, where the Japanese were preparing their own major offense. On the morning of Saturday February 5th, 1944 at 7AM eastern war time, the NBC World News Roundup signed on from WEAF in New York. On the date of this broadcast, Allied powers were slowly inching into western Europe with the body count mounting, while Soviet forces captured cities in Ukraine. Overnight on February 6th into the 7th Soviet bombers attacked Helsinki, the heaviest bombing of the Finnish capital since the war began. Meanwhile, a growing border issue between Poland and Russia caused President Roosevelt to step in, Asking Stalin not to allow it to undermine future international co-operation. Roosevelt proposed that the Polish Prime Minister accept the desired territorial changes and then be allowed to alter the makeup of his government without any evidence of foreign pressure. Wartime needs stretched agricultural production. The U.S. not only had to feed its own civilian and military population, but many of the Allies relied on America’s bread basket. In addition, German U-boats sank hundreds of food-laden ships bound for Britain. Canned fruits and vegetables were rationed starting March 1st, 1943. Less canned goods meant less civilian tin use and less strain on the heavily taxed rail and road systems. Even as early as 1941, civilians were encouraged to grow their own produce to supplement their food. These were referred to as Victory Gardens. The Department of Agriculture produced pamphlets to guide urban and suburban gardeners. Magazines and newspapers published helpful articles, and patriotic posters urged participation. In the Pacific northwest state of Oregon, wartime farm labor shortages led to the creation of the U.S. Crop Corps in 1943. It umbrellaed labor services like the Women's Land Army and the Victory Farm Volunteers. The latter was a group that got parental consent to employ youths aged eleven to seventeen. Migrant workers from Mexico also helped, made possible thanks to the joint U.S./Mexican "Bracero Program." By 1944 farmers could request help from POW laborers held at Oregon Army camps. More than thirty-five-hundred prisoners, mostly Germans, worked in Oregon fields.

BW - EP148—001: February 1944 With Bob Hope—Hope's Rise To Top Star Jan 29, 2024

He was born Leslie Townes Hope on May 29th, 1903 in Eltham, England. The fifth of seven sons, his parents were William Henry Hope, a stonemason from Somerset, and Welsh mother Avis, a light opera singer who later worked as a cleaner. The family eventually moved to Bristol for a time before emigrating to the U.S. aboard the SS Philadelphia, passing through Ellis Island on March 30th, 1908, before settling in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned pocket money by singing, dancing, and performing, winning a prize in 1915 for his impersonation of Charlie Chaplin. In December 1920, Hope and his brothers became U.S. citizens when their British parents became naturalized Americans. The next year, he was assisting his brother with the electric company when a horrific accident crushed his face. The reconstruction of which led to his distinctive appearance. In the 1920s Hope formed a dance act called the "Dancemedians" with George Byrne and the Hilton Sisters, conjoined twins who performed a tap-dancing routine on the vaudeville circuit. He acted in a double with Byrne, eventually making his way to New York. The act flopped, pushing Hope to strike out on his own, changing his first name to Bob in 1929. He spent five years on the Vaudeville circuit, failing an RKO screen test in 1930, but he broke out on Broadway, first in Ballyhoo of 1932, and then opposite Tamara Drasin and Fred MacMurray in Roberta, which played two-hundred ninety-four times between November of 1933 and July of 1934. Meanwhile in 1932, he appeared on Major Bowes’ Capitol Family Hour and later on Rudy Vallee’s Fleischmann Yeast Hour on June 3rd, 1933 alongside Jimmy Wallington. In 1933 he married his vaudeville partner Grace Troxell. They divorced the next year and Hope was soon with another performer, Dolores Reade. Though they spent the rest of their lives together, and Hope was notoriously unfaithful, a legal record of their marriage is vague at best. The couple would eventually adopt four children. In 1934 Hope signed a six-short contract with Educational Pictures. Radio soon followed. By then, he’d developed performing chops so strong, he could sing, dance, or act in any number of ways. On Friday January 4th, 1935 over NBC’s Blue Network, he debuted in The Intimate Review. This first series was short-lived: ratings were mediocre, but Hope found his first radio foil, comedienne Patricia Wilder, who, with her thick southern accent, went by Honey Chile. The Intimate Review went off the air in April, but on September 14th, 1935, Hope was back on radio over CBS with The Atlantic Family. While he was on for CBS in 1936, Hope starred on Broadway in Ziegfeld’s Follies with Fanny Brice; and in Cole Porter’s Red, Hot, and Blue, with Ethel Merman and Jimmy Durante. The next May 9th, 1937, Hope was back on radio for NBC’s Blue Network on Sundays at 9PM with The Rippling Rhythm Revue. During this run Paramount beckoned: The Big Broadcast of 1938 was to begin filming, and Hope was offered a part. He moved to Hollywood, continuing his monologues by transcontinental wire. The Rippling Rhythm Revue was canceled in September, but three months later Hope joined The Dick Powell Variety Show on December 29th, 1937. The Big Broadcast of 1938 was released on February 11th, and suddenly, Hope was a huge star. On Tuesday, September 27th, 1938 at 10PM, The Pepsodent Show took to the air. That first season, Hope’s 15.4 rating was good enough for twelfth overall. In 1939 he was up to 23.1 and fifth. In 1941 his rating was 26.6 and fourth, and finally in 1942 his Crossley rating cracked thirty points, while his Hooper cracked forty. Hope soon began a five year run as radio’s top comedian.

BW - EP147: The Launch Of The CBS Radio Mystery Theater (1974) Jan 29, 2024

In Breaking Walls episode 147 we go into the studio with Himan Brown for the CBS radio drama relaunch in 1974. —————————— Highlights: • First a January 1974 World News Roundup • Himan Brown’s Big Idea to Relaunch Radio Drama on CBS in 1974 • Tuning Into January 8, 1974’s Episode of The CBS Radio Mystery Theater • Mason Adams in I Warn You Three Times • January 13, 1974 World News Roundup — Nixon Still On Hot Seat • Producing The CBS Radio Mystery Theater With The New York Radio Crew • Dead For a Dollar • The CBS Radio Mystery Theater Beyond January 1974 • Looking Ahead to February by Looking Back to Bob Hope —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On The Air — By John Dunning • The CBS Radio Mystery Theater, An Episode Guide and Handbook to Nine Years of Broadcasting — By Gordon Payton and Martin Grams, Jr. As well as articles from: • The Cleveland Plain Dealer —————————— On the interview front: • Himan Brown, Larry Haines, Mary Jane Higby, Joseph Julian, and E.G. Marshall spoke with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org • Joan Banks and George Petrie were with SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com • Mason Adams spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear these chats at Speakingofradio.com —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • January Stars — By George Winston • Amid Flowers, Beside the River, Under a Spring Moon — By Elizabeth Hainen • Perfida — By Jimmy Dorsey And His Orchestra —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Gerrit Lane Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva John Williams Jim W. —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

BW - EP147—009: The Launch of the CBS Radio Mystery Theater—No Hiding Place Jan 15, 2024

This is the fifth episode of The CBS Radio Mystery Theater. Entitled "No Hiding Place," it was written by longtime writer of The Shadow, Sidney Slon. It stars Larry Haines, Jackson Beck, Anne Meacham, Sidney Walker and Tom Keena. The Plot: Charles Powel, executive vice president of a large company and engaged to the boss’ daughter, seems to have everything going for him. But Clint Livets, who knows the secret of Charles’ past, shows up with a dirty hand and blackmail on his mind.

BW - EP147—008: The Launch Of The CBS Radio Mystery Theater—Looking Ahead To 1944 With Bob Hope Jan 11, 2024

Well, that brings our look at the launch of The CBS Radio Mystery Theater to a close. We’ve spent the past five months making our way forward in time from 1957, to 1963, to 1973, and finally 1974. But, next month on Breaking Walls we’ll head back to the middle of radio’s golden age and focus on one of the most successful comedians of all-time. Next time on Breaking Walls, it’s February of 1944 and between entertaining troops, smashing box office numbers, and notoriously carousing, the man jokingly referred to by friend Bing Crosby as “ol trowel nose,” Bob Hope, is radio’s top comedian. For the first time in six years of Breaking Walls episodes, we’ll focus on the man who always reminded us to say, thanks for the memories. The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On The Air — By John Dunning • The CBS Radio Mystery Theater, An Episode Guide and Handbook to Nine Years of Broadcasting — By Gordon Payton and Martin Grams, Jr. As well as articles from: • The Cleveland Plain Dealer —————————— On the interview front: • Himan Brown, Larry Haines, Mary Jane Higby, Joseph Julian, and E.G. Marshall spoke with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org • Joan Banks and George Petrie were with SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com • Mason Adams spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear these chats at Speakingofradio.com —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • January Stars — By George Winston • Amid Flowers, Beside the River, Under a Spring Moon — By Elizabeth Hainen • Perfida — By Jimmy Dorsey And His Orchestra —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva John Williams Jim W. ——————————

BW - EP147—007: The Launch Of The CBS Radio Mystery Theater—The CBSRMT Beyond 1974 Jan 09, 2024

Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 28th, 1974 — CBS 'Theater's' Brown Burns about Serling "I'm proud of every minute we're on the air...and I'll stand up for every single show I do." Speaking of The CBS Radio Mystery Theater was Himan Brown, executive producer of the nationwide show that premiered January 6th and has garnered good ratings. His comments were the beginning of a rebuttal to negative remarks made about the show and The Zero Hour on these pages June 16th by Rod Serling, who narrated the latter program, which was dropped by Mutual last Friday. Brown burned. “My stories have complete relevancy to all that's going on now--exorcism, reincarnation--all stories of the moment. We're doing contemporary stories with the best writers and actors in the business. I think radio drama, contrary to what Serling says, is here forever and a day--and never will be off the networks again." Serling has written TV shows, movies, and books, but his only previous radio drama was written while he was a summer replacement at WLW in Cincinnati. "It’s all sour grapes. Serling's relationship to radio has been a total failure," Brown said. “His criticism of his own show is a complete slur of his own integrity, because in the past he lent his narrative name or talents to what he wrote. The implication is that he was much involved with the stories on The Zero Hour and that's a fake.” Brown believes in Mystery Theater with all his heart. “It took me fifteen years to sell it, but it's been a happy fulfillment." The show has gone so well that Brown has a verbal renewal to go into a second year. He wouldn't discuss it, but Brown admitted that he has packaged a two-hour weekly Sunday drama series for CBS Radio that would debut early next year. Getting back to Mystery Theater, Brown admitted that he can't bat one-thousand on the series. "But I'll bat eight-hundred." He produces, directs, edits scripts, casts the shows and signs the checks. “The show has gone far beyond anything I ever hoped for. People are listening seven nights a week. The minute we put on the first repeats, the stations' switchboards lit up.” The first year's contract calls for one-hundred ninety-five new shows and one-hundred seventy repeats. Usually produced in New York, the program will invade Hollywood for talent there for the recording of eight mysteries, beginning August 5th. Born in Manhattan and with degrees from City College of New York and Brooklyn Law School--although he has never practiced law--Brown moved into TV production when radio drama fell by the wayside some fifteen years ago. Now, with The CBS Radio Mystery Theater, he's back home. "It's the greatest homecoming a man could possibly want." — Raymond P. Hart Although Rod Serling was disappointed with Mutual broadcasting’s treatment of The Zero Hour, as covered in the previous episode of Breaking Walls, in 1974 Himan Brown’s Mystery Theater won a Peabody Award for helping to usher in a new era of radio entertainment. It would run for eight more years until finally going off the air on December 31st, 1982. More than fifteen hundred episodes were produced. Most survive in listening quality.

BW - EP147—006: The Launch of the CBS Radio Mystery Theater— 1/8/1974's Episode Dead For A Dollar Jan 07, 2024

On Monday January 21st, 1974 the just-heard Joe Julian co-starred with Paul Hecht, Joan Banks, Mary Jane Higby, Tony Roberts, and George Petrie in Murray Burnett’s story “Dead for a Dollar” on The CBS Radio Mystery Theater. Radio legend Joan Banks played secretary Kay Woodhouse. George Petrie played Jason Grant. He’d been appearing on radio since the early days of the Great Depression. Mary Jane Higby played Denise Grant. She’d come to New York City from Hollywood in 1937.

BW - EP147—005: The Launch Of The CBS Radio Mystery Theater—Stories From The New York Radio Crew Jan 05, 2024

By the time The CBS Radio Mystery Theater debuted, the men and women associated with the show had been involved with each other for nearly forty years. Mary Jane Higby grew up in Los Angeles and remembered Hollywood before it was a radio hub. She was once called Queen of the soaps. Joan Banks, who later married Frank Lovejoy, remembered the New York hangouts. There she spent time with men and women like the oft-heavy Larry Haines. These men and women were usually overbooked. Joan Banks went to the west coast in 1948. It was about then that Television came into the picture. E.G. Marshall was a part of it from the start. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before radio began to decline, as Joe Julian remembered. But nearly twenty years later, thanks to Himan Brown, CBS was back in the radio drama business in 1974.

BW - EP147—004: The Launch Of The CBS Radio Mystery Theater—Watergate, Gas Crisis, High Inflation Jan 03, 2024

On Thursday, January 10th, 1974 the crew of Skylab 4, which had been orbiting the earth for more than fifty days, was granted a day off. The week prior, during a televised news conference Mission commander Gerald Carr said he missed cold beer and football. That same day the U.S. carried out three simultaneous nuclear explosions as part of Operation Arbor in Nevada. January 13th was Super Bowl VIII Sunday. The defending champion Miami Dolphins faced off against the Minnesota Vikings at Rice Stadium in Houston. More than seventy thousand were in attendance. That evening. Floyd Kalber signed on for NBC’s news with coverage of potential peace between Egypt and Israel, brokered by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Looking for a solution to the ongoing Middle East crisis, Kissinger spent ten hours meeting with Israeli officials, hammering out a proposal for a peace settlement with Egypt. He next flew to Cairo to present the document to Anwar Sadat. After meeting Sadat, the plan was to return to Tel-Aviv with Sadat’s version of the proposal for Israel’s acceptance or rejection. This was good for President Nixon, who despite an eighteen day birthday vacation in California, and an insistence that he would leave the past behind and focus on 1974, couldn’t seem to shake Watergate, the energy crisis, and continued high inflation.

BW - EP147—003: The Launch Of The CBS Radio Mystery Theater—I Warn You Three Times Jan 01, 2024

On Saturday, January 12th, 1974, the just heard Mason Adams starred alongside Joan Loring, Tom Keena, Sam Gray, and Alan Manson in the seventh episode of The CBS Radio Mystery Theater. This aircheck comes from WOR and it's a mystery in the truest sense of the word. Joan Lorring, who voiced Hedy, was at the time of this broadcast forty-seven years old. She’d already been nominated for an Academy Award in The Corn Is Green in 1945, and won a Donaldson, the predecessor of the Tony, in 1950 for her portrayal of Marie Buckholder in Come Back, Little Sheba. On radio, her career spanned the gamut. She starred as Judy Foster in the second season of A Date With Judy, played on Suspense in the 1940s, in Theater Five in the 1960s, and finally on The CBS Radio Mystery Theater in the 1970s. Later this year she appeared in Burt Lancaster’s neo noir mystery film The Midnight Man.

BW - EP147—002: The Launch Of The CBS Radio Mystery Theater—Tuning Into January 8th, 1974’s Episode Dec 31, 2023

The New York Daily News was unenthusiastic in its review of the first two episodes, however the third episode caught their attention. On the evening of Tuesday, January 8th, 1974 The CBS Radio Mystery Theater took to the air with their third installment, called “The Bullet,” guest-starring the just-heard radio, TV, and stage legend Larry Haines. Larry Haines had been involved with New York radio for decades. The same month he was starring in this episode of The CBS Radio Mystery Theater he spoke with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcordan for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Also featured in this cast was Evelyn Juster, Martin Newman, Danny Ocko, Leon Janney, and Ralph Bell. It was written by radio writing legend Sam Dann.

BW - EP147—001: The Launch Of The CBS Radio Mystery Theater—CBS Jumps Back Into Radio Drama In 1974 Dec 29, 2023

Tuesday, January 8th, 1974. It’s a cold night in Brooklyn, New York. There’s snow in the forecast. We’re driving north on Shore Road, towards the Belt Parkway in a 1973 Ford Maverick. Thanks to the oil crisis, smaller cars like the Maverick are becoming increasingly popular. On January 2nd, President Nixon signed a law lowering the maximum speed limit on U.S. highways to fifty-five miles per hour. It conserved gasoline during the embargo. Highway fatalities dropped twenty three percent over the next year. The limit remained in effect for thirteen years. Unfortunately for Nixon, the Watergate scandal wouldn’t go away. Citing executive privilege, on January 4th, Nixon refused to surrender over five hundred subpoenaed tapes to the Watergate Committee. On this night, Tuesday January 8th, John Chancellor signed on with news and updates from NBC. On this day, New York City instituted measures against gas shortage abuse. The day after this broadcast, Representatives from the twelve member nations of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries finished a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, voting for a three-month freeze on oil prices. But this isn’t why we’re here. As Mutual Broadcasting was getting back into radio drama with The Zero Hour, longtime director Himan Brown finally convinced CBS to give him a nightly hour of time to produce new eerie radio plays. Tonight, we’ll go back to January 1974 and study how this moment in time came to be. ____________ In January 1974 Himan Brown was sixty-three years old, having been on the air since the age of eighteen. Brown is noted for having created Bulldog Drummond, Grand Central Station, Dick Tracy, and Inner Sanctum Mysteries. He was itching for the chance to create new dramatic radio. CBS executive Sam Digges was fifty-seven, and close friends with Brown, but the CBS network board could perhaps have been a harder sell for a program that was to air every night of the week. CBS hadn’t produced any dramatic shows since September of 1962. Over the eleven years since, numerous technological advancements had been made. In order to produce a show that was to air every night of the week, a dedicated studio would be developed. They used Studio G on the sixth floor of the old CBS Radio Annex on East 52nd street. The writers would be paid three-hundred fifty dollars per script. That’s a little more than two thousand dollars today. As Himan Brown mentioned, in New York City CBS aired news, so Mutual Broadcasting’s flagship WOR picked up the series just one month after Mutual began airing The Zero Hour. Acting talent would work for SAG-AFTRA scale. Actor E.G. Marshall was tabbed to be the host. In 1973 Marshall was known for his prominent role in the 1957 Twelve Angry Men, and on TV’s The Defenders. As a host, he harkened back to the Golden Age of Radio when characters such as The Man In Black, The Whistler, The Mysterious Traveler, and Raymond hosted macabre programs. The CBS Radio Mystery Theater would debut on Sunday January 6th, 1974 with Agnes Moorehead starring in “The Old Ones Are Hard To Kill.” Two-hundred eighteen stations carried the series, including twenty-one which were not CBS affiliates.

Please Subscribe For Free To Breaking Walls On Youtube Dec 23, 2023

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2sZTlF006NpivktbnUVn-g Hey everyone, James Scully here. Happy holidays! For those that don't know, once I get to 500 Youtube subscribers I can begin to earn through Youtube's earning program. I'm less than 50 subscribers away and I'm trying to get there by the end of the year. If you like the show, please subscribe and tell a few friends! It's free to subscribe. The link is above. All episodes of Breaking Walls from January 2022 onward have been uploaded to the youtube page. I've also begun to add the archive of 2018-2021 episodes as well. And just so you know, the next episode of Breaking Walls, #147,which will debut next week, will feature the launch of the CBS Radio Mystery Theater in honor of the 50th anniversary of its launch in 1974. Please subscribe on Youtube if you don't. You'll get the same feed there, but I'll be able to being earning through the earning program and I'd appreciate that very much. So, my name is James Scully. Keep getting out there, keep breaking those walls, and I'll catch you on the flip side. Thank you very much.

BW - EP146: December 1973 With Rod Serling And The Zero Hour Dec 18, 2023

In Breaking Walls episode 146 we spotlight the Jay Kholos, Elliott Lewis, and Rod Serling series The Zero Hour in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of its debut on the Mutual Broadcasting System in December of 1973. —————————— Highlights: • Radio Drama Coming Back in 1973 • Jay Kholos Conceives The Zero Hour — Rod Serling Will Host • The Zero Hour Is On the Air • WRVR and Selling Radio Shows In the 1970s • Nixon On The Hot Seat • AFTRA’s Moving Goal Posts — Kholos Must Sell The Zero Hour’s Rights • Selling The Zero Hour to Mutual • Elliott Lewis and Jay Kholos Leave The Zero Hour • Mutual Cancels The Zero Hour and Rod Serling is Disappointed • Life After Radio Drama • Looking Ahead to the CBS Radio Mystery Theater —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On The Air — By John Dunning • A Pictorial History of Radio’s First 75 Years — By B. Eric Rhoads • The Radio Career of Rod Serling — By Martin Grams Jr’s The archive from Digital Deli’s Zero Hour page. As well as articles from: • The Arizona Republic • The Associated Press * The Cleveland Plain Dealer * Pacific Stars and Stripes • The San Mateo Times • The Van Wert Times Bulletin —————————— On the interview front: • Himan Brown and Howard Duff spoke with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org • Howard Duff, Elliott Lewis, Les Tremayne, Janet Waldo, and Paula Winslowe spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear these chats at Speakingofradio.com • Mary Jane Croft, Byron Kane, and Elliott Lewis spoke with SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com • Jay M. Kholos was interviewed by Yours Truly, James Scully in January 2018 —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Caravan — By Eighty Drums Around The World • What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve — By Nancy Wilson —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva John Williams Jim W. —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

BW - EP146—009: December 1973 With Rod Serling And The Zero Hour—Life After Radio Drama Dec 15, 2023

Although The Zero Hour went off the air in the spring of 1974, the people involved didn’t stop working. Rod Serling always kept a full schedule. His final radio performance was part of Fantasy Park. A fantasy rock concert aired by nearly two-hundred stations in 1974 and 1975. Always a heavy smoker, on May 3rd, 1975, Serling had a heart attack. A second heart attack two weeks later forced doctors to agree that a risky open-heart surgery was necessary. On June 26th, Serling had a third heart attack on the operating table and died two days later at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York. He was just fifty. His funeral and burial took place on July 2nd in Seneca, New York. Elliott Lewis would continue in Television, before again working with Mutual on radio dramas at the end of the decade. Jay Kholos continued innovating, eventually forming the theater company, Orchard Street Productions, in 2001. These days he lives in Nashville, where Kholos writes music and scripts for his own productions, while Orchard Street also licenses musicals and plays for local, regional and North American tours.

BW - EP146—008: December 1973 With Rod Serling And The Zero Hour— Serling Is Disappointed With Radio Dec 13, 2023

Once Mutual finished running the last of the Lewis-directed Jay Kholos episodes of The Zero Hour on March 14th, 1974, they went dark for six weeks. They were busy completely changing the format. Now, one star would be featured in five different anthologies during a week. The show returned on April 29th. The first week’s star was Mel Torme. “Bye Bye Narco” was the first new script produced under Mutual’s umbrella. Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 16th, 1974 “Rod Serling, master writer of the mysterious and macabre, is playing a game of suspense with the good earth. On the side, he serves as host of The Zero Hour, a weekday radio mystery series beamed by the Mutual Broadcasting System. “Serling's feelings about the recent upsurge in radio drama prompted a call to his rural home. It soon became apparent that he is disappointed with radio drama and TV. “Serling made it clear that he has nothing to do with the writing or producing of the twenty-five minute dramas. "I've caught the show about three times. One was passable and two I would have flunked off the air. What they're trying to do—and they may succeed—is a show that is contemporary. But it sounds campy.” “Serling said, "The same thing applies to The CBS Radio Mystery Theater. It has to be relevant stuff for 1974. Short of that, why not resurrect old Shadow recordings? So far, I have yet to see either show relate to our time, either in story or technique. if they're selling us nostalgia, they've succeeded. It's thoroughly reminiscent of radio thirty years ago.” “I'm not bad rapping it,” he said. “It's just not what I expected. I realize the economics of the situation. I wouldn’t want to spend my time writing a provocative radio drama and get a check that would buy me a carton of cigarettes. Radio drama currently has the value of an antique." “Won't it change for the better? “I don't know," Serling said. “I have no idea. I'm frequently wrong, anyhow. I thought Nixon would be out of office by now. And I thought Sonny Liston would be heavyweight boxing champion for 20 years.” “Summing up his feelings about radio and television, Serling said, “I feel the same way about radio as I do television as an art form. It doesn't rise to the occasion like it should...although television occasionally has.” “Radio today is more of a display case than an art form.” — Raymond P. Hart The Zero Hour in the new format ran thirteen additional weeks before being canceled after the July 26th, 1974, episode. In total, one-hundred-thirty episodes of The Zero Hour were produced. Most can be heard today.

BW - EP146—007: December 1973 With Rod Serling And The Zero Hour—Mutual Broadcasting Takes Over Dec 11, 2023

Associated Press, December 21st, 1973, New York City. “The script appears strange at first. Its directions are for the ear, not the eye, and say things like: "DOORBELL ON. FOOTSTEPS. DOOR OPENED. TRAFFIC IN BG." "That traffic noise is 25 years old," laughs Jimmy Dwan, a veteran CBS sound effects man. "You can hear a doorman shouting on it somewhere. That doorman, he's been dead twenty years." Dwan's recorded sound effects are old, but not his script. It's of 1973 vintage, written solely for radio. “Yes, radio. “It's part of a brave new effort by two networks to bring back, in limited form, the golden days of coast-to-coast radio drama that most everyone remembers, but hasn't heard in more than a decade. “The Mutual Broadcasting System fired the first shot Monday with The Zero Hour, a 30-minute five-nights-a-week thriller serial hosted by writer-narrator Rod Serling of Twilight Zone fame. “Mutual, which says it has six-hundred-thirty affiliates, bought the series after lengthy studies proved there existed a sufficient market for radio drama on a network basis. Advertisers liked the idea, too, according to Mutual's president C. Edward Little: "We got a tremendous amount of client interest after we announced it," adding that the show will be fed from Mutual's Washington D.C., headquarters each weeknight at 7PM. "We feel that we'll start off with one-hundred-fifty to two-hundred stations." “The series will be offered on a "first refusal" basis to Mutual affiliates. “They also said that if the show clicks, other radio projects such as new comedy or anthology series, may follow. But they emphasized that such shows are strictly in the talking stages.” — Jay Sharbutt Once Mutual purchased the rights to The Zero Hour, they removed Elliott Lewis as director and Jay Kholos no longer had anything to do with the production. Both had good things to say about each other, but not for Mutual.

This Saturday 12/16/2023 — Great Fire Of 1835 Anniversary Walking Tours Dec 11, 2023

Hey everyone, James Scully here. This Saturday, December 16th, is the 188th anniversary of the Great Fire of 1835. It burned the entire financial district in New York City to the ground. The fire was so big it could be seen from Philadelphia, 90 miles away. I’m doing two walking tours, one at 12PM and one at 4PM on the anniversary in conjunction with the audio fiction soap opera set in 1835 NYC I've developed called Burning Gotham — http://burninggotham.com/. Burning Gotham was a 2022 Tribeca Film Festival audio selection. Join us as we explore lower Manhattan and the notable sights and scandals of 1830s New York, with a close look at 1835 and how a single year forever changed New York City in big ways. Included here are links where you can buy tickets to both — https://linktr.ee/thewallbreakers I hope to see you there!

BW - EP146—006: December 1973 With Rod Serling And The Zero Hour—Selling The Show To Mutual Dec 09, 2023

One of the radio veterans featured in this episode was Byron Kane. Another was Paula Winslowe. By October 1973, it was obvious that Jay Kholos couldn’t afford to keep funding new episodes of The Zero Hour thanks to AFTRA’s changing terms. He looked to make a deal with a network. The Mutual Broadcasting System and C. Edward Little were interested. A deal came together quickly. A press conference announcing the move was set for November 1st. We heard that presser at the beginning of this episode. The Zero Hour would be moving to Mutual on December 17th, 1973. Before new episodes could be broadcast, Mutual would air the thirteen five-part episodes already directed by Elliott Lewis.

BW - EP146—005: December 1973 With Rod Serling And The Zero Hour—AFTRA's Moving Goal Posts Dec 07, 2023

Janet Waldo, famous for her portrayal of Corliss Archer as well as Judy Jetson, Penelope Pitstop, and Emmy Lou on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, was featured in this episode of The Zero Hour. With AFTRA’s moving goal posts meaning that producing more episodes of The Zero Hour would cost significantly more money, in the fall of 1973, Jay Kholos had to look for either a potential production partner or a buyer. In the meantime, The Zero Hour continued to air in syndication over stations like WRVR in New York.

BW - EP146—004: December 1973 With Rod Serling And The Zero Hour—Nixon On The Hot Seat Dec 06, 2023

A year after his re-election, President Nixon was knee-deep in the Watergate scandal. On October 10th, 1973, VP Spiro Agnew resigned, pleading no contest to charges of tax evasion and money laundering, part of a negotiated resolution to a scheme in which he accepted nearly thirty-thousand dollars in bribes while governor of Maryland. According to The New York Times, Nixon “sought advice from senior Congressional leaders about a replacement.” The advice was unanimous in favor of Gerald Ford. Ford agreed to the nomination, telling his wife that the Vice Presidency would be “a nice conclusion” to his career. On October 12th, President Nixon officially named Gerald Ford as Veep. The energy crisis was becoming a major issue. Nixon assured the public saying Americans wouldn’t be running out of gasoline, air travel wouldn’t stop, and heating oil would be plentiful in the winter months. Though the crisis would require some sacrifice on everyone’s part. He outlined a plan which included using less heat, less gasoline, cutting down on highway speeds as well as cutting down on lighting at home and at work. General consensus felt things would get worse before they got better. Meanwhile on November 10th a ceasefire was achieved in the Middle-East. A tenuous agreement was reached between Egypt and Israel that put an end to military conflict. By the middle of November, the Nixon White House sought to put a positive spin on things – launching what was called “The President Fights For His Administration’s Credibility.” Nixon’s dwindling support from Capitol Hill Republicans caused him to make a round of addresses, primarily in Republican stronghold cities, in order to reiterate his case and help approval. The reviews were mixed – some thought it was a valiant attempt to rescue a bad situation, while others were more convinced than ever that Nixon needed to step down.

BW - EP146—003: December 1973 With Rod Serling And The Zero Hour—Selling Radio In The 1970s Dec 04, 2023

Once Jay Kholos sold the show to various radio stations, it was generally up to those stations to sell the show to sponsors. In New York, The Zero Hour was running on WRVR 106.7-FM. WRVR-FM was initially a public radio station owned and operated by The Riverside Church in New York. It began broadcasting on January 1st, 1961. The Riverside Church, located in Morningside Heights, is an interdenominational, interracial, and international church, and has long been a center of activism and social justice. WRVR was the first station to win a Peabody for its entire programming, in part for its documentary coverage of the civil rights movement in Birmingham in 1963. In addition to religious and philosophical discussions with Riverside clergy and theologians, WRVR programming included addresses by political and cultural leaders, like Indira Gandhi, Aldous Huxley, John F. Kennedy, and Margaret Mead. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his pivotal “Beyond Vietnam” speech at the Riverside Church over WRVR-FM on April 4th, 1967. The station also featured the heralded weekly program Just Jazz with Ed Beach. In September 1971, WRVR went commercial and shifted to a news format, with the exception of Just Jazz, which continued until 1973. By then, WRVR was experimenting with radio drama in both golden age and new time productions. On September 4th, 1973, part two of The Zero Hour’s “Wife of the Red-Haired Man” took to the air. Radio legend Mary Jane Croft, who was also the wife of Elliott Lewis, was featured in this episode. Years later, she spoke to SPERDVAC about her radio career and late husband. In September of 1973, WRVR was advertising a World Hockey Association exhibition matchup which featured legends Gordie Howe and Bobby Hull. The New York Raiders and later The Golden Blades were intended to be the upstart WHA’s flagship franchise. They were, however, unable to compete with the NHL’s New York Rangers and the expansion New York Islanders. After just two seasons, The Golden Blades moved to San Diego. The WHA folded after eight years in 1979 with four teams: The Edmonton Oilers, Hartford Whalers, Quebec Nordiques, and Winnipeg Jets, joining the NHL.

BW - EP146—002: December 1973 With Rod Serling And The Zero Hour—The Show Debuts Dec 02, 2023

Arizona Republic, June 11th, 1973 “If you loved the old radio shows, you'll like what KOOL-FM has in store for you. The station has bought the brand-new radio drama series, The Zero Hour, which promises to revive the good old days, but in a modern format. “Announcing the new series was E. Morgan Skinner Jr., promoted last week from KOOL-AM account executive to KOOL-FM assistant station manager. Judging from the pilot tape, it should be an interesting show. Each story lasts a week. A half-hour episode is presented nightly, Monday through Friday, with the climax coming on Friday. A new show starts the following Monday. “KOOL has bought twenty-six weeks of the series, all that Hollywood Radio Theater has available so far. The program originally was to be started in mid-June, but the unsettled Writers Guild of America strike apparently has created some delay. “Current plans are to begin in mid-July. Each show will be broadcast at 7:30 p.m. on KOOL-FM and then rebroadcast on KOOL-AM at 10:30 p.m. "But that's during television's prime time," you say? That's the whole point. "Zero Hour is contemporary, but reflective of radio's golden era," said Skinner. “And they're doing the thing in such a way as to leave people free to utilize their minds. “By Beginning in July, it takes the series into the fall to compete against the new shows on TV. A lot of us have become disenchanted with what television has to deliver. "It's going to be interesting to see what a top-quality radio series will do against prime-time TV. The quality of this show is superb. It's crisp and well-done." “Hollywood Radio Theater is the brainchild of Jay M. Kholos, a veteran in the advertising and communications field. Rod Serling hosts the series. The first episode, titled "The Wife of the Red-Haired Man," stars Patty Duke Astin, John Astin and Howard Duff. The yarn is about the pursuit of a dead couple. Duff, of course, does the pursuing.” — Jack Swanson Before this September 3rd, 1973 debut episode of The Zero Hour, over WRVR 106.7FM in New York, Kholos spent the summer of 1973 traveling around, selling the series to stations in Syndication. After that, he was joined by Rod Serling on a promotional tour. Radio legend Les Tremayne played Patty Duke’s husband Albert. In November 1973, Howard Duff was a guest of Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran’s WTIC Golden Age of Radio program. He spoke positively about his experience with The Zero Hour.

BW - EP146—001: December 1973 With Rod Serling And The Zero Hour—The Big Idea Nov 30, 2023

November 1st, 1973. The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York City. We’re listening in on a press conference hosted by the Mutual Broadcasting System. They’ve purchased the rights to air The Zero Hour from the just-heard Jay M. Kholos. The Zero Hour has thus far been hosted by Rod Serling and directed by Elliott Lewis. It’s Mutual’s first dramatic radio show in nearly twenty years. As Mutual Broadcasting spent much of the 1950s changing ownership groups, while national advertising was slowly abandoning radio for TV, Mutual ended its last two remaining half-hour dramas, Counterspy and Gangbusters, in November of 1957. Sports and news began to take up the majority of the network’s programming. Throughout the 1960s more frequent ownership and management changes continued to create network instability, before C. Edward Little was named president in 1972. During his time as President, Little created the Mutual Black Network, the Mutual Spanish Network, and the Mutual Southwest Network. Under Little's administration, Mutual became the first commercial broadcasting entity to use satellite technology for program delivery. He also hired Larry King to host an all-night phone-in talk show. King was a one-time announcer for Little at WGMA in Florida. He went on to national fame in both radio and TV, winning a coveted Peabody Award along the way. But that’s not why we’re eavesdropping in 1973. We’re here for the return of dramatic programming on network radio in the form of The Zero Hour which had been airing in syndication since the fall. Why is this such a momentous event? How did we get to this point? Tonight, we’ll find out. ____________ The last network big four radio drama, Theater Five, ran on ABC and was launched on August 3rd, 1964. Unfortunately by the mid 1960s network radio had undergone a transformation. Theater Five’s half-hour time slot only allocated twenty-one minutes for story-time. The other nine minutes went to news, station identification, and local advertising. ABC’s affiliates also had the first right of refusal. In some big markets Theater Five ran on other radio stations. Two-hundred-fifty-six total episodes were produced before Theater Five was canceled after the July 30th, 1965 episode. For the next seven years, except for any dramatic vignettes on NBC’s Monitor, NBC, CBS, ABC, and Mutual broadcasting’s network fed programming was relegated to news, sports, talk, and music. Then in early 1973, an entrepreneurial ad man named Jay M. Kholos had a big idea. He grew up in Southern California around the entertainment and media industry. Kholos’ idea? He sensed an oncoming nostalgia wave and wanted to relaunch a high-production, serialized audio drama, but updated for the modern sensibilities of 1973. Kholos needed a hook. He felt by telling one story in five half hours over the course of a contained week, he could keep the listener’s attention and get them to tune back in. Enter Rod Serling, famed creator of The Twilight Zone. Serling had worked in radio, in Springfield, Marion, Columbus, and Cincinnati, Ohio. Kholos was soon in touch with Elliott Lewis. By 1973, he had nearly forty years of experience as a writer, director, actor, and producer. Kholos was able to secure the rights to several stories. Now, he needed acting talent. The goal was to pair name brand film and TV talent with the best Hollywood radio veterans. Howard Duff could have fit into either category. By the 1970s, Duff and Elliott Lewis had been friends for thirty years. They both helped grow the Armed Forces Radio Service during World War II. Duff was chosen, along with Patty Duke and John Astin to lead the first cast in an adaptation of Bill S. Ballanger’s The Wife of the Red-Haired Man. Kholos put the program under the umbrella of The Hollywood Radio Theater. They chose Radio Recorders, the largest independent studio in Los Angeles, for the program. The Zero Hour would debut in late summer.

BW - EP145: November 1963 With Jean Shepherd And JFK Nov 28, 2023

In Breaking Walls episode 145 it’s the fall of 1963 and network radio drama is dead while American life is changing. If you’re listening to this in real time, this month marks the sixtieth anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination. To go beyond its public horror and understand American society three generations ago, we’ll focus on Jean Shepherd. —————————— Highlights: • I, Libertine • Jean Shepherd Gets His Familiar WOR Time Slot • November 1963 Begins • Veteran's Day, Malcolm X, and Lenny Bruce • President Kennedy’s Last Trip to Florida • Shep's Show During JFK Last Week • John F. Kennedy’s Last Day • An Unfortunate Arthur Godfrey Episode • Live News Coverage As The Unthinkable Happens To President Kennedy In Dallas • John Kennedy Has Passed, Lee Harvey Oswald Is Arrested • A Weekend of Mourning With the Boston Symphony Orchestra • President Kennedy's Funeral Coverage • Jean Shepherd Eulogizes John F Kennedy • A Subdued Christmas Eve With Shep • Looking Ahead to Rod Serling and The Zero Hour —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material for today’s episode was: • Excelsior You Fathead! The Art and Enigma of Jean Shepherd — By Eugene Bergmann • Boom!: Talking About the Sixties — By Tom Brokaw • Four Days In November: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy — By Vincent Bugliosi • On The Air — By John Dunning • Oswald's Tale: An American Mystery — By Norman Mailer As well as articles from: • The Bridgeport Post • The Chicago Tribune • The Cincinnati Enquirer • The Hammond Times • The Kansas City Times • The Library of Congress • The Los Angeles Times • The Miami News • The New York Daily News • The New York Times • The Orlando Sentinel And the Assassination Report of the Warren Commission —————————— On the interview front: • Andy Rooney spoke with CBS for their 50th anniversary in 1977 —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • The John Coltrane Quartet in concert — November 19th, 1962 • Pachelbel's Canon In D — By Michael Silverman • All I’ve Got To Do — By The Beatles • The Boston Symphony in concert — November 23rd, 1963 • Some Children See Him — By George Winston —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva John Williams Jim W. —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

BW - EP145—014: November 1963 With Jean Shepherd And JFK—Looking Ahead To Rod Serling And Zero Hour Nov 26, 2023

Well, that brings our look at November 1963 through the eyes of Jean Shepherd and President Kennedy to a close. Frankly, I wasn’t completely sure what this episode would become until I finished producing it. Speaking of anniversaries, we have one in December that’s a bit more recent and much happier if you like radio drama. Next time on Breaking Walls, in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of The Zero Hour’s debut on the Mutual Broadcasting System, we spotlight the rebirth of radio drama in 1973. It’s the first of a two-part mini series on radio drama in the 1970s. The reading material used in today’s episode was: • Excelsior You Fathead! The Art and Enigma of Jean Shepherd — By Eugene Bergmann • Boom!: Talking About the Sixties — By Tom Brokaw • Four Days In November: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy — By Vincent Bugliosi • On The Air — By John Dunning • Oswald's Tale: An American Mystery — By Norman Mailer As well as articles from: • The Bridgeport Post • The Chicago Tribune • The Cincinnati Enquirer • The Hammond Times • The Kansas City Times • The Library of Congress • The Los Angeles Times • The Miami News • The New York Daily News • The New York Times • The Orlando Sentinel And the Assassination Report of the Warren Commission On the interview front: • Andy Rooney spoke with CBS for their 50th anniversary in 1977 Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • The John Coltrane Quartet in concert — November 19th, 1962 • Pachelbel's Canon In D — By Michael Silverman • All I’ve Got To Do — By The Beatles • The Boston Symphony in concert — November 23rd, 1963 • Some Children See Him — By George Winston Breaking Walls Episode 146 will spotlight Rod Serling and The Zero Hour in honor of the 50th anniversary of its debut on Mutual Broadcasting. This episode will be available beginning December 1st, 2023 everywhere you get your podcasts, and at TheWallBreakers.com. In the meantime, give Breaking Walls a quick rating on whatever platform you listen, especially itunes. You can also join The Breaking Walls Facebook group at Facebook.com/Groups/TheWallBreakers. And support this show for as little as a buck a month at Patreon.com/TheWallBreakers. So until December 1st, my name is James Scully, this has been Breaking Walls Episode 145, and I’ll catch you on the flip side. Thank you very much.

BW - EP145—013: November 1963 With Jean Shepherd And JFK—A Subdued Christmas Eve With Shep Nov 24, 2023

On the morning of Tuesday November 26th, 1963 all regularly scheduled TV and radio programming resumed in the U.S. President Johnson issued NSAM 273, a modification of the American policy in Vietnam. Included in President Kennedy’s original memo, was Johnson adding the word “win” to the U.S. objective. At the same time, The American satellite Explorer 18 was launched to study the magnetic field around the Moon. Jack Ruby was indicted for the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald. He was found guilty on March 14th, 1964. Although a court demanded a retrial in 1966, Ruby died of lung cancer on January 3rd, 1967. The Federal Reserve Bank began the removal of silver certificates from circulation, starting with the discontinuation of one dollar notes. Big Butte School, in Butte, Montana, became the first of almost one-thousand schools to be renamed in honor of President Kennedy. And on Wednesday November 27th, Lyndon Johnson gave his first speech as President of the United States. It has since become known as “Let Us Continue.” The next day, November 28th, was Thanksgiving. President Johnson issued an Executive Order renaming Cape Canaveral in Florida, to Cape Kennedy. The holiday season, albeit the most subdued one the people of the U.S. had since 1944, had begun. On the November 25th broadcast of The Jean Shepherd Show, Shep wondered how people would still be feeling thirty days after the assassination. Well, Tuesday December 24th was Christmas Eve. On that day the New York International Airport, commonly referred to as "Idlewild", was officially renamed as John F. Kennedy International Airport, popularly referred to as "JFK." That night, Jean Shepherd took to the air telling a story about a Christmas season in the days of yore.

BW - EP145—012: November 1963 with Jean Shepherd and JFK—Jean Shepherd Remembers John F Kennedy Nov 21, 2023

On Friday November 22nd, 1963, New York’s Village Voice co-founder Dan Wolf’s office was swarmed with people. Journalist Jerry Tallmer later remembered being there, talking and grieving, when in burst Jean Shepherd, excited and full of fire. Shep said, “Wouldn’t you know! Wouldn’t you know! It was a Fair Play for Cuba guy who did it!” Lee Harvey Oswald had connections with the Fair Play for Cuba group, an organization protesting the U.S.’ treatment of Communist Cuba under Fidel Castro. Although Shepherd was a noted liberal, the idea that Oswald wasn’t some right-wing fascist, but a nutcase of the left excited Shep, and Shep was mad. Commentator Barry Farber remembered that Shep was incensed that he couldn’t get on the air. He said, “for crying out loud, we finally have something to talk about and they took us off the air.” On Monday, November 25th, 1963 at 11:15PM, Jean Shepherd was finally able to sign on for WOR. What follows is a sober, serious commentary on the state of the United States and what John Kennedy meant to Jean Shepherd. This is the full forty-five minute broadcast.

BW - EP145—011: November 1963 With Jean Shepherd And JFK—President Kennedy's Funeral Coverage Nov 19, 2023

On Monday, November 25th, 1963, John F. Kennedy was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. NBC Radio was on hand with press coverage of the event. Millions of viewers watched the funeral on live TV. Present were foreign dignitaries from ninety-two countries, including eight heads of state and ten prime ministers. In addition to President Johnson, former Presidents Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower were in attendance, as was Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II; and Anastas Mikoyan, First Deputy Prime Minister of the USSR. The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Boston, Richard Cardinal Cushing, delivered the funeral mass at St. Matthew's Cathedral. For only the third time in history, telephone service in the US was halted for one minute at noon, Eastern time. Las Vegas closed all of its casinos for only the third time in its history. Three hours later, graveside services were held for Lee Harvey Oswald at the Rose Hill Cemetery near Fort Worth, Texas. The only people allowed were Oswald's wife, mother, brother, and two daughters. After a Lutheran minister from Dallas reconsidered appearing for the service, the Reverend Louis Saunders appeared on behalf of the Fort Worth Council of Churches, telling newsmen, "We do not want it said a man can be buried in Fort Worth without a minister." Oswald was buried in a family plot that had been owned for several years by his mother. Six reporters were pallbearers. Abraham Zapruder sold all rights to his famed eight millimeter film of the Kennedy assassination to LIFE Magazine for One-hundred-fifty-thousand dollars, to be paid in twenty-five-thousand dollar yearly installments. Two days later, Zapruder donated the first full payment to the widow of officer J.D. Tippit.

BW - EP145—010: November 1963 With Jean Shepherd And JFK—Mourning With The Boston Symphony Orchestra Nov 17, 2023

On Saturday November 23rd, 1963, with the country in a state of shock and mourning, Music Director Erich Leinsdorf led the Boston Symphony orchestra in the compositions of Gluck, Wagner, and Beethoven. John Kennedy was the grandchild of former famous Boston mayor John “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald. The concert was given at Symphony Hall in honor of the slain son of Boston. Elsewhere, numerous famous people gave statements on the assassination. The next morning, Sunday November 24th, despite being surrounded by a crowd of police officers at the Dallas Police headquarters, Lee Harvey Oswald was shot and mortally wounded by nightclub owner Jack Ruby on live TV while being transported to the Dallas County jail. Ruby shot Oswald in the abdomen, at point blank range, with a .38 caliber revolver. The shooting took place at 11:21 a.m. local time. Oswald was taken into surgery at Parkland Memorial Hospital. He died at 1:07 p.m., never to face trial. That Sunday, thousands of people around the world went to Sunday mass in memory of the fallen President. Later an LP called That Day With God was produced with excerpts from several of these inspirational expressions. It included Pope Paul VI, The Archbishop of Canterbury and Richard Cardinal Cushing. I’ll let Henry Fonda read the last one.

BW - EP145—009: November 1963 With Jean Shepherd And JFK—JFK Has Passed, Oswald Is Arrested Nov 15, 2023

All regularly scheduled network programming from every radio and TV station around the country was immediately suspended. This audio comes from shortly after 2PM eastern time from ABC. Right after the shooting, witness Howard Brennan notified the police that he was sitting across the street from the Texas School Book Depository, watching the President’s motorcade go by. He heard a shot come from above and looked up to see a man with a rifle fire another shot from the southeast corner window on the sixth floor. He said he had seen the same man minutes earlier looking through the window. Brennan gave a description of the shooter, and Dallas police subsequently broadcast descriptions at Dallas time 12:45., 12:48, and 12:55 p.m. At 12:45 fifteen minutes after President Kennedy was shot, Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit received a radio order to drive to the central Oak Cliff area as part of a concentration of police around the center of the city. At 12:54, Tippit radioed that he moved as directed. By then, several messages had been broadcast describing a suspect in Kennedy’s shooting as a five-foot-ten, slender white male. At roughly 1:10, Tippit was driving slowly eastward on East 10th street past the intersection at Patton Avenue when he pulled alongside a man who resembled the police description. Although conspiracy theorists dispute this, officially the man was twenty-four year-old Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald walked over to Tippit's car and exchanged words with him through an open window. Tippit opened his car door and walked toward the front of the car. Oswald drew a handgun and fired five shots in rapid succession. Tippit was shot in the chest and head, dying almost instantly. His body was transported from the scene of the shooting by ambulance to Methodist Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 1:25 p.m. Meanwhile, Johnny Brewer, a nearby shoe store manager later testified that he saw Oswald ducking into the entrance alcove of his store. Suspicious, Brewer watched Oswald continue up the street and slip without paying into the nearby Texas Theatre. He alerted the theater's ticket clerk, who telephoned the police at about 1:40 p.m. As police arrived, the house lights were brought up and Brewer pointed out Oswald sitting near the rear of the theater. Police Officer Nick McDonald testified that he was the first to reach Oswald and that Oswald seemed ready to surrender saying, "Well, it is all over now." McDonald said that Oswald pulled out a pistol tucked into the front of his pants, then pointed the pistol at him, and pulled the trigger. McDonald stated that the pistol did not fire because the pistol's hammer came down on the webbing between the thumb and index finger as he grabbed it. McDonald also said that Oswald struck him, but that he struck back and Oswald was disarmed. As he was led from the theater, Oswald shouted he was a victim of police brutality. Soon after his arrest, Oswald encountered reporters, declared, "I didn't shoot anybody. They've taken me in because I lived in the Soviet Union. I'm just a patsy!" This is audio from an arranged press meeting later that day. The voice you’ll hear is that of Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald was formally arraigned for the murder of Officer Tippit at 7:10 p.m. By early the next morning, he had been arraigned for the assassination of President Kennedy. At 2:38 p.m. Dallas time on Friday the 22nd aboard Air Force One, Lyndon Baines Johnson took the oath of office as the 36th President of the United States. Standing next to him as he took the oath were both his wife and Jacqueline Kennedy.

BW - EP145—008: November 1963 with Jean Shepherd and JFK—News Coverage of JFK on Friday, 11/22/1963 Nov 13, 2023

On Friday, November 22nd, 1963, President Kennedy awoke at 7:30AM. He ate a light breakfast with Jackie before going out by himself to the square in front of his hotel to address a crowd of a few thousand people. Someone shouted, “where’s Jackie?” He pointed to their eighth floor suite and replied "Mrs Kennedy is organizing herself, It takes her a little longer, but of course she looks better than we do when she does it." The First Couple, together with Vice President Johnson and Texas Governor Connaly then took a short flight to Dallas. At 11:55 the President's motorcade left Love Field in Dallas. Thirty-five minutes later, history changed forever. This is soundcheck audio from the collection of Gordon Skene. On the morning of Friday, November 22nd, 1963 Gordon was twelve years old and home from school, recovering from an operation. Out of boredom he switched on his parent’s tape recorder and tuned to KNX, CBS’ affiliate in Los Angeles. On the air was Arthur Godfrey Time, talking from Miami, Florida with journalist Morris McLemore and commentator Gabriel Heater. Longtime CBS journalist and host Andy Rooney remembered Godfrey’s influence. In the late 1930s, a red-head from New York with a slight southern drawl named Arthur Godfrey was making a name for himself, hosting an all-night CBS show in Washington, DC on WJSV. He spent the overnight air-time playing records and chatting. Audiences were drawn to Godfrey’s informal approach. In April of 1941, CBS picked up the emcee for a national broadcast. The next October 4th, he began announcing for Fred Allen’s Texaco Star Theater. Unfortunately Allen and Godfrey didn’t mix well on-air. Allen dropped him after six weeks. Godfrey continued to appear on CBS special broadcasts. His star catapulted when he was a tearful reporter at Franklin D. Roosevelt’s funeral in April of 1945. CBS gave him a new morning show. Arthur Godfrey Time debuted less than two weeks later on April 30th. Unfortunately Godfrey’s popularity nosedived on October 19th, 1953. After years of working both himself and his supporting cast to the bone, he’d begun to treat them like children. Godfrey had a falling out with singer Julius LaRosa, firing him live on the air. Many felt Godfrey was jealous of his popularity. Once the show signed off for the day, Godfrey fired his bandleader Archie Bleyer. When Ed Sullivan invited LaRosa on his Toast of the Town TV show, Godfrey called Sullivan a dope. The reporters covering the story were “a bunch of jerks.” Rather than back off, Godfrey fired the rest of his cast and continued broadcasting, but the press, the public, and Godfrey never forgot or forgave what happened. His problems continued. He lost his pilot's license after buzzing an airport tower. One by one his shows folded. Then he got lung cancer and later, pronouncing himself cured, devoted much of his time to the fight against the disease. He professed to be writing a book that would tell “the whole story” of his incredible life and claimed to be working out a new deal for a TV show. In the end CBS, and William Paley, who never liked Godfrey, but liked his ratings, refused to put him on TV. Godfrey continued his network radio show until 1972, when he finally quit. In his seventies, he still talked occasionally about coming back, but he died March 16th, 1983, in New York city. While this exact recording isn’t the original that Gordon Skene air checked, he later said about recording that morning, “Why was I doing it? I have no idea, and to this day I couldn’t tell you exactly what made me pick this day and this hour to hit the record button.” Suddenly, it all became very serious. What follows here is a living nightmare, now sixty years old, and not a moment of it is dated by time.

BW - EP145—007: November 1963 With Jean Shepherd And JFK—John Kennedy's Last Day Nov 11, 2023

On the morning of Thursday, November 21st, 1963 President Kennedy had breakfast with his children. He said goodbye to his daughter Caroline when she left for school at 9:15. President Kennedy arrived at his office for the last time at 9:55. The President left the White House for the last time at 10:50AM. He flew to Andrews Air Force Base where he and the First Lady departed for San Antonio Texas. John Jr accompanied them to the airport. Once in Texas, he was at the dedication of the Aerospace Medical Health Center, Brooks Air Force Base. He then went to Houston. There he made brief remarks to the League of United Latin American Citizens at the Rice Hotel. He then addressed a dinner in honor of Representative Albert Thomas. Some of that speech was just heard. The President and First Lady then traveled to Fort Worth where they stayed at the Texas Hotel. He had speeches set for Fort Worth and Dallas the next day. In world news, Robert Stroud, “the birdman of Alcatraz” died while incarcerated in Springfield, Missouri. In Japan’s general election, the Liberal Democratic Party retained a majority in the Shugiin (SHOO GEEN), or House of Representatives. While India began its space program with the launching of a rocket at the far south end of the Indian subcontinent. And by the time the President went to sleep, it was the 22nd in the UK. That day, The Beatles released their second studio album, With The Beatles. Produced by George Martin, it featured eight original compositions and six covers. The famous black and white portrait on the cover, with Ringo underneath John, George, and Paul, was widely copied afterwards.

BW - EP145—006: November 1963 With Jean Shepherd And JFK—Shep's Show During JFK Last Week Alive Nov 08, 2023

On November 19th, 1963, nine days before Thanksgiving, President Kennedy received a turkey from the Poultry and Egg Board. The President always looked forward to New England Thanksgivings. That same day, in the concluding event for the three-day centennial celebration of the Gettysburg Address, former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower addressed the crowd at the rededication for the Gettysburg National Cemetery. He told the audience, "My friends, Lincoln reminded his hearers that they had no power to dedicate this ground. So we, today, have no power to rededicate it. But with the playing of Taps, the soldier's farewell, we can share the grief of every family who has heard that a son or father or sweetheart has fallen. If we can do this, we will begin to do our part to solve the unfinished business of which Lincoln spoke." That evening, Jean Shepherd signed on talking family folk stories and poking fun at WOR. The next day, at the UN General Assembly, the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination was adopted, while the deathbed wish of author Aldous Huxley was honored by his wife Laura. She injected him with two-hundred micrograms of LSD. Huxley would die two days later.

BW - EP145—005: November 1963 With Jean Shepherd And JFK—JFK's Last Trip To Florida Nov 07, 2023

On Sunday, November 17th, 1963, Frank McGee signed on for NBC’s Monitor with a look at Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address. Lincoln’s famous speech was about to celebrate its one-hundredth anniversary. Meanwhile, President Kennedy was in Florida, unofficially on the 1964 campaign trail. On Saturday November 16th, President Kennedy traveled to Cape Canaveral where he inspected the Saturn Control Center and watched a Polaris missile test launch. The next morning he and Special Assistant Dave Powers went to Sunday Mass at St. Ann’s Church in Palm Beach. On the day of this special broadcast, the President began his day at MacDill Air Force Base. Photos from this trip, which would be the President’s last to Florida, which had voted Republican in the previous two Presidential elections, show Kennedy smiling brightly, as did fellow Americans, especially those who shook his hand or lined the roads alongside the twenty-eight mile path his motorcade took in Tampa Bay. When Kennedy traveled to Miami, he addressed a democrat crowd at the airport. That same day, a fire killed twenty-six people at the Surfside Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey. During the offseason the hotel served as a convalescent home for elderly people. Ten bodies were never recovered and only two of the other fifteen could be identified. A former mental patient and convicted arsonist would be arrested for the crime. He confessed he poured gasoline into the hotel's boiler and set it ablaze. However, an Atlantic City grand jury did not find probable cause to return an indictment. That evening, NBC-TV’s Huntley–Brinkley Report featured a four-minute news feature on The Beatles. It was the group’s first appearance on American TV.

This Week 11/08 Webinar: The CBS Talent Raids And How They Drastically Altered The Network Landscape Nov 06, 2023

James Scully here. I wanted to let you know that I’m doing a webinar this Wednesday, November 8th, 2023 at 5:30PM with the New York Adventure Club on the CBS Talent Raids of 1949 and how they drastically changed the broadcasting landscape just as TV was about to boom. Included here in the show notes is a link where you can buy tickets, which are only $10 — https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-cbs-talent-raids-a-rebalance-of-network-power-in-early-tv-webinar-registration-735611121667?aff=oddtdtcreator. I'll also send anyone who buys tix the PDF presentation deck after the webinar (if they want it).

BW - EP145—004: November 1963 With Jean Shepherd And JFK—Veteran's Day, Malcolm X, And Lenny Bruce Nov 03, 2023

On Saturday November 9th, fans rioted at Roosevelt Field Raceway in Long Island, battling police and setting fires. At least fifteen were hurt and the head of security died of a heart attack during the riot. Sunday November 10th was the evening before Veteran’s Day. On NBC, Frank McGee signed on for Monitor with a salute to the holiday. Andrew Pearson had correspondence from Vietnam, while President Kennedy spent much of the weekend in New York City. On this same day, Black Muslim activist Malcolm X delivered what would become a widely re-quoted speech to the Northern Negro Leadership Conference at the King Solomon Baptist Church in Detroit. His message was one of revolution. He heavily criticized civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., who he said sold out and added that the March on Washington was "nothing but a circus, with clowns and all... white and black clowns." The next morning President Kennedy and his family flew to the white house. The President and John Jr. went to Arlington National Cemetery to take part in Veterans Day Ceremonies. Meanwhile, The first interplanetary probe in the Soviet Union's Zond program, Kosmos 21, failed to escape Earth orbit after rocket misfire and a failure of proper altitude control. On November 12th, The President met with Portuguese and Uruguayan Ambassadors before hosting an off the record meeting on Cuba that included Robert Kennedy, Dean Rusk and Robert McNamara. He also signed off on National Security Memorandum 271, a then-secret memo to NASA Administrator James E. Webb, telling him "to assume personally the initiative and central responsibility" to develop specific technical proposals "for broader cooperation between the U.S. and the USSR in outer space, including cooperation in lunar landing programs." On Wednesday, November 13th, at 11:15PM, Jean Shepherd signed on from WOR talking about protests, intellectuals, and angry demagogues. Two days after this broadcast, on Friday November 15th, 1963, seven days before President Kennedy's scheduled visit to Dallas, Democratic Party leader Baxton Bryant sent an angry telegram to President Kennedy complaining that Democratic supporters were being shut out of the planned November 22nd luncheon by Dallas Republicans who were in control of the Dallas Citizens Council. The plea was for the President to do something or face a boycott by his most loyal supporters. A motorcade from Dallas Love Field to downtown Dallas was arranged for the Kennedys after another Bryant complaint. That evening, the President flew to Palm Beach, Florida.

BW - EP145—003: November 1963 With Jean Shepherd And JFK—November 1963 Begins Nov 01, 2023

As November 1963 began, President Kennedy had emergency meetings on Vietnam. He also received members of the US Industrial Payroll Savings Committee and had meetings on the goings on in Berlin. Meanwhile, The U.S. Secret Service concluded that the more secure and the larger of two locations for the President’s upcoming fundraising luncheon in Dallas would be the "Women's Building" at Fair Park at the east side of downtown, rather than the Trade Mart on the west side near Dealey Plaza. Despite the recommendation, the state Democratic Party leaders in Texas settled on the Trade Mart. On November 6th, Jean Shepherd signed on from WOR talking about, and poking fun at, the 1964 World’s Fair, slated to open the next April. Part of what made Shepherd so popular was that no one was safe from his scrutinizing eye, even himself, and his biting style was perfect for late night radio. Perhaps Shep was wrong. Cassius Clay beat Sonny Liston twice, changing his name to Muhammad Ali in the process, while the cover of the next day’s New York Daily News, Wednesday November 7th, told the story of a bartender from Connecticut who won nearly eighty thousand dollars, an all-time record twin double at Roosevelt Raceway. That same day, Nelson Rockefeller, the Governor of New York, announced on NBC's Today Show that he would be a candidate for the 1964 Republican Party nomination. U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, the front-runner, made no comment, but was expected to enter the race. President Kennedy was not expected to face opposition in his nomination as the Democratic Party candidate for 1964.

BW - EP145—002: November 1963 With Jean Shepherd And JFK—Shep Gets His Familiar WOR Time Slot Oct 30, 2023

Support For Breaking Walls is provided by our patrons. If you like the documentaries I've been producing, you can become a show supporter for as little as $1 here — https://www.patreon.com/TheWallBreakers By 1960, Shep’s homespun wit could be tweaked depending on what time of the day he took to the air. At that time he was broadcasting on both Saturdays and Sundays during the middle of the day for just under two hours. On Saturday April 9th, 1960, he took to the air discussing a solitary trip to Coney Island. The batting cages Shep spoke of were located on Stillwell avenue near the Coney Island boardwalk, just down the block from Nathans. I spent many a winter afternoon on this street taking batting practice and eating at Nathans with my grandfather in the 1990s. For more information on Coney Island’s place in radio history, tune into Breaking Walls episode 92. Shepherd’s Sunday show was terminated and for five months he was only on Saturday afternoons at 1:15PM. His program was then shifted to weeknights at 11:15PM for forty-five minutes. On February 27th, 1961 Shepherd spoke about shifting back to a late night time slot. This format, at 11:15PM until 1964, and then 10:15 until 1977, became what Shepherd is today most remembered for in terms of radio broadcasting. On Monday, October 21st, 1963 he had this to say about how his peers perceived their era, as well as why some college kids were gravitating towards Barry Goldwater, rather than John Kennedy.

BW - EP145—001: November 1963 With Jean Shepherd And JFK—I Libertine Oct 28, 2023

Jean Shepherd was born on July 26th, 1921 on the South Side of Chicago to Jean and Anna Shepherd. He grew up in Hammond, Indiana, which according to Shep was a “tough and mean” industrial city. As an adolescent, Shepherd worked as a mail boy in a steel mill. He began his radio career at the age of sixteen, doing weekly sportscasts for WJOB in Hammond. That job led to juvenile roles on network radio in Chicago, including that of Billy Fairchild in the serial “Jack Armstrong, the All American Boy.” One of the programs that later came to symbolize Shepherd’s childhood, thanks to his 1983 film A Christmas Story, was Red Ryder. During World War II, Shepherd served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, installing radar equipment and furthering a lifelong dislike for authority figures. After the war, he studied acting in Chicago at the Goodman Theatre and briefly engineering and psychology at Indiana University. He left Indiana without a degree to take a radio gig in Cincinnati, which led him to a series of radio jobs, each better than the previous. After working at WTOD in Toledo, Ohio, Shepherd spent the early 1950s at WSAI and WLW in Cincinnati, and had a late-night broadcast on KYW in Philadelphia. He moved to New York for WOR and debuted on February 26th, 1955. WOR is a fifty-thousand watt clear-channel AM station and was the flagship affiliate of the Mutual Broadcasting System. Mutual Broadcasting had formed on September 28th, 1934 as a cooperative of stations WOR New York, WGN Chicago, WXYZ Detroit, and WLW Cincinnati. The members shared telephone-line transmission facilities and agreed to collectively enter into contracts with advertisers for their network shows. After a deal with Don Lee’s chain of west coast networks, Mutual went coast-to-coast on December 29th, 1936. The other major networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC, were corporations. When World War II ended, domestic manufacturing restrictions were lifted. TV became a focal point as the other networks pumped their radio profits into the new medium. Mutual’s cooperative status meant it never had the resources to move into TV, although affiliates like WOR did run a local TV station in New York. Mutual remained a cooperative until 1952 when General Tire became the parent company. By 1955 radio was changing. Drama, which had dominated the dial for more than two decades, was on its way out due to both its and TV production costs. More and more network programming was being turned over to local affiliates. These local affiliates employed a new generation of hosts that had grown up with Jack Benny, Fred Allen, and other observant humorists. Shepherd’s peers were Johnny Carson, Jack Paar, Rod Serling, and Steve Allen. Shepherd was working an overnight slot for WOR in 1956. Facing a lack of sponsorship, he was about to be fired when he did an unauthorized commercial for Sweetheart Soap who didn’t sponsor his program. WOR immediately canned him. But, listeners complained in droves and Sweetheart actually offered to sponsor him. WOR immediately brought him back. The overnight slot allowed him to riff with little need for the kind of corporate oversight that faced daytime and primetime hosts. That year, during a discussion on how easy it was to manipulate the best-seller lists, Shepherd suggested that his listeners visit bookstores and ask for a copy of a fictional novel called I, Libertine by a Frederick R. Ewing. Fans of the show planted references so widely that there were claims it made The New York Times Best Seller list. It led to an actual book deal with Ballantine. Theodore Sturgeon wrote most of it with Shepherd’s outline guiding him. Betty Ballantine finished the novel when Sturgeon fell asleep during a marathon writing session to meet the deadline. Famed illustrator Frank Kelly Freas did the cover art. The book was published on September 13th, 1956 with all proceeds going to charity.

BW - EP144: October 1957—Sputnik! And Dying Radio Drama Oct 27, 2023

In Breaking Walls episode 144 we present part two of our mini-series on radio and the world in the fall of 1957. —————————— Highlights: • The 1957 World Series • Unit 99 • Sputnik, Bing Crosby, and Current Events • The Eternal Light and The Glastonbury Cows • Algeria Aflame • Stan Freberg • Bill Kemp, ABC, and More News • School Integration Update • Sorry, Wrong Number • You Bet Your Life • NATO, Syria, and Sputnik • LIFE and The World with Carl Sandberg and Frank Lloyd Wright • Looking Ahead to Jean Shepherd and JFK —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material for today’s episode was: • I Have a Lady in the Balcony: Memories of a Broadcaster in Radio and Television — By George Ansbro • On the Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg As well as articles from • Broadcasting Magazine • The New England Historical Society • The New York Times • Sponsor Magazine —————————— On the interview front: • Stan Freberg, Byron Kane, and Peggy Webber spoke to SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com. • Andre Baruch, Ken Carpenter, Virginia Gregg, John Guedel, and Agnes Moorehead spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at Speakingofradio.com. • Jackson Beck, Vincent Price, and Bill Spier spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these interviews at GoldenAge-WTIC.org. • Jack Benny’s snippet was recorded by CBS and played for their 50th anniversary in 1977 —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Plunkett’s Lament — By George Fenton • The Pavane and Window To The Sky — By Michael Silverman • As Time Goes By — By Herman Hupfeld • Road — By George Winston • Metamorphosis 2 — By Elizabeth Hainen • Amazing Grace — By Wind Drum Spirit —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva John Williams Jim W. —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

BW - EP144—013: October 1957—Looking Ahead To November 1963 With Jean Shepherd And JFK Oct 26, 2023

Next time on Breaking Walls, in honor of the sixtieth anniversary of John Kennedy’s Assassination, we spotlight Jean Shepherd and his November 1963 broadcasts. —————————— Highlights: • The 1957 World Series • Unit 99 • Sputnik, Bing Crosby, and Current Events • The Eternal Light and The Glastonbury Cows • Algeria Aflame • Stan Freberg • Bill Kemp, ABC, and More News • School Integration Update • Sorry, Wrong Number • You Bet Your Life • NATO, Syria, and Sputnik • LIFE and The World with Carl Sandberg and Frank Lloyd Wright • Looking Ahead to Jean Shepherd and JFK —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material for today’s episode was: • I Have a Lady in the Balcony: Memories of a Broadcaster in Radio and Television — By George Ansbro • On the Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg As well as articles from • Broadcasting Magazine • The New England Historical Society • The New York Times • Sponsor Magazine —————————— On the interview front: • Stan Freberg, Byron Kane, and Peggy Webber spoke to SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com. • Andre Baruch, Ken Carpenter, Virginia Gregg, John Guedel, and Agnes Moorehead spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at Speakingofradio.com. • Jackson Beck, Vincent Price, and Bill Spier spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these interviews at GoldenAge-WTIC.org. • Jack Benny’s snippet was recorded by CBS and played for their 50th anniversary in 1977 —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Plunkett’s Lament — By George Fenton • The Pavane and Window To The Sky — By Michael Silverman • As Time Goes By — By Herman Hupfeld • Road — By George Winston • Metamorphosis 2 — By Elizabeth Hainen • Amazing Grace — By Wind Drum Spirit —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva John Williams Jim W. —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

BW - EP144—012: October 1957—LIFE And The Death Of Louis B. Mayer Oct 24, 2023

As the clock ticks toward All Hallow’s Eve, we’ll wind down where we began in last month’s episode of Breaking Walls, with the October 30th, 1957 episode of LIFE and the World on NBC. The October 14th LIFE Magazine cover featured Little Central High School in Arkansas; the October 21st cover featured American scientists plotting Sputnik’s orbit; while the October 28th’s cover featured Queen Elizabeth opening Canadian Parliament. This episode features a speech by poet Carl Sandburg and a rare interview with Frank Lloyd Wright, both speaking about Chicago. Both Sandberg and Wright spent significant time in Chicago. Sandburg was back in Chicago debuting a new poem about the city. His speech from the banquet by The Chicago Dynamic Committee, was recorded. Frank Lloyd Wright settled in Chicago shortly after the Great Fire of 1871. He was ninety at the time of this interview, and as passionate as ever. His Guggenheim Museum was under construction in New York, while he dreamed of a mile-high office building for Chicago. On October 29th, 1957, head of MGM, Louis B. Mayer died of leukemia. He was seventy-three. The next day, Variety Magazine carried his obituary. Although Mayer was often disliked and even feared by many, director Clarence Brown said, “he made more stars than all the rest of the producers in Hollywood put together. “He knew how to handle talent; he knew that to be successful, he had to have the most successful people in the business working for him. He was like Hearst in the newspaper business. He made an empire out of this thing.” However, both movie studios and the entertainment industry were rapidly changing. As was America. But the only way passed is through. So, forward we go, in time that is, in the next episode of Breaking Walls.

BW - EP144—011: October 1957—NATO, Syria, And More Sputnik Oct 23, 2023

On October 21st, 1957 Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip visited New York City. It was the final stop on their tour. The next day they returned to the United Kingdom. Meanwhile in Washington, President Eisenhower was meeting with the U.K.’s Prime Minister Harold MacMillan and NATO Chief Paul-Henri Spaak. Their chat was over Middle East policy, rocket deployment, and the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik. On Friday October 25th at 7:30AM, the NBC World News Roundup took to the air talking of developments. The British and US were butting heads on Middle East policy, while Britain wanted the two countries to share nuclear secrets. France was complaining that the U.S. and England weren’t allowing technological access. NATO Chief Spaak was expected to invite France to the upcoming talks. After this meeting Prime Minister MacMillan was to give Canadian PM John Diefenbaker an in-person report on the talk. In London, the Prime Minister’s Conservative party’s grip was loosening. The Socialist Labour Party had recently taken a seat in the House of Commons and the leaders of two major trade unions were going ahead with wage demands to counter inflation. All countries were listening for word from Moscow on how Sputnik was doing. The U.S. was focusing on reports that its carrier rocket was outpacing the satellite, while also continuing to push its own space advancements. On Saturday October 26th, Sputnik 1’s batteries ran out after its three-hundred-twenty-sixth orbit around the Earth. The following Monday Ytzak Ben-Zvi was reelected president of Israel by the Knesset congress. The next day, October 29th, Moshe Dwek threw a grenade in the Knesset chambers injuring several ministers. In the wake of Turkish elections, riots broke out in six different locations. And in Flagstaff, Arizona, a U.S. Air Force tanker plane crashed into a mountain, killing all sixteen crew members.

BW - EP144—010: October 1957—Groucho Marx Still Going Strong Oct 21, 2023

You Bet Your Life, conceived by the just-heard John Guedel and hosted by comedian Groucho Marx, debuted over ABC’s airwaves on October 27th, 1947. Three couples were brought onstage to be interviewed and quizzed by Groucho. Each couple was given twenty dollars and told to bet as much as they dared risk on four questions from a category of their choosing. The money would double with each successive step. Couples could win three-hundred twenty dollars, go broke on the first question, or finish anywhere in between. The couple with the largest money total got a chance at the jackpot question, worth at least one-thousand dollars. There was also a “secret word” each week, with bonus money to be divided if someone said the word while the show was on the air. Although 1947 was radio’s highest-rated season, the quiz show aired against NBC’s Mr. District Attorney on Wednesdays at 9:30. At season’s end You Bet Your Life only pulled a rating of thirteen. Groucho felt uncomfortable trying to be funny on a live radio show. Guedel’s answer was to record the show, which allowed Groucho to relax. The program could then be edited for time later. The idea worked. The show moved to CBS in 1949. You Bet Your Life became network radio’s top-rated quiz show, finishing the season in eleventh place overall. The contract with DeSoto-Plymouth of Chrysler was worth four million dollars over ten years. It also moved the show to NBC Radio and TV beginning on October 4th, 1950. The program remained a top-fifteen hit into 1957. That October 23rd, it was airing on radio Wednesday evenings at 9PM. This episode’s secret word was “Money.” You Bet Your Life continued on radio until June 10th, 1960.

This Sunday 10/22/2023 — Burning Gotham 1830s NYC Walking Tour Oct 18, 2023

Hey everyone, James Scully here. I wanted to let you know I’ve got a walking tour on Sunday 10/22/2023 with The New York Adventure Club in conjunction with Burning Gotham, the audio soap opera set in 1835 NYC that I developed. Burning Gotham was a 2022 official Tribeca Film Festival audio selection. Included here is a link where you can buy tickets. — https://www.nyadventureclub.com/event/exploring-1830s-new-york-from-the-great-fire-to-south-street-seaport-registration-726888130967/ Join us as we explore lower Manhattan and the notable sights and scandals of 1830s New York, with a close look at 1835 and how a single year forever changed New York City in big ways. Highlights Include: A trip to important landmarks in the neighborhood dating back to the 1830s including Fraunces Tavern, Bowling Green, South Street Seaport, Stone Street and others. Topics Covered will include: Why the US was on the verge of war with France, why there was no clean running water in New York, and the greatest hoax of the 19th century, The full scoop surrounding the Great Fire of 1835, which destroyed everything in Manhattan's chief merchant district Our experience will conclude on Stone Street with the opportunity to grab a pint or bite. Hope to see you there!

BW - EP144—009: October 1957—Sorry Wrong Number Oct 18, 2023

On Sunday, October 20th, 1957 at 4:35PM eastern time, the just-heard Agnes Moorehead starred for the seventh time in Suspense’ adaptation of Lucille Fletcher’s harrowing story, “Sorry, Wrong Number.” In this play, a bed-ridden invalid, attempting to call her husband, accidentally overhears a plot between two men to kill some woman thanks to crossed phone lines. Over the course of the story she desperately attempts to get uninterested phone operators and policemen to care, until she finds out who the intended really victim is. It is, quite possibly, the most famous thriller in radio history. Ms. Moorehead played this part eight times in the years Suspense was on the air. This particular adaptation co-stars a who’s who of radio veterans, including Jeanette Nolan, Virginia Gregg, and Byron Kane.

BW - EP144—008: October 1957—More News From Little Rock, Arkansas Oct 16, 2023

As we covered in the previous episode, number 143, of Breaking Walls, In Little Rock, Arkansas on September 4th, 1957, nine African-American students attempted to attend their first day of high school at the newly integrated Little Rock Central High. The National Guard, on the orders of Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus, prevented the students from entering the school. The Governor then locked himself in his mansion, refusing to come out. President Dwight D. Eisenhower soon met with the Governor, and the National Guard was removed. On September 23rd, the nine students entered Little Rock Central High for the first time, ignoring verbal abuse and threats from a crowd outside. When the mob realized the students had entered the school, violence erupted, and seven journalists were attacked. As the situation deteriorated, school officials, fearing for the students’ safety, dismissed the Little Rock Nine at lunchtime. The next day, President Eisenhower ordered paratroopers from the 101st Airborne Division to escort the students to the building, signaling out those bent on disrupting the federal integration mandate. Over the following days, Eisenhower federalized ten-thousand Arkansas National Guardsmen, removing them from the control of the Governor. The Little Rock Nine were finally able to attend classes in late September, but they faced threats, verbal abuse, and hazing from both white students and adults alike. On Thursday October 17th, 1957 NBC Radio broadcast a special with students from Little Rock Central High about their feelings on integration. Although the conditions the Little Rock Nine had to endure were deplorable, when the Spring of 1958 came around eight of the nine had successfully completed the school year.

BW - EP144—007: October 1957—Bill Kemp And The Queen's Visit Oct 14, 2023

On Wednesday October 9th, 1957 at 8PM eastern time, The Bill Kemp Show took to the air over ABC. Bill Kemp was born on July 10th, 1921 in Toronto, Canada. An up and coming performer in the 1950s, his daily radio show ran weeknights at 8PM. His show was the final in a twelve-hour daily live broadcast project by ABC called “The Live and Lively Radio Network.” ABC’s intention was to raise ratings by going back to live broadcasts in an era of taped shows. Interestingly, it was ABC that helped launch the non-Mutual Broadcasting transcribed primetime era with Bing Crosby’s Philco Radio Time in 1946. Kemp’s show featured an orchestra, vocalist and guest stars such as Jonathon Winters. Kemp’s announcer George Ansbro remembered that Kemp once went laugh for laugh with Winters after a particularly successful broadcast, and continued the antics all the way to a nearby steakhouse. Unfortunately, Kemp also developed a debilitating drinking problem. Merv Griffin and Jim Backus were called on several occasions to cover for Kemp during absences for "personal reasons." One week after this broadcast on Wednesday October 16th, Queen Elizabeth II departed from Ottawa and arrived in Williamsburg, Virginia. The next day she was in Washington, D.C. While at the White House, Prince Philip received the gold medal of the National Geographic Society. On October 18th, two U.S. Navy balloonists flew to an altitude of sixteen miles, landing near Hermansville, Michigan. On October 19th, the Queen and Prince Philip attended an American football game in College Park, Maryland, and then visited a supermarket in West Hyattsville. That same day a beauty pageant winner was killed en route to her coronation in a helicopter crash in Farmingdale, New York, while Montreal Canadiens’ star Maurice “The Rocket” Richard became the first player in National Hockey League history to score five-hundred career goals.

BW - EP144—006: October 1957—Stan Freberg Oct 11, 2023

Stan Freberg was born on August 7th, 1926 in Pasadena, California. Shortly after graduating from high school, he found work as a voice actor in both radio and animation. In 1957, now thirty-one, he was given his own thirty-minute comedy program on CBS, Sundays at 7:30PM eastern time from Hollywood. He debuted on July 14th, 1957. His cast featured Peter Leeds, June Foray, Daws Butler, Marvin Miller with vocalist Peggy Taylor, Billy May's orchestra, and the Jud Conlon Rhythmaires. His comedic style was biting. He was a shrewd satirist who targeted mediocrity, complacency, and stuffed shirts. He specialized in lampooning American life. On his first show he ripped American capitalism with a long skit about two competing Las Vegas nightclubs, the El Sodom and Rancho Gomorrah, set in the near future. The CBS higher-ups didn’t get it. So, he destroyed Lawrence Welk in a skit that became known as “Wunnerful, Wunnerful.” Billy May’s orchestra played a Welkian arrangement of “Bubbles in the Wine” while Freberg—doing a credible Welk imitation—kept yelling, “Turn off the bubble machine!” until he was drowned in the foam. Freberg “interviewed” the abominable snowman, presented a group of musical sheep, and staged a western skit, “Bang Gunley, U.S. Marshall Fields” spoofing the overdone sound effects of many classic films. He attacked censorship, with Freberg attempting to sing Kern and Hammerstein’s “Ol’ Man River,” only to be stopped by a “citizens committee censor,” who sounded a buzzer at any line he found objectionable, leading to rewriting the lyrics as “Elderly man river.” In August Sponsor Magazine reported that CBS thought network radio could see a return to sponsors buying full programs that fall. CBS was pitching The Stan Freberg show for ten-thousand dollars per week. However, by October it was obvious that network comedy couldn’t return to its previous highs and The Stan Freberg Show was canceled after the October 20th episode.

BW - EP144—005: October 1957—Algeria Aflame Oct 09, 2023

In October of 1957, Algeria was in the midst of a war for Independence and control between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front. The conflict began in November of 1954 and by October of 1957 was considered the world’s only active war of note. It was a complex conflict characterized by guerrilla warfare and the use of torture. When the War finally came to an end in 1962 with France granting Algeria Independence, nine-hundred-thousand Algerian refugees fled to France in fear of the NLF taking revenge on them for siding with France. The majority of Algerian Muslims who had worked for the French were left behind. Algerian authorities promised France they’d take no action against them. However, these Algerian Muslims were branded as traitors and many were soon murdered. On October 14th, 1957 at 10:30PM Eastern Time, CBS radio broadcast a documentary on the first three years of the conflict entitled, “Algeria Aflame.”

BW - EP144—004: October 1957—The Eternal Light And The Glastonbury Cows Oct 07, 2023

In October 1944, in conjunction with the Jewish Theological Seminary, NBC began one of the longest-running religious programs in radio history. It was called The Eternal Light. Then in its thirteenth year, The Eternal Light dramatized stories from ancient Judaea, along with contemporary works like The Diary of Anne Frank. It was produced by Milton Krents. Many top New York radio actors appeared. NBC donated the air time and the Seminary paid for the show's production. On Sunday October 13th, 1957 at 12:30PM eastern time over NBC’s WRCA in New York, The Eternal Light took to the air with a story on the Glastonbury Cows. In Glastonbury, Connecticut in 1869, tax collectors asked two elderly sisters, Abby and Julia Smith, to pay their road taxes early. They did, but were surprised to find the town accidentally billed them a second time later in the year. The Smiths were wealthy. Their father left his daughters a large land holding, investments and a farm. Their mother left them a sizable inheritance, as well. When the sisters asked the town to correct the matter, the tax collector refused. When they tried to enter a Town Meeting to raise the issue, they were turned away because they were women. The frustrated sisters paid the tax a second time, but their lack of political power infuriated them. They began attending women’s suffrage rallies. And as their frustration grew, so did their taxes. In 1874, they were told they could not delay their taxes in exchange for a twelve percent interest charge – a courtesy afforded other taxpayers. They became convinced that modern women needed a vote, and decided to stop paying taxes until they could. The tax collector seized seven cows to pay off back taxes. The sisters used a straw buyer to retrieve most of them, sparking much written debate. Critics who compared them to children only made their supporters more united. The cows became celebrities. Knickknacks woven out of their hair sold like hotcakes at fundraising bazaars that promoted women’s suffrage. Julia published a popular book, Abby Smith and Her Cows. This seizing continued through 1878. Eventually the sisters testified before Congress. In 1878, at the age of 81, Abby died in July. The next year, Julia, age 87, decided to marry for the first time. Her husband began paying the taxes on her property, and she repaid him in a compromise of love. Although many radio programs were being canceled, The Eternal Light would air on radio and then television until 1989.

BW - EP144—003: October 1957—Sputnik, Bing, And Current Events Oct 04, 2023

On Friday October 4th, 1957 the U.S. received confirmation of the USSR’s launch of Sputnik 1, the first artificial earth orbiting satellite. It was a polished metal sphere twenty-three inches in diameter with four external radio antennas to broadcast radio pulses. Its radio signal was easily detectable by amateur radio operators. Its sixty-five degree orbital inclination gave it a flight path that completely covered all parts of the inhabited earth. While traveling at peak speed, the satellite took 96.20 minutes to complete each orbit. It transmitted on the bandwidth of roughly twenty and forty megahertz. These signals were monitored throughout the world and continued for twenty-one days until the transmitter’s batteries died on October 26th. The satellite's success was unanticipated by the U.S., setting the space Race into orbit as part of the Cold War. That same day, Bring Crosby signed on with The Ford Road Show for five minutes over CBS, announced by Ken Carpenter. The next Wednesday, October 9th, The Lovell Telescope was activated in Cheshire, England, while a Boeing B-47 Stratojet bomber crashed in Orlando, Florida killing all four military officers on board. On October 10th, a nuclear reactor fire on the north-west coast of England released radioactive material into the air, as President Eisenhower hosted breakfast at the White House with Ghanese minister to France, Komla Agbeli Gbedemah, who’d been recently refused at a Howard Johnson’s in Delaware because of his race. The next day an IBM computer at MIT Computation Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts calculated the last stage of the R-7 Semyorka rocket that carried Sputnik 1. On Saturday October 12th, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, arrived in Ottawa, the capital of Canada, for a royal visit. On the fourteenth, the Queen opened the Canadian Parliament, the first monarch to do so.

BW - EP144—002: October 1957—Unit 99 Oct 03, 2023

Unit 99, first aired over ABC’s KFBK Sacramento on August 23rd, 1957. The radio station was part of the McClatchy media empire along with The Sacramento Bee and other radio and TV stations, as well as newspapers in the Western U.S. The show was born from Jack Webb’s Dragnet mode of realistic police portrayals, then furthered by shows like Night Watch which removed the script, followed actual officers, and made the drama real. Tony Kester directed the show under the auspices of the Sacramento police department. It featured Police Chief James B. Hicks as host and sergeant Dan Meredith recording his nightly police beat, interviewing witnesses of various crimes and police calls. Unit 99 ran until June 13th, 1958.

BW - EP144—001: October 1957—Dying Radio And The World Series Sep 30, 2023

At 12:45PM on Wednesday October 2nd, Game one of the 1957 World Series took to the air. It pitted The Milwaukee Braves against The New York Yankees from Yankee Stadium in The Bronx. Bob Neal and Earl Gillespie were on the call for NBC Radio, while Mel Allen and Al Helfer telecast the game. The upstart Braves were led by future hall-of-famers Hank Aaron, Eddie Matthews and Warren Spahn. The defending champion Yankees were led by Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, and manager Casey Stengel. The Braves moved to Milwaukee from Boston after the 1952 season, leaving beantown to the Red Sox, finishing in the first division the previous four seasons before breaking through and winning the 1957 NL pennant. The Yankees were playing in their twenty-third world series in thirty-seven seasons. The Braves would win the series four games to three. The next year the two teams would meet again, this time with the Yankees taking the series in seven games. The following day, comedian Artie Auerbach, best known for playing Mr. Kitzel on The Jack Benny Program passed away of a heart attack. That same day New York Times columnist Jack Gould criticized NBC for attempting to televise the World Series in color.

BW - EP143: September 1957—Civil Rights And The Rocket Age Sep 27, 2023

In Breaking Walls episode 143 we begin a mini series on radio and the world in the fall of 1957. —————————— Highlights: • LIFE and The World • The Man from Tomorrow • The American Forum of the Air • Atomic Testing • Pat Buttram and Just Entertainment on Labor Day • Ray Bradbury and the End of X-Minus One • Ms America • The Hattie Cotton School Bombing • Biography in Sound • Howard Miller and Steve Allen • The End of Family Theater • The Grand Ole Opry • Meet The Press and The Right of Self Determination • CBS Still Doing Drama on Sundays • Bing Crosby’s Road Show • School Integration • The Dodgers and Giants Leave New York • Looking Ahead to October and Sputnik —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material for today’s episode was: • On the Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg As well as articles from • Broadcasting Magazine • The Los Angeles Times • The New York Times • Radio Daily • U.S. Radio Magazine —————————— On the interview front: • Lilian Buyeff, Mary Jane Croft, Sam Edwards, Herb Ellis, Bill Froug, Jack Johnstone, Jeanette Nolan, and Herb Vigran spoke to SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com. • John Scott Trotter spoke with Same Time, Same Station. • Jackson Beck, John Gibson, Larry Haines, Mary Jane Higby, Jim Jordan, Joe Julian, Mandel Kramer, Jan Miner, Arnold Moss, Bill Robson, and Guy Sorel spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these interviews at GoldenAge-WTIC.org. • Parley Baer, Ken Carpenter, Bob Hastings, Jim Jordan, and Herb Vigran spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at Speakingofradio.com. • Roberta Bailey-Goodwin spoke with John Dunning for his KNUS program from Denver * Norman Macdonnell was with John Hickman for his Gunsmoke documentary • Jack Kruschen and George Walsh spoke with Jim Bohannon in 1987 • Ray Bradbury spoke with Jerry Haendiges • Ernest Kinoy spoke with Walden Hughes • Ben Grauer spoke with Westinghouse for their 50th anniversary • William S. Paley gave a speech on November 20th, 1958 in New York —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Scarborough Fair, Shenandoah, and Autumn Stars — By Michael Silverman • The Last Rose of Summer — By Tom Waits • Corrina, Corrina, Old Friends, and Where Are You Now — By George Winston • Death Runs Riot — By Matthias Gohl • This Room is My Castle of Quiet — By Billy May and His Orchestra —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva John Williams Jim W. —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

BW - EP143—012: September 1957—Looking Ahead To October 1957 Sep 25, 2023

Next time on Breaking Walls, we continue our 1957 mini series by picking up in October with Sputnik, Algeria, Queen Elizabeth’s royal tour, and dying radio drama. —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material for today’s episode was: • On the Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg As well as articles from • Broadcasting Magazine • The Los Angeles Times • The New York Times • Radio Daily • U.S. Radio Magazine —————————— On the interview front: • Lilian Buyeff, Mary Jane Croft, Sam Edwards, Herb Ellis, Bill Froug, Jack Johnstone, Jeanette Nolan, and Herb Vigran spoke to SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com. • John Scott Trotter spoke with Same Time, Same Station. • Jackson Beck, John Gibson, Larry Haines, Mary Jane Higby, Jim Jordan, Joe Julian, Mandel Kramer, Jan Miner, Arnold Moss, Bill Robson, and Guy Sorel spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these interviews at GoldenAge-WTIC.org. • Parley Baer, Ken Carpenter, Bob Hastings, Jim Jordan, and Herb Vigran spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at Speakingofradio.com. • Roberta Bailey-Goodwin spoke with John Dunning for his KNUS program from Denver * Norman Macdonnell was with John Hickman for his Gunsmoke documentary • Jack Kruschen and George Walsh spoke with Jim Bohannon in 1987 • Ray Bradbury spoke with Jerry Haendiges • Ernest Kinoy spoke with Walden Hughes • Ben Grauer spoke with Westinghouse for their 50th anniversary • William S. Paley gave a speech on November 20th, 1958 in New York —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Scarborough Fair, Shenandoah, and Autumn Stars — By Michael Silverman • The Last Rose of Summer — By Tom Waits • Corrina, Corrina, Old Friends, and Where Are You Now — By George Winston • Death Runs Riot — By Matthias Gohl • This Room is My Castle of Quiet — By Billy May and His Orchestra

BW - EP143—011: September 1957—The Death Of National League Baseball In New York Sep 23, 2023

In September 1957 baseball’s Dodgers, who’d called Brooklyn home since 1884, and Ebbets Field since 1913, played their final games in Flatbush. They’d been World Champions just two years earlier. Simultaneously, over in northern Manhattan, The New York Giants, champions in 1954, and at home near Coogan’s Bluff since 1883, played their final game overlooking the Harlem River. Both teams would move three-thousand miles west to California. The Dodgers would settle in Los Angeles, first at Memorial Coliseum and then in the famed Dodger Stadium, winning the 1959 World Series, and five more in the years since. The Giants moved to San Francisco, played their home games at the mercilessly windy Candlestick Park, before moving to a new stadium in 2000, winning three world titles in the twenty-first century. New York would be left without a National League team to rival the cross-town Yankees for five years, until the New York Metropolitans, colloquially known as the Mets, were formed. They're winners of two world championships of their own. In 1960 hall of fame pitcher Bob Feller, hosting a syndicated show, spoke about that last Giants baseball weekend at the Polo Grounds. There’s an old adage that says “change is life’s only constant.” Post-War hope turned into labor strife and a baby boom, which gave rise to the most profitable radio year in history—1948—leading directly to the TV era. The new deal was more than ten years old and an urban diaspora, guided by white flight and atomic fear, brought families to newly blossomed suburban communities and left cities wondering what the future held. More uncertainty lay ahead. Four days into October, the USSR would launch Sputnik I, the first artificial Earth-orbiting satellite. Everybody’s lives got a little nearer, and yet a little further apart. But, if they wanted to feel close, all they had to do was tune on a radio to a CBS affiliate Sunday afternoons as George Walsh breathed “and now” to open for Suspense. They’d perhaps remember a time when Jack Benny drove radio ratings, while his cast drove him crazy. To a time when Tuesday nights meant NBC with Fibber Mcgee and Molly, Bob Hope, and Red Skelton. When Thursdays meant Crosby, Suspense, and Burns and Allen. And to a time when Norman Corwin helped remember what brought us home. It’s where we’re all going anyway. More specifically, it’s where we’re heading next month.

BW - EP143—010: September 1957—The Bing Crosby Road Show And The Report On School Integration Sep 21, 2023

In September of 1957, Bing Crosby, now fifty-four years old, was gearing up to host the Edsel TV special and generating praise for his recent dramatic role as Earl Carlton in Man On Fire. He’d won an Academy Award, had his own radio show since 1931, and championed the widespread use of Prime Time, network transcription. The Ford Road Show featuring Bing Crosby debuted on September 2nd, 1957. It aired five days per week on CBS for five minutes. These were taped segments edited by Murdo MacKenzie and written and produced by Bill Morrow The just-heard John Scott Trotter conducted the orchestra. It included an opening theme, one or two songs by Bing and commercials by Ken Carpenter. This episode aired on September 24th. Ford’s Agency of Record J. Walter Thompson saturated radio with five-minute segments. They also sponsored a show with Rosemary Clooney, a chit chat by Arthur Godfrey and news by Edward R. Murrow. Earlier in this episode we spoke about The Civil Rights Act of 1957 and the Hattie Cotton Elementary School bombing in Nashville, Tennessee. With forced integration underway, federal troops needed to be called out to Little Rock, Arkansas where a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School were stopped from attending by the state’s governor. On September 27th CBS Radio ran a special report on the progress, or lack thereof, in southern school integration in the three years following Brown vs. The Board of Education.

BW - EP143—009: September 1957—CBS Still Doing Sunday Radio Drama Sep 18, 2023

The man you’re listening to is William Froug. He was instrumental in bringing the CBS Radio Workshop back to the air. CBS was still airing dramatic programming on Sunday afternoons. In 1957 Froug became the VP of Programming. He took the position against his will. The CBS Radio Workshop, a reimagining of the old Columbia Workshop had debuted with the critically acclaimed two-part adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World on January 27th, 1956. It was in its second season in 1957 and unfortunately on the chopping block. Froug stayed with The CBS Radio Workshop until 1957. Afterwards Antony Ellis took over Hollywood’s production. Paul Roberts was the New York counterpart. On Sunday September 22nd, 1957, with no national sponsorship forthcoming, The CBS Radio Workshop went off the air with an adaptation of Sinclair Lewis’ “Young Man Axelrod.” After the workshop signed off for the final time, Suspense signed on, directed by William N. Robson and guest-starring Jackie Kelk and Jeanette Nolan. At 5:05PM Indictment signed on starring Nat Polen and Jack Arthur. Indictment debuted on January 29th, 1956. It told stories from the files of former ADA Eleazar Lipsky. Episodes presented the step-by-step details that went into gathering evidence which led to an indictment. That was the voice of director and writer Jack Johnstone. In September of 1957 he was in his third year directing Bob Bailey in Yours Truly Johnny Dollar. This is Bob Bailey’s daughter Roberta Bailey-Goodwin. Parley Baer was featured in this cast. After The FBI in Peace and War went on at 6:05PM, Gunsmoke signed on. Baer had been part of the cast since its first broadcast in 1952. By 1957 Gunsmoke was, quite simply, one of the most influential western in history. Norman MacDonnell was its director. Sez Who! Debuted alongside The Stan Freberg Show on Sunday, July 14th, 1957 as part of a week in which CBS Radio added $765,000 in new billings. Sez Who! Would be sponsored every other week by Look Magazine.

BW - EP143—008: September 1957—The Grand Ole Opry And Meet The Press Sep 16, 2023

On Saturday, September 14th, 1957 The Grand Ole Opry signed on from WSM and the Ryman Auditorium. WSM is a fifty-thousand-watt clear channel station located in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded by the National Life and Accident Insurance Company, the station’s call sign stands for We Shield Millions. WSM first signed on October 5th, 1925. The next month on November 28th, The WSM Barn Dance took to the air for the first time. On December 10th, 1927, the program's host, "Judge" George D. Hay referred to the show for the first time, as The Grand Ole Opry. The Opry began running coast-to-coast on Saturday evenings in 1939. The show moved to the Ryman Auditorium in 1943. As it developed in importance, so did the city of Nashville, which became America's country music capital. By 1954, WSM was considered the outstanding music station in the country. That October 2nd a teenage Elvis Presley would have his only Opry performance. ___________ Meet The Press grew out of a partnership between Martha Rountree and Lawrence Spivak. Rountree, a freelance writer, broke into radio in the late 1930s. She created the panel show Leave It to the Girls in 1945, before teaming with American Mercury editor Lawrence Spivak, to produce a radio show promoting his magazine. Spivak would be the permanent panelist representing the press. They would invite top newsmakers to be put on the spot, “without preparation or oratory,” and thus “find out what they stand for.” The show debuted on October 5th, 1945 over Mutual Broadcasting. Meet the Press was soon making its own headlines. The panelists purposely pitted two editors known for their opposition to the guest’s viewpoint, with one middle-of-the-road type, and Spivak. In 1947 while still airing over Mutual, a TV version began airing on NBC. The radio version aired over Mutual for five years before going off the air and moving to NBC in May of 1952. On September 15th, 1957 the guest was Archbishop Makarios of Cyprus. The discussion regarded Cyprus’ quest for independence. The population was made up of both Greeks and Turkish Cypriots and had been under British rule since 1878. Greeks wanted British removal and a union with Greece. The Archbishop was one of the loudest voices in this quest. Makarios, who was in favor of bombing attacks that had occurred against government offices in 1955, was exiled in 1956, and by 1957 most leaders in the National Organization Of Cypriot Fighters’ had been killed or captured. So, they turned to organizing school children riots, and killing the families of police and military personnel. The rebellion continued throughout 1958, even after Makarios had abandoned his initial demands. They finally ended in February 1959 when agreement was reached for Cyprus to become an independent republic. The radio version of Meet The Press aired until July 27th, 1986. The TV version is still being seen.

Have you been enjoying Breaking Walls? Give the Show a Rating Sep 15, 2023

Have you been enjoying Breaking Walls? If so, give the show a quick rating on whatever platform you listen, especially iTunes.

BW - EP143—007: September 1957—The End Of Family Theater Sep 13, 2023

The man you just heard is Herb Vigran, being interviewed by Chuck Schaden in 1984. He’s about to be featured on Family Theater. The show was created by Patrick Peyton of the Holy Cross Fathers. Mutual Broadcasting donated time under four conditions: It had to be a drama of top quality; strictly nonsectarian; feature a film star; and Father Peyton had to pay the production costs. Peyton met Loretta Young, who advised him on how to approach A-listers. She became the “first lady” of Family Theater. Between 1947 and 1957, there were hundreds of dramas broadcast. Few used religion of any kind in the plot. However, by September of 1957 Mutual Broadcasting was phasing out radio drama. As Herb Vigran mentioned, Hollywood’s character actors were doing as much TV as possible. When Family Theater aired its last episode on Wednesday, September 11th at 8:35PM Pacific time over KHJ in Los Angeles, the only other dramatic radio shows on KHJ that night were Gangbusters and Horatio Hornblower. This is from that last episode, fittingly called “Roadshow.” Lilian Buyeff played Helen Blackwell. After the episode ended, Joan Leslie came back on with the final PSA in Family Theater history.

BW - EP143—006: September 1957—Howard Miller And Steve Allen Sep 11, 2023

At 10:45 AM central time on the morning of September 11th, 1957, Howard Miller signed on from WBBM with fifteen minutes of music, and an interview with Steve Allen. Howard Miller was born on December 7th, 1912 in Chicago. From 1945 through 1949 he was WIND’s program director before beginning an eighteen year run as the Windy City’s top-rated morning DJ. In between he acted in Jamboree!, Senior Prom, and The Big Beat. In September of 1957 Steve Allen was coming off starring in The Benny Goodman Story. He left The Tonight Show in January after three successful years when NBC asked Allen to focus on his Sunday prime time Steve Allen Show. By then Allen was famous as a humorist, musician, emcee, and actor. He was promoting his new song, “Gotta Have Something in the Bank, Frank” when he spoke to Miller.

BW - EP143—005: September 1957—Ms America, A School Bombing, And Danny Kaye Sep 09, 2023

On Saturday September 7th, 1957 Marilyn Van Derbur was crowned 1958’s Miss America in Atlantic City. She was a twenty-year old Phi Beta Kappa scholar at the University of Colorado, She later moved to New York City, becoming the TV spokeswoman for AT&T’s Bell Telephone Hour and hosted ten episodes of Candid Camera, as well as five Miss America Pageants. In 1975 she established the Marilyn Van Derbur Motivational Institute. When she was fifty three, she revealed herself to be the victim of incestual abuse from her father. Her story was featured on the cover of People magazine on June 10th, 1991. She and her husband angel invested an adult incest survivor program at The Kempe Center, and she founded the Survivors United Network. On Monday September 9th President Eisenhower signed The Civil Rights Act of 1957. The law was the first civil rights legislation since 1875. Deep south Democrat leaders were resisting desegregation. In this midst, Eisenhower proposed a civil rights bill designed to provide federal protection for African American voting rights against state and local law. The law also established a U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and a Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. That day, the Hattie Cotton Elementary School in Nashville, Tennessee admitted one African American student, Patricia Watson. She was six years old. Shortly after midnight on September 10th, dynamite was set off at the east end of the school’s entrance hall. It tore down walls and knocked out every window, forcing the school to close for nine days. When it reopened, Patricia’s mother had her transferred to an all-black school. The act was condemned by Nashville Police Chief Douglass E. Hosse who offered a seven-thousand dollar cash reward for any information. Six suspects were detained, but no one was ever charged. Biography in Sound began when NBC newsman Joseph O. Meyers was assigned to produce a documentary on Winston Churchill for his eightieth birthday on November 30th, 1954. He felt blending actualities of the subject’s voice with recollections of his friends, associates, and antagonists could prove successful. A vast resource was available at NBC. Meyers had been building a tape library of interview clips since 1949. In five years, more than one-hundred-fifty-thousand historic statements had been recorded and indexed. In addition, Meyers had Bennett Cerf tell Churchill anecdotes. Laurence Olivier and Lynn Fontanne read from British poetry, and sound effects and music were added for drama. Meyers’ finished product was cheered around the industry. “He had done the impossible,” said Radio Life, “turning people’s attention once more to radio.” The clamor for another show was immediate and loud. A month later, Meyers answered with a piece on Ernest Hemingway, again to great acclaim. A biography of Gertrude Lawrence followed in another month, and in February it was decided to run the series weekly. On Tuesday September 10th, 1957 at 9:05PM eastern time, Biography In Sound: Danny Kaye took to the air over NBC.

BW - EP143—004: September 1957—Ray Bradbury And The End Of X Minus One Sep 06, 2023

The man you’re listening to is one of the most celebrated authors of the 20th-century: Ray Bradbury. By the spring of 1955 he’d authored more than one-hundred short stories and one novel, Fahrenheit 451, born out of a collection of earlier works. These stories were published in magazines like Astounding Science Fiction, Street and Smith, Weird Tales, Thrilling Wonder Stories, and The Saturday Evening Post. Among sci-fi enthusiasts, Bradbury was regarded as one of America’s preeminent writers. In April of 1955, NBC staff writer Ernest Kinoy was tabbed to adapt one of the sections of Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles, “And the Moon Be Still as Bright'' for a new audition. The show would be called X Minus One. X Minus One was picked up. The network formed a partnership with the aforementioned sci-fi magazines to choose stories for adaptation. The magazines would plug the show, and the show would mention the magazine during the introduction. X Minus One debuted on Sunday, April 24th, 1955. Its scheduling was erratic. NBC had long been known for impatience with new programs. If a series wasn’t generating big numbers and sponsors straight away, NBC often dropped or moved the show. Unfairly, the onus was on Street and Smith and their magazines to make X Minus One profitable. By September 5th, 1957 the show was airing Thursday evenings at 8:05PM. It was NBC’s only dramatic offering of the evening. Fittingly the episode was called “Saucer of Loneliness.” We’ve spent a good deal of time in past Breaking Walls episodes discussing Hollywood radio’s famed actors. There was a concurrent equally-talented group of New York actors. Like Bob Hastings. Bob Hastings spoke of Arnold Moss. There was Jan Miner, John Gibson, Joe Julian, Jackson Beck, Mandel Kramer, another oft-heavy was Larry Haines, and of course, the husband-wife team of Mary Jane Higby and Guy Sorel. These are just some of the people who appeared on countless shows originating from New York during radio’s golden age. Many were able to make the transition to television, many others weren’t. Once X Minus One signed off at 8:30, Nightline signed on for ninety minutes. News had become more valuable than drama in prime time. X Minus One would be canceled after the January 9th, 1958 broadcast.

BW - EP143—003: September 1957—Pat Buttram, Labor Day, And Just Entertainment Sep 04, 2023

Labor Day is a U.S. federal holiday celebrated on the first Monday in September to honor and recognize the contributions of laborers to the development and achievements of the United States. As trade unions and labor movements reached their peak during the Industrial Revolution, the Central Labor Union and the Knights of Labor organized the first parade in New York City. In 1887, Oregon was the first state to make it an official public holiday. By the time it became an official federal holiday in 1894, thirty states in the U.S. officially celebrated Labor Day. On Labor Day in 1957, LIFE Magazine’s cover featured Major David Simons and his hot air balloon flight, also talking about the asiatic flu threat. Meanwhile, The Saturday Evening Post wrote about the drastic toll life without parole prison sentences wrought and a warden’s plea for drastic reform in the American concept of punishment. Originally hosted by Gene Autry, Just Entertainment was in 1957 hosted by sidekick Pat Buttram. Pat Buttram was born in Addison, Alabama on June 19th, 1915. The seventh child of a Methodist minister, he was set to follow in his father’s footsteps when, just before his eighteenth birthday, he attended the 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago. Station WLS sent an announcer to the fairgrounds for a remote broadcast interviewing fair attendees, and the announcer picked Pat as a "typical" visitor from the South. To everyone's delight and surprise, his comic observations and bits of country wisdom kept the announcer and the audience in stitches. WLS hired him for their National Barn Dance program, giving him a nation-wide audience. Pat soon became friends with Gene Autry. He went to Hollywood in the 1940s, appearing in more than forty Gene Autry pictures and became a regular on the Melody Ranch radio program. He later played Mr. Haney on CBS-TV’s Green Acres. #countrymusic #geneautry #patbuttram #oldtimeradio #otr #1950s #podcast #radio #audiofiction #grandoleopry #radiodrama #goldenageofhollywood #western #yellowstone #laborday

BW - EP143—002: September 1957—American Forum Of The Air With Atomic Testing Sep 02, 2023

On September 1st, 1957 at 10:30PM eastern time over NBC, The American Forum of the Air signed on with a talk on the dangers of nuclear testing. The day prior a nuclear test was conducted in Nevada, only roughly three hundred miles from Los Angeles. Later that month, The Rocky Flats Nuclear Plant, just fifteen miles northwest of Denver, Colorado experienced a major plutonium fire, which caused plutonium, americium, and uranium contamination within and outside its boundaries. Six years later, on August 5th, 1963 in Moscow, thanks to worldwide fallout level side effects and concerns, the Partial Test Ban Treaty was signed. Ratification came from the Soviet Union, U.K., and the U.S.. It limited testing to underground facilities. The U.S. and USSR were, at that time, responsible for eighty-six percent of all nuclear tests.

BW - EP143—001: September 1957—The Man From Tomorrow Aug 31, 2023

August, 1957. We’re driving east on Route 50 from West Sacramento in a 1957 Ford Skyliner. The convertible costs roughly three-thousand dollars, has a Y-block Thunderbird V-8 engine and two-hundred-twelve horsepower. It’s got something else too: car radios have become Standard. U.S. Radio Magazine will soon state that fifty-five percent of all peak listening came from cars. Auto-rating measurements are underway, but still ineffective. Radio stations are having a good year. Sixty percent of National stations expect their total revenue to grow. Total radio revenue is expected to increase three percent year-over-year. A median station in 1957 is expected to make nearly one-hundred-three thousand dollars in revenue, with a profit of eleven-thousand five-hundred dollars. Urban stations are enjoying higher numbers thanks to higher populations and more national ad spots, though local sponsors are paying eighty-seven percent of ad costs. Programming accounts for thirty-three percent of all expenses. Gunsmoke was dramatic radio’s highest-rated show, with its Saturday afternoon repeat broadcast attracting even more listeners than its Sunday evening primetime installment. Somewhere between four and five million people were still tuning in from their homes. When factoring in car and transistor radios, nearly ten million people were listening. Meanwhile, Major David Simons just piloted the first hot-air balloon to reach over one-hundred-thousand feet of altitude, skirting the outer rim of our atmosphere. With the experiment lasting more than twenty-four hours, it was the precursor to manned space flights. On August 28th, the Major appeared on LIFE And The World over NBC radio in conjunction with the September 2nd, issue of LIFE Magazine. The rocket age, the Cold War, integration and civil rights are all upon us, while radio drama hangs on for dear life. Tonight, we’ll step into a portal to a time with Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, and Fibber McGee and Molly. And along the way, we might just remember where we’ve been, so we know where we’re going. ___________ On June 1st, 1957 after three seasons as a five-a-week serial, Jim and Marian Jordan joined NBC’s Monitor in short segments. The Monitor service had been airing for two years, offering NBC affiliates a full weekend block of available programming. In New York, On Sunday September 1st, NBC’s WRCA began airing Monitor at 12PM. That day Fibber and Molly told a version of their origin story. In 1958, tests found that Marian had a terminal form of cancer. She continued to work as long as possible. The couple had vignettes on Monitor until September of 1959. Fibber McGee and Molly were the subject of Breaking Walls episode 103. If you’d have tuned into WCBS in New York on Sunday, September 1st, 1957 you’d have heard news reports at the tops of most hours. Concerts and other music programs filled the dial between 11:30AM and 4:00PM. At 4:05 The CBS Radio Workshop signed on with the network’s first dramatic offering of the day. Next up was Suspense. In 1957 William N. Robson was in the middle of a three year run as director. CBS had found multiple sponsorship for the series in late 1956. Ten months later, it was airing on Sundays at 4:35 from WCBS in New York, and at 4PM from KNX in Los Angeles. By 1957 Robson had more than twenty years of experience writing, producing, and directing radio shows. The September 1st episode was called “The Man From Tomorrow.” It starred Frank Lovejoy and Joan Banks. At that time, they’d been married for seventeen years. One thing that was most certainly successful: CBS’s handling of radio during the oncoming TV era. A large part of this was because of chairman William Paley’s belief in the medium. By 1957 he’d been head of CBS for thirty years. At the CBS company convention in November of 1957 upper management predicted that radio was becoming fashionable again.

Burning Gotham: Out Now Aug 29, 2023

Right now, experience New York City like you’ve never before. Will you make the right deal? Or fall to greed? But whatever you choose, just make sure you get out in time. Out now on your favorite podcast app, Burning Gotham — The 2022 Tribeca Select audio soap opera about the fastest growing city in the world, and the opportunists who shaped it. Find out more at BurningGotham.com

BW - EP142: William Gargan is Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator (1939 - 1955) Aug 23, 2023

In Breaking Walls episode 142 we feature one of Brooklyn’s native sons, Bill Gargan, who made more than sixty films, and good money on radio in the 1950s. —————————— Highlights: • Brooklyn’s Native Son • Hollywood and An Oscar Nomination • The War and Being a Radio Detective • Martin Kane • Launching Barrie Craig • Radio Ratings in 1954 • Hollywood vs. New York • Hay is For Homicide • Ghosts Don’t Die in Bed • Throat Cancer and Thereafter • Looking Ahead to 1957 —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material for today’s episode was: • On the Air — By John Dunning • Why Me? An Autobiography — By William Gargan • The Big Show — By Martin Grams Jr. • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg —————————— On the interview front: • Parley Baer, Himan Brown, Lawrence Dobkin, Betty Lou Gerson, Virginia Gregg, Herb Ellis, and Herb Vigran spoke to SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com. • Bing Crosby and Lurene Tuttle spoke with Same Time, Same Station. • Himan Brown spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these interviews at GoldenAge-WTIC.org. • Parley Baer and Himan Brown also spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at Speakingofradio.com. • Connee Boswell spoke with Lee Philip. • Ernest Konoy spoke with Walden Hughes for Yesterday USA. —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • The Man With The Golden Arm — By Elmer Bernstein • String Quartet No. 12 in F Major, Op. 96 — By Avi Avital • Pyramid of the Sun and Voodoo Dreams — By Les Baxter • Living Without You — By George Winston, who recently passed away —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva John Williams Jim W. —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

BW - EP142—011: William Gargan Is Barrie Craig—Looking Ahead To 1957 Aug 21, 2023

While this brings our look at the life of William Gargan to a close, we’ll be staying in this time period for the next episode of Breaking Walls. Next time on Breaking Walls, it’s the fall of 1957 and the world is in transition. Both the Civil Rights movement and the space race are underway. We’ll begin a four-month arc, covering all things through the lens of radio for the month of September.

BW - EP142—010: William Gargan Is Barrie Craig—Throat Cancer And Thereafter Aug 19, 2023

After Barrie Craig went off the air, Gargan continued to occasionally host Family Theater. He also made films Miracle in The Rain and The Rawhide Years. He starred on the west-coast stage in a version of The Desperate Hours for Randy Hale and went to Europe to film thirty-nine episodes of The New Adventures of Martin Kane for Ziv Productions. In 1960 Hale was set to cast Gargan on stage in The Best Man, but a bout with Laryngitis forced Gargan to get some tests on his throat done. It was throat cancer. Doctors were forced to remove his larynx On November 10th, 1960. A breathing stoma was cut into the bottom of his throat. A man whose voice made him famous no longer had one. For a time he was depressed. Friends Bing Crosby, Dennis Day, Phil Harris, Alice Faye, and many others came by. It helped. Gargan couldn’t bear the thought of not speaking again. He made his first vocal lesson through The American Cancer Society in January of 1961. It took him more than a year, but by the following February he was making progress. The ACS was looking for a Southern California Vice Chairman for their 1962 drive. Gargan agreed to serve. In 1963, he met President Kennedy. He had a meeting set with the President for November 23rd. It was one that President Kennedy never made it to. By then his brother Ed was ill with diabetes and emphysema. He passed away in 1964. That year, Gargan was hired by the ACS for their full-time national staff. Within three years, Gargan mastered esophageal speech. He wouldn’t use a vocal amplifier and worked tirelessly to be able to speak in both low and high tones. Bill thanked his wife Mary for refusing to let him give up and for his faith that kept him asking why. That’s what he titled his autobiography, Why Me? By then he knew the answer. Bill Gargan spent the next two decades raising money, awareness, and the spirits of fellow cancer patients around the country. On February 16th, 1979 while on a flight between New York City and San Diego following a tour lecturing for the ACS, Gargan suffered a fatal heart attack. He was seventy-three. William Dennis Gargan is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in San Diego, California.

BW - EP142—009: William Gargan Is Barrie Craig—Ghosts Don't Die In Bed Aug 16, 2023

In September of 1954 as the last new episode of The Lone Ranger was broadcast, Barry Craig, Confidential Investigator took to the air on Tuesday September 7th at 8:30PM eastern time with an episode called “Ghosts Don’t Die in Bed.” Betty Lou Gerson played Ruth Adams. Virginia Gregg played Mrs. Dunn. The series announced its cancellation at the end of this episode, but a month later it was back on the air in a twenty-five minute format for another thirty-nine episodes recorded in Hollywood. The last Barrie Craig episode aired on September 30th, 1955, replaced thereafter with the science fiction series X-Minus One, produced in New York. One-hundred-ninety-two episodes were broadcast.

BW - EP142—008: William Gargan Is Barrie Craig—Hay Is For Homicide Aug 15, 2023

On Tuesday August 31st, 1954 as President Eisenhower addressed the American Legion, it had been a busy ten days for American aviation. On Sunday, August 22nd, Braniff Airways’ Douglas C-47-DL Skytrain crashed during a flight from Waterloo, to Mason City, Iowa. Twelve of the nineteen aboard died. The next day, A U.S. Air Force Lockheed C-130 Hercules flew its first flight at Burbank, California. And on August 25th, U.S. Air Force Captain Joseph C. McConnell, the top-scoring American jet ace in history, died in a crash when his F-86H Sabre fighter-bomber malfunctioned during a test flight at Edwards Air Force Base, California. Meanwhile, Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator took to the air with a play called “Hay is For Homicide.” Parley Baer played Jake. Also heard in the cast was Jack Moyles, Vivi Janiss, and Joyce McClusky. Arthur Jacobson directed the production. Airing opposite Barrie Craig at 8:30PM eastern time was High Adventure over WOR-Mutual, Stop The Music over CBS, and Watkins Committee Testimonies concerning Senator Joseph McCarthy on ABC. McCarthy would be censured by the senate in December. Senator McCarthy and the Red Scare has been covered extensively on episodes 123 through 128 of Breaking Walls on the first six months of 1954.

BW - EP142—007: William Gargan Is Barrie Craig—Hollywood Vs. New York Aug 13, 2023

After eleven orders of thirteen Barrie Craig installments, production of the show moved from New York to Hollywood with the July 6th, 1954 episode. The August 24th episode was called “Blood Money.” The west coast broadcasts were supported by people like Joan Banks, Olan Soule, Parley Baer, Howard McNear, Herb Vigran, Virgina Gregg, Betty Lou Gerson, and Lawrence Dobkin.

BW - EP142—006: William Gargan Is Barrie Craig—Radio Ratings In 1954 Aug 10, 2023

By 1954 ninety-eight percent of homes had a radio set. There were still nineteen million U.S. houses that could only be reached by radio. Procter & Gamble led the way with over fourteen million dollars spent, and forty companies, including General Foods, Colgate-Palmolive, Liggett & Myers, Campbell’s Soups, S.C. Johnson, and Coca-Cola spent at least one million dollars on radio advertising. However, the four national networks continued a five-year downward trend in radio ad sales. Network radio gross revenue peaked in 1948 at just under two-hundred million dollars. In 1953, it was down to one-hundred sixty million. While TV hadn’t fully supplanted radio’s total reach, it had decimated its prime-time audience share. On CBS-TV I Love Lucy led all shows with a rating of 58.8. It was seen in over fifteen million homes. Radio’s top show, The Lux Radio Theater, was heard in just under three million. The networks reduced ad sale charges for the sixth consecutive year, hoping to offset TVs broadening market share. It didn’t work. For the first time in sixteen years revenue fell. The only category to see an increase in sales was local advertising, and even that rose less than one percent. Shows canceled in the first half of 1954 included The Quiz Kids, Dr. Christian, Front Page Farrell, Bulldog Drummond, Rocky Fortune, Ozzie and Harriet, and The Six Shooter. West-coast actors, like Herb Vigran and Herb Ellis were moving into TV, but television was already going through budgetary changes. Radio’s top show, People Are Funny had a rating of 8.4. Along with oncoming transistor sets, nearly thirty million cars now had radios, but there was still no system to measure this audience. The next year it was estimated that out-of-home listening added an additional forty percent to at-home audiences. People Are Funny’s actual rating was closer to twelve. But these incidentals didn’t matter to the industry’s character actors. Network production habits were changing. More and more documentaries and news were airing from New York, more and more drama was airing from Los Angeles. That summer, NBC shifted the production of Barrie Craig to hollywood.

BW - EP142—005: William Gargan Is Barrie Craig—Launching Barrie Craig Aug 07, 2023

When Bill Gargan was fired from Martin Kane he planned to star in a Broadway rendition of Doctor Knock. In late September of 1951, Gargan signed a one-million-dollar contract that made him the exclusive property of NBC for the next five years. The deal required him to participate in a minimum of four guest spots on radio and TV each year. At the same time, Gargan was invited by Frank Folsom of RCA to accompany him to Rome to meet the Pope. Along the way, Gargan went to Paris to appear in the October 7th, 1951 episode of The Big Show. He participated in a sketch involving a poker game with George Sanders, Fernand Gravey, and Meredith Willson. Two weeks after his Big Show appearance, William Gargan was starring in a new series for NBC. Launched as part of NBC’s year-long Silver Jubilee, Barrie Crane, Confidential Investigator, first aired over NBC from New York on Wednesday October 3rd, 1951 at 10PM eastern time. Bill Gargan debuted as the detective opposite Mr. President on ABC, Frank Edwards on Mutual, and boxing on CBS. The show was directed by the just-heard Himan Brown. By 1952 Brown had been involved in radio for decades. The Barrie was inspired by the nickname of William Gargan’s oldest son, then twenty-two. The title of the show was soon changed to Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator. Episode three was called “The Judge and The Champ.” In conjunction with NBC’s twenty-fifth anniversary, the network launched a series of both Radio and TV offerings highlighting the growth of NBC's technology, talent, infrastructure and advertising success. Block-sharing advertising was in full-effect. The network sold commercial time spots, rather than full shows and called it “Operation Tandem.” Gargan was back on The Big Show the next March 16th, 1952 to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with Tallulah Bankhead and good friend and fellow Catholic, Fred Allen. Now with transcription wide-spread, Barrie Craig could be heard on different days each week, based on the region. Listeners would also hear different commercials, depending on what local affiliate they were tuning into. These could also be a mix of local and national ad spots. Blocked-sharing was being used by the other networks. ABC touted theirs as 'The Pyramid Plan,' CBS as The Power Plan, and Mutual called their’s MBS Plus. In a further refinement of MBS Plus, Mutual introduced an exclusive package of MGM programming for 1952. Both The Adventures of Harry Lime, and The Black Museum aired as part of this deal. For more information, tune into Breaking Walls episode 141. Launched with their tandem plan, NBC provided a "pay as you sell" opportunity for local affiliates. Local sponsors could pick from one-hundred-nineteen one-minute spots. The goal was to accommodate sponsors without a long contract. Craig occupied an office on the third floor of the Mercantile Building on Manhattan's Madison Avenue. Barrie Craig’s writers included Frank Kane, Louis Vittes, John Roeburt, and Ernest Kinoy. William Gargan was supported by some of the finest east coast voice talents of the era. This included Santos Ortega, Elspeth Eric, Arlene Blackburn, Barbara Weeks, Joan Alexander, Parker Fennelly, Arnold Moss, Luis Van Rooten, and Herb Ellis. NBC announcers included Don Pardo and Ed King with John Daly as spokesperson for 1952 Pontiac spots and Carl Caruso for Bromo-Seltzer spots.

BW - EP142—004: William Gargan Is Barrie Craig—Martin Kane Aug 05, 2023

In 1949 Bill Gargan appeared in Dynamite for Paramount Pictures. It would be his last film until 1956. On March 3rd he appeared on Guest Star. That year he was in New York City when he phoned acquaintance Frank Folsom of RCA. Folsom invited Gargan for lunch. He went to the fifty-third floor of 30 Rockefeller Center. Inside were executives from BBD&O, The New York Stock Exchange, and others. During lunch Gargan mentioned that he was looking for a job in TV. Folsom phoned Norm Blackburn, VP of TV and Radio at NBC and a good friend of Gargan’s. Gargan was asked if he’d be interested in playing a pipe-smoking detective, sponsored by the U.S. Tobacco Company. The show became Martin Kane, Private Eye. It would be shot for TV and separately done for radio as well. Mutual Broadcasting carried the radio series. It debuted on Sunday August 7th, 1949 at 4:30PM eastern time. Meanwhile, the TV version aired on NBC Thursdays at 10PM. It was live, and the first detective series on network TV with an enormous following. Gargan realized early on that there was only so much you could do with a plot in a half-hour, so he made the series a showcase for himself. He developed a tongue-in-cheek style. Kane’s 37.8 TV rating for the 1950-51 season was twelfth overall. Gargan later said “This was TV’s early era, but a few people tried to make the casual intimacy of TV a sexual intimacy. The sight of pretty women, a touch of deep cleavage, a show of thigh became—to these producers—more important than the content of the show. The result was we often had pretty, empty headed girls blowing their lines all over the lot. “In Desperation, I began to mug for the camera more and the script writers began to write more blatantly. You get into a terrible rut this way. Everybody works harder to undo the damage, and the result is more screeching, overacting, and overwriting. It drives the viewers away, and to get them back you come up with more and more desperate gimmickry. “What was worse, to me, was the embarrassment. I’m no prude. Probably the best part I ever did on film was that of Joe in The Knew What They Wanted, a wife-stealer. But this was just sleazy.” The next season the show’s rating fell out of the top thirty. By then, Gargan was friends with New York’s Cardinal Spellman. A friend of Gargan’s mentioned that the Cardinal watched the show. Gargan went to the studio execs and told them to write better scripts or get another star. They got another star — Lloyd Nolan. After eighty-five weeks, Bill Gargan was no longer Martin Kane. Shortly after, Gargan signed a deal with Sonny Werblin, then of MCA, to do a new private eye show for NBC. The show would eventually be called Barry Craig, Confidential Investigator.

BW - EP142—003: William Gargan Is Barrie Craig—The War And Being A Radio Detective Aug 04, 2023

During the War, Bill Gargan led a USO group that featured Paulette Goddard, Keenan Wynn, and accordionist Andy Arcari. They toured China-Burma-India. He spent four months overseas in some of the poorest and worst conditions of the War, putting on shows and flying in various prop planes despite a lingering ear infection, drinking whatever alcohol he could to help keep sane. When Bill finally got home his ear was so swollen wife Mary jokingly called him Dumbo. Under contract at MGM, he borrowed an apartment in New York and went on stage. His first night he got word that friend Leslie Howard had been killed in a plane crash. The War marked a dividing line in Bill’s life. He went back to Hollywood and made Swing Fever, She Gets Her Man, and finally in 1945, he starred with Bing Crosby, Ingrid Bergman, and Martha Sleeper as Joe Gallagher in The Bells of St. Mary's. Television sets began to show up in homes as Bill and his agent Ken Dolan conceived a half-hour mystery radio show called Murder Will Out for ABC. It failed to find a long-term sponsor and was canceled. Gargan next starred in I Deal In Crime, beginning on January 21st, 1946 on ABC. He played private investigator Ross Dolan for the next twenty months. During that time, Gargan also guest-starred on Family Theater, hosting the second episode on February 20th, 1947. Family Theater was created by Patrick Peyton of the Holy Cross Fathers. Mutual Broadcasting donated time under four conditions: The show had to be a drama of top quality; strictly nonsectarian; feature a film star; and Father Peyton had to pay the production costs. Peyton met Loretta Young, who advised him on how to approach A-listers. She became the “first lady” of Family Theater. Between 1947 and 1956, there were four-hundred eighty-two dramas broadcast. Few used religion of any kind in the plot. Bill continued to make guest-appearances on radio, like on the October 13th, 1948 episode of Bing Crosby’s Philco Radio Time on ABC. It would be in 1949 that William Gargan took on his most famous role, and in the process became one of the first television drama detectives in broadcasting.

BW - EP142—002: William Gargan Is Barrie Craig—Hollywood And An Oscar Nomination Aug 01, 2023

William Gargan appeared in more than fifty films in the 1930s. In between, he and Mary’s second son, Leslie, was born on June 28th, 1933. The Gargans bought the late Jean Harlow’s house at 512 North Palm Drive for twenty-seven thousand dollars. They’d live there for the next quarter century. Bill’s parents passed away in the middle of the decade. Gargan soon signed a Warner Bros. two-year contract that paid him one-hundred-thousand dollars, turning down the role of Duke Mantee in Robert Sherwood’s The Petrified Forest on Broadway to sign. The role went to friend Humphrey Bogart. For more info on Bogie, tune into Breaking Walls episode 140. Bill made his Lux Radio Theater debut on March 6th, 1939 in an adaptation of One Way Passage. Gargan hated working for Warner Bros. He likened it to sleeping on a bed of nails. The press labeled him “Bill Gargan, King of the B movies.” He later broke his contract. Perhaps his most famous role was as Joe in the 1940 RKO film, They Knew What They Wanted. Gargan received third billing behind Carole Lombard and Charles Laughton and was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. The plot is: while visiting San Francisco, Tony Patucci — played by Laughton — an aging illiterate winegrower from the Napa Valley, sees waitress Amy Peters — played by Lombard — and falls in love. Tony gets his foreman Joe, a womanizer, to write her a letter in Tony's name. Tony's courtship culminates with a proposal. When she requests a picture of him, one of Joe is sent. Amy goes to Napa to be married, only to find that Joe isn’t her husband-to-be. She decides to go through with the marriage. However, while Tony is in bed after an accident, Amy and Joe have an affair. Two months later Amy discovers she’s pregnant. Upon learning of the infidelity, Tony pummels Joe, but forgives Amy, insisting they still be married. Unable to forgive herself, she leaves with the priest. Meanwhile, Gargan did more radio. He appeared on the January 4th, 1940 episode of The Good News with his former co-star Ann Sothern. Good News aired Thursdays at 9PM eastern time over NBC’s Red Network. Its 16.9 rating was twelfth overall. Good News was the first major collaboration of a movie studio and a broadcasting system for a commercial sponsor.” The idea was, simply put, to “dazzle ’em with glitter.” MGM produced. Every star except Garbo was available. There would be songs, stories, comedy, and drama. In short, it promised an intimate glimpse of Hollywood with its hair down. The result cost Maxwell House $25,000 a week. Gargan was back on the program the following week in a one-act play opposite Lurene Tuttle. Bill was nominated for a best supporting actor Oscar, won by good friend Walter Brennan for The Westerner. He later joked that Brennan spent ninety minutes spitting and Gargan lost to a spittoon. The joking was short-lived. Gargan would soon begin work on another film with the appropriate title, I Wake Up Screaming.

BW - EP142—001: William Gargan Is Barrie Craig—Brooklyn's Native Son Jul 30, 2023

William Dennis Gargan was born to an irish-american Catholic family in Brooklyn, New York on July 17th, 1905. His parents—Bill and Irene—had seven children, but only Bill and his brother Ed survived infancy. Ed was four years older than Bill. The pair were close. Bill’s mother had been a teacher, but his father was a book maker and a gambler, which didn’t sit well with Irene’s parents. Gargan’s dad made book in the copy room at the New York World and in Room 9 of City Hall. The four-story brownstone they lived in at 427 Henry Street in Brooklyn Heights was won in a poker game. Today P.S. 29 stands on the site. Bill got his first silent movie job at seven for Vitagraph Studios. He was paid Three dollars and eighty-five cents. That’s roughly one-hundred twenty dollars today. It portended things to come. By ten, Bill was hanging out at his father’s bar in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Gargan later said that his mother was more straight-laced, a bit of a prude on the surface, but in reality, she ran with dad all her life and his.” Both parents had good senses of humor. He grew up going to Sea Gate in the summer and fighting for the Irish kids from Bay Ridge against the Italian kids in empty lots. He played baseball and basketball for St. Francis Xavier grade school and St. James High. He ditched school in the spring to scale the Ebbets Field wall to watch the Dodgers and their stars of the 1910s. When he was fourteen and working as an ice brusher at the Prospect Park skating rink, Gargan met a girl named Mary Elizabeth Kenny. He was so taken that he used his broom to knock her down! Gargan recalled that “She got up, her eyes spitting fire and her mouth not doing badly either. I knew I was in love.” Gargan loved the theater. By high school he was playing in school productions of Hamlet, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet. However, a teacher who’d been out to get Bill for his comedic behavior made life so miserable during Bill’s senior year that he dropped out. Gargan became a message runner for a Broad Street brokerage firm, then a cop for a clothing store, then one for a Wall Street agency until he was fired for losing a tail. He sold Wesson Oil to grocers, sneaking away to watch plays. One day the lights went up and Gargan noticed his boss was sitting next to him. “Good show,” Gargan said, “you’re fired,” said his boss. Bill’s brother Ed was an actor. While having lunch with Ed one day at the Lamb’s Club a man named Le Roy Clemens mentioned to Bill that a play he’d written was having tryouts. Bill read a line and was hired, beginning his career in Aloma of the South Seas. They opened in Baltimore in 1924. Gargan was a quick study, learning everyone’s parts as well as the stage manager’s. Within a year he was directing the Philadelphia production of the play. Aloma of the South Seas ran for forty weeks. Gargan spent the next years playing all over the country with people like George Jessel and Richard Bennett. Jessel would be godfather to Bill’s first son Bill Jr, affectionately known as Barrie. Barrie was born on February 25th, 1929. After the stock market crashed, Bill got a short-term job on stage in New York where he met William Bendix. Soon a casting director at Paramount called and after that Leslie Howard cast Bill in a play. Bill later said that Leslie helped make him a star. That same year, on January 12, 1932 Gargan opened at the Broadhurst theater in New York with Leslie Howard in Philip Barry’s The Animal Kingdom. It was a smash hit. His success led MGM to call. They offered him the part of Sergeant O’Hara in the 1932 feature Rain, starring Joan Crawford and Walter Huston. He’d be paid fifteen-hundred dollars per week. That’s over thirty-three grand today. Bill bought out his contract with The Animal Kingdom, playing on May 2nd for the last time. The next morning, Bill, Mary, and young Barrie left for Hollywood. Rain was shot on Catalina Island.

BW - EP141: Orson Welles In Europe (1948 - 1956) Jul 23, 2023

In Breaking Walls episode 141, we finish a three part series on the radio career of Orson Welles by picking up as he left The United States for Europe in the late 1940s. For full appreciation, tune into episodes 79 and 104 before hearing this. —————————— Highlights: • Macbeth, HUAC and Leaving the U.S • Harry Alan Towers, and Harry Lime • Othello and The Black Museum • Song of Myself and Theatre Royal • Moriarity • The BBC Sketchbook and Moby Dick • Mr Lincoln and Mr Arkadin • Returning to the U.S. • Tomorrow and Yesterday • Looking Ahead to Barrie Craig —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material for today’s episode was: • A Book by Desi Arnaz • Citizen Welles by Frank Brady • This is Orson Welles by Welles and Peter Bogdanovich • On the Air — By John Dunning • Discovering Orson Welles by Jonathan Rosenbaum • Orson Welles on the Air, at OrsonWelles.Indiana.edu • Wellesnet.com. As well as articles from: • Broadcasting Magazine • Life Magazine —————————— On the interview front: • Orson Welles was with BBC’s Monitor, Peter Bogdonavich, Dick Cavett, Michael Parkinson, and Dinah Shore. • Harry Alan Towers spoke with Sheridan Morley and the BBC. • Joseph Cotton was with Chuck Schaden. Hear the full chat at SpeakingofRadio.com. • Jeanette Nolan was with SPERDVAC, the Society to Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety, and Comedy. For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com • Lurene Tuttle spoke with Same Time, Same Station in 1972. —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Wilderness Trail — By Walter Scharf for National Geographic • Irish & Celtic Waltz — By The Irish & Celtic Folk Wanderers • The Colorado Trail, Op. 28 Fantaisie for Harp — By Elizabeth Hainen • Seance on a Wet Afternoon — By John Barry —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva John Williams —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

BW - EP141—009: Orson Welles In Europe—Looking Ahead To Barrie Craig Jul 20, 2023

It seems fitting that the way in which Orson Welles described Alexander Woollcott is the same way many who knew Welles would have described him. That’s going to bring our look at Orson Welles’ radio career to a close. We’ve now covered Mr. Welles in long form three times — in episodes 79, 104, and now 141. We also covered his time as The Shadow in depth in episode 131. Is this the last time we focus on Orson Welles? That remains to be seen, but next month on Breaking Walls we’ll move to NBC where we’ll focus on one of the more underrated detective shows of the mid-1950s. That show? Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator. The reading material used in today’s episode was: • A Book by Desi Arnaz • Citizen Welles by Frank Brady • This is Orson Welles by Welles and Peter Bogdanovich • On the Air — By John Dunning • Discovering Orson Welles by Jonathan Rosenbaum • Orson Welles on the Air, at OrsonWelles.Indiana.edu • Wellesnet.com. As well as articles from: • Broadcasting Magazine •Life Magazine On the interview front: •Orson Welles was with BBC’s Monitor, Peter Bogdonavich, Dick Cavett, Michael Parkinson, and Dinah Shore. • Harry Alan Towers spoke with Sheridan Morley and the BBC. • Joseph Cotton was with Chuck Schaden. Hear the full chat at SpeakingofRadio.com. • Jeanette Nolan was with SPERDVAC, the Society to Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety, and Comedy. For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com •Lurene Tuttle spoke with Same Time, Same Station in 1972. Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Wilderness Trail — By Walter Scharf for National Geographic • Irish & Celtic Waltz — By The Irish & Celtic Folk Wanderers • The Colorado Trail, Op. 28 Fantaisie for Harp — By Elizabeth Hainen • Seance on a Wet Afternoon — By John Barry Breaking Walls Episode 142 will spotlight William Gargan and Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator. This episode will be available beginning August 1st, 2023 everywhere you get your podcasts, and at TheWallBreakers.com. In the meantime, give Breaking Walls a quick rating on whatever platform you listen, especially itunes. You can also join The Breaking Walls Facebook group at Facebook.com/Groups/TheWallBreakers. And support this show for as little as a buck a month at Patreon.com/TheWallBreakers.

BW - EP141—008: Orson Welles In Europe—Tomorrow And Yesterday Jul 18, 2023

On Sunday January 1st, 1956 NBC’s Monitor broadcast New World Today. 1956 was a Presidential election year. At the time of this broadcast, Dwight Eisenhower, who’d had a heart attack in September, was still debating whether he would run for a second term. He’d decide in February, eventually winning re-election. After the censuring of Senator Joseph McCarthy in 1954, the Red Scare had subsided, overtaken by fear of communism in other parts of the world and general war with Russia. Meanwhile, In January of 1956 Orson Welles appeared with The New York City Center Theater Company playing King Lear. He was finally home again. In February he traveled to Las Vegas where he performed a variety act at the Riviera Hotel. Welles was then contracted by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz to create a TV pilot for Desilu Productions. The short film was written and directed by Orson Welles, based on the short story "Youth from Vienna" by John Collier. Joi Lansing and Rick Jason star as a narcissistic couple faced with an irresistible temptation concocted by a scientist. Welles was the on-screen narrator. It was called The Fountain of Youth and considered a dark comedy. Desi Arnaz conceived the series, proposing to Welles that he host and narrate. Arnaz later wrote that before signing the deal he clarified the finances with Welles: "I am not RKO. This is my 'Babalu' money." Filming took five days in early May. The total cost was nearly fifty-five thousand dollars. Arnaz reported that CBS gave the series a slot, with General Foods as a sponsor, but the challenges in getting Welles to commit to a series lasting more than thirty weeks were daunting. The series did not go to air. The pilot was later broadcast on September 16th, 1958, during NBC's Colgate Theatre. That Spring, the Rock n’ Roll era officially arrived. On April 6th, 1956, Elvis Presely signed a three-film deal with Paramount Pictures. By the end of the month, his single, “Heartbreak Hotel” rose to the top of the charts. It would remain there into June. Meanwhile, Orson Welles appeared as himself on October 15th, 1956 in a very famous episode of I Love Lucy. Two days later, he was on the radio for a special one-off program adapting Philip Wylie’s 1954 novel about post-nuclear civilization. It was called Tomorrow and syndicated by ABC and the Federal Civil Defense Administration. The next month, on November 13th, 1956, his daughter’s first birthday, Welles appeared on NBC Radio’s Biography In Sound for his old mentor Alexander Woollcott, who had passed away in 1943.

BW - EP141—007: Orson Welles In Europe—Mr Lincoln And Mr Arkadin Jul 16, 2023

On February 13th, 1955 Orson Welles appeared on an episode of NBC’s Anthology in salute to Abraham Lincoln. Directed by John Malcom Brennen, produced by Steve White, and announced by Harry Fleetwood, Anthology offered dramatic readings of famous and lesser-known plays. Its last episode aired on June 12th, 1955, coinciding with the launch of NBC’s Monitor. On May 8th, 1955 at Caxton Hall in London, Orson and Paola Mori tied the knot. Welles was simultaneously finishing the editing on a film that would be called Confidential Report in Britain and Mr. Arkadin elsewhere. He cast Paola as Raina in the film. In Mr. Arkadin, American smuggler Guy Van Stratten gets a tip that Russian oligarch Gregory Arkadin, has a dark secret. Wanting to blackmail him, Van Stratten travels to Spain, striking up a friendship with Arkadin’s daughter. The movie was shot throughout Europe in 1954, with scenes filmed in Spain, London, Munich, Paris, the French Riviera and at the Château de Chillon in Switzerland. The story was based on several episodes of The Adventures of Harry Lime and was originally released in Spain in October of 1955. Orson and Paola welcomed the birth of their daughter Beatrice Welles on November 13th, 1955. It was Welles’ third daughter. By then, Welles was planning a return to the U.S.

BW - EP141—006: Orson Welles In Europe—The BBC Sketchbook And Moby Dick Jul 13, 2023

On March 15th, 1955, Orson Welles premiered as Lord Mountdrago in the British Omnibus horror film, Three Cases of Murder. The film consisted of three stories, Welles appeared in the one titled after his character. Ten days later he premiered in the french historical epic film Napoléon. He had a small part as Sir Hudson Lowe. Then on April 2nd, Welles appeared for BBC’s TV network in the first of a six-part series entitled, Orson Welles' Sketch Book. Written and presented by Welles, the fifteen-minute episodes present his commentaries on a range of subjects. The six episodes were called, “The Early Days,” “Critics,” “The Police,” “People I Miss,” “War of the Worlds,” and “Bullfighting.” Later that year Welles took part in another series of shorts called Around the World with Orson Welles. Between June 16th and July 9th, 1955 at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London, Orson Welles staged a two-act version of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. Welles used minimal design. The stage was bare, the props were minimal, and the actors, which included Christopher Lee, Joan Plowright, Kenneth Williams, Patrick McGoohan, and Gordon Jackson, wore street clothes. Brooms were used for oars, and a stick was used for a telescope. The actors provided the action, and the audience's imagination provided the ocean, costumes, and the whale. Welles filmed approximately seventy-five minutes of the production, hoping to sell it to Omnibus for a TV film, but he was disappointed in the result. The next year, old friend John Huston cast Welles as Father Mapple in his 1956 film adaptation of Moby Dick, which starred Gregory Peck. Welles later cast John Huston as director Jake Hannaford in The Other Side of The Wind. The film wouldn’t be completed and released until 2018, more than thirty-three years after Orson’s death. Welles modeled Jake Hannaford on his good friend Ernest Hemingway.

BW - EP141—005: Orson Welles In Europe—Moriarty Jul 11, 2023

In 1953 Orson Welles met Italian actress Paola Mori. She was twenty-four, beautiful, and had lived for eight months in a concentration camp during World War II. Her father, a colonel in the Italian army under King Victor Emmanuel III, was a member of the anti-Mussolini resistance. They were soon dating. In early 1954, Welles played a small part as Benjamin Franklin in the French/Italian historical drama Royal Affairs in Versailles. Later in the year he was cast by director Herbert Wilcox as the main antagonist in Trouble In the Glen, opposite Margaret Lockwood, Forrest Tucker and Victor McLaglen. It portended things to come, as Harry Alan Towers was still producing a series of Sherlock Holmes radio adventures, starring John Gielgud as Holmes and Ralph Richardson as Watson. On December 21st, 1954, Orson Welles appeared as Holmes villain Professor Moriarty in the last production of the series. The tale was called “The Final Problem.”

BW - EP141—004: Orson Welles In Europe—Song Of Myself And Theatre Royal Jul 09, 2023

In September of 1952, Orson Welles worked with the BBC for a portrait of early American director Robert Flaherty. Flaherty, who directed the first docu-drama film, Nanook of the North in 1922, had passed away the previous July. As Welles just mentioned, when he got to Hollywood in the late 1930s, he was fascinated by the early film people, and they were more than happy to share their stories with the then-Boy Wonder. In April of 1953 the BBC hired Welles to read one hour of poetry from Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself.” The next month the Italian comedy Man, Beast and Virtue debuted, in which Welles co-starred. From September 7th into October, Welles was involved with Ballet de Paris at the Stoll Theatre in London for a production of The Lady in the Ice. In October the production moved to Paris. Welles directed, wrote the libretto and was the ballet's costume and set designer. He later told Peter Bogdonovich, “It was very successful in London, and only moderately so in Paris, where it was very badly lit — as everything always is in Paris. The plot is: a girl's been found, like dinosaurs have been found, in a block of ice. And she's on display in a sort of carnival. A young man falls in love with her, and his love melts the ice. And when she kisses him, he turns to ice. A little parable for our times.” It would be the only ballet Orson Welles’ ever directed. In late September of 1953 Broadcasting Magazine reported that Harry Alan Towers had sold shows to both ABC and NBC for the fall. ABC would welcome Horatio Hornblower back for a second season, starring Michael Redgrave. Meanwhile on NBC, a new half-hour anthology program starring Sir Lawrence Olivier called Theatre Royal would take to the air. The program debuted on October 4th, 1953 with Orson Welles starring in an adaptation of Alexander Pushkin’s “The Queen of Spades.” Pushkin wrote “The Queen of Spades” in the fall of 1833. It’s a short story about how human greed can lead to madness. Theatre Royal was developed to capitalize on Lawrence Olivier’s name. At the time the program launched, Olivier and then-wife Vivian Leigh were getting set to appear in Terence Rattigan's comedy, The Sleeping Prince in the West End. The play would run for eight months. It made Olivier temporarily unable to star in his own program. Many fine actors of the British stage and screen were involved in individual episodes of Theatre Royal, like Robert Morley, Harry Andrews, Muriel Forbes, and Daphne Maddox. The music was credited to Sidney Torch. Once Sir Lawrence Olivier could no longer appear, Sir Ralph Richardson took over as host of Theatre Royal. Selected episodes were repeated, with a different series opening and closing on ABC Mystery Time in the late 1950s. The show remained in active syndication in the U.S. into the 1970s. Welles briefly returned to America to make his first appearance on TV, starring in the Omnibus presentation of King Lear, broadcast live on CBS on October 18th, 1953. It was directed by Peter Brook, and co-starred Natasha Parry, Beatrice Straight and Arnold Moss.

BW - EP141—003: Orson Welles In Europe—Othello And The Black Museum Jul 06, 2023

One of the first projects Orson Welles undertook after moving to Europe was a film version of Othello. Despite Macbeth’s criticism, he was still confident he could produce a successful Shakespearean film. However, filming was erratic. Its original Italian producer announced on one of the first days of shooting that he was bankrupt. Instead of abandoning filming altogether, Welles as director began pouring his own money into the project. He took acting jobs to ensure continued production. He also raised money by going on the stage. In the summer of 1950 Welles appeared in Paris in his own play called The Blessed and The Damned, which consisted of a short film, called The Miracle of St. Anne, and two one-act plays. It received positive reviews. In August he traveled to Frankfurt, Hamburg, and Munich, where he starred in An Evening With Orson Welles. Filming of Othello stopped for months at a time to raise money. It took more than two years to complete and was shot in Morocco, Venice, Tuscany and Rome. Before the film’s release, Welles played the Shakespearean drama on stage to audiences in Newcastle and London. A dubbed version of Othello premiered in Rome In November of 1951. Welles' original English-language version premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May of 1952. It won the Grand Prix and was released in Europe thereafter. When David O’Selznick got word that Harry Alan Towers had distributed The Adventures of Harry Lime to MGM, he refused to air it, so Towers took the series elsewhere. He quickly found out that MGM was now contractually obligated to provide a series with Welles to the Mutual Broadcasting System. So, in 1951 Towers went to Welles with another radio series. He’d already produced a series called The Secrets of Scotland Yard with Clive Brook. The new series would be called The Black Museum. It was based on real-life cases from the files of Scotland Yard. Walking through the museum, Welles would pause at one of the exhibits, describing an artifact that led into a dramatized tale of a brutal murder or a vicious crime. Towers visited Australia in the late 1940s and set up production facilities in Sydney. The Black Museum was produced there by Creswick Jenkinson. Ira Marion was scriptwriter and music for the series was composed and conducted by Sidney Torch. Orson Welles's introductions were recorded on tape in London, then flown to Australia to be added to the locally recorded performances. This was the first series to be produced in Australia in this way. The program was transcribed in 1951. In the U.S. Mutual Broadcasting carried the series, with more than five-hundred stations airing it. In New York it began airing Tuesdays at 8PM on New Year’s Day, 1952. Episode twenty-seven was called “The Notes” or “Kilroy Was Here.” “Kilroy Was Here” is a graffiti scrawl or meme of debated origin that became popular during World War II. It was associated with GIs stationed in Europe, depicting a bald-headed man with prominent nose clutching at and peeking over a wall. Next to him was the phrase. Robert Rietti played leads and Keith Pyott was often in the cast. Beginning In May of 1953, The Black Museum was also broadcast over Radio Luxembourg, a commercial radio station, and was not broadcast by the BBC until 1991. The Black Museum aired for the calendar year of 1952 over Mutual. It was rebroadcast on KABC, Los Angeles, in 1963 and 1964, and on KUAC—FM in Fairbanks, Alaska, in 1967. In 2002, Harry Alan Towers produced The Black Museum for TV, hiring Gregory Mackenzie to be director and showrunner. The anthology series used Welles’ original narration. The adaptation was shot on location in London in a film noir style and the pilot starred Michael York as Scotland Yard Inspector Russell.

BW - EP141—002: Orson Welles In Europe—Harry Alan Towers And Harry Lime Jul 03, 2023

In 1948 author Graham Greene was in Vienna getting a tour of the city, its back alleys, less-reputable nightclubs, and even its sewers. He was also introduced by actress Elizabeth Montagu to Peter Smolka, the central European correspondent for The Times. Greene was working on a novella that would become a screenplay called The Third Man. Greene sold the film rights to producers Alexander Korda and David O’Selznick. In the story a man named Holly Martins comes to Vienna to accept a job with his friend Harry Lime, only to learn that Lime has died. Martins is a writer. He’s told Lime was killed by a car while crossing the street. At Lime's funeral, Martins meets two British Royal Military Police: Sergeant Paine, a fan of Martins' books, and Major Calloway. Martins thinks the death is suspicious, so he stays in Vienna to investigate the matter. Orson Welles was cast as Lime with longtime Mercury Theater friend Joseph Cotton cast as Martins. Principal photography began in Vienna in early November of 1948 and lasted for six weeks. The rest was done around London and completed by March of 1949. Then-unknown composer Anton Karas was hired to create the musical score, performing it on a zither. The film was released in the UK in September of 1949, quickly becoming that year’s most popular. When released in the U.S. audiences loved it. Time wrote that the film was "crammed with cinematic plums that would do Hitchcock proud—ingenious twists and turns of plot, subtle detail, full-bodied bit characters, atmospheric backgrounds that become an intrinsic part of the story, a deft commingling of the sinister with the ludicrous, the casual with the bizarre.” At the 1951 Academy Awards, the film took home the award for Best Black and White Cinematography, while at the British equivalent, it won for Best British Film. In the meantime Welles and Tyrone Power made The Black Rose in 1950, directed by Henry Hathaway. Welles played Mongolian warrior Bayan of the Hundred Eyes. Hathaway, who liked Welles, later said the casting was poor, with Welles purposely outwitting people during shooting. While in England making The Third Man, Orson Welles became acquainted with Harry Alan Towers. Towers was a thirty-year-old radio producer whose company, Towers of London, was heavily into syndicated productions in British, American, Australian, and Canadian markets. His anthology series Secrets of Scotland Yard had proven that there was a lucrative market for high-end entertainment and, in Welles, he saw a personality and a talent that could quickly make his production company a leading one. Towers and Greene had the same literary agent. Finding out that Greene hadn’t sold Harry Lime’s character rights when he sold the screenplay, Towers quickly bought the rights to the character with plans to put a syndicated radio series into production. Welles signed with Towers to produce The Adventures of Harry Lime. They were prequel stories showcasing some of the more good-hearted things Harry Lime was supposed to have done. Only sixteen of the episodes were acquired and broadcast by the BBC. It was the first time that the BBC broadcast episodes of a dramatic series that it did not produce. The full fifty-five episodes were syndicated to radio stations in the U.S. Welles is credited as the author of ten scripts, including the first episode, “Too Many Crooks” which aired on August 3rd, 1951. The fifth episode was called, “Voodoo,” something Orson Welles had a lot of experience with, dating back to his time in South America during World War II.

BW - EP141—001: Orson Welles In Europe—Leaving The US Jul 01, 2023

In 1947, wanting to bring Macbeth to film, Welles teamed with producer Charles K. Feldman to convince Herbert Yates, President of Republic Pictures, to finance. Welles guaranteed to deliver Macbeth on a budget of seven-hundred thousand dollars. When some members of Republic’s board expressed misgivings on the project, Welles agreed to personally pay any amount over the initial ask. He brought in Irish actor Dan O'Herlihy as Macduff, and cast former child star Roddy McDowall as Malcolm. To cast Lady Macbeth, Welles visited longtime friend and radio legend Jeanette Nolan. The two had known each other since the 1930s in New York. Nolan and her husband, fellow actor John McIntire, were excited to work with Orson. Welles made several changes to Shakespeare's original, like adding significance to the witches. They were played by two other Hollywood radio legends: Peggy Webber, and Lurene Tuttle. Welles expressed frustrations with wardrobes and the tight schedule. He had the cast pre-record all their dialogue. Locations were leftover sets from westerns normally made at Republic. The entire production was done in twenty-three days in July of 1947. In September, Welles signed on to star in Gregory Ratoff’s Black Magic. Shooting would take place in Rome. He wouldn’t return until 1948. Republic initially trumpeted the film as an important work, entering it in the 1948 Venice Film Festival. It was abruptly withdrawn after poor comparisons with Lawrence Olivier's version of Hamlet, also being screened. LIFE Magazine gave the film a terrible review in October of 1948, saying that Welles’ days as the “boy wonder” were long over. When he returned from Europe in the Spring, Welles cut twenty minutes from the film at Republic's request and recorded narration to cover some gaps. But when finally released, it too was called a disaster. In July of 1948 Welles signed on to co-star with Tyrone Power in the Italian film, Prince of Foxes. The film would be released in December of 1949. Welles’ last appearance in the 1940s on American radio was in a pre-recorded segment on Mail Call over the Armed Forces Radio Service, on October 13th, 1948. Now thirty-three years old, Orson Welles had enough of Hollywood. He was in deep debt and needed to move to Europe, full-time. His first main stop would be in Vienna, to star with Joseph Cotton in a new film called The Third Man.

BW - EP140: Humphrey Bogart On The Air (1935 - 1952) Jun 27, 2023

In Breaking Walls episode 140, we examine the under-appreciated radio career of the one and only Humphrey Bogart. —————————— Highlights: • The Broadway Kid • Lux Presents Hollywood • High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon • Bogie with Hope, Benny, and Vallée • Casablanca • Suspense, Lauren Bacall, and Command Performance • Staying at Home for More Radio • HUAC • Fatherhood and Bold Venture • The African Queen and The Academy Award • The Final Years • Looking Ahead to July and Orson Welles —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material for today’s episode was: • Lauren Bacall By Myself — By Lauren Bacall • Humphrey Bogart — By Alan G. Barbour • On The Air — By John Dunning • Bogart: A Life in Hollywood — By Jeffrey Meyers • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg • Bogart — By A.M. Sperber & Eric Lax As well as articles from: • The Chicago Sun-Times • The New York Times • Variety —————————— On the interview front: • Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall spoke with Edward R. Murrow in 1954 • Humphrey Bogart and John Huston spoke to George Fisher • Humphrey Bogart also spoke to Ed Sullivan • Morton Fine spoke with Dan Haefele for SPERDVAC in 1988 • Howard Duff and William Spier spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Here these interviews at GoldenAge-WTIC.org • Lurene Tuttle spoke to Chuck Schaden. Here this chat at SpeakingOfRadio.com • Ingrid Bergman spoke to the CBC • William Holden spoke to Dick Cavett —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Manhattan Serenade — By Richard Alden • As Time Goes By — By Herman Hupfeld • Danse Macabre — By Camille Saint-Saëns —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva John Williams —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

BW - EP140—012: Humphrey Bogart On The Air—Looking Ahead To Orson Welles Jun 25, 2023

That brings our look at Humphrey Bogart’s life and career to a close. Next time on Breaking Walls? Well… next time we head to Europe to follow someone who got out of dodge, just in time for HUAC.

BW - EP140—011: Humphrey Bogart On The Air—The Final Years Jun 22, 2023

On Wednesday March 12th, 1952 at 9:30PM eastern time, Bogie and Bacall guest-starred on Bing Crosby’s CBS Chesterfield Show. Two days later, Bogart’s next film, Deadline – U.S.A premiered in New York City. Bogie plays Ed Hutcheson, a newspaper editor who exposes a gangster's crimes, while also trying to reconcile with his ex-wife. His performance was well-received. Bogart and Bacall’s appearance on The Bing Crosby Show pulled a rating of 9.1. On August 23rd, 1952 Lauren Bacall gave birth to their second child, a daughter, Leslie Howard Bogart, named in honor of actor Leslie Howard who got Bogart his first major film role in The Petrified Forest. The next day Bogart spoke to George Fisher about the experience. Both were soon back working as Bogart made Battle Circus and Bacall made How To Marry a Millionaire. Bogart’s next big role and final Academy Award nomination came in an adaptation of Herman Wouk’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1951 novel, The Caine Mutiny. Bogart plays Captain Queeg. In 1954 Bogart starred opposite Audrey Hepburn and the just-heard William Holden in Billy Wilder’s Sabrina. Bogart and Holden are brothers — Linus and David Larabee, competing for the love of Sabrina Fairchild. Bogart agreed to it on a handshake with Wilder, although the script wasn’t finished. It was not a happy set. Bogart didn’t get along with Holden nor Hepburn, and didn’t like Wilder’s hands-on approach. There were also numerous last-minute script changes. Bogart later said “I got sick and tired of who gets Sabrina.” But the film proved to be a hit. The New York Times particularly praised Bogart's performance. In the mid-1950s Bogart and Bacall’s social circle began to be jokingly known as the "Holmby Hills Rat Pack." The original members included Frank Sinatra, pack master; Judy Garland, first vice-president; Sid Luft, Judy’s husband, the cage master; agent Swifty Lazar, recording secretary; novelist Nathaniel Benchley pack historian; and Bacall, den mother. Bogart simultaneously made The Barefoot Contessa opposite Rita Hayworth and Sinatra’s ex-wife Ava Gardner. Then in 1955 he made We’re No Angels, The Left Hand of God, and The Desperate Hours. Just before Christmas in 1955, Bogart was honored with a roast at the Friar’s Club. But by then Bogart’s persistent cough and difficulty eating became too serious to ignore. He went for a battery of tests in January of 1956. The results were bleak: He had esophageal cancer. He still managed to make his final film, The Harder They Fall opposite Rod Steiger. Bogart plays a newspaper man turned boxing PR writer, bent on exposing the corruption he sees. Critics gave the film, and his performance, especially considering his condition glowing reviews. This is the last scene Humphrey Bogart ever did in any film. On March 1st, 1956 Humphrey Bogart had surgery to remove his esophagus, two lymph nodes and a rib. It was unsuccessful. Chemotherapy followed. He had another surgery in November. Although he became too weak to walk up and down stairs, he joked despite the pain: "Put me in the dumbwaiter and I'll ride down to the first floor in style. Frank Sinatra, Katharine Hepburn, and Spencer Tracy visited him on January 13th, 1957. In a later interview, Hepburn said: Spence patted him on the shoulder and said, "Goodnight, Bogie." Bogie turned his eyes to Spence very quietly and with a sweet smile covered Spence's hand with his own and said, "Goodbye, Spence." Spence's heart stood still. He understood. Bogart lapsed into a coma and died the following day, January 14th, 1957, twenty days after his fifty-seventh birthday. At the time of his death he weighed only eighty pounds. His funeral was held at All Saints Episcopal Church. It seemed like all of Hollywood came to mourn his passing. Spencer Tracy was to give the eulogy, but he was too moved to do so. John Huston spoke instead.

BW - EP140—010: Humphrey Bogart On The Air—The African Queen And The Academy Award Jun 20, 2023

In 1951 Humphrey Bogart once again partnered with John Huston on an adaptation of C. S. Forester’s 1935 novel The African Queen. Bogart plays the rough-and-ready Canadian mechanic Charlie Allnut, whose coarse behavior is barely tolerated by Katharine Hepburn’s Rose Sayer and her brother, Robert Morley’s Reverend Samuel Sayer. The film takes place in German East Africa in August 1914 as Charlie is hired to take the Sayers and their goods to be delivered on his small steamboat, The African Queen. When Charlie warns the Sayers that war has broken out between Germany and Britain, they choose to remain in Kungdu, only to witness German colonial troops burn down the village and press villagers into service. When Samuel protests, he’s struck by a soldier and soon becomes delirious with fever, dying shortly afterward. Charlie helps Rose bury her brother and escape in the African Queen. Much of the film was shot on location in Uganda and the Congo in Africa. This was unusual for the time. The cast and crew endured sickness from the food, water, and hot conditions. Bogart later joked that he and Huston were the only members of the cast and crew who escaped illness, which he credited to having drunk whiskey on location rather than the water. The African Queen premiered on December 26th, 1951 at the Fox Wilshire Theatre in Beverly Hills the day after Christmas and the day after Bogart’s fifty-first birthday. The African Queen debuted just in time to qualify for the 1952 Academy Awards, which turned out to be of utmost significance for Humphrey Bogart. Promising friends that if he won his speech would break the convention of thanking everyone in sight, he was instead modest and subdued. The kid from Manhattan that disappointed his parents and never took an acting lesson in his life was, at that moment, the best lead actor of the year. Bogart himself considered his role in The African Queen his finest performance.

BW - EP140—009: Humphrey Bogart On The Air—Fatherhood And Bold Venture Jun 17, 2023

On January 6th, 1949 Lauren Bacall gave birth to their first child, Stephen Humphrey Bogart, named in honor of his character in To Have and Have Not. Meanwhile Bogart made Knock on Any Door and Tokyo Joe for his Santana Productions company. Both were moderately panned by critics. In 1950 he made Chain Lightning for Warner Brothers and In A Lonely Place for Santana. In A Lonely Place sees Bogart star as Dixon Steele, a troubled, violence-prone screenwriter suspected of murder. Gloria Grahame co-stars as Laurel Gray, his neighbor who soon falls for Dix. The film is considered among Bogart’s best and perhaps a character with personality traits most like the real man. It was among a trio of films released that year, along with Sunset Boulevard and All About Eve, which comment on the dark side of Hollywood. Simultaneously, Bogart and Bacall looked for a vehicle on radio for their talents. Santana Productions partnered with the Frederic W. Ziv Company to develop a series called Bold Venture. It would be written by Morton Fine and David Friedkin, who famously wrote for Broadway is My Beat and Crime Classics. Bogart had long interest in starring in his own series, but had resisted due to the constraints of live radio. By 1950, due to widespread transcription, that was no longer an issue. He could do the show in takes and have music and sound effects added later. Three or four shows a week could be done, leaving Bogart and Bacall free for the rest of the year. Bogart plays Slate Shannon, hotel owner and owner of a boat called the "Bold Venture." Bacall, plays Sailor Duval, and Jester Hairson plays calypso singer King Moses. Shannon, based out of Havana, is always ready to rescue a friend in need or hunt down an enemy. Seventy-eight thirty minute shows were produced. The first show aired on March 26th, 1951. The Ziv Company distributed the series, putting up twelve-thousand dollars per episode. Bogart and Bacall were each paid four-thousand-dollars per show. Four-hundred twenty-three stations bought the series, paying weekly fees to Ziv ranging from fifteen dollars for small stations to seven-hundred-fifty dollars for big ones. Newsweek noted that although the series was set in Havana, it could just have easily been in Casablanca. While the series was first airing, the Bogarts were in Africa. Humphrey was set to star opposite Kathryn Hepburn in The African Queen.

BW - EP140—008: Humphrey Bogart On The Air—HUAC Jun 15, 2023

In 1947 Humphrey Bogart signed a new Warner Brothers contract. It gave him limited script refusal and the right to form his own production company. He and Bacall soon made the thriller Dark Passage based on the 1946 novel of the same name by David Goodis. Critics gave the film, and Bogart’s performance mixed reviews, but generally praised Bacall and the cinematography. On the eve of Thanksgiving, as NBC broadcast News of the World with Morgan Beatty, the United States was a country in transition. World War two had created fundamental changes in society. While men of all races and creeds were overseas spilling the same colored blood, women had taken charge of the workforce. When veterans collected enough points for an honorable discharge, they returned home with different ideals, and what we’d now call PTSD. As new cars, roads, and homes brought young families to the suburbs, racial discrimination came to the forefront in the face of the G.I. Bill, where a much higher percentage of white Americans were having their applications accepted. Americans were organizing. In the year after VJ Day, more than five million struck for better wages and benefits. This debilitated key sectors of the economy and stifled production. Consumer goods were slow to appear on shelves and in showrooms, frustrating Americans who desperately wanted to purchase items they’d forsaken during the war. It caused the largest inflation rise in the country’s modern history, and the Taft-Hartley Act, limiting the power of Labor Unions. President Truman was seemingly at odds with Congress over every domestic policy and his approval rating sank to thirty-two percent. The U.S. War Debt topped $240 Billion. Because the nation emerged as one of the world’s leaders, America was expected to have the largest hand in rebuilding Europe. On the eve of Thanksgiving, news outlets reported that in order to stabilize Europe, Americans should be ready to resume sacrifices they made during the war. Not agreeing to do so could result in political enemies taking over the continent. The changing world stoked people’s fears. Anti-communism was abound. On Monday November 24th, The House Committee on Un-American Activities declared a list of ten "unfriendly witnesses" who’d refused to answer questions about alleged communist influence in Hollywood. Bogart, who’d been questioned and cleared the first time the committee came to Hollywood, organized the Committee for the First Amendment. He felt HUAC was abusing its power, harassing writers and actors, and went to Washington to state his case. Bogart was later forced to recant to counter negative publicity. He wrote an article for Photoplay Magazine. Entitled “I’m No Communist,” he said, “the ten men cited for contempt by HUAC weren’t defended by us." Part of the reason for the article was Head of Warner Brothers Jack Warner, who was the first person to volunteer testimony before HUAC in September of 1947. Bogart’s next Warner Brothers film, The Treasure of The Sierra Madre, was to be written and directed by John Huston. Huston and Bogart were liberal democrats, but they knew better than to commit career suicide. The film was critically praised, but ticket sales were lukewarm. It received four Oscar nominations, winning three — Best Supporting Actor for Walter Huston, and Best Director and Best Screenplay for John Huston. It’s been long-held that Bogart should have been nominated as best actor, but his involvement against HUAC led to the snub. The Lux Radio Theatre adapted The Treasure of The Sierra Madre on April 18th, 1949. Later in 1948 Bogart and Bacall made Key Largo with Edward G. Robinson, and Bogart formed Santana Productions. One of its early missions was to develop a radio series for the couple.

BW - EP140—007: Humphrey Bogart On The Air—Spade, Marlowe, And More Jack Benny Jun 13, 2023

Bogart and Bacall moved into a white brick mansion in Holmby Hills, and he bought a fifty-five foot yacht called the Santana from Dick Powell, spending about thirty weekends each year on the water. With World War II over, Bogart wanted to do more radio. On September 17th, 1945 he hosted an audition for a new mystery/thriller program called Humphrey Bogart Presents. Meanwhile Bogart and Bacall were on screen together again in 1946, this time in an adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe novel, The Big Sleep. During World War II, comedy, drama, news, and variety dominated the radio dial, but after the war, detective shows gained network popularity as programming shifted to smaller studios. They were considered a good deal for advertisers. Although Bill Spier was entrenched at CBS, he still had ties with his old agency BBD&O, as well as with Lawrence White, Dashiel Hammett’s literary agent. Both ABC and CBS wanted to bring The Adventures of Sam Spade to the air. Initially, everyone wanted Bogart to be the star. Even with Bogart’s drawbacks, it was assumed no other actor could fill Spade’s shoes. Auditions were held in April of 1946. Enter Howard Duff. An audition was recorded on May 1st. In June, Wildroot officially signed on as sponsor. Spade would make its debut in July over ABC’s airwaves. Not to be outdone, on July 2nd, CBS broadcast an episode of Academy Award adapting “The Maltese Falcon.” Humphrey Bogart reprised his role. We heard the opening portion earlier in this episode of Breaking Walls, here’s the close. Meanwhile on October 14th, 1946 Bogart and Bacall reprised their roles from To Have and Have Not for The Lux Radio Theatre. The next January 5th, 1947, Bogart and Lauren Bacall were guests on The Jack Benny Program.

BW - EP140—006: Humphrey Bogart On The Air—Lauren Bacall, Suspense, And Command Performance Jun 11, 2023

In 1943 and 1944 Bogart went on War effort tours with his third wife Mayo Methot, making trips to Italy and North Africa. He produced shorts for The American Red Cross effort and the Victory Bond drive. The relationship with Mayo was strained. She accused Bogart of having an affair with Ingrid Bergman during the filming of Casablanca. Bergman later remembered that Bogart barely spoke to her off camera, let alone had an affair. Back stateside, Bogart was cast as Steve Morgan for an adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not. In casting "Slim" Browning, Howard Hawks’ wife Nancy Keith saw a Harper’s Bazaar cover that featured an eighteen year-old model and actress named Betty Joan Perske. Hawks immediately signed her to a contract. She’d soon change her name to Lauren Bacall. Mayo Methot had long accused Bogart of affairs with all his co-stars, something he’d actually never done. When Bogie and Bacall met, he was attracted to her outspoken personality, poise, looks, and long, lean figure. Bogart kept Bacall at ease during filming and their chemistry was apparent from the beginning, with their twenty-five year age difference creating a mentor-student acting dynamic. At first Bogart made sure his meetings with her were discreet and brief. They wrote heart-felt letters and made sure to be publicly professional, while Bogart encouraged her to steal scenes, delighting Howard Hawks. But when Hawks realized there was more to their chemistry than friendship, he disapproved of the affair. The film premiered on October 11th, 1944 while Bogart refused to stop seeing Bacall. His marriage to Mayo Methot was finally over. He filed for divorce in February of 1945. The next month, Bogart appeared on the Thursday March 8th 1945 episode of Suspense in Bill Spier’s production of “Love’s Lovely Counterfeit” at 8PM eastern time. This episode had a rating of 13.6, winning its time slot against NBC’s Frank Morgan Show. Playing opposite Bogart was Lurene Tuttle. Bogart and Lauren Bacall married in a small ceremony at the country home of Bogart's close friend, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Louis Bromfield, on May 21st, 1945. On August 30th, the couple appeared with Frank Sinatra on Command Performance.

BW - EP140—005: Humphrey Bogart On The Air—Casablanca Jun 08, 2023

In 1941, Warner Brothers story editor Irene Diamond was in New York when she discovered the script to an un-produced play called Everybody Comes to Rick’s. She convinced Hal Wallis to buy the rights to the script in January of 1942 for twenty-thousand dollars. The project was renamed Casablanca. Humphrey Bogart was cast as Rick Blaine, an expatriate nightclub owner hiding from a suspicious past and negotiating a fine line among Nazis, the French underground, the Vichy prefect, and unresolved feelings for his ex-girlfriend. Ingrid Bergman was cast opposite Bogart with Claude Rains, Sydney Greenstreet, Paul Henreid, Peter Lorre, and Dooley Wilson in supporting roles. Michael Curtiz directed. Principal photography began on May 25th, 1942. The film was shot entirely at Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, California, with the exception of one sequence at Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles. As Ingrid Bergman mentioned in an interview with the CBC, no one involved with Casablanca’s production expected it to be good. It was rushed to take advantage of the publicity from the Allied invasion of North Africa and had its world premiere on November 26th, 1942, in New York City. It was nationally released on January 23rd, 1943. But Casablanca quickly became iconic. Many exiled and cause-sympathetic film actors appeared in cameos, including Helmut Dantine, Dan Seymour, Madeleine Lebeau, Frank Puglia, Jack Benny, Marcel Dalio, Leonid Kinskey, Torben Meyer, Ilka Grünig, Ludwig Stössel, and Wolfgang Zilzer. A witness to the filming of the "duel of the anthems" sequence said he saw many of the actors crying because they knew that they were all real-life refugees. The film was nominated for eight Oscars, including Bogart for best actor, and Casablanca won best picture, best direction, and best adapted screenplay at the 1943 Academy awards. On April 26th, 1943, six weeks after the awards, the Screen Guild Theater broadcast an adaptation of the film.

BW - EP140—004: Humphrey Bogart On The Air—Bogie With Hope, Benny, And Vallée Jun 06, 2023

Humphrey Bogart’s film success led to more radio appearances on comedy programs, giving Bogie the chance to show off his comedic timing. On June 3rd, 1941 Bogart appeared on The Bob Hope Show. The program had a rating of 25.3. The next February, Bogart appeared on The Jack Benny Program. Benny and Bogart had tremendous natural chemistry. Years later, Bogart was talking to friend and columnist George Fisher about the top ten characters he’d met through the years. John Barrymore was one Bogart mentioned. That one time Bogart met Barrymore was on the February 19th, 1942 episode of The Rudy Vallée Show. John Barrymore passed away three months later.

BW - EP140—003: Humphrey Bogart On The Air—High Sierra And The Maltese Falcon Jun 04, 2023

As the 1940s got underway, bringing the U.S. closer to World War II, Humphrey Bogart drifted socially and professionally. That year he made four films: Virginia City, It All Came True, Brother Orchid, and They Drive By Night. On Sunday January 7th, 1940 at 7:30PM eastern time over CBS, he reprised his role of Duke Mantee in a Screen Guild Theater adaptation of The Petrified Forest. The Screen Guild Theater drew several Hollywood stars a week for radio adaptations. First taking to the air on January 8th, 1939 for Gulf Oil, all fees that would normally go to stars instead were given to the Motion Picture Relief Fund. This money was used to build and maintain the Motion Picture Country House: forty bungalow units for housing aging and needy film stars. By the summer of 1942 almost eight-hundred-thousand-dollars had been raised. This episode’s rating was a 13. Roughly nine million listeners tuned in. In late 1940, John Huston was adapting a script for a new film, High Sierra. Produced by Mark Hellinger and directed by Raoul Walsh, Paul Muni, George Raft, James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson all turned down the lead role, much to the delight of Huston. The character gave Bogart the chance to show his range. Finally playing someone with depth, the film was Bogart's career breakthrough, transforming him from supporting player to leading man. He played opposite Ida Lupino. The film's success also led to a breakthrough for Huston, giving him the leverage needed to transition from screenwriter to director, setting Bogart up for Huston’s next project: an adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon. The Maltese Falcon was Huston’s directorial debut. Although a pre-code version of the film had been made ten years earlier, the 1941 version with Bogart starring as private detective Sam Spade was considered an instant classic film noir. Complementing Bogart were co-stars Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Mary Astor, and Elisha Cook Jr. Bogart's sharp timing and facial expressions were praised as vital to the film's quick action and hard-boiled dialogue. It was a commercial hit, and Bogart was unusually happy with the film. He later said, "It’s practically a masterpiece. I don't have many things I'm proud of, but that's one." The film was nominated for three Academy Awards, including best picture and best direction. Bogart reprised his role on the July 3rd, 1946 episode of Academy Award Theater.

BW - EP140—002: Humphrey Bogart On The Air—Lux Presents Hollywood Jun 02, 2023

Despite his success in The Petrified Forest, Bogart signed a tepid twenty-six-week contract at five-hundred-fifty dollars per week. He was immediately typecast as a gangster in a series of B movie crime dramas. He played a supporting role in Bullets or Ballots released in 1936. Bogart reprised the role of Bugs Fenner on the Monday April 17th, 1939 episode of The Lux Radio Theatre opposite Edward G. Robinson, Mary Astor, and Otto Kruger. It aired at 10PM eastern time on CBS. Lux was Monday night’s highest-rated and CBS’s highest-rated show of the 1938-39 season. This episode’s rating was 21.1. Roughly fourteen million listeners tuned in. Cecil B. DeMille was introduced at the beginning of every episode as producer, but was actually a well-paid front man. His duties were reading the scripted introductions to each act and commercial-laden interviews with the stars at the end of each show. The real man behind the program was the J. Walter Thompson agency’s Danny Danker. Each show was a five day commitment beginning with a Thursday table read. Rehearsals were Friday, run-throughs with sound effects on Saturday, and Sunday had readings with sound and orchestra. The first dress rehearsal on Monday morning was recorded for director Frank Woodruff’s final critique. A final dress rehearsal was held with an audience at 4:30, and the broadcast aired live at 6:00 PM Pacific Time. But, Warner Brothers had no interest in raising Bogart's profile. Their studios were often unairconditioned. He thought the Warner’s wardrobe department was cheap, and often wore his own suits. His jobs were tightly scheduled and repetitive, but he worked steadily. He played wrestling promoters, gangsters, a scientist, and a few good men dragged into bad situations they didn’t deserve to be in. Bogart and his second wife Mary divorced in 1937. He married actress Mayo Methot on August 21st, 1938. It was an unhappy one filled with outbursts and mutual violence. The press called them "the Battling Bogarts." Dissatisfied with his work, Bogart rarely watched his own films and avoided premieres. He issued fake press releases about his life to satisfy public curiosity. When interviewed in person, he was too candid, later saying “All over Hollywood, they advise me, ‘Oh, you mustn't say that. That will get you in a lot of trouble’, when I remark that some picture or writer or director or producer is no good. “I don't get it. If he isn't any good, why can't I say so? If more people would mention it, pretty soon it might start having some effect. The idea that anyone making a thousand dollars a week is sacred and beyond the realm of criticism never strikes me as particularly sound.” Bogart made twenty-nine films between 1936 and 1940, developing his now-famous film persona—cynical, self-mocking, vulnerable, charming, and above all, a loner with a code of honor. It was his two next roles, however, both with John Huston, that would catapult him into A-list status.

BW - EP140—001: Humphrey Bogart On The Air—The Broadway Kid May 30, 2023

Humphrey Bogart was born to Belmont Bogart and Maud Humphrey on Christmas Day, 1899 in New York City. The eldest child, his father came from a long line of Dutch New Yorkers, while his mother could trace her heritage back to the Mayflower. Belmont was a surgeon, while Maud was a commercial illustrator and suffragette. Young Humphrey was sometimes the subject of her artwork—a detail that got him teased in school. Maud earned over fifty-thousand dollars per year at the peak of her career. They lived in an Upper West Side apartment, and had land on the Canandaigua Lake in upstate New York. Bogart and his two younger sisters watched as their parents — both career-driven — frequently fought and rarely showed affection to them. His mother insisted they call her Maud. Bogart remembered her as straightforward and unsentimental. Bogie inherited his father’s sarcastic and self-deprecating sense of humor, a fondness for the water, and an attraction to strong-willed women. He attended the prestigious Trinity School and later Phillips Academy. He dropped out of Phillips after one semester in 1918, deeply disappointing his parents. Bogart enlisted in the Navy in the Spring of 1918, serving as a Boatswain's mate. He later recalled, "At eighteen, war was great stuff. Paris! Sexy French girls! Hot damn!" He left the service on June 18th, 1919 with a pristine record. Bogart returned home to find his father’s health and wealth doing poorly. Bogart’s liberal ways also put him at odds with his family, so he joined the Coast Guard Reserve and worked as a shipper and bond salesman. Unhappy with his choices, he got a job with William A. Brady’s World Films. He was stage manager for daughter Alice Brady’s production of A Ruined Lady. He made his stage debut a few months later as a butler in Alice’s 1921 production of Drifting. He had one line, and remembered delivering it nervously, but it began a working relationship that saw Bogart appear in several of her productions. Bogart liked the hours actors kept and the attention they received. He was a man who loved the nightlife, enjoying trips to speakeasies. He later joked that he "was born to be indolent and this was the softest of rackets." The man never took an acting lesson, preferring to learn on the job. He appeared in at least eighteen Broadway productions between 1922 and 1935, playing juveniles or romantic supporting roles, more in comedy than anything else. While playing in Drifting at the Playhouse Theatre in 1922, he met actress Helen Menken. They married in May, 1926. They divorced eighteen months later, but remained friends. In April 1928, he married actress Mary Philips. Both women cited that Bogart cared more about his career than marriage. Broadway productions dropped off after the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Many actors were heading for Hollywood. Bogart debuted on film with Helen Hayes in The Dancing Town. He signed a contract with The Fox Film Corporation for seven-hundred-fifty dollars per-week. There he met Spencer Tracey. They became close friends. Tracy made his feature film debut in his only movie with Bogart, John Ford’s early sound film Up The River, from 1930. They played inmates. Bogart next appeared opposite Bette Davis and Sidney Fox in Bad Sister. Shuffling back and forth between Hollywood and New York and out of work for long periods, his father died in 1934. That year, Bogart starred in the Broadway play Invitation to a Murder. During rehearsal producer Arthur Hopkins heard the play from offstage and sent for Bogart, offering him the role of a lifetime. He cast Bogart as escaped murderer Duke Mantee in Robert Sherwood's The Petrified Forest.

BW - EP139: Martin And Lewis with Marilyn Monroe & Frank Sinatra (1949 - 1953) May 20, 2023

In Breaking Walls episode 139 we spotlight The Martin & Lewis show, and pay close attention to Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe. —————————— Highlights: • Capital Gains and Thanksgiving on NBC • The Nightclub Act • Opportunity Flops • The My Friend Irma Movie • Dragnet • The Show Relaunches — Frank Sinatra Guests • Marilyn Monroe Makes a Rare Radio Appearance • Splitting, Then Reuniting • Looking ahead to Bogie —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material for today’s episode was: • On The Air — By John Dunning • Dean & Me: A Love Story — By Jerry Lewis • Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime (Especially Himself): The Story of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis — by Arthur Marx • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg • Marilyn Monroe: The Biography — By Donald Spoto As well as articles from: • Billboard • The Cleveland Plain Dealer • LIFE Magazine • The Los Angeles Times • The New York Times • Variety —————————— On the interview front: • Jack Benny and Virginia Gregg spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear these interviews at SpeakingofRadio.com. • John Gibson spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these full interviews at GoldenAge-WTIC.org. • Both Frank and Nancy Sinatra Jr. spoke with Larry King. • Marilyn Monroe spoke with Dave Garroway for NBC’s Monitor in 1955. • Both Martin and Lewis spoke with Cedric Adams for WCCO in 1952. • Dean Martin spoke with Edward R. Murrow in 1958 and with Randi Oakes in 1984 • Jerry Lewis spoke with Sam Denoff for The Television Academy in 2000. —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Hen Ferchetan — By Avi Avital • Memories Are Made of This — By Dean Martin • Manhattan Serenade — By Richard Alden —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva John Williams —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

BW - EP139—009: Martin And Lewis With Monroe And Sinatra—Looking Ahead To Bogie May 18, 2023

Well, that brings our look at The Martin & Lewis Show to a close. Incidentally, we’ll be staying with this energy next month. I mentioned earlier that Dean made films with The Rat Pack. Frank Sinatra was also a member. Some people called Frank the leader. Some others have incorrectly attributed him as the founder of this crew. But, our focus in Breaking Walls episode 140 will spotlight the true creator of The Rat Pack. Next time on Breaking Walls, we focus on Bogie, and Bacall too, when we spotlight the unsung radio career of Humphrey Bogart. —————————— The reading material for today’s episode was: • On The Air — By John Dunning • Dean & Me: A Love Story — By Jerry Lewis • Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime (Especially Himself): The Story of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis — by Arthur Marx • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg • Marilyn Monroe: The Biography — By Donald Spoto As well as articles from: • Billboard • The Cleveland Plain Dealer • LIFE Magazine • The Los Angeles Times • The New York Times • Variety —————————— On the interview front: • Jack Benny and Virginia Gregg spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear these interviews at SpeakingofRadio.com. • John Gibson spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these full interviews at GoldenAge-WTIC.org. • Both Frank and Nancy Sinatra Jr. spoke with Larry King. • Marilyn Monroe spoke with Dave Garroway for NBC’s Monitor in 1955. • Both Martin and Lewis spoke with Cedric Adams for WCCO in 1952. • Dean Martin spoke with Edward R. Murrow in 1958 and with Randi Oakes in 1984 • Jerry Lewis spoke with Sam Denoff for The Television Academy in 2000.

BW - EP139—008: Martin And Lewis With Monroe And Sinatra—Splitting Then Reuniting May 16, 2023

By the summer of 1953 network radio was allocating increasing time to local affiliates. Budgets were shifting to TV. The final episode of The Martin & Lewis show aired on July 14th at 9PM eastern time. Gloria Graham was the guest. Opposite on CBS, Yours Truly Johnny Dollar aired starring John Lund. Dean and Jerry made six more films together. Their last was Hollywood Or Bust in 1956. During shooting in 1956, their mutual animosity reached the point where Lewis would only speak to Martin through director Frank Tashlin, and Martin told Lewis he was nothing but a dollar sign. After the film completed principal photography on June 19th, their breakup was widely reported. They fulfilled their contractual obligations with a farewell engagement at the Copacabana Club. Their last appearance was on July 25th, 1956, exactly ten years after their first teaming in Atlantic City. Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis didn’t speak again privately for twenty years. Although both continued to thank each other publicly, like in this Dean Martin interview with Edward R. Murrow from 1958. They crossed paths that year when Lewis was a guest on Eddie Fisher’s TV show. Martin jumped out from behind a curtain with a memorable line. The crowd—and Lewis—couldn’t contain their affection. Free from Lewis, Dean Martin became a huge star, both as a recording artist, as a movie actor on his own and as a member of the Rat Pack. He also hosted his own hugely successful TV variety series, The Dean Martin Show. Lewis remained with Paramount Pictures, appearing in and directing a succession of commercially successful films, at one point becoming Paramount's biggest star. He continued philanthropic work, which led to mutual good friend Frank Sinatra finally reuniting the duo on live TV during Jerry Lewis’ 1976 Labor Day telethon. They embraced, with Lewis in tears, and their friendship renewed. Both claimed they spoke every day from then on.

BW - EP139—007: Martin And Lewis With Monroe And Sinatra—Marilyn Monroe Makes A Radio Appearance May 14, 2023

Marilyn Monroe broke through as an actress in 1950 with small, but acclaimed roles in All About Eve and The Asphalt Jungle. She was then a mistress of Johnny Hyde, head of the William Morris Agency. Hyde negotiated a seven year contract with 20th Century Fox and then unexpectedly passed away of a heart attack. In 1951, Monroe had supporting roles in three Fox comedies: As Young as You Feel, Love Nest, and Let's Make It Legal. With her star on the rise, she received several thousand fan letters a week, and was declared "Miss Cheesecake" by the army newspaper Stars and Stripes. In early 1952 as she began a much-publicized romance with ex-Yankee Joe DiMaggio, Monroe revealed she’d posed nude in 1949, thus getting ahead of the scandal and gaining sympathy from the public. She explained she’d been broke and needed the money and was soon featured on the cover of Life magazine as the "Talk of Hollywood." Gossip columnist Hedda Hopper declared her the "cheesecake queen" turned "box office smash." Wanting to improve her acting, she studied hard with Michael Chekhov. Two of Monroe's films — Clash by Night and Don't Bother to Knock — were released soon after to capitalize on public interest. The films showed her range, as Monroe played a fish cannery worker in the former and a disturbed babysitter in the latter. In Howard Hawks's Monkey Business, she played a secretary opposite Cary Grant. In O. Henry's Full House, with Charles Laughton, she appeared in a passing vignette as a nineteenth-century street walker. Monroe added to her sex symbol reputation by wearing a revealing dress when acting as Grand Marshal at the Miss America Pageant parade, and told gossip columnist Earl Wilson that she usually wore no underwear. By the end of the year, gossip columnist Florabel Muir named Monroe the "it girl" of 1952. When Niagara was released in January 1953, women's clubs protested it as immoral. In some scenes, Monroe's body was covered only by a sheet or a towel, considered shocking by contemporary audiences. The film’s most famous scene is a long shot of Monroe from behind walking with hips swaying. Audiences turned out in droves. The next month, Marilyn Monroe was the guest of Dean and Jerry’s February 24th, 1953 episode.

BW - EP139—006: Martin And Lewis With Monroe And Sinatra—Frank Sinatra Guest Stars May 11, 2023

On Sunday November 5th, 1950 at 6PM, NBC launched a new ninety-minute star-studded program called The Big Show. Each episode cost over one-hundred-thousand dollars to produce. Hopes were high. Martin and Lewis appeared twice. This is from the December 17th broadcast. They also became regulars on TV’s Colgate Comedy Hour, which had over sixty-million million weekly viewers. By the summer of 1951, Martin and Lewis had scored with blockbuster films in That’s My Boy and The Stooge, and a sell-out touring act. LIFE Magazine reported tour audience members refused to leave. They began doing free shows afterwards on their hotel fire escapes. The streets were jammed with onlookers. Abby Greshler booked appearances on NBC-TV’s Colgate Comedy Hour, but it still bothered the pair that they’d flopped in radio. They wanted another chance. NBC hired Ed Simmons and Norman Lear—Martin & Lewis’ comedy writers—to write the new program. Dick Mack was the director. NBC offered it as part of their new multi-sponsor experiment called Operation Tandem. Chesterfield Cigarettes, Anacin Tablets, and the makers of Chiclets gum signed on. The new show premiered on October 5th, 1951 to great reviews. Dinah Shore was the guest star. In 1951, Frank Sinatra, at a low point in his career, didn’t make a single significant appearance on radio. Rejected by Hollywood, he turned to Las Vegas and made his debut at the Desert Inn in September. Sinatra became one of Las Vegas's pioneer entertainers. Frank’s first wife, Nancy, filed for divorce. It became final on October 29th, 1951. Daughter Nancy Jr. remembered that time. Frank and Ava Gardner were married in a small ceremony less than two weeks later on November 7th. In financial difficulty following his divorce and career decline, Sinatra was forced to borrow $200,000 from Columbia to pay his back taxes. On Friday, January 18th, 1952 The Martin & Lewis Show took to the air with good friend Frank Sinatra as the guest of honor. This particular episode was a forty-five minute special. This episode’s rating was a 6.0. The overall season rating was 5.5. This is Your F.B.I. over ABC won the 8:30 time slot with a 7.2. Opposite on TV, NBC telecast We The People, and CBS’ Man Against Crime starring Ralph Bellamy pulled a rating of 32. For more information on the career of Frank Sinatra, tune into Breaking Walls episode 85. Even with audiences leaving for TV, Readers of TV-Radio Life voted The Martin & Lewis Show their favorite comedy show of 1952, while the two made the films Jumping Jacks and Sailor Beware.

BW - EP139—005: Martin And Lewis With Monroe And Sinatra—Dragnet May 09, 2023

The U.S. spent the first ten months of 1949 in a recession. Competition for the advertising dollars was stiffer. There were now over two-thousand-six-hundred AM and FM stations. Television was becoming a serious threat. Over a hundred TV stations were on the air. Only two Network Radio shows had a rating higher than 20. Just two years earlier, there were fifteen. Radio’s average Top 50 ratings dropped 30% to its lowest level since 1937. Suddenly the reality of radio drama’s demise was staring men and women in the face, like the just-heard John Gibson who played Ethelbert on Casey, Crime Photographer. Meanwhile, NBC, ABC, CBS, and the Dumont Network reported a combined TV income of $29.4 Million. But advertisers were learning that TV production costs were much greater than radio’s. The extra money had to come from somewhere and radio budgets were the likely source. Seven of radio’s top nine shows now aired on CBS, but that’s not to say there weren’t NBC radio successes. Jack Webb’s Dragnet premiered coast-to-coast on Friday June 3rd, 1949 at 10PM eastern time over NBC. It featured some of Hollywood radio’s most talented character actors, like the just-heard Virginia Gregg. It wasn’t long before Liggett and Myers tobacco signed on as sponsor. CBS took notice. A month after Dragnet’s premiere, they shifted Broadway is My Beat to Hollywood and put it under Elliott Lewis’ direction. For more information on the launch of Dragnet, tune into Breaking Walls episode 111. For more information on Elliott Lewis, tune into Breaking Walls episode 113.

BW - EP139—004: Martin And Lewis With Monroe And Sinatra—The My Friend Irma Movie May 07, 2023

Although their radio show got canceled, Martin and Lewis were concurrently guest-appearing in a My Friend Irma film. Irma was one of CBS’ top shows starring Marie Wilson. The movie debuted on August 16th, 1949. Critics panned everything about the film, except Martin and Lewis, and the duo continued to be a smash at live shows. NBC brought the program back on Friday October 7th 1949. The network had to allow the duo to plug their CBS-inspired film on air. Thirteen additional weeks with no sponsorship ensued. NBC claimed fourteen sponsors wanted the duo as a TV show, but Dean and Jerry wanted to make it on radio first. Radio and TV Life called them blind. They were a hit with all the live crowds, but something was missing over the air. NBC seemingly canceled them for good on January 30th, 1950.

BW - EP139—003: Martin And Lewis With Monroe And Sinatra—Opportunity Flops May 04, 2023

As part of NBC’s programming development, One-point-five Million dollars was allocated towards new shows. The network’s first major signing was Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. In August of 1948 they made their Hollywood debut at Slapsie Maxie’s. They were soon guest-starring on Milton Berle’s TV show, and other comedians thought their Elgin appearance groundbreaking. On December 22nd the duo recorded an audition with Bob Hope. Hope recorded a new set with Martin & Lewis on March 24th, 1949. Things quickly fell apart as the trio couldn’t help but adlib. NBC picked the series, marketing the team as the next big sensation in radio. Their agent, Abby Greshler, negotiated a great deal with Paramount’s Hal Wallis. They’d receive seventy-five thousand dollars for films and were free to do one outside film a year, which they would co-produce through their own York Productions. The duo also had complete control of their club, radio, and TV appearances, as well as their recording contracts. In the lead up to the premiere of their radio show, Martin and Lewis appeared on the March of Dimes, the Chesterfield Supper Club, the Sealtest Variety Theatre, and The Bob Hope Show. The Martin & Lewis Show finally debuted on April 3rd, 1949. Their first guest was Lucille Ball. It has a similar script to the audition recorded with Bob Hope. But The Martin & Lewis Show was a flop. No sponsor was interested in advertising such a visual team on a sound-only medium. They switched broadcasting locations from Hollywood, to New York, then back to Hollywood. They also brought in new writers and characters. Nothing worked. NBC pulled the plug after the September 6th broadcast.

BW - EP139—002: Martin And Lewis With Monroe And Sinatra—The Nightclub Act May 02, 2023

Jerry Lewis was born Jerome Joseph Levitch on March 16th, 1926 in Newark, New Jersey. His father was a Vaudevillian and his mother was a pianist for WOR. By fifteen, Lewis had developed a "Record Act", miming lyrics to songs while a phonograph played offstage. To supplement his income he worked as a soda jerk at the Paramount Theater while he honed his act. In 1943, Lewis met singer Dino Paul Crocetti thanks to Frank Sinatra’s mother Dolly. They became friends. Dino Crocetti was born on June 7th, 1917 in Steubenville, Ohio. He spoke only Italian until age five, got bullied for his broken English in school, and eventually dropped out in the tenth grade. By fifteen Crocetti had bootlegged liquor, worked in a steel mill, served as a croupier at a speakeasy, and was a welterweight boxer. Boxing got him, among other things, a broken nose and a scarred lip. He’d later get the nose fixed. Dino then worked as a roulette stickman in an illegal casino behind a tobacco shop, and started singing with local bands, calling himself "Dino Martini." By late 1940 he had begun singing for Cleveland bandleader Sammy Watkins, who suggested he change his name to Dean Martin. In the fall of 1943 he’d begun performing in New York, but was drafted into the military during World War II. Dean served fourteen months before being discharged due to a hernia. Although they were friends for more than a year, Dean and Jerry didn’t officially team up until debuting at Atlantic City's 500 Club as Martin and Lewis on July 25th, 1946. The highlights of their act included Lewis heckling Martin while he was trying to sing, which ultimately led to them chasing each other around the stage. People loved their improvisational style. And Lewis knew that Martin was his comic equal. Martin and Lewis’ success at the 500 Club led to a series of well-paying engagements along the Eastern Seaboard, culminating with a run at New York's Copacabana Club. Almost overnight, the two were the biggest smash hit in clubs across the country.

BW - EP139—001: Martin And Lewis With Monroe And Sinatra—Capital Gains Apr 30, 2023

It’s 4PM eastern time on November 25th, 1948. Elgin Watches annual Thanksgiving Day special is on the air from NBC’s KFI in Hollywood. Don Ameche is the emcee. Ken Carpenter is announcing. This November Radio ratings are robust. Eleven shows have ratings higher than twenty points, and Lux Radio Theatre’s 33.2 is the most listened-to show on the air. But a major shift is about to happen just as the TV era launches. In 1948 comedian Jack Benny organized his activities into a corporation. At that time American individuals were taxed seventy-seven percent on all income over seventy thousand dollars. Benny’s hope was to secure a deal with NBC for his company, so that he could be taxed under capital gains laws at 25%. NBC’s parent company was the Radio Corporation of America. Their head, David Saroff, refused. Amos N’ Andy were the first to secure such a deal. They jumped to CBS in October of 1948. Then Lew Wasserman and Taft Shreiber—President and VP of The Music Corporation of America, called head of CBS William Paley to see if he was interested in a similar deal for Jack Benny. In November, David Sarnoff got word and sent NBC president Niles Trammel to California with orders to keep Benny at NBC, but Sarnoff refused to be there. William Paley flew to LA to meet in person, agreeing for CBS to buy Benny’s corporation for $2.26 Million. NBC responded by doubling their offer. However, Lew Wasserman again intervened, obtained the NBC contract, changed every mention of NBC to CBS, and re-offered the deal to Benny, who then signed it. Although Benny was signed, Paley next had to convince Benny’s sponsor American Tobacco to make the move. He did so by guaranteeing that CBS would pay the cigarette giant three thousand dollars per week for every ratings point lost after the migration. Floored that Paley would offer this, all parties agreed immediately. On Thanksgiving in 1948, William Paley had plenty to be thankful for. While Jack Benny was appearing on NBC for this Elgin Special, CBS announced on their evening news that The Jack Benny Program would be jumping to CBS. When asked that evening by the United Press, Benny declined to comment. It touched off a firestorm between the two networks. NBC claimed any such deal was unlawful. David Sarnoff said “leadership built on a foundation of solid service can’t be snatched overnight by a few high-priced comedians. Leadership is no laughing matter.” It was the biggest mistake of Sarnoff’s career. Jack Benny left NBC at the end of the year. Edgar Bergen too. There was suddenly a glaring hole in NBC’s Sunday night lineup. Between Benny and Bergen, NBC would need to replace roughly forty-five million listeners come January. In 1949, Burns and Allen, and Bing Crosby followed to CBS. NBC’s desperation created major opportunities. Among those to benefit were a comedic duo who’d been selling out nightclubs all over the country. Their names were Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.

BW - EP138: Baseball Memories From Radio History (1921 - 1972) Apr 26, 2023

In Breaking Walls episode 138 in honor of opening day, we’ll share stories, and sounds from Baseball history and the radio. —————————— Highlights: • Dots and Dashes • The Babe • Mel Allen • Dizzy • The War • Jackie • The Death of Babe Ruth • Baseball Radio Drama • The Shot Heard Round The World • Westward Ho! • The TV Era and the Death of Jackie Robinson • Looking Ahead To May with Frank, Dean, Jerry, and Marilyn —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material for today’s episode was: • On The Air — By John Dunning • The Voice: Mel Allen’s Untold Story — By Curt Smith • Those Great Old-Time Radio Years — By Aubrey J. Sher As well as countless other references and websites for baseball stats and history. —————————— On the interview front: • Mel Allen and Vincent Price spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these full interviews at GoldenAge-WTIC.org • Vincent Price also spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear this interview at SpeakingofRadio.com • Red Barber and Ben Gross spoke to Westinghouse for their anniversary special in 1970 • Red Barber spoke for Please Stand By in 1986 • Red Barber and Phil Rizzuto spoke to CBS for their Fiftieth Anniversary Special in 1977 • Marilyn Monroe spoke to Dave Garroway for NBC’s Monitor in 1955. —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Take Me Out To the Ball Game — By Dorris Day and Frank Sinatra • Love Echoes in the Pine Hills — By George Winston • Someone To Watch Over Me — By Rosemary Squires & The Ken Thorne Orchestra • Swing Into Spring — By Benny Goodman • I’m a Fool To Want You — By Billie Holiday • Battle Cry of Freedom and Steal Away — By Jacqueline Schwab • The Colorado Trail, Opus 28 Fantaisie for Harp — By Elizabeth Hainen • There Used to Be A Ballpark — By Frank Sinatra • The First Baseball Game — By Nat King Cole • Danse Macabre — By Camille Saint-Saens —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva John Williams —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

BW - EP138—012: Baseball Memories From Radio History—Looking To May W/ Frank, Dean, Jerry, & Marilyn Apr 25, 2023

Well, that brings our episode of baseball stories to a close. But speaking of heroes and heroines. Next time on Breaking Walls, it’s the 1950s and four people are taking the world by storm for different reasons. We’ll cover all four of them under the guise of one show. Who are the four? Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Frank Sinatra, and Ms. Marilyn Monroe.

BW - EP138—011: Baseball Memories From Radio History—The TV Era And The Death Of Jackie Robinson Apr 22, 2023

Radio ratings peaked in 1948 and the networks used excess profits to help launch TV. By 1950 NBC, CBS, and ABC were filling their entire primetime TV schedule. After eighteen years as one of radio’s highest-rated weekly shows, the just-heard Fibber McGee and Molly began airing five nights per week for fifteen minutes on October 5th, 1953. As America moved west after World War II, turning farms into suburbs and western towns into cities, the pattern of radio listening was changing. The desire to expand the Major Leagues into new cities gained traction thanks to an upstart league known as The Continental League. In order to block its entry into the marketplace, Major League Baseball finally expanded in 1961. When the Washington Senators moved to Minnesota before the ‘61 season to become the Twins, Washington received a new Senators franchise. Thanks to the success of the Dodgers, The American League added the Los Angeles Angels, upping the junior circuit to ten teams. The following year, the National League added two new teams: The Colt 45s, who, in 1964 changed their name to the Astros, and the New York Metropolitans, colloquially known as the Mets. One by one, old ballparks were being torn down—Ebbets field in 1960, The Polo Grounds in 1964. Both sites are now occupied by housing projects. New stadiums were often multipurpose —able to accommodate both football and baseball. Like with baseball, how America got its entertainment was also changing. By 1960, scripted radio drama was dying out as shows either moved to TV or were canceled. Although baseball would still be broadcast on the radio, fans now tuned into TV for their favorite games. A new generation of sportscasters emerged, like former Yankees shortstop Phil Rizzuto. He called Roger Maris’ record-breaking sixty-first home run at Yankee Stadium on October 1st, 1961. Rizzuto had a respectable playing career—winning the 1950 AL MVP award, but it was his work as a Yankees announcer that got him voted into the MLB Hall Of Fame in 1994. In 1956, while the Dodgers were still in Brooklyn, Jackie Robinson was putting the finishing touches on his remarkable career. That December 13th, the Dodgers traded Robinson to the Giants for Dick Littlefield and thirty-thousand dollars. Jackie Robinson opted to retire. Within a few years he was hosting his own syndicated radio show, Jackie Robinson’s Radio Shots. In 1960, he interviewed perhaps the most famous African-American pitcher in history, Satchel Paige. Jackie Robinson was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. Robinson was also the first African-American television analyst in MLB history, and the first African-American vice president of a major corporation, Chock full o'Nuts. On October 15th, 1972, at the second game of the World Series between the Oakland Athletics and the Cincinnati Reds, at Cincinnati’s Riverfront Stadium, Jackie Robinson was invited to throw out a ceremonial first pitch in honor of his twenty-five years of service to Major League Baseball. Complications from heart disease and diabetes made him almost blind by middle age. He used the opportunity to make one last statement to the baseball establishment. It would be Jackie Robinson’s last public appearance. Jackie Robinson died nine days later at his home. He was fifty-three. His Manhattan funeral service attracted twenty-five hundred mourners. Many of his former teammates were pallbearers. Reverend Jesse Jackson delivered the eulogy. On April 15th, 1997, the fiftieth anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s first game at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, Major League Baseball unanimously retired Robinson's number forty-two across the league. He is the only man to receive such an honor.

BW - EP138—010: Baseball Memories From Radio History—Westward Ho! Apr 20, 2023

In 1954, it took a historic season to dethrone the Yankees who were five-time defending world champions. Although they won one-hundred three games, the Cleveland Indians won a then-American League record one-hundred eleven. The Indians were led by Center Fielder Larry Doby, the first African-American player in the AL, Third Basemen Al Rosen, and slugger Vic Wertz. Their pitching staff was anchored by Early Wynn, Bob Lemon and Bob Feller. In the National League, the pennant winners were the underdog New York Giants, who won ninety-seven games, once again beating out the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Giants drew 1.15 million fans to the Polo Grounds, second in the National League. Built in a hollow overlooking Coogan’s Bluff near the western shore of the Harlem River in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan, a Polo Grounds ballpark had been on this site since 1890. The quirky park was shaped like a bathtub. It was only two-hundred-eighty feet from home plate down the left field line, and only two-hundred-sixty feet down the right. Center field however was over four-hundred-eighty feet away. But, the surrounding neighborhood was changing and Giants owner Horace Stonham began to wonder if he could draw more fans elsewhere. In the eighth inning of game one, the score was tied at two. Cleveland’s Al Rosen and Larry Doby had both reached base on Giants pitcher Sal Maglie. Vic Wertz came up to bat. Wertz hit a ball to deep center field, where Giants superstar Willy Mays was playing. Mays ran straight backwards and caught the ball over his shoulder with his back to the field. Later nicknamed “the catch,” it changed the entire complexion of the series. The Giants would go on to sweep the Indians to claim the 1954 World Series title. It would be their last World Championship in New York. Baseball’s economic model was changing. As great as the Yankees were, their dominance over the game created a league problem. The G.I. Bill was bringing families to the suburbs in the 1950s — and most of these families were white — radio and TV were embedding deeper into local markets. Major League cities were struggling to support two teams. After the 1952 season, the National League’s Boston Braves, unable to compete with the Red Sox, moved to Milwaukee and won the World Series in five years. The AL St. Louis Browns moved to Baltimore after the 1953 season and became the Orioles, where they won 6 American League pennants in their first thirty years. The next year the Philadelphia Athletics moved to Kansas City, where they would remain until moving again, to Oakland, in 1968. Oakland won three consecutive championships in the 1970s. Although fans of every other team loved to hate the Yankees, the franchise was a lightning rod for celebrities and other heroes. Throughout the years Mel Allen had many interesting guests in the booth, like noted Pirates fan Bing Crosby. The team the Yankees often defeated in the World Series? The Brooklyn Dodgers, who lost to the Yankees in 1941, 1947, 1949, 1952, and 1953. In 1955 the tide finally turned and the Bums from Brooklyn became World Champions. Later, retired Hall of Fame player and then broadcaster Frankie Frisch was inside the Brooklyn Dodgers clubhouse speaking to the victorious team. Two years later, owner Walter O’Malley was in a dispute with New York City Park’s Commissioner Robert Moses. Ebbets Field, open since 1913 was falling apart. The success of the Dodgers, and the population explosion in Brooklyn had made Ebbets Field too small. The 1957 seating capacity was a tiny thirty-two thousand. Yankee Stadium could seat nearly double. O’Malley wanted to build a stadium at the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues in Brooklyn. Robert Moses wanted the team moved to Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens.

BW - EP138—009: Baseball Memories From Radio History—The Shot Heard Round The World Apr 18, 2023

1951 seemed like the season it would all finally come together in Brooklyn. The Dodgers were led by Catcher Roy Campanella, First baseman Gil Hodges, Outfielder Duke Snider, and now second-baseman, Jackie Robinson. Through one-hundred sixteen games, Brooklyn had seventy wins. On August 11th the New York Giants trailed the Dodgers in the standings by thirteen games. Then, Giants manager Leo Durocher put coach Herman Franks in the Polo Grounds offices in the Giants’ clubhouse beyond center field. His objective was to steal opposing catchers’ signals. Franks used a telescope to relay signs through an electrical-buzzer system to the Giants’ bullpen. From there, the signs would be flashed to the Giants’ hitters. The Giants won thirty-seven of forty-four games down the stretch. It forced a tie with the Dodgers in the standings. A three game series was announced to decide the winner of the pennant. At Ebbets field in Game 1, Giants pitcher Jim Hearn out-dueled Dodgers starter Ralph Branca, and the Giants won three to one behind solo home runs from Andy Pafko, Bobby Thomson, and Monty Irvin. The second game, played at The Polo Grounds was a rout, but in favor of Brooklyn. Jackie Robinson had three hits, including a home run, and Dodgers starter Clem Labine went nine. October 3rd, 1951: Game three. The tight, tense affair was played before more than thirty-four thousand fans at the Polo Grounds. Brooklyn struck first when Jackie Robinson had an RBI single in the first inning. The Giants tied it in the seventh when Bobby Thomson hit a Sacrifice Fly. But the Dodgers struck right back, scoring three runs in the eighth. Jackie Robinson was once again in the middle of the action. With Dodgers pitcher Don Newcombe dealing, the game seemed all, but over. Then in the bottom of the 9th, The Giants put back-to-back men on. Whitey Lockman doubled to center field to score two runs. It made the score four-to-three. The winning run came up to bat. Ralph Branca came in to relieve Newcombe. Bobby Thompson was the Giants batter. The Giants would face the Yankees in the World Series and the Dodgers would again have to wait until next year.

BW - EP138—008: Baseball Memories From Radio History—Baseball Radio Drama Apr 16, 2023

The man you just heard is acting legend Vincent Price. Price’s only continuous radio role was as star of The Saint where he played Simon Templar. Leslie Charteris created the character as a suave private eye. He was a dapper dresser, equally at home at the wheel of a fast car, in an airplane, or on horseback. The Saint would also break the law if the result justified it. The show had begun on CBS in 1945. After a tour on The Mutual Broadcasting System, The Saint moved to NBC beginning on Sunday June 11th, 1950 at 7:30PM. Games and sports speculation weren’t the only form baseball took on the radio. It showed up in drama radio as well, Like on The Saint’s September 3rd, 1950 episode. Lawrence Dobkin was Louie the Cabbie. And of course, there were no two institutions in America somehow more intertwined in the twentieth century than baseball and comedy legend Jack Benny.

BW - EP138—007: Baseball Memories From Radio History—The Death Of Babe Ruth Apr 13, 2023

In 1946, Babe Ruth, always a heavy smoker, began to experience severe pain over his left eye and difficulty swallowing. Tests were bleak. Ruth had an inoperable malignant tumor at the base of his skull. He was one of the first cancer patients to receive both drugs and radiation treatment simultaneously. He lost eighty pounds and was discharged from the hospital in February of 1947. Baseball commissioner Happy Chandler proclaimed April 27th, 1947 Babe Ruth Day around the major leagues. At Yankee Stadium a number of teammates and others spoke in honor of Ruth, who briefly addressed the crowd of almost sixty-thousand. By then, his voice was barely more than a soft whisper. Around this time, developments in chemotherapy offered some hope. Doctors treated Ruth with a folic acid derivative. He showed dramatic improvement. During the summer of 1947 he was able to travel around the country doing promotional work for the Ford Motor Company on American Legion Baseball. On August 12th he appeared on Red Barber’s radio show. The improvement was temporary. By late 1947 he was unable to help write his autobiography. In and out of the hospital in Manhattan, Ruth traveled to and from Florida that winter. The next June 5th, 1948, a "gaunt and hollowed out" Babe visited Yale University to donate a manuscript of his autobiography to its library. There he met Yale’s baseball captain, future president George H. W. Bush. Eight days later he visited Yankee Stadium for the final time. Ruth used a bat as a cane. Nat Fein’s photo of Ruth taken from behind, standing near home plate won the Pulitzer Prize and is one of the most famous Baseball photos in history, Ruth made one final trip on behalf of American Legion Baseball, then entered Memorial Hospital. George Herman “Babe” Ruth died on August 16th, 1948, at 8:01 p.m. He was just fifty-three. His open casket was placed on display in the rotunda of Yankee Stadium. In two days more than seventy-seven thousand people paid tribute. His Requiem Mass was held at St. Patrick's Cathedral; a crowd estimated at seventy-five thousand waited outside. Babe Ruth is still widely considered the greatest baseball player of all-time.

BW - EP138—006: Baseball Memories From Radio History—Jackie Apr 11, 2023

Tuesday, April 15th, 1947. 12:30PM. It’s damp and overcast. We’re at Ebbets field in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York. The visiting Boston Braves are playing the Brooklyn Dodgers on opening day. We can smell hot dogs, pretzels, popcorn, knishes, and beer. Manager Leo Deroucher has been suspended by MLB’s offices for conduct detrimental to the team. He’ll have to sit out the whole season. Burt Shotton, known to be calm and steady, is managing the Dodgers. They’re expected to contend. Red Barber is up in the press booth calling the action for CBS and Gladys Gooding is on the organ. Here with us are stadium celebs like the Dodgers Sym-phony and Hilda Chester the Cowbell Lady, along with more than twenty-six thousand others. These men, women, and children are wearing Dodgers caps, windbreakers, flannel jackets, letterman’s sweaters, sport coats, and suits. They’re Italian, African-American, Jewish, Irish, Polish, Norwegian. At 12:45 the melting pot stirs as the Dodgers trot out of the clubhouse. There’s Second Baseman Eddie Stanky, Center Fielder Peter Reiser, Catcher Bruce Edwards, and pitcher Joe Hatten. Hatten warms up as one by one the rest of the Dodgers starters come out. Right fielder Dixie Walker. Left Fielder Gene Hermanski. Third Baseman Spider Jorgensen, Shortstop Pee Wee Reese. There’s an audible buzz as the Dodgers first baseman and final starter comes out. This man was born in Cairo, Georgia. The youngest son of a sharecropper, he was a four-sport letterman at UCLA, and an Army second lieutenant in World War II. His name is Jack Roosevelt Robinson and he’s the first African-American to play in the Major Leagues since Moses Fleetwood Walker in 1884. Robinson tosses infield practice until Home Plate umpire Babe Pinell signals for the start of the game. Robinson smooths the dirt in a playing path by first base and sets himself, knees bent, slightly crouched. His glove is on the ground and open. Boston’s Shortstop Dick Culler digs in. Brooklyn’s lefty Joe Hatten winds and delivers the pitch. Culler swings and slaps a ground ball towards third base. He digs out of the batter’s box as Spider Jorgensen charges in and fields the ball on a high hop, throwing slightly off balance towards first base. Robinson, right foot on the bag, stretches as far as he can, catching Jorgensen’s throw and getting Culler out by a step. And just like that, a fifty-year old gentleman’s agreement between changing owners and the commissioner’s office, that had barred any dark skinned men from playing in the league, was dead. It died here in Flatbush at 1PM, on Tuesday April 15th, 1947 as twenty-six thousand people looked on, and wildly cheered. Later, in the bottom of the Seventh inning, after an error while batting allowed him to reach second base, Robinson scored the Dodgers fifth run of the game on a double from Pete Reiser. The Dodgers would win five to three. Although he was the subject of taunts, bean balls, spikes, and scuffles with opposing players and fans all season, Jackie Robinson had the faith of African-Americans and Brooklyn Dodgers fans, as well as the quickly-earned support of his teammates. Robinson would go on to hit .297 with one-hundred-twenty-five runs scored, forty-eight extra-base hits, and lead the league with twenty-nine stolen bases en route to winning the Rookie of the Year as the Brooklyn Dodgers went ninety-four and sixty, winning the National League pennant.

BW - EP138—005: Baseball Memories From Radio History—The War Apr 08, 2023

As recounted by hall of famer Bob Feller, the summer of 1941 proved to be one of the greatest seasons in Baseball history. Ted Williams hit .401 for the Boston Red Sox — the last man ever to do so, while Joe Dimaggio hit in fifty-six consecutive games and won the AL MVP for the New York Yankees. The Yankees met the surprising Brooklyn Dodgers in the world series. The Dodgers drew the most fans in baseball that year, but lost to the Yankees in five games. Two months and one day after the last world series game... Both players and citizens alike joined the war effort. The Dodgers drew 1.2 million fans in 1941. They still led the league, but drew only 661,000 in 1943. Many stars lost three seasons to World War II. A few would never return. Almost 420,000 Americans died during the war. When the war finally ended, jubilation turned to atomic fears. Meanwhile in Brooklyn, the Dodgers drew 1.7 million fans in 1946 and again led The National League in attendance. It set the stage for the most important moment in Baseball history.

BW - EP138—004: Baseball Memories From Radio History—Dizzy Apr 06, 2023

Jerome Hanna "Dizzy" Dean was born on January 16th, 1910 in Lucas, Arkansas, only attending school into the second grade. He made his professional debut in 1930 for the St. Louis Cardinals, sticking with the big club in 1932. The team was soon nicknamed the Gashouse Gang for their on and off field exploits. Two years later Dean was the 1934 World Series team’s ace. His brother Paul was also on the pitching staff. For the next three years Dean won seventy-eight and lost just thirty-two. Paul won forty-three games of his own. The Cardinals biggest rivals in the 1930s were the New York Giants. Even with Dean’s brilliance, his Cardinals won only one world series before arm troubles derailed his career. He then went into broadcasting, calling Baseball for radio, and then TV, from 1941 through 1965. He had his own radio show for NBC in the summer of 1948. During that summer’s all-star break, the Brooklyn Dodgers fired their longtime manager Leo Durocher. Durocher signed with the Giants, who moved their manager Mel Ott to a front office position. All three New York teams missed the playoffs that year. That same summer Gordon McLendon founded a U.S. radio network called the Liberty Broadcasting System. McLendon built the network up to nearly five-hundred affiliates, second in size only to the Mutual Broadcasting System. His success led to restrictions on Major League Baseball broadcasts in minor league franchise areas and blackouts within a seventy-five mile range of major league cities. It was a disaster for the network, which folded on May 16th, 1952.

BW - EP138—003: Baseball Memories From Radio History—Mel Allen Apr 03, 2023

In 1939 the just-heard Mel Allen became the New York Yankees radio announcer. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama on February 14th, 1913. While attending the University of Alabama he became the public address announcer for the Crimson Tide football team. In 1933, when radio station WBRC asked Alabama coach Frank Thomas to recommend a new play-by-play announcer, he suggested Allen. Allen graduated from the University of Alabama School of Law in 1937. Shortly after he took a train to New York City for a week's vacation. While there, he auditioned for a staff announcer's job at CBS. CBS’ top sportscaster, Ted Husing, had heard many Crimson Tide broadcasts. Allen was hired for forty-five dollars per week. Although he was calling Baseball, Allen continued to announce other shows on the Network. He was CBS announcer for the Duffy’s Tavern pilot, which aired on Forecast July 30th, 1940. After Ruth and Gehrig retired, Joe DiMaggio became the next Yankee legend. The Yankees main rival, the Boston Red Sox, were led by fellow future Hall-of-Famer Ted Williams. Norman Corwin riffed on this rivalry during his production of “Between Americans”, for Screen Guild Theatre which aired the night of December 7th, 1941. Both players missed three seasons in the mid 1940s while at war. Ted Williams missed most of two more during the Korean conflict.

BW - EP138—002: Baseball Memories From Radio History—The Babe Apr 01, 2023

In forty-four seasons from 1921 to 1964, The New York Yankees won the World Series twenty times. The dynasty began with Babe Ruth’s sale from the Boston Red Sox after the 1919 season. Ruth learned his craft in an orphanage in Baltimore, making the Red Sox as a teenager in 1914. He quickly established himself as the best left-handed pitcher in the American League, but he could hit a ball further than anyone had seen. Over the next few seasons, the Red Sox slowly converted him into an outfielder. In 1919, he broke the Major League record, hitting twenty-nine home runs. The Red Sox drew 417,000 fans to Fenway Park, but they finished in sixth place. After that season, Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sold Ruth to the Yankees. The Red Sox had won five of the first fifteen world championships. They wouldn’t win another for eighty-six years. The 1919 Yankees were competitive. They finished seven games out of first place and drew 619,000 fans to the Polo Grounds. But the stadium’s main tenant was The New York Giants. The Giants drew 708,000 fans. Neither team won the pennant. The National League was represented by The Cincinnati Reds, while the American League champions were the Chicago White Sox. The White Sox lost the series five games to three under suspicious circumstances, and eight men — including Shoeless Joe Jackson — were barred for life for throwing games. Baseball needed a hero and Babe Ruth, now in the nation’s biggest city, was that man. In 1920, his first year with the Yankees, the team drew 1.2 million fans. The Giants drew 929,000 fans. Giants manager John McGraw wasn’t happy with Ruth’s popularity. McGraw was a savage competitor who’d been involved in baseball since the late nineteenth century. Grantland Rice’s show once dramatized a story about McGraw. Meanwhile in Brooklyn, The Robbins drew 613,000 people to Ebbets Field in Flatbush. New York was the capital of baseball. The Giants and Yankees would meet in three straight World Series, and the Yankees would open up Yankee Stadium in the Bronx in 1923. Throughout the course of his legendary career, Babe Ruth hit .342 with 714 Home Runs, a lifetime on-base percentage of .474, and a lifetime Slugging percentage of .690. Bill Stern interviewed The Babe for his March 22nd, 1946 Colgate Sports Newsreel. Any conversation about Ruth’s Yankees always included teammate Lou Gehrig, who was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in 1939 and forced to retire. Lou Gehrig’s farewell speech was broadcast on Independence Day, 1939. His disease is now also known by his name. Lou Gehrig passed away on June 2nd, 1941. He was thirty-seven.

BW - EP138—001: Baseball Memories From Radio History—Dots And Dashes Mar 29, 2023

If you’ve tuned into Breaking Walls episodes before, you know I rarely editorialize. I’m just the messenger bringing the news. The origins belong to men and women who gave radio their blood, sweat, and tears through radio’s highest highs and lowest lows. I grew up in a home with my grandparents and great-grandparents listening to The Golden Age of Radio. It was a hobby and nothing more. By the time I was a sophomore in high school, I came to a crux: Do I attempt to live out my childhood dream of being on the pitcher's mound in game seven of some future World Series, or do I focus on getting into one of the top art colleges in the country? I chose the latter. But it wasn’t an easy choice. My high school art thesis centered around a rhetorical question: “What does it mean to me to be an American?” Since age eight Baseball has been one the strongest answers. For those tuning in that aren’t baseball fans, I’m sorry. There’s nothing I can say to make you feel emotion towards the game, but I can also try. Take this clip for instance. It’s Wednesday, October 4th, 1995 and those damned New York Yankees are back in the playoffs for the first time in fourteen years. The Yankees captain is Don Mattingly. A beloved family man from Evansville, Indiana, for six seasons he was arguably baseball’s best player. Though only thirty-four, a bad back made him a shell of his former self. Mattingly played seventeen-hundred-eighty-five regular season games before getting the chance to play in the playoffs. If you’ve watched enough baseball — especially with the Yankees — you know that ghosts are always around the corner. And that’s essentially what tonight’s episode is: A ghost story. Some ghost stories are scary and some are sentimental. Sometimes, they’re a little of both.

BW - EP137: St. Patrick's Day On The Air (1937 - 1967) Mar 23, 2023

In Breaking Walls episode 137 we celebrate the Irish by focusing on St. Patrick’s Day on the air. —————————— Highlights: • Fred Allen — The End and the Beginning • Beat the Band • Burns and Allen at the NYC Parade • Bill Stern’s Sports Newsreel • Dennis Day Returns from the Navy • Fred Allen is King For a Day • Elliott Lewis and Broadway Is My Beat • The Death of Fred Allen • Ending with Jean Shepherd • Looking Ahead to Opening Day —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material for today’s episode was: • Treadmill to Oblivion and Much Ado About Me — By Fred Allen • On The Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg • The Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Radio — By Christopher H. Sterling As well as articles from • The New York Daily News • The New York Times —————————— On the interview front: • Fred Allen was interviewed by Tex and Jinx on NBC Radio — November 24th, 1954 • Goodman Ace, Tallulah Bankhead, Jack Benny, Mort Greene, Jim Harkins, George Jessel, Doc Rockwell, Donald Vorhees, Pat Weaver, Roger White, and Herman Wouk spoke for Biography In Sound — May 29th, 1956 • Dennis Day and Phil Harris spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear these full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com • Dennis Day and Elliott Lewis spoke to John Dunning for his 71KNUS program from Denver. • Morton Fine was with Dan Haefele • Jack Kruschen with Jim Bohannan in 1987. • Orson Welles on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson • George Burns spoke to Barbara Walters —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • The Sails of Galway — By W.B. Snuffy Walden • Overture on Hebrew Themes, Opus 34 — By Andre Moisan • Someone To Watch Over Me — By Blossom Dearie • The Minstrel Boy — By Jacqueline Schwab • Swing into Spring — By Benny Goodman —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva John Williams —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

BW - EP137—010: St. Patricks Day On The Air—Looking Ahead To Opening Day Mar 20, 2023

Well, that brings our look at St. Patrick’s Day to the close, but not to worry the green fields of the mind will remain in April. Next time on Breaking Walls, in honor of Major League Baseball’s opening day, we take a trip to the batter’s box and bring our radios with us. We’ll tell and hear baseball stories from some of the most famous broadcasters and players in American history.

BW - EP137—009: St. Patricks Day On The Air—Ending With Jean Shepherd Mar 18, 2023

Although Fred Allen’s death left an unfillable hole in mid-century comedy, it’s not as though there weren’t other humorists battling with networks and sponsors. Just ask Jean Shepherd. Jean Shepherd was born on July 26th, 1921 in Hammond, Indiana. He served in the Army Signal Corps in World War II, and briefly attended Indiana University. Shepherd began his broadcast radio career in early 1945 on WJOB, later working at WTOD in Toledo, Ohio, in 1946. He spent the early 1950s at WSAI and WLW in Cincinnati, and had a late-night broadcast on KYW in Philadelphia. He moved to New York for WOR and debuted on February 26th, 1955. The Jean Shepherd Show broadcast for almost twenty-one years to an audience all along the eastern seaboard, thanks to WOR's fifty-thousand watt clear channel signal. This is audio from his March 17th, 1967 broadcast.

BW - EP137—008: St. Patricks Day On The Air—The Death Of Fred Allen Mar 16, 2023

By January of 1949 Fred Allen was worn out. He’d spent years battling with sponsors and with NBC. In December of 1948 his Sunday at 8:30 rating was a healthy 20 points, but after Edgar Bergen left NBC’s airwaves the network moved Allen’s show up a half hour to 8PM. Meanwhile on ABC, Stop the Music’s popularity was soaring. Allen lost nearly half his audience in a single month. By March Stop The Music’s rating would reach 17.6, while Allen’s fell to 9.4 and Sam Spade’s fell to 11.3 on CBS. Allen was a voracious reader, sometimes scouring ten newspapers a day for topical material. In the end, perhaps he just cared too much. By June with his rating down to an unthinkable 5.8, he’d had enough. The fifty-five year-old called it a seventeen-year radio career after June 26th, 1949. Jack Benny and Henry Morgan were his final guests. Fittingly, the program ran long and Allen’s network feed was cut off. Although Fred Allen’s program came to a close, he was still under contract to NBC. When the network launched The Big Show, Allen became a regular. The ninety-minute program debuted on November 5th, 1950. It was an attempt to revive NBC’s Sunday night ratings. It was hosted by Tallulah Bankhead, written by Goodman Ace with music by Meredith Wilson, announced by Jimmy Wallington, and a rotating star-studded cast. Ace had long been an admirer of Fred's work. Allen appeared on twenty-four of the show's fifty-seven episodes, including the landmark premiere. Each episode cost over one-hundred thousand dollars to produce. Hopes were high. Before the show's launch the entire cast flew out to London for a lavish publicity stunt. Although Allen was as funny as ever, the British press was unimpressed and the show was a flop. Amazingly the show was brought back for a second season, but by the end NBC had lost a million dollars and made no dent into CBS's Sunday night ratings. After the final broadcast on April 20, 1952, Fred Allen was happy to walk away. Allen did eventually break into television, first as the emcee of Judge For Yourself, and finally as a regular panel guest on the CBS quiz show, What's My Line. Between 1954 and 1956 he also worked as a newspaper columnist and as a memoirist, renting a small New York office to work without distractions. There he wrote Treadmill to Oblivion, published in 1954, which reviewed his radio and television years, and Much Ado About Me, published in 1956, which covered the early years of his life. Treadmill was the best-selling book on radio's classic period for many years. When it was published, he appeared on the Tex and Jinx radio show out of WNBC in New York on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, November 24th, 1954 to talk about his career. The show was broadcast from Peacock Alley at The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The weather was dreary, which only added to Fred's usual sense of sarcastic humor. By 1954 Allen already had a heart attack. Always a letter-writer, he reflected upon the lifestyle changes he was forced to adopt in a note to friend Doc Rockwell. Taking a late night stroll up New York's West 57th Street on a blustery, cold Saturday night — St. Patrick's Day, 1956, Allen suffered a heart attack and died on the spot. Fred Allen was 61. Due to the public nature of his death, reporters were quick to arrive at the scene. The next day’s Sunday Daily News cover featured a photo of his body with the headline “Fred Allen Dies in Street.” His death sent the entertainment industry into deep mourning. Jack Benny was profoundly shaken. In truth, as funny as Benny was, he was never exactly the same without his old sparring partner. During the following night's Sunday broadcast of What's My Line? host John Daly preceded the program with a special message to the viewing audience. Steve Allen took Fred's place on the panel. During the final ninety seconds of the program Steve Allen, Arlene Francis and Bennett Cerf gave heartfelt tributes to Fred.

BW - EP137—007: St. Patricks Day On The Air—Elliott Lewis And Broadway Is My Beat Mar 14, 2023

Broadway Is My Beat first took to the air on CBS from New York on February 27th, 1949, starring Anthony Ross and directed by John Dietz. After fifteen weeks, with Dragnet breaking new ground on NBC, CBS moved the show’s production to Hollywood. Elliott Lewis was by then helping to edit scripts for Bill Spier on Suspense. With the urging of men like Spier and Bill Robson, the twenty-eight-year-old Lewis was given the chance to direct the show. He was born in Manhattan on November 28th, 1917. He told Radio Life, “You should hear the city constantly. Even the people in New York are noisy.” Three sound men were often needed to re-create that New York flavor. Lewis’ first regular turn as a director came on July 7th, 1949 when the repackaged Broadway is My Beat debuted as a summer replacement for The FBI In Peace And War. Along with David Friedkin, Morton Fine would become one of Lewis’ go-to writers. Larry Thor would star as Danny Clover. Rounding out the regular cast was Charles Calvert as Tartaglia and Jack Kruschen doubling as both Sgt. Muggavan and Doctor Sinski. Broadway is my Beat featured some of the best hollywood radio talent like Barney Phillips, Virginia Gregg, Tony Barrett, Herb Butterfield, Betty Lou Gerson, Hy Averback, Cathy Lewis, Harry Bartell, Lawrence Dobkin, Mary Jane Croft, and Herb Vigran. Although no sponsorship was forthcoming, CBS brass was impressed with Elliott Lewis’ capabilities. The March 17th, 1950 episode was called “The Charles and Jane Kimball Murder Case.”

BW - EP137—006: St. Patricks Day On The Air—Fred Allen Is King For A Day Mar 12, 2023

In 1944 Fred Allen had to quit the Texaco Star Theatre as a battle with high blood pressure forced him off the air. The next fall, in 1945, he returned to NBC Sundays at 8:30PM with The Fred Allen Show, sponsored by Blue Bonnet Margarine & Tender Leaf Tea. With he and Jack Benny back on the same network, the two rekindled their feud. It came to a climax on the May 26th, 1946 episode of Fred’s show with a sketch entitled, "King for a Day." Benny pretended to be a contestant named Myron Proudfoot on Allen's new quiz show. The skit is mostly ad-libbed, and the ending was a surprise to everyone, including Jack Benny. You’ll notice that announcer Kenny Delmar is unable to say the final Tender Leaf Tea promo before the program’s time ran out. NBC executives were incensed. Allen tried to explain that there was no way to predict how long an audience would laugh. That October, Allen wrote a skit called “The Radio Mikado,” about the hucksters of radio—the “vice presidents and clerks who were confidentially, a bunch of jerks.” He was censored by NBC and told he couldn’t ad-lib any longer. Allen told reporters censors were the “executive fungus that forms on a desk.” Shortly thereafter when on air, the network cut him off in the middle of a joke, but now other disgruntled NBC comedians joined in. Red Skelton mentioned Allen on his show and was immediately cut off, but he kept talking for his studio audience telling them, “you know what NBC means don’t you? Nothing but cuts. Nothing but confusion. Nobody’s certain.” Bob Hope mentioned Allen and got censored. Finally, Dennis Day took the last shot at NBC on his Day in the Life Wednesday night sitcom. “I’m listening to the radio” he said to his girlfriend Mildred. “I don’t hear anything” said Mildred. “I know” said Dennis, “Fred Allen’s on.” NBC announced shortly thereafter that its comedians were free to say whatever they liked. It didn’t matter. Fred Allen had finally won.

BW - EP137—005: St. Patricks Day On The Air—Dennis Day Returns From The Navy Mar 09, 2023

Jack Benny’s most famous Irish Tenor, Dennis Day was born on May 21st, 1916 in New York City and raised in the Throggs Neck section of The Bronx. Day graduated from Cathedral Preparatory Seminary and attended Manhattan College, where he sang in the glee club. Eventually he made his way to radio. Dennis Day made his Benny debut on October 8th, 1939. During World War II, Day enlisted in the Navy. He made his return on the St. Patrick’s Day episode, March 17th, 1946. For the remainder of the season, the Jack Benny cast was reunited in its classic 1940s incarnation. It was the last season before Phil Harris took over the Fitch Bandwagon with his wife Alice Faye. Because the program aired immediately after Jack’s, Phil could generally only take part in the first half of Jack’s show before rushing over to broadcast his own. Beginning that October, Dennis Day too would get his own show on NBC.

BW - EP137—004: St. Patricks Day On The Air—Bill Stern's Sports Newsreel Mar 07, 2023

Bill Stern’s Colgate Newsreel first took to the air on December 5th, 1937 over NBC’s Blue network. Born on July 1st, 1907, Stern began in vaudeville and by 1931, he was the assistant stage manager at the Roxy Theater and later Radio City in New York. In 1934 he got the role of broadcaster for NBC’s Friday Night Fights. He became one of the most famous sportscasters in the country. Four years later he partnered with MGM for their News Of The Day reel. Stern's career flourished despite a 1935 car accident, which injured him severely enough that his left leg had to be amputated just above the knee. By March 17th, 1944, his colgate program was running over NBC on Fridays at 10:30PM eastern. Constance Bennett was the guest on this broadcast. After nearly sixteen years with NBC, Stern switched to ABC for three final seasons. While at ABC Stern was a regular panelist on the game show The Name's the Same.

BW - EP137—003: St. Patricks Day On The Air—Burns And Allen At The NYC Parade Mar 05, 2023

By the spring of 1941, George Burns and Gracie Allen had been married for fifteen years and on radio for nine. Their program had been officially titled The Burns And Allen Show in the fall of 1936, and they’d spent time at both NBC and CBS. Unhappy with their Friday time slot on CBS, they’d moved back to NBC for Hormel Meats on Mondays at 7:30. Jimmy Wallington announced and Artie Shaw’s band provided the orchestra. But their vaudeville-style show was beginning to show its age. In January of 1941 their rating had slipped to 14.8. While they pondered what to do, they took to the air with the March 17th, 1941 episode.

BW - EP137—002: St. Patricks Day On The Air—Beat The Band Mar 02, 2023

Originally broadcast from Chicago, NBC’s Beat The Band began airing January 28th, 1940 at 6:30PM eastern time. It was sponsored by Kix Cereal. Listeners submitted riddles with song title answers. If the band couldn’t figure out the answer, the riddle submitter got thirty dollars and a box of Kix cereal. Garry Moore emceed, and Ted Weems conducted his orchestra. His three singers were Parker Gibbs, Marvel Marylin Maxwell, and the soon-to-breakout Perry Como. The March 17th, 1940 episode was called, “The Wearing of the Green.” The show lost its time slot against CBS’ Gateway To Hollywood. It went off the air on February 23rd, 1941, but was revived from New York in June of 1943. Submitters won twenty-five dollars and a carton of Raleighs and fifty dollars for beating the band. Packs of Raleighs were sent to servicemen in the war effort. The show went off the air for good on September 6th, 1944.

BW - EP137—001: St. Patricks Day On The Air—Fred Allen, The End And The Beginning Feb 28, 2023

In 1922 a twenty-eight-year-old Fred Allen, already a vaudeville veteran, was hired by J.J. Shubert for his broadway production of The Passing Show of 1922. Allen was gaining fame as a monologist. He was in charge of writing his own material. One popular gag was the "Old Joke Cemetery." Allen had a curtain painted as a graveyard, on the tombstones were the punch lines to forty-six old jokes. When Allen moved with the show to Chicago, he met a dancer named Portland Hoffa. There the producers told Allen to drop the cemetery gag. The show was moving to Hollywood. Allen quit. Back in New York he demanded royalties from the Shuberts when the gag turned up in their other acts. They re-hired him, to emcee Artists and Models. In the revue, the chorus women were topless. Allen came on after the women were finished. The Shuberts and Allen soon came to a mutual release. Fred and Portland were married in 1927 and Allen starred in similar revues until Portland joined him on stage. Together they were a hit. Four years later Allen was contemplating radio. By 1932 big names like Ed Sullivan, Ed Wynn, and George Jessel were on radio. Jessel convinced Allen to audition. Allen felt that writing a sketch show centered around characters in different business backgrounds would appeal. The Corn Products Company hired him. Their Linit Beauty Powder would be the featured product. Allen was paid one-thousand dollars per week, but he had to produce the show out of his own pocket. He co-wrote it with Harry Tugent. Producer Roger White remembered that time. The Linit Bath Club Review premiered on Sunday, October 23rd, 1932 over CBS. Right from the beginning Allen had trouble with his sponsors. The season rating was 11.9, thirty-ninth overall. Roughly five million people tuned in and the show bested the Manhattan Merry-Go-Round opposite on NBC. But, the program was canceled after six months. Fred returned to radio on Friday August 4th, 1933 over NBC. His new show was The Salad Bowl Review for Hellmann’s Mayonnaise. It would mark the beginning of a six-year relationship with the National Broadcasting Company. Allen was paid four-thousand dollars per week. Minerva Pious joined the cast. She’d later be known for her ethnic character portrayals. Allen introduced the Etiquette Department and the Question box. People could write in to have questions answered on-air, with instructions to try to slip things by the censors. He started a newsreel. It was the forerunner to the satirical comedy that would become a program staple. The ad agency who held the Helmann’s account liked the program so much that they aired it through autumn, long-passed mayonnaise’s shelf-life in a time when it was a seasonal condiment for salads. However, by December 1st, 1933 the show had to exit the air. Now Sal Hepatica laxatives from Bristol Myers wanted in. Beginning on January 4th, 1934, Fred Allen debuted as emcee for The Sal Hepatica Review. On March 21st, 1934 the broadcast was expanded to an hour. It now included Ipana Toothpaste and was called The Hour of Smiles. Allen was given no additional budget and each show had to be performed twice—once for each coast. Allen hired a couple of script-writers to help. One of them was Herman Wouk, who’d later win a Pulitzer Prize for his 1951 novel, The Caine Mutiny. By then, the program had become a local review with news. On July 11th the show was retitled Town Hall Tonight. The tight budget left no room for big guest stars. Allen had to develop plot lines. Things were running smoothly until Allen was called into the agency offices. They objected to some of his jokes and didn’t like the concept of a running gag—something Allen had begun to develop. Allen later explained that running gags were very important because they stimulated a listener’s memory and interest. The ad agency disagreed. Allen paid them no mind.

BW - EP136: Have Gun, Will Travel (1958 - 1962) Feb 18, 2023

In Breaking Walls episode 136 we spotlight John Dehner and Have Gun, Will Travel. —————————— Highlights: • John Dehner’s radio career • Norman MacDonnell and Palladin • The Radio Dial on Sunday November 23rd 1958 • A Matter of Ethics • Killer’s Widow • The Lady Doctor • From Here To Boston • Looking Ahead to March —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On the Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg • Martin Grams’ article on the origin of Have Gun Will Travel. —————————— On the interview front: • Harry Bartell, John Dehner, Lawrence Dobkin, and Jack Johnstone were with SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com. • William N. Robson was with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these at Goldenage-WTIC.org. • Bill Conrad, John Dehner, Norman Macdonnell, John Meston and William N. Robson spoke to John Hickman for his Gunsmoke documentary. • John Dehner and Vic Perrin spoke to Neil Ross for KMPC in 1982. • Jack Kruschen and Shirley Mitchell were guests of Jim Bohannan in 1987. • Dennis Day spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear this full chat at speakingofradio.com —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Living In The Country and February Sea — By George Winston • Ghost Bus Tours — By George Fenton • It’s Only Make Believe – By Conway Twitty • Loch Lomond — By Musica Intima • Danny Boy — By Dennis Day —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva John Williams —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

BW - EP136—008: Have Gun Will Travel—Looking Ahead To March Feb 16, 2023

Well that brings our look at the radio version of Have Gun Will Travel to a close. So, what’s in store for March? Next time on Breaking Walls, in honor of St. Patrick’s Day and the luck of the Irish, we focus on radio programming from March 17ths of days gone by.

BW - EP136—007: Have Gun Will Travel—From Here To Boston Feb 14, 2023

By 1960, Have Gun and Gunsmoke were the last dramatic productions being recorded for CBS in Hollywood. Network radio drama was dying. The U.S. was changing. President Eisenhower’s second term was almost over. The next year, John Kennedy entered the White House. He defeated Republican Richard Nixon in the 1960 Presidential election. Have Gun, Will Travel’s final episode aired on November 27th, 1960. Called, “From Here to Boston,” it is regarded as a landmark episode. Paladin receives an attorney letter notifying him of a large inheritance. He must travel to Boston to claim it. He has no idea that his latest romantic interest, Louvena Todd Hunter, is responsible for his aunt's death and plans to murder Paladin with the help of her brother. Have Gun Will Travel closed with no mention in the trade columns. All remaining radio dramas, with the exception of Gunsmoke, were now produced in New York. Lawrence Dobkin remembered that time. Gunsmoke finally went off the air on June 18th, 1961.

BW - EP136—006: Have Gun Will Travel—The Lady Doctor Feb 12, 2023

Thirty-five of the first thirty-nine Have Gun Will Travel scripts were TV script adaptations. Beginning with episode forty, all new scripts were original for the radio version of the series. The February 15th, 1959 show was called “The Return of Doctor Thackery.” This episode featured Ben Wright, Jean Bates, Lou Krugman, Sam Edwards, and Harry Bartell. By 1959 this Hollywood crew of actors had been working together for nearly two decades.

BW - EP136—005: Have Gun Will Travel—Killer's Widow Feb 09, 2023

The February 9th, 1959 episode of Have Gun Will Travel was called “Killer’s Widow.” Among those featured was the just-heard Vic Perrin. Perrin worked closely with Norman MacDonnell on Gunsmoke and Fort Laramie. On TV, Dick Boone’s Paladin was a smash-hit. That year’s program rating was 34.3 — third overall. Both the show and Boone were nominated for Emmys. Its success helped the radio version find sponsorship from multiple advertisers, like this commercial from Lysol.

BW - EP136—004: Have Gun Will Travel—A Matter Of Ethics Feb 07, 2023

On February 1st, 1959, Have Gun Will Travel broadcast an episode called “A Matter of Ethics.” The program's opening was a four-note motif composed and conducted by Bernard Herrmann. The show's closing song, "The Ballad of Paladin", was written by Johnny Western, Dick Boone, and program creator Sam Rolfe. Western played the song for the TV show. Paladin studied at West Point and emerged from the Civil War a mercenary with morals. His card had a simple message. It said: Have Gun, Will Travel/Wire Paladin/San Francisco. The only symbol on the card was a white chess knight—a Paladin. John Dehner approached the radio role as if Boone had never existed. He didn’t imitate. The first set of scripts were all adapted from the second season of the TV show. The writers were paid no residuals. Norman Macdonell used the same Hollywood regulars he used for Gunsmoke. Jack Kruschen was often one of them. Perhaps you’d have listened to this episode in Clear Lake, Iowa with anticipation for the next evening’s Winter Dance Party. If you’d gone, you’d have been witness to the last concert ever by Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens. The morning hours of February 3rd, 1959 have since become known as “The Day The Music Died.” It’s one of the most infamous moments in Rock-N-Roll history.

BW - EP136—003: Have Gun Will Travel—The Radio Dial On Sunday November 23rd 1958 Feb 04, 2023

Sunday, November 23rd, 1958 was a sunny, cold day in New York. Conway Twitty had the nation’s top song with “It’s Only Make Believe.” The inside cover of the New York Daily News spoke of President Eisenhower’s slashes to the 1960 government budget. Meanwhile Texan Democrat Rep. George H. Mahan demanded the military budget remain robust. West Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt called for allied powers to stop Russia’s campaigns aimed at destroying democracy in western Europe. And a mechanics strike grounded all but four of TWA’s more than 200 planes. If you’d have turned on your radio to WCBS in New York that Sunday, you’d have heard news reports at the tops of most hours. Concerts, talk, and other music programs filled the dial between 11:30AM and 5:00PM. At 5:05, Yours Truly Johnny Dollar signed on starring Bob Bailey. Bailey had been playing the lead since the fall of 1955. He’d hold it until November 1960 when the program shifted production from Hollywood, to New York. For more info, tune into Breaking Walls episode 102. After Dollar, Suspense signed on at 5:30 with a play called “A Statement of Fact.” Directed by William N. Robson, it guest-starred Cathy Lewis as an international beauty accused of murdering her husband. As further proof of Hollywood radio’s tight-knit community, it also featured John Dehner. George Walsh announced. After Suspense went off the air, Have Gun Will Travel debuted over CBS with “Strange Vendetta.” The show aired on Sundays at 6PM in New York and at 7PM in Los Angeles. This episode was broadcast just one week after the end of Frontier Gentleman. When Have Gun Will Travel signed off, Gunsmoke signed on with “The Correspondent.” George Walsh, in a completely different voice, also announced the show. Gunsmoke was the final CBS dramatic offering of the evening.

BW - EP136—002: Have Gun Will Travel—Norman MacDonnell And Palladin Feb 02, 2023

By 1958, Norman Macdonnell was a radio veteran with thousands of broadcast hours under his belt. He’d been producing and directing Gunsmoke since 1952. Gunsmoke’s radio show was one of the first to offer a more-accurate portrayal of events and relationships from the Western era, as writer John Meston remembered. MacDonnell also directed the critically acclaimed Fort Laramie in 1956, but unlike with Gunsmoke, Fort Laramie was never able to secure national sponsorship. For more info on that series, tune into Breaking Walls episode 114. Frontier Gentleman ran into the same issues. The show was superb, but thanks to Television, there was no national advertiser appeal. So, when CBS canceled Frontier Gentleman they did so with another western in mind. Have Gun, Will Travel was in the midst of a successful second-TV season starring Dick Boone. Its lead character, Paladin, was a gun for hire based out of a posh San Francisco hotel. He advertised his services with a card that featured the series’ title words. CBS felt the crossover appeal could attract national advertising dollars. Norman MacDonnell was given the task of directing the show. On November 8th, 1958, Macdonnell conducted three tests for the lead. Harry Bartell, Vic Perrin, and John Dehner all auditioned. They delivered the opening lines from what would become the debut episode. This is Mr. Bartell’s. John Dehner would ultimately win the role.

BW - EP136—001: Have Gun Will Travel—Dehner Jan 31, 2023

John Dehner was born John Forkum on November 23rd, 1915 in Staten Island, New York. His father Leroy was an artist. His career allowed John to attend school in Norway and France. John was also a gifted artist, and pianist. He studied at the Grand Central School of Art in New York, while simultaneously getting into acting. Forkum’s talent took him west. He found animation work at Disney before landing a job at KMPC. At the radio station, John did everything from dramatic work to newscasting. He later earned a Peabody Award for his coverage of the first U.N. Conference. He spent the last half of World War II in the Army. After being honorably discharged, he returned to California. Now using his mother’s maiden name, Dehner, hoped to act. Lawrence Dobkin remembered how difficult it was for an outsider to find Hollywood work. But Dehner had good timing. Thanks to William Paley’s Packaged Program initiative, CBS was piloting dozens of shows. By 1948, he was a regular on the network, where a new crop of directors like Elliott Lewis and Norman MacDonnell were joining veterans like Bill Robson and Bill Spier. On August 1st, Dehner appeared on Escape in Bill Robson’s production of “The Man Who Would Be King.” On April 11th, 1950 Dehner appeared in an episode of The Adventures of Philip Marlowe. It was noted because Bill Conrad subbed for star Gerald Mohr. The pair’s relationship went back to their days at KMPC. By the early 1950s, Dehner had appeared on The NBC University Theater, The Screen Directors Playhouse, Escape, and The Whistler. Dehner became a regular on Gunsmoke after its 1952 debut. This is from the December 27th, 1952 episode called, “The Cabin.” Dehner spent the next six years playing a variety of parts on shows like Gunsmoke and Johnny Dollar. He was a toothless drunk, dashing leading man, vile psychopath, pillar of the community, and no nonsense anti-hero. In 1955 Gunsmoke’s success led CBS and director Norman Macdonnell to launch a second adult western called Fort Laramie. John Dehner auditioned for the lead on July 25th, 1955. But he was worried about being typecast and Captain Lee Quince went to Raymund Burr. With no sponsorship Fort Laramie lasted only ten months before being canceled after the October 28th, 1956 episode. Gunsmoke remained CBS’s only western until February of 1958 when Dehner was cast as J.B. Kendall in Antony Ellis’ production of Frontier Gentleman. Kendall was an English journalist writing for the London Times, weaving his way through the Western territories of the US in the late nineteenth century. In the September 1st, 1958 issue of Broadcasting Magazine WCBS Radio in New York took out a local ad touting their station as having the city’s most persuasive radio salesmen. They also hailed their star personalities like Jack Sterling, Lanny Ross, Jim Lowe, Martha Wright, and Galen Drake. More and more network programming was being left to local stations. William N. Robson remembered that time. Frontier Gentleman lasted nine months. In November, the network announced it was dropping several shows, including Nora Drake, Our Gal Sunday, Backstage Wife, The FBI in Peace and War, Indictment, The Galen Drake Show, City Hospital, and Frontier Gentleman.

BW - EP135: Luke Slaughter Of Tombstone (1958) Jan 17, 2023

In Breaking Walls episode 135 it’s February of 1958 and CBS has just launched a new western, Luke Slaughter, of Tombstone. It’s a forgotten sixteen episode gem. Five years earlier it might have been a hit. —————————— Highlights: • William N. Robson and The Hollywood Radio Western • Planning Luke Slaughter • Slaughter Launches • The Radio Dial on February 23rd, 1958 • Tracks Out of Tombstone • The End of Slaughter • Looking Ahead to Paladin —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On the Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg • “Luke Slaughter of Tombstone: The Man Too Tough To Die.” by Stewart Wright’s for the April 2018 SPERDVAC RadioGram —————————— On the interview front: • Lilian Buyeff, Mary Jane Croft, John Dehner, Lawrence Dobkin, Sam Edwards and Jeanette Nolan were with SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com. • William N. Robson was with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these at Goldenage-WTIC.org. • Norman Macdonnell, and William N. Robson spoke to John Hickman for his Gunsmoke documentary. • Roberta Bailey-Goodwin and E. Jack Neuman spoke with John Dunning for his 1980s 71KNUS Radio program from Denver. • Vic Perrin spoke to Neil Ross for KMPC in 1982. • Jack Kruschen and Shirley Mitchell were guests of Jim Bohannan in 1987. —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Pavane — By Steve Erquiaga • I’ll Be Seeing You — By The Harry James Orchestra • Who Lives Up There — By Snuffy Walden —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva John Williams —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

BW - EP135—006: Luke Slaughter Of Tombstone—The End Of Slaughter Jan 12, 2023

Despite the CBS sales team’s best efforts, national sponsorship for Luke Slaughter was non-existent. Only the May 4th episode managed to get sponsorship from O'brien Paints. All the components for an excellent series were there, except the timing. By Memorial Day, the writing was on the wall. This is audio from the final episode of Luke Slaughter, which aired on June 15th, 1958. In it we learn that Slaughter was once a young lawyer, and his birth name was Lucien. With his commanding voice, Buffington could have been a radio leading man. His physical features — short, stocky, and balding — relegated him to character parts in film and TV. On May 15, 1960 Less than two years after Luke Slaughter was cancelled, Sam Buffington committed suicide by asphyxiation. He was 28 years-old.

BW - EP135—005: Luke Slaughter Of Tombstone—Tracks Out Of Tombstone Jan 10, 2023

The front cover of the March 2nd, 1958 Sunday edition of The Los Angeles Times spoke of President Eisenhower’s recovery from a mild stroke. Two civilian airplanes crashed over Upland, killing four. Racehorse Round Table, won at Santa Anita. Meanwhile, at 12:05PM Pacific Time, Luke Slaughter signed on from KNX. Lawrence Dobkin was featured in the cast. Years later, he and Lilian Buyeff, who played Carlotta in the previous episode, spoke with SPERDVAC.

BW - EP135—004: Luke Slaughter Of Tombstone—The Radio Dial On February 23rd, 1958 Jan 08, 2023

After Luke Slaughter signed off, Frontier Gentleman signed on with its fourth episode. It was called “Kendall’s Last Stand,” and was one of the most gripping shows in the run. John Dehner starred. Five minutes of a Road Show followed and then five more minutes of news. After a New York Philharmonic Concert, Suspense signed on at 4:35, guest-starring Karl Swenson and Cathy Lewis. The story, “Five-Buck Tip.” is a thriller about a twin trying to escape the electric chair at the expense of his brother. It aired at 4PM from KNX in Los Angeles. CBS had found multi-sponsorship for the series in late 1956. William N. Robson was also in charge of this production. At 5:05PM, as a cold winter’s sunset overtook the east coast, Yours Truly Johnny Dollar signed on starring Bob Bailey in “The Durango Laramie Matter.” Bob Bailey’s daughter Roberta was a teenager at the time. Yours Truly Johnny Dollar has been covered extensively in Episode 102 of Breaking Walls. When Johnny Dollar signed off,The FBI In Peace and War signed on from New York. After which, dramatic programming shifted back to the west coast. Radio’s remaining Hollywood directors cast familiar character actors for union scale wages. Throughout the 1950s, Norman Macdonnell’s Gunsmoke remained radio’s most popular show. It aired Sundays at 6:30 with a repeat the following Saturday at 12:30PM. On February 23rd, 1958 they presented “The Surgery.” Although the last new episode of The Jack Benny Program aired on May 22nd, 1955, Between October of 1956 and June of 1958, CBS aired The Best of Benny in his familiar 7:05 time slot. With the Home Insurance Company paying for the time, even Benny repeats attracted a sponsor. After Benny, Henry Morgan’s Comedy-Panel show Sez Who! Took to the air. Sez Who! debuted alongside The Stan Freberg Show on Sunday, July 14th, 1957 as part of a week in which CBS Radio added $765,000 in new billings. Sez Who! Would be sponsored every other week by Look Magazine.

BW - EP135—003: Luke Slaughter Of Tombstone—Slaughter Launches Jan 05, 2023

When Luke Slaughter debuted on Sunday, February 23rd, 1958 over CBS, network radio had shifted focus. Car radios had become standard. That month, U.S. Radio Magazine reported fifty-five percent of all peak listening came from cars. Auto-rating measurements were underway, but ineffective. If you’d have turned on your radio to WCBS in New York that Sunday, you’d have heard news reports at the tops of most hours. Concerts and other music programs filled the dial between 11:30AM and 2:00PM. Slaughter signed on at 2:05 with CBS’s first fiction show of the day. Chairman William Paley still believed in radio drama. Americans were on the move and there was still an audience to reach. Opposite Slaughter, NBC broadcast a talk show The Sound of Science. ABC was in the midst of Dr. Oral Roberts. Mutual—WOR aired Studio X Matinee. Junius Matthews played Wichita. Vic Perrin guest-starred. Sam Edwards appeared as well.

BW - EP135—002: Luke Slaughter Of Tombstone—Planning Luke Slaughter Jan 03, 2023

William Robson attracted talented people into Slaughter’s creative process. The going rate in 1958 for a radio script was four-hundred fifty dollars. Lucian Davis would produce script writers like Allen Botzer, Don Clark, Robert Stanley, and Tom Hanley, who also provided editorial supervision. Hanley shared sound duties with Bill James. Gunsmoke director Norman MacDonnell remembered their work. Luke Slaughter would be set in the 1880s around Southwest Tombstone, Arizona. The title character was based on John Horton Slaughter, a Civil War cavalryman and Texas Ranger, noted as a trail-driver, gambler and cattleman. Slaughter also served as the sheriff of Cochise County in Arizona, and inspired a series on ABC TV the same year. The supporting cast would be filled out by Hollywood radio’s most famous character actors, like Harry Bartell, Lilian Buyeff, Lawrence Dobkin, Jack Kruschen, Junius Matthews, Shirley Mitchell, Jeanette Nolan, Virginia Gregg, Vic Perrin, Parley Baer, Howard McNear, and Sam Edwards. They were like a family. They looked out for each other, including those less fortunate, as Jack Kruschen and Shirley Mitchell remembered. Jerry Goldsmith, then a CBS staff musician, was tasked with creating the musical score. Picked to star was a twenty-six year old named Sam Buffington. Buffington appeared in at least thirty-nine TV shows and nine movies in less than four years. Luke Slaughter would be his only radio credit.

BW - EP135—001: Luke Slaughter Of Tombstone—William Robson And The Hollywood Radio Western Dec 31, 2022

In February of 1958, CBS’ Gunsmoke, considered by many to be the greatest western of all-time, was in its sixth radio year. The TV version was the medium’s most-watched show, with a rating of 39.6. Although the 1950s proved to be a great time for radio westerns, in 1958 Gunsmoke was the only one of note on the air. Gunsmoke’s cast and crew had little overlap with its TV counterpart. CBS was contractually obligated to provide their radio affiliates with a promised slate of shows, and because advertisers were now investing most of their dollars into TV, CBS officials left radio to the radio people. Producers and directors, like Elliot Lewis, Jack Johnstone, Norman MacDonnell, and William N. Robson enjoyed less second-guessing and more creative freedom. However, these men and women also faced with shrinking budgets. This is William N. Robson. By 1958 he had more than twenty years of experience writing, producing, and directing radio shows. He was also no stranger to westerns, having been in charge of Hawk Larabee a decade before. Robson had also been in control of Suspense since 1956. In 1957 CBS Radio saw a rise in revenue for the first time since 1950. At the company convention that November, upper management predicted that radio was becoming fashionable again. In early 1958, the network ordered two new western programs to air on Sunday afternoons, replacing an hour of concert broadcasts. The goal was to interest national advertisers. In the meantime, unsold commercial spots would be filled with PSAs. The first was created by Antony Ellis and called Frontier Gentleman. It came to the air on February 2nd, 1958. Breaking Walls covered Frontier Gentleman in episode 101. The second one’s assignment fell to Robson. It would be called Luke Slaughter, of Tombstone.

BW - EP134: Christmas With Jack Benny In A Changing World (1949) Dec 22, 2022

In Breaking Walls episode 134 we spend our holidays with one of the most-beloved figures of the twentieth century: Jack Benny. —————————— Highlights: • Picking Up with Benny Leaving NBC for CBS • A World in Turmoil • Benny Launches his Fall 1949 Season • The Texas Benefit • What About 1950? • Jack Goes Christmas Shopping • Christmas Week 1949 in World News • Christmas Day with Jack and the Gang • Bringing 1949 To a Close — Looking Ahead to January —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material used in today’s episode was: • Sunday Nights at Seven — By Jack and Joan Benny • On the Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg —————————— On the interview front: • Jack Benny, Dennis Day, Phil Harris, Frank Nelson, and Don Wilson, were with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com. • Mel Allen, Mel Blanc, and Vincent Price were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these at Goldenage-WTIC.org. • Jack Benny, George Burns, Phil Harris, Frank Nelson, and Don Wilson were also interviewed by Jack Carney. • Dennis Day and Dick Joy spoke with John Dunning for his 1980s 71KNUS Radio program from Denver. • Don Quinn was interviewed by Owen Cunningham in 1951 —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Somewhere In My Memory — By John Williams • What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve — By Nancy Wilson —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva John Williams —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

BW - EP134—009: Christmas With Jack Benny In A Changing World—Looking Ahead To January Dec 19, 2022

As the curtain closed on 1949, Jack Benny had his most lucrative year to date. CBS was now the number one network in the country, and both were poised for big things in the oncoming TV era. Benny’s January 1950 rating would rise again, to 25.6. This brings our look at December of 1949 with Jack Benny to a close. Although we’ll be moving on you shouldn’t worry, Jack will still be around the periphery in January.

BW - EP134—008: Christmas With Jack Benny In A Changing World—Christmas Day With Jack Dec 18, 2022

On Christmas Day 1949, The Czech government outlawed all people who’d fled the country during the 1948 Communist coup. While Cary Grant and Besty Drake were married in a private ceremony. At 5PM eastern time, CBS put on a star-studded holiday rendition of “The Man Who Came to Dinner.” Jack Benny played the male title role in this screwball comedy. Holiday specials were a network tradition, and Benny was no stranger to them. At 7PM eastern, The Jack Benny show signed on CBS. This episode was heard by roughly twenty-five million people.

BW - EP134—007: Christmas With Jack Benny In A Changing World—Christmas Week 1949 World News Dec 15, 2022

On Tuesday December 20th, Clark Gable and Sylvia Ashley were married at a ranch in Solvang, California. It was the fourth marriage for both of them. They’d divorce in 1952. The next day, Samson and Delilah directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Hedy Lamarr and Victor Mature was released. It would earn more than nine million dollars at the box office — the highest grossing film of 1950. Meanwhile on Friday, December 23rd, The New York Stock Exchange rose to its highest levels since August of 1946. While Pope Pius XII invited all Protestants and Jews to "return to the one true church" to unite against militant atheism. Protestant and Jewish leaders said they had no intention of accepting the invitation. The December 24th issue of The Saturday Evening Post featured articles on The Berlin Blockade, fiction on the galaxy’s outer limit, and editorials on political advisor David Niles, dubbed Harry Truman’s “mystery man.” The cover of The New York Daily News had a story on the U.S. barring ships from entering Chinese waters. The Los Angeles Times told of a boy skier who was found frozen to death, and a forecast of holiday snow for much of the country.

BW - EP134—006: Christmas With Jack Benny In A Changing World—Jack Goes Christmas Shopping Dec 13, 2022

At 7PM eastern time on December 18th, 1949 Jack Benny took to the air with what had become a programming staple: His Christmas shopping episode.

BW - EP134—005: Christmas With Jack Benny In A Changing World—What About 1950 Dec 10, 2022

The U.S. spent the first ten months of 1949 in a recession. Competition for the advertising dollar was stiffer. There were now over two-thousand-six-hundred AM and FM radio stations in the country, and TV was becoming a serious threat. Over one-hundred Television stations were on the air. Only two Network Radio shows had ratings higher than a 20. Just two years earlier, there were fifteen. Radio’s average Top 50 ratings were their lowest since 1937 and network radio revenue dropped for the first time since 1933. Meanwhile, NBC, ABC, CBS, and the Dumont Network reported a combined TV income of $29.4 Million. But advertisers were learning that TV production costs were much greater than radio’s. The extra money had to come from somewhere. Radio budgets were the likely source. On December 18th, 1949, NBC broadcast an episode of America United with a panel discussion on estimates and predictions concerning 1950. It was moderated by David Brinkley, at the time NBC’s Washington commentator. The post-World War II world had been chaotic. Europe was rebuilding slowly as the US and Russia became the two superpowers. That same day, as the Philadelphia Eagles were beating the Los Angeles Rams in the 1949 NFL Championship Game, Nikita Khrushchev was made The Soviet Communist Party’s secretary of the Central Committee, and single-party Communist elections were held in Bulgaria. Two days later, Josef Stalin was awarded the Order of Lenin as part of celebrations for his seventieth birthday.

BW - EP134—004: Christmas With Jack Benny In A Changing World—The Texas Benefit With Frank Leahy Dec 08, 2022

By December Jack Benny’s rating was up to 25.4, tops on radio. On December 11th, 1949, Jack attempted to make arrangements for his Texas benefit appearance. Notre Dame football coach Frank Leahy was the guest star.

BW - EP134—003: Christmas With Jack Benny In A Changing World—Benny Launches Fall 1949 Season Dec 06, 2022

To take advantage of Capital Gains laws, Jack Benny had formed his holdings into a corporation and sold it to CBS for Two-point-two-six Million dollars. Benny opened the fall 1949 season by taking stock of his pantry. The October 2nd program got a rating of 20.3. On election night, New York City Mayor William O’Dwyer, who’d succeeded Fiorello La Guardia, won reelection. He was soon confronted with a police corruption scandal uncovered by Kings County DA, Miles McDonald. O'Dwyer would resign from office on August 31st, 1950. President Truman appointed him U.S. Ambassador to Mexico. O’Dwyer would return to New York in 1951 to answer questions about his association with organized crime. He resigned as ambassador in 1952.

BW - EP134—002: Christmas With Jack Benny In A Changing World—Fall 1949 World News Dec 04, 2022

By the time Mel Allen broadcast Game four of the 1949 world series at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn on October 8th, the world was in turmoil. The Yankees would win that day and take the series four games to one, but people's attention was turned toward world politics. The Communist People’s Republic of China was formed on October 1st and recognized by the USSR the next day. The Democratic Republic of East Germany was formed on October 7th. On October 14th, Ten Communist Party USA leaders were sentenced to jail time. Two days later the Greek Civil war ended with a Communist surrender, and on October 24th the cornerstone of the United Nations Headquarters was laid in New York. As 1949’s holiday season approached, India adopted a constitution, while the labor government was defeated in Australian Federal elections. A growing red scare was now deeply embedded in the media. Alger Hiss’ second perjury trial began in November, while Mahatma Gandhi's assassins were executed, and Chinese communist troops continued their march to Taiwan. Members of the media had been claiming there were potential communist cells in the entertainment industry for more than two years.

BW - EP134—001: Christmas With Jack Benny In A Changing World—Benny Comes To CBS Dec 01, 2022

On December 23rd, 1948, CBS Chairman William Paley and CEO Frank Stanton broadcast a special closed circuit press conference to their affiliates and staff. The move was to officially announce that Jack Benny was switching his program from NBC to CBS. The change would begin with the first broadcast of the new year. When William Paley signed Jack Benny in November, he’d convinced sponsor American Tobacco to make the jump to CBS by agreeing to pay the cigarette giant $3K per week for every ratings point lost after the migration. The move signaled that Paley was intent on not just equalling Benny’s audience on NBC, but growing it. In December of 1948, Benny’s last month on NBC, his program rating was 25.8. His first episode rating for CBS? — 28.3. It was the most-listened to show in the U.S. Benny ended the 48-49 season in May on a high note. His combined rating for his last three months on NBC was 22.7. His combined rating for his first three months on CBS was 25.8.

Burning Gotham Chapter 2 and Breaking Walls Reminder Nov 29, 2022

James Scully here, wanting to remind you that Burning Gotham 002: Bankruptcy is now available in the Burning Gotham feed. You can subscribe (for free) anywhere you'd get a podcast by searching for Burning Gotham or going to http://burninggotham.com/. Also, Breaking Walls EP134: Christmas With Jack Benny in a Changing World (1949)will be out this Thursday, 12/1/2022 in full on the Breaking Walls Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/TheWallBreakers) feed, and in parts beginning in the normal Breaking Walls feed as well. You can support the Burning Gotham Patreon for as little as $2 per month (https://www.patreon.com/BurningGotham) and the Breaking Walls Patreon for as little as $1 per month. The combined cost — $3 — is frankly. less than the cost of one cup of Starbucks coffee. So keep getting out there, keep breaking those walls. My name is James Scully, and you'll hear from me soon.

Burning Gotham 001: Moving Day Nov 27, 2022

BURNING GOTHAM 001: MOVING DAY May 1st, 1835 — It’s a cold and rainy Moving Day. Every renter in New York is out on the street looking for lodging. Most of the city’s quarter-million live below Houston Street in buildings four stories or smaller, but construction is booming. New people are pouring onto New York’s dangerously overcrowded streets by the thousands. Rich and poor, many come to earn an honest living. Others for more nefarious reasons. It’s the perfect place to begin. Aaron Columbus is an illegitimate son, desperate to make his fortune. Together with Aaron’s brother Wyndham Bowen—an African man born in Europe—they involve themselves in backroom deals, Abolitionism, potential war with France, and City politics. Aaron has struck an illegal import deal with John Jacob Astor, America’s richest man. The import? Two exiled Russian Countesses; Sorina and Raisa Zubov, and their inheritance—eleven pounds of diamonds. The two women have just arrived in New York. ___________ Download Episode Transcript ___________ Written By: Olga Lysenko & James Scully ___________ Cast: Eirik Gislason Kacie Laforest Roland Lane Mary Murphy Anna Pirogov Nancy Pop Matt Roper James Scully ___________ Music: The Hesperus Early Music Ensemble The Itinerant Band ___________ Engineer: Josh Wilcox of Brooklyn Podcasting Studio ___________ Director & Post-Producer: James Scully ___________ Support Burning Gotham on Patreon

BW - EP133: Thanksgiving With I Love A Mystery (1949) Nov 24, 2022

In Breaking Walls episode 133 we spend Thanksgiving 1949 with the cast of I Love a Mystery. —————————— Highlights: • Thanksgiving Eve, 1949 • Carlton E. Morse—Budget Stretcher • The First Two I Love a Mystery Runs • Mutual Broadcasting in 1949—I Love a Mystery Relaunches • Thanksgiving Day 1949—Thorson and Boles • Mercedes McCambridge—Oscar Winner • Tony Randall’s Early Career • I Love a Mystery is Canceled • Parley Baer and One Final Pilot • Wrapping Things Up • Looking Ahead to Christmas With Jack Benny —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material used in today’s episode was: On the Air — By John Dunning The I Love A Mystery Companion — By Martin Grams Jr. Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg —————————— On the interview front: • Parley Baer, Jim Boles, Mercedes McCambridge, Carlton E. Morse, Tony Randall, Russell and Don Wilson, were with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com. • Parley Baer and Himan Brown were with SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com. —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: Sligo Creek — By Al Petteway It All Depends on You — By Frank Sinatra Shenandoah — By Michael Hanna The Holly and the Ivy — By George Winston —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Ron Baron Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Eirik Davey-Gislason Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Martin Schwartz Ray Shaw John Williams —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

BW - EP133—010: Thanksgiving With I Love A Mystery—Looking Ahead To Christmas With Jack Benny Nov 21, 2022

Well, that brings our look at I Love A Mystery to a close, but there’s no mystery about what people thought of the subject of our next Breaking Walls episode. Next time on Breaking Walls, we celebrate the holidays by going shopping with the one and only Jack Benny.

BW - EP133—009: Thanksgiving With I Love A Mystery—Wrapping Things Up Nov 20, 2022

Chuck Schaden interviewed Tony Randall on September 16th, 1970 at the Ambassador Hotel in Chicago. Eight days later Randall’s new series The Odd Couple debuted on ABC. Randall played Felix Unger. The show ran for five seasons and became Randall’s most-remembered role. He continued acting until passing away on May 17th, 2004. After I Love A Mystery went off the air, Carlton E. Morse penned a new serial drama entitled Family Skeleton. He cast Mercedes McCambridge in the lead role. The Program would air weeknights on CBS from June 8th, 1953 through March 5th, 1954. It pulled a rating of 3.3 for Sweetheart Soap. Mercedes McCambridge had many trials and tribulations. She was nominated for a second Academy Award for her role in Giant in 1956. She also voiced the demon in The Exorcist. She won a battle with alcoholism and penned an autobiography in 1981 called The Qualities of Mercy. Six years later her son John—a futures trader—was caught embezzling funds under McCambridge’s name after she’d given him money to invest. Mercedes refused to cooperate with her son and the company he worked for. They wanted to institute a repayment scheme which would have kept the matter from becoming public. In November of 1987 John wrote a scathing note blaming her for his problems before killing his wife, children, and then himself. Mercedes appeared in one final TV role in 1988. Her second husband, radio and tv writer/producer/director Fletcher Markle, passed away in 1991. She died on March 2nd, 2004 in La Jolla, California.

BW - EP133—008: Thanksgiving With I Love A Mystery—One Final CBS Pilot Nov 18, 2022

Although the serial went off the air in 1952, in May of 1954 a new audition record was produced for CBS in Hollywood. With Russell Thorson back in Los Angeles he carried over the role of Jack, with Ben Wright as Reggie, and Parley Baer as Doc. Parley Baer was most-known for playing Chester Proudfoot on Gunsmoke. CBS didn’t pick up the series and I Love A Mystery went off the air for good.

BW - EP133—007: Thanksgiving With I Love A Mystery—The Show Is Cancelled Nov 15, 2022

Initially running at 7:45PM, Mutual moved I Love a Mystery to 10:15 in 1950. Although geared for teenagers, it was obviously not standard juvenile programming. Many listeners remembered tuning in under blankets with the lights down low. But, as entertaining as the program was, by 1952, television was taking over in big cities. One Man’s Family began running on TV in 1949. Tony Randall appeared in telecasts. Mutual ran as a cooperative, rather than a corporation. The network’s top stations — WOR in New York, WGN in Chicago, and Don Lee’s KHJ in Los Angeles — all boasted powerful signals. But, while Mutual had the most affiliated stations of the big four networks, many of these were small stations in rural areas. This limited their advertiser appeal. As families left cities and farms for the suburbs, the network’s shared programming structure left it at a distinct disadvantage against NBC, CBS, and ABC. Those three networks would use their soaring revenue to move into TV. Although some Mutual affiliates developed television programming, the full network was never able to launch into TV. With dramatic radio on its way out, the writing was on the wall. The final Mutual I Love A Mystery adventure aired on December 26th, 1952. By then the Red Scare was a major issue in the entertainment industry, as Himan Brown remembered.

BW - EP133—006: Thanksgiving With I Love A Mystery—Tony Randall's Early Career Nov 14, 2022

Tony Randall was born Aryeh Leonard Rosenberg on February 16th, 1920 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He attended Northwestern University for a year before going to New York City to study under Sanford Meisner and choreographer Martha Graham. Randall worked as an announcer at WTAG in Worcester, Massachusetts. As Anthony Randall, he starred with Jane Cowl in George Bernard Shaw's Candida and with Ethel Barrymore in Emlyn Williams's The Corn Is Green. After serving with the U.S. Army Signal Corps in World War II, he came back to New York City. In 1946, Randall was cast in Katharine Cornell's revival of The Barretts of Wimpole Street. The following year in Antony and Cleopatra and in 1949 he appeared in Caesar and Cleopatra. Simultaneously, Randall found work in radio. Randall was twenty-nine and in New York when I Love a Mystery was revived. He originally auditioned for the part of Doc, but Carlton Morse felt he was better suited for Reggie York. As much as Randall loved I Love A Mystery, he wasn’t a huge fan of many of the soap operas he appeared on.

BW - EP133—005: Thanksgiving With I Love A Mystery—Mercedes McCambridge Nov 10, 2022

Carlotta Mercedes McCambridge was born to farming parents in Joliet, Illinois on March 16th, 1916. She graduated from Mundelein College. McCambridge began her radio career in the 1930s first in Chicago, and then in New York while also performing on Broadway. In 1949 she made her film debut opposite Broderick Crawford in All the King's Men, for which she won an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and the New Star of the Year. But no one who knew her was surprised. Orson Welles heralded McCambridge as the greatest living radio actress. Himan Brown almost never failed to cast her. Although she was an Academy Award winner, she was still a proud cast member of I Love A Mystery.

BW - EP133—004: Thanksgiving With I Love A Mystery—Thanksgiving Day 1949 Nov 07, 2022

Thursday, November 24th, 1949 was Thanksgiving Day. It was clear and crisp in New York as Macy’s put on its twenty-third annual parade. Floats included The Chef’s Turkey Dinner, the Snowman, and Santa’s Sleigh. Milton Berle guest-starred. WOR—Mutual aired Cornell vs. Penn at 1PM, Queen for a Day and Luncheon at Sardi’s in the late afternoon, Gabriel Heater at 7:30, and I Love A Mystery at 7:45. By November of 1949, Russell Thorson was forty-three and Jim Boles thirty-five. They had a wealth of experience in both Chicago and New York radio. With radio in decline, both made their first TV appearances that year. Ford Motors intermittently sponsored roughly two out of every twenty I Love A Mystery episodes, but for the most part, Mutual picked up the financial tab for all three years of the New York run.

BW - EP133—003: Thanksgiving With I Love A Mystery—Mutual Broadcasting In 1949 Nov 06, 2022

In the summer of 1949 NBC-TV approached Carlton Morse with the possibility of coming to New York to put One Man’s Family on TV. Because the entire production would need to be re-cast, Morse had to audition a whole new group of actors. Mercedes McCambridge, who’d played on I Love A Mystery in Hollywood, was now working in New York and cast, while Russell Thorson was cast as Henry Barbour. Morse flew back and forth from New York to Los Angeles. On May 25th, 1949, Mutual Broadcasting presented an episode of The Family Theater called “The Man With a Plow.” Morse wrote and directed the episode from Hollywood. It was then that Morse had the idea of rebooting I Love A Mystery. Episodes would be recorded and transcribed, allowing actors with other commitments to take roles. Morse approached Thorson about starring and McCambridge about doing supporting parts. The cast soon rounded out with Jim Boles as Doc, and Tony Randall as Reggie. Morse received one-thousand dollars per week from Mutual to write the show, but rather than write new scripts, Morse simply re-recorded the original scripts with minor revisions and title changes. Russell Thorson and his wife helped Morse out with continuity. I Love A Mystery would re-debut over Mutual Broadcasting on October 3rd, 1949 at 7:45PM eastern time. The cast assembled a couple of times per week to record. Each show was recorded on sixteen-inch discs, airing on weeknights for fifteen minutes.

BW - EP133—002: Thanksgiving With I Love A Mystery—The First Two Runs Nov 02, 2022

I Love A Mystery first took to the air Weekdays at 3:15PM on NBC’s West-Coast network in January of 1939. Michael Raffetto starred as Jack Packard, head of the A-1 Detective Agency, with Barton Yarborough as Texan Doc Long, and Walter Paterson as the British Reggie Yorke. The three world travelers searched for action, thrills, and mystery. From the ghost towns of wind-swept Nevada, to the jungles of vampire-infested Nicaragua, they righted wrongs, rescued women, battled evil, and explored unknown parts of the globe. Morse utilized threatening elements: dark jungles, bizarre rituals, strange languages, sacred amulets, thick fogs. Three characters could be murdered in a single episode. There were ancient curses, hidden panels, piercing cries in the night, and the gathering of a diverse group of suspicious people, all of whom had secrets to hide. Jack Packard was once a medical student. He shrugged off superstition in favor of logic. Reggie Yorke was British and clever. Doc Long was a red-headed Texan. He defied the laws of chance and always had time for women. By that autumn it was airing nationally. The show ran from the west coast for five years, first over NBC’s Red Network, then its Blue, and then CBS. The original I Love A Mystery run ended on December 29th, 1944. A 1945 film with its title starred Jim Bannon, Barton Yarborough, George Macready, and Nina Foch. Two more movies followed with Bannon and Yarborough followed in 1946. Morse recorded a new radio audition for ABC in May of 1945, but the show wasn’t picked up again until it was briefly revived on ABC as I Love Adventure in the spring of 1948. It lasted thirteen weeks before going off the air.

BW - EP133—001: Thanksgiving With I Love A Mystery—Carlton E. Morse Nov 01, 2022

On the eve of Thanksgiving in 1949, Russian diplomat Andrey Vyshinsky told the UN General Assembly Russia fully supported Communist China’s in removing the Nationalist Chinese delegation from the UN. While US, British and French commissioners agreed to lift many industrial and diplomatic restrictions on West Germany. And Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett rejected a compromise proposal from the UN to internationalize Jerusalem. Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox was named American League MVP, and smog was becoming a serious issue in Los Angeles. The Cold War and communist fears were reaching new heights as celebrities listed in the Red Channels found themselves blacklisted in Hollywood. The U.S. spent the first ten months of 1949 in a recession. Competition for the advertising dollar was stiffer. There were now over two-thousand-six-hundred AM and FM radio stations in the country, and TV was becoming a serious threat. Over one-hundred Television stations were on the air. Only two Network Radio shows had ratings higher than a 20. Just two years earlier, there were fifteen. Radio’s average Top 50 ratings were their lowest since 1937 and network radio revenue dropped for the first time since 1933. Meanwhile, NBC, ABC, CBS, and the Dumont Network reported a combined TV income of $29.4 Million. But advertisers were learning that TV production costs were much greater than radio’s. The extra money had to come from somewhere. Radio budgets were the likely source. But if there was anyone who knew how to stretch a dollar, it was radio writer and director Carlton E. Morse. Tonight we’ll join him in a boxcar somewhere in the lonely west, and celebrate Thanksgiving by burying our dead in Arizona.

BW - EP132: Mutual Mystery Shows of the late 1940s (1947 - 1949) Oct 29, 2022

In Breaking Walls episode 132 we go back to the late 1940s and say Happy Halloween with Mutual Broadcasting. —————————— Highlights: • The Seedy Underbelly of Coney Island on The Crime Club • Take a Ride with The Mysterious Traveler • Mystery is My Hobby • Quiet Please • 1948 Halloween News with Arthur Bario • The House of Mystery • True Detective Mysteries • Halloween 1948 with Holmes and The Shadow • Truman Wins a Stunning Reelection • Murder By Experts • Finishing With I Love a Mystery • Looking Ahead to Thanksgiving —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material used in today’s episode was: American Radio Networks: A History — By Jim Cox • On the Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg • The Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Radio — By Christopher Sterling • WOR: The First Sixty Years As well as articles from the archives of • The Los Angeles Times • The New York Daily News • The New York Times • Radio Daily • The Saturday Evening Post —————————— On the interview front: • Jim Boles, Bret Morrison, Carlton E. Morse, and Russell Thorson, were with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com. • Joseph Julian was with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these at Goldenage-WTIC.org. • Harry Bartell and André Baruch were with SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com. •Orson Welles was with Johnny Carson —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Halloween — By Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians • Manhattan — By Blossom Dearie • Flag of Columbia — By Jacqueline Schwab • Danse Macabre — By Camille Saint-Saëns —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva John Williams —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

BW - EP132—012: Mutual Mystery Shows Of The 1940s—Looking Ahead To Thanksgiving Oct 27, 2022

We’re going to stop here, but we’re not even close to finishing with I Love A Mystery. Next time on Breaking Walls, while we spend Thanksgiving with Carlton E. Morse, Russell Thorson, Jim Boles, and Tony Randall, we utter a simple statement: Bury Your Dead, Arizona. The reading material used in this episode was: American Radio Networks: A History — By Jim Cox On the Air — By John Dunning Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg The Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Radio — By Christopher Sterling WOR: The First Sixty Years As well as articles from the archives of • The Los Angeles Times • The New York Daily News • The New York Times • Radio Daily • The Saturday Evening Post —————————— On the interview front: • Jim Boles, Bret Morrison, Carlton E. Morse, and Russell Thorson, were with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com. • Joseph Julian was with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these at Goldenage-WTIC.org. • Harry Bartell and André Baruch were with SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com. •Orson Welles was with Johnny Carson —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Halloween — By Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians • Manhattan — By Blossom Dearie • Flag of Columbia — By Jacqueline Schwab • Danse Macabre — By Camille Saint-Saëns —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva John Williams —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers The reading material used in today’s episode was: American Radio Networks: A History — By Jim Cox On the Air — By John Dunning Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg The Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Radio — By Christopher Sterling WOR: The First Sixty Years As well as articles from the archives of • The Los Angeles Times • The New York Daily News • The New York Times • Radio Daily • The Saturday Evening Post —————————— On the interview front: • Jim Boles, Bret Morrison, Carlton E. Morse, and Russell Thorson, were with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com. • Joseph Julian was with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these at Goldenage-WTIC.org. • Harry Bartell and André Baruch were with SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com. •Orson Welles was with Johnny Carson —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Halloween — By Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians • Manhattan — By Blossom Dearie • Flag of Columbia — By Jacqueline Schwab • Danse Macabre — By Camille Saint-Saëns —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva John Williams —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

Frontier Gentleman — Full Pilot — The Shelton Brothers Oct 26, 2022

James Scully here. You’re about to listen to the pilot episode of a reimagined Frontier Gentleman, which was originally created by Antony Ellis for CBS. In 2020 I met Mr. Ellis’ daughter, Briana Ellis-Isaac thanks to an episode on the original series I produced for Breaking Walls. Briana and I became fast friends who shared an appreciation for the Golden Age of Radio, and a mutual belief in the growth of new scripted audio fiction productions. In 2021 Briana hired me to help bring Frontier Gentleman back to life in a new adaptation using Mr. Ellis’ previously written scripts and updating the story in order to introduce Frontier Gentleman to current audiences. This is that pilot episode. To find out more about the new Frontier Gentleman. Please go to FrontierGentleman.com And now, enjoy the show.

BW - EP132—011: Mutual Mystery Shows Of The 1940s—Finishing With I Love A Mystery Oct 25, 2022

Carlton E. Morse’ I Love A Mystery first took to the air Weekdays at 3:15PM on NBC’s West-Coast network in January of 1939. Michael Raffetto starred as Jack Packard, head of the A-1 Detective Agency, with Barton Yarborough as Texan Doc Long, and Walter Paterson as the British Reggie Yorke. The show told of three world travelers in search of action, thrills, and mystery. From the ghost towns of wind-swept Nevada, to the jungles of vampire-infested Nicaragua, they righted wrongs, rescued women, battled evil, and explored unknown parts of the globe. By that autumn it was airing nationally. The show ran from the west coast for five years, first over NBC’s Red Network, then its Blue, and then CBS. It went off the air at the end of 1944, but was revived in the spring of 1948 on ABC and then from New York for Mutual Broadcasting in October of 1949. It ran for three more years, this time starring Russell Thorson, Jim Boles, and Tony Randall, as Thorson remembered. Jack Packard was a hero with quiet strength. Once a medical student, he shrugged off superstition in favor of logic. Reggie Yorke was educated, strong, and had the British stiff upper lip. Doc Long was a red-headed alley fighter from Texas who defied the laws of chance and loved women. Three characters could be murdered in a single episode. People were killed in ghoulish, imaginative, and sometimes mystifying ways. Throats were ripped out by wolves; there were garrotings, poisonings, and mysterious slashings. On Halloween, 1949, part one of a new story, “The Thing That Cries in The Night” aired over Mutual.

BW - EP132—010: Mutual Mystery Shows Of The 1940s—Murder By Experts Oct 23, 2022

Murder By Experts debuted over Mutual on June 13th, 1949. Written by David Kogan and Bob Arthur, it quickly gained the respect and approval from the radio world at large. Mystery writers like John Dickson Carr and Brett Halliday hosted with New York’s best character talent like Lawson Zerbe, Ann Shepherd, Santos Ortega, Ralph Bell, and William Zuckert being featured. This is from the debut episode, “Summer Heat” which aired on June 13th, 1949. Murder By Experts won a prestigious Edgar Award in 1950, and aired until December 17th, 1951.

BW - EP132—009: Mutual Mystery Shows Of The 1940s—Truman Wins Reelection Oct 20, 2022

On Tuesday November 2nd, 1948 The United States held its forty-first presidential election. If you’d tuned into the results early in the evening, you’d have been convinced that the pre-election polls were correct and Thomas Dewey would become the next president. You’d have been wrong. Dewey ran a low-risk campaign. His advisers believed all he had to do to win was avoid major mistakes. So Dewey spoke in platitudes, avoided controversial issues, and was vague on what he planned to do as president. But, many republicans disliked Dewey, feeling he was too cold and stiff, and surprisingly against outlawing the Communist Party. Believing he had nothing to lose, Harry Truman ran a feisty campaign. He ridiculed Dewey’s platitudes, and claimed Communists were rooting for a GOP victory to ensure another Great Depression. Energizing traditional Democrats, as well as Catholic and Jewish voters, Truman also fared surprisingly well with Midwestern farmers. When it was all over, Harry Truman’s victory was considered one of the greatest election upsets in American history, garnering 303 electoral votes to Thomas Dewey's 189. With simultaneous success in the 1948 congressional elections, the Democrats also regained control of both the House and Senate, which they lost in 1946.

BW - EP132—008: Mutual Mystery Shows Of The 1940s—Halloween 1948 With The Shadow And Sherlock Holmes Oct 18, 2022

At 5PM Mutual’s most famous program, The Shadow signed on. The show was in its eleventh season on the air in 1948. Andre Baruch handled emcee duties while Grace Matthews played Margo Lane. Bret Morrison was Lamont Cranston. Halloween’s episode was called “Murder By A Corpse.” This season’s Shadow rating was 13.2. It was Mutual’s highest-rated show. As night descended on New York on October 31st, temperatures dropped into the upper 40s and an eerie fog rolled in. Police were ready for mischief as children went trick or treating. The Halloween tradition was still seen by many as an act of begging and vandalism. In response, members of the Madison Square Boys Club paraded through the Lower East Side carrying a banner that read "American Boys Don't Beg.” Politically, Progressive Henry Wallace was making a dent in Harry Truman’s campaign. On Election Day, Truman still carried the City, collecting 1.6 million votes to Dewey’s 1.1 million, but Henry Wallace received over four-hundred thousand votes. It’s this split that allowed Thomas Dewey to narrowly win New York state by sixty-thousand votes, giving the republicans forty-seven important electorates. At home, the Mutual Broadcasting System’s prime time programming featured news and music, but at 7PM literature’s most famous detective—Sherlock Holmes—took to the air from WOR. Sherlock Holmes peaked on radio between 1939 and 1946 with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce playing Holmes and Watson. They made over a dozen films and their rating climbed to 14.1 in 1942 on NBC. The next year, the entire cast moved to the Mutual Broadcasting System. Petri wine sponsored the series. Famed radio character actor Harry Bartel became the announcer. They remained on Mutual for three seasons until Holmes left for ABC. Basil Rathbone stayed with Mutual to star in a new series called Scotland Yard. Nigel Bruce still played Watson while Tom Conway became Holmes. When the Semler Company discontinued sponsorship in the spring of 1947, ABC canceled the show. That summer Clipper Craft Clothing signed to pay the bills. The program moved back to Mutual with John Stanley as Holmes and Alfred Shirley as Watson. By Halloween 1948 it was airing Sundays at 7PM. As radio audiences changed, Holmes and Watson couldn’t keep up. That Spring Mutual canceled the series. ABC revived it for one final season before the last version of an American Sherlock Holmes series departed the air.

BW - EP132—007: Mutual Mystery Shows Of The 1940s—True Detective Mysteries Oct 16, 2022

At 4:30PM on Sunday October 31st, 1948, True Detective Mysteries signed on. The program had a rating of 10.7. It was Mutual’s number two show overall. Based on items from True Detective magazine, the series was sponsored by Oh Henry Candy bars. Many of the stories unfolded from the criminal’s viewpoint: the show was much like Gangbusters in allowing the audience to witness the fatal mistakes that led to the culprit’s capture. Borrowing yet another page from Gangbusters, the magazine offered rewards of $500 (later $1000) for information leading to the arrest of real criminals. Clues were given after each broadcast: these were highly descriptive, focusing on scars and deformities, and the show resulted in many arrests.

BW - EP132—006: Mutual Mystery Shows Of The 1940s—The House Of Mystery Oct 13, 2022

By October 31st, 1948, The Mutual Broadcasting System’s flagship WOR in New York was approaching its twenty-seventh anniversary. It was argued that no station matched its signal coverage. WOR-Mutual was known for its cop shows, soap operas, and on Sundays, it’s mysteries. At 4PM eastern time, House of Mystery signed on for General Foods. John Griggs was Roger Elliott, ghost hunter and scientist of the supernatural. The show was directed by Olga Druce, who guided the program along a fine line. Because House of Mystery was geared for children, it couldn’t be overtly gruesome or vulgar.

BW - EP132—005: Mutual Mystery Shows Of The 1940s—1948 Halloween News With Arthur Bario Oct 10, 2022

The 1948 DNC convened in July with President Truman’s approval rating as low as 32%. Northern Democrats pushed for a strong civil rights platform, which the President was in favor of. Conservative southern Dems were opposed. Moderates feared voter alienation. When the convention adopted the civil rights plank in a close vote, Southern Dems walked out and split off, nominating Strom Thurmond for President. They became known as Dixiecrats, hoping to force a contingency in the House of Representatives, extracting concessions from either Truman or Republican nominee Thomas Dewey. The post-war strikes didn’t end. On October 26th the Radio Writers Guild struck for fair wages and for RWG guideline adherence by ad agencies. Their focus was the coming new medium: Television. Negotiations would continue into 1949. On Halloween 1948, the Presidential election was on everyone’s mind. The night before, Thomas Dewey ended his campaign at Madison Square Garden. He’d run against FDR in 1944, losing, but received 46% of the popular vote. After President Roosevelt passed away, there were many who felt Dewey made a better post-war choice than Harry Truman. In the 1946 New York Gubernatorial election, Dewey won by nearly 700,000 votes, the most in New York history to that point. Tuesday, November 2nd was the 41st U.S. presidential election in history. Truman was a massive underdog with South Carolina’s Governor Strom Thurmond opposing on the Dixiecrat ticket, and another FDR VP, Henry Wallace as the Progressive Party nominee. Meanwhile in the Middle East, The Arab-Israeli war raged on. Fighting started the previous November. It ramped after Palestine was officially dissolved, and Israel declared Independence on May 14th. Count Bernadotte of Visborg was assassinated in September by four members of Lehi, a Jewish Zionist group. One of whom—Yitzhak Shamir would go on to be the Seventh Prime Minister of Israel. Operation Hiram ended on Halloween with Israeli forces claiming to have complete control of Galilee. The fighting would continue into 1949. The Cold War was growing, with Americans investigating potential communist cells within the government, fearing the world could split into two distinct groups: those who supported democracy, and those who supported totalitarianism.

BW - EP132—004: Mutual Mystery Shows Of The 1940s—Quiet Please Oct 09, 2022

In 1934 Chicago was the center for radio production. Writer and director Wyllis Cooper created a program for NBC affiliate WENR that drastically altered the tone of horror. Cooper had been writing advertising copy in the late 1920s when he entered radio, working first as a continuity editor, then for NBC's Empire Builders. His idea was to offer listeners a late-night terror program, at a time when other stations were mostly airing music. It emphasized crime thrillers and the supernatural. The first series of shows were fifteen minutes and ran on Wednesdays at midnight to local audiences. It was called Lights Out. In April, the series expanded to a half-hour. The following year, it went national. Cooper stayed on until 1936 when he left to write film scripts in Los Angeles. He wrote The Phantom Creeps and The Son of Frankenstein before returning for the final season of The Campbell Playhouse on CBS and The Army Hour on NBC. Then in the Spring of 1947 a new opportunity arose in New York. Quiet Please debuted on Sunday June 8th, 1947 at 3:30PM over the Mutual Broadcasting System. Quiet Please elevated the genre to high art. For the weekly lead, Cooper cast Ernest Chappell, The Campbell Playhouse announcer. He proved a natural, playing Scotsman, oil riggers, drunks, and archaeologists. They were every-men who got tied up in the otherworldly. Few supporting voices could be afforded or deployed. Those few were part of New York radio’s elite like Frank and Claudia Morgan. The cast was told to play it straight. It resulted in an almost dream-like study in horror, like on October 27th, 1947 when Quiet Please presented “Don’t Tell Me About Halloween.” In March of 1948, CBS executive Davidson Taylor sent an internal memo expressing his interest in purchasing the Mutual-sustained series for CBS. Taylor had a keen eye for talent, but nothing materialized. Quiet Please shifted to ABC in September of 1948, but never found sponsorship and went off the air on June 25th, 1949.

BW - EP132—003: Mutual Mystery Shows Of The 1940s—Mystery Is My Hobby Oct 06, 2022

Mystery is My Hobby originally came to Don Lee’s west coast airwaves in April of 1945, before going full network over Mutual that October as Murder Is My Hobby. It starred Glenn Langan as Barton Drake, a police inspector and the author of the book Mystery Is My Hobby. Drake combined his professions by collecting material for stories while he solved crimes. The program went off the air in July of 1946, but returned the next summer under the Mystery title. Barton Drake was now a writer who worked with the police. Each episode was presented as cases from his book. The October 29th, 1947 episode was called “Death Speaks with Ten Fingers,” and guest-starred Barney Phillips, Gloria Blondell, Ken Christy, and Jean Vander Pyl, who was later famous as the voice of Wilma Flintsone.

BW - EP132—002: Mutual Mystery Shows Of The 1940s—The Mysterious Traveler Oct 04, 2022

Written and directed by Robert Arthur and David Kogan, The Mysterious Traveler first aired over the Mutual Broadcasting System on December 5th, 1943. Mostly sustained, the show was heard on virtually every night of the week. There were frequent gaps in its runs, but it was always good for a revival. It was cheap to produce; there were no major film stars to pay, and plenty of New York radio actors willing to work for union scale. With that said, it was popular enough to spawn a comic book and magazine. Maurice Tarplin played the title role with a good-natured malevolence. The traveler mostly narrated from an omniscient perch. He came to his listeners in the night, riding a phantom train. The opening signature was the distant wail of a locomotive whistle, fading in gradually until the rumble of the train could be heard. The stories ran from crime drama to wild science fiction. David Kogan later recalled that he broke into radio with Bulldog Drummond, Shadow and Thin Man scripts. He met Robert Arthur in Greenwich Village, suggesting they team up. The pair developed Dark Destiny, which aired on Mutual from August 26th, 1942 through March 11th, 1943. They came up with the Mysterious Traveler concept and prepared three sample scripts. Norman Livingston bought it for WOR. As independent producers, they were paid a flat rate for the whole package. Any money they saved by using the same actor in multiple roles went into their own pockets, so they used the best character actors in New York radio. Kogan also directed the series. This episode, “Death is My Caller” featured Santos Ortega, Agnes Young, Ted Jewett, and Neil O’Malley. Along with The Mysterious Traveler, Kogan and Arthur also wrote a season of Nick Carter, The Strange Dr. Weird, The Sealed Book, and later Murder By Experts. The Mysterious Traveler would air until September of 1952.

BW - EP132—001: Mutual Mystery Shows Of The 1940s—The Seedy Underworld Of Coney Island Oct 02, 2022

By October of 1947, nearly eleven million babies had been born in the U.S. since the end of World War II. Young parents were staying home with their children. Movie attendance bombed. The 1947-48 season had the largest radio audience in history. Homes with radios jumped 6%, car radios 29%. NBC, CBS, ABC, and Mutual added nearly one-hundred fifty affiliates. Ninety-seven percent of the nation’s AM stations were now linked to one of the big four. Network revenue topped $200 Million. World War two had created fundamental changes in society. While men of all races and creeds were overseas spilling the same colored blood, women mobilized and took charge of the workforce. When veterans were discharged, they returned home with different ideals, and what we’d now call PTSD. As new cars, roads, and homes brought young families to the suburbs, racial descrimination came to the forefront in the face of the G.I. Bill, where a much higher percentage of white Americans were having their applications accepted. On October 29th, the national civil rights committee delivered a report to the White House. The document made thirty-five specific recommendations, including asking the President to create a permanent Federal commission on civil rights. President Truman said that he’d study the report with great care and recommend that all citizens do the same thing. Americans were organizing. In the year after VJ Day, more than five million struck for better wages and benefits. This hurt key sectors of the economy and stifled production. Consumer goods in high-demand were slow to appear on shelves and in showrooms, frustrating Americans who desperately wanted to purchase items forsaken during the war. It caused the largest inflation rise in the country’s modern history, and the Taft-Hartley Act, limiting the power of Labor Unions. President Truman was seemingly at odds with Congress over every domestic policy and his approval rating sank to 32%. Reelection the following year seemed unlikely. The U.S. War Debt topped two-hundred-forty billion dollars. Emerging as one of the world’s leaders, America was expected to have the largest hand in rebuilding Europe. News outlets reported that, to create European stability, Americans should resume sacrifices they made during the war. Not agreeing to do so could result in political enemies taking over the continent. That October, as the major networks were enjoying the largest ratings in radio history, one network, The Mutual Broadcasting System, was still struggling to grab audiences. Airing out of WOR in New York, The Shadow was the network’s most-listened to program. While it pulled a rating of thirteen — strong for a show airing on Sundays at 5PM easten — it was nowhere near radio’s top fifty. Mutual’s top stations — WOR in New York, WGN in Chicago, and Don Lee’s KHJ in Los Angeles — all boasted powerful signals and had equal shares in the network. And, while Mutual reached four-hundred affiliates in 1947 and would add another hundred over the next year, many of these were small stations in rural areas. This limited their advertiser appeal. Mutual was run as a cooperative, rather than a corporation. As families left cities and farms for the suburbs, the network’s shared programming structure left it at a distinct disadvantage against NBC, CBS, and ABC. Those three networks would use their soaring revenue to move into TV. Although some Mutual affiliates developed television programming, the full network was never able to launch into TV. That’s not to say MBS didn’t have quality programming. Just the opposite, and with Halloween around the corner, tonight we’ll delve into Mutual’s horror, mystery, and suspense shows of the late 1940s.

BW - EP131: Orson Welles is The Shadow (1937 - 1938) Sep 27, 2022

In Breaking Walls episode 132 we spotlight Orson Welles’ time as The Shadow in 1937-38. —————————— Highlights: • Orson Welles’ on The March of Time and The Columbia Workshop • The Shadow as Narrator • Les Misérables • WOR and Network Radio In The Fall of 1937 • The Shadow Launches With Orson Welles • Jeanette Nolan and The Temple Bells of Neban • Early Reviews • Agnes Moorehead and The Three Ghosts • The Circle of Death • The Mercury Theater Leaves The Shadow • Orson In The Fall of 1938 • Looking Ahead to Halloween with Mutual Broadcasting —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material used in today’s episode was: • This is Orson Welles — by Peter Bogdanovich with Orson Welles • Citizen Welles — by Frank Brady • On the Air — By John Dunning • The Shadow: History and Mystery of the Radio Program — By Martin Grams Jr. • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg • Discovering Orson Welles — by Jonathan Rosenbaum • WOR: The First Sixty Years As well as articles from • Billboard • The New York Times • Variety —————————— On the interview front: • Agnes Moorhead spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear the full chat at SpeakingOfRadio.com. • Rosa Rio and William N. Robson spoke with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these full chats at Goldenage-WTIC.org • Jeanette Nolan spoke with SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com. • Agnes Moorehead and Orson Welles spoke with Dick Cavett. • Orson Welles also spoke with Peter Bogdanovich, Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin, and Dinah Shore. • Jack Poppele spoke with Westinghouse. • And Walter B. Gibson, Rosa Rio, Ken Roberts, and Sidney Sloan spoke for the 1984 documentary, The Story of the Shadow —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Teenage Brain Surgeon — By Spike Jones and His Orchestra —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva John Williams —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

BW - EP131—012: Orson Welles Is The Shadow—Looking Ahead To Halloween With Mutual Broadcasting Sep 26, 2022

In the fall of 1938 as Orson Welles was launching The Mercury Theater of The Air, radio character actor Bill Johnstone became The Shadow. Johnstone held the role until March 21st, 1943, when Brett Morison took over. Morison had the title role for most of the rest of the radio run. The Shadow would air until December 26th, 1954. We’re going to stop here. I’ve covered Welles from his birth through Pearl Harbor in episode 79 and from there to the early 1950s in episode 104. While we’re wrapping up our coverage of The Shadow, we’re staying with The Mutual Broadcasting System in October and getting into the Halloween spirit. Next time on Breaking Walls, we’ll spend Halloween with Mutual Broadcasting mystery shows of the 1940s.

BW - EP131—011: Orson Welles Is The Shadow—Orson In The Fall Of 1938 Sep 22, 2022

In late June 1938, Orson Welles was approached by CBS. He was offered a one-hour, network sustained time slot on Mondays at 9PM. William Paley’s concept: A Mercury Theater of the air for a nine-week trial run. Unlike Welles and Houseman’s theater productions which had several weeks of rehearsal, the show would begin in just two, on July 11th. Houseman was nervous. He’d never done radio. Welles would direct, narrate, and star. The Mercury theater troupe would support. Bernard Hermann would be musical director and Davidson Taylor supervisor. Welles called the show First Person Singular. A take on Bram Stoker's Dracula was selected for the first episode. Welles and Houseman had total creative control. The premiere set the tone. Over the next nine weeks, listeners heard adaptations of classics like Treasure Island, A Tale of Two Cities, The 39 Steps, The Man Who Was Thursday, The Affairs of Anatole, and The Count of Monte Cristo, for which, Welles simulated the sound of a dungeon by having the actors play their scene from the floor of the CBS restroom. He placed two dynamic microphones against the bases of the toilet seat in order to achieve realistic subterranean reverberations. After September 5th, 1938, CBS renewed the series under a new name: The Mercury Theater of The Air, moving it to Sundays at 8PM, opposite NBC’s highest-rated show: Edgar Bergen’s Chase and Sanborn Hour. It set the stage for a series of events which would forever alter the course of Orson Welles’ life.

BW - EP131—010: Orson Welles Is The Shadow—The Mercury Theater Leaves The Shadow Sep 19, 2022

The success of The Shadow was shared by Blue Coal. Billboard reported that twelve months after the premiere their sales were up nearly eleven percent. Blue Coal was selling for as much as two dollars per ton more than their competitors. In February of 1938 Orson Welles opined that “radio’s future big-wigs will be college graduates.” By then more than ninety colleges offered courses in radio speech, while radio writing was taught at fifty-seven colleges, and fifty-three colleges were teaching radio acting. Both radio music and radio law were also becoming class offerings. The last episode of The Shadow’s autumn run aired on March 20th, 1938. Although everyone knew who played Lamont, for the first time on air, Orson Welles was given credit for his role. Welles was contracted to produce twenty-six more episodes for a syndicated summer run. They co-starred Margot Stevenson as Margot Lane. Ironically, the character was named for Miss Stevenson who was originally supposed to play the role that fall. Goodrich Tires would sponsor the summer run, with Blue Coal immediately signing on for another season in the fall. Agnes Moorehead would again play Margot, but Welles would be leaving for CBS that summer and taking the Mercury Theater troupe with him. Welles was contracted to produce twenty-six more episodes for a syndicated summer run. They co-starred Margot Stevenson as Margot Lane. Ironically, the character was named for Miss Stevenson who was originally supposed to play the role that fall. Goodrich Tires would sponsor the summer run, with Blue Coal immediately signing on for another season in the fall. Agnes Moorehead would again play Margot, but Welles would be leaving for CBS that summer and taking the Mercury Theater troupe with him.

BW - EP131—009: Orson Welles Is The Shadow—The Circle Of Death Sep 18, 2022

Orson Welles opened in Julius Caesar on November 11th, 1937. He also made time to perform in guest appearances elsewhere on radio with Tallulah Bankhead and Cedric Hardwicke. Thursday, November 25th, 1937 was Thanksgiving Day. The New York Daily News headline spoke of Consolidated Edison finally getting on board with F.D.R.’s new deal program. November 28th’s episode of The Shadow was called “The Circle of Death.” It’s a story about a mad man who plants bombs across the city, creating a reign of terror in his wake.

BW - EP131—008: Orson Welles Is The Shadow—The Three Ghosts Sep 15, 2022

On Halloween 1937, Benito Mussolini removed Italy’s foreign minister to France due to strained relations between the two countries over Italy's participation in the Spanish Civil War. Adolph Hitler gave the Order of the German Eagle to the Japanese emperor’s son, while Chinese forces abandoned its defense of the Sihang Warehouse. Sunday was Halloween and at 5:30PM eastern, The Shadow took to the air over Mutual with a story called “The Three Ghosts.”

BW - EP131—007: Orson Welles Is The Shadow—Early Reviews Sep 13, 2022

The September 29th, 1937 issue of Variety said “that melodramatic and at times astonishing crime fighter, “The Shadow,” returns to the ether to probably find a rather sizable slice of listeners waiting for him. In this series the sponsor will benefit from having a program aimed right at the vulnerability of the audience it seeks. Orson Welles, a young and good actor still riding a crest of recognition won with the Federal Theatre Project, does the title role. “The Shadow is a bit fantastic, but as with these things, the stunt stands muster with the show’s listeners and appreciably colors the proceedings. Well done, both as to script, acting, and producing.” Both Billboard and Radio Daily also gave the program positive reviews. A blizzard of mail came into WOR. Shadow fan clubs sprang up across the country. Welles would occasionally appear at promotions donning a black cape, hat, and mask. Oddly enough, because Welles was constantly rushing from one part of New York to the other, Frank Readick, who’d previously voiced the Shadow as narrator, was kept on to record the show’s opening signature, giving Welles a few more minutes to get into the studio.

BW - EP131—006: Orson Welles Is The Shadow—The Temple Bells Of Neban Sep 10, 2022

On the October 24th, 1937 episode of The Shadow called “The Temple Bells of Neban,” Lamont meets an Indian woman and drug smuggler named Sadi Bel-Adda. She knows The Shadow’s true identity. She’s the niece of the man who trained Lamont, and capable of using the same powers. This cast featured Ray Collins as Commissioner Weston with Carl Frank as Jerry Gleason and Everett Sloane playing bit parts. Jeanette Nolan, then just twenty-five, played Sadi Bel-Adda. Rosa Rio was the program’s organist.

BW - EP131—005: Orson Welles Is The Shadow—The Shadow Launches With Orson Welles Sep 08, 2022

In the fall of 1937, Orson Welles was busy readying for a Mercury Theater broadway production of Julius Caesar. The agency Ruthrauff and Ryan approached Welles about the possibility of starring in a weekly radio series. His signing was announced in The New York Times on August 29th, 1937. Welles’ contract allowed him to miss rehearsals and readings. He was paid seventy-five dollars per week, or roughly fifteen hundred today, for one-half hour of weekly work. On Sunday September 26th, at 5:30PM the new version of The Shadow debuted. The program's announcer was Ken Roberts. Opposite Welles as Margot Lane was Agnes Moorhead, along with many of the Mercury Theater players. The Shadow was Lamont Cranston, a wealthy man about town. He had the ability to cloak himself with invisibility and to read minds. They were tools of Mesmer, learned through years of study in the orient and India. Walter Gibson’s involvement in the radio series was minimal. Clark Andrews directed the first few broadcasts with Martin Gabel becoming the de facto director thereafter.

BW - EP131—004: Orson Welles Is The Shadow—WOR And Network Radio In The Fall Of 1937 Sep 06, 2022

The voice at the top of this clip is that of former WOR chief engineer Jack Poppele. The station went online on February 22nd, 1922. In 1934, WOR became one of the flagship stations of the Mutual Broadcasting System. The next March, Poppele was chiefly responsible for the creation of radio’s first directional antenna just as WOR increased its power to fifty-thousand watts. In December of 1936, Don Lee’s west coast chain of networks joined Mutual, giving it coast-to-coast access. But in the fall of 1937 The Mutual Broadcasting System had no top-fifty rated shows. Seventy-four percent of the U.S. population now had a radio set. Sunday evening’s most-heard shows belonged to Edgar Bergen, who pulled a 32.1, and Jack Benny, who pulled a 29.5. Both ran on NBC Red. Overall NBC’s Red Network had twenty-six of the nation’s top fifty shows, while CBS had nineteen, and NBC’s Blue Network had five. WOR’s Sunday afternoon programming had concerts, sports, and news bulletins. Their schedule was ripe for a new melodrama.

BW - EP131—003: Orson Welles Is The Shadow—Les Misérables Sep 04, 2022

By late spring in 1937, the Federal Theater Project was under intense scrutiny for staging what some felt were too many left-leaning labor plays. In Washington, there were rumors funds would be cut. At the same time, Welles and John Houseman were rehearsing a production of The Cradle Will Rock. The play took place in "Steeltown, USA.” It followed the efforts of Larry Foreman to unionize the town's workers. This was to combat the wicked Mister Mister, who controls Steeltown’s factory, press, church, and social organizations. Less than three weeks before the play was to open on June 23rd, The WPA shut down the project. Welles went to Washington to argue his case. He failed. Next, he threatened to open the play himself. The government’s response was severe. A dozen uniformed guards took over the building. They stood at the front entrance, the box office, and in the alley outside the dressing rooms to ensure no government property was touched. But, John Houseman discovered an out. As U.S. citizens, the actors were free to enter as audience members and rise from their seats to speak their lines, so long as they weren’t on stage. The Cradle Will Rock played in the aisles. The next day everyone was fired, but it was front-page news. That summer NBC featured a series of Shakespeare dramas with John Barrymore, while CBS aired Shakespeare adaptations featuring Humphrey Bogart and Leslie Howard. To battle for listeners, Mutual scheduled a seven-week take on Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, hiring Orson Welles to write, direct, and star in the production. Les Misérables debted on Friday, July 23rd, 1937 at 10PM, over WOR in New York. The production also marked the radio debut of the Mercury Theatre troupe. Martin Gabel was Javert. Alice Frost, Fantine. Virginia Nicolson, the adult Cosette, and it also featured soon-to-be radio mainstays like Ray Collins, Everett Sloane, Betty Garde, Hiram Sherman, Frank Readick, Richard Widmark, and Welles’ good friend, Agnes Moorehead. From July 23rd through September 3rd, Les Misérables captured public interest. In a press release, Welles referred to the broadcast as a “projection” of what radio could dramatically evolve into. The series had begun solely on the east coast, but audience reaction induced Mutual’s officials to give it full coast-to-coast coverage. It cemented Welles as someone who could write, produce, direct, and act for radio.

BW - EP131—002: Orson Welles Is The Shadow—The Shadow As Narrator Sep 01, 2022

In 1930 publisher Street and Smith decided to try radio with hopes of boosting pulp sales. Each week a drama would be adapted from an upcoming issue of Detective Story Magazine. They added a mysterious host, called The Shadow, and left the link to the magazine somewhat tenuous. The show premiered over CBS on July 31st, 1930. Ken Roberts soon became the announcer. It wasn’t long before people were asking for a Shadow magazine. Walter Gibson became its chief writer. Meanwhile, on the air, the host became Frank Readick. In the fall of 1931 Detective Story Hour became The Blue Coal Radio Review. The Shadow character proved so popular, beginning on Thursday October 1st, 1931 at 9:30PM, he also narrated Street and Smith’s Love Story Hour. In January 1932, the first program using The Shadow as its title debuted on CBS. That fall it shifted to NBC, and then back to CBS in 1934. The success led to copycats. People kept asking for The Shadow to appear in the dramatic portions of the broadcasts. By then Gibson was writing pulp stories which featured the Shadow as the crime fighting hero. The series disappeared from CBS airwaves on March 27th, 1935. It wouldn’t reappear until the fall of 1937.

BW - EP131—001: Orson Welles Is The Shadow—Orson's Early Radio Career Aug 30, 2022

In the spring of 1935, nineteen year-old Orson Welles was living in New York, appearing on stage in Katharine Cornell’s stock company and workin on CBS’ American School of the Air and The March of Time. The next year, Welles was on the debut episode of CBS’s Columbia Workshop. The program’s creator Irving Reiss recognized Orson’s talent, while Welles studied the creative risks The Workshop took. He began to assemble his Mercury Theater troupe just as FDR launched the Federal Theater Project. John Houseman invited Welles to be part of an African-American theater unit in Harlem. Their first co-production was an adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth. Welles changed the setting to a mythical island. Voodoo took the place of Scottish witchcraft. The play opened on April 14th, 1936, at the Lafayette Theater in Harlem. It received incredible reviews. By that autumn, Welles was traveling between Chicago and New York, appearing on Mutual Broadcasting’s Wonder Show, and on The Columbia Workshop. On Sunday April 11th, 1937 The Workshop broadcast a verse-play written especially for radio by Archibald MacLeish. It was called The Fall of the City. It was an allegory on the rise of fascism. The broadcast took place at the massive Seventh regiment armory on 67th street and Park avenue in New York. Reiss used over one-hundred fifty extras, and entrusted Welles to be the narrator. To get proper sonic differentiation, they built radio’s first narration booth. The Fall of The City was selected by The New York Times as one of the outstanding broadcasts of 1937. Time magazine noted that it proved to listeners radio was science's gift to poetry and poetic drama. The Fall of the City made Orson Welles a star. Mutual Broadcasting was about to give him the opportunity of a lifetime.

BW - EP130: Philip Marlowe Comes to Radio (1947) Aug 25, 2022

In Breaking Walls episode 130 we head to the summer of 1947 to get to the bottom of NBC’s Philip Marlowe caper. —————————— Highlights: • Who was Raymond Chandler? • Who is Philip Marlowe? • Van Heflin, Movie Star • Radio Ratings in the Spring of 1947 • Marlowe Launches with Red Wind • Initial Reviews • The King in Yellow • The Celebrated Life and Tragic Death of Jeff Chandler • Marlowe Leaves NBC, but CBS Picks It Up • Marlowe After CBS • Looking Ahead to Orson Welles and The Shadow —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material used in today’s episode was: • The Simple Art of Murder — By Raymond Chandler • Trouble Is My Business — By Raymond Chandler • The World of Raymond Chandler — By Raymond Chandler • On the Air — By John Dunning • The Life of Raymond Chandler — By Frank MacShane • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg • The Adventures of Philip Marlowe Program Guide — By Tom Nolan As well as articles from: • Billboard Magazine • Broadcasting Magazine • And Sponsor Magazine —————————— On the interview front: • Eve Arden, Wendell Niles, Lurene Tuttle, and Willard Waterman spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com. • Parley Baer, Mary Jane Croft, and Harry Bartell spoke to SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com. • Eve Arden also spoke with John Dunning for his 71KNUS program from Denver. • Lurene Tuttle also spoke with Frank Bresee for Same Time, Same Station. • William Conrad spoke with Chris Lambesis • Norman Macdonnell with John Hickman • Bob Hope with Johnny Carson • Raymond Chandler spoke to Ian Flemming —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Cool — By Martin Denny • Perfida — By Jimmy Dorsey and his Orchestra • Living Without You — By George Winston • Danse Macabre — By Camille Saint-Saens • Loch Lomond (arranged for Choir) — By Musica Intima —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

BW - EP130—011: Philip Marlowe Comes To Radio—Looking Ahead To Orson Welles And The Shadow Aug 22, 2022

Well, that brings our episode on The Adventures of Philip Marlowe to a close. We’re not leaving the genre though, just going back ten years in time to 1937. Next time on Breaking Walls we spotlight Orson Welles’ one season as star of The Shadow and find out how the legendary radio show came to air.

BW - EP130—010: Philip Marlowe Comes To Radio—Marlowe After CBS Aug 20, 2022

Raymond Chandler wrote three more Philip Marlowe novels: The Little Sister in 1949, The Long Goodbye in 1953, and Playback in 1958. He became a dual citizen of the U.S. and Great Britain. His wife, Cissy died in 1954. In 1955, he attempted suicide. Heartbroken and drunk, Chandler neglected to inter her cremated remains. They sat for fifty-seven years in a storage locker at Cypress View Mausoleum. Chandler was in the midst of a new Marlowe novel, Poodle Springs, when he passed away on March 26th, 1959. Robert B. Parker finished the novel thirty years later. Chandler is buried at Mount Hope Cemetery, in San Diego, California. Later that year ABC brought Marlowe to TV for the first time in a series starring Philip Carey. It lasted five months. James Garner starred as Marlowe in a 1969 film, while Elliott Gould played Marlowe in the cult classic Long Goodbye from 1973, and a middle-aged Robert Mitchum starred in the 1975 Farewell, My Lovely and the 1978 Big Sleep. Between September of 1977 and January of 1978 BBC dramatized The Big Sleep, The High Window, The Lady in the Lake, The Little Sister, and The Long Goodbye. Ed Bishop starred as Marlowe. Ten years later, BBC did a version of Farewell, My Lovely. The shows were later heard in Los Angeles over NPR’s affiliate KCRW-FM. BBC was back at it again with new adaptations of Chandler’s novels starring Toby Stephens in 2011. Meanwhile HBO produced two series of Marlowe TV episodes in the mid-1980s starring Powers Boothe, and both Danny Glover and James Caan have played Marlowe in made-for-TV films in the years since. It has recently been announced that Liam Neeson will star in a new Marlowe film in 2023.

BW - EP130—009: Philip Marlowe Comes To Radio—Marlowe Leaves NBC, But CBS Picks It Up Aug 18, 2022

In September, Bob Hope reclaimed his Tuesday night time slot and NBC’s Philip Marlowe radio adventures were over. 1947 was a good year for Van Heflin. Green Dolphin Street hit theaters in November. It co-starred Lana Turner and was that year’s biggest MGM hit. On Thanksgiving he guest-starred on an episode of Radio Reader’s Digest called “Why Keep Your Heart In Cold Storage?” It was well-received, but MGM would no longer allow Heflin to play Marlowe. He continued to appear on radio into the 1950s. A new Hollywood agent, Ray Stark, went to work for Chandler in 1948, and in September, a revived Philip Marlowe series began a two-year run on CBS, this time starring Gerald Mohr. Mohr played King Leopardi in the summer series’ version of “The King in Yellow.” He’d done movie work, but his face was unknown to most radio listeners. Chandler preferred his voice, which he thought packed more punch. Norman Macdonnell was in charge of the production. Chandler made a list of suggestions for the show’s writers: Don’t always let Marlowe have the last word. Don’t make him utter knee-jerk wisecracks. Don’t let him gloat. For the most part, Mohr’s Marlowe always got the last word, added quick-one liners, and gloated. CBS paid Chandler two-hundred fifty dollars per week, roughly 3K today. That amount was raised to four-hundred if the series found a sponsor, which it briefly did, with both Wrigley’s Spearmint Gum and Ford. On CBS Marlowe took up the commercial slack with product-placement. Cars were Nash’s. Gas Stations pumped Mobile. Phil reached for Johnny Walker and Lifesavers candy. As he drove around L.A. he found a handy way to keep track of addresses: Their proximity to an Arthur Murray Dance Studio. Even Chandler got a plug In “The Hairpin Turn.” On April 11th, 1950, William Conrad subbed for Gerald Mohr. Sometime around 1950, head of CBS William Paley said the network should develop a “Philip Marlowe in the Old West” – a no-nonsense, tough-as-nails frontier saga unlike any cowboy show ever heard. The show would be called Gunsmoke and debut in 1952 starring William Conrad. It was directed by Norman Macdonnell and generally considered the best radio Western of all time. The Adventures of Philip Marlowe was canceled in September of 1950, but revived the following July for a summer run. The final CBS Philip Marlowe Adventure was on September 15th, 1951.

BW - EP130—008: Philip Marlowe Comes To Radio—The Celebrated Life And Tragic Death Of Jeff Chandler Aug 16, 2022

The August 8th episode of Philip Marlowe was called “Robin and The Hood.” Jeff Chandler guest-starred playing a dual role. Born Ira Grossel in Brooklyn, New York on December 15th, 1918, he acted in high school with classmate Susan Hayward. Chandler went to the Feagin School of Dramatic Art and had a stint with a theater troupe. He served in the Pacific, finishing World War II as a Lieutenant. After being discharged in December of 1945, he moved to Los Angeles. By August of 1947 he was all over radio as one of hollywood's reliable character men. That autumn he was cast as the lead in The New Adventures of Michael Shayne, a syndicated program produced by Bill Rousseau and Don W. Sharpe. In July of 1948, Chandler was cast opposite Eve Arden in Our Miss Brooks. But on August 8th, 1947, he was featured on The Adventures of Philip Marlowe. In 1949 Chandler was cast as Israeli leader “Kurta” in the film, Sword in the Desert. He impressed studio executives so much with his work that shortly into filming, Universal signed him to a seven-year contract. The next year, 20th Century Fox borrowed Chandler for the role of Cochise in Broken Arrow. He starred alongside James Stewart. The performance earned him an Academy Award nomination and established him as an A-list star. Radio suddenly was less of a possibility due to time constraints, but if Chandler was leaving radio, it was against his will. In May of 1951 Chandler told the Chicago Tribune that he didn’t find film acting nearly as gratifying as radio. He wanted to eventually branch off into writing and directing. When Our Miss Brooks moved into TV in 1952, he wasn’t allowed to make the transition with the rest of the cast. Chandler would spend the rest of the decade making films. On April 15th, 1961, Jeff Chandler was in the Philippines while working on Merrill’s Marauders. While playing a pickup game of basketball with some soldiers he severely injured his back. He was given injections to deaden the pain so he could finish the film. On May 13th, he entered a Culver City hospital to have surgery for a spinal disc herniation. An artery was damaged during surgery and Chandler hemorrhaged. Four days later, in a seven-and-a-half-hour emergency operation, he was given fifty-five pints of blood. A third operation followed, on May 27th. An infection followed, complicated by pneumonia he caught at the hospital in his weakened state. Jeff Chandler never recovered. He died on June 17th, 1961. He was forty-two. More than fifteen hundred people attended his funeral. Pallbearers included Tony Curtis and Gerald Mohr. For more information on Jeff Chandler, tune into Breaking Walls episode 90, or episode 106.

BW - EP130—007: Philip Marlowe Comes To Radio—The King In Yellow Aug 13, 2022

On July 8th, 1947, NBC broadcast an adaptation of “The King In Yellow,” originally published in Dime Detective Magazine in March of 1938. It’s a seedy saga of a hot trumpet player whose boorish behavior gets him killed. Among those featured in this episode were Gerald Mohr, Gloria Blondell, Bill Johnstone, Willard Waterman, and Howard McNear. By the late 1940s many of Chicago’s radio stars had migrated to Hollywood, working on shows across all four networks. By the end of July, Marlowe’s 8.0 rating was seventh overall, and the show’s production cost just one dollar per the number of urban listeners.

BW - EP130—006: Philip Marlowe Comes To Radio—Initial Reviews Aug 11, 2022

The June 17th, 1947 edition of Billboard Magazine reviewed the first Marlowe episode. It was noted that similar shows were expected to pull a rating of 7.5. The magazine stated that “Milton Geiger's adaptation adhered to Red Wind's language almost to the letter, and captured most of the colorful, almost poetic flavor. “On the debit side was the enormity of the job of breaking down Chandler's complex plotting within the thirty minute limit. The program galloped through the first fifteen minutes as the action unfolded. “The Second half pace slowed down to a crawl, however, as everyone desperately strove to clarify the proceedings. Repeated conjecture and explanation of the cast's intricate relationships unfortunately had confusion rampant by the end.” The reviewer was quick to point out that “Even films, found that ninety minutes was hardly enough to cram in all of Chandler’s ideas. Perhaps the shorter stories will prove more suited for air. Their flair for mood and language certainly is hard to surpass. “The commercials were harsh and repetitive, stressing that Pepsodent is "preferred three to one" by American families. Foote, Cone & Belding seems to be trying its Lucky Strike technique on the dentifrice. It's a three to one bet that the incessant "three to one" chatter becomes as notorious as LS/MFT.” On the lead Billboard stated: “Heflin's emoting in the role of the tough guy with a heart was effective, with excellent character projection. Lurene Tuttle, as the woman in the case, put on her usual good performance. Producer James Fonda struggled valiantly to keep the pacing level, but was handcuffed by the urgency of the story. The script contained an inside joke. The name of Lola’s dead lover was changed to Johnny Dalmas, the name of the original detective in Chandler’s “Red Wind” before the story became Marlowe’s. Chandler thought it was flat. Van Heflin was too recognizable. He didn’t like picturing Heflin’s face emoting Marlowe’s lines. Erle Stanley Gardner told Chandler the show’s plot and narration moved too fast to be understood. There was a bigger argument at stake within the industry: Were summer replacements a worthwhile investment? Sponsor Magazine claimed that it cost advertisers money to take a thirteen-week hiatus. It was money lost in the form of lower summertime ratings. But, You couldn’t just blame it on Summer replacements though. For example, Bob Hope’s 1946-47 rating was 27.6, but his combined rating for June and September 1947 was 14.4. People spent more time outdoors in warm months. It didn’t matter what was on the air. Plus, there was still no way to effectively measure car radio ratings. Given that Hope’s show cost twenty-one thousand weekly dollars to produce, while Marlowe cost just four thousand, Pepsodent was getting a bargain. By the end of summer, Marlowe was the highest-rated summer replacement series on the air.

BW - EP130—005: Philip Marlowe Comes To Radio—Marlowe Launches With Red Wind Aug 09, 2022

The Adventures of Philip Marlowe debuted on NBC with “Red Wind” on June 17th, 1947. The 1938 short story is set on one of those evenings when the hot, dry Santa Ana wind gusts through Los Angeles, turning the mood sour. The program aired live at 10PM on the east coast, with a second broadcast done at 9PM for the west. The script was adapted by Milton Geiger. Jim Fonda directed. Wendell Niles announced. Harry Bartell played the bartender. Lurene Tuttle was Lola Barsley. The episode also featured Elliot Reid, Bill Johnstone, and William Conrad. By the summer of 1947, Lurene Tuttle was well-known for co-starring on The Adventures of Sam Spade. It was a decidedly different character.

BW - EP130—004: Philip Marlowe Comes To Radio—Radio Ratings In The Spring Of 1947 Aug 07, 2022

By the middle of 1947, nearly eleven million babies had been born in the U.S. since the end of World War II. Young parents were staying home with their children. Homes with radios jumped six percent, car radios twenty-nine percent. Over the next year, radio would have its largest audience in history. The four major networks added one-hundred forty-seven affiliates. Network revenue topped two-hundred million dollars. NBC had the top seven shows. The Bob Hope Show closed the 1946-47 season as radio’s highest-rated program. The comedian pulled a rating of 27.6. Network fed programs generally had thirteen, twenty-six, thirty-nine, or fifty-two weeks contracts. Hope’s NBC contract ran for thirty-nine. Pepsodent would sponsor the new Philip Marlowe series in Hope’s time slot. Hope’s show cost twenty-one thousand dollars each week to produce. Marlowe would cost four-thousand. Heflin guest-starred on Hope’s June 3rd program to help promote the series. The Adventures of Philip Marlowe would begin the first week of June. For more information on the state of the world in 1947, tune into Breaking Walls episodes 97, 98, and 99.

BW - EP130—003: Philip Marlowe Comes To Radio—Van Heflin, Movie Star Aug 03, 2022

Van Heflin was born on December 13th, 1908 in Walters, Oklahoma. The son of a dentist, he began his acting career on Broadway in the late 1920s. Between 1928 and 1936 he appeared in. Mr. Moneypenny, The Bride of Torozko, The Night Remembers, Mid-West, and End of Summer. That year Heflin signed with RKO and made his film debut opposite Katherine Hepburn in A Woman Rebels. He spent the next five years playing character parts. He made his radio debut on The Columbia Workshop in 1938. Heflin signed with MGM as the U.S. was getting into World War II. In 1942 his role as Jeff Hartnett in Johnny Eager won him a best-supporting actor academy award. He got top billing in two B-Films, Kid Glove Killer and Grand Central Murder. Both were popular. Encouraged, MGM cast him as Kathryn Grayson's love interest in a musical, Seven Sweethearts. He soon played Judy Garland's love interest in Presenting Lily Mars, before enlisting in the US army airforce as a combat cameraman. He made a radio appearance too, in Arch Oboler’s Parade over Mutual on August 2nd, 1945. This was less than two weeks before the end of the war. After the war, MGM loaned him to Hal Wallis to appear opposite Barbara Stanwyck in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, and to Warner Bros to co-star with Joan Crawford in Possessed. It was a hit and more radio followed. On January 30th, 1947 Heflin guest-starred on this episode of Suspense. A month later he guest-starred on Family Theater, and in May, he was featured on Lux Radio’s “Vacation From Marriage.” Three weeks later, Heflin would begin playing Philip Marlowe.

BW - EP130—002: Philip Marlowe Comes To Radio—Who Is Philip Marlowe Aug 02, 2022

Philip Marlowe, born in Santa Rosa, California, is six feet tall and weighs one-hundred ninety pounds. He has dark wavy hair. In Chandler’s first Marlowe novel, The Big Sleep, set in 1936, he’s thirty-three. Marlowe had two years of college and was an investigator for the LA District Attorney. He was fired for insubordination. His office is in the Cahuenga Building on Hollywood Boulevard near Ivar. James Bond author Ian Fleming once asked Raymond Chandler why he set the Marlowe stories in Los Angeles. Through Marlowe’s eyes, L.A. comes to life. He frequents everything from the nightclubs of West Hollywood to the seedy downtown hotels, from the Pasadena mansions to the Santa Monica gambling ships, from the Hollywood glamor factories to the rundown bus depots. He drinks whiskey, usually Four Roses or Old Forester, and sometimes drinks Gin. His preferred coffee is black and his cigarette brand is Camel. At home, he smokes a pipe, especially while playing chess by himself. It was said that Chandler wrote like “a slumming angel invested in the sun-blinded streets of LA with a romantic presence.” The second Marlowe novel, Farewell, My Lovely, was published in 1940. This was followed by The High Window in 1942 and The Lady In The Lake in 1943. The first official Marlowe film was Murder My Sweet with Dick Powell in 1944. Powell played the adaptation of Farewell, My Lovely on the June 11th, 1945 episode of The Lux Radio Theatre. Humphrey Bogart starred in the 1946 adaptation of The Big Sleep heard opposite Lauren Bacall at the beginning of this act. That same year Chandler and his wife bought a home in La Jolla. In early 1947 two new Marlowe films came to theaters. The Lady In The Lake starring Robert Montgomery was released in January. Montgomery reprised his role on the February 9th, 1948 episode of Lux. Then in February, an adaptation of The High Window called The Brasher Doubloon came to theaters starring the unrelated George Montgomery. Marlowe was a hot commodity. On March 22nd, it was announced that NBC would be bringing a summer series to the air. Tuesday nights were NBC’s highest-rated evening, and although summer ratings were always the year’s lowest, NBC executives had high-hopes that Marlowe would be a perfect fit Tuesday nights at 10PM eastern, 9PM pacific. The ad agency Foote, Cone, and Belding made a deal with MGM. They tabbed rising leading man Van Heflin to play Marlowe.

BW - EP130—001: Philip Marlowe Comes To Radio—Who Was Raymond Chandler Jul 31, 2022

La Jolla, California. 1947. We’re at 6005 Camino de la Costa at the home of Raymond Chandler. It’s been three years since the fifty-nine year-old wrote a full length novel. Instead he’s worked on two screen plays. Chandler co-adapted Double Indemnity with Billy Wilder, and penned The Blue Dahlia. Both earned him Academy Award nominations. Looking for more income, his agent has negotiated a deal for Chandler to help bring a thirteen-week summer series to NBC. It’ll sub for Bob Hope on Tuesday nights. The main character? Chandler’s detective Philip Marlowe. To date Marlowe had been the focal point of four novels and four films — including two almost simultaneously released this past winter. This will, however, be the first time that Philip Marlowe comes to radio’s airwaves in a regular show. Tonight, we’ll go back in time and spotlight that summer’s highest-rated replacement series The Adventures of Philip Marlowe, starring Van Heflin. ___________ Raymond Chandler was born on July 23rd, 1888 in Chicago, Illinois. He spent his early years in Nebraska until his father, an alcoholic railway civil engineer, abandoned the family. In 1900 his Irish mother Florence moved with Raymond to England. Chandler went to Dulwich College in London. In 1907 he became a naturalized British subject and took a job as an Admiral, but resigned. He grabbed a reporter position at the Daily Express and later the Westminster Gazette. Unhappy in England, Chandler wanted to be a writer, so he returned to America in 1912. He settled in San Francisco, where he took a correspondence course in bookkeeping. His mother joined him there soon after. They moved to Los Angeles in 1913, where he strung tennis rackets, picked fruit, and found steady employment with the Los Angeles Creamery. But then, The U.S. and Canada finally joined World War I. In 1917 Chandler enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. He saw combat in the trenches in France and was twice hospitalized with Spanish flu. He was in flight training with the Royal Air Force when the war ended. He returned to Los Angeles and began a love affair with Cissy Pascal, a married woman eighteen years his senior. She amicably divorced her husband in 1920, but Chandler's mother disapproved of the relationship and refused to sanction the marriage. For the next four years Chandler supported both. His mother passed away in 1923. Raymond married Cissy on February 6th, 1924. Having begun in 1922 as a bookkeeper and auditor, by 1931 he was a highly paid VP at the Dabney Oil Syndicate. But he suffered frequent mental health breakdowns. He drank too much, skipped work, was promiscuous with female employees, and he publicly threatened suicide. Chandler was fired in 1932. Detective and suspense shows had been on radio since the medium’s inception. They were often similar to dime store novels. Sherlock Holmes began in 1930. Chandler taught himself to write pulp-style fiction by analyzing a novelette by Erle Stanley Gardner. His first story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in Black Mask Magazine in 1933. His lead character was called “Mallory.” It took him five months to finish the story. Erle Stanley Gardner wrote entire stories in three or four days. He later said, “Wandering up and down the Pacific Coast in an automobile, I began to read pulp magazines. This was in the great days of Black Mask. It struck me that some of the writing was pretty forceful and honest, even though it had a crude aspect. I decided that this might be a good way to try to learn to write fiction and get paid a small amount of money at the same time. I spent five months on an eighteen-thousand word novelette and sold it for one-hundred-eighty dollars. After that I never looked back, although I had many uneasy periods looking forward.”

BW - EP129: Radio, Roswell And The Flying Saucer Craze (1947 - 1955) Jul 28, 2022

In Breaking Walls episode 129 we honor the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Roswell incident by focusing on Radio and the mid-century flying saucer craze. —————————— Highlights: • World War II, Kenneth Arnold, Roswell, and “Project Saucer” • The Chicago Roundtable Attempts to Answer What Life on Other Planets Would Look Like • Sightings in The Spring of 1950 — Dimension X Launches • The 1950 Radio Landscape with Red Skelton • Fibber McGee Sees a UFO • Harris And Remley’s UFO Hoax • Edward R. Murrow’s Report on Flying Saucers • Dangerous Assignment’s UFOs in Ecuador • UFO Sightings during the Korean War • You Bet Your Life’s UFO Enthusiast • KNX, Ralph Story, And UFO Mania • Roy Rogers Takes Us Home • Conclusions? Closing Credits and a New Mystery —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On the Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — by Jim Ramsburg As well as articles from: • Broadcasting Magazine • LIFE Magazine • Radio Daily —————————— On the interview front: • Alice Faye, Jim Jordan, Elliott Lewis, and Lurene Tuttle spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com. • John Gibson, Jim Jordan, and Arnold Moss spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these full interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org. • Jim Jordan also spoke with John Dunning for his 71KNUS program from Denver • Lilian Buyeff and Sam Edwards spoke to SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com. • Elliott Reid spoke with Frank Bresee • Red Skelton spoke with Dini Petty —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • I Put a Spell on You — By Screaming Jay Hawkins • Pyramid of the Sun — By Les Baxter • What A Fool I Was — By Percy Mayfield • Happy Trails To You — By Dale Evans and Roy Rogers • Someone To Watch Over Me — By Blossom Dearie —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

BW - EP129—013: Radio, Roswell And The Flying Saucer Craze—Conclusions And Looking Ahead To August Jul 27, 2022

By 1955 radio’s days as America’s chief entertainment medium were over. However, while radio drama was dying out, UFO sightings were becoming more prevalent. Some were so outlandish they were hard to believe. Others were chillingly real. For example: On September 19th, 1961 Betty and Barney Hill had a widely known abduction experience. The Hills saw a huge flying disc while driving home one night on Route 3 in New Hampshire. They later awoke back in their car with missing time, something common for abductees. Hypnosis later revealed they were abducted and medically examined by small extraterrestrials. What added to the Hills’ credibility was the fact that both were afraid to tell their story. They were an interracial couple, and concerned it would hurt their credibility as they were active in the Civil Rights movement. Their experience was most certainly not for publicity. In recent years, Unidentified Aerial Phenomena has been verified by various world governments, and the public’s fascination with the mystery remains. Well, it’s a good thing that the subject of our next Breaking Walls episode knows how to get to the bottom of a hard-boiled mystery. Next time on Breaking Walls we head back to the Summer of 1947 as for the first time in a major series, Raymond Chandler’s famous detective Philip Marlowe signs on the air.

BW - EP129—012: Radio, Roswell And The Flying Saucer Craze—Roy Rogers Takes Us Home Jul 26, 2022

Roy Rogers was born on November 5th, 1911 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He spent much of the early 1930s performing with groups like Uncle Tom Murray’s Hollywood Hillbillies, The Texas Outlaws, and The Rocky Mountaineers. In mid-decade he joined up with Bob Nolan to form the Sons of the Pioneers. By 1935, they were appearing in bit parts for Republic Pictures. Two years later Republic’s top cowboy, Gene Autry, quit in a dispute, and Rogers became a star. He bought a palomino colt, named it Trigger, and taught it tricks that were guaranteed crowd- pleasers. Rogers was soon nip-and-tuck with Autry at the box office. In the mid-1940s he was among the top ten money-makers in the entire industry. He came to radio in 1944 over Mutual. His second wife, Arline, died in 1946. He married his co-star Dale Evans on New Year’s Eve, 1947. Hollywood radio’s best loved working with Roy. His radio show moved to NBC in 1951 where he also ventured into TV. In 1953 new sponsor Dodge, asked the show to be more adult-oriented. Writer-director Ralph Rose came up with a mystery format, with Evans’s song usually figuring in the plot. The January 27th, 1955, episode was called “Faraway Places.” The Roy Rogers Show went off the air on July 21st, 1955. His television series ran until June 9th, 1957.

BW - EP129—011: Radio, Roswell And The Flying Saucer Craze—KNX, Ralph Story, And UFO Mania Jul 24, 2022

Ralph Story was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan on August 19th, 1920. He served as a US Army Fighter Pilot during World War II and started a career in broadcasting after the war. His big break came in 1948 when he was hired to host and direct an early morning show on KNX in Los Angeles. Story's casual style and witty observations about life in LA won him national recognition. He went on to do various shows before going to TV in the 1950s. This afternoon show, Ralph Story’s Backyard featured Story, sidekicks and musical accompaniment. On July 16th, 1953 his guest was UFO follower George Adamski. (A Damn Ski) Adamski claimed to have met with friendly Nordic aliens, and to have taken flights with them to the Moon and other planets. Many of Adamski’s assertions were widely disputed. Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, head of Project Blue Book, the U.S. Government’s Air Force group assigned to investigate UFOs, considered Adamski a talented con artist and likened him to P.T. Barnum.

BW - EP129—010: Radio, Roswell And The Flying Saucer Craze—You Bet Your Life's UFO Enthusiast Jul 21, 2022

In October of 1952 You Bet Your Life was in the middle of its sixth season on the air and third over NBC. That month’s rating was 8.8, down significantly from its peak, but still good enough for fifth overall. The October 15th’s secret word was “water,” and the male member of the middle couple had a very unusual hobby.

BW - EP129—009: Radio, Roswell And The Flying Saucer Craze—UFO Sightings During The Korean War Jul 19, 2022

Like with Germany, Korea was divided into occupation zones after World War II. The Soviets helped establish communism in the North, while the US supported the South. By June of 1950 fighting along the border had been going on for months. However on the weekend of June 24th, bulletins increased and it became clear a major crisis was underway. After a UN Security Council meeting President Truman‘s motion to send troops was approved. Less than five years after the end of World War II, the U.S. was back at war. That August the manager of a Montana semi-pro baseball team took color film of two UFOs flying over Great Falls. The next year, several V-Shaped formations were spotted flying over Lubbock, Texas. Witnesses included professors and students from Texas Tech University.Then in the summer of 1952 some of the most famous UFO sightings of the 20th Century occurred. In July, a series of sightings happened at three separate airports in Washington, D.C. Simultaneously in Norfolk, Virginia, Pan-American pilots saw eight large, glowing red objects.The sightings made front-page headlines around the nation, and led to the formation of a CIA Panel. Ten days later, two US Air force Colonels saw three unusual aircrafts flying in formation over Carson Sink, Nevada. And perhaps most sensationally, in Flatwoods, West Virginia on September 12th, six local boys and a woman reported seeing a UFO land and a spade-headed creature near the landing site. It was met with considerable skepticism.

BW - EP129—008: Radio, Roswell And The Flying Saucer Craze—Dangerous Assignment's UFO In Ecuador Jul 16, 2022

On Saturday July 9th, 1949, Dangerous Assignment debuted on NBC starring Brian Donlevy as Steve Mitchell. Each week Mitchell was sent to a different location to crack into the bed of discontent and rout the perpetrators. Herb Butterfield and Betty Moran co-starred, with Hollywood regulars, like the just-heard Sam Edwards filling out the supporting roles. The initial Summer run ended on August 20th, but NBC picked the series up in February of 1950. That April Ford Motors signed on for a few broadcasts. April 17th’s episode was called “UFOs in Ecuador.” This episode featured Elliott Reid as Drake. After Ford, Wheaties sponsored the program for their Big Parade in the summer of 1950, but it was short-lived. Dangerous Assignment ran in the States until February 13th, 1953, but never achieved widespread fame. A syndicated version was produced the following year in Australia with Lloyd Burrell as Mitchell.

BW - EP129—007: Radio, Roswell And The Flying Saucer Craze—Murrow's Report On Flying Saucers Jul 14, 2022

On April 7th, 1950, Edward R. Murrow broadcast the CBS Special “Report on Flying Saucers.” By then, Murrow was long-known for his journalistic integrity and tenacity in chasing down answers. A turbo jet that could fly up to six-hundred miles per hour didn’t exactly line up with witness accounts. Speed of travel aside, It wasn’t at all what Dr. Craig Hunter had described earlier. There were clearly conflicting points of view.

BW - EP129—006: Radio, Roswell And The Flying Saucer Craze—Harris And Remley's UFO Hoax Jul 12, 2022

On Sunday April 2nd, 1950 at 7:30PM eastern time, The Phil Harris and Alice Faye Show took to the air over NBC. The Harris/Faye show peaked in December of 1948 with a rating of 26, but by this month it was down 8.5. Harris resisted taking the program into TV, as his wife Alice Faye remembered. Elliott Lewis’ friendship with Phil Harris went all the way back to their days on Jack Benny’s program. On that Sunday, the episode was called “Frankie’s Flying Saucer.”

BW - EP129—005: Radio, Roswell And The Flying Saucer Craze—Fibber Sees A UFO Jul 09, 2022

On Tuesday nights at 9:30PM eastern time in the spring of 1950, Fibber McGee and Molly was NBC’s highest-rated show. They’d stuck with NBC while stars like Jack Benny, Edgar Bergen, George Burns, and Gracie Allen jumped to CBS. Their 17.7 was fourth overall, but their rating fell by almost six points from the year prior. Opposite on TV, NBC aired The Life of Riley, while CBS aired Suspense. The days of NBC’s Tuesday night comedy schedule being appointment radio were over. On March 28th, Fibber McGee saw a UFO.

BW - EP129—004: Radio, Roswell And The Flying Saucer Craze—The Spring Of 1950 With Red Skelton Jul 07, 2022

In the spring of 1950, network radio revenue was falling for the first time since 1933. There were now over twenty-six-hundred AM and FM stations vying for advertising dollars. The US also spent the first ten months of 1949 in a recession while TV was becoming a serious threat to both prime time Network Radio and Hollywood films. Over a hundred TV stations were on the air, and radio’s top fifty program ratings were down thirty-percent in just two years since the record high of 1947-48. Only The Lux Radio Theater and Jack Benny had ratings higher than twenty. Meanwhile, the TV networks reported a combined income of more than twenty-nine-million dollars. The world was changing too. The U.S. was on the brink of war with Korea. During the week of March 26th, Wisconsin junior senator Joseph McCarthy named five U.S. State Department employees as potential Communists. The senator’s actions placed him firmly in the crosshairs of Edward R. Murrow. Two-time Republican Presidential nominee Thomas Dewey was relegated to voice of reason. It would be four years before McCarthyism came to an end while Cold War fears continued to escalate. That Spring, with both science-fiction and UFOs en vogue, multiple shows focused on flying saucers within individual episode plots. On March 26th, 1950 The Red Skelton Show presented “Flying Saucers.” One of the co-stars was famed radio character actress Lurene Tuttle. Skelton was airing over CBS Sunday nights at 8:30PM eastern time. His March rating was 15.6, but his season number was 13.5. It was 14th overall, but down seven points from two years prior. On March 29th, RCA made their first color television demonstration. Their system would eventually be accepted by the FCC and would become the standard for broadcasting.The next fall Skelton took his show into TV where it would air until 1971.

BW - EP129—003: Radio, Roswell And The Flying Saucer Craze—Dimension X Launches Jul 05, 2022

Until March of 1950, most reported UFO observations were seen from a great distance. On March 16th, a physician and pilot — Dr. Craig Hunter of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia — saw one close up. That same month, the Mutual Broadcasting System launched a series called 2000 Plus. Considered the first adult science fiction show in radio history, a month later NBC launched their own. Produced from Radio City in New York, It would be called Dimension X, and debut on Saturday April 8th at 8PM. The man you’re listening to is Arnold Moss. An accomplished New York actor, by 1950 he was all over the radio dial. Moss was also no stranger to playing multiple parts in a single broadcast. On May 6th, 1950 Arnold Moss starred in Dimension X’s “Knock.” For its time. Dimension X was a wonder. Two and sometimes three sound effects men worked each show. Each show was produced in a huge, two-story studio, giving the crew the ability to obtain tremendous echo effects. Blended in were futuristic musical scores, composed by Albert Berman and played on the organ. Host-narrator Norman Rose was the perfect voice, combining an authoritative resonance with a touch of dark irony. Arnold Moss was right at home in these futuristic dramas. He was flanked by Joan Alexander and Luis Van Rooten. The show was produced live for the first thirteen weeks and transcribed thereafter. It ran against Gene Autry on CBS. To help promote it, the NBC press department sent out a Radio Editors' Flying Saucer Mail Service. It was a promotional piece made up of a white saucer-shaped cardboard lettered in red and white and attached to a blue square. It wasn’t long before Wheaties grabbed the series with their Big Parade in the summer of 1950. They began sponsorship on July 7th. But, aside from Friday, Saturday night was radio’s lowest-rated evening. NBC won three of the four time slots between 8:30 and 10PM, but they were all comedies. While Dimension X was well-produced, it was an outlier sandwiched between The Joe Dimaggio Show and Truth of Consequences. Wheaties ended their big parade in August and NBC began to bump Dimension X around its schedule. It was picked up and dropped without announcement, and finally went off the air for good on September 29th, 1951.

BW - EP129—002: Radio, Roswell And The Flying Saucer Craze—The Chicago Roundtable Debate Jul 02, 2022

The University of Chicago Roundtable grew out of arguments had by professors at the faculty club. In 1931 they were convinced their forum would make for good radio. WMAQ agreed. The show premiered on February 1st of that year. It began running nationally over NBC on October 15th, 1933. The thirty-minute time slot allowed for little grandstanding. Professors rotated with each broadcast according to their expertise. They sat at a triangular table, which put the speakers face-to-face. It had time-warning lights facing each chair and was built like a sloping pyramid, with a microphone at the top. If people really were seeing UFOs in the sky they had to be coming from other worlds. On December 19th, 1948 The Roundtable attempted to answer the question from a scientific point of view. There were no scripts, but Roundtable was the first show of its kind to issue a weekly magazine. It contained a transcript of the previous program, biographies of the participants, listener feedback, suggested topical reading, and a schedule of coming broadcasts. The University of Chicago Roundtable would air until June 12th, 1955, finally going off the air when NBC launched Monitor.

BW - EP129—001: Radio, Roswell And The Flying Saucer Craze—Kenneth Arnold And The Roswell Crash Jun 30, 2022

Early on the morning of February 25th, 1942 several aerial objects were spotted over Los Angeles. It triggered the firing of thousands of anti-aircraft rounds. This was ten weeks after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and Manilla. Initially, it was thought to be a Japanese attack, but shortly after Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox said it was a false alarm. The hysteria was blamed on a weather balloon. During World War II soldiers reported seeing metallic spheres in the sky. The allies dubbed them “Foo Fighters.” In 1946, numerous UFO sightings were reported in Sweden. Known as “Ghost Rockets,” they put the Swedish Defense Staff on high alert. No confirmation of what they were was ever achieved. All of these paled in comparison to what happened in Washington State in June of 1947. On June 24th a transport with thirty-two marines on board crashed near Mount Rainier, Washington. A private pilot, Kenneth Arnold, was flying from Chehalis (SHA HAY LISS) to Yakima on a business trip. Arnold had six years of experience flying in and around the rugged Mount Rainier terrain. He went off course to look for wreckage. On April 6th, 1950 he spoke with Edward R. Murrow about his experience. As the objects passed Mount Rainier, Arnold turned his plane parallel to their course. He timed their rate of passage. They moved from Mount Rainier to Mount Adams —a distance of about fifty miles—in one minute forty-two seconds. That put their speed at over seventeen-hundred miles per hour. That was three times faster than any manned aircraft in 1947. The next day Arnold told his story to a newspaper in Pendleton, Oregon. The military questioned Arnold on three occasions, doubting his experience. But, other pilots soon told of sightings. On July 4th, The Oregon Journal received a letter from an L. G. Bernier of Richland, Washington who saw three objects flying toward Mount Rainier about one half-hour before Arnold. Bernier suggested they might have been extraterrestrial in origin. Arnold soon agreed. The problem with simply dismissing what Arnold saw lies in the fact that he was a credible witness. Sure, he could have been seeing things, but here was a man both highly trained and highly observational. Two weeks later, the most speculated UFO crash of the twentieth century was reported in Roswell, New Mexico.

BW - EP128: June 1954—The End as We Knew It Jun 27, 2022

In Breaking Walls episode 128 we wrap up our six month look at 1954 by ending in June with network cancellations. —————————— Highlights: • The State of Radio and The Union • The End of Escape with John Dehner • News with Frank Edwards on Mutual • Let’s Pretend with Arnold Stang • Autolite Drops Suspense • Goodbye To Jack Benny (For Now) • What’s At Stake in the Fall 1954 Midterm Elections • CBS Cancels The Lux Radio Theatre • The End of James Stewart’s The Six Shooter • Looking Ahead to July and Roswell —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On the Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — by Jim Ramsburg • The Complete Escape and Suspense Logs — By Keith Scott As well as articles from: • Broadcasting Magazine • LIFE Magazine • Newsweek • Radio Guide —————————— On the interview front: • Parley Baer, Ken Carpenter, Elliott Lewis, and Paula Winslowe spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com. • Herb Ellis, Virginia Gregg, Jack Johnstone, Elliott Lewis, and Herb Vigran spoke to SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com. • John Gibson, Elliott Lewis, Vincent Price, and Arnold Stang spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these full interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org. • John Dehner and Vic Perrin spoke with Neil Ross at KMPC. • Dennis Day spoke with John Dunning for 71KNUS. • Morton Fine was with Dan Haefele. • Orson Welles with Johnny Carson. • Jimmy Stewart with Larry King. • Jack Benny spoke with CBS. —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Living Without You and Too Much Between Us — By George Winston • The Last Rose of Summer — By Tom Waits • Seance on a Wet Afternoon — By John Barry —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

BW - EP128—010: June 1954—Looking Ahead To July And Roswell Jun 21, 2022

Well, this brings our six-month look at 1954 to a close. Jack Benny again had radio’s highest-rated show the following season in what would ultimately turn out to be his swan song. Benny’s last new radio episode aired in May of 1955. Joseph McCarthy would finally be censured by the Senate in December. He never recovered from that political storm, and died three years later, ravaged by disease and addiction, at the age of forty-eight. Although in some ways the Red Scare ended in 1954, the cold war was just reaching its height. But fears of nuclear bombers were only half the reason people were looking up. It’s time we focused on the other. Next time on Breaking Walls, in honor of its seventy-fifth anniversary, we examine our places in the universe with the utterance of a single word: Roswell.

BW - EP128—009: June 1954—The End Of James Stewart's Six Shooter Jun 17, 2022

Even with James Stewart leading the cast and Jack Johnstone directing, without a national sponsor cancellation was around the corner for The Six Shooter. Unlike with CBS, it was uncommon for NBC to sustain shows for long. Stewart had turned down sponsorship from Liggett and Myers Tobacco. The Six Shooter would be canceled after the June 24th, 1954 episode. Thirty-nine shows were produced. Parley Baer played parts in many episodes. The next year Baer would work with Johnstone on CBS’ Yours Truly Johnny Dollar. In the finale Ponset falls in love with Myra Barker. He proposes, but at the conclusion they realize married life isn’t possible so long as Ponset still has wrongs to right and people to save. In the end, Britt rides off into the sunset. Fortunately for radio fans, the entirety of The Six-Shooter’s one season survives. For more info, tune into Breaking Walls episode 122.

BW - EP128—008: June 1954—CBS Cancels The Lux Radio Theatre Jun 15, 2022

At network radio’s height, no dramatic show was more popular than CBS’ Lux Radio Theatre. Between 1936 and 1954 it never finished lower than eighth in the ratings, and it was radio’s top show between 1947 and 1952. Ken Carpenter announced. Radio’s best supporting talent, like Paula Winslowe, worked opposite Hollywood's biggest stars. Mondays at 9PM eastern was appointment radio, and CBS built the rest of its powerhouse Monday schedule around Lux. It helped shows like My Friend Irma, Inner Sanctum, Screen Guild, and Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts reach new heights. It was also radio’s most-rehearsed show. All the players were expected to be available for an entire week leading up to the live Monday broadcast. John Gibson, best known as Ethelbert on Crime Photographer, remembered the schedule. Vincent Price, one of the only Hollywood stars contractually allowed to do as much radio as he wanted, remembered working the show. A TV version of Lux premiered in 1950. Near the end of the radio run it was estimated that Lux had gone through more than fifty thousand pages of script, five-hundred stars, fifteen-hundred supporting players, twenty-thousand music cues, and twenty-thousand sound effects. In 1954 Lux was still rated fifth overall with a 6.2, but even radio’s most famous dramatic show wasn’t immune to the times. Towards the end of the season it was announced that CBS and Lux would be cutting ties in June. All that was left was to put a bow on one of the most successful shows in radio history. Lux would run one more season, moving to NBC where it was still a top-four show. The Lux Video Theatre also shifted to NBC. It ran until 1957 before changing formats and bringing in Rosemary Clooney as star. In its final season in 1959, the show became The Lux Playhouse before being canceled.

BW - EP128—007: June 1954—What's At Stake In The Fall 1954 Midterm Elections Jun 14, 2022

On Sunday June 13th, 1954 at 6PM Eastern, The American Forum of the Air signed on Mutual with a discussion on the 1954 midterm elections. The featured Senators were Republican Homer Ferguson of Michigan and Democrat Mike Monroney of Oklahoma. The two political parties had deep divides within on key issues. While many Republicans were conservative, they didn’t support Joseph McCarthy’s communist raids. Northern democrats were likely to be liberal and in favor of the underway de-segregation. Many southern Dems were known as Dixiecrats and upset at the recent Brown vs. Board of Ed. ruling. The 1954 elections were held on November 2nd. The Republicans would lose both the House and Senate, a direct result of anti-McCarthy backlash. The elections caused a divided government that continued to the end of Eisenhower’s presidency. Republicans wouldn’t retake the Senate until 1980 and the House until 1994.

BW - EP128—006: June 1954—Goodbye To Jack Benny (For Now) Jun 12, 2022

On June 6th, 1954 Jack Benny closed his broadcast for the end of the season. Jack was going to headline in Dallas. The show featured a semi-rare appearance from Mary Livingston. Although radio audiences were rapidly waning and Benny was a TV star as well, he kept his radio program going. Out of home listening was adding an additional forty percent to primetime radio audiences. That means Benny’s 8.2 1954 rating was actually closer to 11.5.

BW - EP128—005: June 1954—Autolite Drops Suspense Jun 08, 2022

By June of 1954, the thirty-six year-old Elliott Lewis was producer/director of four shows and the star of two. His peers affectionately dubbed him “Mr. Radio.” Perhaps most prominently, he’d been producer and director of Suspense since the fall of 1950. Program sponsor Autolite preferred to keep its commercials humorous, feeling that the change of pace shocked the audience to attention. Each 30-minute episode required over five-hundred total hours of work from fifty people. With Lewis at the helm, Suspense was able to stave off some of the decline in ratings other shows succumbed to. This was partly due to his partnership with Morton Fine and David Friedkin. Although the series, now airing on Mondays at 8PM, was still heard by roughly 12.5 million people each week, at season’s end Autolite decided to discontinue their sponsorship after six years. The last Autolite Suspense episode was “A Terribly Strange Bed” on June 7th. Adapted by Morton Fine, it guest-starred Peter Lawford as an English cop in France who wins big at a gambling table, gets drunk, and ends up in a hotel room in a booby-trapped bed. Featured in this episode as The Croupier was Vic Perrin. After the episode climax, announcer Harlow Wilcox signed off for the two-hundred-forty-sixth and final time. Elliott Lewis left the production after July 27th. Suspense would remain a sustained show until finding multiple sponsorship in late 1956. Unfortunately for Lewis, his other shows would soon be canceled. Phil Harris and Alice Faye went off the air on June 18th. Crime Classics on June 30th. Broadway is My Beat on August 1st. And On Stage on September 30th. For more info on Elliott Lewis’ career, tune into Breaking Walls episode 113.

BW - EP128—004: June 1954—Let's Pretend With Arnold Stang Jun 07, 2022

Originally broadcast as The Adventures of Helen and Mary, radio’s preeminent children’s show first took to the air on September 7th, 1929 over CBS. It became Let’s Pretend on March 24th, 1934. Hosted by “Uncle” Bill Adams, it was in many ways the brainchild of Nila Mack, who penned, produced, and directed each show. Ms Mack was born in 1891 in Kansas and became an ingenue on Broadway and in vaudeville. She arrived at CBS in 1928, and in August 1930 assumed control of the show. Mack felt the best way to tell a children’s story was to let the children tell it. Acting talent could play a lead one week and a character part the next. She soon became CBS director of children’s programming. One of Ms. Mack’s staples was her open door policy. Any child could audition. She was responsible for developing two generations of some of the best child-turned-adult acting talent in radio history, like Arnold Stang. Radio Guide wrote that Ms Mack instantly knew if a child had it. If so, he or she would be given a small part and slowly work their way up to lead roles. Perhaps Newsweek said it best in 1943: “Let's Pretend is filled with kings and queens who ride talking horses through enchanted forests. It has maidens who must be rescued from witches, dragons, and dwarfs. Its characters travel in coaches, wear purple robes through emerald halls into jade rooms, and drink from golden goblets.” Cream of Wheat became the sponsor that year. It was a partnership that lasted until 1952. At 2PM on Saturday June 5th, 1954, Let’s Pretend signed on the air over CBS in New York. Unfortunately, Nila Mack passed away from a heart attack on January 20th, 1953, but the show kept on. In its final two years the Nila Mack Award was given to the top players. The show would air until October 23rd, 1954. And thanks to Ms Mack, men and women like Arnold Stang were able to have long careers.

BW - EP128—003: June 1954—News With Frank Edwards On Mutual Jun 05, 2022

On June 4th, 1954 at 10PM, The Frank Edwards news program signed on from WOR in New York. During this month there were more than one-hundred-twenty major American cities with significant unemployment. The Secretary of Commerce officially announced the country was in a recession. Meanwhile, Vietnam was given technical independence within the French Union. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles (DUH LUSS) felt the U.S would have to send troops to Southeast Asia to prevent Communist expansion. In other news, on June 6th the San Francisco Chief debuted. On June 13th, NASCAR held its first ever event in Linden, New Jersey. It was won by Al Keller. That same day, the last steam locomotive ran on the Maine Central Railroad. And on Flag Day, June 14th, the words “under God” were officially added to the Pledge of Allegiance.

BW - EP128—002: June 1954—The End Of Escape Jun 02, 2022

As Escape and shows like it were canceled, there were fewer opportunities for radio’s west-coast actors on network sustained programs. This episode, “An Ordinary Man” was written by Kathleen Hite and starred John Dehner and Virginia Gregg, with Tony Barrett, Edgar Barrier, and Harry Bartell. It aired on June 3rd, 1954. Escape would be canceled on September 25th. Gregg, Bartell, and Dehner would continue to work together on shows like Yours Truly Johnny Dollar, Gunsmoke, Frontier Gentleman, and Have Gun, Will Travel. For more info on John Dehner’s career, tune into Breaking Walls episode 101.

BW - EP128—001: June 1954—The State Of Radio And The Union May 31, 2022

By June 1954 network radio drama was facing huge sponsor disinterest. Shows canceled in the first half of the year included The Quiz Kids, Dr. Christian, Front Page Farrell, Bulldog Drummond, Rocky Fortune, Ozzie and Harriet, and The Six Shooter. ABC, CBS, Mutual, and NBC reduced ad sale charges for the sixth consecutive year. It was an attempt to offset TVs broadening market share. It didn’t work. For the first time in sixteen years revenue fell. The only category to see an increase in sales was local advertising, and even that rose less than one percent. In 1948, radio’s top show was heard by roughly twenty-eight million people. In 1950, by twenty million. In 1952, by fourteen million. And in 1954, by roughly nine million. West-coast radio actors, like Herb Vigran and Herb Ellis were moving into TV, but television was already going through budgetary changes. By the summer of 1954, more than sixty percent of U.S. homes had a TV set. I Love Lucy pulled a rating of nearly sixty. Radio’s top show, People Are Funny had a rating of 8.4. Along with oncoming transistor sets, nearly thirty million cars now had radios, but there was still no system to measure this audience. The next year it was estimated that out-of-home listening added an additional forty percent to at-home audiences. People Are Funny’s actual rating was closer to twelve. But these incidentals didn’t matter to the industry’s character actors. Network production habits were changing. More and more documentaries and news were airing from New York, more and more drama was airing from Los Angeles. Things would be tougher by the end of the decade, but we’re not there yet. Tonight, we’ll head to June of 1954 as network radio reaches a point of no return. ____________ As June got underway, the Army-McCarthy hearings dragged on. This early focus was on the continued testimony from McCarthy attorney Roy Cohn, cross-examined by Ray Jenkins. After lunch Vermont Republican Senator Ralph Flanders compared McCarthy, his own party mate, to Adolph Hitler. He accused him of “axe-happy attempts to divide the country and split the Republican party.” He also compared McCarthy to Dennis The Menace. Flanders speculated that if McCarthy were a double-agent for the Communists, he would have been doing a perfect job. Later on McCarthy accused Flanders of being a senile, racist, religious bigot.

BW - EP127: May 1954—A Portrait of The United States May 26, 2022

In Breaking Walls episode 127 we keep on with our look at 1954 by picking up in May during one of the most important months of the decade. —————————— Highlights: • The Big Sound in Nashville • Everett Sloane and The 21st Precinct • Ray Milland and Meet Mr McNutley • An Eisenhower Presser and Other Current Events • I Love a Mystery — Born Again • Wild Bill Hickok • Grace Kelly Guest Stars on Bob Hope’s Show • Brown vs. The Board of Education • Lewis and Clark on NBC’s Inheritance • The Army/McCarthy Hearings Continue with Roy Cohn’s Testimony • Bing Crosby on Anthology’s Memorial Day Show • Looking Ahead to June and The End as We Knew It —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material used in today’s episode was: On the Air — By John Dunning Network Radio Ratings — by Jim Ramsburg As well as articles from: Broadcasting Magazine and LIFE Magazine —————————— On the interview front: • Parley Baer, Jim Boles, Mercedes McCambridge, Carlton E. Morse, and Russell Thorson, spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com. • Harry Bartell, Himan Brown, Lawrence Dobkin and Virginia Gregg spoke to SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com. • Vincent Price spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear this full interview at Goldenage-WTIC.org. • Bob Hope spoke to Johnny Carson • Andy Devine spoke to Betty Rogge —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Once I Had a Secret Love — By Dolores Watson • The Battle Cry of Freedom — By Jacqueline Schwab • Bare Necessities — By Matthias Gohl, Jay Ungar, and John Kirk • Morning Prayer — By Matthias Gohl and Ken Littlehawk • Loch Lomond (arranged for Choir) — By Musica Intima —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Ray Shaw

BW - EP127—010: May 1954—Bing Crosby On Anthology's Memorial Day Show May 22, 2022

At 3PM on Sunday, May 30th, 1954, Anthology signed on NBC. Directed by John Malcom Brennen, produced by Steve White, and announced by Harry Fleetwood, Anthology offered dramatic readings of famous and lesser-known plays. Memorial Day weekend’s episode featured Agnes Moorehead reading “Barbara Fritchie,” and Frank Lovejoy and Bing Crosby performing “The Man Without a Country.” Anthology would air into June of 1955 when it was canceled in favor of the debuting Monitor. For more information on that, tune into Breaking Walls episode 116.

BW - EP127—009: May 1954—The Army-McCarthy Hearings Continue With Roy Cohn's Testimony May 19, 2022

On Friday May 28th, 1954 as beaches and public parks opened for Memorial Day weekend, families hopped in their cars, turned on the radio dial, and heard the continuing testimony of McCarthy’s Attorney Roy Cohn during the Army-McCarthy Hearing. CBS radio was there. Cohn played a major role in McCarthy’s crusade. He helped create the Lavender Scare, which claimed overseas Communists blackmailed closeted government employee homosexuals into passing on secrets. Convinced that the employment of homosexuals was now a threat to national security, President Eisenhower signed an executive order on April 29th, 1953, banning homosexuals from working for the federal government. Cohn also saw that colleague G. David Schine receive special treatment when he was drafted in the U.S. Army in 1953. He contacted military officials from the Secretary of the Army down to Schine’s company commander and demanded that Schine be given light duties, extra leave, and exemption from an overseas assignment. It was this behavior that hastened McCarthy’s downfall, as during these hearings both Cohn and McCarthy claimed the Army was holding Schine “hostage” to squelch McCarthy’s Communist investigations. Cohn testified from May 27th through June 2nd.

BW - EP127—008: May 1954—Lewis And Clark On NBCs Inheritance May 17, 2022

Inheritance was a joint production of NBC and The American Legion at the height of The Red Scare. It first took to the air on April 4th, 1954. The American Legion was at the forefront of The Red Channels pamphlet which outed alleged communist sympathizers. The Legion’s connection to The Red Channels had long been disclosed by the time Inheritance took to the air. It has been speculated that perhaps both NBC and The Legion hoped to distance themselves from McCarthyism as criticism for his tactics was rapidly growing. Fifty-seven episodes were produced featuring the best west-coast radio actors available. The writing staff spanned both coasts and included Ernest Kinoy and George Lefferts. This episode on The Lewis and Clark expedition aired on Memorial Day weekend: Sunday, May 30th, 1954 at 10PM eastern time.

BW - EP127—007: May 1954—Brown Vs. The Board Of Education May 15, 2022

On Sunday May 23rd, 1954 at 6PM Eastern, The American Forum of the Air signed on Mutual with a discussion on the Supreme Court Decision of Brown versus The Board of Education. On May 17th, The Court ruled that racial segregation within the U.S. public school system was unconstitutional. It repealed the “separate but equal” doctrine from 1896. By the early 1950s the NAACP was filing lawsuits on behalf of plaintiffs in South Carolina, Virginia and Delaware, with Thurgood Marshall as attorney. In the most famous case, Oliver Brown filed suit against the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas after his daughter, Linda Brown, was denied access to Topeka’s all-white elementary schools. Brown claimed it violated the fourteenth Amendment. This case and four others eventually went before the U.S. Supreme court in December of 1952. At first, the justices were divided on how to rule. Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson felt the 1896 verdict should stand. But, he died in September of 1953 and President Eisenhower replaced him with California governor Earl Warren. Eisenhower knew this appointment would help overturn the nineteenth century verdict. In the decision, issued on May 17, 1954, Warren wrote that “in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place,” as segregated schools are “inherently unequal.” Days after that decision, there was considerable debate in the media over whether desegregation was fair. In this episode of The American Forum, the debate is between Democrat Senator Paul Douglas of Illinois and Democrat Senator Price Daniel of Texas. The American Forum of the Air’s roots were planted in Gimbels department store in 1928. Gimbels owned WGBS. Theodore Granik, a young law student who worked for Gimbels, did continuity, wrote dialogue, and reported sports events. He had an idea for a panel discussion on all kinds of legal issues. When the station was sold, WOR gave Granik a similar job. The American Forum of the Air premiered in 1934. By 1943, it had become a staple for those looking to stay abreast of socio-economics and politics. The format was tight. Proponents and opponents were allowed an opening statement; a panel discussion followed, questions were taken from the audience, and closing summations wrapped it all up. It was the only radio show printed verbatim in the Congressional Record and won a Peabody Award in 1949.

BW - EP127—006: May 1954—Grace Kelly Guests On Bob Hope May 11, 2022

Bob Hope joined NBC’s red network in December of 1937. For the next ten years he starred on The Pepsodent Program, racking up the top-rated show five consecutive seasons between the fall of 1942 and the spring of 1947. Then, as radio’s ratings were hitting an all-time high, Hope opened the fall of 1947 to harsh reviews. Both the critics and public were bored with his formula. Ratings dropped and Hope responded with a shakeup the following year. Gone were Vera Vague and Jerry Colonna: the show became more of a situation comedy. It was the radio itself that had begun to fade. Hope spent two seasons being sponsored by Swan Soap, and then by Chesterfield, Jell-O, and American Dairy. His top show fell to fifth overall, then seventh, then tenth, thirty-third, and finally to forty-seventh in 1953. In 1954 his Friday at 8:30 rating was under 3.3. On May 14th his guest was the twenty-four year-old actress Grace Kelly. She’d won the Academy Award for best actress in Country Girl two months prior. Her fourth starring role, Dial M For Murder was about to premiere. Grace Kelly would appear in seven more films over the next two years. She retired after her marriage to Prince Rainier III of Monaco. Her last film was High Society, opposite Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. By 1954 Hope was appearing on TV. He did commentary for NBC’s coverage of the 1952 political conventions, and although he never had a regular TV series, he starred in two-hundred seventy two TV specials between 1950 and 1996. In later years he became the network’s senior statesman and his theme song, “Thanks for the Memory,” became synonymous with his comedy.

BW - EP127—005: May 1954—Wild Bill Hickok May 09, 2022

James Butler “Bill” Hickok was born on May 27th, 1837 in LaSalle County, Illinois. An excellent marksman from a young age, in 1855 he became a Kansas Abolitionist Jayhawker. From there he became a constable, joined the Pony Express parent company, was badly wounded by a bear, and committed his first justifiable homicide. This was all before the age of twenty-five. During the Civil War, Hickok became a Union Army teamster, a wagon master, joined the Kansas Brigade, and became a spy for the provost marshall of Missouri. He was also a gambler and drinker, known to carouse for days at a time. On July 21st, 1865, Hickok took part in his first duel, killing a man named Davis Tutt. He shot Tutt through the heart from seventy-five yards away. A subsequent interview with Harper’s New Monthly Magazine labeled him Wild Bill for the first time. Rather than become an outlaw, Hickok became a lawman. He was soon a deputy Marshal at Fort Riley, and scouted for Custer’s Seventh Cavalry. By December of 1867 he was a Marshall in Hays City, and later sheriff of the same town. In April of 1871 he became Marshall in Abilene, Kansas. That October, Hickok justifiably killed a saloon owner named Phil Coe. But, during the fight, Hickok saw a man running towards him. He wheeled and fired, killing what turned out to be his own deputy. The event haunted Hickok the rest of his life. It was the last time he was ever involved in a gunfight. Radio’s version bore little resemblance to the real man. The format was the same used by the producers of Hopalong Cassidy and The Cisco Kid. Bill’s comic sidekick, Jingles B. Jones was voiced by the famed Andy Devine. Guy Madison was Wild Bill. Hollywood regulars supported. It was directed by Paul Pierce. The show first aired over Mutual on May 27th, 1951. On May 14th, 1954 the episode was called “Dangerous Advice.” Wild Bill Hickok aired until New Year’s Eve 1954. Mutual brought it back the following July. It ran until February of 1956. In early 1876 Hickok was diagnosed with glaucoma. Fearing blindness, he joined friends Charlie Utter and Calamity Jane Cannary in Deadwood, Dakota Territory. On August 2nd, 1876 he was playing poker. He’d badly beaten a man named Jack McCall the night before at cards. Although Hickok usually sat facing the door, no such seats were available. That afternoon he was playing five-card poker and holding a pair of Aces and Eights. Jack McCall walked in and shot Hickok in the back of the head from point blank range. Wild Bill died instantly. He was thirty-nine.

BW - EP127—004: May 1954—I Love A Mystery May 07, 2022

Carlton E. Morse’ I Love A Mystery first took to the air Weekdays at 3:15PM on NBC’s West-Coast network in January of 1939. Michael Raffetto starred as Jack Packard, head of the A-1 Detective Agency, with Barton Yarborough as Texan Doc Long, and Walter Paterson as the British Reggie Yorke. The show told of three world travelers in search of action, thrills, and mystery. From the ghost towns of wind-swept Nevada, to the jungles of vampire-infested Nicaragua, they righted wrongs, rescued women, battled evil, and explored unknown parts of the globe. By that autumn it was airing nationally. The show ran from the west coast for five years, first over NBC’s Red Network, then its Blue, and then CBS. It went off the air at the end of 1944, but was revived in the spring of 1948 on ABC and then from New York for Mutual Broadcasting in October of 1949. It ran for three more years, this time starring Russell Thorson, Jim Boles, and Tony Randall, as Thorson remembered. Jack Packard was a hero with quiet strength. Once a medical student, he shrugged off superstition in favor of logic. Reggie Yorke was educated, strong, and had the British stiff upper lip. Doc Long was a red-headed alley fighter from Texas who defied the laws of chance and loved women. Three characters could be murdered in a single episode. People were killed in ghoulish, imaginative, and sometimes mystifying ways. Throats were ripped out by wolves; there were garrotings, poisonings, and mysterious slashings. Although the serial went off the air in 1952, in May of 1954 a new audition record was produced for CBS in Hollywood. It starred Thorson, Ben Wright, and Parley Baer.

BW - EP127—003: May 1954—An Eisenhower Press Conference And Other Current Events May 05, 2022

On Friday, May 14th, 1954 President Eisenhower gave a news conference, immediately opening the floor to reporters for general questions. The day prior The World Chess Championship was won by Mikhail Botvinnik in Moscow. On this day, The Boeing 707 was released. On Monday the 16th, The Kengir uprising broke out at a Soviet Labor camp. Political prisoners forced out guards and administration. It would last over a month. Meanwhile in the U.S., Senator McCarthy’s tirade had resulted in each political party’s questioning of the other’s loyalty, as well as talks of treason within the armed forces. Eisenhower simultaneously had both nothing, and a lot to say on these matters. On Tuesday, May 17th, Brown versus The Board of Education of Topeka would finally be decided.

BW - EP127—002: May 1954—Ray Milland And Meet Mr. McNutley May 02, 2022

Meet Mr. McNutley first took to CBS’ airwaves on September 17th, 1953. Ray Milland played Ray McNutley, English professor at Lynnhaven College. Phyllis Avery was Peggy, his wife. It aired concurrently on TV with much of the same cast. The show would be short-lived, going off the air after June 10th, 1954. The TV show lasted one more season, changing the character’s name to McNulty in the process.

BW - EP127—001: May 1954—Everett Sloane And The 21st Precinct Apr 30, 2022

As the US began May of 1954, there was word that a new Soviet bomber had the ability to reach the United States. It was displayed for the public for the first time at the Moscow May Day Parade. On May 7th, the Battle of Dien Bien Phu would end in a French defeat. U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles declared Vietnam non-essential to security in Southeast Asia. The U.S. would not intervene for France. And as several massive U.S. fishing vessels were sinking off the coast of Alaska, the Boeing 707 was being released after two years of development. On May 1st, NBC affiliate WSM signed on with The Big Sound. WSM is a 50,000-watt clear channel station located in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded by the National Life and Accident Insurance Company, the station’s call sign stands for We Shield Millions. WSM first signed on October 5th, 1925. The next month on November 28th, The WSM Barn Dance took to the air for the first time. On December 10th, 1927, the program's host, "Judge" George D. Hay referred to the show for the first time, as The Grand Ole Opry. The Opry began running coast-to-coast on Saturday evenings in 1939. The show moved to the Ryman Auditorium in 1943. As it developed in importance, so did the city of Nashville, which became America's country music capital. By 1954, WSM was considered the outstanding music station in the country. That October 2nd a teenage Elvis Presley would have his only Opry performance. The times, they were a-changin’. Tonight, we’ll dive in for a closer look. ___________ Welcome to Breaking Walls episode 127. My name is James Scully. Tonight we keep on with our look at 1954 by picking up in May during one of the most important months of the decade. ___________ Everett Sloane was born in New York City on October 1st, 1909. At age of seven, he played Puck of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, and decided to become an actor. In 1927 he joined a Theater company. He made his New York stage debut in 1928. In the 1930s Sloane was appearing on The March of Time. It was there he met a young Orson Welles. Welles hired Sloane to be part of his Mercury Theatre. He moved from New York City to Los Angeles after Welles signed his contract with RKO. Sloane had a prominent role in Citizen Kane. In the 1940s, he worked on both coasts, guest-starring in radio on Inner Sanctum Mysteries, The Shadow, The Mysterious Traveler, and in films such as The Lady From Shanghai, Journey Into Fear, and Prince of Foxes. By 1953 he was being featured on TV and starring on radio in The 21st Precinct as Captain Frank Kennelly. The 21st Precinct debuted on July 7th, 1953 over WCBS radio in New York. It put the listener into the drama from the opening phone call until the final report. In May of 1954 it was airing Wednesdays at 8:30PM against The Great Gildersleeve on NBC. Starring with Sloane was Ken Lynch as Lieutenant Matt King and Harold Stone as Sergeant Waters. John Ives produced and Stanley Niss directed. Everett Sloane continued to be a busy actor until 1965. On August 6th of that year, recently diagnosed with Glaucoma and fearing blindness, he took his own life. He was survived by his wife Lilian and two children. Everett Sloane is buried at Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles.

BW - EP126: April 1954—Joseph McCarthy vs. The US Army Apr 26, 2022

In Breaking Walls episode 126 we continue our mini-series in April of 1954. —————————— Highlights: • Eisenhower talks fear • Lum and Abner’s April Fools’ Joke • The Eternal Light • Nightwatch — A New CBS Real Police Show • Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator • Illegal Immigrant Fears • Gildersleeve’s Dinner Party • Easter Sunday and The End of The Whistler • Jack Benny Holds a Seance • The Army-McCarthy Hearings Begin • Phil Harris and Alice Faye’s Red Cross Blood Drive • Looking Ahead to May —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On the Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — by Jim Ramsburg • The Complete Escape Log — By Keith Scott As well as articles from • Broadcasting Magazine • LIFE Magazine —————————— On the interview front: • Parley Baer, George Balzer, Himan Brown, Phil Harris, Elliott Lewis, and Willard Waterman, spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com. • Himan Brown also spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these full interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org. • Himan Brown, Bill Froug, and Betty Lou Gerson spoke to SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com. • Elliott Lewis also spoke with John Dunning for his 71KNUS program from Denver. —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Voodoo Dreams — By Les Baxter • Manhattan — By Blossom Dearie • Walking In The Air — By George Winston —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Ray Shaw —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

BW - EP126—011: April 1954—Looking Ahead To May Apr 24, 2022

Next time on Breaking Walls, as the weather heats up in May of 1954, Brown vs. The Board of Education delivers a landmark decision. It decreed racial segregation within the U.S. School system to be unconstitutional. Dixiecrats opposed the ruling, while many others felt it was an injustice rectified ninety-years too late. We’ll cover this and every other radio and national happening, as we move towards Memorial Day, 1954.

BW - EP126—010: April 1954—Phil Harris And Alice Faye's Red Cross Blood Drive Apr 20, 2022

In April 1954, Phil Harris and Alice Faye were in the midst of their last season on the air. The husband-wife duo had been starring together on radio since 1946. Harris spent the better part of the last decade working with Elliott Lewis. They both worked under Jack Benny for years. On April 30th, they presented a special Red Cross Blood Drive program. Opposite on NBC-TV, The Big Story pulled a rating of 29.5, while the season rating for Harris/Faye was under 3.3. With radio on its way out, RCA cancelled the show at the end of the season. The last episode aired on June 18th. By then, Elliott Lewis was getting sick of dealing with agency and network red tape. For more information on The Phil Harris and Alice Faye Show, tune into Breaking Walls Episode 108: Halloween 1948—Dewey Vs. Truman. For more information on Elliott Lewis, tune into Breaking Walls Episode 113: A Week With Elliott Lewis in 1953.

BW - EP126—009: April 1954—The Army-McCarthy Hearings Begin Apr 18, 2022

In January 1953, Joseph McCarthy began his second term as U.S. Senator from Wisconsin as the Republican Party regained control of the Senate. McCarthy was made chairman of the Committee on Government Operations. This included a permanent subcommittee that allowed McCarthy to continue Communist investigations within the government. He appointed Roy Cohn as chief counsel and Bobby Kennedy as assistant. McCarthy’s committee investigated the U.S. Army. They believed the Army Signal Corps at Fort Monmouth had been infiltrated. At the time, the investigation was largely fruitless. Then the Army accused McCarthy of seeking special treatment for Private G. David Schine, a chief consultant and close friend of Cohn's. Schine had been drafted the previous year. The Senate decided that these conflicting charges should be investigated. South Dakota Republican Senator Karl Mundt chaired the subcommittee. John G. Adams was the Army's Counsel. Joseph Welch, Special Counsel. The hearings were telecast nationally on both ABC and the DuMont network. Eighty million people saw these hearings that lasted thirty-six days. They began on April 22nd. CBS Radio was there. Early in the hearings, a photo of Private Schine was produced, with Joseph Welch accusing Roy Cohn of doctoring the image to show Schine alone with Army Secretary Robert T. Stevens. Cohn and Schine both insisted the picture was unedited. Welch then produced a wider shot of Stevens and Schine with Colonel Jack Bradley and McCarthy aide Frank Carr. This lie hurt McCarthy’s side. McCarthy was quickly losing steam and allies. His policies were turning up little evidence. His “list of two-hundred known Communists” never materialized and this turn of attention to the Army was a political gamble. It wouldn’t work and later would cost McCarthy his position in the Senate.

BW - EP126—008: April 1954—Jack Benny Holds A Seance Apr 16, 2022

As The Jack Benny Program moved into the spring of 1954, the comedian was still seen as a ratings boon. Through the years, Benny made little tweaks to his team without losing his audience. Bob Crosby replaced Phil Harris as bandleader in the fall of 1952. In 1954, Mary Livingstone, always a victim of stage fright, began to record her lines at home. Joan Benny or Jeanette Eymann played the Mary role for the audience, and the real Mary was dubbed in for the broadcast tape. If a household had both a radio and TV they could tune into Benny’s CBS radio show at 7PM eastern time on Sundays, and then switch over to his TV show, which aired at 7:30. Benny’s 1949 deal with CBS helped make the network the 1950s powerhouse. For more info on Benny’s landmark deal and the CBS talent raids which followed, tune into the Breaking Walls episodes 108, 109, and 110.

BW - EP126—007: April 1954—The End Of The Whistler Apr 14, 2022

April 18th, 1954 was both the first day of Passover and Easter Sunday. In Los Angeles, the weather was warm and foggy. The front page of The LA Times predicted record crowds at Easter services. The Major League baseball season was underway. It would be three years before Los Angeles imported the Dodgers from Brooklyn. Two days prior, V.P. Richard Nixon told the press he feared the U.S. would be forced to send troops to Vietnam. That evening, at 7:30PM over CBS’ KNX, The Whistler signed on the air, guest-starring Betty Lou Gerson and John Stephenson. The Whistler had been one of west-coast radio’s most-famous regional programs since its launch in 1942. For much of its run it was sponsored by Signal Oil. Voiced by Bill Forman, the Whistler’s narration omnisciently taunted the characters. Stories were often told from the guilty party’s perspective. Their guilt was known, but the outcome was in doubt. The Whistler character was so popular that Columbia Pictures made eight films between 1944 and 1948. Dorothy Roberts whistled the notes. The Whistler would finally go off the air after the September 8th, 1955 episode.

BW - EP126—006: April 1954—Gildersleeve's Dinner Party Apr 12, 2022

Willard Waterman had been portraying Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve since the fall of 1950 when Harold Peary left the program. In the spring of 1954 The Great Gildersleeve was airing Wednesdays at 8:30PM eastern time over NBC. Kraft had sponsored the program since its debut in 1941. The show’s 5.8 rating was good enough for fourteenth overall, and NBC’s fourth-highest program. It easily beat out CBS’ 21st Precinct, airing opposite at the same time. On April 14th, Gildersleeve hosted a “Dinner Party for Bronco’s Boss.” Parley Baer played Mr. Hammond. In the fall, Gildersleeve shifted formats, becoming a weeknight fifteen-minute serial, before returning to a half-hour in the fall of 1955. The last Great Gildersleeve radio episode would air on March 21st, 1957. For more info on the show’s transition from Peary to Waterman, tune into Breaking Walls episode 120.

BW - EP126—005: April 1954—Illegal Immigrant Fears Apr 09, 2022

In 1954, CBS Radio’s documentary unit presented a special feature series on a variety of hot-button topics. On April 11th, illegal Immigration from Mexico was their focus. Today, the term Wetback is rightfully one of derision and insult. It might have privately been considered the same in 1954, but in the mainstream it was used to describe anyone who swam into the US from across the Rio Grande River. At the height of Red Scare Mania, the fear was a communist spy could pose as a Mexican migrant. The next day in New York City, Bill Haley and the Comets recorded the ground-breaking single, “Rock Around The Clock.”

BW - EP126—004: April 1954—Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator Apr 07, 2022

By April 1954, Himan Brown had been involved in radio for more than two decades. He’d directed, produced, or created shows like Inner Sanctum Mysteries, The Adventures of the Thin Man, Grand Central Station, Bulldog Drummond, Dick Tracy, Flash Gordon, and Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator. William Gargan was born in Brooklyn, New York on July 17th, 1905. His father was a detective, and his mother a teacher. Gargan became a bootleg whiskey salesman, and later a private eye. His brother Edward was an actor. One day while visiting him at rehearsal, Gargan was offered a stage job. He began his career in Aloma of the South Seas. Gargan's first film was Rain. Later, he played in Misleading Lady and starred in three Ellery Queens. In 1940, he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as Joe in They Knew What They Wanted. And in 1945, he starred with Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman in The Bells of St. Mary's. He was perhaps most famous for his role as Martin Kane, Private Eye. It was conceived as one of TV’s earliest detective shows, and ran concurrently on radio. Gargan played the lead on both mediums, until the TV show became—as he alleged in his autobiography, “a vehicle for the flesh parade.” He balked when actresses were hired more for cleavage than ability. Gargan’s last performance as Kane occured in June of 1951. That October 3rd, he began playing Barrie Craig in a similar sounding series. Craig worked alone from a Madison Avenue office, and had good relationships with the cops. NBC produced the show in New York until the Summer of 1954. Himan Brown directed. Production of Barrie Craig moved to Hollywood in the summer. It ran until June 30th, 1955. Gargan's acting career came to an end in 1958 when he developed throat cancer. Doctors were forced to remove his larynx. Speaking through an artificial voice box, he became an activist and spokesman for the American Cancer Society. No longer able to act, he formed William Gargan Productions, making film and tv shows in Hollywood.

BW - EP126—003: April 1954—Nightwatch Apr 04, 2022

In April 1954 Bill Froug was supervisor for a new CBS series called Night Watch. The show attempted to take Dragnet’s realism to the next level. It placed reporter Donn Reid in Culver City Officer Ron Perkins’ car. Reid rode the 6PM to 2AM shift, wearing a hidden wire to capture the high drama of the job. Before the premiere broadcast, Reid accumulated one-hundred reels of tape. It included criminals caught in the act, a homicide confession, and the statement of a drug addict. The show was produced by Sterling Tracy and announced by Dan Cubberly. Vernon McKenny was the engineer, and Ray Gerhardt the editor, removing all traces of real names and locales. Night Watch premiered on Monday April 5th at 10PM with an episode called “Nude Prowler.” Traveling in an unmarked car, Reed used a reel-to-reel tape recorder, with a microphone hidden in a flashlight. These were authentic, unscripted, and unrehearsed. In one case, Reid was nearly shot; in another, he was stabbed but was saved by a leather jacket. At the end of each show, Police Chief W. N. Hildebrand gave listeners updates on what happened to the people in each incident. Night Watch aired until April 21st, 1955. Donn Reed went on to be one of the first traffic helicopter reporters, and Ron Perkins eventually was elected Mayor of Culver City.

BW - EP126—002: April 1954—The Eternal Light Apr 03, 2022

BW - EP126—001: April 1954—Eisenhower Talks Fear, Lum And Abner Play Jokes Mar 31, 2022

As the United States entered April 1954 with the cold war at its height, Congress and The President authorized the founding of the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado. Walt Disney was signing a contract with ABC—TV for a Disneyland series, with plans to build a new theme park in Southern California. Legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini was retiring, as Elvis Presley was recording his debut single, “That’s All Right.” The hydrogen bomb now existed. Brown vs. The Board of Education was being decided. A certain senator from Wisconsin was claiming the armed forces were rife with communist spies. And there was worry about involvement in present-day Vietnam. On April 4th, Dwight Eisenhower gave this speech on fear. Three days later, he unveiled his “Domino Theory,” portending that for every country who fell under Communism’s grip, more were likely to follow. It was no secret that Eisenhower didn’t see eye-to-eye with Senator McCarthy, and the former Supreme Commander of World War II’s Allied Forces understood how internal division could make a country vulnerable. That was the same for the radio industry, where those who could find work in TV were doing so with rapidity. Of the top fifteen TV shows, at least nine had begun on radio in some form. This included Dragnet, Arthur Godfrey, The Life of Riley, Our Miss Brooks, This Is Your Life, and The Jack Benny Show. But, American forefather Alexander Hamilton once said that, “in times of great chaos, people can make their name.” That was never truer than in the spring of 1954. Of course, as Joseph McCarthy would find out, people who create great chaos, can at times, lose theirs. Tonight, we’ll find out more. ________________________ In April 1954 Lum and Abner was airing as a weekday, fifteen minute serial. The show was syndicated out of KABC in Los Angeles. That year, The American Broadcasting Company’s flagship L.A. station had changed its call letters from KECA. Chester Lauck was Lum Edwards. Norris Goff was Abner Peabody. Although the comedy was reaching the end of the line, it was still one of the most beloved, folksy radio shows of all-time. On this day, Lum found out he needed famous ancestors if he wanted to marry Miss Priddle, while Abner set up a prank. Lum and Abner would sign off the air for the final time on May 7th. However the duo would star in one more film: Lum and Abner Abroad, in 1956.

BW - EP125: March 1954—A World In Turmoil Mar 24, 2022

In Breaking Walls episode 125 we continue our mini-series in March of 1954. —————————— Highlights: • Edward R. Murrow Sees It Now • Perry Mason Busts The Syndicate • The 1954 DNC in Florida • Cathy and Elliott Lewis Can’t Fight City Hall • Groucho Marx Bets His Life • Phil Harris and Alice Faye: Happy Couple In Cancellation • The End of the Expense Account For Johnny Dollar? • Escape’s Violent Night • Bing and Frank Swap Oscar Stories and Sing Songs • The 1954 Tony Awards from NBC with Audrey Hepburn • Looking Ahead to April with The Army/McCarthy Hearings —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On the Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — by Jim Ramsburg • The Complete Escape Log — By Keith Scott As well as articles from • Broadcasting Magazine • LIFE Magazine —————————— On the interview front: • Alice Faye and John Guedel spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com. • Mandel Kramer and William N. Robson spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these full interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org. • Harry Bartell, Mary Jane Croft, Don Diamond, Jack Johnstone and Byron Kane spoke to SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com. • Dick Joy, Elliott Lewis, and E. Jack Neuman spoke with John Dunning for his 71KNUS program from Denver. • Norman Macdonnell was with John Hickman for his Gunsmoke documentary. • William Conrad spoke to collector Chris Lambesis in 1969. • And Bing Crosby spoke with Barbara Walters in 1977. —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Fever — By Peggy Lee • Sleep Walk — By Henri René • Exotique Bossa Nova — By Martin Denny • The Venice Dreamer Parts 1 & 2 — By George Winston • Danse Macabre — By Camille Saint-Saëns —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Ray Shaw —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

BW - EP125—010: March 1954—Looking Ahead To April Mar 22, 2022

As March drew to a close, Mutual Broadcasting’s Frank Hemingway took to the air on March 30th with the evening news from KHJ in Los Angeles. ___________ With the hydrogen bomb in development, Russia wanted to join NATO. In Washington, President Eisenhower was making changes to the Taft-Hartley Labor Law. And in present-day Vietnam, a massive battle was taking place at the French military base at Dien Bien Phu. The March 30th news broadcast hinted at things to come. ___________ Next time on Breaking Walls, April ushers in the Army-McCarthy Hearings, Presidential Speeches, Schemers, Slanderers, Nude Prowlers, and even a Benny Seance.

BW - EP125—009: March 1954—The 1954 Tony Awards on NBC with Audrey Hepburn Mar 20, 2022

The eighth-annual Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Broadway Theatre were held at the Plaza Hotel’s Grand Ballroom on March 28th, 1954. Broadcast on radio by NBC, it was emceed by Ben Grauer and Faye Emerson. ____________ The entire post-dinner awards ceremony took thirty minutes. Some of the plays and musicals of note that season were Ondine, Kismet, Can-Can, The Teahouse of The August Moon, and John Murray Anderson's Almanac. ____________ Dolores Grey won a Tony for Carnival in Flanders, even though this Broadway musical ran for only six performances. It’s a still-standing record for the briefest run by a Tony winner. ____________ This was David Wayne's second and final Tony award. He would appear in numerous films and TV, including starring alongside Paul Muni in the 1959 film, The Last Angry Man. ____________ 1954 was a banner year for the twenty-five year old Audrey Hepburn. Three days earlier she won a Best Actress Oscar for her starring role in Roman Holiday. She’d also won a Golden Globe for the same film. In September, Sabrina would premiere, for which she was again Oscar nominated the following year.

BW - EP125—008: March 1954—Frank And Bing Sing After Frank's Oscar Win Mar 17, 2022

By March of 1954 Bing Crosby’d been in the public eye for more than two decades. He had numerous hit records, and won an Oscar for best actor in Going My Way in 1944. On Radio, Bing helped usher in primetime transcription with Philco in 1946. Crosby had been on CBS radio since 1949 and sponsored by General Electric since 1952. He was reluctant to star in a regular TV show, fearing overexposure. The 1954 Academy Awards were held on March 25th. That same day, RCA announced the first color television set. It was a twelve-inch screen, priced at one-thousand dollars, or roughly ten grand today. On the Sundays bookending those awards, Frank Sinatra was a guest on Bing’s program. Frank would win a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Maggio in From Here to Eternity. On this latter program from March 28th, Frank talks and jokes about his experience. The two are in rare form, especially with a trio of songs. The series ended on May 30th, 1954. With radio audiences in steep decline, Crosby decided against a weekly radio show with expensive guest stars and a twenty-two piece orchestra. Bing’s son Gary took over the timeslot in June for thirteen weeks. In November 1954, Bing returned to the airwaves with a weeknight fifteen-minute program. He spoke about all manner of different subjects and usually included three songs. Broadcasting Magazine estimated the production cost to be twenty-seven hundred dollars per episode.

BW - EP125—007: March 1954—Escape's Violent Night Mar 15, 2022

In March of 1954, Escape was still airing on CBS. Although it was frequently dropped and moved around the network schedule, it was popular and cheap enough to consistently come back. During its heyday, Escape was produced and directed by William N. Robson and Harry Bartell was a frequently featured actor. Les Crutchfield often penned scripts for the series. Escape’s original assistant director was Norman Macdonnell. He later became famous for being at the helm of Gunsmoke. The two-hundred eighteenth episode was entitled “Violent Night.” It starred William Conrad, with Joyce McCluskey as Maria, as Don Diamond as Alceran. Ben Wright, Edgar Barrier, Michael Ann Barrett, Dick Beals, and Byron Kane were also featured. As good as Escape was, the writing was on the wall. With no sponsorship forthcoming, the last episode would air on September 25th, 1954.

BW - EP125—006: March 1954—John Lund and The End of the Expense Account For Johnny Dollar? Mar 12, 2022

Often written by the just-heard E. Jack Neuman, the fourth actor to voice Johnny Dollar, John Lund, grabbed the role in November of 1952. Lund had starred with Olivia De Havilland in To Each His Own, Marlene Dietrich in A Foreign Affair, and Betty Hutton in The Perils of Pauline. In spite of radio’s falling ratings, in March of 1953, Wrigley’s gum signed on to sponsor the show. On Tuesdays at 9PM, Dollar peaked in May with a 7.3 rating. Among the writers who contributed scripts along with E. Jack Neuman, were Les Crutchfield, Blake Edwards, Gil Doud, Morton Fine, and David Friedkin. On March 8th, 1954 Dollar’s expense account took him to southeast Asia. Wrigley sponsored Dollar until August. Lund’s last episode was “The Upjohn Matter,” on September 19th. It seemed that like many other radio shows, Johnny Dollar’s time on the air was coming to an unremarkable end. However the show would be revived the following year. Bob Bailey would star and Jack Johnstone would direct. For more information on Bob Bailey’s run as Johnny Dollar, tune into Breaking Walls episode 102.

BW - EP125—005: March 1954—Phil Harris and Alice Faye Tell Us It Pays To Be Married Mar 10, 2022

It Pays To Be Married was a daytime game show in which married couples told stories of obstacles they overcame to build a healthier relationship. They were later quizzed for cash and prizes. Hosted by Jay Stewart, it first came to Mutual’s airwaves on September 28th, 1953. On March 8th, 1954 the celebrity guests were Phil Harris and Alice Faye. By 1954 Harris and Faye were national icons. After years on Jack Benny’s and later his own program, Phil Harris’ character was one of the most established in the entertainment business. However, The Harris and Faye show’s rating that season was under 3.3. With radio on its way out, NBC cancelled their program at the end of the season. The last episode aired on June 18th, 1954. It Pays To Be Married would shift to NBC before being cancelled in October of 1955.

BW - EP125—004: March 1954—You Bet Your Life Mar 08, 2022

You Bet Your Life, conceived by John Guedel and hosted by comedian Groucho Marx, debuted over ABC’s airwaves on October 27th, 1947. Three couples were brought onstage to be interviewed and quizzed by Groucho. Each couple was given twenty dollars and told to bet as much as they dared risk on four questions from a category of their choosing. The money would double with each successive step. Couples could win three-hundred twenty dollars, go broke on the first question, or finish anywhere in between. The couple with the largest money total got a chance at the jackpot question, worth at least one-thousand dollars. There was also a “secret word” each week, with bonus money to be divided if someone said the word while the show was on the air. Although 1947 was radio’s highest-rated season, the quiz show aired against NBC’s Mr. District Attorney on Wednesdays at 9:30. At season’s end You Bet Your Life only pulled a rating of thirteen. Groucho felt uncomfortable trying to be funny on a live radio show. Guedel’s answer was to record the show, which allowed Groucho to relax. The program could then be edited for time later. The idea worked. The show moved to CBS in 1949. You Bet Your Life became Network Radio’s top-rated quiz show, finishing the season in eleventh place overall. The show eventually signed a sponsorship contract with DeSoto-Plymouth of Chrysler for four million dollars over ten years. It also moved the show to NBC Radio and TV beginning on October 4th, 1950. The program remained a top-ten hit into 1954. That March it was airing on radio Wednesday evenings at 9PM. The March 10th episode’s secret word was “street.” You Bet Your Life aired on NBC radio until September 19th, 1956. The original TV series ran until 1961.

BW - EP125—003: March 1954—Cathy and Elliott Lewis Can’t Fight City Hall in On Stage Mar 06, 2022

As radio audiences left for TV, Elliott Lewis continued to champion radio as a stronger dramatic medium. On Thursday January 1st, 1953, he and wife Cathy, debuted a new dramatic anthology program over CBS. It was On Stage. On Stage was geared for adults, showcasing an eclectic array of scripts across multiple genres. To get the show off the ground, the Lewis’ tabbed some of the best writers in radio, like E Jack Neuman. Stories would be rooted in powerful male-female situations, with two characters of equal strength being a main goal. They used a mix of classic and original tales, cutting across all dramatic disciplines with mysteries, adventures, melodramas, satires, and comedy. Cathy was the perfect female foil, not just because she was Elliott’s wife, but because she was a superb actress. By then the west-coast’s character actors were like a family. A frequent co-star was Byron Kane. Ray Noble, Fred Steiner, and Lud Gluskin’s music beautifully fit the production. Ross Murray and Berne Surrey’s sound patterns were exceptional. The March 10th, 1954 episode was called “The Crusade of Stanley Finston.” On Stage came at a bittersweet time in Cathy and Elliott lives. Even as CBS referred to them as Mr. and Mrs. radio, their marriage of ten years was in trouble. Cathy and Elliott divorced in 1958. Elliott would soon marry another noted actress Mary Jane Croft. For more information on Elliott Lewis’ career, tune into Breaking Walls episode 113.

BW - EP125—002: March 1954—The 1954 Democratic Convention with Adlai Stevenson Mar 03, 2022

On March 6th, 1954, 1952’s Democrat Presidential nominee, Adlai Stevenson gave a dinner speech at the Florida DNC. In 1952 Stevenson was a heavy underdog against Dwight Eisenhower. He carried only nine states, but did get more than forty-four percent of the popular vote. He was quick to lash out at the McCarthy driven political state of affairs. There were many who feared the Red Scare would destroy the country, and the divisions felt between Americans were so deep, they might never be repaired. Stevenson would again receive the Democrat nomination in 1956. He’d lose, this time carrying only seven states and receiving forty-two percent of the popular vote.

BW - EP125—001: March 1954—Edward R. Murrow Brings The News. Perry Mason Busts The Syndicate Mar 01, 2022

As the United States entered March 1954, U.S. officials announced a successful hydrogen bomb test, while four Puerto Rican nationalists opened fire in the House of Representatives chamber. Five were wounded. On March 9th, Edward R. Murrow’s news team produced a CBS See It Now episode, “A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy." They used excerpts from McCarthy's own speeches to point out his contradictions. Murrow and head of CBS News Fred W. Friendly paid for the program’s marketing. CBS wouldn’t allow the team to use the company logo. The broadcast provoked thousands of letters, telegrams, and phone calls to CBS headquarters. They ran fifteen-to-one in favor of Murrow’s sentiment. McCarthy went on the program to reject Murrow's criticism. He said, “Ordinarily, I wouldn’t take time out from important work to answer Murrow. However, in this case I feel justified because Murrow is a symbol, a leader, and the cleverest of the jackal pack that’s always found at the throat of anyone who dares to expose individual Communists and traitors.” The rebuttal served only to further decrease McCarthy’s already fading popularity. However, his Army hearings were set to convene on March 16th. They would help emphasize the fact that the United States of America, like the radio industry itself, was during this year, in a state of turmoil. Unlike Howard Hughes though, tonight we will talk about it. ——————————————————————————— Airing weekdays at 2:15PM over WCBS in New York was Perry Mason. The show debuted on October 18th, 1943. Mason was a crime-busting lawyer. It often featured the just-heard Mandel Kramer. On March 1st, Mason, who was voiced by John Larkin, and Della Street, voiced by Claudia Morgan, wondered who was behind an underworld syndicate. While Perry Mason’s directors were men like Carlo DeAngelo and Carl Eastman, women were as likely to be in the mid-day director’s chair as men, and they often exuded confidence that put fear into young radio actors. By 1954 Mason’s cast had greatly expanded. On radio, he was as much a detective as a lawyer. The version Raymond Burr played on TV was markedly different. The radio version of Perry Mason ran until December 30th, 1955. Mandel Kramer could be seen starring in The Edge of Night.

BW - EP124: February 1954—Benny, McCarthy, and McCarthy Feb 24, 2022

In Breaking Walls episode 124 we pick up our 1954 mini series in February. We’ll focus on radio programming and national news from that month. —————————— Highlights: • Radio Billings Are Down. Now What? • Dragnet—Still Going Strong • Lee Deforest and The Hallmark Hall of Fame • Americana • Jack Benny Turns 39? 40? 60? • Guest Star and The McCarthy News • The College Quiz Bowl • Mr and Mrs North • Polio • Stars Over Hollywood • Ending with Bergen and McCarthy • Looking Ahead to March with Edward R. Murrow —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On the Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — by Jim Ramsburg As well as articles from • Broadcasting Magazine • LIFE Magazine —————————— On the interview front: • Jack Benny, Frank Nelson, and Don Wilson spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com. • Jack Benny also spoke for Great Radio Comedians in 1972. • Harry Bartell, Himan Brown, Lilian Buyeff, Bill Froug, Virginia Gregg, Lou Krugman, and Peggy Webber were with SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com • Hans Conried and Edgar Bergen spoke with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear this full interview at Goldenage-wtic.org. • Dennis Day spoke with John Dunning for his 71KNUS program from Denver. • Lee Deforest spoke at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York. —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Sh-Boom — By The Crewcuts • Serious Serenade — By Duke Ellington —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Ray Shaw —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

BW - EP124—011: February 1954—Looking Ahead To March Feb 22, 2022

Well, that brings February to a close, but for many of these topics, we’ve only just begun. Next time on Breaking Walls, it’s March of 1954, and Senator Joseph McCarthy’s four-year anti-communist tirade begins to come to a head. —————————— The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On the Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — by Jim Ramsburg As well as articles from • Broadcasting Magazine • LIFE Magazine —————————— On the interview front: • Jack Benny, Frank Nelson, and Don Wilson spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com. • Jack Benny also spoke for Great Radio Comedians in 1972. • Harry Bartell, Himan Brown, Lilian Buyeff, Bill Froug, Virginia Gregg, Lou Krugman, and Peggy Webber were with SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com • Hans Conried and Edgar Bergen spoke with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear this full interview at Goldenage-wtic.org. • Dennis Day spoke with John Dunning for his 71KNUS program from Denver. • Lee Deforest spoke at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York. —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Sh-Boom — By The Crewcuts • Serious Serenade — By Duke Ellington —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Ray Shaw ___________ WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

BW - EP124—010: February 1954—Ending With Bergen And McCarthy Feb 20, 2022

Airing on CBS since 1949, Edgar Bergen’s 1954 Sunday at 9:30PM eastern rating was 4.7, twelfth overall. His show was sponsored by Lanolin Plus. On February 28th, the celebrity guests were the husband-wife duo June Allyson and Dick Powell. In the fall, Bergen’s show would go back to sixty minutes. It would air for two more seasons before Bergen wrapped up his radio run on July 1st, 1956. Bergen did little TV. He was a radio man, even though his art was primarily visual. With Charlie and Mortimer, he emceed the 1956 CBS audience show Do You Trust Your Wife?, and he made numerous guest appearances on TV variety shows of the 1950s. He later appeared in films such as The Phynx, Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood, and The Muppet Movie.

BW - EP124—009: February 1954—Stars Over Hollywood Feb 17, 2022

Stars over Hollywood broke one of radio's strongest prejudices: That Saturday daytime was a programming wasteland. When Paul Pierce, CBS production superintendent on the West Coast, announced plans to launch a star-packed dramatic series on Saturday morning, few observers gave it a chance. Getting movie stars to cooperate at 9:30 AM would be impossible, and no one would listen anyway. The stories were generally light comedies. The set was loose and informal; the dress code casual. Occasionally the stars arrived in bathrobes and pajamas. Ivan Ditmars, musical director, used three instruments: the organ, harp, and violin, and sounded more like a small combo than a one-man show. Stars over Hollywood ran for thirteen years in the same time slot, with only two changes in sponsor. This season had a rating of 5.5, first overall for daytime weekend programs. On February 27th, 1954, Barry Sullivan guest-starred in “The Hundred Dollar Bill.”

BW - EP124—008: February 1954—Polio and Its Vaccine Feb 15, 2022

During 1952 and 1953, the U.S. experienced an outbreak of roughly ninety-five thousand polio cases, with a death count of over forty-six hundred. Millions of dollars were invested in finding a vaccine. The first effective polio vaccine was developed in 1952 by Jonas Salk and a team at the University of Pittsburgh. On March 26th, 1953 Salk went on CBS radio to report the first round of successful tests. Beginning on February 23rd, 1954, the vaccine was tested at Arsenal Elementary School and the Watson Home for Children in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Jonas Edward Salk was born October 28, 1914 in New York City, the eldest son to Russian-Jewish immigrants. He earned a medical degree from the NYU School of Medicine in 1939 and became a doctor at Mount Sinai Hospital. In 1942, Salk went to the University of Michigan to develop a Flu vaccine. He soon became assistant professor of epidemiology. Five years later he was appointed director of the Virus Research Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. His main mission: develop a polio vaccine. Salk believed his vaccine, composed of “killed” polio virus, could immunize without risk of infecting the patient. Salk gave the vaccine to volunteers who had not had polio. All developed polio antibodies and experienced no reaction to the vaccine. In 1954, national testing began on one million children. But, in April 1955, soon after mass vaccination began in the US, some patients contracted the disease after being vaccinated. These vaccines were manufactured by the Cutter Pharmaceutical Company. In response, the Surgeon General yanked all polio vaccines made by Cutter Laboratories from the market. Soon, the Wyeth polio vaccine was also reported to have paralyzed and killed several children. It was discovered that some vaccines made by Cutter and Wyeth had not been properly inactivated, allowing live poliovirus into more than 100,000 doses. The next month, the National Institutes of Health and Public Health Services established a Technical Committee to review all polio vaccine lots. The problem was quickly remedied. In the two years before the vaccine the average number of polio cases in the U.S. was more than forty-five thousand. By 1962, that number had dropped to nine-hundred ten. Jonas Salk purposely never patented the vaccine or earned any money from his discovery.

BW - EP124—007: February 1954—On a Cruise With Mr and Mrs. North Feb 13, 2022

When Mr and Mrs North took to the air on Tuesday February 23rd at 8:30PM for CBS, it had radio’s sixth-highest overall rating. With a 6.1 it topped Dragnet, which aired in direct competition on NBC. Jerry and Pam North were average people who managed to solve murders. Jerry, played by Richard Denning, was a book publisher. Pam, played by Barbara Britton, was a housewife who loved cats, liked to play cupid, and somehow found her way to a killer’s identity. Neither was trained in any science of deduction, they were just intelligent, with a highly communicative marriage. The February 23rd episode was called “Winter Honeymoon.” Mr and Mrs North would air until April 18th, 1955.

BW - EP124—006: February 1954—The College Quiz Bowl Feb 10, 2022

Originating as a USO activity created by Canadian Don Reid for World War II soldiers, The College Quiz Bowl was developed into a radio show by Reid and John Moses. It debuted on NBC in the fall of 1953. Two teams of All-American Varsity students from different universities competed for prizes and recognition. On Sunday, February 21st, 1954 at 6PM eastern time, the ladies of Smith College defended their title against the men of Washington and Lee University. Washington and Lee would win this evening and defend their title for five consecutive weeks until losing to Syracuse on March 28th. The College Quiz Bowl moved to CBS TV in 1955. In 1963 it moved to NBC where it remained on the air until 1970. Various non-televised versions of this competition continued to air into the 21st Century. In November of 2020 NBC announced a revival of the show. It premiered on June 22nd, 2021.

BW - EP124—005: February 1954—Guest Star, Joseph McCarthy, And The Red Scare Feb 07, 2022

In February of 1954, Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy was touring the circuit, giving speeches entitled “Twenty Years of Treason.” He claimed that President Eisenhower didn’t want a whitewash government and the Democratic label was “stitched with the idiocy of Truman, rotted by the deceit of Acheson and corrupted by a Red slime of a White.” Indiana Senator William Jenner claimed democrats deliberately tried to lose the Korean War. The President’s assistant Sherman Adams charged the dems with being political sadists. Democrats cried foul. The Republican Eisenhower asked for conflict resolution. On February 10th, as he authorized three-hundred-eighty-five million dollars over the four-hundred million already budgeted for military aid, the President warned against his country's intervention in Vietnam. When asked if he would change tactics, Senator McCarthy said “The price is too high.” He’d smeared homosexuals as subversives, liberals as anti-American, and moderates as weak-minded saps. McCarthy’s downfall had ultimately already begun. In 1953, his committee started investigating the U.S. Army for supposed Communist infiltration. On February 18th, two generals refused to obey their summons to appear before McCarthy’s committee. They stayed away on order of Robert T. Stevens, Secretary of the Army. Undaunted, McCarthy accused the Army of rampant communism, but this time, when asked to back up his claims, he had very little to reveal. This stunt bolstered President Eisenhower and both Republicans and Democrats who were growing weary of McCarthy’s tirade. The public too was getting sick of him. This turning point was strengthened when the Army revealed that McCarthy had asked favored treatment for a former aide who’d been drafted. In December, the Senate would finally censure McCarthy, an option exercised only three other times in the Senate’s history. He never recovered and died in 1957 at the age of forty-eight from an alcohol-related illness. This will be covered in much more detail during the next episodes of Breaking Walls.

BW - EP124—004: February 1954—Jack Benny Turns 40. Or Does He? Feb 05, 2022

In February of 1954, Jack Benny was in the midst of his sixth year on CBS, and his twenty-second in radio. Although his TV program was in the midst of its fourth season, his radio show was still airing in the familiar Sunday 7PM eastern time slot. It had a radio rating of 8.2, second-highest on the air. To many, he was simply the most famous comedian alive. February 14th, 1954 was Jack Benny’s real-life sixtieth birthday. Of course, here was a man who’d been claiming to be thirty-nine for years. That night, the entire Benny cast celebrated Jack's birthday on air. This is that episode.

BW - EP124—003: February 1954—WMAQs Americana Feb 03, 2022

During the 1953-54 season, NBC Chicago’s WMAQ and the Speech Department at Northwestern University, jointly broadcast a series of radio essays entitled Americana. Each episode explored a facet of American life or history and the characters who made it come alive. Hosted by Professor Martin Maloney, It followed the previous season’s The Meaning of America. The February 13th, 1954 episode was called “A Study in Villainy.”

BW - EP124—002: February 1954—Lee de Forest And The Hallmark Hall of Fame Feb 01, 2022

The first voice you'll hear is that of Lee de Forest. The second is of Bill Froug. Producer/Director Bill Froug spent the early 1950s in charge of The Hallmark Hall of Fame. The show began in the 1940s as Radio Reader’s Digest before rebranding as The Hallmark Playhouse until 1953. With radio audiences leaving in droves for TV, the sponsor abruptly changed format. They brought in Lionel Barrymore to host true stories of Americana. The February 7th, 1954 episode was a profile on de Forest, one of radio broadcasting’s pioneers. Unfortunately, by March of 1955 fewer and fewer network shows were sponsored. Hallmark cancelled the show.

BW - EP124—001: February 1954—Dragnet And Radio Revenue Jan 29, 2022

When ABC radio took out a Broadcasting Magazine ad in 1954 touting their year-over-year sales growth, they juxtaposed theirs against the decline of the other three networks’ in the same period. It painted a bleak picture for the industry. In November of 1952, total network monthly advertising billing was fourteen million, four-hundred seventy-seven thousand dollars. The next year, advertising numbers were down to thirteen million, six-hundred sixty four thousand dollars. The loss of revenue was reflected in the loss of ratings. As drastic as the ratings decline was at the decade's beginning, it was the mid-1950s that saw radio ratings die on the vine. During the 1952-53 season five shows still had ratings higher than ten, with Amos ‘N’ Andy leading at 14.2. A year later, People Are Funny led all shows with a rating of 8.7. In 1955, Jack Benny would lead with a 5.7. But for those people working in radio who also found their way to TV, this period was a golden age for the character actor. They were now recognized for their performances on both mediums, and with their increased profile, came an increase in opportunities. It was apparent to everyone that TV had moved in and taken over. What the radio industry would do about it was still uncertain. As February of 1954 got underway, both new shows and old shared the spotlight. ___________ When Dragnet debuted in the ratings in the fall of 1949 under the sponsorship of Liggett and Myers, it did so with an 8.5. That number was sixty-fourth overall. Two years later in the midst of TV’s surge, Dragnet’s radio rating had climbed to 8.7, now fourteenth overall. The TV version debuted in 1951. In 1954 its TV rating was second, only behind I Love Lucy. Part of the reason the radio version was able to stave off a rating’s decline longer than most other shows was creator Jack Webb’s ingenuity. In February of 1954, Dragnet’s radio version was airing Tuesday evenings at 9PM eastern time on NBC. The February 2nd episode was entitled “The Big Filth.” Dragnet would continue to air new broadcasts on radio until the fall of 1955, and in repeats until February of 1957. While many shows lost sponsorship, Chesterfield continued to sponsor Dragnet until the very end, with good reason; In 1955 Dragnet was the second-highest rated radio show on the air.

BW - EP123: January 1954—Radio's Uncertain Future Jan 19, 2022

For those who wanted Breaking Walls episode 123 in the traditional format. ___________ In Breaking Walls episode 123 we open 2022 with a six-part mini-series on radio business and programming in 1954. We’ll begin with January, in a radio half-season that was for many, the end of the line. —————————— Highlights: • Ringing in the New Year with Fibber McGee and Molly • Gunsmoke’s Stage Holdup • People Are Funny is Radio’s Top-Rated Show • January 1954 with Ozzie, Harriet, David, and Ricky • Jack Benny’s Face is Familiar on Suspense • Smog and Other Current Events • Beulah • The Death of Edward Howard Armstrong • Looking Ahead to February 1954 —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material used in today’s episode was: •The General: David Sarnoff & The Rise of the Communications Industry - by Kenneth Bilby • On the Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — by Jim Ramsburg As well as articles from • Broadcasting Magazine • LIFE Magazine • Time Magazine —————————— On the interview front: • John Guedel, Phil Leslie, and Don Wilson spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com. • Norman MacDonnell and George Walsh spoke to John Hickman, the longtime host of WAMU’s Recollections. Today, this program is heard each Sunday evening as The Big Broadcast. For more information, please go to WAMU.org • Art Linkletter spoke to John Gassman. • Ozzie Nelson was with James Day. • Jack Benny spoke for Great Radio Comedians. • Jack Benny and Don Wilson spoke with Jack Carney. —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Auld Lang Syne — By The Manhattan Strings • January Stars — By George Winston • The Klezmer’s Wedding — By André Moisan • Love in Bloom — By Bing Crosby • Seance on a Wet Afternoon — By John Barry • Danse Macabre — By Camille Saint-Saëns —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Ray Shaw —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

BW - EP123—009: January 1954—Looking Ahead to February Jan 17, 2022

Next time on Breaking Walls, we move into February and discuss polio, falling ratings points, and radio profit margins. ___________ The reading material used in today’s episode was: • The General: David Sarnoff & The Rise of the Communications Industry - by Kenneth Bilby • On the Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — by Jim Ramsburg As well as articles from: • Broadcasting Magazine • LIFE Magazine • Time Magazine ___________ On the interview front: • John Guedel, Phil Leslie, and Don Wilson spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com. • Norman MacDonnell and George Walsh spoke to John Hickman, the longtime host of WAMU’s Recollections. Today, this program is heard each Sunday evening as The Big Broadcast. For more information, please go to WAMU.org • Art Linkletter spoke to John Gassman. • Ozzie Nelson was with James Day. • Jack Benny spoke for Great Radio Comedians. • He and Don Wilson also spoke with Jack Carney. ___________ Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Auld Lang Syne — By The Manhattan Strings • January Stars — By George Winston • The Klezmer’s Wedding — By André Moisan • Love in Bloom — By Bing Crosby • Seance on a Wet Afternoon — By John Barry • Danse Macabre — By Camille Saint-Saëns ___________ A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. I’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman of SPERDVAC. Listen to their shows on the Yesterday USA radio network. ___________ Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Ray Shaw ___________ WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

BW - EP123—008: January 1954—The Death of Edward Howard Armstrong Jan 15, 2022

Back in July of 1935, head of RCA David Sarnoff asked friend and inventor Edwin Howard Armstrong to remove his experimental FM equipment from RCA’s Empire State Building Laboratory. RCA wanted to test its TV system. ___________ Armstrong saw FM as a revolutionary new communications service that would make AM obsolete. Sarnoff thought it an important advancement and wanted it to be TVs audio supplement, but he didn’t see FM as a new core technology. Without the backing of Sarnoff, Armstrong decided to pursue FM development on his own. He got a license from the FCC, and built a station in Alpine, New Jersey. In 1938 he began broadcasting classical music and other test frequencies. Armstrong broadcast from station to station over the length of the East Coast, with virtually no signal deterioration. ___________ By the end of 1940, the FCC had received over five-hundred applications for FM licenses. Commercial FM broadcasting was authorized to begin on January 1st, 1941. Armstrong struck patent-licensing deals with all major radio manufacturers except RCA. They agreed to pay Armstrong two percent of all earnings from the sale of FM receivers and related equipment. ___________ When RCA engineers soon countered with their own version of an FM system, Armstrong sued. Sarnoff, wanting to avoid litigation, offered Armstrong one million dollars for a non-exclusionary license to use the FM technology. Armstrong refused. It led to the end of their close friendship. ___________ During World War II, construction restrictions limited the growth of FM. In the interest of national advancement, Armstrong turned over his patents to the government for the duration of the War. ___________ Although the Germans had the superior Panzer tanks, they were AM equipped. U.S. Sherman tanks were equipped with FM. The German's communication systems often jammed. As the War wound down, the FCC investigated spectrum allocation. It was feared that the lowest layers of the earth's atmosphere could cause bad FM interference. Both Armstrong and other scientists felt this was baseless. ___________ Then, both RCA and AT&T spearheaded a campaign to shift the FM band to higher frequencies. It also required radio stations to lease equipment from the companies. ___________ On June 27th, 1945, The FCC shifted the FM band. Today, FM operates between eighty-eight and one-hundred eight megahertz. It made more than fifty FM radio station transmitters and five-hundred thousand receivers obsolete. It nearly terminated FM radio broadcasting for more than a decade. The industry turned to TV and AM expansion. ___________ Meanwhile, unwilling to pay Armstrong the royalties he sought, RCA began developing FM circuits of its own. It also meant RCA owed Armstrong no royalties for the sale of their TV sets, which all used FM. RCA convinced other TV manufacturers to do the same. In 1948, Armstrong filed suit against RCA and NBC, accusing them of patent infringement and deliberately impairing his invention’s value. ___________ Although he was confident the suit would be successful, the protracted legal maneuvering impaired his finances, especially after his primary patents expired in late 1950. Armstrong lacked the capital of the giant corporation. He ran out of money in 1952, and relied on credit to pay his lawyers. ___________ Armstrong now wanted to settle. He asked for three-point-four million dollars over a ten year period. In December of 1953, RCA offered him two-hundred thousand dollars. Armstrong rejected the offer. ___________ In a fit of rage in November of 1953, Armstrong hit his wife Marion. She fled their New York City apartment. Bankrupt and ashamed by his actions, on the evening of January 31st, 1954, Armstrong wrote an apology note to his wife. He then opened a window in their thirteenth floor apartment, and stepped out. He was sixty three. David Sarnoff claimed no responsibility for Armstrong’s actions.

BW - EP123—007: January 1954—The New Beulah Show Jan 12, 2022

Amanda Randolph was born on September 2nd, 1896 in Louisville, Kentucky. Her father was a methodist minister and her mother a teacher, but she would find her calling in music, vaudeville, and eventually radio. ___________ A star by 1948, she led her own musical TV program for the DuMont network. It made her the first African-American woman with her own daytime TV show. ___________ Her sister Lilian was also a big radio performer, starring in both The Great Gildersleeve, and Amos ‘n’ Andy. ___________ In September of 1953 Randolph took over the title role of Beulah. It had been Hattie McDaniel’s until she got sick in 1951. For a time Amanda and Lilian alternated the lead. This incarnation of the show aired on CBS weeknights at 7:15PM. ___________ Beulah was supposed to be in her mid-30s and man crazy. She worked hard and played harder, and had an affinity for high heels and short skirts. The cast featured Hugh Studebaker, Mary Jane Croft, Henry Blair, Ruby Dandridge, and Bubbles Whitman. ___________ Randolph simultaneously starred in Amos ‘n’ Andy while leading this cast. On January 26th, Beulah broadcast an episode called “Bill’s Streetcar Lunchroom.” ___________ Beulah would air until May 28th, 1954.

BW - EP123—006: January 1954—Smog! (And Other Current Events) Jan 10, 2022

By the mid 1950s, smog was becoming a serious problem in American cities, especially Los Angeles. On January 15th, 1954 KNX broadcast a special called “The Troubled Air.” ___________ Residents of Los Angeles suffered from burning eyes, runny noses, persistent cough and shortness of breath. It came from pollutants caused by automobiles, factories, and garbage incinerators. This documentary aired in an effort to drive awareness, and speed-up City Hall’s solution to the problem. ___________ Five days later, The National Negro Network was formed by Chicago ad executive W. Leonard Evans. Evans was the first African-American radio network owner in the country. ___________ Other partners were Ms. Reggie Schuebel, VP and Treasurer, and John M. Wyatt, Executive VP. The duo owned a New York-based radio and TV consulting company. Among those on the board was Cab Calloway. The network launched with forty-six affiliates. Broadcasting Magazine reported that twelve to fifteen million African-Americans were expected to be reached. ___________ In other news, on January 21st, The first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, was launched. Four days later The Berlin Conference launched with ministers from The U.S., U.K., France, and The Soviet Union. Its purpose was to discuss a settlement to the recent Korean War and the ongoing First Indochina War. ___________ The conference would last until February 18th.

BW - EP123—005: January 1954—Marilyn Marries Joe and Jack Benny’s Face is Familiar on Suspense Jan 09, 2022

Although Jack Benny spent his TV time on September 13th, 1953 dreaming of being with Marilyn Monroe, on January 15th, 1954 she was officially taken off the market. That day she and retired baseball star Joe DiMaggio were married at San Francisco’s city hall. They would divorce the following year, but remain close friends for the rest of her life. ___________ Airing in his familiar Sundays at 7PM eastern time slot, in 1954 Benny had a radio rating of 8.2, second-highest on the air. For twenty years, Benny’s rating had never fallen out of the top ten, and twelve times he’d had a top-three show. ___________ The January 10th episode celebrated announcer Don Wilson’s twentieth anniversary with the program. In further evidence of the changing broadcast landscape, that season Benny had a TV rating of 33.3. Jack Benny would air one more season of original radio shows. ___________ Eight days later, Benny appeared on Suspense in a story called “The Face is Familiar.” 1954 was Autolite’s final season sponsoring the program. Airing Mondays at 8PM, Suspense pulled a rating of 6. While it was a far cry from the listener heights of just five years earlier, it was tied for seventh overall. ___________ The final autolite Suspense episode aired on June 7th. CBS refused to cancel the series. That fall, Antony Ellis took over as producer/director. The show would continue to air sustained by CBS until the ad department found multiple sponsorship, and the program moved to Sunday afternoons in November of 1956.

BW - EP123—004: January 1954—Ozzie & Harriet's Last Season on ABC Jan 05, 2022

Under the sponsorship of Heinz Foods, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet moved to ABC’s potent Friday night schedule on October 14th, 1949. Ozzie Nelson had negotiated a ten year, non-cancellable contract. It guaranteed him complete creative control. ABC also had the option to bring the show to TV after 1951. Ozzie and Harriet were weary of the new medium. Universal Studios gave them the opportunity to make a film, and in 1952 the family starred in Here Come The Nelsons. The film was a hit, and everyone was convinced the Nelsons could all make the transition from radio's airwaves to TV’s small screen. The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet made its TV debut on Friday, October 3rd, 1952. Although the show never cracked radio’s top-fifty ratings during the 1940s, they did so in each of their final three seasons on ABC. The radio version of Ozzie and Harriet remained on the air until the end of this season. This January 8th, 1954 episode was called “FiFi La Plume.” The TV series would turn Ricky into a teenage heartthrob. It helped springboard his music career in 1957. For more information on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, tune into Breaking Walls episode 107.

BW - EP123—003: January 1954—People Are Funny Is Radio’s Top-Rated Show Jan 03, 2022

People are Funny debuted on April 10th, 1942 on NBC. It was created by gameshow maven John Guedel. He was a jack of all trades who’d spent time as a WPA ditch digger, a traveling salesman, and a collector of his own rejection slips. By the fall of 1943, Guedel had negotiated a large raise from the initial production offer and made Art Linkletter the sole emcee. People Are Funny became a Friday night staple throughout the 1940s. In addition Guedel would create House Party and You Bet Your Life. By January of 1954, People Are Funny was airing on CBS Tuesday nights at 8PM for Mars Candy. With a rating of 8.4 it was radio’s top-rated show. This is audio from the January 5th, 1954 episode.

BW - EP123—002: January 1954—Gunsmoke Loses One Sponsor And Finds Another Jan 01, 2022

When Gunsmoke was sponsored for a single broadcast on November 21st 1952, by Chrysler Plymouth, the show drew a good rating against ABC’s This is Your FBI, and was heard by roughly 8 million people. After eighteen months on the air, on October 3rd, 1953, the critically acclaimed show got sponsorship from General Foods’ Post Toasties. But the sponsorship ended thirteen weeks later on December 26th. The show continued to air, sustained by CBS, on Saturdays at 8:30PM. The next week, on January 2nd, 1954, Gunsmoke broadcast an episode called “Stage Holdup.” It would take Jimmy Stewart’s aversion to Liggett & Myers Tobacco to land Gunsmoke its big sponsor. They wanted to sponsor The Six Shooter. Stewart declined, fearful of what a tobacco brand might do to his wholesome image. The Six Shooter went off the air in June, while Liggett & Myers sponsored Gunsmoke, beginning with the July 5th, 1954 episode. By 1956, Gunsmoke was the top rated show on radio. It was one of the few able to temporarily hold its audience in the TV era, even with the launch of Gunsmoke’s TV version.

BW - EP123—001: January 1954—New Year 's Day With Fibber McGee and Molly Dec 30, 2021

The United States entered 1954 in an uncertain position. Years of racial discrimination were coming to the forefront. In May, Brown vs. the Board of Education would make racial segregation in schools illegal. ___________ The Korean War was over, but the communist Red Scare was reaching its height.Dwight D. Eisenhower was completing his first year as U.S. President. Elizabeth II was now Queen of England. Joseph Stalin was dead. So was Hank Williams, Maude Adams, Jim Thorpe, Herman Mankiewicz, Dooley Wilson, Robert Taft, Edwin Hubble, and Dylan Thomas. ___________ Meanwhile, radio achieved total saturation. Ninety-eight percent of homes had a radio set. There were still nineteen million U.S. houses that could only be reached by radio. However, the four national networks continued a five-year downward trend in radio ad sales. Network radio gross revenue peaked in 1948 at just under two-hundred million dollars. In 1953, it was down to one-hundred sixty million. ___________ Procter & Gamble led the way with over fourteen million dollars spent, and forty companies, including General Foods, Colgate-Palmolive, Liggett & Myers, Campbell’s Soups, S.C. Johnson, and Coca-Cola spent at least one million dollars on radio advertising. ___________ While TV hadn’t fully supplanted radio’s total reach, it had decimated it’s prime-time audience share. On CBS-TV I Love Lucy led all shows with a 58.8 rating. It was seen in over fifteen million homes each Monday evening at 9PM. Opposite on the other medium, The Lux Radio Theater was heard in just under three million. ___________ And it turned out that as McCarthyism reached its zenith, dramatic radio would spend the first six months of 1954 facing wide-spread network cancellations. These were shows that just six years earlier were at the forefront of national consciousness. ___________ Radio’s heyday was over. Tonight, we’ll go back to January of 1954 and search for more answers. ___________ Welcome to Breaking Walls, episode 123. My name is James Scully. Tonight on Breaking Walls, we open 2022 with a six-part mini-series on radio business and programming in 1954. We’ll begin with January, in a radio half-season that was for many, the end of the line. ___________ If this is your first time listening to Breaking Walls, welcome to the show! You can find this series for free on every podcasting platform, and at TheWallBreakers.com. ___________ Tonight we’ll also begin a new programming format on Breaking Walls. Going forward, I’ll be releasing each episode in parts. These parts will be available on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. Once all parts of an episode are released, I’ll release the full-length episode for those who want to listen to it in the traditional format. For those listening on Youtube for the first time, please go to TheWallBreakers.com for the full lineup of past episodes in feature length.

When Milton Berle Finally Established Himself on Radio In December Of 1947 Dec 09, 2021

This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 98: Christmas Week 1947 with Radio's Biggest Stars ———————————— For the four major radio networks, 1947 was a year or record business: ABC saw a 7.25% gross billings increase. NBC sold out its entire primetime programming block. CBS had seventeen shows with ratings higher than fifteen. And Mutual Broadcasting had the most affiliates in the country. Total radio revenue was over five-hundred million dollars. There were now more than thirty-six million radio homes, and urban centers accounted for 60% of the US population. It was in this season that Milton Berle finally established himself on radio. The Milton Berle Show was one of a half-dozen titles showcasing Berle in his star-crossed radio career. Until 1946 he was considered radio’s best-known ratings failure. But NBC saw potential in Berle where CBS had failed. In March of 1947 they gave him his own variety show, sponsored by Philip Morris. It featured some of radio’s top comedic talent, like Arnold Stang, Pert Kelton, Arthur Q. Bryan, Jack Albertson, Ed Begley and Frank Gallop. In its second season on NBC Tuesdays at 8:00 p.m, the show’s audience jumped 40% and Berle finally cracked radio’s Top 50. In December his rating was 17.5 against Big Town on CBS.

BW - EP122: December With The Six Shooter (1953 - 1954) Nov 27, 2021

In Breaking Walls episode 122 we spend the holidays in the old west with Jimmy Stewart, director Jack Johnstone, and The Six Shooter. —————————— Highlights: • Jack Johnstone’s Early Radio Career • The State of Network Radio in December of 1953 • James Stewart on the Hollywood Star Playhouse • The Six Shooter Launches • A Pressing Engagement • The Radio Industry - More Than Kin • Britt Ponsett’s Christmas Carol • Britt Ponsett Rides Off Into the Sunset • Looking Ahead of January 1954 —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On the Air - By John Dunning • Radio Rides The Range: A Reference Guide to Western Drama on the Air — by Jack French and David S. Siegel • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg As well as articles from • The Los Angeles Times —————————— On the interview front: • Dick Beals, Virginia Gregg, and Herb Vigran spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com. • Parley Baer, Harry Bartell, Sam Edwards, Jack Johnstone, Marvin Miller and Vic Perrin were with SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com. • Art Linkletter spoke with John Gassman. • Jimmy Stewart was with Larry King and Johnny Carson. —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Somewhere in My Memory and Star of Bethlehem — By John Williams • The Klezmer’s Wedding — By André Moisan • Highland Lament — By The Corries • Sonata No. 1 for Violin, Opus 13: I. Molto Moderato — Played by Michael Davis —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Chris Pilkington —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

Dennis Day On His First TV Experience—Jack Benny Transitioning to TV Nov 24, 2021

On Easter Sunday in 1982, Dennis Day was a guest of John Dunning's radio show for 71KNUS in Denver. The two spoke about Day's life and career, which naturally led to his association with Jack Benny. In this clip, Dennis Day talks about his first experience performing for TV in late 1946 and Benny's transition from radio to the small screen.

BW - EP121: Radio and The Homecoming (1942 - 1972) Oct 29, 2021

In Breaking Walls episode 121, we finish our Americana mini-series by coming home for November’s festivities. We’ll cheer for the home team, taste the best turkey dressing, and remember what’s most important with some of radio’s best. —————————— Highlights: • What Can We Be Thankful For? • Thanksgiving with The Answer Man and Radio’s Origin • Ken Carpenter and One Man’s Family • The Columbia Workshop Relaunches • Hearts in Harmony • Damon Runyon’s Football Homecoming • John Brown’s Communist Troubles • Thanksgiving with Miss Brooks • Bob Bailey and Let George Do It • Thanksgiving with Ozzie and Harriet • Checking in With Bob and Ray • Have Gun Will Travel • Ending with Jean Shepherd • Looking ahead to December —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On the Air - By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg —————————— On the interview front: • Eve Arden, Ken Carpenter, Norman Corwin, Gale Gordon, Virginia Gregg, Gloria McMillan, Carlton E. Morse and Janet Waldo spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com. • Eve Arden, Roberta Bailey-Goodwin and Dick Joy, spoke with John Dunning for his 71KNUS program from Denver. • John Dehner spoke to SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com. • John Dehner also spoke with Neil Ross for KMPC and John Hickman of WAMU. • Ozzie Nelson spoke with Johnny Carson and James Day. • Frank Stanton spoke with CBS for their 50th Anniversary in 1977 • William Paley spoke while receiving an award on November 20th, 1958. —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Thanksgiving and Joy — By George Winston • The Holly and the Ivy — By Velvet & Voices • Simple Gifts, Pachelbel’s Canon, and Autumn Stars — By Michael Silverman • The Pavane — By Steve Erquiaga —————————— Special thanks to: The Fireside Mystery Theatre https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com/ The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society https://www.ghoulishdelights.com/ Twelve Chimes, It’s Midnight https://www.twelvechimesradio.com/ —————————— 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. —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Chris Pilkington —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

BW - EP120: Radio and The Harvest (1936 - 1954) Sep 26, 2021

In Breaking Walls episode 120, we continue our Americana mini-series in autumn with a host of harvest-centered radio programing. We’ll warm by the fire and listen in on stories from some of the medium’s most prominent. —————————— Highlights: • Welcome to October, Welcome to Harvest Season • Fibber and Molly Launches • Feast from Cavalcade’s Harvest • Mel and Dennis Get Their Own Shows • Gale Gordon’s Green Acres • How Mild Can Richard Diamond on ABC Be? • From Peary to Waterman as Gildy Changes Leads • Escape From the Death of Network Dramatic Radio • Looking Ahead to the Homecoming —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On the Air - By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg —————————— On the interview front: • Mel Blanc, Dennis Day, Gale Gordon, Phil Harris, Jim Jordan, Jim Jordan Jr., Harold Peary, and Willard Waterman spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats and many others from Chuck’s forty year career at SpeakingOfRadio.com. • Mel Blanc, Jim Jordan, and William N. Robson spoke with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these full interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org. • Harry Bartell and Virginia Gregg spoke to SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com. • Don Quinn was interviewed by Owen Cunningham in 1951. • Ozzie Nelson was a guest of Johnny Carson’s in 1969. • Mel Blanc also spoke with Jack Carney. • Dennis Day also spoke with John Dunning for his 71KNUS program from Denver. —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Autumn — By Michael Silverman • Ghost Bus Tours — By George Fenton for High Spirits • Moon — By George Winston • Shine On Harvest Moon — By Joan Morris and William Bolcom —————————— Special thanks to: The Fireside Mystery Theatre https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com/ The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society https://www.ghoulishdelights.com/ Twelve Chimes, It’s Midnight https://www.twelvechimesradio.com/ —————————— 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. —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Chris Pilkington —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

BW - EP119: Radio and The Diner (1937 - 1965) Aug 28, 2021

In Breaking Walls episode 119 we continue our Americana mini-series by bringing our appetites to the diner. We’ll hear stories from some of radio’s best and center ourselves around shows taking place in establishments. —————————— Highlights: • What Exactly is a Diner? • Lux Presents Hollywood • Suspense At the End of World War II • The Diner After World War II • Bill Conrad, Burt Lancaster, and The Killers • ABC Takes Friday Nights With This Is Your FBI • Frank Sinatra and His Rocky Fortune • Going Back to Gunsmoke • James Earl Jones and Theater Five —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On the Air - By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg As well as: • From Hash House to Family Restaurant: The Transformation of the Diner and Post-World War II Consumer Culture — By Andrew Hurley from The March 1997 Journal of American History. And other articles from: • Paste Magazine • Smithsonian Magazine —————————— On the interview front: • Parley Baer, Conrad Binyon, Norman Corwin, and Lurene Tuttle spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com. • Parley Baer, Jerry Devine, Lawrence Dobkin, Fred Foy, and Bob Maxwell, were with SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com. • William Spier spoke with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear this full interview at Goldenage-WTIC.org. • John Dehner was with Neil Ross for KMPC. • Frank Sinatra spoke with Arlene Francis, Walter Cronkite, and Larry King. • William Conrad with Chris Lambesis. • Norman Macdonnell with John Hickman of WAMU for his Gunsmoke documentary. —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Theme From A Summer Place — By Percy Faith • I’ve Got The World on a String and Why Try To Change Me Now — By Frank Sinatra • The Venice Dreamer Pt1 and 2 — By George Winston • Across the Alley from the Alamo — By The Mills Brothers —————————— Special thanks to: Terror on the Air https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUbviBTC1CamzamykVCqN0A https://soundcloud.com/terrorontheair https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/terror-on-the-air/id1477581905 https://open.spotify.com/show/63o0AY4Zhv5hQsjGVbMbLk?si=YN_vUk3yTgqvOw73u59BtQ The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society https://www.ghoulishdelights.com/ Twelve Chimes, It’s Midnight https://www.twelvechimesradio.com/ —————————— 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. —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Chris Pilkington —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

Conductor Howard Barlow Talks About CBS's First Night Confusion in 1927 Aug 28, 2021

Conductor Howard Barlow, who'd later go on to be known as "the voice of Firestone," was conducting in-studio for CBS during their first big broadcast in 1927. In this clip, recorded for Westinghouse's 50th anniversary in 1970, he talks about the in-studio confusion during those early days.

George Burns On Marrying Gracie And Their Honeymoon in Cleveland Aug 25, 2021

Barbara Walters interviewed George Burns for 20/20 in 1979. During the course of the interview George spoke about marrying Gracie while performing on the vaudeville circuit.

John Dehner On His Friendship with Antony Ellis Aug 22, 2021

In August of 1982 SPERDVAC (www.sperdvac.com) hosted a CBS panel at the Thousand Oaks Library in California. The panel featured some of the best known radio character actors of the 1940s and 1950s. When the panel was asked about their recollections of Frontier Gentleman and Antony Ellis, Frontier Gentleman star John Dehner had this to say.

Cloak And Dagger: Norwegian Incident—08/20/1950 Aug 20, 2021

Corey Ford was an American humorist, author, outdoorsman, screenwriter, and occasional member of the famed Algonquin Round Table in New York City. He penned several famous works, including the 1946 Cloak and Dagger. It became a film starring Gary Cooper, Lili Palmer, and Robert Alda. It’s the story of an undercover agent for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II, on a mission to make contact with a Hungarian nuclear physicist, and thwart a German nuclear project. The film earned more than $4.5 million at the box office. In May of 1950, NBC brought a version of these tales to the air, as part of their Sunday afternoon block of mystery programs. It would be produced in New York, and star some of the east coast’s most famous character actors, like Raymond Edward Johnson, Joseph Julian, Lili Darvas, Everett Sloan, and Santos Ortega. Cloak and Dagger debuted on May 7th. Twenty-two episodes aired with four preemptions over the next twenty-six weeks. With no sponsorship ensuing, NBC cancelled Cloak and Dagger after October 22nd. The network lacked the patience of CBS to sustain costs in growing their own internal productions.

NBC Engineer Aldo Gizalbert On Studio Problems at Radio City's Opening Aug 18, 2021

In September of 1972, former NBC engineer and producer Aldo Gizalbert sat down with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for their Hartford, CT-based WTIC Golden Age of Radio Program (full interview here - https://goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-30.html). Mr. Gizalbert speaks in this clip about the early days of NBC's programming at Radio City.

Norman Corwin On Fourteen August Aug 14, 2021

On August 6th, 1976 Chuck Schaden sat down with Norman Corwin for a conversation about the latter's life and career (full interview here). During the course of the conversation, they touched on Corwin's VJ-Day piece, "Fourteen August," which aired over CBS on August 14th, 1945.

Columbia Presents Corwin: Fourteen August—08/14/1945 Aug 13, 2021

On August 14th, 1945 after the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan accepted the United States' terms of surrender, officially ending World War II. That evening, Norman Corwin produced a special broadcast commemorating this event. Because the staff at CBS was unsure if and when Japan would accept the US' surrender terms, Corwin had very little time to prepare this piece. What he did prepare was a self-aware, fitting epitaph for the people of an exhausted nation. Orson Welles was the narrator. It was broadcast coast-to-coast on CBS.

Mary Livingston Red Cross PSA & Lucky Strike Commercial — Jack Benny Program 12/2/1945 Aug 12, 2021

In the winter of 1945 there were many soldiers who were still injured and recovering in army hospitals across the world. To help pay back its war debt, the people of the United States banded together through donations, bond purchasing, and spreading glad tidings and good cheer. Sadie Marks (Mary Livingston) spoke this Red Cross PSA at the end of the December 2nd, 1945 episode of the Jack Benny Program. The PSA is followed by a show-closing Lucky Strike commercial that is comical by today's standards and knowledge of the dangers of smoking cigarettes.

Edward R. Murrow's Harsh Words For Senator McCarthy Aug 06, 2021

This clip, from early in the 1950s during Edward R. Murrow's This I Believe CBS Radio program takes aim at Senator Joseph McCarthy during the height of McCarthyism. It was Murrow's work that would help undue some of the harm the Senator caused to people in the entertainment industry during the Red Scare of the mid-1950s.

Jeanette Nolan On Her Radio Beginnings Aug 05, 2021

At a SPERDVAC meeting on March 14th, 1992 which featured Jeanette Nolan, Mary Jane Croft, and Sam Edwards, radio legend Jeanette Nolan explained how she got involved in radio during the 1930s.

Escape: Leiningen Versus the Ants—08/04/1949 Aug 04, 2021

On the August 4th, 1949 episode of CBS' Escape, "You are isolated on a remote plantation in the crawling Amazon Jungle and an immense army of ravenous ants is closing in on you - swarming in to eat you alive. A deadly black army from which there is no escape." This is the third broadcast of "Leiningen Versus The Ants" broadcast on Escape. This version features Gerald Mohr and Tudor Owen.

Red Skelton on How Ed Wynn Got Him Started in Comedy Aug 03, 2021

In the early 1990s, Red Skelton was a guest of Canadian television host Dini Petty's talk show. They spoke about his life and career. In this clip, Red Skelton explains how comedian Ed Wynn got him started in show-biz when he was just a kid.

Breaking Walls: The Podcast on The History of American Radio Broadcasting Aug 01, 2021

Breaking Walls is the podcast on the history of American network radio broadcasting. It focuses on people, places, stories, and events from the Golden Age of American Radio. Find us and subscribe everywhere you get your podcasts and at TheWallBreakers.com

BW - EP118: Radio and The Gas Station (1939 - 1982) Jul 28, 2021

In Breaking Walls episode 118 we hit the road with part one of an Americana mini-series. We’ll gas up with some of radio’s best and examine shows taking place at America’s filling stations. —————————— Highlights: • Al Hodge and The Green Hornet • Getting a Checkup at Doctor Christian’s • Lux Presents: They Drive By Night with Lana Turner and Lucille Ball • Orson Welles and The Hitchhiker • ABC competes with NBC and CBS • Dragnet leads to The Lineup • Stacey Keach and The Last Tales of the Texas Rangers • The Gas Crisis and the CBS Radio Mystery Theater —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material used in today’s episode was: • On the Air - By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — by Jim Ramsburg As well as articles from • The Association For Convenience and Fuel Retailing • Family Tree Magazine • NationalParkService.Org • Newsweek • The Smithsonian Magazine —————————— On the interview front: • Virginia Gregg and Lurene Tuttle spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com. • Himan Brown, Larry Haines, Vincent Price, and Rudy Vallée spoke with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these full interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org. • Herb Ellis, Byron Kane, Stacy Keach Sr, and Herb Vigran were with SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com. • Bing Crosby and John Scott Trotter spoke with Same Time, Same Station. • Lucille Ball was with both Dick Cavett and Joan Rivers. • Orson Welles with Johnny Carson. • Al Hodge with Richard Lamparski. • Vic Perrin with Neill Ross for KMPC. • Joel McCrae was interviewed by Al Greenberg for Orco Development. —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Route 66 — By Nat King Cole • Deep Night — By Rudy Vallée • The Klezmer’s Wedding — By Andre Moisan • Living Without You — By George Winston • Fly Me To The Moon — By Julie London —————————— Special thanks to: The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society https://www.ghoulishdelights.com/ The Fireside Mystery Theatre https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com/ Twelve Chimes, It’s Midnight https://www.twelvechimesradio.com/ —————————— 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. —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Chris Pilkington —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

Ralph Edwards On How He Got to CBS Jul 25, 2021

On October 7th, 1971 Chuck Schaden interviewed famous host and emcee Ralph Edwards about his life and career (full interview here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/edwards-ralph/). During the course of the conversation Mr. Edwards explained how he found himself at CBS in New York very early in his career after giving radio up on the West Coast.

Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Open Town Matter (Part 1 of 5)—07/23/1956 Jul 23, 2021

In the July 23rd, 1956 episode of Yours Truly Johnny Dollar starring Bob Bailey, Dollar receives a telephone call from Ralph Kearns of Great Plains Guarantee. The company is investigating a fifty-two-year-old man who married a twenty-seven-year-old woman eight months ago. The man is the Chief of Police in Greensport, Missouri. One month after they were married an insurance policy was taken out for $50,000 on his life, with his wife as the beneficiary. Three days ago, the man was shot to death. Twenty-four hours later the man's "grieving widow" filed a claim on the policy. Great Plains wants Johnny to go to Greensport to investigate. To listen to the next four episodes in this storyline, go to - https://archive.org/details/OTRR_YoursTrulyJohnnyDollar_Singles

Gunsmoke: Doc Holiday—07/19/1952 Jul 19, 2021

In the July 19th, 1952 episode of Gunsmoke, Doc Holiday comes to Dodge City. Holiday is a gunman, but on the right side of the law and a friend of Matt Dillon's. In this episode, Big Jack Finley, self-made "King of Southern Kansas" has a son named Thorne Finley. Thorne is a rotten apple. That rotten apple and Doc Holiday have a problem. It's Matt's job to intervene before Big Jack has his way.

This Is Your FBI Creator Jerry Devine On The Show's Origin Jul 16, 2021

On May 10th, 1986, SPERDVAC (https://www.sperdvac.com/) was host to a This is Your FBI Panel and show recreation which featured creator Jerry Devine and several actors, including Parley Baer, Peggy Webber, and Lou Krugman. During the course of the afternoon Jerry Devine answered several questions, including this one, on how the show originated.

Virginia Gregg Tells a Funny On-The-Air Romance Story About John Dehner Jul 14, 2021

In August of 1982 SPERDVAC (http://www.sperdvac.com) hosted a CBS panel at the Thousand Oaks Library in California. The panel featured some of the best known radio character actors of the 1940s and 1950s. One of them, Virginia Gregg, told a funny story of a joke John Dehner played on her while they were on the air together.

Lawrence Dobkin On Auditioning For Jack Webb Jul 13, 2021

On August 9th, 1986, Lawrence Dobkin, Don Diamond, and Lilian Buyeff were guests of SPERDVAC (http://sperdvac.com/) for a conversation about their lives and acting careers. During the chat, the conversation swung around to working for Jack Webb, which was something Lawrence Dobkin struggled to do. Here he explained why.

Dragnet: The Big Set-Up—07/12/1951 Jul 12, 2021

On the July 12th, 1951 episode of Dragnet, Detective Sergeant Joe Friday is assigned to burglary detail. A gang of clever thieves has been at work for three months. They've looted fashionable homes to the tune of $100,000 in furs and Jewels. There are no clues to their identity. It’s Friday’s job to get them.

NBC Staff Writer Ernest Kinoy On X-Minus-One Jul 09, 2021

In 2010 Walden Hughes of SPERDVAC and YesterdayUSA Radio interviewed longtime NBC Staff Writer Ernest Kinoy on his radio experiences. It wasn't long before the conversation got around to X-Minus-One, a program Kinoy adapted and wrote many original scripts for between 1955 and 1958.

Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis with Guest Marilyn Monroe—02/24/1953 Jul 07, 2021

By the summer of 1951, Martin and Lewis had become the biggest act in show business, with both blockbuster film roles and a touring act selling out venues everywhere. After previously failing, the duo were ready to jump back into radio. NBC hired Ed Simmons and Norman Lear—Martin & Lewis’ comedy writers—to write the new program. Dick Mack was the director. NBC offered it as part of their new multi-sponsor Tandem Plan. Chesterfield Cigarettes, Anacin Tablets, and the makers of Chiclets gum signed on.The new show premiered on October 5th, 1951 to great reviews. Readers of TV-Radio Life voted it their favorite comedy show of 1952. On February 24th, 1953, Marilyn Monroe was the guest for a skit about the story of a cold-blooded newspaper editor who has no friends, but who is also loved by Marilyn Monroe. The play was entitled, "So Who Needs Friends?"

Herb Ellis on Gerald Mohr Jul 06, 2021

On March 12th, 1983, SPERDVAC (https://www.sperdvac.com/) hosted a conversation with actors Herb Ellis and Herb Vigran. During the course of their chat, Herb Ellis spoke about his friendship and working relationship with hollywood character actor Gerald Mohr, who starred as Philip Marlowe for CBS.

Escape: A Tooth for Paul Revere—07/04/1948 Jul 04, 2021

On the Independence Day, 1948 episode of CBS' high-adventure drama, Escape, "you are spurring a lathered horse through darkened streets, trapped by two hostile armies, with a kit of magic in your pocket, and the American revolution in the balance." "A Tooth for Paul Revere" is a short story written in 1942 by Stephen Vincent Benét, who was born on 22nd July 1898 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It's a humorous look at a Yankee farmer's point of view of how the American Revolution really started. Escape debuted on CBS radio on July 7th, 1947 and on Sunday, July 4th, 1948 it aired at 10:30PM eastern time. This episode features names you will recognize: Harry Bartell (Lige Butterwick), Parley Baer (Paul Revere), Berry Kroeger (Narrator + Tavern Keeper + British Soldier), Gil Stratton, Jr. (Boy + William), Peggy Webber (Aunt + Boatshed Proprietress), Ann Morrison (Martha Butterwick + Customer), Dick Ryan (The Barber + Soldier + Horse Man), Paul Frees (Neighbor Williams + British Soldier No. 2), Bill Conrad (Loyalist + Signature voice), David Light (Special effects [sound]).

Parley Baer On A Running Gag The Gunsmoke Cast Shared During Recording Jul 03, 2021

Actor Parley Baer was interviewed in the mid 1970s for a Gunsmoke radio documentary by WAMU's John Hickman. During one of their conversations Baer told a funny story about a running gag the Gunsmoke radio cast shared during their recording days.

Gunsmoke: General Parsley Smith—07/02/1955 Jul 02, 2021

On the July 2nd, 1955 episode of Gunsmoke, Marshall Matt Dillon arrives back in Dodge to discover a new bank has opened in town. The owner is Drew Holt (voiced by Vic Perrin), a man he has never heard of. Shortly thereafter, a General Parsley Smith (voiced by John Dehner) of the third Illinois Cavalry comes to see Dillon. Smith tells Dillon that the new bank owner, Drew Holt is a thief and a former double agent from during the Civil War. Smith wants Dillon to look into the matter.

Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Funny Money Matter—06/30/1957 Jun 30, 2021

On the June 30th, 1957 episode of Yours Truly Johnny Dollar, George Reed from Floyd's of England (like Lloyd's of London) calls Johnny to investigate a client. This client has paid his latest premium, $4500 USD ($43,109.52 today). The problem is, every single one of the hundred dollar bills used for payment is counterfeit. Sounds like the perfect job for the man with the action packed expense account! This episode originally aired on Sunday 6/30/1957 at 5:30PM Eastern Daylight Time. It features Virginia Gregg and John McIntire in the cast.

Vincent Price On Being Allowed To Work In Radio and a Funny Lurene Tuttle Story Jun 29, 2021

In late 1972, Vincent Price sat down with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio (full interview here - https://www.goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-32.html). During the course of their conversation, Price spoke about being accepted by the regular radio character actors even though he came to radio from Broadway.

BW - EP117: The Outer Limit with X-Minus-One (1955 - 1958) Jun 27, 2021

In Breaking Walls episode 117 we blast off with NBC in the fall of 1955 and spotlight its premiere science fiction series, X Minus One. We’ll listen to episodes, hear interviews with those involved, and find out why this series continues to be a favorite among listeners today. —————————— Highlights: • The Beginning of the End for Network Radio Drama • Ernest Kinoy: NBC Staff Writer • Ray Bradbury’s Radio Memories • New York’s Radio Actors • Dimension X Leads to the Launching of X-Minus-One • In Late 1955 CBS is Radio’s Top Network • Mars is Heaven • Radio’s Vital Factor • Nightfall on X-Minus-One • Looking Ahead By Gassing Up —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material used in today’s episode was: On the Air - By John Dunning Articles from: Broadcasting-Telecasting Magazine —————————— On the interview front: • Jackson Beck, John Gibson, Larry Haines, Mary Jane Higby, Joseph Julian, Mandel Kramer, Jan Miner, Arnold Moss, and Guy Sorel, spoke with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these full interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org • Himan Brown and Nelson Olmsted were with SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com • Bob Hastings spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear this full chat at SpeakingOfRadio.com • Ernest Kinoy was with both Fran Stoddard for PBS and Walden Hughes for Yesterday USA • Ray Bradbury spoke with Jerry Haendiges • Santos Ortega was with Richard Lamparski —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Ill Wind — By the John Buzon Trio • Rock Around the Clock — By Bill Haley and the Comets • Satan Takes a Holiday — By Jack Malmsteen —————————— Special thanks to: The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society https://www.ghoulishdelights.com/ Twelve Chimes, It’s Midnight https://www.twelvechimesradio.com/ Terror on the Air https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUbviBTC1CamzamykVCqN0A https://soundcloud.com/terrorontheair https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/terror-on-the-air/id1477581905 https://open.spotify.com/show/63o0AY4Zhv5hQsjGVbMbLk?si=YN_vUk3yTgqvOw73u59BtQ —————————— 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. —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Chris Pilkington —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

Marilyn Monroe Talks About Why She Loves Brooklyn On The Debut Episode of Monitor—06/12/1955 Jun 20, 2021

On the debut episode of NBC's Monitor on June 12th, 1955, Dave Garroway sat down for an interview with Marilyn Monroe. He'd heard she was permanently moving to New York, but was surprised to hear where she really wanted to live. To hear this entire interview, tune into Breaking Walls Episode 116: The Launch of NBC’s Monitor (1955). Photo: Marilyn Monroe in New York City, as photographed by Eve Arnold in 1955.

Gunsmoke Director Norman Macdonnell On Gunsmoke's Dead Air SFX Jun 19, 2021

In 1976 John Hickman of WAMU put together an outstanding five-part documentary on the history of Gunsmoke. One of the people interviewed was Gunsmoke director Norman Macdonnell. Macdonnell directed the series during its entire radio run from 1952-1961. In this clip he speaks about the sound effects patterns that SFX men Bill James, Ray Kemper, & Tom Hanley employed, and how "dead air" became a tool of theirs.

Gunsmoke: The Reed Survives—06/18/1955 Jun 18, 2021

On the June 18th, 1955 episode of Gunsmoke, Lucy Middlecamp is a former dance hall girl who married Ethan Hunt, a soon-to-be preacher. Chester never could understand the relationship between them two. Both he and Lucy are worried that Ethan is going to kill her. Lucy admitted that Ethan is cruel and hides it well from the town's people. Ethan told her that when she married him she lead in him to sin and now she had to pay.

Dragnet: The Big Press—06/15/1950 Jun 15, 2021

On the 1st anniversary of Dragnet's debut, Detective Sergeant Joe Friday is assigned to Robbery Detail. Women are being beaten and robbed. The victims have been unable to identify the criminals. It’s Friday’s job to get them…

Harold Peary On Starting Gildersleeve on Fibber McGee and Molly Jun 12, 2021

On April 28th, 1971, Chuck Schaden interviewed radio legend and the original Great Gildersleeve, Hal Peary (full interview here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/peary-harold-actor/) about his life and career. During the course of the chat, Hal Peary spoke about starting the character of Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve and the character's relationship with Fibber McGee.

Phil Leslie On How Long He Wrote For Fibber McGee and Molly Jun 11, 2021

On December 13th, 1973 Chuck Schaden sat down with radio writer Phil Leslie (full Conversation here -http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/leslie-phil/) for a chat about his life and career. Mr. Leslie was perhaps best known for being a Fibber McGee and Molly writer. Here he shares his tenure.

Fibber McGee and Molly: Night Clubbing—06/09/1955 Jun 09, 2021

On the June 9th, 1955 episode of Fibber McGee and Molly, after Fibber discovers the couple has an extra $22.50 ($225.50 today) in their checking account, he decides to take Molly out "steppin" at the new nightclub three miles out of town, the Copacabbibbo. By 1955, Fibber McGee and Molly was running on NBC as a Sunday—Thursday serial. They were one of the few shows to remain on NBC's Sunday schedule after the network debuted Monitor on June 12th. For more information on this era of Fibber McGee and Molly, tune into Breaking Walls Episode 103: A Weekend at the Malt Shop with Fibber McGee and Molly (1955). For more information on the launch of Monitor, tune into Breaking Walls Episode 116: The Launch of NBC’s Monitor (1955).

Radio Actress Fran Carlon Explains Why You Had To Be On Your Toes When Acting During World War II Jun 06, 2021

Radio Actress Fran Carlon speaks about why radio actors and actresses needed to be on their toes for script cuts and news cutaways during World War II.

Jim Jordan On Fibber McGee's Hall Closet Jun 03, 2021

In 1971 Jim Jordan, better known as Fibber McGee, sat down with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC's the Golden Age of Radio to talk about his career (full interview here - https://www.goldenage-wtic.org/log.html). In this clip Jim talks about the origins of Fibber's hall closet and the famous gag. By 1955, Fibber McGee and Molly was running on NBC as a Sunday—Thursday serial. They were one of the few shows to remain on NBC's Sunday schedule after the network debuted Monitor on June 12th. For more information on this era of Fibber McGee and Molly, tune into Breaking Walls Episode 103: A Weekend at the Malt Shop with Fibber McGee and Molly (1955). For more information on the launch of Monitor, tune into Breaking Walls Episode 116: The Launch of NBC’s Monitor (1955).

NBC Announcer Ben Grauer On Fast News Relays During World War II Jun 02, 2021

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. Born in New York in 1908, he was a child actor who became an NBC staff announcer in 1930. Grauer covered olympic games, announced for Walter Winchell’s Jergen’s Journal, and was hand selected by Arturo Tuscani to support NBC’s Symphony Orchestra. By World War II he was a senior commentator and reporter.

Pat Weaver On Why Monitor—Thoughts On Radio Losing Money Jun 01, 2021

On Friday April 1st, 1955, NBC's President Sylvester "Pat" Weaver held a closed circuit press conference for NBC affiliates to announce a new weekend programming format which would be called Monitor. Monitor would completely take over NBC's weekend schedule from 8AM Saturday morning until the end of Sunday night. In this clip, Weaver explains why he feels Monitor can work, and why radio's national network revenue had gotten into trouble. For more on the launch of Monitor, tune into Breaking Walls Episode 116: https://soundcloud.com/thewallbreakers/bw-ep116-the-launch-of-nbcs-monitor-1955?in=thewallbreakers/sets/breaking-walls-the-wall

Byron Kane Tells a Self-Proclaimed X-Rated Radio Story About a Funny Line Flub May 31, 2021

In 1982, radio actor Byron Kane was a guest of SPERDVAC (http://www.sperdvac.com) in California for a conversation about his life and career. During the chat he told this funny story about a line flub on an Arch Oboler-directed show.

Staats Cotsworth On The Power Behind A Compelling Voice May 30, 2021

In 1975, long-time New York radio actor Staats Cotsworth sat down with Ed Corcoran at a radio convention to chat about his career. This interview was later featured in a 1977 episode of WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio (https://www.goldenage-wtic.org/log.html). In this clip Staats talks about his acting and radio beginnings.

NBC Monitor 1968 Musical Bumper May 28, 2021

Enjoy this classic 1968 musical bumper from NBC's Monitor, and tune into Breaking Walls Episode 116: The Launch of NBC’s Monitor (1955) to learn more about this seminal radio programming service that ran for almost twenty years.

BW - EP116: The Launch of NBC’s Monitor (1955) May 27, 2021

In Breaking Walls episode 116, it’s June of 1955 and network radio is in uncharted territory. TV’s encroachment has the entire industry looking for new ideas. We’ll focus on the launch of one of the most successful—Monitor—which will air in some form or fashion until January of 1975. —————————— Highlights: • The Changing Network Radio Landscape • Who Is Sylvester “Pat” Weaver? • Monitor Origins • Building the Team • Radio Central • The Soft Launch • An Auto Tragedy at Le Mans • Going to San Quentin Prison • Lots of Tunes in Remote • A Potential United Automobile Workers Strike • Dave Garroway Interviews Marilyn Monroe, live on Monitor • Fibber McGee and Gildy Too • Here’s Henry Morgan • Monitor’s Last Hour • Miss Monitor Finally Makes an Appearance • The Full Launch • Looking Ahead in Time and Space —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material used in today’s episode was: On the Air - By John Dunning Monitor: Take 2: By Dennis Hart Network Radio Ratings — by Jim Ramsburg Articles from: Broadcasting-Telecasting Magazine Monthly Labor Review The New York Daily News The New York Times Newsweek Printer’s Ink Variety As well as the websites: http://accordions.com/ for their interview with Art Van Damme Dennis Hart’s http://monitorbeacon.net/ http://tipsontables.com/ —————————— On the interview front: • Pat Weaver was interviewed for Fred Allen’s May 29th, 1956 Biography In Sound. • Ben Grauer was interviewed for NBC’s 50th Anniversary and Westinghouse’ 50th Anniversary. • Dave Garroway and Willard Waterman spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com. • Jim Jordan was with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear this full interview at Goldenage-WTIC.org. —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Shangri-La — By the New Spike Jones Band • Maris’ Farewell — By George Winston • Moon Moods — By Les Baxter & His Orchestra —————————— Special thanks to: The Fireside Mystery Theatre https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com/ The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society https://www.ghoulishdelights.com/ Twelve Chimes, It’s Midnight https://www.twelvechimesradio.com/ —————————— 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. —————————— A massive thank you to Gordon Skene and Dennis Hart for their contributions to this episode. Gordon maintains a tremendous sound collection. You can visit his site at PastDaily.com. Dennis Hart is the preeminent Monitor researcher. If this subject interests you pick up Monitor: Take 2, or go to MonitorBeacon.net. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Chris Pilkington —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

Fred Allen Explains How Giveaway Programs Helped Kill Radio May 26, 2021

On November 24th, 1954 Fred Allen was a guest of Tex and Jinx's New York talk show for a discussion about his life and career. It was recorded on a grey, rainy Wednesday before Thanksgiving in Peacock Alley at The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York city. In Fred's first memoir, Treadmill to Oblivion, he explained that giveaway programs played a large part in killing radio. During the course of the interview, he explained how. Allen shows up in numerous episodes of Breaking Walls, including BW - EP81: The Fred Allen Show—His Life On The Air (1932 - 1956), BW - EP92: Radio And Coney Island (1906 - 1960), and BW - EP111: NBC Answers the CBS Talent Raids (1949)

Suspense: Sorry, Wrong Number—05/25/1943 May 25, 2021

On May 25th, 1943 Agnes Moorehead guest-starred on The Columbia Broadcasting System's Suspense. The play was the very first broadcast of Lucille Fletcher's soon-to-be famous, "Sorry, Wrong Number." This is that broadcast in its original form, complete with the blown ending that necessitated (along with the popularity of the broadcast with listeners) for the play to be redone in August. Joseph Kearns was The Man in Black. It is, perhaps, the single most famous Suspense play in radio history.

William N. Robson On The Death of Dramatic Radio May 20, 2021

In January of 1976, famed radio director William N. Robson was a guest of Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran's on WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio (full interview here - https://www.goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-70.html). During the course of the conversation, Mr. Robson expressed his feelings on the death of dramatic radio, a medium in which he captivated audiences for almost thirty years. He didn't hold back. Rarely did he ever.

Escape: Pass to Berlin—05/19/1950 May 19, 2021

Escape, CBS’s high-adventure anthology, debuted on July 7th, 1947. During its erratic seven year run it was shifted and dropped frequently, almost always cost-sustained by the network. It developed into an experimental training ground in the late 1940s for those who’d come to dominate radio in the next decade. Escape's one period of national sponsorship came in the summer of 1950 when the Richfield Oil Company sponsored the show. This episode is part of that run. In Pass to Berlin, written by Morton Fine and David Friedkin, an occupation G.I. is desperately trying to break through a web of death that is being spun around him. This episode was produced and directed by William N. Robson. Featured in the cast were Stacy Harris, Peggy Webber, and Ben Wright. Paul Frees was the voice of Escape. The music was arranged by Ivan Ditmars. Tom Hanlon was the announcer.

Gunsmoke: Scared Boy—05/17/1959 May 17, 2021

On the May 17th, 1959 episode of Gunsmoke, Cora meadows and her young son Tad are visited by a dying man named Rourke, who is seeking refuge at their home. The man is soon murdered in cold-blood right in front of their eyes. The killer says he will leave them alone if they mind their own business. However, Mrs Meadows is worried when her son goes missing, as she fears the brave little boy may have gone after the man. (Photo from the private collection of Harry Bartell)

Dragnet: The Big Mail—05/15/1952 May 15, 2021

Detective Sergeant Joe Friday is assigned to Robbery detail. A United States mail truck is held up and robbed. Twenty-two sacks of registered mail are taken, the hold-up men escape and there’s no lead to their identity. It’s Friday’s job to get them.

George Burns On How Gracie Changed His Life & Saved His Career May 14, 2021

Barbara Walters interviewed George Burns for 20/20 in 1979. During the course of the interview George spoke about how Gracie forever altered his life.

Burns And Allen: Gracie Wants George To Get on Television—05/12/1949 May 12, 2021

On the May 12th, 1949 episode of Burns and Allen, Burns is still convinced that he has no place in TV. He's been trying to conceal his anxiety from Gracie, but she can see that all is not well with her little man. Burns lets it slip that he's nervous, so Gracie comes up with a brilliant idea. It's going to make him a sensation! What's the idea? George should combine the biggest things on TV right now, like Hopalong Cassidy and Baseball. That's sure to make George a star!

John Dehner on How He Became an Actor in the 1940s May 12, 2021

In 1982, John Dehner was an in-studio guest of Neil Ross' at KMPC for a conversation about his acting career. During the course of the chat, Dehner explained how be became an actor.

Frontier Gentleman: The Cannibal—05/11/1958 May 11, 2021

The May 11th, 1958 episode of Frontier Gentleman took J.B. Kendall to Chugwater, Wyoming Territory. There is a rail station for the Cheyenne and Black Hills stage line and because of a rain storm Kendall, ever the faithful reporter for the London Times, witnessed a tragedy there.

Joseph Julian Tells a Funny Story About Needing to Call an Ambulance to Get To A Radio Part May 09, 2021

In September of 1975 Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran of WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio sat down with famed New York actor Joseph Julian for a conversation about his life and career (Full interview here - https://goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-66.html). During the course of the conversation Julian told a funny story about double booking radio roles and needing to call an ambulance to get from one radio studio to the other.

Jean Shepherd On Letterman—03/10/1982 May 07, 2021

Jean Shepherd was a guest of David Letterman on March 10th, 1982. In this clip he tells funny stories about growing up in Hammond, Indiana.

Hans Conried On His Role In My Friend Irma May 05, 2021

In August of 1971 Hans Conried was a guest of Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for the 17th episode of WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio (full interview here - https://www.goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-17.html). During the course of the chat, which thematically spanned the length of Conried's career, the hosts asked him about his role on My Friend Irma.

Broadway Is My Beat: Margaret Royce Murder Case—05/02/1953 May 02, 2021

On the May 2nd, 1953 episode of Broadway is My Beat, Danny Clover is about to go home for the day when he finds Lila Royce at the front desk, reporting her sister missing. Margaret's apartment has been torn apart, and Lila is convinced that Margaret is dead. This episode features Charles Calvert, Jack Kruschen, Mary Jane Croft, Whitfield Connor, Lillian Buyeff, and Hy Averback.

Herb Vigran on What Happened to Radio Actors during the 1960s after TV Killed Dramatic Radio Apr 29, 2021

In March of 1983 radio actors Herb Vigran and Herb Ellis were guests of SPERDVAC (http://www.sperdvac.com) to talk about their radio careers. During the course of the conversation, Herb Vigran shed some much needed light on what exactly happened to most radio actors and actresses after TV killed the dramatic radio industry. It's a story that very few Americans today know.

William S. Paley On The Importance of Radio Apr 28, 2021

For CBS's 50th Anniversary broadcast in 1977, CBS Chairman William S. Paley spoke about why he loved radio. Paley grew CBS from a ragtag group of near-bankrupt affiliates into one of the world's leading broadcast companies, using radio to do so.

BW - EP115: The CBS Radio Workshop (1956 - 1957) Apr 26, 2021

In Breaking Walls episode 115, we focus on one of the last experimental programs on the air, The CBS Radio Workshop, and the man at its Hollywood helm, William Froug. We’ll listen to episodes, hear interviews with men and women known and unknown, and find out why this show was so critically acclaimed in its day. —————————— Highlights: • Who is Bill Froug and what does he do? • What do Norman Corwin, Orson Welles, Ray Bradbury, Burgess Meredith, and Bernard Hermann have in common? • Network radio in 1936 • Network radio in 1956 • The CBS Radio Workshop is revived • Season Of Disbelief & Hail And Farewell • A Report on ESP • Subways Are For Sleeping • Winding down the Workshop • Looking ahead to Monitor —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material used in today’s episode was: On the Air - By John Dunning As well as articles from: Broadcasting Magazine The New York Daily News —————————— On the interview front: • Lilian Buyeff, Don Diamond, John Dehner, Lawrence Dobkin, Bill Froug, Jack Johnstone, Byron Kane, Elliott Lewis, and Peggy Webber were with SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com. • Norman Corwin, Virginia Gregg, Carlton E. Morse, Alan Reed, and Russell Thorson spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com. • Bill Robson spoke with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear this full interview at Goldenage-WTIC.org. • William Paley spoke while receiving a citation in November of 1958. • Ray Bradbury was interviewed by Jerry Haendiges in October of 1976. —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Don’t Fence Me In — By Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters • February Sea — By George Winston • Heartbreak Hotel — By Elvis Presley • Seance on a West Afternoon — By John Barry —————————— Special thanks to: Terror on the Air https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUbviBTC1CamzamykVCqN0A https://soundcloud.com/terrorontheair https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/terror-on-the-air/id1477581905 https://open.spotify.com/show/63o0AY4Zhv5hQsjGVbMbLk?si=YN_vUk3yTgqvOw73u59BtQ Varial https://www.shaebwrites.com/the-veiled-monarch Twelve Chimes, It’s Midnight https://www.twelvechimesradio.com/ —————————— 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. —————————— 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/ —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Chris Pilkington —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

The Story Behind The Birth Of The Great GIldersleeve Apr 24, 2021

This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 96: Halloween On The Air (1943 - 1953) ___________ On August 31st, 1941, Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve stepped off a train in the town of Summerfield, bringing with a now common concept in American entertainment: The series spinoff. Gildersleeve began as a character on Fibber McGee and Molly. The man behind its voice was Harold Peary. Peary joined the cast in 1937, first playing every kind of bit part imaginable. Peary was born Harold José Pereira de Faria to Portugese parents on July 25th, 1908. In January of 1923, at the age of fourteen, Harold had his first radio appearance at KZM in Oakland. By the late 1920s he was working for NBC in San Francisco. Migrating to Chicago in 1937, he soon became one of radio’s insiders, gaining a reputation as a top utility man. In the late 1930s, Peary approached McGee’s head writer Don Quinn with an idea for a recurring role. He wanted to play a pompous windbag who himself ran the biggest bluff in Wistful Vista. He thought it the perfect foil for McGee. Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve’s first appearance was on September 26th, 1939.

Actor Mandel Kramer On CBS and NBC Networking and Camaraderie During the Golden Age of Radio Apr 23, 2021

In September of 1974 east-coast radio actor Mandel Kramer sat down with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio (the full interview is available here - https://www.goldenage-wtic.org/log.html) to speak about his career. During the interview, Kramer spoke about how he found work in the early part of his career, and the great camaraderie that radio actors had with each other.

Luke Slaughter of Tombstone: The Henry Fell Story—04/20/1958 Apr 22, 2021

Shortly after CBS debuted Frontier Gentleman in February of 1958, a second new western show, Luke Slaughter of Tombstone, debuted on Sunday February 23rd, 1958 at 2PM eastern time. Sam Buffington starred in the title role, with a vocal quality in line with William Conrad’s Marshall Dillon of Gunsmoke and Raymond Burr’s Captain Lee Quince of Fort Laramie. Buffington was only 26, and a relative stranger to American audiences. Born in Swansea, MA on October 12th, 1931, he was balding and husky, with a big mustache. He had the physicality of a man much older than his age, which lent itself to portraying an Arizona cavalryman turned cattleman. He’d found Hollywood western work in television for network shows like Tales of Wells Fargo, Maverick, and Cheyenne. The series was produced and directed by William N. Robson, who’d stuck by radio from its earliest days to its waning moments in the late 1950s. Tom Hanley expanded his abilities to include script writing. On Slaughter, he doubled as editorial supervisor, while also laying sound patterns with Ray Kemper and Bill James. Although CBS ad sales managed to get the May 4th, 1958 episode sponsored by O’Brien Paints, finding regular sponsorship for a Sunday at 2PM western with little name value was impossible. CBS cancelled the show after just sixteen episodes. The last Luke Slaughter of Tombstone aired on June 15th.

Mike Wallace On His Radio Beginnings Apr 20, 2021

On September 23rd, 1989, legendary radio and tv announcer and interviewer Mike Wallace was a guest of Chuck Schaden's (full interview here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/wallace-mike-announcer/) during Chuck's Those Were The Days program at the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago. Here, Mr. Wallace recalled his early radio days.

Frontier Gentleman: Aces And Eights—04/20/1958 Apr 17, 2021

In the April 20th, 1958 episode of Frontier Gentleman, starring John Dehner, J.B. Kendall meets Wild Bill Hickok and sits in on a card game that becomes part of American history. For more information on Antony Ellis' wonderful production of Frontier Gentleman, please tune into Breaking Walls Episode 101: Frontier Gentleman and The Saga of Belle Siddons (1958), available for free anywhere you might download or stream a podcast, and at http://thewallbreakers.com/

Arch Oboler Tells a Funny Story About Boris Karloff Being Afraid of Kids Apr 16, 2021

On August 5th, 1976, Chuck Schaden was a guest at Arch Oboler's home for a conversation about the noted writer and director's career (full interview here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/oboler-arch/). Throughout the course of the conversation, Mr. Oboler told a funny story about Boris Karloff being afraid of children.

The Jack Benny Program: The IRS visits Jack Because He Spent $17 on Entertainment Apr 15, 2021

On the April 15th, 1951 episode of The Jack Benny program, Jack's in trouble with the IRS for spending $17 on entertainment. The trouble began the previous week, and would continue into the following week when Jack took his cast to the circus.

Lawrence Dobkin On The Differences Between The NY and LA Radio Industry Apr 14, 2021

On August 9th, 1986, Lawrence Dobkin, Lillian Buyeff, and Don Diamond were guests of SPERDVAC for a conversation about their radio careers. During the course of the conversation, Dobkin (who started in New York before moving to Los Angeles) explained the difference in attitudes between the two cities.

Dragnet: The Big Compulsion—04/12/1953 Apr 12, 2021

On the April 12th, 1953 episode of Dragnet, Detective Sergeant Joe Friday is assigned to Robbery Detail. Somewhere in the city a man has been making phony calls, endangering the lives officers. With a simple dime, this man is disrupting law and order in the city of Los Angeles, for a joke. The detectives don't like it. It’s Friday’s job to get him

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