Old Time Radio, Part 2 … A Background

Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear:
When Radio was King!

The Golden Age of Radio. Old Time Radio. The Media of the Imagination. Theater of the Mind. These phrases conjure up feelings of nostalgia in the old and mystery in the young. Listening to Old Time Radio (OTR) shows return the aged to their youth and create images of a by-gone era in the young.

What is meant by the phrase, “Theater of the Mind?” Unlike motion pictures of the 30s, 40s, and early 50s, or the yet to be accessible television, radio couldn’t rely on pictures to tell the story. You did that. You listened as the radio play unfolded with narrators and actors describing the scenes and action while soundmen expertly added aural details. You, and you alone, supplied all the visual details. You imagined how tough Sam Spade looked. You imagined how beautiful Margo Lane was. And when Fibber McGee opened his infamous closet, every detail of the avalanche of debris was created in your mind’s eye.

Television and movies are primarily visual. You watch, passively. You are a spectator. But radio, well, you actively listen and the experience is more akin to reading a book. Your mind interprets, translates, and creates. You are a participant.

If you’re new to OTR…

This series of blogs is designed as an introduction to the Golden Age of Radio, sort of a primer for those of you who are new to OTR. You might be surprised at how much you already know. A lot of OTR is an integral part of our culture. Even if you’ve never heard an episode before, more than likely you’re still familiar with the names of some of the shows. The Shadow, Inner Sanctum, The Whistler, Amos ‘n’ Andy, and Fibber McGee and Molly are names that may be recognizable to many of you. Or you may have even heard older relatives speak names that you couldn’t place before, such as The Great Gildersleeve, Jack Armstrong, the All American Boy, or Our Miss Brooks. Yes, those are OTR programs. And quite possibly, those same relatives have even used expressions that came from OTR, such as “T’ain’t funny, McGee.”

Maybe you’ve heard of early televisions shows such as The Lone Ranger, Dragnet, the Green Hornet, and Gunsmoke. You might be surprised to learn those all started out as OTR programs also.

Like television today, radio in the ’30s, ’40s, and the ’50s was the entertainment medium that was accessible to all, rich and poor alike. Unlike the movies, radio was free and unlike the emerging television, the cost for a radio was within the reach of nearly every family. People planned their lives around their favorite shows. Romance, adventure, comedy, and action were just the twist of a dial away. Radio was the first truly shared experience. There was a feeling of community knowing that Americans from coast to coast were also listening to the show you listened to at the same time.

How popular was radio? One anecdote describes just how immensely popular the show Amos ‘n’ Andy was. It is said that on a warm summer evening, you could walk down the street of any American town and hear an entire show without missing a line as it wafted out of all the open windows on the block.

OTR had the biggest names in show business…

Radio in it’s heyday attracted all the biggest stars (and in many instances, created them). Radio regularly featured such names as: Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, Alan Ladd (who starred in the show “Box 13″), Abbott and Costello, Martin and Lewis, William Conrad, Van Helfin, Orson Welles (who created the most famous radio broadcast of all time, the Mercury Theater production of War of the Worlds), in fact Orson Welles together with Agnes Moorehead were the first to bring life to the character of The Shadow in 1937. Even Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce recreated their film roles in several OTR episodes of Sherlock Holmes.

Popular Movie Heroes had their own OTR shows…

Many popular movie serials often ran simultaneously as OTR programs. Heroes such as Tarzan, Flash Gordon, Captain Midnight, and Buck Rogers all had their own OTR shows. Comic book heroes like Superman, Batman, and The Blue Beetle had shows on radio (an unverified bit of trivia is that Batman started as a radio show before he became a comic).

Live, On the Air!

One of the most fascinating aspects of radio is that it was performed live. There was no taping of shows back then. There was no editing and reediting, dubbing and overdubbing, as they do in today’s television until the show is perfect. No. Shows were done live and flubs went out over the air. If the show was popular enough to be listened to on both coasts, then the actors had to do two shows live, one for the east coast then one for the west coast. Occasionally, some shows were recorded onto wax for playback later, but this was expensive and they had to do those in one take also. There was no editing of mistakes. If a mistake was made, they had to cut a whole new platter.

Even the OTR commercials were fun…

The commercials on OTR were often just as entertaining as the shows themselves, not that the commercials were any better written than they are today, but they had a simplicity and innocence, and unintentional hokum that are sure to amuse. Cigarettes were advertised as so mild “opera singers find them soothing to their throats.” The ads for Carter’s Little Liver Pills, “the best friend to your sunny disposition,” described how the pills aided digestion by stimulating essential juices (but never actually or medically described what essential juice that was). Back then, I guess, you could make unsubstantiated claims, which seem extremely funny today.

Advertising even spilled into the programming itself. Aside from the host or announcer telling us that “today’s episode of The Shadow is brought to you by The Glen Alden Coal Company, makers of Blue Coal, ask for it by name,” there often were instances of the stars hawking the product in the middle of the show with blatant references to the sponsor. One example was on a Groucho Marx show sponsored by Pabst Blue Ribbon beer as heard in this clip:

Click here to listen to this clip from The Groucho Marx Show.

To download this clip from The Groucho Marx Show right-click here.

Product placement at it’s finest.

New or Old, Come join us…

No matter what your experience level I hope you’ll find something in this series of blogs to amaze, amuse, astound, educate or entertain.

Next

The Shadow

-30-