Radio production

Radio Drama

Dramatic programs, usually aired in the evening and performed live, were often well written and expertly presented. Not only were the actors thoroughly schooled and rehearsed, but also the music and sound effects were professionally done. Many were the equivalent of a first-run Broadway play.

The First Nighter

One of the best examples of radio drama was the First Nighter program. The First Nighter first appeared in 1930 on the Blue Network. It continued with some interruptions until 1953. An elaborate format and a deep American fascination for the theater were undoubtedly responsible for the success of this program. It created the illusion of transporting the listener to the "Little Theater on Times Square" to witness the opening night performance of a romantic comedy. The introduction took over two minutes. During this time, amid the street noise of Manhattan (car horns, police whistles, people talking), the audience met the "First Nighter." He was walking along Broadway in his tuxedo (couldn't get a cab during hectic wartime nights) to the theater and arriving just in time for the opening act curtain.

The attendant shouted, "Have your tickets ready." The usher greeted the First Nighter and showed him to his fourth-row-center seat. The First Nighter then gave a brief introduction to the play: title, cast, author. The orchestra played a few bars; the announcement: "Curtain" was made, and the play began. Commercials aired during the intermissions while the First Nighter mingled with the crowd. He described members of the audience, who were always formally dressed. After the final curtain, the First Nighter wove his way through the exiting crowd and into the street.

It was elaborate and it was all radio balderdash! While the setting was Manhattan the play was actually produced in the Merchandise Mart of Chicago and never got near New York! In later years the program moved to Hollywood when the star Barbara Ludy moved there.

Westerns

During the 1930s the "Western" was one of the most popular forms of movie entertainment. This theme was carried into radio on a number of programs such as Hoofbeats, Hopalong Cassidy, Red Ryder, and Zorro. The stories varied, but the main themes tended to emphasize the triumph of good over evil.

Death Valley Days.

One of the earliest of the radio westerns was Death Valley Days. It first aired in 1930 and continued through 1951 over several networks. This program set the stage for Westerns for years to come. The sponsor, The Pacific Borax Company, decided that they wanted to do a rugged radio series about the old west. They contacted an advertising copy writer, Ruth Cornwall Woodman, to create the theme and write the scripts.

This presented a problem for Woodman in that she was a Vassar graduate living in New York City and had never traveled west. After several trips to Death Valley and considerable research she produced one of the finest westerns ever aired. The program was low-key, emphasizing the loneliness of the west. It often featured stories about Lola Montez, Billy the Kid, and other actual figures.

The Lone Ranger.

The Lone Ranger was by far the most popular Western over the years. It first aired in 1933 over WXYZ in Detroit, Michigan and continued until 1954 over the Mutual and Blue networks. Its popularity saved the radio station from bankruptcy. Even though it was intended primarily for a juvenile audience, over half of its fans were adults. Later programs appeared on television but were not as successful as the radio versions.

In every show the Lone Ranger was a true knight of the range, a Western hero who quickly became a part of American folklore. He could fight against heavy odds, but take the time to mend an injured bird's wing.

The Lone Ranger believed that everyone should worship as he desires. He never made love on radio, television, movies, or cartoons. He always used proper English. He never smoked or swore, and he managed to stay out of saloons. If a scene originally called for a saloon, the script was rewritten to place it in a café. When he used his guns it was not to kill, but to aim as precisely as possible and shoot the pistol out of his enemy's hands. With his faithful Indian companion Tonto he dispatched "bad hombres" and brought peace to the untamed West.

Sound Effects

The sound-effects person was key in developing the setting for each drama or comedy program. The images he created remained in the listener's mind throughout the program.

These inventive experts used various items to achieve the effects: rapping coconut shells produced horses' hoof beats; crumpling cellophane and dripping water into a pail sounded like rain; flexing a metal panel became thunder. Other methods included opening and closing doors, firing blank pistol cartridges, or using recorded sounds: careening automobiles, railroad trains, airplanes, chiming clocks, and farm animal noises. The sound man usually was equipped with an active microphone and a variety of objects needed to produce the needed sounds. For an an unusually complex production, a team of sound effects makers might be needed. Keeping track of all the objects was sometimes a problem..amusing goofs were not unknown. One classic tale concerns a misfire in a blank pistol. The quick thinking actor responded with "The gun doesn't work..how do you like this knife!?" After which the gun finally fired. Oh, well.

It all contributed to "the paint brush of imagination."

Mercury Theater Presentation of War of the Worlds

Orson Welles and John Houseman formed The Mercury Theater in 1935. By 1938 it was considered to be one of the best theatrical groups in New York. They produced several classical plays in modern format that were judged to be revolutionary. In 1937 Welles, who had dabbled in radio, decided to expand their field into producing full-length radio drama. They persuaded CBS to give them a try with a dramatization of Dracula. Welles did a superb job and CBS continued their contract with presentations of The Count of Monte Cristo, Treasure Island, and Julius Caesar. With Halloween approaching, Welles and Houseman decided to do a horror show. They investigated several candidates and reluctantly settled on doing a contemporary version of H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds. They really didn't think that this would go over with a reasonably sophisticated radio audience. They feared that the story was hopelessly outdated. They were wrong! Houseman did most of the adaptation work, with Welles taking the lead and directing. The program began with Dan Seymour announcing that The Mercury Theater of the Air was presenting Orson Welles' production of War of the Worlds, by H. G. Wells. Orson Welles gave a short prolog, setting the tale in the near future. Then the news bulletins began. There was a weather report, a shift to a musical interlude reportedly from a well-known hotel, and the story proceeded to unfold. There were frequent news flashes of strange objects landing, first near Grovers Mills, New Jersey. Strange creatures, presumably from Mars, reportedly emerged flashing horrible death rays. Reports of landings of these "strange creatures" came from other parts of the country through simulated news flashes. The reaction to the program amounted to near panic in different parts of the country by people who hadn't heard or listened to the introduction. Men staggered into bars babbling about the end of the world. Some listeners tuned in just in time to hear an actor playing the part of "The Secretary of the Interior," who sounded like President Roosevelt, saying that the situation was dire! Many panic calls were made to the police. Even as the closing theme was playing, police swarmed in, confiscating scripts and detaining the actors.

Famous Popular Soaps

The Romance of Helen Trent.

The star of this serial was once known as "The Queen of Soaps" or "A Cleopatra of the Air," who took part in 7,222 chapters of melodrama. This series started in 1933 and lasted over 27 years! She never aged, never laughed or gave into an impure thought. Several people took the lead part over the years but their voices were so close that most listeners were not aware of the change of actresses.

Each segment began with the tune "Juanita" played on a banjo and the announcer saying, "Time now for the romance of Helen Trent… the real-life drama of Helen Trent, who… when life mocks her, breaks her spirit, breaks her hopes, dashes her against the rocks of despair… fights back bravely, successfully to prove what so many women long to prove in their own lives… that just because a woman is 35, and more, that romance in life need not be over… that romance of youth can extend into middle life and beyond". All told, 27 suitors pursued her but to no avail. Some jilted her, some were jilted by her, some were murdered, had heart attacks, fell off cliffs, and others simply vanished. She was one unlucky woman. Throughout all of this she maintained her composure.

The Goldbergs

This series, starring Gertrude Berg, began in 1929 and continued until 1950. It described the life trials of a typical poor Jewish family in the tenements of New York City. Molly Goldberg was always low-key and warm but she ruled the roost. She presented the image of a typical Jewish mother, kind but firm.

As far as the show was concerned she was a "benevolent dictator" and insisted on having control over the script and sound effects. Everything was authentic. The scene was generally set in the Goldbergs' kitchen. She broke real eggs into the skillet and each member of the cast rattled his or her own china. She even gave actress Roslyn Silber an on-air shampoo! Berg's ear for dialect was critically tuned for each reading.

One Man's Family

One Man's Family, written by Carlton E. Morse, first appeared in 1932. It ran continuously under various sponsors until 1959, for a total of 3,256 episodes. This program was unique among dramatic serials of these times in that the characters actually aged!

The patriarch, Henry Barbour, was a stern white-collar worker when the series first aired in 1932. He had become a doting, fussing great-grandfather when the show ended in 1959.

Seldom in modern entertainment has the American public taken to its heart an entire fictional family in the same way that people embraced the Barbours. Its listener rating in 1939 to 1940 put it well into the top five shows in the nation, and it remained a solid favorite of over 15 million listeners for many years.

Each episode of the program began: "One Man's Family is dedicated to mothers and fathers of the younger generation and their bewildering offspring."

Big Band Remote Broadcasts

Studio orchestras were a part of broadcasting starting in the 1920s. By 1925 technology had improved to the point where audio fidelity remote broadcasts were becoming acceptable.

Starting in the-mid 1930s all networks broadcast live programs of popular dance music from ballrooms, restaurants, Army bases, and hotels. Musicians were less inhibited playing from remote sites, especially when they were fortified by the contents of a stainless steel hip flask. Networks generally sustained remotes (no commercials) and performances were not constrained by the three-minute time limit of recordings.

Every night of the week a listener could tune in to the likes of Benny Goodman, Glen Miller, Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra, Guy Lombardo, Wayne King, and many other fine dance bands. After WW II the big band era gave way to the vocalists who performed with their own bands.

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