Newspapers, A M Radio, LaSalle Parish, La.
Submitted by Jack Willis
Date: 11 Oct 2004
Source:Grass Roots and Cockleburrs
Date: 30 June 2004




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A M Radio

In days or yore, in the 1930s, 40s and early 50s the media source for news
and family entertainment was the AM radio.  The console receivers stood on
the floor, but smaller, cheaper table models were easy to move to different
rooms of the house as the occasion demanded, but most were set up in the
living room because this is where the family retired after the evening meal
to be entertained.
At 6:15 on weekday evenings it was my time for my favorite radio show
emanating from WGN in Chicago, Illinois known far and wide as The Lone Range
featuring the voice of Brace Beamer. This program was preceded by Jack
Armstrong, All-American Boy, and naturally it would come on just about the
time supper was being put on the table, so I usually ended up with one ear
tuned to the blaring Philco radio and trying to follow the story line as I
gobbled down my syrup, cream and biscuit.
After the dishes were washed, dried and put away, the family adjourned en
masse to the living room to lounge around and utilize their imaginations as
suggested plots and situations poured forth audibly for mental processing.
These prolonged sessions were often punctuated by hot popcorn or parched
peanuts to munch on quietly as storylines unfolded.
These seven-night-a week scenarios were standard fare for families and there
were no R-ratings or need for V-chip censorship for the simple fact that
entertainment in that day and age promoted wholesome, family oriented
broadcasts designed to promote the American way of life in that time frame.
So here is a cross-section of programming available in that day and age of
innocence: 'The Jack Benny Show; The Jimmy Durante Show; the Judy Canova
Show; The Cisco Kid; Hopalong Cassidy; The FBI in Peace and War; Suspense;
Inner Sanctum; The Whistler; Our Miss Brooks; Fibber McGee and Molly; The
Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show; Gangbusters; Tales of the Texas Rangers;
Phillip Marlowe; Sam Spade, Detective; Boston Blackie; Ozzie and Harriet;
Life With Riley; The Chesterfield Supper Club with Bing Crosby, and later
Perry Como;  Bringing Up Daddy starring Fanny Brice as Baby Snooks; Philco
Radio Time; The Bob Hope Show; The Edgar Bergen Show starring Charlie
McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd; The Fred Allen Show; The Amos 'n Andy Show; The
Red Skelton Show; The Mel Blanc Fix-It Shop featuring the most outstanding
mimic and impressionist of the 2oth Century, Mel Blanc, who did most of the
voices for Warner Bros. Cartoons including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer
Fudd, Foghorn Leghorn, which was a parody of a character off the Fred Allen
Show named Senator Clagghorn, a typical Deep-South politician; Casey, Crime
Photographer; Broadway Is My Beat; Gunsmoke, Sgt. Preston of the Yukon; The
Green Hornet; The Great Gildersleeve; Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar; The Saint;
Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons; Charlie Chan; Nero Wolfe; Duffy's Tavern
starring Ed "Archie" Gardner; and The Lux Radio Theater hosted by the great
film producer Cecil B. DeMille.
The big bands encompassed the World War II era and nightly radio broadcasts
were standard fare to keep up morale at home and featured the orchestras of
Glenn Miller; Artie Shaw; Benny Goodman; Glen Gray and the Casaloma
Orchestra; Wayne King, the Waltz King; Frankie Carle; Ted Lewis; Ted Weems
featuring Perry Como and whistler Elmo Tanner; Bob Crosby and his Dixieland
Bobcats and Spike Jones and his City Slickers.
Popular daytime pastimes were the dramas known as "soap operas" so-named
because they targeted the everyday house wife and were mostly sponsored by
detergent manufacturers with some of the titles being Our Gal Sunday, Young
Widow Brown, As The World Turns, and The Romance of Helen Trent; and some of
the daily morning shows of radio were The Don McNeil Breakfast Club, Tom
Breneman in Hollywood, and Arthur Godfrey.
Times and entertainment were cheap back then, and all you needed to
participate fully was a vivid imagination.

GR&C (6-30-04)                                             JMW