.
107-553: The Joan Davis Show is a title applied — in some cases specifically and in other cases generically — to several old-time radio comedy programs in the United States, some of which had other distinct titles as indicated below. Comedian Joan Davis starred in the programs, all but one version of which were broadcast on CBS . Singer Rudy Vallée 's joining the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II left Sealtest Dairy with no star for The Rudy Vallee Show , which it sponsored. Therefore,
214-548: A mass hysteria from the (entirely fictional) radio presentation of The War of the Worlds , which had been presented as a faux newscast. The sponsored musical feature soon became one of the most popular program formats. Most early radio sponsorship came in the form of selling the naming rights to the program, as evidenced by such programs as The A&P Gypsies , Champion Spark Plug Hour , The Clicquot Club Eskimos , and King Biscuit Time ; commercials, as they are known in
321-483: A radio network 's studios, or at the facilities of a network-owned or affiliated station, which might have four or more lathes. A small local station often had none. Two lathes were required to capture a program longer than 15 minutes without losing parts of it while discs were flipped over or changed, along with a trained technician to operate them and monitor the recording while it was being made. However, some surviving recordings were produced by local stations. When
428-526: A sustaining basis, but Davis declined. The show returned in July and August 1950 as a summer replacement for My Friend Irma . Leave It to Joan was the basis for an unsuccessful television pilot, Let's Join Joanie , which was broadcast on January 12, 1951, on CBS. The TV version had Davis in the role of a sales clerk in a hat store. A review of the July 4, 1949, episode in the trade publication Billboard said
535-400: A "hill and dale" vertically modulated groove, rather than the "lateral" side-to-side modulation found on the records being made for home use at that time. The large slow-speed discs could easily contain fifteen minutes on each side, allowing an hour-long program to be recorded on only two discs. The lacquer was softer than shellac or vinyl and wore more rapidly, allowing only a few playbacks with
642-505: A HUAC hearing in April 1951, actor Marc Lawrence named Stander as a member of his Hollywood Communist "cell", along with screenwriter Lester Cole and screenwriter Gordon Kahn . Lawrence testified that Stander "was the guy who introduced me to the party line", and that Stander said that by joining the CP, he would "get to know the dames more" — which Lawrence, who did not enjoy film-star looks, thought
749-799: A bartender named Max in Sergio Leone 's Once Upon a Time in the West . He played the role of the villainous mob boss in Fernando Di Leo 's 1972 poliziottesco thriller Caliber 9 . In Rome he connected with Robert Wagner , who cast him in an episode of It Takes a Thief that was shot there. Stander's few English-language films in the 1970s include The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight with Robert De Niro and Jerry Orbach , Steven Spielberg's 1941 , and Martin Scorsese 's New York, New York , which also starred De Niro and Liza Minnelli . Stander played
856-772: A comic tough guy, villain, or authority figure; his last Vitaphone short was The Old Grey Mayor (1935) with Bob Hope in 1935. That same year, he was cast in a feature, Ben Hecht 's The Scoundrel (1935), with Noël Coward . He moved to Hollywood and signed a contract with Columbia Pictures . Stander was in a string of films over the next three years, appearing most notably in Frank Capra's Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) with Gary Cooper , Meet Nero Wolfe (1936) playing Archie Goodwin , The League of Frightened Men (1937), and A Star Is Born (1937) with Janet Gaynor and Fredric March . Stander's distinctive rumbling voice, tough-guy demeanor, and talent with accents made him
963-410: A daytime serial drama by scholars of the genre is Painted Dreams , which premiered on WGN on October 20, 1930. The first networked daytime serial is Clara, Lu, 'n Em , which started in a daytime time slot on February 15, 1932. As daytime serials became popular in the early 1930s, they became known as soap operas because many were sponsored by soap products and detergents. On November 25, 1960,
1070-410: A female star could be successful as the sole lead in a program. David C. Tucker, in his biography of Davis, described the program as "a ratings winner for NBC from 1943 through 1945". The musical void left by Vallée's departure was filled by singer David Street . Davis emerged as a strong presence behind the scenes as well as on the air. Her disagreements with producer Tom McAvity over what was best for
1177-521: A good idea. Upon hearing of this, Stander shot off a telegram to HUAC chair John S. Wood, calling Lawrence's testimony that he was a Communist "ridiculous" and asking to appear before the Committee, so he could swear to that under oath. The telegram concluded: "I respectfully request an opportunity to appear before you at your earliest possible convenience. Be assured of my cooperation." Two days later, Stander sued Lawrence for $ 500,000 for slander. Lawrence left
SECTION 10
#17329099098101284-575: A good wire recording was comparable to acetate discs and by comparison the wire was practically indestructible, but it was soon rendered obsolete by the more manageable and easily edited medium of magnetic tape. Lionel Stander Lionel Jay Stander (January 11, 1908 – November 30, 1994) was an American actor, activist, and a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild . He had an extensive career in theatre, film, radio, and television that spanned nearly 70 years, from 1928 until 1994. He
1391-485: A group headed by RCA , which used the assets to form the National Broadcasting Company . Four radio networks had formed by 1934. These were: In the period before and after the advent of the broadcast network, new forms of entertainment needed to be created to fill the time of a station's broadcast day. Many of the formats born in this era continued into the television and digital eras. In the beginning of
1498-455: A guest, had his own program in 1934.) The New York Philharmonic also had weekly concerts on radio. There was no dedicated classical music radio station like NPR at that time, so classical music programs had to share the network they were broadcast on with more popular ones, much as in the days of television before the creation of NET and PBS . Country music also enjoyed popularity. National Barn Dance , begun on Chicago's WLS in 1924,
1605-416: A high-quality radio's audio output was recorded directly, rather than by holding a microphone up to its speaker, the recorded sound quality was very good. However, because the wire cost money and, like magnetic tape , could be repeatedly re-used to make new recordings, only a few complete broadcasts appear to have survived on this medium. In fact, there was little home recording of complete radio programs until
1712-460: A major assault when NBC carried The Goon Show in the mid-1950s. Some shows originated as stage productions: Clifford Goldsmith's play What a Life was reworked into NBC's popular, long-running The Aldrich Family (1939–1953) with the familiar catchphrases "Henry! Henry Aldrich!," followed by Henry's answer, "Coming, Mother!" Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman's Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway hit, You Can't Take It with You (1936), became
1819-664: A popular radio actor. In the 1930s and 1940s, he was on The Eddie Cantor Show , Bing Crosby 's KMH show , the Lux Radio Theater production of A Star Is Born , The Fred Allen Show , the Mayor of the Town series with Lionel Barrymore and Agnes Moorehead , Kraft Music Hall on NBC , Stage Door Canteen on CBS , the Lincoln Highway Radio Show on NBC, and The Jack Paar Show , among others. In 1941, he starred in
1926-476: A radio. The triode and regenerative circuit made amplified, vacuum tube radios widely available to consumers by the second half of the 1920s. The advantage was obvious: several people at once in a home could now easily listen to their radio at the same time. In 1930, 40% of the nation's households owned a radio, a figure that was much higher in suburban and large metropolitan areas. The superheterodyne receiver and other inventions refined radios even further in
2033-875: A series of one-hour adaptations of Shakespeare plays, many of which Barrymore never appeared in either on stage or in films, such as Twelfth Night (in which he played both Malvolio and Sir Toby Belch ), and Macbeth . Lux Radio Theatre and The Screen Guild Theater presented adaptations of Hollywood movies, performed before a live audience, usually with cast members from the original films. Suspense , Escape , The Mysterious Traveler and Inner Sanctum Mystery were popular thriller anthology series. Leading writers who created original material for radio included Norman Corwin , Carlton E. Morse , David Goodis , Archibald MacLeish , Arthur Miller , Arch Oboler , Wyllis Cooper , Rod Serling , Jay Bennett , and Irwin Shaw . Game shows saw their beginnings in radio. One of
2140-575: A series of short-lived plays through the early 1930s, including The House Beautiful , which Dorothy Parker famously derided as "the play lousy". Like many New York-based stage actors, Stander found additional work in movie short subjects filmed in New York. He signed with Vitaphone and was featured (without screen credit) in the two-reel comedy In the Dough (1933), with Roscoe Arbuckle and Shemp Howard . He made several other Vitaphone comedies, usually as
2247-447: A service designed to sell radio receivers. In early 1922, American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T) announced the beginning of advertisement-supported broadcasting on its owned stations, and plans for the development of the first radio network using its telephone lines to transmit the content. In July 1926, AT&T abruptly decided to exit the broadcasting field, and signed an agreement to sell its entire network operations to
SECTION 20
#17329099098102354-459: A short-lived radio show called The Life of Riley on CBS (no relation to the radio, film, and television character later made famous by William Bendix ). Stander played the role of Spider Schultz in both Harold Lloyd 's film The Milky Way (1936) and its remake ten years later, The Kid from Brooklyn (1946), starring Danny Kaye . He was a regular on Danny Kaye's zany comedy-variety radio show on CBS (1946–1947), playing himself as "just
2461-486: A sponsor's product. These items were offered on adventure shows. Young listeners had to mail in a boxtop from a breakfast cereal or other proof of purchase . Radio plays were presented on such programs as 26 by Corwin , NBC Short Story , Arch Oboler's Plays , Quiet, Please , and CBS Radio Workshop . Orson Welles 's The Mercury Theatre on the Air and The Campbell Playhouse were considered by many critics to be
2568-459: A substantial number of copies of an electrical transcription were required, as for the distribution of a syndicated program, they were produced by the same process used to make ordinary records. A master recording was cut, then electroplated to produce a stamper from which pressings in vinyl (or, in the case of transcription discs pressed before about 1935, shellac) were molded in a record press. The Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) had its origins in
2675-409: A summer replacement for the first half hour of Lux Radio Theatre and ran until August 22, 1949. Davis portrayed a sales clerk in a department store who lived with her father. Most of the plots evolved from her interactions with the store's staff, and each episode featured a guest star. Characters and the actors who portrayed them were as follows: Ken Niles was the announcer, and Lyn Murray led
2782-550: A supporting role in the TV film Revenge Is My Destiny with Chris Robinson . He played a lounge comic modeled after the real-life Las Vegas comic Joe E. Lewis , who used to begin his act by announcing "Post Time" as he sipped his ever-present drink. After 15 years abroad, Stander moved back to the U.S. for the role he is now most famous for: Max, the loyal butler, cook, and chauffeur to the wealthy, amateur detectives Jonathan and Jennifer Hart played by Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers on
2889-595: A weekly situation comedy heard on Mutual (1944) with Everett Sloane and later on NBC (1951) with Walter Brennan . Other shows were adapted from comic strips, such as Blondie , Dick Tracy , Gasoline Alley , The Gumps , Li'l Abner , Little Orphan Annie , Popeye the Sailor , Red Ryder , Reg'lar Fellers , Terry and the Pirates and Tillie the Toiler . Bob Montana's redheaded teen of comic strips and comic books
2996-505: Is said to have broadcast the first radio program, consisting of some violin playing and passages from the Bible. While Fessenden's role as an inventor and early radio experimenter is not in dispute, several contemporary radio researchers have questioned whether the Christmas Eve broadcast took place, or whether the date was, in fact, several weeks earlier. The first apparent published reference to
3103-484: Is the only surviving recording of a program. There was some home recording of radio broadcasts in the 1930s and 1940s. Examples from as early as 1930 have been documented. During these years, home recordings were made with disc recorders, most of which were only capable of storing about four minutes of a radio program on each side of a twelve-inch 78 rpm record. Most home recordings were made on even shorter-playing ten-inch or smaller discs. Some home disc recorders offered
3210-594: The Columbia Broadcasting System in support of America's cultural diplomacy initiatives and President Franklin Roosevelt's Good Neighbor policy . Included among the popular shows was Viva America which showcased leading musical artists from both North and South America for the entertainment of America's troops. Included among the regular performers were: Alfredo Antonini , Juan Arvizu , Nestor Mesta Chayres , Kate Smith , and John Serry Sr. After
3317-600: The Eric Bentley play, Are You Now or Have You Ever Been . The New York Times headline was "Stander Lectures House Red Inquiry." In a dig at bandleader Artie Shaw , who had tearfully claimed in a Committee hearing that he had been "duped" by the Communist Party, Stander testified, "I am not a dupe, or a dope, or a moe, or a schmoe... I was absolutely conscious of what I was doing, and I am not ashamed of anything I said in public or private." An excerpt from that statement
The Joan Davis Show - Misplaced Pages Continue
3424-624: The Théâtrophone , commercially introduced in Paris in 1890 and available as late as 1932. It allowed subscribers to eavesdrop on live stage performances and hear news reports by means of a network of telephone lines. The development of radio eliminated the wires and subscription charges from this concept. Between 1900 and 1920 the first technology for transmitting sound by radio was developed, AM ( amplitude modulation ), and AM broadcasting sprang up around 1920. On Christmas Eve 1906, Reginald Fessenden
3531-665: The black comedy about the funeral industry, The Loved One , based on the novel by Evelyn Waugh , with an all-star cast including Jonathan Winters , Robert Morse , Liberace , Rod Steiger , Paul Williams and many others. In 1966, Roman Polanski cast Stander in his only starring role, as the thug Dickie in Cul-de-sac , opposite Françoise Dorléac and Donald Pleasence . Stander stayed in Europe and eventually settled in Rome, where he appeared in many spaghetti Westerns , most notably playing
3638-670: The 1906 Fessenden broadcast actually happened is discussed in Donna Halper's article "In Search of the Truth About Fessenden" and also in James O'Neal's essays. An annotated argument supporting Fessenden as the world's first radio broadcaster was offered in 2006 by Dr. John S. Belrose, Radioscientist Emeritus at the Communications Research Centre Canada, in his essay "Fessenden's 1906 Christmas Eve broadcast." It
3745-450: The 1940s, Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce , famous for playing Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in films, repeated their characterizations on radio on The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes , which featured both original stories and episodes directly adapted from Arthur Conan Doyle 's stories. None of the episodes in which Rathbone and Bruce starred on the radio program were filmed with the two actors as Holmes and Watson, so radio became
3852-543: The 1961 film noir Blast of Silence .) Life improved for Stander when he moved to London in 1964 to act in Bertolt Brecht 's Saint Joan of the Stockyards , directed by Tony Richardson , for whom he'd acted on Broadway, along with Christopher Plummer , in a 1963 production of Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui . In 1965, he was featured in the film Promise Her Anything . That same year Richardson cast him in
3959-523: The 1979–1984 television series Hart to Hart (and a subsequent series of Hart to Hart made-for-television films). In 1982, Stander won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film . In 1986, he became the voice of Kup in The Transformers: The Movie . In 1991 he was a guest star in the television series Dream On , playing Uncle Pat in the episode "Toby or Not Toby". His final theatrical film role
4066-500: The AFRS during the Golden Age were recorded as electrical transcription discs, vinyl copies of which were shipped to stations overseas to be broadcast to the troops. People in the United States rarely ever heard programming from the AFRS, though AFRS recordings of Golden Age network shows were occasionally broadcast on some domestic stations beginning in the 1950s. In some cases, the AFRS disc
4173-467: The Golden Age, network programs were almost exclusively broadcast live, as the national networks prohibited the airing of recorded programs until the late 1940s because of the inferior sound quality of phonograph discs, the only practical recording medium at that time. As a result, network prime-time shows would be performed twice, once for each coast. Coverage of live events included musical concerts and play-by-play sports broadcasts. The capability of
4280-678: The Left" and supported the Communist Party USA prior to the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact (which he opposed), though he was never a registered member of the party nor considered himself one. In 1938, Columbia Pictures head Harry Cohn allegedly called Stander "a Red son of a bitch" and threatened a US$ 100,000 fine against any studio that renewed his contract. Despite critical acclaim for his performances, Stander's film work dropped off drastically. After appearing in 15 films in 1935 and 1936, he
4387-659: The Preston Sturges comedy Unfaithfully Yours (1948) with Rex Harrison . In 1947, HUAC turned its attention once again to Hollywood. That October, Howard Rushmore, who had belonged to the CPUSA in the 1930s and written film reviews for the Daily Worker , testified that writer John Howard Lawson , whom he named as a Communist, had "referred to Lionel Stander as a perfect example of how a Communist should not act in Hollywood." Stander
The Joan Davis Show - Misplaced Pages Continue
4494-463: The U.S. War Department 's quest to improve troop morale. This quest began with short-wave broadcasts of educational and information programs to troops in 1940. In 1941, the War Department began issuing "Buddy Kits" (B-Kits) to departing troops, which consisted of radios, 78 rpm records and electrical transcription discs of radio shows. However, with the entrance of the United States into World War II,
4601-776: The U.S. Department of Commerce, until a legal challenge rendered the agency powerless to do so. Congress responded by enacting the Radio Act of 1927 , which included the formation of the Federal Radio Commission (FRC). One of the FRC's most important early actions was the adoption of General Order 40 , which divided stations on the AM band into three power level categories, which became known as Local, Regional, and Clear Channel, and reorganized station assignments. Based on this plan, effective 3:00 a.m. Eastern time on November 11, 1928, most of
4708-545: The United States later in the decade, playing the role of the majordomo Max on the 1980s mystery television series Hart to Hart , earning him a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film . Stander was born in The Bronx , New York City on 11 January 1908, to parents of Russian Jewish extraction. During his one year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , he appeared in
4815-523: The United States underwent a period of rapid change through the decade of the 1920s. Technology advances, better regulation, rapid consumer adoption, and the creation of broadcast networks transformed radio from a consumer curiosity into the mass media powerhouse that defined the Golden Age of Radio. Through the decade of the 1920s, the purchase of radios by United States homes continued, and accelerated. The Radio Corporation of America (RCA) released figures in 1925 stating that 19% of United States homes owned
4922-468: The War Department decided that it needed to improve the quality and quantity of its offerings. This began with the broadcasting of its own original variety programs. Command Performance was the first of these, produced for the first time on March 1, 1942. On May 26, 1942, the Armed Forces Radio Service was formally established. Originally, its programming comprised network radio shows with
5029-594: The allegations. Stander appeared in few films in 1944 and 1945. Then, with HUAC's attentions focused elsewhere due to World War II, he played in a number of mostly second-rate pictures from independent studios through the late 1940s. These include Ben Hecht's Specter of the Rose (1946); the Preston Sturges comedy The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (1947) with Harold Lloyd ; and Trouble Makers (1948) with The Bowery Boys . One classic emerged from this period of his career,
5136-409: The blanks varied in both size and composition, but most often they were simply bare aluminum and the groove was indented rather than cut. Typically, these very early recordings were not made by the network or radio station, but by a private recording service contracted by the broadcast sponsor or one of the performers. The bare aluminum discs were typically 10 or 12 inches in diameter and recorded at
5243-408: The carpeted floor after use. Despite a general ban on use of recordings on broadcasts by radio networks through the late 1940s, "reference recordings" on phonograph disc were made of many programs as they were being broadcast, for review by the sponsor and for the network's own archival purposes. With the development of high-fidelity magnetic wire and tape recording in the years following World War II,
5350-555: The commercials removed. However, it soon began producing original programming, such as Mail Call , G.I. Journal , Jubilee and GI Jive . At its peak in 1945, the Service produced around 20 hours of original programming each week. From 1943 until 1949 the AFRS also broadcast programs developed through the collaborative efforts of the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs and
5457-519: The country ("fled", according to Stander) for Europe. After that, Stander was blacklisted from TV and radio. He continued to act in theater roles, and played Ludlow Lowell in the 1952-53 revival of Pal Joey on Broadway and on tour. Two years passed before Stander was issued the requested subpoena. Finally, in May 1953, he testified at a HUAC hearing in New York, where he made front-page headlines nationwide by being uproariously uncooperative, memorialized in
SECTION 50
#17329099098105564-417: The country's stations were assigned to new transmitting frequencies. The final element needed to make the Golden Age of Radio possible focused on the question of distribution: the ability for multiple radio stations to simultaneously broadcast the same content, and this would be solved with the concept of a radio network . The earliest radio programs of the 1920s were largely unsponsored; radio stations were
5671-399: The disc change-over points would match and result in a more seamless playback. An inside start also had the advantage that the thread of material cut from the disc's surface, which had to be kept out of the path of the cutting stylus, was naturally thrown toward the center of the disc so was automatically out of the way. When cutting an outside start disc, a brush could be used to keep it out of
5778-425: The duration of the war. In the late 1940s, wire recorders became a readily obtainable means of recording radio programs. On a per-minute basis, it was less expensive to record a broadcast on wire than on discs. The one-hour program that required the four sides of two 16-inch discs could be recorded intact on a single spool of wire less than three inches in diameter and about half an inch thick. The audio fidelity of
5885-530: The early 1920s and lasted through the 1950s, when television gradually superseded radio as the medium of choice for scripted programming, variety and dramatic shows. Radio was the first broadcast medium , and during this period people regularly tuned in to their favorite radio programs, and families gathered to listen to the home radio in the evening. According to a 1947 C. E. Hooper survey, 82 out of 100 Americans were found to be radio listeners. A variety of new entertainment formats and genres were created for
5992-410: The early 1950s, when increasingly affordable reel-to-reel tape recorders for home use were introduced to the market. Before the early 1950s, when radio networks and local stations wanted to preserve a live broadcast, they did so by means of special phonograph records known as " electrical transcriptions " (ETs), made by cutting a sound-modulated groove into a blank disc. At first, in the early 1930s,
6099-461: The elevator operator" amidst the antics of Kaye, future Our Miss Brooks star Eve Arden , and bandleader Harry James . Also during the 1940s, he played several characters on The Woody Woodpecker and Andy Panda animated theatrical shorts, produced by Walter Lantz Productions . For Woody Woodpecker , he provided the voice of Buzz Buzzard , but was blacklisted from the Lantz studio in 1951 and
6206-410: The event was made in 1928 by H. P. Davis, Vice President of Westinghouse , in a lecture given at Harvard University . In 1932 Fessenden cited the Christmas Eve 1906 broadcast event in a letter he wrote to Vice President S. M. Kinter of Westinghouse. Fessenden's wife Helen recounts the broadcast in her book Fessenden: Builder of Tomorrows (1940), eight years after Fessenden's death. The issue of whether
6313-419: The expense of recorders and the limitations of the recording media, home recording of broadcasts was not common during this period and it was usually limited to brief excerpts. The lack of suitable home recording equipment was somewhat relieved in 1947 with the availability of magnetic wire recorders for domestic use. These were capable of recording an hour-long broadcast on a single small spool of wire, and if
6420-596: The few examples of live classical music still broadcast on radio. One of the most notable of all classical music radio programs of the Golden Age of Radio featured the celebrated Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra , which had been created especially for him. At that time, nearly all classical musicians and critics considered Toscanini the greatest living maestro. Popular songwriters such as George Gershwin were also featured on radio. (Gershwin, in addition to frequent appearances as
6527-403: The finest radio drama anthologies ever presented. They usually starred Welles in the leading role, along with celebrity guest stars such as Margaret Sullavan or Helen Hayes , in adaptations from literature, Broadway, and/or films. They included such titles as Liliom , Oliver Twist (a title now feared lost), A Tale of Two Cities , Lost Horizon , and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd . It
SECTION 60
#17329099098106634-519: The first three decades of radio , from 1887 to about 1920, the technology of transmitting sound was undeveloped; the information-carrying ability of radio waves was the same as a telegraph ; the radio signal could be either on or off. Radio communication was by wireless telegraphy ; at the sending end, an operator tapped on a switch which caused the radio transmitter to produce a series of pulses of radio waves which spelled out text messages in Morse code . At
6741-467: The first was Information Please in 1938, and one of the first major successes was Dr. I.Q. in 1939. Winner Take All , which premiered in 1946, was the first to use lockout devices and feature returning champions. A relative of the game show, which would be called the giveaway show in contemporary media, typically involved giving sponsored products to studio audience members, people randomly called by telephone, or both. An early example of this show
6848-570: The gamut from the small town humor of Lum and Abner , Herb Shriner and Minnie Pearl to the dialect characterizations of Mel Blanc and the caustic sarcasm of Henry Morgan . Gags galore were delivered weekly on Stop Me If You've Heard This One and Can You Top This? , panel programs devoted to the art of telling jokes. Quiz shows were lampooned on It Pays to Be Ignorant , and other memorable parodies were presented by such satirists as Spike Jones , Stoopnagle and Budd , Stan Freberg and Bob and Ray . British comedy reached American shores in
6955-542: The heavy pickups and steel needles then in use before deterioration became audible. During World War II, aluminum became a necessary material for the war effort and was in short supply. This caused an alternative to be sought for the base on which to coat the lacquer. Glass, despite its obvious disadvantage of fragility, had occasionally been used in earlier years because it could provide a perfectly smooth and even supporting surface for mastering and other critical applications. Glass base recording blanks came into general use for
7062-724: The last four daytime radio dramas— Young Dr. Malone , Right to Happiness , The Second Mrs. Burton and Ma Perkins , all broadcast on the CBS Radio Network —were brought to an end. The line-up of late afternoon adventure serials included Bobby Benson and the B-Bar-B Riders , The Cisco Kid , Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy , Captain Midnight , and The Tom Mix Ralston Straight Shooters . Badges, rings, decoding devices and other radio premiums were often linked to
7169-514: The late 1920s and early 1930s. Local stations often had staff organists such as Jesse Crawford playing popular tunes. Classical music programs on the air included The Voice of Firestone and The Bell Telephone Hour . Texaco sponsored the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts ; the broadcasts, now sponsored by the Toll Brothers , continue to this day around the world, and are one of
7276-416: The longest period. After that, Stander's acting career went into a free fall. He worked as a stockbroker on Wall Street , a journeyman stage actor, a corporate spokesman—even a New Orleans Mardi Gras king. He didn't return to Broadway until 1961 (and then only briefly in a flop) and to film in 1963, in the low-budget The Moving Finger (although he did provide, uncredited, the voice-over narration for
7383-480: The main characters were her friend Mabel, played by Sharon Douglas, and tea shop manager Lionel, played by Lionel Stander . Other regulars were Hans Conried , Verna Felton, and Andy Russell. The Choraleers provided vocal music, while Lud Gluskin , John Rarig, and Paul Weston led their orchestras. Announcers were Ben Gage, Bob LeMond, and Harry von Zell. The producer was Dick Mack. The program ended on July 3, 1948. Leave It to Joan debuted on CBS on July 4, 1949, as
7490-411: The modern era, were still relatively uncommon and considered intrusive. During the 1930s and 1940s, the leading orchestras were heard often through big band remotes , and NBC's Monitor continued such remotes well into the 1950s by broadcasting live music from New York City jazz clubs to rural America. Singers such as Harriet Lee and Wendell Hall became popular fixtures on network radio beginning in
7597-472: The networks became more open to airing recorded programs and the prerecording of shows became more common. Local stations, however, had always been free to use recordings and sometimes made substantial use of prerecorded syndicated programs distributed on pressed (as opposed to individually recorded) transcription discs . Recording was done using a cutting lathe and acetate discs . Programs were normally recorded at 33 1 ⁄ 3 rpm on 16-inch discs,
7704-414: The new medium to get information to people created the format of modern radio news : headlines, remote reporting , sidewalk interviews (such as Vox Pop ), panel discussions , weather reports , and farm reports. The entry of radio into the realm of news triggered a feud between the radio and newspaper industries in the mid-1930s , eventually culminating in newspapers trumping up exaggerated reports of
7811-568: The new medium, many of which later migrated to television: radio plays , mystery serials, soap operas , quiz shows , talent shows , daytime and evening variety hours , situation comedies , play-by-play sports, children's shows , cooking shows , and more. In the 1950s, television surpassed radio as the most popular broadcast medium, and commercial radio programming shifted to narrower formats of news, talk, sports and music. Religious broadcasters, listener-supported public radio and college stations provide their own distinctive formats. During
7918-457: The next decade; even as the Great Depression ravaged the country in the 1930s, radio would stay at the center of American life. 83% of American homes would own a radio by 1940. Although radio was well established with United States consumers by the mid-1920s, regulation of the broadcast medium presented its own challenges. Until 1926, broadcast radio power and frequency use was regulated by
8025-412: The only medium in which audiences were able to experience Rathbone and Bruce appearing in some of the more famous Holmes stories, such as " The Speckled Band ". There were also many dramatizations of Sherlock Holmes stories on radio without Rathbone and Bruce. During the latter part of his career, celebrated actor John Barrymore starred in a radio program, Streamlined Shakespeare , which featured him in
8132-436: The option of the 33 1 ⁄ 3 rpm speed used for electrical transcriptions, allowing a recording more than twice as long to be made, although with reduced audio quality. Office dictation equipment was sometimes pressed into service for making recordings of radio broadcasts, but the audio quality of these devices was poor and the resulting recordings were in odd formats that had to be played back on similar equipment. Due to
8239-506: The orchestra. After March 3, 1950, American Tobacco Company sponsored the program for $ 8,500 per week, with 21 weeks on the air guaranteed. Commercials promoted Roi-Tan cigars. Complementing the on-air advertising, the company placed images of Davis as a cigar store Indian , "brandishing a tomahawk, moccasins, and a feathered headdress" on cigar boxes and on displays in stores. American ended its sponsorship in March 1950. CBS wanted to keep it on
8346-475: The original four-year span, Joan Davis Time debuted on October 11, 1947, as a revised version of Joanie's Tea Room , with Davis still owner of the tea shop. The program focused on "Joan's efforts to improve her life and find a steady boyfriend"—a premise that was reinforced by the show's theme song, " Nobody's Sweetheart ". Humorous incidents arose from Davis' interactions with the tea shop's regular customers as well as with other people she met. Other than Davis,
8453-420: The program was revamped and renamed The Sealtest Village Store . Davis was promoted from cast member to star in the new program, which debuted on July 8, 1943, on NBC . Her character was the proprietor of the title store, a woman who "chased men and pined for a steady beau". Jack Haley joined the cast as the male lead in the role of Davis' helper in the story, apparently because NBC officials were dubious that
8560-730: The program, in addition to Davis, Russell, and von Zell, were Verna Felton as Rosella Hipperton III and Cousin Corneila, Shirley Mitchell and Sharon Douglas as Barbara Weatherby, Si Wills as Serenus, Wally Brown as himself, and Ben Gage as Dr. Ronald Crenshaw. Bob LeMond was an announcer. Paul Weston and Jack Meakin and their orchestras provided music in the first and second seasons, respectively. Dave Titus and Dick Mack produced and directed. Writers included Harry Crane , Larry Gelbart , Jack Harvey, Nat Linden, Herbert Little, Bob O'Brien, Joe Quillan, Jay Sommers , Si Wills, and David Victor. After Swan Soap ended its contract with Davis midway through
8667-686: The question.") Stander also supported the Conference of Studio Unions in its fight against the Mob-influenced International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees ( IATSE ). Also in 1937, Ivan F. Cox, a deposed officer of the San Francisco longshoremen's union, sued Stander and a host of others, including union leader Harry Bridges , actors Fredric March , Franchot Tone , Mary Astor , James Cagney , Jean Muir , and director William Dieterle . The charge, according to Time magazine,
8774-402: The receiver these sounded like beeps, requiring an operator who knew Morse code to translate them back to text. This type of radio was used exclusively for person-to-person text communication for commercial, diplomatic and military purposes and hobbyists; broadcasting did not exist. The broadcasts of live drama, comedy, music and news that characterize the Golden Age of Radio had a precedent in
8881-414: The show eventually led to McAvity's leaving the program, to be replaced by Robert Redd. As the end of Davis' contract with the sponsor approached, her agents contacted other potential sponsors, which did not sit well with officials at Sealtest. As a result, they went against a radio custom and did not allow her to say goodbye to listeners of her final Village Store program on June 28, 1945. Davis rebutted
8988-422: The situations in the episode "are just plain contrived and tired". The review added that Davis's "talents merit a better break than she's getting." Old-time radio The Golden Age of Radio , also known as the old-time radio ( OTR ) era, was an era of radio in the United States where it was the dominant electronic home entertainment medium . It began with the birth of commercial radio broadcasting in
9095-484: The sponsor's charge of disloyalty by reminding the company executives via a "scorching reply" that a year earlier she had stayed with Sealtest rather than accept a significantly higher salary from the American Tobacco Company . The program's supporting cast included Sharon Douglas , Shirley Mitchell , and Verna Felton . The Fountainaires Quartet and Eddie Paul and his orchestra provided music. Robert L. Redd
9202-403: The standard format used for such " electrical transcriptions " from the early 1930s through the 1950s. Sometimes, the groove was cut starting at the inside of the disc and running to the outside. This was useful when the program to be recorded was longer than 15 minutes so required more than one disc side. By recording the first side outside in, the second inside out, and so on, the sound quality at
9309-632: The student productions The Muse of the Unpublished Writer , and The Muse and the Movies: A Comedy of Greenwich Village . Stander's acting career began in 1928, as Cop and First Fairy in Him by E. E. Cummings , at the Provincetown Playhouse . He claimed that he got the roles because one of them required shooting craps , which he did well, and a friend in the company volunteered him. He appeared in
9416-513: The then-standard speed of 78 rpm , which meant that several disc sides were required to accommodate even a 15-minute program. By about 1936, 16-inch aluminum-based discs coated with cellulose nitrate lacquer, commonly known as acetates and recorded at a speed of 33 1 ⁄ 3 rpm, had been adopted by the networks and individual radio stations as the standard medium for recording broadcasts. The making of such recordings, at least for some purposes, then became routine. Some discs were recorded using
9523-588: The war, the AFRS continued providing programming to troops in Europe. During the 1950s and early 1960s it presented performances by the Army's only symphonic orchestra ensemble—the Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra . It also provided programming for future wars that the United States was involved in. It survives today as a component of the American Forces Network (AFN). All of the shows aired by
9630-417: The way by sweeping it toward the middle of the disc. Well-equipped recording lathes used the vacuum from a water aspirator to pick it up as it was cut and deposit it in a water-filled bottle. In addition to convenience, this served a safety purpose, as the cellulose nitrate thread was highly flammable and a loose accumulation of it combusted violently if ignited. Most recordings of radio broadcasts were made at
9737-461: The wireless telephone, through advancements in vacuum tube technology and the introduction of the transceiver . After the war, numerous radio stations were born in the United States and set the standard for later radio programs. The first radio news program was broadcast on August 31, 1920, on the station 8MK in Detroit ; owned by The Detroit News , the station covered local election results. This
9844-773: Was "conspiring to propagate Communism on the Pacific Coast, causing Mr. Cox to lose his job". During the Spanish Civil War , Stander fundraised for the Republican cause, and later campaigned for the release of the Scottsboro Boys . He was a member of the Popular Front from 1936 until 1939, and later the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League . Regarding his political beliefs, Stander later described himself as "lefter than
9951-425: Was again blacklisted from films, though he played on TV, radio, and in the theater. In March 1951, actor Larry Parks , after pleading with HUAC investigators not to force him to "crawl through the mud" as an informer, named several people as Communists in a "closed-door session", which made the newspapers two days later. He testified that he knew Stander, but did not recall attending any CP meetings with him. At
10058-432: Was engraved in stone for "The First Amendment Blacklist Memorial" by Jenny Holzer at the University of Southern California . Other notable statements during Stander's 1953 HUAC testimony: Stander also denied having been a Communist "now or yesterday." But when asked if he had ever been a party member, he refused to answer, calling it "a trick question ." Stander was blacklisted from the late 1940s until 1965; perhaps
10165-539: Was even made by the FCC to ban them (as an illegal lottery) in August 1949. The RCA Type 44-BX microphone had two live faces and two dead ones. Thus actors could face each other and react. An actor could give the effect of leaving the room by simply moving their head toward the dead face of the microphone. The scripts were paper-clipped together. It has been disputed whether or not actors and actresses would drop finished pages to
10272-596: Was followed in 1920 with the first commercial radio station in the United States, KDKA , being established in Pittsburgh . The first regular entertainment programs were broadcast in 1922, and on March 10, Variety carried the front-page headline: "Radio Sweeping Country: 1,000,000 Sets in Use." A highlight of this time was the first Rose Bowl being broadcast on January 1, 1923, on the Los Angeles station KHJ . Broadcast radio in
10379-455: Was heard on radio's Archie Andrews from 1943 to 1953. The Timid Soul was a 1941–1942 comedy based on cartoonist H. T. Webster 's famed Caspar Milquetoast character, and Robert L. Ripley's Believe It or Not! was adapted to several different radio formats during the 1930s and 1940s. Conversely, some radio shows gave rise to spinoff comic strips, such as My Friend Irma starring Marie Wilson . The first program generally considered to be
10486-510: Was in only six in 1937 and 1938. This was followed by just six films from 1939 through 1943, none made by major studios, the most notable being Guadalcanal Diary (1943). Stander was among the first group of Hollywood actors to be subpoenaed before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1940 for supposed Communist activities. At a grand jury hearing in Los Angeles in August 1940—the transcript of which
10593-530: Was known for his distinctive raspy voice and tough-guy demeanor, as well as for his vocal left-wing political stances. One of the first Hollywood actors to be subpoenaed before the House Un-American Activities Committee , he was blacklisted from the late 1940s until the mid-1960s. Following his experience with the Hollywood Blacklist, Stander moved to Europe, where he appeared in many genre films , including several Spaghetti Westerns . He returned to
10700-457: Was not until after the Titanic catastrophe in 1912 that radio for mass communication came into vogue, inspired first by the work of amateur ("ham") radio operators. Radio was especially important during World War I as it was vital for air and naval operations. World War I brought about major developments in radio, superseding the Morse code of the wireless telegraph with the vocal communication of
10807-492: Was on Mercury Theatre that Welles presented his celebrated-but-infamous 1938 adaptation of H. G. Wells 's The War of the Worlds , formatted to sound like a breaking news program. Theatre Guild on the Air presented adaptations of classical and Broadway plays. Their Shakespeare adaptations included a one-hour Macbeth starring Maurice Evans and Judith Anderson , and a 90-minute Hamlet , starring John Gielgud . Recordings of many of these programs survive. During
10914-515: Was on June 23, 1947. Like her character on the previous show, in this program Davis sought romance, especially with the program's singer, Andy Russell . That pursuit brought her in conflict with Barbara Weatherby, daughter of the town's banker. Meanwhile, Davis spurned the attentions of announcer Harry von Zell . A noticeable change from the Sealtest show was that this program had few guest stars, relying primarily on situation comedy . Others heard on
11021-1113: Was picked up by NBC Radio in 1933. In 1925, WSM Barn Dance went on the air from Nashville . It was renamed the Grand Ole Opry in 1927 and NBC carried portions from 1944 to 1956. NBC also aired The Red Foley Show from 1951 to 1961, and ABC Radio carried Ozark Jubilee from 1953 to 1961. Radio attracted top comedy talents from vaudeville and Hollywood for many years: Bing Crosby , Abbott and Costello , Fred Allen , Jack Benny , Victor Borge , Fanny Brice , Billie Burke , Bob Burns , Judy Canova , Eddie Cantor , Jimmy Durante , Burns and Allen , Phil Harris , Edgar Bergen , Bob Hope , Groucho Marx , Jean Shepherd , Red Skelton and Ed Wynn . Situational comedies also gained popularity, such as Amos 'n' Andy , Easy Aces , Ethel and Albert , Fibber McGee and Molly , The Goldbergs , The Great Gildersleeve , The Halls of Ivy (which featured screen star Ronald Colman and his wife Benita Hume ), Meet Corliss Archer , Meet Millie , and Our Miss Brooks . Radio comedy ran
11128-498: Was replaced by Dal McKennon . Stander espoused a variety of social and political causes, and was a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild . At a SAG meeting held during a 1937 studio technicians' strike, he told the assemblage of 2000 members: "With the eyes of the whole world on this meeting, will it not give the Guild a black eye if its members continue to cross picket lines?" (The NY Times reported: "Cheers mingled with boos greeted
11235-422: Was shortly released to the press— John R. Leech , the self-described former "chief functionary" of the Communist Party in Los Angeles, named Stander as a CP member, along with more than 15 other Hollywood notables, including Franchot Tone , Humphrey Bogart , James Cagney , Clifford Odets and Budd Schulberg . Stander subsequently forced himself into the grand jury hearing, and the district attorney cleared him of
11342-455: Was the 1939 show Pot o' Gold , but the breakout hit of this type was ABC's Stop the Music in 1948. Winning a prize generally required knowledge of what was being aired on the show at that moment, which led to criticism of the giveaway show as a form of "buying an audience". Giveaway shows were extremely popular through 1948 and 1949. They were often panned as low-brow, and an unsuccessful attempt
11449-400: Was the director, with Ray Singer and Dick Chevillat as writers. After leaving The Sealtest Village Store , Davis began her new program on September 3, 1945, on CBS. Sponsored by Swan Soap , the show replaced The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show . The premise had Davis as proprietor of Joanie's Tea Room, which resulted in use of that expression as an alternate title. Its final broadcast
#809190