Next on the Program is a tribute to Gale Gordon

Long before his Theodore J. Mooney character was bellowing, “MRS. CARMICHAEL!” at Lucille Ball, Gale Gordon was one of the busiest - and highest paid - radio actors in Hollywood.

Born in New York City in 1906 and raised in England, Gordon overcame a cleft palate and started a Broadway career with The Dancers in the 1920s. In 1926 he began performing on radio and his career exploded.

Gale was sometimes working in twenty to thirty dramatic shows a week. In 1933, he was the highest paid radio actor. In 1935, he was Flash Gordon. In the same year he was opposite Mary Pickford in her series.

In 1941 he was cast as Mayor LaTrivia on Fibber McGee & Molly and for 12 seasons delighted audiences with his comic outbursts. In 1948, he was cast as the withering Osgood Conklin on Our Miss Brooks. He was Inspector Lestrade in The New Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes.

Toss in leads for programs such as Granby’s Green Acres and The Casebook Of Gregory Hood and regular appearances on The Great Gildersleeve, Front Page Drama, Old Gold Time - The Bickersons, Speed Gibson Of The International Secret Police, and The Shadow Of Fu Manchu. He also starred on shows such as The Lux Radio Theatre, The March Of Time, and The Fabulous Doctor Tweedy.

Gordon’s performance credits spanned genre from comedy to drama to mystery. Early in his career he developed a relationship with Lucille Ball which unsuccessfully led to him be her first choice for Fred Mertz on I Love Lucy. Years later, when she was on her own and developing The Lucy Show, he was cast as Arthur J. Mooney. For the balance of his career, the two performed together.

Gale Gordon died in 1995 and in 1999 was posthumously inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame where he was recognized as “One of radio’s surest laugh-getters.”

For a performer whose characters were often over the top with bellicose ferocity, such a tribute is gracefully understated.

Amazingly, the following is an excerpt of Gale Gordon’s radio credits:

• A Day In The Life Of Dennis Day
• Big Town
• Blackstone The Magic Detective
• Calling All Cars
• Captains Of Industry
• Fibber McGee and Molly - as Mayor LaTrivia
• Front Page Drama
• Granby’s Green Acres - as Granby
• Johnny Madero, Pier 23
• Life With Luigi
• Mama Bloom’s Brood
• Mary Pickford and Company - opposite Mary Pickford
• Maxwell House Coffee Time
• Mr. and Mrs. Blandings
• My Favorite Husband
• My Little Margie
• Old Gold Time presents The Bickersons
• Our Miss Brooks - as Osgood Conklin
• Richard Diamond, Private Detective
• Seal of the Don
• Speed Gibson of the International Secret Police
• Strange Adventures
• Suspense
• Sweethearts of the Circus
• Tarzan of the Apes
• The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
• The Amazing Interplanetary Adventures Of Flash Gordon - as Flash Gordon
• The Casebook of Gregory Hood - as Gregory Hood
• The Cavalcade of America
• The Fabulous Doctor Tweedy
• The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show
• The Great Gildersleeve
• The Lux Radio Theatre
• The March of Time
• The NBC University Theatre
• The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - as Inspector Lestrade
• The Orson Welles Theatre
• The Shadow of Fu Manchu
• The Theatre Guild on the Air
• The Whistler
• Wake Island
• Your Red Cross Roll Call

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Next on the Program is Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in Bold Venture

Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall made four movies together - To Have and Have Not in 1944, The Big Sleep in 1946, Dark Passage in 1947, and Key Largo in 1948. Their onscreen relationship was intense, dramatic, humorous, and punctuated with double and triple entendre.

Their radio show was no different.

From 1951-1952, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall sailed in to and out of trouble in Bold Venture. Slate Shannon (Bogart) and Sailor Duval (Bacall) were looking for “adventure, intrigue, mystery and romance in the sultry settings of tropical Havana and the mysterious islands of the Caribbean.”

Shannon owned a hotel in Cuba with all manner of shady guests. Duval was his sidekick and ward. Bacall used the same torchy voice she had in their screen roles. Together they ran into every imaginable sea- and land-based character in and around Havana.

The title of the episodes were grand: Deadly Merchandise; He Who Laughs Last; Out of Control; Thugs And Slugs; Voodoo Vendetta; I’m Going To Die; Revenge Is Sweet; and Marriage and Murder.

But even better was the interplay between Bogart and Bacall. Perhaps there is no finer, or shorter, example of their ability to deliver double and triple entendres than the beginning of Crazy Old Carlos (December 31, 1954) when Bacall’s character says to Bogart:

. . .

SAILOR:  We ought to do this more often Slate . . .

. . .

Is it getting warm in here?

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Next on the Program is Perry Mason in The Case of the Mistyped Soap Opera

Perry Mason, a hard-edged attorney who did anything, and everything, to save his clients, emerged from Erle Stanley Gardner’s writing which first appeared in the pulp magazine, Black Mask. In the early 1930s, Black Mask published six Gardner short stories about a crusading defense lawyer named Ken Corning. The character was the beginning of Perry Mason.

With the publication of the first Perry Mason novel in 1933, The Case of the Velvet Claws, Gardner described the character as a fighter who, “with infinite patience jockeys his enemies into a position where he can deliver one good knockout punch.” Four more novels - The Case of the Sulky Girl, The Case of the Lucky Legs, The Case of the Howling Dog and The Case of the Curious Bride - were published like a flurry of uppercuts. Movies from the books started in 1935; although their results were mixed, they maintained the character as a tough attorney.

Gardner continued writing and produced another 20 Perry Mason “The Case of . . .” novels with the same pulpy and sensational style. With the rise of radio drama, he began negotiaions to sell rights to the character. He had never described the character, leaving details to the readers imagination. Wide open to interpreation for an aural medium.

With the contract signed, the sponsor set, the scripts written and cast in place, Erle Stanly Gardner launched his rough, brash, knock-out punching Perry Mason on CBS radio as … a soap opera complete with sponsorship by “new Tide, the amazing washday miracle.” Pure melodrama, through and through.

From 1943 to 1955, Monday through Friday, fifteen minutes each day, for over 3,200 hundred episodes, Perry Mason was played by Donald Briggs, Santos Ortega, Bartlett Robinson and John Larkin. Della Street was played by Joan Alexander, Jan Miner and Gertrude Warner. Paul Drake, Mason’s private investigator, was performed by Matt Crowley and Charles Webster. Frank Dane and Mandel Kramer played Lieutenant Tragg. The Announcers were Bob Dixon, Alan Kent and Richard Stark.

For three years, Gardner listened with growing displeasure. Not until the arrival of writer Irving Vendig did Gardner find anything to like. Vendig fleshed out the character, added dimensions, and ultimately Gardner tolerated the program for the duration of it’s run.

Although radio’s Perry Mason was not as iconic as television’s version, the series did have significant financial impacts elsewhere. It served as a daily advertisment for the novels. While the show was on the air, another 23 novels were published and sold in the tens of millions in the US and around the world. Titles such as The Case of the Crooked Candle, The Case of the Borrowed Brunette, The Case of the Dubious Bridegroom, The Case of the Runaway Corpse and The Case of the Glamorous Ghost advanced the Perry Mason series and persona.

In 1956, while preparing to move from radio to television, and still mindful of the radio version’s disappointments, Gardner formed his own production company to ensure greater control of Mason on TV. Further, he took the melodramatic aspects out and launched the television series, with a new cast, where it ran from 1957 - 1966 and subsquent television movies. Plus 30 more novels were published, still pulpy, still sensational and practically reaching off bookshelves to grab readers with titles such as The Case of the Screaming Woman, The Case of the Singing Skirt, The Case of the Spurious Spinster, The Case of the Careless Cupid and The Case of the Postponed Murder.

Nor did the melodramatic radio series fade to silence. It was repackaged for an evening series on CBS television. That series was The Edge of Night and featured the cast from the radio show.

Given the radio series spun off two television shows and enhanced book sales, perhaps The Case of the Mistyped Soap Opera would be better titled The Case of the Multiplied Revenue Streams.

Case closed.

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Next on the Program is Big Town brandishing its “flaming sword” of freedom of the press

From 1937 through 1952, Big Town listeners were greeted by a newsboy’s chant of “Extra, extra, get your Illustrated Press!” And what they heard was sensational.

Big Town told the stories covered by the Illustrated Press and its Managing Editor, Steve Wilson. Spotlighting graft, crime, and corruption, Wilson and his reporters took on everyone from gangsters to crooked politicians.

But bigger than the stories in the pages of Illustrated Press were the stars in the leading roles - Edward G. Robinson played Steve Wilson and Claire Trevor was Lorelei Kilbourne, the Society Editor, and Wilson’s partner in journalistic crusading. Gale Gordon was District Attorney Miller, Lou Merrill played numerous gangsters, and Ed MacDonald was reporter, Tommy Hughes.

The news covered by Wilson, Kilbourne, Hughes, and the other reporters made for dramatic listening. Titles such as “Reform Town,” “Every Sixteen Minutes,” “Blind Justice,” and “Death at the Wheel” had more twists and hard stops than rush hour traffic.

But the show’s initial cast would soon change. Claire Trevor left in 1940 for the series Stagecoach and was replaced by Ona Munson and later, Fran Carlon. Robinson left in 1942; his replacement was Edward Pawley and briefly, Walter Greaza. Other characters were added: Harry the Hack, played by Robert Dryden, Ross Martin, and Mason Adams; Willie the Weep, played by Donald MacDonald; and Mozart, a blind piano-playing club owner performed by Larry Haines. Bobby Winckler was the newsboy and Michael O’Day took over later in the run.

Music was supplied by Leith Stevens and John Gart. Sound effects were performed by John Powers and Ray Erlenborn. Jerry McGill wrote the series. Directors were William N. Robson and McGill. Announcers were Carlton KaDell and Dwight Weist.

For 15 years on radio and another six on television and in comics, Steve Wilson and the reporters of Illustrated Press fought crime by reporting on crime. As their slogan reminded listeners, “Freedom of the press is a flaming sword! Use it justly . . . hold it high . . . guard it well.”

For Steve Wilson, Lorelei Kilbourne, and the reporters of the Illustrated Press, they did exactly that.

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Next on the Program is Blooooonnnnnnnnnnnnndie!

During July of 1939, Eddie Cantor’s Camel Caravan show on CBS took its summer vacation expecting to return in the fall. In its slot was aired a program whose roots were in Chic Young’s comic strip and feature films. From the first time the replacement show’s Announcer came on, audiences were treated to dizzy comedy.

. . .

ANNOUNCER:  Ah-ah-ah-ah! Don’t touch that dial! Listen to–

DAGWOOD:  Blooooonnnnnnnnnnnnndie!

ANNOUNCER:  Ah, yes. Dagwood Bumstead is home.

. . .

And Blondie was on the air.

Dagwood and Blondie Bumstead raised their children - Alexander and Cookie, suffered through the tirades of Dagwood’s boss, Mr. Dithers, played bridge with their neighbors, the Woodleys, and entertained the nation from “the small house in Shady Lane Avenue.”

Part of the show’s charm was Dagwood and his exploits. More or less an architect and adding numbers with lightning speed, he was forever in trouble with Mr. Dithers. Or, he was always sneaking out with his friends late at night and getting caught by Blondie. Radio Mirror declared Dagwood’s self-made mishaps made listeners realize “human frailty is a universal thing.”

Listeners to the radio show were treated to the same antics as in the comic strip such as Dagwood’s massive sandwiches, midnight snacks, and Daisy, the family dog, chasing her tail.

Arthur Lake played Dagwood opposite Penny Singleton, Ann Rutherford, Alice White and Patricia Van Cleve as Blondie.

Leone Ledoux played the pretoddler roles of Alexander and Cookie; Ledoux specialized in playing such roles. Tommy Cook, Larry Sims, Bobby Ellis, and Jeffrey Silver played Alexander. Marlene Aames, Norma Jean Nilsson, and Joan Rae played Cookie.

Hanley Stafford played J. C. Dithers, Dagwood’s boss and Elvia Allman was Mrs. Dithers (Cora). Frank Nelson and Harold Peary played Herb Woodley, the Bumsteads’ neighbor.

Ashmead Scott wrote and produced. Johnny Greene and William Moore wrote. Sound effects were performed by Ray Erlenborn and Parker Cornel; Music was by Harry Lubin and Billy Artz. Directors were Eddie Pola, Don Bernard, and Glenhall Taylor.

As if the actors, directors, musicians, sound effects artists, and writers weren’t enough, the show had the talents of some of the finest announcers ever: Bill Goodwin, Howard Petrie, and Harlow Wilcox.

The Camel Caravan didn’t come back in the fall of 1939 but for the next 11 years, listeners were treated to “Blooooonnnnnnnnnnnnndie!”

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