BW - EP106: Summer Vacation with Our Miss Brooks (1948 - 1954) [Rewind]
This episode was originally released on 8/1/2020. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.
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In Breaking Walls episode 106, we join Eve Arden at Madison High School and find out why we all love Our Miss Brooks.
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Highlights:
• Who is Eunice Quedens?
• Eve the heroine with Elizabeth Arden cosmetics.
• Starting out in Hollywood
• Getting on the Radio
• Teaming with Danny Kaye, Jack Haley, and Jack Carson
• William Paley and his Packaged Program Initiative
• My Friend Irma and Two New Proposed Female-driven Situation Comedies
• Our Miss Booth—Not Happening
• Eve Arden, meet Connie Brooks
• Our Miss Brooks—The New Summer Hit
• Colgate Signs on in the Fall of 1948
• Cast Camaraderie
• Eve Arden—Radio’s Top Comedienne
• Miss Brooks Gains Traction
• Taking the Show into TV without Jeff Chandler
• Winding down the Radio Show
• Looking Ahead to September
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The WallBreakers:
http://thewallbreakers.com
Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show:
http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
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The reading material used in today’s episode was:
On the Air — By John Dunning
Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — By Jim Ramsburg
As well as articles from the archives of Broadcasting Magazine, Radio Daily, and Radio Mirror.
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On the interview front:
Eve Arden, Gale Gordon, Jack Haley and Gloria McMillan were with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingofRadio.com.
Eve Arden was also with John Dunning on July 25th, 1982 for 71KNUS
Mary Jane Croft was with SPERDVAC on March 14th, 1992. For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com.
Shirley Booth was with Dick Cavett in 1971.
And Ozzie and Harriet Nelson were on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show on November 18th, 1969.
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was:
• It’s Been a Long Long Time — By The Harry James Band
• Easy Street — By June Christy
• Living Without You — By George Winston
• Hello Mary Lou — By Ricky Nelson
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2:43:44
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2:43:44
BW - EP105: Sam Spade Comes to Radio (1946 - 1951) [Rewind]
This episode was originally released on 7/1/2020. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.
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In Breaking Walls Episode 105 we pour shots and take dictation with The Adventures of Sam Spade.
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Highlights:
• Bill Spier’s Musical Beginnings Lead to Suspense
• Howard Duff: Unknown Actor
• How About Now For Sam Spade?
• CBS and ABC compete for Spade
• Spade Versus Bergen & McCarthy
• 1947-48: Radio’s Highest-Rated Season
• Spade Hits Its Stride
• Stop The Music
• June Havoc, Uncredited Spade Actress
• Unamerican Hammett? Unamerican Duff?
• Spade Gets Cancelled—Twice
• Howard Duff: Radio Preservationist
• What’s Next
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The WallBreakers:
http://thewallbreakers.com
Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show:
http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
——————————
The reading material used in today’s episode was:
On the Air — By John Dunning
Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — By Jim Ramsburg
As well as articles from the archives of Billboard Magazine, Broadcasting Magazine, Radio Daily, and Variety.
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On the interview front:
• Eve Arden, Howard Duff, and Lurene Tuttle were with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingofRadio.com.
• Dick Joy, Elliott Lewis, and E. Jack Neuman were with John Dunning for his 71KNUS program from Denver.
• Howard Duff, June Havoc, and Bill Spier were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear their full chats at https://goldenage-wtic.org/
• Lurene Tuttle remembered radio with Same Time, Same Station on February 6th, 1972.
• Frank Stanton spoke with CBS in honor of their 50th anniversary in 1977.
• Mary Jane Croft was with SPERDVAC on March 14th, 1992. For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com.
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was:
• Fever — By Peggy Lee
• Smoke Gets In Your Eyes — By The Mallett Men
• Young At Heart — By Frank Sinatra
• The Prologue and Main Title piece from High Spirits — By George Fenton
• Atomic Cocktail — By Slim Gaillard
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2:44:26
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2:44:26
BW - EP104: Orson Welles' Radio Career From Pearl Harbor to the End of Radio’s Peak (1941—1948) [Rewind]
This episode was originally released on 6/1/2020. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.
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In Breaking Walls Episode 104 we focus on Orson Welles’ radio career from Pearl Harbor through the end of radio’s peak, and pick up where we left off in Breaking Walls episode 79.
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Highlights:
• Orson Returns to Radio In the Fall of 1941
• The Magnificent Ambersons Enters Productions
• December 7th, 1941
• Orson and Norman Corwin Collaborate
• Orson is Named Pan-American Goodwill Ambassador
• It’s All True and Brazil
• Problems with RKO
• Endings Changed, Others Destroyed
• Orson gets fired—Returns to the United States in the fall of 1942
• Ceiling Unlimited And Hello Americans
• Jane Eyre
• Jack Benny Gets Sick, Orson filles in as host
• The Mercury Wonder Show
• Rita
• Marriage, again
• Busy Radio Days in 1944
• The Orson Welles Almanac
• Campaigning for FDR
• Donovan’s Brain
• D Day
• Election Day—1944
• Rita and Orson meet Rebecca
• Christmas 1944
• This is My Best
• Our President is Dead
• More Collaborations with Corwin
• The War Ends
• The Stranger
• Around the World in Eighty Days
• The Mercury Summer Theater
• The Lady From Shanghai
• Divorce
• Macbeth
• Europe and the end for Welles on American radio
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The WallBreakers:
http://thewallbreakers.com
Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show:
http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
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The reading material used in today’s episode was:
• Citizen Welles by Frank Brady
• This is Orson Welles by Welles and Peter Bogdanovich
• On the Air — By John Dunning
• Discovering Orson Welles by Jonathan Rosenbaum
• Orson Welles on the Air, at OrsonWelles.Indiana.edu
• Wellesnet.com.
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On the interview front:
• Orson Welles was with Peter Bogdonavich, Dick Cavett, Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin, Leslie MeGahey, Dinah Shore, and Huw Wheldon.
• Byron Kane and Jeanette Nolan were with SPERDVAC, the Society to Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety, and Comedy. For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com
• Norman Corwin was with Chuck Schaden. Hear the full chat at SpeakingofRadio.com.
• Howard Duff was with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear their full chat at Goldenage-WTIC.org.
• Robert Wise was with Leslie MeGahey.
• Jack Benny spoke with Jack Carney.
• Lurene Tuttle spoke with Same Time, Same Station in 1972.
• Agnes Moorehead was with Dick Cavett in 1973.
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was:
• Perfida — By Jimmy Dorsey and his Orchestra
• The Klezmer’s Wedding — By Andre Moisan
• The Third Man — By Anton Karas
• Hooray for Hollywood — By Don Swan
• The Battle Cry of Freedom — By Jacqueline Schwab
• Star of Bethlehem — Conducted by John Williams
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3:57:03
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3:57:03
BW - EP103: A Weekend at the Malt Shop with Fibber McGee and Molly (1955) [Rewind]
This episode was originally released on 5/1/2020. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.
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In Breaking Walls Episode 103 we visit the town of Wistful Vista to spend a weekend at Walt’s Malt Shop with Fibber McGee and Molly. While between 1938 and 1950, Jim and Marian Jordan’s comedy never finished lower than fifth in national radio ratings, in this episode, we’ll focus on the period after, when the show became a closed production and aired for fifteen minutes, five days per week.
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Highlights:
Jim Jordan—Saver of Things
Who is this Fibber McGee and What does he do?
First Smackout, by way of Chicago
Marian Jordan—Molly McGee
Fibber and Molly join NBC
When Tuesday Night was Comedy Night
Television takes over as NBC’s Stars Jump Ship
Fibber and Molly Take a Ratings Hit
Marian’s Health Deteriorates
NBC’s plan for the 1950s
Fibber and Molly Becomes a Serial
Finding Success
Taking Over Walt’s Malt
After the Weekend
Winding Down
Looking Back to Look Forward
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The WallBreakers:
http://thewallbreakers.com
Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show:
http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
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The reading material used in today’s episode was:
On the Air — By John Dunning
Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — by Jim Ramsburg
As well as several articles from Broadcasting Magazine, Radio & TV Mirror, and Sponsor Magazine.
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On the interview front:
Parley Baer and Harry Bartell were with SPERDVAC, the Society to Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety, and Comedy. For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com
Elvia Allman, Jim Jordan, Jim Jordan Jr, Phil Leslie, Willard Waterman, and Don Wilson were with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingofRadio.com.
Jim Jordan was with John Dunning for his 71KNUS program from Denver in 1982.
Don Quinn was interviewed in Hawaii by Owen Cunningham while on vacation in 1951.
And John Gibson and Jim Jordan were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear their full chat at Goldenage—WTIC.org
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was:
Caravan — By Gordon Jenkins
Goodbye Montana, Pt. 1 — By George Winston
I Forgot to Remember to Forget — By Elvis Presley
Route 66 — By Nat King Cole
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2:13:46
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2:13:46
BW - EP102: The Return of Johnny Dollar (1955) [Rewind]
This episode was originally released on 4/1/2020. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.
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In Breaking Walls Episode 102, we travel back to the fall of 1955 for the re-launch of Yours Truly Johnny Dollar. Although the five-part Dollar format would last for only a year, listeners then and in the years since have praised the productions as some of the best ever.
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Highlights:
• Who is Johnny Dollar?
• Dick Powell: Not Johnny Dollar
• Dollar Launches in February of 1949
• Enter The Movie Star
• Enter The Second Movie Star
• Dollar Signs Off
• The Radio Networks Revamp Programming
• Jack Johnstone and Jimmy Stewart
• Dollar Reborn, with Gerald Mohr?
• Bob Bailey Gets the Role
• Relaunching Johnny Dollar
• After The Final Curtain
• Looking Back to Look Ahead
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The WallBreakers:
thewallbreakers.com
Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.
To support the show:
patreon.com/TheWallBreakers
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The reading material used in today’s episode was:
• The 1955 Broadcasting Magazine Yearbook
• The 1955 Radio Networks Annual
• The Winter 1956 Journal of Broadcasting Quarterly
• The Who Is Johnny Dollar Matter — By John C. Abbott
• On the Air — By John Dunning
• Network Radio Ratings, 1932-53 — by Jim Ramsburg
• Broadcasting Magazine — September 19th, 1955; October 3rd, 1955; and April 2nd, 1956
• Radio & TV Mirror — 1955
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On the interview front:
• Mary Jane Croft, Herb Ellis, Jack Johnstone, Elliott Lewis, Jeanette Nolan, were with SPERDVAC, the Society to Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety, and Comedy. For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com
• Virginia Gregg and Parley Baer were with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingofRadio.com.
• Roberta Bailey Goodwin and E. Jack Neuman were with John Dunning for his 71KNUS program from Denver
• Hans Conried was with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear their full chat at Goldenage—WTIC.org
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Selected music featured in today’s episode was:
• Caravan — By 80 Drums Around The World.
• Pyramid to the Sun & Roller Coaster — By Les Baxter
• Exotique Bossa Nova — By Martin Denny
• I’ll Be Seeing You — By The Harry James Band
• Sleep Walk — By Henri René
• Good Timin’ — By Jimmy Jones
Ireland