JOHN NESBITT, CREATOR & VOICE OF "THE PASSING PARADE" IN 1944,
JOHN NESBITT’S PASSING PARADE
In the Network Radio world populated by fictional heroes and heroines, two individuals stood out who celebrated the lives of real, but generally unknown, people. The more famous of the two celebrants was Robert Ripley, a newspaper cartoonist whose Believe It Or Not syndicated panel led to fame in radio despite his habitual “mike fright“. Ripley appealed to the public‘s interest in the world’s oddities. (See Believe It Or Not.)
On the other hand, John Nesbitt, 19 years younger than cartoonist Ripley, was more interetersted in historical facts and the people involved with them. The Canadian-born actor and writer was said to have inherited his his acting and and vocal abiilities from his grandfather, noted Shakespearian actor Edwin Booth. His lifelong interest in history came from his father who became a popular minister and lecturer after retiring from British government service. (1)
Nesbitt's Passing Parade was a 14 year, sporadic multi-network feature that began in 1937 as a quarter-hour on NBC two nights a week. (2) His historical format searched for a radio audience over the next four years with short stops at Mutual, CBS and Blue. Of much greater popularity was his one-reel Passing Parade series that MGM introduced in 1938. The ten minute, “short subject” series, all edited and narrated by Nesbitt, eventually extended over 71 episodes until 1949.
MGM released eleven episodes of Nesbitt’s Passing Parade in 1942. His popularity wasn’t lost on NBC. The Johnson Wax Program starring Meredith Wllson & John Nesbitt became the 13 week summer substitute for Fibber McGee & Molly on June 30, 1942. Nesbitt’s first tale is this premiere episode is the brief history of, “…the song hit that never had a chance, A Handful of Stars.” Later, his major six-minute narrative of this episode begins at 11:45 into the program.
Variety reviewed this show on July 8 1942: "Spieler-showman John Nesbitt is pleasant and attention holding. … Nesbitt spoke of Mexico and its murdered president-reformer, Francisco Madero. It was a lesson in Mexican history that most people would find absorbing and informative with the facts being forgotten or unknown.”
A Handful of Stars returns as Willson’s scoring to Nesbitt’s performance on the Johnson Wax Program of September 8, 1942, beginning at 9:00 into the show. His nine minute Story of a Golden Necklace with a surprise twist ending could have easily been the soundtrack to a Passing Parade film based on the tale.
Three months later, Nesbitt joined baritone John Charles Thomas in NBC’S Sunday afternoon Westinghouse Program on January 10, 1943. It was a large production with Victor Young's orchestra and the Ken Darby Singers, budgeted at $8,500 per week. Nesbitt enters the April 30, 1944 episode from 14:30 to 21:00 with The Story of Coal and the May 7, 1944 program from 14:07 to 21:00 with The Story of Steel. In both cases, Nesbitt is capable of making dry and distant history sound very interesting.
Meredith Willson joined the U.S. Army in the fall of 1942 and became the Music Director of Armed Forces Service. (See Meredith Willson.) Nevertheless, Johnson Wax brought John Nesbitt's Passing Parade back to NBC the following summer with Carmen Dragon’s orchestra.
Variety responded to Nesbitt’s new series with this critical review on July 7, 1943: “John Nesbitt, who has carved out quite a remunerative career as a teller of stories, is back at his stand while Fibber McGee & Molly take their 13 week vacation. The Johnson Wax assignment tilts Nesbitt’s program alliance on NBC to two a week, the other being his stint with John Charles Thomas for Westinghouse every Sabbath matinee. … The program hues to the formula of Nesbitt's Passing Parade. Anecdotes, both strange and trite, toss on the swells of bombastic rhetoric. The words weave enough of a hypnotic sense to hold the listener, even though the welter of adjectives and adverbs have an obvious tinge of padded embroidery….”
The only existing sample of that 1943 summer series was broadcast the week after that review was published. July 13, 1943, when Nesbitt's subject was the Allied landing on Sicily - hardly what Variety could offhandedly dismiss as, "strange and trite." (Be advised that the audio quality of this half-hour’s first 15 minutes are very poor.)
Nesbitt’s Johnson Wax assignment ended in the fall but he remained busy. MGM released seven of his Passing Parades in 1943. In addition he continued with his Sunday afternoon NBC appearances with John Charles Thomas for Westinghouse. (3)
The spring of 1944 began another busy year with three Passing Parades, two feature films and the weekly Westinghouse Show on NBC. Then CBS came calling with a new 26 week assignment beginning on March 28th. Nesbitt’s Passing Parade replaced Harry James’ orchestra as Liggett & Myers’ quarter-hour program for Chesterfield cigarettes on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights at 7:15.
Variety reviewed The Passing Parade with a kinder pen on April 5, 1944: “John Nesbitt is one of those radio rarities who by the sheer power of his voice and delivery can salvage a chatter program which is weak on material and hold listeners with a script that other gabbers would find hopeless. Vivid demonstration of this (is) Nesbitt’s new series for Chesterfield. … The Nesbitt punch and enthusiasm held the quarter-hour session together and should have collared listeners. … Nesbitt as a replacement for Harry James obviously is not expected to hold the latter’s enthusiastic jive-live audience but should attract more mature listeners who enjoy unusual slants on incidents and individuals.” (4)
The Chesterfield program was important to Nesbitt’s radio career for two reasons: First, he didn’t win his time period against NBC’s News of The World, but his 5.1 Hooperating ranked among the 1943-44 Season’s Multiple Run Top Ten Programs - a source of pride after six years on the air Secondly, it was Nesbitt’s final coast-to-coast network series. His later work for Mutual and NBC was confined to the West Coast.
MGM increased output of Nesbitt’s Passing Parade to six in 1945 and another dozen over the next four years. The studio also saw opportunity in syndicating his narrations to the growing number of radio stations, springing up like weeds in postwar America. (5)
The syndication effort was less than a success, but it left behind a number of undated episodes, a few of which are identified by title and posted as: Parade: Empire State Crash, Parade: Incredible Courage, Parade: Franz Mesmer, Parade: Wild Jack Howard and Parade: The Man Who Discovered Troy.
Ironically, the life story of the man who gained fame recalling the life histories of others was cut remarkably short. John Nesbitt died in California in 1960 at the young age of 49. But he left behind over a hundred of his Passing Parade films and broadcasts filled with his stories. And could he ever tell them!
(1) John Nesbit spoke only French until he was six because his father was stationed at the British embassy in Paris. Upon his retirement from government service, the elder Nesbitt became a Unitarian minister in California and the family became American citizens.
(2) The Passing Parade was an outgrowth of Nesbitt’s 1935 series at KFRC/San Francisco, Headlines of The Past.
(3) The AFRS edited episode of this program for November 12, 1944 is posted. Nesbitt’s six minute Passing Parade segment begins at 15:15 into the program and is guaranteed to have you holding your breath. His Westinghouse Show with John Charles Thomas would run until June 30, 1946.
(4) Variety’s claim that Nesbitt was weak on material is destroyed with his program on June 6, 1944. (See D-Day On Radio.)
(5) Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was also co-owned with WHN/New York City, (aka WMGM).
In the Network Radio world populated by fictional heroes and heroines, two individuals stood out who celebrated the lives of real, but generally unknown, people. The more famous of the two celebrants was Robert Ripley, a newspaper cartoonist whose Believe It Or Not syndicated panel led to fame in radio despite his habitual “mike fright“. Ripley appealed to the public‘s interest in the world’s oddities. (See Believe It Or Not.)
On the other hand, John Nesbitt, 19 years younger than cartoonist Ripley, was more interetersted in historical facts and the people involved with them. The Canadian-born actor and writer was said to have inherited his his acting and and vocal abiilities from his grandfather, noted Shakespearian actor Edwin Booth. His lifelong interest in history came from his father who became a popular minister and lecturer after retiring from British government service. (1)
Nesbitt's Passing Parade was a 14 year, sporadic multi-network feature that began in 1937 as a quarter-hour on NBC two nights a week. (2) His historical format searched for a radio audience over the next four years with short stops at Mutual, CBS and Blue. Of much greater popularity was his one-reel Passing Parade series that MGM introduced in 1938. The ten minute, “short subject” series, all edited and narrated by Nesbitt, eventually extended over 71 episodes until 1949.
MGM released eleven episodes of Nesbitt’s Passing Parade in 1942. His popularity wasn’t lost on NBC. The Johnson Wax Program starring Meredith Wllson & John Nesbitt became the 13 week summer substitute for Fibber McGee & Molly on June 30, 1942. Nesbitt’s first tale is this premiere episode is the brief history of, “…the song hit that never had a chance, A Handful of Stars.” Later, his major six-minute narrative of this episode begins at 11:45 into the program.
Variety reviewed this show on July 8 1942: "Spieler-showman John Nesbitt is pleasant and attention holding. … Nesbitt spoke of Mexico and its murdered president-reformer, Francisco Madero. It was a lesson in Mexican history that most people would find absorbing and informative with the facts being forgotten or unknown.”
A Handful of Stars returns as Willson’s scoring to Nesbitt’s performance on the Johnson Wax Program of September 8, 1942, beginning at 9:00 into the show. His nine minute Story of a Golden Necklace with a surprise twist ending could have easily been the soundtrack to a Passing Parade film based on the tale.
Three months later, Nesbitt joined baritone John Charles Thomas in NBC’S Sunday afternoon Westinghouse Program on January 10, 1943. It was a large production with Victor Young's orchestra and the Ken Darby Singers, budgeted at $8,500 per week. Nesbitt enters the April 30, 1944 episode from 14:30 to 21:00 with The Story of Coal and the May 7, 1944 program from 14:07 to 21:00 with The Story of Steel. In both cases, Nesbitt is capable of making dry and distant history sound very interesting.
Meredith Willson joined the U.S. Army in the fall of 1942 and became the Music Director of Armed Forces Service. (See Meredith Willson.) Nevertheless, Johnson Wax brought John Nesbitt's Passing Parade back to NBC the following summer with Carmen Dragon’s orchestra.
Variety responded to Nesbitt’s new series with this critical review on July 7, 1943: “John Nesbitt, who has carved out quite a remunerative career as a teller of stories, is back at his stand while Fibber McGee & Molly take their 13 week vacation. The Johnson Wax assignment tilts Nesbitt’s program alliance on NBC to two a week, the other being his stint with John Charles Thomas for Westinghouse every Sabbath matinee. … The program hues to the formula of Nesbitt's Passing Parade. Anecdotes, both strange and trite, toss on the swells of bombastic rhetoric. The words weave enough of a hypnotic sense to hold the listener, even though the welter of adjectives and adverbs have an obvious tinge of padded embroidery….”
The only existing sample of that 1943 summer series was broadcast the week after that review was published. July 13, 1943, when Nesbitt's subject was the Allied landing on Sicily - hardly what Variety could offhandedly dismiss as, "strange and trite." (Be advised that the audio quality of this half-hour’s first 15 minutes are very poor.)
Nesbitt’s Johnson Wax assignment ended in the fall but he remained busy. MGM released seven of his Passing Parades in 1943. In addition he continued with his Sunday afternoon NBC appearances with John Charles Thomas for Westinghouse. (3)
The spring of 1944 began another busy year with three Passing Parades, two feature films and the weekly Westinghouse Show on NBC. Then CBS came calling with a new 26 week assignment beginning on March 28th. Nesbitt’s Passing Parade replaced Harry James’ orchestra as Liggett & Myers’ quarter-hour program for Chesterfield cigarettes on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights at 7:15.
Variety reviewed The Passing Parade with a kinder pen on April 5, 1944: “John Nesbitt is one of those radio rarities who by the sheer power of his voice and delivery can salvage a chatter program which is weak on material and hold listeners with a script that other gabbers would find hopeless. Vivid demonstration of this (is) Nesbitt’s new series for Chesterfield. … The Nesbitt punch and enthusiasm held the quarter-hour session together and should have collared listeners. … Nesbitt as a replacement for Harry James obviously is not expected to hold the latter’s enthusiastic jive-live audience but should attract more mature listeners who enjoy unusual slants on incidents and individuals.” (4)
The Chesterfield program was important to Nesbitt’s radio career for two reasons: First, he didn’t win his time period against NBC’s News of The World, but his 5.1 Hooperating ranked among the 1943-44 Season’s Multiple Run Top Ten Programs - a source of pride after six years on the air Secondly, it was Nesbitt’s final coast-to-coast network series. His later work for Mutual and NBC was confined to the West Coast.
MGM increased output of Nesbitt’s Passing Parade to six in 1945 and another dozen over the next four years. The studio also saw opportunity in syndicating his narrations to the growing number of radio stations, springing up like weeds in postwar America. (5)
The syndication effort was less than a success, but it left behind a number of undated episodes, a few of which are identified by title and posted as: Parade: Empire State Crash, Parade: Incredible Courage, Parade: Franz Mesmer, Parade: Wild Jack Howard and Parade: The Man Who Discovered Troy.
Ironically, the life story of the man who gained fame recalling the life histories of others was cut remarkably short. John Nesbitt died in California in 1960 at the young age of 49. But he left behind over a hundred of his Passing Parade films and broadcasts filled with his stories. And could he ever tell them!
(1) John Nesbit spoke only French until he was six because his father was stationed at the British embassy in Paris. Upon his retirement from government service, the elder Nesbitt became a Unitarian minister in California and the family became American citizens.
(2) The Passing Parade was an outgrowth of Nesbitt’s 1935 series at KFRC/San Francisco, Headlines of The Past.
(3) The AFRS edited episode of this program for November 12, 1944 is posted. Nesbitt’s six minute Passing Parade segment begins at 15:15 into the program and is guaranteed to have you holding your breath. His Westinghouse Show with John Charles Thomas would run until June 30, 1946.
(4) Variety’s claim that Nesbitt was weak on material is destroyed with his program on June 6, 1944. (See D-Day On Radio.)
(5) Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was also co-owned with WHN/New York City, (aka WMGM).