CHARLIE WINNINGER LED GENERAL FOODS' FIRST HIT - THE MAXWELL HOUSE SHOWBOAT.
THE SPONSOR SWEEPSTAKES
Program sponsorship - the outright ownership or assumption of all responsibilities and charges involved with a series of radio or television programs - has been cost prohibitive for over half a century. But there was a time…
Over the 21 years of Network Radio’s Golden Age, the four national radio chains earned more than Two Billion dollars in revenue, almost all paid by advertisers who sponsored entire programs ranging from five to 60 minutes in length. (See Radio Nets' Grosses.)
Most of the networks’ income was dispersed to their affiliated stations that broadcast the programs, (including the 20 major market stations owned by the networks themselves), plus to AT&T for the lease of broadcast quality telephone lines that carried the networks’ programs to their affiliates.
The networks generally charged only for broadcast time and facilities. In most cases that was just part of the sponsors’ costs. Talent and production charges could add another ten to 200% or more to the sponsor’s bill. Examples of these extremes appear in a cost analysis contained in Chapter 23 of Network Radio Ratings, 1932-1953.
Over those 21 years, 126 separate companies sponsored one or more programs ranked in our Annual Top 50 lists of programs appearing in the book.. Which among them got the most for their money?
Here‘s a ranking of Network Radio’s ten leading prime time advertisers determined by the number of Top 50 prime time entries they sponsored during the Golden Age It should come as no surprise that all ten companies were mass marketers of products commonly found in grocery or drug stores - but the conclusions drawn at the end of their profiles may surprise you..
GENERAL FOODS: Bakers Chocolate, Birds Eye Frozen Foods, Calumet Baking Powder, Jello Gelatins & Puddings, Log Cabin Syrup, Maxwell House Coffee, Post Cereals, Sanka Coffee, Swans Down Cake Flour.
Top 50 Programs:84 - Top Ten Programs:23 - Number One Programs:3
General Foods was the only sponsor with at least one Top 50 program in each of the 21 years of the Golden Age.
It was also the only sponsor to have seven Top 50 shows in a single season, which it did twice in 1937-38 and 1938-39, led by Jack Benny‘s two second place finishes for Jello. Benny alone accounted for ten of General Foods’ 23 Top Ten entries and all three of its Number One programs.
To accumulate so many Top 50 entries, the food conglomerate blitzed prime time with major attractions besides Jack Benny. They included comedians George Burns & Gracie Allen, Al Pearce, Joe Penner, Bob Hope, Fanny Brice, Frank Morgan, Jack Haley and Joe E Brown, singers Kate Smith, Lanny Ross, and Dinah Shore, plus actors Helen Hayes and Roy Rogers.
In addition, General Foods sponsored these Top 50 entries: Easy Aces, The Aldrich Family, The Adventures of The Thin Man, Gangbusters, Hopalong Cassidy, Tarzan, Robert Young‘s sitcom, Father Knows Best, Lucille Ball’s radio predecessor to television’s I Love Lucy, My Favorite Husband, Robert Ripley‘s curiosity-filled Believe It Or Not and Gabriel Heatter’s audience participation interview show, We The People.
General led off the Golden Age in 1932-33 with Thursday’s Maxwell House Showboat, a Top Ten program for its first four seasons. By adding Jack Benny’s Sunday show to its stable, General Foods had two Top Ten programs in the 1934-35 and 1935-36 seasons. Benny became Network Radio‘s Number One attraction in 1936-37, but Showboat lost over half its audience and drifted into the middle of the Top 50.
Still a Top 50 show when Maxwell House scuttled it at mid-season in 1937-38, Showboat was replaced by Good News, co-starring Frank Morgan and Fanny Brice plus a weekly guest roster of MGM movie stars. The show narrowly missed the Annual Top Ten, but Jack Benny and Burns & Allen both did. It was also the first of Kate Smith’s seven consecutive Top 50 seasons under the General Foods banner. Rounding out General Foods’ record-setting seven Top 50 entries were the variety shows from Jack Haley and Robert Ripley.
Good News joined Jack Benny in the Top Ten of 1938-39 while Kate Smith, Al Pearce’s Gang, We The People, Joe Penner and Joe E. Brown combined to provide General Foods with its second season of seven Top 50 shows.
Benny returned to the Number One position in 1939-40. Good News, Kate Smith, We The People and the new Aldrich Family sitcom followed, resulting in a season of five Top 50 shows under General Foods sponsorship.
Benny repeated at Number One in 1940-41 while Good News morphed into Maxwell House Coffee Time co-starring Fanny Brice and Frank Morgan. The renamed show was reduced to 30 minutes without the constant parade of MGM stars plugging their new movies but it stayed in the season’s Top Ten. The remaining half hour was filled with The Aldrich Family which scored its first of four Top Ten seasons. As a result General Foods claimed three Top Ten programs for the first of three consecutive seasons. .
Maxwell House Coffee Time slipped out of the Top Ten in 1943-44, but Jack Benny and The Aldrich Family remained and the addition of The Adventures of The Thin Man along with Kate Smith’s variety hour gave General Foods five Top 50 entries.
Jack Benny defected to American Tobacco sponsorship at the beginning of the 1944-45 season and The Aldrich Family’s ratings sank, leaving General Foods without a Top Ten program for the first time since the Golden Age began. And it wouldn’t have another one for the next eight seasons.
To make the season worse the company moved its successful Kate Smith Hour to the CBS timeslot opposite Lucky Strikes’ new Jack Benny Program with disastrous results. The beloved singer plunged from 29th to 93rd place in the ratings. Compounding that blunder the company split its successful Maxwell House Coffee Time team. The new Frank Morgan Show stayed in the Top 50 but Fanny Brice’s move to Sunday evening plummeted to 79th place.
The company drifted along with an average of four shows in the lower half of the Annual Top 50 until 1952-53. As Network Radio’s Golden Age closed, the sponsor with the most Top 50 shows of the era fittingly claimed the most of the year. General Foods’ six Top 50 entries were led by Gangbusters’ onlyTop Ten season.
It was a long way from the halcyon days of Showboat, Jack Benny and Good News. Nevertheless, General Foods entertained millions of listeners over the years while making billions of dollars selling its goods to radio audience.
LEVER BROTHERS aka UNILEVER: Lifeboy Soap, Lipton Tea & Soup Mixes, Lux Beauty Soap, Lux Flakes Laundry Soap, Pepsodent Toothpaste, Rinso Laundry Soap, Spry Shortening, Swan Soap, Vimms Vitamins.
Top 50 Programs:71-Top Ten Programs: 38 - Number One Programs: 8
The 1947-48 and 1948-49 seasons capped Lever Brothers’ Network Radio success when five of the company’s shows - Lux Radio Theater, Bob Hope’s Pepsodent Show, Amos & Andy, Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts and My Friend Irma - dominated the Annual Top Ten..
Lever Brothers placed more entries in the Annual Top Ten and had more Number One shows than any other sponsor. Further, when Lever acquired Pepsodent in 1944 it also inherited Bob Hope’s Number One program. As a result, Lever claimed Network Radio’s most popular program for the next eight consecutive seasons - Hope from 1944-45 through 1946-47, and Lux Radio Theater from 1947-48 through 1951-52.
The company also placed five shows in the Annual Top 50 seven times and six programs twice. Simply put, it was an unmatched record of success.
Lever Brothers didn’t enter the Top 50 list until the 1935-36 season when Lux Radio Theater was moved from New York to Hollywood, shifted from Blue’s Sunday afternoon schedule and became a Monday night fixture on CBS. Lux scored the first of its 17 consecutive Top Ten finishes in 1936-37 and the addition of Al Jolson’s variety show provided Lever with two Top Ten programs for the next three seasons.
Then, taking its cue from the success of Lux Radio Theater’s weekly lineup of movie stars, Lever introduced Big Town starring Edward G. Robinson in 1937-38. The newspaper melodrama promptly became a solid Top 20 hit for five consecutive seasons.
Lever turned to comedy in 1942-43 with shows from Burns & Allen, Bob Burns and Tommy Riggs & Betty Lou. The three joined Lux Radio Theater and gave the company its first season with four Top 50 shows. Riggs and his little girl voiced alter ego were replaced by the revamped Amos & Andy sitcom in 1943-44, and with the short lived Frank Sinatra Show, Lever Brothers had five programs in the season’s Top 50.
The addition of Bob Hope’s Number One show in 1944-45 more than made up for Sinatra’s drop from the Top 50 and the company again had five Top 50 programs The replacement of Burns & Allen with comedienne Joan Davis in 1945-46 kept the pace going at five.
Lever placed Hope, Lux Radio Theater and Amos & Andy in 1946-47’s Top Ten. That set the stage for its record setting 1947-48 and 1948-49 seasons of five Top Ten entries. The company also picked up the second run of Big Town starring Ed Pawley and Fran Carlon in 1948-49 for its sixth show in the annual Top 50..
Although Amos & Andy left for Rexall Drug sponsorship in 1949-50, Lux Radio Theater, Bob Hope, Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts and My Friend Irma remained in the season’s Top Ten and Big Town rounded out Lever’s number of Top 50 programs at five.
Bob Hope fell out of the Top Ten in 1950-51 but Lux Radio Theater, Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts and My Friend Irma remained. Big Town again gave Lever Brothers its fifth program on the Top 50 list.
Lever Brothers cancelled Bob Hope and My Friend Irma in 1951-52, leaving only Lux Radio Theater and Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts as its Top Ten entries. Big Town was company’s third Top 50 show of the season, .
As audiences increasingly deserted Network Radio for television in 1952-53, Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts - simulcast on CBS-TV - slipped out of the Top Ten, leaving only Lux Radio Theater. The two programs represented Lever Brothers’ poorest showing in the Annual Top 50 in 13 years - indicative that Lever Brothers, one of the most successful sponsors of Network Radio’s Golden Age, was turning its attention to television, as well.
COLGATE-PALMOLIVE: Colgate Dental Cream, Colgate Shave Cream, Cashmere Bouquet Soap, Halo Shampoo, Lustre Creme Shampoo, Palmolive Soap, Palmolive Shave Cream, Super Suds Laundry Soap.
Top 50 Programs: 49 - Top Ten Programs: 3 - Number One Programs: 0
Colgate maintained a Top 50 presence in all but two of the 21 seasons, peaking in 1947-48 with five shows on the list - Kay Kyser’s Kollege of Musical Knowledge, A Day In The Life of Dennis Day, Blondie, The Judy Canova Show and Mr. & Mrs. North.
Colgate entered Network Radio’s Golden Age with the Palmolive Beauty Box Theater starring soprano Gladys Swarthout, a Top Ten show for two seasons beginning in 1933-34. The company then disappeared from the Annual Top Ten until 1952-53 when its Lustre Crème Shampoo sponsored Eve Arden ‘s sitcom, Our Miss Brooks.
Along the way, company sponsored Saturday night’s Colgate House Party in 1933-34 and Gertrude Berg’s House of Glass in 1934-35 which joined Beauty Box Theater and gave the company two Top 50 shows in both seasons.
Beauty Box Theater faded from the Top Ten in 1935-36 but Colgate increased its Top 50 presence to four programs with House of Glass, Fanny Brice’s short-lived Ziegfeld Follies and Phillips H. Lord’s new crime-fighting series, Gangbusters. which began its legendary 18 year run.
Beauty Box was in its final season in 1936-37 and Gangbusters became Colgate’s leading show in the Top 50. Over the next two seasons Gangbusters was the company’s only program on the list until 1939-40 when Colgate cancelled the police docudrama and picked up Jim McWilliams’ Top 50 audience participation quiz, The Ask It Basket.
A two year drought followed when Colgate was without a Top 50 program. The company began its comeback to the list in 1942-43 with the Al Jolson Show and the comedy panel show, Can You Top This? Jolson left at the end of the season and was replaced in 1943-44’s Top 50 by Judy Canova’s comedy variety show.
Canova and Can You Top This? were joined on the list in 1944-45 by Kay Kyser’s highly-rated College of Musical Knowledge and Colgate again had three shows in the Annual Top 50 for the next two seasons.
Although Kyser slipped off the list in 1946-47, Colgate added Blondie and A Day In The Life of Dennis Day to its comedy stable, joining Canova and Can You Top This? in the season’s Top 50.
Kay Kyser’s return to the Top 50 in 1947-48 plus the addition of mystery/comedy Mr. & Mrs. North made up for the loss of Can You Top This? and gave Colgate its most successful season with five shows on the list. .
It didn’t last long. Blondie and Kyser were gone in 1948-49, leaving Colgate with three Top 50 entries in the Judy Canova, Dennis Day and Mr. & Mrs. North shows. Canova and Day each carried the Colgate banner into the Annual Top 50 for the next three seasons while Mr. & Mrs. North remained a Top 50 favorite for the next five years.
The three were joined on the list in 1949-50 by Colgate’s most popular program of the Golden Age. Veteran movie comedienne Eve Arden as spinster/school teacher Our Miss Brooks steadily advanced into and up the Top 50 list for the next four seasons. As the Golden Age closed in 1953, Our Miss Brooks was a Top Ten Network Radio show, already adapted into a successful television series and about to become a hit movie.
AMERICAN TOBACCO: Lucky Strike Cigarettes, Pall Mall Cigarettes.
Top 50 Programs: 47- Top Ten Programs:14 - Number One Programs: 1
American Tobacco was the model of consistency. The company appeared in the Top 50 rankings during 20 of the 21 years of Network Radio’s Golden Age. It placed two shows on the list ten times and three shows seven times. Only once did it have as many as four programs on the list and two of those four had been cancelled at mid-season.
American’s Lucky Strike Cigarettes was the “King of Hard Sell.” The heavy handed approach was the creation of American Tobacco’s longtime eccentric CEO, George Washington Hill. Hill was once quoted as saying, “I don’t have the right to spend my stockholder’s money just to entertain the public!” Nevertheless, he did. And in doing so he built American Tobacco’s annual revenues to over half a Billion dollars by the time of his death in 1945.
The Hill program philosophy was simple: Keep the listeners happy with popular music and comedy. It was evidenced in the long running jingle, “Be Happy Go Lucky, Be Happy Go Lucky Strike…”
Lucky Strike’s incessant commercials peppered The Jack Pearl Show, a Top Ten favorite in 1932-33. Hill augmented the comedy show with two more Top Ten shows that first season of the Golden Age, Tuesday’s Lucky Strike Hour and Lucky Strike’s Dance Bands on Saturdays. The two pop music shows were gone by the 1933-34 season and when Pearl’s popularity fell dramatically in the early part of the season he was unceremoniously dumped by Hill in December.
Lucky Strike was then off the air for over a year until April, 1935, when Your Hit Parade began its 18 season run with an immediate entry into the Annual Top 50. Always one to capitalize on a good thing, Hill mounted a massive retail promotion for Lucky Strike in the summer of 1936 - offering free cartons of cigarettes to listeners who could predict the week’s Top Three songs in order. He backed the contest with weekly broadcasts of Your Hit Parade on NBC and CBS and Blue. Blue was dropped in October, but both the NBC and CBS editions of the show finished in the Annual Top 50 for the next two seasons.
Despite the success of Your Hit Parade on NBC, the show was removed at mid-season in 1937-38, and became the sole possession of CBS for the next eight seasons. . The NBC edition was briefly replaced by singing movie star Dick Powell, who in turn was replaced late in the season by Kay Kyser’s Kollege of Musical Knowledge. Although listeners may have been confused by all the switches, Lucky Strike finished the season with all four shows in the Annual Top 50.
Kyser’s musical quiz remained under Lucky Strike sponsorship until 1944-45 when American Tobacco successfully outbid all other suitors to take over Jack Benny’s long running Top Ten show. The combined effect was that two of Network Radio’s most popular attractions - Benny and Your Hit Parade - followed Hill’s original marketing formula of selling cigarettes with comedy and popular music .
It was only after Hill’s death that American Tobacco departed from his concept and picked up The Big Story in 1946-47 for its secondary brand, Pall Mall Cigarettes. Although the newspaper docudrama contained no music or comedy elements, it contributed a third Top 50 program to the company’s roster. When the Golden Age closed in 1952-53 The Big Story had racked up seven consecutive Top 50 finishes for Pall Mall.
Meanwhile, Your Hit Parade fell off the list in 1950-51 and 1952-53 while Jack Benny continued along in the Top Ten and scored his fourth and final Number One season in 1952-53.
STANDARD BRANDS: Blue Bonnet Margarine, Chase & Sanborn Coffee & Tea, Fleischmann Yeast, Royal Gelatin & Pudding, Tenderleaf Tea.
Top 50 Programs:45 - Top Ten Programs:27 - Number One Programs: 5
Standard Brands had an unusual record in the Annual Top 50 charts - starting strong in 1932-33 and disappearing altogether after the 1948-49 season.
Its Depression era ratings strength extended to claiming Network Radio’s Number One show five times during the 1930’s, all of them occupying the 8:00 Sunday timeslot on NBC. Nevertheless, two of its Number One attractions abandoned the timeslot and left the company scrambling.
Standard Brands was the first multi-brand food company to fully exploit Network Radio’s popularity with the Chase & Sanborn Coffee Hour starring Eddie Cantor - Network Radio’s most popular program over the first two seasons of the Golden Age. Its Fleishmann Yeast Hour starring singing bandleader Rudy Vallee was also a Top Ten show for six consecutive seasons during the 1930’s.
Eddie Cantor abruptly left Standard Brands and jumped to CBS early in the 1934-35 season. Despite the loss of its star attraction, the company placed six programs in the Annual Top 50, including three Top Ten shows, Major Bowes’ Original Amateur Hour, Rudy Vallee’s Fleischmann Yeast Hour and Joe Penner’s Bakers Broadcast. The company also added The Chase & Sanborn Opera Guild, a Mary Pickford anthology drama and One Man’s Family to its list of Top 50 programs.
Pickford and Penner lasted only one season, but One Man’s Family had begun its run as Network Radio’s longest continuing prime-time drama. The Carleton E. Morse serial extended from 1935 to 1945 in the nighttime hours, from 1945 to 1949 as a Sunday afternoon feature and concluded its run as an early evening Multiple Run strip from 1950 to 1959. Its record during the Golden Age included two Top Ten finishes, both sponsored by Standard Brands, and a dozen seasons in the Annual Top 50;
The Opera Guild, with famous operas performed in English, was a brief 13-week replacement for Cantor until Ed Bowes' Amateur Hour took over the Sunday timeslot in March, 1935. The Original Amateur Hour immediately became a Top Ten show. But after the 1935-36 season when it became Number One , Bowes also jumped ship to CBS.
Standard was left to fill its prized Sunday slot in 1936-37 with Do You Want To Be An Actor?, a quasi-amateur show that made the Top 50 but lost its Sunday time period to the CBS tandem of Eddie Cantor and singing movie star Nelson Eddy.
Then came Standard’s most successful entry, The Chase & Sanborn Coffee Hour starring ventriloquist Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy, the nation’s Number One program for two seasons beginning in 1937-38 and the company’s consistent Top Ten attraction for the next eleven years. Bergen’s hour was reduced to 30 minutes in 1939 and Standard followed him with One Man’s Family which rode the ventriloquist’s coattails to its two Top Ten seasons.
When the family serial faded, Standard moved comedian Fred Allen in to follow Edgar Bergen from 1945 to 1947 and Standard Brands again had two Top Ten attractions. But Standard let Fred Allen get away at mid-season of 1947-48 and he was immediately picked up by Ford Motors.
Standard Brands finally let its legendary Sunday night timeslot go when Edgar Bergen left his Chase & Sanborn show in December, 1948. As a result, Standard Brands had no Top 50 entries in the final four seasons of Network Radio’s Golden Age.
Yet, over the 17 years of Standard Brands sponsorship, the Sunday night at eight on NBC had contained five Number One programs and 19 Top Ten entries for the company.
STERLING DRUG: Bayer Aspirin, Dr. Lyons Tooth Powder, Fletchers Castoria Laxative, Haley’s MO Laxative, Ironized Yeast. Molle Shaving Cream, Phillips Milk of Magnesia Laxative.
Top 50 Programs: 42 - Top Ten Programs: 1 - Number One Programs: 0
Sterling Drug was the classic “bottom feeder” of Network Radio with a string of relatively low cost prime time programs that built loyal audiences and gave the company a Top 50 entry in 19 of Network Radio’s Golden Age of 21 years. Sterling never had more than three shows in the Annual Top 50 but did it eight times.
Most of the company’s programs were produced by Frank & Anne Hummert who are better remembered for their mass output of weekday soap operas. Sterling sponsored the Hummerts’ long running prime time music shows, The American Album of Familiar Music, Manhattan Merry Go Round and Waltz Time. The three musicals were on the air for a combined 51 seasons yet totaled only 21 Top 50 finishes. They scored a Top 50 trifecta for Sterling just once - in the 1945-46 season.
Sterling opened the Golden Age with American Album’s half hour of standards and traditional music featuring popular tenor Frank Munn, finishing at 50th place in the 1932-33 rankings. It was the first of four consecutive Top 50 finishes for the the program. Manhattan Merry Go Round joined American Album in 1933-34 and the two repeated their Top 50 finishes together in 1935-36, 1938-39, 1942-43, 1945-46 and 1946-47. In total, American Album had ten Top 50 seasons and Merry Go Round registered nine.
But Sterling’s most successful shows came from the Hummert factory of formula drama late in the Golden Age. Mystery Theater aka Hearthstone of The Death Squad registered three Top 50 finishes from 1948 to 1951 and Mr. Chameleon made the list four times, including the company’s sole Top Ten finish in 1950-51. Coincidentally, Mr. Chameleon was played by Karl Swenson who was also the male lead in two of Hummerts’ daytime serials, Our Gal Sunday and Lorenzo Jones.
Outside the Hummert umbrella, Sterling’s biggest hits were Battle of The Sexes, an audience participation show starring husband and wife Frank Crumit and Julia Sanderson from 1938 to 1942, and the second run of Big Town from 1943 to 1948. Both accounted for four Top 50 seasons.
PROCTER & GAMBLE: Camay Beauty Soap, Crisco Shortening, Dreft Laundry Soap, Drene Shampoo, Duz Laundry Detergent, Ivory Soap, Lava Hand Soap, Oxydol Laundry Soap, Prell Shampoo, Teel Liquid Dentifrice, Tide Laundry Detergent.
Top 50 Programs: 38 - Top Ten Programs: 1 - Number One Programs: 0
For many years the Cincinnati soap manufacturer was Network Radio’s biggest advertiser, best known for its many daytime serials, hence the sobriquet “soap operas”.
Procter & Gamble made a less than auspicious start in prime time during the 1934-35 season with the disastrous Gibson Family, an expensive experiment in original musical comedy that listeners abandoned in droves over the course of the season. Nevertheless, the program limped into the Annual Top 50.
The company didn’t return to the list until 1939-40 when it picked up a nighttime serial, Those We Love, and two audience participation shows, Professor Quiz and What’s My Name? The two quiz games fell the following season, replaced by Knickerbocker Playhouse and a new kind of audience participation/stunt show Truth Or Consequences, which began its decade of Top 50 finishes under P&G sponsorship, peaking in sixth place in 1947-48.
Procter & Gamble replaced Knickerbocker Playhouse with the anthology’s spinoff sitcom Abie‘s Irish Rose in 1942-43. The comedy and Truth Or Consequences were the company‘s two Top 50 entries until 1944-45 when Rudy Vallee‘s new variety show, Villa Vallee, replaced the sitcom.
The company enjoyed its first season of four Top 50 entries in 1945-46 when Vallee and Truth Or Consequences were joined by William Bendix’s sitcom, The Life of Riley, and a new docudrama, The FBI In Peace & War.
Vallee fell out of the Top 50 in 1946-47, but The Life of Riley, Truth Or Consequences and The FBI In Peace & War repeated to give Procter and Gamble three Top 50 programs over the next three seasons.
The Life of Riley left for Pabst Beer sponsorship in 1949-50 but P&G added two CBS Top 50 entries to its roster, Red Skelton’s new variety show and Beulah, the former Fibber McGee & Molly spinoff converted to a successful early evening sitcom strip starring veteran actress Hattie McDaniel. Combined with Truth Or Consequences and The FBI In Peace & War, the company again had four Top 50 shows.
Ralph Edwards took his Truth Or Consequences to CBS and Phillip Morris sponsorship for the 1950-51 season, but Red Skelton, The FBI In Peace & War and Beulah remained on the season’s Top 50. It didn’t last long. Skelton fell from eighth to 86th place over the 1951-52 season. In addition, Proctor & Gamble cancelled The FBI In Peace & War and as a result Beulah was its only remaining Top 50 entry.
Beulah dropped out of the Top 50 in 1952-53 and as the Golden Age ended Procter & Gamble was left with two Top 50 shows - the new sitcom, Meet Millie, and the 16 year veteran of Network Radio, Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons.
KRAFT FOODS aka NATIONAL DAIRY PRODUCTS CORP.: Kraft Cheese, Miracle Whip Salad Dressing, Parkay Margarine, Philadelphia Brand Cream Cheese, Sealtest Dairies, Velveeta Cheese Food.
Top 50 Programs: 37- Top Ten Programs: 11- Number One Programs: 0
National Dairy Products was never identified by name on the air.
But its three major radio advertisers, Kraft, Sealtest and Parkay, combined to register at least one Top 50 program in 20 of the Golden Age’s 21 years. The three divisions placed two shows on the list over ten seasons, three in four seasons and peaked in 1945-46 with four Top 50 entries.
Unlike any of the other advertisers on this list, Kraft Foods’ entire roster of Top 50 programs were broadcast on just one network, NBC And as another novel distinction, the company’s Network Radio flagship of 16 years, Kraft Music Hall, scored 18 Top 50 finishes.
Kraft Music Hall burst on the scene in 1933-34 featuring Paul Whiteman’s orchestra with frequent guest Al Jolson. The show immediately registered the first of its nine Top Ten finishes. When Jolson left for his own show in 1934-35 Music Hall faltered slightly, just missing the season‘s Top Ten..
Nevertheless, Kraft wanted a younger image to sell its new Miracle Whip Salad Dressing and brought in Bing Crosby to replace Paul Whiteman at mid-season in 1935-36. The two distinctly different versions of Kraft Music Hall during the same season resulted in two Top Ten finishes.
Kraft Music Hall starred Bing Crosby for eleven years and resulted in seven Top Ten finishes. When Crosby was replaced for half of the 1945-46 season by comedian/actor Frank Morgan, the two separate versions of the same show again finished in the season’s Top 50. Crosby left the show permanently in 1946-47, yet Kraft Music Hall remained in the Top 50 for its final three seasons, two of them featuring Al Jolson, who had first appeared on the program two decades earlier. .
The company’s Sealtest Dairies division picked up The Rudy Vallee Show in 1938 and the singer extended his personal string of Top 50 finishes for another five seasons until he left for World War II service with the Coast Guard in 1943. Vallee was replaced in 1943-44 by The Sealtest Village Store, starring Jack Haley and Joan Davis, which opened with two Top Ten seasons. Davis was replaced by Eve Arden in 1945-46 and the sitcom remained in the Top 50 until 1947.
Kraft Cheese was the first of the company’s brands to sponsor what became Network Radio’s most successful spinoff show in 1941-42. The Great Gildersleeve, descended from Fibber McGee & Molly, enjoyed twelve Top 50 seasons. After its first five seasons on NBC’s Sunday schedule, the sitcom starring Harold Peary was moved to Wednesdays and Kraft handed off sponsorship to the company’s Parkay Margarine division.
R.J. REYNOLDS TOBACCO: Camel Cigarettes, Prince Albert Tobacco.
Top 50 Programs: 36 - Top Ten Programs: 3 - Number One Programs: 0
Reynolds Tobacco’s most popular brand, Camel Cigarettes, sponsored a variety of shows under the umbrella title, The Camel Caravan. Nevertheless, the title is generally associated with Camel’s many shows featuring popular dance bands of the era - including Benny Goodman, Glen Gray, Bob Crosby, Xavier Cugat and Vaughn Monroe.
The company’s Top 50 presence peaked in 1942-43, 1943-44 and 1952-53 when it sponsored four programs on the list.
Network Radio’s Golden Age was entering its fifth season when Reynolds first broke into the Top 50 of 1936-37. Taking its cue from American Tobacco’s use of comedy and music in an appeal to youth, Camel sponsored Jack Oakie’s College, starring the popular young movie comedian and featuring Benny Goodman’s swing band. When Goodman moved to New York in the fall of 1937 the show grew to 60 minutes split in two for most of the season - Oakie’s College for the first half hour and Benny Goodman’s Swing School for the second. The double feature lasted until Oakie left the air in March, 1938.
Goodman’s show dropped out of Top 50 in 1938-39 but Camel signed a one-season contract with comedian Eddie Cantor that resulted in Camel’s first Top Ten program.
Cantor was cancelled in 1939-40, yet Camel scored two Top 50 shows, the veteran Al Pearce’s Gang and Blondie, the sitcom starring Penny Singleton and Arthur Lake that was based on the popular comic strip and beginning its ten year Network Radio run. The two comedies remained Camel’s only two Top 50 entries for three seasons through 1941-42.
Pearce was cancelled in 1942-43 and replaced in the Top 50 by 24 year old “Hoosier” comedian Herb Shriner while Blondie repeated, spurred on by the five Columbia Pictures comedies released during the season that also starred Singleton and Lake as Blondie & Dagwood Bumstead.
But Camel made bigger news during the season with the debut of the biggest comedy team in the movies, Bud Abbott & Lou Costello, who burst into the Top 50 at Number Eleven. However, Costello’s sudden illness in March, 1943, forced the cigarette maker to find a sudden replacement - and it did in Jimmy Durante & Garry Moore whose surprising success as a team gave Camel a total of four shows in the Annual Top 50.
Herb Shriner’s struggling show was cancelled before the 1943-44 season but Abbott & Costello reached the Top Ten while Blondie,and Durante & Moore repeated in the Top 50. Reynolds’ fourth Top 50 entry came from an unexpected source as Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry, sponsored by the company’s Prince Albert Tobacco, made the list for the first and only time in its twelve year ratings history.
Abbott & Costello continued to hover near 1944-45’s Top Ten while Blondie and Durante & Moore moved on to new sponsors. Camel introduced a new show to the Top 50, Bob Hawk’s Thanks To The Yanks, a quiz show featuring armed forces personnel serving in World War II. The quiz was renamed The Bob Hawk Show after the war and along with Abbott & Costello remained Camel‘s only two Top 50 attractions through 1946-47.
The comedy team left Reynolds and Hawk temporarily slipped out of the Top 50 in 1947-48 while Camels picked up Screen Guild Theater as its only program on the list for the season. The film adaptation anthology dropped out in 1948-49 and Hawk’s quiz game returned as Camels’ only Top 50 show.
Hawk was joined in the Top 50 of 1949-50 when Jimmy Durante, (without Garry Moore), returned to Reynolds’ sponsorship for the season.
The comedian left to devote his full attention to television in 1950-51 but Camels added Dick Powell’s lighthearted Richard Diamond, Private Detective and bandleader Vaughn Monroe’s Camel Caravan to the increasingly popular Bob Hawk Show on its Top 50 roster.
Bob Hawk reached the 1951-52 Top Ten but was Reynolds’ only representative in the season’s Top 50.
The company added sitcom My Friend Irma and John Henry Faulk’s quiz Walk A Mile in 1952-53. Combined with the The Bob Hawk Show, Reynolds closed out the Golden Age with three Top 50 programs.
BRISTOL MYERS: Ipana Toothpaste, Minit Rub Liniment, Mum Deodorant, Sal Hapatica Laxative, Trushay Hand Cream, Vitalis Hair Tonic.
Top 50 Programs: 34 - Top Ten Programs: 8 - Number One Programs: 0
A longtime Network Radio sponsor, Bristol-Myers brands appeared in the Annual Top 50 lists for 19 of the 21 years of the Golden Age missing only the first season, 1932-33, and the last, 1952-53.
Its variety of brands, many advertised together within the same program, sponsored a gamut of formats ranging from Comedy/Variety, (Fred Allen and Eddie Cantor), to Continuing Character Drama, (Mr. District Attorney), to Situation Comedy, (Duffy’s Tavern), to Audience Participation/Quiz, (Break The Bank). With this combination of formats, Bristol Myers enjoyed five seasons in which three of its programs were the Annual Top 50..
Bristol Myers’ sole Top 50 attraction throughout the 1930’s - beginning in 1933-34 - was Fred Allen’s Hour of Smiles. The dry comedian scored four Top Ten seasons from 1934-35 through 1937-38. When Allen left the company’s fold in 1940 after seven Top 50 seasons, he was replaced by Eddie Cantor’s Time To Smile. Cantor registered six consecutive Top 50 seasons for Bristol Myers, including one in the Annual Top Ten, 1941-42.
The company’s longest running hit was the crime busting Mr. District Attorney which maintained a Top 50 presence in every season from 1940 until 1952, peaking with three consecutive Top Ten finishes from 1942-43 through 1944-45.
Bristol Myers added Ed Gardner’s sitcom Duffy’s Tavern in 1943-44.The combination of Eddie Cantor, Mr. District Attorney and Duffy’s Tavern gave Bristol Myers three Top 50 shows for the next three seasons.
Cantor left for Pabst Beer sponsorship at the beginning of the 1946-47 season while Bristol Myers was grooming Break The Bank, a new big money quiz show on ABC starring energetic host Bert Parks.
Break The Bank, Mr. District Attorney and Duffy’s Tavern gave Bristol Myers its final two seasons of three Top 50 programs in 1947-48 and 1948-49.
Duffy’s was gone - literally - in 1949-50, when Ed Gardner took his cast and program production to Puerto Rico under Blatz Beer sponsorship. Break The Bank disappeared along with many of the other big jackpot shows in 1950-51 and Mr. District Attorney, Bristol Myers last remaining Top 50 program, was cancelled after the 1951-52 season.
The Impact of These Top Ten Sponsors
What influence did these ten advertisers - ranked by the number of Top 50 programs they sponsored - have in the overall picture of program popularity during the 21 years of Network Radio’s Golden Age?
The total number of Top 50 programs during the era - including the eight programs that tied for 50th place in seven seasons - was 1,058. The ten advertisers profiled above accounted for a cumulative total of 483 Top 50 programs.
The total number of Top Ten programs - including the five programs that tied for tenth place in five seasons - was 215. The ten advertisers profiled sponsored 129 of them.
The total number of Number One programs - including one tie - was 22. Four of the ten advertisers - General Foods, Lever Brothers, Standard Brands and American Tobacco - sponsored 17 of them.
In other words, these ten advertisers sponsored almost 46% of all Top 50 programs, 60% of all Top Ten programs and 77% of all Number One programs.
Yes, they had an impact - a major impact. But so did almost all of the 126 advertisers who sold their goods to audiences ranging from the hundreds of thousands to many millions of listeners every week during Network Radio's Golden Age.
Copyright © 2015 Jim Ramsburg, Estero FL Email: tojimramsburg@gmail.com
Over the 21 years of Network Radio’s Golden Age, the four national radio chains earned more than Two Billion dollars in revenue, almost all paid by advertisers who sponsored entire programs ranging from five to 60 minutes in length. (See Radio Nets' Grosses.)
Most of the networks’ income was dispersed to their affiliated stations that broadcast the programs, (including the 20 major market stations owned by the networks themselves), plus to AT&T for the lease of broadcast quality telephone lines that carried the networks’ programs to their affiliates.
The networks generally charged only for broadcast time and facilities. In most cases that was just part of the sponsors’ costs. Talent and production charges could add another ten to 200% or more to the sponsor’s bill. Examples of these extremes appear in a cost analysis contained in Chapter 23 of Network Radio Ratings, 1932-1953.
Over those 21 years, 126 separate companies sponsored one or more programs ranked in our Annual Top 50 lists of programs appearing in the book.. Which among them got the most for their money?
Here‘s a ranking of Network Radio’s ten leading prime time advertisers determined by the number of Top 50 prime time entries they sponsored during the Golden Age It should come as no surprise that all ten companies were mass marketers of products commonly found in grocery or drug stores - but the conclusions drawn at the end of their profiles may surprise you..
GENERAL FOODS: Bakers Chocolate, Birds Eye Frozen Foods, Calumet Baking Powder, Jello Gelatins & Puddings, Log Cabin Syrup, Maxwell House Coffee, Post Cereals, Sanka Coffee, Swans Down Cake Flour.
Top 50 Programs:84 - Top Ten Programs:23 - Number One Programs:3
General Foods was the only sponsor with at least one Top 50 program in each of the 21 years of the Golden Age.
It was also the only sponsor to have seven Top 50 shows in a single season, which it did twice in 1937-38 and 1938-39, led by Jack Benny‘s two second place finishes for Jello. Benny alone accounted for ten of General Foods’ 23 Top Ten entries and all three of its Number One programs.
To accumulate so many Top 50 entries, the food conglomerate blitzed prime time with major attractions besides Jack Benny. They included comedians George Burns & Gracie Allen, Al Pearce, Joe Penner, Bob Hope, Fanny Brice, Frank Morgan, Jack Haley and Joe E Brown, singers Kate Smith, Lanny Ross, and Dinah Shore, plus actors Helen Hayes and Roy Rogers.
In addition, General Foods sponsored these Top 50 entries: Easy Aces, The Aldrich Family, The Adventures of The Thin Man, Gangbusters, Hopalong Cassidy, Tarzan, Robert Young‘s sitcom, Father Knows Best, Lucille Ball’s radio predecessor to television’s I Love Lucy, My Favorite Husband, Robert Ripley‘s curiosity-filled Believe It Or Not and Gabriel Heatter’s audience participation interview show, We The People.
General led off the Golden Age in 1932-33 with Thursday’s Maxwell House Showboat, a Top Ten program for its first four seasons. By adding Jack Benny’s Sunday show to its stable, General Foods had two Top Ten programs in the 1934-35 and 1935-36 seasons. Benny became Network Radio‘s Number One attraction in 1936-37, but Showboat lost over half its audience and drifted into the middle of the Top 50.
Still a Top 50 show when Maxwell House scuttled it at mid-season in 1937-38, Showboat was replaced by Good News, co-starring Frank Morgan and Fanny Brice plus a weekly guest roster of MGM movie stars. The show narrowly missed the Annual Top Ten, but Jack Benny and Burns & Allen both did. It was also the first of Kate Smith’s seven consecutive Top 50 seasons under the General Foods banner. Rounding out General Foods’ record-setting seven Top 50 entries were the variety shows from Jack Haley and Robert Ripley.
Good News joined Jack Benny in the Top Ten of 1938-39 while Kate Smith, Al Pearce’s Gang, We The People, Joe Penner and Joe E. Brown combined to provide General Foods with its second season of seven Top 50 shows.
Benny returned to the Number One position in 1939-40. Good News, Kate Smith, We The People and the new Aldrich Family sitcom followed, resulting in a season of five Top 50 shows under General Foods sponsorship.
Benny repeated at Number One in 1940-41 while Good News morphed into Maxwell House Coffee Time co-starring Fanny Brice and Frank Morgan. The renamed show was reduced to 30 minutes without the constant parade of MGM stars plugging their new movies but it stayed in the season’s Top Ten. The remaining half hour was filled with The Aldrich Family which scored its first of four Top Ten seasons. As a result General Foods claimed three Top Ten programs for the first of three consecutive seasons. .
Maxwell House Coffee Time slipped out of the Top Ten in 1943-44, but Jack Benny and The Aldrich Family remained and the addition of The Adventures of The Thin Man along with Kate Smith’s variety hour gave General Foods five Top 50 entries.
Jack Benny defected to American Tobacco sponsorship at the beginning of the 1944-45 season and The Aldrich Family’s ratings sank, leaving General Foods without a Top Ten program for the first time since the Golden Age began. And it wouldn’t have another one for the next eight seasons.
To make the season worse the company moved its successful Kate Smith Hour to the CBS timeslot opposite Lucky Strikes’ new Jack Benny Program with disastrous results. The beloved singer plunged from 29th to 93rd place in the ratings. Compounding that blunder the company split its successful Maxwell House Coffee Time team. The new Frank Morgan Show stayed in the Top 50 but Fanny Brice’s move to Sunday evening plummeted to 79th place.
The company drifted along with an average of four shows in the lower half of the Annual Top 50 until 1952-53. As Network Radio’s Golden Age closed, the sponsor with the most Top 50 shows of the era fittingly claimed the most of the year. General Foods’ six Top 50 entries were led by Gangbusters’ onlyTop Ten season.
It was a long way from the halcyon days of Showboat, Jack Benny and Good News. Nevertheless, General Foods entertained millions of listeners over the years while making billions of dollars selling its goods to radio audience.
LEVER BROTHERS aka UNILEVER: Lifeboy Soap, Lipton Tea & Soup Mixes, Lux Beauty Soap, Lux Flakes Laundry Soap, Pepsodent Toothpaste, Rinso Laundry Soap, Spry Shortening, Swan Soap, Vimms Vitamins.
Top 50 Programs:71-Top Ten Programs: 38 - Number One Programs: 8
The 1947-48 and 1948-49 seasons capped Lever Brothers’ Network Radio success when five of the company’s shows - Lux Radio Theater, Bob Hope’s Pepsodent Show, Amos & Andy, Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts and My Friend Irma - dominated the Annual Top Ten..
Lever Brothers placed more entries in the Annual Top Ten and had more Number One shows than any other sponsor. Further, when Lever acquired Pepsodent in 1944 it also inherited Bob Hope’s Number One program. As a result, Lever claimed Network Radio’s most popular program for the next eight consecutive seasons - Hope from 1944-45 through 1946-47, and Lux Radio Theater from 1947-48 through 1951-52.
The company also placed five shows in the Annual Top 50 seven times and six programs twice. Simply put, it was an unmatched record of success.
Lever Brothers didn’t enter the Top 50 list until the 1935-36 season when Lux Radio Theater was moved from New York to Hollywood, shifted from Blue’s Sunday afternoon schedule and became a Monday night fixture on CBS. Lux scored the first of its 17 consecutive Top Ten finishes in 1936-37 and the addition of Al Jolson’s variety show provided Lever with two Top Ten programs for the next three seasons.
Then, taking its cue from the success of Lux Radio Theater’s weekly lineup of movie stars, Lever introduced Big Town starring Edward G. Robinson in 1937-38. The newspaper melodrama promptly became a solid Top 20 hit for five consecutive seasons.
Lever turned to comedy in 1942-43 with shows from Burns & Allen, Bob Burns and Tommy Riggs & Betty Lou. The three joined Lux Radio Theater and gave the company its first season with four Top 50 shows. Riggs and his little girl voiced alter ego were replaced by the revamped Amos & Andy sitcom in 1943-44, and with the short lived Frank Sinatra Show, Lever Brothers had five programs in the season’s Top 50.
The addition of Bob Hope’s Number One show in 1944-45 more than made up for Sinatra’s drop from the Top 50 and the company again had five Top 50 programs The replacement of Burns & Allen with comedienne Joan Davis in 1945-46 kept the pace going at five.
Lever placed Hope, Lux Radio Theater and Amos & Andy in 1946-47’s Top Ten. That set the stage for its record setting 1947-48 and 1948-49 seasons of five Top Ten entries. The company also picked up the second run of Big Town starring Ed Pawley and Fran Carlon in 1948-49 for its sixth show in the annual Top 50..
Although Amos & Andy left for Rexall Drug sponsorship in 1949-50, Lux Radio Theater, Bob Hope, Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts and My Friend Irma remained in the season’s Top Ten and Big Town rounded out Lever’s number of Top 50 programs at five.
Bob Hope fell out of the Top Ten in 1950-51 but Lux Radio Theater, Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts and My Friend Irma remained. Big Town again gave Lever Brothers its fifth program on the Top 50 list.
Lever Brothers cancelled Bob Hope and My Friend Irma in 1951-52, leaving only Lux Radio Theater and Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts as its Top Ten entries. Big Town was company’s third Top 50 show of the season, .
As audiences increasingly deserted Network Radio for television in 1952-53, Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts - simulcast on CBS-TV - slipped out of the Top Ten, leaving only Lux Radio Theater. The two programs represented Lever Brothers’ poorest showing in the Annual Top 50 in 13 years - indicative that Lever Brothers, one of the most successful sponsors of Network Radio’s Golden Age, was turning its attention to television, as well.
COLGATE-PALMOLIVE: Colgate Dental Cream, Colgate Shave Cream, Cashmere Bouquet Soap, Halo Shampoo, Lustre Creme Shampoo, Palmolive Soap, Palmolive Shave Cream, Super Suds Laundry Soap.
Top 50 Programs: 49 - Top Ten Programs: 3 - Number One Programs: 0
Colgate maintained a Top 50 presence in all but two of the 21 seasons, peaking in 1947-48 with five shows on the list - Kay Kyser’s Kollege of Musical Knowledge, A Day In The Life of Dennis Day, Blondie, The Judy Canova Show and Mr. & Mrs. North.
Colgate entered Network Radio’s Golden Age with the Palmolive Beauty Box Theater starring soprano Gladys Swarthout, a Top Ten show for two seasons beginning in 1933-34. The company then disappeared from the Annual Top Ten until 1952-53 when its Lustre Crème Shampoo sponsored Eve Arden ‘s sitcom, Our Miss Brooks.
Along the way, company sponsored Saturday night’s Colgate House Party in 1933-34 and Gertrude Berg’s House of Glass in 1934-35 which joined Beauty Box Theater and gave the company two Top 50 shows in both seasons.
Beauty Box Theater faded from the Top Ten in 1935-36 but Colgate increased its Top 50 presence to four programs with House of Glass, Fanny Brice’s short-lived Ziegfeld Follies and Phillips H. Lord’s new crime-fighting series, Gangbusters. which began its legendary 18 year run.
Beauty Box was in its final season in 1936-37 and Gangbusters became Colgate’s leading show in the Top 50. Over the next two seasons Gangbusters was the company’s only program on the list until 1939-40 when Colgate cancelled the police docudrama and picked up Jim McWilliams’ Top 50 audience participation quiz, The Ask It Basket.
A two year drought followed when Colgate was without a Top 50 program. The company began its comeback to the list in 1942-43 with the Al Jolson Show and the comedy panel show, Can You Top This? Jolson left at the end of the season and was replaced in 1943-44’s Top 50 by Judy Canova’s comedy variety show.
Canova and Can You Top This? were joined on the list in 1944-45 by Kay Kyser’s highly-rated College of Musical Knowledge and Colgate again had three shows in the Annual Top 50 for the next two seasons.
Although Kyser slipped off the list in 1946-47, Colgate added Blondie and A Day In The Life of Dennis Day to its comedy stable, joining Canova and Can You Top This? in the season’s Top 50.
Kay Kyser’s return to the Top 50 in 1947-48 plus the addition of mystery/comedy Mr. & Mrs. North made up for the loss of Can You Top This? and gave Colgate its most successful season with five shows on the list. .
It didn’t last long. Blondie and Kyser were gone in 1948-49, leaving Colgate with three Top 50 entries in the Judy Canova, Dennis Day and Mr. & Mrs. North shows. Canova and Day each carried the Colgate banner into the Annual Top 50 for the next three seasons while Mr. & Mrs. North remained a Top 50 favorite for the next five years.
The three were joined on the list in 1949-50 by Colgate’s most popular program of the Golden Age. Veteran movie comedienne Eve Arden as spinster/school teacher Our Miss Brooks steadily advanced into and up the Top 50 list for the next four seasons. As the Golden Age closed in 1953, Our Miss Brooks was a Top Ten Network Radio show, already adapted into a successful television series and about to become a hit movie.
AMERICAN TOBACCO: Lucky Strike Cigarettes, Pall Mall Cigarettes.
Top 50 Programs: 47- Top Ten Programs:14 - Number One Programs: 1
American Tobacco was the model of consistency. The company appeared in the Top 50 rankings during 20 of the 21 years of Network Radio’s Golden Age. It placed two shows on the list ten times and three shows seven times. Only once did it have as many as four programs on the list and two of those four had been cancelled at mid-season.
American’s Lucky Strike Cigarettes was the “King of Hard Sell.” The heavy handed approach was the creation of American Tobacco’s longtime eccentric CEO, George Washington Hill. Hill was once quoted as saying, “I don’t have the right to spend my stockholder’s money just to entertain the public!” Nevertheless, he did. And in doing so he built American Tobacco’s annual revenues to over half a Billion dollars by the time of his death in 1945.
The Hill program philosophy was simple: Keep the listeners happy with popular music and comedy. It was evidenced in the long running jingle, “Be Happy Go Lucky, Be Happy Go Lucky Strike…”
Lucky Strike’s incessant commercials peppered The Jack Pearl Show, a Top Ten favorite in 1932-33. Hill augmented the comedy show with two more Top Ten shows that first season of the Golden Age, Tuesday’s Lucky Strike Hour and Lucky Strike’s Dance Bands on Saturdays. The two pop music shows were gone by the 1933-34 season and when Pearl’s popularity fell dramatically in the early part of the season he was unceremoniously dumped by Hill in December.
Lucky Strike was then off the air for over a year until April, 1935, when Your Hit Parade began its 18 season run with an immediate entry into the Annual Top 50. Always one to capitalize on a good thing, Hill mounted a massive retail promotion for Lucky Strike in the summer of 1936 - offering free cartons of cigarettes to listeners who could predict the week’s Top Three songs in order. He backed the contest with weekly broadcasts of Your Hit Parade on NBC and CBS and Blue. Blue was dropped in October, but both the NBC and CBS editions of the show finished in the Annual Top 50 for the next two seasons.
Despite the success of Your Hit Parade on NBC, the show was removed at mid-season in 1937-38, and became the sole possession of CBS for the next eight seasons. . The NBC edition was briefly replaced by singing movie star Dick Powell, who in turn was replaced late in the season by Kay Kyser’s Kollege of Musical Knowledge. Although listeners may have been confused by all the switches, Lucky Strike finished the season with all four shows in the Annual Top 50.
Kyser’s musical quiz remained under Lucky Strike sponsorship until 1944-45 when American Tobacco successfully outbid all other suitors to take over Jack Benny’s long running Top Ten show. The combined effect was that two of Network Radio’s most popular attractions - Benny and Your Hit Parade - followed Hill’s original marketing formula of selling cigarettes with comedy and popular music .
It was only after Hill’s death that American Tobacco departed from his concept and picked up The Big Story in 1946-47 for its secondary brand, Pall Mall Cigarettes. Although the newspaper docudrama contained no music or comedy elements, it contributed a third Top 50 program to the company’s roster. When the Golden Age closed in 1952-53 The Big Story had racked up seven consecutive Top 50 finishes for Pall Mall.
Meanwhile, Your Hit Parade fell off the list in 1950-51 and 1952-53 while Jack Benny continued along in the Top Ten and scored his fourth and final Number One season in 1952-53.
STANDARD BRANDS: Blue Bonnet Margarine, Chase & Sanborn Coffee & Tea, Fleischmann Yeast, Royal Gelatin & Pudding, Tenderleaf Tea.
Top 50 Programs:45 - Top Ten Programs:27 - Number One Programs: 5
Standard Brands had an unusual record in the Annual Top 50 charts - starting strong in 1932-33 and disappearing altogether after the 1948-49 season.
Its Depression era ratings strength extended to claiming Network Radio’s Number One show five times during the 1930’s, all of them occupying the 8:00 Sunday timeslot on NBC. Nevertheless, two of its Number One attractions abandoned the timeslot and left the company scrambling.
Standard Brands was the first multi-brand food company to fully exploit Network Radio’s popularity with the Chase & Sanborn Coffee Hour starring Eddie Cantor - Network Radio’s most popular program over the first two seasons of the Golden Age. Its Fleishmann Yeast Hour starring singing bandleader Rudy Vallee was also a Top Ten show for six consecutive seasons during the 1930’s.
Eddie Cantor abruptly left Standard Brands and jumped to CBS early in the 1934-35 season. Despite the loss of its star attraction, the company placed six programs in the Annual Top 50, including three Top Ten shows, Major Bowes’ Original Amateur Hour, Rudy Vallee’s Fleischmann Yeast Hour and Joe Penner’s Bakers Broadcast. The company also added The Chase & Sanborn Opera Guild, a Mary Pickford anthology drama and One Man’s Family to its list of Top 50 programs.
Pickford and Penner lasted only one season, but One Man’s Family had begun its run as Network Radio’s longest continuing prime-time drama. The Carleton E. Morse serial extended from 1935 to 1945 in the nighttime hours, from 1945 to 1949 as a Sunday afternoon feature and concluded its run as an early evening Multiple Run strip from 1950 to 1959. Its record during the Golden Age included two Top Ten finishes, both sponsored by Standard Brands, and a dozen seasons in the Annual Top 50;
The Opera Guild, with famous operas performed in English, was a brief 13-week replacement for Cantor until Ed Bowes' Amateur Hour took over the Sunday timeslot in March, 1935. The Original Amateur Hour immediately became a Top Ten show. But after the 1935-36 season when it became Number One , Bowes also jumped ship to CBS.
Standard was left to fill its prized Sunday slot in 1936-37 with Do You Want To Be An Actor?, a quasi-amateur show that made the Top 50 but lost its Sunday time period to the CBS tandem of Eddie Cantor and singing movie star Nelson Eddy.
Then came Standard’s most successful entry, The Chase & Sanborn Coffee Hour starring ventriloquist Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy, the nation’s Number One program for two seasons beginning in 1937-38 and the company’s consistent Top Ten attraction for the next eleven years. Bergen’s hour was reduced to 30 minutes in 1939 and Standard followed him with One Man’s Family which rode the ventriloquist’s coattails to its two Top Ten seasons.
When the family serial faded, Standard moved comedian Fred Allen in to follow Edgar Bergen from 1945 to 1947 and Standard Brands again had two Top Ten attractions. But Standard let Fred Allen get away at mid-season of 1947-48 and he was immediately picked up by Ford Motors.
Standard Brands finally let its legendary Sunday night timeslot go when Edgar Bergen left his Chase & Sanborn show in December, 1948. As a result, Standard Brands had no Top 50 entries in the final four seasons of Network Radio’s Golden Age.
Yet, over the 17 years of Standard Brands sponsorship, the Sunday night at eight on NBC had contained five Number One programs and 19 Top Ten entries for the company.
STERLING DRUG: Bayer Aspirin, Dr. Lyons Tooth Powder, Fletchers Castoria Laxative, Haley’s MO Laxative, Ironized Yeast. Molle Shaving Cream, Phillips Milk of Magnesia Laxative.
Top 50 Programs: 42 - Top Ten Programs: 1 - Number One Programs: 0
Sterling Drug was the classic “bottom feeder” of Network Radio with a string of relatively low cost prime time programs that built loyal audiences and gave the company a Top 50 entry in 19 of Network Radio’s Golden Age of 21 years. Sterling never had more than three shows in the Annual Top 50 but did it eight times.
Most of the company’s programs were produced by Frank & Anne Hummert who are better remembered for their mass output of weekday soap operas. Sterling sponsored the Hummerts’ long running prime time music shows, The American Album of Familiar Music, Manhattan Merry Go Round and Waltz Time. The three musicals were on the air for a combined 51 seasons yet totaled only 21 Top 50 finishes. They scored a Top 50 trifecta for Sterling just once - in the 1945-46 season.
Sterling opened the Golden Age with American Album’s half hour of standards and traditional music featuring popular tenor Frank Munn, finishing at 50th place in the 1932-33 rankings. It was the first of four consecutive Top 50 finishes for the the program. Manhattan Merry Go Round joined American Album in 1933-34 and the two repeated their Top 50 finishes together in 1935-36, 1938-39, 1942-43, 1945-46 and 1946-47. In total, American Album had ten Top 50 seasons and Merry Go Round registered nine.
But Sterling’s most successful shows came from the Hummert factory of formula drama late in the Golden Age. Mystery Theater aka Hearthstone of The Death Squad registered three Top 50 finishes from 1948 to 1951 and Mr. Chameleon made the list four times, including the company’s sole Top Ten finish in 1950-51. Coincidentally, Mr. Chameleon was played by Karl Swenson who was also the male lead in two of Hummerts’ daytime serials, Our Gal Sunday and Lorenzo Jones.
Outside the Hummert umbrella, Sterling’s biggest hits were Battle of The Sexes, an audience participation show starring husband and wife Frank Crumit and Julia Sanderson from 1938 to 1942, and the second run of Big Town from 1943 to 1948. Both accounted for four Top 50 seasons.
PROCTER & GAMBLE: Camay Beauty Soap, Crisco Shortening, Dreft Laundry Soap, Drene Shampoo, Duz Laundry Detergent, Ivory Soap, Lava Hand Soap, Oxydol Laundry Soap, Prell Shampoo, Teel Liquid Dentifrice, Tide Laundry Detergent.
Top 50 Programs: 38 - Top Ten Programs: 1 - Number One Programs: 0
For many years the Cincinnati soap manufacturer was Network Radio’s biggest advertiser, best known for its many daytime serials, hence the sobriquet “soap operas”.
Procter & Gamble made a less than auspicious start in prime time during the 1934-35 season with the disastrous Gibson Family, an expensive experiment in original musical comedy that listeners abandoned in droves over the course of the season. Nevertheless, the program limped into the Annual Top 50.
The company didn’t return to the list until 1939-40 when it picked up a nighttime serial, Those We Love, and two audience participation shows, Professor Quiz and What’s My Name? The two quiz games fell the following season, replaced by Knickerbocker Playhouse and a new kind of audience participation/stunt show Truth Or Consequences, which began its decade of Top 50 finishes under P&G sponsorship, peaking in sixth place in 1947-48.
Procter & Gamble replaced Knickerbocker Playhouse with the anthology’s spinoff sitcom Abie‘s Irish Rose in 1942-43. The comedy and Truth Or Consequences were the company‘s two Top 50 entries until 1944-45 when Rudy Vallee‘s new variety show, Villa Vallee, replaced the sitcom.
The company enjoyed its first season of four Top 50 entries in 1945-46 when Vallee and Truth Or Consequences were joined by William Bendix’s sitcom, The Life of Riley, and a new docudrama, The FBI In Peace & War.
Vallee fell out of the Top 50 in 1946-47, but The Life of Riley, Truth Or Consequences and The FBI In Peace & War repeated to give Procter and Gamble three Top 50 programs over the next three seasons.
The Life of Riley left for Pabst Beer sponsorship in 1949-50 but P&G added two CBS Top 50 entries to its roster, Red Skelton’s new variety show and Beulah, the former Fibber McGee & Molly spinoff converted to a successful early evening sitcom strip starring veteran actress Hattie McDaniel. Combined with Truth Or Consequences and The FBI In Peace & War, the company again had four Top 50 shows.
Ralph Edwards took his Truth Or Consequences to CBS and Phillip Morris sponsorship for the 1950-51 season, but Red Skelton, The FBI In Peace & War and Beulah remained on the season’s Top 50. It didn’t last long. Skelton fell from eighth to 86th place over the 1951-52 season. In addition, Proctor & Gamble cancelled The FBI In Peace & War and as a result Beulah was its only remaining Top 50 entry.
Beulah dropped out of the Top 50 in 1952-53 and as the Golden Age ended Procter & Gamble was left with two Top 50 shows - the new sitcom, Meet Millie, and the 16 year veteran of Network Radio, Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons.
KRAFT FOODS aka NATIONAL DAIRY PRODUCTS CORP.: Kraft Cheese, Miracle Whip Salad Dressing, Parkay Margarine, Philadelphia Brand Cream Cheese, Sealtest Dairies, Velveeta Cheese Food.
Top 50 Programs: 37- Top Ten Programs: 11- Number One Programs: 0
National Dairy Products was never identified by name on the air.
But its three major radio advertisers, Kraft, Sealtest and Parkay, combined to register at least one Top 50 program in 20 of the Golden Age’s 21 years. The three divisions placed two shows on the list over ten seasons, three in four seasons and peaked in 1945-46 with four Top 50 entries.
Unlike any of the other advertisers on this list, Kraft Foods’ entire roster of Top 50 programs were broadcast on just one network, NBC And as another novel distinction, the company’s Network Radio flagship of 16 years, Kraft Music Hall, scored 18 Top 50 finishes.
Kraft Music Hall burst on the scene in 1933-34 featuring Paul Whiteman’s orchestra with frequent guest Al Jolson. The show immediately registered the first of its nine Top Ten finishes. When Jolson left for his own show in 1934-35 Music Hall faltered slightly, just missing the season‘s Top Ten..
Nevertheless, Kraft wanted a younger image to sell its new Miracle Whip Salad Dressing and brought in Bing Crosby to replace Paul Whiteman at mid-season in 1935-36. The two distinctly different versions of Kraft Music Hall during the same season resulted in two Top Ten finishes.
Kraft Music Hall starred Bing Crosby for eleven years and resulted in seven Top Ten finishes. When Crosby was replaced for half of the 1945-46 season by comedian/actor Frank Morgan, the two separate versions of the same show again finished in the season’s Top 50. Crosby left the show permanently in 1946-47, yet Kraft Music Hall remained in the Top 50 for its final three seasons, two of them featuring Al Jolson, who had first appeared on the program two decades earlier. .
The company’s Sealtest Dairies division picked up The Rudy Vallee Show in 1938 and the singer extended his personal string of Top 50 finishes for another five seasons until he left for World War II service with the Coast Guard in 1943. Vallee was replaced in 1943-44 by The Sealtest Village Store, starring Jack Haley and Joan Davis, which opened with two Top Ten seasons. Davis was replaced by Eve Arden in 1945-46 and the sitcom remained in the Top 50 until 1947.
Kraft Cheese was the first of the company’s brands to sponsor what became Network Radio’s most successful spinoff show in 1941-42. The Great Gildersleeve, descended from Fibber McGee & Molly, enjoyed twelve Top 50 seasons. After its first five seasons on NBC’s Sunday schedule, the sitcom starring Harold Peary was moved to Wednesdays and Kraft handed off sponsorship to the company’s Parkay Margarine division.
R.J. REYNOLDS TOBACCO: Camel Cigarettes, Prince Albert Tobacco.
Top 50 Programs: 36 - Top Ten Programs: 3 - Number One Programs: 0
Reynolds Tobacco’s most popular brand, Camel Cigarettes, sponsored a variety of shows under the umbrella title, The Camel Caravan. Nevertheless, the title is generally associated with Camel’s many shows featuring popular dance bands of the era - including Benny Goodman, Glen Gray, Bob Crosby, Xavier Cugat and Vaughn Monroe.
The company’s Top 50 presence peaked in 1942-43, 1943-44 and 1952-53 when it sponsored four programs on the list.
Network Radio’s Golden Age was entering its fifth season when Reynolds first broke into the Top 50 of 1936-37. Taking its cue from American Tobacco’s use of comedy and music in an appeal to youth, Camel sponsored Jack Oakie’s College, starring the popular young movie comedian and featuring Benny Goodman’s swing band. When Goodman moved to New York in the fall of 1937 the show grew to 60 minutes split in two for most of the season - Oakie’s College for the first half hour and Benny Goodman’s Swing School for the second. The double feature lasted until Oakie left the air in March, 1938.
Goodman’s show dropped out of Top 50 in 1938-39 but Camel signed a one-season contract with comedian Eddie Cantor that resulted in Camel’s first Top Ten program.
Cantor was cancelled in 1939-40, yet Camel scored two Top 50 shows, the veteran Al Pearce’s Gang and Blondie, the sitcom starring Penny Singleton and Arthur Lake that was based on the popular comic strip and beginning its ten year Network Radio run. The two comedies remained Camel’s only two Top 50 entries for three seasons through 1941-42.
Pearce was cancelled in 1942-43 and replaced in the Top 50 by 24 year old “Hoosier” comedian Herb Shriner while Blondie repeated, spurred on by the five Columbia Pictures comedies released during the season that also starred Singleton and Lake as Blondie & Dagwood Bumstead.
But Camel made bigger news during the season with the debut of the biggest comedy team in the movies, Bud Abbott & Lou Costello, who burst into the Top 50 at Number Eleven. However, Costello’s sudden illness in March, 1943, forced the cigarette maker to find a sudden replacement - and it did in Jimmy Durante & Garry Moore whose surprising success as a team gave Camel a total of four shows in the Annual Top 50.
Herb Shriner’s struggling show was cancelled before the 1943-44 season but Abbott & Costello reached the Top Ten while Blondie,and Durante & Moore repeated in the Top 50. Reynolds’ fourth Top 50 entry came from an unexpected source as Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry, sponsored by the company’s Prince Albert Tobacco, made the list for the first and only time in its twelve year ratings history.
Abbott & Costello continued to hover near 1944-45’s Top Ten while Blondie and Durante & Moore moved on to new sponsors. Camel introduced a new show to the Top 50, Bob Hawk’s Thanks To The Yanks, a quiz show featuring armed forces personnel serving in World War II. The quiz was renamed The Bob Hawk Show after the war and along with Abbott & Costello remained Camel‘s only two Top 50 attractions through 1946-47.
The comedy team left Reynolds and Hawk temporarily slipped out of the Top 50 in 1947-48 while Camels picked up Screen Guild Theater as its only program on the list for the season. The film adaptation anthology dropped out in 1948-49 and Hawk’s quiz game returned as Camels’ only Top 50 show.
Hawk was joined in the Top 50 of 1949-50 when Jimmy Durante, (without Garry Moore), returned to Reynolds’ sponsorship for the season.
The comedian left to devote his full attention to television in 1950-51 but Camels added Dick Powell’s lighthearted Richard Diamond, Private Detective and bandleader Vaughn Monroe’s Camel Caravan to the increasingly popular Bob Hawk Show on its Top 50 roster.
Bob Hawk reached the 1951-52 Top Ten but was Reynolds’ only representative in the season’s Top 50.
The company added sitcom My Friend Irma and John Henry Faulk’s quiz Walk A Mile in 1952-53. Combined with the The Bob Hawk Show, Reynolds closed out the Golden Age with three Top 50 programs.
BRISTOL MYERS: Ipana Toothpaste, Minit Rub Liniment, Mum Deodorant, Sal Hapatica Laxative, Trushay Hand Cream, Vitalis Hair Tonic.
Top 50 Programs: 34 - Top Ten Programs: 8 - Number One Programs: 0
A longtime Network Radio sponsor, Bristol-Myers brands appeared in the Annual Top 50 lists for 19 of the 21 years of the Golden Age missing only the first season, 1932-33, and the last, 1952-53.
Its variety of brands, many advertised together within the same program, sponsored a gamut of formats ranging from Comedy/Variety, (Fred Allen and Eddie Cantor), to Continuing Character Drama, (Mr. District Attorney), to Situation Comedy, (Duffy’s Tavern), to Audience Participation/Quiz, (Break The Bank). With this combination of formats, Bristol Myers enjoyed five seasons in which three of its programs were the Annual Top 50..
Bristol Myers’ sole Top 50 attraction throughout the 1930’s - beginning in 1933-34 - was Fred Allen’s Hour of Smiles. The dry comedian scored four Top Ten seasons from 1934-35 through 1937-38. When Allen left the company’s fold in 1940 after seven Top 50 seasons, he was replaced by Eddie Cantor’s Time To Smile. Cantor registered six consecutive Top 50 seasons for Bristol Myers, including one in the Annual Top Ten, 1941-42.
The company’s longest running hit was the crime busting Mr. District Attorney which maintained a Top 50 presence in every season from 1940 until 1952, peaking with three consecutive Top Ten finishes from 1942-43 through 1944-45.
Bristol Myers added Ed Gardner’s sitcom Duffy’s Tavern in 1943-44.The combination of Eddie Cantor, Mr. District Attorney and Duffy’s Tavern gave Bristol Myers three Top 50 shows for the next three seasons.
Cantor left for Pabst Beer sponsorship at the beginning of the 1946-47 season while Bristol Myers was grooming Break The Bank, a new big money quiz show on ABC starring energetic host Bert Parks.
Break The Bank, Mr. District Attorney and Duffy’s Tavern gave Bristol Myers its final two seasons of three Top 50 programs in 1947-48 and 1948-49.
Duffy’s was gone - literally - in 1949-50, when Ed Gardner took his cast and program production to Puerto Rico under Blatz Beer sponsorship. Break The Bank disappeared along with many of the other big jackpot shows in 1950-51 and Mr. District Attorney, Bristol Myers last remaining Top 50 program, was cancelled after the 1951-52 season.
The Impact of These Top Ten Sponsors
What influence did these ten advertisers - ranked by the number of Top 50 programs they sponsored - have in the overall picture of program popularity during the 21 years of Network Radio’s Golden Age?
The total number of Top 50 programs during the era - including the eight programs that tied for 50th place in seven seasons - was 1,058. The ten advertisers profiled above accounted for a cumulative total of 483 Top 50 programs.
The total number of Top Ten programs - including the five programs that tied for tenth place in five seasons - was 215. The ten advertisers profiled sponsored 129 of them.
The total number of Number One programs - including one tie - was 22. Four of the ten advertisers - General Foods, Lever Brothers, Standard Brands and American Tobacco - sponsored 17 of them.
In other words, these ten advertisers sponsored almost 46% of all Top 50 programs, 60% of all Top Ten programs and 77% of all Number One programs.
Yes, they had an impact - a major impact. But so did almost all of the 126 advertisers who sold their goods to audiences ranging from the hundreds of thousands to many millions of listeners every week during Network Radio's Golden Age.
Copyright © 2015 Jim Ramsburg, Estero FL Email: tojimramsburg@gmail.com
