MAKE WAY, DUDES! BUCK BENNY RIDES TO THE TOP OF THE RATINGS AGAIN!
"Come In, London..."
The 1940-41 Season
9th In A Series
The Sounds of War. The London Blitz began on September 7, 1940, and continued for eight months. The networks had reporters and facilities in place to give their listeners spot coverage of the daily bombings and dogfights over the city. Both CBS and NBC’s London bureaus were destroyed by German bombs on April 16, 1941 but their coverage continued without interruption.
America’s entry in World War II was still months away but shortwave news reports from the battle fronts and world capitals had established Network Radio as a necessity for news in over 80% of the country’s homes. The number of rated and ranked news and commentary programs leaped in just one year from three to 13. Seven of the eleven highest rated Multiple Run programs were newscasts. Lowell Thomas’ Monday through Friday newscasts appeared in all five weeknights’ Top Ten lists. Thomas turned in Blue’s second highest rated program for the season behind Walter Winchell’s Jergens Journal on Sunday nights. (See Walter Winchell.)
H. V. Kaltenborn, newly recruited by NBC from CBS, was in Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday’s Top Ten - finishing in the season’s Top 50 for the first of five consecutive seasons. (See H.V. Kaltenborn.) Mutual jumped on the news wagon by scheduling a quarter hour newscast in each of the four prime time hours every night. Gabriel Heatter’s four-nights-a-week newscasts on Mutual were the highest rated of the 20 MBS programs that appeared in the season’s Hooper reports. (1) (See Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten.)
The Sweet Spell of Success. Things couldn’t have been going better for the radio industry. Total 1940 revenues flew past $200 Million, up 30% from the 1938 slowdown. The networks kept pace, accounting for over $100 Million in billings - a 27% increase in the same two year period. (See The Gold In The Golden Age and Radio Nets' Grosses.)
Hundreds of stations were mandated to shift their frequencies to comply with the Interference Provisions of the North American Radio Agreement in March, 1941. (See The March of Change on this site.) To some stations the shift required major capital investments in equipment but the industry took it in stride. Radio was proving to be the business star of an otherwise dismal decade - there was plenty of money coming in to cover the cost of doing business.
A Fly In The Ointment. Just a month after the upheaval of frequencies, FCC Chairman James Fly, an appointee of the Roosevelt administration, issued the commission’s 150 page Report on Chain Broadcasting on May 3, 1941. The networks knew it was coming - it had been over three years of congressional subcommittee hearings in the making. But they didn’t realize to what lengths the once passive FCC would go to placate an administration and Congress which were convinced that the networks were just too successful to be legal.
Never one given to understatement, Fly spoke for his four member FCC majority and called the report a “Magna Carta for American broadcasting stations.” Broadcasters had different descriptions for it. NAB President Neville Miller called it, “A usurpation of power that has no justification in law.”
The Report on Chain Broadcasting boiled down to eight edicts dictated to the networks and their affiliated stations to take effect within 90 days. Seven of the eight provisions - dealing with affiliation and territorial exclusivity, length of affiliation contracts, affiliate rights to refuse network programming and multiple station ownership in a single market - had little effect on what Americans heard or where they heard it.
But one provision was aimed squarely at NBC’s ownership of two networks - the Red Network of 74 stations and the Blue chain of 92 affiliates. The FCC imposed its “trust-busting” ruling through its power to license individual stations. It decreed that no license would be given or renewed to any station affiliated with a network that simultaneously operated two networks. The language was awkward but its message was clear: NBC had to dump one of its two networks to stay in business.
CBS and NBC vowed to fight the mandates in court while Mutual relished the prospect of a potentially big pool of program clearances available from its larger competitors’ powerful affiliates. The underdog network sided with the FCC. The battle between the broadcasters and bureaucrats would extend into the following season.
NBC - Red, Blue & Purple. The Report on Chain Broadcasting suggests that network affiliate rosters were inflexible from one city and one program to the next. That wasn’t the case. Some programs, even Top 50 caliber shows, were not heard on the full networks in all cities. Sponsors determined the geographical regions for advertising coverage and the networks provided the affiliates to suit those purposes. The 1940-41 season presented the following examples:
Vox Pop was heard in only 19 of C.E. Hooper’s 30 surveyed markets where Kentucky Club Tobacco was sold. Al Pearce’s Gang was broadcast in 23 of the 30 cities per orders of R.J. Reynolds’ Camel Cigarettes. Both shows originated from CBS, which seldom farmed out its programs to alternate, secondary affiliates. NBC and Blue network programs were something else again.
In the 1940-41 season, Burns & Allen were heard in 26 cities from NBC affiliates and in four markets on Blue network stations. The new Rudy Vallee Show for Sealtest was broadcast by 21 NBC stations, four Blue affiliates and simply wasn’t heard in five of the 30 surveyed markets.
Blue’s Lowell Thomas - headed for NBC in three years - was already heard on five NBC affiliates every weeknight in 1940-41. Walter Winchell’s Jergens Journal was Blue’s most popular program - but in 13 of Hooper’s 30 surveyed cities, Winchell was broadcast on the local NBC station.
Unlike big brother Bing’s Kraft Music Hall that was heard over the full NBC network, Bob Crosby’s Camel Caravan at 7:30 on Thursday was aired by a mix of 13 NBC stations, six Blue affiliates plus one Mutual outlet. The number of NBC affiliates available to Bob Crosby was limited because the network was split on Thursday to feed H. V. Kaltenborn’s 7:45 newscast for Pure Oil to nine NBC stations and two Blue affiliates.
What was that again about simultaneously operating separate networks?
A Dunce Cap For ASCAP. Broadcasters were also involved in another fight - this one over music and money. Broadcast Music Inc., created by the industry a year earlier as an alternative to ASCAP and its proposed hike in music fees, had built a catalog of 20,000 songs by September. BMI had opened the doors to country, gospel, rhythm & blues and folk music - genres that ASCAP almost ignored. BMI music was being recorded, played on radio and accepted by the public. In addition, BMI was buying complete music libraries from publishers. When the networks’ ASCAP licenses expired on New Years Eve, 1940, BMI’s catalog numbered nearly 50,000 titles.
Radio’s boycott of ASCAP music began on January 1, 1941, and was hardly noticed - except by the broadcasters who were vigilant against any of ASCAP’s two million songs getting on their air which could result in a $250 fine per station for each violation. If a network should slip-up, the fine would amount to $20,000.
Some local stations, mostly independents which relied on recorded music, signed with ASCAP for the programming advantage its music provided, but the networks hung tough for five months.
Mutual became the first network to negotiate a settlement with ASCAP, which was losing tens of thousands of dollars every day while the boycott lasted. The Society’s loss had reached $2.0 Million in May when Mutual and ASCAP agreed to a new ten year contract calling for an annual blanket fee of only three percent of network revenues - two percent less than the previous rate. NBC and CBS took their time and completed the season offering nothing but BMI and public domain music, saving millions in ASCAP royalties.
Buck Benny’s Big Bucks. Jack Benny’s repeat with the season’s Number One program led a pack of five shows in the Annual Top 15 that were sponsored by General Foods - a remarkable record that would never be duplicated in Network Radio. General Foods was in its seventh season of sponsoring the comedian’s top rated Sunday night show. The company spent $650,000 for the season’s 35 half hours with Benny’s troupe on NBC. Of that sum, the comedian took home $350,000. (See Benny's Double Plays and Sunday At Seven.)
Benny's popularity was helped along with the summer release of Paramount’s Buck Benny Rides Again, a western spoof that introduced his radio gang - Eddie Rochester Anderson, Phil Harris, Dennis Day and Don Wilson - to movie audiences. (See Radio Goes To The Movies.)
When Benny’s ratings had assured him of the season’s Number One ranking, NBC threw a black tie gala at Hollywood’s Biltmore Hotel for 800 invited guests celebrating his first ten years in Network Radio. It was also announced that Benny had secured a personal ten-year option on his NBC contract which gave him ownership of his program and the freedom to sell it to the highest bidding sponsor. NBC President Niles Trammell climaxed the affair by giving Benny two gold keys that would unlock any door at NBC in New York or Hollywood. Benny jumped to CBS nine years later and had no need for the keys.
The Quipster’s Quiz. At 32, Bob Hawk was already a quick witted, four year veteran of low-budget Mutual quiz shows - Foolish Questions, The Fun Quiz, Name Three, and Quixie Doodles. He was considered a natural for Eversharp Pen & Pencil’s new Take It Or Leave It on CBS. The audience participation quiz with its grand prize of $64 for contestants who correctly answered to a sequence of seven questions was slotted against the soft competition of Phil Spitalny’s Hour of Charm on NBC and John J. Anthony’s tear jerking Goodwill Hour on Blue. It was the first of Take It Or Leave It’s eight consecutive Top 50 seasons and nine in Sunday’s Top Ten. Hawk left the show in late 1941 and was replaced by veteran comedian Phil Baker who hosted it for the next six of those peak years.
I.Q. OK. Doctor I.Q., was brought to Chicago and the Blue Network by Mars Candies in the spring of 1939, after a successful regional run in Texas. Like so many promising series first heard on Blue, Doctor I.Q. was moved to NBC where it became the network’s needed counter-programming prescription against CBS’s Lux Radio Theater. The fast paced quiz attracted double digit ratings immediately.
By 1941, Doctor I.Q. had evolved into a permanent road show, originating broadcasts from major city movie palaces from coast to coast where it finished the first of its five seasons as one of Monday’s Top Ten programs. That was a major accomplishment, considering it was slotted against Lux for six of its ten seasons on NBC. (See Dr. I.Q.)
Radio’s Peripatetic Pair. George Burns & Gracie Allen returned for their second series on NBC, this time for Minnesota meat processor Hormel, makers of Spam. As usually happened in switches of network, day and time, George and Gracie lost audience. Although the loss was only ten percent it was enough to knock their season ranking down to 30th - the couple’s all time low. They bounced back the next season - in yet another new day and time.
Those We Shove. Few programs could match Burns & Allen’s hopping around the calendars, clocks and networks. Those We Love did - in spades. From 1938 until 1941, the half-hour soap opera created by Agnes Ridgway had gone through three major corporate sponsors and three networks’ prime time schedules. Then, despite two consecutive Top 50 seasons of double digit ratings, it was cancelled in June, 1941, and left radio for a year.
Those We Love was eventually brought back in 1942 by Bristol-Myers as Eddie Cantor’s Wednesday night summer replacement - picking up the story line that had been interrupted for 13 months. General Foods then took over Those We Love in the fall of 1942 and parked it for three seasons on NBC’s Sunday afternoon schedule from September into June. During the summer months General Foods took it off its Sunday afternoon run and used it first as a summer replacement for Jack Benny and then for Frank Morgan.
When Those We Love left the air in 1945 it had undergone five network changes and nine jumps in days and times of broadcast - all in a span of seven seasons. The soap opera’s star throughout its tumultuous run was young film actress Nan Grey, who by 1941 at the age of 23 already had 36 B movies - Dracula’s Daughter, The Invisible Man Returns, etc. - to her credit. She married singer Frankie Laine in 1950 and retired, never to know what her radio series might have done had it been given the opportunity to become rooted in a permanent timeslot.
Brown & Williamson Splits Airs. Brown & Williamson was an active radio advertiser later associated with Top Ten hits Red Skelton and People Are Funny. The tobacco company engineered a interesting maneuver on Monday nights during the 1940-41 season by splitting NBC for two separate programs.
The primary feed, broadcast by 21 NBC affiliates, Avalon Showboat, was sponsored by B&W’s Avalon Cigarettes. The traditional music review was pale copy of the former Maxwell House Showboat. Simultaneously, eight powerful NBC affiliates in the south broadcast Brown &Williamson’s Renfro Valley Folks starring country singer Red Foley and rural comedian Whitey Ford, aka The Duke of Paducah. Their down home Renfro Valley show pitched B&W’s Big Ben brand of loose tobacco for chewers and smokers who rolled their own cigarettes. (2)
Neither Showboat nor Renfro Valley Folks hit Monday’s Top Ten against the second half hour of CBS’s top rated Lux Radio Theater. However, it was an early and rare example of demographically targeted programming employing split network feeds.
The Wimp of Wistful Vista. Fibber McGee & Molly turned in Tuesday’s most popular program for the third consecutive season and continued the show’s climb up the Annual Top Five to Number Two, behind Jack Benny. The sitcom was destined to finish in second place for a record nine seasons. (See Fibber McGee Minus Molly.)
Young radio veteran Bill Thompson, 27, had been with the cast of FM&M since its Chicago days in 1936, voicing an assortment of characters, most notably the raspy voiced, Old Timer who countered Fibber’s tall tales with what had become a national catchphrase, “That ain’t the way I heerd it!”
On April 15, 1941, Thompson introduced one of creator Don Quinn’s most endearing characters, Wallace Wimple, the henpecked, mush mouthed bird watcher who was constantly fearful of his, “...big, ol’wife, Sweetie Face.” The domineering Cornelia Wimple was never heard, but her acts of spousal abuse were described in detail every week by her meek, secretly vengeful husband who fantasized her doom to the McGee’s with an evil chuckle. (3) Except for Thompson’s leave of absence for military duty, his characters remained McGee neighbors for the remainder of the show’s successful Tuesday night run.
A Hot Heatter. While Fibber McGee & Molly and Bob Hope provided Tuesday’s one-two punch for NBC, Gabriel Heatter piloted We The People on CBS into becoming the night’s third most popular program and another winner for General Foods. The human interest interview potpourri created by Philips H. Lord completed its second consecutive season in the Annual Top 15. Its ratings averaged over 15 points for those two seasons.
Heatter was also in his fifth year at Mutual and the network’s top rated attraction. His weeknight - except Tuesday - news and commentary at 9:00 p.m. ET reached some two million homes and five million listeners each night. That number would nearly double before the end of World War II as Heatter became the voice of reasoned optimism. The tide of the war eventually supported his enthusiastic nightly opening, “Ahh, there’s good news tonight!”
Horace’s Heights. Moving Pot O Gold to Blue’s Thursday schedule left sponsor Lewis-Howe’s Tums with a hole in NBC’s Tuesday lineup. (4) Tums filled the timeslot with Horace Heidt, his Musical Knights, (fka The Heidt Brigade), and what appeared from its title to be another giveaway show, Tums Treasure Chest. Heidt - still co-hosting Pot O Gold on Blue, was the solo host of Treasure Chest, an alluring name for a program that was primarily music, spotlighting soloists from his show band. For one season Heidt became one of the few network stars to concurrently host two different prime time programs on two different networks.
“Tums For The Tummy,” kept Heidt in NBC’s 8:30 Tuesday timeslot for four seasons - a tribute to his showmanship and salesmanship to keep a sponsor happy for a program that never won its time period with ratings that only hovered around a ten.
Class Shows. Another band had greater ratings success. Kay Kyser’s College of Musical Knowledge continued to lead the pack on Wednesday, helped along by the second of his four musical comedies for RKO Radio Pictures. You’ll Find Out was released in November and begins with an abbreviated version of Kyser’s radio show showcasing the orchestra, singers and comedians whom had become radio and record favorites. (5) (See Radio Goes To The Movies.)
On February 26, 1941, Kyser took his 15 bandsmen and singers on the road to the U.S. Marine Base at San Diego and became the first in a parade of Network Radio stars to originate programs from military installations for the entertainment of the troops - a patriotic effort that Bob Hope adopted a few months later. It was just the first in thousands of shows, both on and off the air, that Kyser and his troupe would perform for servicemen during World War II.
Fred & Ed Head To Head. Fred Allen refused Bristol Myers’ request to trim his NBC Wednesday night comedy hour back to 30 minutes. He was fired and jumped to the welcoming arms of CBS and Texaco who gladly gave him a full hour at his familiar 9:00 p.m. timeslot on Wednesday. He lost nearly 20% of his audience in the move and finished behind the two half hour programs that filled the hour he vacated on NBC.
Bristol Myers replaced Allen on NBC with Eddie Cantor who returned to radio after a year’s layoff resulting from a sponsor backlash to his political remarks deemed controversial in 1939. To clinch the deal for his comeback, Cantor came up with a unique offer that he be paid $10,000 per week to cover the entire expense of his show, plus a weekly bonus of $200, for each rating point could he deliver over a base of 20 points. Cantor never came close to is bonus goal but he did entrench himself into Wednesdays at 9:00 on NBC with a Top 20 program for the next six seasons.
Following Cantor’s lead-in, Bristol Myers installed a revamped Mr. District Attorney for its Vitalis Hair Tonic. It immediately challenged Big Town as Network Radio’s highest rated mystery/adventure series The Ed Byron production would call 9:30 on Wednesday its home for twelve seasons and finish in the annual Top Ten three times. (See Wednesday's All Time Top Ten.)
NBC Shuffles Its Loaded Deck. NBC reshuffled its winning Thursday schedule with moves that continued to win the night and laid the foundation for a complete dominance two years later. Rudy Vallee’s Sealtest show was moved from 8:30 to 10:00 p.m. ET. To accommodate Vallee, Bing Crosby’s Kraft Music Hall was moved back an hour to 9:00 and into direct competition with Major Bowes’ Original Amateur Hour on CBS. Crosby lost over 25% of his audience along with Music Hall’s three year title as Thursday’s most popular program. More surprisingly, Crosby lost his head to head competition with Bowes, but that wouldn't last long.
General Foods made the greatest contribution to NBC’s Thursday ratings when it snapped up the 8:00 timeslot vacated by Bristol Myers’ cancellation of the weak George Jessel variety show, For Men Only. The half hour became the new home for Maxwell House Coffee Time - a scaled back version of the hour-long Good News hosted by Frank Morgan with Fanny Brice’s Baby Snooks skits. The pair immediately snatched ninth place in the Annual Top Ten. (See Baby Snooks and Frank Morgan.)
Following Morgan & Brice at 8:30, General Foods’ introduced the sitcom that became the hottest show of the season. The Aldrich Family, based on Clifford Goldsmith’s Broadway play, What A Life, had scored a 12.2 rating and a 33rd place finish the previous season on Blue. Its popularity was aided by Paramount’s October, 1939, release of What A Life starring Jackie Cooper as the comedy’s lead character, Henry Aldrich.
But millions of listeners were already familiar with the adolescent-cracking voice of radio’s Henry Aldrich, 23 year old Ezra Stone. In June, 1940, General Foods moved the sitcom from Blue to NBC as Jack Benny’s summer replacement. Given that launch and the cushy full season timeslot following Frank Morgan & Fanny Brice, The Aldrich Family began a series of four consecutive seasons as Thursday’s Number One show and four annual Top Ten finishes among all network programs. (See The Aldrich Family.)
Vox Popular Again. Vox Pop was slumping. The interview show had fallen out of the Annual Top 50 in the 1938-39 season and continued to lose audience when sponsor Kentucky Club Tobacco moved it from NBC to the CBS Thursday schedule. In 1939-40 it fell even further into single digit ratings.
Then a remarkable thing happened beginning on July 4, 1940. The program did an about face and marched back to popularity to a martial beat. With World War II looming, hosts Parks Johnson and Wally Butterworth took their microphones to the Merchant Marine training ship Empire State in New London, Connecticut, and converted the program to a patriotic theme with interviews from military bases and defense plants. Vox Pop’s ratings responded immediately and the show was back in the season’s Top 50.
Butterworth left the program in 1942 and was replaced by handsome B-movie actor Warren Hull, but the program was on a roll. By the end of 1945, Vox Pop had broadcast from over 200 military bases, veterans’ hospitals and defense factories, returning to double digit ratings and Top 50 finishes throughout the war years.
Lolly Pops Up Again. Hollywood Premiere was Louella Parsons’ return to CBS in the March ratings replacing Robert Ripley’s Believe It Or Not.. Parson’s new show on Friday night was another Lux Radio Theater wannabe - 30 minute audio playlets adapted from current movies followed by interviews with their stars. Loveable Lolly again tried to coerce movie stars into appearing free of charge, using her popular Hearst newspaper column as her weapon. But this time both the Screen Actors Guild and AFRA resisted. Parsons backed down and begrudgingly paid her guests union scale - but never more than that.
Consequentially, A Hit. What began as a variation of the Victorian parlor game Forfeits in which players were required to perform silly acts, Truth Or Consequences was the most popular new network program of the 1940-41 season. The show gave its listeners a zany Saturday night party on NBC for ten years, never dropping out of the Top 50. It was sponsored throughout the decade by Procter & Gamble.
The audience participation stunt show was created and hosted by glib San Francisco radio announcer Ralph Edwards, 27, whose air talent was cajoling the contestants, egging on the audience and providing a running description of the stunts for listeners - like contestants riding camels, washing elephants, or otherwise making fools of themselves in public. Edwards’ talent as a producer kept his program fresh through its many years with more elaborate stunts and big money giveaways. The giveaways paid off several years later when Truth Or Consequences became the most talked-about program in America for months at a time. (See Truth Or Consequences.)
Raising The Bar. Ed Gardner had heavyweight comedy and variety credentials as a radio director for the J. Walter Thompson agency, working on Burns & Allen’s shows, Good News and Rudy Vallee’s Fleischmann Hour. As a comedy writer and talent, Gardner created and starred in Duffy’s Tavern, the long-running ensemble sitcom set in a lower Manhattan pub where, “...The elite meet to eat.” Gardner, as Archie The Manager, played host to a weekly string of guest stars and led a small but memorable cast of barroom regulars into silly plots involving their guests. (6)
Gardner and his head writer, Abe Burrows, were given a shot on CBS’ Saturday night schedule in March. But their chances for sucess were slim in the 8:30 timeslot opposite Truth Or Consequences. Duffy’s Tavern could only muster a 6.5 rating - less than half of the stunt show’s numbers on NBC. During the next six seasons the sitcom was subjected to two network changes and four different timeslots - enough to kill a weaker program’s ratings. But the show’s listener loyalty steadily increased throughout the turmoil and Duffy’s Tavern eventually became a Top 50 program for Bristol Myers over six seasons. (See Duffy Ain’t Here.)
The Barn Dances To NBC. NBC took The National Barn Dance from Blue and kept the show in its familiar 9:00 p.m. ET Saturday timeslot in which it had enjoyed two Top 50 seasons. The Joe Kelly hosted show of rural music and comedy from WLS/Chicago continually trailed Your Hit Parade in the time period, but had maintained a steady rating hovering around 10.0. More importantly, National Barn Dance had a loyal sponsor in Miles Laboratories’ Alka-Seltzer which supported the show for ten years. The loss of National Barn Dance left Blue without a show in Saturday’s Top Ten. The network wouldn’t have another one for the next six years.
Beating The Big Band Bans. James Caesar Petrillo, autocratic head of the American Federation of Musicians’ Chicago local, was elected National President of the union in July, 1940. Petrillo immediately set about to spread Chicago’s "standby" system nationwide - requiring musicians who played on local radio stations to either join the nearest AFM local or the stations would be forced pay an equal number of union musicians to “stand by”.
Two major stations active in locally produced music programs refused to bow to the featherbedding edict - KSTP, the Minneapolis-St. Paul NBC affiliate and Richmond’s CBS station, WRVA. In retaliation, Petrillo overplayed his hand and ordered his members to refuse to play on late night dance band remotes over NBC or CBS that were fed to these two “maverick” affiliates. The networks cried foul, the bands balked and Mutual came to its competitors’ aid by offering its own nightly remotes to CBS and NBC affiliates with no strings attached.
Petrillo’s vindictive exertion of power was obvious and his ill-conceived edict was dropped quickly. The big band’s late night remote broadcasts remained a staple of Network Radio throughout its Golden Age and beyond. (See Petrillo! and Big Band Remotes.)
(1) Heatter took Tuesdays off from his Mutual newscasts to host the popular We The People on CBS.
(2) Foley and Ford also hosted Brown &Williamson’s Plantation Party for Bugler Tobacco across the full NBC network on Wednesdays.
(3) Thompson’s hilarious Wallace Wimple voice inspired legendary MGM cartoon director Tex Avery to create a character to suit it - Droopy Dog, the slow talking, slower moving canine detective who always got his critter.
(4) The once hot Pot O Gold was chased off NBC partly because of claims that it violated lottery laws. The charges were dismissed in court, ruling that possession of a radio and telephone did not constitute monetary consideration. The move to Blue resulted in drop from 10th to 53rd in its season’s rankings. By the end of its two season run, Pot O Gold had awarded a total of $89,000 to lucky telephone answerers. Ironically, the last phone call the program made went unanswered and the remaining jackpot of $1,800 was given to the Red Cross. An attempt to revive the show five years later on ABC failed miserably.
(5) At his band’s peak in the early 1940’s Kay Kyser featured corenet player/comedian Merwyn Bogue aka Ish Kabibbile, singers Ginny Simms, Harry Babbitt and sax player/singer Sully Mason.
(6) Gardner’s wife at the time, Shirley Booth, originated the role of the empty headed, man-hungry Miss Duffy, barfly daughter of the tavern’s absentee owner. After their divorce, Booth left the show to become an award winning stage and film actress, returning to comedy in 1960 as television’s Hazel. Popular radio character actor Charlie Cantor, who specialized in “dumb and dumber” comic stooges, brought out his dumbest voice as Clifton Finnegan, an urban version of Mortimer Sneed who couldn’t begin a sentence without the obligatory, “Duhhh…” (See The Two Stooges on this site.)
Network Radio's Top 50 Programs - 1940-41
C.E. Hooper Monthly Network Reports, Sep, 1940 - Jun, 1941.
Total Programs Rated 6-11 PM: 147 Programs Rated 13 Weeks & Ranked: 133.
28,500,000 Radio Homes 81.1% Coverage of US. One Rating Point = 285,000 Homes
1 1 Jack Benny Program 30.8 General Foods/Jello Sun 7:00 30 NBC
2 3 Fibber McGee & Molly 27.6 Johnson Wax Tue 9:30 30 NBC
3 2 Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy 27.3 Standard/Chase & Sanborn Sun 8:00 30 NBC
4 5 Bob Hope Show 26.6 Pepsodent Toothpaste Tue 10:00 30 NBC
5 8 Walter Winchell’s Jergens Journal 24.1 Jergens Lotion Sun 9:00 15 Blue
6 4 Lux Radio Theater 23.4 Lever Bros/Lux Soap Mon 9:00 60 CBS
7 33 Aldrich Family 22.1 General Foods/Jello Thu 8:30 30 NBC
8 9 Major Bowes Original Amateur Hour 18.2 Chrysler Corporation Thu 9:00 60 CBS
9 N Fanny Brice & Frank Morgan 18.0 General Foods/Maxwell House Thu 8:00 30 NBC
10 7 One Man’s Family 16.9 Standard Brands/Tenderleaf Tea Sun 8:30 30 NBC
11 10 Kay Kyser College of Musical Knowledge 16.6 Lucky Strike Wed 10:00 60 NBC
12 13 Kate Smith Hour 16.1 General Foods/Grape Nuts Fri 8:00 60 CBS
13 18 Big Town 16.0 Lever Bros/Rinso Wed 8:00 30 CBS
14 6 Bing Crosby’s Kraft Music Hall 15.6 Kraft Cheese Thu 9:00 60 NBC
15t 29 Screen Guild Theater 15.3 Gulf Oil Sun 7:30 30 CBS
15t 15 We The People 15.3 General Foods/Sanka Tue 9:00 30 CBS
17 N Eddie Cantor’s Time To Smile 15.0 Bristol Myers Wed 9:00 30 NBC
18 71 Mister District Attorney 14.7 Bristol Myers/Vitalis Wed 9:30 30 NBC
19t 17 Fitch Bandwagon 14.4 FW Fitch/Fitch Shampoo Sun 7:30 30 NBC
19t 24 Rudy Vallee Show 14.4 Sealtest Dairies Thu 10:00 30 NBC
21 20 Lowell Thomas News 14.2 Sun Oil M-F 6:45 15 Blue
22t 22 Guy Lombardo Orch 13.6 Lady Esther Cosmetics Mon 10:00 30 CBS
22t N Truth Or Consequences 13.6 Procter & Gamble/Ivory Soap Sat 8:30 30 NBC
24 14 Fred Allen’s Texaco Star Theater 13.5 Texaco Wed 9:00 60 CBS
25 39 Dr Christian 13.3 Chesebrough Ponds/Vaseline Wed 8:30 30 CBS
26t 61 The Parker Family 13.0 Andrew Jergens/Woodbury Soap Sun 9:15 15 Blue
26t 22 Your Hit Parade 13.0 American Tobacco/Lucky Strike Sat 9:00 45 CBS
28t 27 Information Please 12.9 American Tobacco/Lucky Strike Fri 8:30 30 NBC (1)
28t N Take It Or Leave It 12.9 Eversharp Pens & Pencils Sun 10:00 30 CBS
30t 21 Burns & Allen Show 12.8 Hormel Meats Mon 7:30 30 NBC
30t 46 Campbell Playhouse 12.8 Campbell Soup Fri 9:30 30 CBS
30t 16 First Nighter Program 12.8 Campana Sales/Italian Balm Tue 8:30 30 CBS
33 N Gay 90's Revue 12.7 Model Pipe Tobacco Mon 8:30 30 CBS
34 24 Al Pearce Gang 12.2 RJ Reynolds Tobacco/Camels Fri 7:30 30 CBS
35t 19 Gangbusters 12.0 Sloan’s Liniment Fri 9:00 30 Blue
35t N Helen Hayes Theater 12.0 Lipton Tea Sun 8:00 30 CBS
37 39 Blondie 11.8 RJ Reynolds Tobacco/Camels Mon 7:30 30 CBS
38t N HV Kaltenborn News 11.6 Pure Oil Tue-Thu-Sat 7:45 15 NBC
38t 33 Those We Love 11.6 Procter & Gamble/Teel Liquid Dentifrice Mon 8:00 30 CBS
40 66 Vox Pop 11.3 Kentucky Club Tobacco Thu 7:30 30 CBS
41 47 Amos & Andy 10.8 Campbell Soup M-F 7:00 15 CBS
42 57 Doctor IQ 10.7 Mars Candy Mon 9:00 30 NBC
43 47 Pipe Smoking Time 10.5 Model Pipe Tobacco Mon 8:30 30 CBS
44t 89 Court of Missing Heirs 10.4 Sterling Drug/Ironized Yeast Tue 8:00 30 CBS
44t 77 Lanny Ross Show 10.4 Campbell Soup/Franco American Foods M-F 7:15 15 CBS
46 27 Battle of The Sexes 10.3 Sterling Drug/Molle Shaving Cream Tues 9:00 30 NBC
47t 24 Silver Theater 10.2 International Silver Sun 6:00 30 CBS
47t N Knickerbocker Playhouse 10.2 Procter & Gamble/Drene Shampoo Sat 8:00 30 NBC
47t 42 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes 10.2 Grove Labs/Bromo Quinine Sun 10:30 30 NBC
50 51 American Album of Familiar Music 10.0 Sterling Drug/Bayer Aspirin Sun 9:30 30 NBC
(1) Information Please Sep - Nov Sustaining Tue 8:30 30 Blue
This post is in part abridged from Network Radio Ratings, 1932-1953.
Copyright © 2012 & 2019, Jim Ramsburg, Estero FL Email: tojimramsburg@gmail.com
The 1940-41 Season
9th In A Series
The Sounds of War. The London Blitz began on September 7, 1940, and continued for eight months. The networks had reporters and facilities in place to give their listeners spot coverage of the daily bombings and dogfights over the city. Both CBS and NBC’s London bureaus were destroyed by German bombs on April 16, 1941 but their coverage continued without interruption.
America’s entry in World War II was still months away but shortwave news reports from the battle fronts and world capitals had established Network Radio as a necessity for news in over 80% of the country’s homes. The number of rated and ranked news and commentary programs leaped in just one year from three to 13. Seven of the eleven highest rated Multiple Run programs were newscasts. Lowell Thomas’ Monday through Friday newscasts appeared in all five weeknights’ Top Ten lists. Thomas turned in Blue’s second highest rated program for the season behind Walter Winchell’s Jergens Journal on Sunday nights. (See Walter Winchell.)
H. V. Kaltenborn, newly recruited by NBC from CBS, was in Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday’s Top Ten - finishing in the season’s Top 50 for the first of five consecutive seasons. (See H.V. Kaltenborn.) Mutual jumped on the news wagon by scheduling a quarter hour newscast in each of the four prime time hours every night. Gabriel Heatter’s four-nights-a-week newscasts on Mutual were the highest rated of the 20 MBS programs that appeared in the season’s Hooper reports. (1) (See Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten.)
The Sweet Spell of Success. Things couldn’t have been going better for the radio industry. Total 1940 revenues flew past $200 Million, up 30% from the 1938 slowdown. The networks kept pace, accounting for over $100 Million in billings - a 27% increase in the same two year period. (See The Gold In The Golden Age and Radio Nets' Grosses.)
Hundreds of stations were mandated to shift their frequencies to comply with the Interference Provisions of the North American Radio Agreement in March, 1941. (See The March of Change on this site.) To some stations the shift required major capital investments in equipment but the industry took it in stride. Radio was proving to be the business star of an otherwise dismal decade - there was plenty of money coming in to cover the cost of doing business.
A Fly In The Ointment. Just a month after the upheaval of frequencies, FCC Chairman James Fly, an appointee of the Roosevelt administration, issued the commission’s 150 page Report on Chain Broadcasting on May 3, 1941. The networks knew it was coming - it had been over three years of congressional subcommittee hearings in the making. But they didn’t realize to what lengths the once passive FCC would go to placate an administration and Congress which were convinced that the networks were just too successful to be legal.
Never one given to understatement, Fly spoke for his four member FCC majority and called the report a “Magna Carta for American broadcasting stations.” Broadcasters had different descriptions for it. NAB President Neville Miller called it, “A usurpation of power that has no justification in law.”
The Report on Chain Broadcasting boiled down to eight edicts dictated to the networks and their affiliated stations to take effect within 90 days. Seven of the eight provisions - dealing with affiliation and territorial exclusivity, length of affiliation contracts, affiliate rights to refuse network programming and multiple station ownership in a single market - had little effect on what Americans heard or where they heard it.
But one provision was aimed squarely at NBC’s ownership of two networks - the Red Network of 74 stations and the Blue chain of 92 affiliates. The FCC imposed its “trust-busting” ruling through its power to license individual stations. It decreed that no license would be given or renewed to any station affiliated with a network that simultaneously operated two networks. The language was awkward but its message was clear: NBC had to dump one of its two networks to stay in business.
CBS and NBC vowed to fight the mandates in court while Mutual relished the prospect of a potentially big pool of program clearances available from its larger competitors’ powerful affiliates. The underdog network sided with the FCC. The battle between the broadcasters and bureaucrats would extend into the following season.
NBC - Red, Blue & Purple. The Report on Chain Broadcasting suggests that network affiliate rosters were inflexible from one city and one program to the next. That wasn’t the case. Some programs, even Top 50 caliber shows, were not heard on the full networks in all cities. Sponsors determined the geographical regions for advertising coverage and the networks provided the affiliates to suit those purposes. The 1940-41 season presented the following examples:
Vox Pop was heard in only 19 of C.E. Hooper’s 30 surveyed markets where Kentucky Club Tobacco was sold. Al Pearce’s Gang was broadcast in 23 of the 30 cities per orders of R.J. Reynolds’ Camel Cigarettes. Both shows originated from CBS, which seldom farmed out its programs to alternate, secondary affiliates. NBC and Blue network programs were something else again.
In the 1940-41 season, Burns & Allen were heard in 26 cities from NBC affiliates and in four markets on Blue network stations. The new Rudy Vallee Show for Sealtest was broadcast by 21 NBC stations, four Blue affiliates and simply wasn’t heard in five of the 30 surveyed markets.
Blue’s Lowell Thomas - headed for NBC in three years - was already heard on five NBC affiliates every weeknight in 1940-41. Walter Winchell’s Jergens Journal was Blue’s most popular program - but in 13 of Hooper’s 30 surveyed cities, Winchell was broadcast on the local NBC station.
Unlike big brother Bing’s Kraft Music Hall that was heard over the full NBC network, Bob Crosby’s Camel Caravan at 7:30 on Thursday was aired by a mix of 13 NBC stations, six Blue affiliates plus one Mutual outlet. The number of NBC affiliates available to Bob Crosby was limited because the network was split on Thursday to feed H. V. Kaltenborn’s 7:45 newscast for Pure Oil to nine NBC stations and two Blue affiliates.
What was that again about simultaneously operating separate networks?
A Dunce Cap For ASCAP. Broadcasters were also involved in another fight - this one over music and money. Broadcast Music Inc., created by the industry a year earlier as an alternative to ASCAP and its proposed hike in music fees, had built a catalog of 20,000 songs by September. BMI had opened the doors to country, gospel, rhythm & blues and folk music - genres that ASCAP almost ignored. BMI music was being recorded, played on radio and accepted by the public. In addition, BMI was buying complete music libraries from publishers. When the networks’ ASCAP licenses expired on New Years Eve, 1940, BMI’s catalog numbered nearly 50,000 titles.
Radio’s boycott of ASCAP music began on January 1, 1941, and was hardly noticed - except by the broadcasters who were vigilant against any of ASCAP’s two million songs getting on their air which could result in a $250 fine per station for each violation. If a network should slip-up, the fine would amount to $20,000.
Some local stations, mostly independents which relied on recorded music, signed with ASCAP for the programming advantage its music provided, but the networks hung tough for five months.
Mutual became the first network to negotiate a settlement with ASCAP, which was losing tens of thousands of dollars every day while the boycott lasted. The Society’s loss had reached $2.0 Million in May when Mutual and ASCAP agreed to a new ten year contract calling for an annual blanket fee of only three percent of network revenues - two percent less than the previous rate. NBC and CBS took their time and completed the season offering nothing but BMI and public domain music, saving millions in ASCAP royalties.
Buck Benny’s Big Bucks. Jack Benny’s repeat with the season’s Number One program led a pack of five shows in the Annual Top 15 that were sponsored by General Foods - a remarkable record that would never be duplicated in Network Radio. General Foods was in its seventh season of sponsoring the comedian’s top rated Sunday night show. The company spent $650,000 for the season’s 35 half hours with Benny’s troupe on NBC. Of that sum, the comedian took home $350,000. (See Benny's Double Plays and Sunday At Seven.)
Benny's popularity was helped along with the summer release of Paramount’s Buck Benny Rides Again, a western spoof that introduced his radio gang - Eddie Rochester Anderson, Phil Harris, Dennis Day and Don Wilson - to movie audiences. (See Radio Goes To The Movies.)
When Benny’s ratings had assured him of the season’s Number One ranking, NBC threw a black tie gala at Hollywood’s Biltmore Hotel for 800 invited guests celebrating his first ten years in Network Radio. It was also announced that Benny had secured a personal ten-year option on his NBC contract which gave him ownership of his program and the freedom to sell it to the highest bidding sponsor. NBC President Niles Trammell climaxed the affair by giving Benny two gold keys that would unlock any door at NBC in New York or Hollywood. Benny jumped to CBS nine years later and had no need for the keys.
The Quipster’s Quiz. At 32, Bob Hawk was already a quick witted, four year veteran of low-budget Mutual quiz shows - Foolish Questions, The Fun Quiz, Name Three, and Quixie Doodles. He was considered a natural for Eversharp Pen & Pencil’s new Take It Or Leave It on CBS. The audience participation quiz with its grand prize of $64 for contestants who correctly answered to a sequence of seven questions was slotted against the soft competition of Phil Spitalny’s Hour of Charm on NBC and John J. Anthony’s tear jerking Goodwill Hour on Blue. It was the first of Take It Or Leave It’s eight consecutive Top 50 seasons and nine in Sunday’s Top Ten. Hawk left the show in late 1941 and was replaced by veteran comedian Phil Baker who hosted it for the next six of those peak years.
I.Q. OK. Doctor I.Q., was brought to Chicago and the Blue Network by Mars Candies in the spring of 1939, after a successful regional run in Texas. Like so many promising series first heard on Blue, Doctor I.Q. was moved to NBC where it became the network’s needed counter-programming prescription against CBS’s Lux Radio Theater. The fast paced quiz attracted double digit ratings immediately.
By 1941, Doctor I.Q. had evolved into a permanent road show, originating broadcasts from major city movie palaces from coast to coast where it finished the first of its five seasons as one of Monday’s Top Ten programs. That was a major accomplishment, considering it was slotted against Lux for six of its ten seasons on NBC. (See Dr. I.Q.)
Radio’s Peripatetic Pair. George Burns & Gracie Allen returned for their second series on NBC, this time for Minnesota meat processor Hormel, makers of Spam. As usually happened in switches of network, day and time, George and Gracie lost audience. Although the loss was only ten percent it was enough to knock their season ranking down to 30th - the couple’s all time low. They bounced back the next season - in yet another new day and time.
Those We Shove. Few programs could match Burns & Allen’s hopping around the calendars, clocks and networks. Those We Love did - in spades. From 1938 until 1941, the half-hour soap opera created by Agnes Ridgway had gone through three major corporate sponsors and three networks’ prime time schedules. Then, despite two consecutive Top 50 seasons of double digit ratings, it was cancelled in June, 1941, and left radio for a year.
Those We Love was eventually brought back in 1942 by Bristol-Myers as Eddie Cantor’s Wednesday night summer replacement - picking up the story line that had been interrupted for 13 months. General Foods then took over Those We Love in the fall of 1942 and parked it for three seasons on NBC’s Sunday afternoon schedule from September into June. During the summer months General Foods took it off its Sunday afternoon run and used it first as a summer replacement for Jack Benny and then for Frank Morgan.
When Those We Love left the air in 1945 it had undergone five network changes and nine jumps in days and times of broadcast - all in a span of seven seasons. The soap opera’s star throughout its tumultuous run was young film actress Nan Grey, who by 1941 at the age of 23 already had 36 B movies - Dracula’s Daughter, The Invisible Man Returns, etc. - to her credit. She married singer Frankie Laine in 1950 and retired, never to know what her radio series might have done had it been given the opportunity to become rooted in a permanent timeslot.
Brown & Williamson Splits Airs. Brown & Williamson was an active radio advertiser later associated with Top Ten hits Red Skelton and People Are Funny. The tobacco company engineered a interesting maneuver on Monday nights during the 1940-41 season by splitting NBC for two separate programs.
The primary feed, broadcast by 21 NBC affiliates, Avalon Showboat, was sponsored by B&W’s Avalon Cigarettes. The traditional music review was pale copy of the former Maxwell House Showboat. Simultaneously, eight powerful NBC affiliates in the south broadcast Brown &Williamson’s Renfro Valley Folks starring country singer Red Foley and rural comedian Whitey Ford, aka The Duke of Paducah. Their down home Renfro Valley show pitched B&W’s Big Ben brand of loose tobacco for chewers and smokers who rolled their own cigarettes. (2)
Neither Showboat nor Renfro Valley Folks hit Monday’s Top Ten against the second half hour of CBS’s top rated Lux Radio Theater. However, it was an early and rare example of demographically targeted programming employing split network feeds.
The Wimp of Wistful Vista. Fibber McGee & Molly turned in Tuesday’s most popular program for the third consecutive season and continued the show’s climb up the Annual Top Five to Number Two, behind Jack Benny. The sitcom was destined to finish in second place for a record nine seasons. (See Fibber McGee Minus Molly.)
Young radio veteran Bill Thompson, 27, had been with the cast of FM&M since its Chicago days in 1936, voicing an assortment of characters, most notably the raspy voiced, Old Timer who countered Fibber’s tall tales with what had become a national catchphrase, “That ain’t the way I heerd it!”
On April 15, 1941, Thompson introduced one of creator Don Quinn’s most endearing characters, Wallace Wimple, the henpecked, mush mouthed bird watcher who was constantly fearful of his, “...big, ol’wife, Sweetie Face.” The domineering Cornelia Wimple was never heard, but her acts of spousal abuse were described in detail every week by her meek, secretly vengeful husband who fantasized her doom to the McGee’s with an evil chuckle. (3) Except for Thompson’s leave of absence for military duty, his characters remained McGee neighbors for the remainder of the show’s successful Tuesday night run.
A Hot Heatter. While Fibber McGee & Molly and Bob Hope provided Tuesday’s one-two punch for NBC, Gabriel Heatter piloted We The People on CBS into becoming the night’s third most popular program and another winner for General Foods. The human interest interview potpourri created by Philips H. Lord completed its second consecutive season in the Annual Top 15. Its ratings averaged over 15 points for those two seasons.
Heatter was also in his fifth year at Mutual and the network’s top rated attraction. His weeknight - except Tuesday - news and commentary at 9:00 p.m. ET reached some two million homes and five million listeners each night. That number would nearly double before the end of World War II as Heatter became the voice of reasoned optimism. The tide of the war eventually supported his enthusiastic nightly opening, “Ahh, there’s good news tonight!”
Horace’s Heights. Moving Pot O Gold to Blue’s Thursday schedule left sponsor Lewis-Howe’s Tums with a hole in NBC’s Tuesday lineup. (4) Tums filled the timeslot with Horace Heidt, his Musical Knights, (fka The Heidt Brigade), and what appeared from its title to be another giveaway show, Tums Treasure Chest. Heidt - still co-hosting Pot O Gold on Blue, was the solo host of Treasure Chest, an alluring name for a program that was primarily music, spotlighting soloists from his show band. For one season Heidt became one of the few network stars to concurrently host two different prime time programs on two different networks.
“Tums For The Tummy,” kept Heidt in NBC’s 8:30 Tuesday timeslot for four seasons - a tribute to his showmanship and salesmanship to keep a sponsor happy for a program that never won its time period with ratings that only hovered around a ten.
Class Shows. Another band had greater ratings success. Kay Kyser’s College of Musical Knowledge continued to lead the pack on Wednesday, helped along by the second of his four musical comedies for RKO Radio Pictures. You’ll Find Out was released in November and begins with an abbreviated version of Kyser’s radio show showcasing the orchestra, singers and comedians whom had become radio and record favorites. (5) (See Radio Goes To The Movies.)
On February 26, 1941, Kyser took his 15 bandsmen and singers on the road to the U.S. Marine Base at San Diego and became the first in a parade of Network Radio stars to originate programs from military installations for the entertainment of the troops - a patriotic effort that Bob Hope adopted a few months later. It was just the first in thousands of shows, both on and off the air, that Kyser and his troupe would perform for servicemen during World War II.
Fred & Ed Head To Head. Fred Allen refused Bristol Myers’ request to trim his NBC Wednesday night comedy hour back to 30 minutes. He was fired and jumped to the welcoming arms of CBS and Texaco who gladly gave him a full hour at his familiar 9:00 p.m. timeslot on Wednesday. He lost nearly 20% of his audience in the move and finished behind the two half hour programs that filled the hour he vacated on NBC.
Bristol Myers replaced Allen on NBC with Eddie Cantor who returned to radio after a year’s layoff resulting from a sponsor backlash to his political remarks deemed controversial in 1939. To clinch the deal for his comeback, Cantor came up with a unique offer that he be paid $10,000 per week to cover the entire expense of his show, plus a weekly bonus of $200, for each rating point could he deliver over a base of 20 points. Cantor never came close to is bonus goal but he did entrench himself into Wednesdays at 9:00 on NBC with a Top 20 program for the next six seasons.
Following Cantor’s lead-in, Bristol Myers installed a revamped Mr. District Attorney for its Vitalis Hair Tonic. It immediately challenged Big Town as Network Radio’s highest rated mystery/adventure series The Ed Byron production would call 9:30 on Wednesday its home for twelve seasons and finish in the annual Top Ten three times. (See Wednesday's All Time Top Ten.)
NBC Shuffles Its Loaded Deck. NBC reshuffled its winning Thursday schedule with moves that continued to win the night and laid the foundation for a complete dominance two years later. Rudy Vallee’s Sealtest show was moved from 8:30 to 10:00 p.m. ET. To accommodate Vallee, Bing Crosby’s Kraft Music Hall was moved back an hour to 9:00 and into direct competition with Major Bowes’ Original Amateur Hour on CBS. Crosby lost over 25% of his audience along with Music Hall’s three year title as Thursday’s most popular program. More surprisingly, Crosby lost his head to head competition with Bowes, but that wouldn't last long.
General Foods made the greatest contribution to NBC’s Thursday ratings when it snapped up the 8:00 timeslot vacated by Bristol Myers’ cancellation of the weak George Jessel variety show, For Men Only. The half hour became the new home for Maxwell House Coffee Time - a scaled back version of the hour-long Good News hosted by Frank Morgan with Fanny Brice’s Baby Snooks skits. The pair immediately snatched ninth place in the Annual Top Ten. (See Baby Snooks and Frank Morgan.)
Following Morgan & Brice at 8:30, General Foods’ introduced the sitcom that became the hottest show of the season. The Aldrich Family, based on Clifford Goldsmith’s Broadway play, What A Life, had scored a 12.2 rating and a 33rd place finish the previous season on Blue. Its popularity was aided by Paramount’s October, 1939, release of What A Life starring Jackie Cooper as the comedy’s lead character, Henry Aldrich.
But millions of listeners were already familiar with the adolescent-cracking voice of radio’s Henry Aldrich, 23 year old Ezra Stone. In June, 1940, General Foods moved the sitcom from Blue to NBC as Jack Benny’s summer replacement. Given that launch and the cushy full season timeslot following Frank Morgan & Fanny Brice, The Aldrich Family began a series of four consecutive seasons as Thursday’s Number One show and four annual Top Ten finishes among all network programs. (See The Aldrich Family.)
Vox Popular Again. Vox Pop was slumping. The interview show had fallen out of the Annual Top 50 in the 1938-39 season and continued to lose audience when sponsor Kentucky Club Tobacco moved it from NBC to the CBS Thursday schedule. In 1939-40 it fell even further into single digit ratings.
Then a remarkable thing happened beginning on July 4, 1940. The program did an about face and marched back to popularity to a martial beat. With World War II looming, hosts Parks Johnson and Wally Butterworth took their microphones to the Merchant Marine training ship Empire State in New London, Connecticut, and converted the program to a patriotic theme with interviews from military bases and defense plants. Vox Pop’s ratings responded immediately and the show was back in the season’s Top 50.
Butterworth left the program in 1942 and was replaced by handsome B-movie actor Warren Hull, but the program was on a roll. By the end of 1945, Vox Pop had broadcast from over 200 military bases, veterans’ hospitals and defense factories, returning to double digit ratings and Top 50 finishes throughout the war years.
Lolly Pops Up Again. Hollywood Premiere was Louella Parsons’ return to CBS in the March ratings replacing Robert Ripley’s Believe It Or Not.. Parson’s new show on Friday night was another Lux Radio Theater wannabe - 30 minute audio playlets adapted from current movies followed by interviews with their stars. Loveable Lolly again tried to coerce movie stars into appearing free of charge, using her popular Hearst newspaper column as her weapon. But this time both the Screen Actors Guild and AFRA resisted. Parsons backed down and begrudgingly paid her guests union scale - but never more than that.
Consequentially, A Hit. What began as a variation of the Victorian parlor game Forfeits in which players were required to perform silly acts, Truth Or Consequences was the most popular new network program of the 1940-41 season. The show gave its listeners a zany Saturday night party on NBC for ten years, never dropping out of the Top 50. It was sponsored throughout the decade by Procter & Gamble.
The audience participation stunt show was created and hosted by glib San Francisco radio announcer Ralph Edwards, 27, whose air talent was cajoling the contestants, egging on the audience and providing a running description of the stunts for listeners - like contestants riding camels, washing elephants, or otherwise making fools of themselves in public. Edwards’ talent as a producer kept his program fresh through its many years with more elaborate stunts and big money giveaways. The giveaways paid off several years later when Truth Or Consequences became the most talked-about program in America for months at a time. (See Truth Or Consequences.)
Raising The Bar. Ed Gardner had heavyweight comedy and variety credentials as a radio director for the J. Walter Thompson agency, working on Burns & Allen’s shows, Good News and Rudy Vallee’s Fleischmann Hour. As a comedy writer and talent, Gardner created and starred in Duffy’s Tavern, the long-running ensemble sitcom set in a lower Manhattan pub where, “...The elite meet to eat.” Gardner, as Archie The Manager, played host to a weekly string of guest stars and led a small but memorable cast of barroom regulars into silly plots involving their guests. (6)
Gardner and his head writer, Abe Burrows, were given a shot on CBS’ Saturday night schedule in March. But their chances for sucess were slim in the 8:30 timeslot opposite Truth Or Consequences. Duffy’s Tavern could only muster a 6.5 rating - less than half of the stunt show’s numbers on NBC. During the next six seasons the sitcom was subjected to two network changes and four different timeslots - enough to kill a weaker program’s ratings. But the show’s listener loyalty steadily increased throughout the turmoil and Duffy’s Tavern eventually became a Top 50 program for Bristol Myers over six seasons. (See Duffy Ain’t Here.)
The Barn Dances To NBC. NBC took The National Barn Dance from Blue and kept the show in its familiar 9:00 p.m. ET Saturday timeslot in which it had enjoyed two Top 50 seasons. The Joe Kelly hosted show of rural music and comedy from WLS/Chicago continually trailed Your Hit Parade in the time period, but had maintained a steady rating hovering around 10.0. More importantly, National Barn Dance had a loyal sponsor in Miles Laboratories’ Alka-Seltzer which supported the show for ten years. The loss of National Barn Dance left Blue without a show in Saturday’s Top Ten. The network wouldn’t have another one for the next six years.
Beating The Big Band Bans. James Caesar Petrillo, autocratic head of the American Federation of Musicians’ Chicago local, was elected National President of the union in July, 1940. Petrillo immediately set about to spread Chicago’s "standby" system nationwide - requiring musicians who played on local radio stations to either join the nearest AFM local or the stations would be forced pay an equal number of union musicians to “stand by”.
Two major stations active in locally produced music programs refused to bow to the featherbedding edict - KSTP, the Minneapolis-St. Paul NBC affiliate and Richmond’s CBS station, WRVA. In retaliation, Petrillo overplayed his hand and ordered his members to refuse to play on late night dance band remotes over NBC or CBS that were fed to these two “maverick” affiliates. The networks cried foul, the bands balked and Mutual came to its competitors’ aid by offering its own nightly remotes to CBS and NBC affiliates with no strings attached.
Petrillo’s vindictive exertion of power was obvious and his ill-conceived edict was dropped quickly. The big band’s late night remote broadcasts remained a staple of Network Radio throughout its Golden Age and beyond. (See Petrillo! and Big Band Remotes.)
(1) Heatter took Tuesdays off from his Mutual newscasts to host the popular We The People on CBS.
(2) Foley and Ford also hosted Brown &Williamson’s Plantation Party for Bugler Tobacco across the full NBC network on Wednesdays.
(3) Thompson’s hilarious Wallace Wimple voice inspired legendary MGM cartoon director Tex Avery to create a character to suit it - Droopy Dog, the slow talking, slower moving canine detective who always got his critter.
(4) The once hot Pot O Gold was chased off NBC partly because of claims that it violated lottery laws. The charges were dismissed in court, ruling that possession of a radio and telephone did not constitute monetary consideration. The move to Blue resulted in drop from 10th to 53rd in its season’s rankings. By the end of its two season run, Pot O Gold had awarded a total of $89,000 to lucky telephone answerers. Ironically, the last phone call the program made went unanswered and the remaining jackpot of $1,800 was given to the Red Cross. An attempt to revive the show five years later on ABC failed miserably.
(5) At his band’s peak in the early 1940’s Kay Kyser featured corenet player/comedian Merwyn Bogue aka Ish Kabibbile, singers Ginny Simms, Harry Babbitt and sax player/singer Sully Mason.
(6) Gardner’s wife at the time, Shirley Booth, originated the role of the empty headed, man-hungry Miss Duffy, barfly daughter of the tavern’s absentee owner. After their divorce, Booth left the show to become an award winning stage and film actress, returning to comedy in 1960 as television’s Hazel. Popular radio character actor Charlie Cantor, who specialized in “dumb and dumber” comic stooges, brought out his dumbest voice as Clifton Finnegan, an urban version of Mortimer Sneed who couldn’t begin a sentence without the obligatory, “Duhhh…” (See The Two Stooges on this site.)
Network Radio's Top 50 Programs - 1940-41
C.E. Hooper Monthly Network Reports, Sep, 1940 - Jun, 1941.
Total Programs Rated 6-11 PM: 147 Programs Rated 13 Weeks & Ranked: 133.
28,500,000 Radio Homes 81.1% Coverage of US. One Rating Point = 285,000 Homes
1 1 Jack Benny Program 30.8 General Foods/Jello Sun 7:00 30 NBC
2 3 Fibber McGee & Molly 27.6 Johnson Wax Tue 9:30 30 NBC
3 2 Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy 27.3 Standard/Chase & Sanborn Sun 8:00 30 NBC
4 5 Bob Hope Show 26.6 Pepsodent Toothpaste Tue 10:00 30 NBC
5 8 Walter Winchell’s Jergens Journal 24.1 Jergens Lotion Sun 9:00 15 Blue
6 4 Lux Radio Theater 23.4 Lever Bros/Lux Soap Mon 9:00 60 CBS
7 33 Aldrich Family 22.1 General Foods/Jello Thu 8:30 30 NBC
8 9 Major Bowes Original Amateur Hour 18.2 Chrysler Corporation Thu 9:00 60 CBS
9 N Fanny Brice & Frank Morgan 18.0 General Foods/Maxwell House Thu 8:00 30 NBC
10 7 One Man’s Family 16.9 Standard Brands/Tenderleaf Tea Sun 8:30 30 NBC
11 10 Kay Kyser College of Musical Knowledge 16.6 Lucky Strike Wed 10:00 60 NBC
12 13 Kate Smith Hour 16.1 General Foods/Grape Nuts Fri 8:00 60 CBS
13 18 Big Town 16.0 Lever Bros/Rinso Wed 8:00 30 CBS
14 6 Bing Crosby’s Kraft Music Hall 15.6 Kraft Cheese Thu 9:00 60 NBC
15t 29 Screen Guild Theater 15.3 Gulf Oil Sun 7:30 30 CBS
15t 15 We The People 15.3 General Foods/Sanka Tue 9:00 30 CBS
17 N Eddie Cantor’s Time To Smile 15.0 Bristol Myers Wed 9:00 30 NBC
18 71 Mister District Attorney 14.7 Bristol Myers/Vitalis Wed 9:30 30 NBC
19t 17 Fitch Bandwagon 14.4 FW Fitch/Fitch Shampoo Sun 7:30 30 NBC
19t 24 Rudy Vallee Show 14.4 Sealtest Dairies Thu 10:00 30 NBC
21 20 Lowell Thomas News 14.2 Sun Oil M-F 6:45 15 Blue
22t 22 Guy Lombardo Orch 13.6 Lady Esther Cosmetics Mon 10:00 30 CBS
22t N Truth Or Consequences 13.6 Procter & Gamble/Ivory Soap Sat 8:30 30 NBC
24 14 Fred Allen’s Texaco Star Theater 13.5 Texaco Wed 9:00 60 CBS
25 39 Dr Christian 13.3 Chesebrough Ponds/Vaseline Wed 8:30 30 CBS
26t 61 The Parker Family 13.0 Andrew Jergens/Woodbury Soap Sun 9:15 15 Blue
26t 22 Your Hit Parade 13.0 American Tobacco/Lucky Strike Sat 9:00 45 CBS
28t 27 Information Please 12.9 American Tobacco/Lucky Strike Fri 8:30 30 NBC (1)
28t N Take It Or Leave It 12.9 Eversharp Pens & Pencils Sun 10:00 30 CBS
30t 21 Burns & Allen Show 12.8 Hormel Meats Mon 7:30 30 NBC
30t 46 Campbell Playhouse 12.8 Campbell Soup Fri 9:30 30 CBS
30t 16 First Nighter Program 12.8 Campana Sales/Italian Balm Tue 8:30 30 CBS
33 N Gay 90's Revue 12.7 Model Pipe Tobacco Mon 8:30 30 CBS
34 24 Al Pearce Gang 12.2 RJ Reynolds Tobacco/Camels Fri 7:30 30 CBS
35t 19 Gangbusters 12.0 Sloan’s Liniment Fri 9:00 30 Blue
35t N Helen Hayes Theater 12.0 Lipton Tea Sun 8:00 30 CBS
37 39 Blondie 11.8 RJ Reynolds Tobacco/Camels Mon 7:30 30 CBS
38t N HV Kaltenborn News 11.6 Pure Oil Tue-Thu-Sat 7:45 15 NBC
38t 33 Those We Love 11.6 Procter & Gamble/Teel Liquid Dentifrice Mon 8:00 30 CBS
40 66 Vox Pop 11.3 Kentucky Club Tobacco Thu 7:30 30 CBS
41 47 Amos & Andy 10.8 Campbell Soup M-F 7:00 15 CBS
42 57 Doctor IQ 10.7 Mars Candy Mon 9:00 30 NBC
43 47 Pipe Smoking Time 10.5 Model Pipe Tobacco Mon 8:30 30 CBS
44t 89 Court of Missing Heirs 10.4 Sterling Drug/Ironized Yeast Tue 8:00 30 CBS
44t 77 Lanny Ross Show 10.4 Campbell Soup/Franco American Foods M-F 7:15 15 CBS
46 27 Battle of The Sexes 10.3 Sterling Drug/Molle Shaving Cream Tues 9:00 30 NBC
47t 24 Silver Theater 10.2 International Silver Sun 6:00 30 CBS
47t N Knickerbocker Playhouse 10.2 Procter & Gamble/Drene Shampoo Sat 8:00 30 NBC
47t 42 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes 10.2 Grove Labs/Bromo Quinine Sun 10:30 30 NBC
50 51 American Album of Familiar Music 10.0 Sterling Drug/Bayer Aspirin Sun 9:30 30 NBC
(1) Information Please Sep - Nov Sustaining Tue 8:30 30 Blue
This post is in part abridged from Network Radio Ratings, 1932-1953.
Copyright © 2012 & 2019, Jim Ramsburg, Estero FL Email: tojimramsburg@gmail.com