LOWELL THOMAS - NETWORK RADIO'S VOICE OF THE NEWS FOR 46 YEARS.
Golden Sunset
THE 1952-53 SEASON
21st In A Series
The Party’s Over. Any question that Network Radio’s Golden Age had ended at 21 years was answered decisively by the 1952-53 audience ratings and advertising revenue figures.
Television had taken over radio’s role as the primary source of free entertainment in almost half of America’s homes - spurred on by the establishment of 125 new TV stations during the season. In addition, over 60 more stations would go on the air by the end of 1953. As smaller markets like Duluth, Topeka and Peoria came on line, television was no longer confined to America’s largest cities.
While the television audience ballooned to greater proportions, Network Radio’s nighttime ratings continued to shrink. It was no longer the prime time that advertisers coveted. Nielsen estimated that Network Radio’s leading attraction, Jack Benny, was heard in approximately 4.7 Million homes each week. Meanwhile, Benny’s new bi-weekly series on CBS-TV was viewed in 8.0 Million homes. (1)
Network Radio’s Top 50 programs generated a season average Nielsen rating of only 6.3, the lowest ever recorded. Where 49 programs had averaged double digit Crossley ratings in the 1932-33 season, just four network shows reached that mark in Nielsen’s 1952-53 surveys.
Bad News & Good News. When listeners abandoned nighttime radio to watch television, advertisers followed. As a result of audience declines, Network Radio revenues dropped another 10% to their lowest level since 1943. Another round of discounts for Network Radio advertisers became effective on October 1st. CBS announced evening rates for its continuing advertisers would be cut from 20 to 30%. (See The Gold In The Golden Age.)
Network Radio’s Golden Age of dominance was over but the networks didn’t mourn its passing - their combined television billings grew another 42% to $256.4 million. For NBC, CBS and ABC, the Golden Age of Television had just begun. (See Radio Nets' Grosses.)
The Audience Plays Favorites. Program popularity continued its crossover from radio to television. Audiences wanted to see their favorite programs as well as hear them. Nine of the season’s Top 15 Network Radio programs were also among Nielsen’s Top 25 television shows. Only Arthur Godfrey’s Monday night Talent Scouts was a simulcast, offering a direct comparison between the two versions of the identical program available to both radio and television audiences at the same time. The ratings provide another clear indication that TV had overtaken radio in audience popularity for Network Radio’s favorite programs. Ranked by Nielsen’s estimate of their weekly audiences in terms of households reached, these figures illustrate how television dominated radio among America’s most popular programs:
Radio Television Combined
Rtg Rank Rtg Rank Total HH’s Pct TV
Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts 7.3 12 54.7 2 14,283,200 78.1 %
Jack Benny Program 11.0 1 39.0 12 12,664,000 62.8 %
Dragnet 6.7 15 46.8 4 12,414,800 76.9 %
Groucho Marx’s You Bet Your Life 7.9 7 41.6 9 11,877,600 71.4 %
Gangbusters 7.4 9 42.4 8 11,816,800 73.2 %
Amos & Andy 10.8 2 34.4 25 11,640,000 60.3%
Life With Luigi 7.7 8 38.5 13 11,149,600 70.4 %
Our Miss Brooks 8.4 6 35.0 22t 10,735,200 66.5%
The Big Story 7.2 13 35.0 22t 10,221,600 69.9 %
Two more programs with concurrent radio and television runs made TV’s Top 30 and Network Radio’s Top 50 for the season - The Red Skelton Show and What’s My Line. Meanwhile, The Lone Ranger, Pabst Beer’s Blue Ribbon Bouts and Gillette’s Friday night Cavalcade of Sports boxing bouts were among television’s 30 favorite programs but failed to place in radio’s Top 50. Regardless of rankings, the stories were the same: More people watched the their favorite programs on television than listened to their radio predecessors.
Radio’s Expansion = Networks’ Losses. Radio’s audience was moving out of homes and into cars. Over 90% of all new automobiles featured AM radios as standard equipment. The number of cars and trucks equipped with radio had surged from 6.0 Million to nearly 25.0 Million in the seven years since the end of World War II. Unfortunately for broadcasters, only the lesser-regarded Pulse ratings, which employed a variation of the defunct Crossley recall system, attempted to count the audience in cars and trucks. Within American homes, console radios in living rooms were rapidly replaced by bulky, furniture-styled television sets and small, low cost, portable radios in kitchens and bedrooms.
Still another advance in radio portability was introduced in November when RCA previewed the first hand-held radio incorporating germanium transistors developed by Bell Laboratories. Transistors eliminated the need for vacuum tubes and cleared the path for pocket-sized radios later in the decade. Radio listening was fast becoming a fragmented, personal experience dictated by individual tastes best served by local, independent stations which had sprouted like weeds since 1946. Indies had grown to outnumber network affiliates by almost two to one in 1952.
Local independent stations were the very antithesis of Network Radio’s traditional programming which served the entire natiowith schedules directed to immense groups of listeners with common tastes. That role had been usurped by the television networks.
The CBS March To A Ratings Record. As the Golden Age came to an end, CBS had run up 40 straight months of winning or tying for the month’s Number One program. Then CBS closed it out in 1952-53 with eleven of the season’s Top Twelve programs. Paley’s network reached a new height of superiority in March, 1953, when Nielsen reported that CBS accounted for the month’s Top Ten shows in both evening and daytime radio. Nighttime programs leading the month were Jack Benny, Amos & Andy, Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy, Eve Arden’s Our Miss Brooks, Lux Radio Theater, People Are Funny, My Little Margie, Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts, Suspense and Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch.
CBS Daytime could claim Frank & Anne Hummert’s Romance of Helen Trent as the Number One show and the couple’s Our Gal Sunday in third place. Soap operas Aunt Jenny’s Real Life Stories, The Guiding Light and Wendy Warren & The News were sixth, eighth and tenth, respectively. The remaining five spots in the Weekday Top Ten were the domain of CBS Radio’s prize personality, Arthur Godfrey. All 15 minute segments of Godfrey’s informal mid-morning variety show, were among Daytime‘s Top Ten. The first half hour of Arthur Godfrey Time every morning at 10:00 was also seen on CBS-TV, and like his Monday night Talent Scouts show, it was a simulcast hit on both radio and television. (2) (See Arthur Godfrey.) Capitalizing on its dominance, CBS increased its daytime radio rates by 5%.
The Pile of Autumn Leaves. Sixteen of the previous season’s Top 50 programs were gone from the list in when 1952-53 began in September - among them were eight series that left the air permanently. The Carnation Contented Hour disappeared after 20 seasons and three Top 50 finishes. Big Town was cancelled at the end of its 14th season, 13 of them in the Top 50. The most successful of the retirees was Mr. District Attorney, which registered ten Top 25 seasons in its 13 years on the air.
Shorter-term favorites permanently shelved were Horace Heidt‘s Youth Opportunity Program and Mr. Chameleon, after four seasons each. Ronald Colman’s Halls of Ivy, William Boyd’s Hopalong Cassidy and Dick Powell’s Richard Diamond, Private Detective were all gone after three solid seasons.
Neck and Neck Ties. Lower ratings meant less spread between rankings and more ties in the Annual Top 50. When we settle the scores at the end of the 1952-53 season, two shows tied for 20th, 25th and 32nd place, three shows were tied for 9th, 16th, 22nd, 28th 34th, 37th and 47th place while a whopping seven shows were tied for 40th place. That's a lot of sisters to kiss!
Better Late Than Never. CBS accomplished an unprecedented feat on Sunday, Network Radio’s most popular night. With Jack Benny leading the pack, it was the first time any network delivered Sunday’s Top Five shows and placed all five in the season’s Top Ten. (3). Four of the five - Jack Benny, Amos & Andy, Our Miss Brooks and My Little Margie - were also among CBS-TV’s top rated shows. The only holdout from television was Edgar Bergen. Although popular in films and as a television guest, the ventriloquist never converted his radio variety show into a TV series.
So Long Doesn’t Mean Goodbye. Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll didn’t appear in the television adaptation of Amos & Andy. They had avoided any visual depiction of their characters since their 1930 film, Check & Double Check, in which Network Radio’s most popular pair of the day were reduced to secondary characters performing stilted roles in blackface. Instead, they wisely stayed with radio…and stayed…and stayed. Gosden & Correll’s program of November 23, 1952, celebrated their 10,000th broadcast. It recalled their 25 years of local and network performances as Amos & Andy. The nostalgia-laden show prompted the press and many of their fans to presume that it also signaled their last season on the air. Such fears were premature - by eight years, almost to the day. The half hour sitcom was last heard in 1955, but Gosden and Correll didn’t bid a final goodbye to their fans until November 25, 1960, when their nightly strip show featuring records and guests, Amos & Andy’s Music Hall, was cancelled.
Gale Storms Into Radio. My Little Margie was one of the simplest of television’s simple sitcoms of the 1950’s. The misadventures of a pert young woman and her befuddled father was loaded with silly situations and sillier reaction shots to them. (4) Yet, the sitcom was historic in broadcasting annals. My Little Margie was the first television series that transitioned into Network Radio‘s Top Ten. Both the radio and television versions of the sitcom starred Gale Storm, 31, a veteran of over 30 low budgeted movies in which she portrayed bright ingénues similar to My Little Margie’s title character, 21 year old Margie Albright. Her clueless father was played by handsome silent film star Charles Farrell who returned to acting from a successful business career in Palm Springs, California.
My Little Margie was one of television’s most traveled series. It debuted on CBS-TV in June, 1952, as the summer substitute for Lucille Ball’s top rated I Love Lucy. It bounced back and forth between CBS-TV and NBC-TV three times until its 126th and final episode in May, 1955. Unlike its television inspiration, the radio adaptation of My Favorite Margie opened on CBS in December, 1952, and remained on the network until June, 1955.
Winchell’s Ranting & Rating Woes. Walter Winchell returned to the air in October after a six month leave of absence to recover from a nervous breakdown. He was welcomed back two months later with a $1.53 Million, lawsuit filed against him, ABC and Winchell’s sponsor, Gruen Watch Company, by The New York Post. (5) The action was the culmination of a year long feud begun when The Post published a 24-part series highly critical of Winchell’s methods and ethics.
In angry response, Winchell accused The Post, its publishers and editors of Communist leanings. He referred to the rival tabloid as, “That pinko-stinko sheet,” “The New York Pravda,” and “The New York Com-post.” Winchell’s continued smears in his newspaper columns and radio commentaries led The Post to take the fight into court. Never one to back down from a fight, Winchell countersued The Post for libel, demanding $2.0 Million in damages.
Radio “feuds” had traditionally fueled higher radio ratings. Winchell himself had been involved in a phony feud with bandleader Ben Bernie in the 1930’s which predated the Jack Benny/Fred Allen and Bob Hope/Bing Crosby verbal battles. All were played for laughs. But this was different and it had a different outcome. The public wanted no part of it. Winchell’s ratings plunged 40% over the season. His Top Ten ranking of four consecutive seasons dropped to a tie for 36th place. Gruen cancelled its sponsorship of his Sunday show at the end of the season. (See Walter Winchell.)
The Post won the suit two years later - settling for $30,000 in court costs and a retraction/apology from Winchell. The settlement was paid by ABC and Hearst. But the obstinate Winchell refused to say a word about the verdict. An ABC staff announcer was assigned read the apology on his broadcast of March 16, 1955. Winchell’s penalty came three months later - the loss of his high paying ABC contract, ending his 23 year run on the network. He was replaced on July 3, 1955, by ABC’s promising young newscaster, Paul Harvey.
With Friends Like These… Walter Winchell and Drew Pearson had been friends and political allies. Both were 55 years old, widely read left-wing leaning newspaper columnists with Sunday night newscast/commentaries on ABC. Pearson joined the Blue Network in 1941. His outspoken opinions often mirrored Winchell’s throughout the decade. Their combined and relentless barrage questioning the patriotism of James Forrestal, the United States’ first Secretary of Defense, was blamed by many in the press to have contributed to Forrestal’s dismissal from the post by President Truman in March, 1949, and his apparent suicide three months later.
Their split began in April, 1952, when Winchell suffered the nervous breakdown that forced him off the air for six months. ABC temporarily moved Pearson’s news commentary ahead three hours from 6:00 p.m. to cover Winchell’s 9:00 timeslot which reached a much larger audience. Unlike Winchell, Drew Pearson was highly critical of Senator Joe McCarthy. In 1951, he debunked the Wisconsin lawmaker’s accusations against suspected Communists within government - predating by three years Edward R. Murrow’s widely recognized rebuke of McCarthy on CBS-TV.
McCarthy’s response to Pearson was a series of high profile attacks from the floor of the Senate, branding him a communist sympathizer. The Senator called for his followers to bombard ABC and sponsor Adam Hats with letters and calls demanding that Pearson be silenced. It worked, but only in part when Adam Hats cancelled its sponsorship.
However, ABC stood by Pearson and quickly sold his program to Carter Products, manufacturers of various patent medicines. Pearson continued to question McCarthy’s tactics in Winchell’s timeslot during the spring and summer 1952. The controversial senator furiously demanded that ABC fire his “commie loving” critic. It was generally expected that ABC, his sponsor and his friend Winchell would all spring to Pearson’s defense against McCarthy‘s relentless attacks that continued into 1953.
But Winchell turned and championed McCarthy’s cause against Pearson. ABC and Carter Products stood silent, apparently fearful of the Wisconsin Senator’s wrath. Drew Pearson’s final ABC broadcast for Carter’s Serutan Laxative - “Serutan, Nature’s Spelled Backwards” - aired on March 29, 1953. He reportedly offered to continue his broadcasts on ABC at no charge until a new sponsor could be found but the network refused. McCarthy had won the battle and banished his critic from Network Radio.
Nevertheless, Pearson won the war of words by establishing his own syndicated network of over 150 stations to carry his weekly commentaries. The 15-minute programs were delivered to the stations on tape and sponsored by local advertisers who collectively paid Pearson far more than his ABC contract. .
McCarthy was censured by the Senate in 1954 and died three years later. His champion, Walter Winchell, moved on to Mutual in 1955 and left Network Radio in 1961. Meanwhile, Drew Pearson remained on the air with his wealth-producing syndicated programs until 1968 when he retired at the age of 71.
Lux Loses To Lucy’s Labor. Lux Radio Theater lost over 25% of its ratings in two seasons. After five consecutive years as Network Radio’s Number One program, it remained Monday’s audience favorite, but dropped from first to fourth in the season’s overall rankings. The major factor to the popularity decline of CBS Radio’s longtime favorite was its competition from television - its own CBS Television network. Lux had the misfortune of being scheduled against CBS-TV’s I Love Lucy, the Lucille Ball/Desi Arnaz runaway hit that scored a phenomenal 67.3 Nielsen season rating in the nation’s millions of television homes - capped by a 71.7 for the January episode depicting the birth of the couple’s son.
Lux Radio Theater still dominated its Network Radio time period with over double the audience of NBC’s Telephone Hour and Voice of Firestone, but its glory days were gone. Network Radio’s all time favorite dramatic series remained on CBS for one more year, then moved to NBC’s Tuesday schedule for an encore season in 1954. It left the air on June 6, 1955, at the completion of its 927th broadcast. (See Lux...Presents Hollywood!)
CBS Wins A Doubleheader. Despite the decline in radio audience, CBS presented Monday’s overwhelming winning lineups on both nighttime radio and television from 8:00 until 10:30. CBS-TV’s Lux Video Theater, Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts, I Love Lucy, Life With Luigi and Studio One were all Number One in their television time periods as were CBS Radio’s Suspense, Godfrey’s Talent Scouts simulcast, Lux Radio Theater, and The Bob Hawk Show. It was another first for CBS in broadcasting history.
The Blonde’s Bombshell. R.J. Reynolds’ Camel Cigarettes rescued My Friend Irma from its disastrous season on CBS Radio’s Sunday schedule. The Cy Howard sitcom starring Marie Wilson as the quintessential dumb blonde was moved to CBS on Tuesday at 9:30, following Howard’s hit, Life With Luigi - the show that had beaten Bob Hope for two consecutive seasons.
My Friend Irma returned with a slight ratings increase. But in a season when most other programs suffered rating losses, the show’s gain was enough to push Irma up from 51st to 19th in the annual rankings. Of greater note, the show edged out Fibber McGee & Molly in the ratings. My Friend Irma became the first program in 15 years to beat Jim & Marian Jordan’s legendary sitcom in its Tuesday time period.
Fibber & Molly Get The Last Laughs. Jim & Marian Jordan retired from Tuesday night radio after their disappointing 1952-53 season. The couple had enjoyed a successful quarter century in radio comedy, capped by their 18 years as Fibber McGee & Molly - a Top Ten program for 13 seasons. They were both in their late fifties, wealthy and tired of the grind - particularly Marian, whose health had always been frail. Molly bid her traditional, “G’night, all,” for what they thought was the last time on June 30, 1953. But NBC had different ideas.
The network lured them back with a scaled down Fibber McGee & Molly - just 15 minutes a day, transcribed at their convenience and without the pressure of a major production with a studio audience. The new shows, written by Don Quinn’s successor, Phil Leslie and his assistants, returned to the NBC evening schedule as a Monday through Friday nighttime strip at 10:00 in October, 1953. It became a Sunday through Thursday feature in August, 1954, when Gillette moved its Friday night Cavalcade of Sports boxing shows from ABC to NBC Radio. The Sunday installment of FM&M was dropped in late June, 1955, but a concurrent run of the transcribed series was added to the network’s weekday morning schedule at 11:45 a.m. The commercially successful double run of Fibber McGee & Molly remained in the two timeslots until late March, 1956, when - after recording 577 of the quarter hour shows - the Jordan’s again called it quits, said goodbye to their fans and retired. And again, NBC had different ideas.
This time the network offered them a series of five minute, transcribed, two-person Fibber McGee & Molly conversational inserts to be incorporated into NBC’s marathon weekend program, Monitor, beginning in June, 1957. The two-year contract called for ten vignettes per week, all written by an NBC team headed by Tom Koch. Each four minutes of dialogue allowed for 60 seconds of commercial time which NBC had no problem pre-selling to major advertisers including General Mills, Pepsi Cola and Liggett & Myers Tobacco. Jim and Marian recorded over a thousand original Monitor segments during the two year period. They finally retired in 1959 but occasional repeats extended their run as Fibber McGee & Molly on Monitor until 1961.
Meanwhile, the show that ended their Tuesday dominance in the 1952-53 season, My Friend Irma, had disappeared from Network Radio seven years earlier.
Whatever Happened to My Pal, Spike? As a teenager, Jim Jordan loved sports and played on his Spalding Institute high school basketball team in Peoria with a bright and popular neighborhood pal, Spike Sheen. Following graduation Jim went to work and Spike left for college with hopes of entering the ministry. The two kids from the same neighborhood never lost touch as each in his own time became popular with millions of Americans on Tuesday nights.
Jim, of course, was Fibber McGee. Spike became New York Auxiliary Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, who hosted The Catholic Hour on NBC Radio for 20 years and whose simple and absorbing chalk talks, Life Is Worth Living, were a ratings phenomenon on the lowly DuMont Television Network from 1952 to 1957. Sheen’s weekly sermons became DuMont’s most popular series, drawing between ten and 20 million viewers a week against NBC-TV’s once unbeatable Texaco Star Theater starring Milton Berle. In February, 1953, Sheen was presented with an Emmy as “Television’s Most Outstanding Personality”.
Better Seen Than Heard. Despite his faltering radio ratings, Bob Hope had provided solid ratings leading into Fibber McGee & Molly since 1948. When Hope left NBC’s Tuesday schedule at the end of the 1951-52 season, his timeslot was filled by another variety show, headlined by the hottest new comedy team of the decade, Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis.
The handsome romantic baritone Martin, 35, and his 26 year old manic comedian partner were wildly successful in nightclub, stage and television appearances. But their slapstick act didn’t translate to radio. After stumbling starts on NBC’s Sunday, Monday and Friday schedules beginning in 1949, Martin & Lewis were moved to Tuesdays for the 1952-53 season as Bob Hope’s replacement. .They lost 25% of Hope’s ratings and left radio at the end of the season. Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis remained a team until 1956 when each went on to highly successful solo careers.
Ironically, their 1952-53 Network Radio series was outrated by a low cost CBS studio drama starring the handsome movie actor who had appeared with them in their 1949 movie debut, My Friend Irma, John Lund. Lund was better known to radio fans as Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. (See CBS Packages Unwrapped.)
CBS Gets Its Dollar’s Worth. Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar had been on CBS schedules since 1949. Except for a brief summer run in 1950, the program was sustaining. As such, the program was non-existent in the Nielsen ratings until 1952 when Wrigley Gum picked up the series with Paramount film star John Lund in the title role. The adventures of the freelance insurance investigator with, “...The action packed expense account!” replaced Life With Luigi on the CBS schedule at 9:00 in March and broke into the season’s list of Top 25 programs.
Johnny Dollar had originally been created for actor Dick Powell who opted instead to become radio’s singing sleuth, Richard Diamond, Private Detective. When Powell rejected the Dollar role it was passed on to Charles Russell for a season, Edmond O’Brien for two and finally Lund until Wrigley’s cancellation in 1954. (See Dick Powell.)
Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar was the last prime time dramatic series of Network Radio’s Golden Age. It returned as a CBS Monday-Friday strip series in 1955 and reverted to its half-hour form in 1956 . The title role was subsequently taken by Bob Bailey, Bob Readick and Mendel Kramer for the remainder of its remarkable run of 13 years that extended into 1962.
You Can’t Go Home Again. After three sorry seasons on CBS that saw his ratings drop to single digits, Red Skelton returned the scene of his past radio glories - NBC’s Tuesday night schedule where he and Bob Hope had tied as Network Radio‘s Number One attractions in the 1942-43 season with 32.3 Hooperatings. What had been considered Skelton’s fluke rating of only 3.9 the previous season at CBS, only improved by a disappointing 1.1 point. Skelton’s films continued to be box office hits and his weekly NBC-TV show scored big ratings, but the Tuesday radio audience deserted him to watch comedians Milton Berle on NBC-TV and Red Buttons on CBS-TV, both opposite his radio series.
Ironically, Skelton’s 1952-53 season rating again tied with Bob Hope’s new Wednesday show on NBC. Both registered a sad 5.0 Nielsen rating - and a tie for 46th place in the season’s rankings. As Bob Hope had done in June, 1952, Red Skelton joined Fibber McGee & Molly and left NBC Radio’s Tuesday schedule after the 1952-53 season. Network Radio’s most unbeatable trio of comedy hits became relics the Golden Age.
A Short Day’s Journey Into Night. More proof that movie popularity no longer translated to Network Radio success was found in Tuesday’s Doris Day Show on CBS. The 30 year old former singer with Les Brown’s band on the Bob Hope Show had graduated to solo careers as a highly popular Columbia Records artist and Warner Brothers film star. By 1952 she had a string of hit records and movies to her credit and was on her way to becoming a superstar of the decade. The transcribed Doris Day Show supported by participating sponsors appeared in the Nielsen ratings for only four months of the 1952-53 season, scoring a dismal 2.9 against NBC‘s quiz, Two For The Money. The blonde singing sweetheart of the movies left series radio after one season.
Two For The Shows. Mark Goodson and Bill Todman were producers specializing in game shows. Their radio credits dated back to Winner Take All in 1946 hosted by Bill Cullen and Bud Collyer. They followed with 1948’s Catch Me If You Can and Hit The Jackpot with Cullen, plus Time’s A Wastin’ , and a short-lived radio version of their later TV hit Beat The Clock, starring Collyer. All were CBS Radio series that met with only moderate success.
In 1952 they moved to NBC and introduced Two For The Money, a comedy quiz ala You Bet Your Life starring 34 year old homespun comedian Herb Shriner. The radio/television simulcast was sponsored by Lorrilard’s Old Gold cigarettes. After one season Lorillard moved the show to CBS where it remained a popular Saturday night simulcast for two more years. Goodson & Todman also moved to CBS-TV where they established a string of prime time hits including What’s My Line, I’ve Got A Secret and To Tell The Truth.
Doubling Bets. Four years earlier, John Guedel was one of the first producers to capitalize on the potential of tape recording when he edited Groucho Marx’s lengthy contestant interviews into the compact, laugh-filled half-hour You Bet Your Life. Guedel and partner Art Linkletter advanced their belief in the technology - in wholesale - on NBC in the 1950-51 season by repeating broadcasts of Tuesday’s People Are Funny on the following Saturday nights.
On June 17, 1953, Guedel introduced summer reruns to Network Radio and television. He selected the funniest broadcasts of You Bet Your Life from the 1952-53 season and repeated them as The Best of Groucho in the program’s Wednesday night timeslot through the summer. Although he pioneered them in radio, Guedel’s concepts of highly edited programs, canned laughter and repeat broadcasts remain integral parts of television programming to this day. (See A John Guedel Production.)
Line Up For Radio. Mark Goodson & Bill Todman’s game show What’s My Line? was the first hit program that successfully transitioned from television to Network Radio. It preceded My Little Margie on the CBS Radio schedule by six months, debuting in June, 1952. The panel show hosted by former CBS newsman John Daly featured Arlene Francis, Dorothy Kilgallen, Bennett Cerf and Hal Block - all veterans of Network Radio. On What’s My Line? they were faced with the challenge of deducing the occupations of three guest contestants a week plus the identity of a celebrity “Mystery Guest.” The radio version of What’s My Line? lasted for only the one season while its television inspiration remained a Sunday night staple on CBS-TV until 1967.
Hope For Daytime. Bob Hope’s sabbatical from Network Radio didn’t last long after Liggett & Myers cancelled his 14 year old Tuesday night series in June. Hope finished work on Paramount Pictures’ The Road To Bali with Bing Crosby, left for the summer in Europe and planned to devote time to his monthly Colgate Comedy Hour on NBC-TV along with his increasing schedule of high paying personal appearances.
Then General Foods called with the offer he couldn’t refuse - a two year, $2.0 Million a year contract to transcribe a daily, 15 minute daytime monologue/interview series beginning in November, plus another $2.0 Million to resume his weekly nighttime variety show from January through June. Both series were sponsored by Jello gelatin and puddings. Both were rating disasters. Hope’s Wednesday night show averaged a mere 5.0 rating and his mid-morning series opened with a meager 2.3
Hope left daytime radio counting his cash in 1954. Meanwhile, his nighttime radio show was picked up in late 1953 by the American Dairy Association and was shuffled around NBC’s schedule for two seasons until it was cancelled. Hope finished his radio career after 17 years in late April, 1955, concluding a run that included five Number One seasons, six more seasons in the Top Ten and a few that are best forgotten.
Father Does Best. Father Knows Best, starring popular 45 year old film actor Robert Young, had matured from a broad Blondie and Life of Riley type of "dumb daddy" comedy into a warm, well-written sitcom to which millions of American families could relate. And, thanks to the postwar Baby Boom, the number of those families was continually growing. The show told the story of a typical American family named Anderson - an insurance agent, his wife and three children - who lived in a typical Midwestern town named Springfield. They faced everyday life with the typical situations and problems confronting all young families and usually resolved them to everyone’s satisfaction within the allotted half hour.
In its fourth and final radio season before graduating to its legendary nine year television run, Father Knows Best became the first family sitcom to win or tie for first place on Thursday since The Aldrich Family’s four year run as the night’s Number One show that ended in 1944. General Foods sponsored both NBC series. By coincidence, Young’s career path would cross that of another Friday radio sitcom star 16 years later when he and Elena Verdugo played a family doctor and his nurse in the hit television series, Marcus Welby, M.D.
Millie Dives Into The Secretarial Pool. MGM contract actress Audrey Totter originated the role of wise-cracking office secretary Millie Bronson, on the CBS sitcom Meet Millie, which debuted as a sustaining show in search of a sponsor in 1951. Procter & Gamble picked up the show in 1952 and installed it into the network’s Thursday schedule. The show was considered a cross between My Friend Irma and The Adventures of Maisie which also revolved around the misadventures of less than bright blonde secretaries.
When CBS announced plans to create a television version of the show, Totter’s movie commitments prohibited her from continuing in the role. In search of a replacement, Millie’s producers came up with 32 year old Elena Verdugo, a beautiful veteran of 20th Century Fox films and Universal horror movies in which her talent for screaming came into good use. It turned out that she also had a flair for comedy and she made Millie her own through the remaining two years of its radio run and its four years on CBS-TV. The role elevated Verdugo’s popularity to such a degree that she came into in demand for a number of short term television supporting roles and guest appearances. She joined the cast of Marcus Welby, M.D., in 1969 as Robert Young‘s co-star for the television series‘ entire 170 episode, seven year run.
Thursday Sounds Like Saturday. NBC’s Thursday schedule contained two past hits from the network’s Saturday lineup. Ralph Edwards returned his Truth Or Consequences to NBC for the full season under Pet Milk sponsorship. After his dismal 1950-51 season at CBS, Edwards came back in the summer of 1952 as summer replacement for Pet’s Fibber McGee & Molly. The stunt show still had appeal. It won its time period and bounced back into the 1952-53 season’s Top 30. Despite its one bad season on CBS, Truth Or Consequences nevertheless registered twelve straight years as a Top 50 program and remained on the air until 1956. (See Truth Or Consequences.)
Judy Canova had enjoyed eight consecutive seasons on NBC’s Saturday schedule with a Top 50 show until Colgate pulled its sponsorship after the 1950-51 season. Her rural musical/sitcom was brought back by the network during the following year as a sustaining show and was ignored in the Nielsen ratings. Her comeback in 1952-53 was under the participating sponsorships of Emerson Drug’s Bromo Seltzer, Smith Brothers’ Cough Drops and General Motors. She won her time period against Horace Heidt‘s short-lived, patriotically themed The American Way - not so coincidentally sponsored by American Tobacco on CBS. But Canova missed making the season’s Top 50 list. She left Network Radio at the end of the season and resumed her movie career.
Friday Night Becomes Family Night. The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet beat out crime melodramas for a second consecutive season as Friday’s Number One show, although the nine year old family sitcom had to share first place with a much older, much traveled family serial. In its 20th season, One Man’s Family became the first Multiple Run strip show in 18 years to either capture first place or tie for first place on any night of the week. (6) The popularity of the Nelson and Barbour families reflected the trend toward family oriented dramas and sitcoms that would populate television schedules throughout the remainder of the decade. (See Ozzie & Harriet.)
Marshall Dillon Is Slow On His Draw. Gunsmoke began its nine year run on CBS Radio in late April of the 1951-52 season, unsponsored and unrated. Nevertheless, critics and fans alike recognized the gritty stories of life after the Civil War in Dodge City, Kansas, to be classic radio drama. Developed by Norman MacDonnell and John Meston, and starring William Conrad as Marshall Matt Dillon, Gunsmoke scored a respectable 5.0 against This Is Your FBI which was in its final months on ABC.
Gunsmoke disappeared again from the ratings until eleven months later when General Foods’ Post Toasties cereal assumed its sponsorship. The inability of CBS to sell Gunsmoke for 18 months illustrates the tough sell that nighttime Network Radio had become in the wake of television. Ironically, television proved to be Gunsmoke’s greatest triumph. The video version of the series debuted on CBS-TV in 1955. It became television’s most popular program from 1957 through 1961, and remained on the network’s schedule until 1975. (7)
Sothern’s Radio Ratings Go South. Blonde and breezy comedienne Ann Southern had great luck in the movies portraying a pert and smart talking secretary, Maisie Revier . The 42 year old Sothern had starred in MGM’s ten successful Maisie films since 1939. A sitcom based on the series of B movies was featured on CBS Radio from 1945 through 1947. Despite Sothern’s movie popularity, the radio show was unable to crack Friday’s Top Ten or the seasons’ Top 50 lists.
Regardless of its mediocre ratings history, MGM gave new life to the radio adaptation of Sothern’s movie series, renamed the freshly produced sitcom The Adventures of Maisie and packaged it with the studio’s three other transcribed programs intended for the syndication market - MGM’s Theater of The Air, Dr. Kildare and The Hardy Family. Like its three companion MGM series, The Adventures of Maisie wound up in a sporadic run on Mutual and left the air in late 1952. (8) (See Radio Goes To The Movies.)
CBS Radio Wins By Default. Television had drained Saturday night’s Network Radio audience with NBC-TV’s My Little Margie, The All Star Revue with rotating headline comedians, Your Show of Shows starring Sid Caesar & Imogene Coca and Your Hit Parade. Meanwhile CBS-TV countered with its up and coming lineup of Beat The Clock, the new Jackie Gleason Show, singer Jane Froman’s new musical revue and Meet Millie.
On the radio side, ABC turned all Saturday night programming back to its affiliates and NBC scheduled an eclectic mix that began with the sustaining NBC symphony from 6;30 until 8:00 and followed with the Pee Wee King and Grand Ol’ Opry country music shows. It was a sign of things to come. As a result, only CBS Radio was able to provide a full three hours of sponsored network programming to its affiliates and in doing so claimed all five of the night’s top programs. (9)
No Scripts, No Cast & No Mercy. Sandwiched within NBC’s odd musical mix was an unrated gem, which like the legendary Gunsmoke, went unsponsored and unnoticed by most listeners except critics and a small but growing following. Bob Elliott was 28 and his partner Ray Goulding, 29, when NBC’s New York City flagship, WNBC, brought them in them from WHDH/Boston for its 6:00 to 8:30 morning show in late August, 1951. The team had become popular with New England audiences for their low-key, high satire of Network Radio programs in general and soap operas in particular. Without scripts or supporting cast , Bob & Ray verbally reflected popular radio favorites through a fun house mirror - much as Stan Freberg had done with his Capitol Records’ spoof of Dragnet.
But unlike Freberg’s limited output of satirical recordings, Bob & Ray were on the job five mornings a week on WNBC and then hosted a compilation of their best routines, Inside Bob & Ray, which was broadcast on the full NBC network on Saturday night. Nothing was out of bounds to the pair who took on every leading format and personality in Network Radio and twisted them into hilarity. Elliott & Goulding left the WNBC morning show in August, 1952. Their sustaining Saturday show was cancelled ten months later. Never-theless, their iconoclastic satire had become a cult favorite with younger audiences Bob & Ray subsequently moved on to daytime runs with Mutual and CBS, returning to NBC’s Monitor in 1955, and finishing their radio career with National Public Radio in 1987.
The Nielsens Become The Barbours’ Best Friends. One Man’s Family hadn’t been so successful since its Top Ten seasons in 1939-40 and 1940-41. Carleton E. Morse’s clan ended the season as the year’s Number One Multiple Run program, ranked among the Top Ten every night of its broadcast and its twelfth Top 50 finish since going on the full NBC Network 19 years earlier.
It had seemed like curtains for the long-running family saga three years earlier when its sponsor of 14 years, Standard Brands, cancelled the program and NBC was left to carry it on Sunday afternoons as a sustaining feature. The network and Morse saved One Man’s Family by converting it to a quarter hour strip and selling it to Miles Laboratories for sponsorship by Alka Seltzer and One A Day vitamins. The serial was slotted weeknights at 7:45 following the Miles Laboratories’ increasingly popular NBC News of The World with Morgan Beatty which made all but one of the nightly Top Ten’s. One Man’s Family remained in its Multiple Run home at 7:45 until May, 1959, when it retired from the air after a remarkable 27 year run. (See Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten.)
So Long Until Tomorrow… Lowell Thomas closed out the 21 years of Network Radio’s Golden Age with an unmatched record. The 61 year old newscaster finished every season in the Multiple Runs’ Top Ten. His string included six seasons as the category’s most popular program and five finishes in second place. The Golden Age was over but Thomas wasn’t done yet. (See Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten.)
He went on to set another record for consistency and longevity. Throughout his entire Network Radio career - a record 46 years that began two years before the Golden Age began and extended 23 years beyond it - Lowell Thomas was heard every weeknight at 6:45. He said his last, “So long until tomorrow!,” on Thursday, May 13, 1976, and bid a final farewell to his millions of listeners the following night.
With his departure the last remnant of Network Radio’s Golden Age left the air.
(1) Topping Jack Benny, Lucille Ball’s sitcom I Love Lucy, television’s highest rated program, was seen every week in nearly 14.0 Million homes.
(2) In total, 49 year old Arthur Godfrey accounted for eight hours of CBS radio time and four hours of the network’s television programming every week - all fully sponsored. He was worth the nearly $2.0 Million paid him annually by the network, at his peak of popularity.
(3) Jack Benny was 1st on Sunday & 1st in the 1952-53 Top 50, Amos & Andy was 2nd on Sunday & 2nd in the Top 50; Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy was 3rd on Sunday & 3rd in the Top 50; Our Miss Brooks was 4th on Sunday & 6th in the Top 50, and My Little Margie was 5th on Sunday & 9th in the Top 50.
(4) Syndicated television critic John Crosby labeled My Little Margie, “My Little Stinker.”
(5) Hearst Newspapers - owner of Winchell’s flagship tabloid, The New York Mirror, and Hearst’s King Features syndication subsidiary - were also named in the libel suit.
(6) One Man’s Family was the first Multiple Run program to win or tie for first on a night since the 1934-35 season when Amos & Andy won Monday night outright.
(7) Although Bill Conrad lost the role of television’s Matt Dillon to James Arness, he was nevertheless seen in every episode - as the villain gunned down by Marshall Dillon in Gunsmoke’s opening. Conrad later became the private eye Cannon on television and comedy fans recognize his booming voice as the narrator of Jay Ward’s classic cartoon series, The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle.
(8) Her mediocre radio career behind her, Sothern left MGM and moved into television as the bright Private Secretary, an immediate and immensely popular CBS-TV Sunday night series that ran for four successful seasons.
(9) The CBS lineup that won Saturday nights in 1952-53 included Gangbusters, Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch, The Vaughn Monroe Show, Tarzan and the five-minute Sanka Salutes sports show with Win Eliot.
Top 50 Network Programs - 1952-53
A.C. Nielsen Radio Index Service, Sep 1952-Jun 1953
Total Programs Rated, 6-11 PM: 137 Programs Rated 13 Weeks & Ranked: 108
42,800,000 Radio Homes 95.6% Coverage of US One Rating Point = 428,000 Homes
1 3 Jack Benny Progam 11.0 American Tobacco/Lucky Strike Sun 7:00 30 CBS
2 2 Amos & Andy 10.8 Rexall Drug Stores Sun 7:30 30 CBS
3 4 Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy 10.6 Richard Hudnut Cosmetics Sun 8:00 30 CBS
4 1 Lux Radio Theater 10.4 Lever Bros/Lux Soap Mon 9:00 60 CBS
5 6 People Are Funny 8.7 Mars Candy Tue 8:00 30 CBS
6 16 Our Miss Brooks 8.4 Colgate Palmolive Peet/Lustre Creme Shampoo Sun 6:30 30 CBS
7 6 You Bet Your Life 7.9 Chrysler Corp/DeSoto & Plymouth Autos Wed 9:00 30 NBC
8 10 Life With Luigi 7.7 Wrigley Gum Tue 9:00 30 CBS
9t 12 Suspense 7.4 Autolite Spark Plugs Mon 8:00 30 CBS
9t 20 Gangbusters 7.4 General Foods/ Grape Nuts l Sat 9:00 30 CBS
9t N My Little Margie 7.4 Philip Morris Cigarettes Sun 8:30 30 CBS
12 5 Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts 7.3 Lever Bros/Lipton Tea Mon 8:30 30 CBS
13 21 The Big Story 7.2 American Tobacco/Pall Mall Cigarettes Wed 9:30 30 NBC
14 28 Great Gildersleeve 7.0 Kraft Foods/Parkay Margarine Wed 8:30 30 NBC
15 14 Dragnet 6.7 Liggett & Myers/Chesterfield Cigarettes Sun 9:30 30 NBC
16t 10 Bob Hawk Show 6.6 RJ Reynolds/Camels Mon 10:00 30 CBS
16t 22 Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch 6.6 Wrigley Gum Sat 8:00 30 CBS
16t 16 Mr & Mrs North 6.6 Colgate Palmolive Peet/Halo Shampoo Tue 8:30 30 CBS
19 51 My Friend Irma 6.5 RJ Reynolds/Camel Cigarettes Tue 9:30 30 CBS
20t 18 Dr. Christian 6.4 Vaseline Wed 8:30 30 CBS
20t 25 Theater Guild On The Air 6.4 US Steel Sun 8:30 60 NBC
22t 8 Fibber McGee & Molly 6.3 Reynolds Aluminum Tue 9:30 30 NBC
22t 30 Philip Morris Playhouse On Broadway 6.3 Philip Morris Cigarettes Sun 8:30 30 CBS
22t N Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar 6.3 Wrigley Gum Tue 9:00 30 CBS
25t 18 Father Knows Best 6.0 General Foods Thu 8:30 30 NBC
25t 22 FBI In Peace & War 6.0 Nestle/Nescafe Coffee Wed 8:00 30 CBS (1)
27 58 Martin & Lewis Show 5.9 Liggett & Myers/Chesterfield Cigarettes Tue 9:00 30 NBC
28t 61 Barrie Craig 5.8 Emerson Drug/Bromo Seltzer Sun 10:00 30 NBC
28t 22 Bing Crosby Show 5.8 General Electric Thu 9:30 30 CBS
28t N Truth Or Consequences 5.8 Pet Milk Thu 9:00 30 NBC
31 31 The Railroad Hour 5.7 American Railroad Assn Mon 8:00 30 NBC
32t N Walk A Mile 5.4 RJ Reynolds/Camel Cigarettes Wed 8:00 30 NBC
32t N Vaughn Monroe Show 5.4 RJ Reynolds/ Camels Sat 7:30 30 CBS
34t 31 Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet 5.3 Participating Sponsors Fri 9:00 30 ABC
34t 49 One Man’s Family 5.3 Miles Laboratories/Alka Seltzer M-F 7:45 15 NBC
34t N Tarzan 5.3 General Foods/Post Toasties Cereal Sat 8:30 30 CBS
37t 35 Hallmark Playhouse & Hall of Fame 5.2 Hallmark Cards Sun 9:00 30 CBS
37t 40 Phil Harris & Alice Faye Show 5.2 RCA Victor Radios & TV Sun 8:00 30 NBC
37t 9 Walter Winchell’s Journal 5.2 Gruen Watches Sun 9:00 15 ABC
40t N Meet Millie 5.1 Procter & Gamble Thu 8:00 30 CBS
40t 25 Mr Keen 5.1 Procter & Gamble Fri 8:00 30 CBS
40t 60 Roy Rogers Show 5.1 General Foods/Post Toasties Thu 8:00 30 NBC
40t N Sanka Salutes 5.1 General Foods/Sanka Coffee Sat 9:25 05 CBS
40t 31 This Is Your FBI 5.1 Equitable Life Assurance Fri 8:30 30 ABC
40t N Two For The Money 5.1 P. Lorillard/Old Gold Cigarettes Tue 10:00 30 NBC
40t N What’s My Line? 5.1 Stopette Deodorant Wed 9:30 30 CBS
47t 25 Bob Hope Show 5.0 General Foods Wed 10:00 30 NBC
47t 54 News of The World 5.0 Miles Laboratories/Alka Seltzer M-F 7:30 15 NBC
47t 86 Red Skelton Show 5.0 Emerson Drug/Bromo Seltzer Tue 8:30 30 NBC
50 40 Voice of Firestone 4.9 Firestone Tire & Rubber Mon 8:30 30 NBC
(1 ) The FBI In Peace & War Sep - Dec American Tobacco/Lucky Strike Wed 8:00 30 CBS
This post is in part abridged from Network Radio Ratings, 1932-1953.
Copyright © 2012 & 2019, Jim Ramsburg, Estero FL Email: tojimramsburg@gmail.com
THE 1952-53 SEASON
21st In A Series
The Party’s Over. Any question that Network Radio’s Golden Age had ended at 21 years was answered decisively by the 1952-53 audience ratings and advertising revenue figures.
Television had taken over radio’s role as the primary source of free entertainment in almost half of America’s homes - spurred on by the establishment of 125 new TV stations during the season. In addition, over 60 more stations would go on the air by the end of 1953. As smaller markets like Duluth, Topeka and Peoria came on line, television was no longer confined to America’s largest cities.
While the television audience ballooned to greater proportions, Network Radio’s nighttime ratings continued to shrink. It was no longer the prime time that advertisers coveted. Nielsen estimated that Network Radio’s leading attraction, Jack Benny, was heard in approximately 4.7 Million homes each week. Meanwhile, Benny’s new bi-weekly series on CBS-TV was viewed in 8.0 Million homes. (1)
Network Radio’s Top 50 programs generated a season average Nielsen rating of only 6.3, the lowest ever recorded. Where 49 programs had averaged double digit Crossley ratings in the 1932-33 season, just four network shows reached that mark in Nielsen’s 1952-53 surveys.
Bad News & Good News. When listeners abandoned nighttime radio to watch television, advertisers followed. As a result of audience declines, Network Radio revenues dropped another 10% to their lowest level since 1943. Another round of discounts for Network Radio advertisers became effective on October 1st. CBS announced evening rates for its continuing advertisers would be cut from 20 to 30%. (See The Gold In The Golden Age.)
Network Radio’s Golden Age of dominance was over but the networks didn’t mourn its passing - their combined television billings grew another 42% to $256.4 million. For NBC, CBS and ABC, the Golden Age of Television had just begun. (See Radio Nets' Grosses.)
The Audience Plays Favorites. Program popularity continued its crossover from radio to television. Audiences wanted to see their favorite programs as well as hear them. Nine of the season’s Top 15 Network Radio programs were also among Nielsen’s Top 25 television shows. Only Arthur Godfrey’s Monday night Talent Scouts was a simulcast, offering a direct comparison between the two versions of the identical program available to both radio and television audiences at the same time. The ratings provide another clear indication that TV had overtaken radio in audience popularity for Network Radio’s favorite programs. Ranked by Nielsen’s estimate of their weekly audiences in terms of households reached, these figures illustrate how television dominated radio among America’s most popular programs:
Radio Television Combined
Rtg Rank Rtg Rank Total HH’s Pct TV
Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts 7.3 12 54.7 2 14,283,200 78.1 %
Jack Benny Program 11.0 1 39.0 12 12,664,000 62.8 %
Dragnet 6.7 15 46.8 4 12,414,800 76.9 %
Groucho Marx’s You Bet Your Life 7.9 7 41.6 9 11,877,600 71.4 %
Gangbusters 7.4 9 42.4 8 11,816,800 73.2 %
Amos & Andy 10.8 2 34.4 25 11,640,000 60.3%
Life With Luigi 7.7 8 38.5 13 11,149,600 70.4 %
Our Miss Brooks 8.4 6 35.0 22t 10,735,200 66.5%
The Big Story 7.2 13 35.0 22t 10,221,600 69.9 %
Two more programs with concurrent radio and television runs made TV’s Top 30 and Network Radio’s Top 50 for the season - The Red Skelton Show and What’s My Line. Meanwhile, The Lone Ranger, Pabst Beer’s Blue Ribbon Bouts and Gillette’s Friday night Cavalcade of Sports boxing bouts were among television’s 30 favorite programs but failed to place in radio’s Top 50. Regardless of rankings, the stories were the same: More people watched the their favorite programs on television than listened to their radio predecessors.
Radio’s Expansion = Networks’ Losses. Radio’s audience was moving out of homes and into cars. Over 90% of all new automobiles featured AM radios as standard equipment. The number of cars and trucks equipped with radio had surged from 6.0 Million to nearly 25.0 Million in the seven years since the end of World War II. Unfortunately for broadcasters, only the lesser-regarded Pulse ratings, which employed a variation of the defunct Crossley recall system, attempted to count the audience in cars and trucks. Within American homes, console radios in living rooms were rapidly replaced by bulky, furniture-styled television sets and small, low cost, portable radios in kitchens and bedrooms.
Still another advance in radio portability was introduced in November when RCA previewed the first hand-held radio incorporating germanium transistors developed by Bell Laboratories. Transistors eliminated the need for vacuum tubes and cleared the path for pocket-sized radios later in the decade. Radio listening was fast becoming a fragmented, personal experience dictated by individual tastes best served by local, independent stations which had sprouted like weeds since 1946. Indies had grown to outnumber network affiliates by almost two to one in 1952.
Local independent stations were the very antithesis of Network Radio’s traditional programming which served the entire natiowith schedules directed to immense groups of listeners with common tastes. That role had been usurped by the television networks.
The CBS March To A Ratings Record. As the Golden Age came to an end, CBS had run up 40 straight months of winning or tying for the month’s Number One program. Then CBS closed it out in 1952-53 with eleven of the season’s Top Twelve programs. Paley’s network reached a new height of superiority in March, 1953, when Nielsen reported that CBS accounted for the month’s Top Ten shows in both evening and daytime radio. Nighttime programs leading the month were Jack Benny, Amos & Andy, Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy, Eve Arden’s Our Miss Brooks, Lux Radio Theater, People Are Funny, My Little Margie, Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts, Suspense and Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch.
CBS Daytime could claim Frank & Anne Hummert’s Romance of Helen Trent as the Number One show and the couple’s Our Gal Sunday in third place. Soap operas Aunt Jenny’s Real Life Stories, The Guiding Light and Wendy Warren & The News were sixth, eighth and tenth, respectively. The remaining five spots in the Weekday Top Ten were the domain of CBS Radio’s prize personality, Arthur Godfrey. All 15 minute segments of Godfrey’s informal mid-morning variety show, were among Daytime‘s Top Ten. The first half hour of Arthur Godfrey Time every morning at 10:00 was also seen on CBS-TV, and like his Monday night Talent Scouts show, it was a simulcast hit on both radio and television. (2) (See Arthur Godfrey.) Capitalizing on its dominance, CBS increased its daytime radio rates by 5%.
The Pile of Autumn Leaves. Sixteen of the previous season’s Top 50 programs were gone from the list in when 1952-53 began in September - among them were eight series that left the air permanently. The Carnation Contented Hour disappeared after 20 seasons and three Top 50 finishes. Big Town was cancelled at the end of its 14th season, 13 of them in the Top 50. The most successful of the retirees was Mr. District Attorney, which registered ten Top 25 seasons in its 13 years on the air.
Shorter-term favorites permanently shelved were Horace Heidt‘s Youth Opportunity Program and Mr. Chameleon, after four seasons each. Ronald Colman’s Halls of Ivy, William Boyd’s Hopalong Cassidy and Dick Powell’s Richard Diamond, Private Detective were all gone after three solid seasons.
Neck and Neck Ties. Lower ratings meant less spread between rankings and more ties in the Annual Top 50. When we settle the scores at the end of the 1952-53 season, two shows tied for 20th, 25th and 32nd place, three shows were tied for 9th, 16th, 22nd, 28th 34th, 37th and 47th place while a whopping seven shows were tied for 40th place. That's a lot of sisters to kiss!
Better Late Than Never. CBS accomplished an unprecedented feat on Sunday, Network Radio’s most popular night. With Jack Benny leading the pack, it was the first time any network delivered Sunday’s Top Five shows and placed all five in the season’s Top Ten. (3). Four of the five - Jack Benny, Amos & Andy, Our Miss Brooks and My Little Margie - were also among CBS-TV’s top rated shows. The only holdout from television was Edgar Bergen. Although popular in films and as a television guest, the ventriloquist never converted his radio variety show into a TV series.
So Long Doesn’t Mean Goodbye. Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll didn’t appear in the television adaptation of Amos & Andy. They had avoided any visual depiction of their characters since their 1930 film, Check & Double Check, in which Network Radio’s most popular pair of the day were reduced to secondary characters performing stilted roles in blackface. Instead, they wisely stayed with radio…and stayed…and stayed. Gosden & Correll’s program of November 23, 1952, celebrated their 10,000th broadcast. It recalled their 25 years of local and network performances as Amos & Andy. The nostalgia-laden show prompted the press and many of their fans to presume that it also signaled their last season on the air. Such fears were premature - by eight years, almost to the day. The half hour sitcom was last heard in 1955, but Gosden and Correll didn’t bid a final goodbye to their fans until November 25, 1960, when their nightly strip show featuring records and guests, Amos & Andy’s Music Hall, was cancelled.
Gale Storms Into Radio. My Little Margie was one of the simplest of television’s simple sitcoms of the 1950’s. The misadventures of a pert young woman and her befuddled father was loaded with silly situations and sillier reaction shots to them. (4) Yet, the sitcom was historic in broadcasting annals. My Little Margie was the first television series that transitioned into Network Radio‘s Top Ten. Both the radio and television versions of the sitcom starred Gale Storm, 31, a veteran of over 30 low budgeted movies in which she portrayed bright ingénues similar to My Little Margie’s title character, 21 year old Margie Albright. Her clueless father was played by handsome silent film star Charles Farrell who returned to acting from a successful business career in Palm Springs, California.
My Little Margie was one of television’s most traveled series. It debuted on CBS-TV in June, 1952, as the summer substitute for Lucille Ball’s top rated I Love Lucy. It bounced back and forth between CBS-TV and NBC-TV three times until its 126th and final episode in May, 1955. Unlike its television inspiration, the radio adaptation of My Favorite Margie opened on CBS in December, 1952, and remained on the network until June, 1955.
Winchell’s Ranting & Rating Woes. Walter Winchell returned to the air in October after a six month leave of absence to recover from a nervous breakdown. He was welcomed back two months later with a $1.53 Million, lawsuit filed against him, ABC and Winchell’s sponsor, Gruen Watch Company, by The New York Post. (5) The action was the culmination of a year long feud begun when The Post published a 24-part series highly critical of Winchell’s methods and ethics.
In angry response, Winchell accused The Post, its publishers and editors of Communist leanings. He referred to the rival tabloid as, “That pinko-stinko sheet,” “The New York Pravda,” and “The New York Com-post.” Winchell’s continued smears in his newspaper columns and radio commentaries led The Post to take the fight into court. Never one to back down from a fight, Winchell countersued The Post for libel, demanding $2.0 Million in damages.
Radio “feuds” had traditionally fueled higher radio ratings. Winchell himself had been involved in a phony feud with bandleader Ben Bernie in the 1930’s which predated the Jack Benny/Fred Allen and Bob Hope/Bing Crosby verbal battles. All were played for laughs. But this was different and it had a different outcome. The public wanted no part of it. Winchell’s ratings plunged 40% over the season. His Top Ten ranking of four consecutive seasons dropped to a tie for 36th place. Gruen cancelled its sponsorship of his Sunday show at the end of the season. (See Walter Winchell.)
The Post won the suit two years later - settling for $30,000 in court costs and a retraction/apology from Winchell. The settlement was paid by ABC and Hearst. But the obstinate Winchell refused to say a word about the verdict. An ABC staff announcer was assigned read the apology on his broadcast of March 16, 1955. Winchell’s penalty came three months later - the loss of his high paying ABC contract, ending his 23 year run on the network. He was replaced on July 3, 1955, by ABC’s promising young newscaster, Paul Harvey.
With Friends Like These… Walter Winchell and Drew Pearson had been friends and political allies. Both were 55 years old, widely read left-wing leaning newspaper columnists with Sunday night newscast/commentaries on ABC. Pearson joined the Blue Network in 1941. His outspoken opinions often mirrored Winchell’s throughout the decade. Their combined and relentless barrage questioning the patriotism of James Forrestal, the United States’ first Secretary of Defense, was blamed by many in the press to have contributed to Forrestal’s dismissal from the post by President Truman in March, 1949, and his apparent suicide three months later.
Their split began in April, 1952, when Winchell suffered the nervous breakdown that forced him off the air for six months. ABC temporarily moved Pearson’s news commentary ahead three hours from 6:00 p.m. to cover Winchell’s 9:00 timeslot which reached a much larger audience. Unlike Winchell, Drew Pearson was highly critical of Senator Joe McCarthy. In 1951, he debunked the Wisconsin lawmaker’s accusations against suspected Communists within government - predating by three years Edward R. Murrow’s widely recognized rebuke of McCarthy on CBS-TV.
McCarthy’s response to Pearson was a series of high profile attacks from the floor of the Senate, branding him a communist sympathizer. The Senator called for his followers to bombard ABC and sponsor Adam Hats with letters and calls demanding that Pearson be silenced. It worked, but only in part when Adam Hats cancelled its sponsorship.
However, ABC stood by Pearson and quickly sold his program to Carter Products, manufacturers of various patent medicines. Pearson continued to question McCarthy’s tactics in Winchell’s timeslot during the spring and summer 1952. The controversial senator furiously demanded that ABC fire his “commie loving” critic. It was generally expected that ABC, his sponsor and his friend Winchell would all spring to Pearson’s defense against McCarthy‘s relentless attacks that continued into 1953.
But Winchell turned and championed McCarthy’s cause against Pearson. ABC and Carter Products stood silent, apparently fearful of the Wisconsin Senator’s wrath. Drew Pearson’s final ABC broadcast for Carter’s Serutan Laxative - “Serutan, Nature’s Spelled Backwards” - aired on March 29, 1953. He reportedly offered to continue his broadcasts on ABC at no charge until a new sponsor could be found but the network refused. McCarthy had won the battle and banished his critic from Network Radio.
Nevertheless, Pearson won the war of words by establishing his own syndicated network of over 150 stations to carry his weekly commentaries. The 15-minute programs were delivered to the stations on tape and sponsored by local advertisers who collectively paid Pearson far more than his ABC contract. .
McCarthy was censured by the Senate in 1954 and died three years later. His champion, Walter Winchell, moved on to Mutual in 1955 and left Network Radio in 1961. Meanwhile, Drew Pearson remained on the air with his wealth-producing syndicated programs until 1968 when he retired at the age of 71.
Lux Loses To Lucy’s Labor. Lux Radio Theater lost over 25% of its ratings in two seasons. After five consecutive years as Network Radio’s Number One program, it remained Monday’s audience favorite, but dropped from first to fourth in the season’s overall rankings. The major factor to the popularity decline of CBS Radio’s longtime favorite was its competition from television - its own CBS Television network. Lux had the misfortune of being scheduled against CBS-TV’s I Love Lucy, the Lucille Ball/Desi Arnaz runaway hit that scored a phenomenal 67.3 Nielsen season rating in the nation’s millions of television homes - capped by a 71.7 for the January episode depicting the birth of the couple’s son.
Lux Radio Theater still dominated its Network Radio time period with over double the audience of NBC’s Telephone Hour and Voice of Firestone, but its glory days were gone. Network Radio’s all time favorite dramatic series remained on CBS for one more year, then moved to NBC’s Tuesday schedule for an encore season in 1954. It left the air on June 6, 1955, at the completion of its 927th broadcast. (See Lux...Presents Hollywood!)
CBS Wins A Doubleheader. Despite the decline in radio audience, CBS presented Monday’s overwhelming winning lineups on both nighttime radio and television from 8:00 until 10:30. CBS-TV’s Lux Video Theater, Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts, I Love Lucy, Life With Luigi and Studio One were all Number One in their television time periods as were CBS Radio’s Suspense, Godfrey’s Talent Scouts simulcast, Lux Radio Theater, and The Bob Hawk Show. It was another first for CBS in broadcasting history.
The Blonde’s Bombshell. R.J. Reynolds’ Camel Cigarettes rescued My Friend Irma from its disastrous season on CBS Radio’s Sunday schedule. The Cy Howard sitcom starring Marie Wilson as the quintessential dumb blonde was moved to CBS on Tuesday at 9:30, following Howard’s hit, Life With Luigi - the show that had beaten Bob Hope for two consecutive seasons.
My Friend Irma returned with a slight ratings increase. But in a season when most other programs suffered rating losses, the show’s gain was enough to push Irma up from 51st to 19th in the annual rankings. Of greater note, the show edged out Fibber McGee & Molly in the ratings. My Friend Irma became the first program in 15 years to beat Jim & Marian Jordan’s legendary sitcom in its Tuesday time period.
Fibber & Molly Get The Last Laughs. Jim & Marian Jordan retired from Tuesday night radio after their disappointing 1952-53 season. The couple had enjoyed a successful quarter century in radio comedy, capped by their 18 years as Fibber McGee & Molly - a Top Ten program for 13 seasons. They were both in their late fifties, wealthy and tired of the grind - particularly Marian, whose health had always been frail. Molly bid her traditional, “G’night, all,” for what they thought was the last time on June 30, 1953. But NBC had different ideas.
The network lured them back with a scaled down Fibber McGee & Molly - just 15 minutes a day, transcribed at their convenience and without the pressure of a major production with a studio audience. The new shows, written by Don Quinn’s successor, Phil Leslie and his assistants, returned to the NBC evening schedule as a Monday through Friday nighttime strip at 10:00 in October, 1953. It became a Sunday through Thursday feature in August, 1954, when Gillette moved its Friday night Cavalcade of Sports boxing shows from ABC to NBC Radio. The Sunday installment of FM&M was dropped in late June, 1955, but a concurrent run of the transcribed series was added to the network’s weekday morning schedule at 11:45 a.m. The commercially successful double run of Fibber McGee & Molly remained in the two timeslots until late March, 1956, when - after recording 577 of the quarter hour shows - the Jordan’s again called it quits, said goodbye to their fans and retired. And again, NBC had different ideas.
This time the network offered them a series of five minute, transcribed, two-person Fibber McGee & Molly conversational inserts to be incorporated into NBC’s marathon weekend program, Monitor, beginning in June, 1957. The two-year contract called for ten vignettes per week, all written by an NBC team headed by Tom Koch. Each four minutes of dialogue allowed for 60 seconds of commercial time which NBC had no problem pre-selling to major advertisers including General Mills, Pepsi Cola and Liggett & Myers Tobacco. Jim and Marian recorded over a thousand original Monitor segments during the two year period. They finally retired in 1959 but occasional repeats extended their run as Fibber McGee & Molly on Monitor until 1961.
Meanwhile, the show that ended their Tuesday dominance in the 1952-53 season, My Friend Irma, had disappeared from Network Radio seven years earlier.
Whatever Happened to My Pal, Spike? As a teenager, Jim Jordan loved sports and played on his Spalding Institute high school basketball team in Peoria with a bright and popular neighborhood pal, Spike Sheen. Following graduation Jim went to work and Spike left for college with hopes of entering the ministry. The two kids from the same neighborhood never lost touch as each in his own time became popular with millions of Americans on Tuesday nights.
Jim, of course, was Fibber McGee. Spike became New York Auxiliary Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, who hosted The Catholic Hour on NBC Radio for 20 years and whose simple and absorbing chalk talks, Life Is Worth Living, were a ratings phenomenon on the lowly DuMont Television Network from 1952 to 1957. Sheen’s weekly sermons became DuMont’s most popular series, drawing between ten and 20 million viewers a week against NBC-TV’s once unbeatable Texaco Star Theater starring Milton Berle. In February, 1953, Sheen was presented with an Emmy as “Television’s Most Outstanding Personality”.
Better Seen Than Heard. Despite his faltering radio ratings, Bob Hope had provided solid ratings leading into Fibber McGee & Molly since 1948. When Hope left NBC’s Tuesday schedule at the end of the 1951-52 season, his timeslot was filled by another variety show, headlined by the hottest new comedy team of the decade, Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis.
The handsome romantic baritone Martin, 35, and his 26 year old manic comedian partner were wildly successful in nightclub, stage and television appearances. But their slapstick act didn’t translate to radio. After stumbling starts on NBC’s Sunday, Monday and Friday schedules beginning in 1949, Martin & Lewis were moved to Tuesdays for the 1952-53 season as Bob Hope’s replacement. .They lost 25% of Hope’s ratings and left radio at the end of the season. Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis remained a team until 1956 when each went on to highly successful solo careers.
Ironically, their 1952-53 Network Radio series was outrated by a low cost CBS studio drama starring the handsome movie actor who had appeared with them in their 1949 movie debut, My Friend Irma, John Lund. Lund was better known to radio fans as Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. (See CBS Packages Unwrapped.)
CBS Gets Its Dollar’s Worth. Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar had been on CBS schedules since 1949. Except for a brief summer run in 1950, the program was sustaining. As such, the program was non-existent in the Nielsen ratings until 1952 when Wrigley Gum picked up the series with Paramount film star John Lund in the title role. The adventures of the freelance insurance investigator with, “...The action packed expense account!” replaced Life With Luigi on the CBS schedule at 9:00 in March and broke into the season’s list of Top 25 programs.
Johnny Dollar had originally been created for actor Dick Powell who opted instead to become radio’s singing sleuth, Richard Diamond, Private Detective. When Powell rejected the Dollar role it was passed on to Charles Russell for a season, Edmond O’Brien for two and finally Lund until Wrigley’s cancellation in 1954. (See Dick Powell.)
Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar was the last prime time dramatic series of Network Radio’s Golden Age. It returned as a CBS Monday-Friday strip series in 1955 and reverted to its half-hour form in 1956 . The title role was subsequently taken by Bob Bailey, Bob Readick and Mendel Kramer for the remainder of its remarkable run of 13 years that extended into 1962.
You Can’t Go Home Again. After three sorry seasons on CBS that saw his ratings drop to single digits, Red Skelton returned the scene of his past radio glories - NBC’s Tuesday night schedule where he and Bob Hope had tied as Network Radio‘s Number One attractions in the 1942-43 season with 32.3 Hooperatings. What had been considered Skelton’s fluke rating of only 3.9 the previous season at CBS, only improved by a disappointing 1.1 point. Skelton’s films continued to be box office hits and his weekly NBC-TV show scored big ratings, but the Tuesday radio audience deserted him to watch comedians Milton Berle on NBC-TV and Red Buttons on CBS-TV, both opposite his radio series.
Ironically, Skelton’s 1952-53 season rating again tied with Bob Hope’s new Wednesday show on NBC. Both registered a sad 5.0 Nielsen rating - and a tie for 46th place in the season’s rankings. As Bob Hope had done in June, 1952, Red Skelton joined Fibber McGee & Molly and left NBC Radio’s Tuesday schedule after the 1952-53 season. Network Radio’s most unbeatable trio of comedy hits became relics the Golden Age.
A Short Day’s Journey Into Night. More proof that movie popularity no longer translated to Network Radio success was found in Tuesday’s Doris Day Show on CBS. The 30 year old former singer with Les Brown’s band on the Bob Hope Show had graduated to solo careers as a highly popular Columbia Records artist and Warner Brothers film star. By 1952 she had a string of hit records and movies to her credit and was on her way to becoming a superstar of the decade. The transcribed Doris Day Show supported by participating sponsors appeared in the Nielsen ratings for only four months of the 1952-53 season, scoring a dismal 2.9 against NBC‘s quiz, Two For The Money. The blonde singing sweetheart of the movies left series radio after one season.
Two For The Shows. Mark Goodson and Bill Todman were producers specializing in game shows. Their radio credits dated back to Winner Take All in 1946 hosted by Bill Cullen and Bud Collyer. They followed with 1948’s Catch Me If You Can and Hit The Jackpot with Cullen, plus Time’s A Wastin’ , and a short-lived radio version of their later TV hit Beat The Clock, starring Collyer. All were CBS Radio series that met with only moderate success.
In 1952 they moved to NBC and introduced Two For The Money, a comedy quiz ala You Bet Your Life starring 34 year old homespun comedian Herb Shriner. The radio/television simulcast was sponsored by Lorrilard’s Old Gold cigarettes. After one season Lorillard moved the show to CBS where it remained a popular Saturday night simulcast for two more years. Goodson & Todman also moved to CBS-TV where they established a string of prime time hits including What’s My Line, I’ve Got A Secret and To Tell The Truth.
Doubling Bets. Four years earlier, John Guedel was one of the first producers to capitalize on the potential of tape recording when he edited Groucho Marx’s lengthy contestant interviews into the compact, laugh-filled half-hour You Bet Your Life. Guedel and partner Art Linkletter advanced their belief in the technology - in wholesale - on NBC in the 1950-51 season by repeating broadcasts of Tuesday’s People Are Funny on the following Saturday nights.
On June 17, 1953, Guedel introduced summer reruns to Network Radio and television. He selected the funniest broadcasts of You Bet Your Life from the 1952-53 season and repeated them as The Best of Groucho in the program’s Wednesday night timeslot through the summer. Although he pioneered them in radio, Guedel’s concepts of highly edited programs, canned laughter and repeat broadcasts remain integral parts of television programming to this day. (See A John Guedel Production.)
Line Up For Radio. Mark Goodson & Bill Todman’s game show What’s My Line? was the first hit program that successfully transitioned from television to Network Radio. It preceded My Little Margie on the CBS Radio schedule by six months, debuting in June, 1952. The panel show hosted by former CBS newsman John Daly featured Arlene Francis, Dorothy Kilgallen, Bennett Cerf and Hal Block - all veterans of Network Radio. On What’s My Line? they were faced with the challenge of deducing the occupations of three guest contestants a week plus the identity of a celebrity “Mystery Guest.” The radio version of What’s My Line? lasted for only the one season while its television inspiration remained a Sunday night staple on CBS-TV until 1967.
Hope For Daytime. Bob Hope’s sabbatical from Network Radio didn’t last long after Liggett & Myers cancelled his 14 year old Tuesday night series in June. Hope finished work on Paramount Pictures’ The Road To Bali with Bing Crosby, left for the summer in Europe and planned to devote time to his monthly Colgate Comedy Hour on NBC-TV along with his increasing schedule of high paying personal appearances.
Then General Foods called with the offer he couldn’t refuse - a two year, $2.0 Million a year contract to transcribe a daily, 15 minute daytime monologue/interview series beginning in November, plus another $2.0 Million to resume his weekly nighttime variety show from January through June. Both series were sponsored by Jello gelatin and puddings. Both were rating disasters. Hope’s Wednesday night show averaged a mere 5.0 rating and his mid-morning series opened with a meager 2.3
Hope left daytime radio counting his cash in 1954. Meanwhile, his nighttime radio show was picked up in late 1953 by the American Dairy Association and was shuffled around NBC’s schedule for two seasons until it was cancelled. Hope finished his radio career after 17 years in late April, 1955, concluding a run that included five Number One seasons, six more seasons in the Top Ten and a few that are best forgotten.
Father Does Best. Father Knows Best, starring popular 45 year old film actor Robert Young, had matured from a broad Blondie and Life of Riley type of "dumb daddy" comedy into a warm, well-written sitcom to which millions of American families could relate. And, thanks to the postwar Baby Boom, the number of those families was continually growing. The show told the story of a typical American family named Anderson - an insurance agent, his wife and three children - who lived in a typical Midwestern town named Springfield. They faced everyday life with the typical situations and problems confronting all young families and usually resolved them to everyone’s satisfaction within the allotted half hour.
In its fourth and final radio season before graduating to its legendary nine year television run, Father Knows Best became the first family sitcom to win or tie for first place on Thursday since The Aldrich Family’s four year run as the night’s Number One show that ended in 1944. General Foods sponsored both NBC series. By coincidence, Young’s career path would cross that of another Friday radio sitcom star 16 years later when he and Elena Verdugo played a family doctor and his nurse in the hit television series, Marcus Welby, M.D.
Millie Dives Into The Secretarial Pool. MGM contract actress Audrey Totter originated the role of wise-cracking office secretary Millie Bronson, on the CBS sitcom Meet Millie, which debuted as a sustaining show in search of a sponsor in 1951. Procter & Gamble picked up the show in 1952 and installed it into the network’s Thursday schedule. The show was considered a cross between My Friend Irma and The Adventures of Maisie which also revolved around the misadventures of less than bright blonde secretaries.
When CBS announced plans to create a television version of the show, Totter’s movie commitments prohibited her from continuing in the role. In search of a replacement, Millie’s producers came up with 32 year old Elena Verdugo, a beautiful veteran of 20th Century Fox films and Universal horror movies in which her talent for screaming came into good use. It turned out that she also had a flair for comedy and she made Millie her own through the remaining two years of its radio run and its four years on CBS-TV. The role elevated Verdugo’s popularity to such a degree that she came into in demand for a number of short term television supporting roles and guest appearances. She joined the cast of Marcus Welby, M.D., in 1969 as Robert Young‘s co-star for the television series‘ entire 170 episode, seven year run.
Thursday Sounds Like Saturday. NBC’s Thursday schedule contained two past hits from the network’s Saturday lineup. Ralph Edwards returned his Truth Or Consequences to NBC for the full season under Pet Milk sponsorship. After his dismal 1950-51 season at CBS, Edwards came back in the summer of 1952 as summer replacement for Pet’s Fibber McGee & Molly. The stunt show still had appeal. It won its time period and bounced back into the 1952-53 season’s Top 30. Despite its one bad season on CBS, Truth Or Consequences nevertheless registered twelve straight years as a Top 50 program and remained on the air until 1956. (See Truth Or Consequences.)
Judy Canova had enjoyed eight consecutive seasons on NBC’s Saturday schedule with a Top 50 show until Colgate pulled its sponsorship after the 1950-51 season. Her rural musical/sitcom was brought back by the network during the following year as a sustaining show and was ignored in the Nielsen ratings. Her comeback in 1952-53 was under the participating sponsorships of Emerson Drug’s Bromo Seltzer, Smith Brothers’ Cough Drops and General Motors. She won her time period against Horace Heidt‘s short-lived, patriotically themed The American Way - not so coincidentally sponsored by American Tobacco on CBS. But Canova missed making the season’s Top 50 list. She left Network Radio at the end of the season and resumed her movie career.
Friday Night Becomes Family Night. The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet beat out crime melodramas for a second consecutive season as Friday’s Number One show, although the nine year old family sitcom had to share first place with a much older, much traveled family serial. In its 20th season, One Man’s Family became the first Multiple Run strip show in 18 years to either capture first place or tie for first place on any night of the week. (6) The popularity of the Nelson and Barbour families reflected the trend toward family oriented dramas and sitcoms that would populate television schedules throughout the remainder of the decade. (See Ozzie & Harriet.)
Marshall Dillon Is Slow On His Draw. Gunsmoke began its nine year run on CBS Radio in late April of the 1951-52 season, unsponsored and unrated. Nevertheless, critics and fans alike recognized the gritty stories of life after the Civil War in Dodge City, Kansas, to be classic radio drama. Developed by Norman MacDonnell and John Meston, and starring William Conrad as Marshall Matt Dillon, Gunsmoke scored a respectable 5.0 against This Is Your FBI which was in its final months on ABC.
Gunsmoke disappeared again from the ratings until eleven months later when General Foods’ Post Toasties cereal assumed its sponsorship. The inability of CBS to sell Gunsmoke for 18 months illustrates the tough sell that nighttime Network Radio had become in the wake of television. Ironically, television proved to be Gunsmoke’s greatest triumph. The video version of the series debuted on CBS-TV in 1955. It became television’s most popular program from 1957 through 1961, and remained on the network’s schedule until 1975. (7)
Sothern’s Radio Ratings Go South. Blonde and breezy comedienne Ann Southern had great luck in the movies portraying a pert and smart talking secretary, Maisie Revier . The 42 year old Sothern had starred in MGM’s ten successful Maisie films since 1939. A sitcom based on the series of B movies was featured on CBS Radio from 1945 through 1947. Despite Sothern’s movie popularity, the radio show was unable to crack Friday’s Top Ten or the seasons’ Top 50 lists.
Regardless of its mediocre ratings history, MGM gave new life to the radio adaptation of Sothern’s movie series, renamed the freshly produced sitcom The Adventures of Maisie and packaged it with the studio’s three other transcribed programs intended for the syndication market - MGM’s Theater of The Air, Dr. Kildare and The Hardy Family. Like its three companion MGM series, The Adventures of Maisie wound up in a sporadic run on Mutual and left the air in late 1952. (8) (See Radio Goes To The Movies.)
CBS Radio Wins By Default. Television had drained Saturday night’s Network Radio audience with NBC-TV’s My Little Margie, The All Star Revue with rotating headline comedians, Your Show of Shows starring Sid Caesar & Imogene Coca and Your Hit Parade. Meanwhile CBS-TV countered with its up and coming lineup of Beat The Clock, the new Jackie Gleason Show, singer Jane Froman’s new musical revue and Meet Millie.
On the radio side, ABC turned all Saturday night programming back to its affiliates and NBC scheduled an eclectic mix that began with the sustaining NBC symphony from 6;30 until 8:00 and followed with the Pee Wee King and Grand Ol’ Opry country music shows. It was a sign of things to come. As a result, only CBS Radio was able to provide a full three hours of sponsored network programming to its affiliates and in doing so claimed all five of the night’s top programs. (9)
No Scripts, No Cast & No Mercy. Sandwiched within NBC’s odd musical mix was an unrated gem, which like the legendary Gunsmoke, went unsponsored and unnoticed by most listeners except critics and a small but growing following. Bob Elliott was 28 and his partner Ray Goulding, 29, when NBC’s New York City flagship, WNBC, brought them in them from WHDH/Boston for its 6:00 to 8:30 morning show in late August, 1951. The team had become popular with New England audiences for their low-key, high satire of Network Radio programs in general and soap operas in particular. Without scripts or supporting cast , Bob & Ray verbally reflected popular radio favorites through a fun house mirror - much as Stan Freberg had done with his Capitol Records’ spoof of Dragnet.
But unlike Freberg’s limited output of satirical recordings, Bob & Ray were on the job five mornings a week on WNBC and then hosted a compilation of their best routines, Inside Bob & Ray, which was broadcast on the full NBC network on Saturday night. Nothing was out of bounds to the pair who took on every leading format and personality in Network Radio and twisted them into hilarity. Elliott & Goulding left the WNBC morning show in August, 1952. Their sustaining Saturday show was cancelled ten months later. Never-theless, their iconoclastic satire had become a cult favorite with younger audiences Bob & Ray subsequently moved on to daytime runs with Mutual and CBS, returning to NBC’s Monitor in 1955, and finishing their radio career with National Public Radio in 1987.
The Nielsens Become The Barbours’ Best Friends. One Man’s Family hadn’t been so successful since its Top Ten seasons in 1939-40 and 1940-41. Carleton E. Morse’s clan ended the season as the year’s Number One Multiple Run program, ranked among the Top Ten every night of its broadcast and its twelfth Top 50 finish since going on the full NBC Network 19 years earlier.
It had seemed like curtains for the long-running family saga three years earlier when its sponsor of 14 years, Standard Brands, cancelled the program and NBC was left to carry it on Sunday afternoons as a sustaining feature. The network and Morse saved One Man’s Family by converting it to a quarter hour strip and selling it to Miles Laboratories for sponsorship by Alka Seltzer and One A Day vitamins. The serial was slotted weeknights at 7:45 following the Miles Laboratories’ increasingly popular NBC News of The World with Morgan Beatty which made all but one of the nightly Top Ten’s. One Man’s Family remained in its Multiple Run home at 7:45 until May, 1959, when it retired from the air after a remarkable 27 year run. (See Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten.)
So Long Until Tomorrow… Lowell Thomas closed out the 21 years of Network Radio’s Golden Age with an unmatched record. The 61 year old newscaster finished every season in the Multiple Runs’ Top Ten. His string included six seasons as the category’s most popular program and five finishes in second place. The Golden Age was over but Thomas wasn’t done yet. (See Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten.)
He went on to set another record for consistency and longevity. Throughout his entire Network Radio career - a record 46 years that began two years before the Golden Age began and extended 23 years beyond it - Lowell Thomas was heard every weeknight at 6:45. He said his last, “So long until tomorrow!,” on Thursday, May 13, 1976, and bid a final farewell to his millions of listeners the following night.
With his departure the last remnant of Network Radio’s Golden Age left the air.
(1) Topping Jack Benny, Lucille Ball’s sitcom I Love Lucy, television’s highest rated program, was seen every week in nearly 14.0 Million homes.
(2) In total, 49 year old Arthur Godfrey accounted for eight hours of CBS radio time and four hours of the network’s television programming every week - all fully sponsored. He was worth the nearly $2.0 Million paid him annually by the network, at his peak of popularity.
(3) Jack Benny was 1st on Sunday & 1st in the 1952-53 Top 50, Amos & Andy was 2nd on Sunday & 2nd in the Top 50; Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy was 3rd on Sunday & 3rd in the Top 50; Our Miss Brooks was 4th on Sunday & 6th in the Top 50, and My Little Margie was 5th on Sunday & 9th in the Top 50.
(4) Syndicated television critic John Crosby labeled My Little Margie, “My Little Stinker.”
(5) Hearst Newspapers - owner of Winchell’s flagship tabloid, The New York Mirror, and Hearst’s King Features syndication subsidiary - were also named in the libel suit.
(6) One Man’s Family was the first Multiple Run program to win or tie for first on a night since the 1934-35 season when Amos & Andy won Monday night outright.
(7) Although Bill Conrad lost the role of television’s Matt Dillon to James Arness, he was nevertheless seen in every episode - as the villain gunned down by Marshall Dillon in Gunsmoke’s opening. Conrad later became the private eye Cannon on television and comedy fans recognize his booming voice as the narrator of Jay Ward’s classic cartoon series, The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle.
(8) Her mediocre radio career behind her, Sothern left MGM and moved into television as the bright Private Secretary, an immediate and immensely popular CBS-TV Sunday night series that ran for four successful seasons.
(9) The CBS lineup that won Saturday nights in 1952-53 included Gangbusters, Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch, The Vaughn Monroe Show, Tarzan and the five-minute Sanka Salutes sports show with Win Eliot.
Top 50 Network Programs - 1952-53
A.C. Nielsen Radio Index Service, Sep 1952-Jun 1953
Total Programs Rated, 6-11 PM: 137 Programs Rated 13 Weeks & Ranked: 108
42,800,000 Radio Homes 95.6% Coverage of US One Rating Point = 428,000 Homes
1 3 Jack Benny Progam 11.0 American Tobacco/Lucky Strike Sun 7:00 30 CBS
2 2 Amos & Andy 10.8 Rexall Drug Stores Sun 7:30 30 CBS
3 4 Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy 10.6 Richard Hudnut Cosmetics Sun 8:00 30 CBS
4 1 Lux Radio Theater 10.4 Lever Bros/Lux Soap Mon 9:00 60 CBS
5 6 People Are Funny 8.7 Mars Candy Tue 8:00 30 CBS
6 16 Our Miss Brooks 8.4 Colgate Palmolive Peet/Lustre Creme Shampoo Sun 6:30 30 CBS
7 6 You Bet Your Life 7.9 Chrysler Corp/DeSoto & Plymouth Autos Wed 9:00 30 NBC
8 10 Life With Luigi 7.7 Wrigley Gum Tue 9:00 30 CBS
9t 12 Suspense 7.4 Autolite Spark Plugs Mon 8:00 30 CBS
9t 20 Gangbusters 7.4 General Foods/ Grape Nuts l Sat 9:00 30 CBS
9t N My Little Margie 7.4 Philip Morris Cigarettes Sun 8:30 30 CBS
12 5 Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts 7.3 Lever Bros/Lipton Tea Mon 8:30 30 CBS
13 21 The Big Story 7.2 American Tobacco/Pall Mall Cigarettes Wed 9:30 30 NBC
14 28 Great Gildersleeve 7.0 Kraft Foods/Parkay Margarine Wed 8:30 30 NBC
15 14 Dragnet 6.7 Liggett & Myers/Chesterfield Cigarettes Sun 9:30 30 NBC
16t 10 Bob Hawk Show 6.6 RJ Reynolds/Camels Mon 10:00 30 CBS
16t 22 Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch 6.6 Wrigley Gum Sat 8:00 30 CBS
16t 16 Mr & Mrs North 6.6 Colgate Palmolive Peet/Halo Shampoo Tue 8:30 30 CBS
19 51 My Friend Irma 6.5 RJ Reynolds/Camel Cigarettes Tue 9:30 30 CBS
20t 18 Dr. Christian 6.4 Vaseline Wed 8:30 30 CBS
20t 25 Theater Guild On The Air 6.4 US Steel Sun 8:30 60 NBC
22t 8 Fibber McGee & Molly 6.3 Reynolds Aluminum Tue 9:30 30 NBC
22t 30 Philip Morris Playhouse On Broadway 6.3 Philip Morris Cigarettes Sun 8:30 30 CBS
22t N Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar 6.3 Wrigley Gum Tue 9:00 30 CBS
25t 18 Father Knows Best 6.0 General Foods Thu 8:30 30 NBC
25t 22 FBI In Peace & War 6.0 Nestle/Nescafe Coffee Wed 8:00 30 CBS (1)
27 58 Martin & Lewis Show 5.9 Liggett & Myers/Chesterfield Cigarettes Tue 9:00 30 NBC
28t 61 Barrie Craig 5.8 Emerson Drug/Bromo Seltzer Sun 10:00 30 NBC
28t 22 Bing Crosby Show 5.8 General Electric Thu 9:30 30 CBS
28t N Truth Or Consequences 5.8 Pet Milk Thu 9:00 30 NBC
31 31 The Railroad Hour 5.7 American Railroad Assn Mon 8:00 30 NBC
32t N Walk A Mile 5.4 RJ Reynolds/Camel Cigarettes Wed 8:00 30 NBC
32t N Vaughn Monroe Show 5.4 RJ Reynolds/ Camels Sat 7:30 30 CBS
34t 31 Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet 5.3 Participating Sponsors Fri 9:00 30 ABC
34t 49 One Man’s Family 5.3 Miles Laboratories/Alka Seltzer M-F 7:45 15 NBC
34t N Tarzan 5.3 General Foods/Post Toasties Cereal Sat 8:30 30 CBS
37t 35 Hallmark Playhouse & Hall of Fame 5.2 Hallmark Cards Sun 9:00 30 CBS
37t 40 Phil Harris & Alice Faye Show 5.2 RCA Victor Radios & TV Sun 8:00 30 NBC
37t 9 Walter Winchell’s Journal 5.2 Gruen Watches Sun 9:00 15 ABC
40t N Meet Millie 5.1 Procter & Gamble Thu 8:00 30 CBS
40t 25 Mr Keen 5.1 Procter & Gamble Fri 8:00 30 CBS
40t 60 Roy Rogers Show 5.1 General Foods/Post Toasties Thu 8:00 30 NBC
40t N Sanka Salutes 5.1 General Foods/Sanka Coffee Sat 9:25 05 CBS
40t 31 This Is Your FBI 5.1 Equitable Life Assurance Fri 8:30 30 ABC
40t N Two For The Money 5.1 P. Lorillard/Old Gold Cigarettes Tue 10:00 30 NBC
40t N What’s My Line? 5.1 Stopette Deodorant Wed 9:30 30 CBS
47t 25 Bob Hope Show 5.0 General Foods Wed 10:00 30 NBC
47t 54 News of The World 5.0 Miles Laboratories/Alka Seltzer M-F 7:30 15 NBC
47t 86 Red Skelton Show 5.0 Emerson Drug/Bromo Seltzer Tue 8:30 30 NBC
50 40 Voice of Firestone 4.9 Firestone Tire & Rubber Mon 8:30 30 NBC
(1 ) The FBI In Peace & War Sep - Dec American Tobacco/Lucky Strike Wed 8:00 30 CBS
This post is in part abridged from Network Radio Ratings, 1932-1953.
Copyright © 2012 & 2019, Jim Ramsburg, Estero FL Email: tojimramsburg@gmail.com