THE FIRST ALDRICH FAMILY WITH KATE SMITH (1939).
RADIO’S FAVORITE FAMILY
A new trend in Network Radio began in the late 1930’s and early ’40’s - family situation comedies focusing on the trials and tribulations of teenagers. The string included such titles as The Parker Family (1939), That Brewster Boy and A Date With Judy (1941), Junior Miss (1942), Meet Corliss Archer and The Adventures of Archie Andrews (1943).
But the first and most popular of them all was The Aldrich Family which finished eleven out of its twelve seasons in the Top 50, seven of them in the Top 25 and four in the Top Ten.
MGM started the teen trend in 1937 with the first in its ten year series of 16 Hardy Family films featuring Mickey Rooney as the irrepressible Andy Hardy. Clifford Goldsmith’s What A Life opened on Broadway a year later with 21 year old Ezra Stone in a supporting role as high school student Henry Aldrich.
The Aldrich Family was born during the play’s 538 performance run when Rudy Vallee reportedly asked Goldsmith to develop several short skits featuring the cracking-voiced Stone for his Thursday night NBC variety show. Goldsmith complied by creating a family and group of friends for young Henry.
Listeners liked what they heard - including Ted Collins who produced Vallee’s Thursday night competition on CBS, The Kate Smith Hour.
Collins signed Goldsmith for a 39 week series of Aldrich Family playlets on Smith’s variety show during the 1938-39 season. The cast, (pictured above with Smith), included Blaine Fillmore, Lea Penman, Betty Field and Stone. The sitcom’s familiar opening of his impatient mother calling, “Hen…reee…Hennn..ry Aldrich!” and Stone's squeaking voiced reply, “Coming, Mother!” is credited to Smith’s director, Bob Welsh.
Along with frequent appearances by comics Abbott & Costello, The Aldrich Family skits helped boost The Kate Smith Hour’s rating by 66% and into the season’s Top 20. That got the attention of Smith’s sponsor, General Foods, which gave The Aldrich Family its big break as Jack Benny’s 1939 summer replacement from July 2nd through October 1st. The 14-week run established the show as a half-hour stand-alone sitcom.
But General Foods wanted more proof that The Aldrich Family could hold its own for a full season. So the show was placed on Blue’s Tuesday schedule at 8:00 ET against Edward G. Robinson’s powerful Big Town newspaper drama on CBS beginning on Tuesday, October 10. (See Big Big Town on this site.)
One of the earliest episodes of The Aldrich Family from October 10, 1939, is posted below. Two elements from later broadcasts are missing - the laughter and applause of a studio audience and the comedy of Jackie Kelk as Henry’s side-kick, Homer Brown. Both are evident in the episode from 1943 and the proceedings are greatly enlivened.
The Aldrich Family replaced Inside Story on the Blue schedule - a semi-documentary which left the air in 99th place after a seven month run. Compared to that, the sitcom came through its first full year with flying colors, finishing the 1939-40 season in Tuesday’s Top Ten and one of only four Blue Network programs in the year’s Top 50.
In addition, Clifford Goldsmith’s What A Life became the basis for a Paramount film in October, 1939, starring Jackie Cooper as Henry Aldrich.*
The Aldrich Family was suddenly a hot property and General Foods promoted it to NBC’s Thursday night schedule in 1940, in the company of such established as stars Bing Crosby, Rudy Vallee, Fanny Brice and Frank Morgan. The sitcom surprised everyone with ratings that shot into the 20’s and capped the first of its four consecutive Top Ten seasons as Thursday’s Number One show.
When The Aldrich Family became a Top Ten Network Radio hit in 1941, Paramount followed with Life With Henry, again starring Jackie Cooper. The film was co-written by Goldsmith, the once struggling playwright who was now getting top-of-the-show credit on each Aldrich Family broadcast and earning $3,000 a week.
The Aldrich Family became Paramount’s answer to MGM’s Hardy Family series. The studio cranked out nine features and a patriotic short in a span of 32 months beginning with Henry Aldrich For President in 1941 and ending with Henry Aldrich’s Little Secret in 1944, all starring Jimmy Lydon in the title role.
Even the loss of its radio star, Ezra Stone, to military service in 1942, and his replacement Norman Tokar, in 1943, and their replacement, Dickie Jones, in 1945, couldn’t slow down the popularity of The Aldrich Family.
But General Foods could - and did in 1944 - when it moved the show to CBS on Friday at 8:00, compounding its massive blunder of moving Kate Smith from her successful Friday timeslot in a futile attempt to oppose Jack Benny on Sunday. (See Sunday At Seven on this site.)
The Aldrich Family lost 35% of its audience in the shift of night and network. Although it became Friday’s most popular program for two straight years and Stone returned as Henry in November, 1945, the show fell from the season‘s Top Ten and never returned.
General Foods took The Aldrich Family off CBS and moved it back to NBC’s Thursday schedule in 1946, but the show failed to dominate the night as it had before. It remained in Thursday’s Top Ten for the next four seasons but eventually lost its time period to The FBI In Peace & War on CBS.
The sponsor created two unique commercial approaches during this period. In October, 1948, General Foods agreed to pay $21,500 in special line charges to cover 40 weeks of instantaneously switched and transmitted Aldrich Family commercials from a Los Angeles studio to the show’s origination point in New York. The spots were performed by composer-conductor Meredith Willson’s Talking People chorus. The group takes the first 1:40 of the November 11, 1948, episode of the sitcom posted below. The final minute of that show prepares the listener for...
The Jello Jingle - a memorable piece of commercial music performed by the questionable singing talents of Ezra Stone and Jackie Kelk at the top of many shows over the next two seasons - as in the May 5, 1949, broadcast posted below. The jingle was so bad that it became a classic in broadcast advertising.
Nevertheless, General Foods cancelled The Aldrich Family in June, 1951. The sitcom went off the air for a year and returned for an encore season in 1952 as a sustaining half hour on NBC’s Sunday evening schedule with Bobby Ellis in the role of Henry. By that time a new generation of family sitcoms had taken over, led by radio versions of imminent television hits Father Knows Best and The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet.
The Aldrich Family itself had become an NBC-TV sitcom in 1949 and ran for four seasons all underwritten by its sole radio sponsor, General Foods. Bobby Ellis, Henry Girard, Kenneth Nelson, Richard Tyler alternated as Henry, Jackie Kelk played Homer Brown in the first season and House Jameson reprised his radio role as father Sam Aldrich for the entire television run.
One of the show’s directors was its original radio star, Ezra Stone. Stone had a distinguished career as a television director specializing in light comedy until he lost his life in a New Jersey car accident on March 3, 1994.
At his death Network Radio’s favorite teenager was 76 years old.
* The screenplay adaptation of What A Life was co-written by future Academy Award winners Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder. The role of Mrs. Aldrich in the film was played by Hedda Hopper, best known for her future career as a Hollywood reporter on CBS, NBC and ABC.
** Norman Tokar later enjoyed a long career as a television and movie director, with credits that included Leave It To Beaver, The Donna Reed Show and Walt Disney’s Apple Dumpling Gang. Dickie Jones is best remembered as the voice of Walt Disney’s Pinocchio in 1940 and later for his work in Western films and television series, Range Rider, Buffalo Bill, Jr., etc. Raymond Ives, who briefly played Henry Aldrich in 1945, appeared in several soap operas. Bobby Ellis, who took the role in The Aldrich Family’s final Network Radio season, appeared as a featured juvenile in a number of films and television shows in the 1950’s - most notably as Dexter Franklin in 39 episodes of TV's Meet Corliss Archer.
Copyright © 2015 Jim Ramsburg, Estero FL Email: tojimramsburg@gmail.com
A new trend in Network Radio began in the late 1930’s and early ’40’s - family situation comedies focusing on the trials and tribulations of teenagers. The string included such titles as The Parker Family (1939), That Brewster Boy and A Date With Judy (1941), Junior Miss (1942), Meet Corliss Archer and The Adventures of Archie Andrews (1943).
But the first and most popular of them all was The Aldrich Family which finished eleven out of its twelve seasons in the Top 50, seven of them in the Top 25 and four in the Top Ten.
MGM started the teen trend in 1937 with the first in its ten year series of 16 Hardy Family films featuring Mickey Rooney as the irrepressible Andy Hardy. Clifford Goldsmith’s What A Life opened on Broadway a year later with 21 year old Ezra Stone in a supporting role as high school student Henry Aldrich.
The Aldrich Family was born during the play’s 538 performance run when Rudy Vallee reportedly asked Goldsmith to develop several short skits featuring the cracking-voiced Stone for his Thursday night NBC variety show. Goldsmith complied by creating a family and group of friends for young Henry.
Listeners liked what they heard - including Ted Collins who produced Vallee’s Thursday night competition on CBS, The Kate Smith Hour.
Collins signed Goldsmith for a 39 week series of Aldrich Family playlets on Smith’s variety show during the 1938-39 season. The cast, (pictured above with Smith), included Blaine Fillmore, Lea Penman, Betty Field and Stone. The sitcom’s familiar opening of his impatient mother calling, “Hen…reee…Hennn..ry Aldrich!” and Stone's squeaking voiced reply, “Coming, Mother!” is credited to Smith’s director, Bob Welsh.
Along with frequent appearances by comics Abbott & Costello, The Aldrich Family skits helped boost The Kate Smith Hour’s rating by 66% and into the season’s Top 20. That got the attention of Smith’s sponsor, General Foods, which gave The Aldrich Family its big break as Jack Benny’s 1939 summer replacement from July 2nd through October 1st. The 14-week run established the show as a half-hour stand-alone sitcom.
But General Foods wanted more proof that The Aldrich Family could hold its own for a full season. So the show was placed on Blue’s Tuesday schedule at 8:00 ET against Edward G. Robinson’s powerful Big Town newspaper drama on CBS beginning on Tuesday, October 10. (See Big Big Town on this site.)
One of the earliest episodes of The Aldrich Family from October 10, 1939, is posted below. Two elements from later broadcasts are missing - the laughter and applause of a studio audience and the comedy of Jackie Kelk as Henry’s side-kick, Homer Brown. Both are evident in the episode from 1943 and the proceedings are greatly enlivened.
The Aldrich Family replaced Inside Story on the Blue schedule - a semi-documentary which left the air in 99th place after a seven month run. Compared to that, the sitcom came through its first full year with flying colors, finishing the 1939-40 season in Tuesday’s Top Ten and one of only four Blue Network programs in the year’s Top 50.
In addition, Clifford Goldsmith’s What A Life became the basis for a Paramount film in October, 1939, starring Jackie Cooper as Henry Aldrich.*
The Aldrich Family was suddenly a hot property and General Foods promoted it to NBC’s Thursday night schedule in 1940, in the company of such established as stars Bing Crosby, Rudy Vallee, Fanny Brice and Frank Morgan. The sitcom surprised everyone with ratings that shot into the 20’s and capped the first of its four consecutive Top Ten seasons as Thursday’s Number One show.
When The Aldrich Family became a Top Ten Network Radio hit in 1941, Paramount followed with Life With Henry, again starring Jackie Cooper. The film was co-written by Goldsmith, the once struggling playwright who was now getting top-of-the-show credit on each Aldrich Family broadcast and earning $3,000 a week.
The Aldrich Family became Paramount’s answer to MGM’s Hardy Family series. The studio cranked out nine features and a patriotic short in a span of 32 months beginning with Henry Aldrich For President in 1941 and ending with Henry Aldrich’s Little Secret in 1944, all starring Jimmy Lydon in the title role.
Even the loss of its radio star, Ezra Stone, to military service in 1942, and his replacement Norman Tokar, in 1943, and their replacement, Dickie Jones, in 1945, couldn’t slow down the popularity of The Aldrich Family.
But General Foods could - and did in 1944 - when it moved the show to CBS on Friday at 8:00, compounding its massive blunder of moving Kate Smith from her successful Friday timeslot in a futile attempt to oppose Jack Benny on Sunday. (See Sunday At Seven on this site.)
The Aldrich Family lost 35% of its audience in the shift of night and network. Although it became Friday’s most popular program for two straight years and Stone returned as Henry in November, 1945, the show fell from the season‘s Top Ten and never returned.
General Foods took The Aldrich Family off CBS and moved it back to NBC’s Thursday schedule in 1946, but the show failed to dominate the night as it had before. It remained in Thursday’s Top Ten for the next four seasons but eventually lost its time period to The FBI In Peace & War on CBS.
The sponsor created two unique commercial approaches during this period. In October, 1948, General Foods agreed to pay $21,500 in special line charges to cover 40 weeks of instantaneously switched and transmitted Aldrich Family commercials from a Los Angeles studio to the show’s origination point in New York. The spots were performed by composer-conductor Meredith Willson’s Talking People chorus. The group takes the first 1:40 of the November 11, 1948, episode of the sitcom posted below. The final minute of that show prepares the listener for...
The Jello Jingle - a memorable piece of commercial music performed by the questionable singing talents of Ezra Stone and Jackie Kelk at the top of many shows over the next two seasons - as in the May 5, 1949, broadcast posted below. The jingle was so bad that it became a classic in broadcast advertising.
Nevertheless, General Foods cancelled The Aldrich Family in June, 1951. The sitcom went off the air for a year and returned for an encore season in 1952 as a sustaining half hour on NBC’s Sunday evening schedule with Bobby Ellis in the role of Henry. By that time a new generation of family sitcoms had taken over, led by radio versions of imminent television hits Father Knows Best and The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet.
The Aldrich Family itself had become an NBC-TV sitcom in 1949 and ran for four seasons all underwritten by its sole radio sponsor, General Foods. Bobby Ellis, Henry Girard, Kenneth Nelson, Richard Tyler alternated as Henry, Jackie Kelk played Homer Brown in the first season and House Jameson reprised his radio role as father Sam Aldrich for the entire television run.
One of the show’s directors was its original radio star, Ezra Stone. Stone had a distinguished career as a television director specializing in light comedy until he lost his life in a New Jersey car accident on March 3, 1994.
At his death Network Radio’s favorite teenager was 76 years old.
* The screenplay adaptation of What A Life was co-written by future Academy Award winners Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder. The role of Mrs. Aldrich in the film was played by Hedda Hopper, best known for her future career as a Hollywood reporter on CBS, NBC and ABC.
** Norman Tokar later enjoyed a long career as a television and movie director, with credits that included Leave It To Beaver, The Donna Reed Show and Walt Disney’s Apple Dumpling Gang. Dickie Jones is best remembered as the voice of Walt Disney’s Pinocchio in 1940 and later for his work in Western films and television series, Range Rider, Buffalo Bill, Jr., etc. Raymond Ives, who briefly played Henry Aldrich in 1945, appeared in several soap operas. Bobby Ellis, who took the role in The Aldrich Family’s final Network Radio season, appeared as a featured juvenile in a number of films and television shows in the 1950’s - most notably as Dexter Franklin in 39 episodes of TV's Meet Corliss Archer.
Copyright © 2015 Jim Ramsburg, Estero FL Email: tojimramsburg@gmail.com
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