THE GREAT GILDERSLEEVE(S)
The Great Gildersleeve was Network Radio’s first and most successful spinoff series. It was based on the character created by Don Quinn for Harold Peary’s talents as the blustery neighbor of Fibber McGee & Molly in 1939 who left Wistful Vista two years later for his own adventures in Summerfield - “…a train trip away at the end of the line.”
The sitcom was so successful that it survived a number of major cast changes, not the least of which was the lead actor. Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve was played from 1941 to 1950 by Hal Peary, (Left, with Walter Tetley and Louise Erickson), and from 1950 until the show’s demise in 1957 by Willard Waterman, (Right, with Tetley and Mary Lee Robb).
Over the show’s dozen years during Network Radio’s Golden Age, the pompous but soft hearted Gildy scored four seasons in Sunday’s Top Ten followed by seven in Wednesday’s Top Ten. All twelve years resulted in Annual Top 50 finishes - eight were inside the Top 25 and two were Top 15 seasons. And it all was the result of Peary’s suggestion to Quinn that Gildersleeve become an on-going character as Fibber McGee’s neighbor and friendly enemy
Born Harrold Jose de Faria to Portuguese parents in San Leandro, California, in 1908, Hal Peary began his radio career at age 13, appearing as The Oakland Tribune’s Boy Caruso on KLX/San Francisco. After graduating from Santa Clara University and working in West Coast musical comedy companies, he began his career with NBC as The Spanish Serenader on San Francisco radio in 1928. His first radio acting job was on the West Coast drama Roads To Romance which led to more roles, a contract with the network and a ticket to Chicago which was a hub of programming in 1935.
The versatile Peary quickly became known as master dialectician and racked up credits on a number of Chicago originations including the Tom Mix Straight Shooters where he played eight different characters. On one if those shows, Kaltenmeyer’s Kindergarten, he met Jim & Marian Jordan who, along with Don Quinn, were just getting underway with Fibber McGee & Molly.
According to Heavenly Days, Stumpf & Price’s history of FM&M, one of Peary’s first chores on the show was acting as a plant during the audience “warmup”. When announcer Harlow Wilcox greeted the crowd and welcomed them to Fibber McGee & Molly, Peary would jump up from his seat and run to the door yelling, “Let me outta here!”
Don Quinn and assistant Phil Leslie soon learned were no limits to Peary’s repertoire. Beginning in 1937 his characters included Mayor Appleby, stuffy Cicero Clod, Britisher Lord Bingham, ham actor Silverscreen, theater manager Mr. Frite-Wig, store owner Dinwiddle, a Chinese laundry operator, Gooey Fooey, plus a baby carriage manufacturer, Widdicomb P. Gildersleeve.
One of Peary’s first recorded appearances on the sitcom was as a salesman named Daryrimple selling the Gildersleeeve Memory Course on the show of March 14 1939. (1) In June he appeared as Wilbur Gildersleeve, a dentist who once had a crush on Molly McGee. Peary showed up as an unnamed doctor in a September episode who gives Fibber a shot in the arm - with a revolver. Peary is first identified Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve, an, autograph collector, on the show of October 10th. (2)
Two subsequent shows posted below defined the Gildersleeve character and secured his continuing role on Fibber McGee & Molly. In the episode from October 17th he becomes the McGees’ neighbor and Fibber’s foe fighting over fallen leaves. (3) His character takes greater shape - particularly Peary’s famous Gildersleeve musical laugh and catch phrase, “You‘re a haard man, McGee" - in the episode of December 26, 1939.
The character caught on quickly. Peary’s first movie appearance as Gildersleeve was in Paramount’s Comin’ Round The Mountain starring radio regulars Bob Burns, Jerry Colonna, Don Wilson and Pat (Uncle Ezra) Barrett in August, 1940. That was followed in May,1941, by Republic's country flavored musical Country Fair. Again, Peary’s character was named Gildersleeve.
Peary also recorded a Great Gildersleeve audition for Johnson Wax in May, proposed to be the summer replacement for Fibber McGee & Molly. Written by Leonard Levinson under the watchful eye of Don Quinn, the rookie sitcom had all the elements of what later became a Network Radio favorite, but the wax company turned it down and filled the McGees’ timeslot in the summer months of 1941 with Hap Hazard, a silly and forgettable sitcom starring its creator, Ransom Sherman.
It turned out to be a blessing in disguise because National Dairy Products Corporation, aka Kraft Foods, heard the Gildersleeve audition record and bought the show for a full season run. The Great Gildersleeve debuted on NBC’s schedule on Sunday, August 31, 1941. Its 6:30 p.m. timeslot was positioned between Bishop Fulton Sheen’s long running Catholic Hour at 6:00 and Jack Benny's Jello Program, then the Number One show in America at 7:00.
Gildersleeve’s first episode is a duplicate of the audition that Johnson Wax turned down: Gildy leaves the Gildersleeve Girdle Works in Wistful Vista and boards the train for the overnight trip to Summerfield to reunite with his orphaned niece and nephew, teenager Marjorie Forrester and 12 year old brother Leroy. On the train he has the first of many run-ins with ornery Summerfield Judge Horace Hooker whose later ruling in the custody hearing for the kids forces Gildersleeve to sell his business and move to Summerfield. (4)
Unlike its parent, Fibber McGee & Molly with its cartoon-like characters making blackout appearances, The Great Gildersleeve was dependent on plots, weaving its more subtle characters through storylines that could often stretch for weeks at a time. The Gildersleeve household came with the two adolescents and a live-in voice of common sense, black housemaid Birdie Lee Coggins, introduced in the September 6, 1941, episode. Other on-going characters of the Summerfield community were grouped as harmonizing members of the Jolly Boys lodge who gave Peary occasional opportunities to display his singing talent - druggist Peavy whose, “Oh, I wouldn’t say that…,” became a catch-phrase, obnoxious neighbor Rumson Bullard, talkative barber Floyd Munson and deep-voiced Police Chief Gates. (5)
Peary made his farewell Fibber McGee & Molly appearance on September 30, 1941, a month after The Great Gildersleeve debuted. Jim & Marian Jordan closed the broadcast, posted below, with good wishes for their former “neighbor” on his own show. In November, Peary popped up belatedly as the McGees’ neighbor Gildersleeve in RKO’s Look Who’s Laughing, which co-starred Jim & Marian Jordan with Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy.
The film’s promotion helped The Great Gildersleeve become one of the eight new shows to reach the 1941-42 Top 50 - although barely, finishing in a tie for 50th place. Nevertheless, the showing was good enough for Kraft to renew for a second season which proved to be a smart move.
Peary moved up to third billing behind Bergen and the Jordans in RKO’s sequel, Here We Go Again, in October, 1942. Then he co-starred with Lucille Ball and Victor Mature in the studio’s musical released one month later, Seven Days’ Leave. Once again, his character was named Gildersleeve. During this period Gildy also became a fixture in the Summerfield community by becoming the town’s Water Commissioner in the October 18, 1942, episode.
The episode is also the one of the first appearances of Shirley Mitchell as Gildy’s southern-belle girlfriend, Leila Ransom, who was once described as being able to stretch, “Throckmorton,” into six syllables. (6)
The movie promotion and radio character’s development combined to double The Great Gildersleeve’s ratings from a mediocre 9.1 in September to December’s 18.1 and its first of six consecutive seasons as one of the nation’s Top 25 shows. RKO jumped on the bandwagon with Peary’s first starring vehicle, The Great Gildersleeve, released on January 3, 1943, and followed it in May with Gildersleeve’s Bad Day.
Gildy’s romance with Leila continued through the 1942-43 season and climaxed at the alter on year’s final show, June 27, 1943, posted below. Listener interest in the wedding episode is reflected in June’s Hooperatings which credited The Great Gildersleeve with more listeners than network favorites Bing Crosby, Eddie Cantor and Kate Smith. (7)
The sitcom reached the highest ratings of its Sunday night run in 1943-44 with help from the final two RKO comedies based on the series that book-ended the season. Gildersleeve On Broadway in October, 1943, and Gildersleeve’s Ghost, in June, 1944, pushed the show to a 16.3 and 21st in the Annual Top 50. It would be the highest rating and ranking that any program ever achieved in the 6:30 time period. (8)
Peary turned up again on Fibber McGee & Molly again on March 28, 1944, in an emergency situation when Jim Jordan was hospitalized with pneumonia. Posted below, Gildersleeve and nephew Leroy, (Water Tetley), visit the Wistful Vista household occupied by the McGee’s maid, Beulah, played by Marlin Hurt.
,
After five remarkably good seasons as Sunday’s early evening opening act for Jack Benny, The Great Gildersleeve was moved by Kraft to the heart of NBC’s prime time schedule on Wednesday at 8:30 ET, between the highly rated Mr. & Mrs. North and Duffy’s Tavern and opposite Dr. Christian on CBS. The result was immediate. From the previous season’s 12.0 rating and 40th place registered by Hildegarde’s Raleigh Room in the time period, Gildy’s gang won the its time period and scored a 15.2 rating good for 15th place in the Annual Top 50.
The 1947-48 season was the highest rated in network history. Network Radio Ratings, 1932-1953, reports that the average Top 50 program gained 23% in its ratings. The Great Gildersleeve rose over 25% from 15.2 to 19.1, which ranked it in 19th place for the season. The floor dropped out of most ratings the following season and Gildersleeve was no exception. The sitcom remained Wednesday’s third most popular program after Duffy’s Tavern and Mr. District Attorney, but fell to a 13.4 rating and 33rd place for the 1948-49 season.
The CBS talent raid on other networks and shrewd programming began to take effect in 1949-50 when Bing Crosby and Groucho Marx’s You Bet Your Life took the top two spots on Wednesday night. Crosby took 25% of Mr. District Attorney’s audience and Duffy’s Tavern was moved to Thursday night. As a result, The Great Gildersleeve’s rating remained unchanged at 13.4 but it became NBC’s most popular program of Wednesday night.
Then, in an effort to further strengthen its position, CBS began courting Hal Peary to join Jack Benny and Amos & Andy and jump networks. Lured by an attractive contract, Peary and his agent, MCA, eagerly signed with CBS but Kraft balked at the idea of moving The Great Gildersleeve.
Although Gildersleeve never wed, the show made headlines with its May 10, 1950, episode when his niece Marjorie married boyfriend Bronco. (9) The “wedding” was covered in a Look magazine photo spread but the real news was made a month later - although not a word of it was spoken in his show ending, season closing remarks, it was Hal Peary’s last appearance as The Great Gildersleeve.
That final broadcast from June 14, 1950, complete with Peary’s extensive thanks to his cast and crew, is also posted below. Peary told listeners to watch their local newspapers for the time and station of The Great Gildersleeve’s return in the fall. At the time not even he knew where or when the program would appear because Kraft owned The Great Gildersleeve and Kraft flatly refused to follow Peary and leave NBC for CBS.
Gildersleeve's sponsor and network had a replacement for the show's title role - a longtime friend of Peary’s from Chicago radio who looked, acted and (most importantly) sounded like him - 36 year old Willard Waterman. The two often worked together on Chicago programs of the mid-30’s with one or the other altering the pitch of his voice to crate a greater difference. The resemblance was uncanny and many listeners didn’t know that the switch took place on The Great Gildersleeve broadcast of September 6, 1950. The only major difference was Waterman’s refusal to imitate Peary’s famous laugh which he considered to be his friend’s property.
That laugh got a workout on Honest Harold, the CBS sitcom that Peary created over the summer for his new network. The program is remindful of The Great Gildersleeve in its characters and gave Peary's Harold Hemp, the host of a homemaking show on a small town radio station, the opportunity to sing on every show - an idea that Kraft had resisted for The Great Gildersleeve. The September 9, 1950, opening show of Honest Harold’s one season is posted below. Because the show was unsponsored it was also unrated
Meanwhile, Waterman’s first season as The Great Gildersleeve lost 22% of the 1949-50 ratings but that can be attributed to two outside factors: The show suffered from its ratings-poor lead-in of Ronald Colman’s sitcom, The Halls of Ivy, and television was making a serious dent into all Network Radio nighttime ratings. (10)
The ratings didn’t improve over the remainder of Network Radio’s Golden Age, but Gildersleeve’s rankings did. When the 1952-53 season closed, The Great Gildersleeve won its Wednesday night time period, was the night’s second most popular program and was 14th in the season’s Top 50, the highest rank the show ever achieved.
When Kraft finally cancelled the sitcom a year later, NBC scaled The Great Gildersleeve down to 15 minutes, stripped many of its production values and scheduled it at 10:15 p.m. ET, following, (appropriately enough), the quarter-hour version of Fibber McGee & Molly. From September 26, 1954, until June 23, 1955, the two shows were participating spot carriers and ran in tandem on an unusual Sunday through Thursday schedule, vacating NBC on Friday nights for Gillette’s boxing shows. A Gildersleeve episode of this series from October, 1954, is also posted below.
Gildersleeve returned to NBC as a sustaining Thursday night 25-minute show on October 6, 1955. It shared the eight o’clock hour with Bob Hope when it left the air on March 7,1957. The final show is also posted below.
Both Hal Peary and Willard Waterman had flourishing acting careers after The Great Gildersleeve and Network Radio chapter of their careers. They remained friends for life until Peary died in 1985. Waterman followed his lead ten years later.
(1) This program is posted at Fibber McGee Minus Molly on this site.
(2) Stumpf & Price claim Quinn took the name Throckmorton from the Chicago street where Peary lived and Gildersleeve’s middle initial stood for Peary. Other historians write that Throckmorton was simply the most pompous name Quinn could imagine and that the P stood for Philharmonic.
(3) This date has often been mistaken as September 26th.
(4) The role of teenage Marjorie was originated by busy radio actress Lurene Tuttle who was 34 in 1941. Tuttle was replaced in 1944 by Louise Erickson, 16, who also held the title role in A Date With Judy. Erickson was replaced in 1949 by 23 year old Mary Lee Robb. Walter Tetley, 26 in 1941, made a career of specializing in adolescent brat roles and played Marjorie’s younger brother Leroy for The Great Gildersleeve’s entire run. Tetly also played grocery boy Julius on the Phil Harris & Alice Faye Show and television fans recognize his voice as Mr. Peabody’s sidekick Sherman on Jay Ward’s Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoon series. Judge Hooker was played for the show’s entire run by Earle Ross.
(5) Gildersleeve maid Birdie was played for the show’s entire run by Lillian Randolph. Peavy was originated by Richard LeGrand who was replaced by Forrest Lewis late in the run. Chief Gates was played by Ken Christy. Floyd Munson and Ransom Bullard were voiced by Fibber McGee regulars Arthur Q. Bryan and Gale Gordon, respectively.
(6) On the Fibbber McGee & Molly episode of October 24, 1939, Gildersleeve mentions his wife for the first of several times but she is never identified and he becomes a confirmed bachelor in The Great Gildersleeve. Shirley Mitchell’s Leila was succeeded in Gildersleeve’s love life by Una Merkel as Leila’s cousin, Adeline Fairchild, Bea Benaderet as school principal Eve Goodwin and Cathy Lewis as nurse Kathryn Milford.
(7) June, 1943, Hooperatings: The Great Gildersleeve: 13.0, Bing Crosby's Kraft Music Hall: 12.7, Eddie Cantor's Time To Smile: 12.5, Kate Smith Show: 10.5.
(8) Of The Great Gildersleeve’s radio cast of veteran actors, only Lillian Randolph as Birdie appeared with Peary in all four movies. Richard LeGrand had supporting roles as Peavy in the final three, Ken Christy had brief appearances in two and Earle Ross was unbilled as Judge Hooker in the last film.
(9) Marjorie’s husband, Walter “Bronco” Thompson, was played by Richard Crenna, 24, who doubled as teenager Walter Denton on the long running CBS sitcom, Our Miss Brooks.
(10) Willard Waterman also carried a supporting role in The Halls of Ivy which was written by Don Quinn, the creator of Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve.
Copyright © 2015 Jim Ramsburg, Estero FL Email: tojimramsburg@gmail.com
The Great Gildersleeve was Network Radio’s first and most successful spinoff series. It was based on the character created by Don Quinn for Harold Peary’s talents as the blustery neighbor of Fibber McGee & Molly in 1939 who left Wistful Vista two years later for his own adventures in Summerfield - “…a train trip away at the end of the line.”
The sitcom was so successful that it survived a number of major cast changes, not the least of which was the lead actor. Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve was played from 1941 to 1950 by Hal Peary, (Left, with Walter Tetley and Louise Erickson), and from 1950 until the show’s demise in 1957 by Willard Waterman, (Right, with Tetley and Mary Lee Robb).
Over the show’s dozen years during Network Radio’s Golden Age, the pompous but soft hearted Gildy scored four seasons in Sunday’s Top Ten followed by seven in Wednesday’s Top Ten. All twelve years resulted in Annual Top 50 finishes - eight were inside the Top 25 and two were Top 15 seasons. And it all was the result of Peary’s suggestion to Quinn that Gildersleeve become an on-going character as Fibber McGee’s neighbor and friendly enemy
Born Harrold Jose de Faria to Portuguese parents in San Leandro, California, in 1908, Hal Peary began his radio career at age 13, appearing as The Oakland Tribune’s Boy Caruso on KLX/San Francisco. After graduating from Santa Clara University and working in West Coast musical comedy companies, he began his career with NBC as The Spanish Serenader on San Francisco radio in 1928. His first radio acting job was on the West Coast drama Roads To Romance which led to more roles, a contract with the network and a ticket to Chicago which was a hub of programming in 1935.
The versatile Peary quickly became known as master dialectician and racked up credits on a number of Chicago originations including the Tom Mix Straight Shooters where he played eight different characters. On one if those shows, Kaltenmeyer’s Kindergarten, he met Jim & Marian Jordan who, along with Don Quinn, were just getting underway with Fibber McGee & Molly.
According to Heavenly Days, Stumpf & Price’s history of FM&M, one of Peary’s first chores on the show was acting as a plant during the audience “warmup”. When announcer Harlow Wilcox greeted the crowd and welcomed them to Fibber McGee & Molly, Peary would jump up from his seat and run to the door yelling, “Let me outta here!”
Don Quinn and assistant Phil Leslie soon learned were no limits to Peary’s repertoire. Beginning in 1937 his characters included Mayor Appleby, stuffy Cicero Clod, Britisher Lord Bingham, ham actor Silverscreen, theater manager Mr. Frite-Wig, store owner Dinwiddle, a Chinese laundry operator, Gooey Fooey, plus a baby carriage manufacturer, Widdicomb P. Gildersleeve.
One of Peary’s first recorded appearances on the sitcom was as a salesman named Daryrimple selling the Gildersleeeve Memory Course on the show of March 14 1939. (1) In June he appeared as Wilbur Gildersleeve, a dentist who once had a crush on Molly McGee. Peary showed up as an unnamed doctor in a September episode who gives Fibber a shot in the arm - with a revolver. Peary is first identified Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve, an, autograph collector, on the show of October 10th. (2)
Two subsequent shows posted below defined the Gildersleeve character and secured his continuing role on Fibber McGee & Molly. In the episode from October 17th he becomes the McGees’ neighbor and Fibber’s foe fighting over fallen leaves. (3) His character takes greater shape - particularly Peary’s famous Gildersleeve musical laugh and catch phrase, “You‘re a haard man, McGee" - in the episode of December 26, 1939.
The character caught on quickly. Peary’s first movie appearance as Gildersleeve was in Paramount’s Comin’ Round The Mountain starring radio regulars Bob Burns, Jerry Colonna, Don Wilson and Pat (Uncle Ezra) Barrett in August, 1940. That was followed in May,1941, by Republic's country flavored musical Country Fair. Again, Peary’s character was named Gildersleeve.
Peary also recorded a Great Gildersleeve audition for Johnson Wax in May, proposed to be the summer replacement for Fibber McGee & Molly. Written by Leonard Levinson under the watchful eye of Don Quinn, the rookie sitcom had all the elements of what later became a Network Radio favorite, but the wax company turned it down and filled the McGees’ timeslot in the summer months of 1941 with Hap Hazard, a silly and forgettable sitcom starring its creator, Ransom Sherman.
It turned out to be a blessing in disguise because National Dairy Products Corporation, aka Kraft Foods, heard the Gildersleeve audition record and bought the show for a full season run. The Great Gildersleeve debuted on NBC’s schedule on Sunday, August 31, 1941. Its 6:30 p.m. timeslot was positioned between Bishop Fulton Sheen’s long running Catholic Hour at 6:00 and Jack Benny's Jello Program, then the Number One show in America at 7:00.
Gildersleeve’s first episode is a duplicate of the audition that Johnson Wax turned down: Gildy leaves the Gildersleeve Girdle Works in Wistful Vista and boards the train for the overnight trip to Summerfield to reunite with his orphaned niece and nephew, teenager Marjorie Forrester and 12 year old brother Leroy. On the train he has the first of many run-ins with ornery Summerfield Judge Horace Hooker whose later ruling in the custody hearing for the kids forces Gildersleeve to sell his business and move to Summerfield. (4)
Unlike its parent, Fibber McGee & Molly with its cartoon-like characters making blackout appearances, The Great Gildersleeve was dependent on plots, weaving its more subtle characters through storylines that could often stretch for weeks at a time. The Gildersleeve household came with the two adolescents and a live-in voice of common sense, black housemaid Birdie Lee Coggins, introduced in the September 6, 1941, episode. Other on-going characters of the Summerfield community were grouped as harmonizing members of the Jolly Boys lodge who gave Peary occasional opportunities to display his singing talent - druggist Peavy whose, “Oh, I wouldn’t say that…,” became a catch-phrase, obnoxious neighbor Rumson Bullard, talkative barber Floyd Munson and deep-voiced Police Chief Gates. (5)
Peary made his farewell Fibber McGee & Molly appearance on September 30, 1941, a month after The Great Gildersleeve debuted. Jim & Marian Jordan closed the broadcast, posted below, with good wishes for their former “neighbor” on his own show. In November, Peary popped up belatedly as the McGees’ neighbor Gildersleeve in RKO’s Look Who’s Laughing, which co-starred Jim & Marian Jordan with Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy.
The film’s promotion helped The Great Gildersleeve become one of the eight new shows to reach the 1941-42 Top 50 - although barely, finishing in a tie for 50th place. Nevertheless, the showing was good enough for Kraft to renew for a second season which proved to be a smart move.
Peary moved up to third billing behind Bergen and the Jordans in RKO’s sequel, Here We Go Again, in October, 1942. Then he co-starred with Lucille Ball and Victor Mature in the studio’s musical released one month later, Seven Days’ Leave. Once again, his character was named Gildersleeve. During this period Gildy also became a fixture in the Summerfield community by becoming the town’s Water Commissioner in the October 18, 1942, episode.
The episode is also the one of the first appearances of Shirley Mitchell as Gildy’s southern-belle girlfriend, Leila Ransom, who was once described as being able to stretch, “Throckmorton,” into six syllables. (6)
The movie promotion and radio character’s development combined to double The Great Gildersleeve’s ratings from a mediocre 9.1 in September to December’s 18.1 and its first of six consecutive seasons as one of the nation’s Top 25 shows. RKO jumped on the bandwagon with Peary’s first starring vehicle, The Great Gildersleeve, released on January 3, 1943, and followed it in May with Gildersleeve’s Bad Day.
Gildy’s romance with Leila continued through the 1942-43 season and climaxed at the alter on year’s final show, June 27, 1943, posted below. Listener interest in the wedding episode is reflected in June’s Hooperatings which credited The Great Gildersleeve with more listeners than network favorites Bing Crosby, Eddie Cantor and Kate Smith. (7)
The sitcom reached the highest ratings of its Sunday night run in 1943-44 with help from the final two RKO comedies based on the series that book-ended the season. Gildersleeve On Broadway in October, 1943, and Gildersleeve’s Ghost, in June, 1944, pushed the show to a 16.3 and 21st in the Annual Top 50. It would be the highest rating and ranking that any program ever achieved in the 6:30 time period. (8)
Peary turned up again on Fibber McGee & Molly again on March 28, 1944, in an emergency situation when Jim Jordan was hospitalized with pneumonia. Posted below, Gildersleeve and nephew Leroy, (Water Tetley), visit the Wistful Vista household occupied by the McGee’s maid, Beulah, played by Marlin Hurt.
,
After five remarkably good seasons as Sunday’s early evening opening act for Jack Benny, The Great Gildersleeve was moved by Kraft to the heart of NBC’s prime time schedule on Wednesday at 8:30 ET, between the highly rated Mr. & Mrs. North and Duffy’s Tavern and opposite Dr. Christian on CBS. The result was immediate. From the previous season’s 12.0 rating and 40th place registered by Hildegarde’s Raleigh Room in the time period, Gildy’s gang won the its time period and scored a 15.2 rating good for 15th place in the Annual Top 50.
The 1947-48 season was the highest rated in network history. Network Radio Ratings, 1932-1953, reports that the average Top 50 program gained 23% in its ratings. The Great Gildersleeve rose over 25% from 15.2 to 19.1, which ranked it in 19th place for the season. The floor dropped out of most ratings the following season and Gildersleeve was no exception. The sitcom remained Wednesday’s third most popular program after Duffy’s Tavern and Mr. District Attorney, but fell to a 13.4 rating and 33rd place for the 1948-49 season.
The CBS talent raid on other networks and shrewd programming began to take effect in 1949-50 when Bing Crosby and Groucho Marx’s You Bet Your Life took the top two spots on Wednesday night. Crosby took 25% of Mr. District Attorney’s audience and Duffy’s Tavern was moved to Thursday night. As a result, The Great Gildersleeve’s rating remained unchanged at 13.4 but it became NBC’s most popular program of Wednesday night.
Then, in an effort to further strengthen its position, CBS began courting Hal Peary to join Jack Benny and Amos & Andy and jump networks. Lured by an attractive contract, Peary and his agent, MCA, eagerly signed with CBS but Kraft balked at the idea of moving The Great Gildersleeve.
Although Gildersleeve never wed, the show made headlines with its May 10, 1950, episode when his niece Marjorie married boyfriend Bronco. (9) The “wedding” was covered in a Look magazine photo spread but the real news was made a month later - although not a word of it was spoken in his show ending, season closing remarks, it was Hal Peary’s last appearance as The Great Gildersleeve.
That final broadcast from June 14, 1950, complete with Peary’s extensive thanks to his cast and crew, is also posted below. Peary told listeners to watch their local newspapers for the time and station of The Great Gildersleeve’s return in the fall. At the time not even he knew where or when the program would appear because Kraft owned The Great Gildersleeve and Kraft flatly refused to follow Peary and leave NBC for CBS.
Gildersleeve's sponsor and network had a replacement for the show's title role - a longtime friend of Peary’s from Chicago radio who looked, acted and (most importantly) sounded like him - 36 year old Willard Waterman. The two often worked together on Chicago programs of the mid-30’s with one or the other altering the pitch of his voice to crate a greater difference. The resemblance was uncanny and many listeners didn’t know that the switch took place on The Great Gildersleeve broadcast of September 6, 1950. The only major difference was Waterman’s refusal to imitate Peary’s famous laugh which he considered to be his friend’s property.
That laugh got a workout on Honest Harold, the CBS sitcom that Peary created over the summer for his new network. The program is remindful of The Great Gildersleeve in its characters and gave Peary's Harold Hemp, the host of a homemaking show on a small town radio station, the opportunity to sing on every show - an idea that Kraft had resisted for The Great Gildersleeve. The September 9, 1950, opening show of Honest Harold’s one season is posted below. Because the show was unsponsored it was also unrated
Meanwhile, Waterman’s first season as The Great Gildersleeve lost 22% of the 1949-50 ratings but that can be attributed to two outside factors: The show suffered from its ratings-poor lead-in of Ronald Colman’s sitcom, The Halls of Ivy, and television was making a serious dent into all Network Radio nighttime ratings. (10)
The ratings didn’t improve over the remainder of Network Radio’s Golden Age, but Gildersleeve’s rankings did. When the 1952-53 season closed, The Great Gildersleeve won its Wednesday night time period, was the night’s second most popular program and was 14th in the season’s Top 50, the highest rank the show ever achieved.
When Kraft finally cancelled the sitcom a year later, NBC scaled The Great Gildersleeve down to 15 minutes, stripped many of its production values and scheduled it at 10:15 p.m. ET, following, (appropriately enough), the quarter-hour version of Fibber McGee & Molly. From September 26, 1954, until June 23, 1955, the two shows were participating spot carriers and ran in tandem on an unusual Sunday through Thursday schedule, vacating NBC on Friday nights for Gillette’s boxing shows. A Gildersleeve episode of this series from October, 1954, is also posted below.
Gildersleeve returned to NBC as a sustaining Thursday night 25-minute show on October 6, 1955. It shared the eight o’clock hour with Bob Hope when it left the air on March 7,1957. The final show is also posted below.
Both Hal Peary and Willard Waterman had flourishing acting careers after The Great Gildersleeve and Network Radio chapter of their careers. They remained friends for life until Peary died in 1985. Waterman followed his lead ten years later.
(1) This program is posted at Fibber McGee Minus Molly on this site.
(2) Stumpf & Price claim Quinn took the name Throckmorton from the Chicago street where Peary lived and Gildersleeve’s middle initial stood for Peary. Other historians write that Throckmorton was simply the most pompous name Quinn could imagine and that the P stood for Philharmonic.
(3) This date has often been mistaken as September 26th.
(4) The role of teenage Marjorie was originated by busy radio actress Lurene Tuttle who was 34 in 1941. Tuttle was replaced in 1944 by Louise Erickson, 16, who also held the title role in A Date With Judy. Erickson was replaced in 1949 by 23 year old Mary Lee Robb. Walter Tetley, 26 in 1941, made a career of specializing in adolescent brat roles and played Marjorie’s younger brother Leroy for The Great Gildersleeve’s entire run. Tetly also played grocery boy Julius on the Phil Harris & Alice Faye Show and television fans recognize his voice as Mr. Peabody’s sidekick Sherman on Jay Ward’s Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoon series. Judge Hooker was played for the show’s entire run by Earle Ross.
(5) Gildersleeve maid Birdie was played for the show’s entire run by Lillian Randolph. Peavy was originated by Richard LeGrand who was replaced by Forrest Lewis late in the run. Chief Gates was played by Ken Christy. Floyd Munson and Ransom Bullard were voiced by Fibber McGee regulars Arthur Q. Bryan and Gale Gordon, respectively.
(6) On the Fibbber McGee & Molly episode of October 24, 1939, Gildersleeve mentions his wife for the first of several times but she is never identified and he becomes a confirmed bachelor in The Great Gildersleeve. Shirley Mitchell’s Leila was succeeded in Gildersleeve’s love life by Una Merkel as Leila’s cousin, Adeline Fairchild, Bea Benaderet as school principal Eve Goodwin and Cathy Lewis as nurse Kathryn Milford.
(7) June, 1943, Hooperatings: The Great Gildersleeve: 13.0, Bing Crosby's Kraft Music Hall: 12.7, Eddie Cantor's Time To Smile: 12.5, Kate Smith Show: 10.5.
(8) Of The Great Gildersleeve’s radio cast of veteran actors, only Lillian Randolph as Birdie appeared with Peary in all four movies. Richard LeGrand had supporting roles as Peavy in the final three, Ken Christy had brief appearances in two and Earle Ross was unbilled as Judge Hooker in the last film.
(9) Marjorie’s husband, Walter “Bronco” Thompson, was played by Richard Crenna, 24, who doubled as teenager Walter Denton on the long running CBS sitcom, Our Miss Brooks.
(10) Willard Waterman also carried a supporting role in The Halls of Ivy which was written by Don Quinn, the creator of Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve.
Copyright © 2015 Jim Ramsburg, Estero FL Email: tojimramsburg@gmail.com
| fibber_mcgee___molly__10-17-39.mp3 |
| fibber_mcgee___molly_12-26-39.mp3 |
| great_gildersleeve_8-31-41.mp3 |
| great_gildersleeve_9-07-41.mp3 |
| fibber_mcgee___molly_09-30-41.mp3 |
| great_gildersleeve_10-18-42.mp3 |
| great_gildersleeve_6-27-43.mp3 |
| |||
| great_gildersleeve_5-10-50.mp3 |
|
| ||||
| honest_harold__9-09-50.mp3 |
|
| ||||