GORDON MacRAE & LUCILLE NORMAN DID DUETS ON THE RAILROAD hOUR
ENGINEERING A HIT
America’s railroads faced trouble in the late 1940’s. Wartime priorities that had restricted automobile and civilian aircraft production were gone. Consumers were rediscovering the freedom of unlimited car travel and eagerly acquiring a use for the speed of air travel. Rail travel - considered a necessity earlier in the decade, was quickly going out of style. What’s more, the trucking industry was increasingly cutting in on the railroads’ freight business.
The rail industry’s trade association representing 132 lines, The Association of American Railroads, decided it was time to do something about the situation - something that would tell their story on Network Radio in a style appealing to shipping executives and the traveling public alike, much like The Telephone Hour had sold the Bell Systems’ services since 1940 and Theater Guild On The Air pushed U.S. Steel’s products and political policies every Sunday night.
The question of how to accomplish the job was given to the group’s advertising agency, Benton & Bowles, which came up with one of the most stylish shows on Network Radio, The Railroad Hour. The concept was similar to popular shows that were based on radio adaptations of familiar movies and stage plays, but mined a relatively new genre for its material, musical comedies from the likes of Victor Herbert, Sigmund Romberg, the Gershwiins, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, etc., with favorite melodies familiar to all.
It would be an expensive program to produce if the music were to be given its proper due, probably in the neighborhood of $10,000 a week, so any thoughts of a Nelson Eddy or James Melton acting as The Railroad Hour’s permanent singing host were dismissed to stay within its already high budget. The objective then became to discover a new star with the talent to confidently carry the show from week to week through the various styles of scores required by the widely diverse material. He was found in a virtually unknown young baritone who possessed the personality and versatility that the job demanded.
Gordon MacRae was only 27 at the time. The handsome singer whose Broadway stage career was interrupted by a tour in the Air Force as a navigator in World War II, had attracted the attention of Railroad Hour producer Ken Burton six months earlier when he stepped in to replace the temperamental Tony Martin on ABC’s Texaco Star Theater in late March. The Texaco show, which MacRae co-hosted with Evelyn Knight, supported by Victor Young’s studio orchestra and Jeff Alexander’s chorus, was the perfect audition platform for his bid to host The Railroad Hour, with its different female co-star each week, supported by Carmen Dragon’s studio orchestra and the Norman Luboff choir. (1)
The Railroad Hour debuted on ABC at 8:00 p.m. on Monday, October 4, 1948 with its full-blown production of the collegiate themed Good News. MacRae and his co-stars, Dinah Shore and Jane Powell, performed their roles happily, yet the broadcast illustrated an inherent weakness in the show. (2)
Like The Telephone Hour, The Hour of Charm and The Carnation Contented Hour, The Railroad Hour was never 60 minutes. Its first 26 Monday night broadcasts were 45 minutes each, rare duration in Network Radio’s nighttime world of hours and half-hours. But doing full justice to the musical scores left very little time for story lines and dialog. MGM was particularly upset with this situation when it claimed that Jane Powell’s lines of dialog in Good News had been reduced to next to nothing and the studio demanded to approve any future radio scripts its stars would agree to perform.
Two more Railroad Hour episodes are posted from its 45 minute schedule in the first season. On November 21, 1949, MacRae and Nadine Connor are the romantic pair in Sigmund Romberg’s delightful New Moon. (3) What’s interesting about this performance is the appearance of Rudy Vallee in the comedic role of the servant, Alexander, in the midst of Vallee’s real life conversion from a singing bandleader to a successful character actor. This production is followed by a Valentine’s Day Railroad Hour broadcast of Sweethearts with Jane Powell from February 14, 1949. Veteran radio host Walter O’Keefe has the comic relief in this adaptation, particularly noticeable after the first commercial. (4)
Unfortunately, most comedic elements along with applause after every song were sacrificed when The Railroad Hour was reduced to 30 minutes on May 2, 1949. Among the other cost cutting steps in what was termed a “summer schedule” was temporarily replacing Carmen Dragon’s orchestra with John Rarig’s smaller group and substituting The Sportsmen quartet for the Norman Luboff Choir. Dragon’s orchestra and Luboff’s chorus returned in the fall of 1949 but the half-hour time frame remained - which became a blessing in disguise.
During its first season The Railroad Hour was ABC’s only big ticket show on Monday nights when the ratings belonged to CBS, (Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts, Lux Radio Theater and Screen Guild Players), and the prestige was NBC’s, (The Voice of Firestone, The Telephone Hour, Cities Service Concerts and Cavalcade of America). Nevertheless, MacRae and company carved out a season-long 8.6 average, trailing its competition in the 8:00 p.m. timeslot, Inner Sanctum on CBS, (15.0), and NBC’s Cavalcade of America, (9.1).
We’ll never know the exact sequence of events, but taken at their face value, when The Railroad Hour was reduced from 45 to 30 minutes, it became compatible to NBC’s scheduling framework and a perfect fit into the network's established 90-minute Monday night lineup of light classic and symphonic concerts. It had to be an easy question for prestige-seeking railroad executives when asked by Benton & Bowles, “Would you rather follow The Lone Ranger on ABC or precede The Voice of Firestone on NBC?”
On October 3, 1949, one day short of a year after its first ABC broadcast and one week after its final ABC broadcast, The Railroad Hour debuted on NBC, where it would stay for the next five seasons. Three productions are posted from that season, beginning with No, No, Nanette, from November 21, 1949, co-starring Doris Day. (5) Frequent Railroad Hour guests Dorothy Kirsten and comedian Jack Kirkwood, who made the most of the time afforded his lines, appear in the January 23, 1950, production of The Merry Widow, (6), and Nadine Conner carries the title role in Naughty Marietta from April 10, 1950. (7)
Although The Railroad Hour’s ratings declined after the switch to NBC in the 1949-50 season, (the general trend was down), the show rose in the season rankings to 70th with a 7.9 against Inner Sanctum’s 13.0. More notably, the newcomer became the only NBC program in Monday’s Top Ten. Things got brighter in 1950-51 when Railroad Hour’s 8.3 earned it 48th place in the Annual Top 50 and a repeat in Monday’s Top Ten against Hollywood Star Playhouse on CBS which outscored MacRae’s musicals by a scant two points. The show's third adaptation of Showboat in as many seasons is posted from October 30, 1950. Gordon MacRae is co-starred with Dorothy Kirsten and Lucille Norman in this version which bears little resemblance to any known stage or movie production of the show - but how many others were performed in 24 minutes? (8)
The Railroad Hour remained NBC’s most popular Monday night program in the 1951-52 season, rising to a tie for 31st place in the Annual Top 50 with two ABC hits, This Is Your FBI and The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet. It failed to win its Monday time period against Suspense on CBS, (9.0 to 7.2), but it helped pull three more NBC shows into the night’s Top Ten, The Voice of Firestone, One Man’s Family and The Telephone Hour. It was the first time since 1945-46 that NBC managed to land four programs in the Monday night Top Ten dominated by of CBS.
Two rousing productions from Railroad Hour’s 1951-52 season are posted. From January 21, 1952, Mimi Benzell and Francis X. Bushman appear with MacRae in Sigmund Romberg’s Desert Song, (9), and on March 24, 1952, Patrice Munsel co-stars in the most contemporary musical comedy ever adapted for The Railroad Hour, Cole Porter’s Kiss Me Kate. (10) During this broadcast, Marvin Miller, the announcer for all 299 episodes of The Railroad Hour, likens riding the rails to, “…Your Traveling Hotel,” in such inviting terms that it still sounds appealing over half a century later.
MacRae finished the Golden Age in 1952-53 with another Top 50 season, edged out by Suspense on Monday night, (7.4 to 5.7). but repeating at 31st place, and leading five NBC shows into Monday’s Top Ten, adding Morgan Beatty’s News of The World to the previous season’s list. But the handwriting was on the wall for Network Radio and on June 21, 1954, The Railroad Hour came to the end of the line.
Still, it was a great ride for fans of musical comedy.
(1) The first film in Gordon MacRae’s budding career with Warner Brothers was released in June, 1948, The Big Punch, a forgettable B-movie in which he played a supporting, non-singing role to Wayne Morris. He was still a year away from his first musical, Look For The Silver Lining, Warner’s full-blown Technicolor biography of 1920’s musical stage star, Marilyn Miller, in which MacRae shared billing with June Haver and Ray Bolger. Meanwhile, MacRae’s Capitol Records career was off to a flying start with a series of best selling duets with Jo Stafford.
(2) Good News, (book by Laurence Schwab, music by Ray Henderson, lyrics by Buddy DeSilva & Lew Brown). was first produced on Broadway in 1927. It was twice adapted into films, in 1930 and 1947. Its most memorable songs were Good News, The Varsity Drag, Lucky In Love and The Best Things In Life Are Free.
(3) The New Moon, (music by Sigmund Romberg, book & lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, Frank Mandel & Laurence Schwab), opened on Broadway in 1928. Its score featured Stout Hearted Men, Lover Come Back To Me, Softly As In A Morning Sunrise, One Kiss and Wanting You.
(4) Sweethearts, best known as a 1938 MGM movie with Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald has an altogether different book than the 1913 Broadway original by Harry Smith & Fred DeGressac, featured on The Railroad Hour with music by Victor Herbert and lyrics by Robert Smith.
(5) No, No, Nanette, (music by Vincent Youmans, book & lyrics by Frank Mandel, Otto Harbach & Irving Caesar), debuted on Broadway in 1925. It was made into movies in 1930 and 1940 before the Gordon MacRae & Doris Day remake of No, No, Nanette was released by Warner Brothers in 1950 as Tea For Two. Its major songs are I Want To Be Happy and Tea For Two.
(6) The Merry Widow, based on an 1861 comedy, premiered as an operetta in Vienna in 1907 with music by Franz Lehar. Its most memorable songs are Vilja and, of course, The Merry Widow Waltz.
(7) Naughty Marietta, (music by Victor Herbert and lyrics by Rida Young), opened on Broadway as a two-act operetta in 1910. It became a highly successful MGM musical in 1935 starring Nelson Eddy & Jeanette MacDonald. Its most popular songs are The Italian Street Song, I’m Falling In Love With Someone, Tramp,Tramp,Tramp and Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life (aka The Dream Melody.)
(8) Showboat, Oscar Hammerstein II’s memorable tale based on Edna Ferber’s book and set to Jerome Kern’s music was introduced on Broadway in 1927. Its hit songs include Ol’ Man River, Make Believe, Why Do I Love You? and Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man.
(9) The Desert Song, (music by Sigmund Romberg, book & lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, Otto Harback & Frank Mandel), opened on Broadway in 1926 and ran for 426 performances. Its leading songs are One Alone, The Desert Song and The Riff Song.
(10) Kiss Me Kate was originally a 1949 Broadway success for Cole Porter’s score and book by Samuel & Bella Spewack. The musical comedy incorporating elements of Shakespeare’s Taming of The Shrew contained the hit songs Another Opening And Another Show, Why Can’t You Behave?, I’m Always True To You In My Fashion, Too Darn Hot and So In Love.
Copyright © 2017, Jim Ramsburg, Estero FL Email: tojimramsburg@gmail.com
America’s railroads faced trouble in the late 1940’s. Wartime priorities that had restricted automobile and civilian aircraft production were gone. Consumers were rediscovering the freedom of unlimited car travel and eagerly acquiring a use for the speed of air travel. Rail travel - considered a necessity earlier in the decade, was quickly going out of style. What’s more, the trucking industry was increasingly cutting in on the railroads’ freight business.
The rail industry’s trade association representing 132 lines, The Association of American Railroads, decided it was time to do something about the situation - something that would tell their story on Network Radio in a style appealing to shipping executives and the traveling public alike, much like The Telephone Hour had sold the Bell Systems’ services since 1940 and Theater Guild On The Air pushed U.S. Steel’s products and political policies every Sunday night.
The question of how to accomplish the job was given to the group’s advertising agency, Benton & Bowles, which came up with one of the most stylish shows on Network Radio, The Railroad Hour. The concept was similar to popular shows that were based on radio adaptations of familiar movies and stage plays, but mined a relatively new genre for its material, musical comedies from the likes of Victor Herbert, Sigmund Romberg, the Gershwiins, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, etc., with favorite melodies familiar to all.
It would be an expensive program to produce if the music were to be given its proper due, probably in the neighborhood of $10,000 a week, so any thoughts of a Nelson Eddy or James Melton acting as The Railroad Hour’s permanent singing host were dismissed to stay within its already high budget. The objective then became to discover a new star with the talent to confidently carry the show from week to week through the various styles of scores required by the widely diverse material. He was found in a virtually unknown young baritone who possessed the personality and versatility that the job demanded.
Gordon MacRae was only 27 at the time. The handsome singer whose Broadway stage career was interrupted by a tour in the Air Force as a navigator in World War II, had attracted the attention of Railroad Hour producer Ken Burton six months earlier when he stepped in to replace the temperamental Tony Martin on ABC’s Texaco Star Theater in late March. The Texaco show, which MacRae co-hosted with Evelyn Knight, supported by Victor Young’s studio orchestra and Jeff Alexander’s chorus, was the perfect audition platform for his bid to host The Railroad Hour, with its different female co-star each week, supported by Carmen Dragon’s studio orchestra and the Norman Luboff choir. (1)
The Railroad Hour debuted on ABC at 8:00 p.m. on Monday, October 4, 1948 with its full-blown production of the collegiate themed Good News. MacRae and his co-stars, Dinah Shore and Jane Powell, performed their roles happily, yet the broadcast illustrated an inherent weakness in the show. (2)
Like The Telephone Hour, The Hour of Charm and The Carnation Contented Hour, The Railroad Hour was never 60 minutes. Its first 26 Monday night broadcasts were 45 minutes each, rare duration in Network Radio’s nighttime world of hours and half-hours. But doing full justice to the musical scores left very little time for story lines and dialog. MGM was particularly upset with this situation when it claimed that Jane Powell’s lines of dialog in Good News had been reduced to next to nothing and the studio demanded to approve any future radio scripts its stars would agree to perform.
Two more Railroad Hour episodes are posted from its 45 minute schedule in the first season. On November 21, 1949, MacRae and Nadine Connor are the romantic pair in Sigmund Romberg’s delightful New Moon. (3) What’s interesting about this performance is the appearance of Rudy Vallee in the comedic role of the servant, Alexander, in the midst of Vallee’s real life conversion from a singing bandleader to a successful character actor. This production is followed by a Valentine’s Day Railroad Hour broadcast of Sweethearts with Jane Powell from February 14, 1949. Veteran radio host Walter O’Keefe has the comic relief in this adaptation, particularly noticeable after the first commercial. (4)
Unfortunately, most comedic elements along with applause after every song were sacrificed when The Railroad Hour was reduced to 30 minutes on May 2, 1949. Among the other cost cutting steps in what was termed a “summer schedule” was temporarily replacing Carmen Dragon’s orchestra with John Rarig’s smaller group and substituting The Sportsmen quartet for the Norman Luboff Choir. Dragon’s orchestra and Luboff’s chorus returned in the fall of 1949 but the half-hour time frame remained - which became a blessing in disguise.
During its first season The Railroad Hour was ABC’s only big ticket show on Monday nights when the ratings belonged to CBS, (Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts, Lux Radio Theater and Screen Guild Players), and the prestige was NBC’s, (The Voice of Firestone, The Telephone Hour, Cities Service Concerts and Cavalcade of America). Nevertheless, MacRae and company carved out a season-long 8.6 average, trailing its competition in the 8:00 p.m. timeslot, Inner Sanctum on CBS, (15.0), and NBC’s Cavalcade of America, (9.1).
We’ll never know the exact sequence of events, but taken at their face value, when The Railroad Hour was reduced from 45 to 30 minutes, it became compatible to NBC’s scheduling framework and a perfect fit into the network's established 90-minute Monday night lineup of light classic and symphonic concerts. It had to be an easy question for prestige-seeking railroad executives when asked by Benton & Bowles, “Would you rather follow The Lone Ranger on ABC or precede The Voice of Firestone on NBC?”
On October 3, 1949, one day short of a year after its first ABC broadcast and one week after its final ABC broadcast, The Railroad Hour debuted on NBC, where it would stay for the next five seasons. Three productions are posted from that season, beginning with No, No, Nanette, from November 21, 1949, co-starring Doris Day. (5) Frequent Railroad Hour guests Dorothy Kirsten and comedian Jack Kirkwood, who made the most of the time afforded his lines, appear in the January 23, 1950, production of The Merry Widow, (6), and Nadine Conner carries the title role in Naughty Marietta from April 10, 1950. (7)
Although The Railroad Hour’s ratings declined after the switch to NBC in the 1949-50 season, (the general trend was down), the show rose in the season rankings to 70th with a 7.9 against Inner Sanctum’s 13.0. More notably, the newcomer became the only NBC program in Monday’s Top Ten. Things got brighter in 1950-51 when Railroad Hour’s 8.3 earned it 48th place in the Annual Top 50 and a repeat in Monday’s Top Ten against Hollywood Star Playhouse on CBS which outscored MacRae’s musicals by a scant two points. The show's third adaptation of Showboat in as many seasons is posted from October 30, 1950. Gordon MacRae is co-starred with Dorothy Kirsten and Lucille Norman in this version which bears little resemblance to any known stage or movie production of the show - but how many others were performed in 24 minutes? (8)
The Railroad Hour remained NBC’s most popular Monday night program in the 1951-52 season, rising to a tie for 31st place in the Annual Top 50 with two ABC hits, This Is Your FBI and The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet. It failed to win its Monday time period against Suspense on CBS, (9.0 to 7.2), but it helped pull three more NBC shows into the night’s Top Ten, The Voice of Firestone, One Man’s Family and The Telephone Hour. It was the first time since 1945-46 that NBC managed to land four programs in the Monday night Top Ten dominated by of CBS.
Two rousing productions from Railroad Hour’s 1951-52 season are posted. From January 21, 1952, Mimi Benzell and Francis X. Bushman appear with MacRae in Sigmund Romberg’s Desert Song, (9), and on March 24, 1952, Patrice Munsel co-stars in the most contemporary musical comedy ever adapted for The Railroad Hour, Cole Porter’s Kiss Me Kate. (10) During this broadcast, Marvin Miller, the announcer for all 299 episodes of The Railroad Hour, likens riding the rails to, “…Your Traveling Hotel,” in such inviting terms that it still sounds appealing over half a century later.
MacRae finished the Golden Age in 1952-53 with another Top 50 season, edged out by Suspense on Monday night, (7.4 to 5.7). but repeating at 31st place, and leading five NBC shows into Monday’s Top Ten, adding Morgan Beatty’s News of The World to the previous season’s list. But the handwriting was on the wall for Network Radio and on June 21, 1954, The Railroad Hour came to the end of the line.
Still, it was a great ride for fans of musical comedy.
(1) The first film in Gordon MacRae’s budding career with Warner Brothers was released in June, 1948, The Big Punch, a forgettable B-movie in which he played a supporting, non-singing role to Wayne Morris. He was still a year away from his first musical, Look For The Silver Lining, Warner’s full-blown Technicolor biography of 1920’s musical stage star, Marilyn Miller, in which MacRae shared billing with June Haver and Ray Bolger. Meanwhile, MacRae’s Capitol Records career was off to a flying start with a series of best selling duets with Jo Stafford.
(2) Good News, (book by Laurence Schwab, music by Ray Henderson, lyrics by Buddy DeSilva & Lew Brown). was first produced on Broadway in 1927. It was twice adapted into films, in 1930 and 1947. Its most memorable songs were Good News, The Varsity Drag, Lucky In Love and The Best Things In Life Are Free.
(3) The New Moon, (music by Sigmund Romberg, book & lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, Frank Mandel & Laurence Schwab), opened on Broadway in 1928. Its score featured Stout Hearted Men, Lover Come Back To Me, Softly As In A Morning Sunrise, One Kiss and Wanting You.
(4) Sweethearts, best known as a 1938 MGM movie with Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald has an altogether different book than the 1913 Broadway original by Harry Smith & Fred DeGressac, featured on The Railroad Hour with music by Victor Herbert and lyrics by Robert Smith.
(5) No, No, Nanette, (music by Vincent Youmans, book & lyrics by Frank Mandel, Otto Harbach & Irving Caesar), debuted on Broadway in 1925. It was made into movies in 1930 and 1940 before the Gordon MacRae & Doris Day remake of No, No, Nanette was released by Warner Brothers in 1950 as Tea For Two. Its major songs are I Want To Be Happy and Tea For Two.
(6) The Merry Widow, based on an 1861 comedy, premiered as an operetta in Vienna in 1907 with music by Franz Lehar. Its most memorable songs are Vilja and, of course, The Merry Widow Waltz.
(7) Naughty Marietta, (music by Victor Herbert and lyrics by Rida Young), opened on Broadway as a two-act operetta in 1910. It became a highly successful MGM musical in 1935 starring Nelson Eddy & Jeanette MacDonald. Its most popular songs are The Italian Street Song, I’m Falling In Love With Someone, Tramp,Tramp,Tramp and Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life (aka The Dream Melody.)
(8) Showboat, Oscar Hammerstein II’s memorable tale based on Edna Ferber’s book and set to Jerome Kern’s music was introduced on Broadway in 1927. Its hit songs include Ol’ Man River, Make Believe, Why Do I Love You? and Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man.
(9) The Desert Song, (music by Sigmund Romberg, book & lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, Otto Harback & Frank Mandel), opened on Broadway in 1926 and ran for 426 performances. Its leading songs are One Alone, The Desert Song and The Riff Song.
(10) Kiss Me Kate was originally a 1949 Broadway success for Cole Porter’s score and book by Samuel & Bella Spewack. The musical comedy incorporating elements of Shakespeare’s Taming of The Shrew contained the hit songs Another Opening And Another Show, Why Can’t You Behave?, I’m Always True To You In My Fashion, Too Darn Hot and So In Love.
Copyright © 2017, Jim Ramsburg, Estero FL Email: tojimramsburg@gmail.com
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