REMEMBERING MA PERKINS

Originally broadcast on WNIB
Saturday, May 12th, 1990

MA PERKINS #1622 (1939) Wednesday: Why hasn’t Paul Henderson proposed to Fay? Virginia Payne stars as Ma, Rita Ascot is Fay, Murray Forbes is Willy Fitz, Jonathan Hole is Paul. Announcer is Dick Wells. Oxydol, NBC. (14:15)

MA PERKINS #1623 (1939) Thursday: Paul tells Ma
what he really feels about Fay. Oxydol, NBC. (13:35)

SPEAKING OF RADIO (8-1-70) Rita Ascot Boyd and Alice Carey Ricca talk with Chuck Schaden about their careers in Chicago radio during the golden age. Rita was, among many other things, Fay on Ma Perkins, Alice was a radio casting director. Conversation recorded at Findlay Galleries, Chicago. (22:45)

MA PERKINS #1624 (1939) Friday: Paul pops the question! Gilbert Faust appears as John Perkins. Oxydol, NBC. (13:45)

MA PERKINS #1625 (1939) Monday: Fay and Paul make plans for their wedding as the family gathers. Charles Egleston as Shuffle Shober, Dora Johnson as Evy, Cecil Roy as Junior, Fred Howard as C. Pemberton Toohey. Oxydol, NBC. (13:35)

SPEAKING OF RADIO (8-1-70) The conversation continues with Rita Ascot Boyd and Alice Carey Ricca. (14:10)

MA PERKINS #1643 (1939) Thursday, about three and a half weeks later: Fay asks Paul to choose between his career as a congressman and marriage with her. Oxydol, NBC. (13:55)

MA PERKINS #1644 (1939) Friday: A dejected and rejected Fay is given comfort by Ma. Oxydol, NBC. (13:45)

THOSE WERE THE DAYS (5-29-71) Excerpt featuring a live recreation of an original Ma Perkins script from January 2, 1941, starring Rita Ascot Boyd. Viola Berwick, Johnny Coons, Bob Kennedy and Phil Bowman. The cast is interviewed before and after the fond and loving recreation, which follows the Fay-Paul storyline. WLTD, Evanston. (11:50; 18:15; 7:00)

MA PERKINS #2138 (1942) Thursday, about a year and a half later: A sad day for Ma as she and the family travel to Arlington National Cemetery to bury her son-in-law, Fay’s husband Paul Henderson, who died for his country. Oxydol, NBC. (14:30)

MA PERKINS #2139 (1942) Friday: Early in the morning, on the day after Paul’s funeral, Ma offers words of comfort to her grieving daughter, Fay. Oxydol, NBC. (13:25)

NOTE: This sequence of episodes from the long-running Ma Perkins series will demonstrate beautifully the impact that daytime dramas had on American life during the radio era.