RADIO IN 1936 – Part 2

Originally broadcast on WNIB
Saturday, June 8, 1996

A sound picture of radio as it was sixty years ago, in 1936.

MA PERKINS (April, 1936) Isolated episode of the long-running daytime drama. Ma tries to have a heart-to-heart talk with Evy’s husband Willy. Virginia Payne stars as “America’s mother of the air.”

CALLING ALL CARS (7-31-36) “A Chance Meeting” opens with the police call:  “Be on the lookout for a man described as short, wearing a dark suit, checkered cap. Wanted for murder. The subject is armed. Bring him in, boys!”

TIM AND IRENE (9-20-36) Tim Ryan and Irene Noblette Ryan, the “sweethearts of the variety stage” star in this summer replacement program for Jack Benny as they turn back the clock to the days of vaudeville. Don Wilson announces.

BOXING – LOUIS VS. SHARKEY (8-18-36) From Yankee Stadium in New York, Ted Husing announces the broadcast with Charles Francis “Socker” Cole doing the blow-by-blow description as 34 year old Jack Sharkey, the “It Man” and 22 year old Joe Louis, the “Brown Bomber” square off.

FIVE STAR FINAL (3-30-36) Dramatizations of news stories, “on the air to bring you the news of the world we live in …to make vividly real to you the stirring events that make us all actors in the drama of life.”  Subjects include election day in Germany; Bruno Hauptman in prison for Lindbergh kidnapping.

ZIEGFELD FOLLIES OF THE AIR (2-29-36) First show in the new series, from the stage of the Winter Garden Theatre in New York. Fanny Brice and James Melton star.  A dramatic theme about a young girl who wants to be in the Follies runs throughout this variety show. Fanny Brice sings “My Man,” appears in a comedy sketch, and also as Baby Snooks.