From Those Were the Days:

1928 - One of radio’s first serials was heard as Real Folks debuted on NBC.

1939 - After becoming a success with Ben Bernie on network radio, Dinah Shore started her own show on the NBC Blue radio network. Dinah sang every Sunday evening. (Dinah also had a successful TV career spanning over two decades.)
11:19:12 AM    comment []  trackback []  

“Aw relax, Archie…relax…”

Bob Montana’s popular comic book creation Archie Andrews—who by now is America’s oldest high school student—came to radio beginning May 31, 1943, about two years after his first appearance in the comics in 1941. It debuted over the Blue Network as a five-day-a-week quarter hour, but gradually evolved into a weekly thirty-minute sitcom that ran until September 5, 1953. Briefly heard over Mutual in 1944, the program had a secure Saturday morning home on NBC for most of its lengthy run.

Montana based his creation on both the Andy Hardy film series and radio’s The Aldrich Family, and the radio version pretty much followed the same blueprint in the comics. Each week, typical teenager Archie—played by Burt Boyer, Jack Grimes, Charles Mullen and finally Bob Hastings—would find some way to get into king-sized mischief. (Hastings, of course, is fondly remembered—by fans like myself who vegetated in front of a television set in our youth—for his roles as the toadying Lt. Elroy Carpenter on McHale’s Navy and Kelsey, the owner of Archie Bunker’s favorite tavern on All in the Family, among many, many others.) He was usually aided and abetted by the Homer Brown-like Forsyth P. “Jughead” Jones (played by Cameron Andrews, Harlan Stone and Arnold Stang) and gal pal Betty Cooper (Joy Geffen, Doris Grundy and Rosemary Rice). Archie’s steady girlfriend was the wealthy Veronica Lodge (Gloria Mann, Vivian Smolen) who would greet her paramour with “Hello, Archiekins…mmmmmm…” usually followed by his memorably inane high-pitched giggle. Archie’s comic book rival, Reggie Mantle, was also on the show (played by Paul Gordon)—but if any of the surviving shows showcase him I’ve yet to hear one.

Other characters on the show included Archie’s long-suffering parents, Mary (Alice Yourman, Peggy Allenby) and Fred (many actors, including Vinton Hayworth and Arthur Kohl)—in fact, Mr. Andrews had one of the program’s memorable catchphrases in “Quiet…quiet…QUIET!!!” Arthur Maitland was the high school principal, Mr. Weatherbee, and Bill Griffis was heard as Mr. Lodge, Veronica’s father.

Last night, I listened to a pair of Archie Andrews programs from 1946—and I’m going to have to be brutally frank; the show has not worn well at all. It’s definitely not in the same league as The Aldrich Family; it has sort of a forced, manic quality (similar to Blondie) to its proceedings—you find yourself rooting for it, but it kind of wears you out with its obnoxiousness. In the first show, broadcast over NBC on July 27, Archie’s purchase of bubble bath for Veronica’s societal debut party leads to the usual wacky complications when several packages are delivered from the drugstore, leading to a first-class mix-up. Then, from October 19 of that same year, Mr. Andrews’ (played in these two shows by Ian Martin) attempts to take a nice, relaxing hot bath are foiled by both plumbing problems and Archie’s preparations for a double date. I will say this in these shows’ favor—they’re much more sedate than some of the shows in the later run, which are down right noisy and boisterous (apparently the show’s juvenile audience was often egged on to be as loud as they could possibly be).

But one good thing has emerged from Archie Andrews: the presence of Harlan “Hal” Stone, who in recent years has achieved notable prominence in the OTR hobby. In addition to frequent contributions to the Old-Time Radio Digest, he can often be found participating on IRC’s #oldradio chat on Thursday nights. Hal has even written a book about his radio experiences—Aw…Relax, Archie! Re-laxx!—available here at his website (a sequel to this volume, detailing his twenty-five year career in television production-direction is also in the works). Hal’s fellow Archie players Bob Hastings and Rosemary Rice have also been frequent guests at many of the OTR conventions around the country; Hal and Bob did a very warmly received tribute to Bob and Ray at the Cincinnati event this year.

Throughout its radio run, Archie Andrews was mostly a sustained series—but the brief sponsorship by Swift and Company provided one of OTR’s most memorable jingles (“Ten-der beef, juicy pork, known from the West Coast to New York…Swift’s Prem-yum Franks…”). Approximately fifty programs are extant today, and though I can’t call myself a fan of the series, I am grateful for individuals like Hal Stone who are still around today to provide an anecdotal history of what it was like to work in the Golden Age of Radio. Grab a copy of his book if you’re interested, and while you’re at it, you’re always welcome to drop in on Thursday nights and say “hidy” in #oldradio. (Hal’s the elderly curmudgeon wearing the “beanie.”)
11:08:36 AM    comment []  trackback []