Breaking Walls: The Podcast on the History of American Network Radio Broadcasting

John Nesbitt was born in Victoria, British Columbia on August 23rd, 1910. The grandson of actor Edwin Booth, the family moved to Alameda, California. Nesbitt was active in stock theater in Vancouver and Spokane and began working for NBC in San Francisco in 1933. By 1935, he was an announcer at KFRC in San Francisco. Nesbitt produced a series called Headlines of the Past which spun off into his signature program, The Passing Parade, in 1937. The inspiration came from a trunk inherited from his father that contained news clippings of odd stories from around the world. He utilized a research staff to verify the details, but wrote the final scripts himself, often within an hour of airtime. This led to a series of one-reel shorts produced by MGM. On the evening of June 6th, 1944, the just-heard Ken Carpenter was announcer for a Passing Parade broadcast on CBS at 7:15PM in which Nesbitt attempted to capture, in real time, the historic significance of D-Day by imagining its story being retold to schoolchildren in the year 2044. At 7:30PM over NBC, Ronald Colman read a special “Poem and Prayer for an Invading Army” by Edna St. Vincent Millay.

It’s nearly 6:45PM and I’m at an automat getting some dinner. People around here are feeling a little looser as, by all accounts, the Normandy landings had been a success. They’ve got NBC on the air. Just ending is a “Serenade to America'' with Winifred Hite, Nora Sterling, Milton Katims and his Orchestra. Legendary newscaster Lowell Thomas is about to go on over WEAF with a summary and commentary on the day’s events. Thomas has been on radio since the dawn of the network era. He took over as the host of NBC’s Sunday Literary Digest program in 1930. By October of 1930, he was including more news stories. He moved to CBS, but was back on NBC two years later.

At 3PM The British King George VI issued a D-Day speech. The Transcription is below. Four years ago, our Nation and Empire stood alone against an overwhelming enemy, with our backs to the wall. Tested as never before in our history, in God's providence we survived that test; the spirit of the people, resolute, dedicated, burned like a bright flame, lit surely from those unseen fires which nothing can quench. Now once more a supreme test has to be faced. This time, the challenge is not to fight to survive, but to fight to win the final victory for the good cause. Once again what is demanded from us all is something more than courage and endurance; we need a revival of spirit, a new unconquerable resolve. After nearly five years of toil and suffering, we must renew that crusading impulse on which we entered the war and met its darkest hour. We and our Allies are sure that our fight is against evil and for a world in which goodness and honor may be the foundation of the life of men in every land. That we may be worthily matched with this new summons of destiny, I desire solemnly to call my people to prayer and dedication. We are not unmindful of our own shortcomings, past and present. We shall ask not that God may do our will, but that we may be enabled to do the will of God: and we dare to believe that God has used our Nation and Empire as an instrument for fulfilling his high purpose. I hope that throughout the present crisis of the liberation of Europe there may be offered up earnest, continuous and widespread prayer. We who remain in this land can most effectively enter into the sufferings of subjugated Europe by prayer, whereby we can fortify the determination of our sailors, soldiers and airmen who go forth to set the captives free. The Queen joins with me in sending you this message. She well understands the anxieties and cares of our womenfolk at this time and she knows that many of them will find, as she does herself, fresh strength and comfort in such waiting upon God. She feels that many women will be glad in this way to keep vigil with their menfolk as they man the ships, storm the beaches and fill the skies. At this historic moment surely not one of us is too busy, too young or too old to play a part in a nationwide, perchance a worldwide, vigil of prayer as the great crusade sets forth. If from every place of worship, from home and factory, from men and women of all ages and many races and occupations, our intercessions rise, then, please God, both now and in a future not remote, the predictions of an ancient Psalm may be fulfilled: "The Lord will give strength unto his people: the Lord will give his people the blessing of peace." By this time, Allied reinforcements from Britain had already arrived in Normandy. Ground troops linked up with the paratroopers further inland and pressed on toward Caen. However, the allies wouldn’t capture the city for more than a month. Once King George VI’s speech was over, CBS switched back to Alan Jackson with a news update. At 4:40PM the just-heard John Daly, Bill Shirer, and Quincy Howe took to CBS’ airwaves with more news updates.

Perry Mason debuted over CBS airwaves on October 18th, 1943. On D-Day it was airing at 2:45PM from New York. Mason was a crime-busting lawyer, famous in fiction for unmasking killers in court. Though it came in the guise of crime drama, the show was full-bore soap opera. At points, Jan Miner played Della Street, Mason’s secretary. Mandel Kramer played Police Lieutenant Tragg.

That was the voice of Joan Banks Lovejoy who played the scheming Arline Harrison Manning on Portia Faces Life. During World War II she was all over New York radio. On Portia Faces Life, Lucille Wall starred as Portia Blake, a young woman lawyer who battled corruption in the small town of Parkerstown. The show debuted with a crisis on October 7th, 1940 and throughout its entire nearly eleven-year run, the crises never ended. The show moved to CBS in April of 1944 and on D-Day it was airing weekdays at 2PM. The run on CBS would be relatively brief, as on October 3rd, 1944 Portia Faces Life would move back to NBC. ____________ That was the voice of Fran Carlon, who at times starred as Joyce Jordan, MD. Jordan started as a girl intern at Heights Hospital, slowly progressing to a doctor, facing the difficulty of being an intelligent woman in a man’s world. Ken Roberts was the announcer. He’d been a radio staple since the mid-1920s, beginning first at WMCA in New York before becoming a CBS staff announcer. On D-Day, Ken was thirty-five years old. Here’s Ken talking with Chuck Schaden about those early days of Network radio. Himan Brown was often the director.

12:45PM brought a forty-minute CBS news update featuring Edward R. Murrow from London, Douglas Edwards recapping CBS coverage, and a Quincy Howe analysis. Following this broadcast John Daly immediately signed on.

At 12:15PM Big Sister took to the air over CBS starring the just-heard Alice Frost as Ruth Evans. Ruth centered her life around her sister Sue and their crippled brother Neddie. When Sue married reporter Jerry Miller, Ruth was able to give her full attention to the care of little Ned. Then, unexpectedly, Ruth fell in love with Neddie’s new doctor, John Wayne, played first by Martin Gabel and later by Staats Cotsworth.

It’s nearly twelve o’clock and time for me to get back to 485 Madison Avenue. At least I got about five hours sleep, that’s more than I can say for many of my colleagues. I just phoned in. The allies are pushing inland in France. A few thousand have been killed on the beaches of Normandy, but the German resistance has been much lighter than expected. The Luftwaffe are nowhere to be found. The Allied command is uneasy, we know it won’t be all quiet on the western front forever. Kate Smith is signing on CBS. There’ll be news updates to follow.

At 11:45AM on D-Day, Aunt Jenny’s Real Life Stories took to the air over CBS featuring Dan Seymour as both announcer and actor. Later this year Seymour would play Vichy French Captain Renard in To Have and Have Not. Unlike most daytime serials, Aunt Jenny confined its tales to five-chapter stories which were completed each week. The cast shifted with the only continuing characters being Aunt Jenny and announcer Dan Seymour, who dropped in each day to hear her tale.

At 11:30AM CBS interrupted their scheduled mid-day programming for a newsbreak and a speech from Charles De Gaulle. Born in 1890, De Gaulle was a decorated soldier during the First World War. He repeatedly admonished his superiors for outdated nineteenth century fighting techniques which included bayonet charges against heavy artillery. De Gaulle’s company became known for sneaking into German territory to spy on the enemy. He was a fierce combat veteran, having been shot in the knee, the left hand, being gassed, and receiving a bayonet wound. He was eventually captured by the Germans, spending thirty-two months as a POW. In between the wars he was a strong supporter of tanks and mobile armored divisions. During the German invasion of May 1940, De Gaulle led an armored division counterattack, and was soon appointed Undersecretary for War. Refusing to accept his government's armistice with Germany, De Gaulle fled to England. He led the Free French Forces and later headed the French National Liberation Committee, emerging as the undisputed leader of Free France. De Gaulle became head of the Provisional Government of the French Republic three days before D-Day. On D-Day he was campaigning for his Provisional Government to be recognized as an official full government.

The woman you just heard is famed New York character actress Jan Miner. In the mid-1940s Jan was on multiple soap operas, like Lora Lawton. Many top shows were produced by Frank and Anne Hummert. The Hummert radio ties grew from the prominent Chicago advertising agency, Blackett-Sample-and Hummert. Frank Hummert was a celebrated copywriter. His wife, Anne Schumacher Ashenhurst Hummert began as an editorial assistant and quickly earned respect throughout the organization thanks to her ingenuity, insight, and resolve. By the 1940s, the duo controlled four-and-a-half hours of national weekday broadcast schedules. They brought in more than half of the network daytime hour advertising revenue and their shows received more than five million pieces of correspondence annually. When they switched their productions from Chicago to New York, they began employing some of New York’s most famous character actors. At 11AM eastern time from New York, Amanda of Honeymoon Hill signed on starring Joy Hathaway. The show used a familiar Hummert theme: The common girl who marries into a rich, aristocratic family. She lived in the fictional Honeymoon Hill in Virginia. When Amanda Of Honeymoon Hill signed off, another Hummert show, Second Husband, signed on at 11:30 starring Helen Menken. Ms. Menken is perhaps best remembered today as Humphrey Bogart’s first wife, but she was a talented actress in her own right. Throughout its history, one of the show’s announcers was Andre Baruch.

At 10AM CBS resumed programming with their mid-morning soap operas. First up was Valiant Lady, starring Joan Blaine. Joan was a valiant lady because she sacrificed a promising Broadway career for her father’s sake, then married a “brilliant but unstable" surgeon. People like the just-heard Mandel Kramer loved working on soap operas from New York. At 10:15AM Light of the World signed on starring Bret Morrison as “the Speaker.” The show was a soap opera version of the stories of the bible and featured some of New York’s best talent like Mandel Kramer, Louise Fitch, and Alexander Scourby. This D-Day broadcast was the very first episode of Light of the World on CBS. It had been running on NBC since March of 1940. It would run on CBS until August of 1946 before once again being picked up by NBC until June 2nd, 1950. When Light of the World signed off, The Open Door signed on at 10:30. Created by Sandra Michael, The Open Door was a purposely slow-moving, character building show built around Dean Eric Hansen of the fictional Vernon University. The stories involved people in his life: their problems, lives, and loves. The star, Dr. Alfred Dorf had known Sandra Michael since her childhood in Denmark. He’d come to America to establish a church in Brooklyn and was the true inspiration behind the character. Unfortunately, the agency handling the sponsor’s account didn’t like the direction of the series. They pressured Sandra Michael into changing the show, but she resisted and the show was canceled after June 30th, 1944. Once The Open Door signed off, Bachelor’s Children signed on at 10:45. It featured Hugh Studebaker as Dr. Bob Graham, a bachelor who took in his dying friend's 18-year-old twin daughters. Marjorie Hannan played Ruth Ann, the kind, thoughtful twin, and Patricia Dunlap played Janet, the fiery and impulsive twin. Olan Soule played Sam Ryder. He was, perhaps, best known for co-starring with Barbara Luddy on The First Nighter.

At 9AM eastern war time, CBS World News signed on with Douglas Edwards reporting. On D-Day Edwards was twenty-six years old. He’d been hired in 1942 by CBS as a reporter and understudy for John Daly. When Daly was sent overseas to cover the war in 1943 Edwards was promoted to lead The World Today, World News Today, and Report to the Nation. In 1945, Edwards was sent to London to cover the final weeks of the war with Edward R. Murrow. He was then appointed the network's news bureau chief in Paris and assigned to cover post-war elections in Germany and the start of the Nuremberg trials. By this time, fourteen thousand Canadian troops had taken Juno Beach, pressing inland. British and American forces, including those at Omaha, took control of their beachheads. The Allies brought in tanks, tended to the wounded and cleared away mines on the beaches. They also started pressuring German forces at Caen. Hitler finally agreed to send reinforcements to Normandy. Once World News Today signed off Robert Trout was back on the air for the final forty-five minutes of the special news broadcast.

I just phoned CBS news headquarters at 485 Madison Avenue. I’m told that they’ll resume scheduled programming at 10AM. NBC has canceled all programming until further notice. Mutual and The Blue Network are interspersing news throughout the day. The Stock Exchange will observe two minutes of silence and Mayor La Guardia will be holding a rally in Madison Square. As for me, I’ve been momentarily dismissed. I’m heading home to get some rest. Meanwhile, let’s listen to Bob Trout. Charles Shaw will report from London with a man-on-the-street reaction while Ned Calmer and Don Pryor will introduce French Colonel Morrison who’ll describe the area of the invasion landings. This will take us to 6:30 AM.

As part of my job I’ve been sent by CBS to Union Square. I decided to stop by my high school alma mater, I’m at the Church of St. Francis Xavier on sixteenth street. They’re having a sunrise mass filled with prayer for our soldiers and other war workers. The people are stoic. Now isn’t the time to lose ourselves in emotion. Sunrise is at 5:25AM. I hear American troops have turned the tide of battle at the Omaha landing point, with warships backing them up at sea. Give a listen to the CBS broadcast. David Anderson, Arthur Mann, Paul White, and Edward R. Murrow have reports from London. Quentin Reynolds will describe Eisenhower’s speech to occupied Europe, while Bill Henry and Joe McCaffrey report from Washington.

The man you just heard was CBS news reporter Robert Trout. Born in Wake County, North Carolina on October 15th, 1909, he grew up in Washington, D.C., entering broadcasting in 1931 as an announcer at WJSV, an independent station in Alexandria, Virginia. In the summer of 1932 WJSV was acquired by CBS, bringing Trout into the young network. He soon became an invaluable member of William S. Paley’s team, and was the first person to publicly refer to FDR’s radio programs as Fireside Chats. On Sunday night, March 13th, 1938, after Adolf Hitler's Germany had annexed Austria in the Anschluss, Trout hosted a shortwave "roundup" of reaction from multiple cities in Europe—the first such multi-point live broadcast on network radio. Years later, journalist Ned Calmer remembered that moment. Trout also played a key role in Edward R. Murrow’s development as a broadcaster. By the time war had come to the US, Trout was in New York and Murrow had put together the staff of international war correspondents known as the Murrow Boys. At 4:15 AM eastern war time on the morning of Tuesday June 6th, 1944, Bob Trout was in the CBS newsroom at 485 Madison Avenue emceeing an overnight broadcast that brought the first eye witness account of the invasion from reporter Wright Bryan. Bryan stood an imposing six-foot-five and covered the story from a transport plane dropping airborne troops. Later in 1944 Bryan was wounded and captured by the Germans. He spent six months in hospitals and in a POW camp in Poland before being freed by Russian troops in January 1945. This broadcast took listeners up to 5 AM. eastern war time. Along with Wright Bryan, it featured analysis from George Fielding Elliot, commentary by Quentin Reynolds, and reports from John W. Vandercook and James Willard. At 5AM over CBS Major George Fielding Elliot gave an analysis of the known information. Elliot was a second lieutenant in the Australian army during World War I. He became a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and later a major in the Military Intelligence Reserve of the US Army. He wrote fifteen books on military and political matters and was a longtime staff writer for the New York Herald Tribune. After Elliot spoke, Richard C. Hottelet reported from London with the first eye witness account of the seaborne side of the invasion. Edward R. Murrow hired Hottelet that January. On this day he was riding in a bomber that attacked Utah Beach six minutes before H-Hour and watched the first minutes of the attack. He would later cover the Battle of the Bulge. At 7AM French time, the Allies began deploying amphibious tanks on the beaches of Normandy to support the ground troops and sweep for defensive mines. American troops faced heavy machine-gun fire on Omaha Beach, the most heavily fortified landing point of the invasion. Roughly twenty-five-hundred U.S. soldiers were killed on the beach in the bloodiest fight of the day. This fighting took the timeline to Eisenhower’s official announcement at 3:32 Eastern War time.

Tuesday, June 6th, 1944 at about 12:45 in the morning. We’re at Bill Pogue’s Bar on the Corner of 88th street and Columbus Avenue in Manhattan. I just finished a twelve hour shift. I need a nightcap before I go back into that low-hanging fog. Did you hear the President tonight? We took Rome. One up and two to go. ____________ Only the German outlets that are saying the invasion has started. Paris radio just aired news bulletins and didn’t say anything. London radio told Hollanders to stay off bridges and roads, but that could be normal instructions. You want to know something? I don’t think the Germans are lying. I think this is it. This is D-Day, June 6th, 1944. ____________ It’s 3:30 in the morning on June 6th, 1944. I’ve just left CBS news headquarters at 485 Madison Avenue. I parked in Times Square on purpose. I wanted to see if there was any reaction. A few servicemen came out of a bar. I told them the news. They joined others in front of cabs who were tuned to either CBS or NBC. The news cutaway from band remotes sounded haunting. There are scattered lights in apartment windows and one radio shop, closed for the evening, has a loudspeaker blaring CBS. I won’t be sleeping tonight. I’ve been assigned to take the temperature of the emotions people are feeling. The long and short of it is that we still have no allied confirmation about a French coastline invasion. The president was on the radio last night with one of his fireside chats talking about the allies taking Rome. If he knew something about France, he didn’t tip his hand. Bob Trout should be on the air right about now. Bob’s a good man. To kill time he was going to take his microphone into the CBS newsroom, giving a taste of what a nerve center is like with chaos brimming. 10PM New York time on June 5th was 4AM on the morning of the 6th in France. At that moment seven-thousand allied ships left England under cover of darkness. They were loaded with allied troops, primarily from Britain, the US, and Canada for Operation Overlord. The soldiers were split up to invade five landing points along the coast of northern France. The beachheads were code named Utah, Omaha, Gold, Sword, and Juno. At midnight, while I was drinking at Bill Pogue’s allied bombers were bombarding the coastline. Personnel carriers flew inland to drop off paratroopers. The paratroopers' job was to attack bridges and seize several key points to cut off the Nazi supply lines. An hour later, while distracting the Germans at Pas-de-Calais, allied warships dropped anchor off the coast of Normandy to wait for dawn and provide cover for the landing ships. By 2AM, more than thirteen-thousand paratroopers had been dropped into France, with four-thousand more flying in on gliders. They continued landing troops for the next two hours. The Germans saw the paratroopers, but failed to grasp just how big the invasion was to be. By 5AM, Allied battleships had begun firing on the Nazi defenses while the first landing ships went ashore. German and Allied ships clashed in the first skirmishes at sea. As the sun rose, the landing operation was fully underway. The Allied battleships stopped firing as their landing boats approached the shore at 6:30AM, dubbed “H-Hour” for the designated moment of the invasion. The landing ships were tightly packed together. Allied troops dealt with heavy gunfire. Many men were killed before they could reach the beach. Nevertheless, the Allies managed to land their troops, and the fight for the beaches began.

In Breaking Walls episode 151 it’s the spring of 1944 and Jack Benny’s sponsor, General Foods, thinks he’s in a slump. Benny got mad and it changed the broadcasting landscape forever. Tonight, we’ll find out how and why. —————————— Highlights: • Benny's Early Radio Career in the 1930s and Ratings Peak • Early Problems with General Foods • Dennis Day Leaves for World War II • Jack Fires General Foods, Signs with American Tobacco • Dick Haymes Replaces Dennis Day as Singer • The Importance of Benny’s Supporting Cast • Jack’s Split Personality • Danny Kaye Guest Stars To Play Jack in A Movie • The Last General Foods Sponsored Show • Looking Ahead to D-Day’s 80th Anniversary —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material used in today’s episode was: • Sunday Nights at Seven — by Jack and Joan Benny • On The Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg As well as articles from • Broadcasting Magazine • Radio Daily • Variety And a massive special thank you to William Cairns for providing me with invaluable research on Benny’s 1940s run. William has a Jack Benny book on its way. —————————— On the interview front: • Jack Benny, Dennis Day, Phil Harris, Frank Nelson, and Don Wilson spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear these full chats at Speakingofradio.com. • Mel Blanc and Mary Jane Higby spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org • Jack Benny, Dennis Day, Phil Harris, and Don Wilson were with Jack Carney • Dennis Day was also with John Dunning for his 1980s 71KNUS Radio program from Denver. • Orson Welles spoke to Johnny Carson —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • The Hut on Fowl's Legs — By Modest Mussorgsky —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Gerrit Lane Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva John Williams Jim W. WildEyeWheel —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

In the fall of 1944 after Jack’s switch to Lucky Strike, General Foods did move a show opposite Jack. It wound up being The Kate Smith Show. The company uprooted Smith’s Friday program, countering Benny with a One-Hundred-Seventy-Thousand-Dollar ad campaign. While they did temporarily put a dent into Benny’s rating, Kate Smith lost forty-percent of her audience, dropping to ninety-third place in the overall ratings. The following season General Foods moved her back to Friday, but Kate Smith never again had another Top-fifty show. Well, that brings our look at Jack Benny’s show in the spring of 1944 to a close. I mentioned that Benny’s last episode for General Foods aired on June 4th, 1944. Our next episode of Breaking Walls will move only two days into the future, for perhaps the most important day in broadcasting history. Next time on Breaking Walls, we spotlight radio broadcasting on June 6th, 1944 to align ourselves with the Country’s heartbeat on the day the invasion of western Europe finally began. The reading material used in today’s episode was: • Sunday Nights at Seven — by Jack and Joan Benny • On The Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg As well as articles from • Broadcasting Magazine • Radio Daily • Variety And a massive special thank you to William Cairns for providing me with invaluable research on Benny’s 1940s run. William has a Jack Benny book on its way. On the interview front: • Jack Benny, Dennis Day, Phil Harris, Frank Nelson, and Don Wilson spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear these full chats at Speakingofradio.com. • Mel Blanc and Mary Jane Higby spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org • Jack Benny, Dennis Day, Phil Harris, and Don Wilson were with Jack Carney • Dennis Day was also with John Dunning for his 1980s 71KNUS Radio program from Denver. • Orson Welles spoke to Johnny Carson Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • The Hut on Fowl's Legs — By Modest Mussorgsky

June 4th, 1944 was the last Grape Nuts Flakes sponsored Jack Benny Program. Jack took out a full page ad in Variety thanking General Foods and their agency Young and Rubicam for ten years of partnership. Six days later, the American Cigarette and Cigar Company deposited two hundred thousand dollars in a special exploitation account for the program. On June 23rd they wrote to Jack stipulating some terms of the agreement. The program would be broadcast live coast-to-coast 7:00PM eastern war time, with a transcribed rebroadcast by transcription between 12:30 and 1:00AM New York time for West Coast stations. In August, Benny left on a three-week USO tour of Australia and the South Pacific. On August 28th, American Tobacco announced that Pall Mall’s product scarcity didn’t justify a twenty-five thousand dollar per week expenditure. Lucky Strike would sponsor the show. The following week they announced a comprehensive, multimedia ad campaign. It was estimated to cost over a quarter million dollars. This changed the company with which Jack was signed from the American Cigarette & Cigar Company to the American Tobacco Company, and was made official on September 26th, 1944.