Last Broadcasts of Old Time Radio

"All good things must come to an end." – Geoffrey Chaucer, 1374

The end of the Golden Age of Radio had as much to do with the decisions and policies of advertisers as it did with the technological advancements which drove the rise of television. Early network TV efforts were, indeed, little more than radio programs with moving pictures. By the time advertisers began aligning themselves with television, radio had advanced to a point where it was a more cost-effective and superior medium for telling stories, disseminating information, and spreading a sponsor's message than the unreliable and expensive television broadcasts. However, the big-dollar sponsors almost universally bought into the "shiny and new" perception of television, propelling "the idiot box" into its role as the dominant form of media.

The fact that "the last day of the Golden Age of Radio" can be pinned to CBS's cancellation and final broadcasts of Suspense and Yours Truly Johnny Dollar on September 30, 1962, reveals TV's role in bringing so many great radio shows to an end. However, almost every program which was scheduled for regular broadcast has eventually been canceled. The factors which add up to make a show a hit is varied but they are all important. When one factor of the formula is changed, the show can fail quickly and the end becomes inevitable.

One of radio's earliest "media phenomenons" began in 1928 as Amos 'n' Andy. The program was developed as a sort of daily comic-strip on the air at Chicago's WMAQ, a station belonging to the publishers of the Chicago Daily News. Stars Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll had worked together in vaudeville in a black-face minstrel act. The program became so popular that movie theaters had to postpone film showings and pipe the program into the theater. Home radio set sales soared because people did not want to miss the next installment. Over the years, Amos 'n' Andy drew controversy as being racially insensitive with a pair of white actors performing African American parts, but the show and its characters were always portrayed with love and good-natured humor. The characters moved to television for the 1951 season played by African-American actors (Gosden and Correll be "visually unsuited" for the parts), but the TV show was plagued by protests from the NAACP and the growing civil rights movement and canceled after the 1952-'53 season. Gosden and Freeman continued on the radio with several different sponsors and switched from the serialized format to a weekly DJ program called Amos 'n' Andy Music Hall which featured comic sketches and guest stars between musical numbers. Music Hall's last broadcast was on November 25, 1960.

One of the most successful relationships between show and sponsor was Fibber McGee and Molly which was sponsored by the S.C. Johnson Wax Company from 1935 until the end of the 1950 season. The relationship lasted as long as it did simply because it worked so well. Stars Jim and Marian Jordan and their writer, Donald Quinn, managed to come up with fresh and entertaining material every week, and one of the most popular running gags was the way announcer Harlow Wilcox could find a new way to segue into a pitch for the Wax Company's products. Although writer Quinn moved on, the Jordan's continued successfully with the same format for other sponsors, including PET Milk and Reynolds Aluminum. Eventually, Marian's health concerns necessitated the adoption of a 15-minute format without a studio audience in 1953. As the popularity of radio began to wane, the still popular McGee's appeared on NBC's Monitor program from 1957 to 1959. Marian Jordan lost her battle with cancer in 1961.

One sign of Fibber's popularity was that some of the program's recurring characters were strong enough to "spin-off" into their own programs. Broadcasting's first "spin-off" was The Great Gildersleeve. Harold Peary first appeared with the McGee's as a dentist, Dr. Throckmorton Gildersleeve, in 1939. The Gildersleeve character eventually moved next door to 79 Wistful Vista and the wealthy blow-hard developed as a foil for Fibber's antics with the catch-phrase, "You're a haa-aa-aa-aard man, McGee!" To promote their Parkay Margarine and other lines, Kraft Foods began sponsoring The Great Gildersleeve in late summer, 1941. Gildy became a confirmed but amorous bachelor who takes up the responsibility of raising his orphaned niece and nephew in the nearby town of Summerfield. He sells his interest in the Gildersleeve Corset Company and eventually becomes Summerfield's water commissioner, and whenever his duties allowed, Harold Peary looked for a chance to exercise his singing voice in the role. Observing the CBS "talent raid" which began in the mid-Forties, Peary was convinced that it would be to his financial advantage to move the show and he signed a contract with the "Tiffany network" in 1950. Unfortunately, the move came without the approval of Kraft, who owned the rights to Gildersleeve and remained loyal to NBC. Peary's last appearance as Gildy was on June 14, 1950. The following season the part went to Willard Waterman, whose qualifications included sounding almost exactly like Harold Peary. The show began to decline in popularity but managed to hold on through the 1957 season.

One of the funniest and most thought-provoking stars of radio was Fred Allen, who was notorious for his bad relations with sponsors and the network. A former vaudevillian who appreciated radio as a terrific way to make a living without the challenge of being on the road night after night, Fred often clashed with the network over what he was allowed to say on the air (and how long his live show ran, the NBC Chimes often came before he was finished), and he was not afraid to "bite the hand that fed him" when it came to sponsors. One of his most effective collaborations was with Bristol-Meyers, pushing their Sal Hepatica laxative and Ipana toothpaste, culminating in his Town Hall Tonight program from 1934 until 1939 (during which the famous Fred Allen/Jack Benny feud occurred). Town Hall was last broadcast on June 21, 1939, and came back in the fall as The Fred Allen Show, a move which Fred greatly objected to. His last show for Bristol-Meyers was on June 26, 1940. Fred remained in radio hosting his own shows until June 26, 1949, when his health forced him to slow down.

The other half of Fred's famous feud was Jack Benny, possibly the longest lasting and most prolific former vaudevillian in radio. Jack Benny also went through a number of sponsors over the years, but rather than feuding with them, Jack changed sponsors over the years because they apparently outbid each other for his services. His first radio program was The Canada Dry Ginger Ale Program in 1932. In 1934, he moved to NBC where he led The Chevrolet Program before taking on the General Tire Revue. His last General Tire Show on September 28, 1934, featured a letter from the company president announcing that sponsorship would continue the following March. By mid-October, Jack was back on the air with The Jell-O Program. A great deal of Jack's success was his willingness to let the laughs go to other members of the "gang" of players who were part of the show. Most of these players moved on to greater success beyond Jack's show, but one who may have left prematurely was tenor Kenny Baker whose last appearance on The Jell-O Program was on June 18, 1939. The end of The Jell-O Program came on May 31, 1942, but the sponsor's parent company, General Foods, kept sponsorship for another two seasons, pushing Grapenuts Cereal rather than the dessert because of War-time sugar rationing. After General Foods, Jack began his longest sponsor relationship with Lucky Strikes Cigarettes until May 22, 1955.

Even before the big variety programs began moving to television, crime dramas had become a staple of radio. It is telling that the last two shows of the Golden Age were Johnny Dollar which followed an insurance investigator with an "action-packed expense account", and Suspense which occasionally dabbled in supernatural thrillers but usually demonstrated that the bad guy always comes to justice in the end. Richard Diamond, Private Detective was a somewhat light-hearted affair starring Dick Powell from 1949 until the last episode on September 29, 1953. Boston Blackie was a reformed jewel thief turned crime-fighter who came on the air as a summer replacement for Amos 'n' Andy in 1944 until his final episode on June 15, 1949. One of the most hard-boiled of radio crime fighters was heard on The Adventures of Philip Marlowe from 1947 until September 15, 1951. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was built around one of the most iconic fictional crime-fighters, and starred Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, who had played Holmes and Watson in several films, but by the time of Rathbone's last appearance on the show on May 27, 1946, he began to worry that he would be forever typecast as a consulting detective.

Few radio personalities have left as big a mark on crime drama as Jack Webb. He began developing his "just the facts, ma'am" style on KGO San Francisco on a series of detective dramas. He gained a nationwide audience when he moved to Hollywood to begin Jeff Regan, Private Investigator in the summer of 1948. Webb's last appearance as Regan came just six months later December 18, before he moved on to bigger projects. Webb had a small role as a crime lab technician in the film He Walked by Night (1948) and the experience of preparing the role sparked an interest in actual police procedure which was the origins of Dragnet. Jeff Regan was too good of a show to cancel just because its star had left, so the role was given to up and coming Frank Graham. Graham had made a name for himself as an announcer at CBS Hollywood and had produced some programs of his own. After beginning as Regan in October 1949, while it was evident that he was no Jack Webb, the series began to regain its popularity and would have likely continued for more seasons, but the show went up against Webb in Pat Novak for Hire, further diminishing Graham as Regan. Although Graham was considered to be on the road to success in radio, TV, and cartoons, he was discovered dead in his garage by carbon monoxide poisoning at his own hand on September 3, 1950, the day that Regan's last episode of the season was to air. The episode was never broadcast, so the final episode was August 27, 1950. Webb went on to considerable success with his Mark VII production company and Dragnet which had a final episode on the radio on February 26, 1957.

Cecil B. DeMille had hosted Lux Radio Theatre since 1936 but was forced off the air after clashing with the American Federation of Radio Artists over closed shop rulings. His last broadcast was on January 22, 1945, and his problems with the union resulted in his being banned from radio.

Several other last episodes are included in this collection.