THE CHICAGO THEATRE OF THE AIR 129 of what "Cheerio" looked like. After a decade in his six -a -week 30 -minute morning format, "Cheerio" cut back to one evening broad- cast a week. This lasted from 1937 through 1940 on the Blue network Sunday nights, after which he faded from the air.

Chesterfield Supper Club

Chesterfield Supper Club was first heard on NBC December 11, 1944, as an unusual five -a -week 15 -minute musical springboard for Perry Como and Jo Stafford. Como sang three nights a week; Miss Stafford filled in for the remaining two nights. Announcer was Martin Block. In 1949, it became a 30 -minute Thursday -night offering, with hostess Peggy Lee, the Dave Barbour Orchestra, announcer Tom Reddy, and such guests as Buddy Clark, Frankie Laine, and Dick Haymes. It was decidedly different from the earlier Chesteí ield Time.

Chesterfield Time 171 Chesterfield Time, first heard on NBC in 1939, was simply The Fred Waring Show under sponsorship of Chesterfield Cigarettes. It was straight music with one interesting deviation: announcer Bill Bivens' nightly readings (in season) of the day's baseball scores, to great fanfare by the orchestra. Waring's theme during the Chesterfield years was "A Cigarette, Sweet Music, and You." His closing theme was the orchestra's famed "Sleep." Chesterfield dropped the show in 1944, in favor of its new Supper Club, which ran until 1950.

The Chicago Theatre of the Air / The Chicago Theatre of the Air grew out of a listener survey con- ducted by Station WGN in 1940, and became one of radio's greatest popular offerings of condensed grand opera and dramatic operettas. The survey revealed that a huge block of Chicago's listening audience wanted the music of opera; another large segment wanted the es- capism of heavy drama. WGN combined the two, and The Chicago Theatre of the Air went into the entire Mutual Saturday -night hookup October 5, 1940. It ran until 1955, and succeeded in bridging the gap between traditional opera and the mass market. In this highly selec- tive field, only The Railroad Hour managed to find a more receptive audience. The success was due in large part to the group's dedication to