Established 1975 Number 243 December 1996 Publication of the Old Time Radio Club Membership Information Club Officers and Librarians New member processing, $5 plus club membership President of $15 per year from January 1 to December 31. Jerry Collins (716) 683-6199 Members receive a tape library listing, reference 56 Christen Ct. library listing, and a monthly newsletter. Member­ Lancaster, NY 14086 ships are as follows: If you join January-March, $15; April-June, $12; July-September, $8; October­ Vice President & Canadian Branch December; $5. All renewals should be sent in as Richard Simpson soon as possible to avoid missing issues. Please be 960 16 Road R.R. 3 sure to notify us if you have a change of address. Fenwick, Ontario The Old Time Radio Club meets the first Monday Canada, LOS 1CO of every month at 7:30 PM during the months of September to June at 393 George Urban Blvd., Treasurer, Back Issues, Video & Records Cheektowaga, NY 14225. The club meets informally Dominic Parisi (716) 884-2004 during the months of July and August at the same 38 Ardmore PI. address. Anyone interested in the Golden Age of Buffalo, NY 14213 Radio is welcome. The Old Time Radio Club is af­ filiated with The Old Time Radio Network. Membership Renewals, Change of Address Peter Bellanca (716) 773-2485 Club Mailing Address 1620 Ferry Road Old Time Radio Club Grand Island, NY 14072 P.O. Box 426 Lancaster, NY 14086 Membership Inquires and OTR Network Related Items Back issues of The Illustrated Press are $1.50 post­ Richard Olday (716) 684-1604 paid. Publications out of print may be borrowed 100 Harvey Dr. from our Reference Library. Lancaster, NY 14086 Tape Libraries Deadline for The Illustrated Press is the Cassettes 1st of each month prior to publication. Don Friedrich (716) 626-9164 21 Southcrest The Illustrated Press is a monthly newsletter of The Cheektowaga, NY 14225 Old Time Radio Club, headquartered in Western New York State. Contents except where noted, are Reel-to-Reel and Reference Library copyright 1996 by the OTRC. Ed Wanat Sr. (716) 895-9690 393 George Urban Blvd. Cheektowaga, NY 14225 Send all articles, letters, exchange newsletters, Tape Library Rates: All reels and video cassettes etc. to: The Illustrated Press are $1.85 per month; audio cassettes and records c/o Ken Krug, Editor (716) 684-5290 are $0.85 per month. Rates include postage and 49 Regal Street handling. Canadian rates are the same as above, Depew, New York 14043 but in Canadian funds. 9)eum6.eJt 1996 Publication of the Old Time Radio Club Over the years Sunday would see her little boy Davy SAME TIME, become crippled when a hit-and-run driver stuck him. In t~me she would cradle the head of her dying friend, SAME STATION Kevm Bromfield, after he took a bullet meant for her. Kevin had silently loved Sunday for years, but kept it to by Jim Cox himself, knowing he could never win her from Lord Henry. OUR GAL SUNDAY Sunday suffered numerous indignities at the hand of Our Gal Sunday was a rags-to-riches tale continuing a Lord Henry's childhood friend from England, Thelma theme popularized in serial dramas of women of lower Mayfield, who visited the Brinthropes at Black Swan social order marrying wealth or fame and moving into Hall. Facing Lord Henry one morning across the break­ higher society (a la Backstage Wife, Kitty Foyle, Lora fast table, Sunday informed him just how far things had Lawton, et al).These appealed to listeners' dreams of gone. Thelma had told her in no uncertain terms the sudden wealth and social position. day before that she fully intended "to become mistress of Black Swan Hall." Sunday gushed: "She announced The pattern was one of the more compelling from the point blank that she's going to take you away from me!" assembly line of Frank and Anne Hummert, who pro­ duced more radio serials than anybody else. They would Lady Brinthrope also had her turn at being accused of take a frail but determined heroine of humble origin and murder, a common thread in many radio serials, upon wed her into money and prestige. Then she would spend the death of Tippy Rogers. Rogers was killed in the the rest of her days fending off jealous female competi­ Brinthropes' summer house and Lord Henry's revolver tors for the affections of her husband. was proven to be the murder weapon. In the end, Sun­ day was spared the chair as the real killer confessed to In Sunday's case, it began as the story of an unwanted the crime. waif who was abandoned at a Colorado mining camp. Raised by two old prospectors, she was obviously ex­ Sunday and Lord Henry had three children, Lonnie, posed to the best they could offer in the way of educa­ Davy and Caroline (the last two adopted). The trio was tion, despite their lack of sophistication and means. often referred to but seldom present. Their absence was explained by their nurse entertaining them in the nurs­ The "radio sequel" was based on a Broadway play sim­ ery, etc. ply named Sunday. Ethel Barrymore, who starred in the original stage play shortly after the turn of the century, The series debuted on March 29, 1937 and lasted all the improvised a line at the end which summarized it all: way to January 2, 1959, nearly 22 years later. Aside "That's all there is, there isn't any more." But for the from its durability, the serial had another distinguishing Hummerts, it was only the beginning. They took the characteristic. It continued on the same network at the story from where it ended onstage and carried it same hour for its entire run, at 12:45 p.m, ET. No other through Sunday's marriage to "England's richest, most daytime drama approached that record; Wendy Warren handsome lord, Lord Henry Brinthrope." It was, as mil­ and the News, aired at 12 noon over CBS for 11 years, lions of listeners can still recall from the epigraph, "the was the next closest rival in tenure occupying a single story that asks the question - Can this girl from the quarter hour for the full length of its run. little mining town in the West find happiness as the wife ofa wealthy and titled Englishman?" Sunday led its time period and maintained one of the largest audiences of all the serials. In the 1949-50 sea­ Black Swan Hall, the Brinthropes' "lovely Virginia es­ son, Sunday's most successful, the serial climbed to 9.9. tate." as announcer Ed Fleming reminded the audience Its numbers remained substantial until the end. daily, was situated near the mythical town of Fair­ brooke. Everybody lived on an estate in Fairbooke; at Originated by Dorothy Lowell, the part of Sunday was least, everybody the Brinthropes dealt with had a home transferred in 1946 to Vivian Smolen, who carried it the with a name on it. Their best friends, Irene and Peter rest of the way. Lowell's only distinguishing radio fea­ Galway, resided at Bow Ridge, the manor adjacent to ture until then was The Man 1 Married, where she the Brinthropes' lavish plantation. Nearby, one of the played the female lead for a brief time. Smolen, mean­ town's meddling troublemakers, Elaine Cralle, who had while, appeared as one of three offspring on Doc Bar­ it in for Sunday, owned a summer home at Birchwood, clay's Daughters, 1938-40. She is well remembered for yet another grand estate. her long-running role on Stella Dallas as Laurel Dallas 9)~1996 Publication of the Old Time Radio Club Grosvenor (to Stella, "Lollie Baby"). She was featured the most consistently advertised product, the one most as Veronica Lodge, Archie Andrews' love interest, and closely identified with the program, was Anacin pain sustained a recurring role on Front Page Farrell. reliever. The part of Lord Henry was carried initially by Karl Did Sunday find happiness as the result of her 22-year Swenson, then Alistair Duncan. Swenson was one of the search for it? As her pilgrimage drew to a close, it principals in Linda's First Love arid Rich Man's seemed that Lady Brinthrope did discover that elusive Darling, the latter series involving a concept out of bliss she pursued for so long, if only for an instant. which Our Gal Sunday grew. Aside from the part of While her reverie may have been short-lived, given the Lord Henry, Swenson is best remembered for the title unstable characters that Fairbrooke bred. she seemed to role of Lorenzo Jones, which he carried for the 18 years bask in her fleeting moments of happiness as the wife of of that series' run, 1937-55. He also was featured in the a wealthy and titled Englishman. title role of the weekly evening crime series, Mr. Chameleon, throughout its run, 1948-52. He appeared in a recurring role in both radio and television versions of Portia Faces Life. With no other distinguishing radio or Member's Mike TV credits, Duncan picked up where Swenson left off HE LP ... and carried the part of Lord Henry until the show's I am looking for copies ofboth the demise. radio and TV broadcast of The Big Story. The story was about "Black Sunday and Lord Henry's best friends and nearest Tom Evans" and the reporter who neighbors, Irene and Peter Galway, were played by wrote it was John A. Ellert, ofthe prominent radio thespians Fran Carlon and Joseph Evansville, Indiana Press (my father).