March-April 2021 www.otrr.org Groups.io No. 113 Contents Radio Playhouse: A 1975-76 Radio Playhouse 1 Revival of Old-Time Radio Larry Maupin “Fugue in C Minor” 7 Purchasing Introduction: The two soap operas were “Faces of Groups 9 Much of the background information Love" and "To Have and To Hold." The Stay Tuned for this article has been derived from an novel was Thackeray's Vanity Fair and the America 10 article by Jim Widner in the December sitcom was "The Little Things in Life." Directing for 2009 issue of Radio Recall entitled Widner also provides the information that Radio 11 "Curtain Call for Mutual's Quartette: "the series premiered Monday, August 4, Margot Lane 19 Radio Playhouse and The Faces of 1975 on WOR-New York at 3pm." Another Radio 100 Years Love." Widner writes that "After its useful source is an article in the July 12, Ago 26 offering of The Zero Hour in 1973 and 1975 issue of the New York Times entitled Acquisitions 31 the subsequent demise of that series due "Daytime Soap Operas on Radio Return to to low response, the Mutual Broadcasting WOR, 14 Other Spots." This information System decided to try again, creating a Contributors: was contributed by Pete Cavallo. "The series of four programs under an daytime soap opera, which disappeared umbrella called Radio Playhouse." Joe Adams from radio about 15 years ago, will return After creating the hour-long series, Ryan Ellett for an hour a day August 4 on a new Richard Cox explained that its genesis Martin Grams independent network that will include was somewhat fortuitous. At a lunch with Larry Maupin WOR-AM here. DCA Productions, which is one of his clients, Bristol Myers, the Denise Noe handling the arrangements, has thus far company officials were complaining lined up stations in 15 cities for the about the costs of television sponsorship. programs and three national advertisers. The Cox, a self-described radio fan, suggested Edited by Ryan Ellett programs will be produced here and make Proofed by Richard radio as a medium for sponsoring a use of writers and actors who emerged Davenport program. During the course of that lunch, when drama was part of radio." *** the ad exec had mapped out an hour-long Dr. Joe Webb submitted a column by umbrella consisting of two soaps, the Val Adams which was published in the July OldRadioTimes@ adaptation of a famous novel, and a yahoo.com 13, 1975, issue of Radio Roundup that comedy. The show was offered to begins "Make way for Radio Playhouse, a stations on a barter basis in which Bristol series of syndicated dramas that will be Myers would get six minutes of broadcast here on WOR from 3 to 4p.m. commercial time and local stations would Mondays through Fridays, beginning get twelve minutes to fill with their own August 4. The series will also be carried by sponsors. So the inspiration for this other stations in major markets, including program came from an advertising Baltimore, Miami, Seattle and Houston. The executive! column provides a helpful list of actors who played major roles in the "four different 15-minute plays." Joan Loring, Mason Adams, and Nat Polen portrayed the principle characters in "The Faces of Love"; "The Little Things in Life" was written by Peg Lynch, and Bob Dryden joined her as co-star in that program; and "The cast of 'To Have and To Hold' includes some renowned names from the old radio days-- Joyce Gordon, William Redfield, Larry Haines, Charita Bauer and Patricia Wheel." The column concludes with "WOR, in scheduling ‘Radio Playhouse,’ would seem to be undergoing a gradual cutback in its traditional format of talk and interview shows. The new series even eliminates the 3p.m. news broadcast by John Scott plus the initial 45 minutes of 'The Bob and Ray Show'." The following is a list of some of the other stations besides WOR that aired Radio Playhouse. They were discovered by Brian Kavanaugh and Kent Schroder: III. Themes WPTF- Raleigh, North Carolina The theme of each of the four programs that WICK- Scranton, Pennsylvania comprise Radio Playhouse is well articulated in a WOC- Des Moines, Iowa promotional piece sent to me by Jim Widner which was WWJ- Detroit. Michigan released by WOR prior to the premiere of Radio WHCU- Ithaca, New York Playhouse on August 4, 1975. The caption is "Four WGAL- Lancaster, Pennsylvania Brand New Programs Heard Monday-Friday From 3-4 WHO- Des Moines, Iowa p.m.": "The Faces of Love" (3-3:15): Suddenly a young II. Commercials woman is thrust, completely unprepared, into a life of Radio Playhouse was explicitly intended for an complete freedom. Her traditional background conflicts adult female audience and it attracted an with her new-found freedom to confront her with impressive number of sponsors and products. difficult decisions at every turn. "Author's Studio" Clairol seems to have been pre-eminent among (3:15-3:30): Dramatization of famous novels in them. Commercials for Miss Clairol Hair Coloring serialized form, the first of which is William and Miss Clairol Loving Care Color Lotion are Makepeace Thackeray's Vanity Fair. A romantic story presented in probably all of the 60 episodes (15 of featuring the bright and clever Becky Sharp, a liberated each of the 4 series included in Radio Playhouse) woman a century ahead of her time. "The Little Things that I have taken notes on in preparation for in Life" (3:30-3:45): A light-hearted and high-spirited writing this article. Other sponsors of note were program which takes a fond and good-natured look at Bristol Myers (which advertised Datril and the trivialities which serve to frustrate us in our daily Tylenol), Ban Roll-On Deodorant and O-Cedar lives. You'll recognize and identify Brooms. Some of the commercials are sensitive to environmental concerns and others claim to offer products featuring breakthroughs in such areas as pain relief. Final Net is "the first sensible alternative to aerosol hair spray." Datril is "the new non-aspirin pain reliever from Bristol Myers." 2 The Old Radio Times * March-April 2021 * Number 113 with the events in the series. "To Have and To Extramarital sex is not absent from earlier radio, but Hold" (3:45-4:00): The stresses and demands is usually treated as suspicion or rumor except in a few which face two families of doctors who are daily notable instances. In an episode of Young Dr. involved with life and death decisions is the Malone dated September 16, 1960 and recorded from setting of this highly-charged dramatic program. KNX-Los Angeles we find that Dr. Ted Mason, Chief You'll agonize and sympathize as the doctors mix of Staff at the Three Oaks Medical Clinic, is having an the volatile combination of emotion and intellect adulterous affair with Molly West which his wife in a contemporary society." Marcia has learned about. She finds them alone together at the Masons' cabin and insists that Ted come IV. Programs home with her at once and that Molly leave town by the The daily lives of the characters in The Faces next evening. Lisa Fenner in Aunt Mary becomes of Love and To Have and To Hold contain issues pregnant and has a child out of wedlock. and challenges that differ significantly from those In The Guiding Light Bill Bauer's marriage and found in daytime radio dramas prior to 1961. Chief career are destroyed by what began innocently as social among them is a more determined and resentful drinking and escalated due to the pressures of working rejection by women of male domination. We also for a ruthless boss as an advertising executive. Jim Cox find a much more explicit treatment of writes in The Great Radio Soap Operas (p.66) that at extramarital sex, a pervasive use of alcohol about the same time Bill's sister Meta shot his boss and throughout the culture, and a reflection of the her husband Ted White to death, Bill's marriage to increase in drug abuse. Bertha "began to unravel as a result of Bill's This is not to say that female characters in unfaithfulness and alcoholism." daytime radio drama prior to 1961 did not resist The heroine of Faces of Love is Kate Wakefield, a the male dominated culture. Carol Brent in Road 27-year-old widow who has never gotten over the of Life, for example, openly rebelled against her mysterious death of her husband Tom. She tries to husband's attempts to keep her at home where she move on with her life by relocating from Belhaven to would be exclusively a wife and mother. She Chicago and taking a job with a real estate firm. She insisted on having her own career, and when her dates other men, and even has an adulterous affair with employer needed her in his New York office she Tony Cushing which his wife finds out about, but is dropped everything at once and left as soon as ultimately compelled to return to Jamaica and seek possible. This led to many bitter arguments answers to how Tom's death came about. Tony between Carol and her husband Jim and was a repeatedly tries to control her life but she resists his major factor in their eventual divorce. every effort and ultimately tells him to leave her alone and get on with his own life. Kate has learned that Tom was involved in smuggling drugs out of South America into the United States while working for a crime syndicate.