Golden Age of Radio

The Milwaukee Journal – Nov 8, 1942      Radio Stock Troupe Does Well SEVEN actors, an actress and a director are today earning a place in dramatic history. They are radio’s first and only stock company, heard on the Cavalcade of America ” and known as the Cavalcade Players. Since that day in the dim past when men first entertained their fellows with ballads and play, actors have banded together to form “stock companies” that left their mark on theatrical history. From Euripides of Greece to America’s famous chautauquas, groups of actors have traveled together, worked together and suffered together. Today the Cavalcade Players form another noteworthy of radio. The hardships of travel, the tribulations of the road, the grease paint and footlights, the irregular work are replaced by an NBC microphone and a luxurious, air conditioned studio. Aside from somewhat unusual working hours, the players live normal lives—more like businessmen then the ba...

The Milwaukee Journal – Nov 8, 1942      Kids’ Programs Worry Everybody but Kids By Richard Match In the New York Tunes “LOOK—up in the sky!” “It’s a bird!” “It’s a plane!” “It’s Superman !” These magic syllables are “Once upon a time--,” 1942 style. They introduce the time hallowed fairy tale as the modern American youngster knows it and wants to know it. Every day, as supper time draws near, young America, aged 7 to 14, rushes for home,  hearth and radio to absorb his or her daily hour of modern children’s “literature.” Young ears listen avidly as the heroic Captain Midnight and five or six other modern Jack the Giant Killer spend 15 minutes ranging a 1942 Never-Never Land. The old fantastic two headed giant has been replaced by master spies and super-criminals. The fair damsel in distress is now a stolen airplane design. And a twin motored monoplane takes Jack farther and faster than seven league boots ever did. None of that...

NO SUPERMAN —BUT GOOD For a long time, the American Broadcasting Company’s Terry and the Pirates—Monday through Friday from 5 P. M. to 5:15 EST—a show ostensibly for the kids, has been up among the most adult programs on the air. Terry—the leading character—has been carrying on a relentless fight against fascism, a fight started months before the actual war began and now, continuing with sensible warnings against the enemy which has not been completely routed everywhere, nor completely conquered. Terry is played by Owen Jordan, a medium height young man, with dark, curly hair and grinning brown eyes. And, in a way, Owen is a kind of perfect choice for the part. He’s really interested in children. Last fall, for instance, he appeared at some seventeen high schools in and around New York, lecturing to students of the drama on the possible use of radio in child education. His lectures were based on more than the dramatic aspects of radio, too. He’s been a teacher and made use ...