Listen to this! This show opens with a laugh. It's like we caught the announcer at the end of a joke. And you know what? We did. In later programs, with the Kings Men and the Billy Mills Orchestra you can hear the end music kick in with with a joyfully triumphant "Ha!" as well. This program was live and it was raw. Jim and Marion Jordan, Fibber and Molly respectively, kept close to their vaudeville roots. A live audience was whooped-up into a frenzy of laughter before the machine was turned on, and once it was turned on - well, there was a script... Sometimes you wonder if they had read it.

Although it came out in the same year as the Burns and Allen featured last night this show sounds less polished, and it is. Moreover - if you count jokes - it's not as funny. But it was every bit as popular - vastly more popular at times. Why it was possible to take a walk down your street in 1940 on a summer's night and not miss a minute of this program as the sound of it playing floated out from the open windows of every house on the block. Few radio programs can make that claim. If you wanted to find a present-day parallel think "American Idol" perhaps. (Although McGee and Molly still wins in my house.)



Here's a picture of the show in progress. That was it - that's what the studio audience saw. A stage, some mics, some instruments, a sound effects man, performers. Do you see Harold 'Hal' Peary over to Jim and Marion's left, by the chair? You'll hear him laugh on this program, and it's the high point.

Check out Molly's Irish as they head out of the bijou. And remember the little girl, Teenie, who they meet outside after the movie, is also played by Marion Jordan - here switching off between voices without dropping a syllable. It would become a running gag on later programs that Teenie and Molly never appeared in the same scene, but this was not the case here!

So what makes the Johnson's Wax Program Starring Fibber McGee and Molly so special? Well, the fact that is was done live, in one take, mistakes and all, certainly helped. That appealed to people - that edginess, that sense of sitting in on something your friends were putting together down at the church basement or at the Elks. That wasn't all, of course. You can't tell by listening to just the one, but this program was full to overflowing with the corniest running gags you can imagine. A character voice would appear, and you just knew - but you didn't know when - he or she would say that line, whatever that line was. As people anticipated this program while they were at work on Tuesdays they would have been saying that line, and lines like it, to one another. Sharing the laugh in advance.

Now we get to share that laugh again, 67 years later.

NBC Radio gave George Burns and Gracie Allen a pass when they auditioned in 1930, so the legendary comedic couple made their radio debut on the BBC in England. By the time the program you're hearing now aired in 1940, Burns and Allen had already 'tweaked' their act several times to arrive at the overwhelming popularity they were beginning to enjoy.

They teamed up in 1923 as a vaudeville act, and married three years later. At that time vaudeville theaters were still drawing the big crowds, and the new medium of radio simply was not able to attract much talent. Burns and Allen recognized early the potential of radio broadcasting, and it was Gracie who premiered (without George) on Eddie Cantor's variety program on November 15, 1931. As a duo they first appeared in Rudy Vallee's "Fleischmann Hour," following which they won a regular spot on Guy Lomardo's "Robert Burns Panatela Program."

When Lombardo left the show Burns and Allen took it over. And then, in a remarkably funny turn of promoting genius, Gracie spent 1933 popping up in cameo appearances on other radio programs looking for her "missing brother." Radio listeners never knew where Gracie was going to show up next. She would suddenly appear on Jack Benny's program, then Eddie Cantor's, Rudy Vallee's. These shows were becoming immensely popular. By that time the tide had turned for the theaters, vaudeville comedians were looking for jobs in radio, and the Golden Age had officially begun.

Gracie's presidential run was another wonderfully funny running gag, and it gave her the opportunity to make the rounds once more - this time campaigning as the candidate for the Surprise Party. You'll get to hear her explaining the origins of the Surprise Party on this histerical historical program.

The Burns and Allen Radio Program ran until 1950, when they made the jump to television for another decade. Gracie Allen died in 1964, George Burns in 1996, two months after his 100th birthday.

OK, a bit of a departure to begin with. Louis Prima comes a little later, but that's alright. This stuff rocks. Check him out with wife Keely Smith - some of the most amazing duets in history. She's so sincere - she just builds the song just like it's written. Meanwhile, he starts gleefully ripping it to shreds. And she doesn't blink. Sometimes - once in a rare while - he'd get a laugh out of her. Louis Prima and his All-Stars played Vegas forever. There'd be more people crowded into his two shows a night than showed up for the headliner on the big stage.

Well, we're finally underway. I've got hundreds of these files. Enjoy this one if you happen by now. Otherwise, I'll post a McGee and Molly every Tuesday night. I hope to do "The Great Guildersleeve" on Wednesday, and "Burns and Allen" on another weekday. Saturday nights will feature hit music of the era. Other programs will be added as they are conceived.

 

JTS