THE EDGAR BERGEN AND CHARLIE McCARTHY SHOW:

AN EPISODE GUIDE AND BRIEF HISTORY

by Martin Grams, Jr.

 

On his way home from school one day, the young lad named Edgar Bergen tested a newly-found gift by hailing another boy, who exclaimed, “Who was that calling me, anyhow?”  Bergen was aware of his talent, and continued to practice his vocal tricks.  He progressed so well that his mother was forever answering the door in response to pleas of old men who begged to be let in, only to discover that it was Bergen himself.  When once a man stalked Bergen’s mother, it was his vocal talent through the other side of the door that scared her admirer away.  Before long, Edgar’s interests had extended to slight of hand paraphernalia, and spent much of his small savings on magic tricks.  One of his purchases was a twenty-five cent book on ventriloquism, with which he set about developing his talent for “voice diffusion.”

 

Young Bergen went on to high school, attending the Lane Technical and Lakeview Schools.  It was there that Charlie McCarthy was born.  The inspiration for the impish dummy was a tough Irish newsboy, and the head was carved in white pine by a carpenter named Theodore Mack, who followed young Bergen’s specifications.  In gratitude, Bergen added a Celtic suffix to the carpenter’s name – and Charlie McCarthy was christened.  While Charlie’s head cost about thirty-five dollars, Bergen himself made the body.  The newly whittled brash youth was an immediate success, delighting Bergen’s classmates and teachers.  The dummy, incidentally, once helped his master pass an important history course by completely charming the teacher.

 

With the eclipse of vaudeville, in the early thirties Bergen polished his routine for nightclubs.  He was very successful with an act he called “The Operation,” in which he played the doctor.  Charlie was the patient and a nurse was in attendance.  (Edgar Bergen reprised this act in the beginning of RKO Studio’s 1941 movie Look Who’s Laughing.)  This act was based on reality: Bergen had recently undergone an operation – he had argued with the doctors and experienced the usual qualms of a patient – all of which he transformed into a satirical comedy.  But Bergen’s chance of fame came one night in 1936, on the invitation of Elsa Maxwell.  He performed at a party where one of the guests, Noel Coward, congratulated Bergen on his fine dialogue.  A week later, on December 16, Bergen made his first radio appearance on Rudy Vallee’s The Royal Gelatin Hour, for which he received the sum of one hundred and fifty dollars.  That may not seem much by today’s standards, but in 1936 that was more than a month’s worth of wages.  Five months later, in May of 1937, Chase and Sanborn began sponsoring The Chase and Sanborn Hour, starring Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. 

 

The Chase and Sanborn Hour

Broadcast from 8 to 9 p.m., EST over NBC

Master of Ceremonies: Don Ameche

Music:  Werner Janseen conducts the music for the first seven broadcasts.

Music:  Robert Armbruster will lead the orchestra beginning with episode eight till the early 1940s.

Regulars: Dorothy Lamour is a regular.  W.C. Fields as comedian for the first eighteen broadcasts.

Throughout 1937 – 1940, Nelson Eddy was replaced by various tenors such as John Carter and Donald Dickson, in increments a few months while Eddy continuously went to Hollywood for the filming of movies at M-G-M.  All of Eddy’s vacations are noted in the log.

Like Rudy Vallee’s program, The Chase and Sanborn Hour was constantly presenting new acts, comedians and singers, hoping some of the rising stars would become national celebrities soon after their appearances.

 

1.      (5/9/37)  Ann Harding performs a scene from The Guardsman.

2.      (5/16/37)  Carole Lombard is guest actress and Joseph Bentonelli is the guest singer.

3.      (5/23/37)  Guests include actress Mary Boland, figure skater Sonja Henie and baritone Ray Middleton.

4.      (5/30/37)  Actress Josephine Hutchinson and pianist Jose Iturbi.

5.      (6/6/37)  Actress Constance Bennett and baritone Ray Middleton.

6.      (6/13/37)  Joan Blondell is guest actress, along with the song writing team of Roger and Hart.

7.      (6/20/37)  Ray Robson performs “The Old Lady Shows her Medals” and violinist Grisha Goluboff.

8.      (6/27/37)  Sonja Henie and Ray Middleton return.  Norma Drury is guest pianist. 

9.      (7/4/37)  Guests include Hoagy Charmichael and Zazu Pitts.

10.   (7/11/37)  Gladys George is guest.

11.   (7/18/37)  Actress Ann Southern performs a skit entitled “Fifty Roads to Town.”

12.   (7/25/37)  Tenor Attilio Baggiore sings and Mary Pickford and Don Ameche perform a short version of The Magic Cottage.

13.   (8/1/37)  Bruna Castagna is guest soprano.

14.   (8/8/37)  According to a press release, this is the first broadcast of the Charlie McCarthy series to feature Nelson Eddy, who had just this week signed on to become a regular on and off select weeks as the weekly baritone and singer.

15.   (8/15/37)  Allan Jones is the guest tenor and Alice Brady performs a scene from Mourning Becomes Electra.

16.   (8/22/37)  Glenda Farrell is guest.

17.   (8/29/37)  This is the last episode to feature W.C. Fields as a regular.  He will return on occasion for guest spots when called on.

18.   (9/5/37)  Ida Lupino is guest actress.

19.   (9/12/37)  Bette Davis is guest actress.

20.   (9/19/37)  Beginning with this episode, Herbert Marshall takes over as master of ceremonies, while Don Ameche leaves for a three-week vacation.

21.   (9/26/37)  Claudette Colbert is guest actress.  Herbert Marshall is master of ceremonies.

22.   (10/3/37)  Sally Eilers is guest.  Rudy Vallee is master of ceremonies, as a form of cross-promotion since Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy would be guest on Vallee’s radio program five days later.

23.   (10/10/37)  Miriam Hopkins is guest.  Don Ameche returns from his vacation.

24.   (10/17/37)  Clark Gable is guest.  The Stroud Twins are now regular weekly comedians, filling the void W.C. Fields left a few weeks ago.  The Stoud Twins would remain on the series until September 25, 1938.

25.   (10/24/37)  no information is known.

26.   (10/31/37)  Barbara Stanwyck is guest.

27.   (11/7/37)  Barbara Stanwyck returns.

28.   (11/14/37)  Anna Neagle

29.   (11/21/37)  Billie Burke

30.   (11/28/37)  Andrea Leeds

31.   (12/5/37)  Ginger Rogers

32.   (12/12/37)  Mae West is guest, something to do with a skit about “Adam and Eve.”

 

Perhaps no other broadcast of the Charlie McCarthy show is more popular than the December 12, 1937 broadcast starring Mae West.  West rarely appeared on radio and when she did the sole purpose was to promote one of her films.  West had appeared on such programs as The Shell Chateau with Al Jolson in 1936 and Louella Parsons’ blackmailing program Hollywood Hotel on April 26, 1935, with featured guest Paul Cavanaugh in an adaptation of the movie Goin’ to Town.  (On February 21, 1934, the famed Mae West Jewel Robbery was dramatized on Calling All Cars over CBS, without West participating in the drama.)  When the producers of The Chase and Sanborn Hour offered the sex goddess the opportunity to appear on the program – then currently the highest-rated program of the year – she accepted if only to promote her latest film, Everyday is a Holiday.  West often wrote her own scripts and even produced her own movies, so she did have a financial interest among her radio appearances.

 

NBC wanted to present something special for Miss West, so the powers that be turned to one of their most promising young writers, Arch Oboler.  “That script came about this way,” Oboler recalled on television’s The Merv Griffin Show on August 2, 1973.  “NBC called upon me one day in Westwood . . . they were in trouble on the Edgar Bergen show.  I knew they always were in trouble on that show, but they were in particular because John Erskin had written a book called Adam and Eve.  Miss West didn’t like it, Charlie didn’t like it, Edgar . . . didn’t matter [jokingly laughs], and Don Ameche was playing the lead.  So they asked me, would I write this ten-minute sketch?  Well, I wasn’t interested in writing for Miss West.  Finally, they waved enough money at me, and my good resolves went down the drain, but I made one condition: I said I would write about Adam and Eve only if I could take it out of the book – which I collaborated with years before – that is the Bible [jokingly].  The show was to be rehearsed on Saturday, going on the air on Sunday.  This was Thursday, so I stayed up all night with my dear wife, who I married because she knew how to take things down, and I wrote this sketch.  It was taken right out of Genesis.”

 

It was eleven days before Christmas.  Eight o’clock Sunday night.  The Chase and Sanborn Hour began broadcasting from Hollywood as usual.  The master of ceremonies, Don Ameche, introduced Nelson Eddy who opened with “On the Road to Mandalay” followed by “Beneath the Southern Moon” (the latter from Naughty Marietta).  Next, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy joked with Nelson Eddy for a few minutes, asking among other questions how much Eddy made as a singer.  Eddy avoided a definite answer by turning the tide; he asked Charlie how much he made and Charlie replied that he won’t reveal his salary “because Bergen keeps all of my allowances.”  (Just as a footnote here, Time reported in 1943 that Eddy was the highest paid singer in the United States.)

 

Dorothy Lamour sang a song followed by a Chase and Sanborn commercial.  Announcer Wendell Niles introduced Don Ameche and Mae West in “Adam and Eve.”  And then the calamity began.

 

 

 

“Now one thing the powers-that-be forgot,” recalled Oboler, “that in those days, unlike today, there were three things that an actress could not do.  One was to have a child out of wedlock.  Two, she could not swear, and three, she could not wear glasses.  It was thought terrible for an actress to wear glasses.  Well, Miss West, having all the usual good sense of all of us, didn’t wear her glasses during the rehearsals so she, being very nearsighted never saw my script.  She bluffed her way through.  It wasn’t until air time that she walked on stage waving these glasses, put them on . . . and for the first time saw the script.  The result was disaster.  What she did to ‘Adam and Eve’ the Arabs had never done so miserably.”

 

Dorothy Lamour recounted in her 1981 autobiography, My Side of the Road, “One week our special guest was Mae West, who was to play Eve to Don Ameche’s Adam, in a takeoff on the Bible story.  Church groups were outraged and the mail came pouring in.  I can’t even remember what she said that was so terrible, but I’m sure it was mild by today’s standards.”

 

What Mae West said wasn’t so bad as how she said it.  Telling the serpent that “I feel like doin’ a big apple” was one comment ad-libbed, but when the serpent got stuck between the picket fences in an attempt to fetch the forbidden fruit, West exclaimed with the emotion of a woman going through an orgasm, “They’re – They’re!  Now you’re through!”

 

Edgar Bergen was shocked.  “We had to have a star each week,” he recalled, “and she seemed a logical choice.  She was a sex star.  We were fully aware of that.  ‘Adam and Eve’ as you probably know, had been performed before without any untoward incidents.  Possibly our program being on Sunday and having a little fun with the Bible was dangerous.  We always had two rehearsals; one on Saturday evening, after which we rewrite and tighten, and then we would do a Sunday afternoon read-through.  At that read-through, Mae read her lines straight.  It was obvious she knew what she was doing – how to lay out line – but she didn’t give things that Mae West twist until the broadcast.  I’ve always said that we had far more permissive material on a previous show.”

 

When one listens to a copy of the recording of this program, one can hear Don Ameche hesitate and even try to improvise to West’s lines.  (Ameche even repeated the same line twice, the second with a slight hesitation!)  But even when Mae West went up against the wooden dummy later in the program, exchanges such as “So good-time Charlie’s going to play hard-to-get” and “You’re all wood and a yard long” didn’t help matters any.

 

Variety reported that Mae West has attracted the largest crowd at the NBC studio than any Hollywood star ever had, and after the broadcast a complicated if not over-demanding public outcry pervaded the airwaves.  NBC’s president issued a public statement the day after the broadcast, explaining that such an incident was meant to entertain, not injure or insult those who felt the skit was “profane.”  NBC also stated that it would take any and all responsibility for any financial damages resulting from the broadcast.  From a business perspective, this was a shrewd move on the part of NBC.  Since the remarks of West were not aimed toward anyone particular, it could be said for certain that no radio listener could have possibly been financially injured as a result of what they heard – and with NBC publicly taking responsibility for the program that aired over their network, the good faith extended toward the listening public would be more apt to forgive and forget.

 

But apparently damages were made.  “Well, we were sued for plagiarism,” recalled Oboler.  “I don’t mean God called down – no this was from another part of heaven called Texas.  A woman had written a story about Adam and Eve and she sued the network, NBC, for plagiarism.  And Arch Oboler was the culprit.  Since there were only two copies in existence, one that she had in her trunk, and the other one at the Library of Congress, it would have been necessary for me in those days to have gotten on a train and break into the Library of Congress.  [Since I couldn’t] I was sued.  And at the time the suit came up, it was one of those ordinary nuisances where they want to be paid off by the network in order not to go to trial.  But this time the network put its back up stiffly and the trial went on.  The trial was set in New York, and so I had to appear before what would be easily an officer of the Federal Court.  When I got there on Wall Street, and sat down in a courtroom, the man looked just like Lewis Stone – and acted like him.  He was very antsy and he didn’t like any part of this newfangled thing called radio, and above all, he didn’t like the whole thing discussing Mae West.”

 

“His first question,” continued Oboler, “was ‘Mr. Oboler, where were you on February twenty-second – blah, blah, blah.’  And as long as I live, I’ll remember my answer because I was under oath.  I said, ‘In the bedroom’ because, you see, Miss West does all of her business in her bedroom.  She pays her bills in her bedroom, and she rehearses in her bedroom.  So the judge’s next question – he looked at me very suspiciously as if I were the Henry Kissinger of my time – and he said, “Exactly, Mr. Oboler, what were you doing – and remember you’re under oath – what were you doing with Miss West?’  And his face turned bright red and he said, ‘I withdraw the question.’  And that was the end of that.”

 

Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper was in attendance during the broadcast, as one of the audience members, and she wrote in her column that she had “never seen anyone as embarrassed as Don Ameche.  And I understand when they first showed him the sketch he absolutely refused to do it.  They assured him Mae would play it straight and not indulge in any of her Westian nuances and if he refused to go on they would keep him off the air.  Me was wearing a black evening gown, a long silver-fox cape, orchids and lilies of the valley, black eyelashes, the longest I’ve ever seen.  She wore a pair of lorgnettes on a diamond-studded chain around her neck, but like a man who wears both suspenders and a belt.  And she had a pair of glasses which she wore while broadcasting.”

 

According to the January 24, 1938 issue of Time magazine: “Last month Mae West brought down a deluge of criticism from all over the U.S. by a sexy burlesque of the story of Adam and Eve.  Among the 1,000-odd letters of criticism that showered on [the] National Broadcasting Company was one from [the] F.C.C. asking for a transcript of the program.  Last week NBC President Lenox R. Lohr got another letter from [the] F.C.C., signed by Chairman Frank McNinch.”  Taking time out from such radio supervising jobs as dividing up the ether, allotting slices of it to broadcasting stations and licensing operators, Mr. McNinch sounded off on Mae West.

 

“The admittedly objectionable character of these features is, in our opinion,” remarked McNinch, “attributable to the lack of a proper conception of the high standards required for a broadcast program intended for reception in the homes, schools, automobiles, religious, social and economic institutions, as well as clubs, hotels, trains and other places, reaching in the aggregate a much larger number of people daily than any other means of communication and carrying its message to men, women and children of all ages.”

 

The president of the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency apologized to Lenox R. Lohr, the President of NBC, and after citing eight year of programming as evidence of this goal, the president admitted to the mistake and ensured the public at large that the same mistake would not be made again.  To this end, six days after the broadcast, the general manager of the NBC station group banned any mention of Mae West’s name and of the incident on the network.  In effect, Mae West was gone, never to grace the airwaves again.

 

33.   (12/19/37)  In a more dignified manner from last week’s incident, the cast of Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs performed a recreation.

34.   (12/26/37)  Mary Pickford is guest in a drama entitled “A Kiss for Cinderella.”

35.   (1/2/38)  Margo is the guest actress.

36.   (1/9/38)  Margaret Sullivan

37.   (1/16/38)  Lupe Velez

38.   (1/23/38)  Alice Brady

39.   (1/30/38)  Boris Karloff performs “The Evil Eye,” an adaptation of Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart.

40.   (2/6/38)  Marlene Dietrich performs a skit entitled “I Love an Actress.”

41.   (2/13/38)  Barbara Stanwyck performs a skit entitled “The Straw.”

42.   (2/20/38)  Gladys Swarthout is guest.

43.   (2/27/38)  Rosalind Russell

44.   (3/6/38)  Actors Adolph Menjou and Vera Teasdale are guests.  Both are real-life husband and wife.  Menjou is appearing on the program for publicity purposes.  Both Bergen and Menjou appeared in Universal’s latest picture, Letter of Introduction.  Incidentally, Teasdale was Menjou’s real-life wife.

45.   (3/13/38)  Olivia deHavilland

46.   (3/20/38)  Carole Lombard

47.   (3/27/38)  Olivia deHavilland returns

48.   (4/3/38)  Joan Bennett

49.   (4/10/38)  Madeline Carroll

50.   (4/17/38)  Bette Davis

51.   (4/24/38)  Tommy Kelly

52.   (5/1/38)  Edward Arnold

53.   (5/8/38)  Gladys George

54.   (5/15/38)  May Robson is guest.

55.   (5/22/38)  May Robson returns.

56.   (5/29/38)  Barbara Stanwyck

57.   (6/5/38)  W.C. Fields is guest.

58.   (6/12/38)  William Powell

59.   (6/19/38)  Claudette Colbert

60.   (6/26/38)  Carole Lombard

61.   (7/3/38)  Miriam Hopkins

 

Charlie McCarthy, though made of wood, was worth a fortune by mid-1938.  He had a stand-in, used for cinema work and for some publicity stills; a wardrobe that included a supply of monocles, two full dress suits, a supply of starchy linen, ten hats size 3½, including several toppers and two berets; a Sherlock Holmes outfit, jockey silks, a cowboy suit, a French Foreign Legion uniform, a gypsy costume (“It’s the Gypsy in me”).  he wore baby-size shows, spent $1,000 a year for wardrobe and laundry, was insured for $10,000 against kidnapping, loss or demolition. 

 

In 1938, at 33^rd and Broadway in New York City, Charlie McCarthy fans could visit the fifth floor of the Gimbels Department Store and for $9.98, fans could purchase their own Charlie McCarthy and a book on ventriloquism.  To give you an idea of how much Edgar Bergen was making off his creation, both he and Charlie collected $100,000 a year from the sale of dolls, gadgets, silverware and other copies of cocky Charlie.  The March 20, 1939 issue of Time magazine reported that Edgar Bergen had recently made his last will and testament.  In it he remembered Charlie, leaving $10,000 to the National Society of Ventriloquists so that Charlie might be kept in repair and used to encourage the perpetuation of the art.

 

Trivia:  Ventriloquism was never a radio art.  It still isn’t.  But thoroughly part of radio art was Bergen’s clever deliveries with guests on his radio program, for which is alma mater, Northwestern University, in 1937 awarded Charlie the honorary degree of Master of Innuendo and Snappy comeback.

 

62.   (7/10/38)  Basil Rathbone is the guest.  Edward Arnold is the master of ceremonies.  Don Ameche leaves for an eight-week vacation.

63.   (7/17/38)  Ida Lupino is guest.

64.   (7/24/38)  Spencer Tracy performs a drama entitled “Five Star Final.”

65.   (7/31/38)  Fay Bainter in a scene from Dodsworth.  Margaret MacRae is guest singer. 

66.   (8/7/38)  John Barrymore and Loretta Lee are guests.  Nelson Eddy returns as lead tenor, replacing John Carter who was singer on the last few broadcasts.

67.   (8/14/38)  Ella Logan, Richard Cromwell and Kathleen Lockhart are guests.  Beulah Bondi was originally scheduled as a guest but for reasons unknown, she did not appear.

68.   (8/21/38)  Virginia Bruce is guest.

69.   (8/28/38)  Ralph Bellamy and Edward Arnold perform A Well Remembered Voice by James Barrie.

70.   (9/4/38)  Olivia deHavilland stars in a scene from When the Sun Rises.  Don Ameche returns from his eight-week vacation.

71.   (9/11/38)  Warner Bros. Studios loans Errol Flynn to the program for publicity purposes.

72.   (9/18/38)  Cowboy singer Gene Autry is guest.  Olympic Branda is also guest.

73.   (9/25/38)  Actress Constance Bennett is guest.  This is the final episode to feature the Stroud Twins.

74.   (10/2/38)  Alice Faye is guest.  Judy, Annie and Zeke are guest comedians, who replace the Stroud Twins and remain as regulars till the end of the year.

75.   (10/9/38)  Actress Loretta Young is guest of the week.

76.   (10/16/38)  Sonja Henie

77.   (10/23/38)  no details or guests known

78.   (10/30/38)  Madeline Carroll is guest.  This same evening Orson Welles panicked America on CBS.

79.   (11/6/38)  Jean Arthur

80.   (11/13/38)  Anna May Wong pays a visit to the program.

81.   (11/20/38)  Anna May Wong returns to the program.

82.   (11/27/38)  Henry Fonda is guest.

83.   (12/4/38)  Carole Lombard

84.   (12/11/38)  William Powell

85.   (12/18/38)  Mischa Auer and Madeline Carroll

86.   (12/25/38)  Christmas broadcast, special events and holiday skits are performed.

87.   (1/1/39)  Jackie Cooper and Maxie Rosenbloom

88.   (1/8/39)  Maxie Rosenbloom made a splash last week with listeners so he returns again.

89.   (1/15/39)  Rosalind Russell

90.   (1/22/39)  Actress Claudette Colbert and actor Sterling Holloway are guests.

91.   (1/29/39)  Maureen O’Sullivan is guest.  This is the last episode to feature Nelson Eddy as a regular tenor.

92.   (2/5/39)  Sterling Holloway returns and Barbara Stanwyck is guest.  Donald Dickson replaces Nelson Eddy as the lead singer until August of 1939.

93.   (2/12/39)  Sterling Holloway for a third time in four weeks!

94.   (2/19/39)  The great Marlene Dietrich is guest.

95.   (2/26/39)  Billy Gilbert and Akim Tamiroff are guests.

96.   (3/5/39)  Virginia Bruce is guest.

97.   (3/12/39)  Helen Hayes and Beatrice Fairfax are guests.  Comedian Richard Haydn becomes a regular about this time, appearing in almost every episode for the next few months.

 

The episode of March 12, 1939 was broadcast from Manhattan’s Radio City – the first time the program had originated from anywhere but Hollywood since the program’s premiere.  When the plan to do this was announces to the press, 60,000 Charlie McCarthy fans besieged NBC and the agency producing the show for admission to Radio City’s 1,318-seat Studio 8-H.  A crowd of 5,000 was at the station when the Chase and Sanborn troupe arrived, but Charlie was nowhere to be seen.  Photographers grouped Master of Ceremonies Don Ameche, darkling Sarongstress Dorothy Lamour and Baritone Donald Dickson for a picture.  As they were sighting the group, a press agent brought another man over, a middling, fair, baldish chap with delicate , expressive lips.  For one photographer up front, this man crowded the picture, blocked the view of the lissome Lamour.  “Hey,” he growled, “get that lug out of there.”  Little did the photographer know that the lug was Edgar Bergen.

 

98.   (3/19/39)  Maurice Evans

99.   (3/26/39)  Madeline Carroll, Jean Travers and Edward Everett Horton are guests.

100.           (4/2/39)  Jackie Oakie

101.           (4/9/39)  Ogden Nash and Claudette Colbert

102.           (4/16/39)  Ginger Rogers

103.           (4/23/39)  Loretta Young

104.           (4/30/39)  Edward Everett Horton

105.           (5/7/39)  Virginia Bruce and Roy Atwell are guests.

106.           (5/14/39)  Edward Arnold

107.           (5/21/39)  Rosalind Russell

108.           (5/28/39)  Billy Gilbert and George Brent

109.           (6/4/39)  Guests are Annabella and Billy Gilbert.

110.           (6/11/39)  Loretta Young returns again.

111.           (6/18/39)  Pianist Alec Templeton performs a few renditions.

112.           (6/25/39)  Ginger Rogers

113.           (7/2/39)  Jackie Cooper and Alan Mowbray

114.           (7/9/39)  Stuart Irwin and boxer Tony Galento

115.           (7/16/39)  Andrea Leeds and Charles Irwin

116.           (7/23/39)  Ida Lupino and Barbara Jo Allen

117.           (7/30/39)  Kay Francis and Luis Alberni

118.           (8/6/39)  Josephine Hutchinson and Mischa Auer

119.           (8/13/39)  Barbara Jo Allen returns as guest.  Nelson Eddy returns as lead tenor, replacing Donald Dickson.

120.           (8/20/39)  Charles Irwin and Joan Bennett

121.           (8/27/39)  Miriam Hopkins and Alan Mowbray

122.           (9/3/39)  Wendy Barrie and Vera Vague are guests.  Broadcast originates from Honolulu, Hawaii.

123.           (9/10/39)  Mischa Auer and Madeline Carroll

124.           (9/17/39)  Fred MacMurray and Helen Broderick

125.           (9/24/39)  Anita Louise and David Niven

126.           (10/1/39)  Constance Bennett and Edward Everett Horton

127.           (10/8/39)  Charles Laughton and Barbara Jo Allen

128.           (10/15/39)  Merle Oberon and Vera Vague

129.           (10/22/39)  Olivia deHavilland

130.           (10/29/39)  Clark Gable and Barbara Jo Allen

131.           (11/5/39)  Cliff Nazarro and Jackie Cooper.  This is the final episode to feature Dorothy Lamour as the weekly singer.  She had been a regular since the program began in 1937.

132.           (11/12/39)  Jean Arthur is guest.  Rudy Vallee is master of ceremonies for this broadcast, and will remain emcee for the next four broadcasts while Don Ameche is on vacation.

133.           (11/19/39)  George Raft and Alan Mowbray

134.           (11/26/39)  Loretta Young

135.           (12/3/39)  Maureen O’Hara and Arthur Treacher

136.           (12/10/39)  Lansing Hatfield is guest baritone.

137.           (12/17/39)  Geraldine Fitzgerald is guest.  Don Ameche returns.

138.           (12/24/39)  Gloria Dean

139.           (12/31/39)  Mischa Auer and Madeline Carroll

 

By December of 1939, it was estimated that The Chase and Sanborn Hour traditionally had the ear of perhaps a third of the nation, the largest radio audience in the United States.  But Charlie appeared only twice (a total of about 15 minutes) during the hour: the rest was usually orchestra music, songs by Dorothy Lamour and Donald Dickson, effervescences by guest stars and a master of ceremonies.  Between Charlie’s turn at the mike, the interest in his vast audience wavered.  According to a poll, the sponsors shockingly discovered that many tuned in on other programs, others mixed drinks, woolgather and miss commercials until Charlie returned.  So it was decided by the sponsor, Standard Brands, that something had to be done.  They ordered their Chase and Sanborn show tailored more accurately to Charlie’s measure.  Beginning January 7, 1940, after the contracts of Lamour and Ameche expired, the program would be cut to a half-hour, leaving mainly Charlie and guest-star stooges, leaving little or no opportunity for tuners to duck out for a drink between halves.

 

Beginning with episode 140, the title of the series was changed, obviously, from The Chase and Sanborn Hour to The Chase and Sanborn Program.  Now broadcast from 8 to 8:30 p.m., EST over NBC.  Wendell Niles, who was the regular announcer for the series, had to take leave for a brief time in 1940.  Ben Alexander took his place while Niles was away.

 

140.           (1/7/40)  no guest known

141.           (1/14/40)  Charles Laughton

142.           (1/21/40)  Vera Vague and Priscilla Lane

143.           (1/28/40)  Lansing Hatfield is guest baritone and Una Merkel jokes with Charlie.

144.           (2/4/40)  Judge Leroy Dawson and Barbara Jo Allen

145.           (2/11/40)  Gloria Jean and Walter Catlett

146.           (2/18/40)  Clark Gable

147.           (2/25/40)  Walter Catlett returns

148.           (3/3/40)  Arthur Treacher

149.           (3/10/40)  Carole Lombard

150.           (3/17/40)  Singer Doc Rockwell and baseball player Lou Gehrig are guests.

151.           (3/24/40)  Vera Vague

152.           (3/31/40)  Dr. Allan Roy Dafoe

153.           (4/7/40)  Deanna Durbin

154.           (4/14/40)  Chinese actor Willie Fung is guest.

155.           (4/21/40)  Charles Laughton and Donald Dickson

156.           (4/28/40)  Man-Mountain Dean, professional wrestler

157.           (5/5/40)  Robert Benchley and June Duprez

158.           (5/12/40)  no guest known

159.           (5/19/40)  Jeanette MacDonald

160.           (5/26/40)  Ted Rankin, airplane pilot

161.           (6/2/40)  Singer Josephine Sitzar is guest.

162.           (6/9/40)  James Cagney

163.           (6/16/40)  Anna Neagle

164.           (6/23/40)  Robert Benchley

165.           (6/30/40)  Vera Vague and Charles Laughton

 

July and August of 1940 marked the first time since the program’s premiere that the Charlie McCarthy show would go off the air for a summer break.  The series never missed a single Sunday until the summer of 1940.  The summer replacement was a mystery series entitled The Bishop and the Gargoyle (see John Dunning’s On the Air encyclopedia for info about that program), an unusual crime-fighting series starring Richard Gordon. 

 

Broadcast Sunday evenings from 8 to 8:30 p.m., EST on NBC.

Baritone Donald Dickson signed on as the weekly singer from September 1, 1940 to February 2, 1941.

Richard Haydn was the weekly singer from February 9, 1941 to March 30, 1941.

Deanna Durbin was originally scheduled to star as the weekly singer for this 1940-41 season, but a week before the premiere of September 1940, she backed down.

 

166.           (9/1/40)  Irvin S. Cobb

167.           (9/8/40)  no guest known

168.           (9/15/40)  Jose Iturbi, pianist

169.           (9/22/40)  no guest known

170.           (9/29/40)  Virginia Bruce

171.           (10/6/40)  Charles Laughton

172.           (10/13/40)  Billie Burke

173.           (10/20/40)  Errol Flynn

174.           (10/27/40)  Frank Morgan

175.           (11/3/40)  Laurence Olivier

176.           (11/10/40)  no guest known

177.           (11/17/40)  Mickey Rooney

178.           (11/24/40)  violinist Toscha Seidel

179.           (12/1/40)  Claudette Colbert

180.           (12/8/40)  The Andrews Sisters

181.           (12/15/40)  Madeline Carroll

182.           (12/22/40)  Olivia deHavilland

183.           (12/29/40)  Marlene Dietrich

184.           (1/5/41)  The Andrews Sisters return

185.           (1/12/41)  Judy Garland

186.           (1/19/42)  Ann Southern

187.           (1/26/41)  Robert Taylor

188.           (2/2/41)  William “Hopalong Cassidy” Boyd is guest.

189.           (2/9/41)  Mickey Rooney 

190.           (2/16/41)  no guest known

191.           (2/23/41)  Robert Taylor returns

192.           (3/2/41)  Lucille Ball

193.           (3/9/41)  Charles Boyer

194.           (3/16/41)  Carmen Miranda

195.           (3/23/41)  Myrna Loy

196.           (3/30/41)  Jackie Oakie

197.           (4/6/41)  Lana Turner

198.           (4/13/41)  Carmen Miranda

199.           (4/20/41)  Cecil B. DeMille and Abbott and Costello

200.           (4/27/41)  Susanna Foster and Chester Morris

201.           (5/4/41)  Shirley Temple

202.           (5/11/41)  Martha Raye is guest.  This is the fifth anniversary program.

203.           (5/18/41)  Charles Laughton

204.           (5/25/41)  Edna May Oliver

205.           (6/1/41)  Walt Disney

206.           (6/8/41)  Mickey Rooney

207.           (6/15/41)  Carmen Miranda

208.           (6/22/41)  Lucille Ball and Allan Dwan

209.           (6/29/41)  Jackie Oakie

 

After the broadcast of June 29, 1941, Chase and Sanborn continued to sponsor the same time slot, but a different program while the Charlie McCarthy show went off the air for the summer.  What’s My Line? Was a radio quiz program that identified well-known people.  It was last heard in September 1940 when Oxydol dropped sponsorship.  Chase and Sanborn decided to revive the program as a short-run summer replacement for the Charlie McCarthy presentations.  Arlene Francis and John Reed King were regulars.  After nine weeks on the air, the wooden dummy returned to the air.

 

·        Episode 218 was designed for publicity purposes.  Fibber McGee and Molly were co-stars with Edgar Bergen in the movie, Look Who’s Laughing, which was to premiere in theaters ten days after the broadcast.  Both Bergen and McCarthy would be guests on The Johnson Wax Program (Fibber McGee and Molly’s show), nine days later on November 11 to help promote the movie.

·        Episode 223 originated from Fort Ord, California.   A news bulletin at 8:16 announced that the Dutch East Indies and Costa Rica had declared war on Japan.

·        Episode 224 features an odd combination.  Lou Costello had to call out sick so guest Mickey Rooney and Bud Abbott performed the comical routines!

 

The new 1941 – 42 season now featured Ray Noble and his Orchestra supplying the music for the program.  Bud Abbott and Lou Costello signed on as regular comedians performing short skits each week. 

Buddy Twiss became the announcer.

Broadcast on Sunday evening from 8 to 8:30 p.m., EST on NBC.

 

 

210.           (9/7/41)  Judy Garland

211.           (9/14/41)  Rita Hayworth

212.           (9/21/41)  W.C. Fields

213.           (9/28/41)  Virginia Weidler

214.           (10/5/41)  Dale Carnegie

215.           (10/12/41)  Chester Morris

216.           (10/19/41)  Marlene Dietrich

217.           (10/25/41)  Hedda Hopper

218.           (11/2/41)  Fibber McGee and Molly

219.           (11/9/41)  Veronica Lake

220.           (11/16/41)  Gene Tierney is guest.  Maxine Grey supplied musical vocals.

221.           (11/23/41)  Dr. Albert Edward Wiggam

222.           (11/30/41)  Hedy Lamarr

223.           (12/7/41)  Judy Garland

224.           (12/14/41)  Lana Turner and Mickey Rooney

225.           (12/21/41)  Charles Laughton

226.           (12/28/41)  James Hilton

227.           (1/4/42)  Rosalind Russell

228.           (1/11/42)  Betty Grable and Charles Raft

229.           (1/18/42)  James Stewart

230.           (1/25/42)  Nelson Eddy

231.           (2/1/41)  Donald Crisp

232.           (2/8/42)  Ida Lupino

233.           (2/15/42)  Chester Morris

234.           (2/22/42)  Hedy Lamarr

235.           (3/1/42)  Louella Parsons

236.           (3/8/42)  Ann Southern

237.           (3/15/42)  Cecil B. DeMille

238.           (3/22/42)  Gary Cooper

239.           (3/29/42)  Sir Cedric Harwdicke

240.           (4/5/42)  Jeanette MacDonald

241.           (4/12/42)  Don Ameche

242.           (4/19/42)  Monty Wooley

243.           (4/26/42)  Lucille Ball

244.           (5/3/42)  Edward Everett Horton

245.           (5/10/42)  Jane Withers

246.           (5/17/42)  Bert Lahr

247.           (5/24/42)  Carmen Miranda

248.           (5/31/42)  Laird Cregar

249.           (6/7/42)  Nelson Eddy

250.           (6/14/42)  Ida Lupino

251.           (6/21/42)  Judy Garland

252.           (6/28/42)  Singer Ginny Simms and actor Walter Brennan are guests.

 

During the nine weeks The Chase and Sanborn Program was off for the summer, the sponsors continued to sponsor the same time slot with a different (and patriotic) program, Star-Spangled Vaudville, starring Walter O’Keefe.  When Bergen and McCarthy returned in the fall of 1942, Don Ameche had signed on to become emcee like the olden days.  Bill Thompson became a regular during the last four months of the 1942 – 43 season.

Ray Noble and his Orchestra supplying the music for the program.

Broadcast on Sunday evening from 8 to 8:30 p.m., EST on NBC.

 

253.           (9/6/42)  Charlie Ruggles

254.           (9/13/42)  Rita Hayworth

255.           (9/20/42)  Harold Peary (a.k.a. The Great Gildersleeve)

256.           (9/27/42)  Heddy Lamarr

257.           (10/4/42)  Broadcast originated from Fort Monmouth, New Jersey.

258.           (10/11/42)  no guest known

259.           (10/18/42)  no guest known

260.           (10/25/42)  no guest known

261.           (11/1/42)  no guest known

262.           (11/8/42)  W.C. Fields

263.           (11/15/42)  Edward Arnold

264.           (11/22/42)  Marjorie Main

265.           (11/29/42)  Edward Everett Horton

266.           (12/6/42)  Marjorie Main

267.           (12/13/42)  Nelson Eddy

268.           (12/20/42)  Dale Evans, wife of cowboy star Roy Rogers

269.           (12/27/42)  musician Gene Krupa

270.           (1/3/43)  no guest known

271.           (1/10/43)  musician Gene Krupa returns

272.           (1/17/43)  Paulette Goddard

273.           (1/24/43) singer Jeanette MacDonald and pianist Jose Iturbi

274.           (1/31/43)  Bert Lahr

275.           (2/7/43)  Teresa Wright

276.           (2/14/43)  Charlie Ruggles

277.           (2/21/43)  Carmen Miranda

278.           (2/28/43)  Ida Lupino

279.           (3/7/43)  Sydney Greenstreet

280.           (3/14/43)  Greer Garson and Cornelia Otis Skinner

281.           (3/21/43)  Lupe Velez  [episode broadcast from Mexico City]

282.           (3/28/43)  Roy Rogers

283.           (4/4/43)  Mary Boland

284.           (4/11/43)  Martha Raye

285.           (4/18/43)  Ronald Colman

286.           (4/25/43)  Irene Dunne

287.           (5/2/43)  Barbara Stanwyck

288.           (5/9/43)  William Gaxton and Victor Moore

289.           (5/16/43)  Claudette Colbert and Rags Ragland

290.           (5/23/43)  Charles Boyer

291.           (5/30/43)  Walter Pidgeon

 

Summer replacement for Charlie McCarthy’s time slot was the thirteen-week musical variety series Paul Whiteman Presents.  Chase and Sanborn was the sponsor for that program.  Dinah Shore was the lead singer and Victor Moore and William Gaxton were regulars.  (Note Moore and Gaxton were both guests on the May 9 broadcast four weeks before the premiere of Paul Whiteman Presents!

 

According to a press release dated August 29, 1943, The Chase and Sanborn Program would return September 5 with Victor Moore and William Gaxton as new regulars for the show for the first seven weeks.  Beginning October 24, 1943, Bert Lahr and Lena Horne were featured regulars, replacing Gaxton and Moore.  Lena Horne and Bert Lahr were regulars till the end of the year – their final appearance was December 26, 1943.

 

292.           (9/5/43)  Jean Arthur

293.           (9/12/43)  Humphrey Bogart

294.           (9/19/43)  W.C. Fields

295.           (9/26/43)  Heddy Lamarr

296.           (10/3/43)  Charles Laughton

297.           (10/10/43)  Marjorie Main

298.           (10/17/43)  Roy Rogers

299.           (10/24/43)  Joan Blondell

300.           (10/31/43)  Dorothy Lamour

301.           (11/7/43)  Bob Burns

302.           (11/14/43)  Mary Boland

303.           (11/21/43)  Jane Powell and Heddy Lamarr

304.           (11/28/43)  William Bendix

305.           (12/5/43)  Jane Powell and Fats Waller

306.           (12/12/43)  Jane Powell and Paulette Goddard

307.           (12/19/43)  Lupe Velez

308.           (12/26/43)  Veronica Lake

309.           (1/2/44)  Charlie Ruggles

310.           (1/9/44)  Paulette Goddard and Prince Michael Romanoff

311.           (1/16/44)  Carmen Miranda

312.           (1/23/44)  Greer Garson

313.           (1/30/44)  Basil Rathbone

314.           (2/6/44)  Susan Hayward

315.           (2/13/44)  Edward Everett Horton

316.           (2/20/44)  W.C. Fields

317.           (2/27/44)  Dorothy Lamour

318.           (3/5/44)  Cecil B. DeMille

319.           (3/12/44)  Charlie Ruggles

320.           (3/19/44)  Ruth Hussey

321.           (3/26/43)  W.C. Fields

322.           (4/2/44)  Orson Welles

323.           (4/9/44)  Ray Milland

324.           (4/16/44)  no guest known

325.           (4/23/44)  Clyde Beatty and Yvette

326.           (4/30/44)  Eve Arden

327.           (5/7/44)  Ed Gardner from radio’s Duffy’s Tavern

328.           (5/14/44)  Signe Hasso

329.           (5/21/44)  James Melton

330.           (5/28/44)  Orson Welles

331.           (6/4/44)  This was the final episode of the season, but broadcast at a sixty-minute time slot instead of a thirty-minute time slot.  Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy were the stars, along with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby.  A special salute to the Armed Forces, broadcast from 8 to 9 p.m., EST.

 

Chase and Sanborn continued to sponsor the same 8 to 8:30 p.m. time slot, a twelve-week program entitled The Gracie Fields Show, starring (who else?) Gracie Fields.  This musical variety took off where her last series left, The Gracie Fields Victory Show sponsored by Pall Mall Cigarettes.  Lou Bring and his Orchestra supplied the music.

 

When The Chase and Sanborn Program returned in September, Bill Goodwin signed as a temporary announcer for the first three or four episodes, then replaced by Bill Forman who would stay till the end of the season.  The King Sisters supplied vocal music from September to mid-October, when Joan Merrill replaced the singers as the new lead singer.  Like many comedic programs during WWII, many of these broadcasts originated at bases and stations across the country to entertain troops and boost listener morale.

 

332.           (9/3/44)  Judy Garland is guest and puppet Effie Klinker debuts.

333.           (9/10/44)  Ed Gardner was guest to promote his new season of Duffy’s Tavern set to begin 9/15.

334.           (9/17/44)  Leo Carillo is guest.  Program originated from the Small Craft Training Center at the Roosevelt Navy Base at Terminal Island in California.

335.           (9/24/44)  Anne Baxter

336.           (10/1/44)  Olivia de Havilland

337.           (10/8/44)  no guest listed

338.           (10/15/44)  Gertrude Niesen

339.           (10/22/44)  Jim Ameche become a regular beginning with this episode.

340.           (10/29/44)  Joan Merrill

341.           (11/5/44)  John Robert Powers, founder of the Powers Model Agency and Orson Welles are guests

342.           (11/12/44)  Frank Fay

343.           (11/19/44)  Joan Merrill

344.           (11/26/44)  Don Ameche

345.           (12/3/44)  Professor Irwin Corey

346.           (12/10/44)  Professor Irwin Corey returns, Signe Hasso and Verna Felton

347.           (12/17/44)  Joan Merrill

348.           (12/24/44)  The Chorus of the Great Lakes Naval Training Station

349.           (12/31/44)  Joan Merrill

350.           (1/7/45)  Carmen Miranda  [program originated from the 21^st Ferrying Group of the Ferrying Division of the Air Command, Palm Springs, California]

351.           (1/14/45)  Louis Bromfield

352.           (1/21/45)  Ed Gardner

353.           (1/28/45)  Frank Sinatra

354.           (2/4/45)  Dr. Albert E. Wiggam

355.           (2/11/45)  Dorothy Lamour

356.           (2/18/45)  Veronica Lake

357.           (2/25/45)  Gene Tierney

358.           (3/4/45)  Anne Baxter

359.           (3/11/45)  Joan Blondell performs “A Bud Blooms in Brooklyn”

360.           (3/18/45)  Maria Montez

361.           (3/25/45)  Lynn Bari  [program originated from Luke Field, Arizona]

362.           (4/1/45)  Linda Darnell

363.           (4/8/45)  Jackie Oakie

364.           (4/22/45)  Rita Hayworth  [program originates from the Santa Barbara Redistribution Center]

 

Trivia:  Rita Hayworth was originally scheduled for the broadcast of April 15, 1945.  Due to the death of President Roosevelt, the program was pre-empted (along with other regularly-scheduled programs that same evening) so Hayworth agreed to appear the week after on April 22.

 

365.           (4/29/45)  Ida Lupino

366.           (5/6/45)  Monty Wooley

367.           (5/13/45)  Edward Everett Horton

368.           (5/20/45)  Janet Blair  [program originates from Norman, Oklahoma]

369.           (5/27/45)  Martha O’Driscoll

370.           (6/3/45)  Joan Merrill

 

The summer replacement for the Charlie McCarthy time-slot was The Frances Langford Show, a twelve-week musical variety series.  Langford was the star, and guests included Hollywood actors and comedians including Groucho Marx.  Chase and Sanborn sponsored.

 

According to a press release dated September 2, 1945:

               “When Fred Allen returns to the air in October, he is not expected to take Jack Benny to task quite so often.  The new objects of his barbed witticisms will be Charlie McCarthy, it is said.  The change might be explained by the fact that Mr. Allen’s new sponsor also presents McCarthy.” 

 

That’s right, Chase and Sanborn was sponsoring two programs, Charlie McCarthy and Fred Allen during the 1945-46 season.  On the broadcast of October 7, 1945 (8 to 8:30 p.m., EST), Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy was not featured during the last few moments, as they had to rush to another studio to appear as guest on The Fred Allen Show broadcast from 8:30 to 9 p.m., EST.  Fred Allen’s program premiered on October 7.  Edgar Bergen was also guest on Fred Allen’s program on October 28.

 

Ben Grauer, who had recently left the Information Please program as pitchman for Heinz products, signed on as temporary announcer for the first few weeks, replaced by Johnny Martin.  In December of 1945, Ken Carpenter took over the announcing duties.  Ray Noble and his Orchestra was still supplying the music.  Believe-it-or-not, Keenan Wynn was a regularly featured guest for the first four episodes of this season!

 

371.           (9/2/45)  Keenan Wynn and Carmen Miranda

372.           (9/9/45)  Keenan Wynn and June Kilgore

373.           (9/16/45)  Keenan Wynn, Don Ameche and Joan Blondell

374.           (9/23/45)  Keenan Wynn and Anne Baxter

375.           (9/30/45)  Fred Allen and Portland Hoffa

376.           (10/7/45)  Paulette Goddard

377.           (10/14/45)  Hildegarde

378.           (10/21/45)  Fred Allen

379.           (10/28/45)  Boris Karloff

380.           (11/4/45)  Elsa Maxwell

381.           (11/11/45)  Robert S. Kerr, Governor of Oklahoma, where the broadcast originated.

382.           (11/18/45)  Margaret O’Brien performs “The Courtship of Miles Standish”

383.           (11/25/45)  Vera Vague

384.           (12/2/45)  Walter Pidgeon

385.           (12/9/45)  Charles Laughton

386.           (12/16/45)  Susan Hayward

387.           (12/23/45)  Margaret O’Brien returns for another holiday episode.

388.           (12/30/45)  Charlie Ruggles

389.           (1/6/46)  Roy Rogers

390.           (1/13/46)  Chester Morris

391.           (1/20/46)  Rita Hayworth

392.           (1/27/46)  Signe Hasso

393.           (2/3/46)  Edward Everett Horton  [Candice Bergen was born this week and it was announced during this broadcast that Bergen was the proud father of a baby girl.]

394.           (2/10/46)  Jose Iturbi

395.           (2/17/46)  Ray Milland

396.           (2/24/46)  Tallulah Bankhead

397.           (3/3/46)  Walter Slezak

398.           (3/10/46)  Dorothy Lamour performs a drama entitled “The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter”

399.           (3/17/46)  Margaret O’Brien

400.           (3/24/46)  W.C. Fields

401.           (3/31/46)  Jack Mather, Charles Kemper, and Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers

402.           (4/7/46)  Heddy Lamarr

403.           (4/14/46)  Cornel Wilde

404.           (4/21/46)  Margaret O’Brien returns for the fourth time in the same season!

405.           (4/28/46)  Chester Morris

406.           (5/5/46)  Lauritz Melchoir

407.           (5/12/46)  Edward Everett Horton

408.           (5/19/46)  Ethel Barrymore

409.           (5/26/46)  no guest known

 

Summer replacement for the Charlie McCarthy show is Alec Templeton Time, a musical variety series starring pianist Alec Templeton.  Again sponsored by Chase and Sanborn, this program lasted thirteen broadcasts. 

 

For the new season of The Chase and Sanborn Program, Pat Patrick and Anita Gordon signed on as regulars.  Ray Noble and his Orchestra was still supplying the music.  Ken Carpenter is still announcer.  The broadcast of January 19, 1947 was a special homecoming broadcast with Bergen’s friends from the premiere season.

 

410.           (9/1/46)  James Stewart

411.           (9/8/46)  Anne Baxter

412.           (9/15/46)  Fred MacMurray

413.           (9/22/46)  Governor Earl Warren of California

414.           (9/29/46)  Joan Caulfield

415.           (10/6/46)  Jack Benny

416.           (10/13/46)  Lily Pons

417.           (10/20/46)  Governors Phil M. Donnelly of Missouri and Andrew Schoeppel of Kansas

418.           (10/27/46)  no guest known

419.           (11/3/46)  Fred Allen

420.           (11/10/46)  Charles Laughton

421.           (11/17/46)  Tallulah Bankhead

422.           (11/24/46)  Edward Everett Horton  [broadcast originates from Baltimore, Maryland]

423.           (12/1/46)  William Bendix

424.           (12/8/46)  Charlie Ruggles

425.           (12/15/46)  Susan Hayward

426.           (12/22/46)  Irene Dunne

427.           (12/29/46)  Charlie Ruggles

428.           (1/5/47)  Charles Boyer

429.           (1/12/47)  Edward Arnold

430.           (1/19/47)  Dorothy Lamour, Nelson Eddy, Don Ameche and Rudy Vallee

431.           (1/26/47)  Roy Rogers

432.           (2/2/47)  Jane Wyman

433.           (2/9/47)  Nelson Eddy

434.           (2/16/47)  Nelson Eddy and Billie Burke

435.           (2/23/47)  Elsa Maxwell

436.           (3/2/47)  Chester Morris

437.           (3/9/47)  Monty Woolley

438.           (3/16/47)  Margo

439.           (3/23/47)  Anne Baxter

440.           (3/30/47)  Edward Everett Horton

441.           (4/6/47)  Don Ameche

442.           (4/13/47)  Clyde Beatty

443.           (4/20/47)  Monty Woolley

444.           (4/27/47)  Van Johnson

445.           (5/4/47)  Cass Daley

446.           (5/11/47)  Jane Russell

447.           (5/18/47)  Lauritz Melchoir

448.           (5/25/47)  Don Ameche

 

Summer replacement for Charlie McCarthy was Alec Templeton Time (yes, the same series broadcast last summer).  This short-run summer series lasted a total of fourteen weeks.

 

For the 1947-48 season, Pat Patrick and Anita Gordon remained regulars and Ray Noble and his Orchestra was still supplying the music.  Ken Carpenter was the announcer with Nelson Case substituting for Carpenter at times.  Eddie Mayehoff signed on as a regular comedian.  This marked the first season that co-op sponsorship began for the Charlie McCarthy show.  Royal Puddings and Chase and Sanborn were both sponsors of The Charlie McCarthy Show.

 

449.           (9/7/47)  Eddie Mayehoff

450.           (9/14/47)  Veola Vonn and Prince Michael Romanoff

451.           (9/21/47)  Jack Mather, Alan Reed and Walt Disney are guests.

 

Trivia:  During the broadcast of September 21, 1947, Disney and the troop performed a short skit entitled “Jack and the Beanstalk.”  This was merely for publicity purposes.  RKO Pictures and Walt Disney released Fun and Fancy Free, a movie featuring Edgar Bergen hosting two classic animated shorts, the first being an animated version of “Jack and the Beanstalk.”

 

452.           (9/28/47)  Alan Reed and Betty Hutton  [program originates from Santa Monica, California]

453.           (10/5/47)  Don Ameche  [program originates from Pasadena, California]

454.           (10/12/47)  Linda Darnell plays the role of Queen Lindabella in a Columbus Day skit.  [program originates from Whittier, California]

455.           (10/19/47)  Jane Wyman and Hans Conried perform “Aladdin and his Lamp”  [program originates from Occidental College, Los Angeles]

456.           (10/26/47)  Gloria Blondell, Jack Mather and Richard Widmark  [from Van Nuys High School, California]

457.           (11/2/47)  Fred Allen

458.           (11/9/47)  Lulu McConnell and Maurice Evans

459.           (11/16/47)  Lana Turner

460.           (11/23/47)  Carmen Miranda

461.           (11/30/47)  Edward Everett Horton

462.           (12/7/47)  Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers  [program originates from Claremont Men’s College]

463.           (12/14/47)  John McGovern and Gary Cooper

464.           (12/21/47)  Claudette Colbert

465.           (12/28/47)  Dorothy Lamour

466.           (1/4/48)  Adolph Menjou

467.           (1/11/48)  Lucille Ball

468.           (1/18/48)  Hoagy Carmichael

469.           (1/25/48)  Al Jolson

470.           (2/1/48)  Madeline Carroll

471.           (2/8/48)  Andy Devine

472.           (2/15/48)  Mario Lanza

473.           (2/22/48)  Don Ameche

474.           (2/29/48)  Esther Williams

475.           (3/7/48)  Olga San Juan

476.           (3/14/48)  Dinah Shore

477.           (3/21/48)  Alfred Hitchcock

478.           (3/28/48)  Diana Lynn

479.           (4/4/48)  Barbara Bel Geddes and Rudy Vallee

480.           (4/11/48)  Dr. Max Mason

481.           (4/18/48)  Gary Cooper

482.           (4/25/48)  Ethel Barrymore

483.           (5/2/48)  Dr. Max Mason returns

484.           (5/9/48)  Don Ameche

485.           (5/16/48)  Bing Crosby  [broadcast originates from Washington, D.C.]

486.           (5/23/48)  Groucho Marx

487.           (5/30/48)  Morton Downey

 

By this time, Edgar Bergen and his wooden pal Charlie McCarthy were at the top of their game.  According to recent radio polls, their weekly radio program was still in the top ten.  But the movie offers slowed, and ratings – although still high – was slipping little by little as the seasons pass.  The gossip of television crept through the back stage and it was certain a ventriloquist would be more successful seen on television – but could the radio audience handle watching Bergen on television?  They pictured the wooden dummy with a life of its own, and even movies like Look Who’s Laughing (1941) didn’t have Charlie McCarthy always in the same scenes as Edgar Bergen.

 

W.C. FIELDS:  Is it true your father was a gate-leg table?

McCARTHY:  If it is, your father was under it.

 

Chase and Sanborn was still sponsoring both the Charlie McCarthy and Fred Allen programs.  But even with the assistance of Royal Puddings, the coffee makers would eventually have to drop one of the programs because of the expenses.  Edgar Bergen received the notice in the fall of 1948.  His contract would keep him employed till the end of the year.  But after Christmas of 1948, Bergen would need a new sponsor.  This made the budget shrink for weekly guests, and Hollywood stars were paying Fred Allen visit more often then Charlie McCarthy.

 

For the remainder of the 1948 season, Don Ameche and Marsha Hunt starred in short comedy skits entitled “The Bickersons,” written by Phil Rapp.  This comedy series would later become a classic among radio listeners and a short-lived radio and television series of their own.  Gale Gordon was hired as a supporting performer for these short skits and routines.  Ken Carpenter was still the announcer.  Ray Noble and his Orchestra was still supplying the music.  Writers for Bergen’s material included Norman Paul, Zeno Clinker and Sy Rose.

 

488.           (10/3/48)  Don Ameche and Marsha Hunt

489.           (10/10/48)  Don Ameche and Marsha Hunt

490.           (10/17/48)  Don Ameche and Marsha Hunt

491.           (10/24/48)  Don Ameche and Marsha Hunt

492.           (10/31/48)  Don Ameche and Marsha Hunt

493.           (11/7/48)  Don Ameche and Marsha Hunt

494.           (11/14/48)  Don Ameche and Marsha Hunt

495.           (11/21/48)  Don Ameche and Marsha Hunt

496.           (11/28/48)  Don Ameche and Marsha Hunt

497.           (12/5/48)  Don Ameche and Marsha Hunt

498.           (12/12/48)  Don Ameche and Marsha Hunt

499.           (12/19/48)  Don Ameche and Marsha Hunt and Mario Lanza sings “The Lord’s Prayer.”

500.           (12/26/48)  Don Ameche and Marsha Hunt

 

After five hundred broadcasts, the Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy program went off the air.  Edgar Bergen began touring the stages of vaudeville to pass the time.  In the summer of 1949, Edgar Bergen wrote this small editorial for the New York Times:

 

               After thirteen years of life on the half shell in Hollywood, I have made a trip where I wasn’t a tourist.  The only depots that have known my luggage – and the luggage of most of my colleagues – for the last decade have been a couple of European capitols, New York and Palm Springs.  I have just rediscovered America – an actor’s America, not a vacationist’s.  For five weeks I’ve been back in my element, vaudeville: Buffalo, Hartford, Boston, Minneapolis, Detroit, Vancouver.  A beautiful theatrical world of backstage, split weeks, singers, electricians, acrobats, property men, stagehands and jugglers.

               So many people are working in vaudeville today that I looked for three weeks to book enough acts for an hour bill and didn’t have them until the night before we opened in Buffalo and money was no object!  It all felt like a college play, enthusiastic, ambitious, somewhat extemporaneous with a few fine, old-fashioned professional hallmarks like the card game, which had been played persistently backstage since, I imagine, sometime shortly before Genesis.  The actors hunch about their draw (it’s all canasta now, no more pinochle) and then with the agility of a pickpocket they drop their hands at the sound of a music cue, transform their expressions to match their costumes, glide onto the stage, have their say, and resume their play at the gaming tables without a flick of the eyelash.

               The pace is faster than it was thirteen years ago.  Maybe it is the war or the movies or because this generation was bred on radio comedy, but I found out that they want bombastic stuff with a lot of drive.  They have little time for whimsy.  It varies, of course, from town to town.  The Hartford audience was sharper on some things than the Buffalo audience.  Political jokes go, depending upon how the community votes.  A Negro audience will pick up subtle comedy quicker than anyone else.

               My friend Charlie McCarthy is, of course, much more of a celebrity than he was thirteen years ago.  I found out something about Charlie’s friends this time.  Charlie and I worked out a new act for the tour.  It was based on the cherry tree episode in the life of George Washington.  We both got lovely velvet costumes and powdered wigs.  I thought Charlie looked fine as the father of our country.  But something happened.  They wanted to see McCarthy: striped pants, monocle, derby and Bergen’s bald head.  If that had happened in radio, the reaction would have been slow, diffused and debatable.  I wouldn’t learn anything from an audience sitting in a broadcasting studio in Hollywood because those people all are in my business.

               You find out your mistakes from an audience that pays admission.  When you look these people in the eye you know what is wrong and what is right with the act.  If it’s good you can keep it in.  If it’s bad you can get rid of it before the next show.  In radio and television you can’t be sure of anything.  And whatever is uttered over the air is irrevocable.

               I am just as well pleased as we made a mistake with the George Washington act.  It showed me I’m not immune from theatrical error.  Now I’m on my toes.  I took this tour to find out from the audience what they want.  If I had strolled through with only the polite applause, such as rings in one’s ears after years in the free halls of entertainment of Hollywood, my trip would have been enjoyable but not enlightening.  Nobody seems to know yet how television is going to affect the radio, movies, love, housekeeping or the church, but it has definitely revived vaudeville.  I wish there be a guardian over vaudeville this time to protect the same people from killing it who killed it before – and several of them are back at the scene of the crime.

               I would like to see a vaudeville world of three-a-day.  Five-a-day is too many.  Managers who are trying to profit at that rate will gorge themselves right out of business.  You can’t put entertainment on a production line basis.  Some people have asked me if I was back in vaudeville to get ready for television.  As a matter of fact I went back to vaudeville to get ready for radio.  After a sabbatical from radio for nearly a year, I needed to work with Charlie again.  Ventriloquism is not like riding a bicycle.  I have to keep practicing or Charlie would sit tounge-tied, silently staring at me with the chill eye of a department store dummy.

              

In October of 1949, the Coca-Cola Company signed a lucrative contract, allowing for a larger budget (thus the addition of weekly guest stars) with the option to renew every few months.  Coca-Cola would end up sponsoring the program for three seasons!  Not known as The Charlie McCarthy Show, the program returned to its ever-familiar time-slot of Sunday evenings, from 8 to 8:30 p.m., EST.

 

501.           (10/2/49)  no guest known

502.           (10/9/49)  Dorothy Shay

503.           (10/16/49)  no guest known

504.           (10/23/49)  Ann Blythe

505.           (10/30/49)  Rose Bampton

506.           (11/6/49)  Kay Starr

507.           (11/13/49)  Dick Powell

508.           (11/20/49)  Celeste Holm

509.           (11/27/49)  Alec Templeton (pianist)

510.           (12/4/49)  Joan Davis

511.           (12/11/49)  Hoagy Carmichael

512.           (12/18/49)  June Allyson

513.           (12/25/49)  William Boyd as “Hopalong Cassidy”

514.           (1/1/50)  Gregory Peck

515.           (1/8/50)  Danny Kaye

516.           (1/15/50)  Al Jolson

517.           (1/22/50)  Alec Templton returns

518.           (1/29/50)  Henry Fonda

519.           (2/5/50)  The Tuskegee Institute Choir

520.           (2/12/50)  June Haver

521.           (2/19/50)  Dan Dailey

522.           (2/26/50)  Dorothy Kirsten

523.           (3/5/50)  Dinah Shore

524.           (3/12/50)  Dennis Morgan

525.           (3/19/50)  Victor Mature

526.           (3/26/50)  Jane Wyman

527.           (4/2/50)  Van Heflin

528.           (4/9/50)  Jeanne Crain

529.           (4/16/50)  Jack Benny

530.           (4/23/50)  June Haver returns

531.           (4/30/50)  Jimmy Wakely

532.           (5/7/50)  Dinah Shore

533.           (5/14/50)  Alan Young

534.           (5/21/50)  Dick Powell

535.           (5/28/50)  Mimi Benzell

 

The Coca-Cola Company continued to sponsor the same time slot while the Charlie McCarthy program went off the air for the summer.  The Pause that Refreshes starred Percy Faith and his Orchestra, a musical variety series previously heard over NBC from 1934 to 1935 and over CBS from 1947 to 1949.  This would be the last revival for the program, heard over a period of eighteen weeks, last heard on October 1, 1950.  Replaced by four network specials for the month of October, then Charlie McCarthy returned.

 

536.           (11/5/50)  Jean Simmons

537.           (11/12/50)  Van Heflin

538.           (11/19/50)  Alan Young

539.           (11/26/50)  Agnes Moorehead

540.           (12/3/50)  Robert Cummings

541.           (12/10/50)  Robert Cummings

542.           (12/17/50)  Paulette Goddard

543.           (12/24/50)  Bobby Driscoll, Kathryn Baeumont and the De Pour Infantry Chorus

544.           (12/31/50)  Diana Lynn

545.           (1/7/51)  Joseph Szigetti

546.           (1/14/51)  Wendell Corey

547.           (1/21/51)  Marilyn Maxwell

548.           (1/28/51)  Morton Downey

549.           (2/4/51)  Don Ameche

550.           (2/11/51)  Van Heflin

551.           (2/18/51)  Dorothy Kirsten

552.           (2/25/51)  Deborah Kerr

553.           (3/4/51)  Robert Cummings

554.           (3/11/51)  Anne Baxter

555.           (3/18/51)  James Melton

556.           (3/25/51)  Maureen O’Hara

557.           (4/1/51)  Margaret Whiting and colonel Mary Halloran

558.           (4/8/51)  William Holden

559.           (4/15/51)  June Allyson

560.           (4/22/51)  Dan Dailey

561.           (4/29/51)  Charles Colburn

562.           (5/6/51)  Ann Southern

563.           (5/13/51)  Robert Cummings

564.           (5/20/51)  Ann Sheridan

565.           (5/27/51)  Frank Lovejoy

566.           (6/3/51)  Hoagy Carmichael and Ava Gardner

 

Summer replacement was again sponsored by the Coca-Cola Company.  Coke Time starred Mario Lanza and features weekly musical regulars Giselle MacKenzie and the Ray Sinatra Orchestra.  The program lasted seventeen weeks.  With the success of this program, Coca-Cola insisted that the majority of the guests featured on the Charlie McCarthy program be musicians and singers, not Hollywood actors.

 

567.           (10/7/51)  Rosemary Clooney

568.           (10/14/51)  Cass Daley

569.           (10/21/51)  Jack Kirkwood and William Warfield

570.           (10/28/51)  Toni Arden

571.           (11/4/51)  Aleen Stanley, Jr.

572.           (11/11/51)  Jussi and Annalisa Bjoerling

573.           (11/18/51)  Dorothy Kirsten

574.           (11/25/51)  no guest known

575.           (12/2/51)  no guest known

576.           (12/9/51)  Lisa Kirk

577.           (12/16/51)  Frankie Laine

578.           (12/23/51)  Adriana Caselotti

579.           (12/30/51)  no guest known

580.           (1/6/52)  William Warfield

581.           (1/13/52)  Carol Richards and Dominic Frontiere

582.           (1/20/52)  Robert Cummings

583.           (1/27/52)  no guest known

584.           (2/3/52)  no guest known

585.           (2/10/52)  Hans Conried and Patti Page

586.           (2/17/52)  no guest known

587.           (2/24/52)  Dick Powell

588.           (3/2/52)  Dorothy Kirsten

589.           (3/9/52)  no guest known

590.           (3/16/52)  no guest known

591.           (3/23/52)  no guest known

592.           (3/30/52)  June Allyson

593.           (4/6/52)  The Mills Brothers

594.           (4/13/52)  Gisele MacKenzie

595.           (4/20/52)  no guest known

596.           (4/27/52)  Liberace and Prince Michael Romanoff

597.           (5/4/52)  Tennessee Ernie

598.           (5/11/52)  Nanette Fabray

599.           (5/18/52)  Rosemary Clooney

600.           (5/25/52)  no guest known

601.           (6/1/52)  Ginger Rogers

 

The Frank Fontaine Show was the summer replacement for The Charlie McCarthy Show.  Lud Gluskin and his Orchestra supplied the music.  The premiere broadcast featured Helen O’Connell as guest.  When Charlie McCarthy returned to the airwaves in the fall, Coca-Cola was no longer the sponsor.  Hudnut took over sponsorship and Hollywood actors began making weekly guest appearances again.

 

602.           (10/5/52)  Rosemary Clooney

603.           (10/12/52)  Dorothy Kirsten

604.           (10/19/52)  no guest known

605.           (10/26/52)  Marilyn Monroe was originally scheduled to guest for this broadcast, but for reasons unknown, she was unable to attend.  Another actor took her place.  She did make an appearance on the program two weeks later.

606.           (11/2/52)  Tony Martin

607.           (11/9/52)  Marilyn Monroe

608.           (11/16/52)  Tony Martin

609.           (11/23/52)  Dorothy Kirsten

610.           (11/30/52)  The Andrews Sisters

611.           (12/7/52)  no guest known

612.           (12/14/52)  Zsa Zsa Gabor

613.           (12/21/52)  singer Mimi Benzell and Candice Bergen

614.           (12/28/52)  Rosemary Clooney and Bob Sweeney  [originates from Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base]

615.           (1/4/53)  no guest known

616.           (1/11/53)  no guest known

617.           (1/18/53)  Nat King Cole

618.           (1/25/53)  Jane Wyman

619.           (2/1/53)  Frankie Laine

620.           (2/8/53)  Dick Powell

621.           (2/15/53)  The Mills Brothers

622.           (2/22/53)  no guest known

623.           (3/1/53)  Robert Cummings

624.           (3/8/53)  Robert Cummings

625.           (3/15/53)  Tennessee Ernie

626.           (3/22/53)  actor Howard Keel

627.           (3/29/53)  pianist Liberace

628.           (4/5/53)  Edgar’s daughter, Candice Bergen is guest

629.           (4/12/53)  singer/actress Rosemary Clooney

630.           (4/19/53)  no guest known

631.           (4/26/53)  no guest known

632.           (5/3/53)  no guest known

633.           (5/10/53)  James Stewart

634.           (5/17/53)  Jane Russell

635.           (5/24/53)  Gordon MacRae

636.           (5/31/53)  actor William Powell

 

Beginning October 1953, the Charlie McCarthy show was heard over CBS from 9:30 to 10 p.m., EST.  This marked the first time since the program’s premiere since 1937 that the program was not broadcast beginning at 8 p.m.  Multiple sponsors such as Philip Morris and CBS-Television spots were heard during the broadcasts.  Sam Pearce is now the producer and would remain producer till July of 1956.  Bill Baldwin is the announcer.

 

637.           (10/11/53)  Gordon MacRae

638.           (10/18/53)  Fred MacMurray

639.           (10/25/53)  Katy Jurado

640.           (11/1/53)  Anita Gordon

641.           (11/8/53)  June Allyson

642.           (11/15/53)  singer Peggy Lee

643.           (11/22/53)  Anita Jordan and Ronald Reagan

644.           (11/29/53)  Anna Maria Alberghetti

645.           (12/6/53)  no guest known

646.           (12/13/53)  The Modernaires

647.           (12/20/53)  Frank Fontaine ad Theresa Brewer

648.           (12/27/53)  Vic Damone

649.           (1/3/54)  Tennessee Ernie

650.           (1/10/54)  Gordon MacRae

651.           (1/17/54)  pianist Liberace

652.           (1/24/54)  Dorothy Kirsten

653.           (1/31/54)  actress Terry Moore

654.           (2/7/54)  Lilli Palmer

655.           (2/14/54)  Nat King Cole

656.           (2/21/54)  no guest known

657.           (2/28/54)  June Allyson

658.           (3/7/54)  Dick Powell

659.           (3/14/54)  Jane Wyman

660.           (3/21/54)  singer Peggy Lee

661.           (3/28/54)  no guest known

662.           (4/4/54)  actor David Niven

663.           (4/11/54)  no guest known

664.           (4/18/54)  Candice Bergen and Mindy Carson

665.           (4/25/54)  Ann Blythe

 

Note: There was no broadcast on May 2, 1954.

666.           (5/9/54)  Liberace

667.           (5/16/54)  Robert Cummings

668.           (5/23/54)  Peggy Lee

669.           (5/30/54)  Frances Bergen and George Montgomery

670.           (6/6/54)  Virginia Mayo

671.           (6/13/54)  Nelson Eddy

672.           (6/20/54)  Nelson Eddy and Charlie McCarthy play excerpts from previous broadcasts featuring recordings of Rudy Vallee, Marilyn Monroe, W.C. Fields, Lionel Barrymore and Don Ameche.

 

The summer replacement for the Charlie McCarthy show is The Freddy Martin Show.  When Edgar Bergen returned in the fall of 1954, the program was retitled The Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy Show.  This season became very “American” (probably the McCarthy hearings had something to do with it) in which men of important stature became the weekly guests.  Kraft Foods began sponsoring the program, still being broadcast over CBS on Sunday evenings, now at an hour-long time slot of 9 to 10 p.m., EST.

 

673.           (9/12/54)  Lt. Gen. Hubert Harmon

674.           (9/19/54)  Mrs. Ivy Baker Priest, Treasurer of the United States

675.           (9/26/54)  John Beal and Wendell Barnes

676.           (10/3/54)  no guest known

677.           (10/10/54)  singer Johnny Ray, Senator Albert Gore, and Edmund F. Mansure, General Services Administrator

678.           (10/17/54)  no guest known

679.           (10/24/54)  Dick Powell

680.           (10/31/54)  no guest known

681.           (11/7/54)  Gen. Lewis B. Hershey

682.           (11/14/54)  Bergen and McCarthy visit the Spanish Embassy in Washington, D.C.

683.           (11/21/54)  Sen. Henry M. Jackson

684.           (11/28/54)  Gov.-elect Averell Harriman, and Chief City Magistrate John Murtagh

685.           (12/5/54)  Bergen and McCarthy visit the Swedish Embassy in Washington, D.C.

686.           (12/12/54)  Bergen and McCarthy visit the Japanese Embassy in Washington, D.C.

687.           (12/19/54)  Ezra Taft Benson, Perle Mesta and Carol Channing

688.           (12/26/54)  Jacob K. Javits, William Willis, and Sarah Vaughn

689.           (1/2/55)  Edward R. Murrow, Elsa Maxwell and Clem Johnson

690.           (1/9/55)  no guest known

691.           (1/16/55)  Duke Ellington, Gypsy Rose Lee and Gov. Robert Meyner of New Jersey

692.           (1/23/55)  no guest known

693.           (1/30/55)  no guest known

694.           (2/6/55)  Dr. Frank Baxter and Gary Crosby

695.           (2/13/55)  no guest known

696.           (2/20/55)  Charles Farrell, Floyd Odlum and Paul Hoffman

 

In what was to be Bergen’s final season on the air, The New Edgar Bergen Hour underwent a few changes.  Guests included people from all walks of life – authors, musicians, poets, scientists, even astronomers.  The series was now heard from 7:05 to 8 p.m., EST under multiple sponsorships such as Philip Morris, Zenith Hearing Aids, CBS-TV, Aunt Wick’s Drink Mixes, Super Anahist and Viceroy.  Writers included Zeno Clinker, Sy Rose and Hilda Black.  Regulars during the final season included Jack Kirwood, Carole Richards and Gary Crosby.  The Mellomen sang songs in many broadcasts.  Ray Noble and his Orchestra, who supplied the music for the program for the last decade, still waved the baton.  Bed Hiestand was the announcer.

 

697.           (10/2/55)  Jack Kirkwood and Carole Richards

698.           (10/9/55)  Jack Kirkwood and Gary Crosby

699.           (10/16/55)  Jack Kirkwood, Carole Richards and Gary Crosby

700.           (10/23/55)  Prof. Hale Sparks teaches Charlie about termites.  Hans Conried is guest.

701.           (10/30/55)  Hans Conried returns.

702.           (11/4/55)  Hans Conried returns.

703.           (11/11/55)  Frances Bergen (Edgar’s wife) sings and Charlie McCarthy pays a visit in hell.

704.           (11/18/55)  Frank Kreml and Shiela Graham

705.           (11/25/55)  Dr. Fred Webb Hodge, Indian expert and Jack Benny are guests.

706.           (12/4/55)  Dan Pursuit discusses juvenile delinquency.

707.           (12/11/55)  Japanese actress Shirley Yamaguchi performs “Romeo and Juliet” with Bergen.

708.           (12/18/55)  Gossip columnist Eileen Moseby

709.           (12/25/55)  Frank Fawcett (Santa’s helper) is interviewed.  Candice Bergen and Charlie McCarthy recite “The Night Before Christmas”

710.           (1/1/56)  actor Lew Ayers discusses religions around the world.

711.           (1/8/56)  rodeo jockey Pete Moreno

712.           (1/15/56)  Tad Sanders of the Cattleman’s Association

713.           (1/22/56)  Rudy Wissler and safety expert Cecil Zon

714.           (1/29/56)  Stan Erwin, a public relations man from Las Vegas

715.           (2/5/56)  nutritionist Adelle Davis

716.           (2/12/56)  Charlie is operating his own candy company.

717.           (2/19/56)  Dr. Richter, a famous seismologist and Calypso singer Sir Lancelot are guests.

718.           (2/26/56)  George Roberts and harmonica player Leo Diamond

719.           (3/4/56)  Richard Armour, famous writer of humor

720.           (3/11/56)  Interview with a woman who “farms the sea”

721.           (3/18/56)  agriculturist Ralph LaRue

722.           (3/25/56)  entiomologist Alfred Boyce

723.           (4/1/56)  pianist Liberace

724.           (4/8/56)  Frank Nelson and sea shell expert Dr. Ernest Tracher

725.           (4/15/56)  oceanographer Roger Revell

726.           (4/22/56)  author Virginia Cox Smith

727.           (4/29/56)  Rudy Wissler

728.           (5/6/56)  This episode marks the 20^th anniversary of Bergen’s “partnership” with Charlie McCarthy, so recordings from previous Bergen/McCarthy broadcasts are replayed including John Barrymore, W.C. Fields, Marilyn Monroe, Don Ameche, Rudy Wissler, James Stewart, Rudy Vallee and Nelson Eddy.

729.           (5/13/56)  Joe Pasternak, film producer

730.           (5/20/56)  singer Helen O’Connell and actor Gordon Scott, recent star of the Tarzan movies

731.           (5/27/56)  guitarist George Cordova

732.           (6/3/56)  Rudy Wissler (rebroadcast of April 29, 1956)

733.           (6/10/56)  marriage counselor Dr. Pompano

734.           (6/17/56)  guest is Shirley Yamaguchi (rebroadcast of December 11, 1956)

735.           (6/24/56)  Leo Diamond and George Roberts  (rebroadcast of February 26, 1956)

736.           (7/1/56)  Gary Crosby, Carole Richards, The Mellomen and Ray Noble

 

On May 5, 1959, Edgar Bergen attempted a comeback.  On that date he recorded an audition for a fifteen-minute, five-a-week series in which Bergen and his wooden pals told humorous little fairy tales.  For the audition, two stories were dramatized, “Charlie’s Frogs” and “Mortimer’s Soup.”  This pilot, however, never went further than the audition recordings.

 

On November 15, 1964, Chase and Sanborn sponsored an hour-long radio special celebrating the 100^th anniversary of Chase and Sanborn Coffee.  Many guests appeared in the special, few exclusive and many others recordings of previous broadcasts.  Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy were among the many guests including Fred Allen, Mae West, Rudy Vallee, Vera Teasdale, Jimmy Wallington, Jimmy Durante, Clark Gable, Eddie Cantor, Adolph Menjou, Nelson Eddy, Alec Templeton and W.C. Fields.

 

On November 14, 1965, Chase and Sanborn reprised their anniversary special for a 101^st anniversary.  Many guests included Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, Bert Lahr, Beatrice Lillie, Fred Allen, George Jessel, Bing Crosby, Milton Berle, Oscar Levant, Shirley Booth, Jack Benny and Tallulah Bankhead.

 

BERGEN’s OTHER RADIO APPEARANCES

 

The Royal Gelatin Hour  (3/4/37)  “Bill of Divorcement” with Walter Abel and Judith Anderson.  Edgar

Bergen and Charlie McCarthy performed a short seven-minute skit.

The Royal Gelatin Hour  (October 8, 1937)

Jack Benny’s Tenth Anniversary Testimonial  (5/9/41)  This isn’t really a radio broadcast, but rather a

circulating recording in honor of Jack’s tenth year on radio.  Guests include Jim and Marion Jordon, Burns and Allen, Niles Trammell, Bob Hope and Jimmy Walter (Mayor of NYC).

Fibber McGee and Molly  (11/11/41)  with guest Martha Tilton.

The Hollywood March of Dimes on the Air  (1/24/42)  birthday salute to FDR, with an all-star cast that

included Claudette Colbert, Humphrey Bogart, Marlene Dietrich, Elliott Lewis, Deanna Durbin, Bob Hope, Dennis Day, James Cagney, Tyrone Power, Kay Kyster, Maureen O’Sullivan and others.  Charlie McCarthy jokes about his new book, “Ventriloquism: It’s Cure and Prevention.”

Command Performance  (12/24/42)  Christmas broadcast with an all-star cast including Spike Jones,

Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Dinah Shore, Elmer Davis, Red Skelton, Ginny Simms, Kay Kyser, Ethel Waters, Charles Laughton, and the Andrews Sisters.

What’s New?  (9/25/43)  with Lena Horne and Marguerite Chapman.

The Lady Esther Screen Guild Players  (4/24/44)  “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” with Jane Powell

and Billy Gilbert.  This was partly for publicity purposes because Powell co-starred with Bergen in the recent United Artists release Song of the Open Road.

Double Feature  (8/13/44)  with Jackie Gleason and Andy Russell.  Edgar appears without his wooden pals

in this radio broadcast, a salute to the state of New York.  One interesting tid-bit: Edgar describes his plan to introduce a “bachelor girl” dummy in the up-coming fall season, describing the as yet, un-named Effie Clinker!

A Tribute to President Roosevelt  (4/15/45) with an all-star cast just two days after Roosevelt’s death. 

Includes Harold Peary, Charles Laughton, Bing Crosby, Jack Benny, Will Hays, Deanna Durbin, James Cagney, Kay Kyser, Ginny Simms, Ed Gardner, Robert Young, Eddie Cantor, John Charles Davis, Bette Davis, Dick Powell, Ronald Colman, Ingrid Bergman and many others.

The Fred Allen Show  (10/7/45)  First show of the season, Charlie quits Bergen and teams up with Fred to

audition for their own radio show.

The Fred Allen Show  (10/28/45)  Charlie takes Fred to court for slander.

Command Performance  (May of 1946)  Includes the King Sisters, Bob Hope, Frances Langford, Donald

Crisp, Mel Blanc, Kay Kyser, Jerry Colonna, Linda Darnell, Fred MacMurray and others.  Bergen tells Charlie the story of Dickens’ “Oliver Twist,” with a twist.

To the Rear March  (5/14/46)  an AFRS broadcast featuring various recordings and excerpts from Amos n’

Andy and The Charlie McCarthy Show.

The Lucky Strike Program  (10/13/46)  stars Jack Benny and Mary Livingstone.  Bergen introduces Charlie

                to the cast and Benny tries to sell the Sportsmen Quartet to Edgar for his program.

Command Performance  (December of 1946)  Edgar quested along with Jerry Colonna, Dinah Shore, Harry

Moore, Jimmy Durante, Ginny Simms, President Truman, Don Wilson and Bob Hope.

The Lady Esther Screen Guild Theater  (12/23/46)  “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”  repeat

performance from two years before.

The Kraft Music Hall  (10/2/47)  stars Al Jolson and Oscar Levant.

Hail and Farewell  (11/23/47)  As radio station KPO in San Francisco changed it’s name to KNBC, many

stars of the past and present showed up to attend a special broadcast.  Included Fred Allen,

Charles K. Field, Harold Peary and Earl Warren.

All-Star Western Theater  (12/27/47)  with Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage.  Mortimer Snerd

also makes an appearance.

Symphonies Under the Stars  (8/5/48)  Armed Forces Radio Service Hollywood Bowl release, with Gene

Autry, Danny Kaye, Frances Langford and Red Skelton.

The Philco Radio Time  (11/3/48)  stars Bing Crosby, who chats with Charlie (without the help of Bergen).

Command Performance  (12/25/48)  Edgar tries to get Charlie to recite “Twas the Night Before Christmas.”

The Jack Benny Program  (9/25/49)  stars Jack Benny with Amos n’ Andy and Red Skelton.

This is Your Life  (3/1/50)  [part one]  with Ralph Edwards.

This is Your Life  (3/8/50)  [part two]  with Ralph Edwards.

The Screen Guild Theater  (12/28/50)  “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”  repeat performance.

A Salute to Bing Crosby  (1/9/51)  with Louis Armstrong, Mary Martin, Judy Garland, Ella Fitzgerald,

               Bob Hope, Dorothy Kirsten, William S. Paley and many others.

Richard Diamond, Private Detective  (5/11/51)  Mr. and Mrs. Bergen were guests on this episode.  Bergen

was a close friend of Dick Powell, and appeared out of character for this broadcast.

Special All-Star Review  (recorded in 1952)  American Cancer Society Syndication with Joan Caulfield,

Dennis Day, and Ralph Edwards.

So They Say  (5/4/56)  This was a review of the news of the week.  Barry Goldwater is featured.

Biography in Sound  (5/15/56)  Features clips from early Charlie McCarthy broadcasts.

Recollections at Thirty  (7/8/56) Features clips from early Charlie McCarthy broadcasts. 

Clips feature Don Ameche, Mary Boland and W.C. Fields.

Recollections at Thirty  (11/14/56) Features clips from early Charlie McCarthy broadcasts. 

Clips feature Judy Garland, Jean Sablon, Rudy Vallee and Wallace Berry.  This recording also

features Bergen’s very first radio appearance on Rudy Vallee’s program from 1936.

Recollections at Thirty  (12/12/56) Features clips from early Charlie McCarthy broadcasts. 

Clips feature Rudy Vallee, John Barrymore, Carmen Miranda and Jack Pearl.

A Christmas Spectacular  (12/25/56)  with an all-star cast.

Radio Color Round-Up  (5/4/58)  with Ralph Bellamy, Judy Holliday, Andy Griffith and Herb Shriner.

The Year it Began  (recorded in 1962)  American Cancer Society Syndication featuring excerpts from early

radio programs including the Charlie McCarthy Show.

The Big Broadcast of 1965  (11/25/65)  Interviews and excerpts from Jack Benny, Lum and Abner, George

Burns and Gracie Allen, and the Charlie McCarthy Show.

NBC’s Fortieth Anniversary Program  (11/13/66)  Bergen and McCarthy narrates.

A Salute to Bob Hope  (May of 1968)  To celebrate Bob Hope’s 65^th birthday, Bergen was guest among

others including Frank Sinatra, Milton Berle, Jack Benny, Jimmy Durante and Jerry Colonna.

Don Ameche and Edgar Bergen Interview  (1969)  Local station WRC in Washington had the opportunity

to interview Ameche and Bergen, and replayed excerpts from old shows with Mae West and

W.C. Fields.

The Golden Days of Christmas  (12/24/69)  This is an Armed Forces Radio Service presentation broadcast

over the Armed Forces Network in Europe with Bob Hope, Jimmy Durante and Don Ameche.

KFI Fiftieth Anniversary Program  (4/16/72)  A twelve-hour broadcast with many hours of shows and

excerpts from old shows, and many live appearances by many performers.  Includes Jack Haley, Jim Jordan, Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Groucho Marx, and Lowell Thomas.

The Hollywood Radio Theatre  (10/22/73 to 10/26/73)  Five-part drama entitled “The Heirhunters.”  This

was the premiere broadcast of the series, hosted by Rod Serling.  Features Daws Butler, June Foray and Sidney Miller.

 

UNDATED BROADCASTS BERGEN APPEARED ON

G.I. Journal  (episode #61)  with Hildegarde, Roy Rogers and Frank Sinatra.

G.I. Journal  (episode #103)  with Mel Blanc, Rita Hayworth and Mel Torme.

Mail Call  (episode #56)  with Cass Daley, Roy Rogers and Kay Thompson.

Mail Call  (episode #85)  with Ellen Drew, Susanna Foster and Nancy Walker.

Mail Call  (episode #130)  with Ingrid Bergman and Marion Hutton.

Mail Call  (episode #328)  with Tallulah Bankhead, Frances Gifford, Ray Noble and Ginny Simms.

To the Rear March  (episode #38)  with Fred Allen and Victor Borge.

To the Rear March  (episode #55)  with Jack Carson, Alan Reed and Arthur Treacher.

To the Rear March  (episode #73)  with Barbara Jo Allen, Jerry Colonna, Bob Hope and Frank Sinatra.

Command Performance  (episode #188)  with Joan Davis and Margaret Whiting.

 

Bergen and McCarthy were also featured in Guardian Maintenance commercials through June of 1960 to September of 1960 on many CBS radio programs such as Suspense and Have Gun-Will Travel.

 

BERGEN’S TELEVISION APPEARANCES

 

Edgar Bergen was the host of a comedy quiz program entitled Do You Trust Your Wife? From January 3, 1956 to March 26, 1956.  Featured on this series along with Mr. Bergen were his assorted wooden pals, Charlie McCarthy, Mortimer Snerd, and Effie Klinker.  When the program was moved to a daytime time slot, the program changed its title to Who Do You Trust?  With the exception of various guest spots on other television programs, Bergen was primarily a radio performer.  He did appear in quite a number of programs produced by his good friend Dick Powell. 

 

The Kraft Television Theater  (7/8/54)  “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court”

Shower of Stars  (10/28/54)  “Lend an Ear”  William Lundigan hosted this anthology program.

The Jack Benny Program  (3/22/59)

Five Fingers  (10/10/59)  “Dossier”  Bergen guest on this show, the second broadcast of the series.  David

Hedison starred as Victor Sebastian in this spy drama based rather loosely on a successful 1952 film of the same name directed by Joseph L. Mankiewiez.

The Dupont Show with June Allyson  (1/25/60)  “Moment of Fear”  This dramatic anthology series was

hosted (and occasionally starred) by June Allyson.  Allyson was the real-life wife of Dick Powell.

Amos Burke: Who Killed Julie Greer?  (NBC, 9/26/61)  This was the pilot film for Burke’s Law, which was

later broadcast from 1963 to 1965.  The audition pilot was also the premiere of the successful television series, The Dick Powell Show.  Edgar Bergen played the role of Dr. Coombs.  Jack Carson, Mickey Rooney, Ronald Reagan, Dean Jones and Ralph Bellamy were also guests.  Bergen would return for a few episodes of both television series.

The Dick Powell Theatre  (1/9/62)  “A Time to Die” 

Bachelor Father  (3/27/62)  “A Visit to the Bergens”

The Dick Powell Theatre  (9/25/62)  “Special Assignment”

Burke’s Law  (1/17/64)  “Who Killed Victor Burrows?”

The Greatest Show on Earth  (4/21/64)  “There Are No Problems, Only Opportunities”  This episode

centered around the problems of a ventriloquist working at the Barnum and Bailey Circus.

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea  (9/28/64)  Bergen was guest along side Lloyd Bochner.  Bergen appeared

courtesy of David Hedison, both of whom were good friends.

Burke’s Law  (10/28/64) 

The Hanged Man  (11/18/64)

Burke’s Law  (2/3/65)

The Littlest Hobo  (5/8/65)

Those Happy Days  (6/24/70)  Featured Alan Copeland, Bob Elliott, Ray Goulding and Helen O’Connell.

The Homecoming  (12/19/71) 

Playhouse New York: The Forties  (5/12/72)  “The Great Radio Comedians” features interviews with Jim

Jordan, Kenny Delmar, Jack Benny, George Burns and Bing Crosby.

The Merv Griffin Show  (8/2/73)  also featured Mel Blanc and Arch Oboler.

Tomorrow  (3/2/76)  Edgar Bergen related how his career started on radio and performed a few routines.

The Good Old Days of Radio  (8/2/76)  with an all-star cast, hosted by Steve Allen.

Tomorrow  (10/26/76)  featured Jim Backus, Frank Nelson and Gale Gordon.

You Bet Your Life  (syndicated date of 11/1/74)  The guest contestants were Candice Bergen and Melinda

Marx, both of whom sang along with their fathers while George Fenneman asked the questions.

 

JUST A FEW OF BERGEN’S TV PILOTS THAT NEVER MADE IT

 

The Charlie McCarthy Show  (CBS, 11/23/50)  This thirty-minute pilot was an adaptation of Bergen’s radio series that spotlighted the antics of his dummies: Charlie McCarthy (attired in tuxedo, top hat and monocle), the buck-toothed country bumpkin Mortimer Snerd, and a new character Podine Puffington, a tall, stately blonde from the south.  Guests included Bill Baldwin, Diana Lynn and Pat Patrick.  Ray Noble and his Orchestra supplied the music.  Bergen’s regular radio script writers, Norman Paul, Artie Phillips and Zeno Clinker co-wrote the script.  Alan Dinehart directed, Jerry Fairbanks and Ralph Levy produced.

 

Frances Langford Presents  (NBC, 3/15/59)  Performances of top-name celebrities was the idea behind this unsold half-hour series.  Two, 30-minute pilot films were produced in 1958 but they never aired.  So the programs were reedited into an hour program and broadcast as a special on the above date.  Langford hosted.  Performers included Edgar Bergen, Bob Hope, Jerry Colonna, Tony Romano and George Sanders.  Zeno Clinker co-wrote the scripts.

 

My Sister Hank  (CBS, 3/31/72)  Comedy about Henrietta Bennett, a young tomboy who prefers to be called Hank.  Her parents, Eunice and Willis, don’t quite understand her, but accept her and are trying to change her.  Jodie Foster stars as Hank Bennett.  Edgar Bergen was Grandpa Bennett.  Produced and directed by Norman Tokar.

 

BERGEN’S MOVIE ROLES

When I first compiled this log years ago, I included a lengthy list of Bergen’s movie appearances from The Goldwyn Follies (1938) to The Muppet Movie (1979).  The purpose was merely to reveal to old-time radio fans the range of Bergen’s talents, not just his radio program but on-screen acting as well.  Since this episode guide is being reprinted on this web-site for old-time radio fans, for the sake of brevity I am not going to list all of Bergen’s movie appearances.  Anyone wishing for further interest in Bergen’s movie credits I suggest they check out the Internet Movie Database at www.imdb.com.

 

Bergen’s career on the screen was successful with and without Charlie McCarthy.  He usually appeared on the screen with Charlie, the first being Sam Goldwyn’s The Goldwyn Follies in 1938, released through United Artists.  The film was a disaster in many aspects for Goldwyn, but one critic mentioned, “any picture that introduces Charlie McCarthy and Edgar Bergen can’t be all bad.” 

 

Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy both became the starring vehicles for a handful of great comedies including Charlie McCarthy, Detective (1939), and two RKO films featuring The Great Gildersleeve and Fibber McGee and Molly, Look Who’s Laughing (1941) and Here We Go Again (1942).  Any radio listener who has enjoyed the verbal battles between W.C. Fields and Charlie McCarthy will simply love the 1939 picture You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man.  Sadly, that film has been overlooked and under-rated by film critics, but any radio fan who has ever seen the picture will admit it’s worth the price of any admission.

 

Edgar Bergen helped tremendously with the war cause, including appearing in Stage Door Canteen in 1943.  Both Bergen and Charlie performed a cute routine, but this 132 minute movie has been edited in length a number of times over the years.  Please beware of the shorter prints else you’ll buy the movie and probably never see Edgar or Charlie. 

 

 

Martin Grams, Jr. is the author of numerous books about old-time radio including Inner Sanctum Mysteries: Behind the Creaking Door, The Have Gun-Will Travel Companion, Information Please and The Sound of Detection: Ellery Queen’s Adventures in Radio.  This episode guide was first compiled by Mr. Grams in the late 1990s and shortly thereafter, was presented in three consecutive issues of SPERDVAC’s Radiogram in late 1999.  It was not until the appearance of this episode guide that any such broadcast log existed for The Charlie McCarthy Show except for what was listed in collector catalogs for existing recordings.  This episode guide appears on this web-site courtesy of the author.