Raised on Radio

by Gerald Nachman

• ISBN13: 9780375402876
• ISBN10: 037540287X
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2012-10-17
• Publisher: Random House Digital Inc.

Summary

For everybody "raised on radio" -- and that's everybody brought up in the thirties, forties, and early fifties -- this is the ultimate book, combining nostalgia, history, judgment, and fun, as it reminds us of just how wonderful (and sometimes just how silly) this vanished medium was. Of course, radio still exists -- but not the radio ofThe Lone RangerandOne Man's Family, ofOur Gal SundayandLife Can Be Beautiful, ofThe GoldbergsandAmos 'n' Andy, ofEasy Aces,Vic and Sade, andBob and Ray, ofThe ShadowandThe Green Hornet, of Bing Crosby, Kate Smith, and Baby Snooks, of the great comics, announcers, sound-effects men, sponsors, and tycoons. In the late 1920s radio exploded almost overnight into being America's dominant entertainment, just as television would do twenty-five years later. Gerald Nachman, himself a product of the radio years -- as a boy he did his homework to the sound of Jack Benny andOur Miss Brooks-- takes us back to the heyday of radio, bringing to life the great performers and shows, as well as the not-so-great and not-great-at-all. Nachman analyzes the many genres that radio deployed or invented, from the soap opera to the sitcom to the quiz show, zooming in to study closely key performers like Benny, Bob Hope, and Fred Allen, while pulling back to an overview that manages to be both comprehensive and seductively specific. Here is a book that is generous, instructive, and sinfully readable -- and that brings an era alive as it salutes an extraordinary American phenomenon.

Author Biography

Gerald Nachman has for thirty-eight years covered theater, movies, cabaret, and television for newspapers and magazines across the country. The author of three previous books, he lives in San Francisco.

Table of Contents

PREFACE Background Music	vii
INTRODUCTION Bedtime Stories	3	(10)
1 Radio-Free America	13	(13)
2 Vaudio	26	(25)
3 The Anticomedian	51	(22)
4 Nesting Instincts	73	(22)
5 Treadmill to Posterity	95	(24)
6 Wise Guys Finish First	119	(20)
7 Jokes, Inc.	139	(13)
8 For Your Listening and Dancing Pleasure	152	(29)
9 The Children's Hour	181	(14)
10 Saddle Sore	195	(15)
11 Valued Families	210	(27)
12 No WASPs Need Apply	237	(20)
13 We'll Be Back Right after These Words	257	(14)
14 A Voice of Another Color	271	(25)
15 Radio Noir-Cops and Grave Robbers	296	(24)
16 Minds over Matter	320	(33)
17 Just Folks	353	(11)
18 The Soap Factory	364	(24)
19 The Royal Family	388	(10)
20 Meet the Press	398	(32)
21 Best Seats in the House	430	(30)
22 Crunch, Creak, Crash, Whoosh, Wham, and Whoo-oooo	460	(10)
23 The Unseen Audience	470	(15)
24 We're a Little Late, Folks, So Good Night	485	(18)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS	503	(2)
INTERVIEWS	505	(1)
BIBLIOGRAPHY	506	(4)
INDEX	510	(26)
PHOTO CREDITS	536