Tag: Harold Peary

Golden Age Article

Audio Drama Review: The Great Gildersleeve, Volume 11

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The 11th Volume of the Radio Archives collection begins with the start of The Great Gildersleeve’s fourth season on the radio, with Harold Peary starring as Gildersleeve during the 1944-1945 radio season. It collects twelve of the first fourteen episodes from the fall of 1944.

After big arcs in the previous two seasons (around Gildersleeve’s romance with Leila Ransom (Shirley Mitchell) in Season 2 and around his engagement to Eve Goodwin (Bea Bernadette) and his run for mayor in Season 3), Season 4 sees Gildersleeve promising to avoid getting too serious with anyone, and he keeps that promise as far as he can.

There are actually two shorter story arcs in this set, as well as some episodes that feel more stand-alone.

The season begins by shaking up the status quo. Gildersleeve is fired as Water Commissioner in the very first episode, by the man who bested him in the mayoral primary at the end of Season Three. Whether the decision by the mayor was politically motivated is something the series doesn’t address. If it was, though, Gildersleeve gives him an excuse. The season opener has probably the most ironic ending in the entire box set.

The stories after GIldersleeve is fired as water commissioner of Summerfield and therefore unemployed have some ups and downs, not helped by the show forgetting continuity about the family’s financial situation and Gildersleeve’s own prosperous past when it feels convenient. The overarching idea of the story is that Fibber McGee (from Fibber McGee and Molly) has come up with a post-war plan for a new mouse trap which Gildersleeve is pursuing. It doesn’t appear that this was actually a plot point on Fibber McGee and Molly at the time, so it appears McGee is acting off-air.

I didn’t care much for the plotline. There are some funny individual moments, but the mouse trap scheme is so thin, uninspired, and doomed to fail that it feels like a pointless McGuffin to center plots around. Probably the most interesting aspect of this whole series of episodes is when McGee is looking for a job and has a minute where he and a guest character discuss their feelings of uncertainty about the post-War economic future, as, even with the war still ongoing, some war manufacturing operations are winding down. Given the general positive vibe of the series on the war, that is a fascinating moment.

The second plot arc happens toward the end of the box set and it involves Gildersleeve and Judge Hooker (Earle Ross) trying to help a Spanish dance instructor get started in Summerfield. The judge is interested in her, and Gildersleeve tries to be supportive but is clearly attracted to her. There’s a failed party thrown by Gildersleeve to help her promote her business. Then events conspire to lead her to think Gildersleeve has proposed, and the box set ends up on one of the classic tropes of Golden Age comedy, the breach of promise suit. It’s the more funny and interesting plot and hopefully, there will be more resolution in Volume 12, although that volume has far more missing episodes than this one.

Outside of the overall arcs, the biggest thing to happen in this season is the formation of the Jolly Boys Club. This group would formalize the fraternity of Gildersleeve and his closest friends and also lend themselves to some great acapella performances of great standards of the era.

There is also a nice election day program that begins with comedy and political bluster, but ends up striking the most patriotic tone of any episode so far in this season.

Beyond the individual episodes, what impresses me is how lived-in Summerfield feels in these episodes. When I was listening to the first season, I was struck by how the only real characters throughout the season were Gildersleeve, his niece Marjorie (Lurene Tuttle), his nephew, Leroy, the family Cook (Birdie), and Judge Hooker.

At this point, the series regular supporting characters include Peavey, the druggist (Richard LeGrand), and Floyd the Barber (Arthur Q. Bryan) with both of Gildersleeve’s ex-fiancées continuing to make regular appearances. And there are also a number of recurring characters as well. Not everyone is in every episode, but as Season 4 starts, Summerfield easily feels like a real-world community, rather than just a staging area for a sitcom.

As usual, Radio Archives features a high audio quality on this set. All in all, these are a decent run of episodes. While I do think the first story arc was a bit lacking, the rest of the episodes more than make up for it. And the birth of the Jolly Boys club is something every fan of The Great Gildersleeve should listen to.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Audio Drama Review, Golden Age Article

Audio Drama Review: The Great Gildersleeve, Volume 8

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The eighth volume of The Great GIldersleeve from Radio Archives collects the twelve circulating episodes between episodes seventy-seven to ninety-one and all starring Harold Peary in the titular role as Tow Water Commissioner Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve. This set takes us through the end of the show’s second season and features two episodes of the third, all from 1943. While there are three lost episodes, it feels like we miss less that impacted ongoing plotlines than in previous box sets. The big exception would be that the mini-feud between Gildersleeve and Judge Hooker (Earle Ross) over a fender appears to have been ironed out in the missing eightieth episode.

I have to praise Radio Archives for the wonderful cover art that they commissioned for this set, with Gildersleeve and Leila Ransom (Shirley Mitchell) as the the focal point of the first ten episodes of the set, which build up to their scheduled nuptials. Related plots deal with planning the wedding and the honeymoon, as well as Gildersleeve’s attempt to work up a budget. I think the second half of the season gives a bit more meat to Leila as a character beyond “Southern Belle who likes to manipulate men,” making her much more sympathetic and well-rounded. In the season finale, just before the show went on summer vacation, the wedding day found Gildersleeve with a serious case of cold feet, leading to a shocking season-ending twist.

There is more than the wedding going on in Summerfield in this set. This box set also sees the introduction of Ben (played by future Dragnet co-Star Ben Alexander) as the bashful young beau of Marjorie (Lurene Tuttle) and he makes a fun addition to the cast. Meanwhile, Leroy (Walter Tetley) goes to work for Mr. Peavey, the druggist (played brilliantly by Richard LeGrand) in the second half of the season. Gildersleeve and a few of his pals also sing together, which is a foretaste of the coming of the Jolly Boys Club in later seasons.

The War features, although in a smaller way, during the second half of season two. When Leroy gets his first paycheck, he buys a lot of knick-knacks for the family and otherwise wastes it on typical kid things. He is reproved for not using some of his money to buy war bonds. Season three’s larger focus on the War would show up in the final episode in the set.

The new focus was due to the donation of the sponsor, Kraft, to the Third War Loan Drive. The town is focused on selling more bonds to meet its quota and sends the head of city departments out canvassing (including Gildersleeve) door-to-door to sell bonds. Yet, in many ways, Gildersleeve’s heart is just not in it. For one thing, he is mad at the chairman of the drive, the local newspaper editor. He tries to start a one-way feud over the editor having published an editorial raising reasonable concerns about the town’s water quality, and drags his feet on getting out to cover his territory. Gildersleeve also expresses frustration with the war, with how it has disrupted the world and changed the general focus and behavior of women. Nearly two years after Pearl Harbor, Gildersleeve is no doubt speaking for many listeners. Yet, the end of the episode brings him, and hopefully other war-weary Americans, back to center.

The episode may be the strongest of the set for showing Gildersleeve’s humanity. And really that’s the strength of the series. Gildersleeve is a funny character, but ultimately quite human with both big flaws (such as as being a loud-mouth and braggart) and positives such as being well-intentioned, responsible, and caring. And after its second season, Summerfield feels far more like a real town where real people live, which makes the comedy far more satisfying.

Overall, this is another strong collection from an old time radio sitcom that was getting even better as it went along.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Golden Age Article

Radio’s Most Essential People Countdown: #60-#58

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65-61, 70-66,  71-75, 76-80, 81-85, 86-90, 91-95, 96-100

60) Harold Peary

Harold PearyGoing back to his Chicago radio days, Harold Perry made more than 10,000 radio appearances. However, there’s one role that Perry’s career is associated with Throckmorton Gildersleeve. In 1939,Gilldersleeve was introduced on Fibbery McGee and Molly and became an instant his signature laugh and catchphrases like, “You’re a hard man, McGee!”

Gildersleeve became enormously popular. So popular, in fact, that the first ever spin off was made with the Great Gildersleeve becoming one of radio’s most memorable hits.

Perry’s star rose during his 9 Seasons on the Great Gildersleeve. He also played Gilldersleeve in nine movies, four with Fibber McGee and Molly, four Gilldersleeve movies, and one additional film with Victor Mature and Lucille Ball.

However, Perry became disatisfied with the status quo. He had a solid crooning voice that he felt was underused on Gildersleeve.

The late 40s and early 50s marked CBS famous talents raid. Beginning with bringing Jack Benny to CBS, they began to take talent from other networks left and right including Burns and Allen. CBS offered Perry a fat contract, however Kraft refused to let Gildersleeve go to CBS forcing Perry to launch a new program, The Harold Perry Show.

Despite the support of Joseph Kearns, Parley Baer, and Jane Morgan from Our Miss Brooks, the show was a one season flop due to poor and inconsistent writing. The decision to jump networks sent Perry’s career back to character work. Meanwhile, Gildersleeve went on until 1957 with Willard Waterman taking over the role and bringing Gildersleeve to the small screen in 1955. Still, Perry is generally regarded as the better Gildersleeve due to the strength of the character for the eleven seasons he played it. Despite Perry’s poor decision, his laugh and voice make him an indispensable part of radio history.

59) Art Linkletter

Art Linkletter was an amazing radio pioneer. In someways, his radio programs predated many of the TV reality programs with outrageous stunts. His show, People are Funny challenged audience members to take on unusual stunts with the promise of prizes, usually the prizes for basic challenges were small and it was all in fun. Some challenges included having a teenage girl call up a complete stranger to get homework help. Linkletter sometimes  kept radio audiences riveted with multiple week challenges for big prizes such as cars, vacations, or a step on an exciting career path such as acting. In addition, Linkletter hosted the daily program Art Linkletter’s House Party which aired from 1945-67 over radio and from 1952-69 over television. The program also relied on audience participation. The most famous sketch from the program included Linkletter interviewing every day kids who “said the darnedst things.”

58) Arch Oboler

Arch Oboler was one of radio’s master playwrights. Fans of radio horror will remember him for his work on the horror anthology series Lights Out. However, his talent went far beyond the genre of supernatural thrillers. He was capable of writing moving drama and deep philosophical pieces to rival Norman Corwin. He had not one, but two radio series of plays he’d written called Arch Oboler’s Plays. During World War II, he wrote dramatic plays for such programs as Plays for Americans, Everything for the Boys, and Everyman’s Theater.  Oboler worked to secure his legacy by repackaging and resyndicating twenty-six programs (twenty-five from Lights Out as The Devil and Mr. O.Thus, his legacy lives on.

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