By Todd Nebel

If you didn’t read magazines and books—and even if you did—you had to listen to the radio during the war. Everyone did, if not for fun and enjoy­ment, then to get the news “every hour on the hour”. On any summer’s day, and when windows were open, you could walk around a block and not miss a line when an important program was being broadcast. Perhaps prema­turely, radio entered this “golden age” by the middle-thirties when, institu­tionally speaking, it was still in knee pants. By 1943, however, it had become a billion dollar industry that was vital to the war front and home front alike; an instant resource and main supplier of news and entertain­ment to the millions. (Television, you will recall, was still in its earliest stages of infancy at the hands of RCA and other developers.)

During the war, the commercial broadcasting scheme was controlled by the major networks — CBS, NBC Red and Blue, and MUTUAL, as well as some 900 standard broadcasting sta­tions. Their combined output could be heard coast-to-coast over some 60 million home and automobile radio receivers. In addition, the Armed Forces Radio Service transmitted many of the regular network programs to just about every part of the world thanks to the use of transcription recordings sent to the troops overseas. In fact, many of the popular network radio programs of the day were heard by troops at hospitals, rear echelon areas and even on the fighting fronts.

Except for the news programs, what you heard on the radio in a typical war year like 1943 was pretty much what you were accustomed to in the years before the war. The show scripts were war-angled and the comic gags had a GI twist, but beyond that nothing much had changed. Night after night in their regular time slots, there turned up such old favorites and rating leaders as “Fibber McGee and Molly”, “The Jack Benny Program”, “The Chase and Sanborn Hour” with Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, “The Bob Hope Show”, “The Aldrich Family” with Ezra Stone, “Lux Radio Theatre” produced by Cecil B. DeMille, and Walter Winchell (Good Evening, Mr. and Mrs. North America and all-the-ships-at-sea-lets-go-to-press”).

For some of radios make-believe characters, however, wartime induc­tion was the real thing. When Uncle Sam called, Ezra Stone, (who played Henry Aldrich on “The Aldrich Fam­ily”), went from radio teenager to real life Army Sergeant. The characters of The Old Timer, Wallace Wimple, and Horatio K. Boomer on the “Fibber McGee and Molly Show” all left for the Navy in the person of Bill Thomp­son. Daytime radio stars also were in­cluded. Arthur Peterson, who played Ruthledge “The Good Samaritan of Five Points” on “Guiding Light” left for war in 1944, as did Billy Idelson who played Rush on “Vic and Sade” and John Raby who played Harry Davis, the young husband to Joan Field, on “When A Girl Marries.”

Some real-life stars who more or less played themselves on radio and left to join the service were Rudy Vallee, Den­nis Day, Glenn Miller and Red Skelton. But, just as important, many of the top stars of the day made their own contributions to the war effort by combining their talents in a production that was described by Time as “the best wartime program in radio”. The production was called “Command Performance” and it was distributed by the Armed Forces Radio Service for the troops overseas. With the emceeing of Bob Hope and others, over 1000 of these variety programs were produced. A galaxy of stars then donated their time and talent in hopes that they could bring a little laughter, a tear and maybe a recollection of home to the young soldiers away at war.

Radio on the home front, however, never let you forget that there was a war going on. In one way or another, in jest or somberness, this fact was driven into practically every program.

The big variety shows, for example, were from time to time, broadcast directly from any army camp with wolf whistles and cheers of the GI audience heard loudly in the background. War themes and slogans, diligently pro­moted by the OWI (Office of War In­formation) found a way into nearly every major program, if not internally or as part of a script, then as the “cur­tain speech” with the leading comic or singer stepping out of character to solemnly urge you to visit your local Red Cross Blood Bank, army recruiting station or to just refrain from travel.

To get you to do your share to win the war, the comedy shows, dramas, soaps and even the quiz shows never forgot to remind you how precious your freedom really was. The stars of the programs also were willing to give up a little time from their shows each week to talk about the urgent need for you to “Buy More Bonds!” and “Save Used Fats!” Incidentally, there was no arm twisting and nobody needed to be paid extra to give a special message on the government’s behalf. America was one unified whole in World War II, thanks to the part radio played in keep­ing the home front alive and well.

By Todd Nebel

1937: THE CINNAMON BEAR, a children’s Christmas Story in twenty-six cliff-hanging  episodes was produced.  It was recorded on large, sixteen inch transcription discs for syndication to radio stations around the country, but was not broadcast in the Chicago area in 1937.

1938: WITHOUT ANY FANFARE, the Cinnamon Bear was introduced to Chicago radio listeners on Friday, November 11th. Radio station WGN broadcast the show at 5 p.m. daily as youngsters had their first encounter with Paddy O’Cinnamon, Judy and Jimmy Barton and their search for the Silver Star for the top of the Christmas Tree. The final episode was broadcast on Friday, December 16th.

1939: LOCAL NEWSPAPERS carried many advertisements and articles about the return of the Cinnamon Bear to Chicago radio. The series was rebroadcast on WGN at 5:30 p.m. daily from Friday, November 10th thru Friday, December 15th.

1940: CHICAGO YOUNGSTERS were not able to hear the adventures in Maybe Land as the Cinnamon Bear was not broadcast on WGN or any other Chicago station.

1941: THE CRAZY QUILT DRAGON may have been going thru his antics in other parts of the country, but, once again, youngsters in the Windy City could not listen as no Chicago station carried the Cinnamon Bear.

1942: FOR THE THIRD CONSECUTIVE YEAR, no Chicago radio station carried the adventures of Paddy O’Cinnamon.

1943: THE SEARCH FOR THE SILVER STAR RESUMES as radio station WENR, Chicago’s NBC Blue Network affiliate carries the program Monday thru Friday afternoons at 4:30 p.m. There is no fanfare to herald the return of the serial which is heard from November 15th thru December 17th.

1944: PADDY O’CINNAMON AND HIS FRIENDS return to WGN and now plays at an earlier time, 4:15 p.m., Monday thru Friday, November 3rd and continuing thru Friday, December 8th.

1945: THE SERIAL again plays on WGN and is heavily advertised in the Chicago Tribune. It was broadcast at 4:15 p.m. from Monday, November 12th thru Monday, December 17th.

1946: THE CINNAMON BEAR switches back to WENR and is heard at 4:45 p.m., weekdays from Friday, November 8th thru Friday, December 13th. The Cinnamon Bear is followed at 5 p.m. by Terry and the Pirates.

1947:  THE WINTERGREEN WITCH and all the inhabitants of Maybe Land return to WGN at 5 p.m., beginning Friday, November 7th thru Friday, December 12th. The program is followed by Captain Midnight at 5:15 p.m. and Superman at 5:30 p.m.

1948: PADDY O’CINNAMON MAKES HIS FM RADIO DEBUT at 5 p.m., Friday, November 12th when the series begins its seventh season in Chicago on sister stations WGN (AM) and WGNB (FM). Superman followed the Cinnamon Bear each afternoon at 5:15 p.m. and when Paddy concludes his adventures on Friday, December 17th, the 5-5:15 p.m. time slot is filled until December 25th by a program called Season’s Greetings featuring Franklyn MacCormack and Harold Turner.

1949: JUDY AND JIMMY continue their search for the Silver Star daily at 4:45 p.m. on WGN from Friday, November 4th thru Friday, December 9th. At 5 p.m. WGN broadcast Straight Arrow and, at 5:15 p.m., The Cisco Kid.

1950: THE CINNAMON BEAR’S final radio appearance during the Golden Age begins at 4:45 p.m., Friday, November 3rd on WGN. The serial concludes on Friday, December 8th. Mark Trail and Straight Arrow follow on WGN at 5 p.m.

1951: PADDY O’CINNAMON, THE CRAZY QUILT DRAGON, THE WINTERGREEN WITCH, JUDY AND JIMMY, and all the others defect to television in a filmed puppet show using the transcription disc recordings of the radio version as a soundtrack. The TV series is seen from 5:30 to 5:45 p.m. from Friday, November 9th to Friday, December 7th on WGN-TV, Channel 9.

1952: THE TV ADVENTURES IN MAYBELAND move to Channel 7, ABC-TV in Chicago as WENR-TV presents the Cinnamon Bear series at 4:45 p.m., weekdays from November 14th thru December 19th.

1953: PADDY O’CINNAMON AND FRIENDS return to WGN-TV at 4:45 p.m. Friday, November 13th thru Friday, December 18th. It’s followed at 5 p.m. by Junior Edition.

Cinnamon Bear Transcription Disc

1954: THE FINAL TELEVISION SEASON for The Cinnamon Bear in Chicago begins on Friday, November 12th where the Christmastime adventures are shown at 4:45 p.m. thru Friday, December 17th. Bob Atcher’s Ranch followed the Cinnamon Bear daily at 5 p.m.

By Todd Nebel

The Golden Age of Radio Receivers could be termed the period of time when radio manufacturers in the decade before World War II competed to produce the best radios the world had ever seen — before or since.

Between 1930 and 1941, American manufacturers responded to a great demand and produced a superior product which still works effectively and still is in great demand at flea markets and antique stores throughout the country.

The mostly wooden-framed radios from this period were made of quality workmanship and product and can to this day cost hundreds of dollars more than their original asking price (depending on their condition). These radios were entirely American in origin, parts and labor by American corporations who cared not only about profit but in the quality of each one of its products.

In 1930, the majority of radio receivers were in the form of a console. However, as the depression worsened, people began buying less expensive radio sets. The industry then produced the classic sets we know as “cathedrals” or “depression” models which were more compact and less expensive table models for home use.

By 1933, table models made up 74 per cent of all radios sold. Between 1935 and 1941 the radio audience zoomed to 28.5 million, or 81 per cent of American homes as compared to 67 per cent at the start of 1935. At the same time, a previously insignificant element, car radios, went from 9 per cent in 1935 to 27 per cent or 7.5 million automobiles, in 1941. By 1938, the United States owned half the world’s radio receivers and more American homes had radios than telephones, vacuum cleaners or electric irons. The American radio audience ran from top to bottom in the social and economic scale and included everything in between. It could be said,that the radio audience was the whole of the American people.

At the outset of the 1930′s, RCA controlled the majority of radio’s vastly superior superhetradyne circuit up until the 1931 model year. However, it was at this turning point that RCA was required to divest following an antitrust litigation and subsequently General Electric and Westinghouse, former manufacturers for RCA, began to manufacture independently in 1935.

The Philco Radio Company was one of the major radio producers during this “golden age.” It remained behind RCA as a seller of radios until 1940, when it sold an equal number of radio sets. Heavy promotion, pioneering battery-operated portable radios, automobile radios and a line of efficient battery operated radios destined for rural listeners all made Philco the growing giant of the period.

Next in importance was the Zenith Corporation whose dynamic president Commander Eugene F. MacDonald promoted aggressive selling as well as concentration on the home radio market versus diversification. Here, as well, innovations brought success — large, round and easily read dials on radios starting in 1935, a simple radio antennae to improve reception and an inexpensive shortwave AM portable radio.

Another new company, Emerson Radio was mainly responsible for introducing the small, inexpensive table radio in 1933. Emerson’s prices kept getting lower until, by 1939 Emerson was selling radios at under $10, naturally encouraging many families to own more than one set. Another aggressive firm, Motorola, moved into the automobile market and by 1941 was selling one-third of all car radios, and offered push button sets tailored for specific car instrument panels. The common thread of all these firms was their aggressive salesmanship and pricecutting rather than major technical development.

Meanwhile RCA, onetime leader in the radio receiver field, was now losing out in other areas of the radio market as well. While remaining the largest maker of radio tubes in 1941, Sylvania and Raytheon were now moving in on RCA’s market share. And in the loudspeaker business, Magnavox was making great inroads as well. Most of RCA’s problems were due to declining market share from increased competition after divestiture. It wasn’t until World War II, under the great leadership of David Sarnoff, that RCA experienced a resurgence by developing military communications and in further developing the entire radio-electronics industry.

Other firms which were once important in the manufacturing of radios, such as Grigsby-Grunow and Atwater Kent, withered away during the depression. Increasingly tight competition among the remaihing firms led to narrow profit margins and very little advanced research by the onset of the war. Circuitry became more standardized, parts became interchangeable, and manufacturing became even more streamlined and simplified. Many firms were now selling similar small table models, chairside radios, large floor consoles — some with phonographs — and automobile radios.

The major results were more reliable and efficient radios at low prices and a growing multi-set audience.

by Todd Nebel

One of the top three old time radio programs that premiered in the late stages of the “Golden Age of Radio” (besides “Dragnet” and “Gunsmoke”) was “Life With Luigi”. It went on the air over CBS in 1948 and was consistently in the top rated programs throughout it’s run. Life With Luigi was the story of an Italian immigrant, Luigi Basco, a postwar newcomer to the United States. Luigi was an honest, lovable, patriotic Italian who regularly got into trouble but always won out in the end.

Two supporting characters who were integral in Life With Luigi’s success, were Mac Benoff (Director and Chief Writer), and Jody Gilbert (“Rosa” the spectacularly unattractive daughter of Pasquale, who would like to marry her off to his buddy Luigi). Cy Howard the producer for “My Friend Irma”came up with the idea for Life with Luigi following a two month visit to Italy. Upon it’s launch, CBS discovered that Italians were enthusiastic for the show. In fact at that time in 1948, the United States was more popular in Italy than anywhere else in Europe. Soon, by the 1949-1950 season Life with Luigi was the 13^th highest rated program with a 16.4 Hooper Rating.

Helping the show to get there and always the source of a lot of belly laughs, was Jody Gilbert who played Pasquale’s daughter “Rosa”. Jody Gilbert couldn’t get standard acting roles because of her southern accent. She couldn’t get rid of the Texas twang in her voice, so she did the next best thing. She mastered some 30 dialects to go along with her southern accent and became a character specialist.

Gilbert got her first radio acting job in the 1930′s as a high school teenager. After high school she toured the south in musical comedies, did summer stock, then moved to Broadway. After Broadway she moved west and did plays, then moved to Hollywood where she became a character actress. In fact, by the time she started with Life With Luigi she had already been in some 89 films.

Jody Gilbert got the role on Life With Luigi by actually losing out on an Irish role for “My Friend Irma”. When Cy Howard was casting for the role of Mrs. O’Reilly, he became impressed with Jody Gilbert despite not giving her the role. He promised Jody he’d keep her in mind and when Life With Luigi came up, he called her for the Rosa role.

Fast forward to March 1953. Life With Luigi had been on the air since 1948 and still was one of the few shows with an equally high production level (to 1948 standards) despite a drop in it’s overall yearly budget since 1950. The writing and acting were still top notch and the program had even moved simultaneously to television. Life With Luigi had just signed a new contract thru December 1953 and in the January Hooper report, was the third highest rated situation comedy (behind Amos and Andy and Our Miss Brooks but ahead of The Great Gildersleeve, My Friend Irma, Ozzie and Harriet, and Phil and Alice).

Which brings us to the obvious question. In the last episode on March 3^rd, 1953, in which Luigi travels to see his cousin in California (and then returns back to Chicago at the end of the episode), there is no mention at the end of the show that this was its last episode. In fact, the announcer Charles Lyon invites you to listen again next week “when Luigi Basco writes another letter to his Mama Basco in Italy.” So what happened? Why didn’t the show return on March 10^th, for another episode?

The usual theories over the years have centered on the fact that by 1953, radio and television programs were now under more scrutiny because of stereotyping, especially African-Americans. It was equally thought that Italian Americans were also feeling stereotyped by the Italian-American jokes and references on Life With Luigi. But, truth be known, this couldn’t have been farther from the truth. Italian Americans loved the show, especially Luigi’s human qualities as well as the wealth of human characters on the show. So what was it, what suddenly and deliberately killed the show in one weeks time?

“This program was discontinued on recommendation of the Columbia Broadcasting System when it was learned that Jody Gilbert (Rosa) and Mac Benoff, a writer, were under investigation by the United States Government on charges that both were members of the Communist Party.”

by Todd Nebel

Gerald Mohr (June 11, 1914 – November 9, 1968) lived a very short but full life as a radio, movie, and television actor. He was born in New York City and was raised fluent in English, French and German. He enrolled in Columbia University to become a doctor, but was struck with an appendicitis which put him in the hospital during school. It was there that another patient who also happened to be a radio broadcaster, heard Mohr’s voice and suggested he would be ideal for radio. Mohr got his start in radio as a junior reporter and thanks to a wonderful baritone voice, the rest was history. By the mid-1930′s Mohr had joined Orson Welles Mercury Theatre and was appearing in broadway plays and dramatic roles on radio.

In the 17 years before he took on his most famous role in “The Adventures of Phillip Marlowe”, Mohr played everything on radio from a psychotic killer to a figment of a young woman’s imagination. He also played such varied roles as an opera star
a floor walker, an assortment of murderers, gangsters, cops and private detec
tives, a soldier, teacher, mad scientist, newspaperman, doctor, lawyer, prose
cuting attorney, psychiatrist, fast-talking salesman, pirate, pitchman, barke
actor and musician.

Mohr played a variety of nationalities, mostly Latin, including Italian,
Russian, German, Spaniard, Mexican and French. His Italian roles included
portrayals of Rudolph Valentino and Pasquale Amato. He played a Russian
opposite Bette Davis in a memorable dramatic performance, and just as ably
in comedy as a Russian character with Bob Hope. La Fitte, the pirate, the
French teacher on “Our Miss Brooks,” and the French salesman on the “Beulah”
show are some of his many French characterizations that led Hedda Hopper to
suggest that “Charles Boyer could take lessons from Gerald Mohr.”

In Mohr’s radio life, he was equally at home on either side of the law. He played a prosecutor and a defendant, a cop and a criminal, both a French thief and a member of the Surete, a crooked private detective and of course Raymond Chandler’s detective character Phillip Marlowe. In 119 CBS episodes of Phillip Marlowe (1948-1951), he excelled as the hardboiled detective. As John Dunning wrote it in his book “On The Air”, “this was not a cute series. It was blood, guts and thunder and Mohr’s bassy voice carried it”.

In film, Mohr played Michael Lanyard in three “Lone Wolf” films and on television he appeared as a guest star in western programs like “Maverick”, “Bonanza” and “Rawhide”. He also could appear in comedies such as “The Jack Benny Program”, “The Smothers Brothers Show”, “The Lucy Show”, or in dramas such as “Perry Mason”, “77 Sunset Strip” and “Lost In Space”. And because his powerful voice was his greatest asset, he appeared in cartoons as Reed Richards (Mister Fantastic) in the Fantastic Four series in 1967 and as The Green Lantern in the “Aquaman” series in 1968.

In 1968, Mohr had a supporting role in the film “Funny Girl”, and also filmed a pilot television episode called “Private Entrance”. He died November 9th, 1968 at the age of 54 of a heart attack in Stockholm, Sweden shortly after filming the television pilot.

by Todd Nebel

When Frank Galen created the CBS Radio show “Meet Millie”, based on the adventures of a blonde New York secretary with an unlimited talent for doing the wrong thing at the right time and vice versa, he had Audrey Totter in mind. He went to her with several scripts, prepared to prove to her that the part was “right,” even though it contrasted sharply with the dramatic roles she played in the movies.

Miss Totter met Millie, and liked her right off the bat. She started through the first script, and by the second page was reading out loud. Before the last page was read she had decided she would be Millie.

Meet Millie was light, frivolous comedy and lots of fun for Audrey Totter to do. She had occasionally played roles in comedy films, but her motion picture fame was largely based on dramatic parts in such films as “The Postman Always Rings Twice,” “Lady in the Lake,” “The Beginning or the End,” “The Set-Up,” “Tension,” “The Blue Veil,” “The High Wall” and “FBI Girl.”

Totter was quoted as saying “Millie is a nice, pretty, screwball sort of girl, and I can be too when I’m playing her. Being a murderess, or a female psychiatrist, or the poverty-ridden wife of a punchy fighter is interesting and exciting acting. But once a week I can be this blonde kid and live her goofy involvements with boy friends, relatives and fellow employees.”

The New York accent Totter used for Millie was a cinch and at the time she was one of the most accomplished dialecticians in show business.

Audrey Totter was born in Joliet, IL, the eldest of five children, and at an age when most children are learning to talk she was imitating the nuances of accents among the people closest to her. Of Swedish ancestry on her mother’s side, she imitated the accent of her maternal grandmother. From her father, John Michael Totter, she acquired a Viennese accent. In school, she concentrated on voices, accents and dialects, which she practiced in school plays. Later she joined a Joliet stock company and picked up an Oxford accent from its English manager. Traveling around the 48 states with other stock companies and road shows augmented her collection of regional dialects, and by the time she entered radio, in 1940, she was an expert in dozens of speech patterns. After four years in radio, she was offered a New York stage role and an MGM screen test. She accepted the Hollywood offer and the test showed that the radio actress “with a thousand voices” had a face and figure, all adding up to star material.

However, by July 10, 1951 Audrey Totter would come full circle and become the star of Meet Millie, a radio program similar in tone to other “dumb blonde” programs like “The Joan Davis Show”, “My Friend Irma”, and “Maisie”. Meet Millie lasted over the CBS Radio Network until September 23, 1954.

The quality of Audrey Totter’s films declined during the late 1950′s, while during the 1960′s through 1980′s she played supporting roles on television. Her last role of any kind was in 1987 on television in “Murder She Wrote”. Today, Audrey Totter lives in retirement at the age of 93.

by Todd Nebel

Amos and Andy was the most popular radio program of all time during the Golden Age of Radio. White radio actors, Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll performed black dialect throughout the entire run, from 1928 to 1960. Oddly enough it was accident, not design, that gave Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll their start in radio. Back in 1920, the pair worked for the same home talent productions firm. They were in New Orleans and were invited to appear on a broadcast on one of the city’s first experimental stations. Later, they got a job as a singing team with WEHR in Chicago that lasted for seven months – without pay. Then in 1924, they went to work for WGN – for cash. On January 12, 1926, they started a nightly black dialect act as “Sam ‘n’ Henry” that lasted for two years. When Gosden and Correll accepted another job with WMAQ they needed another name. That was in 1928 – and going up in the elevator for their first broadcast the operator was talkative and had a greeting for everyone who got on the elevator. When a carpenter got on, he said, “Hello there, Handy Andy,” and on another floor he greeted someone else with, “Well, well, Famous Amos.” And the comedians had the new names for their new radio show.

On August 19, 1929, Amos and Andy decided they would change their script locale to New York’s Harlem, and the two comedians became national sensations – 7:00 pm. across the country was Amos and Andy time. Office workers rushed home for the broadcasts; theater screens went blank; hotel room service was suspended.

On October 8,1943, they gave up their traditional five-times-a-week, fifteen-minute series and started in a once-a-week, half-hour format. Both Gosden and Correll were from the South. It was Correll’s ability to play the piano which led to his job with the home talent productions firm. He visited towns and cities all over the country, organizing, training and drilling a home town cast for a show in a week’s time. At about the same time, Gosden joined the same firm and was sent to Durham, North Carolina, to meet Correll and learn stage direction and technique. This meeting led to what would become the most famous partnership of the Golden Age of Radio.

by Todd Nebel

The golden age of radio usually is understood as encompassing the years 1930 - 1950. For myself as well as others, the period is extended until 1955 under the informal heading, “radio’s courageous but losing battle against tele­vision.” It is unfair to call these extra five years “ungolden” because it was still entertaining radio entertainment, but with fewer listeners. The music of that 25 year period and radio programming were interchangeably interconnected and woven into an enter­taining fabric. Some of this music was Christmas music.  And so it happens that Christmas and the golden age of radio at that time had combined to produce by far, the most American “popular” Christmas music than at any other time in our country’s history.

Many times during the golden age of radio, “popular” (nor liturgical) Christmas music was introduced by ”popular” recording artists and radio personalities. The music would be written for the artist to be introduced in a radio show, on a record, in a film and sometimes all at once. In the case of radio, millions of listeners would he exposed to a new song, creating an ideal place for immediate exposure and hopefully, later com­mercial success.

Bing Crosby. Perry Como, Gene Autry, the Andrews Sisters, Frank Sinatra, Dennis Day and Eddie Cantor are a few of the artists who had great success exposing new Christmas compositions on radio. Radio was and still is, an ideal medium for music. The music of the golden age of radio was a perfect compli­ment to the swinging and joyous melodies written for Christmas at that time. Hence, a wealth of popular Christmas songs were produced during the period. Composers since the mid-fifties have had some limited successes (notably with songs like “Jingle Bell Rock” and “The Chipmunk Song”) but mostly the changed musical styles have produced dismal attempts at writing Christmas music. The whining electrified guitars and flabby basses of the sixties and seventies and the com­puterized synthesized music of the eighties up to today, lacks the warmth and heart­felt tones so closely associated with the holiday.

The “golden Age” of popular Christmas songs began in 1932 when the song “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” was written by Haven Gillespie and J. Fred Coots. They tried for two years to get someone to take a chance on their song, but even Eddie Cantor (who employed Coots as a staffwriter) was not interested. It was not until Ida Cantor, Eddie’s wife, persuaded Eddie to give the song a chance. Cantor used the song on his radio show one week before Thanksgiving in 1934. The song was an instant success and has since become the third best selling Christmas song of all time (mostly due to the Bing Crosby — Andrews Sisters Recording).

“Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” was created in 1939, the invention of Robert L. May, an advertising copywriter for Montgomery Ward Stores and a brother-in-law to composer Johnny Marks. May had thought up Rudolph as an advertising promotion gimmick for Wards. In 1949, Johnny Marks put words and music to the already successful published story book of “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.” Marks then had the song published and went on a search to find the right s