Children's Show Collection

Immediately after the Greatest Generation defeated the forces of fascism in WWII, they returned home to enjoy the post War economic boom and give birth to the Baby Boomer Generation. The sociological implications of the Boomer generation aside, one of the most unique elements of the Boomer kids was that they were treated as an important element of the economy.

Every generation wanted to provide the best for their kids in terms of food, clothes, shelter, and, of course, toys, but until the post-War period, kids simply were not part of a major marketing strategy. On the surface, this seems obvious because kids do not have money of their own to spend. The increased purchasing power of all Americans during the boom period after the War meant that parents would listen to kids when they expressed a desire for a certain toy or breakfast cereal, and marketers were very happy to use radio to tell kids what they wanted.

Grown-ups would like to believe that the shows which the radio networks and sponsors developed for kids were simplistic and harmless fun. The serialized story format that most of these shows adopted was actually quite sophisticated and the social and moral lessons which some of the shows explored were ones that they could share with their parents and the politicians who served them.

Part of the reason it was easy to be dismissive of kids' shows is that many of them were based on characters and stories from the comic pages. One of the earliest was Little Orphan Annie, based on Harold Gray's strip and famously sponsored by Ovaltine. The show premiered on WGN Chicago in 1930 and went nationwide on the Blue Network the following year. Child actress Shirley Bell (b. 1920) played the title role. Ovaltine's marketers were infamous for keeping tabs on their listenership with various promotions and giveaways.

Dick Tracy was a thinking man's cop who used the latest technology (and some technology which had yet to be invented) to figure out what the bad guys were up to but had no problem with fisticuffs or a desperate shootout to resolve the case. Chester Gould drawing and writing the Dick Tracy strip for the Chicago Tribune in 1931, and when the strip went into syndication h was able to work from his home in Woodstock, Illinois. The radio version of Dick Tracy was developed in 1934 over NBC's New England station. The show was developed by then-college student Himan Brown. The series' popularity got a shot in the arm when Republic Pictures began releasing a series of 15-minute shorts in a serial based on the character. When the War started, radio Dick Tracy went on hiatus.

Kids are not supposed to drive cars, so a gasoline company seems like a strange sponsor for kids programming, but Skelly Oil had a good deal of success with The Air Adventures of Jimmie Allen and especially Captain Midnight. Although Dad may have selected the most convenient service station when he was driving on his own, if the kids were in the car they would have told him about Skelly's promotions they had heard about on the radio. Skelly also introduced a line of Captain Midnight bicycle tires to bring kids into the station with the assurance that the pump attendants would be happy to help them fix their bikes. Writers Wilfred G. Moore and Robert M. Burtt, who created Jimmie Allen and Captain Midnight, were both flyers in the Great War. Jimmie Allen followed the adventures of a boy-pilot who foiled crooks from 1933 to 1937. Captain Midnight, which began broadcasting in 1938, took its title from the hero's code name which the WWI flying ace earned when his general sent him on a secret high-risk mission and he returned to the airfield at the stroke of midnight. Captain "Red" Albright was given command of the Secret Squadron, and along with helping folks who needed help the paramilitary outfit also blocked the nefarious schemes of Ivan Shark. Several Axis-type villains were added after Pearl Harbor.

Jack Armstrong, The All-American Boy was created as an incredibly average kid who got wrapped up in all sorts of intriguing adventures because he was morally upright and well-intentioned, and it didn't hurt that he ate his Wheaties every morning. First broadcast on WBBM Chicago in 1933, Jack attended Hudson High School with his pal Billy Fairfield and Billy's sister Betty. The Fairfield's Uncle Jim often went on business trips to exotic locations around the globe and brought Jack and the siblings along, usually resulting in some sort of dangerous adventure. One of the best parts of being a kid on the radio is that you can be a kid for a lot longer than is possible or practical on television. After more than a decade and a half, Armstrong finally graduated from high school and for the last season in 1950-51 became a government agent in Jack Armstrong of the SBI.

Terry and the Pirates is another adventure serial which began in the newspaper funny pages. The exotic Oriental locations and characters which worked so well in the strip had a difficult time holding an audience in isolationist America of 1936-1939. With the political situation around the world heating up, interest in the happenings of the Western Pacific began to increase, and the Red Network brought Terry and his gang back, sponsored by Libby's, in October 1941, just weeks before Pearl Harbor. Although they had some thrilling adventures in the Orient during the War, Japan was never mentioned directly.

Coming from pages of All-American Comics (a forerunner of DC Comics) rather than the newspapers, Hop Harrigan was another aviation hero. Unlike most other comic book heroes, Hop did not have a secret identity or superpowers (although he was an exceptionally skilled pilot, he did have a delightful sidekick, mechanic Tank Tinker, who managed to get Hop into as much trouble as he helped get him out of. Hop Harrigan began broadcasting in 1942, so the early villains were predictably War related.

Juvenile Western series were based on the popularity of Western movies, but one of the earliest radio examples was based on a real cowboy. Tom Mix was born in 1880 and joined the Army during the Spanish American War. Although his unit never went overseas, Tom would join a company of fifty riders in Teddy Roosevelt's inauguration parade in 1905, representing the Rough Riders. He was hired by the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch in Oklahoma, at 101,000 acres the largest ranching business in the country. The 101 Ranch sponsored a traveling Wild West Show, and Mix distinguished himself as a rider and marksman. He began as a wrangler for Hollywood studios filming early silent Westerns and soon his talents were displayed in front of the camera. In 1933, Ralston-Purina paid to use his name for the Tom Mix Straight Shooters program. Mix was never actually heard on the program, which was continually broadcast long after his death in 1940.

The Man of Steel may be the most important comic book superhero of them all, but many of the elements which define Superman as Superman were developed on the radio. Just two years after debuting on the cover of Action Comics #1 in 1938, The Adventures of Superman was developed for syndication at WOR New York and became a popular feature on the Mutual Network. Just as the hero's identity was a closely guarded secret, the fact that Superman was played by Bud Collyer was never openly revealed. Collyer did a marvelous job of using a different voice for the Man of Steel and another for his alter-ego Clark Kent. After the War, the writers created several story arcs which were important lessons in the fight against intolerance.

The aviation hero and the Western came together in 1947 on Sky King. The main character was loosely based on Jack Cones, a 1930's lawman in San Bernardino County, California, who used an airplane to cover his territory. In the series, Arizona rancher and pilot Schuyler "Sky" King used his airplane not only to bridge the great distances of the West but also to find lost hikers, keep an eye on bad guys, and to track rustlers and spies. Sponsored by Peter Pan Peanut Butter, Sky King was well known for offering premiums like the Sky King Secret Signal Scope and the Sky King Spy-Detecto Writer.

Although there were plenty of juvenile Westerns, Bobby Benson and the B Bar B Riders was unique because the hero was just a kid like the listeners. At the age of twelve, Bobby inherits the ranch and manages to run it with the help of his foreman and guardian. Running from 1932 to 1936, and again from 1949 to 1955, The B Bar B was also famous for its premiums.

Straight Arrow was a later juvenile Western, premiering in 1948 on Mutual. The hero was an orphaned Comanche Indian who was adopted and raised on the Adams ranch. Steve Adams inherits the ranch when he comes of age, and whenever bad guys threaten he becomes the Comanche warrior Straight Arrow.

This collection includes hours of excellent children's programming from the 1930's - 1950 including episodes of Columbia Workshop, Fairy Tales by Harold Peary (of Great Gildersleeve) and Earle Ross, Howdy Doody, KittyKeen, Old Tales and New, Sleepy Joe and many others.

For other great children's programs see the collections of Smilin' Ed's Buster Brown Gang, Howdy Doody Time, Let's Pretend, Cinnamon Bear, Wormwood Forest, and Minnesota School of the Air.