These Are Our Men

These Are Our Men, airing weekly at 9:30,
presented by the Parker Watch Company.

This short but very well produced series ran near the end of WWII as part of the War Bond Drive. The 30-minute programs featured dramatized biographies of our wartime leaders. Narrator Staats Cotsworth (of radio's Casey, Crime Photographer) calls upon the character "History" to present sketches from the featured Hero's life. Scenes will range from time in the High school principal's office to behind the scenes portraits during important campaigns.

Biographies featured include Franklin Roosevelt, General George C. Marshall, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, General Henry H. Arnold, Lt General Jonathon Mayhew Wainwright, Admiral Ernest J. King, General Douglas MacArthur, Lt General A.A. Vandergrift, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, and General George Patton. The final episode is a dramatization of correspondent Ernie Pyle's Brave Men.

Each episode would feature an appeal from a high powered Hollywood star for the War Bond Drive. Guest stars would include Frank Sinatra, Franchot Tone, Ralph Bellamy, Paul Muni, Talullah Bankhead, Jean Hersholt, Ralph Edwards, Richard Arlen, Miriam Hopkins, Robert Merrill, and Jack Benny.

The Parker Watch Company offered a book-portfolio featuring photographs and biographies of the American Leaders profiled in the series. The booklet featured a portfolio for the safe keeping of War Bonds, and a place to record Bond Serial numbers.

Surely the War Information Office and the Nation appreciates the efforts of the Parker Watch Company. The Parker Watch Company may have been better served to place more emphasis on selling watches. The company folded in 1951.

The weekly closing sequence reminds us of that:

These Are Our Men is presented… by the Parker Watch Company and its dealers throughout America, but not to sell watches. What we ask you to buy is Bonds, War Bonds! More Bonds!"

For more WWII-era bond-sales related shows, see also: Any Bonds Today?, Four for the Fifth, Guest Star Radio, Keep Em Rollin, Music for Millions, New World A-Coming, Over Here, These are Our Men, Treasury Salute, and Treasury Star Parade.