Hummert Radio Factory: Ann and Frank Hummert Collection

The Hummerts were not only a considerable power in entertainment broadcasting during the Golden Age of Radio, they were among the medium most reclusive and strange couples; a reputation for strangeness they not only enjoyed, but seemed to encourage.

An Advertising and Journalistic Background

Edward Frank Hummert Jr. was born in St Louis, MO, on June 2, 1884, to a French mother and English Mercantilist father. Frank Sr.'s business concerns took the family all around the US and Europe before finally settling permanently in St Louis. Frank Jr. was primed to follow in his father's footsteps with an international education, usually in high-caliber Jesuit institutions. However the excitement of the fourth estate seemed more exciting, and at the age of 20 he landed a job with the St Louis Post-Dispatch. Later he would have reporting positions with New World, the news journal of the Archdiocese of Chicago, and the International News Syndicate of The New York Times. However work in the newspapers failed to hold his interest. He would make and lose a fortune in real estate and at one point went to work with his father in the import/export field. During the Great War he was called upon to generate slogans for the War Bond effort, "which helped win the war far more than any bullets he might have fired." His slogan "Bonds or Bondage" appeared throughout the US and Great Britain. Before settling fully in the advertising world, he held a job rewriting theatrical scripts for $125 each. This would give him great experience in scenario plotting and dialogue development when his professional pursuits reached their apex.

His full time launch into advertising would be somewhat accidental. He came to the aid of a friend whose enterprise was failing, and managed to turn the downslide around through the sheer force of promotional ingenuity. Thinking he could do this for others, he began accepting copywriting assignments at night. By 1920 he would be hired by the prestigious New York firm of Lord & Thomas. Through the cash-flushed times prior to the Great Depression he proved again and again his ability to come up with just the right phrase or slogan that would get the public buying. For Proctor and Gamble's Camay Soap he coined the slogan "For Skin You Love to Touch." This contact with the soap makers would prove prophetic for Frank Hummert. In 1927 he was offered a vice presidency of the Chicago firm that would become Blackett-Sample-Hummert, Inc. Although not a full partner, adding his name to the firm helped to built the image of the firm, where Hummert's main role was that of Idea Man. Hummert would lead the firm into broadcasting, but he didn't do it alone. It was around this time that a bright young woman, nearly twenty years his junior, was brought to his attention as a potential assistant.

Anne Schumacher Ashenhurst was the daughter of a Baltimore policeman who believed that it would be a waste of money to educate a girl. Therefore Anne financed her own college tuition as a College Correspondent for The Baltimore Sun. After graduation she moved to Paris for a job with The International Herald Tribune. In Paris she married reporter John Ashenhurst. The couple settled in Chicago, home of the Ashenhurst's, and were divorced in 1928. A son, John, was born in 1927. Anne was unable to find journalistic work, so was attracted to the assistantship of Frank Hummert. She became extremely valuable to the firm, and soon was promoted to a vice presidency with compensation equal to Hummert's. The couple "resisted" each other's charms for seven years before they were married in 1935.

Early Radio Serial Work

Frank began to follow a serial published in a local newspaper, and hit upon the idea of bringing the concept to radio for his clients. He hired the writer of the newspaper serial to develop The Stolen Husband for local Chicago broadcast. The program was notable in that all of the parts were played by a single actor, changing his voice and moving to different positions around the microphone to portray the different characters.

The Hummert's first major radio success is acknowledged to be Bill the Barber, later retitled Just Plain Bill. The show is also credited as the Hummert's first successful Soap Opera, even though it started in an evening time slot. Bill Davidson had a barbershop in the town of Hartville, where he lived with his daughter. When he wasn't cutting hair, Bill would help solve his neighbor's problems. Eventually he would woo and marry a woman well above his own station. Interclass marriage would become a favored theme of the Hummerts.

The Hummert Radio Factory Perfected

The process of developing and continuing a radio drama was relatively simple, once it was put into place. The "Radio Factory" was often compared to Henry Ford's assembly line, not only for its output, but also the impersonal way it often operated. The couple would outline the plot of a show, developing the characters and the plot twists in an outline form. The concepts would then be turned over to another writer, a "Dialoguer", to be finished as a completed script. With most of the "creative work" already done for the stories, the Hummerts (working through their own company, Air Features, Inc.) were able to pay their writers below the market scale, many of them took on their Hummert projects as a sideline while involved in other projects, adding "caviar money" to their "meat and potatoes work." Penny pinching was seen throughout Air Features. The couple had very little to do with their actors and actresses. Often they would be auditioned by Anne, but the actual hiring would be done by lawyers or agents of Air Features. A contract would be placed on the table in a take-it-or-leave-it fashion, leaving little room for negotiation, and often at cut rates in comparison to other programs. However, working for Air Features, while at lower pay scales, was considered steady and stable work.

Long Term Commercial Success In Spite of Critical Distain

The Hummerts were often attacked for their programs, which were ridiculed as sensationalist and low class, given their plot lines often depending on devices such as amnesia, deceit and jealousy, unfaithful spouses, unsavory business practices, and murder. Anne defended her shows, saying they upheld moral values, upheld family life, spotlighted successful stories of people from unsuccessful backgrounds, and that the bad behavior was never rewarded in the end. The loyal following and long life of their most successful programs, Ma Perkins (1935-55), The Romance of Helen Trent (1933-60), Mary Noble, Backstage Wife (1935-59), Lorenzo Jones (1937-55), Our Gal Sunday (1937-59), Stella Dallas(1937-55) and Young Widder Brown (1938-56) suggest that their formulas worked, and that audience loyalty was a greater force than critical distain.

Although they are best remembered for their great number of Soap Opera successes, the couple also applied their formula to a number of Mystery/Crime dramas, including Stevens and Son of Scotland Yard (1932), Detective Reeder (1939), Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons (1943-55), Mystery Theatre (1948-51), Mr. Chameleon (1950-53), Inspector Thorne (1951), and Hearthstone of the Death Squad (1951-52). Juvenile Adventure Serials, airing in the late afternoon just before the dinner hour, were also successful under the Hummert formula. See Little Orphan Annie (1931-42), Penrod and Sam (1931-36), and Chandu the Magician (1935-36). Musicals were a very big part of the Hummert line up: Hollywood Nights (1931-32), Manhattan Merry Go Round (1932-49), Melodiana (1933-36), Waltz Time (1933 - 1955) Album of Familiar Canadian Music (1933-35), and many others.

Hummert Factory Quick Reference Radiography

See also: Houseboat Hanna.