As the clock ticks toward All Hallow’s Eve, we’ll wind down where we began in last month’s episode of Breaking Walls, with the October 30th, 1957 episode of LIFE and the World on NBC. The October 14th LIFE Magazine cover featured Little Central High School in Arkansas; the October 21st cover featured American scientists plotting Sputnik’s orbit; while the October 28th’s cover featured Queen Elizabeth opening Canadian Parliament. This episode features a speech by poet Carl Sandburg and a rare int...
Oct 24, 2023•16 min
On October 21st, 1957 Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip visited New York City. It was the final stop on their tour. The next day they returned to the United Kingdom. Meanwhile in Washington, President Eisenhower was meeting with the U.K.’s Prime Minister Harold MacMillan and NATO Chief Paul-Henri Spaak. Their chat was over Middle East policy, rocket deployment, and the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik. On Friday October 25th at 7:30AM, the NBC World News Roundup took to the air talking of develo...
Oct 23, 2023•16 min
You Bet Your Life, conceived by the just-heard John Guedel and hosted by comedian Groucho Marx, debuted over ABC’s airwaves on October 27th, 1947. Three couples were brought onstage to be interviewed and quizzed by Groucho. Each couple was given twenty dollars and told to bet as much as they dared risk on four questions from a category of their choosing. The money would double with each successive step. Couples could win three-hundred twenty dollars, go broke on the first question, or finish any...
Oct 21, 2023•24 min
Hey everyone, James Scully here. I wanted to let you know I’ve got a walking tour on Sunday 10/22/2023 with The New York Adventure Club in conjunction with Burning Gotham, the audio soap opera set in 1835 NYC that I developed. Burning Gotham was a 2022 official Tribeca Film Festival audio selection. Included here is a link where you can buy tickets. — https://www.nyadventureclub.com/event/exploring-1830s-new-york-from-the-great-fire-to-south-street-seaport-registration-726888130967/ Join us as w...
Oct 18, 2023•1 min
On Sunday, October 20th, 1957 at 4:35PM eastern time, the just-heard Agnes Moorehead starred for the seventh time in Suspense’ adaptation of Lucille Fletcher’s harrowing story, “Sorry, Wrong Number.” In this play, a bed-ridden invalid, attempting to call her husband, accidentally overhears a plot between two men to kill some woman thanks to crossed phone lines. Over the course of the story she desperately attempts to get uninterested phone operators and policemen to care, until she finds out who...
Oct 18, 2023•27 min
As we covered in the previous episode, number 143, of Breaking Walls, In Little Rock, Arkansas on September 4th, 1957, nine African-American students attempted to attend their first day of high school at the newly integrated Little Rock Central High. The National Guard, on the orders of Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus, prevented the students from entering the school. The Governor then locked himself in his mansion, refusing to come out. President Dwight D. Eisenhower soon met with the Governor, a...
Oct 16, 2023•11 min
On Wednesday October 9th, 1957 at 8PM eastern time, The Bill Kemp Show took to the air over ABC. Bill Kemp was born on July 10th, 1921 in Toronto, Canada. An up and coming performer in the 1950s, his daily radio show ran weeknights at 8PM. His show was the final in a twelve-hour daily live broadcast project by ABC called “The Live and Lively Radio Network.” ABC’s intention was to raise ratings by going back to live broadcasts in an era of taped shows. Interestingly, it was ABC that helped launch...
Oct 14, 2023•8 min
Stan Freberg was born on August 7th, 1926 in Pasadena, California. Shortly after graduating from high school, he found work as a voice actor in both radio and animation. In 1957, now thirty-one, he was given his own thirty-minute comedy program on CBS, Sundays at 7:30PM eastern time from Hollywood. He debuted on July 14th, 1957. His cast featured Peter Leeds, June Foray, Daws Butler, Marvin Miller with vocalist Peggy Taylor, Billy May's orchestra, and the Jud Conlon Rhythmaires. His comedic styl...
Oct 11, 2023•20 min
In October of 1957, Algeria was in the midst of a war for Independence and control between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front. The conflict began in November of 1954 and by October of 1957 was considered the world’s only active war of note. It was a complex conflict characterized by guerrilla warfare and the use of torture. When the War finally came to an end in 1962 with France granting Algeria Independence, nine-hundred-thousand Algerian refugees fled to France in fear of the NL...
Oct 09, 2023•12 min
In October 1944, in conjunction with the Jewish Theological Seminary, NBC began one of the longest-running religious programs in radio history. It was called The Eternal Light. Then in its thirteenth year, The Eternal Light dramatized stories from ancient Judaea, along with contemporary works like The Diary of Anne Frank. It was produced by Milton Krents. Many top New York radio actors appeared. NBC donated the air time and the Seminary paid for the show's production. On Sunday October 13th, 195...
Oct 07, 2023•18 min
On Friday October 4th, 1957 the U.S. received confirmation of the USSR’s launch of Sputnik 1, the first artificial earth orbiting satellite. It was a polished metal sphere twenty-three inches in diameter with four external radio antennas to broadcast radio pulses. Its radio signal was easily detectable by amateur radio operators. Its sixty-five degree orbital inclination gave it a flight path that completely covered all parts of the inhabited earth. While traveling at peak speed, the satellite t...
Oct 04, 2023•11 min
Unit 99, first aired over ABC’s KFBK Sacramento on August 23rd, 1957. The radio station was part of the McClatchy media empire along with The Sacramento Bee and other radio and TV stations, as well as newspapers in the Western U.S. The show was born from Jack Webb’s Dragnet mode of realistic police portrayals, then furthered by shows like Night Watch which removed the script, followed actual officers, and made the drama real. Tony Kester directed the show under the auspices of the Sacramento pol...
Oct 03, 2023•13 min
At 12:45PM on Wednesday October 2nd, Game one of the 1957 World Series took to the air. It pitted The Milwaukee Braves against The New York Yankees from Yankee Stadium in The Bronx. Bob Neal and Earl Gillespie were on the call for NBC Radio, while Mel Allen and Al Helfer telecast the game. The upstart Braves were led by future hall-of-famers Hank Aaron, Eddie Matthews and Warren Spahn. The defending champion Yankees were led by Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, and manager Casey Stengel. T...
Sep 30, 2023•12 min
In Breaking Walls episode 143 we begin a mini series on radio and the world in the fall of 1957. —————————— Highlights: • LIFE and The World • The Man from Tomorrow • The American Forum of the Air • Atomic Testing • Pat Buttram and Just Entertainment on Labor Day • Ray Bradbury and the End of X-Minus One • Ms America • The Hattie Cotton School Bombing • Biography in Sound • Howard Miller and Steve Allen • The End of Family Theater • The Grand Ole Opry • Meet The Press and The Right of Self Deter...
Sep 27, 2023•4 hr 44 min
Next time on Breaking Walls, we continue our 1957 mini series by picking up in October with Sputnik, Algeria, Queen Elizabeth’s royal tour, and dying radio drama. —————————— The WallBreakers: http://thewallbreakers.com Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts. To support the show: http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers —————————— The reading material for today’s episode was: • On the Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg As well as articles from • Broadc...
Sep 25, 2023•5 min
In September 1957 baseball’s Dodgers, who’d called Brooklyn home since 1884, and Ebbets Field since 1913, played their final games in Flatbush. They’d been World Champions just two years earlier. Simultaneously, over in northern Manhattan, The New York Giants, champions in 1954, and at home near Coogan’s Bluff since 1883, played their final game overlooking the Harlem River. Both teams would move three-thousand miles west to California. The Dodgers would settle in Los Angeles, first at Memorial ...
Sep 23, 2023•7 min
In September of 1957, Bing Crosby, now fifty-four years old, was gearing up to host the Edsel TV special and generating praise for his recent dramatic role as Earl Carlton in Man On Fire. He’d won an Academy Award, had his own radio show since 1931, and championed the widespread use of Prime Time, network transcription. The Ford Road Show featuring Bing Crosby debuted on September 2nd, 1957. It aired five days per week on CBS for five minutes. These were taped segments edited by Murdo MacKenzie ...
Sep 21, 2023•13 min
The man you’re listening to is William Froug. He was instrumental in bringing the CBS Radio Workshop back to the air. CBS was still airing dramatic programming on Sunday afternoons. In 1957 Froug became the VP of Programming. He took the position against his will. The CBS Radio Workshop, a reimagining of the old Columbia Workshop had debuted with the critically acclaimed two-part adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World on January 27th, 1956. It was in its second season in 1957 and unfortun...
Sep 18, 2023•1 hr 24 min
On Saturday, September 14th, 1957 The Grand Ole Opry signed on from WSM and the Ryman Auditorium. WSM is a fifty-thousand-watt clear channel station located in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded by the National Life and Accident Insurance Company, the station’s call sign stands for We Shield Millions. WSM first signed on October 5th, 1925. The next month on November 28th, The WSM Barn Dance took to the air for the first time. On December 10th, 1927, the program's host, "Judge" George D. Hay referred ...
Sep 16, 2023•12 min
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Sep 15, 2023•14 sec
The man you just heard is Herb Vigran, being interviewed by Chuck Schaden in 1984. He’s about to be featured on Family Theater. The show was created by Patrick Peyton of the Holy Cross Fathers. Mutual Broadcasting donated time under four conditions: It had to be a drama of top quality; strictly nonsectarian; feature a film star; and Father Peyton had to pay the production costs. Peyton met Loretta Young, who advised him on how to approach A-listers. She became the “first lady” of Family Theater....
Sep 13, 2023•24 min
At 10:45 AM central time on the morning of September 11th, 1957, Howard Miller signed on from WBBM with fifteen minutes of music, and an interview with Steve Allen. Howard Miller was born on December 7th, 1912 in Chicago. From 1945 through 1949 he was WIND’s program director before beginning an eighteen year run as the Windy City’s top-rated morning DJ. In between he acted in Jamboree!, Senior Prom, and The Big Beat. In September of 1957 Steve Allen was coming off starring in The Benny Goodman S...
Sep 11, 2023•14 min
On Saturday September 7th, 1957 Marilyn Van Derbur was crowned 1958’s Miss America in Atlantic City. She was a twenty-year old Phi Beta Kappa scholar at the University of Colorado, She later moved to New York City, becoming the TV spokeswoman for AT&T’s Bell Telephone Hour and hosted ten episodes of Candid Camera, as well as five Miss America Pageants. In 1975 she established the Marilyn Van Derbur Motivational Institute. When she was fifty three, she revealed herself to be the victim of inc...
Sep 09, 2023•16 min
The man you’re listening to is one of the most celebrated authors of the 20th-century: Ray Bradbury. By the spring of 1955 he’d authored more than one-hundred short stories and one novel, Fahrenheit 451, born out of a collection of earlier works. These stories were published in magazines like Astounding Science Fiction, Street and Smith, Weird Tales, Thrilling Wonder Stories, and The Saturday Evening Post. Among sci-fi enthusiasts, Bradbury was regarded as one of America’s preeminent writers. In...
Sep 06, 2023•39 min
Labor Day is a U.S. federal holiday celebrated on the first Monday in September to honor and recognize the contributions of laborers to the development and achievements of the United States. As trade unions and labor movements reached their peak during the Industrial Revolution, the Central Labor Union and the Knights of Labor organized the first parade in New York City. In 1887, Oregon was the first state to make it an official public holiday. By the time it became an official federal holiday i...
Sep 04, 2023•10 min
On September 1st, 1957 at 10:30PM eastern time over NBC, The American Forum of the Air signed on with a talk on the dangers of nuclear testing. The day prior a nuclear test was conducted in Nevada, only roughly three hundred miles from Los Angeles. Later that month, The Rocky Flats Nuclear Plant, just fifteen miles northwest of Denver, Colorado experienced a major plutonium fire, which caused plutonium, americium, and uranium contamination within and outside its boundaries. Six years later, on A...
Sep 02, 2023•7 min
August, 1957. We’re driving east on Route 50 from West Sacramento in a 1957 Ford Skyliner. The convertible costs roughly three-thousand dollars, has a Y-block Thunderbird V-8 engine and two-hundred-twelve horsepower. It’s got something else too: car radios have become Standard. U.S. Radio Magazine will soon state that fifty-five percent of all peak listening came from cars. Auto-rating measurements are underway, but still ineffective. Radio stations are having a good year. Sixty percent of Natio...
Aug 31, 2023•50 min
Right now, experience New York City like you’ve never before. Will you make the right deal? Or fall to greed? But whatever you choose, just make sure you get out in time. Out now on your favorite podcast app, Burning Gotham — The 2022 Tribeca Select audio soap opera about the fastest growing city in the world, and the opportunists who shaped it. Find out more at BurningGotham.com
Aug 29, 2023•2 min
In Breaking Walls episode 142 we feature one of Brooklyn’s native sons, Bill Gargan, who made more than sixty films, and good money on radio in the 1950s. —————————— Highlights: • Brooklyn’s Native Son • Hollywood and An Oscar Nomination • The War and Being a Radio Detective • Martin Kane • Launching Barrie Craig • Radio Ratings in 1954 • Hollywood vs. New York • Hay is For Homicide • Ghosts Don’t Die in Bed • Throat Cancer and Thereafter • Looking Ahead to 1957 —————————— The WallBreakers: http...
Aug 23, 2023•4 hr 20 min
While this brings our look at the life of William Gargan to a close, we’ll be staying in this time period for the next episode of Breaking Walls. Next time on Breaking Walls, it’s the fall of 1957 and the world is in transition. Both the Civil Rights movement and the space race are underway. We’ll begin a four-month arc, covering all things through the lens of radio for the month of September.
Aug 21, 2023•6 min
