Clara, Lu, and Em was radio's first network daytime soap opera, beginning June 16, 1930 over WGN-AM

WGN (AM)

WGN is a radio station in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It is the only radio station owned by the Tribune Company, which also owns the flagship television station WGN-TV, the Chicago Tribune newspaper and Chicago magazine locally. WGN's transmitter is located in Elk Grove Village, Illinois...

 Chicago, Illinois. It continued through the 1930s and early 1940s on the NBC Blue Network and CBS

CBS Radio

CBS Radio, Inc., formerly known as Infinity Broadcasting Corporation, is one of the largest owners and operators of radio stations in the United States, third behind main rival Clear Channel Communications and Cumulus Media. CBS Radio owns around 130 radio stations across the country...

, finally airing as a syndicated series in 1945. The program became the first network daytime radio serial when it was moved from its original evening time slot to days.

The drama series began as a Northwestern University

Northwestern University

Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....

 sorority sketch by Louise Starkey (Clara), Isobel Carothers (Lu) and Helen King (Em). Their friends suggested they go on the radio, so the trio approached WGN and did their first shows for no pay.

NBC

As interest grew, they were sponsored by Colgate-Palmolive

Colgate-Palmolive

Colgate-Palmolive Company is an American diversified multinational corporation focused on the production, distribution and provision of household, health care and personal products, such as soaps, detergents, and oral hygiene products . Under its "Hill's" brand, it is also a manufacturer of...

 and were heard evenings on the Blue Network from January 27, 1931 to February 12, 1932, moving to weekdays for a run from February 15, 1932 to March 12, 1934. They continued on NBC and the Blue Network, doing an evening series in 1936 with music by Ted Fio Rito.

Characters and hiatus

Storylines centered around three women who lived in a small-town duplex. Clara Roach and her family lived on one side of the duplex, Emma Krueger lived with her family on the other side. Widow Lulu Casey lived upstairs with her daughter Florabelle. When Isobel Carothers suddenly died January 8, 1937 at age 32, Louise Starkey and Helen King decided not to continue.

Return on CBS

When the program returned with Starkey and King in 1942 on CBS, another of their Northwestern University friends, Harriet Allyn, portrayed Lu. Allyn continued in the 1945 cast as Em, along with Fran Allison

Fran Allison

Fran Allison was an American television and radio comedian, personality and singer. She is best known for her starring role on the weekday NBC-TV puppet show Kukla, Fran and Ollie, which ran from 1947 to 1957, occasionally returning to the air until the mid 1980s...

as Clara and Dorothy Day as Lu.