One Man's Family
Encyclopedia
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
. It was heard for almost three decades, from 1932 to 1959. Created by Carlton E. Morse
Carlton E. Morse
Carlton Errol Morse was a Louisiana-born producer/journalist best known for his creation of the radio serial One Man's Family, which debuted in 1932 and ran until 1959 as one of the most popular as well as long-running radio soap operas of the time. He also was responsible for the radio serial I...
, it was the longest-running uninterrupted serial
Serial (radio and television)
Serials are series of television programs and radio programs that rely on a continuing plot that unfolds in a sequential episode by episode fashion. Serials typically follow main story arcs that span entire television seasons or even the full run of the series, which distinguishes them from...
in the history of American radio. Television versions of the series aired in prime time from 1949 to 1952 and in daytime from 1954 to 1955.
Radio
One Man's Family debuted as a radio series on April 29, 1932 in Los Angeles, Seattle and San Francisco, moving to the full West Coast NBCNBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
network the following month, sponsored by Snowdrift and Wesson Oil
Wesson cooking oil
Wesson cooking oil is a brand of vegetable oil manufactured in Memphis, Tennessee and sold by ConAgra Foods. Historically, Wesson was cottonseed oil, but as of 2009 the products currently sold under the Wesson brand are oil mixtures that may include canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil or sunflower...
. On May 17, 1933, it expanded to the full coast-to-coast NBC network as the first West Coast show heard regularly on the East Coast. The show was broadcast as a weekly half-hour series (1933-1950) [sustained by Standard Brands
Standard Brands
Standard Brands was formed in 1929 by J.P. Morgan with the merger of:*Fleischmann Company*Royal Baking Powder Company*E. W. Gillett*Widlar Food Products Company*Chase & Sanborn Coffee Company...
from 1935 through 1949], then shifted to daily 15-minute installments, initially originating from the studios of San Francisco radio station KPO
KNBR
KNBR, The Sports Leader, is the on-air branding used by two AM radio stations in the San Francisco, California, area broadcasting a sports radio format, owned by Cumulus Media....
, NBC's flagship station for the West Coast, eventually moving to Los Angeles.
Characters and story
The series employed a literary device with episodes divided into books and chapters. Spanning 27 years, the program presented 136 books with 3,256 chapters. Storylines were set in the Sea Cliff area of San Francisco, CaliforniaSan Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
, an area familiar to San Franciscan Carlton E. Morse. The radio plotline centered around stockbroker Henry Barbour, his wife Fanny and their five children (chronologically: Paul, Hazel, the twins Clifford and Claudia, and Jack). The dialogue included many specific references to San Francisco, including the Golden Gate Bridge, which the Barbours could see from their rear living room window or their garden wall.
Over the entire 27-year run, J. Anthony Smythe starred as Henry Barbour. The first Fanny was Minetta Ellen (1932-55), followed by Mary Adams. Michael Raffeto had the role of author-aviator Paul, but a voice problem led to his replacement in 1955 by Russell Thorson. Hazel was played by Bernice Berwin (1932-58). Beginning in 1932, Barton Yarborough
Barton Yarborough
William Barton Yarborough was an American actor who worked extensively in radio drama.As a youth, Yarborough ran away from home, attracted by the vaudeville stages, and he first worked in radio during the 1920s...
portrayed Clifford, but the character was dropped from the storyline after Yarborough's death from a heart attack on December 19, 1951. Kathleen Wilson introduced the character of Claudia in 1932, continuing in the role until Claudia married in August 1943 and was written out of the story. When Claudia returned (1945-59), she was played by Barbara Fuller. Jack was portrayed by Page Gilman.
The Barbour grandchildren: Teddy, Hank, Pinky, Margaret, Skipper, Joan, Penny, Nicky, Elizabeth, Jane, Mary Lou, Abigail, Deborah and Constance.
Bill Idelson
Bill Idelson
Bill Idelson was an actor and scriptwriter best known for his teenage role as Rush Gook on the radio comedy Vic and Sade and his later, recurring television role on The Dick Van Dyke Show in the 1960s, before making a distinguished third career as a television writer, director and producer....
played Henry Herbert Murray. In November 1947, Cousin Jediah X. Barbour (Clarence Hartzell) arrived at Sea Cliff. This gave the program an ambiance not unlike Vic and Sade
Vic and Sade
Vic and Sade was an American radio program created and written by Paul Rhymer. It was regularly broadcast on radio from 1932 to 1944, then intermittently until 1946, and was briefly adapted to television in 1949 and again in 1957....
, since Idelson played adopted son Rush on Vic and Sade, which also featured Hartzell as Uncle Fletcher Rush. The supporting cast in the 1930s and 1940s included Bill Bouchey, Tom Collins, Virginia Gregg
Virginia Gregg
Virginia Gregg Burket was an American actress best known for her many roles in radio dramas.Born in Harrisburg, Illinois, Virginia Gregg was the daughter of musician Dewey Alphaleta and businessman Edward William Gregg.-Radio:Gregg was a prolific radio actor, heard on such programs as The...
, Bill Herbert, Wally Maher, Helen Musselman, Dan O'Herlihy
Dan O'Herlihy
Daniel O'Herlihy was an Oscar nominated Irish film actor.-Early life:O'Herlihy was born in Wexford, Ireland in 1919. His family moved to Dublin at a young age...
, Walter Paterson, Ken Peters, Frank Provo, Jean Rouverol, Naomi Stevens, Janet Waldo
Janet Waldo
Janet Waldo is an American actress and voice artist with a career encompassing radio, television, animation and live-action films. She is best known in animation for voicing Judy Jetson, Penelope Pitstop and Josie McCoy in Josie and the Pussycats...
and Ben Wright.
After 3,256 episodes, the radio series ceased production on April 24, 1959 (several sources give the incorrect date of May 8, 1959). One Man's Family was the longest-running serial drama in American radio broadcasting, edging out Ma Perkins
Ma Perkins
Ma Perkins is an American radio soap opera which was heard on NBC from 1933 to 1949 and on CBS from 1942 to 1960. Between 1942 and 1949, the show was heard simultaneously on both networks...
(although Ma Perkins produced over twice as many episodes). Organist Paul Carson, who played the background music and the opening theme, "Destiny Waltz" (1932-41), composed the show's later theme, "Waltz Patrice" (aka "Patricia"). Among its other trademarks, episodes were introduced as if they were chapters from books.
Fiction
Beginning in April 1942, scripts for One Man's Family were rewritten as prose fiction and serialized in Movie-Radio Guide.Satires
As the radio version was coming to a conclusion, another radio team, Bob and RayBob and Ray
Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding were an American comedy team whose career spanned five decades. Their format was typically to satirize the medium in which they were performing, such as conducting radio or television interviews, with off-the-wall dialogue presented in a generally deadpan style as...
---already noted for poking fun at such radio programs as Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons
Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons
Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons was one of radio's longest running shows, airing , continuing well into the television era. It was produced by Frank and Anne Hummert...
("Mr. Trace, Keener Than Most Persons") and Backstage Wife
Backstage Wife
Backstage Wife is an American soap opera radio program that details the travails of Mary Noble, a girl from a small town in Iowa who came to New York seeking her future....
("Mary Backstayge, Noble Wife")---launched a dry continuing satire of One Man's Family, "One Fella's Family," as part of their daily 15-minute slot on CBS. "One Fella's Family" featured the two comedians as the Butcher family and lanced even the radio classic's signature chapter-and-verse introductions, with Ray Goulding giving the fictitious episode title and describing it, for example, "... which is taken from Book Vee Eye, Chapter Ex Eye, Pages 2,3,5,11, 243 and the top of page 244."
The show's title was also parodied by animator Tex Avery
Tex Avery
Frederick Bean "Fred/Tex" Avery was an American animator, cartoonist, voice actor and director, famous for producing animated cartoons during The Golden Age of Hollywood animation. He did his most significant work for the Warner Bros...
, in his 1943 MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio
The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio was the in-house division of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer motion picture studio in Hollywood, California during the Golden Age of American animation, responsible for producing animated short subjects to accompany MGM feature films in Loew's Theaters...
cartoon One Ham's Family.
Television
By 1949, when television expressed interest, the show focused on the Barbour children. Oldest daughter Hazel had twins, Claudia was rebellious and involved in romances, Claudia's twin brother Cliff had been married three times, and Jack was a 36-year-old father of six daughters, including triplets.One Man's Family had the rare distinction of airing both in prime time and daytime television. The first TV version (November 4, 1949 - June 21, 1952) ran in prime time once a week for a half-hour and reverted the stories back to the 1932 storylines. Hazel was a 28-year-old who yearned for marriage, Cliff and Claudia were students at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, and Jack was ten years old. The prime time version focused on Fanny's attempts to mediate between her old-world husband and her independent-minded children.
The prime time series featured such future stars as Eva Marie Saint
Eva Marie Saint
Eva Marie Saint is an American actress who has starred in films, on Broadway, and on television in a career spanning seven decades. She won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the drama film On the Waterfront , and later starred in the thriller film North by...
(Claudia), Tony Randall
Tony Randall
Tony Randall was a U.S. actor, comic, producer and director.-Early years:Randall was born Arthur Leonard Rosenberg to a Jewish family in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of Julia and Mogscha Rosenberg, an art and antiques dealer...
(Mac), Mercedes McCambridge
Mercedes McCambridge
Carlotta Mercedes McCambridge was an American actress. Orson Welles called her "the world's greatest living radio actress."-Early life:...
(Beth Holly #1), and Frankie Thomas
Frankie Thomas
Frank Marion Thomas, Jr. was an American actor, author and bridge-strategy expert who played both lead and supporting roles on Broadway, in films, in post-World War II radio, and in early television. He was best known for his starring role in Tom Corbett, Space Cadet.-Early years:Thomas was born...
(Cliff Barbour #1). Claudia married daredevil Johnny Roberts (played by Michael Higgins
Michael Higgins (actor)
Michael Patrick Higgins was an American actor who appeared in film and on stage, and was best known for his role in the original Broadway production of Equus.-Early life:...
). The show was live, which led to a notorious blooper when Claudia and her father-in-law (Ralph Locke) went to track him down. The characters were in an airplane when Locke forget his lines. After a few moments, he yelled at Saint, "Well, if you can't say anything, I'm leaving!" and walked off the set, in spite of his character being in the middle of a flight! Lest viewers presume the character had killed himself, Locke was in his seat the following day. The theme music was "Journey into Melody."
The daytime show (March 1, 1954 - April 1, 1955) carried many of the same storylines as the prime time version but with a different cast. Anne Whitfield, who played Claudia's daughter Penelope on the radio version, simultaneously played Claudia on the TV show. It also had different theme music, "Deserted Mansion."
All versions of the show were written, cast, produced and directed by Carlton E. Morse.
Sources
- Walter P. Sheppard, One Man's Family: A History 1932 to 1959 and a Script Analysis 1032 to 1944, University of Wisconsin, 1964 (doctoral dissertation; available through University Microfilms). "Some Notes on 'One Man's Family,'" article drawn from the dissertation, Journal of Broadcasting, Vol. XIV, No. 2 (Spring 1970).