Fibber McGee and Molly
Encyclopedia
Fibber McGee and Molly was an American
radio comedy series which maintained its popularity over decades. It premiered on NBC
in 1935 and continued until its demise in 1959, long after radio had ceased to be the dominant form of entertainment in American popular culture
.
.
Jordan was the seventh of eight children born to James Edward Jordan and Mary (née Tighe) Jordan, while Driscoll was the seventh and last child born to Daniel P. and Anna (née Carroll) Driscoll. The son of a farmer, Jim wanted to be a singer; Marian, the daughter of a coal miner, wanted to be a music teacher. Both attended the same Catholic Church, where they met at choir practice. Marian's parents had attempted to discourage her professional singing and acting aspirations. When she started seeing young Jim Jordan, the Driscolls were far from approving of Jim and his ideas. Jim's voice teacher gave him a recommendation for work as a professional in Chicago, and he followed it. He was able to have steady work but soon tired of the life on the road. In less than a year, Jim came back to Peoria and went to work for the Post Office. His profession was now acceptable to Marian's parents, and they stopped objecting to the couple's marriage plans. The pair were married in Peoria, Illinois
on August 31, 1918.
Five days after the wedding, Jim received his draft notice. He was sent to France and became part of a military touring group which entertained the armed forces after World War I. When Jim came home from France, he and Marian decided to try their luck with a vaudeville
act. They had two children, Kathryn Therese Jordan (1920–2007) and James Carroll Jordan (1923–1998), both born in Peoria. Marian returned home for the birth of Kathryn but went back to performing with Jim, leaving her daughter with Jim's parents. After Jim Jr. was born in 1923, Marian stayed with the children for a time, while Jim performed as a solo act. Marian and the children joined him on the road for a short time, but the couple had to admit defeat when they found themselves in Lincoln, Illinois
in 1923 with two small children and no funds. The couple's parents had to wire them money for their return to Peoria. Jim went to work at a local department store but still felt the attraction of being in show business. He and Marian went back into vaudeville.
While staying with Jim's brother in Chicago in 1924, the family was listening to the radio; Jim said that he and Marian could do better than the musical act currently on the air. Jim's brother bet him $10 that they could not. To win the bet, Jim and Marian went to WIBO, where they were immediately put on the air. At the end of the performance, the station offered the couple a contract for a weekly show which paid $10 per week. The sponsor of the show was Oh Henry!
candy, and they appeared for six months on The Oh Henry! Twins program, switching to radio station WENR by 1927.
When it appeared to the couple that they were financially successful, they built a home in Chicago which was a replica of their rented home, complete to building it on the lot next door. For their 1939 move to the West Coast, the Jordans selected a inconspicuous home in Encino. Some of Jim Jordan's investments included the bottling company for Hires Root Beer
in Kansas City.
began their third year as Chicago
-area radio performers. Two of the shows they did for station WENR beginning in 1927, both written by Harry Lawrence, bore traces of what was to come and rank as one of the earliest forms of situation comedy
. In their Luke and Mirandy farm-report program, Jim played a farmer who was given to tall tale
s and face-saving lies for comic effect. In a weekly comedy, The Smith Family, Marian's character was an Irish wife of an American police officer. These characterizations, plus the Jordans' change from being singers/musicians to comic actors, pointed toward their future; it was here where Marian developed and perfected the radio character "Teeny". It was also at WENR where the Jordans met Donald Quinn, a cartoonist who was then working in radio, and the couple hired him as their writer in 1931. They regarded Quinn's contribution as important and included him as a full partner; the salary for Smackout and Fibber McGee and Molly was split between the Jordans and Quinn.
While working on the WENR farm report, Jim Jordan heard a true story about a shopkeeper from Missouri whose store was brimming with stock, yet he claimed to be "smack out" of whatever a customer would ask him for. The story reached the halls of nearby Columbia College
, and the students began visiting the store, which they called "Smackout", to hear the owner's incredible stories.
For station WMAQ in Chicago, beginning in April 1931, the trio created Smackout, a 15-minute daily program which centered on a general store
and its proprietor, Luke Grey (Jim Jordan), a storekeeper with a penchant for tall tales and a perpetual dearth of whatever his customers wanted: He always seemed "smack out of it." Marian Jordan portrayed both a lady named Marian and a little girl named Teeny, as well as playing musical accompaniment on piano. During the show's run, Marian Jordan voiced a total of 69 different characters in it. Smackout was picked up by NBC in April 1933 and broadcast nationally until August 1935.
A member of the S.C. Johnson
company's owners, Henrietta Johnson Lewis, married to the advertising executive who handled the Johnson's Wax account, recommended that her husband, John, give the show a chance as a national program for the company. Part of the terms of the arrangement between the Jordans and Johnson's Wax gave the company ownership to the names of Fibber McGee and Molly.
championship with a story about catching an elusive rat.
Existing in a kind of Neverland where money never came in, schemes never stayed out for very long, yet no one living or visiting went wanting, 79 Wistful Vista (the McGees' address from show #20, August 1935 onward) became the home Depression-exhausted Americans visited to remind themselves that they were not the only ones finding cheer in the middle of struggle and doing their best not to make it overt. The McGees won their house in a raffle from Mr. Hagglemeyer's Wistful Vista Development Company, with lottery ticket #131,313, happened upon by chance while on a pleasure drive in their car. With blowhard McGee wavering between mundane tasks and hare-brained schemes (like digging an oil well in the back yard), antagonizing as many people as possible, and patient Molly indulging his foibles and providing loving support, not to mention a tireless parade of neighbors and friends in and out of the quiet home, Fibber McGee and Molly built its audience steadily, but once it found the full volume of that audience in 1940, they rarely let go of it.
Marian Jordan took a protracted absence from the show in November 1937 to April 1939 to deal with a lifelong battle with alcoholism
, although this was attributed to "fatigue" in public statements at the time. The show was retitled Fibber McGee and Company during this interregnum, with scripts cleverly working around Molly's absence (Fibber making a speech at a convention, etc.). Comedienne ZaSu Pitts
appeared on the Fibber McGee and Company show, as did singer Donald Novis
. In January 1939, the show moved from NBC Chicago to the new NBC West Coast Radio City in Hollywood.
The most unusual character might have been the McGees' black maid, Beulah
. Unlike the situation on The Jack Benny Program
, where black actor Eddie Anderson
played "Rochester", Beulah was voiced by a Caucasian male, Marlin Hurt
. The character's usual opening line, "Somebody bawl fo' Beulah??", often provoked a stunned, screeching sort of laughter among the live studio audience; many of them, seeing the show performed for the first time in person, did not know that the actor voicing Beulah was neither black nor female, and expressed their surprise when Hurt delivered his line. Her other catchphrase was "Love that man!" after a fit of laughter over a Fibber gag. Hurt had created the Beulah character independently and had portrayed her occasionally on other shows prior to his joining the Fibber McGee and Molly cast.
The character of Uncle Dennis (Ransom Sherman), who was the subject of a running gag (see below) and was generally never heard, did appear in a few episodes in 1943, including "Renting Spare Room" (October 5, 1943) and "Fibber Makes His Own Chili Sauce" (November 9, 1943).
Much of the show's humor relied on recurring gag
s, unseen regulars and punchlines that sometimes popped up here and there for years. The show would usually open the 29-and-a-half minute broadcast with the audience in full laughter with Harlow Wilcox announcing, "The Johnson Wax Program with Fibber McGee and Molly!" The episode of December 19, 1944, "Fibber Snoops For Presents In Closet" (at 3:59 is a perfect example of the "Hall Closet," a running gag described in detail later in this entry), Jim Jordan can be caught at the end of his audience warm-up evoking the opening laughter by quipping, "10 seconds? Oh, we got a lot of.... Ooooo!"
For most of the show's history, the usual order of the show is the introduction followed by a Johnson Wax plug by Harlow then his introduction to Section 1 of the script (usually 11 minutes). Billy Mills usually follows with an instrumental (or accompanied by Martha Tilton in 1941). That musical interlude then segues to Section 2 of the script, followed by a performance by the vocal group, The Kings Men (occasionally featuring a solo by leader Ken Darby). The final act then ensues, with the last line usually showing the lesson learned that day, a final commercial, and then Billy Mills' theme song to fade. Later, Harlow would meet up and visit with the McGees and work in a Johnson Wax commercial, sometimes assisted by Fibber and Molly.
When McGee tells a bad joke, Molly usually answered with the line "T'aint funny, McGee!" which became a familiar catch phrase during the 1940s. Molly's Uncle Dennis is one of the more common unseen regulars (though he has gotten in a rare line here and there); often referred to, and sometimes heard making noise. He lives with the McGees, and is apparently an enormous alcoholic, becoming a punch line for many Fibber jokes and even the main subject of some shows in which he "disappeared."
McGee is never mentioned as having a job. However, Mayor LaTrivia often offers McGee jobs at City Hall, the jobs usually sounding exciting when the duties are vaguely described, but always ending up being very mundane when the actual job is named. For instance, a job "looking in on the higher-ups at City Hall" turns out to be a window-cleaning job. Another interesting assignment was to be where McGee would need to maintain a disguise to remain deep undercover for days at a time, but as the Wistful Vista Santa Claus.
McGee, apparently, is very proud of past deeds, sometimes recalling an interesting nickname he picked up over the years. Each one of these nicknames is, as usual with Fibber, a bad pun. When someone told a man named Addison that McGee was a glib talker, McGee became known as "Ad Glib McGee." Or, when Fibber made expressions with his eyes, he was nicknamed "Eyes-a-muggin' McGee" (a play on the popular Andy Kirk
swing tune "I'se A-muggin'"). From there Fibber jumps headfirst into a long, breathless and boastful description of his nickname, using an impressive amount of alliteration
.
Mentioned for a time on the program was Otis Cadwallader, a schoolmate of Fibber and Molly in Peoria, and Molly's boyfriend before McGee entered the picture. Fibber has a long-standing grudge against Otis, making him out to seem like a self-centered, overblown hack, despite seemingly everyone else seeing Cadwallader as a lovely, dashing man. Never mentioned are Otis's feelings toward Fibber, giving the impression that Fibber's grudge is one-sided. As revealed late in 1942, Fibber's anger is actually a front to keep Cadwallader away, as Fibber once borrowed money from Otis and never paid it back.
The "corner of 14th and Oak" in downtown Wistful Vista was routinely given as a location for various homes, places of business and government buildings throughout the show's run.
This gag appears to have begun with the March 5, 1940 show, "Cleaning the Closet." Molly opens the closet looking for the dictionary and is promptly buried in Fibber's "stuff" ("arranged in there just the way I want it.") Cleaning out the closet becomes the show's plot, inventorying much of the contents along the way: a photo album, a rusty horseshoe, a ten-foot pole. After repacking the closet, Fibber realizes the dictionary has been put away too—and he opens the closet again. This episode also features a cameo by Gracie Allen
, running for president on the Surprise Party ticket. Toward the end the September 30, 1940 show, "Back from Vacation; Gildy Says Goodbye," next-door nemesis Gildersleeve---who has moved to Summerfield to finish raising his orphaned niece and nephew (and already begun his successful spin-off show The Great Gildersleeve
), but has come back to Wistful Vista to wind up his affairs there, in a farewell to the show that made him famous---opens the closet to be buried in the usual avalanche.
On at least one occasion, the gag is flipped, and the closet is silent: in "Too Much Energy" (broadcast January 23, 1945), visiting Dr. Gamble makes to leave. Molly warns, "No, Doctor, not through that door, that's the hall closet!" As the audience chuckles slightly in anticipation, Fibber explains: "Oh I forgot to tell you, Molly, I straightened out the hall closet this morning!" This was certainly not the end of the gag, though, as the closet soon became cluttered once again, leading to many more disasters.
Like many such trademarks, the clattering closet began as a one-time stunt, but "the closet" was developed carefully, not being overused (it rarely appeared in more than two consecutive installments, though it never disappeared for the same length, either, at the height of its identification, and it rarely collapsed at exactly the same time from show to show), and it became the best-known running sound gag in American radio's classic period. Jack Benny
's basement vault alarm ran a distant second. Both of these classic sound effects were performed by Ed Ludes and Virgil Rhymer, Hollywood-based NBC staff sound effects creators. Exactly what tumbled out of McGee's closet each time was never clear (except to these sound-effects men), but what signaled the end of the avalanche was always the same sound: a clear, tiny, household hand bell and McGee's inevitable postmortem. "Fibber McGee's closet" entered the American vernacular as a catch phrase synonymous with household clutter.
Each episode also featured an appearance by announcer Harlow Wilcox, whose job it was to weave the second ad for the sponsor into the plot without having to break the show for a real commercial. Wilcox's introductory pitch lines were usually met with groans or humorously sarcastic lines by Fibber. During the many years that the show was sponsored by Johnson Wax
, Fibber nicknamed Wilcox "Waxy", due to Wilcox's constant praises of their various products. In a style not unusual for the classic radio years, the show was typically introduced as, "The Johnson Wax
Program, with Fibber McGee and Molly." Johnson Wax sponsored the show through 1950; Pet Milk
through 1952; and, until the show's final half-hour episode in mid-1953, Reynolds Aluminum
. Wilcox was sometimes called Harpo by Fibber.
The show also used two musical numbers per episode to break the comedy routines into sections. For most of the show's run, there would be one vocal number by The King's Men
(a vocal quartet: Ken Darby, Rad Robinson, Jon Dodson, and Bud Linn), and an instrumental by The Billy Mills Orchestra. For a short time in the early 1940s, Martha Tilton
would sing what was formerly the instrumental.
Before and during America
's involvement in World War II
, references to or about the war and the members of the Axis Powers
were commonplace on the show. Just after the Japanese
attacked Pearl Harbor
in December 1941, Jim Jordan, out of character, soberly ended the Fibber McGee show by inviting the studio audience to sing "America
". Also commonplace were calls to action to buy defense bonds (both through announcements and subtle references written into the script), and condemnation of food and supply hoarding
. Though understandably part of the backlash reaction toward the Pearl Harbor attack, some jokes about the Empire of Japan
certainly would be considered politically incorrect on today's airwaves. For instance, in the episode "Fix-It McGee", aired three weeks after Pearl Harbor
, Fibber tells Mayor LaTrivia his "great slogan" for the war bond
campaign: "Every time you buy a bond, you slap a Jap across the pond." The term "Jap" was in common usage in virtually all American media during this period.
On the other hand, the Jordans gladly cooperated in turning the show over to a half-hour devoted entirely to patriotic music on the day of the D-Day
invasion in 1944, with the couple speaking only at the opening and the closing of the broadcast. This show remains available to collectors amidst many a Fibber McGee and Molly packaging.
When the shows were broadcast overseas by the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS), all three commercials were eliminated from the program. Harlow Wilcox's middle ad was edited out, and the two advertisements at the beginning and end of the show were replaced by musical numbers, so that the show on AFRS would have two numbers by Billy Mills and the Orchestra, and two by The King's Men.
The Jordans were experts at transforming the ethnic humor of vaudeville into more rounded comic characters, no doubt due in part to the affection felt for the famous supporting cast members who voiced these roles, including Bill Thompson
(as the Old Timer and Wimple), Harold Peary
(as Gildersleeve), Gale Gordon
(as LaTrivia), Arthur Q. Bryan
(as Dr. Gamble; Bryan also voiced Elmer Fudd
for the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes
cartoons, which also borrowed lines from Fibber McGee and Molly from time to time), Isabel Randolph (as Mrs. Uppington), Marlin Hurt (a white male who played in dialect the McGee's maid, Beulah), and others. They were also expert at their own running gags and catch phrases, many of which entered the American vernacular: "That ain't the way I heeard it!"; "'T ain't funny, McGee!" and "Heavenly days!" were the three best known.
in 1941. This show introduced single parenthood of a sort to creative broadcasting: the pompous, previously married Gildersleeve now moved to Summerfield, became single (although the missing wife was never explained), and raised his orphaned, spirited niece and nephew, while dividing his time between running his manufacturing business and (eventually) becoming the town water commissioner. In one episode, the McGees arrived in Summerfield for a visit with their old neighbor with hilarious results: McGee inadvertently learns Gildersleeve is engaged, and he practically needs to be chloroformed to perpetuate the secret a little longer.
Peary returned the favor in a memorable 1944 Fibber McGee & Molly episode in which neither of the title characters appeared: Jim Jordan was recovering from a bout of pneumonia (this would be written into the show the following week, when the Jordans returned), and the story line involved Gildersleeve and nephew Leroy hoping to visit the McGees at home during a train layover in Wistful Vista, but finding Fibber and Molly not at home. At the end of the episode, Gildersleeve discovers the couple had left in a hurry that morning when they received Gildy's letter saying he would be stopping over in Wistful Vista.
Marlin Hurt's Beulah was also spun off, leading to both a radio and television show that would eventually star Hattie McDaniel
and Ethel Waters
.
Jim and Marian Jordan themselves occasionally appeared on other programs, away from their Fibber and Molly characters. One memorable episode of Suspense
("Backseat Driver," 02-03-1949) cast the Jordans as victims of a car-jacking; Jim Jordan's tense, interior monologues were especially dramatic.
film This Way, Please, starring Charles "Buddy" Rogers and Betty Grable
. Once the show hit its stride, they had leading roles in the RKO Radio Pictures films Look Who's Laughing
(1941), Here We Go Again
(1942) and Heavenly Days (1944).
The first two RKO films are generally considered the best, as they co-star fellow radio stars Edgar Bergen
and Charlie McCarthy. Harold Peary also appears in both as Gildersleeve, with Arthur Q. Bryan, Bill Thompson, Harlow Wilcox, Gale Gordon, and Isabel Randolph appearing in both their show roles and as other characters. Bill Thompson in Look Who's Laughing played two parts: The pushy sales-man, and the man who shouted "It's Hillary Horton". Gale Gordon played Otis Cadwalader, Molly's ex-boyfriend in Here We Go Again. Arthur Q. Bryan played the Mayor's aide in Look Who's Laughing.
Look Who's Laughing has been released on VHS as part of the Lucille Ball Collection, and Here We Go Again has been released on VHS in rental format only. Look Who's Laughing, Here We Go Again and Heavenly Days have been shown on Turner Classic Movies
.
for NBC (and co-sponsored by Singer Corporation
and Standard Brands
), with younger actors Bob Sweeney and Cathy Lewis
in the roles. The show also featured Harold Peary as Mayor LaTrivia, rather than as Gildersleeve. The show was unable to recreate the flavor and humor of the original and did not survive its first season; in fact, it did not even last through January 1960. But the Jordans themselves had resisted television far earlier. "They were trying to push us into TV, and we were reluctant," Jim Jordan told an interviewer many years later. "Our friends advised us, 'Don't do it until you need to. You have this value in radio—milk it dry.'"
—under the rubric Just Molly and Me—from 1957 to 1959.
Radio historian Gerald S. Nachman has noted the Jordans were ready to renew with NBC for at least three more years when Marian's battle against cancer ended in her death in 1961. In the 1970s, Jim Jordan briefly returned to acting. An episode of NBC's Chico and the Man
featured a surprise appearance by Jordan as a friendly neighborhood mechanic. Jordan also lent his voice to Disney's animated film The Rescuers
(1977). He died in 1988—a year before Fibber McGee and Molly was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame
.
Jim Jordan married Gretchen Stewart after Marian's death. Gretchen and the Jordan children donated the manuscripts of Smackout and Fibber McGee and Molly to Chicago's Museum of Broadcast Communications
after his death in 1988.
The show also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
—right next to the building that once housed the NBC radio studios where the Jordans performed the show for so long. The S.C. Johnson Company preserved more than 700 recordings of the show it sponsored for 15 years.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
radio comedy series which maintained its popularity over decades. It premiered on NBC
NBC
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...
in 1935 and continued until its demise in 1959, long after radio had ceased to be the dominant form of entertainment in American popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
.
Husband and wife in real life
The stars of the program were real-life husband James "Jim" Jordan (16 November 1896–1 April 1988) and his wife Marian Driscoll (15 April 1898–7 April 1961), who were natives of Peoria, IllinoisPeoria, Illinois
Peoria is the largest city on the Illinois River and the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, in the United States. It is named after the Peoria tribe. As of the 2010 census, the city was the seventh-most populated in Illinois, with a population of 115,007, and is the third-most populated...
.
Jordan was the seventh of eight children born to James Edward Jordan and Mary (née Tighe) Jordan, while Driscoll was the seventh and last child born to Daniel P. and Anna (née Carroll) Driscoll. The son of a farmer, Jim wanted to be a singer; Marian, the daughter of a coal miner, wanted to be a music teacher. Both attended the same Catholic Church, where they met at choir practice. Marian's parents had attempted to discourage her professional singing and acting aspirations. When she started seeing young Jim Jordan, the Driscolls were far from approving of Jim and his ideas. Jim's voice teacher gave him a recommendation for work as a professional in Chicago, and he followed it. He was able to have steady work but soon tired of the life on the road. In less than a year, Jim came back to Peoria and went to work for the Post Office. His profession was now acceptable to Marian's parents, and they stopped objecting to the couple's marriage plans. The pair were married in Peoria, Illinois
Peoria, Illinois
Peoria is the largest city on the Illinois River and the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, in the United States. It is named after the Peoria tribe. As of the 2010 census, the city was the seventh-most populated in Illinois, with a population of 115,007, and is the third-most populated...
on August 31, 1918.
Five days after the wedding, Jim received his draft notice. He was sent to France and became part of a military touring group which entertained the armed forces after World War I. When Jim came home from France, he and Marian decided to try their luck with a vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
act. They had two children, Kathryn Therese Jordan (1920–2007) and James Carroll Jordan (1923–1998), both born in Peoria. Marian returned home for the birth of Kathryn but went back to performing with Jim, leaving her daughter with Jim's parents. After Jim Jr. was born in 1923, Marian stayed with the children for a time, while Jim performed as a solo act. Marian and the children joined him on the road for a short time, but the couple had to admit defeat when they found themselves in Lincoln, Illinois
Lincoln, Illinois
Lincoln is a city in Logan County, Illinois, United States. It is the only town in the United States that was named for Abraham Lincoln before he became president; he practiced law there from 1847 to 1859. First settled in the 1830s, Lincoln is home to three colleges and two prisons. The three...
in 1923 with two small children and no funds. The couple's parents had to wire them money for their return to Peoria. Jim went to work at a local department store but still felt the attraction of being in show business. He and Marian went back into vaudeville.
While staying with Jim's brother in Chicago in 1924, the family was listening to the radio; Jim said that he and Marian could do better than the musical act currently on the air. Jim's brother bet him $10 that they could not. To win the bet, Jim and Marian went to WIBO, where they were immediately put on the air. At the end of the performance, the station offered the couple a contract for a weekly show which paid $10 per week. The sponsor of the show was Oh Henry!
Oh Henry!
Oh Henry! is a chocolate bar containing peanuts, caramel, and fudge coated in chocolate. It was first introduced in 1920, by the Williamson Candy Company of Chicago, Illinois. According to legend, Oh Henry! was originally named after a boy who frequented the Williamson company, flirting with the...
candy, and they appeared for six months on The Oh Henry! Twins program, switching to radio station WENR by 1927.
When it appeared to the couple that they were financially successful, they built a home in Chicago which was a replica of their rented home, complete to building it on the lot next door. For their 1939 move to the West Coast, the Jordans selected a inconspicuous home in Encino. Some of Jim Jordan's investments included the bottling company for Hires Root Beer
Hires Root Beer
Hires Root Beer is a soft drink which is currently marketed by Dr Pepper Snapple Group. The manufacturer considers it the longest continuously made soft drink in the United States; however, Vernor's ginger ale is even older dating back to 1866.- History :Hires Root Beer was created by...
in Kansas City.
From vaudeville to Smackout
Fibber McGee and Molly originated when the small-time husband-and-wife vaudevilliansVaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
began their third year as Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
-area radio performers. Two of the shows they did for station WENR beginning in 1927, both written by Harry Lawrence, bore traces of what was to come and rank as one of the earliest forms of situation comedy
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
. In their Luke and Mirandy farm-report program, Jim played a farmer who was given to tall tale
Tall tale
A tall tale is a story with unbelievable elements, related as if it were true and factual. Some such stories are exaggerations of actual events, for example fish stories such as, "that fish was so big, why I tell ya', it nearly sank the boat when I pulled it in!" Other tall tales are completely...
s and face-saving lies for comic effect. In a weekly comedy, The Smith Family, Marian's character was an Irish wife of an American police officer. These characterizations, plus the Jordans' change from being singers/musicians to comic actors, pointed toward their future; it was here where Marian developed and perfected the radio character "Teeny". It was also at WENR where the Jordans met Donald Quinn, a cartoonist who was then working in radio, and the couple hired him as their writer in 1931. They regarded Quinn's contribution as important and included him as a full partner; the salary for Smackout and Fibber McGee and Molly was split between the Jordans and Quinn.
While working on the WENR farm report, Jim Jordan heard a true story about a shopkeeper from Missouri whose store was brimming with stock, yet he claimed to be "smack out" of whatever a customer would ask him for. The story reached the halls of nearby Columbia College
Columbia College Chicago
Columbia College Chicago is one of the largest art colleges in the United States with nearly 12,000 students pursuing degrees within 120 undergraduate and graduate programs...
, and the students began visiting the store, which they called "Smackout", to hear the owner's incredible stories.
For station WMAQ in Chicago, beginning in April 1931, the trio created Smackout, a 15-minute daily program which centered on a general store
General store
A general store, general merchandise store, or village shop is a rural or small town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, sometimes in a small space, where people from the town and surrounding rural areas come to purchase all their general...
and its proprietor, Luke Grey (Jim Jordan), a storekeeper with a penchant for tall tales and a perpetual dearth of whatever his customers wanted: He always seemed "smack out of it." Marian Jordan portrayed both a lady named Marian and a little girl named Teeny, as well as playing musical accompaniment on piano. During the show's run, Marian Jordan voiced a total of 69 different characters in it. Smackout was picked up by NBC in April 1933 and broadcast nationally until August 1935.
A member of the S.C. Johnson
S. C. Johnson & Son
S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc. , previously known as S. C. Johnson Wax , is a privately held, global manufacturer of household cleaning supplies and other consumer chemicals based in Racine, Wisconsin. It has operations in 72 countries and its brands are sold in over 110...
company's owners, Henrietta Johnson Lewis, married to the advertising executive who handled the Johnson's Wax account, recommended that her husband, John, give the show a chance as a national program for the company. Part of the terms of the arrangement between the Jordans and Johnson's Wax gave the company ownership to the names of Fibber McGee and Molly.
From Smackout to Wistful Vista
If Smackout proved the Jordan-Quinn union's viability, their next creation proved their most enduring. Amplifying Luke Grey's tall talesmanship to Midwestern braggadocio, Quinn developed Fibber McGee and Molly with Jim as the foible-prone Fibber and Marian playing his patient, common sense, honey-natured wife. The show premiered on NBC April 16, 1935, and though it took three seasons to become an irrevocable hit, it became the country's top-rated radio series. In 1935, Jim Jordan won the Burlington Liars' ClubBurlington Liars' Club
The Burlington Liars' Club is an organization that awards the title "World Champion Liar" annually. The club, located in Burlington, Wisconsin, has been bestowing the award since 1929 when two enterprising freelance reporters made up a story about handing out a medal for the year’s best lie and...
championship with a story about catching an elusive rat.
Existing in a kind of Neverland where money never came in, schemes never stayed out for very long, yet no one living or visiting went wanting, 79 Wistful Vista (the McGees' address from show #20, August 1935 onward) became the home Depression-exhausted Americans visited to remind themselves that they were not the only ones finding cheer in the middle of struggle and doing their best not to make it overt. The McGees won their house in a raffle from Mr. Hagglemeyer's Wistful Vista Development Company, with lottery ticket #131,313, happened upon by chance while on a pleasure drive in their car. With blowhard McGee wavering between mundane tasks and hare-brained schemes (like digging an oil well in the back yard), antagonizing as many people as possible, and patient Molly indulging his foibles and providing loving support, not to mention a tireless parade of neighbors and friends in and out of the quiet home, Fibber McGee and Molly built its audience steadily, but once it found the full volume of that audience in 1940, they rarely let go of it.
Marian Jordan took a protracted absence from the show in November 1937 to April 1939 to deal with a lifelong battle with alcoholism
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
, although this was attributed to "fatigue" in public statements at the time. The show was retitled Fibber McGee and Company during this interregnum, with scripts cleverly working around Molly's absence (Fibber making a speech at a convention, etc.). Comedienne ZaSu Pitts
ZaSu Pitts
ZaSu Pitts was an American actress who starred in many silent dramas and comedies, transitioning to comedy sound films.-Early life:ZaSu Pitts was born in Parsons, Kansas to Rulandus and Nellie Pitts; she was the third of four children...
appeared on the Fibber McGee and Company show, as did singer Donald Novis
Donald Novis
Donald Novis was an English actor and tenor.-Life and career:Born in Hastings, East Sussex, Novis came to the United States in the late 1920s to pursue an acting and singing career. He made his film debut as the Country Boy in the detective film Bulldog Drummond...
. In January 1939, the show moved from NBC Chicago to the new NBC West Coast Radio City in Hollywood.
Recurring characters
Fibber McGee and Molly was one of the earliest radio comedies to use regular characters, nearly all of whom had recurring phrases and running gags. These included:- Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve (Harold PearyHarold PearyHarold Peary was an American actor, comedian and singer in radio, film, television and animation remembered best as Throckmorton P...
) - the pompous next-door neighbor with whom Fibber enjoyed twitting and arguing. Introduced in 1939. - The Old-Timer (Bill ThompsonBill Thompson (voice actor)Bill Thompson was an American radio actor and voice actor whose career stretched from the 1930s until his death.-Early career:...
) - a hard-of-hearing senior citizen with a penchant for distorting jokes, prefacing each one by saying, "That ain't the way I heared it!" For no apparent reason, he refers to Fibber as "Johnny" and Molly as "Daughter". A recurring joke is that he refuses to tell his real name. In the 1940 episode "Mailing Christmas Packages", he is referred to by another character as "Roy", while in one episode (01/29/1946 and reiterated in the episode a week later) he claims his name is "Rupert Blasingame." Also, 3/14/39 episode, Fibber calls him Mr. Sims, but he's having trouble with his memory in this episode, so this may be just an error in remembering, as he also calls Mr. Wilcox "Harpo" for perhaps the first time instead of Harlow, due to poor memory tricks. - Teeny, also known as "Little Girl" and "Sis" (Marian Jordan) - a precocious youngster who usually tried to cadge loose change from Fibber. Ending half her sentences with "I'm hungry!" and "I betcha!", Teeny was also known to lose track of her own conversations. When Fibber showed interest in what she was saying, she would forget all about it. Her conversation would switch from telling to asking. When Fibber would repeat all she had been telling him, Teeny would reply "I know it!" in a condescending way. Her appearances were usually foreshadowed by Molly excusing herself to the kitchen and Fibber wistfully delivering a compliment to her starting, "Ah, there goes a good kid", upon which the doorbell would ring and Teeny would appear. On rare occasions Molly and Teeny would interact.
- Mayor LaTrivia (Gale GordonGale GordonGale Gordon was an American character actor perhaps best remembered as Lucille Ball's longtime television foil—and particularly as cantankerously combustible, tightfisted bank executive Theodore J. Mooney, on Ball's second television situation comedy, The Lucy Show...
), whose name was inspired by New YorkNew YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
's famous mayor Fiorello La Guardia. In later episodes, Fibber occasionally addresses the mayor as "Homer", although it is unclear whether this is his actual first name, or just another of the show's random unexplained naming gags, as The Old Timer's calling Fibber "Johnny", supra. The McGees' regular routine with LaTrivia entailed Fibber and Molly misunderstanding a figure of speech, in much the same vein as Abbott & Costello's Who's On First? routine. LaTrivia would slowly progress from attempting patient explanation to tongue-tied rage, in Gale Gordon's classic slow-burn. - Foggy Williams (Gordon) - local weatherman and next-door neighbor who tells fanciful stories, lets Fibber borrow his tools, takes credit or blame for the present weather conditions exits with the line "Good day... probably."
- Billy Mills - wisecracking leader of Billy Mills and the Orchestra, who played short instrumentals in the first half of each episode.
- Dr. Gamble (Arthur Q. BryanArthur Q. BryanArthur Quirk Bryan was a United States comedian and voice actor, remembered best for his longtime recurring role as well-spoken, wisecracking Dr...
) - a local physician and surgeon with whom Fibber had a long-standing rivalry and friendship. - Ole Swenson (Richard LeGrandRichard LeGrandRichard LeGrand was an American actor who was best known for his comedy characters on radio.Born in Portland, Oregon, LeGrand was backstage working the artificial snow when he made his stage debut to substitute for a missing actor. He continued in theater, doing dramas, musical comedies, tent...
, who also played Mr. Peavey on The Great GildersleeveThe Great GildersleeveThe Great Gildersleeve , initially written by Leonard Lewis Levinson, was one of broadcast history's earliest spin-off programs. Built around Throckmorton Philharmonic Gildersleeve, a character who had been a staple on the classic radio situation comedy Fibber McGee and Molly, first Introduced to...
) - a SwedishSwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
-born janitor at the Elks ClubBenevolent and Protective Order of ElksThe Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks is an American fraternal order and social club founded in 1868...
, always complaining that he was "joost donatin' my time!". - Mrs. Abigail Uppington (Isabel Randolph) - a snooty society matron whose pretensions Fibber delighted in deflating. Fibber often addressed her as "Uppy".
- Mrs. Millicent Carstairs (Bea BenaderetBea BenaderetBea Benaderet was an American actress born in New York City and raised in San Francisco, California. She is best remembered for her wide variety of television work, which included a starring role in the 1960s television series Petticoat Junction and Green Acres as Shady Rest Hotel owner Kate...
) - another of Wistful Vista's high society matrons, known to Fibber as "Carsty". - Wallace Wimple (Thompson) - a hen-pecked husband constantly dominated and physically battered by "Sweetieface," his "big ol' wife", Cornelia, who never appeared on the show. Surprisingly, this key character was not introduced until the first show of their seventh year on the air, 4/15/41. This character may have contributed to the use of the word "wimp" to describe a weak-willed person.
- Alice Darling (Shirley MitchellShirley Mitchell-Early life:Mitchell was born in Toledo, Ohio and attended the University of Toledo and the University of Michigan.-Career:After moving to Chicago, she appeared in the network broadcast of The First Nighter and played small parts in various soap operas including The Story of Mary Marlin and The...
) - a ditzy aircraft-plant worker who boarded with the McGees during the war. - Horatio K. Boomer (Thompson) - a con artist with a W. C. FieldsW. C. FieldsWilliam Claude Dukenfield , better known as W. C. Fields, was an American comedian, actor, juggler and writer...
-like voice and delivery. - Nick Depopoulous (Thompson) - a GreekGreeksThe Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
-born restauranteur with a tendency toward verbal malapropisms. - Myrtle, also known as "Myrt" - a never-heard telephone operator that Fibber is friends with. A typical Myrt sketch started with Fibber picking up the phone and demanding, "Operator, give me number 32Oooh, is that you, Myrt? How's every little thing, Myrt?" Commonly, this was followed with Fibber relaying what Myrt was telling him to Molly, usually news about Myrt's family, and always ending with a bad pun. Myrtle made one brief on-air appearance on June 22, 1943 when she visited the McGees to wish them a good summer—the McGees did not recognize her in person.
- Fred Nitney - Another never-heard character, Fibber's old vaudeville partner from Starved Rock, Illinois.
The most unusual character might have been the McGees' black maid, Beulah
Beulah (series)
The Beulah Show is an American situation-comedy series that ran on CBS radio from 1945 to 1954, and on ABC television from 1950 to 1952. The show is notable for being the first sitcom to star an African American actress.-Radio:...
. Unlike the situation on The Jack Benny Program
The Jack Benny Program
The Jack Benny Program, starring Jack Benny, is a radio-TV comedy series that ran for more than three decades and is generally regarded as a high-water mark in 20th-century American comedy.-Cast:*Jack Benny - Himself...
, where black actor Eddie Anderson
Eddie Anderson (comedian)
Edmund Lincoln Anderson , also known as Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, was an American comedian and actor. His most famous role was that of Rochester van Jones, valet of Jack Benny, on his radio and television shows.-Early life:Anderson was born in Oakland, California...
played "Rochester", Beulah was voiced by a Caucasian male, Marlin Hurt
Marlin Hurt
Marlin Hurt was an American stage entertainer and radio actor who was best known for originating the dialect comedy role of Beulah made famous on the Fibber McGee and Molly program and the first season of the Beulah radio series.A saxophone player and vocalist, Hurt was once a singer with the...
. The character's usual opening line, "Somebody bawl fo' Beulah??", often provoked a stunned, screeching sort of laughter among the live studio audience; many of them, seeing the show performed for the first time in person, did not know that the actor voicing Beulah was neither black nor female, and expressed their surprise when Hurt delivered his line. Her other catchphrase was "Love that man!" after a fit of laughter over a Fibber gag. Hurt had created the Beulah character independently and had portrayed her occasionally on other shows prior to his joining the Fibber McGee and Molly cast.
The character of Uncle Dennis (Ransom Sherman), who was the subject of a running gag (see below) and was generally never heard, did appear in a few episodes in 1943, including "Renting Spare Room" (October 5, 1943) and "Fibber Makes His Own Chili Sauce" (November 9, 1943).
Running gags
Running gag
A running gag, or running joke, is a literary device that takes the form of an amusing joke or a comical reference and appears repeatedly throughout a work of literature or other form of storytelling....
s, unseen regulars and punchlines that sometimes popped up here and there for years. The show would usually open the 29-and-a-half minute broadcast with the audience in full laughter with Harlow Wilcox announcing, "The Johnson Wax Program with Fibber McGee and Molly!" The episode of December 19, 1944, "Fibber Snoops For Presents In Closet" (at 3:59 is a perfect example of the "Hall Closet," a running gag described in detail later in this entry), Jim Jordan can be caught at the end of his audience warm-up evoking the opening laughter by quipping, "10 seconds? Oh, we got a lot of.... Ooooo!"
For most of the show's history, the usual order of the show is the introduction followed by a Johnson Wax plug by Harlow then his introduction to Section 1 of the script (usually 11 minutes). Billy Mills usually follows with an instrumental (or accompanied by Martha Tilton in 1941). That musical interlude then segues to Section 2 of the script, followed by a performance by the vocal group, The Kings Men (occasionally featuring a solo by leader Ken Darby). The final act then ensues, with the last line usually showing the lesson learned that day, a final commercial, and then Billy Mills' theme song to fade. Later, Harlow would meet up and visit with the McGees and work in a Johnson Wax commercial, sometimes assisted by Fibber and Molly.
When McGee tells a bad joke, Molly usually answered with the line "T'aint funny, McGee!" which became a familiar catch phrase during the 1940s. Molly's Uncle Dennis is one of the more common unseen regulars (though he has gotten in a rare line here and there); often referred to, and sometimes heard making noise. He lives with the McGees, and is apparently an enormous alcoholic, becoming a punch line for many Fibber jokes and even the main subject of some shows in which he "disappeared."
McGee is never mentioned as having a job. However, Mayor LaTrivia often offers McGee jobs at City Hall, the jobs usually sounding exciting when the duties are vaguely described, but always ending up being very mundane when the actual job is named. For instance, a job "looking in on the higher-ups at City Hall" turns out to be a window-cleaning job. Another interesting assignment was to be where McGee would need to maintain a disguise to remain deep undercover for days at a time, but as the Wistful Vista Santa Claus.
McGee, apparently, is very proud of past deeds, sometimes recalling an interesting nickname he picked up over the years. Each one of these nicknames is, as usual with Fibber, a bad pun. When someone told a man named Addison that McGee was a glib talker, McGee became known as "Ad Glib McGee." Or, when Fibber made expressions with his eyes, he was nicknamed "Eyes-a-muggin' McGee" (a play on the popular Andy Kirk
Andy Kirk
Andrew Dewey Kirk was a jazz saxophonist and tubist best known as a bandleader of the "Twelve Clouds of Joy," popular during the swing era....
swing tune "I'se A-muggin'"). From there Fibber jumps headfirst into a long, breathless and boastful description of his nickname, using an impressive amount of alliteration
Alliteration
In language, alliteration refers to the repetition of a particular sound in the first syllables of Three or more words or phrases. Alliteration has historically developed largely through poetry, in which it more narrowly refers to the repetition of a consonant in any syllables that, according to...
.
Mentioned for a time on the program was Otis Cadwallader, a schoolmate of Fibber and Molly in Peoria, and Molly's boyfriend before McGee entered the picture. Fibber has a long-standing grudge against Otis, making him out to seem like a self-centered, overblown hack, despite seemingly everyone else seeing Cadwallader as a lovely, dashing man. Never mentioned are Otis's feelings toward Fibber, giving the impression that Fibber's grudge is one-sided. As revealed late in 1942, Fibber's anger is actually a front to keep Cadwallader away, as Fibber once borrowed money from Otis and never paid it back.
The "corner of 14th and Oak" in downtown Wistful Vista was routinely given as a location for various homes, places of business and government buildings throughout the show's run.
The Closet
None of the show's running gags were as memorable or enduring as The Closet—McGee's frequently opening and cacophonous closet, bric-a-brac clattering down and out and, often enough, over McGee's or Molly's heads. "I gotta get that closet cleaned out one of these days" was the usual McGee observation once the racket subsided. Naturally, "one of these days" almost never arrived. A good thing, too: in one famous instance, when a burglar (played by Bob Bruce) tied up McGee, McGee informed him cannily that the family's silver was "right through that door, bud... just yank it open, bud!" Naturally, the burglar took the bait and naturally, he was buried in the inevitable avalanche, long enough for the police to apprehend him.This gag appears to have begun with the March 5, 1940 show, "Cleaning the Closet." Molly opens the closet looking for the dictionary and is promptly buried in Fibber's "stuff" ("arranged in there just the way I want it.") Cleaning out the closet becomes the show's plot, inventorying much of the contents along the way: a photo album, a rusty horseshoe, a ten-foot pole. After repacking the closet, Fibber realizes the dictionary has been put away too—and he opens the closet again. This episode also features a cameo by Gracie Allen
Gracie Allen
Grace Ethel Cecile Rosalie Allen , known as Gracie Allen, was an American comedian who became internationally famous as the zany partner and comic foil of husband George Burns...
, running for president on the Surprise Party ticket. Toward the end the September 30, 1940 show, "Back from Vacation; Gildy Says Goodbye," next-door nemesis Gildersleeve---who has moved to Summerfield to finish raising his orphaned niece and nephew (and already begun his successful spin-off show The Great Gildersleeve
The Great Gildersleeve
The Great Gildersleeve , initially written by Leonard Lewis Levinson, was one of broadcast history's earliest spin-off programs. Built around Throckmorton Philharmonic Gildersleeve, a character who had been a staple on the classic radio situation comedy Fibber McGee and Molly, first Introduced to...
), but has come back to Wistful Vista to wind up his affairs there, in a farewell to the show that made him famous---opens the closet to be buried in the usual avalanche.
On at least one occasion, the gag is flipped, and the closet is silent: in "Too Much Energy" (broadcast January 23, 1945), visiting Dr. Gamble makes to leave. Molly warns, "No, Doctor, not through that door, that's the hall closet!" As the audience chuckles slightly in anticipation, Fibber explains: "Oh I forgot to tell you, Molly, I straightened out the hall closet this morning!" This was certainly not the end of the gag, though, as the closet soon became cluttered once again, leading to many more disasters.
Like many such trademarks, the clattering closet began as a one-time stunt, but "the closet" was developed carefully, not being overused (it rarely appeared in more than two consecutive installments, though it never disappeared for the same length, either, at the height of its identification, and it rarely collapsed at exactly the same time from show to show), and it became the best-known running sound gag in American radio's classic period. Jack Benny
Jack Benny
Jack Benny was an American comedian, vaudevillian, and actor for radio, television, and film...
's basement vault alarm ran a distant second. Both of these classic sound effects were performed by Ed Ludes and Virgil Rhymer, Hollywood-based NBC staff sound effects creators. Exactly what tumbled out of McGee's closet each time was never clear (except to these sound-effects men), but what signaled the end of the avalanche was always the same sound: a clear, tiny, household hand bell and McGee's inevitable postmortem. "Fibber McGee's closet" entered the American vernacular as a catch phrase synonymous with household clutter.
Sponsors
S. C. Johnson & Son
S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc. , previously known as S. C. Johnson Wax , is a privately held, global manufacturer of household cleaning supplies and other consumer chemicals based in Racine, Wisconsin. It has operations in 72 countries and its brands are sold in over 110...
, Fibber nicknamed Wilcox "Waxy", due to Wilcox's constant praises of their various products. In a style not unusual for the classic radio years, the show was typically introduced as, "The Johnson Wax
S. C. Johnson & Son
S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc. , previously known as S. C. Johnson Wax , is a privately held, global manufacturer of household cleaning supplies and other consumer chemicals based in Racine, Wisconsin. It has operations in 72 countries and its brands are sold in over 110...
Program, with Fibber McGee and Molly." Johnson Wax sponsored the show through 1950; Pet Milk
Pet, Inc.
Pet, Inc., was an American company that was the first to commercially produce evaporated milk as a shelf-stable consumer product and later became a multi-brand food products conglomerate. Its signature product, PET Evaporated Milk, is now a product of The J.M. Smucker Co...
through 1952; and, until the show's final half-hour episode in mid-1953, Reynolds Aluminum
Reynolds Metals
Reynolds Group Holdings is an American packaging company with its roots in the Reynolds Metals Company, was the second largest aluminum company in the United States, and the third largest in the world...
. Wilcox was sometimes called Harpo by Fibber.
The show also used two musical numbers per episode to break the comedy routines into sections. For most of the show's run, there would be one vocal number by The King's Men
The Hut-Sut Song
The Hut-Sut Song is a novelty song from the 1940s with nonsense lyrics. The song was written in 1941 by Leo V. Killion, Ted McMichael and Jack Owens. The first and most popular recording was by Horace Heidt and His Musical Knights....
(a vocal quartet: Ken Darby, Rad Robinson, Jon Dodson, and Bud Linn), and an instrumental by The Billy Mills Orchestra. For a short time in the early 1940s, Martha Tilton
Martha Tilton
Martha Tilton was an American popular singer, best-known for her 1939 recording of "And the Angels Sing" with Benny Goodman. She was sometimes introduced as The Liltin' Miss Tilton.Tilton and her family lived in Texas and Kansas, relocating to Los Angeles when she was seven years old...
would sing what was formerly the instrumental.
Before and during America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
's involvement in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, references to or about the war and the members of the Axis Powers
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
were commonplace on the show. Just after the Japanese
Empire of Japan
The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...
attacked Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
in December 1941, Jim Jordan, out of character, soberly ended the Fibber McGee show by inviting the studio audience to sing "America
My Country, 'Tis of Thee
"My Country, 'Tis of Thee", also known as "America", is an American patriotic song, whose lyrics were written by Samuel Francis Smith. The melody derived from Muzio Clementi's Symphony No. 3, and is shared with "God Save the Queen," used by many members of the Commonwealth of Nations...
". Also commonplace were calls to action to buy defense bonds (both through announcements and subtle references written into the script), and condemnation of food and supply hoarding
Hoarding
Hoarding or caching is a general term for a behavior that leads people or animals to accumulate food or other items in anticipation of future need or scarcity.-Animal behavior:...
. Though understandably part of the backlash reaction toward the Pearl Harbor attack, some jokes about the Empire of Japan
Empire of Japan
The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...
certainly would be considered politically incorrect on today's airwaves. For instance, in the episode "Fix-It McGee", aired three weeks after Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
, Fibber tells Mayor LaTrivia his "great slogan" for the war bond
War bond
War bonds are debt securities issued by a government for the purpose of financing military operations during times of war. War bonds generate capital for the government and make civilians feel involved in their national militaries...
campaign: "Every time you buy a bond, you slap a Jap across the pond." The term "Jap" was in common usage in virtually all American media during this period.
On the other hand, the Jordans gladly cooperated in turning the show over to a half-hour devoted entirely to patriotic music on the day of the D-Day
D-Day
D-Day is a term often used in military parlance to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. "D-Day" often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will occur or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar...
invasion in 1944, with the couple speaking only at the opening and the closing of the broadcast. This show remains available to collectors amidst many a Fibber McGee and Molly packaging.
When the shows were broadcast overseas by the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS), all three commercials were eliminated from the program. Harlow Wilcox's middle ad was edited out, and the two advertisements at the beginning and end of the show were replaced by musical numbers, so that the show on AFRS would have two numbers by Billy Mills and the Orchestra, and two by The King's Men.
The Jordans were experts at transforming the ethnic humor of vaudeville into more rounded comic characters, no doubt due in part to the affection felt for the famous supporting cast members who voiced these roles, including Bill Thompson
Bill Thompson (voice actor)
Bill Thompson was an American radio actor and voice actor whose career stretched from the 1930s until his death.-Early career:...
(as the Old Timer and Wimple), Harold Peary
Harold Peary
Harold Peary was an American actor, comedian and singer in radio, film, television and animation remembered best as Throckmorton P...
(as Gildersleeve), Gale Gordon
Gale Gordon
Gale Gordon was an American character actor perhaps best remembered as Lucille Ball's longtime television foil—and particularly as cantankerously combustible, tightfisted bank executive Theodore J. Mooney, on Ball's second television situation comedy, The Lucy Show...
(as LaTrivia), Arthur Q. Bryan
Arthur Q. Bryan
Arthur Quirk Bryan was a United States comedian and voice actor, remembered best for his longtime recurring role as well-spoken, wisecracking Dr...
(as Dr. Gamble; Bryan also voiced Elmer Fudd
Elmer Fudd
Elmer J. Fudd/Egghead is a fictional cartoon character and one of the most famous Looney Tunes characters, and the de facto archenemy of Bugs Bunny. He has one of the more disputed origins in the Warner Bros. cartoon pantheon . His aim is to hunt Bugs, but he usually ends up seriously injuring...
for the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
cartoons, which also borrowed lines from Fibber McGee and Molly from time to time), Isabel Randolph (as Mrs. Uppington), Marlin Hurt (a white male who played in dialect the McGee's maid, Beulah), and others. They were also expert at their own running gags and catch phrases, many of which entered the American vernacular: "That ain't the way I heeard it!"; "'T ain't funny, McGee!" and "Heavenly days!" were the three best known.
Spin-offs
Fibber McGee and Molly spun two supporting characters off into their own shows. By far the most successful and popular was Harold Peary's Gildersleeve, spun into The Great GildersleeveThe Great Gildersleeve
The Great Gildersleeve , initially written by Leonard Lewis Levinson, was one of broadcast history's earliest spin-off programs. Built around Throckmorton Philharmonic Gildersleeve, a character who had been a staple on the classic radio situation comedy Fibber McGee and Molly, first Introduced to...
in 1941. This show introduced single parenthood of a sort to creative broadcasting: the pompous, previously married Gildersleeve now moved to Summerfield, became single (although the missing wife was never explained), and raised his orphaned, spirited niece and nephew, while dividing his time between running his manufacturing business and (eventually) becoming the town water commissioner. In one episode, the McGees arrived in Summerfield for a visit with their old neighbor with hilarious results: McGee inadvertently learns Gildersleeve is engaged, and he practically needs to be chloroformed to perpetuate the secret a little longer.
Peary returned the favor in a memorable 1944 Fibber McGee & Molly episode in which neither of the title characters appeared: Jim Jordan was recovering from a bout of pneumonia (this would be written into the show the following week, when the Jordans returned), and the story line involved Gildersleeve and nephew Leroy hoping to visit the McGees at home during a train layover in Wistful Vista, but finding Fibber and Molly not at home. At the end of the episode, Gildersleeve discovers the couple had left in a hurry that morning when they received Gildy's letter saying he would be stopping over in Wistful Vista.
Marlin Hurt's Beulah was also spun off, leading to both a radio and television show that would eventually star Hattie McDaniel
Hattie McDaniel
Hattie McDaniel was the first African-American actress to win an Academy Award. She won the award for Best Supporting Actress for her role of Mammy in Gone with the Wind ....
and Ethel Waters
Ethel Waters
Ethel Waters was an American blues, jazz and gospel vocalist and actress. She frequently performed jazz, big band, and pop music, on the Broadway stage and in concerts, although she began her career in the 1920s singing blues.Her best-known recordings includes, "Dinah", "Birmingham Bertha",...
.
Jim and Marian Jordan themselves occasionally appeared on other programs, away from their Fibber and Molly characters. One memorable episode of Suspense
Suspense (radio program)
-Production background:One of the premier drama programs of the Golden Age of Radio, was subtitled "radio's outstanding theater of thrills" and focused on suspense thriller-type scripts, usually featuring leading Hollywood actors of the era...
("Backseat Driver," 02-03-1949) cast the Jordans as victims of a car-jacking; Jim Jordan's tense, interior monologues were especially dramatic.
Films
The Jordans portrayed their characters in four movies. In the early years of the radio show, they were supporting characters in the 1937 ParamountParamount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
film This Way, Please, starring Charles "Buddy" Rogers and Betty Grable
Betty Grable
Elizabeth Ruth "Betty" Grable was an American actress, dancer and singer.Her iconic bathing suit photo made her the number-one pin-up girl of the World War II era. It was later included in the LIFE magazine project "100 Photos that Changed the World"...
. Once the show hit its stride, they had leading roles in the RKO Radio Pictures films Look Who's Laughing
Look Who's Laughing
Look Who's Laughing is a 1941 film about a radio personality who plans to build an airplane plant in a small town. This film precedes its sequel Here We Go Again.-Cast:* Edgar Bergen - Himself* Charlie McCarthy - Himself* Jim Jordan - Fibber McGee...
(1941), Here We Go Again
Here We Go Again (film)
Here We Go Again , a 1942 film and sequel to Look Who's Laughing. Fibber McGee and Molly's second honeymoon goes awry.-Cast:* Jim Jordan - Fibber McGee* Marian Jordan - Molly* Edgar Bergen - Himself* Charlie McCarthy - Himself...
(1942) and Heavenly Days (1944).
The first two RKO films are generally considered the best, as they co-star fellow radio stars Edgar Bergen
Edgar Bergen
Edgar John Bergen was an American actor and radio performer, best known as a ventriloquist.-Early life:...
and Charlie McCarthy. Harold Peary also appears in both as Gildersleeve, with Arthur Q. Bryan, Bill Thompson, Harlow Wilcox, Gale Gordon, and Isabel Randolph appearing in both their show roles and as other characters. Bill Thompson in Look Who's Laughing played two parts: The pushy sales-man, and the man who shouted "It's Hillary Horton". Gale Gordon played Otis Cadwalader, Molly's ex-boyfriend in Here We Go Again. Arthur Q. Bryan played the Mayor's aide in Look Who's Laughing.
Look Who's Laughing has been released on VHS as part of the Lucille Ball Collection, and Here We Go Again has been released on VHS in rental format only. Look Who's Laughing, Here We Go Again and Heavenly Days have been shown on Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies is a movie-oriented cable television channel, owned by the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Time Warner, featuring commercial-free classic movies, mostly from the Turner Entertainment and MGM, United Artists, RKO and Warner Bros. film libraries...
.
Other films
Other films featured the McGees' neighbors. The first film was called Comin' Round the Mountain (1940) and featured the McGees' neighbors The Old-Timer (played by Bill Thompson) and Gildersleeve, as the mayor of the town. Gildersleeve's character was in many other films before The Great Gildersleeve show and movies. Abigale Uppington is in the film County Fair along with Harold Peary, and his future radio show co-star Shirley Mitchell (who also played Leila Ransom in The Great Gildersleeve).Television
An attempt at getting the McGees onto television came in September 1959, produced by William AsherWilliam Asher
William Asher is an American television and film producer, film director, and screenwriter. He was one of the most prolific early directors in the budding television industry, producing or directing over two dozen of the leading television series.With television in its infancy, he introduced the...
for NBC (and co-sponsored by Singer Corporation
Singer Corporation
Singer Corporation is a manufacturer of sewing machines, first established as I.M. Singer & Co. in 1851 by Isaac Merritt Singer with New York lawyer Edward Clark. Best known for its sewing machines, it was renamed Singer Manufacturing Company in 1865, then The Singer Company in 1963. It is...
and 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...
), with younger actors Bob Sweeney and Cathy Lewis
Cathy Lewis
Cathy Lewis was an American actress remembered best for numerous radio appearances but making a number of film and television appearances in the last decade of her life....
in the roles. The show also featured Harold Peary as Mayor LaTrivia, rather than as Gildersleeve. The show was unable to recreate the flavor and humor of the original and did not survive its first season; in fact, it did not even last through January 1960. But the Jordans themselves had resisted television far earlier. "They were trying to push us into TV, and we were reluctant," Jim Jordan told an interviewer many years later. "Our friends advised us, 'Don't do it until you need to. You have this value in radio—milk it dry.'"
Changes
Due in large part to Marian Jordan's periodic health problems, Fibber McGee and Molly became a nightly 15-minute show in 1953, recorded without a studio audience in single sessions, the better to enable Marian Jordan to rest. The timing was sadly appropriate, as classic radio had entered its dying days. Still, the McGees remained a favorite presence on radio, even after the quarter-hour edition ended in 1956, appearing in short segments on the NBC radio show MonitorMonitor (NBC Radio)
NBC Monitor was an American weekend radio program broadcast from June 12, 1955, until January 26, 1975. Airing live and nationwide on the NBC Radio Network, it originally aired beginning Saturday morning at 8am and continuing through the weekend until 12 midnight on Sunday...
—under the rubric Just Molly and Me—from 1957 to 1959.
Radio historian Gerald S. Nachman has noted the Jordans were ready to renew with NBC for at least three more years when Marian's battle against cancer ended in her death in 1961. In the 1970s, Jim Jordan briefly returned to acting. An episode of NBC's Chico and the Man
Chico and the Man
Chico and the Man is an American sitcom which ran on NBC for four seasons, from September 13, 1974 to July 21, 1978. It stars Jack Albertson as Ed Brown , the cantankerous owner of a run down garage in an East Los Angeles barrio, and Freddie Prinze as Chico Rodriguez, an upbeat, optimistic Chicano...
featured a surprise appearance by Jordan as a friendly neighborhood mechanic. Jordan also lent his voice to Disney's animated film The Rescuers
The Rescuers
The Rescuers is a 1977 American animated feature produced by Walt Disney Productions and first released on June 22, 1977. The 23rd film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film is about the Rescue Aid Society, an international mouse organization headquartered in New York and shadowing...
(1977). He died in 1988—a year before Fibber McGee and Molly was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame
Radio Hall of Fame
The National Radio Hall of Fame is a project of the Museum of Broadcast Communications.Although no physical building currently exists to house it, the National Radio Hall of Fame is a project of Bruce DuMont, CEO of the currently homeless Museum of Broadcast Communications, and is purported to be a...
.
Jim Jordan married Gretchen Stewart after Marian's death. Gretchen and the Jordan children donated the manuscripts of Smackout and Fibber McGee and Molly to Chicago's Museum of Broadcast Communications
Museum of Broadcast Communications
The Museum of Broadcast Communications is an American museum that currently exists exclusively on the Internet and not in any physical capacity. Its stated mission is "to collect, preserve, and present historic and contemporary radio and television content as well as educate, inform and entertain...
after his death in 1988.
The show also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
—right next to the building that once housed the NBC radio studios where the Jordans performed the show for so long. The S.C. Johnson Company preserved more than 700 recordings of the show it sponsored for 15 years.
Popular culture
- In The Homecoming: A Christmas Story, a 1971 TV movie that served as a pilot for the series The WaltonsThe WaltonsThe Waltons is an American television series created by Earl Hamner, Jr., based on his book Spencer's Mountain, and a 1963 film of the same name. The show centered on a family growing up in a rural Virginia community during the Great Depression and World War II. The series pilot was a television...
, Grandpa (played by Edgar BergenEdgar BergenEdgar John Bergen was an American actor and radio performer, best known as a ventriloquist.-Early life:...
) is seen listening to a 1947 Christmas episode of Fibber McGee and Molly, in which Teeny explains that she and her friends have been practicing their Christmas carol. (The scene is an anachronism, as the movie is set in 1933 - before Fibber McGee and Molly had even premiered.) - On the NBC situation comedy NewsRadioNewsRadioNewsRadio is an American television situation comedy that aired on NBC from 1995 to 1999. The series was created by executive producer Paul Simms, and was filmed in front of a studio audience at CBS Studio Center and Sunset Gower Studios...
, in the episode entitled Xmas Story, Jimmy James (played by Stephen RootStephen RootStephen Root is an American actor. He is best known for his comedic work on the TV sitcom NewsRadio, in the film Office Space and as the voice of Bill Dauterive and Buck Strickland in the animated series King of the Hill...
) is said to own the rights to Fibber McGee and Molly, which he gives to Matthew Brock (played by Andy DickAndy DickAndrew R. "Andy" Dick is an American comedian, actor, musician and television/film producer. His first regular television role was on the short-lived but highly influential Ben Stiller Show. In the mid-1990s, he had a long-running stint on NBC's NewsRadio...
) as a ChristmasChristmasChristmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
present. - Given the popularity of the radio show at the time many catch phrases appear frequently in Warner Bros. cartoon shortsWarner Bros. CartoonsWarner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. was the in-house division of Warner Bros. Pictures during the Golden Age of American animation. One of the most successful animation studios in American media history, Warner Bros. Cartoons was primarily responsible for the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies theatrical...
from the 1930s and 1940s, such as Molly's "T'ain't funny, McGee!" (Daffy Duck and Egghead, 1938 and Holiday Highlights, 1940), Little Girl's "I betcha." (The Sneezing Weasel, 1938), Mr. Old Timer's "That ain't the way I heared it, Johnny!" (Tortoise Wins by a Hare, 1943), and "Is that you, Myrt?" (Daffy the Commando, 1943 and The Wabbit Who Came to Supper, 1942). The Gildersleeve character was parodied in the 1945 Bugs BunnyBugs BunnyBugs Bunny is a animated character created in 1938 at Leon Schlesinger Productions, later Warner Bros. Cartoons. Bugs is an anthropomorphic gray rabbit and is famous for his flippant, insouciant personality and his portrayal as a trickster. He has primarily appeared in animated cartoons, most...
cartoon Hare ConditionedHare ConditionedHare Conditioned is a 1945 Warner Bros. cartoon in the Looney Tunes series. It was directed by Chuck Jones. It stars Bugs Bunny, who was voiced by Mel Blanc.The Stacey's manager was done by Dick Nelson....
, in which the rabbit distracts a menacing taxidermistTaxidermyTaxidermy is the act of mounting or reproducing dead animals for display or for other sources of study. Taxidermy can be done on all vertebrate species of animals, including mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians...
by telling him that he sounds "just like that guy on the radio, the Great Gildersneeze!" The taxidermist responds with "I do?!" followed by Gildy's famous chuckle. The Gildersleeve voice in this cartoon was done by radio actor and voice artist Dick Nelson. - Tex AveryTex AveryFrederick 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...
's 1945 cartoon The Shooting of Dan McGooThe Shooting Of Dan McGooThe Shooting of Dan McGoo is a cartoon directed by Tex Avery. It starred Frank Graham as the Wolf. Both Avery and Bill Thompson voiced the lead character Droopy. Bea Benaderet did the speaking voice of Lou, while her singing was provided by Imogene Lynn...
has a scene where the villain tells the title character, "T'ain't funny, McGoo!" - then turns to the camera and says in disgust, "What corny dialogue!" - In a scene from the 1973 film Paper MoonPaper Moon (film)Paper Moon is a 1973 American comedy film directed by Peter Bogdanovich and released by Paramount Pictures. The screenplay was adapted from the novel Addie Pray by Joe David Brown, and the film was shot in black-and-white. The film is set during the Great Depression in the U.S. states of Kansas and...
, set in the 1930s, the character of Addie is shown listening to Fibber McGee and Molly on the radio and urging Fibber not to open the closet door. (This is an anachronism, as the closet gag wasn't used on the show prior to 1940.) - The show was frequently referenced during the "riffing" on Mystery Science Theater 3000Mystery Science Theater 3000Mystery Science Theater 3000 is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Best Brains, Inc., that ran from 1988 to 1999....
. - On an episode of NCISNCIS (TV series)NCIS, formerly known as NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service, is an American police procedural drama television series revolving around a fictional team of special agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which conducts criminal investigations involving the U.S...
, Abby Sciutto reprimands Timothy McGee with the line "T'ain't funny, McGee" as a nod to the show. - On The Owl BoxThe Owl BoxThe Owl Box is a channel on Ustream that featured a live-streamed webcam trained on Molly, a wild Barn Owl and her activities, including the laying and hatching of her eggs. The show has since become an Internet phenomenon...
, a live web show of barn owls in San Marcos, California, which gained popularity in 2010, the two adult owls are named "Molly" and "McGee" after the show. - In a hospital scene in the 1991 film The RocketeerThe Rocketeer (film)The Rocketeer is a 1991 period superhero adventure film produced by Walt Disney Pictures and based on the character of the same name created by comic book writer/artist Dave Stevens. Directed by Joe Johnston, the film stars Billy Campbell, Jennifer Connelly, Alan Arkin, Timothy Dalton, Paul Sorvino...
, a nurse and security guard are shown listening to the show on a radio. - In Dublin City Centre In IrelandIrelandIreland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, there is a Bar named "Fibber McGees" located on Parnell Street which is known for its Heavy Metal and Rock music.
Listen to
- Radio Journeys: Smackout (1931)
- McGee and Molly at Free-OTR.com
- Botar: Fibber McGee and Molly (66 episodes)
- Free OTR Fibber McGee and Molly (117 episodes)
- OTR Network Library: Fibber McGee and Molly (442 episodes)
- Internet Archive: Fibber McGee and Molly (hundreds of episodes)
- OTR Fans: Fibber McGee and Molly (seven episodes)
- Fibber McGee & Molly
- Outlaws Old Time Radio Corner