LEARN MORE

Friday, February 3, 2012

THE LISTENER'S IMAGINATION


Back in my childhood, I was watching television at Grandpa Portfors’ house one day when suddenly he rushed into the kitchen, slipped onto a chair in the little eating nook, turned on the radio he kept there, and began to listen intently. Now and then he’d chuckle a little. After a while, he turned off the radio and went on his way.

When I told my mother about this incident, she said, “Oh, he likes a program called ‘Fibber McGee and Molly.’” And she mentioned the famous running gag, the hall closet. “Fibber opens the door to the closet and everything falls out,” she said. That was the first I knew that radio programming had ever been more than music interspersed with talking. I was a child of the television age. 

In their tribute to sound effects man Manny Segal, Heavenly Days! authors Stumpf and Price explain the closet as follows: On the show of March 5, 1940, while Fibber was hunting for a dictionary, he foolishly yanked open the door of the hall closet and out tumbled the now famous conglomeration of noisy sound effects. Reportedly, the sound was made by an odd assortment of articles including: Ten empty oil cans, a pair of roller skates, an old snow shoe, a barrelful of broken crockery, a bowling pin, two boxes of old kitchenware, a rake, an egg-beater, three cowbells, and Fibber’s old mandolin!!! These items were piled high on top of a portable staircase and then tumbled noisily upon the proper cue.

“Year after year, Fibber procrastinated about cleaning out the hall closet ‘one of these days.’ Several programs were devoted to just such a task. On October 21, 1941, and again on April 7, 1942, Fibber cleaned out the closet in search of waste materials to aid the war effort. On February 2, 1943, McGee moved all of the junk from the hall closet into the linen closet – temporarily. Then again on June 5, 1945, he tried to straighten out the mess, but to no avail. Faithful listeners of the McGee show were given an unnerving jolt on the program of March 11, 1947, when Doc Gamble accidentally opened the door to the hall closet – to complete silence. After a long pause, Fibber delightfully exclaimed: ‘I cleaned out the hall closet!’”

FM&M was sponsored by the Johnson Wax Company for fifteen years and six weeks, and during those years, the same announcer, Harlow Wilcox, delivered the commercial messages. The commercials were actually incorporated into the story line. Harlow, whom Fibber dubbed “Waxy,” served as announcer, a member of the cast, and sponsor spokesman. 



By 1949, the Johnson Wax Company wanted to move their advertising dollars to television. They spent $10,000 to film a pilot for a proposed television series of their popular radio series, which was actually a filming of the radio presentation. Although I'd love to see it today, it's clear they weren't grasping the vision of how television could be used. Stumpf and Price observe that "Jim and Marian were not at all sure that the new medium would be well-suited to them. They realized that essentially the success of their radio program had depended upon the listener’s imagination, the key elements being the famous closet door gag and the very concept of Wistful Vista as ‘Anywhere Middle America, U.S.A. . . .” KW

[Photo 1 -- C.O. Portfors, my maternal grandfather, 1961.
The remaining photos of FM&M were copied from Heavenly Days! by Charles Stumpf and Tom Price.]

6 comments:

  1. Did people actually call your grandpa, "C.O."? Do you see the kids lined up behind him? It's too bad the light didn't quite capture them.

    It is too bad that they couldn't see how to change their radio show to suit T.V.

    ReplyDelete
  2. His friends called him "Charlie." He signed his name C. O. Portfors. I called him "Papa" when I began to talk, and so everyone called him "Papa" -- except me. Someplace along the line I corrected myself and called him "Grandpa."

    Haha! Kids in the background. I was so concerned with the bright reflection off the tablecloth that I didn't notice the kids, but I can see Polly, Becky, and L.J. That's Bill Reece on the left.

    T.V. was very young in 1949, but it's interesting that sponsors knew it was here to stay. According to the book, experiments with television began in New York City in 1939, and it would have gone nationwide sooner had it not been for WWII. I think the Jordans knew that the magic would be lost if they tried to translate the program into a television sitcom. If they tried and failed, they would lose out, but if they rode it out with radio, they would work another 10 years or so, and that's what happened.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nice clear photo of Grandpa Portfors, Kathy.

    Sound effects for radio were a mystery to the listener. Once when I was about 6 or 8, I heard a program with sounds that I thought were the opening & closing of books (very rapidly). I read a lot and saw the world through books. Mother told me it was tap dancing. Well, how would I know? Of course, some things weren't suited for radio. Tap dancing was a visual thing, even though it produced a loud clatter.

    When I was about 12, our class took a field trip to a tiny radio station in our small town. We were able to see what the audience couldn't. Not very glamorous, but when they told us the actors threw each script page on the floor when they finished reading, we all giggled. They let us read a script & let the pages float to the floor one by one. Soon the floor was littered with paper. When you took a few steps, the paper made crackling sounds. I went away thinking that a big radio studio wouldn't do that because the paper on the floor would make sounds that the listener could hear.

    When I went to Europe in 1958, I went to Rockefeller Center & took a tour of the NBC studios. All I remember from the tour is the radio studio that we observed behind a glass window. The guide told us that the studio had sound proofing on all sides and even above & below. The floor below was floating on a sound proofing material. I don't think they threw their script pages on the floor in NY.

    Sound effects on adventure radio shows were pretty inventive & often replications of real things. Opening a door was done with a tiny door with a door knob. Walking on a gravel path was done by a sound man actually walking inside an oblong tray filled with gravel. A gunshot was done with a gun (loaded with blanks). Galloping horses was done with coconut halves, a genius idea. To be honest, I wanted to use my imagination & knowing how sounds were made would burst the bubble for me, so to speak.

    On You Tube, there is a film about sound effects called, "Back of the Mike" (1938). Watch the full 9 min. version. It's a western with good guys, bad guys & a damsel in distress.

    Moving from radio to TV was a dilemma for many actors. An old joke was: He had a face for radio. I thought Molly had a happy voice & she seemed so warm & sweet. Maybe it because she couldn't really get mad at Fibber. She loved him no matter what. I guess that's what marriage is all about: accepting the other's faults.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I am so pleased that I correctly identified the kids when I enlarged the picture! I can remember when they looked like that.

    It's a wonderful picture of your grandfather. I remember his car, that classic Lincoln, and that once he drove it to my house and the two of you picked me up for a movie.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Last night I was watching "The Jack Benny Show." That's right, the old black & white TV show from the 1950 to 1965. His radio show went back to 1932! A cable channel called "Antenna TV" shows nothing but very old TV shows. Hurrah.

    Jack Benny introduced a guest last night who did radio sound effects. Just what we've talking about, Kathy. He did some funny things like horses galloping, soldiers marching & milking a cow. Next he went into a little skit where he made sounds for a barroom fight. Then I realized it was a comic actor. He threw chairs, ran up stairs & broke glass to make sounds that the radio audience might believe were 2 men fighting. He ended his scene by throwing himself on the floor.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks for sharing your memories of radio, Leah. Seems like the sound effects were either good or not so good. Sometimes the sound effects aren't good even when the story line is actually decent. Animal sounds are often laughable. You can tell that barking dog or snorting horse is actually a man. I would love it if we had "Antenna TV." Old programs can be like old friends.

    I don't exactly remember the movie event, Chris, but Grandpa did take me to a movie now and then. He quit driving when he was 86 (1961), so it was likely the late '50s when he treated us.

    ReplyDelete