The An American Gallery Radio Program

Background

The Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) and the subsequent Armed Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS) have, since 1941, produced literally millions of Radio transcriptions and recordings for distribution to American, Allied and United Nations forces overseas. Begun in an effort to increase morale, the AFRS had, by 1950, become one of the largest publishers of radio recordings in the world.

A significant number of the titles in its vast canon came from contemporary Radio programs of the era, dutifully 'denatured' and often reintroduced so as to remove all reference to any commercial sponsors contained in the source recordings. Radio networks and independent syndicators alike have been consistently generous over the years in supplying the AFRS with programming. Indeed, in many instances, the original producers re-recorded intros and closings with their original staff announcers. In other instances, programming was rather transparently 'rebranded' for AFRS reproduction, so as to keep from violating some of the more iron-clad agreements between sponsors and producers of the era.

Elliott Lewis, Howard Duff, and Col Tom Lewis at the
Hollywood AFRS complex.

The overwhelming number of titles in the AFRS canon over the years have come from programming orginated either expressly for the AFRS or by the AFRS in-house. The AFRS' own programming was generally contracted out to a specific producer. Throughout the War years, the AFRS also employed a great deal of its own talent to create programming for transription. FEN Tokyo's excellent Macabre production is one of the better examples. Sam Spade's own Howard Duff was one of many G.I. announcers whose job it was to cut intros and closings for AFRS-denatured programming. Indeed, if Howard Duff's intros to the thousands of AFRS recordings he hosted, introduced or announced were included in his radiography, he'd arguably be one of Radio's most recorded voices in history. William Conrad and Elliott Lewis could also be heard introducing or announcing AFRS programs of the era. Peter Lorre announced a good number of the Mystery Playhouse series and Herbert Marshall contributed countless hours re-introducing denatured AFRS programs of the era.

As the wars of the 20th Century wound down, America and its allies continued to maintain a significant presence overseas. And so it was that the [then] AFRTS continued to produce, request, or receive programming of continuing interest to our armed forces and those of our allies. Those efforts continued well on into the years of the Cold War and beyond.

The AFRS produces An American Gallery

Although we're still attempting to ascertain its production history, it appears that An American Gallery was one of hundreds of compelling and entertaining AFRS and AFRTS features produced in Hollywood's famous Capitol Records building. We can't presently be more precise, but we believe it to have been produced during the mid-1960s. Dick Van Dyke and Bill Cosby were two of the celebrity hosts for the series, which should help date the series to the mid-60s. The series identifies itself as from the canon of 'The Armed Forces Radio Service', but after approximately 1951 - 1953 most AFRS airchecks began changing to 'The Armed Forces Radio and Television Service'. Since both Bill Cosby and Dick Van Dyke would have been in only their teens or 20s during the era prior to 1953, we doubt seriously if An American Gallery would have been produced prior to the AFRS shift to the AFRTS.

Also, in an effort to lend some gravitas to the series, the hosts for each program represented some of America's most distinguished and celebrated entertainers or writers of the early 1960s. In addition, Gene Twombly, the sound engineer for the series was reponsible for a great deal of the programming produced in the Capitol Records building during the 1960s. Production dating aside, the European and American editions of Stars & Stripes began teasing the series in late 1968. And indeed, Pacific Stars & Stripes announced the entire 13-week series between February 6th and May 1st of 1969.

The premise of the series was both compelling and unique. Each of the thirteen weeks would provide a biography of either historic or contemporary Americans whose stories were a particularly compelling narrative of the unique promise the American way of life has afforded every citizen no matter how humble--or great--his or her origins. The series offered treatments of the following great Americans:

1. Louis Armstrong
2. Will Rogers
3. Cecil B. DeMille
4. (John) Gutzon Borglum and Mt. Rushmore
5. George Gershwin
6. Thomas Wolfe
7. Matthew Brady
8. Frank Lloyd Wright
9. Frederic Remington
10. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
11. Henry David Thoreau
12. Dr. Lee De Forest
13. Walt Disney

Given the selections for the thirteen weeks, one might well imagine how fascinating a continuation of the series might have been. But the goodness doesn't stop there . . .

To spice up the offering, and give these remarkable Americans their due, the production has thirteen of the biggest names in Entertainment introducing and hosting each episode:

Bing Crosby introducing Louis Armstrong
Bob Hope introducing Will Rogers
Charlton Heston introducing Cecil B. DeMille
Lorne Greene introducing Gutzon Borglum
John 'Bubbles' Sublett introducing George Gershwin
Irving Stone introducing Thomas Wolfe
Raymond Burr introducing Matthew Brady
Anne Baxter introducing her grandfather, Frank Lloyd Wright
Edward G. Robinson introducing Frederic Remington
Raymond Massey introducing Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Bill Cosby introducing Henry David Thoreau
Edgar Bergen introducing Dr. Lee De Forest
Dick Van Dyke introducing Walt Disney

I know this sounding like a Ronco commercial, but it gets even better . . .

Portraying the main characters in these docudramas were some of Hollywood's biggest names:

D'Urville Martin and Sam Laws as Louis Armstrong
Pat Buttram as Will Rogers
Sebastian Cabot as Cecil B. DeMille
Ed Begley as Gutzon Borglum
Ross Martin as George Gershwin
Michael Anderson as Thomas Wolfe
Richard Crenna as Matthew Brady
Henry Fonda as Frank Lloyd Wright
Richard Widmark as Frederic Remington
Dan O'Herlihy as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
John Forsyth as Henry David Thoreau
Glenn Ford as Dr. Lee De Forest

Not too shabby for an AFRS production so far, huh? But on top of all of the above, the supporting casts for the series were also comprised of Hollywood's finest character actors of the era. The scripts by Robert M. Young were marvelous and the direction by William Lally was smooth, well-paced and exquisitely cut. The sound engineering was another typical example of Gene Twombly's sound mastery. And the introductory theme music? No less than Aaron Copland. Art Ballanger announced the entire series.

These great Americans had more in common, the more one listens to their stories. All great visionaries in their respective fields, each has left their lasting mark on American society. Their influence and individual contributions will be felt for hundreds of generations of Americans to come. And each of their stories accomplish precisely what the producers intended: they inspire all of us to strive for our reach to exceed our grasp in everything we undertake. These were all great thinkers. They were each fearless in their respective disciplines. This series set out to inspire and accomplished that end marvelously.

An American Gallery is without question one of vintage Radio's most overlooked and under appreciated gems. Unfortunately, only eleven of the thirteen programs are in current circulation. Indeed, the two missing epsidoes--Dr. Lee De Forest and Walt Disney--promise to be two of the series' most interesting. In this instance we're thankful that this was an AFRS production. There's no question that the missing episodes will turn up in due time.

In the meantime, the eleven currently available exemplars represent some of the finest work the AFRS ever commissioned. The remarkable Americans honored by the series were giants of their time in their respective disciplines. Their stories are just as compelling today as they were for the hundreds of thousands of G.I.s who first heard them over forty years ago. Does the AFRS deliver? You bet your tintype they do!

Series Derivatives:

Notes on Provenances:

The most helpful provenances were the log of the radioGOLDINdex and Pacific Stars & Stripes.

This research effort was both a treat and a disappointment. It's one of the true gems of vintage Radio, but as our research shows, it's yet another of the utterly misreprented and miscatalogued radio series produced by the AFRS. We're at a loss to understand this 'biting the hand that feeds it' mentality in the OTR world. We've long trumpeted the extraordinary contributions that the AFRS and AFRTS have made in preserving our national treasure of vintage recordings.

OTRisms:

Were it not for the AFRS, well over 30% of the recordings currently in circulation would have been lost for all time. Given the untold millions of dollars that commercial OTR has generated over the past forty years, one might rationally think that sooner or later, one or more of the OTR profiteers of the commercial OTR world would consider giving back to the preservation effort. Or, at the very least, take some time out to research and preserve that from which they've so handsomely profited. The recordings from the AFRS canon, sadly, continue to be simply conflated with commercial recordings, used as 'filler' for completing sets, or--as in this case--simply cast aside as insignificant or inferior.

And so it is that for as long as this series has been in wide commercial circulation, it's been almost laughably miscatalogued. Two of the most influential sites in the hobby--one commercial, one a major vintage Radio database--continue to cite the availability of a twelve-recording set of An American Gallery. But, predictably, one of those twelve 'available' recordings has been the last episode of another AFRS series, 'Crusaders for Freedom', also coincidentally sound engineered by Gene Twombley.

Why is the sound engineer significant? It's painfully obvious. The OTR community has, as long as the term's been coined, employed the infamous 'two-minute rule' in identifying vintage recordings. They listen to the first minute and the last minute of a recording and pronounce it logged. In the instance of the currently circulating Crusaders for Freedom recording passing as the final episode of An American Gallery, the 'Crusaders for Freedom' portion of the intro is missing, but the title, Count-out for A Champ, is given. It's a biography of Samuel Gompers--or Samuel Gumpers as the OTR world refers to him. Then fast forward to the end, and the engineer, Gene Twombly is given. Voila, the heretofore undiscovered final episode of An American Gallery. Forget the fact that they mislogged it Count-down for A Champ. Forget the fact that had they listened only to the last three minutes of the recording they'd have known it was from another program. But no, the profit motive continues to be so very intoxicating in this hobby, that was simply two minutes more than any of the commercial sources or 'credentialed experts' were inclined to devote to their catalogue.

It's a sad, ongoing fact of life in this hobby that it's more about acquistion than listening enjoyment. After all, why bother listening to something as long as you simply possess it, right? Or you at least think you possess it. But, oops, quess what? Virtually every circulating set of An American Gallery contains a copy of Crusaders for Freedom mislabeled as the last episode of An American Gallery. The last episode of An American Gallery was a biography of Walt Disney. "Count-down for A Champ"?!?!? Give us a break. . . . oh! . . . and those thousands of bogus disks and cassettes of 'complete' sets of An American Gallery that everyone's paid for over the past 35 years? . . . . oops again! But hey, it's just money, right?

What you see here, is what you get. Complete transparency. We have no 'credentials' whatsoever--in any way, shape, or form--in the 'otr community'. But here's how we did it--for better or worse. Here's how you can build on it yourselves--hopefully for the better. Here are the breadcrumbs--just follow the trail a bit further if you wish. No hobbled downloads. No misdirection. No posturing about our 'credentials.' No misrepresentations. No strings attached. We point you in the right direction and you're free to expand on it, extend it, use it however it best advances your efforts.

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We don't pronounce our Golden Age Radio research as 'certified' anything. By the very definition, research is imperfect. We simply tell the truth. As is our continuing practice, we provide our fully provenanced research results--to the extent possible--right here on the page, for any of our peers to review--or refute--as the case may be. If you take issue with any of our findings, you're welcome to cite any better verifiable source(s) and we'll immediately review them and update our findings accordingly. As more verifiable provenances surface, we'll continue to update the following series log, as appropriate.

All rights reserved by their respective sources. Article and log copyright 2009 The Digital Deli Online--all rights reserved. Any failure to attribute the results of this copywritten work will be rigorously pursued.

[Date, title, and episode column annotations in red refer to either details we have yet to fully provenance or other unverifiable information as of this writing. Red highlights in the text of the 'Notes' columns refer to information upon which we relied in citing dates, date or time changes, or titles.]