Anacin Hollywood Star Theater Radio Program

Background

American Home Products was one of the most prolific and successful sponsors of the Golden Age of Radio. Promoting a wide range of products from its vast inventory, American Home Products turned many of the following brands into household names over Radio during the era:

Anacin tablets
Angelus Lipstick
BiSodol Mints
Edna Wallace Hopper
Freezone Corn Remover
Heet
Hills Drops Cold Tablets
Jad Salt
Jocur
Kissproof
Kolynos Tooth Powder and Toothpaste
Louis Phillipe
Old English Floor Wax
Outdoor Girl

American Home Products also brought to Radio some of the era's longest running programming, among them:

1931 Salty Sam, the Sailor [Kolynos]
1932 Professor and the Major [Kolynos]
1933 Lazy Dan, The Minstrel Man [Old English Floor Wax]
1933-1937 Broadway Melodies [Bi-So-Dol]
1934-1937 Hammerstein Music Hall [Hills Drops, Kolynos Tooth Powder]
1935-1938 Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch [Jad Salts, Old English Floor Wax]
1935-1945 Easy Aces [Anacin]
1936-1954 Just Plain Bill [Anacin, Kolynos, Bi-So-Dol]
1937-1955 Our Gal Sunday [Anacin, Kolynos]
1941 Front Page Farrell [Anacin]
1942-1947 Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons [Kolynos, Bi-So-Dol]
1943 Fleetwood Lawton and The News [Anacin]
1944 Fletcher Wiley [Anacin]
1944 Real Stories From Real Life [Anacin]
1945-1947 The Adventures of Ellery Queen [Anacin]
1946 Hollywood Jackpot [Anacin]
1946 The Jean Sablon Show [Kolynos Toothpaste]
1947 Anacin Hollywood Star Preview [Anacin]
1947 Anacin Hollywood Star Theater [Anacin]
1950 The Man Called X [Anacin]

By no means exhaustive, the above list provides a sampling of the breadth, range and duration of American Home Products' sponsorship over Radio.

American Home Products premieres Anacin Hollywood Star Preview

Initially teased as a 'talent search' program, Anacin Hollywood Star Preview premiered on September 28th 1947, replacing Anacin's previous sponsorship of The Adventures of Ellery Queen. It was a fascinating concept by which a weekly noted Film star would introduce an equally noted up and coming star to Anacin's Radio audience. This wasn't a completely new concept, but the polish of the production, aided by truly famous Film stars of the era promised to lend a great deal of star-power to the production.

The format would present the night's Film star as the 'host,' who would then provide a brief synopsis of the night's budding talent, then introduce the up and comer to the audience. In most instances the Film star would perform alongside the 'hitchhiking' talent for the evening. Radio veteran Ken Peters acted as the announcer and Anacin spokesman and the music direction was provided by Bernard Katz. So far so good . . .

Where the production appeared to fall down was in the writing for the series. Anacin Hollywood Star Preview was promoted as a means for 'name' stars to help introduce new talent to Radio Drama via completely original radioplays. But it was the radioplays that drew the most criticism throughout the series' run. Critics great and small continually panned the scripting for the series, while often celebrating the performances of the series' newly introduced performers.

Anacin Hollywood Star Preview launched during a period of extremely aggressive poaching between NBC and CBS; poaching of stars, sponsors and entire programs. Due in part to the bidding wars between NBC and CBS the costs of their 'name talent' spiked as the two giant networks continually sweetened the pot in efforts to steal each others' talent and programming. Conversely, from the sponsorship and production perspectives, all four major networks of the era were more aggressively cutting back on production costs throughout their programming.

Network programming of the era was a 'zero sum game.' Paying big bonuses or providing big perks or control to their 'stars' tended to reduce the amount the networks could budget for the remainder of these productions. That contraction in production budgets had to come from somewhere to remain viable and competitive to potential sponsors--and American Home Products (Whitehall Pharmacal) was no newcomer to budget bargaining. When expensive contracts went to top talent there had to be less budgeted for music direction--and orchestra size, writing talent, supporting actors and behind the mike production talent.

It would appear that Anacin and its Hollywood Star Preview decided to shave costs on the behind the mike talent so as to continue presenting the biggest names in Film to perform with the new guest talent during each installment. The 'poor writing' critique appears to have plagued the production throughout its four-year span.

Renaming the series Anacin Hollywood Star Theater after the first thirty-nine installments didn't deter the critics of the era. Nor did the name change affect the popularity of the production by any discernable measure. Star power was still a persuasive draw during the latter years of the 1940s, but it wasn't always enough to overcome lackluster writing.

To its great credit, Anacin Hollywood Star Preview/Theater did introduce several major talents over the course of the series, most interesting among them:

DeForest Kelley
Dorothy Malone
John Russell
Raymond Burr
William Conrad
Shelly Winters
Hans Conreid
Arlene Dahl
Janet Leigh
Hugh O'Brien
Tony Curtis
Jeff Chandler
Richard Basehart
Jack Webb
Paul Frees
Richard Long
Audie Murphy
George Reeves
Elliott Lewis
Jayne Meadows
Patricia Neal
Marie Windsor
June Lockhart
Frank Lovejoy
Amanda Blake
Richard Webb
Lurene Tuttle
Nancy Davis
Virginia Gregg
Cathy Lewis
Jim Backus
Ted DeCorsia

Radio fans will note a number of already successful and popular Radio artists in this list of 'newcomers' but given the frame of the series as well as the many other former Radio artists who received great career boosts from this type of headlining exposure, their further introductions during the series seem appropriate. In every instance the above performers, especially, went on to distinguised stardom in their respective Entertainment fields.

How much of a bump any of these 'newcomers' received from Anacin Hollywood Star Preview/Theater was probably negligible in most instances. But as any Hollywood press agent would say, no exposure is bad exposure.

Series Derivatives:

Notes on Provenances:

The most helpful provenances were newspaper listings.

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