Defense Attorney Radio Program

Background

The Scales of Justice were a far more idealized concept throughout the Golden Age of Radio. And before we get too caught up in this notion of idealization, we'll stipulate that between the 1920s and 1960s, several groups of citizens still fell between the cracks even then. That having been said, there remains a vast chasm of differences between the ideals of 'justice' in 1951 and 2011. America was a vastly different society in 1951. We were indeed at War, but as with World War II, the Korean Conflict was an entirely different concept in 1951 than our 21st Century Wars in the Middle East. Americans were still connected to the combatants of Wars of 1917 to 1953. All Americans were invested in those wars through the concept of transcription, War Bonds, Savings Bonds, and increased taxes to fund War and its resultant economic impact. As in the increasingly trite concept of today, all Americans had some 'skin in the game.' That's no longer the case. Nor is there any expectation that will recur anytime soon. Today only the poor and the middle class have any skin in our wars abroad. Those in power today believe its the right of the wealthy and powerful to escape all necessary sacrifice in time of war or economic downturn. The notion of shared sacrifice was a guiding principle from the Great Depression through the Korean Conflict. Today, shared sacrifice simply means 'those who can't afford college make the ultimate sacrifice by going to War, and those who can afford college, share in the rewards of a college education.' Those 'let them eat cake' false choices permeate every level of American society but the top levels today. The contrasts are stark indeed.

Justice in all other aspects of society between the Golden Age era and the 21st Century differ in much the same degree by comparison. Defense attorneys of the 1940s and 1950s clung to their ideals far longer. Much as neighborhood family physicians and country lawyers and doctors felt about their respective professions, the ideals they swore to uphold through their respective oaths actually meant something to them then. Those oaths were as sacred to them as their religions of choice. Those professions were as much a calling as that of teachers, nurses, police, or firemen. As with everything else that money, greed, and power have tainted during the intervening sixty years, the worship of money and possessions in America were still aberrations sixty years ago. Those characteristics were at the furthest fringes of any bell curve of the era. Today they're no longer aberrations--they're commonplace. It's the 'Four Freedoms idealists,' anachronists, and Golden Rule adherents that are the outliers of today.

That may help to inform the popularity of court room dramas during the Golden Ages of both Radio and Television. Well written, fairly resolved, even-handed, and just outcomes in courtroom and crime dramas of the era invariably found the greatest popularity. Even the hundreds of variants of morality plays of the era like The Whistler were a direct reflection of the legacy--and example--of America's Greatest Generation. When courtroom dramas transitioned to Television they found an even greater and more loyal audience. Golden Age of Television classics like Perry Mason and The Defenders both entertained and reinforced America's notions of fair play and justice.

But it was the numerous courtroom dramas over Radio that paved the way for the unprecedented success of the genre over Television:

• 1936-1949 Famous Jury Trials
• 1938 Attorney At Law
• 1938 Her Honor, Nancy James
• 1939-1952 Mr. District Attorney
• 1944 American Woman's Jury
• 1945 Jonathan Brixton, Attorney for the Defense
• 1947 Did Justice Triumph
• 1947 Lawyer Q
• 1947 Murder and Mr. Malone
• 1947-1955 Perry Mason
• 1948 True Legal Dramas
• 1951 Defense Attorney
• 1952 Frontier Town

As must be apparent from the above sampling, courtroom dramas or their derivatives of the era came in all flavors. But the underlying precepts were invariably the same. Indeed, the voluntary codes of compliance adhered to by the Networks of the era virtually ensured that the outcomes of legal dramas of the era would resolve themselves in an even-handed and uplifting manner. The fact that there was little push back against those long-standing guidelines simply underscores the perceptions, expectations and comparative wholesomeness of the era--by producers and audiences alike. Mr. District Attorney was far and away the most popular and long-lived of the courtroom drama derivatives of the era. But when Mr. District Attorney began signaling that it might be finally winding down, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) saw a potential opening for a fresher, more novel approach to a legal drama--one from NBC.

ABC debuts Mercedes McCambridge in Defense Attorney

It was NBC that ordered an audition for the proposed courtroom drama The Defense Rests, starring Oscar winner Mercedes McCambridge. Written by Cameron Blake and directed by Dwight Hauser, the audition starred Mercedes McCambridge as Defense Attorney Martha Ellis Bryant, and featured Sheldon Leonard, John Stevenson, Tony Barrett, and Peter Leeds in supporting roles. The audition laid down some of Miss Bryant's background then launched into The Case of Joseph Moriano, a convicted murderer who'd spent twelve years in prison for that murder. The audition was reportedly recorded on April 17th, 1951.

NBC apparently agreed to green-light the proposed program until as late as mid-June of 1951. In what can only be assumed to be a last minute change, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) acquired the production from NBC, renaming it simply Defense Attorney. As evidence of the last minute change, several promotional articles for The Defense Rests as well as announcements of The Defense Rests appeared as late as the premiere date of Defense Attorney. Apparently the newspapers of the era were as confused as we are sixty years later.

Mercedes McCambridge snapshot bio from 1952's Who's Who In Radio
and Television

Defense Attorney premiered on July 6th, 1951 as a weekly half-hour, Friday night feature over ABC. The first sixty-seven episodes were performed and recorded at ABC's KECA Studios in Hollywood. Mercedes McCambridge was pregnant with her second child--her first with director-producer husband Fletcher Markle--during the first thirty episodes of Defense Attorney. She'd apparently been pregnant during NBC's The Defense Rests audition in mid-April 1951 as well.

From the September 14th, 1951 edition of the Galveston News:

     HOLLYWOOD. Sept. 13. (UP)—Film and radio star Mercedes McCambridge said today every couple ought to have children.
     "Even working girls." she said.  'Having a baby shouldn't interfere with a career."
     Miss McCambridge, who off-screen is the wife of Hollywood director Fletcher Markle, is working in maternity dresses herself these days.  The blessed event—a girl, she hopes, to give son John, 9, a baby sister—is due for the Christmas holidays.
     Marlene Dietrich will be godmother and author J. D. Salinger (New Yorker) will be asked to be godfather.
               IS BOTHERED
     The problem of what a mother-to-be should wear around Hollywood to keep in competition with the glamour girls bothered Mercedes at first.
     She has to be around the big radio studios where she's heard Friday nights over ABC's national network in "Defense Attorney."  And she just recorded a ballad, "While You Danced," for Decca.  That recording session jangled her nerves.
     "I walked in, took a look at the orchestra and the 14 people in the chorus and groaned 'Oh. my gosh, they'll take one look at me and die laughin.'  Then I took another look at that chorus.  Three gals in the front row were pregnant."
               JUGS ENSEMBLE
     Confidence restored, she later whipped up a nice ensemble built around a brown satin house robe "no buttons," she said, "for expansion purposes."  She cut the skirt off 14 inches from the floor to make a dress out of it and girdled it with a wide-leather belt studded with gold medallions.
     "This big old belt," she said, "when it gets too small I get bigger ones.  I bought a whole bunch of belts.
     I maybe can't work on the screen like this," she said.  "But the audience can't see me on radio.  And when those last two months roll around . . . well, I think I got a book I'm going to write."
               OTHERS CAN
     And if Mercedes can juggle career and babies, she thinks other career gals can. too.
     "Every two people in the world can afford to have a child," she said.  "You know, everybody has a streak of loneliness in them.  Like F. Scott Fitzgerald said, in the dark corners of the soul, it is always three o'clock in the morning.
     "Loneliness is one major motivating factor of mankind. 

It would seem that the news of the new arrival made a return to Radio in a recurring leading role the perfect choice for McCambridge during her pregnancy. Sadly, the couple lost their first baby together on February 1st 1952. Mercedes McCambridge's baby had been almost a month overdue at the time. Miss McCambridge's understandable reticence to continue performing shaped a great deal of her acting decisions for the subsequent year.

Shortly after Defense Attorney premiered over Radio its producers were approached to take the franchise to Television as well. And indeed over the next three years Miss McCambridge continued to hold out the possibility of a Television version of Defense Attorney. It would appear that the long-proposed Television version of Defense Attorney was eventually abandoned by all parties.

Series Derivatives:

Notes on Provenances:

The most helpful provenances were the log of the RadioGOLDINdex and newspaper listings.

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