The Prudential Family Hour of Stars Radio Program

Background

Repertory or ensemble casts of players have been a drama concept of choice throughout the history of Drama. This was especially the case throughout the first half of the 20th Century in Stage productions; and among theater goers, Radio audiences, Film casts, and perhaps even more so among the players that comprised such productions. The Mercury Theatre Players spring almost immediately to mind, as well as the long-running Andy Hardy film franchise, the Dr. Kildare film franchise, the Ma and Pa Kettle film franchise, and to an arguably lesser degree the Charlie Chan, Boston Blackie, Crime Doctor, Philo Vance, and Nancy Drew film franchises, among other popular examples of the era.

Over Radio, ensemble productions were fairly common over a wide range of genres. Serial melodramas by their very nature were ensemble or repertory productions, as were the hundreds of serial juvenile adventures of the era. But some of the most unique concepts during the Golden Age of Radio were the productions featuring a rotating schedule of featured players of Film fame in Radio productions. Several innovative and comparatively successful such efforts come to mind in addition to the various Mercury Theatre productions over the years:

• 1938 Warner Academy Theatre
• 1946 Cresta Blanca Hollywood Players
• 1949 Four Star Playhouse
• 1948 The Prudential Family Hour of Stars
• 1953 NBC Star Playhouse

The Prudential Insurance Company of America, though one of America's oldest insurance companies, was a relative latecomer to Radio. The Prudential got its feet wet in Radio with the serial CBS melodrama, When A Girl Marries (1939-1941). But it was its long-running The Prudential Family Hour (1941-1948) a weekly, 45-minute music anthology also over CBS that kept The Prudential in the minds of the American public for almost eight years over Radio. A comparatively prestigious and generously budgeted production, its music anthology aired as advertised during the 'family hour' around dinner time every Sunday and made for a relaxing, late afternoon break for millions of North American families throughout the World War II years and beyond.

It's worth noting that this was still the era of all hands on deck family dinners--especially the Sunday Dinner each week. Family members throughout North America would come to the Sunday Dinner table, both bathed and well dressed, to say grace before--or after--the family meal, to be fed a usually sumptuous Sunday repast, and to be lightly entertained by a favored late Sunday afternoon Radio program during the family meal hour. Needless to say, that golden 5 pm to 7 pm span of Sunday programs over the various networks were some of the broadcast week's most highly prized by sponsors--and they generally paid a handsome premium for the privilege.

The Prudential also sponsored the daily weekday Jack Berch Show over both ABC and NBC between 1945 and 1954. But it was The Prudential's golden 5 pm to 6 pm 'family hour' timeslot every Sunday that proved to be its most effective messaging vehicle for almost ten years. With the wind down of The Prudential Family Hour, The Prudential launched The Prudential Family Hour of Stars during CBS' Fall Season of 1948. The Prudential, mindful of the thoughts of their mortality still fresh in the minds of family members returned from World War II, clearly felt that the time was right to press home their pitch that everyone needed more life insurance. Nor is it a coincidence that The Prudential's entry into the growing family of large institutional Radio sponsors began during the run up to the possibility of America's entry into World War II.

The Prudential premieres its Family Hour of Stars over CBS

Initially promoted as a rotating ensemble production featuring six major Hollywood movie stars, the build-up to the premiere also promised that major Hollywood Film Sextet in original dramas, whatever that hoped to convey. It was an ambitious undertaking for the era to be sure. The initial six promised Film stars were:

• Humphrey Bogart
• Bette Davis
• Gregory Peck
• Ginger Rogers
• Barbara Stanwyck
• Robert Taylor

A stunning promised line-up to be sure. All six promised actors represented some of Film's most famous and popular names of the era. But managing and scheduling such a prestigious core of feature artists ultimately proved to be--as might be expected-- more like wrangling a herd of cats, even for a sponsor with the deep pockets of The Prudential. The schedule held up about as promised through the first four or five rotations, but soon proved to be all but impossible to sustain beyond The Prudential's initial commitment of twenty-six programs. By the production's twenty-sixth episode:

• Humphrey Bogart had appeared in his only two productions of the entire run: Destination and Mink Gloves
• Bette Davis had appeared in only two productions: Time In Boston and Three Hours (with Ray Milland)
• Gregory Peck had appeared in five productions: the premiere production John Jones Vice President, The Driven Snow, the Christmas production Lullaby of Christmas, The Man on the Third Floor, and Impact--and was never heard again for the remainder of the canon.
• Ginger Rogers had appeared in four productions: Lady Alice and the Dog Biscuit, The Secret Diary of Mistress Croft, Appointment In Springfield, and The Capture of Kitty Stone and would appear in only one more production, Yo Ho Ho for Emily, for the remainder of the canon.
• Barbara Stanwyck had appeared in The Flowering Thorn, Moonlight Sonata, and Some Small Nobility and would appear in only one more production, The Storm and the Cypress, for the remainder of the canon.
• Robert Taylor had appeared in only two productions, Long Way Home and The Asking Price and would never again be heard in the canon.

Of course the math didn't quite add up at all. The six promised stars had appeared in only eighteen of the series' first twenty-six productions. The newcomers to the rotating line-up for the first twenty-six weeks were Van Johnson and Ray Milland, who headlined six of the remaining eight productions between them. The other two productions starred Burt Lancaster and Jane Wyman respectively. Not that the listening audience had been cheated in any way: Van Johnson, Ray Milland, Jane Wyman and Burt Lancaster had been fast rising Hollywood Film stars throughout the 1940s.

The concept just didn't quite play out as promised. And most obvious, it was never a Family HOUR of Stars, it was a Family Half-Hour of Stars. But that's all in the interpretation: the program certainly aired during the 'Family Hour,' so rather than taking its title literally, it's quite accurate--and appropriate--taken figuratively. Extending that logic further, The Prudential Family Hour of Stars was followed by Coca-Cola's half-hour of music, The Pause That Freshes with Percy Faith and his orchestra. So in fact CBS' hour-long family hour block was indeed a full hour of dinner table entertainment.

Also on the plus side of the ledger, the promise of original dramas by Hollywood writers held up quite well through the first half of the canon. By the second half of the canon, the productions were predominately adaptations of popular films and stage plays. The Prudential addressed that deviation by modifying its intro to "a series of radio plays written or adapted by Hollywood writers." And to be fair, by Episode No. 6, The Deeper Shadow, Truman Bradley was announcing the rotating stars as a septet rather than a sextet; Ray Milland having been added to the rotating list of Film Star headliners. The Prudential continued stick to its guns throughout the series, more often than not after the first twenty-six episodes announcing, "our star, a guest for the occasion . . .," followed by the name of the guest Hollywood film star for that production. Given that the guest stars far outnumbered the advertised rotating Film Stars the announcers found themselves making that announcement more often than not. And indeed, by Episode No. 41, I Give You Maggie, The Prudential had all but abandoned the pretenses and was simply announcing, "Each week The Prudential Insurance Company of America adds a new star to The Prudential Family Hour of Stars," a move they probably should have made months earlier.

After fifty-two installments the production was able to return to its originally promoted concept, the rotating sextet of Hollywood Film Stars having by then morphed into:

• Dana Andrews
• Ronald Colman
• Kirk Douglas
• Irene Dunne
• Jane Wyman
• Loretta Young

From Episode No. 53, forward the series was being announced as "a series of classic stories from the literature of the Stage, novels and the screen."

But irrespective of how the production compared to its rollout fanfare, The Prudential Family Hour of Stars was an extraordinarily well produced, written, performed and engineered undertaking. Jack Johnstone directed the canon, and a young Carmen Dragon composed and conducted the music for the series. Carmen Dragon's contribution to the production can't be understated. Throughout the series Carmen Dragon's beautiful background scores elevated every production to a level one might find in Film scores of the era. At the same time Carmen Dragon was directing the music for The Prudential Family Hour of Stars he was also acting as music director for The Railroad Hour, composing the score for a new operetta every week. Dragon was also the music director for Baby Snooks.

Series Derivatives:

Notes on Provenances:

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

OTRisms:

As must be expected of late, the majority of the circulating exemplars of The Prudential Family Hour of Stars are either heavily edited, truncated, misrepresented, of marginal quality or bi-monaurally stereoized rubbish. This is even more heinous, given the exceptionally high quality of the original canon. In the case of the two circulating exemplars that have simply been misrepresented: move along, nothing new to see there. The race in the OTR segment of the hobby is to create something from nothing for either bragging rights or to baldly mislead customers into believing they're getting more circulating exemplars than actually exist continues unabated. And yet, the hobby continues to tolerate such behavior. But with the bar of integrity set so very low throughout the OTR community, we shouldn't be the least surprised to find yet another utterly adulterated canon among the circulating recordings from the Golden Age of Radio.

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[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.]