The Fifth Row Center Radio Program

Background

W-G-N, Chicago was one of the charter stations of the Mutual Broadcasting System. W-G-N was owned by The Chicago Tribune--by their own lights, the World's Greatest Newspaper, hence the call letters 'W-G-N.' From the very inception of commercial braodcast radio, W-G-N regularly produced a great deal of both regionally and nationally popular programming:

1926 Sam and Henry [precursor to Amos 'n' Andy]
1930 Clara, Lu and Em
1930 Painted Dreams
1931 The Singing Story Lady
1934 The Gumps
1935 Bachelor’s Children
1935 Modern Cinderella
1935 The Couple Next Door
1936 The Northwestern Reviewing Stand
1936 Tom, Dick and Harry
1937 We Are Four
1938 Lew Loyal
1938 Peter Quill
1939 Captain Midnight
1940 Chicago Theater of the Air
1940 Fifth Row Center
1943 The Human Adventure
1945 Calling All Detectives
1946 Country Sheriff
1946 Mr. and Mrs.
1948 Crime Files of Flamond
1951 Mystery House
1952 Hall of Fantasy

W-G-N recorded Fifth Row Center before a live audience from W-G-N's Michigan Blvd. Playhouse. Patterned much after the long-running and highly popular First Nighter program (1930-1953), emcee Pierre Andre "ushered" the listening audience into the Michigan Avenue Playhouse--'fifth row center,' of course, introduced the artists and radio play of the evening, then closed the presentation, interivewed the evening's featured player, then ushered out the radio audience along with those in physical attendance.

A sustained series for its duration, Fifth Row Center premiered on Sunday afternoon, February 4th 1940, ran for twenty, half-hour episodes, and left the air on June 28th 1940. Mounted as it was in one of Chicago's most popular stage venues, the production values of Fifth Row Center were understandably ambitious. Each production billed as a 'premiere,' the series featured twenty original plays written specifically for Fifth Row Center. Blair Walliser produced the series and Harold Stokes directed the orchestra.

Fifth Row Center never lacked for superb talent, featuring both Film and Stage stars of the era along with most of the Midwest's finest Radio performers.

Series Derivatives:

Notes on Provenances:

The most helpful provenances were newspaper listings.

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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.]