The Five After the Hour Radio Program

Background

Chicago's CBS-owned and operated (O&O) WBBM was one of the three major Radio network-owned and operated Chicago stations to originate quality programming throughout Chicago and surrounding states. WMAQ, Chicago's NBC affiliate also orginated a great deal of local and regional programming throughout the area. WGN, Chicago's Mutual Broadcasting System affilate also orginated a great many Radio features that went national in time. WENR was the newcomer O&O, the Chicago Key Station for The Blue Network (ABC). Among WBBM's many locally originated programs were:

• 1933 Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy
• 1938 Manhattan Mother
• 1939 Knickerbocker Playhouse
• 1939 Manhattan Mother
• 1938 Wayside Theater
• 1940 A Brighter World
• 1942 The First Line
• 1945 Those Websters
• 1945 America In the Air
• 1945 Five After the Hour
• 1945 Island Venture
• 1945 American Family News
• 1950 Cloud Nine

Founded in 1923 by Harry Leslie 'Les' Atlass, WBBM first broadcast local election returns as the second licensed amateur radio station in Lincoln, Illionois--designated '9FDC. ' Quickly expanding from his initial transmitting power of 10 watts to 200 watts, Les Atlass acquired permission to use the call letters 'WBBM' for his 200 watt broadcasting station; the initials reportedly representing "We Broadcast Better Music." Though 200 watts may seem relatively small power, it was enough in 1923 and 1924 to be picked up from coast to coast.

After selling his produce company to Armour & Company, Atlass subsequently dismantled the broadcasting equipment on his property in Lincoln, Illinois in preparation for a move to Chicago. Atlass simply broadcast out of his basement in Chicago for the following two years.

WBBM returned to the air in Chicago for the first time on February 24, 1925 broadcasting from the Broadmoor Hotel on Chicago's North Side. WBBM began broadcasting three days a week with mostly jazz. By the late 1920s WBBM had become the first Chicago station to accept commercial advertising. CBS acquired the station in 1928 as a CBS O&O station. WBBM added a 5,000 Watt FM in 1941 and a Television station in 1953.

During WBBM's programming development heyday of the late 1930s and throughout the 1940s WBBM originated numerous public service, drama, variety and soap opera programs for airing throughout the Midwest, many of which were picked up by CBS for national broadcasts.

WBBM launches Five After the Hour with Les Weinrott

Five After the Hour premiered sustained over WBBM on May 16, 1945, broadcasting the drama anthology throughout the Midwest. WBBM had six years earlier discovered a young writer, director and producer within its ranks with great promise for a great future at WBBM--and CBS. Wunderkind Les Weinrott's rising star with CBS was being compared to that of Norman Corwin in some of the midwestern newspapers of the era. Also variously referred to as Illinois' greatest living actor or Chicago's greatest actor, Weinrott had become a real workhorse at WBBM having directed among other projects, the launch of WBBM's long-running and popular Those Websters situation comedy in 1945 featuring Willard Waterman. Those Websters was an extension of the long-running That Brewster Boy first heard over NBC [WMAQ] in 1941, much in the vein of The Great Gildersleeve's spin-off from Fibber McGee and Molly. That Brewster Boy had transitioned from WMAQ [NBC] to WBBM [CBS] in 1942.

Les Weinrott's success with Those Websters gained him the opportunity to showcase all of his talents in Five After the Hour--writing, directing and producing--in a drama anthology series of his own. Five After the Hour was a Les Weinrott production all the way. Airing at five minutes after the hour [or half-hour], the name of the production seemed entirely apropos. The first five minutes on the hour or half hour in most markets presented the news.

Weinrott left his mark on virtually every aspect of each of the series' twenty-three productions with the exception of the music direction and composition; the conductor for the series was Caesar Petrillo, with compositions by Frank Smith and Sal Stocco. The performers throughout the series represented many of Chicago's finest Radio actors. Virginia Payne, of Ma Perkins fame, performed in the series, along with Boris Aplon, Herb Butterfield, Jonathan Hole, Peg Hilyes, Florence Ravenall, Joan Lundin, Sherman Marks, and Mark Perkins, among many others. Curley Bradley, of The Tom Mix Ralston Straightshooters fame was also featured in one of Five After the Hour productions.

Slotted during the late evening Wednesday nights, the series appears to have been on the order of a tryout of Les Weinrott's versatility. Throughout the Midwest the series aired at 11:05 p.m., well past the family hour in most households. Caesar Petrillo's underscore for the series was the equal of anything heard during the mid-1940s over the most expensive Network-wide productions. Even the series' announcer was yet another Chicagoland luminary--Ken Nordine. The entire series was broadcast and transcribed from the WBBM In the Air Theatre in The Wrigley Building.

For its timeslot, Five After the Hour was definitely a cut above most of its late night competitors of the era, but Weinrott's writing and direction definitely leaned more in the melodrama direction than its evening competitors. It was also somewhat schmaltzy and ripe for the era, more reminiscent of the locally originated Radio dramas of the late 1920s and early 1930s. We'd therefore respectively question the regional comparisons of Weinrott to Norman Corwin. While many of Weinrott's scripts were very message oriented, they never rose to the level of the work of Norman Corwin. But while Les Weinrott was no Norman Corwin, he certainly continued to be in demand. Les Weinrott went on to write and direct for Meet the Meeks (1947) for NBC, under Weinrott's "L. A. Weinrott and Associates" production packaging company. He also directed the Larry On Location (1949) program for local Chicago Television.

Series Derivatives:

Notes on Provenances:

The most helpful provenances were newspaper listings.

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