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The Opie Cates Show Radio Program

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Opie Cates at NBC microphone during his time on Meet Me At Parky's.

Opie Cates and Barbara Fuller mug for an Opie Cates Show publicity photo.

Background

From the December 11th, 1947 edition of the Canton Repository:

47-12-11 Opie Cates Crosby Review

"THE TRIALS and Errors of Opie Cates," a new and so far unsponsored comedy program on ABC at 8:30 p.m. Mondays, has been constructed with considerable skill out of a lot of old lumber which has been sturdy enough in the past to support great many other programs. If show business had anything in common with architecture, it would be quite an impressive edifice. Unfortunately it hasn't and consequently it isn't.

Opie Cates, the hero of these trials and errors is a shy pumpkin from Arkansas whose innocence in all matters pertaining to civilized society provides the comedy sparks. For dramatic purposes, Mr. Cates has been moved out of Arkansas into an undefined city presumably closer to the main stream of American thought than Arkansas.

At any rate, Arkansas is discussed in rather slighting terms and held up to considerable scorn--a rather dangerous comic device since there are listeners in Arkansas too.

MR. CATES HAS A GIRL named Katherine Brown whom he worships from afar. Their conversation consists largely of long, painful silence broken occasionally by the most inappropriate observations from Mr. Cates, some of which, I must admit, are pretty funny.

Miss Brown's chief function is to squeal with glee or dismay or whatever other emotion is asked of her and she performs it fetchingly. At frequent intervals, she is also required to exclaim: "Mr. Cates--you're wonderful!" It's never very clear just what grounds she has for this statement.

Miss Brown's father, an apoplectic extrovert who doesn't like anything, particularly Opie Cates, is the hero's boss, which, of course, keeps him in fairly close contact with this particular object of his loathing. There are a couple of other characters but I don't think we need bother with them.

AS THE SHOW OPENS, Opie declares: "The dawgondest things happen to me." This is a remarkably candid statement of the program's general aims. The dawgondest things certainly happen to Mr. Cates. The plots move with the speed of the old Mack Sennett comedies but are far more complex in structure.

In one of them, for example, the climax occurred when Mr. Brown got stuck under the front porch in his nightgown, trying to catch a rabbit. At precisely the same moment, Opie, also in his nightgown, was discovered in a broom closet in the Brown home.

"This is hard to explain," Opie remarked as his girl opened the door to the broom closet. I'm afraid he's right. The Opie Cates show is situation comedy which, I suspect, is written backwards. The way I figure it the writers put Mr. Brown under the porch and Opie in the broom closet first and then try to figure out how they got there.

IT'S ONLY FAIR to explain that the situations, while they are hardly plausible, are fairly ingenious. In one of those things, Opie was attempting to win some sort of contest for his girl, Katherine, while her father was trying to round up sufficient votes to be elected assemblyman.

Somehow the rival political machine got the mistaken notion that Opie had 7,000 votes in his pocket for the assembly rather than for a contest of more frivolous nature. (You can't break these sentences down much farther than that and still keep the thread of plot well in hand).

This misunderstanding permitted them to unloose on Mr. Cates a temptress who apparently had studied the temptation racket under Pola Negri. At any rate, she employed a baroque and archaic approach which was historically accurate in every detail, if that's any recommendation.

TO BE FAIR to this program, it's much pleasanter than the foregoing makes it sound. No new ground is being broken here but the old soil is tilled with great competence.

The dialogue is amusing and Mr. Cates, who sounds like Stuart Erwin crossed with Bob Burns, has a lot of charm. It just seems a shame that so much hard work has gone into another comedy program about wide-eyed young men. There are already quite enough of them.

Series Derivatives:

The Trials and Errors of Opie Cates; The Doggonedest Things;

Genre:

Anthology of Golden Age Radio Situation Comedy

Network(s):

ABC

Audition Date(s) and Title(s):

Unknown

Premiere Date(s) and Title(s):

47-10-27 01 From Corsage to Corset

Run Dates(s)/ Time(s):

47-10-27 to 48-02-02; ABC; Fifteen, 30-minute programs;

Syndication:

American Broadcasting Company

Sponsors:

Sustained

Director(s):

Glenhall Taylor [Producer-Director]

Principal Actors:

Opie Cates, Francis X. Bushman, Barbara Fuller, Myra Marsh, Noreen Gammil, Peter Leeds, Ruth Perrott, Fred Howard, Myra Marsh, Jerry Hausner, Sam Edwards,

Recurring Character(s):

Opie Cates [Opie Cates]; Mr. Chester Brown, Opie's boss and father of Opie's 'dreamgirl' [Francis X Bushman]; Kathryn Brown, Opie's love interst and daughter of his boss [Barbara Fuller]; Miss Tutley, Mr. Brown's secretary [Myra Marsh]

Protagonist(s):

Author(s):

None

Writer(s)

Roz Rogers, Joel Malone, David Swift, Harry Stuart

Music Direction:

Basil 'Buzz' Adlam [Composer-Conductor]

Musical Theme(s):

Announcer(s):

Hy Averback, Lou Cook

Estimated Scripts or
Broadcasts:

Episodes in Circulation:

Total Episodes in Collection:

Provenances:

The Billboard reviewed the premiere of The Opie Cates Show in its November 8th 1947 issue.

Contributor Jerry Haendiges.

Notes on Provenances:

The most helpful provenances were newspaper listings.

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The Opie Cates Show Radio Program Log
Date	Episode	Title	Avail.	Notes
47-10-20	--		--	47-10-20 Wisconsin State Journal 7:30 Phil Silvers WLS
47-10-27	1	From Corsage to Corset	N	47-10-27 Wisconsin State Journal 7:30 p.m.--Opie Cates (WLS): radio maestro stars in new series. 47-10-27 New York Times 8:30-9--Comedy: Opie Cates Show--WJZ (Premiere).
47-11-03	2	Title Unknown	N	47-11-03 Wisconsin State Journal 7:30 Opie Cates WLS
47-11-10	3	Title Unknown	N	47-11-10 Wisconsin State Journal 7:30 Opie Cates WLS
47-11-17	4	Rabbits and Jury Duty	N	47-11-17 Wisconsin State Journal 7:30 p.m.--Opie Cates (WLS): Rabbits and jury duty intermingle.
47-11-24	5	The New Job	Y	47-11-24 Wisconsin State Journal 7:30 p.m.--Opie Cates (WLS): Opie has a split personality.
47-12-01	6	Title Unknown	N	47-12-01 Wisconsin State Journal 7:30 Opie Cates WLS
47-12-08	7	Title Unknown	N	47-12-08 Wisconsin State Journal 7:30 Opie Cates WLS
47-12-15	8	The Traffic Accident	Y	47-12-15 Anniston Star Mr. Brown, the father of Opie Cates' dream girl, becomes involved in a minor automobile accident and since Opie was at the scene, Brown takes him to court as his chief witness during the broadcast tonight of The Opie Cates Show at 7:30 o'clock over WIIMA. What Mr. Brown doesn't know--but discovers to his horror--is that Opie has been talked into being a witness for the other party involved in the same accident. The Opie Cates Show, features Francis X. Bushman as Mr. Brown, the clarinet playing of the star and his musical arrangements under the direction of Buzz Adlam and his orchestra.
47-12-22	9	Title Unknown	N	47-12-22 Wisconsin State Journal 7:30 Opie Cates WLS
47-12-29	10	Title Unknown	N	47-12-29 Wisconsin State Journal 7:30 Opie Cates WLS
48-01-05	11	Title Unknown	N	48-01-05 Chicago Daily Tribune 7:30-WLS-Opie Cates, comedy.
48-01-12	12	Title Unknown	N	48-01-12 Chicago Daily Tribune 7:30-WLS-Opie Cates show, comedy and music.
48-01-19	13	Title Unknown	N	48-01-19 Chicago Daily Tribune 7:30-WLS-Opie Cates Show (A).
48-01-26	14	Meet Your Local Businessman	N	48-01-26 Chicago Daily Tribune 7:30-WLS-Opie Cates Show (A).
48-02-02	15	Ask For A Raise, Lose Your Job	N	48-02-02 Wisconsin State Journal 7:30 p.m.--Opie Cates (WLS): seeks a raise; loses his job.
48-02-09	--	Title Unknown	N	48-02-09 Wisconsin State Journal 7:30 p.m.--Twelve Players (WLS): return to the air; "Dino Is Dead," story of post-war Italy. 48-02-09 Janesville Gazette 7:30 p.m. -- WLS--Opie Cates Show
48-02-16	--	Title Unknown	N	48-02-16 Evening Independent WAKR--8:30 p.m. --Opie Cates Show
48-02-23	--	Title Unknown	N	48-02-23 Biloxi Daily Herald 7:30 p.m. --Opie Cates Show

Opie Cates Show Radio Program Biographies

Opie Cates (Himself) (1910-1987) Birthplace: Arkansas, U.S.A. Education: New York University Radiography: 1942 Kid with A Stick 1944 Club Good Cheer 1944 Meet Corliss Archer 1945 Meet Me At Parky's 1945 Christmas Seal Campaign 1946 The Bennetts 1946 The Opie Cates Orchestra 1947 Jubilee 1949 Lum 'n' Abner	Opie Cates at NBC microphone during his time on Meet Me At Parky's Opie Cates as a wind-section artist with his [then] saxaphone.	From the June 28th 1945 edition of the Moorehead Daily News: In Hollywood By ERSKINE JOHNSON NEA Staff Correspondent Hollywood, June 28--This is supposed to be a report on the hog-calling abilities of Tommy Dorsey's trumpet and Opie Cates' clarinet, a stunt man dreamed up by the gentlemen's press agent. Dorsey blew and Opie blew but the hogs, we are sad to report, did not seem very thrilled about it except when they were trying to eat a photographer's flashlight bulbs. We'll tell you more about the hogs later, however, because a little scene the press agent did not dream up titled "Meet Me at Dorsey's" will make much better reading. "Meet me at Dorsey's apartment," the p. a. said. AFTERNOON YAWNING The Sentimental Gentleman of Swing was swaving as he puled on a red dressing robe over pale yellow pajamas. "What time is it?" he yawmed. "Three o'clock" the p. a. said. "We rehearsed the band until 5 this morning," Dorsey explained. "Sorry I'm not ready. Order breakfast while I get dressed. The p. a. ordered some stuff and then the doorbell rang. It was Dorsey's manager with a flock of new arrangements for Dorsey to okay. Pat Dane, yawning, wandered out from the bedroom. Tommy and Pat sat down their coffee just as the doorbell rang again. This time it was his mother with three teen-aged girls in tow. "They want to see what you look like," mama said. The girls trooped in, bobby socks dangling, and cooed: "Glad to meet you, Mr. Dorsey. We're from Colorado and we met your mother and she invited us over." There were now 10 people in the living room of the Dorsey apartment. It was the darnedest thing we had ever seen. When we arrived nobody was even breathing in the place. Twenty minutes later it looked like Grand Central station. The arrangers finished their arranging, the bobby sockers finally said goodby and Tommy then drove us out to the San Fernando valley ranch where Opie Cates raises hogs. Opie chased 20 little porkers into a compound and a photographer set up his equipment. First blast from the Dorsey trumpet sent the hogs running madly toward the other end of the compound. "I guess they're going over to the Mocambo," Dorsey said. Opie blew his clarinet and the hogs all but trampled each other to death trying to get farther away. GRUNTER GRINDS GLASS The whole thing was almost disastrous when the hogs started to eat the photographers' flashlight bulbs. Opie spent 15 minutes snatching flashlight bulbs out of their mouths, finally retrieving seven. "How many were there?" he asked the photographer. "Eight," was the reply. "Ye Gads," said Opie climbing back into the compound. But he never did find that missing bulb and if a certain little pig has a tummyache, or something worse, from ground glass in his stomach, he can blame the press agent who dreamed up the whole thing.

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The Opie Cates Show Radio Program

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The Opie Cates Show Radio Program Log

Opie Cates Show Radio Program Biographies