The These Are Our Men Radio Program

Prologue:

"The Parker Watch Company dedicates this program to the United States Treasury Department for the sale of War Bonds."

This was the opening of each NBC nationwide broadcast of "These Are Our Men," a twelve-week series of tributes to American military leaders. The shows, though sponsored, were presented without true commercial interruption, but rather a gentle reminder to buy bonds to benefit the 6th War Loan Drive. Each program featured a different Stage and Screen guest star:

The closing sequence each week reminds listeners to buy bonds. "These Are Our Men" is presented each Saturday by the Parker Watch Company, but not to sell Parker watches. Their aim was to remind as many millions of Americans as They could reach that "certain as we are in our ultimate victory, it can be too long delayed unless every one of us carries his share of the burden." and "What we ask you to do is buy bonds, bonds, and more bonds. There's no duty more important to Americans today."

Ernie Pyle -- Brave Men Episode announcement from February 17 1945

Non Sequitur
All Parker Watches on Sale from U.S. District Court-ordered Bankruptcy and liquidation of all Parker Watch holdings from December 5 1951

Epilogue:

Fast forward five years and The Parker Watch Company has been forced out of business--one hopes not simply over their largesse in promoting War Bonds over their own products during their 3-month sponsorship of These Are Our Men. So ends the post-script to this patriotic send-up during the waning years of World War II.

Series Derivatives:

Notes on Provenances:

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

You're welcome to compare our fully provenanced log below with the 1,500 'expert researchers' at the OTRR and their own These Are Our Men log. We've provided a screen shot of their current log for comparison, HERE.

OTRisms:

• The guest star for General Eisenhower's tribute was Ralph Bellamy, not ''Raplh Bellamy''
• No entries for Episode Nos. 4 and 5
• The guest star for General Eisenhower's tribute was Talullah Bankhead
• Episode No. 8 was a tribute to General Douglas MacArthur, not ''General Douglas Mac Arthur'' and guest-starred Ralph Edwards
• The guest star of General Patton's tribute was Miriam Hopkins
• The guest star of Ernie Pyle's tribute was Robert Merrill

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