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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Meyers, Cynthia B.
A word from our sponsor : admen, advertising, and the golden age of radio / Cynthia B. Meyers.First edition.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8232-5370-8 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-8232-5371-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Radio advertisingUnited StatesHistory20th century. 2. Radio programsUnited StatesHistory20th century. 3. Radio broadcastingUnited StatesHistory20th century. 4. Advertising in popular cultureUnited StatesHistory20th century. I. Title.
HF6146.R3M49 2014
659.142097309041dc23
2013024364
Printed in the United States of America
16 15 14 5 4 3 2 1
First edition
Acknowledgments
I am indebted to many for their help, both material and emotional, during the long process of researching and writing A Word from Our Sponsor. Books like this can emerge only from communities of scholars, archivists, students, teachers, friends, and family.
I am grateful to all the staff at Fordham University Press for their professionalism and enthusiasm for this project, especially Fredric Nachbaur, Will Cerbone, and Eric Newman. I benefited much from their attentiveness, especially Eric Newmans thoughtful copy edit. I am glad to be able to include illustrations. I thank Michael Henry at the Library of American Broadcasting for locating and providing some images; Katherine J. Parkin and Kathryn Fuller-Seeley for advice; my daughter, Lina Dahbour, for her photographic assistance; and my husband, David Bywaters, for his technical assistance.
Archivists and librarians who assisted me include Michael Mashon, who shared resources from the Broadcast Pioneers Library before it became the Library of American Broadcasting at the University of Maryland, College Park; Thom LaPorte and Marion Hirsch at the John H. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising and Marketing History, Duke Special Collections Library; Harry Miller and staff at the Wisconsin Historical Society; Roger Horowitz and Carol Ressler Lockman, who provided a research grant, and the staff at the Hagley Museum and Library; the staff at the Oral History Research Office at Columbia University; the staff at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University; Ron Simon at the Paley Center; and the staff at the New York Public Library. Archivists and staff also supplied me with materials from private and corporate archives, including Elizabeth Draper and Howard Davis at N. W. Ayer; Mark Stroock at Young & Rubicam; Mary Muenkel at BBDO; and Elizabeth Adkins at Kraft. Fellow researchers shared material with me, including Anne Boylan, Kathryn Fuller-Seeley, Michael Mashon, and Philip F. Napoli, whose recording of his interview with Anne Hummert is a unique source.
At the College of Mount Saint Vincent my colleagues have been exemplary in their support for my scholarly pursuits; I am grateful to Frances Broderick, Brad Crownover, James Fabrizio, Vincent Fitzgerald, Charles Flynn, Ted Kafala, Guy Lometti, Sr. Patricia McGowan, Cortney Moriarty, Daniel Opler, Ron Scapp, Michelle Scollo, Br. Michael Sevastakis, Robert Williams, Jackie Zubeck, and all the students and faculty who have attended my presentations and classroom lectures on this topic.
I have shared earlier versions of this research with many scholars, in both written and presentational form, and their feedback has shaped the book in ways large and small. Anonymous reviewers of versions of this work have helped me bring out its larger significance. Michele Hilmes encouraged me throughout this long process and has done more than anyone else to bring this work to others attention. Kathryn Fuller-Seeley likewise championed this project and encouraged my re-emergence in the scholarly world. I am grateful to Thomas Schatz and other faculty at the University of Texas at Austin, including Michael Kackman, Jeffrey Meikle, Horace Newcomb, and Laura Stein, as well as Mary Desjardins, John D. Downing, Nikhil Sinha, Mark Smith, and Sharon Strover. I also benefited from comments on drafts by Anne Boylan, Cliff Doerksen, Robert Morrow, and Michael Socolow. I have deeply appreciated the support and advice of many other scholars and writers, including Noah Arcenaux, Steven Bach, James Baughman, Susan Brinson, Michael Brown, Eric Darton, Gali Einav, Evan Eisenberg, Walter Friedman, Jennifer Holt, Richard John, Michael Keith, Bill Kirkpatrick, Ralda Lee, Anna McCarthy, Tom McCourt, Robert Mac-Dougall, Megan Mullen, Susan Ohmer, Katherine Parkin, Alisa Perren, Alex Russo, Erin Copple Smith, Leslie Schnur, Christopher Sterling, Shawn van Cour, Jennifer Wang, and David Weinstein, among many others who have welcomed me into wide-ranging discussions. Thanks also to the Old Time Radio (OTR) community members who have provided an expert audience for some of my research.
My gratitude to friends and family, near and far, who have provided encouragement over the years is difficult to reduce to a few sentences. Family members no longer here still live in my heart, and I am grateful for the love and support of my parents, siblings, cousins, and in-laws. My daughter, Lina Dahbour, and my stepchildren, William and Susan Bywaters, have enriched my life immeasurably with their creativity, intelligence, and kindness; I thank them for their bemused tolerance of my scholarly obsessions. My husband, David A. Bywaters, has not only been the source of the moral support spouses are obliged to provide, but he has also given me tremendous logistical, technical, editorial, and conceptual support, without which this book would not exist. To David I owe the deepest debt, and I hope to repay him with enduring love and esteem.
A Word from Our Sponsor
Introduction
Jack Benny: Oh, come on in, Dennis. Ill be with you in a minute. Im calling Mr. Duffy of Batten Barton Durstine & Osborn, my advertising agency.
Dennis Day: Why do you need them?
Jack Benny: Well, Dennis. They put on my program for Lucky Strike. They handle all the publicity, the exploitation, the advertising, the commercials. They hire the musicians, the writers, the actors. They do everything!
[a beat of silence]
Dennis Day: Why do they need you?
In this 1948 broadcast, radio comedian Jack Benny, who specialized in self-deprecation, acknowledges the key role of an advertising agency in producing his show: They do everything
