''Aunt Jenny's Real Life Stories'' was a 15-minute

radio drama Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, dramatised, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the liste ...

that aired January 18, 1937, to November 16, 1956, on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

, sponsored by Spry shortening. The program was heard weekdays at 11:45 a.m. until 1946, when it moved to 12:15 p.m. Unlike most continuing soap operas, on Monday of each week a new, self-contained storyline was begun, one which would then reach its conclusion on Friday. A review in the trade publication ''Radio Daily'' noted that the program's "dramatic playlets with popular appeal plots hold good human interest." Aunt Jenny (Edith Spencer, Agnes Young) offered cooking tips and homespun philosophy from her home in Littleton where she lived on Indian Hill with her canary (Henry Boyd). Her full name was Jennifer F. Wheeler. Aunt Jenny's recipes often included a mention of her sponsor, Spry shortening. Jimmy Dwan supplied the sound effects of rattling pots and pans. Every day, her friend Danny (announcer

Dan Seymour Dan Seymour (born Daniel Seymour Katz; February 22, 1915 – May 25, 1993) was an American character actor who frequently played villains in Warner Bros. films. He appeared in several Humphrey Bogart films, including ''Casablanca'' (1942), ...

) would drop by for a chat in her kitchen. Then Aunt Jenny would introduce and narrate one of her stories. These were five-chapter daytime dramas with different casts in stories which came to a conclusion on Fridays. One actor who began his radio career on this series was

Richard Widmark Richard Weedt Widmark (December 26, 1914March 24, 2008) was an American film, stage, and television actor and producer. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as the villainous Tommy Udo in his debut film, ''Kiss of Death (1947 film ...

. Eleanor Abbey also was a member of the cast.Sies, Luther F. (2014). ''Encyclopedia of American Radio, 1920-1960, 2nd Edition, Volume 1''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. 9. Aunt Jenny was a widow, but in early episodes she was married to Calvin, who edited the ''Littleton News''. The show's theme was a strings interpretation of "Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms", and the background music was supplied by organist Elsie Thompson. Various Aunt Jenny cookbooks were offered as Spry premiums. There was a Canadian equivalent of ''Aunt Jenny'': ''Aunt Lucy''.

Satire

For years, this series was satirized on a regular basis on various ''

Bob and Ray Bob, BOB, or B.O.B. may refer to: People, fictional characters, and named animals *Bob (given name), a list of people and fictional characters *Bob (surname) *Bob (dog), a dog that received the Dickin Medal for bravery in World War II *Bob the ...

'' shows as "Aunt Penny's Sunlit Kitchen", with Bob Elliott as Danny and Ray Goulding as Aunt Penny. Spoofing ''Aunt Jenny's'' references to Spry shortening, Aunt Penny would constantly mention that her cookies were baked in chicken fat, because "If you're using chicken fat, it's digestible... It won't sit in your stomach like a half-dollar piece". With Danny's bumbling interference, Aunt Penny was never able to complete a story.

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''Aunt Jenny''

References

{{US radio soaps American radio soap operas 1930s American radio programs 1940s American radio programs 1950s American radio programs CBS Radio programs 1937 radio programme debuts 1956 radio programme endings

Satire

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References