''Blondie'' is a radio situation comedy adapted from the long-running '' Blondie'' comic strip by

Chic Young Murat Bernard "Chic" Young (January 9, 1901March 14, 1973) was an American cartoonist who created the comic strip ''Blondie (comic strip), Blondie''. His 1919 ''William McKinley High School Yearbook'' cites his nickname as Chicken, source of hi ...

. It stars Arthur Lake as

Dagwood Bumstead Dagwood Bumstead is a main fictional character, character in cartoonist Chic Young's long-running comic strip ''Blondie (comic strip), Blondie''. He debuted in the first strip on September 8, 1930. He was originally heir to the Bumstead Locomotive ...

and, for the majority of its run,

Penny Singleton Penny Singleton (born Mariana Dorothy McNulty, September 15, 1908 – November 12, 2003) was an American actress, singer, dancer and labor leader. During her 60-year career on stage, screen, radio and television, Singleton appeared as the ...

as Blondie Bumstead. The radio program ran on several networks from 1939 to 1950.

Broadcast history

In 1938, Penny Singleton and Arthur Lake were cast in the

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

film '' Blondie''. The film was a box office success and a long-running film series went into production, lasting until 1950 and featuring twenty-eight feature films. As part of the promotion for the first film, Singleton and Lake appeared as Blondie and Dagwood on the December 20, 1938 episode of ''

The Pepsodent Show ''The Pepsodent Show'' is an American radio comedy program broadcast during the Golden Age of Radio. The program starred comedian Bob Hope and his sidekick Jerry Colonna along with Blanche Stewart and Elvia Allman as high-society crazies Brenda a ...

'' radio program, which starred

Bob Hope Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was a British-American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer and dancer. With a career that spanned nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in more than 70 short and feature films, with 5 ...

. The appearance with Hope led to their own show, beginning July 3, 1939, on

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

as a summer replacement for '' The Eddie Cantor Show''. However, Cantor did not return in the fall, so the sponsor,

R.J. Reynolds Richard Joshua Reynolds (July 20, 1850 – July 29, 1918) was an American businessman and founder of the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. The son of a tobacco farmer, he worked for his father and attended Emory & Henry College from 1868 to 1870, ...

Camel cigarettes Camel is an American brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in the United States and by Japan Tobacco outside the U.S. Most current Camel cigarettes contain a blend of Turkish tobacco and Virg ...

chose to keep ''Blondie'' on the air Mondays at 7:30 p.m. Camel remained the sponsor until June 26, 1944. In 1944, ''Blondie'' was on the

NBC Blue Network The Blue Network (previously known as the NBC Blue Network) was the on-air name of a now defunct American Commercial broadcasting, radio network, which broadcast from 1927 through 1945. Beginning as one of the two radio networks owned by the N ...

, sponsored by

Colgate-Palmolive Colgate-Palmolive Company is an American multinational consumer products company headquartered on Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The company specializes in the production, distribution, and provision of household, health car ...

's Super Suds, airing Fridays at 7 p.m. from July 21 to September 1. The final three weeks of that run overlapped with ''Blondies return to CBS on Sundays at 8pm from August 13, 1944, to September 26, 1948, still sponsored by Super Suds. Beginning in mid-1945, the 30-minute program was heard Mondays at 7:30 p.m. Super Suds continued as the sponsor when the show moved to NBC on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. from October 6, 1948, to June 29, 1949. When Singleton left the radio series in 1949,

Ann Rutherford Therese Ann Rutherford (November 2, 1917 – June 11, 2012) was a Canadian-born American actress in film, radio, and television. She had a long career starring and co-starring in films, playing Polly Benedict during the 1930s and 1940s in the An ...

replaced her as the voice of Blondie. In October 1949,

Patricia Lake Patricia Douras Van Cleve (June 8, 1919 – October 3, 1993), known as Patricia Lake, was an American actress and radio comedian. Presented as the niece of actress Marion Davies, she was long suspected of being her natural daughter, fathered ...

, the real life wife of Arthur Lake took the role.

Alice White Alice White (born Alva White; August 25, 1904Katz, Ephraim (1979). ''The Film Encyclopedia: The Most Comprehensive Encyclopedia of World Cinema in a Single Volume''. Perigee Books. , pg. 1228. – February 19, 1983) was an American film ac ...

was also heard as radio's Blondie. In its final season, the series was on ABC as a

sustaining program A sustaining program is a radio or television program that, despite airing on a commercial broadcast station, does not have commercial sponsorship or advertising. This term, mostly used in the United States, was common in the early days of radio, b ...

from October 6, 1949, to July 6, 1950, first airing Thursdays at 8 p.m. and then (from May) 8:30 p.m. The radio show ended the same year as the ''Blondie'' film series. Arthur Lake would later return to the role of Dagwood in the 1957 television series '' Blondie'' opposite

Pamela Britton Pamela Britton (born Armilda Jane Owens, March 19, 1923 – June 17, 1974) was an American actress, best known for appearing as Lorelei Brown in the television series ''My Favorite Martian'' (1963–1966) and for her female lead in the film noi ...

as Blondie.Comics on Television in the 1950s: ''Blondie''
/ref>

Cast

*Blondie Bumstead -

(1939 - 1949) /

(1949) /

(1949 - 1950) / Alice White *Dagwood Bumstead - Arthur Lake *Alexander Bumstead - Leone Ledoux (1939 - 1943) / Tommy Cook (1943 - 1946) /

Larry Simms Larry Lee Simms (October 1, 1934 – June 17, 2009) was an American child actor who appeared in 36 films between 1937 and 1951. Life and career Larry Simms was born October 1, 1934. He worked as a child model from the age of two and was disc ...

(1946 - 1949) / Jeffrey Silver (1949 - 1950) *Cookie Bumstead - Leone Ledoux (1939 - 1946) / Marlene Aames (1946) /

Norma Jean Nilsson Norma Jean Nilsson (born January 1, 1938) is a former child actress in old-time radio and films.DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). ''Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. ...

(1947) / Joan Rae (1948 - 1950) *J.C. Dithers -

Hanley Stafford Hanley Stafford (born Alfred John Austin, September 22, 1899 – September 9, 1968), was an actor principally on radio. He is remembered best for playing Lancelot Higgins on ''The Baby Snooks Show''. Stafford also assumed the role of Mr. Dithers ...

*Mrs. Dithers -

Elvia Allman Elvia Beatrice Allman (September 19, 1904 – March 6, 1992) was an American actress in Hollywood films and television programs for over 50 years. She is best remembered for her semi-regular roles on ''The Beverly Hillbillies'' and ''Petticoat J ...

*Herb Woodley - Frank Nelson /

Harold Peary Harold "Hal" Peary (July 25, 1908 – March 30, 1985) was an American actor, comedian and singer in radio, films, television, and animation. His most memorable role is as Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve, which began as a supporting character on r ...

(Herb Woodley) *Mr. Fuddle - Arthur Q. Bryan / Harry Lang *Alvin Fuddle - Dix Davis *Harriet -

Mary Jane Croft Mary Jane Croft (February 15, 1916 – August 24, 1999) was an American actress best known for her roles as Betty Ramsey on ''I Love Lucy'', Miss Daisy Enright on the radio and television versions of ''Our Miss Brooks'', Mary Jane Lewis on ''T ...

*Dimples Wilson - Veola Vonn /

Lurene Tuttle Lurene Tuttle (August 29, 1907 – May 28, 1986) was an American actress and acting coach, who made the transition from vaudeville to radio, and later films and television. Her most enduring impact was as one of network radio's more versatile a ...

*Announcer -

Bill Goodwin William Nettles Goodwin (July 28, 1910 – May 9, 1958),Palm Spr ...

Howard Petrie Howard Alexander Petrie (November 22, 1906 – March 24, 1968) was an American radio, television, and film actor. Early life Howard Petrie was born in Beverly, Massachusetts on November 22, 1906. When Howard was three years old his family ...

/ Harlow Wilcox *Additional cast (1939) -

Rosemary DeCamp Rosemary Shirley DeCamp (November 14, 1910 – February 20, 2001) was an American radio, film, and television actress. Life and career Early life Rosemary Shirley DeCamp was born in Prescott, Yavapai, Arizona on November 14, 1910 to William ...

, Ed MacDonald,

Hans Conreid Hans Georg Conried Jr. (April 15, 1917 – January 5, 1982) was an American actor and comedian. He was known for providing the voices of George Darling and Captain Hook in Walt Disney's ''Peter Pan'' (1953), Snidely Whiplash in Jay Ward's ''Dudle ...

Crew

*Producer - Tom McKnight, Ashmead Scott *Directors -

Eddie Pola Edward Pola (June 23, 1907 – November 3, 1995)Passenger list, S.S. ''Transylvania'', port of New York, 20 August 1931. was an actor, radio/television producer, and songwriter. Pola was born Sidney Edward Pollacsek in New York City, the son of Ida ...

, Don Bernard,

Glenhall Taylor Glenhall Taylor (1903–1997) was an American writer, producer, and director for radio and television. The majority of his career was as a writer of radio programs, including Burns and Allen, Ozzie and Harriet, and Blondie. Taylor made his radi ...

*Writers - Ashmead Scott, William Moore, Johnny Greene (1940) *Music -

Harry Lubin Harry Lubin (March 5, 1906 – July 21, 1977) was an American composer, arranger, and pianist. He is known for composing the theme and much of the music for the second season of the television series '' The Outer Limits'' and ''One Step Beyond'' ...

, Billy Artz, Lou Kosloff *Sound Effects -

Ray Erlenborn Ray Erlenborn (January 21, 1915 – June 4, 2007) was an American vaudevillian actor and sound effects artist. He is also known to audiences as the voice of Rabbit from Winnie the Pooh Discovers the Seasons. Also did sound effects for Carol Burne ...

(CBS series) / Parker Cornel (NBC series)

References

Listen to

Internet Archive: ''Blondie''
(42 episodes)

External links

American comedy radio programs 1939 radio programme debuts 1950 radio programme endings Radio programs based on comic strips CBS Radio programs NBC Blue Network radio programs NBC radio programs ABC radio programs Blondie (comic strip) 1930s American radio programs 1940s American radio programs 1950s American radio programs Radio programs about families